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| BUILDING OUR HUMANITARIAN PLANET |
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16:00 – 18:30 / May 5, 2009 |
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Auditorium (3F), COEX |
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| SPEAKERS |
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| Yersu Kim |
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Rector
Global Academy for Future Civilizations, Kyung Hee University (Chair) |
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Yersu Kim is currently Rector of the Global Academy for Future Civilizations of Kyung Hee University after having served as Dean of the Graduate School of NGO Studies until the end of 2006. He served as Secretary General of the National Commission for UNESCO from 2000 to 2004. He was Director of the Division of Philosophy and Ethics at UNESCO, Paris from 1995 to 2000. He was Professor of Philosophy at Seoul National University from 1977 to 1998. He is the past President of the Korean Philosophical Association. He has also been Secretary-General of the Afro-Asian Philosophy Association and Vice-President of the International Federation of Philosophical Associations. He was the Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 22nd World Congress of Philosophy to be held in Seoul, Korea in 2008. Dr. Kim’s educational background includes B.A. from Harvard College in the US and Dr. phil. from University of Bonn, Germany. His publications deal with themes related to the philosophy of language, the philosophy of culture, universal ethics, and aspects of Korean culture. |
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| Paul Kennedy |
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Chair Professor
Yale University |
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Dr. Paul Kennedy, Director of International Security Studies(ISS), , the J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History, and Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy, coordinates the John M. Olin Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Military History and Strategy and is responsible for the ISS programs funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation. He is internationally known for his writings and commentaries on global political, economic, and strategic issues. His best-known work is The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which provoked an intense debate on its publication in 1988. He helped draft the Ford Foundation-sponsored report issued in 1995, The United Nations in Its Second Half-Century, which was prepared for the fiftieth anniversary of the UN. He obtained his BA at Newcastle University and his DPhil at the University of Oxford. He holds many honorary degrees, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in 2000 for services to History and elected a Fellow of the British Academy in June 2003. |
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| Sesh Velamoor |
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Deputy Director
Foundation for the Future |
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Dr. Sesh Velamoor, a native of Hyderabad, , India, is the Director of Programs at the Foundation For the Future. In this capacity he organizes and moderates think tanks to discuss issues pertaining to the long-term future of humanity, including global education. He also routinely speaks and writes on various aspects of the long-term future in local, national, and international journals and forums. Mr. Velamoor has more than 30 years' experience in management at top levels of industrial corporations. He has also taught university-level courses in marketing research, operations research, and organizational development. He has been listed in Who's Who in the United States. He is active in community affairs and has served as President of the India Association of Western Washington and Chairman of the High-Tech Board of Bellevue Community College. He currently serves as a Foundation Associate of the Pacific Science Center, Trustee of the Kistler-Ritso Foundation, and member of the board of the Seattle Snow Leopard Trust. |
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| Donald C. Johanson |
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Professor
Arizona State University |
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Dr. Donald C. Johanson is one of the world's leading and best known paleoanthropologist. He received his Masters Degree and Ph.D. in 1970 and 1974 from the University of Chicago, where he studied human paleontology. He developed the distinguished Laboratory of Physical Anthropology in Cleveland Museum of National History. Johanson's most acclaimed find occurred in 1974 at Hadar with the discovery of a 1.8 million-year-old partial skeleton of Homo habilis and Lucy, a 3.5 million-year-old nearly complete fossil of a female Australopithecus afarensis. Dr. Johanson is an Honorary Board Member of the Explorer Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and many other professional organizations. Johanson is a recipient of several international prizes and awards including two honorary doctorates. His ideas on the origins of humankind were first presented at a Nobel Symposium on Human Origins in 1978 in Sweden. |
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| Howard Bloom |
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Visiting Professor
New York University |
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Dr. Howard Bloom, a Visiting Scholar at New York University, is founder of the International Paleopsychology Project, executive editor of the New Paradigm book series, a founding board member of the Epic of Evolution Society, and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the National Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Society, the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, the European Sociobiological Society, and the Academy of Political Science. He has been featured in every edition of Who’s Who in Science and Engineering since the publication’s inception. He also edited a magazine which won two National Academy of Poets prizes, founded the leading avant-garde art studio on the East Coast, was featured on the cover of Art Direction Magazine. Seeking still further ways to infiltrate modernity’s mass mind, Bloom formed a public relations firm in the music and film industry and won the confidence of those whose territory he’d invaded. |
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| DESCRIPTION |
Our Earth is calling for a humanitarian regeneration. This is a fundamental premise shared by Kyung Hee University and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and provides a leading motive for the World Civic Forum. Despite scientific and technological progress, today we are faced with many global problems fundamentally attributable to the loss of humanity. They include national conflicts and insecurity, environmental destructions and climate change, global injustice and underdevelopment, and alienation between civilizations.
Redeeming humanitarian values fully to our lives, however, is a daunting task. It requires integrative collaboration across sectors, disciplines, and nations. As much as damage to humanity has generated complicated ills in every corner of our Planet, we need a holistic initiative transcending conventional boundaries and scopes and reflecting planetary consciousness in order to cure the ills. This integrative, collaborative, trans-boundary initiative would complement the existing efforts that have been made in diverse forms but within a more bounded range of interests and concerns.
We suggest a new integrative attempt at this initiative for humanitarian redemption. We propose to build a Humanitarian Planet by promoting civic values, civic engagement, and civic action through partnership between universities and international organizations in conjunction with civil society organizations, governments, the business sector, and the media. Humanitarian transformation of the earth is a realistic goal if these institutions and individuals, driven by the spirit of global minds, seek trans-boundary synergies between research, education, and practice. What matters most critically is civic partnership between those institutions and individuals representing diverse-often-conflicting-ideas and interests but willing to go beyond narrow boundaries in search of global civic awareness.
This plenary session features presentations and discussion by globally-renowned thinkers and practitioners with broad perspectives and deep insights. It will be an ambitious step forward toward building our humanitarian Planet, the main objective of the WCF. To call for attention from as many people as possible, this plenary session is scheduled for a time slot when on other session is concurrently held.
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