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Honouring the relationship between sustainability and life purpose.
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Redefining the quality of life from a consumptive, acquisitive mode to a mode of non-consumptive relatedness. This
mode challenges the frantic pace, exhaustion and burn-out many people feel. It enables people to restore organic connections to time,
space, body and human relations and to engage in non-consumptive forms of fulfillment. Most importantly, it can reduces the depletion
of natural resources for endless material goods and exploitation of human and natural communities for profits.
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Assisting people in articulating and enacting their ethical principles coherently in all aspects of their lives, particularly in
work and civil life. The large, bureaucratic structures of public governance and corporate business constrains the ability to act ethically.
As people named the constraints on their ethical autonomy and were empowered to act on them, these structures will be challenged.
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Transforming toward an ecological-based rather than industrial-based way of being, as individuals and communities.
Ecological systems are one source for learning to achieve dynamic balance and sustainable practices in living and working. For North
American societies, sustainability will involve a profound inner transformation, cultural transformation as well as socio-economic
transformation.
- Working together to keep our planet healthy,
productive and hospitable for all people and living things. This requires
quality relationships and responsibility to one-self and others, and dealing
wisely with consumption, work, finances, health, resources, community living,
family, life purpose, wildlife and the Earth.
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Fresh water resources and clean air are at least if not more important to
every human being than any other human rights ever listed in any charter of any
society. If there was a scale of values to be drawn where would you insert these
two human rights? Human rights are those that individuals have by virtue of their very
existence as human beings:
to live, eat, drink fresh water, breath fresh air, have shelter. Just as human beings have
human rights, they also have moral, legal responsibilities and related
obligations and
accountabilities. Every person needs Oxygen to live so clean air is
certainly a primordial human right by our very nature. A large part of our body
is made of water and we could not live without water; therefore water is also a
primordial human rights by our very nature.
Fresh water resources and clean air are
therefore proposed to be categorized as human rights.
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We are committed to be responsible to ourselves and to one another, and to sustaining
Earth.
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The key is personal responsibility and accountability. Therefore
the individual is the important element, one who takes responsibility for
his/her community. As previously defined,
an 'individual' here may either be a person, a corporation, a NGO,
a local community, a group of people, organizations, businesses, a nation,
or a government. We are all working together to keep our planet healthy,
productive and hospitable for all people and living things. This requires
quality relationships and responsibility to one-self and others, and dealing
wisely with consumption, work, finances, health, resources, community living,
family, life purpose, wildlife and the Earth. We are also all accountable
to others about our actions and the things we do throughout our lives.
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We committed to peace,
freedom, social and economic well-being, ecological protection, global
ethics and spiritual values.
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We recognize the interactions between
aspects included in the major quality systems such as: economic, environmental,
social, and the availability of resources.
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Our universal values are meant to bring together the billions of people around
the world for the good of all humanity. These values are the common grounds
to start a new global dialogue. East and West talking; capitalism and communism,
all different political and social philosophies and structures reaching
to one another, compromising, changing, letting go old ways that dont work,
creating new ways that do, and finding what is very important to ensure
a sound future for Earth. All peoples on Earth will now join forces
to bring forth a sustainable global society embracing universal values
related to human rights, economic and social justice, respect of nature,
peace, responsibility to one another, and the protection and management
of the Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future
well-being of life within
The Global Community.
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Making sustainable development a universal value in the way
we conduct our lives.
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Realizing and accepting that health is a complex state involving
mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and social well-being.
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The important part
of the thinking in both community health and ecological sustainability
is the need to find a sense of community as a crucial aspect of healthy
individual development.
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Apply a wellness approach in dealing with
physical well-being. There is a multitude of influences shaping family life and its
well-being. Wellness is a concept related to physical well-being. It is a new
health paradigm replacing the old model of doctors, drugs, and treating
symptoms. Spiritual well-being deals with mental, emotional and spiritual as
well as physical health. Instead of blaming the doctor for an illness and
expecting insurance companies and government to pick up the health care tab, a
wellness approach places personal responsibility as part of the solution.
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All cultures and nations value the family as an important social unit. The family is the basic social unit of The
Global Community (or Earth Community or Earth Society).
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Members of The Global Community
organization appreciate all people's cultural and religious perspectives
on family planning. We are promoting tolerance for their beliefs and
practices.
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We want to cooperate on a global scale in making the world a
better place for our children and their families.
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Our species is threatened of extinction unless we all
behave and conduct our lives responsibly. The Global Community
organization has taken the role of a unique and universal society that
represents the best possible values for the survival of our species and
of all life on Earth. We are the new Earth Community or Earth Society.
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Before making a decision on issues we will
reflect on the universal ethical principles.
We have before us many principles that tell something
about issues:
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The principle of justice: all persons within
a given society deserve equal access to goods and services that
fulfill basic human needs.
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The principle of individual liberty:
individuals have the freedom of decision and action, to the extent
that their actions do not interfere with the rights of others.
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The utilitarian principle: morally right
actions or policies are those that result in the greatest number of
people.
These principles help us in understanding the extent of
the issue.
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The Global Community organization promotes women’s rights.
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We accept human rights as part of our universal values from which we base our decisions.
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We promote gender equality.
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We help adults become interested in the concept of sustainability
by transforming their patterns of living and
working; adults go through a learning process and we will first enable them to return to their sense of life purpose, re-defining and raising
their quality of life, and mobilizing their moral and ethical autonomy, particularly in the context of work. During
this process, adults will begin a transformative journey from "the mode of
having" including consuming and grasping, to "the mode of being" or relatedness, a mode that is part of an ecological way of being.
Both transformative and restorative learning are vital
elements for integrating ecological principles into everyday living and working and hence, for creating sustainable societies.
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We promote political well-being, or an internal sense of power and autonomy,
as being in control
of one's life, being able to and having the freedom to make decisions, being aware of and able to anticipate the consequences of one's
actions on one's self and others and having the skills to act on one's
decisions, being individuals who no longer accept unquestioningly those practices in
society that are frequently taken for granted, those practices which reinforce inequality and injustice.
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We promote and live our lives as a
personal sustainable development that has to do with each and everyone of us:
* being with self-control; eating
to accommodate our body's needs and holding hereditary ills in check;
maintaining a well working physical vehicle (our body); balancing our life
with work, play and rest; feeding our mind and being constantly learning; communicating with others
* living with the
empowerment of free-thought, creativity
* taking charge of our lives
* planning for our own future
Everyone has to decide this by himself. Knowing our weaknesses we can
work at eliminating them or at least making sure they would not affect
significantly our decision-making process. It is a struggle that spans
our lifetime. Once an individual is in control of his (or
her) own being then he can extend
his empowerment out to his 'global community' (the one around ourselves
like an imaginary glass bubble surrounding us) and The Global Community.
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Building the capacity of the poor to develop their own strategies for overcoming poverty and supporting these very strategies enables us
to ensure sustainability of poor people’s own initiatives. Moving towards institutional sustainability is important for ensuring that
financial services are available on a long-term basis for the poor. This should not, however, compromise the need to ensure the
sustainability and development of the poor people’s activities themselves. The
human element is a key determinant for growth and sustainability.
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We have come to realize that achieving sustainable development
is linked with
policies emphasizing community, the value of information, originality in ideas, and the arts.
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The Global Community (or
Earth Community) is becoming pluralistic. Recognition and
respect of this pluralism is a necessity for the survival of mankind.
The history of humanity has always been that of an increasingly more complex interrelationship between its members.
Clans to tribes, to nations, to empires, and to today's economic and political alliances. Societies have become global and communications
have made us all 'neighbours'. Massive migrations within and among countries have contributed to increasing contacts between human beings
of different origins, religions, ideologies, and moral-value systems.
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The Global Community (or
Earth Community) recognizes that all human beings are
born free and equal in dignity and rights. Freedom is both a principle
and a value. It is because human beings are free that they are subject
of law and are creators and holders of rights. Freedom and human rights
are therefore basic to each other. Fundamental freedoms are far from being enjoyed by all but it is our
common future, it is part of our Vision statement for year 2024. Human
freedom is a value to be attained. Equality is a value, an ideal for people who live
a hard day-to-day life of economic inequalities such as unemployment,
and social inequalities caused by the privileges enjoyed by some people
and the exploitation of others, and inequality of educational and health
opportunities. Freedom and equality are both indispensable. Equality and freedom are therefore accepted and
enshrined as universal values by which The Global Community
organization will governed its affairs. As universal values they are
concerned with our ability to decide, to choose values and to
participate in the making of laws, and they are dependent on the recognition
of other people. These values forbid any form of discrimination on the
grounds of race, nationality, sex, religion, age or mother tongue. By accepting both values of freedom and equality we can
achieve justice. One can be answerable for one's actions in a 'just' way
only if judgements are given in the framework of democratically
established laws and courts. Social justice is another universal value to which The
Global Community aspires and accepts as a universal value.
Social justice consists in sharing wealth with a view to greater
equality and the equal recognition of each individual's merits. Human rights and democracy are closely
intertwined. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the characteristics of a democracy. The typical
fundamental freedoms of a democracy (freedom of expression, thought, assembly,
and association) are themselves part of human rights. These freedoms were
present during the World Congress as we have dialogue and debate
on the rights of different people and their accompanying obligations and
responsibilities as human beings. These freedoms can exist everywhere.
Democracy is a political system based on the participation of
the people. It foresees the separation of powers among the judiciary, the
legislative and the executive authorities, as well as free and regular
elections.
The organization promotes efficient forms of management and
participation. The political rights of The Global Community
define the conditions under which citizens exercise their responsibilities.
For our organization to be democratic, we must organized our political
and social life with the greatest respect of all peoples.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights resides
in the fact that it gives equal emphasis to cultural rights, economic
and social rights, and civil and political rights. The
Global Community organization asks how meaningful is the right
to life or to participation in political life, if poverty, gender
inequality, destitution
and epidemics prevent individuals from enjoying freedom of movement,
freedom to vote, to marry and so on? We found evident that
economic and social rights are the essential prerequisite for the
effectiveness and exercise of all rights recognized for human beings.
This was the reason for organizing the World Congress: to
find the best ways to sustain us all. The developing countries are
having a harder time than others to achieve the exercise of these rights
on a lasting basis, with the problems of economic globalization
presenting new challenges. We must therefore beware of enforcing
economic rights alone to the detriment of individual civil rights and
the rights of all individuals to decide their own fate and the future of
their country, their political rights.
The universality of human rights recognizes the right of
all individuals to participate in the cultural life of their community
and of other country, to receive education and training, and to be
informed. In this World Congress, you were asked to
list universal values that were the most important, very important, important, not
so important, and values that should be let go in order to sustain all
life on Earth. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is certainly a good start in findings universal values.
We are aware that traditional customs and standards could
burden the sustainability of all life on Earth. They could burden Earth
society or any society forever, and holds individuals in a straitjacket.
We cannot accept that. No one can! There are choices to be made and you
must make them. Cultures can develop and can go on developing. Even
religious beliefs may evolve. We are living now and we are able to
create these changes. We are at least as bright , most certainly
brighter, than the people who were living thousand of years ago. As far as The Global
Community is concerned, cultural and religious differences
cannot be a reason or an excuse or a pretext for not respecting human
rights. Quite the contrary, all kinds of cultures may promote human
rights and especially cultural rights. They are different in their
achievements, but they are equal in dignity where they are expressions
of freedom. At any time or in any given place, men, women and children
use their culture to invent new ways of making human rights a living
reality. Diversity enriches us if it respects the dignity of each
individual, and if it takes account of human rights as a whole.
Human rights represent an ideal and a supreme goal which
can give meaning to life in society. Throughout the history of humanity,
the rights of human beings have been defined and enshrined with
reference to the values of the dignity of each individual and of
freedom, equality and justice. These values are universal. The
Global Community has accepted and enshrined them into its own
ways of behaving and dealing with all peoples. Cultures and societies
differ so much that their expression takes varying forms, but diversity
does not affect the foundation of inalienable values constituted by
human rights. Each individual is recognized as a representative of
humankind. Human dignity resides in each of us and this dignity must be
recognized and respected by all.
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We accept the Earth Charter as drafted
by the Earth Charter Commission. When the organization becomes better structured
members will be asked to vote for its inclusion as our Earth Charter. For now
there is more work to do. The Earth Charter was part of the Discussion
Roundtables of the World Congress and as such new amendments were proposed. For
instances, the universal values (and others to come) promoted by The Global
Community are to be included in the Charter along with the
proposal of new human rights: fresh water and clean air are human rights. We
respectfully ask Ms. Mirian Vilela, Earth Charter Project Manager for The Earth
Council, to review and amend the draft. All
information you need to do so is on our websites. We want to see the spirit of
our organization included (in writing) in the draft. For instance The Global
Community means the Earth Community. Members may wish to change
the name but all basic global community principles, concepts, and values will
still be kept and must be included in the Charter. This World Congress
has showed us that there is a close interdependence between the human health, the conduct of the people, the quality of their environment,
the type of their professional occupation, the motives and objectives of their lives, the relationships with other people and with the
natural elements. The Earth Charter must be drafted to spell out this
spirit of collectiveness and global community, and it must be specifically made
for our organization, The Global
Community (or the Earth Community) organization, and none
others.
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We consider that Indigenous peoples and their nurturing of spiritual and environmental partnership with nature - a valuable and integral part of their
socio-economic structure. The change of focus platform preserves the socio-economic relationship with nature that is evident in many
Indigenous societies, and calls for the integration of contemporary environmental sciences to assist in environmental goals. Therefore,
the change of focus platform encourages the conscious participation of all peoples towards a more environmentally sympathetic global
order. By associating Indigenous values with contemporary sciences, it is also possible to produce a strategy to effect environmental
consciousness in capitalist production. For instance, in Canada, we are
concerned that among First Nations people is the under-representation of
Aboriginal students in all science disciplines such as health-related professions. For those students who are interested in working with
Aboriginal populations, there is a requirement for an understanding of basic science as well as traditional healing philosophies and
approaches. Furthermore, as society continues to rely more and more heavily on technology, it is increasingly important that there
should be a large proportion of Aboriginal people with a balanced scientific background.
We is, therefore, a great need to
initiate, develop, and promote programs in science among First Nations students in order to attract them into scientific professions.
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In health, an adequate level of health care is a universal value as well as a human right. We expect adequate health
services to be accessible, affordable, compassionate and socially acceptable. The Global Community organization is proposing
that every individual of a society is co-responsible for helping in implementing
and managing health programmes along with the government and the public
institutions.
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Quality of life is a multi-dimensional, complex and very
subjective concept. For instance, someone who has changed their
consumption habits to better ensure that their choices will make a better quality of life for themselves, the environment and future
generations, may be seen by others as having a lower or inferior quality of life since they have removed themselves from the
materialistic mainstream characteristic of our consumer society. Someone may feel that an absence of violence and abuse in their life
leads to a higher quality of living even though they have fewer tangible resources, money, or shelter; peace of mind and freedom from
abuse has increased the quality of their daily life relative to what it was like before.
There are universal quality of life values which lead to "human betterment" or the improvement of the
human condition. In addition to the value of species survival (human and other living organisms), they include: adequate resources,
justice and equality, freedom, and peace or balance of power. A better quality
of life for all people of The Global
Community is a goal for all of us and one of our universal
values.
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We now have a way of dealing with
globalization: global ethics. In the past, corporation’s rule without checks and balances.
For now on there will be checks and balances. Our judgement will be based on
global ethics. Global ethics must always be grounded in
realities.
But realities are changing constantly and are different in different
places. We live in a world that makes progress toward democracy. Ethics
and morality exist only when human beings can act freely. In our free
society, rights are tied to responsibilities. Corporations are committed to improvement in business performance
and want to be seen as 'good corporate citizens' on a local and a global
scale. Corporations have social responsibilities as they are an
integral part of society. Global ethics recalls that those realities, on which others build upon, have to be protected first.
A classical example is, that to the stewardship of the ecological base (the base of life) has to be given priority before the fulfilment of various economic and social wishes.
Demands resulting from the social system of a particular country have to find their limits in the protection of the global ecosystem or the aim of
maximization of labour productivity in agriculture and forestry should not be realised at the expense of biodiversity landscapes.
Vital interests of future generations have to be considered as having priority before less vital interests of the present generation. Typical examples are climate change,
fresh water, clean air and soil erosion.
Supply chains have to be designed in a way, that the goods can enter after usage or consumption into natural
or industrial recycling processes. If serious damages to persons, animals, plants and the ecosystem cannot be excluded, an action or pattern of behaviour should be refrained from.
A striking example is the use of negotiations and community principles to
resolve conflicts in other countries. Never use armed intervention to resolve a
conflict. Never go to war. A measure for supplying goods or services should choose a
path which entails the least possible impact on the ecological and social system concerned.
This way functioning proven systems will not be disturbed, and unnecessary risks
will not be taken. The Polluter Pays Principle applies to all with no exception.
Supply strategies consuming less resources should have preference before those enhancing more resource consumption.
Strategies, which violate human dignity, should not be permitted. Examples are the expulsion of an indigenous population by the flooding of a valley for a hydroelectric
power plant.
With this World Congress, The
Global Community organization has now at hand the method and framework
to conduct societal checks and balances of sustainable development. A
more balance world economy will result of annual checks and balances.
Corporations will take their social responsibilities and become involved in
designing, monitoring, and implementing these checks and balances. Several
corporations have already done so. Results will
be taken into account in the evaluation of sustainable development. Corporations
are required to expand their responsibilities to include human rights, the
environment, community and family aspects, safe working conditions, fair wages
and sustainable consumption aspects. The
Global Community organization has extended the idea of sustainability to be a moral and ethical state,
as well as an economic and environmental state, wherein sustainable consumption patterns respect the universal values of peace,
security, justice and equity within the human relationships that exist in the global community.
When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound
solution would be to choose a measure, if possible, which causes reversible
damage as oppose to a measure causing an irreversible loss.
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Global consumption is a very important
aspect globalization. Consumers should be concerned with the impact of their decisions on the environment but also on the lives and well-being of other people. Since one of
the key functions of families as a social institution is to engage in production (selling their labour in return for wages) and consumption
(using those wages to buy goods and services), then the role of families has impacts
on sustainable consumption and development.
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Employing participatory approaches in identifying needs, solutions and designing
specific mechanisms for poverty alleviation reduces the risk of programme failure.
Building the capacity of the poor to develop their own strategies for overcoming poverty and supporting these strategies enables us
to ensure sustainability of poor people’s own initiatives. Poverty exists everywhere, and
it
takes dramatic forms in developing countries where governments have a hard time
in coping with the basic needs and demands of their populations. The
distribution of wealth around the world demands more compassionate approaches to
bridging the continuously widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Understanding the economic and social development of a balance world is a
priority of The Global Community organization. The eradication of
poverty in the world is a priority and our responsibility. The interaction of poor health, poverty and environmental
deterioration has been measured and was found to have a direct
relationship with the stage of economic and social development of a
country. Policies to combat poverty should not damage the environment.
Environmental policies should not create poverty. This requires:
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The diversification of production activities thereby
reducing pressure on natural resources
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A major change in consumer habits so as to be compatible
with the natural environment
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The development of technologies aimed at specific
environmental and social conditions; 'clean' technologies that have less
impact on the environment
Several developing countries are ruled by socio-economic and
political structures that are oppressive, and it is the inherently
vulnerable and dependent groups that are at a higher risk of neglect and
abuse. There has to be an organized NGO sector and active human-rights groups in
such societies in order to protect and defend the oppressed people.
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No more conflicts and wars. Wars begin in our minds, and it is therefore
in our minds that the event of peace must be constructed. We may desire peace
and abhor war and also be moved by the suffering it causes but this is not
enough. We must realize that knowledge of and respect for human rights and other
universal values found in this World Congress can lead each member of The
Global Community towards the universal peace to which we all aspire.
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The Global Community is on a massive spiritual quest. The human
species is now going through a major evolutionary stage in its development.
There will be a shift in consciousness that will bring us all together and
closer to God. This change will occur within a generation. The Global
Community organization has a duty to guide people through this process.
This is what the World Congress is about. Spiritual well-being is in relation to society's loss of spirituality,
spirituality in the family, and spirituality shaping home economics practice,
and the new focus to be attained by The Global Community. Spirituality does not refer to any specific religion or faith. Spirituality
is not about religion. Spirituality is about reaching one's full potential,
about developing and nurturing supporting and sustaining relationships, and
about seeking and finding meaning in our lives and seeking one's own truth,
values and perspective on life. It is about laughter, joy, happiness, belonging,
acceptance and community spirit. Spirituality is also about finding a new
relationship with humanity based on trust, peace, and universal values we found
in this World Congress.
Spirituality is also a sense of being connected with a positive force
or Being greater than oneself. In the world of spirituality and
religious beliefs it is better to have God closer to us, no tier person in
between. We are with
God anytime and anyplace with think of God. We are also connected with The
Soul of Humanity. Our species can only survive by having each one of us
living responsibly locally and globally so it is better to appreciate a Being
closer to us, The Soul of Humanity. There is true love of us, of
all life on Earth and of Earth itself coming from this Being. It is my
experience that this Being exists and is wonderful. The Soul of Humanity
is with us and God the Spirit. All Souls on Earth are parts of The Soul of
Humanity. We now know that the Souls of all those people who seek
to destroy life on Earth by conflicts and wars will never be allowed back on
Earth to taste life again in whatever form it may be. Nothing or anyone can stop this process. There are trillions of young Souls ready to
replace the entire Earth population if it maybe. No excuse! Not even
humanitarian efforts based on responding to conflicts and wars by conflicts and
wars such as those of the United Nations intervening in other countries
affairs.
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We need new to create thoughts to sustain
Earth not bombs. This World Congress is breaking grounds in its limitless well of new thoughts. We have created (and still thousands more to come)
new thoughts, concepts, ideas, ways of doing things to sustain Earth throughout the coming millenniums. During the past thousand
years humanity has lived with the "life program information" transferred into the brain via two ways:
our genes, and education and upbringing (IMPRINTING theory). The mechanism of biological information protection did the rest. We
are lock, stock, and barrel with the old stock. In a way! Today our species is evolving to rid itself of the old thoughts that is threatening
its future and survival. This is a survival reaction and is very real. Our species will accomplish the evolutionary leap within a
generation. Our consciousness will evolve rapidly. We will reach levels never imagined before. We will get much closer to God and
God to us as we are parts of his/her own consciousness. The Soul of Humanity
will be guiding us through this process.
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For a community to be sustainable there has to be a general social
and economical well-being throughout the community. Health is the basic
building block of this well-being. Health is created and lived by people
within a community: where they work, learn, play, and love. Health is a
complex state involving mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, social
and economical well-being. Each community can develop its own ideas of
what a healthy community is by looking at its own situation, and finding
its own solutions. Health promotion generates living and working conditions
that are safe, stimulating, satisfying and enjoyable. To reach a state
of complete physical, mental and social well-being, a community must be
able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change
with the environment. The overall guiding principle for the community is
the need to encourage reciprocal maintenance, to take care of each other
and the environment. The important part of the thinking in both community
health and ecological sustainability is the need to find a sense of community
as a crucial aspect of healthy individual development.
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The concept of Sustainable Development was presented for the first time in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development, in the report Our Common Future . The commission was created by the United Nations, and was made of 21 nations, including Canada. The commission, headed by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem
Brundtland, said that the planet needs " a new era of environmentally sustainable sound economic development. Dr. Brundtland also said that government must strongly support "a new political approach to environment and development, where economic and fiscal policies, trade and foreign policies, energy, agriculture, industry, and other sectorial policies, all aim to induce development that is not only economically but ecologically sustainable."
The complete definition of Sustainable Development was researched and developed
along with a method of measurement. The technical definition of Sustainable Development was given as being:
"a sound balance among the interactions of the impacts (positive and/or negative), or stresses, on the four major quality systems: People, Economic Development, Environment and Availability of Resources."
The non-technical definition was given as being:
"a sound balance among the interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve environmental quality, make wise use of our resources, and enhance social benefits."
Two indicators local/global indicators were developed to measure
sustainable development. The Gross Environmental Sustainable Development
Indicator (GESDI) and the Gross Sustainable Development Product (GSDP). The GSDP is defined as the total value of production within a region over a specified period of time.
The measurement of GSDP gives a proper and sound signal to the public, government and industry about the rate and direction of economic growth; it
identifies environmental, health, and social quality; it identifies sustainable and unsustainable levels of resource and environmental uses; it measures the success or
failure of sustainable development policies and practices; and it identifies resource scarcity. Values obtained enable us to make meaningful comparisons of
sustainable development between cities, provinces, nations over the entire planet. The world population is becoming more urban.
It is the quality of the urban environment and its well-being that
constitutes a challenge to any society. Cities are the centres of
economic and cultural life of a nation's population. The public wants
government expenditures to be directed to areas such as urban
development, health, housing, education, crime prevention, recreation,
environmental pollution control, waste management, aesthetic
satisfaction, well-being and many others. It is important to have social indicators that can tell
us about the quality and costs of essential elements such as:
educational and cultural facilities, suitable community facilities and
services, proper shelter, family life, security from crime, efficient
and environmentally conscious transportation, social justice, aesthetic
satisfaction, and minority status.
GESDI can be obtained for all quality indicators that are difficult to give a money value to. Both the GESDI and GSDP are measured together and tell us
about the quality and cost of development, locally and globally.
Measurements of GESDI and GSDP provide insights for the discussion of issues such as :
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Is the actual rate of development too slow or too fast?
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Are People aspects being stressed too far?
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Are resources and the environment managed in a sustainable manner?
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What forms of community and home designs promote sustainability?
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In what ways should social, educational, and health programs and services be modified?
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Is this generation leaving to the future generation a world that is at least as diverse and productive as the one it inherited?
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What improvements can be brought up to the quality of development?
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We are proposing to make fresh water a
human right. The existing and future uses of water are
constantly challenged; balancing supply and demand is made even harder by the
amounts of pollution found in the air, land and waters. Pollution is widespread
and people are dying because of it. As soon as more pollution is added into the
fresh water systems than people and all life die. This is true even with the
best system in the world. We live on the edge. Rainwater could carry pollution
to the fresh water supply, and it is too late.
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We are proposing to make air a human
right. Industrial pollution plays a major role in the deterioration of nature
but this time the level of pollution is above the carrying capacity of the
ecosystem.
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Soil and water conservation activities are under taken under various agro-ecological and socio-economic circumstances, in different parts of the
World. However, for a multitude of reasons farmers do not generally engage on their own in investment in soil and water conservation. In the more advanced economies farmers may sometimes take initiative, but in most cases they are stimulated to do so as a result of specific government policies, direct
incentives on participation in specific projects. Despite all help the world is
loosing its best soils and water is getting more polluted. We are proposing that
The Global Community organization becomes a major driving force
for the protection of soils and fresh water in the world.
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The tax system is a device for influencing behaviour so as to
encourage socially and environmentally useful activities and to discourage those
that are not. It can also increase social and economic well-being. The
imposition of a carbon tax can result in a net increase in employment as well as
reductions in greenhouses gas emissions. Although fossil fuel-incentive
industries will decline as a result of such a tax, other sectors of the economy
will grow much faster and generate new jobs. Failures to take these measures to
protect the environment will have greater negative impacts on poorer households
as poorer households suffer more from environmental degradation.
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Globalization of the world economic system is proceeding at a very rapid pace, and is generally promoted as being welfare-improving. This phenomenon is also present in the arena of international finance. In this area, however, the presumed virtues of
globalization are far from being materialised. Until now, no orderly or stable financial system has been
implemented. Furthermore, the current financial system does not succeed in channelling sufficient funds to finance crucial world problems such as adequate social development in poor countries.
The line of thought proposed here to cure these shortcomings is to use a tax instrument; a straightforward mechanism designed to tax the currently undertaxed (international) financial flows. More specifically, this proposal calls for the implementation of a tax that is levied on international currency transactions, i.e. a
'Currency Transaction Tax' (CTT) by James Tobin; it is an
internationally uniform tax to be payable every time a currency is converted.
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In order to avoid conflicts and wars over water,
The Global Community organization is proposing to make water at the top of its
agenda. Better understanding and much more data are needed. All nations need to
assess their water resources and make projections for the future. Water
resources must be managed. We propose here to make fresh water a human right.
For centuries we have found it necessary to control water so as to have
it where we wanted it. Despite our efforts, some areas still suffer from drought, and
some from flood, due partly to the nature variability of climate to change fast than it used to, and this is now impacting on the availability and distribution of water. Our fresh water sources are already being used and yet, the world population is increasing rapidly. This increase in population and the increase of pollutants in our drinking water sources have created conflicts which will only become more and more serious in the near future. The policy of privatization and full-cost pricing of water in a city such as in Canada or the U.S.A. sound appropriate as there is plenty of help to the poor who has a need to drink water. Is this policy appropriate in other countries where drinking water sources
are rare, sometimes non-existant, and sometimes were polluted by transnational corporations from our industrialized world and which companies became rich by mining or manufacturing products in those countries. Should anyone be allowed to control our freshwater resources? Is freshwater a 'human right' or is it a 'human need'? Should water resources be privatized and commodified for profit?
Should privatization be under the condition that there is plenty of help to the poor in a community? Or should water be declared a 'human right' in the Earth Charter of The Global Community organization? Is it no true that water
is just as important to an individual as the air we breathe?
This World Congress is about finding universal values that are very important to the survival of life on Earth. Should people in a Third World Country have different Human Rights than others? One of the very important Global Community
concepts of this World Congress is about asking everyone to be a responsible human being. If we are all responsible in the management of Earth than everyone should have the right to breathe clean air and drink fresh water. Noone individual (an 'individual' was defined in the Vision of earth in Year 2024 as being either a person, a corporation, a NGO, a local community, businesses, a nation or a government) should be allowed to control and profit from a basic Human Right such as drinking water. Noone individual should be allowed to pollute Earth. Even tough this may look like an impossible task
we still have to find in our heart and mind what is right and show the direction to take and propose the concepts to The Global Community.
Water in the home comes from either spring water, a deep well,
a river or a city reservoir, and is never 'pure'. If water was untreated, it would contain man-made contaminants, minerals, gases, salts, and microorganisms, which would cause unacceptable taste or health risks. Hazardous compounds present in water are mercury, lead, agricultural chemicals, arsenic, organochlorine compounds formed by the chlorine added to municipal water to destroy microorganisms, industrial pollutants, solvents,
pesticide, fertilizer, and other contaminants. Our body absorbs equally these contaminants through drinking water or while bathing. City water is regulated for
health hazards and does not contain dangerous bacterial contamination. It may contain chemical contaminants from industrial discharge or hazardous waste disposal, vinyl chloride from P.V.C. plastic pipe.
Most people take for granted the water we use to wash the car,
to water the lawn, cook and flush our wastes away, to shower, do half-loads of laundry, run the water while brushing our teeth, and ignore a dripping tap, and dump down the drain motor oil, solvents, paints, cleaners. We treat oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams more like parts of our sewer system them our life-support system. We are being
made use to this behavior from childhood while watching television. We often see commercials on TV showing a person washing an automobile or spraying a lawn wastefully and without care. There is also too much violence shown on television and in cinemas. We think it is right, our right to be as we are. The entire television networks and film makers and producers over the world should be re-educated in what is right and what is not. They should be responsible and be made accountable for the
counter-educating commercials and products they are advertising
on their networks. What the school system is doing in educating children is being negated by the television networks. It is counter-productive and, at the end, the costs hit the taxpayers at home, one way or the other. The Polluter-pays Principle should apply to television networks and film making industry. They may use Human Rights for their defence but they should pay all the costs of the impacts of their advertisings and mindless production. They create behavioral patterns in the
general population from childhood and they should be billed big time.
As individuals, we can make changes in our ways of using water
and dispose of wastes, both inside our homes and outdoors, and find ways to conserve and protect our water supplies. Water conservation is a means to ensure that there will be enough water for future generations.
Good quality of water supplies to satisfy our lifestyle carries
a price tag defined here:
P(water) = P(storing)
+ P(distributing) + P(treatment) +
P(maintaining and operating) +
P(e,h)
where P(e,h) is the term representing the associated environmental
and health price tags i.e. the impacts on the environment and our health
The costs of obtaining, storing, heating, distributing water are
steadily increasing, and so are the environmental and health impacts associated with those costs. The costs for treating wastewater to make it suitable to return to river systems are equally increasing and many communities now charge residents an extra fee for treating wastewater. Consumption rates vary largely from one community to
another, and between urban and rural areas. Some communities have been forced to restrict water consumption for short periods of time.
Fresh water resources and clean air are at least if not more important to every human being than any other human rights ever listed in any charter of any society. If there was a scale of values to be drawn where would you insert these two human rights?
Human rights are those that individuals have by virtue of their very
existence as human beings:
to live, eat, drink fresh water, breath fresh air, have shelter. Just as human beings have
human rights, they also have moral, legal responsibilities and related
obligations and accountabilities. Every person needs Oxygen to live so clean air is
certainly a primordial human right by our very nature. A large part of our body
is made of water and we could not live without water; therefore water is also a
primordial human rights by our very nature.
Fresh water resources and clean air are
therefore proposed to be categorized as human rights.
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Globalization is a process interaction which involves growing economic
interdependence of countries worldwide with implications and impacts on social,
cultural, political, environmental and familial aspects and rights. With the
globalization of the economy comes now the task for defining the obligations
that go with the rights.
The Global Community organization is concerned with the
sustainability of current levels and patterns of consumption and with the
economic, political, personal, environmental, availability of resources,
societal and spiritual impact of excessive, run-away consumption. The goal of
the World Congress was to find a balanced, sustainable global
consumption. About 20% of Earth’s people account for 80% of the world's total
consumption.
We have assigned ourselves the task of finding ways to make consumption,
consumer rights and responsibilities:
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Fair to the well-being of others
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Socially responsible and sustainable to future generations
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In line with the universal values found in this World Congress
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In line with human rights and responsibilities
Consumers' rights impinge on the rights of other humans living in The
Global Community. The right to choice is the consumer right that refers
to the right to have a range and variety of goods and services at competitive,
fair prices and variable, satisfactory quality. In order to assure choice in the
developed country markets, governments have implemented trade laws to facilitate
cross border transactions and transnational corporations (TNCs) have set up
business off shore so they can lessen the cost of the production process. The
goods that are available in the developed country markets are provided by slave
labour, child labour, sweatshops or in countries that allow the TNCs to forego
adhering to pollution or ecological concerns and human rights in pursuit of
profit. Labour rights are abused in efforts to earn more profits. This leads to
abhorrent working conditions, job insecurity and low living standards (all human
rights). Consumers in developed countries have been socialized to want more and
more things to consume but have not been socialized to appreciate the impact of
their consumption choices on the human rights of other people; that is, they are
not being responsible for their decisions.
