National University of Misiones Confers Honorary Doctorate upon Daisaku Ikeda
UNaM Vice Rector Katogui (center left) entrusts the degree certificate to SGI Vice President Tanigawa (center right)
On June 9, 2023, the National University of Misiones (UNaM) in Posadas, Argentina, conferred an honorary doctorate upon Daisaku Ikeda in recognition of his contributions to promoting sustainable development and environmental conservation. The ceremony was held at the SGI-Argentina (SGIAR) Peace Auditorium in Buenos Aires and attended by UNaM Vice Rector Sergio Edgardo Katogui, Faculty of Forest Sciences Dean Héctor Fabián Romero, Supreme Council Secretary Jorge López, and an SGI delegation from Japan led by SGI Vice President Yoshiki Tanigawa. Among the guests was the former rector of the National University of Tucumán, Alicia Bardón. The conferral ceremony followed the SGIAR national leaders meeting that was held in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Mr. Ikeda’s visit to Argentina.
SGI Vice President Tanigawa read Mr. Ikeda’s acceptance message that lauded UNaM for its contributions to environmental sustainability through education. Mr. Ikeda recalled his dialogue with British historian Arnold Toynbee in which the latter concurred that individual transformation is the key to addressing various global crises, including environmental destruction. In this regard, Mr. Ikeda described the importance of three innate human qualities: the wisdom to control one’s desires, the compassion to feel the pain of others and the courage to look into the future and turn any adversity into advantage. He expressed his conviction that environmental education and education for global citizenship, together with a commitment to dialogue that resists violence and surmounts differences, have the ability to draw forth these qualities from individuals.
Certificate of the honorary doctorate conferred upon Daisaku Ikeda
Misiones Province, where UNaM is
located, is in the northeast of Argentina, a heavily forested area of rich
biodiversity that is home to the Iguazú Falls, one of the three largest
waterfalls in the world.
“Mr. Ikeda’s philosophy that gives first
priority to the dignity of life is key to conserving this beautiful global
environment for the future,” stated Dean Romero, who described how protecting
biodiversity has been a responsibility upheld by UNaM since the university’s
founding in 1973.
Dean Romero, whose faculty proposed
Mr. Ikeda for the honorary degree, first learned about the Soka University
founder from his colleagues and had been deeply impressed by his 2012 environmental
proposal issued on the occasion of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development
(Rio+20). “Fundamentally, the solution to the environmental problems lies not
in how we achieve numerical targets, but in the inner transformation of human
beings,” he said, expressing the deep accord between Mr. Ikeda’s philosophy and
that of the university.
[Adapted from an
article in the June 13, 2023, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, Soka Gakkai, Japan]
