complexity intro
change & stability
prog. complexity
more complexity
homo nobilis
references
discovery story
implications
invitation
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The Advent of Homo nobilis, stellaris (V) |
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Suddenly it's not only mothers concerned with the survival and well being of their children anymore, but now all kinds of people have become deeply concerned with the survival and well being of children and people all over the world, and regardless of race, nationality and religion. And it is not only a deep concern over the survival and well being of people, but also of animals, of birds, even of trees and flowers - and moreover, on a global scale |
This is a totally and vastly different story. And it marks the advent Homo nobilis.
'Tis true, our modern religions have taught "the brotherhood" of mankind for centuries, but only with
very little, and mostly with no success, and none of them - with one exception - have taught the welfare of animals, never mind trees. This encompassing concern with the survival and well being of animals and trees has arisen de novo, outside of religion, and 'all by itself', in our time. Homo nobilis has arrived, in our time, and this is the expression of the nature, consciousness, perception and work of Homo nobilis.
And while there have been very spotty, occasional, and long 'premature' examples of Homo nobilis here and there throughout the ages - the founders of our modern religions among them - we can date the 'official' emergence of Homo nobilis with the founding of the Red Cross in 1863. For the first time in the annals of humankind an organisation of people arose which is dedicated to helping people around the world who have been devastated by war, disaster and disease - regardless of race, nationality, or the side they were on in the war. Yes - even the 'enemies'.
1863 - The Red Cross. Founded by Henry Dunant in Switzerland in 1863 as the International Committee for the relief of military wounded, it established the first "Geneva Convention" for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded in armies in the field in 1864. In 1876 it became the International Committee of the Red Cross, and since then has also been the leading force in international humanitarian law regarding treatment of the wounded, prisoners and children, as well as the banning of the worst of mankind's weapons.
Today, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (since 1991) is one of the largest humanitarian networks in the world with a presence and activities in almost every country, dedicated to helping those who suffer throughout the world, without any discrimination, and to work for and promote peace, guided by its fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
This was followed, first relatively slowly, and then explosively, by the advent of what are now over 40.000 global humanitarian organisations.
1932 - Save the Children, founded in New York to aid the children of coal miners in Appalachia, extended its help to children displaced during World War II, providing clothes, milk and food to children and helped communities rebuild in eight European countries. Since then, Save the Children has helped to weave a safety net for an ever-increasing number of children around the world which now includes providing assistance in sustainable agriculture, building roads, sanitation improvements, improving water supplies, small enterprise, early childhood education, nutrition, health care, and maternal health.
1933 - The International Rescue Committee, founded at the request of Albert Einstein to assist opponents of Hitler, the IRC helps people fleeing racial, religious and ethnic persecution, as well as those uprooted by war and violence by providing sanctuary, critical medical and public health services, shelter and food. After the crisis, the IRC sets up programs to enable refugees to cope with life in exile through training, education and income-generating program, and the acquisition of new skills for self-sufficiency. It also assists in resettlement of those unable to return to their own country.
1933 - Life for Relief and Development (formerly International Relief Association) is dedicated to alleviating human suffering around the world regardless of race, color or cultural background. This global organization strives to offer humanitarian, health, educational, social and economic services to victims of natural disasters, wars, hunger and more through a variety of programs. Since its inception, Life has offered services and assistance to hundreds of thousands. It also provides millions of dollars worth of much needed medicines and medical equipment annually to those in areas deprived of medical attention. Life is also involved in building, renovating and administering many schools and rehabilitation centers.
1933 - Merlin is a UK-based, non-profit, non-partisan NGO, which provides live-saving health care for people in crisis and disaster situations, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation. Merlin specialises in reaching the poorest countries with the most difficult environments and complex emergencies, supporting vulnerable people when local infrastructure has broken down, helping people back to work and education, anywhere on the planet, no matter how inaccessible. Currently serving 10 million people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, East Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Russia and Tajikistan and working in partnership with existing local health structures, by supplying essential drugs and providing training and education in health care and disease control.
1937 - Childreach, the U.S. member of Plan International, is a global, non-profit and independent child-centered development organization helping needy children and their families in developing countries. Its grassroots, community-based programs in five interrelated Domains -- Growing Up Healthy, Learning, Livelihood, Habitat and Building Relationships -- are without religious, political or governmental affiliation. Childreach strives to increase understanding and unity among people of different cultures and countries, and to promote the rights and interests of the world’s children.
1942 - Oxfam America, founded by a simple humanitarian impulse has built a solid foundation of private funding that has enabled it to develop and sustain a rich network of partnerships in some 30 countries. Oxfam has been a leader in shaping a concept of partnership that, in its essence, has become the ideal for other international aid organizations. Oxfam's annual Fast for a World Harvest remains one of the largest anti-hunger campaigns in the United States. Oxfam America also provides emergency aid when disaster strikes, assisting refugees and survivors of natural disasters.
1945 - CARE was founded in 1945 when 22 American organizations formed a cooperative to rush lifesaving CARE Packages to survivors of World War II. Some 100 million more CARE Packages were sent in the next two decades, reaching people in need, first in Europe and later in Asia and other regions of the developing world. Since then, CARE has expanded into emerging nations and used U.S. surplus food to feed the hungry, while pioneering primary health care programs. In the 1970s, CARE responded to massive famines in Africa and helped prevent them with an innovation called agroforestry, which integrated environmentally sound tree and land management practices with farming programs. Today, the CARE program includes emergency relief and rehabilitation; education; health and population, maternal and child health, reproductive health, water and sanitation, income generation through small economic activity development, agriculture, community development and the environment. Current Member Nations are CARE Australia, Japan, Canada, Norge (Norway), Danmark, Oesterreich (Austria), Deutschland (Germany), UK, France, USA, Nederland and Brazil.
1947 - UNICEF, created at the end of World War II to relieve the suffering of children in war torn Europe, is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly, and dedicated to make the world a better place for children and to help meet their needs. Guided by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behavior towards children, and helps to prevent childhood illness and death, making pregnancy and childbirth safe, combating discrimination and cooperating with communities to ensure that girls as well as boys attend school. UNICEFassists victims of war, disasters, extreme poverty, all forms of violence and exploitation and those with disabilities, and promotes the equal rights of women and girls and supports their full participation in the political, social, and economic development of their communities. Now working in 161 countries, UNICEF is non-partisan and its cooperation is free of discrimination, and insists that the survival, protection and development of children are universal development imperatives that are integral to human progress.
1948 - Direct Relief, founded in 1948, is a non-profit, non-sectarian medical relief organization based in Santa Barbara, California. For over 50 years, Direct Relief has provided medical support with new and used medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and supplies to over 3,000 charitable health facilities worldwide. Supported by contributions from a growing number of companies, manufacturers, distributors, hospitals, and health clinics which are redistributed to meet the needs of the under served around the world. In 1999 alone, Direct Relief responded to an estimated 10 million people in 54 countries providing 52 million dollars worth of vitally needed medical items.
1949 - SOS Children's Village was founded by Hermann Gmeiner, and its built its first SOS Children's Village in Imst (Austria). SOS Children's Villages is a private, non-political and non-denominational humanitarian organisation which offers abandoned, orphaned and destitute children - regardless of race, nationality or creed - a new and permanent home, and prepares them for an independent life. SOS-Kinderdorf International is the umbrella organisation to which all national SOS Children's Village Associations are affiliated.
1958 - Project HOPE was founded by William Walsh, M.D. with the launch of the S.S. HOPE, the world's first peacetime hospital ship, and now conducts land-based medical training and health care education programs on five continents including North America. The mission of the organization is reflected in the name Health Opportunities for People Everywhere and in a very simple philosophy: Go only where invited, and help people help themselves. Since that time over 5,000 health care professionals and volunteer educators have worked for HOPE. Project HOPE now provides approximately $100 million worth of resources to between 20-30 countries each year. Project HOPE's programs have come to reach more than one million people worldwide providing medical education, policy research, and humanitarian assistance programs in more than 70 countries around the world.
1963 - World Food Programme is the United Nations front line agency in the fight against global hunger. In 2000, WFP fed 83 million people in 83 countries, including most of the world's refugees and internally displaced people.
1968 - Medico International, founded by a group of Frankfurt medical students to provide medical supplies to hospitals in Vietnam and Biafra, then switched to providing medical personnell, field hospitals and ambulances in crisis areas, and from the mid 70s on, to the support of long-term health projects aimed at prevention and fighting the causes of disease in South America, Asia anAfricaka.
1969 - UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, now the largest international source of population assistance, helps developing countries find solutions to their population problems. About a quarter of all population assistance from donor nations to developing countries is channelled through UNFPA. The Fund has three main programme areas: Reproductive Health including Family Planning and Sexual Health, Population and Development Strategies and Advocacy.
1971 - Green Peace", founded in Vancouver, BC, Canada by David McTaggart, is a grass roots organisation of people dedicated to the survival and well being of humanity as a whole, of the animals of the world, of its forests, environments and biosphere. Single handedly Green Peace has achieved the cessation of nuclear testing on the Earth, the cessation of whaling by all nations of the world (except for Norway and Japan), has fought against the barbaric slaughter of seal pups on the ice floes of Newfoundland, and is continuing its efforts to protect endangered species, oceans, temperate and tropical rain forests, to halt climate change, toxic pollution and genetically modified food. In its heyday, it had about 5 million members around the world, now still numbering over 2.5 million, as many other similar organisations have sprung up and proliferated in the foot steps of Green Peace.
1971 - Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders or MSF) founded in 1971 by a small group of French doctors is a private, international nonprofit organization providing emergency health care as well as care for populations suffering from endemic diseases and neglect. MSF provides primary health care, performs surgery, rehabilitates hospitals and clinics, runs nutrition and sanitation programs, trains local medical personnel, and provides mental health care. Through longer-term programs, MSF treats chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, sleeping sickness and AIDS; assists with the medical and psychological problems of marginalized populations including street children and ethnic minorities; and brings health care to remote, isolated areas where resources and training are limited.
MSF unites direct medical care with a commitment to speaking out against the underlying causes of suffering, protesting violations of humanitarian law, and reporting atrocities they have witnessed to the United Nations, governments, and media. Now an international network with sections in 18 countries, MSF marshals more than 2,000 volunteer doctors, nurses, other medical professionals, logistics experts, water/sanitation engineers, and administrators every year, along with 15,000 locally hired staff to provide medical aid in more than 80 countries.
1976 - Mercy Airlift Since its inception over 25 years ago, has transported millions of pounds of emergency relief supplies, medical teams and recovery personnel directly to the sites of natural disasters worldwide, saving thousands of lives. Mercy Airlift is a non-profit, humanitarian aid organization that acquires, warehouses and transports emergency relief supplies throughout the world to the victims of natural or man made disasters. The organization utilizes its own aircraft as well as other commercially chartered aircraft to transport these vital supplies.
1977 - GOAL, founded by Dublin sports journalist John O'Shea and four friends is dedicated to helping the poorest of the poor across the developing world, and has been in the front lines of the famines in Ethiopia and Sudan, Somalia, Angola and Liberia, cared for Rwandan refugees stranded in Tanzania and Zaire with food and medical aid, and helped to rehouse the devastated citizens of Gorazde in Bosnia. Since 1977 GOAL has sent over 700 volunteers to over twenty countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe and has spent over $90 million.
1979 - Mercy Corps is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. The agency now operates in more than 25 countries reaching 4 million people worldwide. Headquartered in the US and Scotland, Mercy Corps is an international family of humanitarian organizations which includes Mercy Corps, Mercy Corps Scotland, Pax World Service in Washington, DC, Proyecto Aldea Global in Honduras, Proyecto Aldea Global Jinotega in Nicaragua, and MerciPhil Development Foundation in the Philippines. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided more than $550 million in assistance to 73 countries.
1979 - Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief (REDR) was founded by Peter Guthrie, after working as an engineer in the Vietnamese refugee camps in Malaysia. Upon his return to England, he created a register of engineers who could be called on at short notice to work for up to 3 months with front-line relief agencies on secondment from their regular employer. RedR office now includes branches in Australia (1992), New Zealand (1994), and new initiatives in India, East Africa and Canada are currently under discussion.
1979 - First Operation California, founded by two airline pilots, sent its first famine relief flight to aid Vietnamese "Boat People" in Malaysia just twenty-nine days after the group was founded, and has provided, and continues to provide famine airlifts to many countries around the world.
1980 - Handicap International, founded by 5 French individuals, strives to intervene as rapidly as possible to provide prostheses to amputees wherever armed conflict has destroyed existing systems of assistance. Similar assistance is also made available in countries where there are severe economic problems, or where the association’s expertise in prevention and socio-economic development is requested. Technicians offering expertise in the creation and fitting of prostheses, in physical therapy, in psychomotor therapy, in psychology, and in the techniques specific to actions against land mines, as well as the health care professionals, agronomists, architects, engineers and educators of Action Nord Sud, multi-disciplinary department of HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL, are today conducting over 160 projects in rehabilitation, prevention, rural development, and emergency programs in 52 countries.
1984 - International Medical Corps, founded by volunteer US doctors and nurses, is a global humanitarian nonprofit, nonsectarian organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief programs in areas worldwide where few organizations dare to serve, by providing training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk and rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.
1985 - HelpAge International is a global network of non-profit organisations with a mission to work with and for older people affected by natural disasters and other emergencies to achieve a lasting improvement in the quality of their lives. HelpAge International works with members and partner organisations in over 70 countries by providing relief assistance and rehabilitation, and longer-term reconstruction support to rebuild the lives and livelihoods of older people and their communities.
1988 - MEDAIR is an international humanitarian aid agency based in Switzerland (with national offices in France, Netherlands & UK) which provides emergency relief in countries affected by war or natural disaster. MEDAIR specialises in managing emergency projects in underprivileged developing countries where crisis situations threaten to further undermine their future development and stability, working in health (curative & preventative), nutrition, water & sanitation (WATSAN), food security, provision of relief supplies, reconstruction, dental hygiene and psycho-social fields.
1990 - Doctors of the World founded by Jonathan Mann, MD, MPH (1947-1998), is the autonomous US affiliate of the French medical relief organization, Médecins du Monde, founded by Bernard Kouchner in 1980. The organization is part of an international network of twelve Doctors of the World/Médecins du Monde delegations in Europe and the Americas, whose joint aim is to provide medical assistance to the world's most vulnerable populations. With the largest corps of volunteer medical professionals in the nation, representing every state, Doctors of the World has worked in over 20 countries throughout the world.
1990 - Relief InternationaI serves the needs of the most vulnerable, particularly women and children, victims of natural disasters, civil conflicts, and the poor worldwide with a specific focus on neglected groups. RI promotes self-reliance, peaceful coexistence, and reintegration of vulnerable groups, by providing holistic, multi-sectoral, sustainable programs to bridge emergency relief and long-term development at a grassroots level in the health, shelter, reconstruction, education, community development, agriculture, food, income-generation, and conflict resolution sectors.
1991 - Medicine For Peace, founded by a group of concerned American physicians, is a voluntary organization in which doctors, nurses, engineers and individuals selflessly donate time, energy and resources to provide medical care and humanitarian assistance to children who are victims of war, and supplies medicine to clinics in villages. Medicine For Peace has helped children in El Salvador, Bosnia, Iraq, Haiti and the USA.
1991 - Water For People was founded in 1991 by the American Water Works Association as a private nonprofit international development organization, and registered as a charitable organization in Canada as Water For People - Canada in 1995.
1992 - Première Urgence is an international, non-profit, non-religious and apolitical organisation
which assist, provides relief and saves the lives of human beings under threat from natural disasters, wars, armed conflicts and economic collapse.
1993 - War Child UK was founded by Bill Leeson and David Wilson, two film makers, after they had returned from the former Yugoslavia having made a film for the BBC Arena programme about the role of artists in war. Shocked by the plight of children - this war like so many in the world at the end of the 20th century, is a war against civilians - they decided to use their film and entertainment background to raise money for aid agencies operating in former Yugoslavia.
1998 - World Response acts both independently and as a support organisation to larger agencies, for projects which have included rural clinics and health facilities in India and Mexico, a school rebuilding programme in Kosovo, an emergency response initiative in India and a refurbishment project of three hospitals in Georgia.
1999 - International Blue Crescent provides humanitarian relief in Turkey and around the world to alleviate human suffering resulting from natural disasters, wars, hunger and outbreaks of disease, responds to environmental problems, provides and promotes education and culture and supports economic regeneration, and is now actively working in Albania, Kosova, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Jordan and Iraq.
Meanwhile, such outstanding models of human compassion as Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa have garnered the attention of the world for their selfless dedication of their lives to the survival and well being of people halfway around the globe, regardless of race, and at considerable cost to their own well being.
Let us recognize here that all of these global humanitarian organisations had their origin in, and are supported by the motivation of individuals, and in a consciousness and perception which is global in its scope, makes no distinction of race, colour, gender, nationality or religion, and holds the survival and well being of all people, animals, trees and environment at the core of its being.
We have not included the thousands of religious humanitarian organisations here since their motivation arises out of an 'external' faith - instead of the deeply internal, totally independent and unconditional motivation of Homo nobilis.
This is a vast quantum leap of consciousness over the myopically self-centered concern with the survival and well being of the self - which invariably comes at the expense of others, of our environment, or of our biosphere. This new global consciousness of the unity and sanctity of all Life, of human kind, and of our planetary biosphere is not something that has been acquired or learned; it is inborn.
Although often still derided as "bleeding hearts", "animal lovers", "tree huggers" or "eco-terrorists", these people literally cannot help but do what they do. Their motivations are deep and passionate, and arise out of the very core of their being. They are 'made that way'. For these people, the survival and well being of people everywhere, of the animals, even of trees, and the planet as a whole takes precedence over their own well being and survival - and many have indeed paid that price. The six Red Cross nurses killed in their beds in Czechnya are just the most recent of many hundreds of such examples.
This concern with the survival and well being of all Life is is a very recent phenomenon. Most of us have forgotten already that not too long ago, all animals were perceived primarily as food, as work animals, a few as pets, and the remainder as pests. Within the last 50 years, we have gone from the fully intentional and almost complete extermination of wolves, for example, to devoting much effort and money to re-establish their presence in their native habitats.
For Homo nobilis the age-old 'struggle for survival' has leapt from the paramount concern with the survival of the self to an overriding concern with the survival and well being of the whole - humankind, whales, animals, birds, flowers, trees, environment, biosphere and all. Simultaneously, and indivisibly, it has also shifted from the exclusive preoccupation with survival in the present to an overriding concern for humankind's survival over the long-term future. Thus, Homo nobilis has now and forever left behind two deeply ingrained instinctual legacies of our animal antecedents.
Within our time then, we have witnessed the overwhelming emergence of the most noble impulses of humanity on a global scale of consciousness and perception, of powerful motivating forces which arise from deep within the core of the being of these humans. We have witnessed the arrival of what can only be described as Homo nobilis. And thus, we now have the tale and the story of the emergence of Homo nobilis, stellaris
This, though, is just the beginning. There are also very strong indicators of physiological evolution, which is
next.
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