Date: November 8 (Mon), 2010, 1:30-5:30 pm
Venue: Lecture Hall, International House of Japan
Admission: Free (reservation required)
Language: English/Japanese (with simultaneous translation)
Moderator: Lee Jong Won (Professor, Rikkyo University; ALFP Advisory Committee member)

A public symposium will be held, in which the seven fellows of the Asia Leadership Fellow Program (ALFP) will discuss various actions towards a “responsible” society.

 

Challenges define our world; rather than being hurdles that hinder progress, they characterize the nature of progress in today’s world. The issue then is not with challenges, but the seeming inability of the powers that be (not only state but civil society, voluntary associations, and individual actors) in many societies to find reasonable means to address challenges, find solutions, cross borders and explore common ground. Our region offers a complex discourse of sense and contradictions in politics, development and under-development, ways of dealing with the past, religious competition, ethnicity and conflict, environmental protection and degradation, gender dynamics, trade and land rivalries. The plethora of possibilities emerging from this canvas has not, however, been tapped for its greatest potential. It is in this context that rethinking global challenges is of paramount importance in our time. Rethinking means we need to identify sources of wisdom and mechanisms that provide space to visit old and new challenges with vision and creativity, paving the way to transcend difficulties without compromising principle.

This year’s six ALFP Fellows are drawn from different professions representing diverse fields of activism and academia who have one thing in common: they have all shown a singular ability to transgress conventional thought and practice in their own countries and fields of work. They bring to the table this creativity and innovation that must necessarily inform the imagining of the future of the region. It is in this context that the ALFP fellows hope their own individual and collective rethinking would allow them and others to face up to and transform challenges into possibilities of dialogue and action.

The Construction of Masculinity and Bravery in War: The Case of Sri Lanka
Sasanka Perera (Sri Lanka)
Professor of Anthropology and Head, Department of Sociology, University of Colombo

 

The United Nations Police and Peacebuilding
Seki Kaoruko (Japan) Humanitarian Policy Officer, United Nations

 

Better Links Among East Asian Countries
MGuo Zhiyuan (China) Attorney / Chief Arbitrator / Professor and Director, Center for Law Application, Anhui University

 

Media and Myth-making
Kong Rithdee (Thailand) Film Critic / Columnist, Bangkok Post

 

Economy, Ecology and Equity in a Globalizing World
Ahn Byungok (Korea) Head, Institute of Climate Change Action (ICCA)

 

Taboos of Patriarchy
Fouzia Saeed (Pakistan) Director, Mehergarh

 

 

For profiles of the fellows, please see this page.

 

Those who wish to attend are requested to call or e-mail the ALFP Secretariat for reservations.

ALFP Secretariat
c/o Program Department
International House of Japan
5-11-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku Tokyo 106-0032 JAPAN
Tel: +81-3-3470-3211 Fax: +81-3470-3170

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