world humanist congress

ayurveda pure

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna, 03-11-2007:There was a presentation of the film =ayurveda, the art of being= by Palin Nalin under the auspices of the Vienna Bharata Natya Mandir and Austria-India Society on Thursday.An informal atmosphere for viewing and later simple Indian meal courtesy hosts. The film has been shown world wide to be proclaimed =pointless= by critics of New York Times downwards.

The film is made by a Swiss-German, apparently non professional producers, or if we may say so =alternative= producers.Alternative is a fashionable word here today. Although a minority,
such groups attract majority of the same kind in India. This minority majority mix are attracted in seeking solutions in the past to the problems of the present!For example, the film claims
for curing immune deficiency illness HIV/AIDS of today the established remedies of a thousand years ago can be harnessed!

In The New York Times critic´s words, the film presents =shuddha ayurveda=,meaning pure, pak, (not Mysorepak) ayurveda. Perhaps, he is unaware if the correct term meant =shuddha= or =siddha=. Siddha, meaning proven by experience is another version for name only is popular in South India.He depicts this =art of being= the pure, pak category as against Dr.Deepak Chopra´s or Maharishi Mahesh Yogi´s as =mishra= mixed.

Tamilnad´s Brahmananda Swamigal,who claims experiences of treating rajas and maharajas for the past 16 generations, Karnataka´s Vaidya Narayana Murthy, who takes =kadpa katti= cutting flat khurki knife, on hand to collect green barks of a particular tree fresh as cure for all,
Greek Dr.Nikolos Kostopoulos are featured in the documentary. If Brahmananda Swamigal claims curing over 4000 patients of thousands of illnesses including cancer by a two year course of treatment, Dr.Murthy gets almost a 500 meter long queue in front of his disorderly clinic with heaped barks.The doctor sits on a wooden plank under a bush facing the clinic, picks from a basket a five centimeter long bark piece for each patient to hand over personally before dismissing him in half a minute by patting the back signifying the assurance of full healing.

I am reminded of my younger sister Sarojini´s miserable and cruel death by secretive administration on empty stomach, of cow´s urine as =sarva roga parihara=,meaning all cure, by none other than by her own husband and eldest son.Poor Sarojini died in 2003 November after simultaneously undergoing normal medication by a qualified doctor and the all cure medicine for two months suffering swollen belly and uncontrollable urine and stool discharges. It is a fashion today in South India to inflict on =hopeless= cases =all cure= medicines under the slogan let him/her,who is anyway set to die, die a hundred cruel deaths at once!

However,the issue of public health remains the least attended in India of today.With all the thousand and more years old =art of being= as cure available, the proportion and aggregate death on account of diseases in India remains phenomenal.Just as the film does not propose to advertise convincingly, it also does not involve itself answering the question of untimely death at the hands of god of death, yama, the one who is said to drag the dieing soul himself riding on the back of a buffalo.The film was not an entertainment.Neither was it an education.It was indeed an experience!(end)

world humanist congress

Vienna,03-11-2007:The 17th World Humanist Congress would be hosted next year by the American Humanist Association in Washington DC,USA from June 6 - 8,2008. The Congress is hosted in association with London based International Humanist and Ethical Union.The theme of the Congress is =E Pluribus Unum: Reclaiming humanist values=.Registration has commenced
on the Congress on the event web site, which includes the provisional program and details of transportation and accommodation. Details:
<http://www.iheu.org/node/2803 >

IHEU made 40 specific recommendations on religious freedom to the Council of Europe.The
recommendations were jointly worked out with U.K.´s National Secular Society.It centres around a comprehensive intercultural dialogue.Details: www.iheu.org/node/2811

Humanist education online

The Institute for Humanist Studies has now made its online e-learning materials on Humanism freely available to all. The on line education free of charges.. The Continuum of Humanist
Education (COHE) is the world's first online, interactive Humanist educational program by the Institute founded in 2004.Details on IHEU site.


science education in India

IHEU has launched in August this year its campaign against superstitions with the unique Science Education Program in India. The project is managed by two IHEU member
organisations, the Social Development Foundation (SDF) and the Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA), and has been funded by IHEU , the fund amout 6,000 Euros.The Program provides for engaging a full time resource person, for anti-superstition activist training in several parts of India It will adopt five villages and five village schools in remote areas of Nalgonda, one of the most backward districts of Andhra Pradesh state.

UN Human Rights Council, did not permit IHEU this year from speaking on Special Rapporteur on Racism, Doudou Diene's report on "Islamophobia". A total of 40 minutes were given to four
non governmental organizations to offer comments.HRC is becoming more myth than reality.

International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the world umbrella organisation for humanist, ethical culture, rationalist, secularist and freethought groups. Based in London, it is an international non governmental organization (NGO) with Special Consultative Status with the UN (New York, Geneva,Vienna), General Consultative Status at UNICEF (New York) and the
Council of Europe (Strasbourg), and it maintains operational relations with UNESCO (Paris). end.