Date: 23 May 2005

"Love the reality you build"

By Tony Henderson

The above title is the slogan Bangladesh member Kasim incorporated into the clocks he had manufactured in Old Dhaka in his attempt to combine fund raising for his Humanist Movement activities while pushing our universalist humanism message in that handy format - the words come from the South America-born founder, pen-named Silo, from his early writing, The Inner Look.

We have an anti-System stance and for us the System is not just on the level of government, but capitalism generally, and the competitive struggle that pits everyone against everyone. What we are really against is the anti-humanism of the System. Of course there are good things there, those things that work and are useful including many good people involved. It’s a primary target though because we need to combat the hypnosis it provokes that sucks us in, that entrances what is human and free in us and curtails our open-ended heritage, our human future.

Our demand that core (structural) members are active and really do things means we get few takers. People want to come to meetings to talk, to express their precious opinions. Boring. Let’s take up an issue or launch a project. I will take a role, you take a role, and let’s do it with personal autonomy not waiting for instructions. We work with orientors not leaders. We give guidelines not orders. It’s no good for protractors or mere intellectuals - unless they want to break those forms of resistance and mechanicalness.

Going to Bangladesh to build a team was a revelation for me because there people took notice of our message: placement of the human being as the central value, non-discrimination, co-operative systems and processes, freedom and rejection of violence.

In Hong Kong it is as if everyone is content with their lot. Few takers. Is it the materialism or the high value given to pragmatism? Possibly the message just does not resonate.

In Bangladesh an early result was shown by another member, Rana, in the small town of Bagerhat. He studied in Hong Kong for a while and joined our Humanist Association in its Chung King Mansions dimension. On his return to Bangladesh he got his pals together and set up the Humanist Association of Bagerhat.

After I received his informative letter I journeyed across there and met ‘the gang’. They assembled in tea houses and certainly had plans. They asked for support money and I explained we are not a charity and not even an NGO as we are absolutely volunteers. In fact they had to pay one US dollar each six months to be a structural member.

Undeterred they launched their project. Today (just under ten years later) their established activities of their duly registered organisation is: Blood Donation Club, Rickshaw Project - 9 rickshaws so far given to families who pay-back the interest-free purchase cost SAP ***, a micro-credit Self Reliance project, Education Support for pupils by obtaining money from local businessmen, and now a small school is under construction for those who cannot afford schooling. In June 2004 our humanist executive committee member Milon won a seat in the local elections for the municipal ward of Saltala. They did all this themselves.

Though the Humanist Movement is not a political movement if a member goes into politics and abides by our principals, fine. That will humanize politics. In business it is the same despite that we are not a commercial organisation. Having a particular belief or dis-belief is not a barrier just don’t sell that at our meetings!

This planet really needs us. There are many very good organisations and we just want to make our contribution as well. We hit a different spot. It is not what we do but how we do it that is different. Humanize what is inside while humanizing the outside, our society, this is the way we work. We have a spiritual dimension. We seek personal liberation in this life. To be free as a human being. To seek our own immortality in whichever way you or I may see that.

***

Further note: The Rickshaw Project, where a new rickshaw is given to a family with the proviso that they pay back its purchase cost in as short a time as possible. This is done by the operator (usually the father) calling in to the HAB office regularly with a percentage of the week's or day's takings and usually takes one year. Then the money is used to buy another and the act repeated. Nine have so far been introduced into local society using this way of funding-payback.