For lots of years I followed the public gestures and statements of Tzipi Livni:

Tzipora Malka "Tzipi" Livni (Hebrew: , born 8 July 1958 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is Foreign Affairs Minister and the designated Acting Prime Minister of Israel.

On 17 September 2008, Livni was elected leader of the Kadima party, giving her the opportunity to seek to form a government that would gain support from a majority of the Knesset, Israel's parliament. If she succeeds in forming a government, Livni will become the second female Prime Minister of Israel, after Golda Meir

A most remarkable woman for me who shaped already lots of decisions in Israel. A country with still a high share of Macho Mentality:):)Of course the life conditions and geopoltical framings of Israel -the country that continues to fascinate me since my first rememberances to the Yom Kippur war -demand a certain toughness .

And its not every day that such a career of a poltical world leader starts at Defense Forces and Mossad.....

The second female PM, after Golda Meir would be a miracle in itself for me. Both thumbs up for Tsipi...JUst in April of this year she participated in 8th Doha Forum on Democracy, Devleopment and Free Trade 2008.

This is in my eyes a great gesture directed to Arab GCC Countries. I always thought about the big cultural, economic and poltical opportunities given Israel and the GCC Region would initiate diplomatic relalions. To speak there, as female Israeli top leader is a remarkable event.

Here is a portrait from Roger Cohen which is the best I could find at hoc. As Roger picks up her personal aspects too. The article is a lengthy one and has 10 pages.

Her Jewish State

By ROGER COHEN

Soon after our first meeting in her Spartan office in Jerusalem, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, called me. Something was on her mind. A lawyer by training, she does not like to leave loose ends. I had asked her if the four years she spent in Mossad, the intelligence service, made her a disciplined person. Livni had seemed taken aback by the question, which interrupted the cascade of her pronouncements on Israel and its Palestinian nemesis. After a long hesitation, she said: "I don't like this phrase, a disciplined person. I don't know. I don't know."

Now, an hour later, she wanted to set the record straight. "I was thinking about this idea of me as a disciplined person," she began. I perched myself on a stone wall near the King David Hotel and listened through a blustery desert wind. "There are other parts of me that are different. I prefer jeans to a suit, sneakers to high heels, markets to malls. You've just returned from Paris: I prefer the Quartier Latin to the Champs Elysées. In general, I don't like formality at all. It is just part of what I do. You know, when I was young, I went to the Sinai and worked as a waitress."

I had not known this detail about a woman who entered Israeli politics only 11 years ago, the first to serve as foreign minister since Golda Meir and a potential prime minister. Nor was it easy to imagine the tall, well-groomed 48-year-old I had just met, in her gold-belted black pants, her crocodile-skin shoes and her snug black jacket, donning denims and sneakers and hitting a flea market.

But Livni's phone call was telling. Israelis these days fret about how they are seen. They like to convey the spirit of the underdog - that of Israel's heroic beginnings - as if discomfited by the adornments of an increasingly moneyed, Americanized and postheroic society. More powerful than ever, Israelis are also more anxious than ever, a paradox with U.S. parallels that they find maddening. Israel's strength and wealth grow, but the country's long-term security does not grow with them

Read more...

* * *

I think this music from QUEEN -one of my all time favorites - shows- including its lyrics, very good the spirit of real champions. And the diverse moods, gestures and moments of reflection, thinking, quiet emotion and even melancholy of Tsipi Livni very well.

Dear Tsipi Livni, my strongest wishes for your next dreamjob and good luck for becoming next Israeli Prime Minister!


Lyrics of WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS:


I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls -
You brought me fame and fortuen and everything that goes with it
-
I thank you all -

But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise -
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race -
And I ain't gonna lose -

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

Thanks to Cherie Beck I found this longer email of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. Very interesting, thoug a bit unsharp at moment. However even established entities like World Economic Forum,IBM and -yes they too -British Secret Intelligence Service MI6 - are using FB like virtual nets in order to catalyze orgs.

Go to FB and you will find already  an MI6 group in order to recruit from a larger base:):)

Towards New Business Landscapes With Dustin Moskovitz


Facebook founder's goodbye email hints at business-focused startup

When he announced his cofounder and college roommate Dustin Moskovitz's departure from Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn't say what he would be up to. But in a separate email leaked to Valleywag, Moskovitz hints at his plan: With fellow engineer Justin Rosenstein, who's also leaving the company, he hopes to create tools like the ones he built at Facebook to run its internal operations, and market them to all sorts of companies. Here's his note to colleagues:

At various times in our progress, people have come up to me to deliver a now familiar question: "did you ever imagine Facebook would be this big?" And I give a familiar answer: "well... yea, actually". Frankly, Mark and I knew even at the beginning this was something the world needed. We went into the college market as a stepping stone - identifying dense nests in the graph that would lead us to the rest of the world. We could see far enough in the future to know there would be an impact, we just didn't know exactly what it would be. Now I can look back on our progress and see the ways the world has changed, the ways we have changed it. We've altered the future in a score of ways, from making it easier to look up phone numbers and email addresses to making it more difficult for terrorists to isolate impressionistic youth in the middle east. At the same time we've built a competent and vibrant organization, driven by a passion to push the world more open.

Read more...

   This the latest entry from the blog of:

Build Palestine Initiative

I asked Nafiz to provide an English translation for the article written in Arab. And he just sent me this text. Thank you very much! Its a pleasure and privilege for me, dear Nafiz, to be together . You are truly a Palestinean top leader and I assure you a German Palestinean Integral Joint Venture is already born..

Monday, September 22, 2008

Nafiz Rifaee:" Why aren't Arab Universities Excelling?Why aren't they on the list of the Top 500 Univ. in the Wolrd?"


In an article published last week in Al-Quds newspaper in Jerusalem, Nafiz Rifaee, a leading Palestinian mind who is bringing cultural and systems innovation to Palestine, asks why isn't any Arab university mentioned on the list of the Top 500 Universities in the world. A recent study published by Shanghai Universities ranked European, American and 6 Israeli universities among the top universities in the world. Mr. Rifaee is calling on all Arab academics, politicians and business people to take a closer look at the problem. He says "We have some of the greatest minds in the world. Our young Arab men and women are eager to learn and be innovative; the question remains, are we providing them with the best education and technologies to help them excel?" adding " our young generation is where we need to invest most. they are the tallest buildings we want to build, and the most precious resources we have."

Nafiz Rifaee is the President of Bethlehem University Alumni Association. He is leading the Build Palestine Initiative sponsored and designed by the Center for Human Emergence-Middle East. He can be reached at

nafizrifae@buildpalestine.org

Here to the English translation of the article:

Bethlehem University celebrates its 35^th anniversary with an initiative to establish a Prize for Excellence

By Nafiz Rifae

Head of Bethlehem University  Alumni Union

nafizrifae@buildpalestine.org

This year Bethlehem University celebrates the 35^th anniversary of its founding. The university is an inspiration not only in the quality of its academic research but also in the role it has played in Palestinian history. Bethlehem University enjoys a formidable reputation among other Palestinian institutions of higher education.

The founding of the Palestinian universities in the 1970s came during a critical political decade. The Palestinian resistance movement was growing stronger and Palestinian students served as its back bone. The pressure from the occupation forces at the time was enormous. Israeli authorities used every excuse to prevent Palestinian students from studying at other Arab Universities. It was a ploy to curb their politicization and to prevent them from joining organized Palestinian resistance abroad.

It was at this time that the occupation forces agreed to grant licenses to establish several universities inside Palestine. These universities had to face many challenges,   notably a lack of funding and resources. To deal with this challenge, and to meet academic standards, the universities worked hard to attract professors from abroad, and to gain credibility among students who had to believe they were enrolling in establishments capable of granting them internationally recognized degrees and diplomas.

I would like to pay tribute to the early pioneers of Palestine's universities, especially our late professor Dr Anton Sansour who died before he was able to realize his dream of seeing Bethlehem university shine on the international stage.

I remember in 1980, the students staged a strike against the university's administration demanding that they appoint an Arab president. This was a condition if Bethlehem University was to be recognized by the Union of Arab Universities, which would have allowed graduates to apply for public sector jobs in the Arab world.  Dr Sansour spoke to us and its strikes me how relevant his words are today. He said: "It is not important that we are recognized by the Union of Arab Universities. What is important is that we work to establish ourselves as an institution of academic excellence, like the American Universities of Beirut and Cairo. The Union of Arab Universities did not recognize them but they have asserted their presence and imposed themselves through their merit and academic achievement." He added that Bethlehem University should aim to outshine both of these other universities.

We should recall his words, today. We are in desperate need of his vision. Thirty five years have passed since Anton Sansour's dream was established and eleven more since he passed away. Bethlehem University currently has no one who can drive it forward with the same vision and commitment.

This year Shanghai University published a list of the best 500 universities in the world. There was not one Arab University on that list. Not the famous Al Azhar, not Cairo, not Ain Shams, not Damascus University or Baghdad or Al Zaituna, Jordan or Beirut, not even a Palestinian University. Not even Bethlehem University!  Why? Here I am slightly biased. I feel I have the right. I may have been reconciled if at least one other Arab or Palestinian university was on that list. Why do they not have a place among the best? I asked this question but found my answers dispiriting, so I went back to the time when Palestinian universities were created, from when they took their first faltering steps to the time when they managed to establish themselves as durable institutions, a permanent part of the Palestinian landscape. The task seemed impossible but they managed to withstand the challenge and earned their right to exist. They persisted despite the lack of resources and they sent their roots so deep into the ground that they could no longer be removed.

Statistics shed light on the issue. Today we have more than 6000 PhD holders working as professors at these universities. This number provides an indication of our potential for academic publications and for scientific research. Our economy and our political establishment are shaky. One could argue that the practices of the occupation and the imposed isolation played a critical role in this state of affairs. You may agree or disagree with these excuses. But the universities are a critical case. The weakening of our universities threatens a crisis in Palestinian society.

The fact that six Israeli universities got on the Shanghai 500 best universities list while we remain outside is unacceptable. There are no excuses. We need to raise these questions with all our university professors. Our writers, intellectuals, business people and other high achievers need to be engaged more proactively with this issue: Where are we now? What have we produced in culture, literature and science?

We can expect setbacks but we need to build our reserves of intelligence, or face being swept away. This is why I look back to the days when our universities were founded, when the occupation forces agreed to grant licenses to prevent students from travelling abroad and joining the resistance forces. The tables turned as the new universities became the bastions of the Palestinian national movement. These universities were the crucibles of political awareness, creativity and resistance which culminated in the first intifada in 1987. This was a special time for Palestine, a time of cultural achievement and a well-conceived resistance movement against the occupation. The universities were the launch pads of this movement. They served as thinking-factories which, together with the prisons, produced a revolution. Both society and students had an acute political awareness and were working to oppose the occupation. The dream of freedom was born and matured within the walls of these universities through countless festivals, strikes and conferences.

I wonder where this spirit has gone? Where is  that heightened awareness, the debates, the engagement? The foundations were laid then but what has happened since?  I often ask people this question but the answers I get tend to be vague. What should we do now? Do we need to raise our old dear pioneers, professors and students out of their graves? 

Our universities have produced not hundreds but thousands of high achievers who now occupy sensitive posts in the Palestinian society. They are members of parliament, politicians, economists, businessmen and successful employees. This is why mental isolation, defeatism and underachievement are so unacceptable.

I am not alone in wanting our universities to reclaim their souls but we are going to have to work to achieve that. I insist on my right to dream that Bethlehem University one day takes its place in the 500 best universities in the world. To do this we need a little of Anton Sansour's spirit, a little of the strength of his dream, alongside committed professors who want to persevere and give back to our society. We need to instill a spirit of competition among our universities and push them to reach for the stars. For if we do, if we excel, if we manage to win a place among the best we also win a piece of the sun that will light our people's way to freedom.

This is an invitation to all businessmen and women, to those who want to be remembered and to leave their mark on history. Join us in shaping our future through supporting the prize for excellence in scientific research, best literary work and best achievement. We have the capacity to manage this initiative and we are ready to work to form a credible jury to judge this prize.

We intend to organize a yearly festival to award these prizes with the vision that, one day, they will enjoy the same status among Palestinians as a Nobel prize or an Oscar. 

We are launching this initiative in the hope that it will provide a horizon for our national pride. It is a dream not only of mine but of many friends who share these ideas, who want to support open competition and see rewards for merit and achievement.  The idea is to establish a joint committee of  Palestinians from around the world to judge this prize and give it the distinction it deserves, so that  it truly becomes a stamp of  creativity and excellence.

The 2008 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine

Press Release

6 October 2008 The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2008 with one half to

Harald zur Hausen

for his discovery of "human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer"

and the other half jointly to

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier

for their discovery of "human immunodeficiency virus"



Summary

This year's Nobel Prize awards discoveries of two viruses causing severe human diseases. 

Harald  Zur  Hausen went against current dogma and postulated that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. He realized that HPV-DNA could exist in a non-productive state in the tumours, and should be detectable by specific searches for viral DNA. He found HPV to be a heterogeneous family of viruses. Only some HPV types cause cancer. His discovery has led to characterization of the natural history of HPV infection, an understanding of mechanisms of HPV-induced carcinogenesis and the development of prophylactic vaccines against HPV acquisition. 

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier discovered human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Virus production was identified in lymphocytes from patients with enlarged lymph nodes in early stages of acquired immunodeficiency, and in blood from patients with late stage disease. They characterized this retrovirus as the first known human lentivirus based on its morphological, biochemical and immunological properties. HIV impaired the immune system because of massive virus replication and cell damage to lymphocytes. The discovery was one prerequisite for the current understanding of the biology of the disease and its antiretroviral treatment.

Discovery of human papilloma virus causing cervical cancer Against the prevailing view during the 1970s, Harald zur Hausen postulated a role for human papilloma virus (HPV) in cervical cancer. He assumed that the tumour cells, if they contained an oncogenic virus, should harbour viral DNA integrated into their genomes. The HPV genes promoting cell proliferation should therefore be detectable by specifically searching tumour cells for such viral DNA. Harald zur Hausen pursued this idea for over 10 years by searching for different HPV types, a search made difficult by the fact that only parts of the viral DNA were integrated into the host genome. He found novel HPV-DNA in cervix cancer biopsies, and thus discovered the new, tumourigenic HPV16 type in 1983. In 1984, he cloned HPV16 and 18 from patients with cervical cancer. The HPV types 16 and 18 were consistently found in about 70% of cervical cancer biopsies throughout the world.

Importance of the HPV discoveryThe global public health burden attributable to human papilloma viruses is considerable. More than 5% of all cancers worldwide are caused by persistent infection with this virus. Infection by the human papilloma virus is the most common sexually transmitted agent, afflicting 50-80% of the population. Of the more than 100 HPV types known, about 40 infect the genital tract, and 15 of these put women at high risk for cervical cancer. In addition, HPV is found in some vulval, penile, oral and other cancers. Human papilloma virus can be detected in 99.7% of women with histologically confirmed cervical cancer, affecting some 500,000 women per year.

Harald zur Hausen demonstrated novel properties of HPV that have led to an understanding of mechanisms for papilloma virus-induced carcinogenesis and the predisposing factors for viral persistence and cellular transformation. He made HPV16 and 18 available to the scientific community. Vaccines were ultimately developed that provide =95 % protection from infection by the high risk HPV16 and 18 types. The vaccines may also reduce the need for surgery and the global burden of cervical cancer.

Discovery of HIVFollowing medical reports of a novel immunodeficiency syndrome in 1981, the search for a causative agent was on. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier isolated and cultured lymph node cells from patients that had swollen lymph nodes characteristic of the early stage of acquired immune deficiency. They detected activity of the retroviral enzyme reverse transcriptase, a direct sign of retrovirus replication. They also found retroviral particles budding from the infected cells. Isolated virus infected and killed lymphocytes from both diseased and healthy donors, and reacted with antibodies from infected patients. In contrast to previously characterized human oncogenic retroviruses, the novel retrovirus they had discovered, now known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), did not induce uncontrolled cell growth. Instead, the virus required cell activation for replication and mediated cell fusion of T lymphocytes. This partly explained how HIV impairs the immune system since the T cells are essential for immune defence. By 1984, Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier had obtained several isolates of the novel human retrovirus, which they identified as a lentivirus, from sexually infected individuals, haemophiliacs, mother to infant transmissions and transfused patients. The significance of their achievements should be viewed in the context of a global ubiquitous epidemic affecting close to 1% of the population.

Importance of the HIV discoverySoon after the discovery of the virus, several groups contributed to the definitive demonstration of HIV as the cause of acquired human immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier's discovery made rapid cloning of the HIV-1 genome possible. This has allowed identification of important details in its replication cycle and how the virus interacts with its host. Furthermore, it led to development of methods to diagnose infected patients and to screen blood
products, which has limited the spread of the pandemic. The unprecedented development of several classes of new antiviral drugs is also a result of knowledge of the details of the viral replication cycle. The combination of prevention and treatment has substantially decreased spread of the disease and dramatically increased life expectancy among treated patients. The cloning of HIV enabled studies of its origin and evolution. The virus was probably passed to humans from chimpanzees in West Africa early in the 20th century, but it is still unclear why the epidemic spread so dramatically from 1970 and onwards.

Identification of virus-host interactions has provided information on how HIV evades the host's immune system by impairing lymphocyte function, by constantly changing and by hiding its genome in the host lymphocyte DNA, making its eradication in the infected host difficult even after long-term antiviral treatment. Extensive knowledge about these unique viral host interactions has, however, generated results that can provide ideas for future vaccine development as well as for therapeutic approaches targeting viral latency.

HIV has generated a novel pandemic. Never before has science and medicine been so quick to discover, identify the origin and provide treatment for a new disease entity. Successful anti-retroviral therapy results in life expectancies for persons with HIV infection now reaching levels similar to those of uninfected people.

 

Harald zur Hausen, born 1936 in Germany, German citizen, MD at University of Düsseldorf, Germany. Professor emeritus and former Chairman and Scientific Director, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, born 1947 in France, French citizen, PhD in virology, Institut Pasteur, Garches, France. Professor and Director, Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, Virology Department, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.

Luc Montagnier, born 1932 in France, French citizen, PhD in virology, University of Paris, Paris, France. Professor emeritus and Director, World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, Paris, France.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008


7 October 2008 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2008 with one half to

Yoichiro Nambu
Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, IL, USA

"for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics"

and the other half jointly to

Makoto Kobayashi, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Japan

and

Toshihide Maskawa,Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), Kyoto University, Japan

"for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature"

 

Passion for symmetry

The fact that our world does not behave perfectly symmetrically is due to deviations from symmetry at the microscopic level.

As early as 1960, Yoichiro Nambu formulated his mathematical description of spontaneous broken symmetry in elementary particle physics. Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature’s order under an apparently jumbled surface. It has proved to be extremely useful, and Nambu’s theories permeate the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. The Model unifies the smallest building blocks of all matter and three of nature’s four forces in one single theory.

The spontaneous broken symmetries that Nambu studied, differ from the broken symmetries described by Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa. These spontaneous occurrences seem to have existed in nature since the very beginning of the universe and came as a complete surprise when they first appeared in particle experiments in 1964. It is only in recent years that scientists have come to fully confirm the explanations that Kobayashi and Maskawa made in 1972. It is for this work that they are now awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. They explained broken symmetry within the framework of the Standard Model, but required that the Model be extended to three families of quarks. These predicted, hypothetical new quarks have recently appeared in physics experiments. As late as 2001, the two particle detectors BaBar at Stanford, USA and Belle at Tsukuba, Japan, both detected broken symmetries independently of each other. The results were exactly as Kobayashi and Maskawa had predicted almost three decades earlier.

A hitherto unexplained broken symmetry of the same kind lies behind the very origin of the cosmos in the Big Bang some 14 billion years ago. If equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created, they ought to have annihilated each other. But this did not happen, there was a tiny deviation of one extra particle of matter for every 10 billion antimatter particles. It is this broken symmetry that seems to have caused our cosmos to survive. The question of how this exactly happened still remains unanswered. Perhaps the new particle accelerator LHC at CERN in Geneva will unravel some of the mysteries that continue to puzzle us.

In this new article for Newsweek Fareed Zakaria once again summarizes what it is all about in the current financial crisis. he is referring to the analysis of Zachary Karabell too which is mentioned here earlier. Basic insight :

Globalization in 21st Century is connected with emergence of a new multi-polar world order. And the institutions of first worlds -as much as the people living in these worlds- must learn, recognize and understand deeply what is going on in these large scale systems.

This historic context and perspective needs the full attention and bye-bye to all idelogical and 20th century mantras. Dilemma always emerges when the dynamics isnt clear. Right now we are wtnessing the fitful dying of limited economic imagination and thinking.

Check out too Fareeds book:

The Post-American World
  The Age of Bloomberg
It's a time to figure out what works, not what ideological mantras to keep repeating.


Published Oct 4, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Oct 13, 2000

America's financial crisis has allowed all sorts of people—from British trade unionists to Asian central bankers to France's mercurial president—to declare that we're seeing the end of laissez-faire capitalism and free markets. We're not. Let's step back, take a deep breath, and put this in historical context. What is happening now is a deep, wrenching financial crisis unlike any we've seen since the 1930s. It's contributing to a broad slowdown of the American economy. The pain is spreading across the world. It's ugly. But it's not unprecedented. The history of capitalism is filled with credit crises, panics, financial meltdowns, and recessions. It doesn't mean the end of capitalism. But it might well mean the end of a certain kind of global dominance for the United States.

Read more..

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008


8 October 2008 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2008 jointly to

Osamu Shimomura, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, USA and Boston University Medical School, MA, USA,

Martin Chalfie, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

and

Roger Y. Tsien, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

"for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP".

 

Glowing proteins – a guiding star for biochemistry

The remarkable brightly glowing green fluorescent protein, GFP, was first observed in the beautiful jellyfish, Aequorea victoria in 1962. Since then, this protein has become one of the most important tools used in contemporary bioscience. With the aid of GFP, researchers have developed ways to watch processes that were previously invisible, such as the development of nerve cells in the brain or how cancer cells spread.

Tens of thousands of different proteins reside in a living organism, controlling important chemical processes in minute detail. If this protein machinery malfunctions, illness and disease often follow. That is why it has been imperative for bioscience to map the role of different proteins in the body.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry rewards the initial discovery of GFP and a series of important developments which have led to its use as a tagging tool in bioscience. By using DNA technology, researchers can now connect GFP to other interesting, but otherwise invisible, proteins. This glowing marker allows them to watch the movements, positions and interactions of the tagged proteins.

Researchers can also follow the fate of various cells with the help of GFP: nerve cell damage during Alzheimer's disease or how insulin-producing beta cells are created in the pancreas of a growing embryo. In one spectacular experiment, researchers succeeded in tagging different nerve cells in the brain of a mouse with a kaleidoscope of colours.

The story behind the discovery of GFP is one with the three Nobel Prize Laureates in the leading roles:

Osamu Shimomura first isolated GFP from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, which drifts with the currents off the west coast of North America. He discovered that this protein glowed bright green under ultraviolet light.

Martin Chalfie demonstrated the value of GFP as a luminous genetic tag for various biological phenomena. In one of his first experiments, he coloured six individual cells in the transparent roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans with the aid of GFP.

Roger Y. Tsien contributed to our general understanding of how GFP fluoresces. He also extended the colour palette beyond green allowing researchers to give various proteins and cells different colours. This enables scientists to follow several different biological processes at the same time.

This is the transscript of a short phone interview with new Nobel prize Winner of Literature 2008. The Prize was awarded for:

"author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"

This is a good sign. Its pointing -similar to Orhan Pamuk in 2006 and Doris Lessing in 2007 - to the recognition of first person awareness and perceptions in the discoveries of global developments. Though in the history of Nobel Prizes in Literature exceptional writers like James Joyce were not rewarded , now the discovery of poetic power and at least beginnings of global multi layered perceptions can be celebrated.

And, though lots of international comments are critically, It must be remembered that
literature in toto hasnt covered this terain up to now. Sure, some retro-style awareness is expressed in the authors literature.

But, what the heck is saying this? Lots of Consultants, expats , polticians and journalists, writers etc are flickering in their perceptions. Either subscribing to traditional romanticism, modernist rationalism or utopian fantasies, to economic expectations, to touristic dreamings or simply escapism.

Whats expressed in literature always has to do with some awakenings in mainstream cultural awareness. In AQAL and SDi its the lower left quadrant. Here connected to the Upper Left one.

Le Clezio is writing basically as global nomade. I wil certainly pick up some of his books and take a deeper look.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2008

Interview

"Literally, writing for me is like travelling. It's getting out of myself and living another life; maybe a better life."Telephone interview with Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio immediately following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, 9 October 2008. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org.

One of my all time favorite business gurus Tom Peters comments on current financial crisis. Here are some musings of him. I agree in a kind of of paradoxical feeling. Thought they are on spot, they still do not reflect an in depth understanding of what is going on. As Zachary Karabell, Fareed Zakaria, Roger Cohen et al are demonstrating already.

All 8 points reflect lots of nervosity and very central confusion of what is going on at the global stages. A Call to the waeapons for Natural Design as is given in Spiral Dynamics Integral. Once again I remember that it was Dr. Don Edward Beck who wrote already 1996 in "Spiral Dynamics -Mastering Values, Leadership and Change" in the passage "Shifting Views of Tom Peters and the Tofflers" of Chapter 1:

"AS you will discover shortly, what Peters (with tongue in cheek) now calls `weird enough" is simply  a next developmental step on a Spiral of thinking systems. You will also come to recognize that the organizing principles that Peters (and Peter Senge, Edwards Deming, Stephen Covey and many others) advocate are NEVER THE solution, but A solution  set lies at a particular region within a whole spectrum of organizational forms.

Alvin and Heidi Tofflers popular trilogy -Future Shock, Third Wave, Power Shift -also maps a pattern of change. But even their 1993 book (War and Anti War) still does not uncover the deep forces that drive major transformations...
...
All beg the question- Why? it is as if we arew blessed with elgant files for a mosaic but have no design. There are mounds of great ideas, insightful bits,and clever pieces, but no artist with a plan for turning the whole assortment into an elegant, integrated picture and no grout to hold it together..."

Musings of a Guru


Here are some things I don't believe:

***People of great character are needed on Wall Street. Nice idea, and I'm all for it—more or less. Fact is, humans are greedy—you know, the survival thing explained by Darwin and his successors. Moreover, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations tells us in no uncertain terms that self-interest is the engine of the economy. Fact is, in ordinary times, self-interest is imperative, and more or less the more the merrier—i.e., greed. That's how innovations are commercialized—and why there are bubbles. Hence, this ends up being an argument for appropriate regulation and strong government intervention in general, rather than hoping that God-like individuals will save us, or at least our 401(k)s. (None of this is to suggest that I'm not in favor of beating the bloody tar out of some of these pricks, like the Lehman guy.)

***The world is flat. Sure, flatter than it was. But national sovereignty is alive and well—e.g., Russia invades Georgia. Central banks and finance ministers should work in concert, as they are and as they have been since at least Bretton Woods. Given the new flat-ish-ness, coordinated responses have to be made much more quickly, and dramatically, than before. But anyone who thinks that economic globalization will round off the forces of national sovereignty is flat out nuts in my opinion.

***We need a plan. Yes we do, but the market crisis will abate when the price of assets falls far enough that stocks are obviously significantly undervalued and worth buying. Mssrs. McCain and Obama are being criticized for failing to provide oceanic solutions in their get-together last night. Well, there aren't any panaceas, except to do more of what we're doing ever faster and ever more intensively—e.g., the Brits more or less nationalizing banks yesterday.

***Cut costs to the bone in individual enterprises. Yup, that's the self-interested answer—which I just touted. Problem is that cutting costs accelerates and deepens the recession when Susan and I delay a home construction project as we just did—in our case, it puts the hurt on the local contractor. (We've already extended a couple of projects purely to avoid such an outcome.) When the cycle of delayed or cancelled purchases accelerates, then, God help us. Or, rather, God help us, period—it's happening. The only major exception I can think of is companies with cash hordes who choose to make investments that will greatly disadvantage their competitors when the worst is past.

***Oh my God, even GE has problems. Worrisome indeed, and psychologically important, but for heaven’s sake, as we conjure up remedies, remember that all of our economies consist primarily of small companies with local markets ($$$$, employees, and in our case "American spirit"). Policy must be aimed at least as much or more at the world of the "millionaire next door" (or the biz with $200,000 revenue) as the big dudes.

***Governments never get anything right. True, governments over-regulate, then under-regulate, with blunderbusses, not scalpels. But there are times when "more government" is the solution, not the problem. This is clearly and unequivocally one of those times, like it as not—even congenital free traders like Paulson get it. (Greenspan seems to be the only one who doesn't get it—a little too much Ayn Rand as a lad.)

***Globalization is still inevitable. True, but with a timetable very different than imagined a couple of years ago. The reverberations from this crisis will probably be with us a decade from now.

***The worst is behind us. Nobody but nobody has a clue, but "the worst is yet to come" is the odds-on favorite. (We are really trying to find viable prices for stuff that in the "mark to market" sense are valueless—to the tune of trillions of bucks.)

There is no particular point to these musings. It's just my mind at work since I am totally unable to focus on my normal affairs given the economic situation and the election. I warned you not to "mark time"—but I am. I also warned you not to let depression get the best of you—well, it's sure got me by the &#^%*. (I'm not talking personal economic woes—though "life is good" would be a stretch. I'm talking about significantly debilitating disorientation.)

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2008

 The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008 to Martti Ahtisaari for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to “fraternity between nations” in Alfred Nobel’s spirit.

Throughout all his adult life, whether as a senior Finnish public servant and President or in an international capacity, often connected to the United Nations, Ahtisaari has worked for peace and reconciliation. For the past twenty years, he has figured prominently in endeavours to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts. In 1989-90 he played a significant part in the establishment of Namibia’s independence; in 2005 he and his organization Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) were central to the solution of the complicated Aceh question in Indonesia. In 1999 and again in 2005-07, he sought under especially difficult circumstances to find a solution to the conflict in Kosovo. In 2008, through the CMI and in cooperation with other institutions, Ahtisaari has tried to help find a peaceful conclusion to the problems in Iraq. He has also made constructive contributions to the resolution of conflicts in Northern Ireland, in Central Asia, and on the Horn of Africa.

Although the parties themselves have the main responsibility for avoiding war and conflict, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has on several occasions awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to mediators in international politics. Today Ahtisaari is an outstanding international mediator. Through his untiring efforts and good results, he has shown what role mediation of various kinds can play in the resolution of international conflicts. The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to express the hope that others may be inspired by his efforts and his achievements.

I am especially delighted about this years Nobel Peace Prize as Martti Ahtisaari is one of the co-founders of European Council on Foreign Relations. he is an European Pioneer for the beginning 21st century. Together with Joschka Fischer he wrote this article one year ago in October:

Why Europe needs to assert itself in the World

As Associate member of European Council on foreign Relations I am very happy to see one of its co-founders beeing rewarded with the Nobel Prize. Martti is an examplary European shaper of new world orders.

Congratulations!

As the Nobelprize for Economic Sciences will be anounced today I am waiting to see if it reflects awarensss about what is called stratfied democracy in Spiral Dynamics Integral and the work of Global Values Network, lead by Alan Tonkin.

I am posting a new article from Alan which was published for the current Integral leadership Review. Every shift, transition and change on the planet in next decades is inescapably connected to the patterns of these layers of stratification.And a deep understanding of these geo-cultural processes more important than Google Earth views.

Its clear that the world isnt as flat as Tom Friedmann and others thought some time ago. And next US President -as much as Leaders from France, Germany, UK and other parts of the world -( 4 Billion earthlings did not even arrive in stable Blue!) have to face these dimensions in order to overcome old, ineffective and ideological mantras of 20th century.

And any integrally labeled strategies, perspectives and blueprints cannot afford to ignoe these vmemetic landscapes...

Developing Countries, Democracy and Values

Alan Tonkin

Introduction

In considering the role of developing countries in the 21st Century there is little doubt that their position on the "values scale" largely determines their relative progress on the economic and social fronts. There are a number of global indicators that can be used including the "Failed States Index 2008" produced by http://www.foreignpolicy.com/ and The Fund for Peace.

The map shown above courtesy of http://www.foreignpolicy.com/ indicates five categories ranging from Most Stable (the top ranking), through Stable, Borderline, In Danger to the lowest level, which is Critical. We have already commented in an earlier issue of ILR this year on a number of countries falling into the Critical position and will now consider the challenges facing developing countries falling into the "In Danger" category.

Some countries falling into the "In Danger" category are those attempting to move into higher levels of stability, while at the same time reducing corruption and building a more open and transparent system of governance. However, there are many that are unable to move from their current position as the values present in the society do not allow for this to happen, certainly not in the short to medium term.



Read more...

Yesterday I learned something about Columbus Day. And as Columbus has always had a very eminent place in my personal pantheon of historic heroes, here is some Wiki Info about him.

A man and pioneer from the European Renaiissance. A discoverer who embodied qualities which could be shared right now in a new way as much by Europeans as North Americans and even All Americas. Yes, by the whole world.

Happy C- Day for all American friends and joyfully I am cellebrating with you.






Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492 in the Julian calendar and October 21, 1492 in the modern Gregorian calendar, as an official holiday. The day is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in many countries in Latin America, as Día de las Culturas (Day of the Cultures) in Costa Rica, as Discovery Day in The Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad (Hispanic Day) and National Day in Spain, and as Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) in Venezuela

Columbus celebrations commemorate the Genoese explorer's first expedition across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. Columbus, on commission by the Spanish monarchy, was hoping to find a new naval route to India and the other nations of the East, but instead found the American continent which was virtually unknown to Europeans at the time. Columbus's sailor Rodrigo de Triana was the first on the voyage to spot land in the New World; he found the island the natives called Guanahani at approximately 2:00 AM on October 12, 1492. The exact location of this island is unknown, though it was somewhere in the Bahamas. Columbus's expedition launched the first large-scale European colonization of the Americas.

A new book of media visionary and journalist jeff Jarvis which will be published in Jan, 2009. It could contribute to lots of ways of solving the current crisis as far as real economy and mainstreet is touched. And this aspect is right now undervovered in lots of crisis talk reflexes...

Description:

"An indispensable manual for survival and success that asks the most important question today’s leaders, in any industry, can ask themselves: What would Google do? To demonstrate how to emulate Google, Jarvis lays out his laws of what he calls “the new Google century,” including such insights as: Think Distributed Become a Platform Join the Post-Scarcity, Open-Source, Gift Economy The Middleman Has Died Your Worst Customers Are Your Best Friends and Your Best Customers Are Your Partners Do What You Do Best and Link to the Rest Get Out of the Way Make Mistakes Well … and More He applies these principles not just to emerging technologies and the Internet, but to other industries--telecommunications, airlines, television, government, healthcare, education, journalism, and yes, book publishing--showing ultimately what the world would look like if Google ran it. The result is an astonishing, mind-opening book that will change the way readers ask questions and solve problems."

In a new Blog Entry Jarvis thinks about this new model of creating values chains which are not seen fully in Wallstreet orbits and need to be understood . Not only in some segments of creative economy. But in institutions of fundamental values for culture and society too. 
 
These are the points, Jarvis is summarizing:

 The link changes everything

Atoms are a drag.

Small is the new big.

Be a platform.

Be transparent.

Give the people control and we will use it; don't and you will lose us.

There is an inverse relationship between control and trust.

Don't be evil.

The current Frankfurt Book Fair 2008 is adressing this new world of media, publishing, production and distribution,journalism and connectivity already. Authors like Paulo Coelho practice it and as Jeff Jarvis earlier said he is perhaps the most googliest author of the world.

As Turkey and its unique location between Europe and Asia is fascinating me for a long time I welcome SPIEGEL ONLINE coverage which saw this increasing significance of Turkey. Not only for European Integration but as role model for Arab Countries too and of course in the biggest geopoltical and geocultural context too.

Take recent Caucasus Crisis. Turkey is worth to discover more and more. Like Israel it has strong connections to Arab World and Europe simultaneously.



TURKEY AT THE CROSSROADS



The Long Path to 'Avrupa'

By Dietmar Pieper

Turkey's push towards Europe, a drive that is older than the country itself, has long to helped to hold the internally divided country together.


Editor's Note: The Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest publishing event, opened its doors for its 60th year on Tuesday. Close to 7,400 exhibitors from 100 countries are presenting literature at the event, including 3,300 German publishers. This year's guest country is Turkey, which is represented by 165 publishing houses. This week, SPIEGEL ONLINE will run a series of features and interviews about Turkey in conjunction with the book fair opening.




Next to the steep, red marble staircase, a small cable car provides a jolting ride up the hill. After having been given a good shaking, visitors emerge unsteadily from the car and look around. A hundred meters above the gate at the street below, in a house surrounded by hibiscus bushes and fig trees, lives Yasar Kemal. A world-class author, Kemal is considered the eminence grise of Turkish literature.

read more...


Some earlier posts regarding Turkey, Islam and Europe:



Struggle of Orhan Pamuk and Turkeys Intellectuals

Posted on Feb 11th, 2007 by  Albert
Nobel Prize Winner Orhan Pamuk is under threat in Turkey. Another case and challenge for European Integration Politics which cannot continue its blue eyed multi cultural drive and has to seriously find ways to confront... More »  

Miniskirts Meet Minarets in the New Istanbul

Posted on Apr 15th, 2007 by  Albert
This is a Spiegel Online Report about development in New Istanbul/Turkey. When I fly to Dubai I like to have a stop there. its a wonderful vibrating metropolis between Asia and Europe. A brilliant breathing example... More »

PKK circumverts Ban in Gemany

Posted on Oct 31st, 2007 by  Albert
Again some global conflict is erupting in a Western Country, this time Germany. though rooted in vmemetic tensions geopolitical impact spreads beyond any borders. The Area betwen Turkey and Northern Iraq   is only the... More »   

The Turkish Diplomats Daughter

Posted on Nov 5th, 2007 by  Albert
A friend recommended me a newly published book written under the pseudonym Deniz Goran. I found this review in TIMESONLINE and guess its one more example how much needs to be understood about values, rights... More »

Lets meet in Istanbul

Posted on Jun 25th, 2008 by  Albert
This is a vivid, breathing report from my colleague at Integral leadership Reivew ,Yene Assegid. its about a recent integral event in Event in Istanbul , Turkey. As today Germany meets Turkey in Soccer/football in... More »

Islam and Globalization

Posted on Jun 25th, 2008 by  Albert
This is a new and great presentation from last SDi Confab in May. Dr. Akbar Ahmed presents: Change, Transitions and Transformations in Islam Annual Spiral Dynamics Conference "ConFab 2008", May 24, 2008 Insightful and Inspirational... More »

In this IHT article Tom Friedmann reflects about the financial crisis and discovers some conservative virtues.  This is surely healthy and gives the whole Change buzz and mantra atmosphere some real basics back. Friedmann isnt alone. Similar tenor in writings of Susan Neimann (Potsdam Einstein Institute near Berlin) who is just publishing a new book Moral Clarity: A Guide For Grown-Up Idealists.

(Listen also this audio interview Elizabeth Debold from WIE did with Susan Neimann.)

These basic values strongly express the Blue vmemetic foundations of any developed country and democracy. Friedmann and Neimann both belong to the democratic camp in USA. So their voices are most valuable.

Recently Jonathan Haidt asked:

What makes people vote Republican?

Now its clear that these same impulses are relevant for ANY political attitude. Including the progressive ones...

Thomas Friedmann: Why how matters

"....
Yes, this bubble is about us - not all of us, many Americans were way too poor to play. But it is about enough of us to say it is about America. And we will not get out of this without going back to some basics, which is why I find myself re-reading a valuable book that I wrote about once before, called, "How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything in Business (and in Life)." Its author, Dov Seidman, is the CEO of LRN, which helps companies build ethical corporate cultures.

Seidman basically argues that in our hyperconnected and transparent world, how you do things matters more than ever, because so many more people can now see how you do things, be affected by how you do things and tell others how you do things on the Internet anytime, for no cost and without restraint.


"In a connected world," Seidman said to me, "countries, governments and companies also have character, and their character - how they do what they do, how they keep promises, how they make decisions, how things really happen inside, how they connect and collaborate, how they engender trust, how they relate to their customers, to the environment and to the communities in which they operate - is now their fate."

We got away from these hows. We became more connected .....

Read more..

In the final time of US 08 Elections Integrallife.com offers some free clips regarding basic tenets of Integral Poltics. I was not amuzed. Beeing silent and with no feelable passion about this important chapter not only for US poltics this orbit of Integral again expresses too much naivite and simplissicm.

Other than Spiral Dynamics Integral where I felt powerful, playful and vibrant considerations regarding poltics and the process of globalization in all its facettes.

"Change you can breathe" and "sleeping with your so called enemy" at least are promising some hot and passionate approaches...):)However soft spoken voices and a tenor of teaching at a pathfinders congress of how to do good work....this left me speechless...

Hopefully at least one of my blog readers is more enthusiastic about this meal without spices...

Integral Poltics: Change You Can breathe Into



Pieces in This Series: A Tale of Four Americas: A Brief Summary of an Integral Approach to Politics

A Tale of Four Americas takes a look at the political dynamics and cultural perspectives that influence every part of the Republican and Democratic parties. It explores the ideological divides that exist within each party, and offers a simple map to help make sense of these seemingly conflicting beliefs.

  Obama and McCain: Seeing Through the Talking Points

Obama and McCain: Seeing Through the Talking Points lets you watch the Integral political map emerge in real time in the acceptance speeches of Senators McCain and Obama. What is each candidate really saying, and to whom are they speaking?

  Sleeping With Your So-Called Enemy: A Practice of Empathy and Perspective-Taking

Sleeping With Your So-Called Enemy is a practice that suggests a way to step outside of your own political views and into those of to your "other," allowing you to expand your own perspective, be as inclusive as possible, and make the most compassionate decisions in your own life.

George Soros. A man who lucidly perceived much of the current financial crisis years ago. here is lots of matreial on his own side. Including an interview with Fareed Zakaria. And Huffingtonpost Interview with George Soros

Books Articles and Essays Interviews Speeches Philanthropy Home Recent Interviews 2008 October 23: The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means - The New York Review of Books October 13: Interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN.com Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 October 13: Interview with BILL MOYERS at PBS.org September 16: BBC: Soros expects more bank woes June 13: The Macleans.ca Interview: George Soros June 5: CBC News-Bubbles building in financial markets: billionaire Soros May 21: London School of Economics May 15: New York Review of Books May 14: CNN Money May 12: NPR Morning Edition May 12: TheStreet.com May 8: The Diane Rehm Show April 11: The New York Times - The Face of a Prophet April 10: Charlie Rose April 08: Financial Times - Bear Stearns and the Credit Crunch April 08: Financial Times - Commodities, Basel 2, China and the US April 08: Financial Times - US Dollar, Obama, and US Leadership April 4: George Soros speaks about his new book at a New America Foundation Press Conference.

This is from Edge.org. a source of infotaining and thought provocing impulses which I alweays enjoyed. Lets say as the juicy contributions from annnual TED Forums. This time, as he is NY literature agent, he gives some statements after festum regarding the Frankfurt book fair and the Nobel Prize for literature.

My personal take:

Brockmann is on spot when he feels that current literature in last 10 years did not offer lots of exciting developments. I didnt do myself. But the great quantum leap for literature in 21st century will and must come. A culture is always perceived in great works of its authors. This is true for 20 th century as much as centuries before.

Read work of Jean Gebser and you will understand.

I am still surprised why he never publishes something from Ken Wilber. As everybody who read ONE TASTE (February 12) knows that Brockman is described as old acquaintance by KW)

Now literature belongs basically to lower and upper left quadrant in AQAL. Brockmann should know that third culture is forever incomplete as devlopments in this quadrants are not mapped out. His appetite for work Dawkins, Diamond and Dennett (and lots of others)will nobody satisfy who knows, feels and suffers the passion, yearnings, pain, ecstacy and joys of the interiors.

I understand he is thrilled by drafts of third culture. Edge.org isnt at cutting/bleeding edge as long these fragments are not aligned.

Why John Brockman does not read novels

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITING
October 25, 2008

THE STARS ARE INDISPENSABLE
Why John Brockman, the great New York agent, doesn't read novels

By Thomas David

[Die Sterne sind unverzichtbar]

A hat against all odds: John Brockman last night in an Italian restaurant in the center of Frankfurt. Photos Daniel Pilar

It is not a difficult experience to be at odds with John Brockman. Indeed, the New York literary agent, one of the true global players in business, has a welcoming smile and a quiet, friendly manner that seems to have mellowed with age. But should you happen to find yourself among his circle of invited guests in the Gallo Nero, an Italian restaurant in Frankfurt, the industry small talk that is standard for the Book Fair suddenly doesn't doesn't cut it. "What do you think of the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee's exclusion of American Literature?", asks Brockman, whose astonishing hat, which is at the very least unorthodox in Frankfurt, makes it seem as if it were going to rain or snow.  Oh well, so, I retort, DeLillo, Updike, Roth, I do find that...

"You know what," says Brockman, as his partner Katinka and son Max gather even more guests around him, "I haven't been able to finish a single novel in the last ten years," he says, "and I don't have the slightest desire to discuss literature with you."  "Nothing against literature," says Brockman, when I deliver my last defense, "But don't bore me. Look around you at what's happening in the world today. Let's talk about something interesting."

The Big Ideas of Science

John Brockman is mainly interested in the big ideas. The agent of Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond and Daniel Dennett, he represents some of the most interesting thinkers of our time. "I find that in comparison with literature, science has a disproportionately large resonance."
 
The Italian waiter serves the second course, darkness is falling over the city, it is almost time to head out into the night.  The stars, as Phillip Roth says, are indispensable. 

 Journalist and Writer Reza Aslan and his team are initiating an innovative project to build new bridges of understanding cultural gaps:

The BOOM GEN Studios

I apppreciate this cultural start up very much. As Reza expressis verbis invests his skills and capability of writing and his understanding of literature. An excellent and unexpected answer(in my eyes:) to the lack of interest of guys like John Brockman. When it comes to the reelvance of dynamic literature in context of change at the edge. See previous blog. I congratulate Reza and the team. And I am awaiting the launch and kickoff of the project.

About Boomgen:

 By the year 2010, 75% of the population of the Greater Middle East will be under the age of 35, making this region one of the youngest and most promising in the world. BoomGen Studios seeks to cultivate the enormous potential of this BOOM GENERATION by providing an outlet for creative expression and achievement. We know that art, and particularly storytelling, is an effective crucible for social transformation: It is often less threatening, an creates deeper connections, than any other arena. BoomGen Studios is founded on the belief that the current perceived divide between the Middle East and the West can be bridged through the shared experience of art. Our goal is to develop and produce outstandig creative content - contemporary examples of old fashioned storytelling - that allows for a deeper, more authentic understanding of the modern Middle East, its history, and its future.     BoomGen´s mission is to find and nurture pioneering voices - both established and emerging - from  the Greater Middle East and its Diaspora in North America and Euruope. We act as producer, facilitator, translator and champion of existing material from a region that can prove difficult to access; we also foster the creation of original work. Both approaches are made possible by the vast BoomGen network of writers, filmmakers, artists, musicans, academics, and social entrepreneurs.     With this consortium of artists and experts, BoomGen Studios seeks to bring content of significant artistic merit and wide appeal to the motion picture, television, and new media industries - and ultimately to become the gateway to the Western world for talent from, and creative material about, the Greater Middle East and its Diaspora. Whether it is through a documentary, a feature film, a television show, a graphic novel, or some other form of media, storytelling provides a powerful way of shedding light on one of the world´s most misunderstood - and critically relevant - regions.

Following a hint in Sam Harris newsletter I found this most interesting new book:

Society without God

It confirms what should be clear that complex life conditions and adaptive intelligences as described in Spiral Dynamics Integral are essential for well beeing and happiness of whole cultures and societies.

Read also this 12 parted interview with Don Beck -done by Nick Drummond from Nordic Integral - about Nordic Region:

its not the time to circle the waggons

Society without God

 
Product Description

"Most Americans are convinced that faith in God is the foundation of civil society. Society Without God reveals this to be nothing more than a well-subscribed, and strangely American, delusion. Even atheists living in the United States will be astonished to discover how unencumbered by religion most Danes and Swedes currently are. This glimpse of an alternate, secular reality is at once humbling and profoundly inspiring - and it comes not a moment too soon. Zuckerman's research is truly indispensable."

-Sam Harris, founder of the Reason Project and author of the New York Times best sellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation

Before he began his recent travels, it seemed to Phil Zuckerman as if humans all over the globe were "getting religion" - praising deities, performing holy rites, and soberly defending the world from sin. But most residents of Denmark and Sweden, he found, don't worship any god at all, don't pray, and don't give much credence to religious dogma of any kind. Instead of being bastions of sin and corruption, however, as the Christian Right has suggested a godless society would be, these countries are filled with residents who score at the very top of the "happiness index" and enjoy their healthy societies, which boast some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world (along with some of the lowest levels of corruption), excellent educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, outstanding bike paths, and great beer.

Zuckerman formally interviewed nearly 150 Danes and Swedes of all ages and educational backgrounds over the course of fourteen months, beginning in 2005. He was particularly interested in the worldviews of people who live their lives without religious orientation. How do they think about and cope with death? Are they worried about an afterlife? What he found is that nearly all of his interviewees live their lives without much fear of the Grim Reaper or worries about the hereafter. This led him to wonder how and why it is that certain societies are nonreligious in a world that seems to be marked by increasing religiosity. Drawing on prominent sociological theories and his own extensive research, Zuckerman ventures some interesting answers.

This fascinating approach directly counters the claims of outspoken, conservative American Christians who argue that a society without God would be hell on earth. It is crucial, Zuckerman believes, for Americans to know that "society without God is not only possible, but it can be quite civil and pleasant."



About the Author
Phil Zuckerman is associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College. He is the author of Invitation to the Sociology of Religion and Strife in the Sanctuary: Religious Schism in a Jewish Community

While I am preparing for a one day Bahrain Economic Forum in Berlin Adlon Hotel and for a meeting with a high level business delegation there I am astonished how this region grows more and more. And attention of world class audiences and forums like World Economic Forum is even increasing:

Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai

"Holding the inaugural Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai is a testament of the United Arab Emirates' association with the highest notions of brilliance, innovation and breakthrough thinking. We will be working jointly with the World Economic Forum in developing this Summit and reinforcing its role of global significance," said H.E. Mohammad AlGergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, and Chairman, The Executive Office, Dubai.

"We are very excited about the partnership with the Government of Dubai, which has embodied innovation and creativity for many years, and we look forward to jointly develop the Summit on the Global Agenda," said Fiona Paua, Senior Director and Head of the Global Agenda Councils at the Forum."

No longer its about terrorism, oil, muslim identitites and simply stupid ignorance regarding this region. its about an awakening serious interest of the world. As much as for emerging BRIC countries Brazil, Russia, India and China.

And maybe Kuwait is the most advanced point in terms of vmemetic emrgence. However there is an unusual increasing speed of building infrastructure too.

Growing beyond tribal structures and codes into a basic nation building movement for the Arab Youth in next decades will however be the 800 pound gorilla to be dealt with. Purple-red loopholes in the region and beyond -as Don Beck. Elza Maalouf and Nafiz Rifae of Build Palestine Intitiative say again and again -build a patchwork of cultural erosion beyond a healthy Blue.

There is unique oportunity for world public spheres, forums and leaders of all kind to collaborate with these regions. Right now already roundabout 80 percent of the working force consists of expats. Here is a window of opportunity.

For Citizen Power, public-private partnerships, poltics, entrepreneurial intiatives, cultural projects and innovative media for bridging divides and gaps.

Its an exciting chapter of global evolution and emergence.

There is an excellent

WIE Audio Interview with Thomas PM Barnett.

This interview is as much a good sign for the new directional shift of WIE into EnlightenNext.  As it is for bringing back strategic thinking and imagination -in a new global world order - to civil society. I see this interview as the second one of Thomas PM Barnett in this direction.

The first is his Interview with Alex Steffen from worldchanging.org.

Thomas Barnett

America's Evolving Role in the World



With the war in Iraq, the recent economic collapse, and the rise of competing global powers like China, India, and Brazil, some are suggesting that America-long-shining beacon of freedom and democracy for the rest of the world-is finally starting to flicker out. But not Thomas Barnett. Despite the many doom-and-gloom scenarios being painted about the future of the United States, this outside-the-box Pentagon advisor and author of the forthcoming book Great Powers: America and the World After Bush holds a decidedly idealistic vision for twenty-first -century America and the world.

In this special Unbound interview with EnlightenNext Director of Education Jeff Carreira, Barnett maps out his practical road to stabilizing global population, redefining capitalism, conquering our energy constraints, extending human life, and helping the emerging middle class worldwide to integrate smoothly into the global community. But in order to achieve this bold vision, he suggests, America needs to embrace a whole new level of global leadership and come to see its own national interests as inseparable from a healthy, equitable, and thriving world. Drawing on his sophisticated understanding of history, cultural evolution, military strategy, political science, and economics, Barnett explains why we need more " grand strategists " in key positions of leadership who can bring the kind of long-term, interdisciplinary thinking needed to guide the future of the planet.

Thomas PM Barnett about Interview with Enlightennext

Jessica Roemischer -from EnlightenNext  wrote the article on Spiral Dynamics in the What is Enlightenment? magazine several years ago and did this interview with Dr. Don Beck on the current campaign, election, and possible aftermath. Don Beck wrote his Ph. D. dissertation at the University of Oklahoma in l966 on the l860 election that contributed to the polarization resulting in the American "Civil" War, known in the South as the "War Between the States." These are dangerous times. Don Beck sent a document to Senator Obama's staff regarding this situation several weeks ago. Jessica will work closely with SDi core constellation over the next few years and so seeking to reach new audiences and groups of people. 
 
Beyond Polarization in America: A Trans Partisan Perspective on the 2008 USElections



by Jessica Roemischer

Introduction

As I've watched the presidential campaign unfold in my living room, I've become increasingly unsettled by the cultural schism it's revealing. Robo-calls from John McCain, caustic opinion pieces on Sarah Palin (often by women), FOX news, MSNBC, negative campaigning-Left and Right. In this highly charged atmosphere, it's been difficult to make sense of things. I've even questioned my longstanding allegiance to the Democratic Party, which has made it challenging to find common ground with friends I've known for years. In search of a different perspective on the election, I was compelled to seek out global activist, Dr. Don E. Beck, whom I interviewed in 2002 for What is Enlightenment? Magazine.

For over forty years, Don Beck has worked to facilitate social change in some of the world's most polarized environments-notably apartheid South Africa during the 1980's and ‘90's, and currently in Israel/Palestine. Don Beck really gets human beings and our widely varying habitats and worldviews. With striking clarity and a disarming optimism, he illuminates the rich and complex mosaic of cultures, as he presents practical solutions to seemingly intractable problems-terrorism, the Iraq War, the AIDS epidemic. Beck's unique perspective-the basis of the evolutionary theory called Spiral Dynamics-allows him to craft effective protocols where others fail.

Don Beck is a social scientist of a different order. For that reason he has advised world leaders such as Nelson Mandela and F.W. deKlerk; he has met with Tony Blair's cabinet and with the Mexican government, among many others. I knew we needed his view in America at this critical juncture. In response to my request, Don graciously granted the following interview. True to form, he goes to the heart of the matter-and our divided nation-as he reveals how our next president can emerge as the truly new kind of leader we so urgently need.

Read more..

In a new Audio Interview of WIE Arianna Hufington is speaking with Elizabeth Debold about her book:

 The Fourth Instinct

Interesting. I blogged about Arianna Huffington here in 2007. Pointing to the very remarkable Vanity Fair portrait from 2005.  Its clear for me that this sense for the fourth instinct was alive in her already in her early bio about Picasso.

Arianna Huffington

The Better Angels of Our Nature


 

In our highly polarized political climate, it is rare to find an individual who is as familiar with both sides of the aisle as Arianna Huffington is. A bestselling author, a nationally syndicated columnist, and named by Time magazine as one of the one hundred most influential people in 2006, Huffington's eclectic career has always defied convention-and partisan categorization. She was once married to a Republican congressman. She ran for governor of California as an independent. And her popular internet newspaper, The Huffington Post, has a decidedly liberal bent. But while we've long admired Huffington's broad political perspective as well as the passionate dedication to political and cultural change that has defined her career, it is her interest in the relationship between spirituality and politics, articulated in her book The Fourth Instinct, that compelled us to take a closer look.

In this interview, Elizabeth Debold speaks with Huffington about her book and asks why she sees political and social activism as a spiritual obligation. Drawing on many years as a devout Christian and as a leading political activist, Huffington suggests that in addition to sex, power, and survival, there is a "fourth instinct," which she calls "the desire for transcendence," that has driven political and social change throughout history. Huffington calls for a new form of political leadership that doesn't play on fear and greed but appeals to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature."

more about:

Arianna Huffington bio & resources

 I informed earlier some time ago about an issue of Tikkun Magazine regarding Integral Poltics and Transformation. Now all articles in this issue can be read for free online.

Heres to Steve McIntoshs article:


Integral Poltics and the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture



by Steve McIntosh


STOCKPHOTO/MARYLB


I have always identified myself as a "spiritual progressive," but I think it is possible to be both "spiritual" and "progressive" while continuing to cherish the economic and personal freedoms that are an indelible part of America's "capitalist" system. Nevertheless, I appreciate the sentiments and concerns being expressed by Rabbi Michael Lerner and other writers for Tikkun Magazine. At the same time, I'm also disappointed by the relative failure of progressive politics to make much of a positive difference in America during this decade. As I've thought about what can be done to improve the "political condition" of our country, I've come to see how every problem in the world is, at least in part, a problem of consciousness-a result of worldviews that are no longer adequate to the challenges of our time. So it follows that the solution to almost every problem involves the raising of consciousness. And by following this insight about consciousness, I have come to appreciate how the newly emerging "integral perspective" is our best hope for raising consciousness in America.

The integral perspective recognizes that consciousness evolves through a series of distinct worldviews, each of which results in new perspectives, new concerns, and new values. These worldview stages have been carefully mapped through the empirical research of developmental psychologists such as Robert Kegan and Lawrence Kohlberg, as well as through the research of sociologists such as Ronald Inglehart and Paul Ray. This research confirms that the American political milieu can no longer be accurately characterized as only a simple left-right continuum. Rather, our national political landscape can also be understood as a three-way struggle between the historically significant worldviews identified as traditionalism, modernism, and what is coming to be known in integral parlance as postmodernism.

The word "postmodern" is, of course, a battleground of meaning. But even though it has been used to describe discrete subsets of culture, such as art movements or critical academic theory, integral thinkers use this term as an overall description of the distinct worldview that has arisen in the last fifty years as an alternative to the stale materialistic values of modernism and the chauvinistic and oppressive values of traditionalism. This large demographic group (comprising approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population) is also known as the "cultural creatives," the "post-materialists," and the "green meme." Although there is as yet no clear agreement on terms, the "postmodern" label is becoming the most widely used because it describes well the antithetical relationship between much of this worldview and modernist and traditionalist culture.

The postmodern stage of culture has already made significant progress in the fight for human rights, through the progress it has made in raising our society's concern for the environment, and in the way that American culture has now become more tolerant of alternative lifestyles and more conscious of the values of spiritual pluralism. Although there is obviously much more work to be done in these areas, when we compare our current national culture to the state of American culture in the 1950s, it appears that evolution has been achieved through the rise of the postmodern worldview. And this worldview is continuing to actively develop and persuade people about the importance of its issues and concerns. Yet there are also signs that this worldview is no longer showing the same creative vitality and dynamism that characterized its emergence in the 1960s and 1970s. As we come to appreciate the way culture actually evolves, we can see that it is unlikely that the majority of Americans will experience a "great awakening" and adopt the postmodern worldview anytime soon. Although postmodern ranks are growing, at this rate it may take generations before the majority of the American body politic becomes conscious enough to effectively deal with our environmental crisis and elect leaders who will conduct a more moral foreign policy. And just scolding people, just admonishing them to care more and be more responsible is not going to produce the results we need. The pace at which our global problems are increasingly becoming "more local" requires that spiritual progressives find a way to become more effective at raising consciousness.

Read more..