Thames Court, Henley Management College
 
 

Sources of Inspiration and Wisdom Which Can Help Us To Deal With Life's Many Challenges

Globalization

Sir Anthony Giddens on the "RUNAWAY WORLD."

  "Many of us feel in the grip of forces over which we have no control. Can we re-impose our will upon them? I believe we can. The powerlessness we experience is not a sign of personal failings, but reflects the incapacities of our institutions. We need to reconstruct those we have, or create new ones, in ways appropriate to the global age." Sir Anthony Giddens
 
 
 
 

The Director of the London School Of Economics And Political Science speaks to audiences around the world on the theme of Globalisation. In the 1999 Reith Lectures, sponsored by the BBC, Dr. Giddens addresses the issues of Globalisation, Risk, Tradition, Family, and Democracy. In keeping with the lectures' theme, the lectures were delivered via radio, and the Internet in London, New Delhi, Hong Kong, and Washington D.C. In addition to the accompanying text, links to the BBC will enable you to both listen and watch each of the lecture segments. Also, the text of an interactive e-Mail dialogue between Dr. Giddens and audience members on issues raised in the lecture series is included.

Click on the following topics for transcripts of the Series:
 

  BBC 1999 Reith Lectures Homepage

  Lecture ONE From London - Globalisation

  Lecture TWO From Hong Kong - Risk

  Lecture THREE From New Delhi - Tradition

  Lecture FOUR From Washington, D.C. - Family

  Lecture FIVE From London - Democracy

  Listeners e-Mail Dialogue With Sir Anthony Giddens

The Healing Century
 

Robert Theobald on "The Healing Century: A Message Of Hope For The New Millennium."

"Our current commitment to maximum economic growth has become counterproductive. The real needs of people and communities are no longer to obtain more stuff. Rather, more and more people want to enhance their quality of life rather than the quantity of goods they can obtain. People are ready to change the way they evaluate success in their own lives. They are looking for new ways to obtain satisfaction. " Robert Theobald
 
 
 
 

The late Futurist Robert Theobald's objective in these six programs was to bring a message of hope. He argued that we are capable of making a profound positive shift in our thinking over the next few years. The heart of this shift would be for us to conceptualize the Twenty-First Century as "The Healing Century," just as the Twentieth will certainly be defined in the future as "the Economic Century." He said that only a change toward a more caring and compassionate culture at all levels from the personal to the ecological could avoid massive breakdowns.

This lecture series was Heard on Radio Australia's Radio National "Sunday Special" Programme in April and May of 1998. Transcripts of the six segments are provided:
 
 

The Inevitable/Impossible Transformation: Grasping Our Moment in Time
 
 

Family and Community
 
 

Learning to Learn: The Lifelong Challenge
 
 

Work: Changes and Challenges
 
 

Health and Healing
 
 

A New Vision and How To Achieve It
 
 
 
 
 

Rat-a-Tat - February 28, 1990 - March 13, 2000

A Tribute To Rat-a-Tat
 
 

Australian Cultural Perspectives

Australian Poet Laureate David Malouf: "A Spirit of Play -- The Making Of Australian Consciousness"

"When Europeans first came to these shores one of the things they brought with them, as a kind of gift to the land itself, was something that could never have existed before; a vision of the continent in its true form as an island that was not just a way of seeing it, and seeing it whole, but of seeing how it fitted into the rest of the world. And this seems to have happened even before circumnavigation established that it actually was an island. No group of Aboriginal Australians, however ancient and deep their understanding of the land, can ever have seen the place in just this way. It has made a difference. If Aborigines are a land-dreaming people, what we latecomers share is a sea-dreaming, to which the image of Australia as an island has from the beginning been central." David Malouf
 
 

Read Transcripts of David Malouf's "A Spirit of Play" by clicking on the lecture series below. The Programme was originally broadcast on Radio National from November 15 to December 20, 1998:
 
 

Lecture ONE - "The Island"
 
 

Lecture TWO - "A Complex Fate"
 
 

Lecture THREE - "Landscapes"
 
 

Lecture FOUR - "Monuments To Time"
 
 

Lecture FIVE - "The Orphan in the Pacific
 
 

Lecture SIX - "A Spirit of Play"

Dr. Inga Clendinnen Discusses How History Has Shaped Australiain "True Stories."

     
"Nations....Especially Democratic And Diverse Nations Like Ours, Best Hold Together When They Share A Common Vision Of How The World Works: Of What Constitutes The Good Life, What Behaviour Is Worthy Of Respect, What Behaviour Is Shameful. That Common Vision And Our Attitudes To Our Fellow Citizens Are Shaped By Our View Of History,’ Dr. Inga Clendinnen

In a series Of six Boyer Lectures, Dr Clendinnen uses true stories from Australia's past to show how history has shaped Australia. The 1999 Boyer Lectures were broadcast on Radio National over six Sundays from November 14. Read transcripts of the 1999 Boyer Lecture Series by Dr. Clendinnen, from The Australian Broadcasting Corporation by clicking below:
 
 
 

Blinkin' Humorous* Selected Items of Humor and Silliness