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Czech world conference



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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Issue ID: 97/08/30  23:00 GMT                Compiled by Thubten (Sam) Samdup
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                        Saturday, August 30, 1997
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Contents:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1. INTELLECTUALS  (LA Times)
>    Prague Hosts a Gathering of the Smart Set
>    Next week, 60 big thinkers will descend on Czech capital. Spiritual
>    and moral matters top agenda of millennium forum.
> 2. Senator Consiglio Di Nino's Letter to UVic President (CTC)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Los Angeles Times, Saturday, August 30, 1997
> 
>    By DEAN E. MURPHY, Times Staff Writer
> 
>    PRAGUE, Czech Republic--The approaching new millennium has gotten
>    some people thinking. Where will be the best place to party? Will all
>    those zeros make my computer crash? Should I be catching the next
>    comet out of here?
> 
>         It has also gotten some people T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G--the I -think
>    -therefore-I -am variety of rumination. What has mankind learned from
>    its mistakes? How can we reconcile the victories of science with
>    philosophical truth? What can we recommend for future civilizations?
> 
>         Next week, about 60 of the world's thinkers extraordinaire will
>    convene here in the Czech capital at the invitation of Czech President
>    Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel. It is
>    unlikely they will dwell upon bookings for New Year's Eve, 1999. The
>    agenda of Forum 2000 is as heady as its guest list is brainy.
> 
>         "This will be the task of the participants at Forum 2000: to
>    review what we have learned about ourselves and each other and to
>    propose alternatives for the future," Havel said in announcing the
>    one-of-a-kind gathering.
> 
>         The chosen thinkers include Nobel laureates, authors,
>    politicians, scientists, professors, journalists and members of the
>    clergy. After abandoning the original notion of inviting only Nobel
>    winners, Havel and Wiesel insisted there be no cookie-cutter criteria
>    for participants, just a passion--and proven record--for thinking big.
>    Ordinary Joes need not apply.
> 
>         The Dalai Lama, the religious leader of Tibet, is expected, as is
>    Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian ocean traveler of Kon-Tiki fame. Former
>    Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and former South African President
>    Frederik W. de Klerk have accepted invitations, as have author Wole
>    Soyinka of Nigeria and Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan.
> 
>         Cancer and AIDS researcher Claude Jasmin is listed, as is
>    American television journalist Ted Koppel. The guest list,
>    conspicuously short on women, also includes futurist Hazel Henderson
>    and Palestinian journalist Leila Shahid.
> 
>         "It is very appropriate that Vaclav Havel and Elie Wiesel, two of
>    the leading moral figures of our time, are gathering an unusual
>    combination of intellectuals, artists and statesmen to rise above the
>    specific issues with which governments must grapple," said Jenonne
>    Walker, the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic and a former guest
>    scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars--but
>    not among the Forum 2000 participants.
> 
>         The three-day conference already has its share of no-shows.
>    Microsoft boss Bill Gates has sent regrets, as have Mother Teresa,
>    South African President Nelson Mandela, Russian author Alexander I.
>    Solzhenitsyn, American writer Toni Morrison and former U.S. Secretary
>    of State Henry A. Kissinger. Italian scholar Umberto Eco, an early
>    yes, dropped out this week.
> 
>         Although organizers sent out invitations last fall to more than
>    100 "prominent personalities"--as Havel has characterized the guest
>    list for the once-in-a-millennium opportunity--they were unable to
>    avoid prior commitments by about half the invitees.
> 
>         "We've learned that some people have their schedules blocked two
>    years in advance," said David Benar of the Bohemiae Foundation, one of
>    several nonprofit sponsors of the conference.
> 
>         But if all goes well, there may be other opportunities, even
>    during this millennium.
> 
>         Although nothing has been decided, Havel and Wiesel hope that
>    participants will agree to a series of gatherings over the next two
>    years. Organizers say they will be satisfied if next week's conference
>    adjourns with a general consensus about the main issues--ethical,
>    ideological and religious--confronting mankind, with specific
>    prescriptions for the next millennium scheduled for later sessions.
> 
>         "This distinguished gathering is meant to be an opportunity to
>    probe both our conscience and our memory," Wiesel wrote to the
>    invitees.
>                                    * * *
> 
> The Big Think-In
> 
> Czech President Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel have
> invited more than 60 prominent thinkers from around the world to gather next
> week in Prague to ponder the fate of mankind on the threshold of a new
> millennium.
> 
> ON THE GUEST LIST
> 
> Dalai Lama, spiritual leader
> Wole Soyinka, Nigerian author
> Shimon Peres, former Israeli leader
> 
>                                    * * *
> 
> THE HOSTS
> Vaclav Havel, Czech president
> Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate
> 
>                                    * * *
> 
> ON THE AGENDA
> *    The world we have inherited: burdens, divisions, values, assets and
>      visions
> *    Our world today: spiritual, intellectual, political and socioeconomic
>      harmonies, disharmonies and tensions
> *    Hopes for the future: options, responsibilities and dilemmas in our
>      quest for a better world
> 
>