Xi urges respect for other cultures

English.news.cn, Editor: An, 2014-09-24

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses an international seminar to mark the 2,565th
 anniversary of the birth of Confucius, which is concurrent with the Fifth Congress of the
 International Confucian Association (ICA), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing,
capital of China, Sept. 24, 2014. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on every country to respect and learn from the culture of others.

"Culture is the soul of a nation," Xi said at the opening of an international meeting on ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius.

"If a country or a nation does not cherish its own thinking and culture, if they lose their soul, no matter which country or which nation, it will not be able to stand," he said.

Xi delivered a key-note speech at the International Conference in Commemorating the 2565th Anniversary of Confucius' birth and the fifth Congress of the International Confucian Association, which opened on Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

Countries must value and maintain their own thinking and culture, while recognizing and respecting others', Xi said.

Individual modes of thought are special in their different ways and there is no culture or thinking that is superior to others, according to the president.

Irrespective of their size and strength, all countries' thinking and cultures deserve to be recognized and respected, he said.

Xi stressed that to recognize and respect a country's own culture does not mean to close the door to others, neither does it mean to stand upon a principle of superiority.

"All countries and nations should learn and draw on the strength and quintessence of others' culture. This is an important condition to encourage dignity, confidence and strength of our own culture," the president urged.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

"... Conclusion

This is the message of the day. The recalibration of awareness is going to change systems, education, government and finance. Those who don't choose to be spiritual at all will still move with a new awareness, for they will be aware of something that they are not aware of now - a softer way of living.

We close with a trite statement that we've given before, but that many have stated in jest: "If women ran the world, they would never send their sons to be killed on a battlefield."

Many laugh. How trite, how simple minded. Indeed, there have been women leaders who have put wars together; they had to. They sent their sons, so that's not really a correct statement. However, it's more right than you may think, dear ones.

So now I will make the statement I have made over and over in these recalibrated channellings: "When recalibrated Humans run the world, there will come a day when they will never send their sons into the battlefield." You see, awareness will change all of that. They will eventually see the wisdom of unification, new ways to settle issues, and the intuitive attribute of putting things together instead of tearing them apart.

There will be a time when government armies will not need to be large, and weapons will not be as powerful. Slowly, government won't need them. Slowly, slower than you want, these things will happen as the old soul carries his light and looks at the masters of the planet and emulates them.

You've all heard it: There will come a time when the masters will come back to Earth, and there are many who are waiting for this. However, it has already happened! They couldn't come back until the alignment was right and now it is right. This is what you are feeling in 2012 and beyond. It's starting to happen, and they're back. But they're not back as corporeal Human Beings. They're back as the energy of recalibrating of the awareness of God.

I wouldn't say these things unless they were true. Watch for these things, dear ones. Remember where you heard them first and when some of them start to occur in your news. And when you see the earth working in this fashion, dear one, maybe you'll realize that what I have given today is real.

Be circumspect. There is no perfect timing. Humans will create all this at their own pace. Do not be in fear of the things that might follow, for I say it yet again that the old energy will show itself soon in survival mode and it won't be pretty.

In this beginning of new energy, stand tall and turn on your light. Darkness will shirk before you. That is the truth of the day. ...”

WTO Salvages Bali Trade Deal

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Francezka Nangoy & Tito Summa Siahaan, December 7, 2013

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo of Brazil delivers a speech during the
 opening of the Ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference
in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Dec. 3 2013. (EPA Photo/Made Nagi)

Nusa Dua, Bali. World Trade Organization members on Saturday approved a last-minute plan for a trade deal that could boost the global economy by $1 trillion, securing a new lease on life or the organization.

“It is so agreed,” Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan told delegates, following tough negotiations that stretched into the early hours of the morning.

After a cliff-hanger end to the midnight-to-dawn meeting, following protracted negations with India and eleventh-hour objections from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the conference accepted the Bali Package — a set of trade liberalizations contained in ten documents.

The accord included commitments to facilitate trade by simplifying customs procedures.

The United States and India “embraced” the deal after a longstanding disagreement on agricultural subsides.

“For the first time in our history the WTO has truly delivered,” exhausted-looking WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo said at the closing ceremony. “We will now be able to move forward… This is an important stepping stone to the completion of Doha Development Agenda.”

The Doha Development Agenda, a broad-based agreement to lower trade barriers, has been stalled since 2008.

Today’s Bali agreement falls far short of the WTO’s lofty but elusive vision of tearing down all trade barriers around the world. But Azevedo said it would have important symbolic value for the trade body’s hopes of reviving Doha.

Critics of the WTO argue that the organization upholds double standards for its developed and developing members and may hurt food security and job creation in some countries.

Additional reporting from AFP

An emotional Roberto Azevedo is comforted during the

 closing ceremony of the WTO talks. Photograph: Edgar

Su/Reuters

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Citizen Hearing On Disclosure Day 2: England Has Close Encounter, UFOs Tamper With Nuclear Sites

Huffington Post, 04/30/2013

At day 2 of the Citizen Hearing On Disclosure, panelists (from left) Nick Pope,
 James Penniston, John Burroughs and Patrick Frascogna give testimony re. the
1980 multiple military eyewitness UFO encounters in the U.K. Rendlesham Forest.

As day two begins at the Citizen Hearing On Disclosure (CHD) in Washington, D.C., the focus on the subject of UFOs turns to the famous multi-witness encounter that took place in 1980 at the dual air base RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters in England.

In addition to the England case, today's testimony will feature military personnel describing cases where UFOs reportedly tampered with nuclear missiles.

Click Here For Live Updates

While not an official government hearing on UFOs, the CHD is a five-day congressional-style presentation that brings 40 international researchers and military and scientific witnesses who are testifying before six former members of Congress.

On day one, discussions included the history of global UFO sightings and alleged UFO crashes, like the famous 1947 incident near Roswell, N.M.

There was also testimony of how several previous American presidents showed great interest in UFOs and, in some cases, unsuccessfully attempted to get information about specific UFO issues.

Watch this highlight video from Day 1 of the Citizen Hearing On Disclosure:

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Washington AIDS summit heralds 'turning point'

Deutsche Welle, 22 July 2012

As researchers say they have reached a turning point in the battle against the virus, more than 21,000 attendees were expected at an International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. starting this week.

It's a calling card that many have come to expect. Ahead of this year's International AIDS Conference in Washington, scientists believe they have truly arrived at a turning point.

Not only does this 19th gathering of experts in the field of HIV/AIDS research come soon after the American approval to allow the use of an HIV treatment drug as a prophylactic - but it also comes as some say they can see the first glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel.

"For the first time, I have a feeling that we're at the end of the AIDS epidemic," says Dr Diane Havlir, a doctor at San Francisco General Hospital and a co-chair of the XIX International AIDS Conference.

Turning the tide

Starting Sunday, researchers and other interested parties were gathering for a week of meetings and presentations.

"Turning the Tide Together" is the motto of this year's conference - it's a motto that reflects Havlir's own efforts in the battle against AIDS.

Havlir has researched and worked with HIV-infected patients since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

She says she has good reason for her new found hope.

"Over the past three years, there has been a series of breakthroughs in HIV research that will help us significantly reduce the number of new infections and deaths from AIDS," says Havlir.

The world's top HIV/AIDS researchers are gathering in the US capital,
Washington

Drugs can now prolong life for longer and some can even prevent infection - up to a point. The US Food and Drug Administration this week approved the drug Truvada for preventative use. In tests, the drug reduced the risk of infection by up to 75 percent.

Protection against infection will be a major focus for the 25,000 participants at this year's conference.

New medicines, tests and treatments, as well as the ongoing search for a vaccine - and ultimately, a cure - will be discussed in workshops and panels consisting of researchers, doctors, policymakers and those living with the virus.

As financial crises continue around the world, participants will also debate new ways to finance HIV/AIDS research.

"It's necessary to have continuous investments in times when the US and other countries face major financial challenges," says Chris Collins, vice president of amfAR, a US foundation for AIDS research.

Still an upward battle

Some fear the issue has lost its urgency in public debate.

"AIDS has largely disappeared from the radar in the US and abroad," says Havlir. "We are aware of this problem but it currently doesn't receive the attention for us to take the necessary measures."

About 30 million people have died from AIDS worldwide.

Currently, 34 million people are known to be HIV-positive, but only 6 million are being treated - it's a number that Havlir hopes will soon double.

Meanwhile, Deborah von Zinkernagel, coordinator of the US AIDS Imitative in the US State Department praises the collaboration with African states.

"One example is South Africa where the government and civil society are very committed because they realize what impact the epidemic has on their country, but we also observe this in other countries such as Namibia and Botswana," says von Zinkernagel.

The so-called war on AIDS is also a war for human rights around the world.

In 2009, US President Barack Obama lifted a travel ban which had stopped HIV-infected people from entering the country. This, in part, has allowed the bi-annual conference to return to the US after an absence of 22 years.

Author: Christina Bergmann / jrb

Editor: Zulfikar Abbany

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Davos explainer: What is the 'new reality' faced by the world?

CNN News, By Paul Armstrong, January 25, 2011

There was anger around the world over major banks in the U.S. and UK receiving
billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts after several financial institutions were caught
out in the 2008 housing market collapse

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Klaus Schwab: New reality means post-digitalization and post-globalization
• Politicians, business leaders say a new approach is required to achieve greater prosperity for all
• WEF's Global Risks report: World's economy could not withstand any further shocks

Davos, Switzerland (CNN) -- The global economic crisis exposed fault lines in our capitalist system with such ferocity that even the most optimistic of analysts struggled to predict when -- or even whether -- a full recovery was possible.

Chastened by this experience, politicians and business leaders concede that the world has changed and a new approach is required to achieve greater prosperity for all. Organizers of the 2011 World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, say this year's theme, "Shared Norms for the New Reality," reflects this thinking.

The world goes global

WEF founder Klaus Schwab explained that this new reality means understanding the impact of globalization and the Internet. "We are now living in a completely digitalized world and a completely globalized world, so we have to find some new mechanisms and values to deal with this post-digitalized and post-globalized world," he told CNN's Richard Quest.

He stressed the same problems of unemployment and inflation exist but "we deal with those problems in a completely new context.

Klaus Schwab: World leaders need to inspire recovery

"For example, you have the shift in the geopolitical and geoeconomic center from north to south, WikiLeaks, I could go on and on."

Volatility and uncertainty

New reality for UK retirees The new reality: Jobs Sweden looks for solution to debt crisis Ireland's financial future in question

Nestlé CEO and WEF co-chair Paul Bulke explained the post-crisis reality will require a complete re-think of our priorities and value systems to address the current volatility and uncertainty in the world.

Official website: World Economic Forum

"In the short term we must manage the debt crisis, we can't continue living beyond our means," he said in an interview posted on the WEF website. "We have to organize ourselves in response to new challenges and refresh our regulations, especially in the developed world.

"But over-regulation is not a good option. You cannot regulate honesty for example. I'm a true believer in a principled approach to business, rather than an excessively rule-based system which will only asphyxiate initiative and growth.

"The wiser choice is to agree to share norms for our new reality based on strong and explicit global principles -- the very ingredients needed to fuel development."

The future for the banking sector

The banking sector in particular has been a lightning rod for public criticism, after a number of major banks in the United States and Britain received billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded rescue packages at the height of the crisis. Many had been caught out after the collapse of the housing market on both sides of the Atlantic, which exposed a culture of high-risk lending without proper risk management in place.

Some analysts ventured that lucrative bonuses have encouraged bankers to take greater risks for short-term gains.

But Bulke also pointed to the progress made by the private sector in the development of emerging economies, which has in return reduced rates of absolute poverty. "The private sector run in a principled way based on strong values and with a long-term perspective is a fundamental force for positive development in society," he said.

In its 2011 Annual Global Risks Report, the WEF warned the world's economy could not withstand any further shocks to the system and identified 37 main threats to its future stability, from crippling government debt and cyber security, to unsustainable pressure on resources and food security.

Among the most serious economic risks is the ongoing fiscal crisis in the euro zone -- sparked by countries borrowing and spending beyond their means -- which has spread from Greece to Ireland and Portugal in the past year.

What Ireland's bailout means

This prompted other euro zone partners to pump in billions of dollars in bailout packages, as investors worry about governments' ability to repay their debts. Governments have reacted with severe austerity measures which have in turn brought thousands onto the streets to protest.

Food prices hit record high

Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation warned that world food prices hit a record high in December, prompting riots in a number of poorer countries, from Mozambique to Algeria. Analysts believe a combination of causes, from environmental factors such as major droughts and wildfires, to a surge in the world's population, have hit global crop prices.

The report also notes that while globalization has reduced impediments to trade, improved international connections and sustained growth for a generation, it has also increased divisions within countries.

Internet-enabled mass protests

But the current generation of ordinary people have been able to voice their discontent like never before, thanks largely to the proliferation of the Internet and social media. Whether it is in Greece, Iran or Tunisia, like-minded people have been able to share information and then mobilize swiftly.

"We are having to confront so many risks at the same time," said Schwab.

In order to meet these challenges decision-makers will have to "overcome the behavioral biases towards immediate, short-term solutions and switch to longer term thinking," according to Howard Kunreuther, Co-Director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center.

In short, future development in the 21st century will have to be more inclusive and collaborative in order to reduce the divisions that threaten food security and increase tensions over trade imbalances.

A framework for inclusive growth

According to the WEF, the key to navigating this new reality "will be the shared norms that not only transcend differences across generations, stakeholder groups and geographies in a multi-polar world, but also enable inclusive growth.

"These norms must be truly shared and integrated into a holistic, interdisciplinary and multidimensional framework. For governments as well as multinational corporations, shared norms provide the compass by which leaders give and receive direction, define benchmarks for acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, and ensure inclusive rather than exclusive outcomes."

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MK Dichter Cancels Participation in Madrid Coalition Peace Conference for Fear of Arrest

Wednesday, 17 November 2010 13:22 Tania Kepler for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

MK Dichter Cancels Participation in Madrid Coalition Peace
Conference for Fear of Arrest

Member of Knesset Avi Dichter, former Head of Israeli General Security Services (GSS), recently canceled a trip to Spain, due to fear he would be detained or arrested by Spanish authorities for his involvement in alleged war crimes against Palestinians.

Dichter was set to attend a “peace conference” in Madrid at the end of October, organized by the Madrid Coalition, a collection of Israeli, Palestinian, and European civil society organizations working to support a multilateral resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict along the lines of the Arab Peace Initiative.

The Madrid Coalition confirmed that it invited Dichter. Leading members of the organization declined to respond to AIC questions, so it remains unclear why a suspected war criminal would be invited to participate in a conference on peace.

The former GSS chief has been charged in the Spanish state with possible war crimes for his part in the 2002 killing of Hamas member Salah Shehade and 14 other Palestinian civilians, including 9 children, who were in his Gaza Strip apartment building when a one-ton Israeli bomb was dropped on it.

There are additional charges pending in Spanish court against Dichter for his possible role in the Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip in December 2008-January 2009 (Operation Cast Lead), at which time he was Israel’s minister of internal security.

Madrid officials told Dichter that Spain did not intend to offer him immunity from arrest or interrogation, after which he cancelled his participation in the event, reported Israel’s Ynet news.

In March 2009, Dichter also signed a number of injunctions banning a series of events celebrating Jerusalem as the seat of the Arab Capital of Culture, scheduled to be held under the auspices and sponsored by the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, Nazareth and other parts of the country, according Israel’s Ynet News.

Dichter instructed Israel Police to "suppress any attempts by the PA to hold events in Jerusalem and throughout the rest of the country."

According to the minister, “the events would constitute a violation of the interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which includes a clause that forbids the PA from organizing events in Israeli territory,” reported Ynet.

Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jeraisi responded to Dichter saying, "I never thought they (Israeli authorities) would take it this far. After all, this is a cultural event."

"Dichter is trying to compete with Avigdor Lieberman's anti-Arab trend, and anyone who holds democracy and freedom of expression dear must condemn his position," he said.

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Eustace Mullins - Who Rules Your Rulers? from Ritchy_Niburu_2 on Vimeo.

Negotiators at UN Climate Change Conference

www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-19 20:51:05

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (1st, R) talks with Yvo de Boer (2nd, L), Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, on Dec. 19, 2009. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)

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S. African event postponed after Dalai Lama barred

The Jakarta Post, Associated Press, Johannesburg | Tue, 03/24/2009 9:05 PM

Organizers say a peace conference in Johannesburg has been postponed over South Africa's decision to bar the Dalai Lama from attending.

The government refused to issue an official invitation to the Tibetan spiritual leader, citing its relationship with China.

The move has generated sharp criticism of South Africa. Fellow Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu as well as members of the Nobel Committee pulled out of the conference in response.

Friday's conference was to highlight ways football can promote peace ahead of the 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa.

Chairman of the local 2010 committee Irvin Khoza told reportes Tuesday that the conference has been postponed indefinitely "as result of the controversy surrounding the Dalai Lama."

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Hungary warns of new European economic 'Iron Curtain'

The Jakarta Post, Constant Brand, The Associated Press, Brussels | Sun, 03/01/2009 8:21 PM 

 

Euro ideas: Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek waits for EU leaders during arrivals for an EU summit in Brussels, Sunday. With their economies tanking and finances fraying, EU leaders meet Sunday keen to show that they will stick together and work on ideas of how to put the recession behind them. AP/Geert Vanden Wijngaert
 

Hungary warned the European Union not to let a new economic "Iron Curtain" divide the continent and urged the 27 EU leaders meeting Sunday to act so the bloc's weakest members don't go under in the global economic crisis. 

Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said the credit crunch is hitting poorer, eastern member states the hardest. The Hungarian leader called for a special EU fund of up to euro190 billion ($241 billion) to help restore trust and solvency in eastern EU members' financial markets. 

"We should not allow that a new Iron Curtain should be set up and divide Europe," Gyurcsany told reporters. "In the beginning of the nineties we reunified Europe, now the challenge is whether we will be able to reunify Europe financially." 

EU nations are all grappling with a worsening recession, compounded by a severe credit crunch that has left many EU countries looking ever more inward to protect jobs and companies from international competition. Those policies are now undermining the open market cornerstone on which the EU is founded. 

Ahead of the summit, the leaders of nine countries - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and the three Baltic states - forged a common stand to pressure richer members to back up vague pledges of support with action. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the nine leaders called for "a spirit against protectionism and egoism." 

Hungary, Poland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania also want the EU to fast-track their bids to join the euro-currency, which could offer them a stable financial anchor. Latvia's government has already collapsed amid the economic fallout. 

Other EU members, like Sweden, want to coordinate a Europe-wide bailout plan for car producers. 

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek of the Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, has called on his counterparts to act together. 

A draft summit conclusion centered on the need to reconfirm their commitment to "make the maximum possible use" of the EU's cherished free market "as the engine for recovery." 

Topolanek said the EU does "not want any new dividing lines. We do not want a Europe divided along a North-South or an East-West line, pursuing a beggar-thy-neighbour policy is unacceptable." 

The crisis has sorely tested solidarity among EU nations. 

The Czech Republic has accused France of trying to protect its local car plants at the expense of foreign subsidiaries, while Germany, the EU's economic powerhouse, has rejected calls to help bail out economies in Ireland, Greece and Portugal. 

Sunday's talks are meant to restore a unified purpose and help prepare for the April 2 Group of 20 nations summit in London. 

Once-booming east European economies have been hit hard by the economic downturn. As cheap credit dried up their export markets shrank, causing eastern currencies to sink and triggering more financial turmoil. 

Gyurcsany said eastern EU countries could need up to euro300 billion ($380 billion), or 30 percent of the region's gross domestic production this year. 

He warned that failure to offer bigger bailouts "could lead to massive contractions" in their economies and lead to "large-scale defaults" that would affect Europe as a whole. It could also trigger political unrest and immigration pressures as jobless rates soar, he said. 

EU governments have already spent euro300 billion ($380 billion) in bank recapitalizations and put up euro2.5 trillion ($3.18 trillion) to guarantee loans of many banks in the EU and neighboring states. 

On Friday, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the World Bank said they will jointly provide euro24.5 billion ($31.1 billion) in emergency aid to shore up the battered finances of eastern European nations.

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SBY touts Asia as new power, dismisses radicalism threat

Desy Nurhayati and Hyginus Hardoyo, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali | Thu, 12/11/2008 7:40 AM 

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono believes Asia is replacing the West as the world’s center of power and that Indonesia is well geared to address a growing tendency toward fundamentalism. 

“There has been a kind of changing global landscape, a shifting of the central power from the United States and Europe to Asia over the last 15 years,” Yudhoyono told a joint press conference on the sidelines of the inaugural session of the Bali Democracy Forum on Wednesday. 

The inaugural session, entitled “Building and Consolidating Democracy: A Strategic Agenda for Asia”, was attended by foreign ministers and delegates from at least 32 countries and three heads of state — Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darussalam, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao of Timor Leste. 

Yudhoyono said that the forum, which is open to all Asian countries and will regularly gather country representatives at the ministerial level, constituted Indonesia’s contribution to Asia’s transition into a new era. 

The President also launched the Institute for Peace and Democracy on the campus of state-run Udayana University in Jimbaran, Bali. 

“This (Asian) region will be very dynamic in the future, especially in terms of politics, culture and economy and technology,” he said, describing the region as a melting pot for various civilizations. 

“Indonesia itself is in the process of a transformation to build a better democracy and create harmony among its plural society,” he said. 

Indonesia, he continued, had strategic policies in place to maintain pluralism and avoid a tendency toward fundamentalism. 

“Indonesia is a unique blend of Islamic, oriental and western civilizations with Hindu and Buddhist influences coming to our people in the third century. Islam arrived in the 13th century, and Western civilization came in the 17th century, first in the form of colonialism but later in the form of modern nationalism,” he said. 

Over the centuries, the Indonesian archipelago absorbed influences from those civilizations, Yudhoyono said, adding that there was always the possibility that such influences could collide but that Indonesian democracy was providing a home for those cultures and religions to blend harmoniously. 

“Our present democracy is now 10 years old, born in the aftermath of a financial crisis that gave birth to the reform movement. 

He said Indonesia had progressed in leaps and bounds in its democratic transition, but that there was still much more to be done. 

“The Bali Democracy Forum comes forth because we realize the need for an organized learning process and comprehensive dialogue on democracy. A high level dialogue which is wider, more inclusive and more focused than any that has been attempted before,”  Yudhoyono said. 

Ni Komang Erviani contributed to this article from Jimbaran, Bali.

LET'S GET IT STARTED

The Jakarta Post

The Associated Press, USA | Sat, 11/15/2008 7:54 AM

U.S. President George W. Bush (top center) welcomes world leaders (from left to right) President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, President Hu Jintao of China, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, to the State Dining Room of the White House for the start of the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy in Washington on Friday. (AP/Lawrence Jackson)

Peres lauds Saudi King peace plan

BBC 

Israeli President Shimon Peres has praised the king of Saudi Arabia for his Middle East peace initiative.

At an interfaith meeting at the United Nations, Mr Peres told King Abdullah he hoped his would be the "prevailing voice of the whole region". 

The Saudi plan, proposed in 2002, calls for Israel to withdraw from occupied land in exchange for Arab recognition. 

King Abdullah organised the two-day conference in New York to promote a dialogue on religion and culture.

He told the meeting of world leaders that it was time to learn the lessons of the past.      

"Terrorism and criminality are the enemies of each and every religion and civilisation," he said, speaking through an interpreter. 

"They wouldn't have appeared had it not been for the upset of the principles of tolerance." 

Highly symbolic 

When Mr Peres took to the floor, he broke off from his prepared speech to address King Abdullah directly. 

"Your Majesty, the king of Saudi Arabia," he said. "I was listening to your message. I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people. It's right. It's needed. It's promising. 

"The initiative's portrayal of our region's future provides hope to the people and inspires confidence in the nations." 

Diplomats described it as a highly symbolic moment, the BBC's UN correspondent, Laura Trevelyan, said.

The question is whether it means anything for the Middle East peace process, she adds. 

Mr Peres told reporters afterwards that he believed they were a step closer to that goal, while acknowledging there were still significant obstacles to overcome. 

"I don't deny there are open and difficult questions, but if there is a will - as the Arabs are saying - there is a way. What was today demonstrated was the will. We know that we have to work for the way." 

UN Secretary-General, the outgoing US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are among the world leaders attending the conference. 

The event has been criticised by human rights groups who say it gives a platform to Saudi Arabia, which practices the strict Wahabi branch of Islam and allows no other form of public worship. Rights groups also strongly criticise the kingdom's general human right record. 

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said President Bush believed "the king of Saudi Arabia has recognised that they have a long way to go and that he is trying to take some steps to get there".