Blasts Come as Thinkers Discuss World’s Misery

The deadly bombings Thursday in Jerusalem came as a bitter dose of reality here in the Czech capital, where a gathering of acclaimed thinkers is seeking ways out of the world’s misery in the next millennium.

News of the terrorist attacks was announced to the Forum 2000 conference by author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who is hosting the unusual meeting with Czech President Vaclav Havel.

“It moves us very often to a sense of helplessness,” Wiesel said. “Here we are--Jews, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims--and we try to speak, we try to fight prejudice, promote understanding, and do something together. . . . But there are people who use death as an instrument, as a means of persuasion.”

The bombings cast a shadow over the opening of the three-day conference, which had gotten off to a start more somber than uplifting.

About 60 prominent personalities from around the world--including 10 Nobel Prize recipients and eight current or former heads of state--were invited by Wiesel and Havel to Prague Castle to propose alternatives for the future that “diminish the plight and pain of people.”

Although the gathering is meant to inspire hope at the dawn of the new millennium, Havel set a largely gloomy tone in his opening address.

“I see a large, yet typical, paradox for our era in the fact that though contemporary humanity has been aware of these dangers, it does almost nothing to confront or avert them,” Havel said. “It is fascinating how preoccupied people are today with all kinds of catastrophic prognoses . . . and how very little people take these into account in their everyday activities.”

The erstwhile dissident said mankind’s salvation lies in a spiritual reawakening in which people change their attitudes toward the world, themselves and their overall place in the order of existence. “It is necessary to understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this Earth and of our deeds,” Havel said.

Havel’s remarks touched off a daylong debate dominated by issues of religion, spirituality and the role of God in shaping human destiny. Speaker after speaker questioned present-day humanity’s moral grounding and, while defending the importance of human rights, called for a parallel emphasis on human responsibilities.

The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, said humans need greater self-confidence and peace of mind. He described “universal responsibility”--working for the benefit of humankind not just for oneself--as the best hope for personal happiness and international tranquillity.

“I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy,” he said. “It is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said the problem of the 21st century is that people are refusing to let go of the 20th century. The next 100 years, he said, will not be a continuation of the past 100 years but a divorce from them; the conflicts of yesterday will not be the conflicts of tomorrow.

“Maybe the greatest task we have here and now is to open our lives to a new opportunity and to explain that what has happened did happen, and what may happen is totally different,” he said.

Prescriptions for the future were varied. Russian parliament member and human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov called for the creation of a world government, complete with executive, legislative and judicial branches and a global military force. He said the United Nations is not the answer, characterizing it as an organization of “government administrators rather than nations.”

Gareth Evans, former foreign minister of Australia, said the U.N. is imperfect but a good start.

Physicist Fritjof Capra, director of the Berkeley-based Center for Ecoliteracy, challenged Havel’s call for spiritual purpose, saying that “the notion of purpose and intention is a human projection” that narrows the view of creation.

“True valor is not found in declaring war, true valor is rising up to the circumstances around us,” said Oscar Arias Sanchez, former president of Costa Rica. “Our lack of ethics has led us to apathy, and our inaction is simply immoral.”

Organizers said there will be no final communique when the conference ends Saturday, and many of the speakers will not even stay until the final session.