International speaker and author to give talk at Auckland Bahá’í Centre
Dr Augusto Lopez-Claros, a distinguished Bahá'í, and internationally recognised speaker and author, will give a talk on “The elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty: a Bahá’í perspective” at the Glen Innes Bahá’í Centre (129 Taniwha Street) in Auckland on Saturday 22 December, at 7.30pm.
Dr Lopez-Claros has been Director of the World Bank's Global Indicators Group for six years and Senior Fellow at Georgetown University, Chief Economist and Director of the Global Competitiveness Programme at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and the International Monetary Fund’s Resident Representative in the Russian Federation during the 1990s.
In August, the Bahá’í World News informed the Bahá'í community that his proposed book on the future of the United Nations won a prize. He has recently published a book on gender equality with Bahiyyih Nakhjavani (Equality For women = Prosperity For All).
“During his travels in Europe and America in 1912, ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá (Son of Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, His successor and the Interpreter of His Writings) referred frequently to the problem of income inequality and on several occasions called for the emergence of a new social and economic order that would address the extremes of wealth and poverty. He also put forward several specific proposals that would help to mitigate what he regarded as a serious social and economic crisis. We will review some of the problems created by widening income disparities, both for policymakers and, more generally, for social cohesion and sustainable economic development. The presentation, building on the ideas of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, will also explore several ways in which inequality could be mitigated over the medium term, all of them within the grasp of governments everywhere, particularly in the developing world, where inequality has especially undesirable consequences. None of these possible remedies to the problem of inequality are getting the attention they deserve, all of them would make a great difference.”
