Message from CoB-Canada Founder David Woolfson for the CoB International Conference - December 3/4, 2016

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Greetings everyone from Toronto, Canada. For some brief background on myself, I am a Lawyer and World Future activist based in Toronto, and have been actively collaborating  with Ervin Laszlo and the CoB on numerous projects since 1999.

 

This event is to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the signing of the Manifesto on the Spirit of Planetary Consciousness and to discuss the new CoB Impact Program towards the year 2020.

 

The Manifesto was signed onto by Ervin Laszlo and many of the CoB's Honorary Members, including the Dalai Lama, Sir Arthur Clarke and Muhammad Yunus, in October 1996. Many of the list of well-known signatories have since passed on but the document remains one that was well ahead of its time then. And one that is for its time today. For the here and the now!

 

The core concepy of Planetary Consciousness as set out in the Manifesto is this:

 

Planetary Consciousness is the knowing as well as the feeling of the vital interdependence and essential oneness of humankind, and the conscious adoption of the ethics and the ethos that this entails. Its evolution is the new imperative of human survival on this planet.

 

 That is as true then as it is now but this imperative has become much clearer and much more urgent over these 20 years.     

 

The World in 1996 was different then today in 2016 yet it was also very much the same as the World today in many ways. National interests over shared human interests. Power and political games. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Now it's the 1% and the 99% and the dynamic is the same but much more extreme. And in these 20 years almost zero progress on any type of system of Global Governance which is urgently needed for humanity and our future.

 

In 1996, the American Empire dominated the World as it does today but major rivalries with Russia and China are now very much in the forefront and grwoing and seriously threaten global security. Bill Clinton began his second term as President of the United States which ended in Impeachment hearings in Congress against him. In 2016, Hillary Clinton apparently lost the Presidential election to Donald Trump despite winning the Popular Vote by ovwer 2 Million votes. That's what they call Democracy in America!

 

In 1996, Global Climate Change was acknowledged and understood by millions but no political action and the effects had yet to appear. That is no longer the case unfortunately. In 2016 the often devastating effects of Climate Change are here and they are just the beginning of course. In addition, Global Climate Change is happening much quicker then the Climate Change Models predicted yet the Nations of the World continue to INCREASE CO2 output annually. Not to lessen it! A foolhardy approach of course. Yet that is what is happening.

 

Speaking of foolish and short-sighted decisions, Donald Trump, has now been elected (in some fashion) to be President Elect of the USA. Thus to head and lead the remaining Global Empire and the largest Military Force in the World and in human history. Not to mince words, and to say that as a Canadian, we are very close to witnessing what has just happened and how it became possible for such a disasterous outcome to have occured.

 

Here is a man who appears unstable, with the emotional maturity and language tools of the average 8-year old, who is an an absolute Climate-Change denier, that is a Science Denier, and is already running his affairs as President-Elect by breaking every norm of proper behaviour in such a role. He has enabled Fascists and neo-Nazi's to crawl out from under their rocks and take the stage in America. And he will have access to the US's Nuclear Codes!

 

One might wonder how such a man could be elected to such a position and of course there are many millions of people in America and elsewhere who are wondering just that but who are also prepared to protest in the streets in mass mumbers.

 

Where is the hope for humanity in such a World today in 2016? A quickly darkening World reminiscent of the 1930's to those students of modern history amongst us. But this time with rapidly increasing global climate change and a nuclear armed world?

 

In my view our ONLY hope is the collective evolution of our species to a higher level of consciousness. To a Planetary Consciousness as Ervin Laszlo wrote in the Manifesto in 1996. The evolution of a Planetary Consciousness is the new imperative of human survival on this Planet. So it is and must be!

 

At the same time as the reactionary forces of fascism and corporatism are once again rearing their heads worldwide, fully entrenched in the domination of one group of people, being wealthy white men wearing suits or military uniforms, over all other groups of people, there is also a huge and worldwide movement of People who fully embrace and live the higher values represented by Planetary Consciousness and who are the Evolutionary Vanguard of Humankind.

 

It is today very much the critical moment for humanity and our collective future. The forces of evolution and reaction are clearly defined. Our fate is a shared fate and is in the balance. Devolution and Destruction or Evolution and

 

We, the network of the Club of Budapest, are in that vanguard and can necome a leading edge within it with the vision-in-action plans being considered this weekend and then implemented. The World today is urgently in need of "Right Leadership". Right as in GOOD not as in right-wing!!  ;o)

 

All of us together in the CoB can now provide such leadership and help to inspire many millions of people worldwide to evolve their consciousness to a Planetary level. That is a very noble service  mission and we can now embrace it! Indeed I believe we must! Thank you.

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