Opening Session

Jiří Musil
Dear Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, dear guests who have arrived from various parts of the world, and dear guests from the Czech Republic.

I welcome you cordially on behalf of all my colleagues who prepared the FORUM 2000 Conference this year. For the fourth time, we are meeting in Vladislav Hall to begin our joint reflections on how to contribute and assist the world's rapid changes, what we call globalization, to develop in a human way.

We wish to join those who struggle to achieve a human face for globalization and especially for its humanity. I would like to stress that this means that we are aware of how difficult this task is. We cannot afford to ignore - besides the positive aspects associated with a growing connection within the world; with the economic progress of our planet's relatively large regions; with the growing communication between peoples and cultures in various parts of the world; with the creation of new supranational economic and political entities - that there also may occur many serious dangers associated with globalization.

Allow me to mention the most serious: the growing social tension in both rich and poor countries of the world; financial and economic insecurity; people's fear of uncontrolled and chaotic changes and of the future in general; of losing work; of a continuously deteriorating environment in many parts of the world; of new medical and biological risks; and, of new global forms of criminality. Also included are growing xenophobia and ethnic conflicts, associated with our identity as well as insecurity.

We believe that the instruments which are able to humanize globalization include deeper and more substantial education, as well as a broad access to information, the reflection of artists on the new situation of mankind, and particularly a formation of new shared spiritual and moral values.

We would be happy if our FORUM 2000 Conference contributes to our better perception of these instruments for the humanity of globalization, to our ability to differentiate between them more clearly and responsibly, to work with them and to our knowledge of how to apply them in particular situations.

I have the honour to moderate the opening of our Conference. The first speech will be given by the President of the Czech Republic, Mr. Václav Havel. Mr. President, I would like to ask you to address the Conference.

Václav Havel
Ladies and Gentleman,

Dear Guests,

I too would like to welcome you all very cordially here in Vladislav Hall at this gala opening of the Forum 2000 Conference. I would like to welcome all the participants of this Forum, who came to spend three days in reflection, from all parts of the world. It has become tradition during the gala openings that I repeat, in a few sentences, the genesis of this entire project - Forum 2000. I will repeat it because the combination of the people present changes, and there are participants here for the first time who may not know how this whole thing came into being.

The idea of the Forum 2000 came into being five years ago when, in a discussion with Elie Wiesel, I confessed to him my feeling that dispersed around the world there are many wise people, from different cultures, different civilizations, different countries, different continents; people of very different professions - political scientists, politicians, sociologists, physicists, futurologists - and that it would be good to organize a joint discussion of these wise people who, in one way or another, are concerned about the fate of this civilization, and the threats looming above it. From this the first Forum 200 began four years ago. In this context, there is one other person I must mention and that is Mr. Sasakawa who, from the very beginning, was very sympathetic to this project and who was primarily responsible, after the successful course of the first Conference, to organize others, and that this conference has become a more permanent feature.

This year, we have the fourth Forum. Slowly but surely the public is becoming more aware, knows of this Forum, and is becoming interested in it. Of course, this is good.

Perhaps I should also point out one other idea which stood out at the beginning: The fact that Prague is a city which is, in a way, very suitable for these kinds of meetings. Actually, it is predestined for these kinds of meetings because, in the past or be it the very distant past, Prague was the true crossroads - which means a place of meetings - of diverse cultures, ethnic groups, traditions, civilizational streams, spiritual streams, social movements, and this multi-cultural and multi-polar tradition is the point from where Prague should continue. I have the feeling that in a certain way it is pre-disposed to do that.

This year's Forum, the same as the previous Forums, will have its special focus, which we could very generally describe as "education". I believe, that one of the things that will be talked about a lot at this Forum, and that we will come back to will be the question: What do we understand by "education"? Today education means more than merely learning the encyclopaedic sum of knowledge of concrete facts. By clicking on the keyboard of my computer I can immediately learn any concrete facts and so I don't have to remember them any more.

But what the term education should mean, more and more distinctly, is the ability to understand in a deeper and concealed way the connection of phenomena, the ability to understand ambiguity - the ambiguity of various phenomena, to also perceive the danger of things which have a beautiful face and, on the other hand, also to discover the concealed sense of things which is not apparent on the surface and to think systematically and to be able also to communicate our ideas in a clear and understandable way. This will be, increasingly, the role of scholars, whereas education will less and less mean a competent knowledge of everything. I do not think there is such a human brain which is able to know everything, and that is not at all necessary. Man has already invented a lot of things which are capable of storing knowledge and information for him.

Recently we have talked a lot about Globalization. I am beginning to be afraid to use that word because I have the impression that each and every person understands this word in a different way and interprets it in a way which suits him. However, if I should use it: I, myself, understand Globalization as a morally neutral phenomenon. But it is a certain phenomenon. The globalized world can develop in a great way, but it can also end in disaster. If it develops in a great way, or if it ends in disaster, it will not be the fault or the merit of Globalization, but of man; of the way, in which man behaves, to what degree he bears responsibility; and, on his ability to understand the deeper connection between phenomena. I believe that this and other topics will be the contents of our discussions - to all of which, I wish success.

Thank you very much.

Jiří Musil
Mr. President, we thank you for your remarks.

Our second prominent speaker is Mr. Yohei Sasakawa. Mr. Sasakawa is a well known Japanese philanthropist and the President of the Nippon Foundation. It is thanks to the generosity and understanding of this Foundation that we are able to organize the series of our FORUM 2000 Conferences. I would like to also reiterate that, thanks to the Nippon Foundation, students from the entire world are able to meet in Prague every year to reflect the future from the young people's point of view.

Mr. Sasakawa, will you kindly begin your speech.

Yohei Sasakawa
Your Excellencies, President Václav Havel, distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Today, we are gathered here at the ancient city of Prague for the opening of the 4th conference Forum 2000. This Forum was originally initiated by President Václav Havel and myself. We both agreed that we must draw up a blueprint of the coming 21st century, a guide to making it a 1st century full of hope. We decided to do this by organizing a gathering of the wise people of the world. At the original plan was to hold five conferences - there will be only one more after this. I am sure that those of you present with us today fully recognize the importance of this forum which stands on the watershed between the 20th and the 21st centuries. This should be the occasion to review the past century, perhaps even the last 2000 years to sum up the history of humanity and to send the message to the entire world on the issue of co-existence: ”how to live together in this coming century of globalization?”

In this way, the mission of this forum, I believe, is to arrive at a new orientation in various that will lead us to other, more tolerant and open global community where safety and peace are assured for all people. This may be what President Havel refers to as a ”moral minimum” - I consider that his ”moral minimum” has much in common with our creed of activities, that is ”global minimum”. Global minimum is a concept which has driven the Nippon Foundation to work in the field of basic human needs; for more than three decades we have provided humanitarian assistance to the people who suffer from various problems caused by the unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity.

We have tried to improve the minimum standard of living for the people for that they can enjoy their lives to the utmost. In this series of forums, we have already discussed the positive and negative effects of globalization from various angles. The proliferation of the computer, which could be considered the driving force behind globalization, has definitely made the huge and mostly positive impact on society with its convenience, speed, and geographical reach, but at the same time it has given rise to social inequality as evidenced by the coinage of a new expression - the ”Digital Divide”. Concomitant with this Digital Divide, the free market economy is further broadening the existing gap between developed and developing countries; furthermore, globalization - as its name suggests - is making increasingly clear on a world-wide scale which pole is stronger, which weaker, who are the winners, who the losers. The angry crowd of protesters who filled the streets of Prague three weeks ago is still fresh in our minds. Globalization has become a moral issue now. The 21st century must not be a century that allows only a selected group of the fortunate to win at the expense of others.

In the speeches I gave at the last three forums, I emphasized the necessity of tolerance, of understanding the inviolability of the culture and the various of each nation, each ethnic group. The concept of the global minimum, which I would like to share with you, is based upon default and includes the following points: a mutual acceptance of how we differ from one another, what as human beings we absolutely must not tolerate, and how we should at least acknowledge each others’ validity - although we may differ. In other words, we need to discover an opening for setting up an ethical standard that provides the maximum in terms of tolerance and common grounds.

We should dispel the nihilism that tends to accompany the end of the century, and instead search for this “global minimum” as we move into the future. I hope you agree with me that this should be the stance that this Forum takes, that it should be essence that is passed onto the next generation.

As you all know, this Forum has developed into a movement inspiring similar activities around the world. One of them is the Students’ Forum, which has been actively conducted by the young generation, the future leaders of the world. We see great potential for these young people to carry on and develop what this Forum has been trying to achieve.

We must be prepared to fully welcome the global minimum on which we can all agree, as we welcome the 21st century. This spirit must be carried on by our young people. I strongly believe that this Forum will bare such fruit.

Thank you very much.