Posted on Jan 23, 2007
Anand Krishna attended the Bali Global Forum on 21 to 23 January 2007. Themed ‘Power of Peace’, the Forum was initiated by UNESCO and Indonesia’s Ministry of Information and Communication and was officially inaugurated by Vice President Jusuf Kalla. The Forum was conducted in Ritz Carlton Hotel Bali with no less than 200 delegates from 35 countries worldwide. Among the Excellencies attending were the Ambassador of Palestine, Ambassador of Pakistan, Ambassador of Tunisia, Dr. Karan Singh (representative from India’s parliament) and peace activists from Congo, Thailand, United States, United Kingdom, and Denmark.
During his speech, Anand Krishna briefly explained all potential conflicts in Indonesia, which were very worrisome for it already happened at family level. Two years ago, a journalist in Bali informed Krishna of his kindergarten child who did not wish to eat meals cooked by the mother because she was of different religion. This child’s religious teacher at school taught him that he should not have anything to do with ‘infidels’ of different religions, and thus included the child’s mother. Such incidents, planted early in a child’s mind, would trigger conflicts in the future. Anand Krishna suggested that schools should only teach humanity values and assign religious teachings to informal education institutes and family units. Krishna also requested that the conflict in Palestine be solved in non-violent ways.
