EDITORS' NOTES

Welcome to the second issue of Journal of Globalization for the Common Good! We are pleased to have received numerous encouraging and positive feedbacks from the readers of the inaugural spring 2006 issue of JGCG.

The Digital Age continues to alter all aspects of our lives at personal, family, regional, national, and international levels. Most nations and people are now electronically connected via an array of communication technologies, including telephone, cell phone, fax, satellite, and the Internet. Our journal is just one of the advantages of this rapidly changing Digital Age. It allows us to serve as a communication channel for exchanging information and facilitating a constructive dialogue between and among diverse members of ethnic, religious, and cultural groups.

The Journal also publishes a selected number of outstanding papers presented at the annual conferences of the Common Good Initiative. In June 2006 we met for our 5^th annual meeting and conference in Hawaii at the Chaminade University of Honolulu. We can say much about our conference, what we did and what we achieved. However, we believe the best way to highlight our work, is to note our "Honolulu Statement" below.

"We came to this beautiful land of aloha, a place of harmony between sky, mountains, streams, and ocean. The land itself taught us gratitude and it is with humility that we give gratitude back to the land and people of Hawai’i. As we come now to the end of our stay, we challenge each other and all people of good will to stand together with Hawaiians as they work out their own story of identity and the renaissance of their culture. Theirs is an important lesson of travail and triumph in our global community.

The interwoven peoples that make up contemporary Hawai’i also hold an important truth to be learned by the rest of the world: that it is possible to create vibrant community among varied peoples and cultures if you pay attention to the dignity of each person and celebrate the richness of diversity.

We have benefited greatly from having our conference at this beautiful crossroads of the world. While all nations are affected by the financial currents and trade winds of global integration, the Hawaiian Islands, situated at the geographic centre of the dynamic Pacific Rim, are particularly vulnerable to and shaped by these powerful global forces.

Globalization is a 21^st-century reality. We believe, however, that global trade, finance, and monetary institutions and policies must be integrated with greater human and social development and ecological sustainability to ensure the material, economic, political, cultural, and spiritual well-being of the planet.

Globalization for the Common Good is dedicated to "rekindling the human spirit and compassion in globalization". Globalization for the Common Good means the promotion of ethical, moral, and spiritual values – shared by all religious and spiritual traditions – in the areas of economics, commerce, trade, and international relations. It emphasizes personal and societal virtues. It calls for understanding and collaborative action – on the part of civil society, private enterprise, the public sector, governments, and national and international institutions – to address major global issues. Globalization for the Common Good is predicated on a global economy of sharing and community, grounded in a value system whose aim is generosity, the opportunity to contribute to society, and the promotion of a just allocation of the world’s goods.

We thank Chaminade University of Honolulu for hosting this conference and for their example of generosity and kindness. They warmly shared with us the spirit of their unique educational setting. They inspired us to live with a bit more humility and gratitude before the beauty and mystery of each other and of all beings with whom we share life.

Our Statement clearly shows a far better path to the understanding of what globalisation is all about. Globalisation today is most often thought of within economic and technological structures as a way to denote the massive and dynamic global integration of national economies and markets. Because these economic and technological forces are central to the current and future well-being of the global human family, it is essential that they be discussed within the more general framework of human moral, ethical, and spiritual experience. It is only within these frameworks that we can fully explore the values and relationships that form our human communities. Central to this discussion are religious institutions and communities which have developed time-honored wisdom arising from the deep encounter of the human person with the mystery of the sacred. The diversity represented by these communities images the profound truth of the transcendent mystery in which we participate.

We owe this better understanding of globalisation to our speakers that brought their wealth of knowledge, expertise and research to Hawaii and shared it all with us. We are grateful to those who met our deadline and sent their papers for publication in this issue of JGCG. In addition to the Hawaii Conference papers, you will note that this issue is also enriched by a selected number of papers which were submitted independently. We thank all of you for your contributions. We wish you all well and we are greatly looking forward to seeing you all in Istanbul next July.

For details about the 2007 Istanbul Conference, please see:

http://www.globalisationforthecommongood.info/istanbul2007.htm 

We would like to emphasize that views expressed in this journal are not necessarily endorsed by our sponsoring web host, Purdue University Calumet, members of the Advisory Committee, or the Journal editors.

With warm wishes and best regards,