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Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen to Discuss Identity and Violence - Live Webcast May 24th

The Development Gateway Foundation is pleased to announce a special event and unique opportunity!

At 3:00pm on May 24th the World Bank's InfoShop, in collaboration with B-SPAN, will webcast a discussion by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen about his recent publication, "Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny".

Challenging the reductionist view that people of the world can be partitioned into civilizational categories that reinforce our differences, Sen draws on history, economics, science, literature and offers a vision of a world that can be made to move toward peace as firmly as it has spiraled in recent years toward violence and war. Dr. Sen's other books include "On Ethics and Economics", "Development as Freedom", and "The Argumentative Indian".
 
LIVE WEBCAST
 
The webcast will take place Wednesday May 24th from 3:00pm-4:30pm EST (Eastern Standard Time). At that time, you will be able to access the live webcast at http://webcast-ext.worldbank.org/streaming/live.ram. You will need RealPlayer installed on your computer to view this video. For complete information on how to download and install a free version of RealPlayer, please go to http://www.real.com/. 
 
EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS FOR AMARTYA SEN
 
As members of the Development Gateway, you are invited to email your questions for Amartya Sen to dgContent@dgfoundation.org during his live presentation. The event moderator will select a sample of these questions to present to Amartya Sen during the live broadcast Q&A session. Please include your name, organization and country affiliation in your correspondence (these may be mentioned by the moderator if your question is selected).
 
MEMBER FORUM
 
Culture helps form identity and worldview. We are shaped by our cultures, and perceived differences can be perceived as threatening. What can be done to transcend these tensions and bring about a greater sense of shared identity and a common, life affirming destiny?  Please log in and share your replies on the Culture and Development dgCommunity at http://topics.developmentgateway.org/culture/discussion/showDiscussion.do~id=1522?intcmp=504
 
PRAISE FOR "IDENTITY & VIOLENCE"
 
"I am deeply impressed by power of Identity And Violence. Amartya Sen, one of the world's great thinkers, tells us how to go about building a more peaceful world.  I hope the book will be read by all." - Ted Turner
 
"The world's poor and dispossessed could have no more articulate or insightful a champion among economists than Amartya Sen. The United Nations, in its own development work, has benefited immensely from the wisdom and good sense of Professor Sen's views." - Kofi A. Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations
 
EVENT LOCATION
 
For those of you in or near Washington DC, the event will take place in the World Bank H Building - Eugene R. Black Auditorium, G Street Entrance (1914 G Street NW). All non-bank attendees must send an RSVP email to infoshopevents@worldbank.org in order to attend in person.
 
BIOS OF THE PRESENTERS
 
Amartya Sen, Professor, Harvard University. Amartya Sen has written several books including On Ethics and Economics, Development as Freedom, and The Argumentative Indian. Mr. Sen won the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics.  A professor at Harvard, Mr. Sen lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Cambridge, England.
 
Professor Sen will be Introduced by Ian Goldin, Vice President, External and UN Affairs, World Bank. Ian Goldin has been Vice President at the World Bank since May 2003. Previously, he was the Director of Development Policy. Prior to joining the Bank in February 2001, Dr. Goldin was the Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Principal Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, and Head of the Trade Program at the OECD Development Center in Paris.
 
ABOUT THE INFOSHOP
 
The InfoShop is the public information center and development bookstore of the World Bank.  It functions as the only publicly accessible space at headquarters, providing internal and external audiences access to over 6000 titles published by the World Bank, other international organizations, and other publishers on development issues.  It is a space where information and documents on World Bank development operations, economic data, and strategies, can be read easily and comfortably at workstations designed for public use.  In addition, the InfoShop hosts book launches, exhibits, seminars, receptions, and other community outreach events, and also carries videos, posters, CD-ROMs, and gift items. For more information, visit:
http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop
 
ABOUT B-SPAN
 
B-SPAN (http://info.worldbank.org/etools/BSPAN/index.asp) is an Internet-based broadcasting service that presents World Bank seminars, workshops, and conferences on a variety of sustainable development and poverty reduction issues.  B-SPAN streams events on the Internet, archives them on the  B-SPAN web site, offers them in their original unedited format, and provides indexing for quick access to specific speakers. B-SPAN's webcasts are free and available to anyone with access to the Internet. Users need only to download a free version of RealPlayer, a software that allows the playing of archived videos on a personal computer. For complete information on how to download and install RealPlayer, please go to http://www.real.com/. 
 
We look forward to your participation!
 
Best wishes,
 
Mike Pereira
Director, Global Online Communities
Development Gateway Foundation
1889 F Street NW
Washington DC 20006