The raison d'àªtre of IHEU, indeed the primary justification for its existence, is to serve its member organisations. By providing a voice for international Humanism at the UN and other international forums, by organising World Humanist Congresses and regional conferences, and by providing support, guidance and leadership to individual, often struggling Humanist organisations around the world, IHEU has for over 50 years amply fulfilled its role. But, as our members frequently remind us, we could do more, and could do it better.

From its creation in 1952 until 1997 IHEU was based in the Netherlands, and was supported by the Humanistisch Verbond who provided premises and secretarial help. Presided over by Jaap van Praag until his death in 1978, IHEU acted as the glue that held the world movement together. The banner was picked up later by two other charismatic leaders, Paul Kurtz and Rob Tielman, and with the creation of the Endowment Fund, and an annual grant from the Dutch Humanist Development Agency HIVOS, IHEU began to play an increasingly active role in support of Humanist groups in developing countries, and to significantly broaden the scope of its operations.

With the appointment of Babu Gogineni as the first full-time Executive Director in 1996, the move to London in 1997, and the election of Levi Fragell as president in 1998, IHEU took another significant step forward. Despite our modest resources compared to the billions of tax-free dollars available to the churches, and the billions provided by Saudi Arabia for the promotion of radical Islam, IHEU has still been able to make the voice of Humanism heard. But we have become more aware over recent years that to fight the ever-louder voices of fundamentalism we need to be more visible and more vocal ourselves.

In September this year, the Executive Committee held its annual strategic planning meeting in Martha's Vineyard at the home of IHEU vice-president Larry Jones. It was by far the most successful such meeting of the last five years and set a new and clear agenda for the future development of IHEU. The key outcome of the meeting was a decision to focus particular attention on those areas of the world where humanist values are under the greatest threat and organised Humanism is weakest - in particular, Africa and South Asia. Within the next few years, IHEU will open major regional offices in India and Africa, each with full-time staff, to enable IHEU to play a more active role in the development of humanist organisations and projects in those regions. The first step will be to open an IHEU regional office in India. Babu Gogineni has agreed to relocate to India with specific responsibility for development of IHEU-assisted programs in South Asia and Africa. IHEU administration will remain in London, and we shall be shortly relocating the IHEU- Appignani Center for Bioethics to larger and more suitable premises in New York City.

These new plans will need new funds, and we shall be calling on member organisations to dig deeper into their pockets to enable IHEU to finance this important work. We also plan to be more pro- active in soliciting funds, both from within the Humanist community and from external sources, in support of member organisations' own projects.

Death of the American Dream?

The American dream imploded in September as the reality of George W Bush's "caring conservatism" was exposed to the world. Can we hope, in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, that Americans will now pay more attention to the plight of the the 60 million of their fellow citizens who lack access to decent health care and living conditions, and whose children have a mortality rate higher than Malaysia's - worse even than the poor of South India and Tadjikistan?

For many non-Americans, the strange and extreme form of Christianity beloved by so many in the Bible- belt seems indistinguishable from the worship of Mammon. "God helps those who helps themselves" seems to carry far more weight than "Love thy neighbour". The biblical literalists seem obsessed with the vengeful god of the Old Testament rather than the compassionate Jesus of the New.

In a broadcast interview on CNN in September, Bill Clinton said that the proudest achievement of his presidency was that more Americans had been lifted out of absolute poverty than ever before in history. But that trend was rapidly reversed under George W Bush, as his government of big business, re-elected by pandering to the dubious "morality" of primitive Christianity, cut both taxes for the rich and spending on the poor.

The deadly combination of fundamentalist Christianity and personal greed falls far short of the Humanist ideal of reason in the service of compassion.

The Tyranny of Ignorance

The problem with both biblical and koranic literalism is not simply that they are unable to change in the light of new discoveries, but that they are obliged to deny the discoveries of science in order to survive; to use weasel words to keep their followers from any knowledge or understanding of deep space and deep time, of the facts of evolution, and of the overwhelming evidence that our minds and consciousness are artefacts of our physical brains and will die with us.

If religion had any basis in fact, believers would not need faith.

In this issue of International Humanist News we publish a series of short reports that examine the cult of unreason that is increasingly dominating political action worldwide, and show how the denial of reason is leading to a tyranny of ignorance.

Roy Brown
IHEU President