Two events in June -in London UK - dealt with national identity and Britishness in light of the beginning 21st century.

The United Kingdom with the rich and strong past as Commonwealth and recently as "Cool Britannia in Tony Blair Time always fascinated me as German too. I am working on a challenging Germany Special Issue for Integral Leadership Review. And the theme of national identity in the midst of global, regional and other shifts has always been relevant for me.

No galactic fantasies and/or global oneness mantras can adress it. The global space in Gaia is stratified. And the tectonic shifts need to be adressed very specifically. No magic formula will do it.

The more thrilled I am that in June 2009 2 events happened in London which refer to it in an excellent integral and evolutionary way.

Last weekend in London the SDi event "From rule Britannia to cool Britannia to Integral Britannia". Here is the comprehensive report from Keith Rice, British Center for Human Emergence:

Britishness at the Regents College Summit

The second event was at EnlightenNext London Center. A Meetup with the theme: Cynicism the British disease"

Chris Parish, the Director for the Center blogged these fascinating and insightful statements he opened up the event with:

Evolution, History, Culture and Me

My best wishes for my British friends from allover the world,

Albert

There is an interview at Huffington Post with James Quilligan. Done by Christiana Wyly who is at Gaia too. Would be great to see as much comments as possible to keep this visible.

The Juggling Contest - Balancing the Global Economy: An interview with James Quilligan


This interview is a follow-up to Guest Blogger James Quilligan's blog which appears in my previous post "Stimulate This!"
In the previous post Mr.Quilligan shares with us what is emerging out of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, along with some insights on the barriers to achieving equity and stabilization. This post will be followed by a continuation interview with questions and answers specific to our shared passion of economic and environmental equity including a new take on the Waxman-Markey measures.

CW: You mention that there are discussions happening on both emergency and long-term measures on financial reform -- how much long-term thinking is possible in the midst of such an urgent crisis? It seems as though there are all hands on deck just to keep the plates spinning? Is there room for innovation? Is there an openness to creating new models?

JQ: A lot of exciting dialogue and planning is taking place. While the world is still engaged in its old juggling contest involving foreign reserves, trade balances, financial leveraging, international balance of payments and the global balance of power, many new variables have now inserted themselves into the prime equation -- including human needs, human rights, human security, energy security and ecological debt. In trying to manage all of these factors without adequate global standards, rules and institutions, the de facto policy of laissez-faire competition continues to shape our global attitudes and practices. Yet at the international level, many leaders have recognized that there are major problems with our traditional concepts of legal boundaries -- including private property and sovereign borders -- and much progress is being made on trans-border cooperation agreements.

But the real epistemic break is happening where individuals with deeper understanding are organizing to preserve and manage a particular commons which they depend on for their own livelihood or well-being (be it natural, social, cultural or intellectual), and allowing the energy of shared governance to flow in and through that space. These autonomous commons groups are organizing spontaneously across the world in response to the global economic crisis and will eventually develop a unique ontological identity and power as a third sector to solve the local and transnational problems that businesses and governments are not equipped to address on their own

read more..

See also:

Making he Great Adjustment: Coalition for the Global Commons

In my search for various cultural cores of identity building I found this very clear presentation for the African Ubuntu. I met Barbara Nussbaum at Facebook. And we found lots of conectivity already via the work and journal of Nancy Roof at

www.kosmosjournal.org

I feel practiced Ubuntu is a great gift from South Africa. Therefore I want to present the article here:



Ubuntu: Reflections of a South AFrican on Our Common Humanity

REFLECTIONS, Volume 4, Number 4
q 2003 by the Society for Organizational
Learning and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
21
Ubuntu: Reections of
a South African on Our
Common Humanity
Barbara Nussbaum
African values could contribute much to world consciousness, but people in the West misunderstand Africa for many reasons. First, Africa’s traditional culture is inaccessible because most of it is oral rather than written and lived rather than formally communicated in books or journals; it is difficult to learn about from a distance. Second, many African political leaders betrayed the philosophical and humanitarian principles on which African culture is based, and political failures in African countries tend to tarnish the views of many Westerners. Third, people in the West, for whatever reason, receive negative,
limited information through themedia; images of ethnic wars, dictatorships, famine,and AIDS predominate, so the potential contribution of African values is often lost.

I have chosen to write about the inspiring dimensions of African values that rarely make their way into mainstream US news media. I write because of a strengthening conviction that Africa has something important to contribute to a change of heart needed in the world. This need for change has become clearer in my own mind since September 11; there is no doubt that our world must embrace a sense of interconnectedness as a global
community if we are to survive. I share here some personal reections about Africa.1 I seek to articulate some of the beauty and power of ubuntu, an underlying social philosophy of African culture.
Ubuntuis the capacity in African culture to express compassion, reciprocity, dignity, harmony, and humanity in the interests of building and maintaining community. Ubuntu calls onus to believe and feel that:
Your pain is My pain,
My wealth is Your wealth,
Your salvation is My salvation.
In essence, ubuntu, an Nguni word from South Africa, addresses our interconnectedness, our common humanity, and the responsibility to each other that ows from our connection.The eclipse of ubuntu has darkened the spirit of modern-day African political systems.However, imagine the potential of ubuntu’s sunlight, were it to be embraced as a vital part of the African renaissance or even as Africa’s contribution to help a divided,fragmented world.
Nhlanhla Mkhize, a South African psychologist, explains that self is rooted in community in several traditional African cultures in South Africa:The African view of personhood denies that a person can be described solely in terms of the
physical and psychological properties. It is with reference to the community that a person is de.ned. The importance of the community in self-de.nition is summed up by Mbiti, ‘‘I am because we are, and since we are, therefore Iam.’’. . . It is this rootedness of the self-incommunity that gives rise to sayings such as umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (Nguni)/Motho kemotho ka batho babang (Sotho). These roughly translate to, ‘‘It is through others that one attains selfhood.’’ The Venda saying, Muthu u bebelwa munwe (a person is born for the
other), also captures the interdependence between self and community (Mkhize, 1998: 1).

read more..

I followed Fareed Zakarias insightful global presentations and insights for a long time. Now his CNN weekly GPS (Global Positioning System) is celebrating birthday. The site is announcing it this way:

Hello viewers! GPS is 1-year old. It's been an incredible ride and we want to thank you all for being a part of it.

We put together a reel that includes some of GPS's most memorable highlights from our impressive roster of guests.

Click here  to enjoy this reel, and click here to see a list of these guests, in order of their appearance.

Thank you all for your continued support!

GPS: Highlight Reel

List of transscripts

Now i checked the 12.02 clip and found not even one highlight referenced to Continental Europe. Thi sis  really bad. And it rises questions for me for both the Europeans and US Americans.

A Global Positioning System should be able to identify momentum and dynamics everywhere. At least within a year. And so a strange feeling of alienation is emerging in me. I will adress it to Mr. Zakaria as much as to European Colleagues. This Highlight Reel is missing 500 Million people and so the GPS service team should check if it works correctly.):)

In preparing the Germany Special for Integral leadership Review and inspired by the 2 recent events in London /UK about Brtishness, seeing people from across the globe here at Gaia I discovered this interesting contingent:

German Americans

Looking back at least 2 or 3 generations lots of personal examples come to my mind too. And i remember that roundabout 80 Million people out of Europe are even speaking German. So when the recent census of 2007 counted 17 percent of Americans with German roots to one dgree or the other is a remarkable number for me.

Check it out:

A panel of international leaders discuss the issues facing the planet and some of the solutions which are cause for hope during the AIESEC International 60th Anniversary celebrations in Brussels on 28 June 2008.




Check also this one:




Renaissance 2 -Social Innovation Catalyst

From a recent message to all members of R2 Global Meshwork

Dear Renaissance2 Worldshifters

What an incredible month it has been! The 25 movers and shakers at the June Great Shift Partner Gathering created an incredible wave of positive energy, collective intelligence and pragmatic projects. This mini-tsunami of positive change will "break" on the shores of the October Great Shift Gathering, which has 20 world-class speakers joining us for the two-part program from 22-26 October in Perpignan.

You will find further details of the June event outcomes and photos on the R2 Global Meshworks (i.e. right here!), and more details of the October event as well. There are 30%+ discounts for early bird registration during July so be quick and get the worm ;-)

I've been reading and reflecting on the words from an unpublished manuscript of my friend Terry Patten, of "Integral Life Practice" renown. "The Terrible Truth and the Wonderful Secret" beautifully sums up the situation we are in right now. We have ten years to turn away from ecological disaster and the terrible truth of what we've done to our planet. Yet the wonderful secret is that our ability to accelerate our conscious evolution has never been greater.

Tony Blair recently commented that we have all the technology we need to "solve the problem" of climate change, species extinction, injustice and so on. Yes ,that is true- the challenge is that we have to adopt these new technologies and put them into action at warp speed, while also changing our lifestyles in often dramatic ways.

So the "Two-Step" dance we are going to have to do as a species in the next decade is to start accelerating our own conscious evolution in our life and world, while adopting new ways of doing things through renewable energy, creating resilient environments in the process. Two of the most important tools in this process are enlightened enterprises and systems of integral governance. We will cover this first "step" in the first three days of the Great Shift Gathering, entitled: "Designing a Resilient Civilization", from 22-24 October.

From 25-26 October, we will learn more about practicing the 2nd step which is the driver of this whole process: conscious evolution. This involves a focus on our personal and collective development, human wellbeing and the evolution of a wiser culture which can form the basis for a thriving global civilization. This is the wonderful secret which makes the terrible truth not only palatable, but a source of great courage and a heroes journey for each of us. This is the shining vision we are able to see ahead, the light on the hill of our human journey.

Barbara Marx-Hubbard, Ervin Laszlo, Don Beck and a host of other wise elders as well as world class practicioners have indicated their intent to be with us at the Great Shift Gathering. We are also inviting other luminaries such as Michael Braungart (of Cradle-to-Cradle fame) and Andrew Cohen, one of the world's foremost auhtorities on our evolutionary journey. Stars from our June event will be back, including Marilyn Hamilton on Integral Cities, Eric Allodi on Cradle-to-Cradle, Simon Hamilton on new forms of CSR in action, Jean-Francois Noubel on complementary currency systems, David Woolfson on Worlshift2012 and Mark Henderson on creating renewable communities.

We are very excited about the way our fledgling community is growing and flexing its muscles- by engaging in the R2 Global Meshwork you are a vital part of this great shift.
The R2 Team

For all who are interested in leadership, integral aproaches and business devlopment:


This new dissertation is from Mariana Bozesan.  I met her first with Anitta in Berlin last year She was then in the process of writing it.  See also her presentation from March 2009 within Stanfords European Entrepreneurship & Innovation thought Leaders.

. Check her homepage:

www.sageera.com

The Download link is embedded.

The Making of a Consciousness Leader - An Integral Approach


Dr. Bozesan's Ph.D. Dissertation, June 2009


by Mariana Bozesan


This dissertation explores the phenomenon of becoming a consciousness leader
within a business environment. Consciousness leaders are people who have evolved
to postconventional levels of interior development and are engaged in globally
sustainable wealth creation for the benefit of all.
Keywords: Ken Wilber AQAL (IMP), Heuristic Structuralism, Post-formal
operations, Spiral Dynamics, Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, Susanne
Cook-Greuter, Kegan, Loevinger, Gilligan, Kohlberg, Fowler



The present research employs Ken Wilber’s All Quadrant All Lines (AQAL) map of consciousness and the newly designed qualitative method named heuristic structuralism. The nature, meaning, and cause of transformative experiences of 8 female and 8 male top business executives is investigated along with the structural impact over time. The research question is the following: What are the most significant emotional, physical, cognitive, spiritual, or other extraordinary experiences that characterize the interior transformation of consciousness leaders within a capitalistic environment?

 The research results have multiple dimensions and include (a) the evolutionary journey of becoming a consciousness leader; (b) the lines of development involved in the transformation including the egoic, cognitive, emotional, physical, moral, and psycho-spiritual; and (c) the potential structural changes that occurred over the course of transformation.

 It can be expected that the exploration of becoming a consciousness leader will not only reveal the interiority of exceptional leaders, but it will support a paradigm shift in leadership, business, and capitalism in general. This understanding will also provide encouragement, inspiration, and hope to those who are actively involved with wealth creation in a business environment as well as to those who struggle to live a life of meaning within the same context.

read more..

Last year Steve McIntosh blogged about a retreat at Deepak Chopras Center in Ca, This the follow up event from 2009. Directly from blog of Steve. I agree with Steve concerns and hopes.

lEvolutionary Leaders Retreat

This past week I attended the second annual Evolutionary Leaders group retreat spearheaded by Deepak Chopra. The four day invitational event was held at a lovely Franciscan spiritual retreat center in Malibu, California (see photo). About 40 "evolutionary leaders" were in attendance, including Jean Houston, Don Beck, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Marianne Williamson, Bruce Lipton, Carter Phipps, Duane Elgin, and of course, Deepak Chopra. Although the relatively loose structure resulted in more talk than action, I was glad to have gone as it was a pleasure to interact with the many marvelous people who were there. Deepak's natural leadership ability and personal charm helped us through the more difficult moments.

The group discussion showcased both the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of progressive spiritual culture. For example, there was a strong commitment to help bring about a spiritual renaissance, yet many seemed to expect that large segments of our society will be awakened en masse through some kind of miraculous transformation in the year 2012. For me, this combination of compassionate concern for humanity and pseudo magical thinking was simultaneously charming and off-putting. However, my main regret was that there was not more opportunity to engage each other's ideas and to debate what progressive spiritual culture really stands for. Many in the room had heard of the integral perspective, but few were aware of its major tenets or its potential to uplift and empower this postmodern spiritual movement. Perhaps next year the integralists in the group will have an opportunity for more education in this direction.

Overall, it seems that this Evolutionary Leaders group has the potential to become a meaningful voice in our culture. Our petition, entitled "A Call to Conscious Evolution" has already garnered over 40,000 signatures, and these have been achieved mostly through word-of-mouth referrals. See the petition here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/248704259

As the mainstream media shows growing interest in the "consciousness movement," as they call it, our challenge will be to mature beyond the "New Age" shortcomings that have thus far diminished progressive spirituality's credibility in the eyes of academia and the larger society. Despite the ongoing presence of the "pre/trans fallacy" there is much about progressive spirituality that is beautiful, true, and good.

I presented the view of Terry Patten from integralheart.com on Iran here in 2007
Some actual follow ups in 2009 can be found in Terry`s new entries:

Integral On Iran -2009


In spring 2007 I visited Iran as a member of a citizen’s diplomacy delegation.  The day after we arrived in Tehran, our meetings with former President Khatami, Grand Ayatollah Saanei, peace activist Emmadin Baghi, and Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi were abruptly cancelled. Our cell phone calls and emails had been (and would continue to be) monitored; our activities were reorganized and were strictly controlled by Ahmedinejad’s faction.


Most of the government officials, citizens, clerics, students, professors and wounded veterans, with whom I was able to meet were conservatives. Our every move was monitored by the Ershad secret police. Big brother was definitely watching. And yet this “curse” turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I confronted and explored the much wider gulf that separated the perspectives of Ahmadinejad’s faction from my western sensibilities. (And of course, I had encounters with many much freer spirits here and there along the way.)

In the process, I learned much more about the Iranian soul than I could have dreamed going in. I encountered the intense spiritual passions of the Shia ways that catalyzed startling insights. It humbled me to see how a vast amount of what is under the surface of contemporary Iranian culture and politics tends be opaque to modern Western eyes

See also:

Iran 2009 — A New Kind of Revolution (4)
Iran 2009 — A New Kind of Revolution (3)
Iran 2009 — A New Kind of Revolution (2)
 Iran 2009 — A New Kind of Revolution (1)

Kissinger: Obama is like a chess player


Henry Kissinger on Obama's Opportunity to Forge a Peaceful U.S. Foreign Policy

Recently SPIEGEL interviewed Henry Kissinger . it was a very insightful one. Elza Maalouf from Center for human emergence described it as brilliant example of second tier analysis. And so do I.

History often is described post festum To shape it in the given moment, to make decisions in a coherent way -not only openings and gambits, like in chess , is a high challenge. Integral Poiltics as it could guide, inform and feed roadmaps and development maps can provide a stratfied look to the world(s). Not only in dealing with hotspots.

President Obama indeed reveals a profound readiness for realpolitik. And momentum for shaping future perspectives. This combination -dealing with given patterns and opening new ones -is the key. European poltics can and must do it too. Upping the downside in poltics and bringing the new into the world, hard truths and fresh perspectives......it all demands now simultaneous action and understanding.

Kissinger certainly is brilliant in his analysis. The last 30 years I did not always see him in THIS light. Right now I see LOTs can be learned from him.

To the article:


Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 86, discusses the painful lessons of the Treaty of Versailles, idealism in politics and Obama's opportunity to forge a peaceful American foreign policy.



SPIEGEL: Dr. Kissinger, 90 years ago, at the end of World WarI, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Is that an event of the past only of interest to historians or does it still shape contemporary politics?

Henry Kissinger: The treaty has a special meaning for today's generation of politicians, because the map of Europe which emerged from the Treaty of Versailles is, more or less, the map of Europe that exists today. None of the drafters understood the implications of their actions, and that the world that emerged out of the Treaty of Versailles was substantially contrary to the intentions that produced it. Whoever wants to learn from past mistakes, needs to understand what happened in Versailles.

SPIEGEL: The Treaty of Versailles was meant to end all wars.That was the goal of President Woodrow Wilson when he came to Paris. As it turned out, only 20 years later Europe was plunged into an even more devastating world war. Why?

Kissinger: Any international system must have two key elements for it to work. One, it has to have a certain equilibrium of power that makes overthrowing the system difficult and costly. Secondly, it has to havea sense of legitimacy. That means that the majority of the states mus tbelieve that the settlement is essentially just. Versailles failed on both grounds. The Versailles meetings excluded the two largest continental powers: Germany and Russia. If one imagines that an international system had to be preserved against a disaffected defector, the possibility of achieving a balance of power within it was  inherently weak. Therefore, it lacked both equilibrium and a sense of legitimacy.

SPIEGEL: In Paris we saw the clash of two foreign policy principles: the idealism embodied by Wilson who encountered a kind of realpolitik embodied by the Europeans which was above all based on the law of the strongest. Can you explain the failure of the American approach?

Kissinger: The American view was that peace is the normal condition among states. To ensure lasting peace, an international system must be organized on the basis of domestic institutions everywhere, which reflect the will of the people, and that will of the people is considered always to be against war. Unfortunately, there is no historic evidence that this is true.

read more...

As new media talk, search for innovative communication and collaboration, journalism, publication modes and integrated ways of content convergence and emergence are buzzing up more and more I found this presentation from Paulo Coelho very interesting.

As Paulo is highly successsful global Bestseller Author and needs no introduction. He is one of the first writers open to new media and new ways of publication. He has this unique Brazilian:):) intuition and joy d` vivre -perhaps like Ayrton Senna in Formula 1 Car racing., the Gracie family in Brazilian Ju Jutsu, ) and Carneval in Brazil --how to conduct and galvanize connectivity in the digital age.

However Paulo knows about high touch, human dreams and the way of the warrior too. No intellectual armchair philosopher or treehugger is immersed in the dignity and terrible challenges of the beginning 21st century.

Heres to the speech:

Speech for the opening of 2008 Frankfurt Book Fair

By Paulo Coelho
A few months ago I was watching a movie, “Giordano Bruno”, the story of
a “heretic” condemned by the Vatican and burned at the stake in 1600 for
his beliefs. The reason I’m mentioning this here is the following: in the
film there’s a passage in which Giordano Bruno mentions that he just
visited the Frankfurt Book Fair to meet some publishers of his work. And
here we are, 4 centuries later, not only to meet publishers, but to discuss
new tendencies, as well.
Between Giordano Bruno’s visit and this morning, a lot of new platforms to
share ideas have seen the daylight. The very first Frankfurt Book Fair was,
for instance, a consequence of a new invention, movable type printing.
Indeed, when Gutenberg invented this in Mainz, only a few kilometres
away from here, it inspired local booksellers to organise this fair. We all
know that Gutenberg’s invention was a major – probably the most
significant – step towards creating a movement called The Renaissance,
during which ideas could travel more freely. Thanks to this new printing
process, ideas could be shared and the world could be reshaped according
to these ideas.
Contrary to other platforms, like dance, or painting, or theatre, where the
physical presence of the creator was required, the book – and later on,
the press – immediately began dominating all other ways to share ideas,
because it could be produced on an industrial scale. Books, as vessels for
ideas, were ideal for several centuries until their monopoly lost terrain to
other media, such as the radio, the cinema and television.
So the core of this discussion is this: sharing ideas. The examples given
above all point to the following: the technologies that succeed are the
technologies that enable ideas to circulate and touch the widest possible
audience. Laws subsequently adapted themselves to this new context
(and not the opposite!) – the legal concept of copyright grew in direct line
with this new industrial age, in which production and distribution costs
were relatively high.

read more..

Michael Lerner from Tikkun.org has once again launched a media ballon to get spiritual progressives devloping more impact on Obamas poltics. Seen from Europe this network of spiritual progressives is basically a leftist, liberal independent one. So, transpartisan poiltics in daily practice is clearly VERY difficult. The same here, in Europe where we have elections this year in UK and Germany.

Politics moving towards integral perspectives (Tikkun had this Special last year 2008)needs crisis management as much as creating new perspectives. There is no integral discourse right now with engagment from Europe and North America and world. Pragmatic voices with sense for realpoltik and perspectivic , systemic imagination (see Kissinger interview with SPIEGEL) are very seldom.

 

However, the Ad project is interesting and might be able to trigger a bit more momentum- At a moment when public interest in Obama is slightly falling in US. And getting more acceptance same time in Europe.

Check also this more conservative take from David Brooks at NYT:

Liberal Suicide March

NSP Ad Project for President Obama

"large majority of Americans want to see Obama succeed. But too many of his supporters have remained silent while he gets attacked from the Right, on the one hand, and on the other hand capitulates to an inside-the-Beltway, pro-Wall Street, pro-military consensus that has nothing to do with why most Americans voted for him. He is at grave risk of appearing to make his major priority the restoration of the economic system that favored the rich and powerful, encouraged an ethos of selfishness and materialism, and was on a collision course with the environmental needs of the planet. As though Humpty-Dumpty could be put together again. It can't, and it shouldn't."

...

"We don’t expect you’d win on all of these. But we do know that framing the national discourse around the fundamental issues raised by this new kind of thinking could have a lasting impact beyond your presidency. It would help all of us imagine a world in which love, generosity, and caring became the real content of our lives. This process could help Americans experience our yearning for a life of higher meaning and purpose, and our yearning for a community of people who seek each other’s well-being, as realistic possibilities and not just utopian ideals."

There is a new free video discussion between Jeff Salzmann and Don Beck. Provided by integrallife.com Not only about Israel and Palestine conflict. Its a great discussion as it show that integral is now going into the cycle of global applications. Even beyond transcend and include in adding the necessary anticipation of developments.

The natural design process isnt identical with insights from meditation, contemplation and introspection. its offering a most complex landscape of habitats, conditions and contents, contexts and colored circumstances for dynamic change.

Spiral Dynamics and the Palestine-Israel Conflict

Don Edward Beck, Ph.D., is Co-founder of The National Values Center in Denton, Texas, and President and CEO of The Spiral Dynamics Group, Inc.  Beck co-authored The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future (with Graham Linscott, l991) and Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership & Change (with Christopher Cowan, l996). He also writes a "Sports Values" column for the Dallas Morning News and appears often in the media regarding issues related to values, sports, and racial divides.

Jeff Salzman is lead teacher at Boulder Center for Integral Living as well as part of the founding circle. He is co-founder of CareerTrack Training, and has worked in adult education/transformation for twenty years. For three years Jeff worked side by side with Ken Wilber building the Integral Institute, an International center for Integral theory and application. A Divinity School dropout, he expects to graduate from the Religious Studies Department of Naropa University with a Masters Degree in Indo-Tibetan Studies. Jeff is devoted to the Integral worldview and to helping it arise in people's minds, hearts, bodies, and lives.