Gorbachev, Queen Noor and N'Dow Open the Forum to the Beat of Many Drummers

Exhortations and hope at the outset

The sixth State of the World Forum opened tonight to what Convening Chair Wally N'Dow called, "the heartbeat of the world": a rolling series of drum ensembles from North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.

We are, said N'Dow, turning the New York Hilton into "a civil-society house," a forum for partnership among many peoples gathered to talk "so that the 21st century is workable."

N'Dow introduced his co-chair, former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, who invoked the phrase made famous by Alvin Toffler, suggesting that we are now in the midst of an ongoing epidemic of future shock. Certainly it would have shocked Soviet-era comrades when Gorbachev praised billionaire financier George Soros as a capitalist with humanitarian vision.


	World Forum Co-Chair Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev, speaking in Russian with seamless simultaneous translation, recalled State of the World Forums past, and noted that this year, in New York for the first time, the outpouring of last December's protest in Seattle compels us all to reach for "new thinking"—something he said was conspicuously lacking among world leaders, who have failed to direct the financial dividends at the end of the Cold War to such desperate needs as ending world poverty.

The United Nations must address the responsibilities that come with globalization, said Gorbachev, or we will be at the mercy of global Darwinism. This forum, he said, will be a real dialogue among states and civil society, and, he added to rousing applause, now is the time to establish an ongoing forum in which that dialogue can take place.

And that, it emerged, was the opening banquet's theme, which will be elaborated by Gorbachev and many others throughout this week.


	Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan

Queen Noor of Jordan, a Forum co-chair, picked up the theme, with particular reference to the role of women and, more particularly, women in traditional societies. CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO EXCERPT

Less-resourced societies can leap-frog many of the now-outdated steps in modernization, she said, and better yet, traditional values of family-centered cultures can cross-fertilize new technologies—but only if there are ways for civil society to sit at the table at which world-shaping decisions are made.

That is why, said Forum president James Garrison, who wound up the opening night, globalization is the theme of the 2000 State of the World Forum. "Globalization is the single greatest challenge of the 21st century," he declared, citing the rising tide of protest against a small coterie monopolizing global decision-making.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO EXCERPT

This forum brings the many stakeholders to the same table—stakeholders, Garrision concluded, who will add ethics to the security provided by national governments, and the prosperity and market innovations driven by global business.

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