The 3rd Asian Regional Conference on Safe Communities Ended Perfectly
Cultural Performance of Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy Demonstrates the Cultural and Spiritual Development and Achievement of Safe Community
2005-10-22
Co-hosted by Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health, Taiwan, R.O.C. and World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion, the 2005 3rd Asian Regional Conference on Safe Communities was held in October in Taipei. During the three-day conference, specialists and scholars from many countries discussed fourteen topics, including work place safety, medication safety, school safety, violence and suicide prevention etc. They have expressed valuable opinions about how to build a safe community in Asia.
At the closing on 22nd, the Chairman, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion, Dr. Leif SvanstrÖm was the witness to the ceremony, where Dr. Lu Pai, Chair, Taiwanese Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Association, passed on the stick with the logo to the representatives from the host country 2006, Cape Town, South-Africa, and the Asian host country 2007, Thailand. After that, the participants watched the precious clips of previous conferences, and the forum has ended in pure and touching singing from the chorus of Ming-Hu Primary School. Then the participants of the forum encouraged each other, hoping that people can work harder on safe communities, just like the South-African representative said, they hope to build more safe communities for children in poverty.
This is the first time that there are four communities in Taiwan received the WHO's Authorization of Safe Community, and Taiwan also has become the third region in Asia after Hong Kong and South Korea, where received the authorization. This honor belongs to all people in Taiwan. Theses four communities: Nei-Hu, Feng-bin, Dong-Shi, and A-Li Shan have listed in the 100 safe communities in the world.
These days there have been representatives from the above communities helped and sponsored the performances. And individuals, institutions, and nongovernmental organizations all fully backed up, too. Among them, Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy, the representative of Nei-Hu area, has brought the excellent cultural performances of martial arts of qigong in the opening cocktail party, the opening of the conference and the banquet.
The assembly teemed with good wishes and the programs, which symbolized safety and harmony. Those programs included the joyful drumming, the peaceful and aesthetic dance of carp, the martial arts for peace, the cheerful lions, and a group of healthy, optimistic and active kungfu kids performed with the song "The world is so bright", Xiu-Yu Wu, the vice-commissioner of Bureau of Health Promotion said that she was deeply moved by seeing the auspicious lions, the girls with ribbon balls as well as the kungfu kids smiling so happily at the performances. She felt that it is a kind of harmonious state, just like the ultimate goals of safe community - security and harmony!
Tai Ji Men dizi practice qigong for both physical health and spiritual cultivation. Based on the virtue of martial arts, they do their best and contribute themselves to the society. They also hope that everyone can attach importance to spiritual culture to make our world brighter, safer, and better!
In the conference, the Chairman of World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion, Dr. Leif SvanstrÖm said: "Through the positive cycle, which is formed by inhabitants' sense and actions of kindness, as well as the kindness they receive, our lives are thus getting safer and safer, and we are more willing to help others in an active way. This is the secret behind the honorable authorization. It is also the best way to save ourselves and others when facing nowadays disadvantageous circumstances." And the Chairman, European Safe Community Network, Mr. Yousif Rahim, who participated the conference has mentioned: "Despite the fact that many communities in Europe have been authorized as safe communities, we still face many difficulties when promoting and maintaining the security, especially at the present time young people have quite different life styles and concepts from their parents' ones. Their changes will affect the sustainable development of communities." Therefore, a safe community emphasizes not only the safety of the hardware but also the mental, spiritual development of its residents. If everyone owns the wisdom deep inside their hearts, then we are able to make a really stable and harmonious environment. Just like WHO's definition of health - a real status of health is when our body, spirit, and the whole society is health. It takes the whole society's health to make individual health guaranteed.
