www.libforall.org
In an appeal made during a recent summit, religious leaders from around the world gave the following advice to world leaders who are attending the G8 Summit later in July:
We are convinced that a new moral paradigm is essential to address today’s challenges. Through the notion of shared security we can draw attention to the comprehensive character of our moral and religious concerns. We are using the term “security” in a new way. We add the word “shared” to draw attention to a fundamental moral conviction: the wellbeing of each is related to the wellbeing of others and to our environment. Shared security focuses on the fundamental inter relatedness of all persons and the environment. It includes a comprehensive respect for the interconnectedness and dignity of all life and acknowledges the fundamental fact that we all live in one world. Ultimately we are convinced that to overcome violence, justice with compassion and forgiveness are necessary and possible.
More specifically, religious leaders were drawing the attention of the G8 Summit to the need for:
- Sustainable financing for future development;
- Transparent and inclusive global decision-making in tackling issues brought along by the financial crisis;
- Concerted action to close down unregulated off shore banking systems;
- International cooperation in tackling poverty brought along to the African continent that has been hard hit by the global financial crisis;
- Rigorous implementation of nuclear reduction and non-proliferation policies leading to the goal of total nuclear disarmament; and
- Adequate and uniform standards designed to protect the rights and dignity of illegal migrants and refugees, as world political leaders are warned that ecological pressure will significantly accelerate the rate of global population mobility.
The Dalai Lama, however, has a slightly different but essentially similar view on the global financial crisis. Our friend JR from JustRecently’s Weblog has translated a section of His Holiness’s interview with a German paper Die Welt on this topic:
Welt: The market doesn’t settle it, but you don’t believe in regulation either. Then what do we need?
Dalai Lama: I call it a responsible free market economy. In the end it depends on the individual. It depends on the individual sense of moral responsibility, self-discipline, values. The financial crisis is no crisis of the market economy itself, but a crisis of values.
Do you agree with the Dalai Lama that the financial crisis is fundamentally a crisis of value? Will the solution lies in an improved sense of individual moral responsibility? Or is this ultimately a global crisis that requires a global solution?
