Fourth Forum 2000 conference gets underway
The fourth conference in the Forum 2000 series, which brings together leading world figures and thinkers, officially got underway at Prague Castle on Sunday. The series of international conferences was conceived by Czech President Vaclav Havel and Nobel laureate Elie Weisel, and aims to identify and analyse the challenges facing mankind at the beginning of the new millennium. The focus of this year's conference is globalisation and its impact on culture and education. Globalisation was, unsurprisingly, mentioned quite a few times at the opening ceremony. Nick Carey was there and has this report:
In his opening speech, President Vaclav Havel said globalisation was a term that had been used so much in recent years that he was almost afraid to use it. Everyone perceives globalisation in a different way, the president stated, and people select their definition of the term accordingly. Whether the world, a globalised world, will develop successfully or fail depends not on globalisation, but on mankind, how we behave, how responsible we are, and our ability to understand the deeper meaning of the term globalisation, the president concluded.
Mr. Havel was followed by Yohei Sasakawa, the President of the Nippon Foundation, which has supported the Forum 2000 project since its inception. Mr. Sasakawa also hit on the issue of globalisation and the arguments surrounding it: Radio Prague will be bringing you more information about the Forum 2000 conference throughout the course of the week.
