Latest news with #G20InterfaithForum
IOL News
4 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Exploring the role of education in promoting social cohesion at the G20 Interfaith Forum
The discussion on Tuesday sought to examine what role education plays in values and social cohesion, but also how religion can respond to global education challenges, including access, quality, and links to life skills. Image: Theolin Tembo/Independent Newspapers Tuesday morning's plenary session at the G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) focused on education and translating the oft-stated priority of 'youth' into effective action. The IF20 forum convenes religious leaders, civil society organisations, government officials, multilateral institutions, and scholars to explore collaborative solutions to pressing global challenges. The IF20 event is intended to reflect and reinforce South Africa's G20 Presidency theme: 'Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability.' The Cape Town event is intended as a catalyst for action, fostering partnerships that transcend borders, beliefs, and sectors. The discussion on Tuesday sought to examine what role education plays in values and social cohesion, but also how religion can respond to global education challenges, including access, quality, and links to life skills. The discussion sought to link the goals of quality education for all to the challenges of social cohesion and ensuring diversity and equality among different communities. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading It included a keynote address by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in Indonesia, Professor Dr. Abdul Mu'ti, who highlighted that quality education and religious education can serve as means to cultivate cross-cultural religious literacy, and eliminate attitudes and behaviours which include hostility towards people of other faiths. 'We believe that big changes start with small habits done consistently. These habits will only succeed if supported by the four education pillars - schools, family, communities and media. 'Through cross-national, cross-cultural, and interfaith collaboration, we can raise a young generation that is not only academically intelligent, but also wise in social life,' Mu'ti said. After his address, a panel discussion was held, including Professor Maniraj Sukdaven from the University of Pretoria, Executive Director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi, Executive Director of Leimena Institute, Matius Ho, Executive Director of Arigatou International Geneva, Maria Lucia Uribe Torres, Chairman and Board of Directors at the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue, Prof. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi, Head of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Social Development, Prof. Muhammed Haron, Vice Chancellor/CEO at Africa University, Prof. Peter Mageto, and Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University Prof. Jonathan Jansen. Torres highlighted that over recent years, the focus in education has been on numeracy and literacy, which as a result has left behind the social, emotional and spiritual aspect of children, which forms part of their holistic well-being. 'Education should support respect for cultural diversity for their own cultural identity, language, values, religion and those of the other. We see very often in our education system that this is not the case because when it comes to learning about the other religions. 'We go to our comfort mentality approaches (i.e Muslims pair with Muslims, Christians with Christians, Buddhists with Buddhists), but the interfaith aspect of learning about the other is not there,' Torres said. Torres also touched on how the education system is focused on memorising facts and instead of building friendships and connections with those who are different from the individual, and that such skills are fundamental. 'I believe that ethics education has a role to play in bringing these aspects together, because ethics education supports learning from one another and conscientisation. Conscientisation was coined by Paulo Freire, is the ability to reflect on social issues in our society, but also understand our privileges, and the lack thereof. 'Ethics, if you put it in a very simple way, is how children can understand that we hold the lives of others in our hands, and that what we do or do not do has an impact on ourselves and others - the very concept of Ubuntu,' Torres said. Jansen explained that he works across high schools and higher education, and he highlighted how the Israel and Palestine conflict has impacted on educating the youth. 'It is the most televised war, they say, in history, from which all our children learn about war, but also about silence and complicity. It is also a test of the faith communities' commitment to go beyond easy words 'condemn', 'withdraw' and 'end the war',' he said.
IOL News
5 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Youth and mental health under the spotlight at G20 Interfaith Forum in Cape Town
The discussion included: Rogelio P. Lelis Jr. Doug Fountain, Sandile Hlayisi, Angela Nielsen Redding and Andrea Kaufman, Image: Theolin Tembo/Independent Newspapers At the G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) on Tuesday in Cape Town, attendees broke off from the main ballroom and attended some smaller discussion groups, one tackling 'Addressing Youth and Mental Health'. The IF20 forum convenes religious leaders, civil society organisations, government officials, multilateral institutions, and scholars to explore collaborative solutions to pressing global challenges. Tuesday's discussion sought to explore analytic work and policy proposals in the face of challenges often cited by the youth, including employment, quality education, and addressing numerous challenges to mental health. The discussion was moderated by Andrea Kaufman, Director, Faith & External Engagement, World Vision International, and Angela Nielsen Redding, Executive Director, Radiance Foundation. The moderators set the scene with Redding explaining that at Radiance Foundation, they looked at Gallup World Poll data, a global network of quality data collection built to measure public opinion, which often asked questions about religiosity and well-being, but 'they had never compared the relationship between the answers to those questions'. 'We funded a historical look at the last 12 years to look at what is the relationship between personal and societal well-being to religiosity, and in addition, we did a meta-analysis of over 65 medical studies and psycho-social studies, and what they found is that the spirituality-well-being link is clear. 'It is unequivocal. There is clearly a link between higher levels of religiosity, higher levels of religion being important to people and better well-being outcomes,' Redding said. 'People who are religious throughout the world are more likely to be civically engaged. They have higher outcomes on positive experience, social support, and more involvement in their communities, despite more negative experience. 'But here is what is more interesting, in communities where religiosity is important, those effects are stronger, and in countries where you have fewer religious people, those effects are diminished or even decreased entirely. In countries within the continent of Africa, the well-being-spirituality link is even stronger.' She said that when that is coupled with their research, they have found that there are a few key indicators for resilient societies, and that being freedom of religion and media freedom. She said that according to the Pew Research Centre, 84% of humankind is affiliated with religion, and that number is set to increase based on basic demographics. 'A lot of the work that we do is what we are being told about religion, from a communications perspective. We did an AI-enabled study of over 30 million pieces of digital content, and we found that 74% of faith-related digital content was negative or extreme in nature, including 11% which was hate speech. That remaining percent was just informational. 'Only 6% of digital content is both personal and positive. There is a huge disconnect between the personal lived experience of people who are religious, and the communities where religion is important, and what you see represented in the media.' Redding explained that it applies to mental health, whereas people who are religious and less likely to be depressed, suffer from anxiety and other mental illnesses, isolation, and other things. Other panellists included Sandile Hlayisi, Church of Scientology, Scientology Volunteer Ministers, Doug Fountain, Executive Director, Christian Connections for International Health, Rogelio P. Lelis Jr., Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Technical Advisor -ACWAY, Iraq. Fountain highlighted that in their network, they are focusing on mental health, and a vital thing that can be done is to advocate for youth mental health inclusion in national policy frameworks, 'both in health, and anything that looks like it affects the youth'. 'You want the youth of the world to shape these programmes, and if they are not designing these programmes, then what the hell are we doing?' Lelis Jr. also touched on accessibility and availability of access to health services for the youth. He said that there seems to be a misunderstanding in how it is tackled, and that 'everyone who needs mental health support needs to go right away to a specialised service, when in fact, there are a lot of things that can be delivered on a community level'. 'We can support each other, and that includes faith and religious leaders. That is a way to diversify services because, no matter if we want to have professionals, there is just not enough (to accommodate everyone).' Later, he added that it is important to mobilise the youth and to meet them in the spaces where they are. 'Young people are ready and capable; they just need to be given a space in order for them to learn.' [email protected]
IOL News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Ebrahim Rasool supports Ramaphosa's cautious approach to US ambassador appointment
Former South African Ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool. Image: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers Former South African Ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool says President Cyril Ramaphosa is correct to be cautious in appointing a new ambassador after Rasool was expelled from the US. In an exclusive interview with Independent Media at the G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) in Cape Town, Rasool said the question the country must ask itself is whether it wants to go through the embarrassment of nominating an ambassador, and then having them wait, which was the original plan by the Republicans with him. Rasool said he was fortunate to have been credentialed by former US President Joe Biden in his last week of office. 'The question is, do we want to go through that embarrassment of the US making our ambassador stay in limbo for a few months, and then because we have nominally appointed an ambassador, it cuts other channels of communication. 'This (current) state shows that you can still pick up the phone, without going through the embassy. That is the one reason why it is correct to be cautious. The second reason is that you cannot allow the US to choose our ambassador to their country for themselves, because what you then do is that you get an echo chamber…then we have someone who goes 'Yes, Mr Trump, you are right'.' Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading 'Thirdly, if you choose even a mildly independent ambassador, you will not find such a person of integrity who, at some point or other, did not express disquiet about the direction of the United States under President Trump.' On Mcebisi Jonas, President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy to the United States, who was rejected by Washington in May this year, Rasool said: 'Here is an astute business person, but his astuteness economically is also his astuteness politically, and therefore, you won't find a clean slate in terms of that.' On who could replace the vacant position, he said that 'because people say a white skin can more easily go into the White House, (I've thought) that if you can find a white person with the right values, and in that regard, I threw out the name Marthinus van Schalkwyk. 'Someone whose growth from the National Party to the ANC I have watched, and I think that not him per se, but that that is the kind of person that we can use to satisfy two things - the love of a white skin in the White House, and the values that our country needs presently,' Rasool said. Rasool also commented on South Africa's current relationship with the US, which he said is not isolated because countries like India and Brazil, and the European Union (EU), are also experiencing bullying from the US. 'South Africa's relationship with the United States has a particular tint to it, but it is not atypical. Sometimes South Africans think that it is only done unto us, when you look at what President Trump has done to Brazil, because a buddy of his, (former President) Jair Bolsonaro, has been charged with corruption. 'You think what he has done to India, because it allegedly buys oil from Russia, if you look at what he has done to the EU because they don't spend as much on their defence as they should - then South Africa is just one of a few that he has put into his cross-hairs, and where he is driving a hard agenda - a pernicious and punishing agenda against such countries. 'We are, in a sense, in good company when we consider who else he has put in his cross hairs. The question is not to watch South Africa, as if South Africa is isolated, it is to watch the growing isolation of the United States of America.
IOL News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Why Rasool believes Ramaphosa should be cautious in selecting a new ambassador
Former South African Ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool. Image: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers Ebrahim Rasool, the former South African Ambassador to the US, asserts that President Cyril Ramaphosa's cautious approach to appointing a new ambassador is not just wise—it's essential in the wake of recent diplomatic upheaval. In an exclusive interview with Independent Media at the G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) on Monday in Cape Town, Rasool said the question the country must ask itself is whether it wants to go through the embarrassment of nominating an ambassador, and then having them wait, which was the original plan by the Republicans with him. Rasool said he was fortunate to have been credentialed by former US President Joe Biden in his last week of office. 'The question is, do we want to go through that embarrassment of the US making our ambassador stay in limbo for a few months, and then because we have nominally appointed an ambassador, it cuts other channels of communication. 'This (current) state shows that you can still pick up the phone, without going through the embassy. That is the one reason why it is correct to be cautious. The second reason is that you cannot allow the US to choose our ambassador to their country for themselves, because what you then do is that you get an echo chamber…then we have someone who goes 'Yes, Mr Trump, you are right'.' Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading 'Thirdly, if you choose even a mildly independent ambassador, you will not find such a person of integrity who, at some point or other, did not express disquiet about the direction of the United States under President Trump.' Rasool touched on Mcebisi Jonas, Ramaphosa's special envoy to the US, who was rejected by Washington in May this year. 'Here is an astute business person, but his astuteness economically is also his astuteness politically, and therefore, you won't find a clean slate in terms of that.' On who could replace the vacant position, he said that 'because people say a white skin can more easily go into the White House, (I've thought) that if you can find a white person with the right values, and in that regard, I threw out the name Marthinus van Schalkwyk. 'Someone whose growth from the National Party to the ANC I have watched, and I think that not him per se, but that that is the kind of person that we can use to satisfy two things - the love of a white skin in the White House, and the values that our country needs presently,' Rasool said. Get your news on the go, click here to join the Cape Argus News WhatsApp channel. Cape Argus
IOL News
a day ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Rasool: 'Ramaphosa is correct to be cautious in appointing a new ambassador'
Former South African Ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool. Image: Theolin Tembo/Independent Newspapers Former South African Ambassador to the United States (U.S) Ebrahim Rasool said that President Cyril Ramaphosa is correct to be cautious in appointing a new ambassador after Rasool was expelled from the United States. In an exclusive interview with Independent Media at the G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) on Monday in Cape Town, Rasool said the question the country must ask itself is whether it wants to go through the embarrassment of nominating an ambassador, and then having them wait, which was the original plan by the Republicans with him. Rasool said that he was fortunate to have been credentialed by former US President Joe Biden in his last week of office. 'The question is, do we want to go through that embarrassment of the US making our ambassador stay in limbo for a few months, and then because we have nominally appointed an ambassador, it cuts other channels of communication. 'This (current) state shows that you can still pick up the phone, without going through the embassy. That is the one reason why it is correct to be cautious. The second reason is that you cannot allow the US to choose our ambassador to their country for themselves, because what you then do is that you get an echo chamber…then we have someone who goes 'Yes, Mr Trump, you are right'.' Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading 'Thirdly, if you choose even a mildly independent ambassador, you will not find such a person of integrity who, at some point or other, did not express disquiet about the direction of the United States under President Trump.' Rasool even touched on Mcebisi Jonas, President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy to the United States, who was rejected by Washington in May this year. 'Here is an astute business person, but his astuteness economically is also his astuteness politically, and therefore, you won't find a clean slate in terms of that.' On who could replace the vacant position, he said that 'because people say a white skin can more easily go into the White House, (I've thought) that if you can find a white person with the right values, and in that regard, I threw out the name Marthinus van Schalkwyk. 'Someone whose growth from the National Party to the ANC I have watched, and I think that not him per se, but that that is the kind of person that we can use to satisfy two things - the love of a white skin in the White House, and the values that our country needs presently,' Rasool said. Rasool also commented on South Africa's current relationship with the United States, to which he said that it is not isolated because countries like India and Brazil, and even the European Union (EU), are also experiencing bullying from the US. 'South Africa's relationship with the United States has a particular tint to it, but it is not atypical. Sometimes South Africans think that it is only done unto us, when you look at what President Trump has done to Brazil, because a buddy of his, (former President) Jair Bolsonaro, has been charged with corruption. 'You think what he has done to India, because it allegedly buys oil from Russia, if you look at what he has done to the EU because they don't spend as much on their defence as they should - then South Africa is just one of a few that he has put into his cross-hairs, and where he is driving a hard agenda - a pernicious and punishing agenda against such countries. 'We are, in a sense, in good company when we consider who else he has put in his cross hairs. The question is not to watch South Africa, as if South Africa is isolated, it is to watch the growing isolation of the United States of America.
