His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrives in Brazil

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrives in Brazil and addresses business and industrial leaders

September 16th 2011

Sao Paulo, Brazil, 15 September 2011 - His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, three hours later than his scheduled plan of arrival, at 12:30pm due to long flight delay from Buenos Aires.  As soon as he arrived at the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, he was received by Prof. Lia Diskin, Co-founder of the Palas Athena Association and host of the visit, Dr. Eduardo Jorget Martins Alves Sobrinho and Jose Gregory of the Soa Paulo City government, Mrs. Abhilash Joshi of the Indian Consulate General and members of the Dharma Centers in Brazil.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is greeted by cameramen as he arrives at the World Trade Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on September 15, 2011. Photo/Reuters/Nacho Doce

From the airport, His Holiness left straight by motorcade to the World Trade Center theater, a venue for His Holiness’ address to business and industrial leaders of Brazil.  As he entered the Convention Center of the World Trade Center on his way to the theater, he was greeted by a large number of cameramen.  At the theater, he was received by Dr. Cristiane Bomeny, an industrialist and daughter of the family which owns World Trade Center in Sao Paulo, Dr. Ozires Silva, a Brazil’s pioneer industrialist, Mr. Fernando Levy, President of the Business Forum of Brazil, and Mr. Affif Domingos, Vice Governor of the State of Sao Paulo.

In his address to the Brazilian industrialists and business leaders, His Holiness said that 20th century had witnessed too much bloodshed and millions of people had lost their lives.  Therefore, he said, we cannot afford to repeat that history in the 21st century.  This century, he said, must be a century of dialogue.  He added that no matter how much we try, problems will still remain and will remain as a part of our life.  However, he said, the important thing is that we must resolve these differences and problems through dialogue.  The use of force and violence, he said, is outdated.

One of the sources of problems, he said, is a huge gap between rich and poor everywhere.  Therefore, he said, the privileged people, particularly the business leaders, should shoulder more responsibility to help the poor by investing in the fields of education, health and other social sectors.  He also said that natural resources are not infinite and therefore efforts must be made to have more sustainable growth with adequate attention being made to the ecology. He said that industrial and business leaders must be visionary so that every effort they make will ultimately benefit society.

Despite being late for him to depart, His Holiness spoke for nearly two hours at this important forum and also attended to questions from the audience.  The audience members, who flew to Sao Paulo from various parts of Brazil, paid a great attention to his talk and listened to His Holiness’ talk very enthusiastically.  .

Later after the conclusion of the event, he offered scarf to Dr. Ozires Silva and Dr. Christiane Bomeny and thanked them for organizing the event.