Apologies for taking this long to report about the 1st Eden Seminar held on May 8th 2019. Please find here letter from the Chairperson, letter from the Hon. Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and also the opening speech delivered by Her Excellency Lady Tania Fusitu’a, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Tonga to Japan. The seminar was also attended by the Ambassador of Fiji to Japan, H.E. Isikeli Mataitoga and also the Ambassador of Palau, H.E. Francis M. Matsutaro.

In daily conversation reciprocity is frequently used interchangeably with terms such as “exchange” and sometimes even “trade”, but are these words identical in meaning or merely similar? Reciprocity as applied in Gross National Generosity (GNG) and as used by The Dignified Pacific Initiative (DPI) is defined by the research of Dr. Kaitu’u ‘i Pangai Funaki and does not include the sense of bartering found in “exchange” or “trade”.

INTRODUCTION: THE EDEN SEMINARS

The EDEN (Emerging and Developing Economies Seminars) Seminars are a university-driven initiative to reconsider current paradigms of development and to propose solutions to our present challenges with an eye towards the future. This first of the EDEN Seminars will commemorate the establishment of the Japan-Sri Lanka Joint Collaborative Platform (J-SL JCP) as a legal corporate entity in Japan, working closely with the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). It will also commemorate the planned establishment of the Dignified Pacific Initiative as a legal Japanese entity, intended to be a bridge between Japan and the Pacific Island countries. Both these initiatives are founded on new insights as to how transnational collaboration can be designed among developed and emerging/developing economies.

PALM 8 was unique in that it was the third time the phrase “We are islanders” was used in the PALM theme to rekindle the bond between Japan and the PICs. This notion might have been adopted from the PICs’ unifying philosophy expressed as “our sea of islands” (‘Epeli Hau’ofa), which depicts the PICs not as small and isolated in the great Pacific, but as countries in a water continent connected by the Blue Ocean.

The seminar was held at the Commonwealth Secretariat headquarter Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London. Use the link below to read more about the Marlborough House where the Commonwealth Secretariat is located. The Marlborough house has a status of a Palace. 

One of the pitfalls of the so-called economic development as a post-WW11 UN-led and Western-driven capitalist doctrine is undoubtedly the failure to "take culture seriously" -- not to mention the adoption of a "partial" rather than a "total" approach across the material-individual, intellectual-spiritual and social-cultural realms and not just the material-individual over the intellectual-spiritual and social-cultural domains. 

Too many people see development aid as money for nothing, says Dr Kaitu‘u Funaki. Part of the reason for the troubled dynamic between Pacific island nations and their development partners, he argues, is that no one enjoys being a beggar.

With the purpose of sharing the research findings with policy makers in Tonga and Vanuatu where I conducted my research, I was fortunate to be officially invited by both governments for presentations conducted in a workshop format.

The 15th Asia Pacific Conference was held at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) with a theme, "Global Perspectives in Changing Local Landscapes" on November 11th-12th 2017. I organized and chaired a panel session with 5 Pacific Island scholars titled: "Contributions from the Pacific Island Countries to the Era of the Asia Pacific." 

Generosity in action. On November 4th 2017, we organized an event to showcase some of the dances of Oceania to entertain the local people of Beppu city (Oita Prefecture) who was badly affected by the recent Oita Kumamoto Earthquake. 

On October 11th, Dr. Funaki was invited to present the GNG framework at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) at the University College London (UCL). The purpose of the trip was to confirm the validity of the vision and to directly hear the reactions from UK researchers.