Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 333

PROGRAM DESC
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
occupied by Indigenous communities. A high incidence of disease and birth abnormalities has been documented as a result of this environmental contamination.
Asayo Horibe is the President of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest, an organisation for all Buddhist groups in Chicago and the Midwest region. In 1989, she also became the first President of the Heartland Sangha in Evanston, Illinois. She serves as a secretary for the Asian Advisory Council for the Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White. She is a lay minister and has also worked as a registered nurse for over 45 years.
Omie Baldwin is a member of the Dine (Navajol Nation. A clinical social worker at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ms Baldwin is also co-chair of the 'American Indian into Science group on campus. She has served for several years as a board member of the Fund of the Sacred Circle, Headwaters Foundation for Peace & Social Justice, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Lucy Mulenkei is a Maasai from Kenya. She is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) in Kenya, and works with the African Indigenous Women's Organisation in the East African Region. She has coordinated training and capacity building for Indigenous, rural nomadic pastoralists and hunter-gatherers on the topics of the environment and sustainable development, with a main focus on biodiversity conservation and traditional knowledge.
Marcos Terena is a professor of Traditional and Spiritual Knowledge of the Indigenous People and Coordinator of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity. He founded the United Indigenous Nations, the first Indigenous movement in Brazil and he was a leader in gaining recognition for Indigenous rights in the Brazilian Constitution. He is a spokesman for Indigenous rights for the UN and President of the Intertribal Committee and VIATAN, an Indigenous information centre.
Simone(!)
Lorender Freeman
Samantha Bews
Room 201
Artistic Performance
The year 2009 is the centenary of the birth of Simone Weil (1909-1943), the French radical, philosopher and mystic. 'Simonel!)' is a one-woman play about Simone Weil, written by Lorender Freeman and first performed by Samantha Bews at La Mama Theatre in Melbourne, October 2008. A brilliant young Jewish intellectual, Simone Weil became a teacher of philosophy in government schools. Her political activism led her to work in Paris factories for a year before heading to the Spanish Civil War. The coming war in Europe precipitated a spiritual epiphany that led her into a difficult relationship with Roman Catholicism. The occupation of France intensified both her spiritual growth and her commitment to fighting the war against Germany. Working for the Free French in London, her death was perhaps self-willed, the culmination of heroic self-denial and her need to confront God. After the war, her writings began to be published and she became the subject of critical debate and devotion, which continues to this day. In the play, Simone talks about her work and thought, her life and death. The performance will be followed by a question and answer session.
Lorender Freeman grew up in Melbourne and currently lives in rural Victoria writing fulltime on poetry, plays, film scripts and a novel. Samantha Bews studied acting at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, and after graduation worked as an actress for many years, mostly in theatre but also in television and film. She has also written plays and had several produced in Melbourne before the birth of her first child in 2003.
Creating a Stress-Free Mind and a Violence-Free World: Violence Ends Where Love Begins
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Room 202
Lecture
2:30-4:00pm ENGAGEMENT SESSION
Unless we have a stress-free mind and a violence-free society, we cannot achieve world peace. There is one criminal in the world today-stress. It is the root cause of all violence, and the widespread examples of violence in the world reflect the extent to which stress pervades all levels of life. It is truly the great modern day plague. Nature is imbibed with rhythms and cycles, day follows night, seasons come and go, and our bodies, minds and emotions follow biological rhythms. When they are in sync and stress-free, we experience a sense of harmony, wellbeing and peace. When we are peaceful, we radiate that peace to the people around us. If each one of us remains peaceful and radiates harmony, there will be collective harmony. Hence, the issue of peacemaking needs to be tackled not only collectively in society, but also individually. The progress of society lies in the progress of an individual. A sense of belongingness to the whole world is the need of the hour. Rather than letting diversity become the cause of stress and violence, we need to celebrate it, by honouring all cultures and religious traditions.
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a nonprofit organisation offering spiritual workshops and humanitarian relief, and founder of the International Association for Human Values. His philosophy is popular throughout the world, and Shankar has been recognised with numerous awards and titles, including the title of Yoga Shiromani and the Guru Mahatmya Award.
Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding: the Case of Afghanistan
Dr Abdul Aziz Naderi
Raz Mohammad Dalili Said Ehsanullah Dileri Room 203
Panel Discussion
National security in Afghanistan has reached a crisis point. Human rights abuses, civilian casualties and conflict over local resources have recently surged-over 1.5 million people have died in the last twenty years. Sanayee Development Organization (SDO), based in Kabul, Afghanistan, aims to build a peaceful and self-sufficient Afghanistan through education, conflict resolution and the creation of civic opportunities for women and youth. As a part of the series Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding, this session will focus on the successful programs implemented by SDO in an environment full of challenges.
Dr Abdul Aziz Naderi was born in Afghanistan and earned an MD from Kabul Medical University in 2007. As Program Manager in charge of the Community Health and Peacebuilding programs at Sanayee Development Organization in Kabul, he has helped develop the Peace Éducation Curriculum and has assisted in implementing the curriculum in local peace councils, or Peace Shuras, across Afghanistan.
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