Mark Leonard, Executive Director of European Council on Foreign Relations, considers in an article, originally written for the Spectator, the Wetern ambivalence and imsecurity about the Chinese behavior around Olympics 2008.

Big Brother versus YouTube



17.07.08 - Mark Leonard

This article was published in the Spectator on 16 July, 2008.

‘For years we couldn't wait for the Olympics to start. Now we can't wait for them to be over.' That is how a Chinese friend described the horrible limbo in Beijing as a control-freak state tries to anticipate and eliminate any possible challenges to its glorious coming-out party on the 8th of the 8th, 2008. It is clear to any visitor to the Chinese capital that while China hopes to clean up the medals tables, the sporting contest is at best a sideshow to the real Olympic competition - the battle to define how China is seen by its citizens and the world outside

.For the Chinese people the Olympics are the final proof that China has reclaimed its rightful place in the global premier league; putting behind it two centuries of humiliation at the hands of foreign invaders. For the world outside, the Games are meant to embody an official narrative of China as a ‘harmonious society'. The organisers had promised the trin-ity of a ‘green Olympics', a ‘high-tech Olympics' and a ‘people-centred Olympics', designed to show off China as a beacon of economic prowess and modernity that has traded pariah status for global respectability. But as China ricochets from one PR disaster to the next - with stories about sweatshops combining with Tibet and Beijing's choking pollution - the authorities are now trying to manage expectations downwards with a focus on the more modest goal of a ‘safe Olympics', flooding the city and its environs with security forces primed to thwart potential terrorist attacks.

Read More.

This is about the book "What does China think?" from Mark Leonard.


What does China think?

11.02.08 - Mark Leonard

We know all about the statistics of China's rise - dizzying growth rates, vast currency reserves, new cities built every week - but we have heard very little about China as a powerhouse of ideas about politics, economics and world order. In my latest book, to be published by Fourth Estate on 18 February, I will look at the Chinese model of globalisation which I argue could re-shape the face of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. I am trying to show how experiments with focus groups and opinion polls are changing China from a traditional authoritarian state to a new 'deliberative dictatorship', and reveal how Beijing hopes to use a "China Dream" to challenge the US' military power. 

The book charts the development of a new Chinese world view and identifies the following different factions battling for influence:


The "New Left" who want a gentler form of capitalism with a social safety net that could reduce inequality and protect the environment;
The "New Right" who think that freedom will only come when the public sector is dismantled and sold off, and a new, politically active "propertied class" emerges;
The "Neo-Comms", cousins of American neo-cons, want to use military modernisation, cultural diplomacy and international law to assert China's power in the world. I argue that in the future, the West willl be just as interested in the Chinese "Neo-Comms" plans for Asia as it is now in the "Neo-Cons" attempts to reshape the Middle East. Soon, the political struggle in the Communist Party will be seen as vital as the battle between the US presidential contenders; and protesters outside the World Bank will complain as much about the "Beijing Consensus" as they do about the "Washington Consensus".

And this is a video conversation of Harry Kresiler with Mark. Its about the theme of the book and gives some personal impressions about background of Mark Leonard too.


Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Mark Leonard, Executive Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, for a discussion of the ideas that are influencing the domestic and foreign policy debates in China. Through a careful examination of what Chinese intellectuals have to say on topics such as democracy, economy, and international relations, Leonard finds distinctive Chinese worldviews. The West must understand the contours of these debates to effectively address China's rise because they offer important insights into how China will use its enormous power to shape world order in the twenty-first century.

Conversations With History - Mark Leonard

This is a Newsweek Special with an article of Fareed Zakaria, reflecting his impressions and view from his interview with Barack Obama . I agree with Fareed nearly completely. And I see signs in Baracks language, global views and appearences that a basic understanding of stratified democracy is emerging in him.

And--....his best advisors are still to come later....

INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC

What the World Thinks

A survey of world citizens' opinion of John McCain vs. Barack Obama and a look at the major issues in the countries being visited by the Democratic candidate. Plus: Match the international pundit with what he said about Obama in an interactive game.

 Obama Abroad.
 
An Emerging World View. Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes that in the realm of foreign policy, Barack Obama has been made out to be a softheaded idealist. John McCain and his campaign, conservative columnists and right-wing bloggers all paint a picture of a liberal dreamer who wishes away the world's dangers. Zakaria disagrees. "Over the course of the campaign ... Obama has elaborated more and more the ideas that would undergird his foreign policy as president," he writes.
 
"What emerges is a world view that is far from that of a typical liberal, much closer to that of a traditional realist. It is interesting to note that, at least in terms of the historical schools of foreign policy, Obama seems to be the cool conservative and McCain the exuberant idealist." Zakaria adds that McCain is a pessimist about the world, "seeing it as a dark, dangerous place where, without the constant and vigorous application of American force, evil will triumph." To Obama "countries like Iran and North Korea are holdouts against the tide of history. America's job is to push these progressive forces forward, using soft power more than hard, and to try to get the world's major powers to solve the world's major problems."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147763

As part of the cover package, ten international writers, professors and government officials contributed essays on how their country would view an Obama presidency.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147678
-
- Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford University, writes that the good news from Britain is that they're all Obamamaniacs now. But enthusiasm for Obama is "equaled by skepticism about his country. That means there's a lot of ground for him to make up."

-- Dominique Moisi, senior adviser to the French Institute of International Relations, writes that Obama should know how much he is loved in France. (85 percent of Frenchmen would vote for him, according to one poll). "You not only incarnate the best of America but give us hope for the full integration of our own black and Arab citizens."

-- Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit in Hamburg, writes that Obama can change the tune of U.S. foreign policy. "But he can't get rid of the brass and the kettledrums, so when he visits, he might gently prepare Berlin for the dissonances to come."

-- Tom Segev, Israeli historian and a columnist for Haaretz writes, that when Obama arrives in Israel, he'll find Israelis are as eager for change as his supporters at home. And that most Israelis "feel deeply dependent on America and will not risk major policy differences with the United States. That means Obama may find them open to a new, more rational approach to the Middle East conflicts."

-- Marwan Muasher, the former foreign minister of Jordan and author of "The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation," writes that Obama, while in the Middle East, should begin a candid dialogue and to learn about the area's aspirations. "As you rightly articulated, the United States' approach to the Middle East needs to be reoriented."
-
- Ali Alawi, Iraq's minister of Finance from 2005-06 and author of "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace," writes, "Obama should realize that the picture of Iraq he'll get from meetings with military commanders, U.S. diplomats and senior Iraqi leaders will be incomplete, offering him only a glimpse of the country's true conditions."

-- Ashraf Ghani, the former Finance minister of Afghanistan and current chairman of the Institute of State Effectiveness, writes that Washington and Obama should recognize that Afghanis are "frustrated by the waste and lack of transparency in the international aid system ... Growing violence, especially civilian casualties (many inflicted by international forces) are making us feel less secure. So are rising food prices and a youth-unemployment rate of 40 to 60 percent."

-- Michael Anti, a Chinese political blogger and Nieman Fellow at Harvard, writes that the one key fact Obama should remember is "trade is now central to the U.S.-Chinese relationship. China needs more trade-not just for its economy or its government, but for the sake of its civil society as well."
--
Shekar Gupta, editor in chief of The Indian Express, writes that the first thing Obama needs to know about India is that he doesn't need to fix America's battered image there-and it is a big reason he should have included India in his travel plans.
-
- Luis Fernando Verissimo, a Brazilian journalist and author, writes that if Obama came to Brazil-and he should-they would impress him with their bigness in everything. "We might even cause him to ponder just what all this bigness and ambition means for the United States."

Mediterranean Bridge Building. Special Correspondent Eric Pape reports on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent actions between France and Israel. Until very recently, France and Israel have had bitterly difficult relations. But Sarkozy has changed all that by very publicly embracing the Jewish state. He takes every opportunity to reassure Israel, whether on Iran's nuclear ambitions or by calling talk of a politique arabe "nonsense," as he did in his 2006 political book "Testimony." Last month Sarkozy lauded the universal values of Judaism in a speech before the Israeli Knesset. Sarkozy used the occasion to tell Israel: "The French people will always be [there] when your existence is threatened."

This is a Blog Entry from Steve McIntosh. author of the book "Integral Consciousness". Its from March but it adds to what the 10 international pundits were saying in my previous post. Published at Newsweek. It adds the subversive integral approach. it adds a minimum of perspectives which are necessary for shifts of all kinds...
 
Integral Advice for the Next President

Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:50 PM



On Friday, What Is Enlightenment? Magazine is interviewing me on the topic of "integral advice for the next president." So now that I've had a chance to think this through, it seems like a good subject for a blog entry. But before I offer this advice, I have to say that no matter who is elected, this person will be a "tool of the system" to a large degree. So while I do hope that the next president can help us make progress, I'm not pinning all my hopes on the American federal government to provide the important political leadership we are going to need in the years ahead. Those who have achieved integral consciousness will also be needed to help move America's cultural center of gravity forward in history by building the social structures of the integral worldview.

Obviously, the next president will need to resolve some basic issues, such as achieving a positive resolution to the war in Iraq, providing for a better healthcare system, and a fairer immigration policy, as well as reducing the deficit and propping up the dollar. However, from an integral perspective, I think there are three main areas where the next president can provide the kind of visionary leadership that will improve the human condition worldwide. These are:

1. Launch a major campaign to shift the American economy away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

2. Inaugurate a new kind of foreign policy that recognizes how every problem in the world is a problem of consciousness.

3. Provide integrally informed leadership in the areas of education and economic development.

I'll discuss each of these proposals in turn, starting with the first and most important: the issue of energy.

By weaning the American economy off its reliance on fossil fuels, we can solve multiple problems at once: global warming can be ameliorated; air pollution can be reduced; the corrupting influence of oil wealth on developing countries can be lessened; the significance of dysfunctional Islam can be reduced; the U.S. economy can be stimulated; and the eventual globalization of the new energy technology can provide a way for China and India to industrialize without destroying the environment. Moreover, through such an initiative America can fulfill its duty as the leader of global modernism and restore its moral reputation in the world. Indeed, America's dependence on foreign oil is really our biggest long-term threat, so there is a strong argument that we should use a portion of our defense budget to pay for the kind of "defense" we really need.

From an external perspective, creating an alternative energy economy requires two kinds of solutions: an engineering solution and then an economic systems change solution. The engineering solution involves finding the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels. And to achieve this goal writers like Thomas Freidman have called for a new Manhattan Project, like the program that came up with the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Through this kind of intensive national effort we could identify and develop the most effective form of alternative energy.

Then once we have come up with the best alternative to fossil fuels, the next phase of the solution involves a systems level change that will convert our economy from one that's based on oil to one that can be run on this new technology. However, this systemic transformation of our economy is something that the free market won't be able to do by itself, the government will have to get involved to help us through the transition. Then, once the American economy has created the alternative technology and made the transition from fossil fuels, it will be much easier for the rest of the world to follow suit.

However, notice that the biggest hurdle to implementing both the engineering solution and economic solution is the tremendous problem of generating the prerequisite political will. It took the concentrated threat of World War II to generate the political will for the original Manhattan project, and it seems like short of World War III, America's political will for alternative energy may not be adequate until it's too late.

Thus, the heart of the challenge is not the external engineering or systems change problems, it is the internal challenge of generating the requisite political agreement to undertake the sacrifices that will be necessary. And this is where the integral worldview's new understanding of the internal universe can be of great assistance.

Just as Kennedy inaugurated America's decade long mission to the moon, our next president needs to inaugurate a similar kind of "moon shot" for alternative energy. And he or she will find that "integral technology" can be an indispensable asset in this critical initiative by helping to overcome the primary challenge of building the political will required for such an undertaking.

The next president can also make major progress by initiating a new kind of foreign policy. For example, it's important to see how war in the 21st century is being fought primarily in the internal universe. The conflicts turn not so much on the actual military engagements, but rather on the results of the battle for hearts and minds. And it's also important to see how wars are often fought with the tactics and technology of the previous era, resulting in costly losses and bad mistakes. So as we might expect, history is repeating itself in the war on terror-we're fighting it with the tactics of World War II and the Cold War, wherein torture, secret prisons, and unjustified covert operations by the CIA and others are making us less moral overall. Thus, any gains in the external universe produced by these tactics are more than offset by the losses they create in the internal universe.

So my advice to the next president is to act on the understanding that a more moral foreign policy is actually a critical part of a comprehensive and effective national defense. And by embracing this understanding will see where we need to change our tactics. For instance, we can put an immediate end to all forms of rendition and torture, and we can carefully articulate a more transparent and accountable role for our intelligence services. We can announce this change in direction and the reasons for it, and then we can do some things to help heal the history that is continuing to hurt us today. For example, we could pay for a memorial in downtown Tehran that memorializes our shame at the CIA's political manipulation of the Iranian government in the 1950s. We could symbolically atone for those sins, help heal that little bit of history, and thereby become more moral ourselves.

We can also strengthen Islamic traditional consciousness by using integral technology to help empower the more moderate voices of Islam. For instance, we could endow a prestigious prize like the Nobel or Pulitzer called "The Qur'an Prize" that could be given annually to the writer in Arabic, Persian, or Turkish, who best demonstrates that Islam is a religion of peace, and that violence is un-Islamic.

However, this is not to suggest that we should simply go soft on terrorism or adopt a predominantly left-wing foreign policy. We can't ignore the very real threats posed by all the unhealthy forms of traditional consciousness in the world. The integral approach to the war on terror thus involves using the solutions of every level simultaneously. For example, we can use a traditional approach by keeping the Navy in the Persian Gulf, we can use an modernist approach by continuing with the diplomacy of economic carrots and sticks. We can use a postmodern approach by apologizing and making amends for some of our past actions, and we can use an integral approach by becoming better at changing hearts and minds through the application of the kinds of integral technology I have discussed.

We can also make our foreign policy "more moral" by insisting that all our foreign aid be focused on the central task of raising consciousness and thereby providing permanent solutions to problems of hunger, poverty, and disease. Moreover, America can articulate a new standard of justice for the way it will treat all foreign nationals-a basic set of rights that everyone is entitled to regardless of their citizenship. America cannot shirk its duties of leadership in the world, and the articulation of a global standard of justice that we are willing to abide by will go a long way toward restoring our moral fragrance and the world's good will.

Finally, my advice for the next president must include the use of integral technology to improve our public education system and appropriately stimulate our economy. It is in these areas that the integral perspective can help us make major progress in the ongoing development from warrior consciousness to traditional consciousness, and from traditional consciousness to modernist consciousness. Moving America's center of gravity forward in history must begin with these initiatives to "strengthen the base".

So ultimately, my advice to the next president is that he or she needs to become fully integrally informed and to surround him or herself with a cadre of integral advisers, including some at the Cabinet level. In the final analysis, politics is always about persuasion, and in this task the integral understanding of consciousness and culture can be used as a new kind of secret weapon, somewhat akin to "remote viewing" into the internal universe.

I am reading the prologue of Michael Wombachers book:

11 Days At The Edge

The first chapter of this 500 p work is freely downloadable.

And it impresses me very much. Especially the passages about a silent retreat  with Andrew Cohen in Spain.

I did myself silent retreats within another teaching. And the conditions, Michael descibes here. are profoundly challenging . To act then, afterwards, in the circumstance of daily life, to integrate it and engage in the evolutiionary impulse to create and shape future and presence is the real social signifcance.

No speaking, only during teaching to Andrew, eating separately, and making no eye contact for full 11 days.

In fact, making no eye contact is absolutely demanding. As Sarte once said....Ego begins when perceived and perceiving another with the eye.

While direct eye contact has value in other contexts, to break the spell of referencing constantly to another is one of the most demanding exerises. With the potential to drive one crazy.

And on the other side of this void to enter the absolute.  The freedom.

Have ordered the book and will write about my complete reading experience later.
I am curioud too about Appendix 5 which adresses:

On beeing German - Reflections on Facing Everything and Avoiding Nothing

Michael grew up in Germany the first 10 years and now lives in US. So these reflections have certainly their own value...

 

As Olympics 2008 are starting today in Beijing I find this article from Fareed Zakria exemplary for a new understanding of global realities. Reflecting in first approximation already an understanding for stratfied emocracy as Alan Tonkin, Don Beck and lots of other others already demonstrate and shape in their work.

Fareed Zakaria describes media tenor well. I am adding that even SPIEGEL ONLINE which shows good signs of going global is participating in the China Bashing Game. They do it likewise with Mideast Issues and other global topics. Its time to wake up and, no doubt , professional and integral advice is in need.

The article:

China Shouldnt Be Inscrutable

To say that this new China is the same as the old is to be utterly ignorant or ideological-perhaps both.


With the Beijing Olympics starting at the end of this week, you might think this would be an occasion for serious analysis and reflection about China-how to understand the country and its changing society, how to handle the regime. Instead, we've mostly heard a familiar recitation of clichés. Conservatives rail against a "rising autocracy" and exaggerate China's military strength. Republican Sen. Sam Brownback went to Beijing and discovered-surprise!-that the Chinese government engaged in espionage. He fumed to CNN that the authorities could "listen to anybody and everybody and their communications and their recordings." One month earlier the senator had enthusiastically voted for the FISA Amendments Act, which allows the U.S. government to do pretty much the same thing.

China bashing is not just a right-wing phenomenon. The New Republic, mostly left of center, ran a cover story last month with the headline, MEET THE NEW CHINA (SAME AS THE OLD). Inside, the magazine thundered that "our ultimate solidarity" should lie not with the "odious government" in Beijing but "the billion long-suffering men and women of the world's largest dictatorship."

Except that Chinese people (who, by the way, number 1.3 billion, not 1 billion) seem to disagree. About the same time as The New Republic hit the stands, the Pew Research Center released the findings of its 2008 Global Attitudes Survey. Of the 24 countries surveyed, the Chinese people expressed the highest level of support for the direction in which their country was heading, 86 percent. Nearly two out of three said that the Beijing government was doing a good job on issues that mattered to them. The survey questioned more than 3,212 Chinese, face to face, in 16 dialects across the country. And while Chinese might not always speak freely to pollsters, several indications suggest that these numbers express something real. Such polls have been done for years and the numbers approving of the Chinese government have risen as the economy has grown (which should be expected). Those polled did complain about corruption, environmental degradation and inflation. And these attitudes-general approval of the country's direction coupled with many specific criticisms-are also the ones reported by most scholars and journalists who have traveled in China.

Read more...

REgarding the latest Media Buzz about John Edwards Affair I found this piece from John Darmann quite interssting. I am in no way interested in any gossip, especially of the kind of  flat spiritlual , sexual and poltical correctness. I am interested in authentic, integral depening of understanding of the lines between public public and private life.

Before Edwards it was about Elliot Spitzer in the US08 Nomination round. Again the same questions arise...

Even Arianna Huffington who had always-since her early years -engaged in exploring some of these topics in her writings, did not make clear enough - in her Sunday Roundup-
what is at the core of these stories. Which would have even another tenor when happening in France f.e. What is at the core of the separation of public and private spheres? Is it enough to build huge walls between these spheres?

The basic perspective is in the dynamics of male-female relationship in the various layers of adult devlopment. No New Age light food is sufficient to deal with it. Jonathan Darmann points out very interstingly some New Agy fingerprints in Rielles communication. And certainly Edwards has a certain yearning to nuture himself in this way. This is no criticism of him. Its a big, big theme for all leaders and people who stand in the spotlight for some degree or the another.

No uptight moral rigidity too´can be the solution. As long as this important topic hasnt found an integral expression hidden agendas of all kind will block deep authenticity. The atmosphere of spiritual, politcal and sexual correctness is a block and it needs a subersive and constructive adressing.

The Newsweek Article:

What Rielle Hunter Told Me

 

What Rielle Hunter Told Me

A seeker and a New Age spiritualist, John Edwards's other woman believed she could help him make history.


Jonathan Darman
NEWSWEEK

The first time I laid eyes on Rielle Hunter, I could tell she was a story. She had frizzy blond hair with DARK roots, wore bright nail polish and moved like someone who knew how to work a room. She was on a cramped commuter flight and she was flirting with a candidate for president of the United States. It was July 7, 2006. I'd been sent to Iowa to write a piece on John Edwards. We were on our way to Des Moines, where I would be the only national reporter following him around the state for two days. From a few rows back, I tried to observe Edwards before the plane took off. Most of the other passengers seemed to have no idea who Edwards was. But this blond woman, putting away her bags, was visibly captivated by him. She tried repeatedly to engage him in conversation, but he seemed uninterested in talking. How the mighty have fallen, I thought. As John Kerry's running mate in 2004, Edwards had his own campaign bubble around him all the time; now he had to deal with strangers who flirt with him on planes. Of course, she wasn't a stranger. Edwards now admits that he had an extramarital affair with her. But at the time I had no reason to suspect there was anything between them.

She showed up at his first event that day in Des Moines with a video camera. She was trying to get as close to the candidate as she could. "Does she work for the campaign?" I asked Edwards's press secretary, Kim Rubey. "Oh, she's working on a documentary project," said Rubey. "We're not sure if it's going to work out." But it was soon clear that she was on Team Edwards. When it came time to drive to the next event, she rode in the car with the candidate. I drove behind in a rental car.

I struck up a conversation with the woman at the next event, as we waited outside. She told me her name and asked me what my astrological sign was, which I thought was a little unusual. I told her. She smiled, and began telling me her life story: how she was working as a documentary-film maker, living with a friend in South Orange, N.J., but how she'd previously had "many lives." She'd worked, she said, as an actress and as a spiritual adviser. She was fiercely devoted to astrology and New Age spirituality. She'd been a New York party girl, she'd been married and divorced, she'd been a seeker and a teacher and was a firm believer in the power of truth.

She told me that she had met Edwards at a bar, at the Regency Hotel in New York. She thought he was giving off a special "energy." I didn't pursue the topic, and when I filed my story, I made no mention of Rielle. But I was, to say the least, curious. I tried, unsuccessfully, to track her down in the weeks that followed. I thought she would make a good source. She clearly knew I was a reporter, yet she spoke freely and openly about her own life and the Edwards campaign.

Four months later, Rielle found her way to me. It was November 2006. I received an e-mail from her, complimenting me on some stories I'd written on the midterm elections. She wanted to give me a story. Could I come for lunch in New York?

We agreed to meet at Aqua Grill in SoHo on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. When I arrived at the restaurant, she was already seated. She greeted me warmly with surprising intimacy, rising for two kisses on the cheek. "So it's afternoon," I said with a smile. "What do you think, are we drinking wine?" She smiled back at me. "Bottle or glass?"

I would soon learn that there was no such thing as small talk with Rielle Hunter. She told me that she'd felt a connection to me when we'd first met, that she could tell I was a very old soul. This meant a lot to Rielle. Her speech was peppered with New Age jargon-human beings were dragged down by "blockages" to their actual potential; history was the story of souls entering and escaping our field of consciousness. A seminal book for her had been Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now." Her purpose on this Earth, she said, was to help raise awareness about all this, to help the unenlightened become better reflections of their true, repressed selves.

Her latest project was John Edwards. Edwards, she said, was an old soul who had barely tapped into any of his potential. The real John Edwards, she believed, was a brilliant, generous, giving man who was driven by competing impulses-to feed his ego and serve the world. If he could only tap into his heart more, and use his head less, he had the power to be a "transformational leader" on par with Gandhi and Martin Luther King. "He has the power to change the world," she said.

Read more...

This the first SDi related homepage from Russia. Still not translated:):) but with quite accurate information as I heard from a Russian gentlleman. Russia is a fertile  and very important global ground and Spiral Dynmaics Integral is already on the move as I posted some months ago.

Seen from Germany/Berlin there is certainly lots of possibility and opportunity to extend integral seeding into this big global country which is rightly belonging to the emrging BRIC countries Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The new eruption scenarios in Russia, Georgia and the breakaway regions ned desperately a new strategic view and needs to be worked for the next 10 -30 years.

If anybody reads and writes. Russian here, please let me know.


http://get.metalevel.net/

Try some Gogle Translation:

http://translate.google.com/


пиральная Динамика

Контексты. Системы. Уровни.

* Главная
* О проекте
* Форум
* Авторы
* Стать автором

Событие осени!!!
Автор: Анатолий Баляев

5 Авг

26-29 сентября в Санкт-Петербурге Дон Бек с семинаром “Спиральная динамика”.

Курс разработан для руководителей и владельцев предприятий, руководителей кадровых служб и департаментов, системных консультантов, коучей, а также всех тех, кому необходимо руководить и взаимодействовать в среде с различными культурами.

Цели тренинга-семинара:

* Повысить осознание процесса эволюции и развития, через которые проходит руководитель, как личность.
* Научиться понимать, что мотивирует различных людей на поступки на глубинном уровне и то, как управлять процессом мотивации на стратегическом уровне.
* Узнать, как создавать новую трансформационную систему развития предприятия, базируясь на эволюционной модели Спиральной Динамики.
* Научиться четкой коммуникации и углубить навыки влияния на различные группы лиц, подключая их ценности.
* Научиться различать представителей различных ценностных групп.
* Развить навыки переключения на точку зрения собеседника или его группы.
* Научиться успешно разрешать и предотвращать конфликты, вызываемые различиями в ценностях и взглядах на жизнь.
* Провести анализ ситуации в Вашей компании и разработать план на будущее.

Подробности здесь.

Last week I met again Gabriela Ender from Openspace-online.com and it was great to hear about the progress in several remarkable places . So I want to foreward this worldwide invitation - its free of costs - for all who did not have the experience right now.

See also:

http://www.openspace-online.com/

Nomination for "Top 10 World Changer 2006"

Report on 2007 OpenSpace-Online Conference

Conference Data at a Glance

Invitation to the Worldwide OpenSpace-Online Real-time Conference on Open Space Technology (OST) 4 hours on September 20th, 2008 - free of charge Dear friends and colleagues, you are warmly invited! Please join Open Space Practitioners, Facilitators and Sponsors from around the world. Since 1985, when Harrison Owen discovered Open Space Technology (OST), approximately 100,000 + groups have participated in OST events in 132 countries around the world. In the meantime OST has become the most established and well-known method for large group face-to-face events, which is used both, in the non-profit area and the profit area. OST enables in an unique wonderful way to run productive meetings, for five to 2000 + people, to allow participatory process architectures and to lead any kind of organization, in everyday practice and ongoing change. OST is becoming main stream worldwide. NOT because OST is a trend or a fashion, rather because almost everywhere the time is right for passion, responsibility and sustainability and for a new awareness of conscious collaboration processes regionally, nationally and globally. What is OpenSpace-Online®? The general purpose of the OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Meeting Methodology is to enable organizations to consciously act as "life long learning organizations", to empower interest and work groups as well as change facilitators to independently co-create the future for the greater good of society, and the whole planet by overcoming the limitations of time and space. Invented by Gabriela Ender in 1999, this completely self-contained Internet methodology is setting worldwide new innovation standards for real-time collaboration, empowerment and decision making by enabling holistic and highly participative architectures to link multifaceted ways of face-to-face and online activities in business, community, education, health-care, social and governmental settings. If the OpenSpace-Online® Methodology is new to you: >> Information at a glance, software presentation and e-Book Participants and conference theme This OpenSpace-Online® community conference is addressed to facilitators, organizations and colleagues from around the world who use the face-to-face method Open Space Technology. "What can we learn, share, teach, explore, discover with each other about our work in Open Space around the world?" That was the main theme of the face-to-face World OSonOS 2008 in San Francisco and that is also our question for the virtual global Open Space community conference on September, 20th. A wonderful opportunity for docking on the results and aha's from the face-to-face community gathering in July as well as for raising and discussing completely new topics. This OpenSpace-Online® community conference also provides opportunities for greeting old Open Space friends and for meeting new Open Space colleagues via the Internet in real-time. High learning and high play await us!   We look forward to your participation! Gabriela Ender and Co-Inviters

In the New Issue about Perspectives on Masculinity in the 21st Century of WIE there is a clear article of Andrew Cohen where he -like very few postmodern men dare to do - writes about:

A Call to Arms for the Postmodern Male

This is really seldom articulated in this way. it adresses the man as man. No matter if he is teaching or acting in other roles, professions, functions and contexts.

Indeed , in a spiritual context -confess this word sometimes provokes the question in me do we speak about bad or good news? -this is a very necessary , newly emerging topic.
As I trained martial arts in several ways for three decades too I can confirm what Andrew says about some experiences with his students. Thats the reasion why I left martial arts 15 years ago and focused on what Andrew is describing a Call to Arms for the Postmodern Male.

The world of counsellors, advisors, coaches and consultants, therapists and mediators, dialogue experts and diplomats, negotiators and crisis managers, trouble shooters and envoys, peace and conflict experts....etc.etc. is a big universe.

Very seldom, despite their often big honorars - this question is asked.

While a certain buzz in some media is already about strong, liberated and highly evolved women the theme Andrew Cohen adresses remains basically undercover at moment. Even in leadership discussions and practice,, some integral ones too, this point is rarely expressed openly and clearly.

Heres to the article:

A Call to Arms for the Postmodern Male

by Andrew Cohen



Until I was in my early twenties, I never even thought about what it meant to be a man. I grew up in an upper-middle-class secular Jewish family in Manhattan and went to liberal, progressive schools throughout my childhood. I never had a bar mitzvah, the Jewish boy's traditional rite of passage into manhood. My brother, who is five years older, used to beat me up on a regular basis from before I can remember, which turned me into a bit of a wuss. I was always one of the last picked when we engaged in competitive sports, and it goes without saying that I lacked confidence. Endeavoring to relieve my insecurities, my mother sent me to a therapist at the ripe old age of five.

My father, who was not an introspective man, loved me deeply. When I was eleven my parents separated, and shortly after my fifteenth birthday, my father died a slow and painful death. During those years and afterward, I spent a lot of time with my mother, who was at the time a passionate advocate of feminist values. My teachers in the three different high schools I attended in the United States and in Europe were generally decent, sophisticated, and well-meaning people. But when I think back on those days from the wisdom of my current fifty-two years, I'm stunned by the realization that no adult, including even my counselors at summer camp, ever counseled me about what it means to be a man. I now understand that I wasn't the only one in this strange predicament-in fact, it seems to be a cultural phenomenon. I don't think this subject was brought up in any situation I was ever in until I began to think about it myself in my early twenties.

When I was twenty-two, as a result of a profound spiritual experience that had occurred six years earlier, I seriously committed myself to becoming an enlightened human being. My first step was to take up a disciplined daily practice of martial arts because I wanted to become strong. I wanted to conquer my fear; I wanted to be tough-I wanted to be a man.

At the age of thirty, after much serious practice and dedicated searching, I found what I was looking for in Mother India. To my own astonishment, I ended up in the uncomfortable position of becoming a spiritual teacher virtually overnight! In this unusual profession where soft and sweet are generally considered to be the hallmarks of authenticity, I've been the very opposite. Almost from the start, I've had a reputation for being bold, strong, direct, and confident-for more than a few of my contemporaries, too confident.

Ever since my life turned upside down in this way, I've had the rare privilege of meeting and interacting with many different people from all over the world. I've gotten to know lots and lots of men. And I came to recognize that the majority seemed to share the same perplexing postmodern cultural predicament that I did: Very few seem to have ever considered the perennial question, What does it mean to be a man?

I'll never forget my surprise when I discovered a hidden secret about some men who have seriously considered this question. I'm talking about men who are invested in being tough and who can project an air of confidence that is uniquely masculine-the kind of man that I at one time in my life had aspired to be. I'm talking about students of mine who were martial artists of high attainment. I was amazed when I discovered that whenever one of these tough guys was in a situation that required that they trust a little more and give up a bit of the control they were so invested in, they usually fell into an utter panic. Underneath their bravado, even though they weren't afraid of a street fight, they were terrified of real intimacy, especially spiritual intimacy. Ironically, this would come to the surface especially when they came together with other men-spiritual brothers who were committed to creating a new culture together, a culture based upon higher values, the evolution of consciousness, and the commitment to be strong, transparent, and authentic at all times.

I became a man when I found the courage and conviction to trust God more than I trusted the fears and desires and conditioned thinking of my puny ego. The first expression of authentic manhood was when I boldly declared from the therapist's couch, "I don't want to do this anymore; I want to be free!" and noticed no hint of fear in myself when the therapist responded strongly, "But Andrew, you're barely getting started!" The final moment of transition happened eight years later. My longing for liberation had become so all-consuming that I was ready to let go completely-to die to everything I had known and been up to that point. I was sitting in front of my last teacher, passionately telling him, with a hint of desperation, "I want to die, but I don't know how." I can visualize that moment as if it was yesterday, and I clearly remember that he remained silent. At first he looked shocked, and then tears welled up in his eyes.

What it means to be a man, of course, always relates directly to the cultural context within which the question is being asked. We are living in a very challenging time, when old values are crumbling and new ones are just barely beginning to emerge-including what it means to be a real man. My experience as a spiritual teacher in the midst of this upheaval has convinced me beyond any doubt that it will be impossible for the postmodern male to become a vibrant, powerful, and truly evolved expression of the masculine principle unless he pays the ultimate price by transcending his culturally conditioned, overly sensitive, highly narcissistic, and painfully arrogant self. A cultural revolution at the leading edge needs strong, liberated, and highly evolved men to be compelling examples of what is possible for us all. That's what spiritually enlightened men do.

A new column of David Brooks in NYT is-once again- reflecting the felt uncertainty of many for the current shifts and changes.I followed -from time to time- the published work of David Brooks since his first book Bobos in Paradise  (2000)

Its the unease and frustration of postmodern intellectuals and Intellectual intendees of the new global and multi-perspectiivic world in 21st century. The melancholy and its substitutes of irony, cynism and deeply rooted skepticism. This is relevant for the whole approach of Cultural Creatives too. The Brooks Universe hs lots to do with them,.

This is even stronger in debates of European intellectuals of the last 20-30 years. I appreciate Davids approach of adding entertaining qualties and the questions of power, money and social status questions to it.

Another recent question of David Brooks was Where`s the Landslide?  Asking why Obama hasnt created more force in American election landscape. His basic answer is:

"Obama is a sojourner."

Hello? You are asking for a landslide and simultaneaously for a stable ground under the feet?

Will reply to this tenor in another post. it reflects the deeply rooted oscillation process  of Bobo-like orange/green/green -on-steroids in Brooks search for historic change. Would he have searched already he might have found the vmemetic codes, contexts, colors and nodes in Spiral Dynmaics Integral.

For the moment I recommend some KW  philosophy. As in foreword to American bio of Ken Wilber (writen by Frank Visser) KW says something which is closely related to Kierkegaard:

. "Philosophy, to have any meaning at all, must sizzle with passion, boil your brain, fry your eyeballs, or you're just not doing it right. And that applies to the other end of the spectrum of feelings as well. Real philosophy is as gentle as fog and as quiet as tears; it holds the world as if it were a delicate infant, raw and open and vulnerable. "


Lord of the Memes

By DAVID BROOKS

Dear Dr. Kierkegaard,

All my life I've been a successful pseudo-intellectual, sprinkling quotations from Kafka, Epictetus and Derrida into my conversations, impressing dates and making my friends feel mentally inferior. But over the last few years, it's stopped working. People just look at me blankly. My artificially inflated self-esteem is on the wane. What happened?

Existential in Exeter

Dear Existential,

It pains me to see so many people being pseudo-intellectual in the wrong way. It desecrates the memory of the great poseurs of the past. And it is all the more frustrating because your error is so simple and yet so fundamental.

You have failed to keep pace with the current code of intellectual one-upsmanship. You have failed to appreciate that over the past few years, there has been a tectonic shift in the basis of good taste.

You must remember that there have been three epochs of intellectual affectation. The first, lasting from approximately 1400 to 1965, was the great age of snobbery. Cultural artifacts existed in a hierarchy, with opera and fine art at the top, and stripping at the bottom. The social climbing pseud merely had to familiarize himself with the forms at the top of the hierarchy and febrile acolytes would perch at his feet.

In 1960, for example, he merely had to follow the code of high modernism. He would master some impenetrably difficult work of art from T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound and then brood contemplatively at parties about Lionel Trilling's misinterpretation of it. A successful date might consist of going to a reading of "The Waste Land," contemplating the hollowness of the human condition and then going home to drink Russian vodka and suck on the gas pipe.

This code died sometime in the late 1960s and was replaced by the code of the Higher Eclectica. The old hierarchy of the arts was dismissed as hopelessly reactionary. Instead, any cultural artifact produced by a member of a colonially oppressed out-group was deemed artistically and intellectually superior.

During this period, status rewards went to the ostentatious cultural omnivores - those who could publicly savor an infinite range of historically hegemonized cultural products. It was necessary to have a record collection that contained "a little bit of everything" (except heavy metal): bluegrass, rap, world music, salsa and Gregorian chant. It was useful to decorate one's living room with African or Thai religious totems - any religion so long as it was one you could not conceivably believe in.

But on or about June 29, 2007, human character changed. That, of course, was the release date of the first iPhone.

On that date, media displaced culture. As commenters on The American Scene blog have pointed out, the means of transmission replaced the content of culture as the center of historical excitement and as the marker of social status.
...


Now the global thought-leader is defined less by what culture he enjoys than by the smartphone, social bookmarking site, social network and e-mail provider he uses to store and transmit it. (In this era, MySpace is the new leisure suit and an AOL e-mail address is a scarlet letter of techno-shame.)

Today, Kindle can change the world, but nobody expects much from a mere novel. The brain overshadows the mind. Design overshadows art.

This transition has produced some new status rules. In the first place, prestige has shifted from the producer of art to the aggregator and the appraiser. Inventors, artists and writers come and go, but buzz is forever. Maximum status goes to the Gladwellian heroes who occupy the convergence points of the Internet infosystem
..."

Read more...

Whenever I see the Gaia Picture of the World in toto I ask myself: What do I/we really know about developments in all areas? China and India have grown signifcantly on the public radar screens of English speaking world. However other parts of the world - in the global shift from West to East and Noth and to South -are still not perceived sufficiently.

What is the highest mountain in Europe?

What is the fourth largest city of Europe ?

Whats the name of Russias Foreign Minister?

What is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

After the recent eruptive conflicts in Georgia once again the attention of World Public was drawn to The Caucasus Region and its relevance for big Eurasian developments.
While Winston Chruchil once described Russia as the riddle wrapped in the mystery inside an enigma. the even bigger geopolitcal area of Eurasia is topping this feeling of knowing less more than nothing.

I added a speech of Sergej Lavrow recently hold in Moscov. Simply to nake more visible how strong the self consciousness of Russia is again. Moving towards orange enterprises and having left the Cold War thinking for a long time. And the event saw global participation.

 Russia and the World in the 21st Century

Russia and the World in the 21st Century 09-08-2008 15:27 © "Russia in Global Affairs". ? 3, July - September 2008

Sergei Lavrov is Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister. This article was written on the basis of his June 20, 2008 speech at the international symposium "Russia in the 21st Century," organized in Moscow by the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy in partnership with the British think tank Policy Network, and the Alfred Herrhausen Society, within the framework of the latter's project "Foresight - Forging Common Futures in a Multi-Polar World."


In modern international relations it is difficult to find a more fundamental issue than the definition of the current stage in global development. This is important for any country in order to correlate a development strategy and a foreign policy with the vision of the world we live in. It seems that a consensus is already being formed on this score, albeit at the level of the expert community both in Russia and abroad. This is largely a consequence of debates, on which Russia insisted. Moreover, this emerging consensus largely reproduces the analysis which Russia offered as a starting position for discussion in Vladimir Putin's speech in Munich in February 2007.

It is already obvious that individual problems of world politics cannot be solved without understanding the "big issues" of global development and without reaching a common vision of them in the international community.

I will try to outline some of these issues, which are directly related to the building of Russia's foreign-policy strategy.

Read more..

Ressources about Russia:


http://www.russiatoday.com/

http://www.russiaprofile.org/

http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/

www.themoscowtimes.com


Shanghai Cooperation Organization

And, as Don Beck again is giving a seminar in St Petersburg this september, again  some very useful reflections of him I posted earlier here:

From Russia with Love

IN March 2008 Senator McCain hold a speech in Los Angeles which was merely forgotten by World Public. Its Fareed Zakarias merit to pick it up again and demonstate in his article how schizofphrenicc this approach is.

The article is a good example of respectful, honoring and appreciating poltical controversy. And making clear McCains perspectives are hopelessly besides new realities in world poltics.

Text of McCain`s speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council

And the comment of Fareed Zakaria:

Mccain Vs. Mccain

He seems to think he can magically unite the two main strands in the foreign-policy establishment. He can't.


Fareed Zakaria
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 2:03 PM ET Apr 26, 2008
Amid the din of the dueling democrats, people seem to have forgotten about that other guy in the presidential race-you know, John McCain. McCain is said to be benefiting from this politically because his rivals are tearing each other apart. In fact, few people are paying much attention to what the Republican nominee is saying, or subjecting it to any serious scrutiny.

On March 26, McCain gave a speech on foreign policy in Los Angeles that was billed as his most comprehensive statement on the subject. It contained within it the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years. Yet almost no one noticed.

In his speech McCain proposed that the United States expel Russia from the G8, the group of advanced industrial countries. Moscow was included in this body in the 1990s to recognize and reward it for peacefully ending the cold war on Western terms, dismantling the Soviet empire and withdrawing from large chunks of the old Russian Empire as well. McCain also proposed that the United States should expand the G8 by taking in India and Brazil-but pointedly excluded China from the councils of power.

Read More..

I found- inspired by the opening quote of German Foreign Minister
Frank Walter Steinmeier - at a symposium hold earlier this year in
Berlin - an important nexus of considerations about nations, cities
and global dimensions of cultural, societal, poltical and economic
entities. it may be valuable for some re-thinking in other countries
of the world too.

This is the quote from German author Kurt Tucholsky, which the
minister picked up and opened his speech with:

"Nothing makes the Germans loose their composure as much as when
trying to find themselves."

I can only agree to 100%. European countries like UK, Denmark, Netherlands, Scandinavian Region in general, show more rationale when it comes to questions of National identity. My friend George Por posted this:

People Power Will Become An Explosive Force in History

and unfortunately he did not mention Germany in his laudatio:):). Of course, right he is as far as structures, systems and innovative connectivity is the theme.

Spain is country George included too. This is a relevant example too. As this summer a whirlwind of Spanish success in Sports was celebrated. Barcelona and Madrid are cool cities. However the spirit of sports -related to National identity was best described by IHT Journalist Roger Cohen :

Ole! This Spanish Summer

Heres to the German:

Symposium: National Culture

As I am thinking about a bigger article about Germany , Europe and
the World, and dealing with the growth of big cities, metropolises
and connectivity in the Mideast too, it seems to me that this event
from German Goethe Instite picks up the lower quadrants of integral.
4Q/8L Model. And deserves to be seen in spiral view later...

One thing is for sure:

Without a profound liberation of the German soul, spirit , hearts, minds and emotions, to be experineced in the areas of film, music, sports, arts, literature and the oscillation between individual and collective forms of expression, without including the specific mythology and deep searching for the absolute -.not only in thinking -nothing ever will happen.
 
This latent collective power with incredible eruptive potentials is waiting to be shaped and designed with new superordinate goals and purpose. Including the best of the last 250 years, yet setting it free in context of 21st century.

Fully including. appreciating and empowering the inside of the German psyche is a condition sine qua non. This might be the most dangerous, important and fiery part of the job. However it has to be done now.

"Symposium: National Culture

...We are today in the grip of an apparently insoluble paradox: the
integration debate at home, the efforts to break down national
borders to promote a Europe which also defines itself in cultural
terms and the reality of worldwide globalisation have rendered
impossible a clear distinction between the internal and the external.
We are called upon to revise our conventional notions of
identification with nation states and to become receptive to a world-
wide flow of information and culture. At the same time a community of
values and a return to national cultural traditions are called for,
literary canons are published and debates are conducted on the
question of a dominant culture. But how can we simultaneously
cultivate our national cultural heritage and do justice to the
postulate of "going global"?

Eight forums approached the subject matter geographically,
historically and artistically. Forum I tackled the question of the
cultural constitutionality of the countries in Eastern Europe and the
causes of neonational politics. The need to find a national identity
also seems to be growing again in western countries - to what extent
does this run counter to the European idea, or is a commitment to
one's own "cultural nation" its imperative component? (Forum II.) The
Japan Foundation analysed in Forum III the status of the national
understanding of culture in Asia, for example in Japan, China and
Korea. Forum IV was dedicated to the way history is dealt with: How
have the historical perceptions of the different generations changed
over the past few decades and how does this change from the point of
view of "Germans with a migratory background"?

On the second day the debate focused on the arts and the media. Forum
V was concerned with music and pursued, as an example, the discussion
of the "German sound": to what extent can music and its
interpretation still be localised in national terms, or has the
reception of music long overcome all national boundaries? How
strongly does music shape a feeling of national identity? In contrast
the theatre is certainly the art form that is most firmly bound to a
linguistic and cultural region. Forum VI therefore tackled the
significance of the performing arts in determining the national
character of culture alongside an increasingly internationalised
festival scene. The role of the media in the collective search for
identity was examined by Forum VII taking the example of television.
And in conclusion, representatives of the National Museums in Berlin
discussed with partners from the international museum scene the
functional transformation of the museum and the reception of culture
in a globalised world.

The debate was introduced by the American sociologist Saskia Sassen,
who will talk about "Das Paradox des Nationalen"."

The following interview was conducted in 2006 by THE GURADIAN. Its
with Saskia Sassen and adds proper insights about complexity in
regional, national and global dimensions.


John Sutherland meets a social scientist who argues that we need to
understand the full complexities and dangers of globalisation:

The Ideas Interview: Sakia Sassen

This presentation was given by Don Beck in October 2000 at the State of the World Forum, New York. As conlicts in Tbet/China, Russia/Georgia, Kosovo in Europe, israel/Palestine, Zimbabwe and dozens and hundreds of other geopolitical tension zones show , and increasing amount of new global journalism from people like Fareed Zakaria, Roger Cohen, Parag Khanna, Mark Leonard, Gabor Steingart and others is dealing with broader  and deeper perspectives, its good to have this overview about the underlying dynamics which can liberate the dilemmas into growth and sustainable win-win.win situations.

For me, in the year 2008, this presentation has even multiplied its signifcance. European, North American and other leaders from developed worlds as much as those from the emerging regions are well advised to shape their agenda in the light of these perspectives.

And the article recommended by Don Beck in his presentation from the Atlantic Monthly written by Robert Kaplan  can be read here, for all NOn- subsribers of AM:

Was Democracy just a Moment?

Was written already in 1997!

Stages of Social Development

The Cultural Dynamics that Spark Violence,
Spread Prosperity, and Shape Globalization

THE TWELVE POSTULATES

Don Edward Beck, Ph. D.

Debates over globalization are but the surface-level collisions of the deeper
tectonic plate-like cultural fault lines that remain hidden from view. The
failure to both understand and deal with these evolutionary core value systems
result in needless clashes over worldviews, constant threats of "us" vs. "them"
or class-based violence, and expensive, politicized solutions that are both
inappropriate and ineffectual. The WTO debates and conflicts in Seattle exposed
these fault-lines. But where are the integral, cohesive principles and processes that
can bridge over the great, global divides? Who can untie the global knot?
How can the positive elements within both capitalistic thinking and socialistic goals
be meshed for the common good? Consider the Twelve Postulates, an integral
initiative based on an understanding of the complex dynamics that forge and
transform human cultures, communities, and countries.

Quo Vadis, Humanity?

In this post Cold War and postmodern age, we are asking serious questions regarding the preeminence of rigid ideologies, national boundaries, proprietary interests, technological utopias and naive, egalitarian demands in crafting the next global mesh. We hear all of these voices. We register all of the claims. We record all of the "truths." We see all of the demonstrations and displays of street theatre. But, we have a sense they all stream from the Tower of Babel. No wonder the realities are so diverse; the thoughts so confusing, the solutions so divisive. It is as if all six billion people have climbed on top of the Tower and are now shouting slogans at us. All seem to want a place in the sun, a position in the niche, and free tickets to Disney World.

If one were to do a content analysis of all the books and articles written on the global gaps, or arguments presented in academic or think tank settings, or even the political dialogue in national parliaments or international summits, we would see several clear and distinct patterns. Capitalism is great or greedy. Socialism is humane or harmful. Technology is a blessing or a curse. The rich are that way because they worked hard or simply won life's lottery. The poor are that way because they are undisciplined or oppressed by the rich. Economic redistribution will level the playing field or dumb down global intelligences. Which is it?

Most of the discussions center around competing economic models, open political access, mandated equality of opportunity and results, and a host of other external, top-down solutions. Arguments grow in emotional intensity around the size and distribution of budgets. Money becomes the magic elixir that will cure all ills. If we build attractive places for all to live the "losers" will be transformed into "winners" by simply changing street addresses. New rules and regulations will transform hearts and minds. Everybody will benefit from the rising tides of prosperity as the free market makes global waves. Everybody will benefit from the largess of big government, using taxes to fund social work schemes. And, of course, brilliant technological innovations will bring the Internet into each and every home, with or without electricity. Right.

But, why haven't these policies worked in the past? Look at Africa. Look at Haiti. Look at the Balkans. Look at Russia. Look at the Mississippi Delta. Look at Yorkshire's coal mining villages. Look at American Indian reservations. Look at the huddled masses everywhere yearning for a loaf of bread. Look at India's Calcutta kids. Look at border sweat shops and urban cesspools. Look at the number of "minority" teenagers in American prisons. In spite of all of the money spent, expectations raised, programs imposed, "good deeds" celebrated and "good works" performed, our problems persist. Why?

Read More

This is from the blog of Keith Rice

wwwi.integratedsociopsychology.net

its a good first analysis in spiral light about what is going on in the Caucasus, and not only there. This is how Keith summarizes it:


The latest Blog on www.integratedsociopsychology.net looks at the underlying
causes of the conflict and how natural PURPLE tensions are exploited by
RED-driven demagogues. 'Tribal'War in South Ossetia' compares the 'Velvet
Divorce' break-up of Czechoslavakia with the brutal wars of separation in the
former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia and suggests considerations for
the United States and other countries concerned to intervene.


SPIEGEL ONLINE







Tribal War in South Ossetsia



Random Thoughts of a SocioPsychologist -

Tribal War in South Ossetia

Posted by keith at 12:34 pm, August 15th 2008.

As the Russian-Georgian conflict in South Ossetia inches towards a volatile, dangerous and perhaps quite short-lived peace, it is a good time for those who would intervene - ‘soft cops' like France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and ‘hard cops' such as American Vice President Dick Cheney - to study the nature of such conflicts, how they arise, how they can be managed, hopefully resolved and, better still, prevented. Better informed, their interventions may have a chance of working.

With ethnic Russian breakaway forces in Abkhazia equally determined to resist Georgian attempts at reintegration and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pronouncing that Moscow cannot work with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, with both armies bloodied and ready to resume combat at the slightest provocation, with civilian dead estimated in the thousands and the two governments hurling accusations of ethnic cleansing and would-be genocide at each other, there is every potential for an awful lot more lives to be lost in the next few months.

At root South Ossetia is a conflict of PURPLE tribalism. The PURPLE vMEME seeks security in belonging; in belonging to some, it demarks itself from others - all too easily leading to prejudice and discrimination against those who are "not of our tribe". Thus, it marks the tribe of Lancashire as distinct from the tribe of Yorkshire and the clan of MacDonald from the clan of Campbell. But where supra-identities can be created, Lancastrians and Yorkshiremen are both ‘English' and MacDonald and Campbell are both ‘Scottish' and England can be marked as distinct from Scotland. English and Scottish can - and have been - ‘British'  when dealing with external ‘beyond' challenges - eg: building the British Empire and fighting the Germans in two World Wars. Now, of course, Britons and Germans are ‘Europeans'. Yet still there is prejudice between Lancastrians and Yorkshiremen and between MacDonalds and Campbells.

Racial, religious and political differences can all be used as tribal markers by PURPLE. In fact, anything that distinguishes your own tribe from another.

So ethnic Russians, as they see themselves, are not from the same tribe as ethnic Georgians, as they see themselves. The ‘other lot' are not from our tribe.

That, in itself, need not be a problem. Psychologists from Clare W Graves to William Samuel have reported that studies of tribes untainted by anything beyond their own tribal existence describe them as showing little aggression. When they do become aggressive, it is a defensive aggression to protect themselves and/or their resources - and one of the most important resources for a tribe is its land. So South Ossetia, like Bosnia and Kosovo before it, is a tribal conflict over land.

Unfortunately there seems to be little appreciation of PURPLE tribalism in the more sophisticated thinking of key Western policymakers. Some 12-years-plus after the start of the tribal wars which tore Yugoslavia apart, the United States' invasion of Iraq got bogged down in internecine tribal wars which the invaders had failed utterly to anticipate. Even now it can be argued that one of the single biggest obstacles to progress in Iraq is the US determination to impose one man/one (secret) vote democracy - a BLUE system beyond the understanding of many Iraqis whose PURPLE looks to their tribal leaders to be told what to do and how to think.

Read More..

I am crosposting an entry from Aug 1 which originally was placed at "Integral Action in the World" Pod. The whole threas -with voices from Jikishin, Don Beck and Steve McIntosh can be followed:

here

As soon Steve has posted his follow-up entry from the meeting of evolutionaries -July 2008 -- in Deepak Chopras Center in Carlsbad California, to recount his experiences there, I will come back to this theme.

The last years made it increasingly clear for me to take into acount for true global integral action ALL memetic layers. looking alone to China/Tibet and Russia/Georgia last time leaves no doubt for me that Integral is called for uping the downside.too.

 

"I am crossposting this from the Sdi Yahoo Group. The newsletter is in bold.
Why do I mirror it here, in the section of how to introduce SDi to developing nations?

Because I see the necessity to adress crucial questions for the Cultural Creative Movement in the context of global developments.


This is from the newsletter of Barbara Marx Hubbard www.evolvingnow.com

Again the cultural creatives are mentioned. And the 2009 Networking
event in Washington D.C.:

Networking Creativity to Solve Global Challenges  http://www.worldforum.org/state-2009.htm

While I agree in many ways about the advents and events of the
converging and emerging realties there seems to be too much emphasis
again on the "rich green" movement. Again I am remembering the
reminder of Alan Tonkin:

"The basic split in the world is that around 70% of the world
population cover the spectrum Purple/Red/Blue with the other 30%
covering Blue Order, Orange Enterprise and Green Environmental
issues. If the UN was based on a Security Council based on one man
one vote it would become a Red/Blue organisation. Until there is a
fundamental shift in values the developed world is going to battle to
get Western style democracy to work however much they might like to
think it will work. In terms of our findings with the Global Values
Monitor (GVM) there are minimal percentages in Yellow Integral with
almost no Turquoise to speak of"

So I see too much bombastic tenor in this "Wheel of Cocreation" with
Ray, Garrison, Gore et al as masterminds. In exactly the sense that
the foundational layers for global breakthroughs are not put into the
spotlight.

Am I roughly wrong?

Isnt the memetic foundation work to be done in the nations themselves?

Once again aligning properly in healthy doses this growing momentum
of such approaches with the basic values of human consciousness seems
to be the more appropriate perspective.

I do not see any SINGLE convergence zone as B.Marx Hubbard describes.
But lots of them in the diverse confluences of the human spiral.

Heres to the Newsletter of Barbara Marx Hubbard:

"...

We have passed the tipping point. We have entered the convergence
zone. Everything that is arising is converging and connecting.
Everything that is breaking down is accelerating.

We have been projecting the transformation in 2012. It is happening
now. It began for me when Jim Garrison and Paul Ray joined with
key "wheel-builders," (those connecting various systems within the
whole social body) at my Wisdom University Intensive on Social
Synergy and Evolutionary Politics in May.

Jim and Paul presented Paul's latest findings on the rise
of 'cultural creativity' or cultural creatives. Building on Paul' s
work in early 2008 Ray and Garrison surveyed thousands of people from
all over the world to determine how many are "waking up" to the
values of cultural creatives. They hope this information will provide
evidence to many of the world's political and social organizations,
as well as to the cultural creative's, that there is a new value
system active around the world that when organized can have a
significant impact and even win elections. "They have a bold plan to
organize and mobilize a post modern renaissance..." quoted from the
current issue (Aug-Oct 2008) of What Is Enlightenment? Magazine.
...

The Design Team of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution has been
invited to work with them on a major conference in the fall of 2009
in Washington, DC to mobilize this vital community of innovators and
creators. There we will assemble a WHEEL OF COCREATION filled with
major innovators in every sector of the Wheel.

Jim just sent me his powerful GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION. "The human race
must wake up to the fact that our days are numbered to 48 months or
less before the global climatic situation could spin out of control
and undermine human civilization itself." We should join with Jim in
this Call. To read this important document Click Here.

http://www.evolvingnow.com/images/JG-CallToAction.doc

Our crisis is a birth of a new humanity. We have been born and now
must take our first "coordinated breath" in order to survive. All the
forces for positive change are poised to be mobilized. During the
Apollo lunar landing there was one single goal that united the
greatest technological achievement of humanity: "Send a man to the
moon and bring him back alive." Now the goal is to "Bring Life on
Earth Forward Alive." This crisis is an evolutionary driver, perhaps
just what is required for synergistic convergence to work."

Whole thread -with statements of Steve McIntosh and Don Beck about the issue of convergence zones and cultural creatives - can be followed:

here

These are some Higlights from Google 2008 Zeitgeist Conference in UK.

And a short summary from a participant:

Google Zeitgeist Europe 2008 Summary

"I have just returned from one of the most impressive conferences I've ever attended. Google Zeitgeist Europe (not to be confused with Google's search trends service) is an annual 2-day conference, which began in 2006, and is by invitation only for around 400 of Google's strategic partners in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region. This year's Zeitgeist was held at The Grove in Hertfordshire, an impressive English estate about 40 km's North-West of Central London.

Thankfully, it wasn't a trade conference and Google products weren't pushed down your throat as you might've expected, although there was some obvious tie-ins with certain products like YouTube and of course very strong branding throughout the event. The agenda was somewhat TED-like with a diverse mix of technologists, politicians, scientists and entrepreneurs as speakers."

Opening Speech was held by Gordon Brown, British PM . Other well lnown figtures like Queen Rania, Joi Ito, Salman Rushdie, Chad Hurley, Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergei Brin etc etc were at the stage too.

My distinct feeling and perception is that once again- this memetic pattern seems to be on steroids- orange/green/green co-creation wheels are moved. With yellow sparkling points , yes, but terribly starving in pre-orange maps, momentum, insights and foundations. Even with black wholes...

Its good that the conference was held near London. In one of the European connectivity zones which are so vital in many ways. As soon as I am only thinking about what is going on in Eastern Europe, Russia, the Eurasian region and not to mention Middle East, Africa and Broader Asia, I must say and call out:

Help ending poverty and starving of memetic pre-orange in 70 Percent of World Population. More than 4 Billion people! Tell European and American Top Leaders -especially next US President -what kind of Manhattan Project (Steve mcIntosh and Tom Friedman were labeling it this way)is needed. and begin to understand that ZEITGEIST isnt merely creativity and technology in real time and democratised.

Iits about deep transformations -emergence and convergence - on various levels and orbits of complexity in the codes and structures of human consciousness.

Salon.com offers in its conversation section an interview with Ludivine Sagnier who played in the film "The girl cut in two".. This is a good example from contemporary French Cinema in special and about French Culture in general.

Director Claude Chabrol says in one statement of this erotic suspense thriller:

"The Obscenity lies in the head of the audience."

Thats in nuce lots of French -and I like the vitality and Intelligence of French Cinema -essence in culture, cinema, philosophy and literature. The sensual/intellectual dance around esprit, joy de vivre, imagination, intelliigence, individuality , seduction, desier, lust and mystery.

While Ken Wilber has said already enough about French postmodern thinking, structuralism and as much its potential for postmodern thinking as its cul-de-sacs  this work of the Grandmaster of French Cinema and its comments by actress Ludivine Sagnier offers as much dilemma as possibility. In my eyes.

The plot of the film is ending in drama and dilemma. As it is often done in European cinemea. As soon as passion and deep yearning emerge in consciousness and find expression the consequences are fitful and full of traps.:):)

While American cinema favors "Happy End!" it nevertheless is somehow flat about the dimensions adressed in french cinema. At least the Hollywood examples.

The good thing with this film is  its indeed a stairway to the imagination of the audiences.
And this is the genius and secret of French Cinema. No matter how much drama or dilemma is experienced in life the connection to the sources of life, to imagination, desire and joy de vivre are discovered and set free again and again...There is no final darkness. And sensuality , sexuality and truth and beauty are in no moment ever dis-connected.....

The trailer:


.


Andrew O `` Hehir interviews French Actress Ludiivine Sagnier



By Andrew O'Hehir

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008 07:01 EDT


An actress cut in two Listen to the interview




Americans first encountered French actress Ludivine Sagnier in the summer of 2003, when her oft-topless ingénue role opposite Charlotte Rampling in François Ozon's erotic thriller "Swimming Pool" made her an instant international sex symbol. Perhaps it will disappoint some of Sagnier's fans that when I met her recently in New York she wasn't wearing a bikini, or half of one. Instead she was clad in an attractive but relatively modest summer sundress -- and was five months pregnant with her second child. (She and her partner, actor Nicolas Duvauchelle, already have a 3-year-old daughter.)

Both before and after her performance as the bewitching blond cipher of "Swimming Pool," it was clear that Sagnier is among the most striking young actresses in contemporary French cinema, and one who's nearly certain to make the jump across the Atlantic at some point. After her English-language roles in "Swimming Pool" and P.J. Hogan's "Peter Pan" (as Tinkerbell) she began hearing Hollywood offers; many of them, I am guessing, rested on blondeness, hotness, Frenchness and not wearing many clothes.

So she has stayed in France, becoming a mom and broadening her range with starring roles in Claude Miller's Chekhov-inspired "La Petite Lili," Jacques Fieschi's decadent thriller "La Californie" and Laurent Tirard's period piece "Molière," a modest art-house success in the United States. In just the last year Sagnier has appeared in three acclaimed and vastly different French films: Christophe Honoré's New Wave-inspired musical "Love Songs," Miller's Jewish-family saga "A Secret" (which will open here next month) and Claude Chabrol's "A Girl Cut in Two," which occasioned her New York visit.

lRead more..

This is one of the very few statements of the last weeks- regarding the Russia Georgia Conflict and its broader nexus and context - which is really impressing me and convincing me that no global thinking -no matter how it is labeled exactly- is possible without this great long term imagination which brings back military strategic thinking to civil society.

See this introductory interview with Alex Steffen:

Thomas P.M. Barnett: The WorldChanging Interview

This is no easy saying for me. As a recognized conscientious objector (Kriegsdienstverweigerer)-though I am no peacenik - and living in Germany/Europe where soft power has better Pr than flexing military musles -strategic thinking must be defended in any form of public discussions.

Where I see lots of crossover is of course the approach of Spiral Dynamics Integral. And i am sure in the next decades laqrge scale systems change will benefit LOTS of exchange with Toms view. And vice versa.

The style is fresh, untamed, direct and -unlike others who write more from a sideline like Robert Kaplan- is clearly leading to roadmaps, blueprint and action guidelines.

Here`s to Tom lengthy blog entry:

The Core Comes with Competing Rule Sets



I am asked, "Why not jump on the demonize Russia bandwagon? Is this all about protecting your notion of the Core and Russia's membership"

[second iteration, and yes, I get as many chances as I want because this is my blog]

Of course that has a lot to do with it. Grand strategy isn't about changing your focus every couple of years. Done well and pursued vigorously, you are doomed to piss off most of the people most of the time, because you'll be a contrarian at points when people's dander is up. But if you want to be a team player, try football.

My initial definition of the Core has been and always will be: these are not places where America should expect to war (Duh! That's how I came up with the Map in the first place!). You can counter, "But we should expect to go to war with everybody all the time! That's the only prudent thing to do." But I disagree. A strategy of defending against all possibilities is not a strategy, but a ceding of all initiatives to your enemies. Plus, successful grand strategy is about maximizing your friends and minimizing your enemies. It's not about a fair fight, but a completely unfair routing of your opponents. You just need to be clear about who those are and who your friends are and who you can live with and work with from among the undecideds.

Reducing the battlespace, so to speak, is something I consider to be a very profound reality/principle/goal (because not doing so tends to waste my troops' lives), and so I was willing, in the first iteration of the map, to slip in as many countries as possible, knowing that some of my choices (Russia and China in particular) were controversial, forward-leaners that could slip back (to the delight of many). [And yeah, I was plenty ballsy doing this in the E Ring of the Pentagon in the months right after 9/11, but I saw my chance.]
...
The blogosphere is a large, unruly mob that sometimes exhibits the wisdom of crowds but often just processes emotion. I have no intention of steering that process. This is a workspace I use for my intellectual musings. It is neither my "official statement" (which usually doesn't include F-bombs--mostly true) nor my "frantic attempt" to do anything other than simply give you a glimpse into my thinking today. I refuse to take the blog that seriously because I see no evidence that it steers serious action but rather reflects real world events (although I do appreciate its reporting skills). I view my blog as largely a heuristic device, meaning a teaching tool. I think it can shape minds over the long haul but is a poor source for decision-making because--again--it's more the unruly mob and I'm with James Madison and his concerns on that one.

On "Mad Men" there is this mantra of, "The day you sign a new client is the day you lose an old one." It's a smart admission of real-world reality. Every time you make a call, you alienate some while solidifying with others and winning some new. The day you start worrying about holding onto your audience more than your thinking, you're finished as a useful source for strategic logic.

I know who I am and what I'm trying to achieve. I am uninterested in racing ahead to the front of the mob, pretending to lead."

Read more..

Steve McIntosh  -author of "Integral Consciousness And The Future Of Evolution"continues his blogging about recent travels and meetings in California. While tenor is careful appreciation of new F2F atmosphere as surplus to other dimensions, it points to FUTURE WORK .

And a radical innovative integrated communication strategy which puts a global space of integrated perspectives and intiatives above any specific labeling. And, no doubt, the advent of digital technology and real time . intercontinental connectivity should accelerate and and increase visib- ility of most diverse action -in similar contexts- signifcantly.

Espcially the creative hundreds and thousands of subcultural action  and experiences clusters with the more corporate and organizational worlds , institutions,, cities, even cultures en gros.

The IBM Innovation Jam 2006  in Beijing  was a good prototype in performing those functions.

Travels in California


For the past few weeks I've been traveling in California in connection with my Integral Philosophy work. My trip included an invitational event at Deepak Chopra's center in Carlsbad, a talk at the new Santa Monica Center for Integral Living, a talk in Berkley at Bay Area Integral, and a variety of presentations at the Integral Theory Conference at John F. Kennedy University. I finished the trip with a weekend at Esalen on the Big Sur coast where I gave a workshop on Integral Consciousness. This post includes brief comments on the highlights.

Contnue Reading......

Just from HuffPost Barack Obama :has chosen Joe Biden. Hopefully the news is correct. This point in HuffPost article seems most relevant for me:

"Among those on the short list, Biden brought the most experience in defense or foreign policy _ areas in which Obama fares relatively poorly in the polls compared with Republican Sen. John McCain.

While the war in Iraq has been supplanted as the campaign's top issues by the economy in recent months, the recent Russian invasion of Georgia has returned foreign policy to the forefront.

In addition to foreign policy experience, Biden, a native of Scranton, Pa., has working-class roots that could benefit Obama, who lost the blue-collar vote to Clinton during their competition for the presidential nomination."

Indeed, no global leadership at the top can be realized today without referral to geopoltical isssues and foreign policy. it will be a historic field testing for integral and evolutionary approaches next years how strong and fast they can tap into this field and inject advisory knowledge and impulses in the corridors of power, media and global forums.

Joe Biden is Obamas VP Running Mate

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.

Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.

Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.

In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.

The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, preferring not to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.

Obama's decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know

I found -one again -a very significant full flash:) of insights- nearly unparalled in the chorus of voices for global change -from Don Beck about the modus of planting seeds for global human emergence.

Referring to expalnations about the core of Clare Graves approach where he clearly defined the uniqueness of Sdi in placing the whirling dynamics in the midst of the 4Q/8L model, into the vibrating and osciallating center of the vortex of the spiral.

To place the various nodes of Center for Human Emergence in the local spaces and countries is playing global chess at highest level.

"I must also mention that, as many of your know, I spend very little time trying to match and mix different developmental models since, I believe, each is each and must stand alone. Each model will reflect (1) the world view(s) of the founding minds; (2) the nature, form, and process of data collection or verification of the model; (3) the research population involved in the construction of the model; (4) the specific culture with major beliefs and norms that impact the entire process; and (5) the underlying history of the theory building personalities and their associates and participants, and their specific motives for creating the model.

I view the Graves-Spiral Dynamics-Integral package to be unique in that it is less about levels and more about the dynamics of the emerging spiral, the master code that generates the other codes, and the manner in which emergence happens within diverse and even contrasting habitats. Think of it as a seed that is planted in an indigenous culture (or garden) so that the nature of the soil, the weather patterns, and the forms of gardening will produce different variations in the plants and their respective products.

This is one of the primary reasons I have insisted that local people in a culture or society develop the capacities to present Spiral Dynamics within their own language, traditions, history, and context, rather than simply have me arrive with the "truth" from Texas. If you have seen the back of the Center for Human Emergence document you will see the large number of people who plant the seeds of emergence within their own worlds.  .."

The IBM Global CEO Study, the largest study of chief executives ever conducted,reveals a dramatic increase in the number of global business leaders who see important change ahead, and also highlights how the ability to absorb and manage change is widening the gap between winners and losers in the global economy. See the news release at

http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressr...

As Change has now an irreversible buzz- as much in  Eiurope, USA and elsewhere - I found 5 points from

Dorothea Zimmer who is representing  the yet small Spiral Dynamics Integral Group

in Germany, very helpful.  They were written down in 2006 orginally adressing the Israel /Palestine intitiative with Don Beck and Elza Maalouf:

http://www.che-mideast.org/

I am preparing myself now for final countdown to get CHE Germany started. It was in the past years and it is right a big , even tough challenge to come to this moment. With Germany, Austria and Switzerland having roundabout 100 Mliion inhabitants in most diverse cultural regional habitats, and Germany only slowly awakening from the Post WW 2 Trauma -this fresh surge of new positive We Feelings during FIFA WorldCup 2006 in Germany -this year 20008 is clearly the defining moment of start with the work in Germany in an organized and designed way.

Though thousands of Change Impulses are on the way  here the last three decades never a clearly defined integral and evolutionary center for human emrgence could build enough traction. Yes, there was -and I was engage in it for the last 10 years - debating and struggling with the conceptual space, with paradim, argument, modelling and theory of talking integral. These fiery and often emotional controversies -even dramatically shaped tensions and frictions- can now become the fertile ground for power devleopments which can contribute then to the European integration in East and West, to new Impulses reaching out to the Eurasian area and going global in general.

It was first in 2002 and 2003 when Dorothea and I had extended discussions and worked together for first steps regarding the world of work and jobs in Germany. Was about a big American Company entering the European Market via Germany.

And while there are Joint Wilber Study groups in Germany, Austria and Switzerland already, this approach of Human Emergence for German speaking countries will be -for me - the strongest inititiation big bang to enter the mainstream. Practicing  and walking the talk what Steve McIntosh recently said:

": First, we could demythologize the idea of "the great shift", recognizing that there is not just one shift, there are actually many shifts in consciousness going on simultaneously in the world-a shift from pre-traditional to traditional in Africa, a shift from traditional to modern in Asia, and in America, and ongoing shift from modern to postmodern, as well as the beginning of a shift from postmodern to integral.

We could also be more discerning about the nature and behavior of cultural evolution, and recognize the fallaciousness of the wishful thinking that expects that the world is going to "wake up" and suddenly become "cultural creative" in a miraculous transformation. "

Here`s to Dorotheas statements:


"In our talking and writing here about the Israel-Palestine-conflict and what SDi has to offer, I found five points very helpful to open minds and widen perspectives of people.

I want to share that with you.

 

And I want to encourage everybody, to focus on getting the insights of SDi where people need them, especially those who do real work and try to find stuff that works for burning problems. While we were here focusing on this challenge and be ready to walk the talk, within a few steps we moved without much effort to personal contacts with people in high positions of responsability and leadership.... 
 

These are the points:

 

Objectify history

In Germany of course we know what we are talking about! Many people focus mainly on the past to find causes for guilt and blame or ressources for change. Nothing wrong with that, it is part of the process of differentiation and getting conscious about history. Yet the time is more than ripe to move beyond and let the needs of the presence and the extraordinary possibilities of the future lead our journey.

 

Find a superordinate goal, that meets the needs of the people, raises ressources and opens minds and hearts

C. G. Jung says, that we cannot solve our major problems. Instead we have to  grow out of them. With new and wider perspectives and goals on the horizon, the old problems loose urgence and fade away. Given enough people involved which focus on a superordinate goal for both Isrealis and Palestinians, then life will provide the creations needed. It is time to find visions for a world, that is more exciting than fights and wars and is more secure and challenging than peace.  It is all about planting the seeds into minds and hearts.

 

Identify the memetic dance, beyond the identification with one side or personal preferences

Develop vertical thinking. Identify the deeper dynamics of cultural streams, battles, dreams and emergence. Identify politicians and leaders who already move in this direction and support them. One example: Our chancellor Angela Merkel talked to a journalist, who asked her about the further promotion of democracy and free elections for countries like Palestine after the victory of Hamas in Palestine. She said: Well, it seems, that we have to learn more about the conditions for democracy. Democracy and free elections may have to be more an endpoint in our strategy not the first step.

Isntt this cool? She starts to think about Stratified Democracy
 

The conflict between Israel and Palestine only mirrors the conflicts within each of the two countries

If tomorrow there would be peace between Israel and Palestine, we would be confronted with civil wars within the countries. Blaming and fighting the enemy outside ignores the polarizations inside. Encourage people to find superordinate goals also within the countries to unite the moderates, the radical middle, and weaken the extremes.

 

Dialogue and peace-making are part of the process. And Natural Design makes the difference!

We do not want to engineer people or manipulate them for a greater good. This wont change anything, rather perpetuates the dance or even makes things worse. Arguments do nott reach people, if they do nott meet their needs or deeper beliefs. Natural Design offers Life conditions, so that people live with less blocks and pains and with more joy, fulfillment and also possibilities to evolve to their next level of existence, metameme or perspective. This is a process that cannot be imposed from outside, but co-created with people from inside. No detailed recepy, as some ask for. More opening doors for new thinking.

 

Isnt this the time, where the global SDi-constellation may have its first real chance and challenge to prove its power, spirit and devotion to the third win, means life, the spirall? I believe in the tremendeous power of the collectiv, a constellation, moved by individuals, who walk the talk. In Germany we had a extensive drive to individualism after the tremendeous, but pathological collectivism of the Nazi-regime. It is now, that leading media here start to talk about engagement for a higher purpose and the possibilities to change society, if many move into a similar direction for a common goal.

And as Margaret Mead  emphazised, there must not be so many to change direction of history. So: if not we, who else? If not now, when?"



 

Some critical observations from SPIEGEL ONLINE Washinton Correspondentt Gabor Steingart regarding the Democratic Convention. These insights show that no magic bullets and mantras for change are enough. Even gaps inside one party need to be outgrown and understood.

No flying carpets with "WE are all one" songs are working. in the case of US Elections 2008 this realzation has its coming out even before Oabama is nominated....

Democrats Divided by an Obama Shaped Wedge

By Gabor Steingart

At the Democratic National Convention this week, it will become clear that the Democrats have a long way to go before they can speak of unity. The party is split into at least three factions.

Monday evening will witness the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. It promises to be a raucous spectacle, complete with much talk about "change." Indeed, only one other word might have a chance of competing: "unity." But no matter how often we hear that word, the Democrats won't be able to cover up one glaring fact: This year, there isn't one single Democratic Party. Rather, there are at least three of them.

Continue Reading....

 Forbes once again ranked the worlds 100 most powerful women. It revealing how power, access and control to revenue and public viisibility are defined and seen. German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel is Number One again.



Congratulations, Frau Bundeskanzlerin, from me, from this place too. Hope one day we can contribute something together for Innovation and Change in Germany and Europe together. You might not know right now that I am one of your biggest fan since 1999 when you wrote this remarkable article in FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG 3 days before Christmas.

You have started to exemplify beginning of understanding of stratified democracy. Your ability to shape biggest constellations for change with feeling, power, determination, timing and intelligence -on national, EU and World Levels is unique.

And:):) I am delighted how you expressed your joy publicly in 2006 during lFIFA Worldcup 2006


 
Special Report
The World's 100 Most Powerful Women
Edited by Mary Ellen Egan and Chana R. Schoenberger 08.27.08, 6:00 PM ET


Our annual ranking of the most powerful women in the world measures "power" as a composite of public profile--calculated using press mentions--and financial heft. The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money the woman controls. 

A chief executive "controls" the revenue of her business, for instance, while a head of state gets the country's gross domestic product. The raw numbers are modified to allow comparisons across financial realms.

For the third year running Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, is the world's most powerful woman. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (overall rank: 28) is the woman with the highest public profile, resulting from the intense media scrutiny of her failed presidential bid.

More ...

 The World's Most Powerful Women

The new Integral leadership Review August 2008 includes:

Table of Contents, August 2008

 Leadership Quote: John C. Gordan and Joyce K. Berry

 Leading Comments: This Issue

Russ Volckmann says this:

"I am continuously amazed at the growing amount of work that is being done related to an integral, developmental and transdisciplinary approach to the subject of leadership."

And, indeed, the approaches, practices and engagements are as much emerging as converging. Like in other areas of Integral Consciousness. Once again it becomes obvious that no magic "shift" is happening. No dreamy fantasies about the "secret" and "no size fits all" approach.

As Bureau Chief of Integral leadership Review for German speaking countries Switzerland, Austria and Germany I am preparing -together with Dorothea Zimmer who is representing SDi Core Group in these countries -an article about the special situation in Germany and relationship Germany to Europe.  This hasnt been done for ANY country right now..except the Netherlands. and I know the time has come.

Its a risky thing and therefore I willl take responsibility in it. Leadership and National IdIentity, European Identity and Global Identity can only be articulated by people living and working here. Thus providing as much first- second- and third person perspec tives.

And I will -as far as my rare time allows me, as Blogging demands lots of continued and intense attention in cognitive, emotional , mental and energetic ways -circle my blogging increasingly around my very personal ansd subjective view and feelings regarding these issues. This what Ken Wilber -in his Wilber 5 Work cycle- describes at perceiving the horizones and perspectives of the 4 quadrants from inside AND outside. thus creating basically 8 hori-zones. 

It will look very subjective and partial, however  passionately pursuing and expressing my feelings as much as my insights. Immersing without compromise into the unknown as much s the chartered territory. Knowing we all are strangers in a strange land. The breathing and fragile invisible connection bertween most intimate sharings and public communication makes us vulnerable. 

But only in this way the black boxes of minds, hearts and guts become transparent at tleast. The  personal stories of public leaders in the US elections, europe and elsewehere are often more touching for me than programmes, concepts and the predictable soundbytes.

 Integral Theory and Integral Action, Part 11: Mark Edwards and Russ Volckmann

Leadership Coaching Tip: Aboodi Shabi, The Availability of a Leader

A Fresh Perspective: Leadership Down Under-An Interview with Ron Cacioppe

 Dialogue: Andrew Campbell and Patric Roberts, The Horse, the Magpie, the Buffalo and the Hoop

 Kalman's Kosmos: Sara Ross-Goldstein, J. A. (2007). "A New Model for Emergence and Its Leadership Implications."

Article: Robin Wood, Catalysing the Second Renaissance: Creating a Sustainable Business Model for a Thriving Planet

 Article: Raghu Ananthanarayan, Leadership in Indian Corporations Through the SDi Lens

Integral for the Masses: Keith Bellamy, Leadership Lessons from Randy

 Article: Helen Titchen, The Both/And of Leadership in Living Systems Change

 Article: Barbara Crosby, Theoretical Foundations of Integrative Leadership

 Leadership Cartoon: For Bill Bates

Leadership Cartoon: Guest Cartoonist, Mark Hughes

 Article: Brian van der Horst, The Law of Requisite Contrariety


Global Values Update: Alan Tonkin, Developing Countries, Democracy & Values

Article: Amiel Handelsman, Leaders Want to be Loved: What So Wrong with That?


Notes from the Field

 Roberto Bonilla, Integral Mexico Project

 Laura Horne, The Simplicity of Complexity, Don Beck and Elsa Maalouf at the World Futures Society Conference

Edward Kelly, Gayle Young and Russ Volckmann, Integral Theory Conference 2008
 Kim Smith, Photo Journal of the Integral Theory Conference

 Robin Wood, Renaissance 2 Announcements: Switzerland, Canada, USA

 Leadership Emerging:

"CEO Survey: Forward March," Inc. Special Issue 500: Meet This Year's Fastest-Growing Private Companies
James K. Hazy, Jeffrey A. Goldstein, and Benyamin B. Lichtenstein, Eds. Complex Systems Leadership Theory
Stewart D. Friedman, Total Leadership
Annie McKee, Richard Boyatzis, and Frances Johnston. Becoming a Resonant Leader
David Rock. Quiet Leadership
Frances Hesselbein and Alan Shrader, Eds. Leader to Leader2
John D. Adams, ed. Transforming Leadership

CODA: Thriving in the Face of Urgency

A Post Convention analysis from Norman Birnbaum. Very pragmatic and -for me -intuitively grasping that changing direction of history never could be anticipated by looking into the crystal ball or making rain dances or making theoretical algorithms.

Staged Unity in Denver

Occasionally, serious issues are up for debate at political conventions in the United States. But not at the Democratic convention in Denver. Political analyst and sociologist Norman Birnbaum writes that the Democrats scripted a tightly-controlled performance of unity.


Having just been to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, one could come away regretting having missed some of the lively parties held in the evenings. There is very little else to regret. Television has provided the essentials. For every Denver blog worth reading, there are 10 which are notable only for their authors' self-important obtuseness and querulousness.





Why, however, should unknown citizens not have the same right as our media stars -- to make fools of themselves? The major theme of newspaper and television reporting, sedulously repeated by bloggers claiming that they have independent perspectives, was entirely exaggerated. Would the Clintons, defeated in their bid to return to power, take their revenge by somehow sabotaging or stealing Obama's show? Of course not: the Clintons, more than anyone, have no taste for permanent residence in the political wilderness. To give less than full support to Obama would be to risk being blamed for his defeat, should that happen. Should he win, despite their efforts to defeat him, his revenge would be pitiless. In either case, the Clinton's chances for a return to power of some sort would be very reduced.
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How did the speech affect the nation? We will not know, even when the polls give us their answers. There are some 50,000 historians, political scientists and social psychologists in our universities. Fifteen-thousand political journalists were at the convention. There are thousands of chroniclers and writers, and innumerable veterans of recent politics not at all reticent about sharing the lessons they have learned. We can add the professional advisors and consultants who live not for but from politics -- thousands in Washington alone. They have one thing in common: They cannot really predict how and why our citizens will vote. (The historians, for example, are still arguing about the elections of 1832.)

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