November 12, 2009 : Charter for Compassion

Karen Armstrong's Wish: “I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.”

The writing of the Charter is open to people all around the world, of all faith traditions, nationalities, languages, and backgrounds. The online writing took place in late Fall 2008. In February 2009 the words of the world were collected and given to the Council of Conscience, a gathering of high-level religious leaders and thinkers, who are now crafting the final document. The Charter will then be launched in a spectacular way in November 2009.

Bringing together voices from all cultures and religions, the Charter seeks to remind the world we already share the core principles of compassion.

Thanks to A Thinker and Unjela for pointing this out. :)

More about: Charter for Compassion

TED Prize

Karen Armstrong

Mosaic International Summit 2010

Are you passionate about changing the world? So is Mosaic.
The Mosaic International Summit 2010 will bring together 80 young Muslims who aspire to be leaders of change.

Mosaic works towards a more integrated and thriving society where all individuals, regardless of background, are supported in realising their potential. Mosaic is based in the UK and was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2007.

The Mosaic International Summit 2010 will offer 80 young Muslims an exciting leadership development opportunity. The Summit aims for delegates:

1) to develop leadership ability and an aspiration to be an agent of change

2) to develop understanding of key global issues and inspire positive thinking to address them

The Summit will take place in the UK between 11 – 24 July 2010. The Summit has been developed from our first international gathering of young Muslim leaders – the very successful Mosaic International Summer School 2009. Here are some comments from 2009 delegates:

"For me personally, the program has benefitted me more than I expected. It gives me more confidence, insights and inspiration to affect positive change. It has made me think of the role youth and religion can play in problems like poverty, unemployment and environment".

"We wait for others to be leaders when we should be the ones to take up initiative….you have to take responsibility and think and also act like a leader".

"….a life changing experience…I feel that I have changed internally as a person. I feel empowered, I feel connected, I feel that I am not alone….."

Applications for the Mosaic International Summit 2010 are open between 30 October and 27 November 2009. For information about eligibility and all other details please see http://www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk/international/international_summit/

http://www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk/

Reclaiming the Cities

In the old days, global warming was unheard of. So was the carbon footprint of human beings. Modes of transport were usually not dependent on fuel consumption. Horses, buggies, donkeys, horse-drawn carriages or simply walking in the city were norm. Factories didn't exist. Industrialization hadn't stepped in.


These creations of modern times were necessary, no doubt, but the way they changed living environments could have been perhaps better planned. Urban areas came into formation, but what the modern urban planners lost out on was the old concept of making cities walkable.





In the old days, everything from shops, hospitals, schools, workplace, worship places and leisure areas, all used to be within walking distance.




The town of Cambridge is a wonderful example of this concept. The way the place has been designed, everything that a resident living there needs, is within easy walkable -- or "bikable"-- reach.


For big cities like Karachi which suffer from a lack of planning, there are options like the one Mexico City uses.





Here's an excerpt from the article:


On a normal morning, this road is an environmentalist's worst nightmare. But not so at the end of each week, because, for the past few months, traffic has been banished from Reforma each Sunday between 7am and 2pm. It's a bold move, and the brainchild of the city's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, who has gone green big-time (certainly by Mexican standards). In another headline-making move, the mayor and his closest advisers now cycle to work on the first Monday of every month - no mean feat for Ebrard, a 48-year-old smoker who, by his own admission, doesn't exercise as much as he might.





http://www.newstatesman.com/travel/2008/04/mexico-city-reforma-traffic




Could Karachi have a day like this? Ban traffic in the main artery of II Chundrigar Road and have a mayor, or even a politician who could cycle to work? (Maybe with an entourage of seven VIP protection cars in tow)...? :)

BBBC: Bromley By Bow Centre

When we were told to select our themes for the summer school, three options were there: sustainable communities, environment, and enterprise.

I chose communities because at that time, environment and enterprise's importance was not very obvious. As the weeks passed though, and especially as our London study tour ensued, the importance of all three dimensions came together rather nicely.

My group went to The Bromley By Bow Centre on the second day of our study tour. What I realized there was how drastically I had underestimated the importance of environment on people.






Rob Trimble was taking us on a tour of the place and inside the church where it all began, he pointed to small wooden chairs. Twenty years ago, they had the option of buying mass-produced plastic chairs for the children day care centre that were cheaper. But they went ahead and got custom made Victorian wooden chairs. It's a simple gesture, but it goes on to say something very significant. The day care centre did not economize on something that children might use, getting the wooden chairs was about giving the best available for those kids in a slightly underprivileged area of the city. This concept is often missing in the charities and homeless shelters that are established in developing countries. The standards are fairly low, but then again, there is the fact that funding is also very minimum.

Similar examples followed in terms of the hospital that the centre has. There are no CCTV cameras in the entire place. The concept was to show people that they are trusted, and in effect people feel that obligation not to be engage in destructive behaviour.

The hospital facility the centre had did not look like a hospital. There were wide green spaces. The doors opened inwards in warm welcome. The reception desks were deliberately set lower so that the people coming in would not be intimidated and be at eye level with the person on the other side of the reception. Many people living in these areas belong to Bengali and Indian communities who feel very easy in coming to the centre for help. (Even their webpage has an option for Bengali translation).

It's incredible how small things like these that we often underestimate can have such an impact on how people behave.

A surprise treat at the end of the day was to see a small horse parade for under-5 children, which we all, of course watched. :)

Peace One Day: Jeremy Gilley

A lot of what we talked about during the whole Mosaic experience was the need to take initiative and not giving up no matter what the odds. And to not be cynics.

One man, Jeremy Gilley, a British actor and filmmaker started his struggle in 1999 to establish one day of Peace. September 21. He had infectious enthusiasm, but everywhere he went, he faced cynics. People who thought it was impossible: what he demanded was ceasefire. One day to mark peace throughout the world. In September 2001, when they were officially going to mark September 21 as the World Peace Day, the WTC towers were attacked. The day's activities were postponed.

He faced many setbacks, he was worried about accepting help from Coco Cola to support this day, but he often had to adapt to new changes.

"The more violence I saw, the more frustrated I felt about not being able to do anything about it. But I wanted to try... I'm dyslexic, my only qualification is a D in pottery, but that wasn't gonna stop me. You see if I failed, the film could make a profound statement about the world unwilling to change. If I succeeded, well that was almost inconceivable."

Watch his journey here. It is an inspiring piece of work. He has documented his failures, his setbacks and then shows the world that perseverance will eventually pay off.

The Day After Peace: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egqJctPZunw

To watch his message, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FmEIP46B-E

Copenhagen 2009: Help Seal The Deal

Visit:

http://www.sealthedeal2009.org/

Sign the petition and help Seal the Deal.

Watch Ban Ki Moon's Message to the World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI0g5p9pCVQ

Baroness Kishwer Falkner

Baroness Falkner's talk was one of the most powerful lectures. She raised a number of points, ranging from the need for democracy to the need for the oil-rich Muslim nations to invest in the developing Muslim world.

Key highlights:

Free economies will improve lives through trade and employment. Democracies give people freedom. There needs to be institutional and judicial independence, a value system of inclusiveness, freedom of individuals.

With democracy comes in good governance and accountability.

Consensus Oriented: What everyone agrees with, will be accepted.

Participatory: Everyone has their say.

Follow the Rule of Law: Respect law above all else.

Effective and Efficient: The government has to be effective and efficient and also make the right decisions.

Accountable: Checks and balances need to be in place to keep the government on track.

Transparent: The government's dealings should be transparent (MP scandal? hmmm... better late than never.)

Responsive: Listen to what the people really want. (When we say we want investment in education, listen and adhere.)

Equitable and Inclusive: No prejudice on the basis of race, gender, personal biases and everyone should have the chance to succeed.

A true democracy always allows for dissent. Obama's recent example is worthy when Rep Joe Wilson called Obama a liar, he did not summon an army of klashinkov yielding men for revenge. He said "Not true" and moved on with his speech.

The good thing with a democracy is: if you don't like them, after five years you can throw them out.

She pointed out some reasons why Muslim nations lag: Women's participation. Arab world, 280 million people, 60 million illiterate, and the majority are women.

75% of Muslim women are economically inactive.

If the oil-rich Muslim countries invest in the developing world, so much can be accomplished: Freedom from hunger, freedom from poverty, freedom for the human spirit.

Yasser: Arab James Bond?

So, here's the thing: When you look at Yasser, from Saudi Arabia, you do not expect James Bond. But that's what he is in some ways. At least when he starts talking about how he ended up getting married. How he fought with his father to let him marry the girl of his dreams. His stories of high speed car chases with his father and fighting for love...they don't match with the image of Saudi Arabia we hold in our minds.

And I guess it just reinforces one thing: that humans have an astounding tendency to defy labels. It's only once you share and accept people as they are that those masks of survival fall away, and you realize that under the difference of clothes, lies as fresh as ever, the human spirit. Under that skin, lies another human, with the same fears, same worries, same hopes. That's what the Mosaic Summer School accomplished for 83 delegates and many others from the Muslim world this year.

To defy labels a little further: Yasser, dressed in traditional garb of bisht and keffiyeh, happens to fly gaming champions around the world for a living.

More about the Mosaic International School: http://www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk/international/international_summer_school/

On the train home

Sheikh Babikr said a wonderful thing the day he came to give his second talk at Queen Mary, London.

That sometimes, the questions that you really wanted to ask come to you when you're on the train home.

I hope this place can give future Mosaic delegates a feel of what to expect from this program and think about some of the issues they may want to talk about.

Crossing the Divide: Allegra Mostyn-Owen

Every week I attend a madrasa in an east London mosque. I'm not Muslim, I go as a teacher. All the other tutors teach the Qura'an, but I teach art and design and indirectly, English language and general knowledge. When I describe this activity, I am greeted with incredulity from my own community where madrasa is a dirty word, friendly mosque is an oxymoron, and teaching belongs to proper teachers.

I did not set out to teach at a mosque because it was a religious environment but because it was the most direct channel to a closed community...It was my friend Riaz who set me on this path. He was a refugee from Kabul. I might not have felt sympathetic except that Riaz is an impressive man and I was ashamed of Britain's war policy. In time, Riaz suggested I offer free classes in the Pakistani community. "I'm British, I'm not Pathan now and all those women and children need modernising", he said. "They need to come out of the darkness to appreciate the life here, they need to break the barrier where they're living. It's not Islam: it's all culture and people's emotions."

I've never regularly attended church, yet I have been to this mosque, my mosque, more times than I can remember. It's a place where I sometimes feel spiritually transported. As I busy myself on the carpet sorting colours and papers after what is always an exhausting class, I am soothed by the azan of evening prayers, the haunting and sometimes pained invocations to the Almighty. I feel my humility, and then realize this is my act of worship, my submission, my Islam. Forget the fact that only men take part in communal prayers, I am a token Christian discreetly trafficking through the men's space with my bags of materials, pretending I'm not really there. I am there, I am accepted, and this is all that matters.

Quoted from: Crossing the Divide by Allegra Mostyn-Owen, Reader's Digest June 2009.

"She is not a Muslim, but has been an important part of our attempts to deradicalise our young people. Allegra provides a positive message that something is being done for our community."
-- Minhaj-Ul-Quran Mosque President Istiyaq Ahmed.

More about Allegra Mostyn-Owen.

Her work with the madrasa students.

Unlocking Potential

That was one of the key points that I have taken away from Mosaic. That this network can connect you to the right people at the right time and help you realize what you are capable of accomplishing if only shown the right way.

In lieu of this, I'm currently working on an Alumni Lecture Series at my department. Mosaic's mentoring program was the basic inspiration for this. Before going to Mosaic, it was hard to see what was the use of mentors. It's a much abused term that didn't make sense. I did not have mentors either. Now I do.

It was strangely enough at the FCO dinner on Thursday night that it made sense. I was lucky to sit with Rokhsana Fiaz of The Change Institute and she said something very meaningful.

"Be a leader."

Small words, but they made sense when she said it. She had decided to bring about change in her community and she had taken initiative to go for it. The Change Institute works with the government and local communities to bring about 'change', to root out evils like racism and prejudices from our communities.

If we can find such people to look up to instead of corrupt models of 'success', I feel that our youth would be headed on the right track.

Mosaic Pakistan Action Plan

Dear All,
Greetings from Abbott Pakistan,
My excuses are not very different from other Pakistani delegates. Pending work load and resuming my MBA (after about 1 year gap), did not let me to work more than sending my feedback report back to Mosaic office. To be very honest i was also waiting for the meeting outcomes from Unjela et al. so that i could see what else i could add. But realizing the fact that we all need to be proactive and self starter, here are some initial thoughts from my side:

1. Am strongly in favor to support CSR standing committee of FPCCI for the projects that are already on board instead of starting a new one especially since we have not yet developed a firm working platform of Mosaic Pakistan. This CSR committee is working in collaboration of following social sector Standing Committees:

1. Education, Literacy & NFE
2. Science, Technology & Technical Education
3. Tertiary Education
4. Religion, Culture & Sports
5. Human Development & Poverty Alleviation
6. IT & ICT
7. Special Education & Women Development
8. Health Care
9. Environment
10. Research & Development
There are a large no. of projects in progress under this umbrella, each requiring our personal contribution.They are all voluntary services targeting a sustainable community set up.

2. Since all of us are already involved in some community services (at our work place or University), we may continue serving them utilizing the energy and lesson learned during summer school and involve other Pakistani delegates who are interested in it.

3. Though we have so many blogs and channels of correspondence with mosaicians across world, i still agree for having a separate one for Pakistani delegates or at least improve our existing communication with maximum participation. The google group developed by FPCCI earlier seems nonfunctional now.

4. We need to communicate the message and vision of Mosaic at all levels of our contacts. I personally have done the same with my maximum contacts and specially in my Organization where i shared my experience with Middle and Senior Management.

5. As i understand, unlike other countries, Pakistani delegates are having a polar distribution, a major bunch at Karachi, a second bunch at Islamabad and a few scattered. Formal and informal reunions would definitely help in working as a team.

Hope to meet you in Oct
Regards

Imran Khan (Abbott)

How can we contribute...

We are a fairly dispersed group with Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Skardu, so it would be easier if we first evaluate how we can contribute to these goals in our individual capacities.

Some of us are university students so we can work quite extensively on creating awareness for Mosaic, and encouraging new recruits. We also have more time in general, as compared with the ones with full time jobs (and families).

Our links in media can also help spread the message about this project very easily, so let's just think about what can we bring to the table as individuals.

We can't create a perfect world in a day, but at least we can get started on making it a better one.

On the Agenda

According to Arif's report, these were some points that we could work on:

The development and implementation of Mosaic in Pakistan can include:-

• Awareness of Mosaic International Summer School
• Support for Mosaic International Summer School and creating a long term funding mechanism for Mosaic activities in Pakistan
• Programme development
• Future selection and screening of Mosaic International Summer School applicants
• Guiding individuals and companies to channel, facilitate and enhance their positive impact on society by:-

Encouraging volunteering
building third sector capacity
transferring successful programmes
measuring impact on society
providing inspiration and positive role models
supporting accountability & transparency

• Placing each participant on return to Pakistan with a program within the FPCCI in their respective knowledge/ interest area for a period of 6 months with a Mentor. During that time, they should be able to evolve a comprehensive action plan including international linkages and pilot projects.
• Create a Mosaic network within Pakistan with a "tile" at each university, where fellows will interact with other students to work on the above outlined projects.
• Applicants for future Mosaic summer school programs may come from these as well.

Mosaic Pakistan

At the risk of tracking the Mosaic people almost everywhere on the internet-- on google groups, Facebook, yahoo groups-- here's another attempt to streamline the progress of the Mosaic Pakistan group at least.

Everyone can post their ideas, updates, pictures, videos, thoughts easily in this place, and we can also keep track of our progress hopefully.

You can also share interesting bits from your work lives which you might think twice before emailing everyone lest they be considered as flooding mailboxes.

Hope this place gets good posts, and I hope Unjela would be the one to start with the ideas on the way forward.

This blog can be deleted in a microsecond in btw, :) so if it's does not serve it's purpose then out it goes. :)