IALS member Helena Norberg-Hodge to Receive the 2012 Goi Peace Award

http://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/award/award2012.html

	The Goi Peace Foundation will bestow the 2012 Goi Peace Award on Helena Norberg-Hodge, the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), and a  pioneer of the 'new economy' movement.   The annual Goi Peace Award honors individuals and organizations in various fields that have made outstanding contributions toward the realization of  a peaceful and  harmonious world for humanity and all life on earth.                                 Created in 2000, previous Goi Peace Award recipients  include Ervin Laszlo, Oscar Arias, Lester Brown, Bill Gates &Deepak Chopra. Ms. Norberg-Hodge will receive the award at a ceremony during the Goi Peace Foundation Forum 2012 to be held at Ginza Blossom Hall in Tokyo on November 25, 2012. The selection committee has chosen Helena Norberg-Hodge for the Goi Peace Award "in recognition of her pioneering work in the new economy movement to help create a more sustainable and equitable world. Through her advocacy and educational activities promoting localization from an international perspective, Ms. Norberg-Hodge has contributed to the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide." As an author, filmmaker and public lecturer, Ms. Norberg-Hodge has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than thirty years. She is a widely respected analyst of the impact of the global economy on communities, local economies, and personal identity, and is a leading proponent of 'localization,' or decentralization, as a means of countering those impacts. A native of Sweden, Ms. Norberg-Hodge was educated in Sweden, Germany, Austria, England and the United States. She specialized in linguistics, including studies at the University of London and at MIT. In 1975, she visited Ladakh, or "Little Tibet," and was the first Westerner in recent times to master the Ladakhi language and co-produce the first Ladakhi-English dictionary. Since then, she has worked with the people of Ladakh to find ways of enabling their culture to meet the modern world without sacrificing social and ecological values. For these efforts she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, or 'Alternative Nobel Prize,' in 1986. Her book, Ancient Futures, has been described as "an inspirational classic." Together with the film of the same title, it has been translated into more than 40 languages, and sold about half a million copies. She is also the producer and co-director of the award-winning film, The Economics of Happiness, and the co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home and   From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture. She has written numerous articles and essays, and her work has been the subject of more than 300 articles worldwide. ISEC, which she founded as The Ladakh Project, has now expanded its activities to run programs all over the world. The organization examines the root causes of our current social and environmental crises, while promoting grassroots and policy-level strategies for ecological and community renewal. She is also a founding member of the International Commission on  the Future of Food and Agriculture, and a co-founder of both the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network. About the Goi Peace Foundation Established in Tokyo, Japan in 1999, the Goi Peace Foundation  is a public benefit organization with a mission to support the evolution of humanity toward a peaceful and harmonious new civilization. Through various educational and outreach programs, it promotes consciousness, values and wisdom for creating peace, and builds cooperation among individuals and organizations across diverse fields,  including education, science, culture and the arts. The Foundation is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the  Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It also maintains official relations with UNESCO. Website: www.goipeace.or.jp