Vision for the 21^st Century

As we move into the new millennium of the 21^st century, each individual in the Japanese society and elsewhere is expected to take on the responsibility and raise one’s self-awareness to provide the services which have been traditionally given by our governments.

If we want our Earth to be a peaceful, clean, secure and loving place for our children and grandchildren to live, we have to effect the change by empowering ourselves and voicing our authentic values, which are common to all human beings regardless of race, religion, gender, culture and education.

We as citizens are required to take on the leadership and the challenge to overcome the imbalance of the current value system, which is only measured in yen or dollars we have generated in the system.

This current system is represented mainly by the male gender, who dominates most societies as the major working force and makes most of the policies and national decisions.

In the “Civil Society” of the 21^st century, women who have been the key and often the silent caretakers of the aging and the young are expected to rise and form a network with other citizens or their own groups in cooperation with ethical companies and governments to make ourselves more visible in providing the much needed services that defend our human rights, such as the right to our physical integrity, the right to our reproductive health and sexuality, the right to a sustainable standard of living, and the right to self-determination through an educational system that will shape leadership both through the intellect and the soul.

I believe it is time for a Global Women’s Leadership Institute, which honors the key components of women’s leadership model that is grounded in;

1) the spiritual and

2) the dynamics of energy from our being.

We as women consciously value life and all its forms as we have the ability to give birth to new life and are often more in tune with Nature, its cycles and rhythms. We recognize the nurturing values which we give freely and the importance of good, harmonious relationships.

We are able to stay more focused on the process than just the goal, which is enlightening. We have both the body and energy awareness and can bring uplifting, often healing, energy into the workplace through our smiles, compassion and love.

We lead without controlling because we know how to detach and let go. We strive to practice from our higher selves of love and forgiveness based on our belief in higher ethics and a loving higher creative force. Because we are grounded in our spiritual being, we have learned to take even negative situations in the past as a positive learning experience for future.

I believe all of you here today can resonate with the profound impact of what I am saying and will commit yourselves and your companies to support more women throughout the world to become the leaders and the stewards of our Earth in the New Millinnium.

As Raicho Hiratsuka, the Japanese woman writer-philosopher of the early 1900’s had already proclaimed, “Women, you are the Sun!” Let us be a shining source of love and light on our Earth and for humanity.

Ann Sado-Honjo
President (1999-2001)
KeyForce Toastmasters Club