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Breaking Barriers

During the winter of 1990 the Global Forum that Akio coordinated took place in Moscow, Russia, with the final ceremony being held in the Kremlin. A great thing happened that day that showed much promise for cultures coming together and allowing sacrifices for the whole to move forward. There were threats announced that day on many Baltic states, and President Gorbachev had to call an unexpected meeting in the Kremlin during the time scheduled for the final ceremonies of the Forum. The Forum was able to bear with these scheduling changes, but had to move their ceremonies until later that evening. Coincidentally, it was pushed into the Sabbath, and so the Jewish members of the Forum suddenly had a challenge to face. With much behind-the-scenes scrambling, the meeting went forth and Akio and President Gorbachev, among others, decided that indeed sacrifices would have to be made by all in order to close the ceremonies. Many of the Jewish attendees, including the rabbi members and even Carl Sagan prayed together in the basement of the Kremlin to welcome the Sabbath into a cold building with an entirely different focus by nature. The colossal adjustments of the rabbis allowed the procession to go forth and the ceremonies closed with a tremendous speech by President Gorbachev and others, urging in the modern environmental movement with all stunned by the power of the sacrifice and adjustments that had been made to keep the meeting scheduled. Great political and religious figures both bowed their heads in the name of cooperation and each made sacrifices in order to allow the whole group to meet.… Continue reading

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Consuming ourselves, "The Story of Stuff"

In 1992 the International Green Cross (http://www.gci.ch/) was co founded by Akio and President Mikhail Gorbachev. It’s mission, available on the website above, is to secure a sustainable future for the planet through a much needed paradigm shift. The paradigm shift is the focus of this post, and the focus of the video linked, “The Story of Stuff.” We live in a world of advertising, consumption, and waste. Fashion dictates the level of use an item receives instead of practicability. The video embedded teaches an important lesson of the amount of waste we generate as humans (and specifically people from the United States) and how much of it is unnecessary. A paradigm shift toward reducing consumption and recycling what we do need to use would bring us to a level of waste that would allow the future generations to continue to use our planet’s finite resources. Although developments in technology do allow us to use new resources to fuel our lives and expand the meaning of ‘finite,’ there are still great resources devoted to these developments. Just by using less and disregarding the trends and fleetingness of what is popular we are able to achieve an important goal: sustainability. This word does have a plethora of connotations but it’s important to realize that through the practice of reduction in consumption we not only decrease what we use now, but make more available for those who don’t receive it now and those who will need it in the future. The world has real problems based on inefficient use of scarce resources and the United States is a great model of how to worsen these problems.… Continue reading

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The Power of a Chlid


The speech in the video above is inspirational. This girl, Severn Suzuki, is only 13 years old at the time the speech was given at the Rio Earth Summit in 1993. She astounded every listener at the conference and has astounded every Youtube viewer since. Despite the video’s 100,000’s of viewings, her voice is largely unheard by those addressed. Our planet still has the same problems it had 15 years ago, and they have largely gotten worse with the passage of time. However to those not addressed–the dreamers, children, students, people largely of a younger generation–her voice serves as inspiration.

Reread the first post of this blog and you see that the Plant the Seed Network’s mission is to create an online network/movement of students dedicated to peace through transcending traditional cultural barriers that are now causing conflict as they meet, mix and intertwine. This girl’s speech embodies the desires of the Plant the Seed Network: the older generation, although with certain triumphs during its day, has largely unfulfilled its goals and commitments as leaders and we, the younger generation, are now left with the large responsibility of human survival. The Plant the Seed Network is a group of students from around the world committed to taking steps toward global cooperation and creating a harmony among the Earth’s citizens that allows us to take strides as a whole toward the solutions we need to survive.… Continue reading

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Pale Blue Dot

This video is simple but powerful. Dr. Carl Sagan possessed an insightful knowledge of the universe and with that viewpoint he was able to describe our human issues on planet Earth in a new, compelling way, demonstrating a vision only possible through a fresh look at our planet. This video shows us our relative unimportance as a species to the Earth and Universe.

For many years we have been dealing with global issues such as environmental preservation and conservation, poverty, hunger, disease, overpopulation, and cultural tolerance. These issues are obviously still pressing, and Akio’s work in 1988 and 1990, assembling the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders, created the beginning to a global solution. Carl Sagan was a friend of Akio’s and attended these conferences, even mentioning their importance to him in his final book, Billions and Billions.

We can see the great insignificance of all that we deem significant, and we must begin to ask ourselves the question: why? Why do we cause so much pain and trouble when we can cause joy? Why hate when it’s possible to love? In Billions and Billions Carl Sagan explores these ideas and the conclusion is that by transcending our perceived differences in religion, science, politics, and culture we can achieve our shared global desires of peace, well-being and security.… Continue reading