Online Zoom Forum: Towards a Culture and Politics of Love and Compassion:
Loving and Compassionate Individuals, Relations, Communities, Cities, and Nations.
Date: Wednesday 19 April 2023.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 10 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion among the speakers, the chair, and the audience, followed by Q & A.
Chair: Dr Gameli Tordzro:
Bio: Dr Gameli Tordzro is a tradition bearer from Ghana. He is an educator, artistic researcher, director and performer and farmer. He works part time in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow as an Artist in Residence of the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration Through Languages and The Arts (UNESCO RILA) and as a Research Associate of the MIDEQ Hub. He is also a freelance creative arts consultant and producer. His professional experience cuts across Education, Artistic Research, Film, Television production and performance, Community Theatre and Development, traditional African cultures, music, fashion and textile production. He is well known in Ghana for his storytelling role in the 1990s as Grandpa on the popular Ghana Television’s Kids Television programme ‘By The Fireside’ and later as ‘Paa Joe’ in the forty-episode TV Series ‘All That Glitters’ (2005 - 2006). Tordzro is Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (CATS Awards 2015) winner for Music and Sound for his work on the National Theatre of Scotland production ‘Last Dream on Earth’.
Speakers:
Alison Bunce:
Title: Compassionate Inverclyde: Ordinary People Helping Ordinary People.
Description: How Inverclyde is creating a Compassionate Community. A community where everyone recognises that we all have a role to play in supporting each other in times of crisis, end of life and loss based on kindness..
Bio: Alison is a Senior Palliative Care Nurse who worked for nearly a decade as Director of Care at Ardgowan Hospice. Today, as a Queen’s Nurse, Alison is the founder, leader and guiding force of Compassionate Inverclyde, supported by Ardgowan Hospice and Inverclyde HSCP. She has combined her MSc in Palliative Care and an MBA with her community nursing experiences to inspire and coordinate an extraordinary set of community activities, supporting those most in need. It is a positive, pragmatic way of inspiring and mobilising people’s energy, better nature and willingness to help.
Liza Horan:
Title: Love and Compassion: A New Paradigm To Heal Our Society?
Description: Can virtue be legislated? Who can best influence positive change, bureaucrats or citizens? Where's the evidence that society's ills can be healed through kindness? Liza Horan covers these questions and more in consideration of the Forum theme. She’ll identify key aspects of the status quo, and outline challenges and opportunities. The talk wraps with practical actions each of us can take -- as individuals or groups -- to catalyse society toward love and compassion.
Bio: Liza Horan’s work as a writer, editor and strategic communications consultant is devoted to helping individuals and organisations discover and express their unique propositions to the world for the highest good. Her editorial endeavours include covering the mind-body-spirit movement for Mindstream.world and The Mindstream Podcast, and serving on the steering group for the Frontier Journalists' Network, which works to increase media coverage of the mysteries of human experience, such as consciousness. Liza’s consulting clients include the Scientific and Medical Network, Parapsychological Association, and Edinburgh's own Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre.
Anila Mirza:
Bio: Anila Mirza is a human right activist who campaigns to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion. She has vast experience working in the gender-based abuse sector, where she worked to promote women’s rights and justice by having an intersectional approach.
Anila has an in-depth knowledge of issues related to migrant women living in the UK.
She is the project initiator and co-editor of ‘Real Women: Unheard Stories - based on true stories of migrant women living in Scotland.
She writes short stories and poems in two languages, Urdu and English.
Dr Elizabeth Drummond Young:
Title: How to Create the Kind Society.
Description: I’m going to look at three questions which need answers if we want a Kind Society. What conditions do we need in a society for compassion to flourish? What gets in the way of compassion? And what is compassion? I’ll draw on recent psychological research and the work of philosophers. Finally, I’ll suggest some complementary virtues we need to help compassion flourish in society.
Bio: Elizabeth is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where she teaches courses in the fundamentals of philosophy to international students. She also runs courses on applied ethics, critical thinking, the philosophy of personal relations and the history of women in philosophy. Two main areas of her research are discussions which take place on the borderlands of philosophy and theology and projects which recover the work of women philosophers. She is a founder member and past Chairman of the Albertus Institute which offers a platform for the intellectual debate about faith in the modern world.
Dr Sara Trevelyan:
Description: I believe that we have to start with ourselves and know that our thoughts, words and actions can make a difference. The work is to stay conscious and aligned in these challenging times, keeping focused on what we can achieve close to home. Being aware that we are all interconnected gives an edge of urgency and importance to apparently small choices and actions. We can be supported through coming together with others in community rituals, singing and circles where we can find a deeper connection with ourselves and with others. We need to work to strengthen the web of life - the glue which holds our families, communities and nations together. Without a vision of creating a culture of love and compassion we are like travellers without a map. We need faith, we need commitment, we need each other.
Bio: I trained as a medical doctor in my 20s, later on training to become a counsellor and psychotherapist in the person-centred tradition and practised for many years. I also work as a spiritual counsellor and energy healer. Entering into my 70s these days, mother, grandmother, therapist, healer, interfaith minister, author of Freedom Found. My life has been a weaving of different aspects of myself into what feels today a commitment to living from my soul, following life’s continued unfolding with passion and full engagement.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: By Donation. For a Registration Form:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(for late inquiries on the day, then email, do not phone.
If you book on the day of the event you will be emailed the Zoom sign-in details 1-2 hours before the event).