Reflections on Solidarity, Sustainability, and Religious Violence

Vol. 2, No. 10, October 2006

Luis T. Gutierrez, Editor
Newsletter Home Page

Current mission statement:

Humanity is currently on a global journey from patriarchal violence to solidarity, sustainability, and sustainable human development. The Solidarity & Sustainability newsletter is a series of reflections on how to mitigate patriarchal barriers to human development and, in particular, how to overcome the enormous obstacles caused by religious patriarchies. The newsletter integrates existing and emerging knowledge (empirical evidence, tradition, relevant experience, wisdom) to show that true religion radically transcends the patriarchal mindset. In fact, true religion always enhances human development, and should never be an obstacle to it. The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals are used as a point of reference.

Revised mission statement as of 16 October 2006:

Humanity is currently on a global journey from secular and religious violence to solidarity, sustainability, and sustainable human development. The Solidarity & Sustainability newsletter is a series of reflections on how to mitigate violence at all levels. Violence -- and, especially, religious violence -- is an enormous political obstacle to human solidarity, ecological sustainability, and sustainable human development. It is unwise to assume that technology can remove this obstacle unless the patriarchal mindset is overcome, especially in religious institutions. True religion always rejects violence (gender violence included) and always enhances human development, because this is what God desires (Book of Genesis, Chapter 1). In this series of reflections, the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals are used as a point of reference.

Theme of this Issue:
Sabbatical Activity ~ October 2006

NOTICE TO READERS: This is again a very short newsletter, to let you know what I am doing during my Fall 2006 sabbatical and share a few items of information (recent events, forthcoming events, new resources, new websites, ....) that may be of interest.

SUMMARY

The mission statement for the newsletter is being reconsidered. A list of issues and concerns currently emerging is provided. Reader feedback is invited as we try to make the newsletter more concise and more useful to researchers at the intersection of technology, solidarity, sustainability, and religious violence.

The news commentary for October is focused on the election of South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the 9th Secretary General of the United Nations. It is argued that stopping the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, moving forward toward the millennium development goals, and reforming of the UN's management structure and operating procedures should be Mr. Ban's top priorities.

For the month of October, the "article of the month" is: Inclusion, Solidarity, and Social Movements: The Global Movement against Gender Violence, by Professor S. Laura Weldon of Purdue University. The "book of the month" is: Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross, by S. Mark Heim. The "website of the month" is: INTUTE, recently launched to replace the Research Discovery Network (RDN).

As usual, annotated links to significant new resources online are provided. The upgrade of the Solidarity and Sustainability website continues to unfold, especially with additions to the new pages on knowledge resources, recommended books, and news services. The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is being researched as guidance to the best restructuring of the directories to support our interdisciplinary research. The monthly "assignments" for prayer, study, and action are about peace.

Editor's Note: The invited article this month is A LEARNING FAITH, A LEARNING CHURCH, by Rev. Thomas A. Michael, Ph.D. The article is based on a communion meditation given at Calvary Presbyterian Church, Wyncote, Pennsylvania, 10 September 2006. Dr. Michael is also a Guest Lecturer of Psychiatry and Religion, Union Theological Seminary, New York.

OUTLINE

1. Revision of Mission Statement
2. Recent News & Commentary
3. Article of the Month
4. Book of the Month
5. Website of the Month
6. Other New Resources
7. Newsletter Website Upgrade
8. Prayer, Study, and Action
9. Links to Archived Newsletters

INVITED ARTICLE

A LEARNING FAITH, A LEARNING CHURCH
Communion Meditation
10 September 2006

Rev. Thomas A. Michael, Ph.D.
Parish Associate, Calvary Presbyterian Church
Wyncote, Pennsylvania
Guest Lecturer of Psychiatry and Religion
Union Theological Seminary, New York


1. Revision of Mission Statement

This month the focus has been on the mission statement for the newsletter. The current mission statement is the green text above, between the header and the issue theme. After browsing the archived newsletters and all the feedback received thus far, my notes can be summarized as follows:

Points for Reflection on the Mission Statement

  • Religious violence and secular violence feed each other.
  • Gender violence is the most fundamental and pervasive form of violence.
    • Religious gender violence is the most harmful disease of human civilization.
    • Specifically, this requires gender balance in roles of religious authority.
  • Reducing violence of religious origin should, therefore, mitigate secular violence.
  • Religious leaders have greater moral responsibility to reduce violence than secular leaders.
  • There is a common misconception that some technological fix will make both unlimited consumption and reconstruction of the human habitat possible.
    • A variation of the same misconception is that "sustainable development" means taking good care of the human habitat without giving up the "patriarchal mindset" (i.e., the triple addiction to wealth accumulation, absolute power, and worldly honors).
  • The political process is decisive -- in both secular and religious institutions -- for a transition from a world of violence to a world of solidarity and sustainable human development.
    • Generally, the social and ecological impacts of violence materialize via the political process at all levels.
    • Specifically, the political process is the path toward the U.N. "millennium development goals."
    • There is a need for better understanding of "subsidiarity" in the redesign of authority structures.
    • The political process is the point of convergence for factors usually researched within disciplines such as economics, ecological economics, human and social psychology, human and social ecology, education, philosophy, theology, etc.
  • Given the impossibility of any given policy taking care of every global issue (let alone every local issue), the policy making process requires the support of an interdisciplinary process for requirements definition, analysis, and synthesis.
  • Some possibilities for interdisciplinary support of policy making are:
    • Improved methods of knowledge organization, including interdisciplinary knowledge.
    • Interdependency matrix methods for transition planning.
    • Analyzable (e.g., relational) models for requirements validation.
    • Mimetic behavior analysis to liberate humanity from the "sacred violence" syndrome.
    • Modeling and simulation methods to redesign authority structures and institutions.
  • A reversal of the flow of resources from the poor to the rich.
  • A reversal of the flow of pollution going from the rich to the poor.
  • Meaningful indices of solidarity, subsidiarity, sustainability, and integral human development
  • Meaningful indices of local and global common good.

A world government capable of managing international peace, and managing a fair balance between the global common good and the especial interests of nations and localities, remains a distant dream that our grandchildren probably will not see. And yet, the United Nations is our only hope for global civility. It follows that the election of a new Secretary General is a good opportunity to reflect on the past, present, and future of this organization.

The history of the United Nations is well known. Founded in 1945, at the end of World War II, Mr. Ban will be the 8th Secretary General. The number of member countries is now 192. It currently employs 52000 people worldwide. The Secretary General is the most visible figure, but all important resolutions must be approved by the 15 members of the Security Council. The current members of the Security Council are (the permanent members with veto power are underlined): Argentina, China, Congo, Denmark, France, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Peru, Qatar, Russia, Slovakia, Tanzania, UK, and USA. The number of programs and humanitarian initiatives has grown tremendously, but the structure at the top has not been redesigned since 1945, with the Security Council still having veto power over the General Assembly. The UN's inability to stop the barbaric genocide in Darfur, Sudan, clearly shows that the need for reform is becoming critical.

[bankimoon]

Mr. Ban, who is both a consummate diplomat and a consummate administrator (his official bio is online) has his work cut out for him. His diplomatic skills will be tested by the current resurgence of violence in many parts of the world. His managerial skills will be tested in the process of reforming the UN organizational jungle to make it more efficient and more responsive to current needs. This will entail getting countries to provide financial support (many countries have not paid their dues for years), and getting countries to collaborate in order to make progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. Such collaboration, to become more effective, must transcend financial assistance to include all dimensions of global solidarity and sustainability, including the religious dimension. Promoting such international collaboration requires more than good diplomacy and good management; it requires leadership.

It is well known that, due to extravagant consumption, we are using resources faster than they can be replaced by the planet, and producing toxic pollution faster than our technical ability to prevent human health impacts. Mr. Ban's thinking on currently pressing environmental issues, is unknown. Granted that the Secretary General cannot do miracles, someone has to provide environmental management leadership at the global level.

Gender violence, the most perverse and pervasive expression of religious violence, remains virulent worldwide. At a time when the separation of church and state is vanishing in some nations and becoming fuzzy in others, with sexist religious institutions discriminating against women and, at the same time, getting all kinds of tax breaks and state subsidies, it is noteworthy that only one of the candidates to succeed Kofi Annan was a woman. This is a crucial area, and one in which Mr. Ban has no track record. Hopefully, the 9th Secretary General will be either a woman or a man with a proven track record of leadership in gender equality.


3. Article of the Month

The "article of the month" for October is: Inclusion, Solidarity, and Social Movements: The Global Movement against Gender Violence, by S. Laura Weldon, Perspectives on Politics, Volume 4, March 2006, 55-74 pp. Published online by Cambridge University Press. As a preamble to the article, consider the following news release:

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN NOT CONFINED TO SPECIFIC CULTURE OR REGION,
THIRD COMMITTEE TOLD AS DEBATE BEGINS ON ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN
Global News Service, 10 October 2006

Violence against women is “a global phenomenon” -- complex, pervasive and pernicious -- to which at least one woman in three is subjected at some point of her lifetime, José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today as it began its debate on the advancement of women and implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women and of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. See the Secretary-General’s study on violence against women, dated 9 October 2006.

At a time when the United Nations is trying to understand global violence as a "global phenomenon," Professor Weldon's article brings into focus (and substantiates with empirical evidence) this important and practical point: the issue of gender violence transcends religion, nationality, ethnicity, race, and practically any other form of diversity that might be an obstacle to collaboration pursuant to any worthy goal. Power struggles within and between social movements diminish their credibility and effectiveness. Cross-gender solidarity can be the glue that keeps people working together for worthy causes. The article is a bit long and very scholarly, but also very readable. This is one you want to read from beginning to end, and save for future reference.


4. Book of the Month

The "book of the month" for October is: Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross, by S. Mark Heim, Eerdmans, 2006, 346 pages.

Amazon Book Description: "The cross has long been not only a scandal but also a profound paradox: filled with saving significance and power, it is at the same time a sobering tragedy. In Saved from Sacrifice theologian Mark Heim takes on this paradox, asserting that the cross must be understood against the whole history of human scapegoating violence. In order to highlight the dimensions of his argument, Heim carefully and critically draws on the groundbreaking work of French theorist and biblical scholar René Girard. Yet Heim goes beyond Girard to develop a comprehensive theology of the atonement and the cross through his fresh readings of well-known biblical passages and his exploration of the place of the victim."
About the Author: "S. Mark Heim is Samuel Abbot Professor of Christian Theology at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachusetts. He is also the author of Salvations: Truth and Difference in Religion and The Depth of the Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends."

The significance of this book has been noted by many scholars. Examples:

Daniel L. Migliori, Princeton Theological Seminary: "Mark Heim has written a not-to-be-missed work on unmasking of sacrificial violence by the biblical witness.... the event of the cross narrated in the Gospels is universally significant not because it repeats the deadly cycle of sacrifice present in all societies and in all religious ritual and myth but because it reverses this cycle and rescues us from the practice of scapegoating sacrifice and the violence it both hides and perpetuates."

Robert J. Daly, S.J., Boston College: "Heim saves us from having to think of God as a cruel sacrifice-demander .... This is one of the most important and profoundly needed books to appear in our day. Its unveiling of the inherently un-Christian nature of all violence is desperately needed in our contemporary world."

Carol Zaleski, Smith College: "Sacrifice. It's the most stirringly profound and most cruelly misunderstood word in our spiritual lexicon. Mark Heim has performed a great service in providing this lucid, learned, ecumenical appraisal of what sacrifice has meant and continues to mean today .... Enables Christian readers of all viewpoints to renew their humbled awareness of the cross as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices."

Sounds like Hebrews 10:10 .... additional commentary about this book will be forthcoming in the next issue.


5. Website of the Month

The "website of the month" for October is: INTUTE.

The recently launched INTUTE web site (formerly the Resource Discovery Network is a jewel for interdisciplinary online researchers. The home page states: "Intute is a free online service providing you with access to the very best Web resources for education and research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners. Subject specialists select and evaluate the websites in our database and write high quality descriptions of the resources. The database contains 113474 records." The architecture, contents, and future plans for INTUTE are described in a paper by the executive director, Caroline Williams.

The name INTUTE is a combination of the words "internet" and "tutorial." INTUTE's goal is to be an authoritative mentor - a guide to high quality resources on the web. The INTUTE knowledge content is organized under four discipline groups:

One of the most useful features of INTUTE is the Virtual Training Suite, a set of internet tutorials on how to find the best web content by discipline. These tutorials are updated regularly as new content is added to the web. For instance, new editions of the Internet for Historians tutorial and the Internet for Religious Studies tutorial have been released recently. Other useful features of thie web site include listings of links to new resources by discipline, indexes of electronic journals by subject, and timelines for 4000+ subjects. This outstanding online service is provided free of charge by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the University of Manchester, U.K.


6. Other New Resources

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH WORLD REPORT 2006, Human Rights Watch, 2006, 544 pages. "This report 2006 contains information on human rights developments in more than 60 countries in 2005 ... "Practice what I preach, not what I do" is never terribly persuasive. Yet the U.S. government has been increasingly reduced to that argument in promoting human rights. Some U.S. allies, especially Britain, are moving in the same disturbing direction, while few other powers are stepping in to fill the breach.... This hypocrisy factor is today a serious threat to the global defense of human rights."

WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2006, World Health Organization, 2006. "This report contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately. The report reveals an estimated shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide."

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2006, Amnesty International, 2006. "During 2005 some of the world’s most powerful governments were successfully challenged, their hypocrisy exposed by the media, their arguments rejected by courts of law, their repressive tactics resisted by human rights activists. After five years of backlash against human rights in the "war on terror", the tide appeared to be turning."

G8 PROMISE TO AFRICA DATA REPORT 2006, Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA), 2006. "The G8 strode forward down the promised path on debt, but have shuffled with a halting half-pace on aid, while falling backwards on trade. The campaigners around the world who got the G8 close to the right path in the first place must now encourage them to accelerate down it. After a slow start in 2005 a faster pace is now needed or the G8 Africa targets will be missed."

HUNGER REPORT 2006, Bread for the World Institute, 2006, 5 pages. "HUNGER 2006 has a powerful, yet simple core message. By strengthening nutrition assistance, we can achieve immediate progress against hunger. That goes for right here in the United States as well as elsewhere. There is simply no better way to make rapid progress in reducing hunger than by providing direct nutrition assistance to vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children, people stricken with diseases, and the elderly."

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS REPORT 2006, United Nations, July 2006, 32 pages. "This report shows that some progress has been made. This should provide the incentive to keep moving forward. But .... there is still a long way to go to keep our promises to current and future generations."

TRENDS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2006, United Nations, April 2006, 33 pages. "At the political level sustainable development has grown from being a movement mostly focusing on environmental concerns to a widely recognized framework utilized by individuals, governments, corporations and civil society that attempts to balance economic, social, environmental and generational concerns in decision-making and actions at all levels...."

WORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS 2006, World Bank, April 2006, 240 pages. This "is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. The 2006 WDI includes more than 900 indicators in over 80 tables organized in 6 sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links."

GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REPORT 2005-2006, World Economic Forum, 2006, 293 pages. This report "uses the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), covering a total of 115 economies in 2005-2006, to measure the degree of preparation of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments."

BRIBE PAYERS INDEX (BPI), Transparency International, Berlin/Brussels, 4 October 2006. "Overseas bribery by companies from the world’s export giants is still common, despite the existence of international anti-bribery laws criminalising this practice, according to the Transparency International 2006 Bribe Payers Index (BPI)."


7. Newsletter Website Upgrade

Please remember to take a look at the revised newsletter home page and the new separate pages with resource directories:

Additional links have been added during October. It hard to find any website with good content that is not in some way related to the tripod of "solidarity, sustainability, and religious violence." We plan to continue upgrading these directories in conjunction with the monthly delivery of the newsletter, while at the same time researching possible solutions to the "knowledge organization" problem that seems to be intrinsic to any interdisciplinary research. One possibility might be to restructure the directories according to the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC):

MAIN NUMBERS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
DISCIPLINE GROUPS
GENERALITIES
PHILOSOPHY - PSYCHOLOGY
RELIGION - THEOLOGY
SOCIAL SCIENCES
VACANT
NATURAL SCIENCES
TECHNOLOGY
THE ARTS
LANGUAGE - LINGUISTICS - LITERATURE
GEOGRAPHY - BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY

Just as the rainbow includes the full spectrum of colors, our topic requires the full spectrum of knowledge. Main number 4 (currently vacant) could be used as the parking lot for links to content directly relevant to "solidarity, sustainability, and religious violence" from any discipline group. Please let us know if you have any recommendation to improve our knowledge organization framework.


8. Prayer, Study, and Action

PRAYER

Foundation of Peace

If there is to be peace
in the world,
There must be peace
in the nations.

If there is to be peace
in the nations,
There must be peace
in the cities.

If there is to be peace
in the cities,
There must be peace
between neighbors.

If there is to be peace
between neighbors,
There must be peace
in the home.

If there is to be peace
in the home,
There must be peace
in the heart.

Lao-Tse, China,
6th century BCE

STUDY

Read a few recent news reports about the genocide currently underway in Darfur, Sudan (started 2003; 400,000 deaths thus far). Google up some information about the Cambodia genocide (1975-1979; 2,000,000 deaths), the Bosnia genocide (1992-1992; 200,000 deaths) and the Rwanda genocide (1994; 800,000 deaths). What do you think was the common root cause of these genocides:

A. Wealth accumulation
B. Power consolidation
C. Ethnic cleansing
D. Religious intolerance
E. Gender violence
F. None of the above

Which one would be the best answer according to Lao-Tse's meditation on the foundation of peace. The second best?

ACTION

Do you know anyone who, for whatever reason, is a victim of abuse or violence? If so, try to help the victim as best you can.

Do you know anyone who has been targeted as the scapegoat for some kind of social or religious disorder, and is being punished so that the real culprits can walk away? If so, try to rescue the scapegoat as best you can. If you have what it takes, confront the culprits (the scapegoaters) to help them see their cowardice.

If you can think of no scapegoating victim, think harder and look around, because they are ubiquitous. Perhaps you are one yourself -- if so, get help. Help at least one other person who has been the sacrificial victim of scapegoating.


9. Links to Archived Newsletters

The following are links to previous issues of the newsletter:

V1 N1 May 2005: Cross-Gender Solidarity
V1 N2 June 2005: The Phallocentric Syndrome
V1 N3 July 2005: From Patriarchy to Solidarity
V1 N4 August 2005: Synthesis of Patriarchy and Solidarity
V1 N5 September 2005: From Solidarity to Sustainability
V1 N6 October 2005: Dimensions of Sustainability
V1 N7 November 2005: Analysis and Synthesis of Objective Evidence
V1 N8 December 2005: Solidarity, Subsidiarity, and Sustainability
V2 N1 January 2006: Synthesis of Solidarity and Sustainability
V2 N2 February 2006: Sustainable Human Development
V2 N3 March 2006: Patriarchy and Mimetic Violence
V2 N4 April 2006: Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions
V2 N5 May 2006: Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions 2
V2 N6 June 2006: Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions 3
V2 N7 July 2006: Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions 4
V2 N8 August 2006: Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions 5
V2 N9 September 2006: Sabbatical Activity ~ September 2006

|Back to SUMMARY| |Back to OUTLINE|
|Back to SECTION 1| |Back to SECTION 2| |Back to SECTION 3|
|Back to SECTION 4| |Back to SECTION 5| |Back to SECTION 6|
|Back to SECTION 7| |Back to SECTION 8| |Back to SECTION 9|
|Link to Invited Article|
|Link to Newsletter Home Page|

The mission statement is being reconsidered to reflect these issues and concerns. This initial list is too long and will have to be condensed. The latest revision of the mission statement is shown above, under the current one. Likewise, the newsletter's name is being reconsidered to explicitly include the "religious violence" factor. Readers are cordially invited to send feedback on the mission statement to the Editor.


2. Recent News & Commentary

The election of South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the next Secretary General of the United Nations has been top international news during the month of October. A list of links to news reports about the election of the new Secretary General can be easily obtained by going to Google News and searching for "Ban Ki-moon."

Commentary

The Pelican Symbol

[pclogo]

The pelican is a legendary symbol of commitment to the service of others, especially those who are weak and most vulnerable. Sources:

The Physiologus, circa 400 CE
Adoro Te Devote, 13th Century
Dante's Paradiso, 14th Century
Donna Hrynkiw, 1999
Rev. William Saunders, 2003
Rev. Silvia Roberts, 2004

Call for Papers

This newsletter is now seeking scholars willing to write (pro-bono) short articles about the impacts of religious patriarchies on human solidarity and ecological sustainability, as well as critical reviews of this work from the perspective of various religious traditions, i.e., Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, etc.

Articles should be 1000 words minimum and 2000 words maximum, with no images. They should include title, author's name and affiliation, abstract, and carefully validated references. Please submit only material that has not been already published elsewhere. The author's CV should be submitted with the paper. The newsletter is published monthly, but there are no specific deadlines. Papers can be submitted at any time. If approved by the editor, they will be added as an "invited paper" when time and space allows.

Could you kindly share this invitation with your friends and associates, to see if anyone is interested?

Send all correspondence to the editor, Luis T. Gutierrez.

U.N. MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals are listed below:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Interested in more information and data? Click the map below:

[mdgindicators]


Person of the Month


[therese]
Thérèse de Lisieux, 1873-1897
Roman Catholic, Feast October 1


Announcements

POLITICS OF POPULATIONS
Call for papers for an edited volume on The Politics of Populations. Abstracts due January 15th, 2007. Prospective chapters should be no more than 25-30 pages. Submit abstracts of 300 words or less with contact information to: David Karjanen .

NON-VIOLENT ATONEMENT CONFERENCE
January 22-23, 2007, 9 am - 9 pm, Mennonite Central Committee's Welcoming Place, Akron, PA. From the conference flyer: "How shall we understand the death of Jesus? Is it necessary to speak of the wrath of God when discussing atonement? These questions have been asked and answered many times throughout the history of the church. In today's world with our growing awareness of the dangers of violence, sacrifice, and militant religion, the death of Jesus need no longer be construed with divine violence. For more information contact Michael Hardin.

VIOLENCE AND RELIGION IN POPULAR CULTURE
2nd-4th February 2007, The Centre for Religion and Popular Culture, University of Chester, St Deiniol’s Library in Hawarden, North Wales. For details, or to propose a paper, please email a title and brief abstract (no more than 150 words) to Eric Christianson, Senior Lecturer, Biblical Studies Co-Director, Centre for Religion and Popular Culture Dept of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Chester.

INTEGRATING ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH
Conference of the National Council for Science and the Environment, February 1-2, 2007, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC. The conference will address the many essential roles the environment plays on our well-being today, as well as the multi-dimensional relationships between human health and environmental components, which may have far-reaching consequences for society. For more info: NCSE2007.

HUMAN DESIRES AND ENVIRONMENTAL REALITIES
February 28–March 3, 2007, Baton Rouge, LA. This conference is sponsored by the American Society for Environmental History. To submit a poster proposal, please use the proposal submission form. For more info, please contact ASEH Program Committee.

MOBILIZING PARTNERSHIPS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
April 11 - 14, 2007 in Toronto ON Canada. Call for proposals due October 6. Convened by the Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH). For information about being a conference cosponsor, exhibitor, advertiser or supporter, contact Shelly Tolo, CCPH Conference Manager by phone: (206) 962-0012 or e-mail: toloevents@aol.com.

FAITH, SPIRITUALITY, AND
SOCIAL CHANGE
Conference on Faith, Spirituality and Social Change, University of Winchester, UK, 14 April 2007. A conference bringing together people whose action for social change is informed by their faith, organisations working with faith communities for social change, and academics exploring faith-based social change issues. Proposals - in the form of a title, a short abstract (300 words max) and a brief biographical statement (100 words plus affiliation) should be sent by 1 Dec 2006 to Dr. Christina Welch or Adrian Harris at fssc@winchester.ac.uk. For any additional information contact Christina or Adrian or please visit the conference website.

WEB-BASED EDUCATION CONFERENCE
March 14–16, 2007, Le Majestic Centre De Congres, Chamonix, France. The International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), is a non-profit organization founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1977. The purpose of IASTED is to promote economic development through science and technology. For more information: calgary@iasted.org.

BRIDGING THE ECOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Call for papers. AAG Conference, San Francisco, April 17-21, 2007. The goal of this session is to (1) identify existing social science and ecological theories that offer the strongest potential, if joined, to deepen and broaden our understanding of linked social-ecological systems, and (2) evaluate the potential and challenges of such theoretical bridging. Points of contact: Rinku Roy Chowdhury or Eric Keys

DEVELOPMENTAL SOCIAL
COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
The Jean Piaget Society invites program submissions for the 37th Annual Meeting to take place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, at the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, May 31-June 2, 2007. Organizers: Phil Zelazo, Michael Chandler, and Eveline Crone. Please use the Proposal Submission Forms. Submission deadline is November 15, 2006. Point of contact: Chris Lalonde.

SOCIETY AND
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
June 17-21, 2007, Park City, Utah. This is the 13th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management. The theme for the 2007 symposium is "Landscape Continuity and Change - Social Science Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Conversations." Abstracts for posters and papers due January 31, 2007. For more information about the symposium, contact Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith.

VULNERABILITY AND TOLERANCE
Blaise Pascal Instituut, Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit July, 4-8, 2007. This is the annual meeting of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, an scholarly society focused on the exploration, criticism, and development of René Girard's Mimetic Theory. See the conference website for subthemes, deadlines for abstracts, etc. For more information, contact Thérèse Onderdenwijngaard.

TECHNOLOGY AND GLOBALIZATION
Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, Charleston, South Carolina, July 8-11, 2007. The 2007 conference will be focused on the ways that technology shapes and is shaped by the multidimensional phenomenon of globalization. Proposals should be made electronically to Joseph Pitt, Program Committee Chair. The deadline for submissions is January 1, 2007.

CONFERENCE ON
SOCIO-RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Havana, Cuba, in 9-12 July 2007. The theme is :The religious movements in the face of the conflicts and challenges of a world in crisis. Sponsored by the Department of Socio-religious Studies of the Center for Psychological and Sociological Research (CIPS) of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment of Cuba. Abstracts due 20 April 2007. The head of the promotion committee is Sonia Jiménez. Phone: (537) 831-3610 and 833-5366. Fax: (537) 833-4327. Email: quintoencuentro@cips.cu.

INTERDISCIPLINARY
SOCIAL SCIENCES
University of Granada, Spain, 10-13 July 2007. The conference will examine the nature of disciplinary and interdisciplinary practices across the social sciences, as well as the relation of the social to the natural sciences, applied sciences and the professions. The focus of papers will range from the finely grained and empirical (research practices and results exemplifying one or more disciplines), to wide-ranging multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary practices, to perspectives on knowledge and method. The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is 22 October 2006. See the conference website for other details.

20TH WORLD ENERGY CONGRESS
11 Nov 2007 - 15 Nov 2007, Rome, Italy. The World Energy Congress is the most authoritative international energy meeting held by the World Energy Council (WEC) every three years. Papers and posters are accepted in either of the WEC official languages: English or French. Deadlines: Submission of papers and posters: from 1st June 2006 to 31st December 2006. Notification of acceptance: by 31st May 2007. Contact: Organising Secretariat

SUMMIT ON THE FUTURE OF THE CORPORATION
Planned for November 2007. This event will be a major milestone in bringing corporate redesign to the public agenda, profiling Corporation 20/20 design concepts and charting a pathway forward. For more info: info@Corporation2020.org.


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"Even if the rain-god rained all seven kinds
Of gems, until earth and heaven were full,
Still senses would crave and men die unsatiated."

Susan Elbaum Jootla
Inspiration from Enlightened Nuns
on the Danger of Worldly Desire
Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka, 1988

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