His Excellency the Ambassador of India in Greece
Mr. Aftab Seth
It is with the deepest pride that I accepted an invitation to support this Hellenic/Indian Symposium realised in a country which parallels my own in the embellishment of an old culture. This event acknowledges the goals envisaged by an inspired institution, the Biopolitics International Organisation, which attained the eminent support of more than 75 countries in an endeavour to enhance and personify their innovative strategy on the interdependence and interdisciplinary attributes of nature, science and technology in the bio-environment.
Dr. Agni Vlavianos-Arvanitis, President and Founder of the B.I.O., has shown that with the basic use of education as a tool, commencing at an early age where deeper roots grow, right through to university stage, each human being, a rather small link of a much larger chain, can assist bios on a colossal scale by adopting a biocentric vision. Only in this way can the present sequence of events be halted, saving bios from total destruction at every level and, thereby the Planet Earth may, after all be a “world without end”.
Each millennium has given rise to new thought processes; there is reason to expect that the third millennium will also bring about new expressions of human endeavour.1 Lasting improvement cannot occur in developing countries unless the strategies which are being formulated and implemented are environmentally and socially sustainable; that is, they maintain and enhance the natural human resources upon which development depends.2
According to Ajay Mehta, when Rajiv Gandhi launched the National Wastelands Development Board in 1985, he not only gave an official blessing to people’s participation, but stated that only through a people’s movement could the catastrophic destruction of forests be arrested and reversed. The NGOs and environnmentalists have enthusiastically welcomed this change of policy and, have expressed confidence that by enabling encouragement for people’s participation in wasteland reclamation would lead to dramatic results. The parallel efforts and enthusiasm of the government, the NGOs and environmentalists around the people’s participation approach, seem to have taken off to a good beginning. It clearly proved that when government policy enables the people to have effective access and guardianship of their lands, forests can be maintained and the rural economy geared towards the goal of sustainable development.3
I have the esteemed pleasure of presenting to you, Dr. Kamla Chowdhry, a fellow citizen of India, a highly qualified person who is providing remarkable guidelines on new methods to tackle many local pressing issues in an effort to sway modern technology along a more bio-amicable path. Dr. Chowdhry has made valuable inroads towards the aforementioned goals, both at home and abroad. I am left with no doubt that her efforts will greatly assist in bringing to fruition the Biopolitics vision – a truly harmonious co-existence of all forms of life on Earth.
References
- Ms. Avabai B. Wadia, “Perspectives on India’s Development in the 1990s”, Symposium – New Dheli January 1992
- Prof. Gordon Conay, “Perspectives on India’s Development in the 1990s”, Symposium – New Dheli January 1992
- Ajay Mehta, extract “People’s Participation”, Seminar, June 1993
