A regional non-governmental organization (NGO) forum held in Taipei yesterday called on the public to break through the indifference toward worldwide injustices and violence caused by highly developed capitalism and globalization.
The 2003 Asia NGO Forum, sponsored this year by Taiwan's Association for a New Society, invited NGOs from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Turkey to share their experiences in the three-day forum, which kicked off yesterday.
"There are three crucial strengths that control the world, namely the nation, the market and civil society," said Lin Shen-jing (
"If a nation's legal violence and the ambition of enterprises to make profits cannot be balanced out by other forces, the aftermath will jeopardize human society," he said.
"NGOs are the medium that assembles the civic society's momentum, organizing civilians to wield their influence to pin down the market and demand a more reasonable and appropriate distribution of social resources," Lin said.
The topics of this year's forum focus on four issues close to trends in worldwide development and Taiwanese society. They are education, agriculture, public health and the anti-war movement.
"The wars and diseases breaking out recently have caused a sense of insecurity in the world community," Lin said.
"The Iraq war, SARS, the World Trade Organization [WTO] and the economic recession have caused the deterioration of justice worldwide and caused human tragedies."
Therefore, Lin said, countries that were traditionally viewed as members of the developing world hope to get together to promote the NGOs' ideas that aim to create a more peaceful, just, equitable and sustainable world for future generations.
In the forum, Hong Kong's representatives will discuss the merchandization of Hong Kong's education system and interact with local educational groups about the disputes over Taiwan's educational reform.
Nick Everett, convener of Stop the War Coalition that launched an anti-war movement in Australia in March, will share the experiences and challenges of organizing the anti-war movement.
"Do not regard a NGO as a decoration, but as a critical watchdog," said Lin Cheng-hsiu (林正修), former Director of Taipei City Government's Bureau of Civil Affairs.
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