Ravi Shankar enthrals European Parliament
Source: Humsafar News Service
Date: 23 November 2010, 7:47 am
Country, Language: India, English

“‘Art of Living’ founder takes global anti – corruption issue to world leaders”

Brussels, November 21, 2010: 400 delegates, 25 ambassadors and MPs from various countries, corporate heads, and businessmen gathered at the European Parliament on Friday and in a live telecast appealed to citizens across the globe to rise against increasing corruption in the world.

The event was conducted by The World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), which is a sister organisation of Art of Living. Through its annual International Leadership Symposium on Ethics in Business, WFEB brings together global leaders to dialogue on the pressing need to strengthen human values and ethics in business.

“The basis of ethics is economy. You can’t have ethics in a society which is poor. The ethics is economy and the basis of economy is the state and society. We need to look at it as a circle. Now people are becoming more aware thanks to the media. This is an opportunity for youngsters to wake up and see that you can be successful and follow very good profit and be ethical”, said Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the International Association for Human Values and Art of Living and co- founder of WFEB. The topic of 2010 symposium in the 21st Century – Time for a Paradigm Shift!”. The initiative was financed by the Government of Belgium and saw the adoption of a 7- point plan and charter, with delegates pledging to support the a world that has seen an estimated $ 30 trillion loss due to corruption and rendered 25 million people jobless. We are here to leave this room having decided to act.”

We are here to have the paradigm shift. I am interested in the shift not in the time for the shift. The time to shift is now”, said Mr. Nirj Deva, the Vice- President of the Development Committee, European Parliament.

“We need to engage more governments and business and make a better use of media”, declared Mahmoud Mohieldin, the Managing Director of the World Bank and expressed the bank’s willingness to be a key partner for some of the actions discussed at the Forum.

The Forum collectively adopted and pledged to act to promote shared values and ethical leadership at the individual, organizational, sectoral and global levels; to serve as models of ethical and socially responsible behavior to inspire current and future generations of leaders across business, civil society and government; sustain dialogue to build greater awareness across stakeholders and shareholders of the importance of ethics in business; share inspiring examples of the intersection of ethics and profitability to build wider public trust in business; engage and partner with key individuals, forums and initiatives to leverage our collective ability to deliver transformational impact.

The Symposium was first launched on the inspiration of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in 2003 in Bangalore and the venue moved to the European Parliament in Brussels in 2006. This was stated in a press release.

Source: http://www.humsafar.com/ravi-shankar-enthrals-european-parliament-3531.html