PLENARY SESSION III - LOOKING BACK: LOOKING AHEAD

At this session, Hiranmay Karlekar of the Indian Renaissance Institute, gave a "Humanist Review of our Century". He disagreed with the proposition that some people are more equal than others and that only some can be trusted with nuclear weapons. All people should work to eliminate them, he said.

Fred Edwords, of the American Humanist Association, speaking on "Humanism in the 21st Century" contrasted 1899 with 1999 and stated that Science and Technology are changing the world more rapidly than religion ever did. He reviewed the advances in biotechnology starting with a patent in 1971, allowed by a 5 to 4 decision of the Supreme court, for a new organism to eat oil. Other dates mentioned included 1983, a super-mouse that grew twice as fast as normal, 1984, the fusing of a sheep and goat, 1980, a $90 million dollar budget for the development of designer biological warfare agents that are quick to develop but for which antidotes might take decades. Seventeen countries have been named as developing biological warfare agents. In a Soviet accident involving an anthrax based agent, three times as many men as women were killed and children were not harmed. In 1988, pigs with human genes were produced.

There are now $500 million worth of sales of human growth hormone produced using biotechnology and prescribed to children in the bottom 3% of height - a practice that changes normality itself. Gene therapy will most often benefit those best able to pay for it. Biotechnology may be employed for cosmetic reasons. We shall see the first artificial human gene. In Australia a pig that is 30% more efficient has been produced and it can be marketed 7 weeks earlier. Animals are becoming laboratories or pharmacies producing drugs and hormones that we need. Various mammal clones have been produced leading the way to the mass production of customised animals and artificial or cloned organs.

"Just as we are coming to understand evolution we are gaining the power to change evolution". Acknowledging that there are reasons for caution but not to abolish these new sciences he stressed that no mater what religion preaches we must deal with the changes. Biotechnology, already of benefit to mankind, may be of greater benefit to humanity and the world in the future. "Humanism of all the philosophies is the best prepared for the future".

On Monday afternoon there were four parallel sessions. They were:

A. Social Development and Humanist Values: Inspirations from the Field - HIVOS

B. Fundamentalism and Islam

C. Integrated Human Development

D. Humanism Organised.

On Monday evening a play Lokkatha ?78 (Folktale ?78) in Marathi, the state language of Maharashtra, was presented by local players. It depicted the oppression, rapes, bloodshed, murder and police corruption that are still features of village life in India.

LAST THREE DAYS OF THE CONGRESS

The congress continued with the majority of the delegates now able to find the venue without getting lost and accustomed to the local timekeeping.

Tuesday began with reports from the parallel sessions of the previous day followed by PLENARY IV -CHALLENGES TO THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY Chaired by Hans Hoekzema.

The first speaker, Kumar Ketkar, Editor of the Maharashtra Times, spoke about "The Arms Race and Atom Bombs". The Maharashtra Times was the only paper in the state of Maharashtra to oppose the Indian atomic explosions. During an atmosphere of intolerance and violence there were marches and public burnings of the paper. The BJP, whom he thought would lose the next election, saw the tests as part of the growing strength of India and an honour to science but he saw them as examples of extreme nationalism.

He talked about the part played by the Brahmans in this extreme Hindu nationalism. These people, he said, are vegetarians, they don?t own land and are not involved in industry. They are knowledge based, they had thought that they could control the politicians and thought that all Brahmans should unite to achieve this end but they have progressively lost power since independence.

He considered that there has been an alarming growth of the middle class in India, now numbering 250 million. These people are non productive white collar workers who are facing a new threat to their power from the producing classes. The two are fighting one another and ignoring others - killing Mahatma Gandhi.

It is the traditional middle class group who seek to maintain their power and prestige through the development of nuclear arms. But as more people enter the middle class from the peasant and working class there is a need for integration and tolerance.