For A Change articles from October 2002

For A Change archives from October 2002

Legacy for a prime minister. (Ear To The Ground).
October 1, 2002... Nearing the end of his career as Canada's Prime Minister, Jean Chretien is hoping that Africa will ensure his place in the history books. Chretien is sincere in his desire to end hunger and poverty there, but may find the New Partnership for...

Looking heavenward. (Ear To The Ground).
October 1, 2002... Attendance at evangelical churches has been on the rise for some time, but a recent poll of 3,500 Canadians shows attendance has stabilized at the mainline churches--Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United. The study,...

Proud of our peacekeepers. (Ear To The Ground).
October 1, 2002... Canadians are proud of their country's unparalleled role in peacekeeping, as well as its commitment to food aid and other help to less developed countries. Year after year opinion polls show a large majority of Canadians favour continued world...

Reconciling cultures. (Ear To The Ground).
October 1, 2002... After almost annihilating the aboriginal Americans with disease, we spent the next 500 years alternately trying to assimilate them into our culture or encouraging them to promote their own (usually as a tourist attraction). Canadians are...

Journalists to the barricades. (Ear To The Ground).
October 1, 2002... For decades journalists and politicians have agonized over the growing corporate control of the news media. Media baron after media baron came and went and the freedom of the media remained unchallenged. Then finally it happened. Israel...

Badge of blandness. (Ear To The Ground).
October 1, 2002... Canadians wear their blandness like a badge of honour. The late Peter Gzowski, radio talk show host extraordinaire, once asked his listeners to complete the line `As Canadian as...', and cited the familiar 'as American as apple pie', `as...

Avoiding a clash of civilizations. (From The Editors' Desk).
October 1, 2002... Britain's Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, is one of the most respected commentators on the world's social, moral, ethical and spiritual condition. So when he makes a new statement about where the world is at, people listen. His visit to...

When communities connect: straight talking is a first step towards new attitudes and policies. (Caux conferences 2002)(Lead Story).
October 1, 2002... `We're living in a world where your colour matters more than your character,'said one black female singer. Refugees and people of colour can be at the raw end of discrimination and racism, sometimes even violence. But how often do people of...

When communities connect. (Lead Story).
October 1, 2002... Hope in the Cities is also being developed in Britain. `Going to the Healing the Heart of America conference in 1993 was a profound experience for me,' says Lawrence Fearon, National Coordinator of Hope in the Cities, UK. `There we were,...

Martin Luther King gave me a dream for Korea: Syngman Rhee fled his homeland as a 19-year-old in 1950 and found himself at the heart of the American civil rights movement in the Sixties. He spoke in Caux about his work for reconciliation between North and South Korea. (First Person).
October 1, 2002... I am deeply honoured to be on this `holy ground' at Caux where so many people have dedicated their lives to reconciliation, peace and justice for all humankind throughout the world. I was born and raised in Pyong Yang, now the capital city...

On the road to renewal: artists from all over the world came to Caux in search of inspiration, refreshment and challenge. Anastasia Stepanova was there. (Caux conferences 2002).
October 1, 2002... `My wish for this week is that we will be refreshed, inspired, challenged and encouraged, said Gunnar Soderlund of Renewal Arts, the organisers of a conference on `The Road to Renewal' at the Initiatives of Change centre in Caux. All the...

Filming from the south side of life: Jan Horn's passions include film-making, mountaineering and the preservation of South Africa's cultures. He talks to Anastasia Stepanova. (Profile).
October 1, 2002... Words cannot describe the powerful atmosphere when Jan Horn, a documentary film producer from South Africa, presented his work at a workshop during the Renewal Arts conference this August in Caux, Switzerland. He struck me as a man of...

Hope out of suffering: Philippe Lasserre keeps a diary of the `Peace-building initiatives' conference in Caux. (Caux conferences 2002).
October 1, 2002... Sunday 4 August Nearly 500 people have converged for the `Peace-building initiatives' conference in Caux organized by Agenda for Reconciliation. During the opening meeting microphones are passed to those who want to share their...

Meeting the challenges of globalization. (Caux conferences 2002).
October 1, 2002... Jacqueline Lammeree resigned her legal affairs post at WorldCom, six months before the accounting black hole in the American telecoms giant was made public. WorldCom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. Lammeree, now a legal...

Opportunity knocks. (Business and Industry).
October 1, 2002... "Globalization is here to stay. So we might as well make it an opportunity rather than seeing it as a threat,' said Suresh Vazirani, founder and managing director of Transasia Biomedical in Mumbai, India. The company manufactures diagnostic...

Skills-based training. (Business and Industry).
October 1, 2002... In 2000 Andrea Cooper, a manager in the consumer products multinational Procter and Gamble, became a lead member of her company's 10-strong community relations initiative in Harrogate, Yorkshire. On the face of it, the spa town of 100,000...

Citadel of silence. (Caux 2002).
October 1, 2002... Mountain House, Caux, originally built as a luxury hotel, was hailed on its 100th anniversary as `a citadel of silence in the service of humanity', by the Mayor of Montreux (which includes Caux), Pierre Salvi. The historic building opened...

Fortress Europe won't work. (Caux 2002).
October 1, 2002... The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, condemned the `stigmatization of refugees and asylum seekers as people trying to break the law' in a Caux Lecture at the beginning of July. Europe's attempts to seal its...

Peace, justice and faith. (Caux 2002).
October 1, 2002... Thirty-nine Muslims and non-Muslims from 18 countries took part in a three day dialogue in July on `peace, justice and faith'. It was co-chaired by Cornelio Sommaruga, President of Caux Initiatives of Change, and Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian...

Responses to terrorism. (Caux 2002).
October 1, 2002... The final conference of the summer focused on `Human security in a changing world'. `Good governance and democracy play a big role in the elimination of hunger, poverty and insecurity,' said Osman Jama Ali, Deputy Prime Minister in the...

Learning from Asia: Nigel Heywood took a leap into the unknown when he joined a 10-month training programme in Asia. He didn't regret it. (Action For Life).
October 1, 2002... When I saw the brochure advertising the Action for Life (AFL) leadership training programme my mind was opened to another world with infinite possibilities. It offered me a magic door out of my current reality assembling picture frames in...

The US needs to listen more. (Webbsite).
October 1, 2002... It's not often Americans awaken to the kind of jolt the Washington Post gave them on 7 July in a Sunday blockbuster column with the top headline, `America the arrogant', and under it, in large type, `Why don't we listen anymore?' The...

Don't neglect the cabbage patch. (Reflections).
October 1, 2002... Listening is almost a lost art in the western world. I have long sought to rediscover this art, but it is not as easy as I once thought. Some people try to reduce it to a mechanism, but then the art is lost. Aboriginal people seem to be...

Kashmir: the Switzerland of South Asia. (Guest Column).
October 1, 2002... As I sit here in Caux I think of the troubled world I left behind in India only two days ago. Looking at the magnificent Lake Geneva below my balcony I feel a divine presence inside my heart. I feel this is what he must have meant the world to...