The 8th South South Forum on Sustainability (SSFS8) started its inaugural lecture on June 15, 2021. Gustavo Esteva delivered a beautiful lecture entitled “Friendship, hope and surprise – the keys for the new era”, and we had a book launch of Zapatista Visions, Voices and Practices, Spanish, English and Chinese editions (free downloads at https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/ssfs8-readings/).
On June 16 and 17, two thought-provoking lectures were delivered by Lee Kee Kok on the philosophy of Chinese medicine. The Main Forum started on June 18 with an album “Figures of Hope”, with photos by Patrick Chow and music by Yu Siu Wah. The Opening Speech by Gustavo Esteva is posted on youtube and bilibili channels (the latter has received 80,000 views up to now). See these three on https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/ssfs8-forum-recordings/
On Jun 18, after distinguished guests including Joshua Mok, Gustavo Esteva, Maria Lucia Teixeira Garcia, Ruth-Gaby Vermot Mangold, Samuel Lee, Ebrima Sall, Wang Hui, Wen Tiejun and Dai Jinhua, representing SSFS8 organizers and co-organizers, delivered their Opening Speeches, Dialogue 1 on “Chinese ecological thought and practices” followed, with speeches and interactions among four eminent scholars from China – Huang Ping, Wen Tiejun, Dai Jinhua and Wang Hui. The session ended at Beijing time 11.40pm!
On June 19, at Dialogue 2, “China: Ten cyclical economic crises”, Wen Tiejun presented the key arguments of the book Ten Crises: The Political Economy of China’s Development (1949-2020), and dialogued with Manoranjan Mohanty, Beverly Silver and Remy Herrera. This book of 550 pages, with final copyediting completed earlier that day, can be downloaded for free at Global U and Palgrave Macmillan websites: https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/ssfs8-readings/ and https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811604546 Printed copies can be purchased from Palgrave Macmillan.
Today, June 21, in a few hours, Dialogue 3 will take place. Michael Hudson has completed the book The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism. He will present the key arguments in this book, and he will be dialoguing with David Harvey, Eric Toussaint, Steve Keen and Boris Kagarlitsky. Ashley Dayman will present along with Michael Hudson at the book launch.
On June 22-25, Dialogues 4-7, we will focus on the following countries/regions to examine their current state, go back to history, and look to the future: Russia, India, Europe, and Japan. The book Fukushima: Ten Years After (Chinese edition) will also be launched.
On June 26, a dozen panelists from all parts of Asia will gather to revisit the People’s Plan for the 21st Century (PP21) project, review the three declarations of 1989, 1992 and 1996, and revitalize all-Asia/inter-Asia connections.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram will be giving a lecture on June 27 on “Tentative lessons from the pandemic about the world we live in”, followed by Dialogue 8 on June 28 on “Traditional medicine: decolonizing knowledge” when we will have speakers from Africa, Latin America and Asia: Dialo Diop, Lucia Helena Rangel, Luna Lucia Contreras, and Manneke Budiman.
The Forum will last till July 19, the above are announcements for the coming week. Please see the full programme at https://culturalresearch.center/Eighth-South-South-Forum-on-Sustainability or https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/ssfs8-programme/
Registration
For the dialogue and lecture sessions of SSFS8, please do registration at the following link and a confirmation email will be sent by “Global U”:
https://lingnan.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Sr5sQsN1TVK4fgd3VpD9JA
There are separate registration links for PP21 and PWAG workshops (free and open to the public):
PP21 Workshop (June 26):https://lingnan.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s5M8MnF1S3WPbOY98mAJSg
PWAG Workshops (July 2-3):https://lingnan.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cNEV2y6XQTKct63m9Ow6tA
Simultaneous interpreting into English, Spanish and Chinese is provided for all sessions. After SSFS8, edited sessions will be uploaded to the websites of Lingnan University and Global University for Sustainability, the organizers of SSFS since 2011. For recordings of the first seven South South Forums on Sustainability, please visit:
https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/
https://commons.ln.edu.hk/southsouthforum/
To visit “Global U” account on weixin, please go to https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PS3YXeT6luHkmAYtb1EwIA
A registration fee is required for SSFS8 dialogues and lectures, but volunteers are welcome and their registration fees are waived. Volunteers are to contribute to making summaries of lectures, translating from and into their national or local languages, working on subtitles, etc. We thank quite a number of professors, postgraduates and undergraduates with their contribution as volunteers, so please do not hesitate to join the volunteer team, register as “Volunteers”, and email your profile to the following:
