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From Tokyo, Shinichiro Okuyama, co-chair of the World Youth Peace Summit. Please welcome Shinichiro. My name is Shinichiro Okuyama. Today I am representing Mr. Bawa Jain, whose details are on page 25 of the brochure. This is my second time in Australia; the first was as a university student, working as a teaching assistant for a high school in Tasmania. I never thought I would return to Australia in this capacity, and I am so happy to join you at today's World Peace Forum. I have Mr. Bawa Jain's remarks for today's forum, which I will now read. "His Holiness, devoted religious leaders, friends, ladies and gentlemen, We are all aware of the undeniable importance of current world events. We have found ourselves at many crossroads as an emerging global community and will no doubt face many roadblocks in our efforts to create a greater world of caring and understanding. Current events have led me to be unable to be with you today. However, I have asked my friend Shinichiro Okuyama to represent me, and I am honored that he is here to share my thoughts. I am deeply honored to take part in such a bold event as the World Peace Forum of 2003. It gives me not only hope, but also inspiration to be in the company of such dedicated and strong persons as yourselves. Just three years ago, we stood side by side at the lintel of a new age, hopeful that the opening door would usher in a millennium of continuing peace and global unity. Now we peer over the precipice of an age still littered with violence, poverty, and a nearly exhausted supply of hope. But the choice to plunge over the edge or not belongs to all creatures that have the desire to move away from violence and towards faith, wisdom, and reason. It belongs to the entire human community. However, the task is daunting, considering the vast number of people still suffering in failed states, starving under the cover of industrialized nations, unnamed amidst civil chaos, and invisible because of racial, social, and gender-related intolerance. Our goal as a human race, much wiser after surviving millennia of senseless violence, starvation, and intolerance, should be to strive for nonviolence, for peace in all of its forms except that of inaction. Those who ignore the efforts of the Peace Forum routinely mistake nonviolence for inaction. They are wrong. To strive for nonviolence is to strive for control and reason, to act deliberately and with the intent to secure an enriched future when all external pressures are pointing to forceful and rushed decisions. To pursue non-forceful solutions is to avoid making enemies as a result of misunderstanding, victims as a result of carelessness, and bloodshed in vain. We are all here with the intent of reasoning against the precipitating actions that have such outcomes. The driving energy of the World Council for Religious Leaders is the desire to embrace these endless non-violence possibilities through the ultimate avenue of all religions and creeds. The premise behind this avenue is that faith brings fullness to the lives of human beings, as does peace, through the germination of lasting enrichment rather than only fleeting material wealth. In a world so fraught with the weakness of the violent, faith aims to connect, to build, to unite, and to endow believers and supporters with unique strengths and unwavering resolve far beyond anything a clenched fist could offer. It is not by accident that within each of us there is a natural aversion to doing violence against one another, against depriving one another of the right to live spiritually, materially, and physically enhanced lives. We congratulate Paramahaṁsa Swāmī Maheshwarānanda's success in initiating this forum, and we thank all involved for their dedication. Your efforts demonstrate the most crucial human inclination to improve, create, and unite in the face of adversity and normalcy. We must emphasize, hone, focus, and embrace this trait over many others that are troublingly predominant in our age. This focus is the only way we can bring about and secure the age we all seek, one of progress in its most essential meaning in the struggle for better over worse. The Earth Charter recognizes that humanity is part of a vast and evolving universe, one that is constantly and unselfishly dedicated to preservation, creation, and diversity, not destruction. Thus, humanity has the task of looking inward to find the dedication to peace and outward to seek that which needs preserving. Civilization is based upon this preservation. It is a stage of evolution applied only to those who create and beautify, as did the Sumerians, Hittites, Greeks, and countless other ageless peoples. Aristotle defines necessary as that which one cannot live without. We literally cannot live without a restful world, without peace, without understanding between the components of our own common human race and their desire to preserve the world we have inherited. If all of the energy devoted to total destruction had been focused on total creation, mankind would have reached such a stage. But especially now, it will take more than the totality of creative energy of this generation to right the wrongs of history. And it should be our primary goal to do so before the dawn of another age. The time for such action has never been more urgent. The pressures operating against peace and unity have never been so severe. But this alone should not deter us, nor does the immense number of participants in this forum daunt us. Let us now and here give to each other the power to strive for our goals of peace, unity, and preservation. And let us continue past our time, leaving others behind to continue our work. Thank you for your dedication to peace, unity, and preservation, and your desire to maintain their necessity. This moment in history is one of unparalleled urgency for us to stand firm upon our beliefs. Only through our resolve can we help usher the world from under its current cloud to the light of a brighter future. Bawa Jain, Secretary General, the World Council of Religious Leaders." Thank you very much. Recording location: Australia, Sydney, World Peace Forum 2003