The Words of the Davies Family |
Report: UPF-Europe Symposium, Leadership and Good Governance - Innovative Approaches to World Peace
Christopher Davies
April 20-22, 2007
Huize Glory, Nederland
On the weekend of April 20-22, UPF-NL hosted this year’s third UPF-Europe Symposium, "Leadership and Good Governance - Innovative Approaches to World Peace", in Hotel Huize Glory, Bergen aan Zee, North Holland, The Netherlands. The next such symposium in Huize Glory will be September 14-16, but in the interim, there will be symposia in other countries.
Friday, April 20: arrivals, UPF lectures, talk by jhr. dr. P. Beelaerts van Blokland about MEPI
Participants arrived throughout the morning and, after a Welcome Lunch, received a "Brief Orientation and Introduction to the Universal Peace Federation". There were 15 guests, all connected with UPF-Europe, but some originally from further a field, from many varied religious national, racial and cultural backgrounds.
The UPF lectures by Timothy J. Miller, Vice President of FFWPU-Europe, formed the bulk of the program and, in addition, there were two guest speakers, walks in the surrounding nature (much is a protected nature reserve, drawing visitors from beyond the boundaries of the Netherlands), a very full and varied cultural evening, delicious food and ample time for discussion and fellowship.
Through Friday afternoon, two lectures covered "UPF’s Founding Principles: Humanity - One Family under God; Living for the Sake of Others; The Spiritual and Moral Dimension; and The Family as the School of Love and Peace".
Principles into Practice - MEPI: video and jhr. dr. P. Beelaerts van Blokland's personal experience
After dinner, under the title "Principles into Practice - The Middle East Peace Initiative and Ambassadors of Peace sharing experiences of the Holy Land", a video about the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) was shown and jhr. dr. P. Beelaerts van Blokland, a UPF Ambassador for Peace and former minister in the Dutch government and Queen's Provincial Representative, spoke about his recent visit to Israel. What was particularly noticeable was how he used "we" when talking about the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI). He obviously felt himself not a guest, but part of the MEPI family, as in "we are a family of peace" and explained, "MEPI attempts to create a culture of peace and establish lasting peace in the Middle East. The ordinary man in the street wants peace, all of them." He emphasized how important it was for the Middle East that the US was connected with Iraq and said that it was important that people could meet face to face, "and that happens with our group (MEPI) and people are grateful for it, all around the table."
He expressed that while war might sometimes be necessary, it could not in itself bring lasting Peace and cited the experience of the "Six Day war". When the Israel invaded Lebanon, they had first been welcomed as liberators, but as they became an army of occupation there was a reaction, which actually created Hezbollah. The same was happening to the US in Iraq.
The media were not helpful. They were often under or misinformed, but still had to make reports. A TV journalist had confided that he had to film a report 15 minutes after landing in Israel and was jet lagged as well as ignorant! He recommended the book "Furrows of Peace" by Dr. Eliezer Glaubach.
Similarly, the "wall" might be temporarily necessary for defense, but is was a symbol of the "politics of separation" and made life very difficult for all Palestinians. As a barrier, it was a barrier to a future of peace. It also prevented Israelis from going beyond self-centeredness. "We (MEPI) have the vision of one family under God."
He made and expanded on four main points:
1. People do not, as is often claimed, fight for religion, but "through" religion (using it as an excuse);
2. Each side needs to understand the situation of the other. Arafat had been offered some 90% of what he wanted, but he refused because he did not get what he wanted with Jerusalem. He should have realized the pressures on Barak made it impossible to grant all Arafat wanted. Dr. Beelaerts mentioned in passing that the US was not now a "real player" as Bush's presidency was coming to an end. Bush was a "poor player" compared with Clinton.
3. One needed to honor, even flatter, one's opponent; in particular, Israel failed to realize this.
4. Although it might be necessary for self defense, you can never win the peace with a war, particularly with today's form of guerrilla warfare. It was "mission impossible", involving civilians.
He also stressed the need to respect Islam, from which so many good things had come, including developments in science and mathematics and respect for women.
The main thing was to keep hope, even when there seemed to be no hope. He quoted from Psalms 122, "may there be peace inside your walls and safety in the palaces and the houses" and Psalm 125, "Peace be with Israel".
He affirmed that MEPI was good in bringing people together, "even churches who haven't smelt each other" and closed by reading from the poem Grapes of Peace (in contrast with Grapes of Wrath) by Hadassah Haskale, from her book Dreaming Beyond War", emphasizing we should not be like "he who has lost his way to the vineyard".
Saturday, April 21: meditation, UPF lectures, talks by Beelaerts van Blokland & Blankenburg, cultural ev.
Saturday began with a Morning Meditation for those who wished to attend, led by Ashin Sopaka, a Buddhist monk and refugee from Burma, now living in Cologne, Germany: a "Mita" (world peace) meditation, starting by repeating "may I be free from all danders, worries, sickness, worry and anger" and then wishing the same for the fellow symposium participants, people of the town, all creatures, the wider world and so on. Breakfast over, two lectures on UPF’s Founding Principles addressed "The Roots of Conflict", then "Conflict Resolution – the Path to Peace and Cooperation".
After lunch, many responded to the suggestion to use the 90 minute break to "walk in nature". And then all gathered to listen to talks by two of their fellow participants.
Jhr. dr. P. Beelaerts van Blokland: recent visit to Korea and reflections on Europe
Dr Beelaerts van Blokland first mentioned that he had had to leave the evening before to attend a meeting between Roman Catholics and Protestants regarding the creation of an inter-religious museum. They had been offered medieval "treasures" from a cloister and there had been vigorous discussion about how to use this donation. Himself a Protestant, but for long a campaigner for religious unity, that evening he was to go to another meeting, with an ecumenical group that dated from 1318 and had helped foster cooperation between Catholics and Protestants in the time of Willem van Oranje.
Much given to amusing asides, Dr. Beelaerts took a sip of water and said, "On a beach and in the desert you need water, I learned that from a camel."
He reported that he had been in Korea for UPF's World Summit on Peace, February 19-24, in Seoul, South Korea, and the 88th birthday of Rev. Dr. Moon, and he explained the significance of 88, a new beginning, times two, and contrasted Dr. Moon's optimism, "I now start my life", with someone near him who had said "when I'm 88, my life stops"!
UPF seemed to be a "leading institution of service to others", we needed to "see" the people around us and not be egocentric. Quoting extensively from Rev. Moon and the UPF conference material, he reported how there had been delegates from some 150 nations, "we were a big family" and mentioned some of the topics discussed at the Summit.
Many had been "a little bit amazed" by Rev. Moon's proposal for a connection across the Bering Strait, as a religious leader, he usually talked more about topics such as family values, but "we in Nederland like this, working with water". He opined that it was technically possible to connect America and Asia, but having been a stakeholder in a cross water connection of four or five kilometers, he felt the cost of an 85 kilometer connection would be colossal, "but Rev. Moon is not looking for money". He mentioned the emphasis on women as agents for peace, that they tended to be more active in "society" rather than "war", addressing the causes of war rather than the "professional" way of waging it.
He also talked about Rev. Moon's proposal for an "Abel" UN, mentioning the leader of these discussions had been from Indonesia and that real, effective respect for human rights and freedom of all peoples could only come through the medium of religion, "we need religion as a pushing force".
It had been his first time in Korea and before he went, believing that it was good to know something about the culture and environment of a place to prepare oneself, he had researched Korean literature. Korea was famous for love poetry and its oldest poems were from before the time of Christ, far earlier than still existing poetry in Europe. He quoted a poem translated by Jaihiun Kim, expressing the desire of the writer to cut out her heart and be the moon and "go where my love is and shine on him".
The afternoon's theme was Asia and Europe and though he did not make a connection between the two, Dr. Beelaerts did touch on some points regarding Europe, in particular opining that Europe should deal fairly with Turkey, "is it polite to keep a country on a line, like a fish, for 50 years?" He then mused on the possibility of Israel joining the EU if Turkey joined, that would certainly force Israel to act less independently. Europe also needed to be more concerned about its relationship with Russia. It was a great power, already had influence - and wanted more influence. Like China, it could not be isolated. It was necessary to also consider a common environment policy in Europe, this something that certainly did not stop at the border. Scandinavia was forward looking, but different countries had different cultures and Germany was not so cooperative.
Saying "no" to the proposed EU Constitution, which was really a treaty rather than a constitution, had acted as a brake on the development of the EU and he mused on whether one always got the best decisions by consulting the whole of the electorate. Should this have been a question for Parliament? Moses had not consulted with everyone. The challenge was how to be a great family, as "our founder, Rev. Moon, proposes". He considered the family of Jacob, with favorite son Joseph, and mentioned he had recently read a book about Mongolian civilization in connection with Rev. Moon's Mongolian Federation for World Peace and returned to the growing importance of Asia, in particular the Chinese stock exchange and China's use of its increasing financial resources, "money is power" and its out placing of work in other countries.
He mentioned the phrase "your humble servant" and the Bible verse that stressed the importance of thinking and praying about peace: it gave food to the soul and caused you to handle your affairs and act in a different way than you would if not thinking about peace.
Prof. Dr. E. Blankenburg: "Fabricating identity on the internet" Dr. Van Blokland was followed by Prof. Dr. E. Blankenburg, described as a criminologist, whose talk was presented as "Setting up an identity on the Internet and conflict on Maluku (de Molukken) in Indonesia".
Prof Blankenburg started by saying that, in contrast with all the talk about love, he was going to talk about hate!
Indonesia was a huge country, imagine the distance between Madrid and St. Petersburg, with many islands, each with is own culture. One element of people's identity was their religion, in Indonesia, your religion was stated on your passport and you could not put none or agnostic or atheist. One aspect of identity is what makes someone different from others. For years, Moslems and Christians and people of other religions had lived peacefully together, but in 1998 a minor incident in Ambom, the capital of Maluku, sparked of riots in which people were killed. There followed lots of discussion on the internet, with lots of "hate messages", heating up the the situation in a way that could not happen "in direct speech". Many of the writers were anonymous and the cyber war spilled out on to the streets.
A similar phenomenon was happening in the Netherlands. There was intense rivalry between the football teams Ajax (Amsterdam) and Feyenoord (Rotterdam) and one cyber invitation to meet for a fight attracted 2000 combatants and one person died.
The internet was a wonderful invention, its creators had resisted attempts to limit its accessibility or make it commercial, it offered freedom of information and opinion which enabled universities in poor countries to flourish in a way that would not be possible without it - but it could also be used for destructive purposes.
In Europe, we had for about 150 years stressed liberty from social control, we had individualized society. In Amsterdam, there were so many different churches and people often changed from one religion to another, "now I'm a Buddhist". There was no longer a sense of belonging, we believed in freedom and individual choice, but for many that was too much. People needed to create their own identity. It was fine to be "multicultural", but in the middle of that, you also needed your own identity.
Hate was one way of creating identity: if you hate others, you define yourself. The Arabs needed Israel as a common enemy to be able to unite together. Briefly returning to Asia, he commented that Thailand was a "miracle of identity", but it was stifling.
Comments by Prof. Gautam, UPF-NL Chairman One of those in the audience was Prof. Gautam and Wim Koetsier invited him to say a few words. Prof. Gautam asserted the need to have an ideal, "or you cannot move". Rev. Moon was one of the few to stress the importance of family, without family there was no life, no safety, no process by which you could develop. "I had a great grandfather; I never saw him, but if he was not there, I would not be here today". The vertical aspect was very important, without it there was no existence, but we also needed the horizontal, the family, the world, a synthesis of the two.
India's society was based on knowledge, Hinduism meant "the way of living", in Buddhism it was understood you had to have certain duties or you could not live. We said "I have two children", but that did not mean I possessed them. In India, it was understood that you lived in society, you had to respect the place and situation in which you were living. Europe emphasized the individual, the East the collective. In India, you could not be "completely individual", you were in a family, in fact you usually talked of we, not I. Prof. Gautam also emphasized that if we wanted to live in unity, we needed to accept diversity, other cultures. As the Prins Claus Fund emphasized, culture was a basic need
Cultural Evening
After Dinner, there was the customary Cultural Evening. It was as usual filled with variety; Carlos Figueroa sang South America songs rather than his customary rock and roll and Marta Dobosz from Poland, whose foundation helps children in Africa, sang classical and gospel songs equally excellently and movingly.
Sunday, February 18: meditation, life & work of UPF founder, reflections
Morning Meditation again preceded breakfast and that was followed by Tim Miller's presentation "A Life for World Peace: The life and work of UPF’s Founder, Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon". The rest of the morning was given to Concluding Remarks and Reflections. Wim Koetsier reports that many were very moved by the whole experience and a number shed tears when hearing or reflecting on the life of Father Moon.
After lunch, those that had time before their flights were able to take part in "Sightseeing – Dutch traditions and crafts".