HumanityDay

17th of Every March is Humanity Day! By Mankind Olawale Oyewumi.

2009-10-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

On Humanity Day,all men and women are brothers and sisiters.No man is greater,every man's greatness derives from the due homage other men accord him as man.All endeavours serve the collective interest of man.All nations and notions are unenviable unless they exist to protect the unbiased oneness of man.And every religion and region derives their bountiful beauty from the one fixed essence that man represents in the bossom of God.Oh,Humanity Day is great!

Whoever you are,whatever you do,wherever you dwell,see the seventeenth of every March as an opportunity to contribute and feel from inspirations that reconstruct the world for all of us.

Happy Humanity Day to the world!

Quotes on Kindness 2

2009-10-27T09:59:00.001-07:00

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Teresa
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness. Confucius
Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight - always try to be a little kinder than is necessary. Sir James M. Barrie
Good actions ennoble us, we are the sons of our own deeds. Jean Paul Richter
If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. Bob Hope
Kind words will unlock an iron door. Turkish Proverb
To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. Samuel Johnson
If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. William Penn
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. Leo Buscaglia
You have not lived a perfect day, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you. Ruth Smeltzer
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Famous Inspirational Quotes ..... Inspirational Quote of the Month ..... Quotes by Famous Inspirational People ..... Special Occasion Quotes …. List of Proverbs …. Resources
More inspirational kindness quotes: Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Famous Quotes of Mark Twain
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. Ralph Waldo Emerson
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. Dalai Lama
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? Jean Jacques Rousseau
So shines a good deed in a weary world. William Shakespeare
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. George Eliot
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Plato
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything. Samuel Johnson
Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows. Robert Green Ingersoll
Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. Mohandas Gandhi
He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. Benjamin Franklin
Goodness is uneventful. It does not flash, it glows. David Grayson.
Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds. Theodore Roosevelt
A kindness spontaneously offered to him who needs it, is doubly gratifying. Jonathan Swift
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. Kahil Gibran
Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget.Do more than dream: work. William Arthur Ward
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention. Japanese Proverb
There is no better exercise for your heart than reaching down and helping to lift someone up. Bernard Meltzer
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. Eric Hoffer
Kindness begets kindness. Greek Proverb
A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles. Washington Irving
Be kind to those that meet you as you rise, you may pass them again as you fall. Irish Proverb
Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you. Andre Gide
One kind word can warm three winter months. Japanese Proverb
Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you and act accordingly. Thomas Jefferson
Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness. Seneca

"Kindness is a language which the dumb can speak, the deaf can understand." -- C.N. Bovee
"Have you had a kindness shown? Pass it on;'Twas not given for thee alone, Pass it on;Let it travel down the years,Let it wipe another's tears.Pass it on." -- Rev. Henry Burton
"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." -- The Dalai Lama
"The flower of kindness will grow. Maybe not now, but it will some day.And in kind that kindness will flow, for kindness grows in this way." -- Robert Alan
"Seek not good from without: seek it within yourselves, or you will never find it." -- Epictetus (2nd century)
"Happy were men if they but understoodThere is no safety but in doing good" -- John Fountain.
"Be the change you want to see in the world." -- Mohandas Gandhi.
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"It is when you give of yourself that you truly give." -- Kahil Gibran
"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you." -- Andre Gide
"Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
"When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire." -- Whoopi Goldberg.
"Goodness is uneventful. It does not flash, it glows." -- David Grayson.
"Compassionate the mountains riseDim with the wistful dimness of old eyesThat, having looked on life time out of mind,Know that the simple gift of being kind Is greater than all the wisdom of the wise." -- DuBose Heyward
"Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind." -- Eric Hoffer.
"To make one good action succeed another, is the perfection of goodness." -- Ali Ibn-Abi-Talib (7th century A.D.)
"He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything." -- Samuel Johnson
"It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom." -- Maurice Maeterlinck.
"Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig." -- Marcus Aurelius (2nd century A.D.)
"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one!" -- Marcus Aurelius (2nd century A.D.)
"There is no better exercise for your heart than reaching down and helping to lift someone up." -- Bernard Meltzer
"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. " -- Mother Teresa.
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless." -- Mother Teresa
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"If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again." -- William Penn
"Kindness is tenderness. Kindness is love, but perhaps greater than love...Kindness is good will. Kindness says, "I want you to be happy." -- Randolph Ray
"What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?" -- Jean Jacques Rousseau
"Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom." -- Theodore Isaac Rubin
"A man can do only what a man can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day." -- Albert Schweitzer.
"Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose." -- Albert Schweitzer
"Kindness it is that brings forth kindness always." -- Sophocles (447 BC)
"You have not lived a perfect day...unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you." -- Ruth Smeltzer.
"One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession." -- Sophocles, 409 BC
"Kindness gives birth to kindness." -- Sophocles.
"Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want and do." -- Emmanuel Swedenborg.
"Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind." -- Henri Frederick Amiel
"Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always try to be a little kinder than is necessary." -- Sir James M. Barrie
"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it...Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide." -- Buddha
"Of neighborhoods, benevolence is the most beautiful. How can the man be considered wise who when he had the choice does not settle in benevolence." -- Confucius
"He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own." -- Confucius.
"It is never too late to be what we might have been." -- George Eliot
"Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds." -- George Eliot
"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution." -- Kahil Gibran
"Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another." -- Emma Goldman
"Our lives are fed by kind words and gracious behavior. We are nourished by expressions like 'excuse me' and other such simple courtesies...Rudeness, the absence of the sacrament of consideration, is but another mark that our time-is-money society is lacking in spirituality, if not also in its enjoyment of life." -- Ed Hays
"I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride." -- William James
"Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed." -- Gerald Jampolsky
"Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you and act accordingly." -- Thomas Jefferson
"It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important." -- Soren Kierkegaard
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"In the long run, we get no more than we have been willing to risk giving." -- Sheldon Kopp.
"To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
"Do every act of your life as if it were your last." -- Marcus Aurelius
"Make no judgements where you have no compassion." -- Anne McCaffrey.
"Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness" -- Seneca
"With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see." -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
"Little kindnesses...will broaden your heart, and slowly you will habituate yourself to helping your fellow man in many ways." --Zadik
"The end result of wisdom is...good deeds." -- Babylonian Talmud.

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness." -- William Arthur Ward.
"The best portions of a good man's life,His little, nameless, unremembered acts,Of kindness and love." -- William Wordsworth
KIND QUOTES, ABOUT KINDNESS, BEING KIND, SAYINGS, PROVERBS, Quotes For Kindness
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Quotes on Kindness 2

2009-10-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

Quotes on Kindness 1

2009-10-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.comIf you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. ~Bob HopeNever look down on anybody unless you're helping him up. ~Jesse JacksonA good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. ~Charles H. SpurgeonIt's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. ~Author UnknownToday, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are. ~Author UnknownWhat this world needs is a new kind of army - the army of the kind. ~Cleveland AmoryIf you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~Dalai LamaDuring my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. "Absolutely," the professor said. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello." I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy. ~Joann C. JonesI always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble. ~Rudyard KiplingDon't be yourself - be someone a little nicer. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966There is no greater loan than a sympathetic ear. ~Frank TygerNever miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it. ~Author UnknownA fellow who does things that count, doesn't usually stop to count them. ~Variation of a saying by Albert EinsteinKindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~Mark TwainWherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness. ~SenecaA kind word is like a Spring day. ~Russian ProverbKindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. ~Samuel JohnsonThere is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life - reciprocity. ~ConfuciusDon't wait for people to be friendly, show them how. ~Author UnknownThe most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. ~Henry BoyeWhen I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. ~Abraham Joshua HeschelIf we should deal out justice only, in this world, who would escape? No, it is better to be generous, and in the end more profitable, for it gains gratitude for us, and love. ~Mark TwainLife is mostly froth and bubble,Two things stand like stone,Kindness in another's trouble,Courage in your own.~Adam Lindsay GordonHow far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. ~George Washington CarverYou can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. ~John WoodenKindness, like a boomerang, always returns. ~Author UnknownIf those who owe us nothing gave us nothing, how poor we would be. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. MerwinThe best portion of a good man's life - his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. ~William WordsworthYou cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~PlatoBy swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. ~Winston ChurchillReal generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. ~Frank A. ClarkThe kindest word in all the world is the unkind word, unsaid. ~Author UnknownThe everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. ~Charles Kuralt, On the Road With Charles KuraltLove thy neighbor, and if it requires that you bend your understanding of the truth, the Truth will understand. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.comWe have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. ~EpictetusOne can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind. ~Malayan ProverbBeing considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree. ~Marian Wright EdelmanToo often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. ~Leo BuscagliaA bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives roses. ~Chinese ProverbAs the bus slowed down at the crowded bus stop, the Pakistani bus conductor leaned from the platform and called out, "Six only!" The bus stopped. He counted on six passengers, rang the bell, and then, as the bus moved off, called to those left behind: "So sorry, plenty of room in my heart - but the bus is full." He left behind a row of smiling faces. It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it. ~The Friendship Book of Francis Gay, 1977There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.comWe always prefer war on our own terms to peace on someone else's. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966Have you had a kindness shown?Pass it on;'Twas not given for thee alone,Pass it on;Let it travel down the years,Let it wipe another's tears,'Til in Heaven the deed appears -Pass it on.~Henry Burton, Pass It OnMake it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances. ~Saint Vincent de PaulRemember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something. ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.Be thoughtful of others and you will not be shy, for they are incompatible addictions. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.comThe best way to knock the chip off your neighbor's shoulder is to pat him on the back. ~Author UnknownOpen your heart - open it wide; someone is standing outside. ~Quoted in Believe: A Christmas Treasury by Mary EngelbreitBeginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. ~Og MandinoIf every man's internal careWere written on his brow,How many would our pity shareWho raise our envy now?~Peitro MetastasioKindness is the greatest wisdom. ~Author UnknownA person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. ~Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"If thou are a master, be sometimes blind; if a servant, sometimes deaf. ~Thomas FullerDo good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. ~Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, 1738Life is short but there is always time for courtesy. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Social AimsThe best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love. ~Bertrand RussellIf we cannot be clever, we can always be kind. ~Alfred FrippTo give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving. ~Max BeerbohmOne man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him. ~Booker T. WashingtonThe only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. ~John E. SouthardGetting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. ~Samuel JohnsonThe first and highest law must be the love of man to man. Homo homini Deus est - this is the supreme practical maxim, this is the turning point of the world's History. ~Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of ChristianityLove someone who doesn't deserve it. ~Author UnknownThe more sympathy you give, the less you need. ~Malcolm S. ForbesIt is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. ~Baha'u'llahThere are no traffic jams when you go the extra mile. ~Attributed to both Zig Ziglar and Dr. Kenneth McFarlandThe true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~Nelson HendersonIf, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl. ~H.L. MenckenTo err on the side of kindness is seldom an error. ~Liz Armbruster, on www.robertbrault.comThose who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. ~James Matthew BarrieIn about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. ~Karl ReilandHow far that little candle throws his beams!So shines a good deed in a naughty world.~William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, much later adapted to "So shines a good deed in a weary world" by David Seltzer for the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Thanks Aidan!)I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~William PennThe greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own. ~Benjamin DisraeliHow beautiful a day can beWhen kindness touches it!~George EllistonSometimes someone says something really small, and it just fits right into this empty place in your heart. ~From the television show My So-Called LifeSomething that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim. ~William FeatherReal charity doesn't care if it's tax-deductible or not. ~Dan BennettWhen your suffering is a little greater than my suffering I feel that I am a little cruel. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. MerwinI soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart. ~Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young GirlAlways be a little kinder than necessary. ~James M. BarrieIf you step on people in this life, you're going to come back as a cockroach. ~Willie Davis

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-->Abraham Joshua Heschel:
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.
-->Albert Schweitzer:
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
-->Amelia Earhart :
No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.
-->Arthur Dobrin:
There is always a way to be honest without being brutal.
Barbara De Angelis:
Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.
-->Benjamin Jowett:
We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.
-->Blaise Pascal:
Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.
-->Charles Kuralt:
The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.
D. H. Lawrence:
The only justice is to follow the sincere intuition of the soul, angry or gentle. Anger is just, and pity is just, but judgement is never just.
-->Ella Wheeler Wilcox:
The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind.
-->Ella Wheeler Wilcox:
So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind, While just the art of being kind Is all the sad world needs.
-->Eric Hoffer:
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
-->Frederick W. Faber:
Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence or learning.
-->George Eliot:
It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade.
-->Goethe:
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
H.H. the Dalai Lama:
When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.
H.H. the Dalai Lama:
Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.This entry continued ...
H.H. the Dalai Lama:
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
-->Harold Kushner:
When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.
-->Henry David Thoreau:
The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.
-->Henry James:
Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind.
-->James M. Barrie:
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.
-->Jane Nelson:
Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing better?
Jean Baptiste Henry Lacordaire:
We are the leaves of one branch, the drops of one sea, the flowers of one garden.
-->Joseph Addison:
Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.
Lao-Tse:
In this world, there is nothing softer or thinner than water. But to compel the hard and unyielding, it has no equal. That the weak overcomes the strong, that the hard gives way to the gentle -- this everyone knows. Yet no one asks accordingly.
Lao-Tse:
Kindness in words creates confidence.Kindness in thinking creates profundity.Kindness in giving creates love.
-->Leo Buscaglia :
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Marc Estrin:
Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing. Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love. Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns.
-->Maya Angelou :
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
-->Mother Teresa:
Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.
-->Pearl S. Buck:
I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.
-->Philo:
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
-->Rabindranath Tagore:
Men are cruel, but Man is kind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
-->Ralph Waldo Emerson:
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.
-->Ralph Waldo Emerson.:
Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.
Samuel Johnson:
Always set high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.
-->Scott Adams:
Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
-->Seneca:
Wherever there is a human being, there is a chance for a kindness.
Talmud:
Deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments.
-->Theodore Rubin:
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
Thomas Berry:
If the earth does grow inhospitable toward human presence, it is primarily because we have lost our sense of courtesy toward the earth and its inhabitants.
-->Willa Cather:
When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them as if their reason had left them. When it has left a place where we have always found it, it is like shipwreck; we drop from security into something malevolent and bottomless.
William Menninger:
Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.
William Wordsworth:
The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life.

Mailing Achaive of Humanist Groups.

2009-10-27T09:42:00.001-07:00

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Please vote on a Winter Solstice party - would you come to this: - Hi Everybody, There is a new Poll on the website [go to Polls on left menu bar of the Meetup website] We are trying to get a sense of the interest in attending a Winter Solstice Social dinner at Olympia restaurant on Sat Dec 12. There w
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Oct 17, 2009 2:25 PM
We meet THIS Sunday the 18th - One time change in our meeting date to the 3rd Sunday - special speaker!
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New Meetup: Discussion Group: Let's talk about the Death Penalty! - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Discussion Group: Let's talk about the Death Penalty! When: October 19, 2009 7:00 PM Where: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 4313 La
Barry
Oct 5, 2009 10:46 PM
New Meetup: Riverfest Booth , Can you Help to Staff, Sat & Sunday OCT 3 & 4 - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Riverfest Booth , Can you Help to Staff, Sat & Sunday OCT 3 & 4 When: October 3, 2009 10:00 AM Where: Booth 203 Water Street
Suzanna
Sep 26, 2009 11:55 AM
Meetup details changed: Monthly meeting - "Growing Humanism in a Faith Based Society" - I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/10917975/ When: October 18, 2009 5:00 PM Where: Unitarian
Mike Werner
Sep 23, 2009 6:12 PM
An emergency appeal regarding next Saturday's Adopt-A-Highway clean up - Hello all. The upcoming Adopt-A-Highway clean up marks the third anniversary of our participation in the program. I have had perfect attendance for it so far and have been the coordinator for the past couple of years. Now I'm asking a favor. A conflic
gary
Sep 11, 2009 8:31 PM
New Meetup: Humanist Discussion Group - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Humanist Discussion Group When: September 21, 2009 7:00 PM Where: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 4313 Lake Ave Dobkin Hall Wil
Mike Werner
Aug 24, 2009 7:30 AM
New Meetup: Adopt-A-Highway Clean Up - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Adopt-A-Highway Clean Up When: September 19, 2009 9:00 AM Where: Truck Stop 1610 US hwy 421 N Brunswick county side of Isabelle Holme
gary
Aug 23, 2009 8:52 PM
New Meetup: A Pool Party! - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: A Pool Party! When: September 6, 2009 2:30 PM Where: a private home directions with RSVP Wilmington, NC 28401 to be supplie
Suzanna
Aug 15, 2009 10:43 PM
New Meetup: "What Really Works in Education" - State Superintendent of Schools June Atkinson - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: "What Really Works in Education" - State Superintendent of Schools June Atkinson When: November 8, 2009 5:00 PM Where: Unitarian
Mike Werner
Aug 9, 2009 10:02 AM
New Meetup: HFCF Article Discussion Group: "Atheists for Jesus" by Dawkins - HFCF Article Discussion Group: "Ath… When: August 17, 2009 7:00 PM Where: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 4313 Lake Ave Dobkin Hall Wilmington, NC
Barry
Aug 5, 2009 9:20 PM
Meetup details changed: "My Wake Up Call" with Randy Best - Ethical Culture Leader - I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/10918000/ When: September 13, 2009 5:00 PM Where: Unitaria
Mike Werner
Jul 28, 2009 7:59 PM
Meetup details changed: "My Wake Up Call" with Randy Best - Ethical Culture Leader - I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/10918000/ When: September 13, 2009 5:00 PM Where: (A location ha
Mike Werner
Jul 28, 2009 7:58 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hey - Preview not available
Jerry Scott
Jul 13, 2009 3:25 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hey - Preview not available
Kenneth E.
Jul 13, 2009 2:31 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hey - Hey, Marcia. What group do you belong to? I am always interested in hearing from other skeptics, but I must confess that your email to me seemed su
Alyson
Jul 13, 2009 2:22 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hey - Marcia Congratulations on losing 40 lbs. I wish you could get your message across to more women especially in NC who tend to go off the charts weight wise. I am quite fit and not in need of weight los
Jerry Scott
Jul 13, 2009 8:48 AM
Hey - Preview not available
Marcia
Jul 13, 2009 3:22 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Hi Olive. What I need is someone to weed and prune. I don't think that is what you do. --- On Fri, 6/26/09, OLIVIA
Clem B.
Jun 27, 2009 11:01 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Hi Oliva, Thanks for the response but I need someone to do weeding and pruning. I don't think that this is for you. -
Clem B.
Jun 27, 2009 11:00 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Hi Clem- My name is Olivia I just became part of this group and was reading these emails. I have a horticulture degree and have worked in landscaping. What kind of job do you possibly have just wondering? Thanks
OLIVIA
Jun 26, 2009 6:37 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Cliff, I dont know how far you are willing to travel but here in Jacksonville I have heard of few different things. The local community college is hiring for the new school year I think they have almost 6 or 7 new opening position
Selina
Jun 26, 2009 6:33 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Hi Cliff, Wish I could help. If you did gardening then we could have something. But thanks for contacting us. Clem --
Clem B.
Jun 26, 2009 5:40 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff -
mary e. ray
Jun 26, 2009 4:36 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Preview not available
Alan Davis
Jun 26, 2009 4:17 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Hey Cliff, I don't know of anything but will let you know if I hear of something in the futre. Love the quote, thanks for sharing it. Karin -----Original Message----- From: Nancy Bair <[address removed]>
karin
Jun 26, 2009 3:22 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Dear Cliff I live in New Bern and am not aware of anything down your partuclar line of work. I will keep my ears open just in case. What you are doing as a volunteer does touch my feelings and I commend you for what you are giving back to humanity. I
Jerry Scott
Jun 26, 2009 2:39 PM
RE: [humanism-182] Hello from Cliff - Preview not available
Nancy Bair
Jun 26, 2009 8:19 AM
Hello from Cliff - Hello, Some of you already know me from various Humanist fun
Cliff
Jun 25, 2009 5:53 PM
Re: [humanism-182] New Meetup: SUMMER SOLSTICE PARTY! - Johanna, just have a good time. We'll think of you. Mike Werner Mike WernerJohanna Timberlake wrote: > Sorry Mike will not be in town. What can I do to help before I go?? Jo > > On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 8:48 PM, Mike Werner
Mike Werner
Jun 7, 2009 12:37 PM
Re: [humanism-182] New Meetup: SUMMER SOLSTICE PARTY! - Sorry Mike will not be in town. What can I do to help before I go?? Jo On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 8:48 PM, Mike Werner < [address removed] > wrote:
Johanna Timberlake
Jun 6, 2009 6:09 PM
New Meetup: Adopt-A-Highway Clean Up - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Adopt-A-Highway Clean Up When: June 27, 2009 9:00 AM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meetup Description: Highway cleanup, st
gary
May 28, 2009 7:05 AM
New Meetup: SUMMER SOLSTICE PARTY! - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: SUMMER SOLSTICE PARTY! When: June 20, 2009 5:30 PM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meetup Description: SUMMER SOLSTICE PAR
Mike Werner
May 18, 2009 8:48 PM
Meetup details changed: "What Good is Cinema?" with Timothy Palmer, Assoc. Professor of Film at UNCW - I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/10383936/ When: June 14, 2009 5:00 PM Where: Unitarian Uni
Mike Werner
May 11, 2009 8:55 PM
Freethought concert tonight at Thalian Hall 5-1-2009 - This is rather sudden notice so it's being announced through email rather than as an actual meetup event. Susan Werner is a freethought musician. The show is tonight at Thalian Hall. Check out the song titles to her album Gospel Truth.
gary
May 1, 2009 1:06 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Interesting lecture Monday UNCW Kenan Auditorium (free) - Suzanna Thank you so much for your comments. I really appreciate your taking the time to fill me in. I have wanted to get to Wilmington to participate with the others and especially have someone to dialogue with about these issues. I found Human
Jerry Scott
Mar 25, 2009 11:00 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Interesting lecture Monday UNCW Kenan Auditorium (free) -
Suzanna
Mar 25, 2009 10:28 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Interesting lecture Monday UNCW Kenan Auditorium (free) - It would be great if there could be a summary written to share with those of us far away from the lecture site. I am for example in New Bern. Just a suggestion. Jerry Scott
Jerry Scott
Mar 24, 2009 10:23 PM
Interesting lecture Monday UNCW Kenan Auditorium (free) - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 7:30 pm David Quammen David Quammen, an award-winning author and science journalist, will deliver the talk titled "Charles Darwin Against Himself: Caution Versus Honesty in the Life of a Reluctant Revolutio
Suzanna
Mar 24, 2009 7:44 PM
New Meetup: Spring Social - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Spring Social When: March 21, 2009 5:00 PM Where: Click the link below to find out! Please plan to join us for a celebration of S
Suzanna
Feb 24, 2009 5:31 PM
1 ticket for sale for The Great Tennesee Monkey Trial play - We do have one extra ticket for this play (please go to calendar listing for Wednesday, Feb 18th for all details). please reply here if you want to reserve the ticket. Thanks!
Suzanna
Feb 13, 2009 6:35 PM
Program change & One Stop Voting! - FYI, due to illness, our previously planned speaker has postponed his talk. See link below for the new topic of a talk which Mike Werner will give and lead a discussion on afterward.
Suzanna
Dec 9, 2008 12:41 PM
Meetup details changed: "AN IDEA THAT COUNTS" with Michael Werner Note: MEETING CHANGE - I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/8798889/ When: December 14, 2008 5:00 PM Where: Unitarian U
Mike Werner
Dec 8, 2008 9:43 PM
Nominating Committee Report for Humanist & Freethinkers - Humanists & Freethinkers: So you thought the election was over? Not quite! The 2009 slate of officers and board members will be held at our next meeting, December 14th. I have just posted the report of the nominating committee on our web
Pete Soderman
Nov 30, 2008 6:08 PM
New Meetup: Adopt-A-Highway clean up - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Adopt-A-Highway clean up When: December 13, 2008 9:00 AM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meetup Description: Highway cleanup
gary
Nov 18, 2008 6:05 PM
Fwd: Meetup Message from gary: serving on the Humanists and Freethinkers of Cape Fear board - Having difficulty getting this to Gary. Hope this does the job. Thanks ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Johanna Timberlake
Johanna Timberlake
Nov 5, 2008 7:35 PM
Corrected contact info for Nancy - Sorry, I should have given the email to contact Nancy if you can volunteer as: [address removed]
Suzanna
Oct 23, 2008 11:11 AM
Last minute event/social/community - Can you help at WHQR Friday night? Our Board member Nancy Bair is looking for a few volunteers to help man the phones at the WHQR pledge drive this Friday, yes, tomorrow, Oct. 24th. This should be a fun event, as the 4th Friday Gallery w
Suzanna
Oct 23, 2008 11:05 AM
Invitation to our booth, # 413 at Riverfest, this Sat & Sun - We are slot 413, in front of the Federal building. Please plan to stop by our booth, # 413 in front of the Federal Building, during Riverfest this weekend. Members will be there all day, both Saturday and Sunday. If you have not had an oppo
Suzanna
Oct 1, 2008 11:57 AM
Meetup details changed: Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear October Meetup - I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/8757259/ When: October 12, 2008 5:00 PM Where: Unitarian Un
Mike Werner
Sep 19, 2008 5:04 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Meetup details changed: September Meetup- "Life and Death: A Humanist Bioethics" - James and Johanna Timberlake will atttend. See you there. On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 12:52 PM, Mike Werner < [address removed] > wrote:
Johanna Timberlake
Sep 13, 2008 11:06 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Meetup details changed: September Meetup- "Life and Death: A Humanist Bioethics" - On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 12:52 PM, Mike Werner < [address removed] > wrote:
Johanna Timberlake
Sep 13, 2008 11:05 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Meeting Sept 14 -
susan vinson-greene
Sep 8, 2008 5:56 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Meeting Sept 14 - It could be the message is circulating to all members regardless? Not sure. Could be a plot by the religious right to throw us off guard (joke) Best to you Jerry
Jerry Scott
Sep 8, 2008 11:14 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Meeting Sept 14 -
susan vinson-greene
Sep 8, 2008 9:59 AM
Re: [humanism-182] Meeting Sept 14 -
Suzanna
Sep 7, 2008 12:11 PM
New Meetup: RiverFest - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: RiverFest When: October 4, 2008 7:00 PM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meetup Description: We will be participating in the
Pete Soderman
Sep 6, 2008 7:22 PM
Meeting Sept 14 -
Lois
Sep 6, 2008 1:40 PM
Meetup details changed: September Meetup- "Life and Death: A Humanist Bioethics" - I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/8517018/ When: September 14, 2008 5:00 PM Where: Unitarian
Mike Werner
Sep 6, 2008 12:52 PM
New Meetup: UNCW Involvement Carnival - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: UNCW Involvement Carnival When: September 3, 2008 10:00 AM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meetup Description: This new date
Pete Soderman
Aug 27, 2008 9:18 AM
2 Special Events! We need your feedback today!! - Can you attend either or both of these activities? In conjunction with The 150th anniversary of the publication of Origen of the Species by Charles Darwin, UNCW is hosting several exciting events. We will reserves a block of tickets at each o
Suzanna
Aug 26, 2008 12:24 PM
New Meetup: UNCW Involvement Carnival - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: UNCW Involvement Carnival When: August 27, 2008 10:00 AM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meetup Description: We are excited
Pete Soderman
Aug 21, 2008 11:24 PM
New Meetup: Adopt-A-Highway clean up - Announcing a new Meetup for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Adopt-A-Highway clean up When: September 20, 2008 9:00 AM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meetup Description: Highway cleanu
gary
Aug 21, 2008 6:58 AM
Changes to Bylaws, and Voting rights - Hi Everyone, The Board of HFCF has proposed some changes to our current Bylaws, and all members of this Meetup are being sent a copy. Only dues paying members are eligible to vote on the adoption of these Bylaws. The vote will be held on Sept 14,
Suzanna
Aug 13, 2008 6:21 PM
Meeting details changed: Summer Solstice Party - I've updated this meeting. For more details, see the full listing: http://humanism.meetup.com/182/calendar/7977082/ When: Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 6:30 PM Where: a priv
Suzanna
May 21, 2008 2:16 PM
New Meeting: Adopt a Highway clean up - Announcing a new meeting for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Adopt a Highway clean up When: Saturday, June 14, 9:00 AM Where: Click the link below to find out! Meeting Description: Highway clea
gary
May 11, 2008 3:07 PM
Please disregard previous message sent in error - Our April 13th meeting is a special outing to Holly Shelter State park. The website sent a message about the Feb. Darwin Day meeting in error! Please see the calendar for full details, and we encourage you to participate in this special 11:30 AM to 4 PM
Suzanna
Mar 30, 2008 3:41 PM
Are you an AHA member? Rebate available! - We have the opportunity to get a "rebate" from the national organization, the American Humanist Association, on any members of our local group who have paid their dues to the AHA. Please let me know if you are a current member of the AHA. Also
Suzanna
Mar 13, 2008 2:14 PM
Re: [humanism-182] Ready to record - Hi Jack, I'm sure Mel will not mind if you record him! Funny, I was just asked to day if there would be a transcript of the talk -- so your offer to record is appreciated! thanks! ----- Original Message ----- From: "jack"
Suzanna
Mar 7, 2008 9:36 AM
Ready to record - I finally have everything I need to record properly. I recorded the Ken Miller lecture but it didn't turn out well. I bought a component last night that greatly improved my recording. I would like to record on Sunday if that is ok. I'll bring it ear
jack
Mar 6, 2008 6:25 PM
New Event: Darwin Day Speaker/Covered Dish Birthday Party! - Announcing a new event for Humanists & Freethinkers of Cape Fear! What: Darwin Day Speaker/Covered Dish Birthday Party! When: Sunday, February 10, 5:00 PM Where: Click the link below to find out! Event Desc
Suzanna
Jan 28, 2008 8:44 PM
RE: [humanism-182] HELP! Fair at UNCW this Friday - Preview not available
lisa williams
Jan 25, 2008 6:52 PM
RE: [humanism-182] HELP! Fair at UNCW this Friday - I work.... all day long... then to SC to help JE in the primaries. ________________________________ > From: [address removed] > To: [address removed] > Subject: Re: [humanism-182] HELP! Fair at UNCW this Friday > Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:23
user 1858990
Jan 24, 2008 8:40 AM
Re: [humanism-182] HELP! Fair at UNCW this Friday - Am out of town babysitting...sorry no can help Johanna On Jan 23, 2008 10:55 AM, Suzanna < [address removed] > wrote:
Johanna Timberlake
Jan 23, 2008 9:18 PM
HELP! Fair at UNCW this Friday - At the last meeting, Jan 13, I passed around a sign up sheet for those who can help staff our table at The Voices Of Conscience Fair this Friday Jan. 25th. This is an event on the UNCW campus for students and others who are interested in learning about c
Suzanna
Jan 23, 2008 10:55 AM
Please vote in poll re meeting time - Here is your chance to let us know how best to organize this group. Please click on "Polls" on the website www.humanism.meetup.182 and see the poll re new meeting times and cast a vote. Thanks!
Suzanna
Oct 11, 2007 10:25 AM
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Mailing Achaive of Humanist Groups.

2009-10-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Humanist Speech 2

2009-10-27T09:34:00.001-07:00

Speeches and Greetings
speeches and greetings

Dario Ergas
GREETINGS FROM LATIN AMERICAN HUMANIST REGIONAL.

I am here on behalf of Lía Méndez general secretary of LAHR.
We feel that this launching meeting for the European Humanist Regional, is of the highest importance in the direction of the universal human nation.
I am here, to give a testimony of what happens here and to report the direction European humanism will take.
We feel gratitude for the friendship, bravery and the demonstration you have given to us.
We greet all European humanists with Peace, Force and Joy.

Loredana Cici, President OF HUMANIST InternaTional

First of all, I want to congratulate the organization team for the success in their sustained work, now taken to Europe, which has enabled us to meet today, and to thank our Czech friends, for their excellent and warm welcome to Prague.

With regards to our works, I only want to highlight two points that, I believe, characterize this meeting:
1. the importance of a regional view
2. the expansion of the regional into non-political organizations

1.With regards to the importance of a regional view:
In the regionalisation process taking place in the world, the mark of this grouping is undoubtedly economic. The aim is to grow economically in order to become powerful and achieve higher political and military control and hegemony.

The regionalisation process in Europe has speeded up, in the last years, as a response to the controlled globalisation, propelled by the economic and military expansion of the United States of America all over the planet.

Economic and monetary merger is at the core of European Union building project. In order to achieve this goal, policies in budget, privatization and revision of welfare-State have been forced in practice upon its member States, with the objective of eliminating the inefficiency of the State; actually, what is being eliminated is the National State in favor of a Super-State which, through European Union institutions, is only aimed towards economic power. In the last ten years the social attainments achieved through many years of struggle have been cancelled, and advertising makes the poor and the deprived feel, on top of that, accountable, for not being “competitive”.

The urgencies of survival make all context for any social action to be lost. A broader vision is needed, beyond the urgencies of locality and nationality matters, which prevent the understanding of social phenomena taking place nowadays, produced by European and global policies intervention.

Regional focusing helps us detach from an isolated vision and enables the comprehension of the importance of humanists uniting in the region and in the world.

For us, thinking regionally is a step towards building a universal human nation; therefore, it is not about a new regional chauvinism, on the contrary, it is about boosting a look beyond, in search for the universal human nation.

2. With regards to broadening the regional to non-political organizations:

Even though we live in a globalized world, apparently well interconnected, nevertheless persons and peoples nowadays experience a higher level of incommunication, isolation and a higher social atomization. System destructuring is becoming more apparent every day.
Humanist-inspired fronts of action- and organizations are many, dedicated to work for a specific action, but they are disconnected from a broader vision. Thus they run the risk of getting lost in this destructuring vision of the system, where every organization, absorbed by its own matters, gives priority to its particular tactics without connection with a joint strategy.
It is clearly important to develop specific localized actions, inserting themselves into this destructuring, but we also need to advance towards a broader vision which will give convergence to diversity.
We need to count on mechanisms enabling us to link work of our tools of action and give a body to our joint action.

As early as the Humanist International Congress in 1993, it was clear that “the crisis detected in the world not only involves the political arena, but it encompasses all aspects of human life”, and the need was made evident for taking discussion and proposal of a transforming action in a humanist direction to a broader environment than the strictly political.

It was there that participation of all organizations who work for the establishment of humanism in the world was introduced. The humanist document, approved in that Congress, which is the common ground to every organization adhering to HI, states at the end:
“With the intention of becoming a broad-based social movement, the vital force of humanism is organizing action fronts in the workplace, neighborhoods, unions, and among social action, political, environmental, and cultural organizations. Such collective action makes it possible for varied progressive forces, groups, and individuals to have greater presence and influence, without losing their own identities or special characteristics.”

Humanist friends,
European history has been characterized for many centuries by fratricidal wars, economic exploitation and social oppression, up to the most horrendous crimes: all of this inside Europe and taken far beyond the region. However, there is a parallel history, the history of European peoples, with their struggles, their indignation, their rebellion against dominant powers, were they monarchies, dictatorships, inquisition or formal democracies,
This very history is what we want to enrich with a new chapter in the sign of new humanism.
Our goal is to make European regional raise its foice and proposal as a defense to all inhabitants of Europe and the world and at the same time as a condemnation of all rulers insensitive to the needs of the human being of today.

Maxi Elegido, organisation commission

Dear colleagues and friends

I would like to share with you a question and an aspiration.

Approximately thirty years ago, a current of rebellion and discontent arose in Europe and in the world. Its main characteristic was the agreement among its young participants to reject the proposals of the establishment. This occurred at the end of the ‘60s and beginnings of the ‘70s. It’s what was known then in Europe as the “Spring of Prague,” the “May Revolution” in France, etc.

In the present moment, large sectors of society are beginning to mobilise. The youth, women, the unemployed; large populations in search of a country or a place where they can develop.

The question is whether in this occasion, in addition to a common disagreement, we will have proposals for organisation: a project that can become a reference in these moments of crisis. Slogans such as “imagination to power” were not developed and implemented in concrete proposals for change.

Humanists have seen this situation for a long time and we have always combined our criticisms with our proposals.

I will quote a few examples. When the warmongers of the Cold Was placed this planet in danger, we denounced them, but as Humanists we were also present with our flags in Reykjavik as Reagan and Gorbachev met to discuss disarmament. When we prepared the European Book and alerted the public regarding the problems ensuing from millions of people being suddenly forced to emigrate from their countries of origin, we noted that the solution was not to police them, but rather to enhance the rights of immigrants while investing in their countries of origin, because of solidarity and because it was the only way to stop their escape. We not only said this but we organised with them and we went to their countries to build schools, clinics and economic co-operatives so that they may achieve a real autonomy and therefore choose their future.

We have given encouragement and we have organised in diverse action fronts—cultural, social and political—in order to give continuity to our grievances and our positions. Political parties that have spoken out without depending on obtaining subsidies. Centres of Cultures that have continued in their actions in an uninterrupted fashion without depending on grants or donations. Student and university fronts that in their search for Knowledge have no placed themselves at the service of money.

We can see clearly how in these critical moments, due to a lack of proposals and organisation, a new Law or a few signatures of the government in turn can roll back the accumulated struggle that many generations sustained for many years.

The aspiration is for the political parties and action fronts that understand the importance of these decisive times, to organise at the necessary speed. We don’t have three hundred years to wait for our influence to become decisive. Our influence can be taken into account today. This will happen by finding common positions, agreement on common actions and adequate means of outreach. An adequate positioning, the result of the convergence of diverse points of view, becomes an unstoppable force from which the actions fronts will nourish themselves as they go forward.

Without any doubt this city, Prague, the heart of Europe, is an incomparable place to hold this meeting. Here we can model our Project, and may these images transform in figures, and with the spirit of Humanism they will shine and give meaning to these needy times of search.

My warmest greetings to you all.

Daniel Horowitz, Secretary General of the H.E.R.

Dear friends:

First of all I want to thank our friends from the Humanist Alliance of the Czech Republic for the excellent work that made it possible for us all to be holding the Humanist Regional meeting here in Prague.

The project of a European Regional came to be in a meeting that all the Humanist Parties of Europe held in Milan in February 1999 to define the political programme, which then took the form of a common “Orange Book”, a political campaign and a video for the elections to the European Parliament that same year.
Four years have passed since the first Congress was held in Madrid in 1999, and I would like to profit from this occasion to summarise the activities of the European Regional since then.

In October 1999, the Humanist parties of Europe denounced the criminal policy conducted by the Russian government that kept on bombing the people in Chechnya supported by the hypocritical silence of European Governments. We proposed that both countries negotiated with the ONU as mediator. We were paid no heed. The rest is history of the TV and news: rebels occupied the Bolschoi Theatre and many people lost their lives, and all this was accompanied by the world news, while the daily killed victims in Chechnya were not so spectacular to entertain the audience.
Invited by the Humanist Party of Rumania, in April 2000 the Regional met in Bucharest to exchange ideas and forward proposals, defining the humanist path towards a United Europe. Since then, Europe has sealed its doors even more tightly against anything that looks foreign. Today the “European Fortress” is a fact against which demands every time more life’s of immigrants in their failed quest for the supposed paradise.

In September 2000, the Regional participated in the Festival of Humanism organised by the Humanists in Prague on the same days that the International World Fund and the World Bank were having their meeting. In several communiqués and activities we denounced their policy that only promote poverty and injustice at a world scale. Since then the devastating policy these institutions sustain has aggravated the economic crisis around the planet.

By the end of 2000, the Regional profited from the meeting of the European Union in Nice to present and disseminate the Humanist Chart of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union, proposing undeniable amendments to the document issued by the Union. Our document demands that human beings be raised as the central value, -the axis around which all actions and thoughts revolve-, and sets as a first priority the observance of the Human Rights of each and every person, whether native or newly arrived. Since then everybody has seen their opportunities become thinner and immigrants –with even less possibilities- are threatened by racists groups that feel free to raise their ruthless voices.

The following year, 2001, the Regional participated in the Campaign launched by the Humanist International, promoting the Humanist Declaration for a World Without Wars or Violence. On October 19, 2001, in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Island, Italy, the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Russia and Switzerland the Humanists organised and participated in the various operatives and campaigns against the war in Afghanistan and denounced world powers once again for they had –once again- failed to offer proper solutions to the pressing issues of humankind.

We were not surprised when our indignation and our proposals went unheard, when the powerful ignored the will of the majority of the world and unleashed their war machines first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. We went on campaigning for non-violence, for peace, for decent life conditions for each and every human being. Towards this “Gentlemen of Death” we went on affirming our unwavering faith that it is possible to stop the wars, to stop this spiral of violence and to build bridges for a new humanity instead. Like this we participated also in this year 2003 in the rallies and campaigns against the war in Iraq.

But that which has mostly characterised these last four years has been the enthusiastic, sustained work of our militants, of all the friends participating or supporting the humanist parties, the action fronts and the several grassroots organisations where everybody gave - and keeps giving - their best to build the future universal human nation. In several countries the Humanists participated in elections, mostly city elections, and in some places they were elected popular representatives to local parliaments, as it happened here in the Czech Republic.

In this quick summary of the regional activities we may not fail to mention the efforts that our members and sympathisers have devoted to the dissemination of the New Humanism in other continents, including populations of Africa and Asia in this process of growing humanisation. It’s our hope that the bridges that have been built during these past years will soon lead to the creation of the Humanist African and Asian Regional.

But let’s come back in Europe and see what issues have called us here. For us, humanists, the temporary failure of our best aspirations is not a deterrent. On the contrary. Yes, apparently everything is managed by an infinitely powerful and violent system… Yes, apparently success belongs to the corrupt and the inept… But instead of acceptance, this state of affairs instils in us the drive to change the state of public things, gives us even more strength and enthusiasm, even more confidence in our deep belief that the change is not only necessary but possible. And I think I speak on behalf of us all if I say that in these past times, we have felt ever more strongly the need to create or reinforce bridges and the need to co-ordinate our activities and viewpoints at the European level. This is how a small team got together for the preparation of this meeting.

In this team we have defined the agenda for the next two days as “setting off a process that will widen the Regional’s influence, by incorporating as new members the highest possible number of organisations within the Humanist Movement and of all those grassroots organisations that find their inspiration in humanism.“
It is our aspiration that these organisations may find their place within specific subject areas, where they may organise initiatives on a European level. It is our aspiration that secretariats be created that will take care of the legal, financial and communication issues for the correct functioning of the Humanist Regional. It is our aspiration to plan a future campaign common to all Europe.

All this will constitute the grounds for the Second Congress of the Humanist European Regional scheduled for November 2004.

I wish to all of us a good work in this important meeting.

Thank you very much.

Giorgio Schultze, President OF THE H.E.R.
The world context: globalisation or regionalisation
In the introduction of this meeting it was affirmed, “the objective of the European Humanist Regional is to humanise Europe”. This means: “the non-violent struggle for the construction of a Europe of human rights, capable of launching these rights and building democracy and freedom of all its inhabitants.”
But, how can all this be done in a world context of “imperial” globalisation? Where the only form of conflict resolution, at all levels, is violence: wars, massive exploitation, marginalisation, new forms of slavery and discrimination (racial, religious, economic, sexual, etc.)?
And above all, where the presentation of the events and of their resolution comes with the sole introduction: “there is no option”.
And this is, among these forms of violence, one of the most sophisticated.
To try to remove from the human being, among all their rights, the “right to choose” as well, to exercise over ever-growing layers of humanity, a constant psychological pressure to make an enemy of all that which is simply different, to close the conscience with the present fear of having one’s future stolen, would have to be judged a “crime against humanity”.
Well the first question which we have to confront, in this historico-epochal landscape is: are we in the presence of the construction of the “global empire” which is going to leave us without choices and in front of this one can only respond in a submissive and unequivocal way?
International context: the imperial intent
The USA has become a military super power. Without the counterweight of the old USSR, the USA walks alone accelerating in an erratic march that leaves in its path an ever-increasing number of disasters.
They try to become an empire even though the conditions for it are not yet observed. They count on military strength, but historically this is not enough to configure an empire. (It is yet to be demonstrated that the USA has a land army capable of maintaining control across the imperial area).
Another necessary element is economic control. This is what they are trying to achieve with their globalisation, but the situation in recent years has varied notably. The USA has moved from being a goods-producing country to a consumer country and highly dependent. The trade deficit of the USA is impressive. It is a country that is practically bankrupt, that lives off world credit and that is loosing strength in the economic field. By, above all else, making a few people richer, the failure of neo-liberalism as an economic option has become apparent.
But as well as the military and economic, aspects that they do not seem to have well consolidated, empires needed to count on other elements. It was necessary to have a certain capacity to integrate and respect the original cultures of the people who were being incorporated into the dominion of the empire. Not only is this not happening but also the USA tries to do the contrary, to impose its own culture and destroy the original ones. The USA of today is not that image that they were trying to give in the 50s and 60s of a country of tolerance, freedom, etc. Today the USA has become extreme and takes an intolerant and aggressive posture.
Also, following the requirements, it is necessary to count on the certain availability or “receptivity” on the part of the subjected people, to accept the USA as an imperial figure. This is what is escaping them so they are experiencing a notable setback. The doubts about whether the USA is going to be a good manager of this “new world order” are growing in governments of almost all countries of the world. If we talk of the feeling of the population, the rejection is much bigger and growing. The previous positions, with different degrees by zones and countries, are generally expressed and not only in the Arab world.
In this context the pressures on Europe from the USA are evident and growing in at least 2 senses: on one side as Europe is finally placed in “resonance” with the North American government and on the other fermenting disunion in the heart of the EU.
Let us continue with the international context. It is Russia, reordering its departure from the soviet era that has clearly given in economically to the postulates of the USA, but in social and international policy it looks to return to having its own certain protagonism, although without entering in clear confrontation with the North Americans. Then there is China, India and the Asian zone, struggling more economically than politico-militarily that has met with certain points of understanding and collaboration with the USA because the Americans are enormously interested in these very populated markets. The Arab world is suffering strong convulsions, propitiated by its fundamentalist side that is feeling activated, by the belligerent policy of the USA that tries at all cost to have access to its oil. Africa and Latin-American on slower paths to integration, although their regional processes could accelerate, especially in the case of the Latin-Americans. In both cases these continents of the centre-south are the pillars of the foreign policy of the big powers more that the generators of international protagonism.
All of this leaves us to think and believe that we are in the presence of a process of “regionalisation” and that the opening of markets and forms of communication interconnection does not translate in the formation of the “global empire”, under the control of only one country (USA) and with one economic-political-cultural model. The direction that events could take, the “culture shocks”, the different visions of the world can be the condition of a process, yes, of “mundialisation”, but in the direction of respect and valuing diversity.
In this context the definition of a “European regional” area can from now play a role of breaking an established scheme in the stock market of New York or in the corners of the Pentagon: a humanist Europe that advances towards the configuration of the “European nation” as the previous step towards the “universal human nation”. This is our challenge. This is “the challenge” of this era that we live in.

Raffael de la Rubia, Vice president of the H.E.R. europe and its function in the coming years
In this outline we are going to show some lines that could be usefully developed, in the commission that was created, about the function of Europe in relation to other regions and countries from the humanist point of view.
As you all know, in the life of peoples there are important moments. Situations of conjuncture, in which the chosen directions, conditioned the process over long periods. Today the people and the nations of this old continent are found in a crossroads where they are going to have to choose. In reality it is going to be the governments that choose, because today we have formal democracies in Europe that are far removed from the feeling of its citizens.
According to the system of forces to which Europe is subjected. In the present world context, which Giorgio has already expounded, we see three possible options for action. We will explain briefly these variables and their possible consequences. But before that we will give a rapid review of the role that Europe has had in history.

The historical inertia of Europe

Since its origins, from when it began to configure itself as an approximation to the Europe of today, we go back to the Greek epoch and with more intensity to the Roman epoch, where the first imperial tendencies can be detected. This will be repeated in a few diverse moments throughout the history of Europe, in distinct zones of its geography.
Numerous are the empires what have emerged from these lands, many invading other continents of the planet. There are few regions in Europe that do not have a somewhat imperial past. One of the most notable expressions was European colonialism, when vast zones of the planet, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania were conquered by force. After that came the costly and bloody process of independence that lasted until the final years of the 20th century.
The role of Europe, that is to say, of the countries of the old continent, has been fairly belligerent. It operated by invading, conquering and/or colonising. In numerous cases entire peoples were exterminated when they opposed the advance of Europe. In the economic field, Europe acted by appropriating by force all the resources and wealth that it came across. The decline of the European empires ended in two world wars, among other things, as the last acts of new imperial aspirations.
Is it that all of Europe’s contribution has been negative? Evidently not. There have also been moments of inspiration, those that we define as “humanist moments”, although certainly there have not been many. The Europe of today is a great human construction realised also through the positive contribution of many peoples throughout history. We are talking of various millennia of work accumulated by many millions of human beings. I believe that part of our work will be to rescue and highlight all the positive things of this past Europe.
At the end of the 20th century Europeans seem to be finding a less conflictive route to integration, than the route of one trying to appropriate the others by force. The EU is consolidating through mechanisms of freedom of inclusion of its members and Russia seems to have abandoned its imperial aspirations. In the EU, the states freely decide to join without being obliged to do so by anyone. This way of working is a good lesson that represents an important jump in the dynamic of historical relations.
This is where we are today. Now let us see.

The possible positions of Europe

We were saying that we observe three possible alignments that Europe has in this international context. It can, on one hand, position itself clearly in favour of the policy of the United States, it can, on the other hand, try to maintain a certain lack of definition, and finally, it could create its own identity looking for a roll adapted to the route of complementation at an international level. Let us see what this would imply and the consequences of each position.
The first. If Europe positions itself in favour of the United States, it is going to be a sidekick to the North Americans, that is to say, it is going to loose significant autonomy and liberty, as well as entering a military and warmongering future. It will be opting for belligerence. This will have important consequences, as it would definitely help the configuration of the United States as an empire. If this position is taken it will reinforce notably this “new world order” with the United States imposing its ideology and its values across the planet by force. Its consequences would be the militarization of society, the increase of international pressures, the increase of internal disagreements in Europe and conflicts in all fields, including the increase of terrorism. The reduction of economic budgets destined for health and education, lowering of the quality of life through the increase in military spending. All of this would produce a lot of misery and death, increasing the pain in large human groups in magnitudes difficult to quantify.
The second possibility is that Europe tries to maintain itself in a balance and an uncompromised position, without defining a clear position; we think this will only be possible for a certain period. If Europe does not define its own very well structured position in a certain space of time, it is going to be definitively left in the wake of the United States. It is going to be the multinationals and the medium sized private enterprises of European origin that will be the first to be absorbed in this globalising wave and afterwards it will be the weakened political class that comes suffering and helpless to oppose this dynamic.
The other option remaining for Europe, after the lessons of millennia of conflict, is to project in the international arena the best of this process. An independent Europe that championed dialogue, interchange, integration and the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means would be well received by the majority of countries of the world. A Europe that bets clearly on education, health, culture, research, communications, and in general, improves the quality of life of its citizens and collaborates in these themes with other countries of the world. A Europe that pushes the development and the deepening of democracy, the increase in justice and the growth of liberty. A Europe that will develop, giving an example, a dynamic of proportional disarmament and progressive conversion of the military industry to civil use, diverting these resources to improve the quality of life of its citizens. A Europe of solidarity that helps countries with fewer resources to cover their basic needs and to take the road of democratising their political systems. Where employment is distributed and opportunities are guaranteed for all in the area of labour. A diverse and multicultural Europe that integrates its immigrants and respects all peoples and cultures. A Europe that cares for the natural environment, not only in its own territories, but also in those territories where European businesses operate. A Europe that strongly bets for life, for progress, for non-violence as the methodology of political action and that puts the Human Being as the central axis. A humanist Europe that advances towards the integration of all countries of the region.
This would represent a break with the historical process… An excellent opportunity to break with the past of fighting, oppression and suffering.
The European sentiment is emerging little by little among its citizens. We can push its advance reinforcing the idea of the construction of a “European nation”. But for this focus to not give potency to sleepless nationalism, let us make the bigger horizon to reach the “Universal human nation”.
It is evident that I am not going to convince any of you about these themes. But I want to leave you a question: How can we transmit that which we see so clearly, to the rest of the population of this continent? This work could be a task that the European Regional takes on.

LUIS FELIPE GUERRA, OrganiSING TEAM
Dear companions and friends, humanists of all Europe.
Before all, I wish to greet all who are present, to congratulate for this meeting. In any case, I could not leave out thanking especially our Check friends who agreed to welcome us this weekend to this beautiful city which is situated in the heart of Europe.
Very shortly I would like to share with you some reflections about the european situation:
In first place, to remember that today in the common language there is a tendency to identify the European Union and Europe, although the Union does not yet reach the geographical limits of this continent. This form of expression shows two things: a genuine aspiration to involve all the european peoples in the same future project, sharing a common destiny; but also an expansionist tendency which could degenerate into an imperialist compulsion. The humanists recognize and count on the first and reject the second. And for this reason we are here today, in line with the meaning of History and giving our contribution for the European process of construction. In this sense we understand that this same process could not be left to anyone from outside. This means to construct a Europe that is sufficiently attractive to all the european peoples and, in turn evade discriminations and exclusions for political, cultural or economical reasons. And what does this depend of? According to my judgement this depends on that Europe is based on three pillars: human rights, political and institutional democracy, and economic and social cohesion.
The construction of Europe based on these three pillars sets us before several questions, to which the humanists are to search clearly formed responses. In this way, for example: are the human rights to remain as they are divided in two categories – on one part, civil and political rights, and on the other, the economic, social and cultural rights – with different grades of protection? How to treat the question of migration flows in a way that is compatible with the effective application of the human rights of all persons? What kind of political role and weight should each member State have? The european organs should all be elected by universal and direct vote? How should their architechture and composition be? The European Union should include such countries as Russia and Turkey, and if so, with or without previous conditions for admission? And what kind of relation should be established with the neighboring countries of North Africa, when they display their intention to be integrated, like already is the case with Marocco? Should the common justice prevail over the national laws? How could European Union level the living conditions of the different regions of member states? Which would be the model of human development which should be tried to be implemented in Europe?
In the following times the response that is given to these and other questions will be a determining factor for our future, as it could mean the difference between peace and war, social justice or discrimination, freedom or oppression. Like everyone knows, a new constitutional law of Europe is being discussed. Therefore there are some tendencies which are being designed from now. In my opinion the options that are shaped in this constitutional reform should obligatorily be put subject to the filter of the will of the population. In reality to recognize that the european peoples aspire to move together does not necessarily imply to advance towards a classic centralized or federalist institutional model. Further, the European Union has been since the beginning an original experience of integration. The old juridical models of political integration don’t appear adequate to this multiple reality which Europe is. Europe could only then be a vanguard construction if it finds a political model that is according to its own character, causing a convergence of diversity. Otherwise the disintegrative forces and tendencies that exist in a more or less latent state in this continent emerge virulently like already happened in ex-Yugoslavia in recent times.
For this reason we humanists must protest in all member countries of the European Union, for the realization of a referendum of the project of the Constitution. Because of this we humanists need to denounce the blackmailing and disinformation which surrounds this issue and proclaims falsely the idea that “no” to the European Constitution implies a voluntary or compulsive leaving from the European Union or even its dissolution. And we humanists also need to take stands before this project of Constitution, not for rejecting it globally and unconditionally, but to repudiate some of its aspects which constitute a retreat in the aspiration of Europe as “common house”.
To finish these considerations, I believe that there is a lack of precise definition of what kind of idea of Europe we wish to go constructing. To my judgement it is not enough to get to this idea through the negation of what already exists. In this sense Europe could not start only as a counterpower of US in the world. Neither could Europe be just a historical patrimony, a cultural and religious inheritance which wants to perpetuate itself in time in a more or less hegemonic way. Europe should be a mobilizing image which is chosen just because of itself. In terms of its implementation, it is important to find a rhythm and a form which balances the necessities of regionalization with the national interests and identities. European peoples cannot be forced to unite, but neither can we assume that some certain historical mechanism would do the work of configuring a new political reality. In this context, it needs to be said that we humanists are not apologists of the European Union such as it is known today. Nevertheless, in the following year the European Union will grow to include 25 European countries, leaving very few outside, some of which are already candidates for adhesion. In this way it is not possible talk today about european regionalization without taking in account the European Union. From the start we not are dealing with an ideal process of regionalization, but of taking advantage of this political reality in order to advance towards the humanization of Europe. This does not mean that the Humanist Regional would start to ignore those european countries which do not form part of the European Union. Their peoples also participate in the actual process of regionalization, independently of the situation of the external policy of their States. Because of this our analysis and proposals also take in account what happens in the Europe outside the Union.
In some moments of history, Europe has been a light for humanity. In the close future, the experience of European integration could become a decisive contribution for the establishment of a Universal Human Nation. And we humanists could have an active and important role in this step, if we know how to interpret and express this profound aspiration of brotherhood which makes the european peoples get closer to each other. Let us so start doing it here and now...
Nothing more, many thanks for your attention.
27 Oct 2009 Humanist Movement

Humanist Speech

2009-10-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

SPEECH BY HARRY KUNNEMANNoordwijkerhout, 6 July 2002
Ladies and gentlemen,I feel privileged for being allowed the opportunity to say a few words today with regard to the Amsterdam Declaration from the perspective of the Dutch Humanist Alliance, or at least from my personal rendering of this perspective. I would like to do so by looking back and by looking forward.Looking back I feel gratitude for a beautiful and inspiring conference which makes me proud to be part of the Humanist Movement and really gives me confidence and inspiration for the future. Looking forward, however, I also think something completely different. How come, I ask myself, that all these important ideas and far reaching visions which have been presented to us during the last three days, have only a comparatively small influence on a world wide scale?I firmly believe that there is a real humanizing potential embedded within contemporary humanism and an even greater need for this potential in the light of the staggering problems confronting us as citizens of present day world society. But this potential seems to find only a limited recognition and does not seem to have come to full fruition. So I would like to present you an agenda for the International Humanist Movement for the next ten years, as a sort of supplement to the Amsterdam Declaration. I hope and expect that some of the elements of the alternative declaration presented to us will resonate in this agenda. It consists of four points.
1. The first point concerns the further internationalization, feminization and political radicalization of international humanism, based on intensified co-operation between humanist organizations all over the world. One of the great merits of this conference has been the strong input by thinkers, artists and activists from India, Pakistan, Africa, South America and many other places, and especially by strong women like Urvashi Butalia and Sylvie Duran, to mention but a few. It is of course well-known to us all that humanism has been very much a matter of Western, white, Euro-American middle-class, middle-aged men. So I would like to ask: does not the future of humanism lie in the Southern hemisphere? Doesn't the International Humanist Movement need a massive influx of inspiring women in positions of influence and power? And doesn't the issue of sustainability and sustainable development merit the highest priority on the agenda of the Humanist Movement during the next ten years?
2. My second point concerns a very sensitive subject namely the relation between humanism and religion. Here I would strongly plead for a double-edged instead of a one-track strategy and attitude with regard to religion and spirituality. I am aware that this is a very touchy subject among humanists, surrounded by strong and deep emotions, which deserve respect and understanding. But this subject also crucially involves the future course and the identity of the International Humanist Movement. In my opinion it is of the utmost importance that we do not define our identity negatively, in terms of what we are against, but articulate it positively in terms of what we cherish and long for. In this respect I was struck by a statement yesterday in the discussion regarding the video on humanist speeches during funerals, where at one point we were told that their motto changed from 'a funeral without god' to 'celebrating a life'. This phrase nicely captures the point I am trying to make, the idea that we need a double-edged, both critical ànd co-operative, instead of a one-track strategy and attitude with regard to religion and spirituality.On the one hand I wholeheartedly agree with the struggle advocated by Mr. Babu Cogineni and many others against all forms of dogmatic, fundamentalist and violent religiousness and with their fierce denouncement of all atrocities perpetrated against innocent women and men in the name of god and of dogmatically upheld religious revelations. This struggle directly flows from the humanist endorsement of human rights, of the separation between state and church and of democratic institutions, and merits our full and unwavering support. On the other hand, however, we should acknowledge the fact that for many people within present-day world society, religion and spirituality serve as sources of inspiration and orientation on the level of daily life with regard to values which are also very dear to us as humanists, such as care, compassion and solidarity. In view of the intolerance, violence and indifference at large in present-day world society, these religious inspired forms of moral engagement and human commitment should be considered as scarce and precious resources. In my view it is in the end primarily an intellectual issue from what source one gets one's moral inspiration and guidance. Seen in a humanistic perspective this source might even be deemed of secondary importance, as long as one acts morally on the basis of this source, that is to say with respect for others, with compassion for their suffering and with tolerance for their peculiarities. Every cultural source contributing to such forms of practical morality, whether religious, spiritual or secular, can and should in my eyes be welcomed and even cherished by humanists.
3. This brings me to the third point on my agenda for the humanist movement for the next ten years. This point simply reads: from theory to practice. As Marius Ernsting rightly stressed this morning, humanism is and should be not only a set of ideas and principles, but also and even primarily a set of practices. But as we all know humanism has been and still very much is a matter of theory, philosophy, books, declarations and intellectual debates. The great advance to be made during the next ten years is in my eyes the strengthening and further development of the practical activities of humanist organizations in areas such as secular rituals surrounding life events, education, welfare, care for the elderly and related areas involving forms of social responsibility and the weaving and re-weaving of the social fabric, but also on the level of moral and ethical deliberation within professional and commercial organizations. It is here I think, within the context of managerial strategies and decisions and professional forms of production and control, that the day-to-day realities of globalization and the technology-driven expansion of neo-liberal market society, referred to by Jan Pronk on the first day of our conference, are getting shape on a day-to-day basis. So it is here also that questions of humanization, social responsibility, exclusion and justice are being heeded or dismissed on the level of concrete strategies, technological innovations and practical decisions. So it is here in my view that the greatest challenge for the humanist movement is to be found and new forms of practical humanism have to developed, on the basis of critical reflexivity, normative professionalism and open moral deliberation.
4. This brings me to my fourth and last point. It concerns the conceptual shifts and intellectual transformations on the level of humanistic theory and humanist philosophy which should be put on our agenda if we want to take the first three points seriously. I do not have the space here to delve seriously into these fascinating questions, which are central to our research efforts at the University for Humanistics, so in conclusion I only briefly mention three key-issues:
a) Re-thinking autonomy and freedom. These two concepts which are so central to modern humanism, should in my view urgently be reworked to include our gendered embodiment, the fragility of our identities and our existence and our dependence on care and, last but not least, the crucial contribution of shared cultural resources to the quality of our lives. b) Broadening rationality. The idea of free enquiry and the related notions of scientific research and rational debate, should be broadened to include other forms of learning and deepening of critical insight and understanding, that is to say not only cognitive but also moral and existential forms of insight. This extension of the idea of critical enquiry to moral and existential forms of learning, implies the relevance of other resources for critical humanism besides theories and data, in particular narrative sources, ranging from life-histories and autobiographies to literature and films, and existential experiences and the inspiration provided by the lives of exemplary individuals. c) Doing solidarity. This is the most difficult and important issue. It relates to the mismatch between what we hope for as humanists and what we actually do most of the times. It concerns the recognition that we live in a world full of strife, violence and misunderstanding of which we are very much a part. As humanists we long for more peace, solidarity and care between people, but we do not avail of ready-made solutions to bring these closer. Our commitment to human rights, to tolerance and to solidarity is clear and of the utmost importance. But we should also acknowledge in my view that also and maybe even especially for us as humanists - taking ourselves to be fully accountable for our deeds - there exists a gap, a divide between what we believe in and what we do most of the times. Thus, our commitment to human rights sends us on a quest which very much involves our whole person and which cuts trough and connects our private lives, our professional activities and our world citizenship. Against this background I would be very glad if during the next ten years humanism could develop into a name for an open quest of people who are very different with regard to their personal histories, their cultural backgrounds and their social positions and aspirations, but at the same time are all equal not only in their longing for more humane relations for themselves and for others and in their struggle to bring this into practice, but also in their hope and their trust that the way in which they give shape to their own lives will contribute, be it only a little bit, to the realization of this hope. So I conclude by saying that I hope and expect that when we will meet again in ten years and look back upon this conference, we will be able to say to each other that at least some of this hope has indeed been realized during our lifetimes.
I thank you for your attention.
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Words Written in Blood By Okha Ewah Edede

2009-10-23T08:53:00.001-07:00

WORDS WRITTEN IN BLOOD
Author: Okah Ewah Edede
Posted to the web: 1/31/2009 4:43:27 AM

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WORDS WRITTEN IN BLOOD

0800 HOURS DECEMBER 6TH, 2007

I have only about two hours to live, at ten 0’ clocks the wardens will come for me and lead me to my execution as a fulfillment of my conviction terms. I was convicted by a Port Harcourt high court presided by Justice Binta Georgewill to death by hanging on a nine count murder charge. I have actually spent two years in prison going through the trial process and within these two years I have come to terms with God and have made peace with myself. I do not fear my onrushing death; I only regret I have not killed my uncle yet. I sincerely do not regret my actions – actions that today are leading to my death in less than two hours from now! I know I will be dead very soon and so I am putting my blood on my cell walls cataloguing my experiences and my actions in a bid to paint a clearer picture of what happened. I believe someone will come into this cell after my demise that will survive the gallows and recount my tale for posterity to judge my actions. This is my story.

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My names are Ifeanyichukwu Ikenga. I am from Umuoma village in Mbano local government area of Imo State Nigeria. I was born on the 15th of March, 1982 to Mr. Clement Ikenga and Dr. Mrs. Katherine Ikenga nee Onyejeke. I am the first of two children; my sibling is a girl, my pretty little sister Rosemary Oluchi Ikenga. My father died in an auto crash on the eve of my sister’s birth in 1985. My mother – as a widow – was the one who brought us up by hand and trained us through school until her death to a mysterious illness on August 17, 2001. Then I was nineteen, an engineering student in the department of Mechanical Engineering University of Lagos (Unilag). My younger sister, Rosemary who I fondly call by the pet name Nne Nene was sixteen years old, a sophomore in the department of Legal Studies, Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST). After the death and burial of my father, my mother’s younger brother, Uncle Uchenna Onyejeke invited my mother to relocate from Lagos to Port Harcourt and start her medical practice in the Garden City. Lagos held too many painful memories for mother and so, mother obliged and we relocated to the Garden City. This was in 1986. In 1999, I gained admission into Unilag and had to move back to Lagos for my academic sojourn in that cosmopolitan city’s Ivy League citadel. It was while in my fourth year in Unilag that my mother became saddled with a strange illness that defiled medical diagnosis and mystified science. I had to abandon my studies though it was just two weeks to exams and head for Port Harcourt to see my mom. When I got to the hospital, I could not believe my eyes; mother was ghostly and worn-out like a relic belonging to a vanishing age. Her frame was frail and her face wrinkled and older than that of an ancient. I looked at my mother and noticed that the hospital robe she was wearing were clinging Okah Ewah Edede on a body filled with brittle sickly bones, and that her fingers dug into my flesh – when she held my hand – like the croaked roots of an ancient tree digging into a mildewed soil pulsating with corruption. My once robust and beautiful mom was gone. Before mother finally gave up the ghost, she made me make her a flummoxing promise then, she said, “Ifeanyi my son, please promise me that after my death you will take your younger sister Oluchi and leave your Uncle’s compound. Also promise me that you will never ever return no matter what your Uncle promises you.” Though I could not fathom why mother wanted us to leave Uncle Uchenna’s compound, I pledged my promise and added that we will all move out of Uncle Uche’s place once she was hale and strong again. But mother had smiled sadly and said she wasn’t going to survive the illness, and then she told me that she suspected that my Uncle – her younger brother – had something to do with her illness and my father’s death. Mother said that on the day my father died in the auto crash that he had actually been in the same car with Uncle Uche. Back then Uncle Uche was still unemployed having just graduated from the university two years ago. “Your Uncle was in that car when your father lost control and plunged into the third mainland bridge, but the strange part is that nothing happened to your Uncle; he was unhurt, without a single scratch on him! Back then, I had attributed it all to God’s miraculous intervention but… today I wonder on the sudden cause of his stupendous wealth one month after your father’s death. Ifeanyichukwu, your Uncle had something to do with the death of my husband and if I hadn’t been blinded by love for my kid brother, I wouldn’t have come to stay in his compound. I believe I have endangered your lives by bringing you children here. I want you to leave and get an apartment in any area far from your Uncle’s sight. I can’t believe my brother could do this to us after all I and your father did for him – we were the ones who trained him through school!” My mother said with solemn emotions. After this speech mother passed on to glory like a slender shadow dissolving into mist before a séance’s crystal and her invocations. I wept bitterly and uncontrollably. After my mother was laid to rest, my Uncle swooned in like a scavenging Hyena, appropriating my mother’s clinic, her cars and what was left of her finances. Uncle Uche claimed that he took all these properties of my mom as repayment for the loan he gave to her to open her clinic in Port Harcourt. These wicked seizures of all mother owned including her finances lead to a confrontation between Uncle Uche and I.

“Your mother owed me huge sum of money before her demise” Uncle Uchenna bellowed when I demanded an explanation to his acts.

“But, Uncle, mother never told me about any loan.” I retorted.

“Where do you think your mother got the money to establish her practice in Port Harcourt?"

“But Uncle, my father left some funds in his bank for us, and besides, mother had a successful practice in Lagos before coming over to Port Harcourt at your invitation.” I responded in answer to his question, but my Uncle merely laughed and said, “your father was a fool who thought everyone should worship at his feet because he had a little money. Well, after he died I didn’t see any money; I was the one who advanced your mother a loan.”

“Uncle, are you trying to insinuate that my mother did not repay you this loan all these years, if ever there was a loan in the first place?” I said defensively

“Don’t insult me,” Uncle Uchenna bellowed, “don’t insult me or you will end up like your idiotic parents.” He threatened me with bloodshot eyes like those of an angry Lion.

“What do you mean by that Uncle?” I queried him. “What do you mean by what you just said?” But my Uncle refused to say another word, and so I pressed him to explain his outburst. I so harassed him that finally he exploded. “listen here you young Goat,” he emoted in irritation, “if you continue to pester me or keep on the quest of knowing what killed your parents, what devoured your parents will swallow you.” He threatened

“Uncle, I don’t care a foot about your sanguinary adages, but you must tell me what consumed my parents since you seem to have knowledge of this.” I shouted at him with rising fury

“Okay, since you persist on knowing what eat up your parents,” my Uncle began in a menacingly low tone, “I used your father for money ritual and used your mother for life prolonging rituals. Now if you don’t leave me in peace, I’ll use you and your little sister for diabolic ends. Do I make myself clear, Ifeanyi? Uncle Uchenna asked me.

I was dumbfounded, speechless and seething with silent fury. I had wanted to act rashly by attacking him there and then in his office but common sense told me it will be futile; Uncle Uche was a very wealth and influential man, and he had armed escorts. I had no chance of harming him when his zombies were just outside his office door clutching AK47 riffles. I swallowed my hurt and left his office. That weekend I headed for the village to report my Uncle to the Igwe and his elders in council over the death of my parents. After tabling the matter before our Igwe and the elders, the community leaders decided to invite my Uncle to come before them and defend himself of the allegations I had laid against him.

Uncle Uche stormed the village with an intimidating array of cars, Kalashnikov totting policemen, and enough cash to feed the entire village for two months. Even before the trial started before the Igwe and his council, I knew I had little chance of fair hearing and justice; the entire elders and the Igwe were busy counting the money my Uncle gave them to bother about a trifle like justice. At the end of the charade, the Igwe and his elders absolved my Uncle of all crimes and guilt. Instead they fined me five kegs of palm wine, twelve tubers of yam, and a Goat for bringing false allegations against a sterling son of the soil. To raise money to buy the item required to pay the fine imposed on me by the elders, I had to sell-off some household gadgets and got the rest from my paternal aunt – my dad’s step-sister. My dad’s step-sister aunty Roselyn was the only one who believed my charges against my Uncle.

After buying the said items, Nne Nenem, aunty Roselyn and I all traveled down to the village together to present the items before the Igwe and his elders in council. Aunty Roselyn lived in Owerri with her three children – she was a widow, having lost her husband to night marauders.

We were the triumvirate mourners.

“Elders of our land,” I addressed the Igwe and his council of chiefs, “in accordance to your verdict and, in solemn respect to the values and traditions of our land, I bring before you the items you requested of me as a fine for the spurious allegations – according to your sapience – that I brought against my Uncle, who, according to your wisdom, is a paragon of puritan values worthy of emulation.”

“Yes,” intoned elder Okoro, the prime minister of the council of chiefs, “the allegations you leveled against your Uncle, our highly esteemed son, Ichie Uchenna, onwa na tiri oha 1 of Umuoma community are grievous and horrible but, well… emmm” He paused for effect, “since you are also our son, and this honourable council is forgiving and merciful, we decided to levy you with this fine as a sign of punishment for your unguided utterances.” He summarized in grandeur delusions of self pontification.

”CHEI. CHEI. CHEI, CHEI. UMUOMA KWENU!” A voice rang out from the throng.

“HOI!” The council acknowledged

“UMUOMA KWENU!!” The voice equivocated

“KWEZONUO!!” The elders bellowed in unison

After this traditional salutation, another slimy elder, chief Umezurike stood up to address the council, and to impart wisdom into insignificant me.

“Ifeanyichukwu, listen to me carefully.” He started, “you should be nappy and thanking your Chi that you have an Uncle in a man as generous as your Uncle, Iche Uchenna. A man who gave your mother money to establish her profession after the death of your father; gave you people shelter in his compound, and took up the entire cost of your mother’s burial rites yet, he took only worthless peanuts as payment for all his investment. Hmmm… Ifeanyichukwe, I demand you tender an apology to your Uncle.”

“YES HE SHOULD.” The entire council concurred.

Well, after the histrionic at the village council of wise old men theatre, Oluchi, my aunt and I left the infantile ancients and went home to like our wounds. I was boiling with murderous rage; I took umbrage at the drama the so called elders enacted: how could someone confess to using my parents for rituals, yet I was found guilty and reprimanded for instituting actions against him! Where was the retributive justice the traditional system is said to uphold? Imagine going to the village elders for justice and all one got were self-serving aphorisms and shyster liturgies from corrupt elders who look like effigies of Fabian clowns! The humiliating reprimands I got from the Igwe and his senile elders were the efflorescence of bloody revenge in my soul. But before I carrying out my revenge, I decided to allow my Uncle enjoy his dissipation while I used the time to see to my education and that of my sister.

We had no one to help us save for aunty Roselyn who did the best she could for us. No other relative cared to come to our aid. I graduated from the university – after untold hardship – in 2002 with a second class lower division degree in Mechanical engineering. By the first quarter of 004, I had completed my one year national youth service programme. After my graduation, I got a job in a shipping firm in the Apapa Wharf area of Lagos. At this point my younger sister, Rosemary was in her final year in the Law department of RSUST. To see myself and my sister through school, I had done odd jobs while in the citadel. I had ferried stone on my head in building sites and had done other menial jobs just to be able to earn enough money to keep us in school. I knew I wasn’t going to be graduating with impressive grades because of the little time I devoted to my studies, but I vowed I was going to provide for Oluchi so she could concentrate on her studies and graduate top of her class. Oluchi has always been a brain to reckon with and she graduated top of her class with a first-class degree in Law.

Then I remembered my Uncle.

I had saved enough money from my averagely paying job at the shipping firm to take Oluchi through NYSC and Law School without my being present to assist her. Though she didn’t know of my plan to destroy my Uncle, I guess she suspected I was up to something hideous when I transferred all the funds I had into her Bank account. When Nne Nenem learnt of the transfer, she had looked at me with penetrating eyes and said, “big brother, you carry a grudge for eternity like a Sicilian, but please be careful in whatever you do.” I denied intending to do anything violent, but Oluchi merely shrugged and said, “I pray I’ll be in the position to save you when it counts.”

After putting my affairs in order, I headed out for my Uncle’s place, arriving at his residence at #377 King Perekule Street, G.R.A phase 2, Port Harcourt. When I got to where my Uncle domiciles, I found the pedestrian gate of his estate open and unguarded. I let myself in. Luck was on my side, it so happened that the guard on duty had gone to the next compound to attend to some amoral and randy endeavours of his and, in his haste to satiate his He-goatish conjugal cravings, he had left the side gate open and unattended. I scanned the entire compound and found to my chagrin that my Uncle’s utility vehicle was not in sight. This meant he had gone out before my arrival; I had arrived at 0909 hours. I made for the entrance into the imposing white edifice. I walked straight up the steps and pushed up the massive mahogany twin doors without encountering any resistance. The sitting room was tastefully furnished with elegant white leather sofas, marble tiled floor, and thick Elizabethan draperies with green flowering designs on a sea of whites that made up its background. Without seeing anyone in sight I made for the grand spiral staircase on the far left of the sitting room. I could hear voices on the first floor and so I proceeded with caution, pulling out the Semi Automatic 9mm Beretta pistol I came with; I had gotten the gun from a friend of mine who ruled the underworld of Port Harcourt. He had offered to help me extract my pound of flesh from my Uncle but I had declined; it was a family affair and I wanted to derive maximum pleasure and satisfaction from the fact that I had avenged my parents on my own.

I plunged head on into the room on the extreme right of the hallway where the voices were emanating from and crashed the boisterous chatter of my Uncle’s wife and eight others. Amongst the eight were four of my Uncle’s kids aged 8, 5, 3, and their infant baby of six months old. The other four were female relatives of my Uncle’s wife who were undergraduate students in various tertiary institutions – they were here on holiday. Shock was registered on their faces, and then my aunty recovered and ordered me to put the weapon away.

“Ifeanyichukwu, how did you get into the house? And besides, where is Abu?” She demanded. Abu was the name of the randy dandy he-goat of a guard.

“Aunty, sorry for doing this but I have to tie you all up. Abu is not around, and I didn’t come here for a courtesy call.”

My aunty was flummoxed as to my intentions. I believed she thought I just wanted to steal some money and items from the house and then abscond with my loot. Had she known my true intention, I doubt if they would have just given in to me without a fight. Well, they did and it was their doom. I had a grudge against my Uncle’s wife and her siblings because they had used the patronage of my fascist Uncle to perpetuate domestic reactionary despotism on me and my sister after mom dead. They were all guilty because they had allowed themselves to be smudged by the hypocritical and Byzantine paternalism of an obscurantist tyrant in the person of my Mephistophelean Uncle. I despised them all. It was payback time. After having them fettered, I locked them up and made for the kitchen. I had a scheme in mind; they were going to roast via inferno. I open all the gas valves and the gases spilled forth through the faucet. I left the kitchen door open and made for the sitting room where I light a candle; closing the main entrance door of the setting room, I left them to their fate.

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0945 HOURS DECEMBER 6TH, 2007

I can hear the distant clang of the wardens opening the gate to C-block. Soon I will be marched down the narrow hall to the house of no return. None have ever walked down this road who returned to tell the tale of the beyond. I now have little time left to complete my story, but I just have to tell the world my story.

I must… I must… I must…

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After I left my Uncle’s compound, the entire house exploded in flame and lights the horizon with a splendid display of raging colours. It was a magnificent sight. Later that day I called on Oluchi and told her what I had done. She was aghast. She asked me to run away but I refused. I then informed her I was going to get my Uncle in his office, and that she should be courageous and stoic because I believed I won’t survive the attack on my Uncle. Though Oluchi begged and cried that I shouldn’t go, I left her and headed to my Uncle’s office to complete my revenge. I actually got to my Uncle’s office as he was hurrying out agitatedly – presumably due to distressing news about his family – and opened fire on him. I saw him go down amidst a hail of bullets before I lost consciousness.

It happened that as I was gunning at my Uncle, I was also gunned at by his police escort. I regained consciousness in a government hospital, and from here began my sojourn into prison via the portals of the court. The legal battle was formidable and long, but at the end I was convicted for murder. It was during the trial period that I learnt that my Uncle was still alive. When I saw him in court, he was a broken and defeated man. After our dirty linens had been washed in public before the court, my Uncle lost as much as I lost. Though I lost the legal battle, he was humiliated and exposed for who he truly was. Though I regret my failure in killing my Uncle, I am comforted by the fact that the lost his mind after the trial.

Today he is a lunatic spending time in an asylum.

The wardens are here at last.

Adieu

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Okah Ewah Edede WORD COUNT: 3,595

AUTHOR’S NAME: OKAH EWAH EDEDE

ADDRESS: #32/34 ELDER CHIORLU’S COMPOUND, NTA ROAD, MGBUOBA, PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA

TELEPHONE: +2348063172003

EMAIL: mr.okahewahedede@yahoo.com

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Bad Leadership And The Curse of Nigerian Nation By Richard Akinjide

2009-10-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

In THIS special presentation, Chief Richard Osuolale Abimbola Akinjide, SAN, says Nigeria’s journey to greatness, from a Third World country to the First, is quite possible but that journey is strewn with so many “Ifs”. He traces the problem with Nigeria and concludes that even before the nation came into being, her path was already filled with mines. The high tension which today characterizes the polity, he insists, is a consequence of the amalgamation carried out by the British colonial masters. But because of the major natural resource of the country, he counsels that bad leadership may also ensure that Nigeria never gets a reprieve from the claws of poverty and underdevelopment. Good governance, oil & gas, and national development The three names that make indelible imprimatur on our system of Government and Constitution in Nigeria are: (a) Lord Scarbrough, Chairman of the Royal Niger Company who was the Head of the privatised colonialism in Nigeria. (b) Lord Lewis Harcourt, the then Minister with responsibility for the Colonies. (c) F.D. Lugard who, as army Captain, was employed by the East India Company and posted to India. The good and the evil they did, whether political or economic, were the genesis of our problems in Nigeria today. Following the Berlin Conference of 1884, Lugard, then a Captain, paid his first visit to “Nigeria” to organise troops on behalf of the Royal Niger Company - (note: not on behalf of the British Government), to subjugate and extract “treaties” from the Chiefs or Leaders of the various tribes and communities. The various groups, in what was latter called “Nigeria”, had no idea that Britain was trying to amalgamate them in the commercial interests of the Royal Niger Company. The European scramble for Africa and for her resources was in full swing. George Goldie attended the Berlin Conference of 1884-5 as a delegate. The “treaties” Lugard extracted were used to support British claims of effective control of the Niger Delta, and other parts, at the 1884-5 Berlin Conference where Africa was shared out among the European powers. Much of the Delta was declared Oil Rivers Protectorate by the British. Karl Maier wrote in his book: “This House Has Fallen” (Penguin Books): “The chiefs who signed treaties with Goldie and the British Consul of the day, Major Edward Hewett, often did not understand that they were effectively surrendering their sovereignty to the British Crown. Sometimes their signature or marks were forged or obtained under duress. Other time, the British simply lied to them” When Treaties with identical wording were sent by Consul Hewett to King Jaja of Opobo, King Jaja refused to sign but asked the Consul to explain what the British Government meant by “Protectorate”. In a letter of July 1, 1884, Consul Hewett wrote to King Jaja: “Dear Sir, I write as you request, with reference to the word protectorate as used in the proposed treaty that the Queen does not want to take your country or your markets but at the same time is anxious no other nation should take them. She undertakes to extend her gracious favour and protection which will leave your Country still under your Government. She has no wish to disturb your rule, although she is anxious to see your Country get up as well as the Countries of the other tribes with whom her people have so long been trading. Faithfully yours, (sgd) Edward Hyde Hewett, Consul” Also, in a British Cabinet Paper of January 3, 1885, Lord Selborne, the Lord Chancellor, Britain’s highest legal authority, with reference to international law, explained the difference between “annexation” and “protectorate” as follows: “The Law Officers do not expressly advert to the distinction, which I think important (and which appears to me to be well elucidated by Sir E. Hertslet’s Memorandum of the 24th April 1883) between annexation and Protectorate. Annexation is the direct assumption of territorial sovereignty. Protectorate is the recognition of the right of the aboriginal or other actual inhabitants, to their own country, with no further assumption of territorial rights than is necessary to maintain the paramount authority and discharge the duties of the protecting power.” Thus, in the case of Annexation, that is, a Crown colony, the Radical Title to the Territory was vested in the Crown but in the case of a Protectorate, the radical title remained vested in the original owners and inhabitants of the territory. In London, the British Government ran the affairs of their overseas interests as follows: Colonies, Colonial Office, Protectorates, Foreign Office, India, India Office. While the Colony of La gos (since 1861) was run from the Colonial Office, that of the Oil Rivers Protectorate was run from the Foreign Office. It was a foreign country. In 1886, George Goldie received his coveted Royal Charter from the British Government which gave Lord Scarbrough’s Royal Niger Company political authority over the Chiefs with which Goldie had concluded treaties. The Charter specifically ruled out the establishment of a trade monopoly in the region, but Goldie ignored this stipulation and deliberately sabotaged the business dealings of independent African merchants. The British Government turned a blind eye to those sabotage. Communities that remained outside the Charter’s authority, like Brass, were forced by Goldie to pay exorbitant duties for the privilege of engaging in palm oil trade in their own country. African traders operating within the area covered by the Charter had to accept miserly prices for their products or they were undercut altogether by using company boats traveling up-river to make purchases at the source in the interior. Stronger Chiefs who resisted were King Jaja and Chief Nana. Chief Nana was deported by Goldie to the Gold Coast (Ghana), King Jaja was exiled to the West Indies until 1891. He died (murdered?) on the way home when he was released. Major Lugard moved from Akassa up the Niger River into the interior. By 1903, Lugard’s West African Frontier Force subjugated Kano and Sokoto, killing the Caliph. The British abolished the “Caliphate” replacing it with the title of “Sultan”. The policy of indirect rule in the North, both marked the subordination to an alien power and effectively handed them control of areas in the Middle Belt that they had never been able to conquer. June 1849: Britain appointed Consul for the Bights of Benin and Biafra. 1853: Britain created separate Consular Districts for: (a) Lagos and Bight of Benin (b) Bight of Biafra. 1862: Legislative Council established July 23, 1884: Britain, through Naval Commander Moore signed Treaty of “favour and protection” with the King, Chiefs and the People of Creek Town, Calabar. July 24, 1884: Consul Hewett acting for Britain, signed Treaty of “favour and protection” with the Kings, Chiefs and People of Duke Town Calabar. September 1, 1884: Britain signed Treaty of “favour and protection” with the Kings, Chiefs and the people of Old Calabar. It was signed by Consul Hewett. 1914: Amalgamation of the North and South decreed 1922: Sir Clifford’s Constitution promulgated and named after Governor Sir Hugh Clifford. This replaced the Legislative Council of 1862 with an enlarged Council. 1945: Richard’s Constitution. It created a single legislature for Nigeria with the group of Provinces in the North, West and East. In March 1945, the Motion of Legislative Council was moved by Sir Gerald Whitely - the Secretary to the Government and seconded by Rev Effiong. It was passed unanimously. The Richard’s Constitution was enacted. Unelected majorities for the centre and the provinces were established. 1951: Macpherson’s Constitution: This introduced political parties and the first elected legislature and government in Nigeria. 1954: Lyttleton’s Constitution: Regional autonomy and self-government were introduced by instalments. 1960: The Independence Constitution Lord Lewis Harcourt stated the purpose of Amalgamation as follows: “We have released Northern Nigeria from the leading strings of the treasury. The promising and well conducted youth is now on an allowance on his own and is about to affect an alliance with a southern lady of means. I have issued the special licence and Sir Frederick Lugard will perform the ceremony. May the union be fruitful and the couple constant.” Before the 1914 amalgamation, the colonial administration of Northern Nigeria was financed from the British treasury. Whereas the South was financially self-sufficient and viable. The North was financially bankrupt. Not economically viable. And Britain was unwilling to educate or develop the North. The view of the British commercial and colonial interests was: educate the North and lose Nigeria. Lugard was one of the greatest advocate of that policy. Lugard’s policies in the North were disastrous. F. Nicholson, a British expert on his colonial administration put Lugard’s failure in the North as follows: “Instead of administering “things” and developing “service”, Lugard had been pre-occupied with the widespread extension of rule over “people” - an undertaking so unprofitable that it made the amalgamation of the viable South and the bankrupt North both far more urgent from the point of view of the home government and far more difficult than the joining of two viable administrations would have been. The immediate task was to free the home government from the expensive milestones which Lugard had fastened round its neck and to transfer the whole burden to a new amalgamated Nigeria.” A top Colonial Office Official, C. Strachey minuted as follows in the Colonial Office file: “Sir F. Lugard’s proposals contemplated a state which is impossible to classify. It is not a unitary state, it is not a confederation of states. If adopted, his proposals can hardly be a permanent solution - the machinery may work possibly for sufficient time to enable the transition period to be left behind, by which time the answer to the problem - unitary state versus Federal States - will probably have become clear.” How prophetic was Strachey! As soon as the 1914 Amalgamation came into force, the British Government enacted a Mineral Ordinance, 1914, investing all the minerals, including Oil and Gas, in Nigeria, in the British Crown. This was not amended until 1958 - two years to our 1960 independence. For the past forty years, Nigeria has been suffering from a lethal disease which, far from receding, has reached and firmly rooted in every stratum of government and society. The nature, profoundly negative social effects and appalling economic consequences of this disease, I shall analyze in details later in this anniversary lecture. What I shall begin with is a broader, international perspective: that of the international oil market as it is oil and the large unearned rent that it generates which can be designated as the major cause of the appearance, dissemination and generalisation of the disease in Nigeria. THE END OF OIL Oil, it seems, will not last much longer. Nor will it ever be cheap again. If one refers to their intensive campaign in the world media, it appears that it is the conclusion reached by more and more among the major world oil corporations: “The era of easy oil is over … when growing demand meets tighter supplies the result is more competition for the same resources.” Such is the firm statement, widely disseminated by the international business press, made by Mr. David J. O’Reilly, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Chevron Corporation. “Beyond Petroleum”: This is the new name with which BP - British Petroleum - has chosen recently to advertise itself, undoubtedly, to stress that the greatest challenge faced by the energy industry at the beginning of the 21st Century is to diversify away from oil before the world runs out of it. Yet, none of this is a new verdict: it was already pronounced in the 1970s. But history proved it wrong. The alarm bell first rang at the end of 1973 when OPEC raised oil prices from US$2 per barrel to 13. It rang again and louder in 1979. Then OPEC helped by a panicky market rushing to purchase in anticipation of higher prices and thus pushing oil stocks to an unprecedented high level, raised oil prices up again, this time to US$30. If one remembers the business context of the 1970s, one still has in mind the too remarkable convergence of views that then existed among practically all world energy experts. Oil prices were destined to reach US$100 per barrel before the turn of the 20th century. One also remembers how wrong they could have been. These experts’ no less remarkable predictive failure came to light when early in the 1980s oil prices began to fall, persisted downward to reach as low as US$10 a barrel and went through a long period of fragile stability before starting to rise again a couple of years ago. If it is true, as one is often told, that history repeats itself, then the current round of high oil prices should not attract such media attention. This is no more than business as usual. Prices will come and stay down! Is that really so? My answer is no. No, because two new critical dimensions have appeared which are radically transforming the context in which today’s world oil industry operates: - The first is the state of the world’s environment: the increasing risks that climatic changes create for lives, infrastructures and properties. - The second is a coincidental occurrence: that of the emergence of new economic powers, China, India and Brazil with a voracious appetite for oil (China is the second largest world oil consumer after the USA and China will soon be number one), precisely when the physical exhaustion of the world oil resource is in sight. The degradation of the climate. It is now accepted by everyone that earth’s climate is changing. Scientists began to warn about global warming some twenty years ago but few listened. They explained that its cause was the massive accumulation in the atmosphere of gas, carbon dioxide, which allows heat from the sun to penetrate the atmosphere but traps that heat and prevents it to escape back in outer space. This is known as the greenhouse effect. Scientists added that this accumulation of gas occurred because it is the residual of fossil fuel combustion, mainly oil and coal, less so natural gas which humanity, mainly the industrialized part of it, has been burning for about two and a half centuries and massively burning for the last one. To fix the problem - if it ever gets fixed - will take a long time: long-term problems call for long-term solution. It will also require a radical change in the world’s energy mix in favour of nuclear energy and of renewable, clean energy sources: energy from the sun, energy from the wind and hydrogen. In the meantime, we are told, climatic aberrations, especially the most damaging ones, will become more frequent with their unavoidable high material and human tolls. We are also told that the problem does remain solvable but the longer energy consumers - especially large energy consumers - delay remedial actions, the worst the likely consequences. The exhaustion for the world oil resource. Homo sapiens took a long time to emerge from the mud. Yet when the emergence began, at each occurrence of humanity reaching a higher step on the ladder of technical and economic progress less time was required to get there than it had taken the previous step. Also, the scale of changes taking place in societies kept getting larger. An interesting historical study by Angus Maddison which spans from year 500 to 1970 (35 years ago) compares how long it took what are now the western economies to triple their economic output. The first tripling took ten centuries: a thousand years spanning from 500 to 1500. Four and a half centuries later, in 1950, it took the same economies a mere 20 years to achieve a similar tripling in output. As in 1950 these economies started from an incomparably higher base than in year 500, the growth achieved led to a vastly greater volume and a vastly higher quality of goods and services produced. What such a succession of remarkable steps forward took was first the mastery of producing food and erecting shelters, then the ingenuity of substituting mechanical and electric slaves for less powerful and reliable animal and human ones. Once humanity could domesticate energy to produce heat and motion, all that was left to achieve was to make energy available in ever larger quantities and to improve process efficiencies. First, the world burned coal and named it “king” because it fueled the industrial revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. Then the bulky steam engine fed by coal which had hitherto prospered progressively gave way to the compact combustion engine fed by oil. From the end of the 19th century to the first decades of the twentieth, “king coal” faced its decline. Oil was discovered in increasing volumes and the usages one could make of it, once refined, were many. Transportation fuel, a major category in refined oil products, was cleaner, easier and more efficient to transport than coal because of its liquid form and of its substantially higher heat content per unit of mass. It was therefore this fuel, easily extracted from crude oil, which during First World War burnt in the “Ford T” cars which took French soldiers to their eastern borders to prevent German invaders to trespass. It was again this fuel which in 1944 propelled the plane that delivered the atomic bomb to Japan. After the Second World War, oil was king. Since the end of the 19th century and for decades after, crude oil has been cheap, plentiful and used in ever increasing volumes. No sooner had a fraction of world oil reserves been used than new discoveries in larger, sometimes huge volumes were made and added to existing stocks. Even in the 1970s when prices began to bite, consumption and reserves continued to grow: the quantity of oil available for use never seemed to be an issue. It is again oil that fueled world economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly that of the new giant Asian economies. Since the end of the 19th century, the progression in world oil supply and demand has followed a rapid exponential trend with periods of even faster growth which mathematicians call hyper-exponential. It is important to realise what this means in terms of volumes. It means that, year after year, an increasingly larger volume of oil was added to the supply of the previous year to meet the world demand of the current year. Such a progression is called exponential because it is characterised by a constant rate of increase. In the case of oil, in some periods, the rate at which world oil supply grew was even faster, no longer constant but increasing: hyper-exponential. This cumulative process went on for about 125 years. It became massive from the reconstruction period after the Second World War in 1945/50. Such a pace of growth, especially when applied to a limited resource, is not sustainable. It cannot last. Says Mr. O’Reilly, the Chairman of Chevron Corporation again: “Demand is soaring like never before … It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. We’ll use the next trillion in 30.” In this statement, Mr. O’Reilly provides two interesting pieces of information. First, he tells us that from 1880 to 2005 - the last 125 years - the world used a huge volume of oil: one trillion, that is, one million million barrels. Then he states that this same huge volume of oil is expected to be used again but this time in only 30 years, from 2005 to 2035. The most interesting information, however, Mr. O’Reilly keeps for himself. At the scale of such a massive industry as the world oil industry, 2035 is just the day after tomorrow. So why does Mr. O’Reilly keep silent about what is likely to happen to world oil after 2035 especially as he explains later in his same statement: “Whatever action we take we must look not just to next year but to the next 50 years.” If Mr. O’Reilly has looked to the next 50 years (I am sure he has), has he looked up to year 2055? Why does he not tell us then what he saw happening to world oil between 2035 and 2055? I suspect he does not because he is afraid to create excessive concern among his world leadership by bluntly stating that after 2035 there will be little or no oil left for the world to burn. Yet, this is the implacable conclusion one reaches putting together what Mr. O’Reilly says concerning future world oil demand and what geologists say about the state of world oil reserves. The key parameter in world oil supply is the fact that the decline of king oil has already started. It began quietly about 20 years ago. This is the period when for the first time in the history of the world oil industry - and in sharp contrast with the past - oil finds went and stayed below oil used. Since 1985 or so, persistently falling oil discoveries have coincided with a persistently increasing demand for oil: and unsustainable situation which should have been discouraged. Rather, it has been encouraged by the low oil prices of the 1980s and 1990s. Geologists estimate with a reasonable degree of accuracy how much oil remains trapped in earth’s crust. Their findings reveal that, in the course of the last century, the world has extracted and consumed about half the estimated reserves of extractable crude oil Mother Nature took millions of years to manufacture. The logical implication of geological data coupled with Mr. O’Reilly’s view of the dynamics of world oil demand is that the second half of the world estimated reserves of extractable crude oil will have been more or less exhausted by 2035. The conjunction of such economic, technical and ecological factors which are as unforgivable as gravity makes the most probable future course for world oil supply to be a decline and therefore the most probable future course for oil prices - in view of the anticipated world oil demand - to be an increase, perhaps a sharp increase. When will prices really bite? Opinions of course differ. Some say as early as 2 or 3 years from now, some others say 2010, the most optimistic say 2020. Whatever the best guess history will prove to have been, all seem too close for the comfort of energy consumers. Yet, if critical situations give birth to alarming dangers they also offer unusual opportunities. It is therefore, one more time, the quality of their scientific research, the ingenuity of their technical innovations, their foresight and leadership, their ability to manage crisis situations and the power they have to resort to conflict if required which will make industrialised countries to overcome the energy challenge. Indeed, political and economic leaders in industrialized, oil - consuming countries cannot but draw two conclusions from the present world energy situation: 1. That the development of oil substitutes must be urgently accelerated; 2. That in the meantime the security of oil supply must be ensured. The necessity to develop energy substitutes for oil, not unlike the occurrence of climatic changes, is a parameter that has been known to industrialized countries for about 30 years. But little has been done about it. Why? Because industrialized countries worship the market. Unfortunately, the market is at best a myopic god and at worst a blind one. The market sets a price based on a short-term equilibrium: that of a present supply confronted to a present demand. If it so happens that in 3, 5 or 10 years the supply of a given commodity is likely to be constrained by the exhaustion of its irreplaceable reserves, if it so happens that in 3, 5 or 10 years the needs such a commodity presently fulfils are likely to be as urgent as they today, the market does not take such considerations into account. The great John Maynard Keynes, Cambridge University Professor of Economics, himself said it: in the long range we are all dead. This may be true of us but it is not of our children. With little simplification, one can regard the whole history of crude oil as the history of a constant struggle between, on one side, strong consuming countries also in control of oil extraction and trying to keep current prices as low as possible and, on the other side, weak reserve owners trying to raise prices as high as they possibly could. Overall, the former won. Except for some notable exceptions, it is the market mechanism more than OPEC which has determined the price of oil. Therefore, this price has remained much too low to encourage the development of substitutes at the required scale and in the required time frame. It is only now that current oil prices, at or above US$60 a barrel, make the economics of oil substitutes begin to look favourable. The inescapable balance of the present world energy equation is therefore in four simple points: 1. The world is running out of oil. 2. There is presently nothing to replace oil at the scale oil needs to be replaced. 3. Replacing oil will take time as well as costly investments. Such investments will only be made if a high and growing oil price renders such investments profitable. 4. The need to replace oil would be no less urgent if the world had unlimited oil reserves unless one would let the environment suffer beyond repairs at a final cost much greater than that of developing oil substitutes. The necessity to secure oil supply is as pressing a challenge as that of developing oil substitutes. It is one of a different nature which calls for different solutions, peaceful or otherwise. The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and the consequent military intervention of the US and its allies in the gulf is one clear illustration of how far the West can go to secure oil supply. If Mr. Sadam Hussein had been successful in annexing Kuwait and had prolonged his invasive journey to Saudi Arabia, he would have then controlled 2/3 of the world oil reserves and therefore its selling price: a clearly unacceptable state of affairs for the West. The present world energy situation is therefore tighter than ever and it would be profoundly unrealistic to assume that, whether to develop energy substitutes or to secure oil supply, industrialized countries which are presently so dependent on oil and energy to ensure their political leadership, world dominance and continued wealth will hesitate to implement even the most drastic options and policies to protect their interest and perpetuate their prosperity. 2. THE NIGERIAN DISEASE The other side of the coin is the bright economic future guaranteed to countries that own oil provided they are able to confront the associated political risks, manage the economic opportunity and extract the maximum return from it. Is Nigeria, one of such privileged countries? On all fronts my answer is no. Nigeria is unlikely to be able to confront the associated political risk which is already a reality at play as current developments in the Niger Delta demonstrate. Nigeria is even less likely to be able to manage the economic opportunity. Considering the myriad of them, this country’s successive governments have already missed and lost, considering the unrelenting progression of corruption, the persistence of bad, incompetent public decision-making and economic management, the odds cannot possibly be in our favour. It is in fact the firmly grounded opinion of more than a few qualified observers here and abroad that, even if the price of oil were to reach a thousand US dollars per barrel, Nigeria would not fare any better. Only waste, misappropriations of public funds and mass poverty would continue to grow as is abundantly illustrated by Nigeria’s history in the past forty years, except the excellent reforms and crusades of the recent years by President Olusegun Obasanjo which are like fresh air in a very polluted atmosphere. Missing such a unique opportunity, however, would prove the worst loss of all. Being the direct consequence of the end of the oil era, it may well be the last chance offered to Nigeria to source funds in the volume required to build a diversified economy and finally escape poverty. As a leading world oil and gas producer, Nigeria is selling large volumes of gas at a world price linked to that of oil and large volumes of oil at a price which, at the time of writing, approaches US$70 per barrel. Nigeria can reasonably expect that for several decades to come this price will rise, perhaps sharply. Good governance is all that would be required of this country to extract the best out of this unique and perhaps last chance to establish sustained, durable and diversified economic development. Can we then blame an increasing proportion of our youth to try and seek any kind of salvation on foreign shores even if this is neither reliable nor honourable an option? Destination countries, those who are the targets of immigration fluxes but are not particularly keen on sharing their wealth and social benefits with imported strangers, have done their arithmetic. They have calculated that the present world population of 6.5 billion people will grow to reach 8 billion in 2025. They have assessed that a significant proportion of that population growth will be on account of Africa, the continent with the world highest rate of population growth, even with HIV-AIDS decimating populations in the horn of Africa. They have determined that in the next 20 years Africa will each year deliver 4 to 6 millions young adults to the continent’s labour market - a total of 80 to 120 million people in the next 20 years. Such a volume, Africa is, and will continue to be incapable of absorbing. So destination countries have reached the firm conclusion that, in view of their own unemployment situation at home, they have no other choice but to vigorously reinforce immigration control as it is out of the question for rich countries to become an outlet for excess African labour supply beyond their limited requirements: a tough luck for would -be African immigrants. I am afraid it is no solution to look for illusory salvation abroad as it is no solution to entertain pessimism. I believe there is a domestic solution to our problem and I believe this solution must be implemented even if our problem is complex and the solution difficult and painful to put in place. Even more so as this solution, we know it. And even if some of us do not, a recent World Bank report is here to illuminate them. What this report says is alarming. It says that our society is where it is and what it is because it has disintegrated and lost its cohesiveness. Disintegrated societies, societies without cohesion, the World Bank explains, do not thrive even in the midst of abundant material resources. They regress and collapse. “Where is the wealth of nations? Measuring capital for the 21st century” is the title of this World Bank report. The report’s findings are devastating for Nigeria and clearly explain our failure to develop. To measure the wealth of nations, the World Bank determined the relative importance in such nations’ balance sheet of the three categories of capital: natural assets, produced assets and intangible assets which, added, make this balance sheet, that is, national wealth. Natural assets are a country’s natural resources, produced assets are a country’s accumulated productive capital and intangible assets are a country’s human and institutional capabilities. The report concludes that it is NOT a country’s tangible assets whether natural or produced; that it is NOT a country’s mineral resources, agricultural land, forests, industrial equipment and infrastructure which make this country rich and prosperous. It is rather this country’s intangible assets, the society’s quality index. What precisely are intangible assets? They are all the qualitative components of a human community: - The skills and know-how embodied in the labour force; - The ability of a nation to efficiently invest the rent extracted from the exploitation of exhaustible resources; - The mutual trust which exists among members of a society, - Their ability to work together for a common goal to which they strongly adhere and in which they firmly believe; - The quality of formal and informal institutions; - The saving and maintenance culture; - The extent to which citizens have confidence in the laws of the land and abide by them; - Patriotism: both the extent to which citizens trust and support their government and the extent to which government trust and support its citizens. On the same subject, Martin Luther has this to say: “The prosperity of a country depends not on the abundance of its revenue, nor on the strength of its fortification, nor on the beauty of its public buildings, but it consists in the number of its cultivated citizens, in its men of education, enlightenment and character.” In short, intangible assets are the policies, actions, values and attitudes which cement a society, make it efficient, make it deserve the right to be called a nation and allow her to attain prosperity. “Rich countries are largely rich because of the skills of their population and the quality of the institutions supporting economic activity” So the World Bank report concludes. How can a country develop and increase intangible assets, those mostly responsible for its prosperity? The World Bank’s answer is limpid. Invest in education, “Educated men are as superior to the uneducated as the living are to the dead” said Aristotle. Invest in the functioning of the justice system and develop policies aimed at attracting remittances, all of which are government’s responsibility: rich countries are largely rich because they are well governed; poor countries are largely poor because of bad governance. Bernard Shaw in his “Everybody’s Political What’s What” advised: “If you want to rule a people in perpetuity, one thing you must not do. You must not educate them.” One hundred and twenty countries have been scrutinised to reach the above conclusion. The five countries coming first are Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, the USA and Germany. The country coming last is Ethiopia. Regrettably but not surprisingly, Nigeria comes just before the last, just before Ethiopia. All these foreign badges of “honour” make our shames more glaring. Take the rule of law index. This is an index on a scale from 1 to 100 used by the World Bank to measure the extent to which citizens have confidence in, and abide by the law of the land. Switzerland scores 99 while Nigeria scores less than 5. Take wealth per capital. Thus is the average wealth per person in a given country. In year 2000, it was a little below US$650,000 per Swiss as compared to about US$2,750 only per Nigerian: the average Swiss was in 2000 more than 235 times richer than the average Nigerian. Are you surprised that our young people’s sweetest dream is to escape their land? Take the saving and maintenance culture. The World Bank calculates that if Nigeria had sustained even a modest saving effort on her oil earnings of the past thirty years, a saving effect equivalent to, but not larger than that of the poorest countries in the world, her stock of produced capital would be five times larger than what it is today. The World Bank’s final ranking of the 120 countries under scrutiny shows the contribution of each of the three capital components: natural, produced and intangible, in percentage form. In the total wealth of Switzerland, the most prosperous country in the world with US$648,241 per capita, natural capital contributes 1 percent, produced capital contributes 15 percent and intangible capital contributes 84 percent. A particularly noticeable but unsurprising outcome of the World Bank report is the fact that in rich countries intangible assets are by far the major contributor to wealth and prosperity whereas in poor countries intangibles often prove critical liabilities, key factor of regression with high negative contribution to wealth. Why is it so? It is so because of the particular nature of intangible assets. Tangible assets (natural and produced capital), a country can either possess or not possess. If a country has them, tangible assets contribute positively to its prosperity; if a country does not have them, tangible assets do not make any contribution. The influence of tangible assets on prosperity can be positive or nil, not negative. In contrast, intangible assets can become intangible liabilities if skills are low or absent, if inefficiency, incompetence, corruption, irresponsibility and bad management are the rule rather than the exception. The value of tangible assets is the value (positive or nil) of what a country owns. The value of intangible assets is the value (positive or negative) of a country’s ability to turn its tangible assets into new wealth. This concept is so important that it is worth illustrating with an example. Assume an individual acquiring a fleet of 10 trucks to set up a transport business. Each vehicle costs 2.5 million Naira. The company also hires 10 drivers and begins operations. Assume that at the end of the first year the company has made a net profit of 10 million Naira. What is, measured using the World Bank concept, the company’s wealth at the end of the first year? It is 30 million Naira. 20 million Naira or 67% of the company’s wealth is on account of its tangible assets: the 10 trucks which have been purchased for 25 million Naira and are assumed to have depreciated by 20%. The 10 million Naira profit or 33% of the company’s wealth, is on account of its intangible assets: good management and the drivers’ professional competence. Assume now that in the second year of operations things get bad. The manager of the company steals company’s money which encourages drivers to behave irresponsibly: they divert petrol, fail to maintain vehicles, stop driving carefully and used company’s vehicles for their own purpose. As a result business goes down, several vehicles are involved in accidents and at the end of the second year, the company’s profit has turned into a loss of 4 million Naira. Again measured using the World Bank concept, the company’s wealth has decreased from 30 million Naira at the end of the first year to 22 million Naira at the end of the second. Cumulative net profit has fallen from 10 to 6 million Naira and depreciation has reduced the net book value of the vehicles from 20 to 16 million Naira. The composition of the company’s wealth has also changed. The contribution of tangible assets has increased from 67% to 73% while that of intangibles has fallen from 33% to 27%. If this situation is allowed to persist over several years, cumulative profit will continue to fall to become a cumulative loss; the contribution of tangible assets to wealth will continue to increase to and perhaps beyond 100% as the contribution of intangible assets to wealth continues to fall to zero and perhaps turns negative. What our examples says is as old as the world: bad management pulls efficiency down. It reduces profit generation, that is, it makes the contribution of intangible assets to wealth creation to decrease. This contribution becomes negative if persistent mismanagement results in losses instead of profits. As profits fall, the relative contribution of tangible capital to wealth rises. When losses are recorded, tangible assets are the only positive contributor to the wealth of badly managed raw materials exporting countries. Good management has the reverse effect. It pulls efficiency up, generates profit and by so doing reduces the relative role of tangible capital in wealth creation. Intangible assets, which are the ability to use tangible assets efficiently to increase wealth, reduce the relative importance of tangibles in the process of wealth creation. Leading a country is not unlike running a transport business. And bad leadership is a much worse liability than bad business leadership. In 2000, Nigeria’s wealth per capita was US$2,748 and resulted for 147 per cent of natural capital, for 24 per cent of produced capital and for negative 71 per cent of intangible capital. In 2000, Nigeria’s intangible liabilities cancelled half of the positive contribution of her natural capital: bad governance and the resulting social dislocation have had the same impact on Nigeria as removing half of its natural endowment. A myriad of example can be found to illustrate this. Here are some: 1. Just a few years ago Nigerian missed the chance of strengthening the international value of her currency. When central banks all over the world had increased their Euro holding from 14% of their total holdings in 2002 to 25% in 2005 to take advantage of the rapid appreciation of the Euro over the period, Nigeria continued to rely blindly on the US dollar thus loosing billions in reserves and potential productive investments. A stable Euro and a stronger dollar have now returned to the international currency market, removing the opportunity. 2. When supply of refined products worldwide got tight thus offering, and continuing to offer today, unusually favourable commercial opportunities to refiners, Nigeria proved incapable of turning this to her advantage as her refining capacity had long before collapsed. Worst, Nigeria became a substantial importer of refined products while being one of the leading crude oil producing countries. As a result, domestic fuel prices rose far above where they should now stand, even allowing for the removal of government subsidy, thereby increasing practically all costs in the economy and constraining economic growth and national development further. 3. Since crude oil prices began to rise, Nigeria accumulated billions in passive, unproductive reserves and repeatedly expressed illusory concerns about the danger of overheating the economy. We dare speak of overheating the economy with excessive money supply when our infrastructure is deficient, when we are not able to supply electricity without any cut for more than a few days in a row, when millions of us live below poverty level, have no access to water, when thousands receive education without even a slim chance of later finding a job, when the education system itself - just like health care - has been for years the victim of deficient policies. Money supply is excessive only when one does not know how to use it efficiently. 4. Nigeria now wishes to embark and invest into tourism at a time when high and growing oil prices are likely to make air transport increasingly expensive therefore dampening tourism demand and reinforcing an already tight competition among many destinations already far better equipped than ours. 5. Four or five years ago, Nigeria put in place a program to develop small and medium scale businesses and industries through a fund fed by private banks’ profits and administered by them The programe is a failure. There are today tens of billions of idle Naira in the fund and still not a trace of small scale industrial development. Banks simply refuse to invest in small scale industrial development because the risk is not good enough for them, banks prefer to put money in what they know will bring profit. Banks accept to pay the penalty for not using the fund, for not financing small scale industries and by so doing preserve their profit for more lucrative usages. And Nigeria remains poor and backward. Who is to blame? Not the banks of course. Banks do their job and follow the logic of the private sector. Government is to blame for telling the tale of the mighty private sector that can do all things better than government, the tale that the private sector can and will resolve it all. It is government that is to blame for passing the buck, for escaping one of its major responsibility, that of assuming the risk of early - stage economic development so as to bring new private ventures to their threshold of profitability until such ventures are strong enough to assume their economic risk by themselves. Then and only then profits will be generated and banks will accept to lend their funds. Forty years of oil and gas production would have done marvels in Nigeria if therent obtained from the export of oil and gas had been correctly managed and efficiently invested. Natural capital would then have been efficiently transformed into other forms of capital: into productive investments (produced capital) aimed at developing the economy and into quality investments aimed at educating, protecting and cementing society (intangible assets). If such had taken place, oil would today play a much smaller role in the Nigerian economy. A number of economic sectors would have emerged, benefited and developed and Nigeria would be a prosperous nation with a diversified economy, a solid infrastructure, a strong currency and jobs for everyone. But oil has done none of the above. Rather, it has exacerbated greed and raised unreasonably high expectations of private appropriations of the unearned rent (the national cake) to the point of strongly eroding personal, ethical and social values thereby dislocating the cohesiveness of society. Not only has oil been hijacked and its unearned rent misappropriated and wasted but oil’s ability to effortlessly generate such unearned rent has frozen Nigeria’s incentive to build those intangible assets without which her access to economic prosperity remains an illusion. And Nigeria has proved incapable of reforming the institutional system responsible for such an accumulation of intangible liabilities. So the end of oil might perhaps prove a blessing for Nigeria as it will undoubtedly take the country back to square one. If the major task of reforming existing institutions remains out of our reach while we can rely on oil export money, it may be that the natural end of the cause (oil) through exhaustion, by suppressing resulting negative effects, by removing intangible liabilities, will rebuild social cohesiveness and will restore our capability to reform institutions and establish durable development. To verify the veracity or otherwise of this early diagnostic, we must wait. But not for too long: another 30 or 40 years perhaps when today’s young Nigerian children have become mature adults. If my diagnostic proves right, the generation of Nigerians then in command will have it tough. They must be prepared to work hard, very hard indeed, to rebuild a cohesive and prosperous society as the benefit of accessing of oil money will then have gone for ever. It would be so much simpler, so much easier to begin now. It is NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527) who said: “There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things… Whenever his enemies have occasion to attack the innovator they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.” Will Nigeria soon emerge from the Third World to the First World? The frightening “Ifs” accumulate in the answer. Being ANNIVERSARY LECTURE ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2006 AT THE 30TH CELEBRATION OF ONDO STATE, CHIEF RICHARD AKINJIDE, CON, SAN, FCI Arb. (U.K)
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