Coloquium of Fez

FES FORUM: "Giving a Soul to Globalization"

 9^th- 13 ^th June 2012 

Batha Museum – 9 am to 12 noon

 

2012 Forum Theme: Dialogue about wisdom: inspired by Farid al-Din Attar’s The Conference of the Birds

“The problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

 

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, surely we agree that the world’s fate no longer depends on a balance of power that sees mounting tensions between a western culture dominated by reason, creativity, and technology and other cultures driven by new, irrational, and dogmatic ideologies that draw solely on identity or religious affiliation?

 

Not to deny these tensions, we must understand that what is happening is far more complex and deeply rooted.

 

Whether our resources draw on ancient or new philosophies, from the North or South, East or West is not what matters. What is essential is that, by virtue of their encounter, they can nourish our relationship with the world. The impact of this encounter makes possible the emergence not simply of a plethora of ideas - regardless of cultural relativism - but a genuinely unknown relationship among cultures; a genuine diversity that challenges and enriches thought, concepts of society, and our ideas of who we are and can be.

Thus the Persian mystic poet of the 13th century, Attar, in his The Conference of the Birds, recounted how the birds, through an intensive dialogue, were able to discover the true significance of their existence and of their common destiny.

Faouzi Skali

 

 

 

The Fes Forum, whose overarching theme is Giving A Soul To Globalization will address topics ranging from “Islam and “the West” : for a politic of civilization,” “New horizons for the Maghreb», «What future lies ahead for the Middle East?”, “The roots of the financial crisis”, “Contemporary dilemmas”, and more...

 

Leading figures who will attend include:

 

Rajmohan Gandhi, Katherine Marshall, Salamatou Sow, Edgar Morin, Majid Rahnema, Wim Wenders, Leila Shahid,  André Azoulay, Karen Amstrong, Bariza Khiari, Jacques Attali, Siddhartha, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Michel Thao Chan, Michael Barry, Leili Anvar, Katia Légeret, Mohamed Valsan, Assia Alaoui Bensalah, Marie Miran-Guyon, Mohamed Ghalmi, Kamal Oudghiri, Xavier-Simon Guerrand-Hermes, Xavier de Catheu, Patrick Busquet, Henri Joyeux, Patrick Viveret, Jean-Claude Carrière, Amal Arfaoui, Saad Khiari, Nahal Tajddod, Abd Al Malik, , Setsuko Klossowska de Rola, Adel Rifaat,  Bahgat Elnadi, Joseph Mail, Zeyba Rahman, Gunnar Stalsett and more.

 

Festival in the City
Everyday
Place Boujloud at 6.30 pm
Dar Tazi at 11.00 pm

 

Fez Conference on Globalization is part of  19th Annual World Sacred Music Festival sponsored by the World Bank in collaboration with the King of Morocco
Open for all: Men, Women, Family, small groups, students, Scholars, Senior Citizen Travel

«The Spirit of Fez»

See Concert Program 2012