New testimonial for ‘Defining Development’ – A new form of competition, the Humanitarian Competition.

Posted by Fausto Aarya De Santis on May 28, 2010 under Articles, News | 3 Comments to Read

Against a global competition based on military, political or economic force, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi – a forward-thinking geographer, educational theorist and religious reformer, founder, in 1930, of the Soka Gakkai -  defined a new form of competition, what he termed the humanitarian competition.

Makiguchi saw this shift not as merely representing a change in the venue or form of competition, but a qualitative transformation, from a winner-takes-all style of competition, to one conducted within a consciously acknowledged framework of cooperation, what today might be called a “win-win” mode of competition.

This concept of Humanitarian Competition, introduced by Makiguchi about one century ago, has been deepened and developed nowadays by Daisaku Ikeda, the current President of Soka Gakkai, with its Peace Proposal to the United Nations (2009)

→ Read the Article - http://www.eugad.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Humanitarian_Competition:_a_key_paradigm_for_the_twenty-first_century

→ Read about Development Aid – http://www.eugad.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Defining_Development

by Wilma Massucco

If welfare doesn’t mean well-being, what’s the right definition for Development?

Posted by Fausto Aarya De Santis on May 3, 2010 under Interviews, News | Read the First Comment

“There’s a strong relationship between the increase of social and environmental deterioration and the increase of economy, i.e. increase of GDP” – says Stefano Bartolini, Professor of Politic Economy at University of Siena (Italy) and writer of the book recently published “Manifesto per la felicità, Come passare dalla società del ben – avere a quella del ben – essere (2010, pp. XIV-306, Ed. Saggine)” – Manifest for Happiness, How to change from a society of material-well being to a society of social -well being.

“In such a case, you are daily induced to afford new expenditures, in order to fill your own hole” – he explains – ” which increase the value of GDP but doesn’t improve the quality of life. On the contrary, it gets worse and worse, as the so-called relational goods proportionally reduce more and more. Welfare doesn’t mean well – being”. If it is so, what may be nowadays the right definition for Development? And what are the action plans to successfully implement a complete Development in our societies?

→ Find out more about it in his interview

by Wilma Massucco