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IVU Online News - October 2006
HAPPY WORLD VEGETARIAN DAY! If you have events taking place today please send reports to our new editor for next month's issue. --------------------------------------------------------- 37th IVU WORLD VEGETARIAN CONGRESS, GOA, INDIA, SEPTEMBER 10-16 2006 Yet another IVU Congress has come and gone, almost 100 years of them now, but more of that below. Some people ask if these Congresses are worth the bother, a few hundred delegates flying around the world to listen to talks that they could probably read on the internet anyway. Of course it all depends what you want from them but there is nothing quite like sharing a meal (100% vegan and fabulous quality) with a group of people from several different countries, or meeting in the flesh the writers whose articles you might already have seen online. Even if an individual Congress doesn't change the world, there is a cumulative effect of meeting every couple of years for almost a century, the networking opportunities are unique. And it can be a lot of fun too.
- did you notice Iran and Israel in that list? The present writer had the pleasure of a drink in the bar with friends from both (at the same time). If only the rest of the Middle East could duplicate an IVU Congress... One of the newly elected IVU councillors, from Africa, had to miss the congress as he was on a business trip to China - but he read about it in the English language Chinese newspaper in his hotel room, the newly formed Chinese Vegetarian Union had brought their own reporters with them.
The next AVU Congress will be in Taiwan in August 2007 - watch thisspace for more details. With vast numbers of Hindu and Buddhist vegetarians, the Asia-Pacific region has been something of a sleeping giant of international vegetarianism - but there are signs that it is beginning to wake up in a big way. - even your next issue of this newsletter will be edited from Singapore . . . for more comments about the
Congress, from some who were there, and some photographs, go to: ---------------------------------------------------------
The next IVU Congress will be the centenary! 100 years since a meeting in Dresden laid the foundation for international co-operation between all the vegetarians of the world. To celebrate we're going back to Dresden wich, of course, was until recently part of Communist East Germany. We would particularly like to use this Congress to reach out to all vegetarians in Eastern Europe - it's on your doorstep and probably as near as it will get for some time to come.
It would be great if the Dresden Congress can do for Eastern Europe what the amazing Brazil 2004 Congress did for Latin America, and what Goa 2006 could begin to do for Asia-Pacific. Don't miss it - lots of details
already available at:
best wishes to all John Davis, still working for IVU from rural England --------------------------------------------------------- CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions to IVU Online News are always welcome from IVU Members and Supporters - Send any items for publication to:
IVU Online News is a non-copyright free public information service. You may distribute all or any part of it to other mail-lists, web sites, local newsletters etc. Please mention that free direct subscriptions are available at: http://www.ivu.org/news/online
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IVU
Online News is back . . . our apologies for not sending it for a few
months but other committments had to take a higher priority. We now
have the solution in a new editor: George Jacobs, President of the Vegetarian
Society of Singapore, will take over following this issue. He has lots
of good ideas for improving it, none too soon as the format hasn't changed
since the first issue in December 1998! Thanks George. His email address
is at the bottom - send him your news... - and that's George on the
right juggling the news...
This
Congress attracted visitors from at least 20 countries, not a record
number but what was significant was that half of those countries were
in the Asia-Pacific area. A group of 21 arrived from China, a large
delegation from Indonesia, many others from Australia, Iran, Israel,
Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand - and of course lots from India.
There were plenty of us from the West too, but we were really just extras
in this Congress.
Sometimes
it can be hard to see the impact of events until we able to look back
on them with hindsight. The first, and so far only, IVU Congress in
East Asia was in Chiang Mai, Thailand in January 1999 - at the time
it didn't seem to have set the world alight, but maybe some things have
to smoulder for a while. That Congress saw the foundation of the Asian
Vegetarian Union which appeared to get off to a slow start. Their first
Congress was in India in 2001, then a long silence until the 2nd Asian
Congress in Bangkok earlier this year. But a lot was happening behind
the scenes. The President, Jashu Shah from India, along with the Deputy
President, Dr. Maitree Suttajit and General Secretary Dr. Pichai Tovivich,
both from Thailand, were developing contacts, expecially in China. The
Chinese government had initially refused to recognise the new Vegetarian
Society as they thought it was some sort of religion, it took a flight
to China by our guys from AVU to resolve matters.
The
group from Indonesia commented during the Congress that only 20,000
of their 60,000 members were actively involved - most Western Vegetarian
Societies would be delighted to get a tiny fraction of that activty!
38th
IVU WORLD VEGETARIAN CONGRESS - DRESDEN, GERMANY JULY/AUGUST 2008
IVU
might even be able to offer some financial support to leaders of IVU
Member Societies in Eastern Europe. Nothing has been decided yet but
you have nothing to lose by asking - and in some of the countries which
are still struggling economically you could get free membership for
your group as well.