Vale - St. George's College
Vale - St. George's College
Vale - St. George's College
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Faith, Globalisation and Wandong Noodles<br />
L-R JADE ROBERTS (2007), JON BAKER, MICHAEL SHELDRICK, TONY BLAIR, AKRAM AZIMI, DANIEL STEPNIAK (2000)<br />
My experience of the National University of Singapore’s<br />
Faith and Globalisation Conference (30 July to 2 August<br />
2010) was life affirming.<br />
Made possible by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF), the<br />
spiritually and intellectually rich, intense and vibrant gathering<br />
represents for me a quintessential fl ashbulb memory.<br />
With its vision of faith as a potential unifying global force in the 21th<br />
century and with the aid of cutting-edge internet technology, the TBFF<br />
is devoted to promoting understanding of the major religions and<br />
connecting young people around from around the world.<br />
This vision is based on the understanding that constructive<br />
interfaith dialogue is the most effective and peaceful means to<br />
a more harmonious world, because the opposite, silence and<br />
miscommunication, has clearly been the cause of much disharmony.<br />
A prerequisite for conference attendance was a deep passion for<br />
interfaith issues. Fortunately, I have received much experience of<br />
this during my residence at <strong>St</strong> George’s (with its very strong focus<br />
on fostering inter-faith education and discussion).<br />
As for Singapore, it was everything I had expected: perennially well<br />
lit, humid and bursting with life in everything direction. This was<br />
perhaps epitomised by my accommodation, the immense high rise<br />
student residences of NUS, which like most buildings in Singapore,<br />
attempted to conquer the sky.<br />
On the fi rst day of the conference I met some exceptional and<br />
inspiring students from universities from all over the world,<br />
including McGill, Peking, Monterrey and Yale University. I listened<br />
to the insights of esteemed professors on faith and globalisation.<br />
I explored fi rsthand the different places of worship in Singapore<br />
(a truly multicultural society) and studied how people of different<br />
faiths interact, confl ict and accommodate each other when their<br />
sacred spaces are often within earshot of one another.<br />
Interestingly, all these centres of worship expressed, in words<br />
and actions, genuine respect and appreciation for the “others”;<br />
I think this “we are all in this together” mentality, can partly be<br />
explained by the fact that everyone is, to some extent, a foreigner<br />
in Singapore.<br />
On the second day of the conference, I had the pleasure of<br />
meeting and conversing with Tony and Cherie Blair.<br />
On our last night together, we had an eight course Asian meal that<br />
I am still savouring—what a way to say goodbye to new friends!<br />
The next logical step following the conference is the<br />
commencement of a unit called Faith and Globalisation at UWA,<br />
which will feature cutting edge technology utilising Internet based<br />
global collaborative education.<br />
Finally, the conference made me refl ect on my own spirituality<br />
and I have reached the following conclusion: I am not certain that<br />
Gods exists, but I am certain that God is not non-existent either.<br />
Perhaps this is the lawyer in me playing it safe—Pascal style!<br />
AKRAM AZIMI<br />
AKRAM IS A FOURTH YEAR COLLEGE RESIDENT AND IS STUDYING<br />
SCIENCE/LAW<br />
The Georgian | December 2010 7