IMPHAL, August 31: An international peace conference under the theme “Building Nations of Peace: Our Shared Responsibility” was held today at Political Science Lecture hall of Manipur University. The conference was attended by 11 members from Japan, US, Korea, was jointly organised by Universal Peace Federation of India (UPF) and Department of Political Science, Manipur University.
The topic of this event was about the balance of power in the world.
Speaking at the conference, UPF-Asia chairman Dr Chung Sik Yong said in this new Asian era, India plays a very critical role as it is the world’s largest democracy and the second most populous nation on earth.
Our world faces a multitude of challenges- from climate changes and poverty to geopolitical tension, terrorism and interreligious conflict, from family breakdown and crime to moral and spiritual confusion, he added.
Assuring that all have encountered many of these same challenges in their own nations and regions, he said these problems cannot be solved through the instruments of government alone because their root cause in not exclusively political or economic in nature.
The root cause is rather buried deep in the human heart: in selfishness and separation from God, he added.
Dr Chung Sik Yong, another Korean member, said the family is the most fundamental and necessary of all human institutions. Without it, humanity cannot survive as a species; he said, adding that when it fails, the society, nation and world fails. When we restore the health of marriage and family, center on god, we can restore societies, nations and the world, he added.
Stressing that the family is the school of love because we learn the nature of love there, he said we learn how to love in our families.
Everyone knows it is true because when families break up or become dysfunctional then gangs, violence, prostitution and drugs become prominent in a community, he added.
Lecturing on the introduction of peace, UPF-Asia principal director of education, Dr Robert S Kittel said that to build peace there is a need to have the principal to love others and sacrifice for others.
Prof (retd) Ksh Bimola Devi stated that even Mahatma Gandhi also accepted that the individual is the one to build peace which will extend further to others. Every individual have the power to reason and differentiate between what is wrong and what is right.
During the International conference which was participated by various eminent personalities from various parts of the country, she highlighted the role of Irom Shramila Chanu and her struggle for the repeal of AFSPA for the last 14 years.