From April 2016 for updates to the Humanist Association of Hong Kong go to: https://humanistassociationofhongkongblog.wordpress.com/

The main ideas of Universal Humanism

1. placement of the human being as central value;

2. affirmation of the equality of all human beings;

3. acknowledgment of personal and cultural diversity;

4. tendency to the development of knowledge beyond that accepted as absolute truth;

5. affirmation of the freedom of ideas and beliefs;

6. rejection of violence.

human rights, social justice, non-discrimination, non-violence, co-operative systems, freedom of choice, freedom of belief, social activism.

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Humanist Association     

         of Hong Kong 

26 January 2016

Argentina: Free Milagro Sala

Humanists denounce and reject all forms of violence, in particular when people who fight for social change are deprived of liberty, such is the case of Milagro Sala.

Milagro represents a social organisation, Tupac Amaru, whose membership consists of thousands and thousands of humble people, indigenous people from the Argentinean province of Jujuy, a people who out of desperate need and State neglect started to take charge of their lives in the times of unemployment and absence of State support.

Then during the Government of the Front for Victory (2003-2015) the Tupac Amarcu was strengthened with contributions from the State and the effort of its members.

This happened through the work of its activists, tireless workers, who through food suppliers, clothes producers and Community Cooperatives where able to build houses, workshops, factories, water parks, schools of different levels, infrastructure, and a long list of achievements for the welfare of each one of their thousands of members.

The current Government under Gerardo Morales in Jujuy and Mauricio Macri in Argentina as a whole, are cutting back on State spending through the sacking of public sector workers. They are criminalizing social protest and going against one of their campaign promises: Dialogue.

The arrest of Milagro Sala is a provocation to activists and the people of Argentina, a provocation that we must and want to resist without violence, as has been the case until now.

We call for the immediate release of Milagro Sala and the opening of channels of dialogue between the government of Morales and Tupac Amaru, as well as for the continuity of neighborhood and grass root organisations that, through Workers Cooperatives, have brought, and will continue to bring welfare to the people.

We encourage the oppressed people of Argentina to develop protests, denouncements, and actions without violence behind the claim for real democracy to replace today´s formal democracy which has proven totally inadequate to meet the needs of the people for personal and social liberation.

The International Coordination Team of the Federation of Humanist Parties.

Supported by the federated organisation: 

Humanist Association of Hong Kong

Tony Henderson, Chairman

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Democracy and non-violence go hand in hand

Democracy and Non-Violence go hand-in-hand, or should. In a true democracy there would be no violence and that is the strongest indicator of its presence. Conversely, in situations, whether political or other, non-violence is apparent when everything is running smoothly and political groups and cultural groups are living and working well together.

Non-violence is rather implicit while violence is highly explicit, as with democracy, when it’s working no need to talk about it. Sadly, the term democratic is used very loosely and has long been misused to give an air of legitimacy to institutions, even nations, that know better but cling to outer forms, for whatever reason, hardly ever good ones.

Examples abound revealing the mis-dealings under the name of democracy but to take Hong Kong as a case in point is useful as the territory is a crucible for mixing democracy as the West is claiming it to be, and the different organisational forms in Asia, typified by the Chinese Communist government and Party head-quartered in Beijing, would have it.

In Hong Kong every July 1, the streets throng with noisy parties with their varying opinions clamouring for justice on all kinds of issues, many that are affecting its people concerning the best way ahead. These can be distilled down to, which path to take, a pro-Beijing one that will curtail individual freedoms to an uncertain extent, but nothing that cannot be handled, or, that of opposition to the pro-Beijing administration under Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying that has so far only resulted in a stalemate in the various facets of development of Hong Kong, from political to economic.

Each year on this day there is the annual come-out-on-the-street protest and groups carry banners for what you will – but largely framed as a voice-out for democracy, the theme of the rally. It is perennially non-violent. This reflects well on both the people and the police.

On this day in 2015 it was reported that the National People’s Congress Standing Committee had voted in support of a new national security law, to be implemented with immediate effect. It highlighted Hong Kong and Macau’s obligations under the law, saying that the two Special Administrative Regions must fulfill their responsibilities!

While the new legislation prohibits acts such as treason, secession and subversion, as well as the theft of state secrets (of course), it also covers everything from food safety to religious activities, and from cyber security to activities in space. However, a spokesman later stressed it would not be applied to Hong Kong as it is not stated in the Basic Law annex - with its particular interpretation of local democracy.

This special day for Hong Kong was born and came out of a special moment in 2003, when opposition to the proposed Article 23 national security law grew so strong that the Civil Human Rights Front was formed to platform opposition views.

The 2003 march was a major event that continues to provide a reference point for the Hong Kong protest movements, whatever your ‘bag’, bring it along. Yet the Civil Human Rights Front has continued to organise the march, while themes vary by the year, they always pivot around human rights and calls for greater democracy. As said before, the event is largely peaceful.

Meanwhile, around the world this very same democracy term is being abused by those wanting to stay in power and by those wanting to undermine the powers-that-be, for hidden ends that have nothing at all to do with democratic participation in the general system and process of government, of managing a people and its economy and the ways and means of doing so.

On the other side, Beijing sees democracy in its wide-ranging selection of people from all strata of Hong Kong society to make up its Chief Executive (CE) nomination committee, for example; while democrats of most persuasions in Hong Kong seem to have a single goal in sight – one-man-one-vote for electing into office the CE.

All of these groups would do well to question why they are wanting to follow in the steps of the old colonialists by having such an ‘el supreme’ at the top of the heap!

Is a ‘leader’ needed; or a co-ordinator and liaison between Hong Kong, the SAR executive officers and thereby the central government in far away Beijing. The CE could be simply a spokesperson, both up and down, at the beck and call of Hong Kongens.

It has been well attested that the way government is run in Hong Kong is like a corporate business body that has an agenda and will implement that agenda despite opposition from any vocal segment of the people no matter how vocal. This is seen in all major decisions from an additional airport runway, the bridge linking Hong Kong to Macau and Zhuhai, to mass-burning waste incinerators, to non-recycling programmes where the public consultations turn out to be simple ‘what you need to know’ lectures at one-sided government run forums.

In mainland China itself there are social and green movements that have successfully changed things that example more democracy than can be found in Hong Kong, especially with so much wasted hot air between the different protagonists in Hong Kong.

If Hong Kong is to be saved from itself it should get on with the job of sorting everything out and that means involvement in all the institutions, from unions to neighbourhood groups, so they have as many voices – and feet – involved at all the levels and most importantly at the root level where each individual counts. This will be fulfilling Hong Kong’s responsibilities. It will be participatory democracy. Sadly, that’s not the case...

Would, or really, will, an all-encompassing Communist Party with its model of ‘new democracy’ do a better job when it completes its take over in 2047, only thirty-two year’s time? Can the people of Hong Kong afford to wait that long?

Obviously they think not. In September, 2015, the first anniversary of the Umbrella Movement protests, which began on Sept. 28, 2014, and lasted for 79 days, was really ‘not celebrated’ in Hong Kong; which was a general feeling pervaded the mostly younger activists, though over a thousand of them gathered to mull over the issue.

Of these it was admitted almost 200 were against the Occupy phenomenon with some declaring it initiated problems in the economy as Beijing withdrew favours and cancelled business events to indicate displeasure.

Others have suggested that, by raising tensions in Hong Kong’s relationship with Beijing, the Umbrella Movement likely made it a tougher task to achieve greater western-style democracy in Hong Kong.

It was a long shot indeed to presume anything happening on the street in Hong Kong would alter Beijing’s plans for the ex-British colony. In Beijing’s view, what is current is democratic in the sense taken by the Communist Party, with the wide strata of representation at the various levels when voting takes place. Universal suffrage in the full western sense was never intended.

Occupy could be seen as a failure because Hong Kong did not get what the protesters originally asked for: universal suffrage. However, it takes another more subtle measure and gauge to give due credit to the Umbrella Movement’s success in raising civil awareness among the citizens.

One activist commented: “We lost the moment, but we’ll win the future.”

Joshua Wong who internationally became for many the face of the Umbrella Movement shared on his Facebook page: “After one year, it is not good for us just to celebrate our “good times” during Occupy, it is the time for us to say goodbye to the feelings of ‘helplessness’ as well as any Chinese cynicism. We should acknowledge that we did not achieve what we asked for, we do not have our popular vote in 2017, but we will not give up, we will think about our future road, to commit further to Hong Kong democratic movements, move on and always stay on the front line.

“We hope one year after, in 2016, we are not going to bring yellow umbrellas back to Admiralty, but we can tell other people, like those standing behind the front line or who keep silence, how we will take action in the following twelve months to change the local political cycle and to expand civil awareness.”

Will the students take any heed at all of the Beijing government’s stance. Or, of Mao Tse-tung - who proved his worth in the art of government and by his arbitration between the founding ideas of Marx-Leninism and their implementation on Chinese soil (for full details see my Humanize Hong Kong - http://www.humanist.org.hk/hhk.html).

Yet, China has the spirit of democracy - this is why Mao spoke of the New Democracy. Ancient Chinese democracy was formed around village self-government with laissez-faire controls from the Central Government. It foundered on mis-education, a class based society, corruption and by the imposition of centralised taxation and control - in effect, by mismanagement.

Things are a great deal further forward today. Also, the possibilities of mass communications are available, if still managed by monopolies for profit and control - in a word - power. But many external things have changed for the good, the problem lies with the attitudes, the behaviour, the internal ‘thing’.

The promise of humanism comes in here, precisely, in the Humanization of Man. Humanize Man and the entirety of associated trappings are humanized. It is the next step to take the New Democracy to pure Communism and the only way the latter will work.

Communism, which places the value of the community - en masse - as the first priority, and labels it The State, has to be modified so the human being is given central value.

In practice this means a co-operative system of economy and of politics. It also means that the human being is recognised whatever the race, creed or colour.

The New Democracy sees a One Earth system, just like the old Chinese Universe but the educated Chinese see beyond their

nationalistic tendencies and include the whole of mankind in this One Earth.

It has always been said that Communism has to be a universal system to work, and that holds true. This may not necessarily mean 'the universe' ie., the whole planet, it can be 'their universe', their part of the planet, but that would mean a permanent situation of tension between the different worlds, just as we have today, more ideally without the ragged edges but there is an answer that overcomes those limitations.

People outside of the Communist brotherhood thought this meant an exclusivity, as did many fellow travellers who never gave active consideration to Communism and how it would work. The answer lay in the notion of a world society envisaged with a common denominator: Man - but Man as human being.

Man, defined in humanism as a socio-historical phenomenon, simply, a product of his or her social and historical conditions,

determines the rate of change depending in great degree on the intention.

Then Man becomes sufficiently independent of nature and stands apart and cannot be linked with that unthinking violence seen in the affairs of the jungle, or the desert, where survival is paramount and Madam Fate plays a major role. That was the Dark Ages, with settlement, leading to the Feudal Ages.

The methodology of humanism is active non-violence which works to displace from power every form of violence; whether physical, economical, racial, ideological, religious or cultural.

In the machine-like mentality of an industrial-material society Man is 'naturally' violent but the humanist doctrine opposes this, saying that with the intention of non-violence then Man is not violent.

The inhumane systems of all countries, whether Capitalist or Communist, and everything in between, are the direct cause of

people's stress. The pressures and forms of violence openly or discreetly practiced resulting in people's general violence. It

is the violence of the systems that is the problem - the root of the problem - the reaction of people is symptomatic only and

points at that root.

Give anyone the possibility of contentment and a proper education with future and there is no violence! That’s democracy East or West.

The New Democracy was not intended as the final solution, but to lead to peaceful co-existence among all people. To achieve this there has to be a new mentality and only today is the means available; the technology, the communications, the sufficient

number of educated, the surpluses, the awareness and the rising power of the young in spirit - that is usually coincident with the young of age.

In ancient China, in Confucianism, there was the idea of Rule in Virtue, where mankind was taken to be originally pure and

non-violent - exemplified by philosopher Wang Yangming - and where the problem was seen to be the environment and the system as agents that sullied. In Buddhism also, the Buddha Mind is originally pure, like a mirror. The effort involved in self-realisation is - once the mirror is cleaned - to keep the mirror free of dust. Bear in mind that the Gautama the Buddha is Man not god.

The Chinese Communist propaganda machine, that made the entire Communist experiment work, now has to be placed at the service of humanizing. Whereas it has been used for the external work of good personal hygiene, birth control and the like in its everyday applications, it also deals with qualification of the entire population of China in regard to the doctrine of Communism, the works of Marx-Leninism, the works and thought of Mao Tse-tung and on, via Deng to Xi Jin-ping. Also, very importantly, to inspire Communists with the fire and brimstone of Communist idealism. Well, a reorientation has to be given.

Of utmost importance is it that the individual trace his or her

'internal bomb' of violence to its roots, to at least gain acquaintance with its origins. By this it can be seen that the

'given situation', that into which each of us was born, was often enough a raw deal from the start. To clear the patch, to see the conditioning and then see the machine of the system in action, that's the personal work.

The system - which never accepts responsibility and has a built-in mechanism of reversibility where blame is set squarely

on the shoulders of its enclosed parts - is unaccountable. In humanism it has to be made accountable. In so doing, this will

destabilise its accomplices.

These accomplices are the very bureaucrats that foul up the works for self-gain, as already stated. The modern compradore - the sudden and so-called 'Liberal Party' people in Hong Kong and their willing allies. These latter are the type of people who say, "I only work here, I don't make the rules." What they say is true enough, but do they have to work there? If, because of the false economics of the system, the answer seems to be yes, then the revolution starts by providing everyone with alternative non-destructive forms of employment.

Not that it is just those business liberals at the top of the heap that are here fingered, their opportunist minions on whatever level of the social or business scale are similarly guilty. The bureaucrat in any government office who slumps into his or her perpetually filled iron rice bowl. The petty wheeler-dealer in the shop who has your money and plays around instead of just delivering the goods. All of that is within the type.

But this is not just an appeal to the individual but a guide to the humanizing of Communism. For this to work the entire

propaganda machine of the Chinese Communist Party has to gear up to act in a different direction. Because, the problem is, just as the problem always has been, one of attitude. It is the how that is wrong, not the what.

Democracy is an aim in both the East and the West, it is just a question of how it is seen, in the former the term is laboured beyond its aspirations while in the latter it is the road seldom mentioned, the via positiva vs the via negitiva, very like the way of spiritual insight that demarcates West and East.

Which ever the route, in a democracy active non-violence is inherent and when active non-violence is used as the means to achieve an end it shows democracy in action.

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Hi Pals,

This Sunday - 2i June 2o015 - is the Seasonal Meeting of the Humanist Movement and will be held at Fieldwork, 8 Ha Chung Long, Mui Wo, Lantau starting 3pm. Friends and any one interested is welcome.

Topics to be covered, informally, are: 

The Humanist Association and what it is about; 

short note on the other organisations related to the Humanist Movement; 

Silo’s Message - of active  non-violence as the methodology to bring lasting solution to conflicts, an experience; 

Personal Work, a self-study opportunity based on the writing Self Liberation; 

the idea behind Parks of Study and Reflection that are now widespread on all the continents;

Pressenza - an international press agency run by volunteers.

Each introduction will be very brief, enough to stimulate questions.

The discussions will end at 5pm and those wanting to join together in a BBQ from that time could help by bringing something for the table, basics will be provided - ie, salt and pepper.

Surely refreshments will be served, Chinese tea during the informal formalities and whatever arrives later.

Peace, Force and Joy

Tony

90487639

See: http://tonyhen-humanisthongkong.blogspot.hk/

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The Legislative Council’s Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene released its paper on Sustainable Agricultural Development asking for comments prior to the next meeting June 9, 2015. Here is the comments from the Humanist Association of Hong Kong regarding farming.

Bring back poultry and animal farming - dump the law which forbids anyone keeping a pig or more than twelve hens in Water Control Zones - which law has caused great anguish to farmers. SARS has long gone so it is time to allow markets to sell locally produced hens and the like as in any ordinary place. Animal waste is a useful byproduct and nulls the use of synthetic fertilisers, reducing imports and maintaining bio-diversity. 

Agricultural land and our valuable marine areas should not be converted into building sites. Land conversion for reasons of cash profits for powerful groups and individuals to stop. Nor should government officers and private developers use environmentalism as reasons for holding up important projects that are needed by people such as hospitals, special homes for the needy, public housing, schools etc. 

Farming and fishing carried out in a manner that guarantees the future of those industries. Young people need to be attracted into those areas and with the application of appropriate, affordable and interesting technology this can be done. There IS a minority who would rather farm if it were to afford them a living, which it does not, not without a farm policy. In this age the farmer or fisherman should not have to be a peasant. 

Give the Districts real decision power and involvement - this is particularly important for farming-gardening. In this way meaningful financial autonomy for the Districts can grow to responsibly address their management duties - not just library management level tasks and tennis courts. 

We do not agree with charging people for their waste produced. Government is responsible to lay down a system of dealing with waste where it can generate value. People cannot afford yet another form of taxation. Government should deal with the problem, lay down the supporting structure and people will co-operate.

It is better not to waste waste in landfills. Introduction of neighbourhood re-cycling systems with householder's participation - separating metals, glass, plastic and organic wastes of course but not to forget shrub and tree cuttings etc from parks composted for return to parklands; branches can be chipped for faster decomposition - recycle materials locally by introducing re-cycling neighbourhood systems for local disposal, not incineration or landfills.

Restructuring of Ag. & Fish. Dept. disengaging its present responsibilities over both conservation and exploitation - the Environmental Protection Dept. (EPD) should look after conservation. Change the Planning, Environment and Lands Branch to give Environment its independency and equal ranking. 

It is proper that the Ag. & Fish. Dept. handles mariculture, farming and fishing, but not conservation as this brings conflict of interest. Financial assistance to help pig and chicken farmers manage waste effectively to within the stipulations of the Water Control Zone requirements. Long term aim to re-introduce larger scale pig and poultry farming when livestock waste control methods are adequate. Development of Mr Ko Yu-lam's dung fermentation plant for general use - much cheaper than the Ag. & Fish. equivalent proposal. 

Make it an offense to import vegetables containing toxic amounts of pesticide. Better controls over large scale fish farming syndicates which over-feed stock for fast growth and pollute waters to the detriment of the environment and the entire mariculture industry. The ban on commercial trawlers is already making a difference but we need to ban using too fine or large area nets in-shore. Research into over-fishing locally. 

Fire breaks around hill cemeteries and barbecue sites - temporary country park wardens hired for fire-watching during Ching Ming and Chung Yang festivals. No developments in country park areas. Ban on any more golf courses. More areas to be declared Sites of Scientific Interest to protect local endangered species. Sites of Scientific Interest and conservation sites generally to have adequate buffer zones with controlled use of substances, eg., ban use of concentrated chemicals, and limitations on excavation and building, in their bio-region. Green the urban areas and clean the rural areas. 

http://www.legco.gov.hk/general/english/sec/invite_s/fseh20150518.htm

http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr14-15/english/panels/fseh/papers/fseh20150113cb2-528-1-e.pdf

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Humanist Association of Hong Kong 

Newsletter of the Humanist Association of Hong Kong 

- Hong Kong, SAR, China - Number 45 - June 2014

Contents

Editorial - page 1

Tiananmen – Total Recall or Total Revamp! - page 2

Japan 1941  - countdown to infamy - page 5

The Man Who Stayed Behind - page 7

Contact details - page 9

Editorial

Dear friends,

The Humanist Association of Hong Kong has not seen much activity locally of late as myself, as central to the organisation, have taken my efforts external to Hong Kong though very much in tune with our Association’s aims - grandly, Humanise the Earth, Humanise Asia, and of course to Humanise Hong Kong. It’s in the latter that the activities are lacking. 

These days I spend most time writing for Pressenza, as a volunteer reporter/editor, as our Humanist Movement friends started this news agency a while ago and it operates on a volunteer basis, focussing on non-violence as the only way to get long lasting solutions and incorporating non-discrimination in all affairs.

Then, I am a member of the international team of the Humanist party International, making some effort at keeping everything the different humanist parties are doing worldwide in sync, not organising just co-ordinating what is already going on.

In this regard the international team is being reconstituted so the full members of the Humanist Party reading this newsletter are welcome to put themselves forward to represent their region, go to: http://www.internationalhumanistparty.org/ log in and look for Become a Candidate... and just follow through. 

In Hong Kong I attend meetings of other groups where it seems interesting, representing our Universalist Humanism.

I rarely hold formal meetings as such these days and have not renewed attempts to reconstitute the executive committee for two years as not enough people put themselves forward for those roles previously - thus I remained as chairman.

I continue some relations with Bangladesh as I was part of a project there and I am pleased to say our presence in that country is now solid and there is no need for me to travel in and out, others, mostly from Europe, make visits and already there is a Park of Study and Reflection in Bangladesh. Excellent.

There has not been any such thing as a membership drive for many a year for our local Association and I see that as a sign of the times. People don’t readily join organisations any more, whether political, religious or what. In fact, for years now society is increasingly fragmented and human solidarity is lacking - witness the workers unions.

Contrarily, such as the Occupy Movement is generating interest where conditions press people to act and the examples the activities throw up show a new form of amalgamating and dissolving with a cloud-like phenomenon. Friends will act together when there is reason and strangers will join causes when circumstances build emotive force.

Our organisation’s main interests remain - no to nukes... including a no to nuclear power generation as it’s intimately tied to nuclear weapons making; getting all occupying troops to leave those occupied countries; bringing unity to Asian nations and an instance of this is in efforts to bring North Korea into the international fold; opening up channels of more conducive communication between China, the Koreas, Japan, but also with Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and so on. It is in this regard that I review Japan 1941 in this issue, see below.

Informal meetings of our HA are often held ad lib with friends and newcomers but no formal meetings are on the horizon.

The main thing is to bring this humanist message of peace and non-violence into Asia, and of course being in Hong Kong, into the Chinese psyche and to help occasion a point of view not limited by national concerns, rather, with an Asian perspective. Also, as a Hong Kong resident, to dig back into Chinese values as spoken by the likes of Master Kong and my particular favourite Wang Yang Ming.

If anyone would like to join the Humanist Association of Hong Kong they had better do so now - it’s HK$160 annual fee collected in January - monies collected next year 2015. If anyone has sights set on managing things and would like to be on the executive committee, fine. 

As for me, I wish to relinquish my role in the Humanist Association of Hong Kong and move over to other activities related to the Humanist Movement. Thus I here make a ‘last stand’ to let others know that unless there is a sudden rush of new blood into this Association then it will gently sink into its own past. No harm done.

Peace, Force and Joy

Tony

Tiananmen – Total Recall or Total Revamp!

June 4th in Hong Kong was commemorated with the usual gusto by Hong Kongers, mostly the youth, with a strong core of oldies that were around in 1989 when the Tiananmen incident took place. All the regulars that emerge on every Sunday for disputes with government over one thing or another were there of course.

Organisers place the figures at 180,000 and that must be the more accurate figure as those playing down the attendance at such demonstrations have various means of chipping away at the actual by having their own criteria – in this instance those outside the ground not counted by (defensively) pro-Beijing organisations, for instance.

While the main thrust was and still is a highly charged accusation against the Chinese Communist Party’s use of the military (the People’s Liberation Army) against students and workers on the days of the incident, given that the CCP is a People’s Party and the military an armed force of and for the people, the matter is a hot issue.

What is required by the general body of protesters is a reassessment of the event as quite different from an anti-state action, rather, the demonstrations in Beijing need to be seen and formally accepted as a legitimate expression for valid reasons (mainly anti-corruption) by the public. However, the government of today’s China find that too much of a climb down and refuses to do so. In time this change of tack will very likely come about, but not in the very near future.

While Tiananmen is a big thing and it was a game changer for China both domestically and internationally, this has come about because of the media coverage at the time and the emphasis given by western-interest media groups getting over-excited at the immediacy of the coverage from the balconies of the Beijing Hotel looking down Chang’an Avenue towards Tiananmen Square a few hundred meters away in a place so media-hot as China.

As Mike Chinoy wrote about that moment as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief in 1989: “I could see armored vehicles of the People’s Liberation Army moving just in front of the famous portrait of Chairman Mao hanging above the vast square. Below me crowds gathered, surged forward, and then broke and dispersed as soldiers opened fire at them. Several people were hit. I watched as others loaded the dead and wounded onto flatbed bicycle carts.” We have all seen images of that time.

Chinoy commented that the weeks of student-led protests had become the largest movement for political reform in the history of the People’s Republic. The military crackdown he covered had far-reaching consequences, not only for China’s development but also for its relations with the rest of the world.

“The protests generated unparalleled international coverage, and became a defining moment in the Information Age. It was the first time a popular uprising in an authoritarian state was broadcast live across the globe, he added. ***

Thus the brave soul who stopped the line of tanks is broadcast as a hero of the revolutionary moment, which he indeed was, but not a jot of thanks was given to the tank driver and crew, and their instructions from above, which had the killing machine twisting and turning in order not to hurt the magnificent loner with his shopping bag.

Tianamen became a very tender sore spot for China and the West lost no opportunity to give it another jab, all those human rights groups falling over themselves to document and highlight the infringements, and the wide range of figures for the actual deaths.

China gives top priority to stability. In 1989 there was great danger of wholesale instability and if there was the mobile phone then and social media as per today no one knows what might have happened. Even then news slowly got out to the provinces and trainloads and buses of youths began converging on the capital – too late.

The USA in particular has a horror of the Communist ideology and socialism too is a bad word and of course Europe just follows on in the wake of that big power. As is well known, real Communism never arrived, just the same as Real Democracy is not applied, thus in the years after 1949 the system in China solidified to a hardline bureaucracy where human rights were far down the list of priorities.

However, looking at the realities on the ground, China has surged ahead and is a vital component in the economics of this modern world that is so heavily influenced by the superficialities of western culture – it’s not like the East is taking the best from the West! There are ‘things western’ or USA-American, that not only do not fit in the ‘East’ (also South), but are detrimental to cultures that rely on group solidarity, on a certain uniformity, an acceptance of norms that are collective as against individualistic.

Despite being a rather worn term, imperialism continues to run its course that was once so blatant and obvious with the British Empire not hiding its intent in the least. Well, those days are over but the ‘running dogs’ of its schema around the world still inflict their dominating ways on people and should make a repenting pledge that they will immediately stop all their ‘divide and conquer’ efforts in Asia, for instance between China and Japan, supported by their agents in the Philippines and Vietnam, and, in and around the old Soviet Union, among the pro- and con- West factions in Russia’s effort to reunify the Soviet Union.

As political commentator Lau Nai-keung has said, in the early days of Hong Kong’s commemorative Tiananmen event Szeto Wah, Martin Lee and their pals monopolized the authority to define who is and who isn’t a democrat. But can’t a person who approves of the progress being made on the mainland still be a democrat?

Local resident and ex-Legco member Elsie Tu – who turned 101 June 2 – lost her Legco seat simply because she was castigated as pro-Beijing by Szeto Wah whose campaign targeted Tu’s perceived “pro-Chinese” stance. Elsie was one of the very few British who fought against the injustices of the British colonial government towards the Hong Kong people, and she fought the hardest. There is a body of local Hong Konger’s that seem to have lost sight of their essential Chinese features that are set in deep cultural values.

As a Chinese-American friend Joe Ching puts it: “China should revive the Asian tradition of cultural unification, which was instrumental in absorbing Mongolians and Manchurians into the large Chinese family and made China the most ethnically harmonious country in the world.

“If Mao Ze-dong can be credited with cleansing out the Western barbarian elements from China and knocking down America’s nuke fence with a ping pong ball, Deng Xiao-ping should be remembered for having kept China in one piece at Tiananmen Square. Now it’s time for Xi Jing-ping to unite Asia against the century-old America [European] imperialism in the Asia Pacific.”

An accompanying consideration must be given to China’s distinct regions where there are problems of autonomy and the lack of it, that points at the problem of standardisation as the latter is wanted by central governments for reasons of control – but how to allow for differences? Force might be necessary but violence never.

That’s the crux of the matter when it comes to Tiananmen!

***

However, this article linked below casts doubts on Mike Chinoy’s veracity in that moment: 

http://nsnbc.me/2013/04/29/lets-talk-about-tiananmen-square-1989-my-hearsay-is-better-than-your-hearsay/

#####

Japan 1941  - countdown to infamy 

By Eri Hotta

Published by: Alfred A. Knoff, 2013

What amazed me on reading this book was the lack of co-ordination among all those involved in making the final call for Japan to go to war. Not only did I learn of the inadequacies of Japan’s top echelon - at least as a collective -  in its communications, its prioritisation of decision making, in divisions among the miliary branches regarding how much of the budget and which department got it, but all that brought to mind an immediate and current more dire matter - the frailty of governments when it comes to handling the nuclear problem in light of the monied power of the nuclear industry - besides any call to war. This latter feeling of concern is existentially about today... What a mess then in Japan and it went to war; so, how is it today, anywhere and everywhere?

Other than two strong voices in those times, no one else in Japan really wanted to go to war with the United States of America. The people, the public, were neither consulted nor informed and that also is a marker for today despite a more widespread democratic form and with a freer press. Sadly, not so free everywhere!

Those Japanese that had been in closest contact with the West, as travellers, as ambassadors to Washington, to Paris and the like, they were the most apprehensive as they understood the might of the USA and it’s European allies and Britain of course and that ‘enemy’ for them had not been dehumanised.

Even the emperor, who was and is not in command of either government nor military, did not want to go to war but could only pen a poem that could be taken and interpreted depending on which side you were on, or better, which side a person felt he had to go-along with for reasons of self-pride public face, and, to maintain the position of a particular faction. Interesting that no women played any significant role in the pre-Pearl Harbor years.

Recalling my initial interest in this book, referred by friends as to do with the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere, was my question concerned the sincerity of the Japanese intention behind that concept or push. Was it pure expansionism?

All the nations in the sphere - Burma (now Myanmar), British Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore), the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia, French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos), and the Philippines, had been part of western colonial empires (page 12 of the book) - though Philippines was no longer a colony at the time of the Japanese invasion. Thus the occupying Japanese could legitimately say they were liberating their Asian brothers and sisters from the white peoples. But, this was seen by the Japanese more in the vein of, “reorganising their societies into viable cultural, economic and political bloc under Japan’s leadership”. Economic imperialism. Change of owners!

As an aside note, the list would also take in Australia, Samoa, Hawaii and Guam, all in the sphere of East Asian nations.

The USA was freezing Japan’s assets and using sanctions and navy control of sea lanes to determine inputs into Japan and with its urgent industrialisation Japan needed lots of raw materials and following the countries military successes against China and against Russia, was in a plucky mood. All the above led to the adventures across Asia and the planning and intention underlying those adventures had reasonableness given the plight of an island nation without resources. Japan was being squeezed. There were reasons for that but, what does a cornered creature do?

The Japanese media used the term ABCD - standing for American, British, Chinese and Dutch - in domestic propaganda to mellow the population’s point of view on the necessity for military action and the media in Japan was in no way free at that time, totally controlled by government and industry finance.

Whatever good intentions certain Japanese might have had - and it is worthy and delightful to read such as Kakuzo Okakura’s The Awakening of Japan (1904) , or his The Ideals of the East to determine what those intentions were or might have been - it was he who declared that there is no Yellow Peril, that the empire (Japan’s) though warlike, stands not for aggression but for peace!

He was worried about Japan’s modern successes and would that lead to the loss of its ancient and distinctive arts - the essential interest that lay at the centre of his writings was all to do with the Japanese spirit! To reiterate, was it pure expediency and expansionism that fired Japan at that moment or was their an underlying care for Asia?

This is important because in Asia today Japan and China are facing off and as is plain to see the benefactor of that is the threatened industries of the Western-based corporate conglomerates that are increasingly trans-national. Money does not have an ethical base, human societies have or need to have.

It’s not that Asia has better values than do the European countries, to speak of the usual juxtaposition. This little writing is approaching a wider arc where East and West do meet. However, an underlying question is about the sameness of Asian values, Asian cultures, and do they more easily latch together, at least more easily than with ‘western’ cultures?

Surely the answer is yes, they do. The reasons for China and Japan to be at odds today is that typical to family feuds, neighbour feuds, because of proximity and the immediacy of their contact. It is easy to ‘love’ someone who is far away from one’s reality, thus brothers fight.

The over-arching influence of western cultures on Eastern cultures is causing those of Asia who care enough about the phenomenon to activate against those influences and rightly so when they destroy the fabric of daily life, family life. But it has to be understood by Asia that the West has sacrificed it’s own essential values to make it on the world scale as seen in the excesses - to put it mildly - of the British in India. A mix of the good and the bad - see the movie Passage to India, or read  E. M. Forster s book...

Looking through all of this and as a conclusion to this instigating effort to remind us all of the importance of regaining the ground of real values in a world that is rapidly losing valid references I appeal to a quote from Lilly Adams Beck: 

“The values of East and West do not clash. They are supplementary and interchangeable; and it will be well for the world when this is fully realised, and there is free circulation of thought. The faith of a nation is its soul. Her literature is her intellect. Nations who do not meet on these grounds cannot understand one another, and understanding is the most vital need of the present day”, from The Story of Oriental Philosophy (1928). 

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The Man Who Stayed Behind

By Sidney Rittenberg and Amanda Bennett

Simon & Schuster, published 1993

Reviewed by Tony Henderson

What a story. He really was a believer – in the Communist ideals… and why not. Thrown in jail in China for long spells, not just once but twice, he stuck to his beliefs and did not let the side down. Not many of us would be able to go to such lengths. How could ‘The Party’ – the Chinese Communist Party – stray so far from its initial purity evident in reports from 1949 and thereabouts, in its beginnings? The core were so strong, why did they falter?

The value of the book lies in its detailed experiences of living under Chinese communism as Rittenberg acknowledges its achievements but personally went through its terror. He disapproves of the radicalism of Mao but the only other alternative turned out to be Deng’s corruption – of Communism. He cast doubt on communist ideals in the end but in spite of the material comforts he enjoys now he could not find real solace and peace of mind in the coziness of American capitalism.

And, in spite of the grudges expressed in the book, highly deserved in their holding, that Mao treated him unfairly we can say Rittenberg is largely non-judgmental and that makes the book all the more credible and admirable.

He seems to have found his journey worthwhile judging from his evocations of the little girl in Guizhou (or Yunnan) at the beginning and end of the writing. He only regretted that his personal salvation was not proportionate to that he had hoped for knowing that he had helped the people of China from his very heart despite that he was intentionally influencing things in his way trying his best to bring everyone back into line. Not even Chinese, he was part of the revolution and in those days there was an international dimension -“Workers of the World Unite”.

To intersperse a personal note, such was the impression of this highly readable book that I began to reflect on the Humanist Movement I am part of and, will its special form of no-form enable us to keep the integrity in the face of System onslaught? I was not concerned about the future of our first-born political-social organisation, the Humanist Party, because Silo (founder of our Universalistic Humanism) himself said at its launch worldwide in 1984 that ordinarily it takes about seven years before any organisation brought into the public sphere would likely be corrupted. Meaning, it would be undemocratic for us to hang on to power and guide everything so letting it free for anyone to be elected into positions all kinds of oddities were likely. The bane of democracy, even real democracy! The Movement is a different kettle of fish though and has a very different interior so I am not actually concerned but still, just reading about how far the communist party went off the rails was disturbing, sacrificing its very own… for the ‘Greater Good’.

With the Humanist Movement we have no such tenet, for us there is no departure from ‘good for one good for all’ and the other way around equally. No, no sacrificing of the individual for some assumed higher cause. Our principles of valid action speak immediately against that! “Things are well when they move together, not in isolation.”

Socialism brings that, or should bring that, principle into play. Capitalism quite the opposite. It has no intention explicit beyond that of profits to the successful, but it can be modified, of course. There is this ‘enlightened capitalism’ concept with all kinds of checks and balances. That could work. Then, there would be no difference between the two.

Democracy is similar, given all the essentials… free and fair elections to posts, free exchange of information and free press, a working judicial system, equal access to funds for propagating platforms and manifestos, given all that democracy is very good, probably the best way to organise a state’s management or a company’s operations - if not the only way, ask the Chinese! But, no takers because with those guaranteed supporting pillars no way can the greedy hang on to power and suck up the wealth, national or corporate.

Trouble is, we are starting out in a state of gross inequality and there is no bridge between the haves and not haves and when bridges begin to be built they are broken down by forces under sway of the money.

Example, if you have no regular job that’s one side with one point of view; if you serve in one of disciplined services, get regular pay, meals, accommodation, schooling for the kids, health benefits, well of course you will go out to the streets and bash a few heads at the beck and call of politicians or authorities.

When Rittenberg came home to Beijing from prison he was saddened at the sights. “Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army used to be models of courtesy and discipline in the cities; they were the favourite sons of the people. Now, rude young lads in uniform pushed their way through the long bus lines to squeeze onto the bus, and the civilians who were shoved aside eyed them angrily.”

New buildings were shoddy even at the outset but the biggest difference was the relations between people. There was a new definition of the word ‘friends’. A friend was someone who could get you something, who would put a few pairs of shoes under the counter and hold them until you arrive with few choice cuts of meat. The ‘back door’ was another term he heard redefined for the first time. Using the back door – special personal connections – was the only way to get things done.

Rittenberg found that corruption had seeped into the very marrow of the party structure. He found that the party he had known was dead and gone. It had been destroyed by its creator, Mao Zedong, in the Cultural Revolution.

He saw that the major problems were in Communist doctrine itself, not simply in the way it was carried out… “It wasn’t the fault of Stalin, it was Lenin who had been at fault. And for all his brilliance, Marx’s social and economic theories were limited like everyone else’s and contained major errors. I realised I had vastly overestimated the degree of truth that any preset social ideology can hold, and the capacity of human planning to determine the development of society, whether economic, political or intellectual.”

Rittenberg admits that he had been completely wrong to accept the policy decisions and interpretations of a small group of leaders as if they somehow held a monopoly over the truth.

“At the core of all my political errors was accepting what Lenin held was the central point in Marxist politics: the necessity of having a tight “people’s dictatorship” to prepare the ground for attaining a future perfect democracy.”

He also seen, at last, that he had acquired a stake in the system and the life he had lived in China, “a life of perks, privilege, and deluded complicity”.

Deng’s shut down of the Democracy Wall and the arrest of some of the main poster-writers also came as a shock to Rittenberg as was the proclamation by Deng on January 16, 1980, that no newspaper would be allowed to print anything that did not conform to Party policy.

He did recognise Deng’s greatness in reforming the Chinese economy, riding over the system of bureaucratic overcentralisation and international isolation. But the corruption was too evident. As for Mao Zedong, Rittenberg came to see him as “a brilliant, talented tyrant, responsible for the misery and deaths of millions, or possibly tens of millions.”

Interestingly he said: “If he (Mao ) had died before coming to power, he would probably still be remembered as prophet and as something close to a saint.

Despite admiring Mao on many fronts Rittenberg seen Mao’s fatal flaws lay in his beliefs that terror exercised against those who opposed him was the only way to educate and govern the Chinese people; in believing that ‘every idea without exception bears the brand of a definite class’. He was wrong in his economic ideas – tightly controlled, centrally planned state economy secured by forced unanimity of opinion.

However in Mao’s term in China fact is the country was unified and freed of internal warfare for the first time in one hundred years. Lifespans were doubled. The sick children were gone from the cities and rice bowls filled. A rudimentary justice system was born – though by now only honoured in the breach as he says. Deng led the Chinese people to the highest standard of living in their history.

Rittenberg notes that despite all the noise about human rights and the ill treatment of dissidents the Chinese in real terms now have about the greatest degree of individual freedom in the land’s history.

He calls June 4, 1989, a massacre – with the PLA used by the party to shoot the people – but despite that he believes that the Chinese will “gradually evolve a form of political democracy that, while learning much from the West, will also draw on the best of Chinese civilisation and will learn to avoid some of the mistakes that mar our own democratic system.”

In the final pages of his book Rittenberg states his present belief – that an important part may be action of a smaller sort, as people of good will are stirred – not to overthrow an established order – but to change quietly the small part of the world over which they have influence.” In that there is coincidence with our Universalistic Humanism.

Happily, Rittenberg was reinstated in China in the early eighties and has been considered a good friend of China since. His name has been written into the history of modern China in very positive terms. The Chinese friend Lionel who suggested I read the book and whose comments have been assimilated by me here, tells that it has not been translated into Chinese, possibly because of the words Rittenberg pronounced against Mao.

Tony's webpage

http://www.humanist.org.hk/

Asia Editor

Pressenza - International Press Agency

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Contact editor of this newsletter:

Tony Henderson:

tonyhen  @  humanist.org.hk

Mobile: (852) 90487639

Membership drive (early) 2014 

Join as a friend of the Humanist Association of HK which is free of any charge and free of any set tasks just agree to our commitments to non-violence and non-discrimination, plus adhere to the ideas found in our Document of the Humanist Movement (below), and join any project or meeting freely. Send your contact details.

or

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Notes

Elections to our Executive Committee - all positions open: chairman, vice-chairman, general secretary, treasurer and assorted deputies.

Possibilities: Political secretary; social justice secretary; youth secretary; environmental secretary; minorities secretary; cultural secretary and more, according to disposition and interest.

There is no queue, just get in touch if interested!

JOIN - by email to tonyhen @humanist.org.hk

What we do - HA of HK - for involvement with general political and social affairs that concern Hong Kong under the SAR of China, also Asian affairs, and where there is an international impact, world affairs. We work in affiliation with the International Federation of Humanist Parties (Humanist International) with member status. Human cultural affairs and the environment are also within our sphere of interest. 

Freedom of belief or unbelief is our stance when co-operating with others - the project is the point not the beliefs, because behaviour is the best indicator of the human rather than expressed beliefs or opinions.

"Treat others as you would be treated"

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Photo below: Full house attendance at Coffee Shop Arch, in Shanghai, that was the venue for a talk given by the Humanist Association chairman in 2004.

Photo below

Our Association has active links with Australia, Bangladesh; India, Nepal, Pakistan and Philippines. We are part of the Asia-Pacific Humanist Forum, see photo below - Mumbai launch - March 2007.

Occupy Hong Kong kick-off event - we were there! (see photo below)

 Tony Henderson elected on to the board of the International Co-ordinating Team, Humanist International -(Federation of Humanist Parties)

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ABOVE: anti nuclear demonstrations in Hong Kong June 11, 2011

Also on Pressenza...

Anti nuclear group shown the door at educational forum

PHOTO ABOVE: Tony Henderson speaking on the HA stance against nuclear weapons and nuclear power - Sunday 24 April, 2011

BELOW: 4th June 2011 Green Party Hong Kong (Chairman Albert Oung, and Mike Sit - taking photo) visited Cheung Chau with Basil Hui of the Sports Club in support of anti-incinerator campaign, Shek Kwu Chau; short-circuiting proper recycling and getting big money contracts to the usual suspects.

Dear Friends 
 Firstly, congratulations to all party members who have participated in these elections, where we progress in deepening the exercise of direct democracy. 
Congratulations from and to all friends who have been elected for the next two years in the national teams of their countries and the international team.
 As many have noted, all results are visible on our webpage. Accompanied with this message are small boxes with votes and percentage participation per country. 
 From now on each country, according to the results of the election, should go defining each national team. Similarly, in the coming days, we must make the transition and transfer of functions to the newly elected from the outgoing team. 
 Regarding the new international team, according to the votes obtained by each applicant, taking into account the approach that no more than two members of the same country may be on the international team, members of the new ECI are:

Luis Alberto Ammann (Argentina)
Abdoulaye Konate (Mali)
Tony Henderson (China)
Gilles Smedts (Belgique)
Jorge Daniel D'Alesio (Argentina)
Daniel Rocca (Uruguay)
Irma Rojas (Paraguay)
Patrick Andreu (Chile)
Bernadó Russian Teresa (Spain)
Daniel Arias Bustamante (Chile)
Mayte Quintanilla Redondo (Spain)
Nicolas Servin (Paraguay)


In the coming days we will organize the transition of functions to this new team

Greetings to all
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 Coordinating Team (ECI): 

Luis Ammann, Argentina (55%),
Abdoulaye Konate, Mali (31%),
Tony Henderson, China (30%),
Gilles De Smedt, Belgium (28%),
Jorge Daniel D'Alesio, Argentina (27%),
Daniel Rock, Uruguay (24%),
Irma Rojas, Paraguay (21%);
Patricho Andrew, Chile (20%),
Teresa Bernadó Russian, Spain (19%)
Daniel Arias Bustamante , Chile (19%),
Maite Quintanilla Redondo, Spain (17%),
Alexis Roger Barros, Chile (13%),
Gloria Lopez Lopez, Spain (13%);
Christopher Mery, Chile (10%),
Jose Luis Alvarez Cedeño , Spain (10%),
Nicholas Servin, Paraguay (9%),
Rafael Antonio Ramirez Monsalve, Ecuador (6%),
Guillermo Enrique Zurita McKay, Spain (4%).

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See my personal page:

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/

See last entry: the Horse that Refused to Drink - latest writing

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Pressenza

See:

http://pressenza.com/npermalink/north-koreax-push-to-xfinal-victoryx

North Korea: push to "final victory"
Tony Henderson

On the anniversary of the nation's founder's birth, Kim Jong-un gave his first public speech since taking office. Thousands of military and civilians attended the ceremony in Pyongyang to mark the country's centenary. This was the North Korean’s new leader first major public speech and he called for a push to "final victory".

Image by: Steven Knipp
Counter girl selling imported crabs in Pyongyang

Pressenza

Pyongyang,

4/15/12

Kim Jong-un, the third Kim to rule North Korea, readout a prepared 20-minute speech in Pyongyang's central square 15 April, 2012, with the familiar marching soldiers and sailors demonstrating the North's military might.

Appearing to be holding to like policies of his forebears, the "military-first" policies were once again rolled out. These have so-far brought North Korea to the technical edge of obtaining nuclear weapons capacity. For that result, the 20-something year old Kim lauded his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il, as "founders and the builders of our revolutionary armed forces".

"Let us move forward to final victory," the 20-something leader urged the tens of thousands of military and civilians as they applauded throughout. It could be said that the contents of the speech were nothing new but the fact the young Kim spoke was a surprise and differed from the so many years of silence from Kim's father when he presided over such events. Was this some form of redress following North Korea's attempt to launch a long-range rocket which ended in failure the past Friday?

North Korea also differed from its previous practice of tight lipped silence when it publicly admitted on state television that the Unha-3 rocket had failed to deliver its weather satellite into orbit.

In February this year, the North Koreans stated the country would freeze its uranium enrichment and missile tests, and let international inspectors back in to keep track. However, at the same time another announcement came out stating that North Korea was planning a rocket launch mid-April, an action that got all of its opponents up in arms, and some up in armaments.

It’s similar to the Iran case, lack of trust - or intentional misinformation - resulting in a media frenzy of announcements that in the Korea case it was a ballistic missile test whereas North Korea insisted it was a communications satellite launch. Iran of course is legitimately entitled to nuclear power and likewise insists their nuclear power industry is to build energy producing plants and not nuclear weapons.

Gensuikyo - Japan Council against A & H Bombs - issued a statement on North Korea’s rocket launch, April 12, 2012.

Masakazu Yasui, Secretary General, said: “...this has increased grave concern among the public in Japan and other Asian countries. Because it [North Korea] has repeated missile launches and nuclear tests since 2006; and in 2009, the UN Security Council unanimously prohibited North Korea from conducting nuclear tests and ballistic missile activity.”

“As an organization opposing the use and threat to use nuclear weapons,” Masakazu Yasui continued, “and working for a total ban on nuclear weapons, we strongly urge North Korea to stop such rocket launches. In addition, North Korea should halt all planned development of nuclear weapons and missiles.”

Broaching the response of Japan, Masakazu Yasui further stated: “On the other hand, since North Korea announced the launch plan, the Japanese government has spent its time in preparing for military response to it by the deployment of SM3 and PAC3 interceptors and the Defense Minister even authorized to "shoot it down". This attitude may invite more dangerous situations. The Japanese government should make every possible effort to resolve this issue peacefully through diplomacy, based on the constitutional principle of peaceful resolution of international disputes and as the party concerned.”

This spokesman sees that there is a problem that is binding everything into one unwholesome and dangerous bag.... “there is a vicious circle of repeating nuclear and military threats since the era of the Cold War. Our organization urges all the governments concerned to break this vicious circle and make efforts to resolve this problem by joining the global current seeking for a nuclear weapon-free world.”

During his end-of-March 2012 visit to South Korea US President Obama made a challenging and daring statement - which did not make the headlines: “The day all Koreans yearn for will not come easily or without great sacrifice, but make no mistake, it will come. And when it does, when it does, change will unfold that once seemed impossible. And checkpoints will open, and watchtowers will stand empty, and families long separated will finally be reunited, and the Korean people at long last will be whole and free."

That vision provides a wider perspective on the apparent need for nuclear weapons on the Korean continent at all. Then, like Iran, Korea can have its nuclear installations for use in energy generation - just till before they are all closed down as too risky and too intimately linked to nuclear weapons production - no nuclear power stations, no nuclear weapons! That’s a “Final Victory” worth marching for.

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Appeared South China Morning Post 9 February 2012

Dear Editor,

The two juxtaposed letters today on the veto of the UN resolution on Syria by China and Russia (SCMP 7 February 2012) point out the dilemma we all face given the lack of real information on what’s going on in that war torn  country.

Look what happened in Libya - but look what happened in Yugoslavia those many years ago...

There is a grave danger in outside intervention and the western powers - namely the USA, Britain, and France as the most belligerent - taking on the role of executive body (they have the 'guns') as so far that body has acted more like an executioner than an executive.

There was a healthy non-violent movement against the Syrian government in the early stages and pockets still remain on the street and indoors, waiting for an easing of the excessive violence. This is a necessary retreat until the forces of violence relent somewhat until an opening is evident and is in no sense a weakness.

There is a civil war raging in Syria and from what can be gathered from news sources those western powers mentioned above, and the present right-wing Israeli government, are arming the groups opposing the Syrian government.

Those same governments make armaments sales and re-supplies and spare parts for same their prime income earner and have totally vested interests in that business. Also, it has long been the West’s policy to keep the Middle East in turmoil - thus their support for Israel that acts in that dog-in-a-manger role. That policy allows those western powers to control the oil supply - the other point of interest.

China and Russia do well not to condone or bring any justification for another Libya-style invasion using the local dissenting groups for goals un-allied to the betterment of Syrian society.

Peaceful negotiation among all the different groups is the only way forward, all of the groups! A commitment to achieving a realistic and long term solution through non-violent means is the only assured guideline to bring Syria into a state of peace and stability allowing the country’ diverse peoples to forge their own destiny - without outside interference.

Tony Henderson
Chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong

Newsletter of Universal Humanism
Hong Kong, China
Number 36 - January, 2012
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Page 1 -  EDITORIAL
Page 2 - The Occupy Movement
Page 4 -  How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
Page 6 - Links to recent Asia and Iran articles on Pressenza
Page 7 - Parks of Study and Reflection
Page 7 - Contact information

Editorial,
The most exciting happenings nowadays are those activities related to the Occupy movement. The mainstream media still does not get it, nor the general population, but the latter is understandably at a loss simply because of its own ‘as usual’ inertia, plus the unmitigated flood of data (which does not reach the standard of organisation to be classed as information) that implodes upon them (us) from all sides - radio, TV, newspapers, mobile devices of every kind. See the first writing below for a scant overview of Occupy.
    How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’ is a writing by George Lakey which is directly relevant to the Occupy movement in showing what can be done and how it was done in the isolation of those earlier days...
    The scariest possibility on the near horizon is the West threats to Iran. This issue is subject of another article, see below on the Pressenza links - money is seen to be at the root of all (modern) evil - in this case the US$.
Peace, Force and Joy - on All Humans Day - 29 January, 2012
Tony


Hong Kong Green Party wishes everyone a fortuitous Year of the Dragon



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World without Wars and Violence (WwW)

http://www.worldwithoutwars.org/
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The Occupy Movement
    It’s not just camping out under the HSBC building in Central Hong Kong, though that is a great manifestation and reference, declaring that indeed Hong Kong is an international city, as is London and New York, to mention two capitals with active occupancy.
    We don’t have the mass participation here in Hong Kong because the situation is not dire, indeed, brinking mainland China, Hong Kong is in good nick and nothing like the economically perilous state of the USA or the economic mess of the Eurozone. There are few obvious reasons for the people, even for the youth, to be on the streets. But there are reasons!
    The pillars of the present corporate-led Capitalist-Materialistic system are those keeping the whole thing going, those dependant upon its continuation and success. The fully employed, the ‘owners’ of all those subsidiary firms under the Big 50 (or so) major firms which control everything and those firms largely from the USA, with a major exception of Barclays Bank, UK.
    Of course it’s the disenfranchised, the marginalised, that are the dissidents of that system because they are the casualties. The young people who are camped out are from the student body and are in touch with the international Occupy movement, not just over the Internet, but by way of having that like ‘disposition of the times’. Similar to starlings in migration where all move as one as if some higher connection was linking their flight.
    This is why the more obvious manifestations are in the street arts and music because as a more intuitive function of mind, those human features are ‘in the van’, heralding and foretelling events, as is indie-cinema, documentaries of all kinds and live interviews with ‘oddballs’.
    The employed are all feeling the pain in their situations of overwork. Yes they get the money but see how much they have to spend to maintain that style and why not throw it away on silly things when there is no ‘time’ - a relative term - to spend intelligently, wisely. Like money, life’s just a throwaway thing,
    People sacrifice themselves to the System, that’s why ‘we’ give it a capital s - it’s not just a system, a useful organisation or network, no, it’s The System. The end and the means. Being part of the System generates an internal fear because, from the inside there is nothing else, it’s a curtailed view, it’s a hypnosis, it’s a crystalisation of the mind, you get stuck there and there is no possibility of any thought of freedom - in a life without the System. Freedom seems something like swimming in an ocean with miles of deep blue sea underneath one’s paltry body that floats above those immense depths... where giant fish lurk!
    Even the few in the System that do useful work, as in the sciences, find their research used in ways not considered at the outset of the task. Even Mr Einstein could not stop his work on nuclear physics being incorporated into the atomic bomb, much to his disheartenment.
    It’s not that the Occupy movement expects masses of people to down tools and pens and come acamping, rather what is sought is that more and more people start to rethink everything, start to question behaviours in their particular situations, arm themselves with knowledge, with more reasonable expectations, thereby demanding that themselves and their peers be treated with some respect. 
    When old Joe or young rebellious Joe gets the boot, owing to the competitive nature of the office or shop floor, there is little sympathy because everyone is hanging onto their place, what with the mortgage, the negative credit, the kids education, the insurance policies that have to be paid for.... all those things, all that are falsely (and automatically) imposed by the System.
    It’s the System and its anti-values that has poisened the term Socialism - let’s not look at the red herring of failed Communism - besides the anti-socialist antics of the psuedo-socialists, the left-wing that could see no other way than via totalitarianism and violence... Communism has never been properly done! To late now.
    Social welfare itself has become a no-no as people abuse that possibility but they do that because they were and are victims of the System which depends on ‘those that rise into it’s ranks and that hold all others in jeopardy as an example of where you could be if you do not toe the line’.
    What the Occupiers are saying is, there is another way of organising how our lives are managed by our governments, one where privatisation is minimal because, although it is well proved that privately owned firms are better at what they are doing than government run departments, fact is, they have taken over our lives and now we are not seen a human beings with human needs and expectations - we are human resources and a market place.
    In a human system there will be limits on the working hours needed to bring an economy into the home; there will be time to be with whomever one chooses to be with among family and friends or even read a book; there will be health care without worry over payments because the business side of medicine will be removed; likewise with schooling right up to higher education; there will be regular payments for the elderly and the disabled so no need to beg, take demeaning jobs or sleep in cages; speculation will be taken out of the property market and definitely out of the commodities and stocks and shares market impacting food prices.
    Shareholders will no longer be allowed to extract excessive profits from firms, rather those profits will go back into the firm as investment into conditions and machinery to enhance the productive means and products.
    This is the revolution proposed and the way is by non-violence. When the indigenous president of Bolivia came into power, as different from the European stock estate owners of before, these are the kind of measures that were implemented and it took time despite that Evo Morales tried to hurry things up. It was quite different from the mess of the Russian revolution of 1917 with its violence and class vengeance, and that of China from the time when Mao took over, though it is said that in the first days there was a warm disposition displayed by Mao’s soldiers.
    While mainstream worldwide politics continue in the old mould with the violent agendas of one group facing off against all comers, on the other side of the fence, we are asking for such as wage differentials to be massively re-aligned - why should a boss get 400 times the salary of an ordinary worker? Also, with us the terms human rights, participation, co-operatives, reciprocity, and active non-violence are coming into play.
    Despite huge and organised opposition by the power holders of today, the Occupiers are making progress though it is an underground process, not underground by intention but because the activities are forced underground as the standard channels are closed off; an alternative media is one result
    The straight media, controlled completely by vested interests, plays down or ignores and anyway is not interested in what the Occupy movement intends. The politicians joke about the activists, even the so-called democrats. The business people stop and shout “get a job’ to the HSBC campers - completely unaware of what the Occupy movement is trying to tell them - like the USA, they too are on a slippery slope!
    But it’s OK. There are worthwhile repercussions off-site and the all-important dialog is being initiated and continued and new links established which are providing that vital solidarity among the people directly involved in the Occupy movement and the ever increasing circle of friends that acts as a buffer against the heavy arm of the System.
    The Occupy message is penetrating and the media will not remain immune.

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From: Waging Nonviolence
How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
by George Lakey
    While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different. [A march in Ådalen, Sweden, in 1931.] A march in Ådalen, Sweden, in 1931.
    Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”
    Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that “accounted for” the differences I saw: “small country,” “homogeneous,” “a value consensus.” I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own histories.
    Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time when Scandinavian workers didn’t expect that the electoral arena could deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1 percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.
    In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike. (You can read more about this case in an entry by Max Rennebohm in the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)
    The Norwegians had a harder time organizing a cohesive people’s movement because Norway’s small population—about three million—was spread out over a territory the size of Britain. People were divided by mountains and fjords, and they spoke regional dialects in isolated valleys. In the nineteenth century, Norway was ruled by Denmark and then by Sweden; in the context of Europe Norwegians were the “country rubes,” of little consequence. Not until 1905 did Norway finally become independent.
    When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin. Labor didn’t stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle, along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.
    In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.
    The Norwegian 1 percent decided not to rely simply on the army; in 1926 they formed a social movement called the Patriotic League, recruiting mainly from the middle class. By the 1930s, the League included as many as 100,000 people for armed protection of strike breakers—this in a country of only 3 million!
    The Labor Party, in the meantime, opened its membership to anyone, whether or not in a unionized workplace. Middle-class Marxists and some reformers joined the party. Many rural farm workers joined the Labor Party, as well as some small landholders. Labor leadership understood that in a protracted struggle, constant outreach and organizing was needed to a nonviolent campaign. In the midst of the growing polarization, Norway’s workers launched another wave of strikes and boycotts in 1928.
    The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though they couldn’t pay dues. This decision paid off in mass mobilizations. When the employers’ federation locked employees out of the factories to try to force a reduction of wages, the workers fought back with massive demonstrations.
    Many people then found that their mortgages were in jeopardy. (Sound familiar?) The Depression continued, and farmers were unable to keep up payment on their debts. As turbulence hit the rural sector, crowds gathered nonviolently to prevent the eviction of families from their farms. The Agrarian Party, which included larger farmers and had previously been allied with the Conservative Party, began to distance itself from the 1 percent; some could see that the ability of the few to rule the many was in doubt.
    By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise agreement with the other side.
    This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy. Labor’s success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest. (There is an entry on this case as well at the Global Nonviolent Action Database.)
    The 1 percent thereby lost its historic power to dominate the economy and society. Not until three decades later could the Conservatives return to a governing coalition, having by then accepted the new rules of the game, including a high degree of public ownership of the means of production, extremely progressive taxation, strong business regulation for the public good and the virtual abolition of poverty. When Conservatives eventually tried a fling with neoliberal policies, the economy generated a bubble and headed for disaster. (Sound familiar?)
    Labor stepped in, seized the three largest banks, fired the top management, left the stockholders without a dime and refused to bail out any of the smaller banks. The well-purged Norwegian financial sector was not one of those countries that lurched into crisis in 2008; carefully regulated and much of it publicly owned, the sector was solid.
    Although Norwegians may not tell you about this the first time you meet them, the fact remains that their society’s high level of freedom and broadly-shared prosperity began when workers and farmers, along with middle class allies, waged a nonviolent struggle that empowered the people to govern for the common good.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

George Lakey is Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College and a Quaker. He has led 1,500 workshops on five continents and led activist projects on local, national, and international levels. Among many other books and articles, he is author of “Strategizing for a Living Revolution” in David Solnit’s book Globalize Liberation (City Lights, 2004). His first arrest was for a civil rights sit-in and most recent was with Earth Quaker Action Team while protesting mountain top removal coal mining.

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new - 2012
Hong Kong Gardening - Naturally
By Tony Henderson
eBook on CD - HK$50 or US$6

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/hkgarden.htm

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Pressenza International Press Agency
http://world.pressenza.org

The myth of 'isolated' Iran
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/the-myth-of-xisolatedx-iran

Nepal - World unity for peace march
http://world.pressenza.org/npermalink/nepal-world-unity-for-peace-march - Nepal, peace march.

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Banahaw Park
...of Study and Reflection

Parks of Study and Reflection are places:
- of self-transformation
- of inspiration
- of connecting with others
- of connecting with the Profound.

They are an expression of the new spirit awakening in the hearts of people who search to go beyond religious, cultural and ethnic differences to the profound meaning of our common humanity. They are spaces dedicated to study and self-knowledge, to nonviolence as a way of action, and to reflection on life's fundamental questions.
Interested? Local group ‘still’ in formation, get in touch with the Hong Kong contact: Tony - tonyhen1 @ gmail.com

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

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Contact:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution: Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific - or the bylined writer.
TONY HENDERSON E-mail: tonyhen1 @ gmail.com
    Web: http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/

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Your financial assistance would be appreciated to support our school in Bagerhat run by Jamil and his colleagues - contact tonyhen@humanist.org.hk

Historical note:

Needed: more humanity in human society

Tony Henderson
May 28, 2005
SCMP

The slogan 'love the reality you build' was used by a Bangladeshi member
on the clocks that he made in Old Dhaka in an attempt to raise funds for
his Humanist Movement activities while pushing our universal message in
a handy format. The words come from the early writing of the movement's
South American founder, known as Silo, in his work, The Inner Look.

Our stance is 'anti-system' and, for us, the system is not just about
governments, but capitalism generally and the competitive struggle that
pits everyone against each other. What we are really against is the
system's anti-humanism.

Of course, there are good things out there - including the many people
involved in excellent work. But we need to combat the hypnosis that
sucks us in; that entrances what is human and free in us, and curtails
our future.

Our demand that core members play an active role means that we get few
takers. People want to come to meetings to talk and express their
precious opinions. But that is boring. Instead, we should take up an
issue or launch a project - and let's do it autonomously, without
waiting for instructions. We give guidelines, not orders. Our movement
is no good for mere intellectuals - unless they want to break free from
their chains.

Going to Bangladesh to build a team was a revelation for me because
there, people took notice of our message: placing the human being at the
centre of our values; no discrimination; co-operative systems and
processes; freedom; and the rejection of violence.

In Hong Kong, it seems that almost everyone is content with their lot.
Is this because of people's materialistic outlook or the high value put
on pragmatism? It is possible that the message just does not resonate.

One Bangladeshi, Rana, from the city of Bagerhat, studied in Hong Kong
for a while and joined our Humanist Association.

On his return home, he got together with his friends and set up the
Humanist Association of Bagerhat.

After I received a letter from him, I travelled there to meet 'the
gang'. They gathered in tea houses, and certainly had plans. They asked
for financial support, and I had to explain that we are not a charity or
even a non-governmental organisation, but merely volunteers. In fact,
they have to pay US$1 every six months to be a structural (core) member.

Undeterred, they launched their venture. Today (just under 10 years
later), their organisation'

s projects include: a blood-donation club; a
rickshaw project (nine have so far been sold to families, who pay back,
interest-free, the cost over a period of time); a micro-credit
'self-reliance-plus' project; education support for pupils through
donations from local businesses; and now a small school is being built
for those who cannot otherwise afford to go. In June last year, one
humanist executive committee member won a seat on the council in local
elections.

Although the Humanist Movement is non-political, if a member goes into
politics and abides by our principles, then that is fine. It will
humanise politics. The same applies in business, although we are not a
commercial organisation. Having a particular belief is not a barrier,
either.

This planet really needs us. There are many very good organisations, and
we just want to make our contribution, as well. We hit a different spot.
It is not what we do, but how we do it that is different. We work by
humanising what is inside while, at the same time, humanising the
outside, that is, society. And we have a spiritual dimension - we seek
personal liberation in this life, and immortality, in whichever way one
chooses to interpret that.

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Education:

http://www.pressenza.com/npermalink/interview-to-mario-aguilar

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Call Tony at 90487639 or email tonyhen1@gmail.com to take part in a small gathering of the Mui Wo Community of the Message, evening, 22 December, 2011.

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     15M MOVEMENT:

“YOUTH MANIFESTO”

FRIENDS:

“Our call for change unites us.

We want a new society that gives people priority over economic and political interests.

We want to demonstrate that society has not gone to sleep, and that we will keep fighting for what we deserve by peaceful means.

We want all this, and we want it now.” (Sol, May 2011).

YOUTH MANIFESTO: EVERYONE TO THE STREETS!

A ray of Sun, oh oh oh! Against Opression, oh oh oh!

A ray of Sun, oh oh oh! For liberation, oh oh oh!

LET’S LAUNCH A REVOLUTION TOGETHER THAT IS PARTICIPATORY, JOYFUL, INCLUSIVE AND PEACEFUL:

Stéphane Hessel says, “Get outraged!... for a peaceful uprising… Nonviolence is the path we must learn to follow. I am convinced that the future belongs to nonviolence, and to reconciliation among different cultures.”

We want the pending revolution: HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL. Dignity, education, healthcare, employment, housing, culture… FUTURE FOR ALL!! We are acting coherently through Active Nonviolence, which is a courageous stand denouncing all forms for violence that outrage us: physical, economic, racial, sexual, ideological, psychological, etc. “NONVIOLENCE IS OUR STRENGTH.”

“IF YOU DON’T LET US DREAM, WE WON’T LET YOU SLEEP”:

“We need to give a response to social and personal conflicts. But in a new way. Not with values that we don’t want, but with joy, good humor, and a good spirits among the people. With respect, with caring, encouraging unity and connection among all of us. We must give a clear signal, powerful and concise, a new attitude that we want to express in the world. Our action is born of the human need to overcome our limits, to liberate ourselves, and to create the type of society we really want.” With the Force that unites us, LET US THINK ABOUT WHAT WE TRULY NEED.

WE THE PEOPLE COME FIRST:

“Nothing above the human being and no human being above any other.” Not money, the banks, financial capital, the corrupt political powers or their leaders – none of them above the human being. They laugh in our faces with their pockets overflowing. Now IT IS TIME FOR ALL OF US TO LAUGH. “We have awoken, and now we want breakfast!” “We want happiness and freedom to grow in ourselves and in those around us.”

TO BE HAPPY, WE ALL NEED THE FUTURE:

Nelson Mandela tells us: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”

But why study? Why should we make an effort? Most of us are unemployed or earning poverty wages. For how much longer?

They are leaving us “with no future, no work, no house, no pension… without fear.” “We want to see ourselves dancing toward the future with the light feet of joy!” WE WANT THE FUTURE NOW!!

CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, UNITE: WE ARE A UNIVERSAL HUMAN NATION.

Martin Luther King said: “I have a dream that one day… injustice and oppression will be transformed into freedom and justice… and the whole human race will unite in a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

Everywhere we have problems: in Egypt, Tunisia, Morrocco, Iceland… and they have begun to fight by  agreeing on a change. Now in the rest of Europe and the Americas, and soon in every country on the Planet, in every town and city. EVERYONE TO THE PUBLIC SQUARES!

We want uncensored internet all around the world. We want a worldization that supports all ethnicities, languages, customs and beliefs - a convergence of cultures.

WE HAVE FAITH AND HOPE THAT ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE:

We want a world where we live together in happiness, all of us and not just a few. A WORLD WITHOUT WARS, WITHOUT WEAPONS, WITHOUT HUNGER, WITHOUT POVERTY, AN ECOLOGICALLY SOUND WORLD FULL OF SOLIDARITY… with equal rights and opportunities for all human beings. “To struggle for the rights of the minorities is to struggle for the rights of all.” “No human being is illegal.”

REAL DEMOCRACY NOW!

Enough hypocrisy. Money is everything: it buys the governments, the laws, the communications media… We say enough!! We want RESPONSES TO THE REAL NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE. WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO STATE OUR OPINION AND DECIDE TOGETHER, instead of having a few decide for us.

Politicians who have been elected through direct democracy must faithfully represent the will of the citizens and be at their service. Sovereignty resides in the people, and we the people must be continually vigilant. We aspire to have all laws undergo Referendum. So that we are not betrayed, we demand THAT ELECTORAL PROMISES BE FULFILLED, that they cannot be changed by the financial interests of the powerful.

THE POWERFUL DO NOT REPRESENT US.

The politicians of the system want to silence our voices (sometimes by force and violence), so that they can keep living at the expense of our silence. The politicians have gone to the rich from the “monster” of the capital market. Let them resign and join this revolution.

GIVE US FULL EMPLOYMENT AND DIGNIFIED WORK!

José Luis Sampedro said: “I urge you to move forward in the struggle for a more human life… you will find many obstacles in your path, but it is your future that is at stake. May 15 must be more than an oasis in the desert; it must be the beginning of an arduous struggle so that finally we no longer are – or are seen as – ‘merchandise in the hands of the politicians and bankers.’ We say NO TO FINANCIAL TYRANNY AND ITS DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES.”

NO TO ECONOMIC VIOLENCE. No to speculation and usury. No to fiscal paradises. No to the scandalous sharing of benefits among those who control capital and business, without considering the workers and the unemployed. No to the scandalous differences in salary in the same business, in the same country, and in different countries and regions of the planet.

We need a bank that serves the people. “The Bank always makes a profit and never gives us any of it.” Democratize all businesses. Let the workers also come together and organize in assemblies. Support businesses that organize dignified strikes. Support cooperative societies and businesses and worker self-management.

WE RESPECT DIVERSITY:

Gandhi said: “Violence only engenders more violence.”

If we wish to reach common agreements, we have to respect creativity and diversity, and not impose our own point of view. Any kind of imposition is violence, and such violence only limits us, and is unnecessary.

The violence of the states and entrenched powers against the people and their manipulation of us is an outrage. “Against your violence, my peace; against your nightstick, my word.”

WE ASK THE SUPPORT OF ALL THE PEOPLE, ORGANIZATIONS AND COLLECTIVES THAT ARE ALREADY WORKING FOR A BETTER AND MORE HUMAN WORLD.

LET’S CHANGE HISTORY: LET’S SAY YES TO HISTORY!!

We give thanks for the example and inspiration of all who have fought actively and peacefully down through History, so that we might arrive at this point. We ask the support of all who feel solidarity with us so that we can continue in this task. Struggling together we will leave a much better world for everyone. We have the capability and the strength to change history. This is the moment to act.

THE PUBLIC SQUARE IS A SYMBOL OF THE SPIRIT THAT UNITES ALL HUMAN BEINGS:

WE DO NOT WANT EMPTY WORDS.

Together we have generated a unique new process which, if we apply ourselves, can lay the foundations for a true cultural, social and personal revolution. A revolution of all and for all, in which the central value is the human being, and the methodology is active nonviolence.

If this is to endure over time we need to organize. We need an organization that is not bureaucratic, but based on human communication: communication that enriches us and allows us to grow together. Communication that does not lead us to despair or separation; communication based on respect, communication that incites to us action.

That is why we propose, here and now, that we take a moment to think about all the difficulties we’ve had, and everything we have learned from those difficulties…

And now let us remember those good moments that neither we nor the world will ever forget …

BECAUSE THIS IS NOT UTOPIA, THIS IS REALITY

LET’S ALL PARTICIPATE!!

THE FUTURE IS OURS!!

EVERYONE TO THE PUBLIC SQUARES!!

                            Video: You tube Manifiesto de l@s jóvenes tod@s a las plazas (Everyone to the  Public Squares – Youth Manifesto) http://youtu.be/zhI-qK_klJM

       Contact:  manifiestodelosjovenes@gmail.com

                                           Facebook: Manifiestodelosjovenes Todosalasplazas                                 

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July 16,2011
The Green Spirituality of universal humanism
For us Green signifies Life. It is the colour of the Life Force. It is the mid-range colour in our spectrum, with red at the lower end and blue at the higher end. Red is the physical-sexual and  blue is the contemplative-intuitive. There’s Green, right in the middle, central to both ends and that is the position of Man, the place of Man emboldened with the vitality of the Life Force.

To enhance or deepen or heighten that Green Force of Life it is proposed by the universal humanists that we get our ordinary life sorted out. We have to achieve a personal and ‘internal’ coherence where what we are is a function of our harmonised thoughts, feelings and actions. Meaning, practically, that we are doing what we deeply want to be doing and we feel very good about that and a sense of meaningfulness permeates our life.

Immediately there is a caution - the systems and societies we are living under are not intended to allow us to be thus free. Because that is precisely what meaningfulness feels like, a sense of freedom. Free of fears of future, free of any dark echo from the past, free of any blocks in the present - of course we all have the common problems - we could always do with an extra few dollars, but these don’t stop us!

Today’s systems are born of an industrial age and just when humanity was emerging from the European Dark Ages, and just as the European Renaissance was laying its searching fingers upon those early societies, a flip occurred as the sciences of astrology took the course of leading into astronomy, and alchemy  went into metallurgy and chemistry, numerology became mathematics, and all that can be seen as good - and indeed it is good - however, important issues were cast aside and materialism came to the fore. The innate spirituality of Man was neglected and indeed abandoned. Materialistic and competitive societies were the result. Mechanical Man replaced ‘natural’ Man.

All that which was allied to the best features in Man, that which makes the human being, a sense of place within a beautiful living world of fellow creatures, an innate sense of a being without limit - not even limited by a supposed personal death - the possibility of achieving love, on the level of this life with a couple and on the cosmic-universal  level with what’s variably termed the Mother, the Creator, the Great Tao, The Unborn...

It is therefore worthwhile to regain what was taken away by others, one’s spirituality. To wake up from the illusion imposed by a consumer oriented society’s collective consciousness and see the real behind the slight, the facade.

This happened to Buddha when he came to realisation. That was a transforming experience as was the gradual dawning of Jesus as he took up ‘his Father’s work’. This was so with all the saints and holy men only that their seeing was through the looking glass of their particular culture and interpreted by us under terms likely foreign to their terms and are thus so fraught with error.

This is why we have to see the real for ourselves. We have to clarify the senses, the emotions, the thinking process, by looking at the personal history, the present situation, and thereby open up the future. This is the Second Coming. This is being reborn.

Tony Henderson               email: tonyhen@humanist.org.hk              Phone: 29840094

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bend to the Tao of how things are - nuclear power - NO

Dear Editor,

May I entirely disagree with the writer of “Safe, clean and abundant nuclear power has been proved possible”, June 14, SCMP).

Of course we have to stop burning coal SAP but to replace coal dust deaths with radiation deaths is no solution - and what about the dirty uranium mining? No one can figure radiation-related deaths and disfigurements and the concern remains with the general all-everywhere increases in radiation which are incremental and creeping up, and specific location toxicity after accidents.

Two sources of clean energy that will never run out in our human horizon of Earth-bound life-as-a-species expectancy are: tidal power and geothermal power. These sources can be base-load power generators while solar and wind as renewable sources can usefully fill gaps.

We have the technological means today to engage both these potential energy sources in a fullness more than adequate to sustain our modern lifestyle - so no going back to the Dark Ages at all.

The technology demanded is conventional.

Those “passively safe, integral fast reactors” have inherent problems as the coolant sodium burns in air and reacts with water - explosively when atomised. But Thorium is worth a look at and India is doing just that.

Let’s look at wikipedia:
Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor; Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste;
Thorium comes out of the ground as a 100% pure, usable isotope, which does not require enrichment, whereas natural uranium contains only 0.7% fissionable U-235; Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default.

It is also a red herring that “Future human advancement requires vastly increased reliable non-carbon-based global power supplies” - with the problem lying in the words ‘human advancement’.

We have not been advancing as a human race; we are only now becoming more aware of what being human entails and it’s not dependant on unlimited energy sources. Like any living creature the human needs a nurturing environment and the Industrial Age did not provide that.

What looked promising in Europe was called the Renaissance, with the rise in social philosophy and intellectual and literary currents over the period from 1400 to 1650. But we went the way of machines. We are still extricating ourselves and some of us are struggling against de-humanisation.

Until today we have been, speaking generally, killing off our human race and other flora-and-fauna by misuse of energy - so-called cheap energy - and the question is are we to emerge unscathed?  Will we bend to the Tao of how things are instead of diverting waters and damming rivers, disrespectfully forcing things?

R.I.P Osama bin Laden

Hi Carlo,
Agreed.
My personal reaction was, why are people celebrating the death of a man? A man has been killed, not good. This man has many supporters in places where he has been made into a special figure, fighting to get foreign troops out of Saudi Arabia, his homeland. Who can tell the repercussions... Yes, as our Italian humanist friends are saying, there is no justice here, like Saddam Hussein, he should have been tried in an international court and let him and the world understand what his actions entailed, for the people of the world and for himself. Another opportunity has been lost to better grasp why violence is so generalised and State-sanctioned today and those with hidden motives and tricky self-serving responses are kept safe in their heavily fortified industrial-military-governmental strongholds.

*****************************************

The Humanist - Hong Kong
- among friends of universal humanism,
Number 32 - April 2011
**********************************************************

Page 1 -  EDITORIAL - protest demonstration - with the Greens
Page 1 -  Close down all nuclear power generation stations and replace with renewable alternative energy sources
Page 3 -  contact information

Editorial,

Tomorrow, Sunday 24 April, 2011, the Humanist Association of Hong Kong will be participating in the GreenPeace "No Nuclear Expansion for Hong Kong" (http://goo.gl/MkJok) demonstration in Central, Hong Kong. We will join with our affiliated friends from Green Party Hong Kong. A few of us will meet at  Central MTR Exit A, of Worldwide House, at 2:30pm , on Connaught Road.  All members, pals and new friends and interested persons are welcomed to join us.
A couple of us will take the 12 noon Mui Wo to Hong Kong Central ferry and be available for interchange on the issues at the Outlying Islands pier between 1pm and 2pm, look for our Orange-Black flag and say hello. We are looking for new members.

Peace, Force and Joy
Tony

http://humanistassociationhongkong.yolasite.com/

PS: for those of you who incidentally receive this and are far, far away, then just view this announcement as distant news.

******************
Letter: Appearing in South China Morning Post
18 April, 2011
Close down all nuclear power generation stations and replace with renewable alternative energy sources

    It is true that using nuclear power to generate electricity does not create greenhouse gases but those stated problems of inherent danger and disposing of the radioactive waste, are not minor, if fact they are huge problems.
    First point is that only by generating energy by means of nuclear power is it possible to have the explosive materials for nuclear weapons making - no nuclear power stations, no nuclear bombs.
    That to our Association is enough to insist closing down all nuclear power generation stations and turn to other means.
    Also, nuclear power stations are soft targets for terrorists.
    A nuclear explosion contaminates the entire planet earth, poisoning everything: the air, the sea the land. There is no escape, for us humans or for all creatures alive today. There is also a danger of gradual ineradicable build-up.
    As radioactivity around us increases, so does negative mutations and cancers. It’s our children and coming generations that we are protecting by leaving the short sighted path of dependence on nuclear power.
    Also, technology today has no solution in sight to safely process nuclear waste into environmentally non-hurtful materials and it has to be restated that the natural detox takes tens of decades and more.

[the next section was edited out but that’s OK as our main message got through - the information came from pal Earthwalker, presently digging in in Patagonia with an earthbag home building project.]

    “We have to see and dig out the facts of the huge investments in the nuclear industry, in each country, which is why the pro lobby is so strong. Just watch the case in Japan!
    The five largest shareholders in TEPCO, owners of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, are: Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd; The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited; The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd; Nippon Life Insurance Company; and Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
    This is why the citizen’s of Japan did not read in the local press that 15,000 people were, had, demonstrated at one of the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations ever seen in Japan! Because Big Business and Government own the media and big government and business are heavily invested in nuclear power.”
    Thus the calls for transparency in regard to the Daya Bay plant on our doorstep and gradual substitution of nuclear power by renewable energies and other power sources leading to shutdowns of all nuclear power plants, everywhere in the world.

#####

To read more on our Humanist stance on nuclear weapons and nuclear power go to
Pressenza
http://world.pressenza.org/

#####

Friend Ben held us to task on Lantau Forum doubting our stance in some aspects and we spoke of coal. I place here my reply on coal and to his comments:

Hi Ben,
Re: coal
There is every likelihood that use of coal will be cleaner, much cleaner, but in the future.  In reality this can be done today, to a large extent, the trouble is it’s expensive. As a society we have to understand that in nature there are no ‘free lunches’, so in those societies addicted to cheap energy - what are called the developed economies - they are (we are) going to have to change habits.

When it comes to coal buring, wet scrubbers, or flue gas desulfurization systems, remove sulfur dioxide, a major cause of acid rain, by spraying flue gas with limestone and water.

With what one company has called super critical technology, coal is bunt but the afterburn products are put through an air quality system, a system of filters to clean the emissions so only moist air comes out. Not perfect no doubt but a whole lot less pollutants than these days.

Some clean coal technologies purify the coal before it burns. One type of coal preparation, coal washing, removes unwanted minerals by mixing crushed coal with a liquid and allowing the impurities to separate and settle.

Underground coal gasification is being developed and that will make use of coal less polluting.

Low-NOx (nitrogen oxide) burners reduce the creation of nitrogen oxides, a cause of ground-level ozone. Electrostatic precipitators remove particulates that aggravate asthma and cause respiratory ailments by charging particles with an electrical field and then capturing them on collection plates.

Gasification avoids burning coal altogether. Since IGCC power plants create two forms of energy, they have the potential to reach a fuel efficiency of 50 percent.

Such developments are not paralleled in the field of nuclear energy generation.

All nuclear weapons are made and made possible using bi-products of nuclear power plants - there is no other source. No nuclear power plants - no new nuclear weapons.

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Re: defending strategic installations... Did you note the 'rebels' in Afghanistan can walk into the army HQ? There is no defense against someone willing to die for a cause... and some people are in those straights owing to loss of family and loved ones and thus, without any meaning in their own life.

Re dangerous mines: Lack of labour rights, of independent unions, mean lack of safety standards; and poverty and lack of alternatives makes men go down into dangerous mines - it's 'a nuisance' but everything has to be tackled at once. The mining companies have to be answerable to their local communities, until that happens it's all Big Brother stuff and out of our control.

That's what the Arab-Muslim revolt is all about - the people are fed up, they've had enough.
Cheers
Tony

#####

Banahaw Park

...of Study and Reflection

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

#####

Contact:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution: Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific - or the bylined writer.

TONY HENDERSON - My phone (852) 29840094
G/F, 49 Kau Tsuen, Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
E-mail: tonyhen @ gmail.com/
Web-blog: http://hall-inner-light-china.blogspot.com/

*****************************************************************************************

13 April, 2011

Nuclear Power - why "NO"

Vera Fan’s letter, “Stick with nuclear power” (SCMP 11 April) appears reasonable and has a good point but about power stations being built in the wrong places. Whether they are safe or not though, that’s another question, and it’s not the only question.

It is true that using nuclear power to generate electricity does not create greenhouse gases but those stated problems of inherent danger and disposing of the radioactive waste, are not minor, if fact they are huge problems.

First point is that only by generating energy by means of nuclear power is it possible to have the explosive materials for nuclear weapons making - no nuclear power stations, no nuclear bombs.

That to our Association is enough to insist closing down all nuclear power generation stations and turn to other means.

Also, nuclear power stations are soft targets for terrorists.

A nuclear explosion contaminates the entire planet earth, poisoning everything: the air, the sea the land. There is no escape, for us humans or for all creatures alive today. There is a danger of gradual ineradicable build-up.

As radioactivity around us increases, so does negative mutations and cancers. It’s our children and coming generations that we are protecting by leaving the short sighted path of dependence on nuclear power.

Also, technology today has no solution in sight to safely process nuclear waste into environmentally non-hurtful materials and it has to be restated that the natural detox takes tens of decades and more.

We have to see and dig out the facts of the huge investments in the nuclear industry, in each country, which is why the pro lobby is so strong. Just watch the case in Japan!

The five largest shareholders in TEPCO, owners of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, are: Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd; The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited; The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd; Nippon Life Insurance Company; and Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

This is why the citizen’s of Japan did not read in the local press that 15,000 people were, had, demonstrated at one of the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations ever seen in Japan! Because Big Business and Government own the media and big government and business are heavily invested in nuclear power.

Thus the calls for transparency in regard to the Daya Bay plant on our doorstep and gradual substitution of nuclear power by renewable energies and other power sources leading to shutdowns of all nuclear power plants, everywhere in the world.

********************************

Egypt - Congratulations

Humanist postscript to the Egyptian revolution

As Palestinian friend Mazin Qumsiyeh stated recently in our columns in regard to Tunisia, “Getting rid of dictators is not enough. Building a civic participatory society is not easy (Europe's enlightenment did not come just from removing a few dictators).” 

He continued with: “People's expectation raised for change will dash against the reality that it will take decades to create systems of governance, accountability, economic justice, etc to allow for unleashing the great potential in the Arab world.”

I would disagree about the time-line. People cannot wait that long. What needs to be done has to happen quickly, harnessing all this unleashed energy. 

Now is the time.

But how?

The powers must revert to the locality, the street, the block, the district, the region; only then can a country be stabilised.

What are called today ‘ the minorities’ - whether culturally ethnic or religious - have to be granted their own space to be what they are, and in parallel, brought into the larger system of government so they can be without those old discriminations.

In one sense yes it is the time for independence, for autonomy of peoples from larger and overwhelming forces but on the other hand, the root cause of that need for separation from the wider fold has to be recognised and if it is a selfishness - because ‘we have the oil’ for example, or ‘we have the fertile lands’, then that is a disqualifier.

Justice will be served by being just, not by revenge or actions based on, ‘now it’s our turn’.

We must surpass the too evident tribalisms.

We must stop the powerful State imposing its strictures on lesser peoples then allowing capital rich companies to plunder the land and seas.

However, a cohesive group’s need for its traditional values and lands have to be respected.

With this forethought in mind there remains to be stated that which our International Humanist Party has continuously espoused, the need for:

the decentralization of political power down to the base of society, extending guarantees of respect for minorities and making effective the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all.

Universal access to free, high quality Education and Healthcare at all levels is the priority for the Party.

To uphold the principle of choice as the concrete political expression of liberty and, thus, it struggles against all forms of authoritarianism and economic, organizational and ideological monopolies.

We consider that all coherent policies must have two basic conditions:

   1. Permanent renovation of juridical and political institutions, based on the idea of the new replacing the old, and

   2. Transparency in the political procedures employed.

Related to the latter, which would be quite an innovation, would be a Law of Political Accountability, making politicians actually carry out their election proposals or they would lose their post!

With these words we continue to wish everyone a Happy Revolution!

Tony Henderson,
Chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong.

Notice One

Latest newsletter  August 2010

see Pressenza for articles on Asia

http://world.pressenza.org/

also Humanize Asia email news list on Tony's personal webpage

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen/

Notice Two

Humanist Association of Hong Kong 

chairman Tony Henderson

Letter South China Morning Post

January 17, 2011
Not just hoarding

In many cases food is produced in one place then sent to the nearest big city where it is rechannelled and repacked then returned to that place of origin where it sells at a much higher price.

It’s the middlemen who always take their slice and such middlemen are not a necessary part of the distribution system. That puts the price up.

A local co-operative marketing system controlled by local people with participation of local farmers and wholesalers-retailers could decide to supply locally first with the surplus sent out of their district to supply cities and exports.

It is much more profitable though for a producer to just sell the foodstuff to a ‘major buyer’ and forget such community sentiments.

Thus the spiralling prices because then the speculators come in and play their devastating part on the international commodities market which is a sort of gambling that arbitrates the final cost of foodstuff worldwide.

While big companies hoard foodstuff in a more sophisticated manner by withholding supplies to the international market and releasing same after a threshold price raise to get their undeserved profits, local hoarders play their part too, squeezing that extra dollar out of their poor neighbours.

This is another way whereby the rich get rich and the poor get even poorer.

*******************************************

Nuclear option not acceptable

November 2010

I agree with Gloria Chang, of Greenpeace ("Increasing reliance on nuclear energy is not the answer for HK", November 4) and want to add another reason for not using nuclear energy - its link with nuclear weapons.

We should say no to nuclear power stations and material like plutonium, which is used through special reprocessing as fuel to make terrible bombs.

This, of course, applies to all the nuclear weapons nations, in the first place the United States, but including China.

They are all now upping their nuclear power supply capacities and are therefore all overproducing the very material that goes to make weapons.

The nuclear rationale that because they have them, we also need them, is very dated. It harks back to prehistoric man and clubs. We have to move on and aim to go green and clean.

We must get rid of nuclear weapons and the military sales mentality that sees acceptable profits from equipment and machines that kill and that make money.

Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong

*****

Notice Three

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

or

India

http://www.asianashram.in/

and

http://madhubanibiharpark.in/

Please understand that there is no opening for further works leading to the Disciplines at this time nor can any assurance be given that such will be possible in the near future. The Levelling works though are valuable in their own right to bring about equilibrium and development leading to truly human being.

__________________________________________________________________

Since that August newsletter was published the School works have continued and will be closing in January 2011

-----------------------------------------------

It is expected that the Humanist Association of Hong Kong will be revamped in early 2011

----------------------------------------------------------

The Humanist - Hong Kong
- among friends of universal humanism,
Number 31 - August 2010
**********************************************************

Page 1 -  EDITORIAL
Page 2 - REGISTRATION
Page 2 - THE PARKS
Page 4 -  contact information

Editorial,
Let me begin with a newsy quote from Silo.net: "…The theme is when to start the leveling for the fourth group. We will begin it next 14th of August (remember today is the 1st of August). Those who attend will follow in the tracks of the fourth group. The leveling could be shorter; two months. Each disciplinary step is worked for one week. The first quatern is given at the first meeting of the disciplinary process. Once again, we recommend doing these works at the Parks. By mid January 2011 we will have everything assembled. Masters with the works done and elected. Masters are Masters, whether they come from the first, second, or fourth group. And we can do the Final Examination and give the Ascesis with all of them, simultaneously. There we close that entire stage.…"

I like that word ‘recommend’ and it could be that the Levelling works can be given locally, in Hong Kong for instance. In that case expect to hear from me again very soon as the sessions of retreats would than take place in our neighbourhood instead of those interested having to fly off overseas - to nearby Philippines or India closest.

However, it is likely that the work in the Disciplines would entail travel to one our Parks.

In that quote the latter part deals with Masters passing into School, in mid-January, and that means everyone taking the works and accepted are invited, no matter when they completed the Disciplines, last year, before that, or December 2010.

It would be great to get Chinese entering this process and it’s an anomaly that while India is producing healthy numbers of Postulants and Disciples, China has zero to date! How to click with that Chinese mind and that Chinese culture, because, the Buddhist Way is valued, and the Taoist Way, also the Folk Way which is the preponderance of spirituality among the Chinese.

It may simply be a lack of penetration of this message and possibility of doing what the Buddha did, for example. Maybe the parallel is not seen. Maybe enlightenment is placed on that High Shelf, out of reach, as if meant for some Higher Being, some specially endowed personality.

There will not be any political solution to today’s problems unless the person’s wielding political authority are acting out of the best interests of all, the same in economics, the same in all affairs - so what needs attending to primarily?  That very person, or, in my case - me.

How apt this study, this Path. To establish oneself concretely in one’s own life and live according to one’s own dictates, with past transgressions reconciled and with an open future - that’s what’s going to resolve things. With that centre of gravity and a humanly sensitized look the others in our lives are treated as we would like to be treated and all’s well!

That’s where we are going on this spiritual path treaded by some very wonderful personalities who have always beckoned to us to forge our own destinies and play a part in the inherited scheme of things, changing what we will.
Peace, Force and Joy
Tony

#####

Registration now taking place until August 14, 2010.
Personally
Just get in touch

#####

The Parks
       
1    Red Bluff    USA    San Francisco    www.redbluffpark.org    info@redbluffpark.org   
2    Hudson Valley    USA    New York           
3    La Unión    Colombia    Bogota,Choachi    www.parquelaunion.org    parquelaunion@gmail.com   
4    Montecillo    Bolivia    Cochabamba    www.parquemontecillo.org    parquemontecillo@gmail.com   
5    Caucaia    Brasil    Sao Paulo    www.parquecaucaia.org    contato@parquecaucaia.org   
6    Piribebuy    Paraguay               
7    Manantiales    Chile    Santiago    www.parquemanantiales.org    contacto@parquemanantiales.org   
8    Punta de Vacas    Argentina    Punta de Vacas    www.parquepuntadevacas.org    parque.pdv@gmail.com   
9    La Reja    Argentina    Buenos Aires    www.parquelareja.org    info@parquelareja.org   
10    Carcaraña    Argentina    Rosario    www.parquecarcarana.org    contacto@parquecarcarana.org   
11    Chaco    Argentina    Resistencia    www.parquechaco.org    parquechaco@gmail.com   
12    Patagonia Norte    Argentina    Neuquen,Centenario    www.patagonianorte.org    parquedeestudiopatagonianorte@gmail.com   
13    Toledo    España    Madrid    www.parquetoledo.org    parquesdeestudioyreflexiontoledo@parquetoledo.org   
14    Attigliano    Italia    Attigliano    www.parcoattigliano.eu    center@parcoattigliano.eu   
15    Casa Giorgi    Italia    Milan    www.parchicasagiorgi.org    parchicasagiorgi@gmail.com   
16    la Belle Idee    Francia    Paris    www.parclabelleidee.fr    info@parclabelleidee.fr   
17    Mikebuda    Hungria    Budapest    www.mikebudapark.org    commission@mikebudapark.org   
18    Berlin    Germany               
19    Kandharoli Ashram    India    Mumbai    www.asianashram.net    nowsonali@gmail.com   
20    Banahaw    Filipinas    Dolores, Quezon    parkebanahawphilippines.org    parkebanahaw@gmail.com   

August 2010


The Parks

The Parks of Study and Reflection are spaces dedicated to the study and reflection about the Human Being and evolutionary possibilities toward a nonviolent world without discrimination of any kind. Here a new sensitivity and the best in ourselves can be expressed.

Centre of Work
...as a place for retreats and personal works

Centre of Study
as a place in which the Works of  the School are developed, here the Masters and Disciples do their practices and studies.

#####

Philippines

http://parkebanahawphilippines.org/

India

http://www.asianashram.in/index.htm


for materials and information

http://www.silo.net/

In Hong Kong
We continue to seek a place to use as a Small Hall, in time leading to the establishment of a Centre of Work, a place of some seclusion and quiet, and a place to bring  together people interested in a deeper self-study. Some disused annex of a monastery is ideal and this will help to keep spiritual retreats available for so-inclined people instead of commercial firms buying up those places for use selling urn space at exorbitant prices. Any introductions welcome.
In the quest for the eventual setting up of a Park of Study and Reflection (Hong Kong) the forming of an interest group is now underway.


Contact:
Material from this newsletter may be freely reprinted with this attribution: Source: The Humanist Newsletter - Asia-Pacific - or the bylined writer.

TONY HENDERSON,
My phone (852) 29840094
G/F, 49 Kau Tsuen, Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
E-mail: tonyhen @ gmail.com/
Web-blog: http://hall-inner-light-china.blogspot.com/


******************************************

Dear editor, South China Morning Post

(unpublished) 6 May 2010

The columnist Sergei Karaganov writing on Destructive idea of a nuclear-free world, (SCMP May 05, 2010) is showing his ‘set mental form’ in this writing and is a clear example of what happens to a person, a whole group of persons and indeed a certain strata of a society that becomes moribund, nay crystallised.

It is a dangerous condition because people of the Karaganov ilk are in highly paid positions in governments, in multinational privately owned firms, mainstream academia and in the most old guard type military units and are functioning at the will of the today powerful - those who refuse to give up power and who refuse transparency in affairs and any accountability.

So black and white is their thinking and so self-contradictory is their activities that they see a nuclear bomb as a solution leading to peace and arsenals of nuclear bombs as a sure worldwide protective shroud.

The only meritorious sentence in the article is his statement that: “To reject nuclear weapons and strive for their elimination is, no doubt, a moral aim, at least in the abstract. But it is feasible only if humanity changes”. But sadly the he does not believe humanity can change.

Thus he and his fellows are stuck.

Happily, the rest of the world moves on and the increasing momentum of the anti-nuclear activists of all ranks and creeds and colours that are advancing hour by hour prove that people and their demands are changing.

Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Wall Far Too Far

For Pressenza International Press Agency

May 4, 2010

Writers: shado mohmmad - wad.r@hotmail.com, and Tony Henderson

Ban on Iranian women footballers
22 April 2010

Our association would like to point out the contradictory actions of  Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in the organisation at first inviting the Iranian women’s team to take part in the 2010 Youth Summer Olympics, Singapore, then, unexpectedly, deciding to forbid wearing the hijab (Islamic head covering) in the games.

Had no one seen them play?

There are two opposing forces at work in today’s world, the one relating to increasing globalization, standardisation, privatisation, and cultural domination by majority populations or power-holders, as against planetisation, cultural and religious diversity, regionalisation and socialised services and a will to go beyond tolerance to real acceptance of differences according to the ‘others’ likes and dislikes.

President of Iran Football Federation Ali Kafashian has pointed out to FIFA that due to religious beliefs the Iranian women team will participate in the competitions only if they are allowed to observe the Islamic dress code. The hijab is related to Islamic culture and many Muslim women can't take part in social activities without it and due to religious beliefs the Iranian women team will participate in the competitions only if they are allowed to observe the Islamic dress code.

It’s really a case of freedom of choice, any dress-coded sisterhood of nuns would also be hard put to get a team together under these rules. What’s next, a ban on footballers with beards because they are clearly Al Qaeda-Taliban linked?

In praise of Elsie Tu's views on democracy

Feb 27, 2010    
SCMP

Those correspondents like Angus Hardern who have doubts about Elsie Tu's views ("Writer has changed tune", February 22) need to dig a bit deeper into what she means.

Sure, the pan-democrats in the by-elections are trying to achieve a major upset and they are going out on a limb. However, Hong Kong is far from ready for radical change.

It is a safe place in many ways. Our latest demonstrations by the so-called post-1980s generation indicate a healthy undercurrent of dissent, but that is all.

Universal suffrage is an outcome rather than a prerequisite in any democracy, and Mrs Tu is absolutely correct in saying that political enthusiasts in Asia and Africa are abusing the elements that go towards the make-up of a democracy. They have the money or the military in their pockets, then get the media and hey presto, get the presidency.

This is because the masses lack political education and are still divided into tribes and factions.

These people who clamber to the top repress minorities in their countries. In a democracy, minority rights are respected. That is where proportional representation comes in.

In an interesting way, Hong Kong under its present system brings this proportionality into play. In practical terms, the layers of representation organised by the Communist Party are working. It is not the worst system in the world, as those with the loudest voices are saying when they demand earlier democracy.

The people of Hong Kong are ready for full democracy, but the political parties still do not play by the rules and are still driven by personalities. That has to change.

I hope Elsie Tu will continue to share her wisdom with us.

We have the media and we have the freedom to express a diversity of views without the threat of getting "bumped off in the night".

We should be thankful for the independent judicial system, the independent media and the stalwart police force.

Tony Henderson, chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong

__________________________________________________________

Interview with Hugo Novotny: "In the Parks of Study and Reflection many issues are being worked on."

Marta Icarte

We have been talking to Hugo Novotny about the Parks of Study and Reflection and what is being lived in them by those who do the work of levelling, as well as those who develop a process in one of the four disciplines: the material discipline, the energetic discipline, the mental discipline and morphological discipline.

Image by: Rafael Edwards

The World March at Punta de Vacas Park, Argentina

Pressenza
Punta de Vacas, 2010-04-15

Why is it called a Park of Study and Reflection? What is being studied and reflected upon? What do you do there and why have you built Punta de Vacas Park in the middle of the mountains?

Punta de Vacas Park of Study and Reflection, is one of many - presently 21 - similar parks that are already in use in different countries and continents. There the works of the Communities of Silo's Message and of members of the Humanist Movement are developed, works that are related to the coherent development of the human being as well as works that allow the achievement of states of profound inspiration, states that allow us to gradually create the best conditions for the emergence of a new, truly human and non-violent civilization.

All this is being developed through meetings, seminars, retreats, and gatherings, which take place in the Centre of Work located next to the portal which marks the entrance to the park. This Centre of Work is also where the activities of the various organisms of the Humanist Movement and the Communities of Silo's Message in relation to the personal development of their members take place, as well as activities of levelling open to all persons interested in postulating for the works of school.

The works of school, directly linked to achieving states of profound inspiration, are developed in the Centre of Studies which is located behind the Sacred Mount and facing the source of the Mendoza river.

This Park of Study and Reflection has a very special relationship with the landscape that frames it. The fact of being located at the intersection of three great mountain ranges and near to the source of a river, are things that, as many know, make it a highly inspiring place with a special energy.

Each person, once they have completed the levelling work, can choose the discipline that most resonates with their inner world. The energetic, mental, morphological or material disciplines are all ways to access those profound inner spaces where we encounter the Unnameable and all existence becomes Meaningful.

Precise and comprehensive information about the four disciplines can be found at the website www.silo.net, as well as information on the previous work of levelling, registration for which is open until late December, 2010. The only requirement for participation is to be 18 years of age at the time of registration.

How does one register? Simply send an email to the following address: NivelacionParquePuntadeVacas@gmail.com You will receive a return mail containing a link where you can enter your personal data to complete the registration process.

Inscriptions can also be made on the websites of the various parks of Study and Reflection, which as we have already said are presently located in 21 different countries.

For more information write to parque.pdv@gmail.com

[additional note on the Parks:]

Banawa Park (Philippines): levelingparkebanahaw@gmail.com

Khandaroli Park (India): 
http://www.asianashram.in/index.htm (use general email address NivelacionParquePuntadeVacas@gmail.com for the moment, or parque.pdv@gmail.com

Montecillo Park (Cochabamba, Bolivia): nivelacionparquemontecillo @
gmail

Carcarañá Park (Rosario, Argentina): nivelacionparquecarcarana@gmail.com

Parque Punta de Vacas (Mendoza, Argentina):
nivelacionparquepuntadevacas@gmail.com

Park Chaco (Chaco, Argentina): nivelacionparquechaco@gmail.com

Parque La Reja (Buenos Aires, Argentina):
nivelacionparquelareja@gmail.com

Park North Patagonia (Neuquén, Argentina):
nivelacionparquepnorte@gmail.com

Manantiales Park (Chile), through the website: www.parquemanantiales.org

Piribebuy Park (Paraguay): parqueparaguay@gmail.com

Caucaia Park (Brazil): nivelacaoparquecaucaia@gmail.com

La Union Park (Colombia): nivelacionpostulantes2010@gmail.com

Red Bluff Park (United States) through the website: www.redbluffpark.org

Park Toledo (Spain): nivelacionparquetoledo@gmail.com

Aloasí Park (Ecuador), through the website: www.parquealoasi.org

Attigliano Park (Italy): nivelacionparqueattigliano@gmail.com

Holit Park (Israel) through the website: www.holitpark.org

Marracuene Park (Mozambique), through the website:
www.parquemarracuene.org

La Belle Idee Parc (France): miseaniveauparclabelleidee@gmail.com

Casa Giorgi Park (Italy): livellamentoparcocasagiorgi@gmail.com

Mikebuda Park (Hungary): leveling2010_may@mikebudapark.org

*****

The Humanist Association of Hong Kong

--

Tony Henderson, Chairman, Humanist Association of Hong Kong

G/F, 49 Kau Tsuen, Mui Wo, Lantau Island, Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 29840094

e-mail: tonyhen@humanist.org.hk

Web page: http://home.pacific.net.hk/~tonyhen