Gaia Community: Albert 's Blog

Women on the Edge of Evolution with Elza Maalouf

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:13:54 GMT

http://www.womenontheedgeofevolution.com/

presents today Elza Maalouf. And I will listen from one of het other edges of evolution. The deep understanding of Elza about memetic codes in diverse cultures is valuable for me too.

@Organizers:

There is continental time in Europe too:. :):) I will listen at 18.30 pm CET. And hopefully in future lots of additional altitudes and latitudes will be announced too.

This week's call for the Women on the Edge of Evolution teleseries will be on Saturday December 19th at 9:30 a.m. PST, and will feature honored guest, Elza Maalouf to engage the topic "Women Leading Change: A New Perspective on Ourselves and Our World."

Elza Maalouf is an Arab-American futurist and cultural development specialist focusing on cultural and political reform in the Arab world, including Palestine, Kuwait, Dubai and Syria. As one of the world's foremost experts in Memetics of the Middle East, Elza was named by EnlightenNext Magazine as one of today's brightest minds. She is co-founder and CEO of the Center for Human Emergence Middle East, a think-tank and strategy center that emphasizes the understanding of cultures through recognition of the underlying values upon which they are founded.

Born in Lebanon, Elza is a former attorney and corporate executive who draws on more than 15 years of experience in the areas of depth psychology, world philosophies and consciousness studies. A dynamic speaker and trainer, she has offered hundreds of personal and professional Integral training seminars to people around the world.

Elza works closely with renowned social scientist Dr. Don Beck, Chairman of the Global Center of Human Emergence and co-creator of the Spiral Dynamics Integral theory (SDi). She believes it is precisely the application of "whole system" theories (such as Spiral Dynamics Integral) in the Middle East that holds the highest potential for finding culturally congruent solutions where all types of initiatives have failed before.

Dr. Jean Houston says, "Elza Maalouf is an évocateur of change, a midwife to a world in transition. Her profound knowledge of cultures, both Western and Middle Eastern, as well as her extraordinary skills in teaching and communication, make her a woman of profound importance to our world. Lucid and visionary, compassionate and pragmatic, she brings a true brilliance to her wide ranging understanding of the challenges of our time."

Listen live by phone or webcast, or download the complete recording anytime after the live call. An access code email with complete information on how to participate will be sent to all WeeSeries registrants. If you haven't registered yet, visit womenontheedgeofevolution.com to join!

Please share this wonderful opportunity with your friends and help spread the message of feminine empowerme

Tags: Women, Elza Maalouf, Edge, Evolution

Obamas Nobel Speech

http://voyager.gaia.com — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:40:50 GMT

Obamas Nobel Remarks

Following is the prepared text of President Obama's speech at the Nobel Peace prize ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday, as released by the White House:

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:

I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations – that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.

And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize – Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela – my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened of cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women – some known, some obscure to all but those they help – to be far more deserving of this honor than I.

But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by forty three other countries – including Norway – in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.

Still, we are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict – filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.

read more...

Tags: Barack Obama, Nobel Speech, Oslo, War, Peace

INVICTUS

http://voyager.gaia.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:06:28 GMT

A new film. I just learned that Dr. Don Beck was directly engaged in the process of coaching the 1995 South African Rugby Team.

In Dons own words:

I have only seen the promotional pieces, but they, alone, stir me to reflect on those magic times forme. I was working with Coach Kitch Christie in the design of the totalmotivational strategy. I worked directly with the players. I brough tthem all Dallas Cowboys shirts because they knew so much about the team and the NFL.

My heart and soul were engaged in the project because Mr. Mandela needed a nation-building euphoria, a superordinate goal, to rally South Africans into become such. Sports is very very powerful. You might find this attached document to be of interest because it contains the full strategy. I wrote the whole document overone afternoon on a Saturday in Sandton, a northern superb of Johannesburg. Kitch died soon after with leukemia that had plagued him during the last decade of his life, and even during the fierce competition. I truly loved the man, as did all of the players.

Got to know his wife, Judy, and son Clayton quite well. He was actually Scottish, maybe the first non Afrikaner coach of the side, which put him under lots of pressure. He more than proved his worth. When the team went to UK to play the English side following the World Cup victory, I asked Coach if he planed to remind his players, obviously the Afrikaners, of the Boer War. "Of course," he said, and made them watch the movie Brave Hearts two or three times. I still miss him..."

'INVICTUS' TRAILER in HD

Two words: OSCAR BOUND.

"From director Clint Eastwood, 'Invictus' tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africas rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africas underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match."

The poem 'INVICTUS' by William Ernest Henley, from which Nelson Mandela drew strength while in prison.

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

Tags: Invictus, Don Beck, Neslon Mandela, South Africa, Rugby, Sports

The Age of the Informavore

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:22:16 GMT

Another lengthy piece of trying to make sense of things happening at the edge is an article from German publicist Frank Schirrmacher.

Frank Schirrmacher (born September 5, 1959) is a German journalist, doctored literature expert and essayist, writer, and since 1994 co-publisher of the leading national German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) is one of Germanys leading journalists.

I do so to make perception and thinking from Europe and here Germany more transparent and povide firsthand communication with it. As in the next years I intend to re-engage again in this space of emergence and in the context of global views and developments. I will comment on Schirrmachers take later. Simply want to offer it for the moment here. Outside the context of german culture.

To create impulses for emergence in German speaking cultures it will take direct face2face and personal communication with the Elites as much as with people from all walks of life. Initiating new leadership and complex constellation building in Europe and Germany -within a global context -will be a top project and -after all the (necessary) memory and celebration in this yerar 2009 the transition for creation of new architectures of change needs to embraced as challenge.

Decades after the end of WW2 now the moment has come that Germany does not only import ideas, concepts and mentality from other cultures (the brain drain after WW 2 was a great trauma and loss)but export not only cars but the best of its cultural and poltical, scientic and collective genius.

The Age of the Informavore

The question I am asking myself arose through work and through discussion with other people, and especially watching other people, watching them act and behave and talk, was how technology, the Internet and the modern systems, has now apparently changed human behavior, the way humans express themselves, and the way humans think in real life. So I've profited a lot from Edge.

We are apparently now in a situation where modern technology is changing the way people behave, people talk, people react, people think, and people remember. And you encounter this not only in a theoretical way, but when you meet people, when suddenly people start forgetting things, when suddenly people depend on their gadgets, and other stuff, to remember certain things. This is the beginning, its just an experience. But if you think about it and you think about your own behavior, you suddenly realize that something fundamental is going on. There is one comment on Edge which I love, which is in Daniel Dennett's response to the 2007 annual question, in which he said that we have a population explosion of ideas, but not enough brains to cover them.

As we know, information is fed by attention, so we have not enough attention, not enough food for all this information. And, as we know -- this is the old Darwinian thought, the moment when Darwin started reading Malthus -- when you have a conflict between a population explosion and not enough food, then Darwinian selection starts. And Darwinian systems start to change situations. And so what interests me is that we are, because we have the Internet, now entering a phase where Darwinian structures, where Darwinian dynamics, Darwinian selection, apparently attacks ideas themselves: what to remember, what not to remember, which idea is stronger, which idea is weaker.

Here European thought is quite interesting, our whole history of thought, especially in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, starting....

read more..

Tags: Frank Schirrmacher, FAZ, Germany, Europe, Media, Communication

The Matrix of Sensations and Geist Re-loaded in Arts

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:03:31 GMT

To feel, to sense, think, to perceive , to create and to develop perspectives , to enact and create from these spaces and emrging new codes of reality is a radical new form of beeing in the world for 21st century. Few philosphers are at the same time artists and vice versa. Making live an artform in this new light of reality even rarer...

I found the writings of US art critic Donald Kuspit very liberating and lucid since I discovered some of them years ago when vsiting with my partner Anitta an exhibition of Adi Das art.

Here are 3 texts of Donald Kuspits work. The 2003 piece about re-discovering the spiritual in arts is very interesting for me as he explores what Kandinsky wrote about decades agofor the German BAUHAUS .

The Matrix of Sensations

Color, Aesthetic Shock and Non dualism

Re-considering the Spiritual in Art

In the spring of 2003, art critic Donald Kuspit visited the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond to meet the graduate students and their work in preparation for writing the introduction to the MFA Thesis Exhibition 2003, held at VCU's Anderson Gallery.

While he was at VCU, Kuspit delivered the lecture presented here, "Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art." In it he revisits Kandinsky's famous essay, "On the Spiritual in Art," and contemplates what it might have to say to artists working today.

The lecture was originally presented as the keynote address at a conference on the humanities and the visual arts held in New York in October, 2001.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Transcript

As German I found these semantic clarifications from D. Kuspit very helpful. Kandinsky obviously used the word as Kuspit explains it. One could take Jean Gebsers work for further illumination. Gebser used it in a similar way as Kandinsky:. Here is what Kuspit explains for English speaking world:

". Obviously the title—and you see this from the poster as well—is a reference to Kandinsky's very famous and influential essay, in German it was "Geistige in der Kunst." I use the German word deliberately because the word "Geist" in German has a whole different resonance in history than the word "spiritual" in English. Spiritual sounds a little sappy in English. When we say somebody is spiritual, we're not certain if we're giving them a compliment or being ironical, in English. But in German if you say somebody's a "Geistiger Mensch" that's a true compliment, somebody deep, reflective, and serious. Now, this paper is coming from a number of different points of view, or trying to address a number of different issues.

...
Now, one of the things that I think is going on in Kandinsky's art, and in On the Spiritual in Art, is an effort to deal with an issue that was raised in Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind, which was published just about a century earlier. Phänomenologie des Geistes, it's sometimes called, phenomenology of mind, sometimes spirit, there are various translations in English, phenomenology of consciousness. And Hegel, if you read it very carefully, reaches a curious point. He goes from sense experience, okay, very particular sense experience, to pure ideational spiritual experience, and he argues that the climax of spiritual activity—let's use that word—is the spirit knowing itself and coming and becoming itself.

And then suddenly, having said that, he flips right back into sense experience, and he says the spirit knows itself most through sense experiences. So we have the idea of spiritualized sensing, so to say, implicit in Hegel, the whole thing starts over again, and I think Kandinsky is trying to address that moment

..."

Tags: Kandinsky, Donald Kuspit, Hegel, Art, Bauhaus, Avantgarde

First World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:28:18 GMT

Global Leaders Achieve Major Outcomes At First World Innovation Summit For Education

The closing plenary session of the first World Innovation Summit for Education - Wise has produced a number of ground-breaking outcomes that signal the beginning of a new era in global collaboration on education.

Qatar: Saturday, November 21 - 2009

Wise concluded with a declaration of 10 core education priorities, an announcement of two initiatives and a renewed commitment to the three main areas of focus for Wise in the future.

Held in Doha, Qatar and attended by 1,000 influential opinion leaders from diverse sectors across the globe, the Summit, through its theme of "Global Education: Working Together for Sustainable Achievements" has created a new dynamism towards addressing the most challenging educational issues in the 21st century.

Highlighting the importance of reaching agreement on key educational priorities on a global scale, Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman of Wise and Qatar Foundation's Vice-President of Education, said that achieving such a consensus among the international community in an inaugural summit was a clear indication of the commitment and focus among delegates.

Dr. Abdulla explained:

"This Summit represents the beginning of a long-term process of innovation. The approach of Wise to date has been comprehensive and wide-ranging, however action springs from a focussed approach. Throughout the series of plenary and breakout sessions, we have been listening very closely to the contributions and the key concerns of the participants with a firm commitment to move from debate to concrete outcomes. The identification of 10 strategic priorities is a milestone as it represents a convergence among global educational leaders on the key issues that will affect and shape education in the 21st century."

read more....

http://www.wise-qatar.org/

Related:

      Peer digital communications also have central role in education practices

     Global leaders converge to identify specific strategic educational priorities

     Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Presents Wise Awards to six outstanding education innovators

      Sheikha Mozah officially launches the first World Innovation Summit for Education

High-profile international figures to take part in First World Innovation Summit for Education

Tags: Qatar, Doha, Innovation, education

Beyond The Art Of Compartmentalization..

http://voyager.gaia.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:30:03 GMT

Revealing times! We have heard about the tragic suicide of German sportsman

Robert Enke

who suffered from hidden depression. In a world where only performance counts.
We have heard about the outing from

Donal Og Cusack

from ireland.

The first elite sportsman who outed himself as gay.

And British doctor

Brooke Magnati

who wrote for a lomg time the famous blog:

http://www.bellledejour-uk.blogspot.com/

anonymously.

SPIEGEL ONLINE wrote earlier this year:

lO Lord, download our guilt

You find on the left side of the German article some links where online homepages are listed.

Brooke Magnati described herself as master of compartmentalization.

Indeed, this is an important label. Though not profound enough. The complexity of emrging identiities and supressed subpersonalities which are in need of bringing brought to conscious congruence

Billl Harryman has an interesting

Blogroll

to the them of subpersonalities. And John Rowan, an integral specialist from UK will be publish next year a new book about personification.

Personiification: Using The Dialogical Self in Psychotherapy And Counselling

My basic conviction is there are layers of reality emerging which are beyond the conventional label of shadow work. Its about complexification in the interiors of adult life and devlopment..

All the buzz in the media about outing processes of all kind is only scraching the surface. In the core of this public emregence is the need to recovnile private and public life. In new ways.

Compartmentalization is only a sign. it indicates that change, transformation, self discovery and the journey to ones own soul are in need of new ways of communication and expressions of life.

Beyond poltical, spiritual and sexual correctness. And even beyond the segregated life of sub-cultures. No agenda, defind mission statment and purposeful vision per se can do it.

It simply needs to be lived, expressed and communicated.

The day side of consciousness and the night side. No side is more important than the other.

Tags: Compartmentalization, Identty, Emergence

Innovation and Values in the 21st Century

http://voyager.gaia.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:10:26 GMT

I am posting an article which was given free for Keith Rice`s blog first. Its from 2007 and as fresh and relevant today. Alan told me that a new book will be published in 2010 with the probable title:

Values in Action

Will keep you informed. Heres to the article:

Innovation and Values in the 21st Century

by
Alan Tonkin
20 October 2007

Alan Tonkin is Chairman of the Global Values Network Group whose www.globalvaluesnetwork.com web site is one of the most advanced in the world at using Spiral Dynamics to monitor shifts in societies and assess impacts at both national, international and even global levels.

Alan generously allowed this piece, written for the GVN site, to be published here.

We continuously hear the call for more and more innovation in our 21st Century world but the question is what is innovation, as seen by the larger mix of global citizens? In a developed world view this means better ways of resolving issues by the use of technology, either by the use of existing technology or by considering new approaches to the issue being tackled. However, in other less well developed and resource deprived societies the question of innovation may appear to be very different to the 21st Century approach above.

Values & Innovation

The level of values present in a society reflects very clearly on the type of problems that it is able to tackle in an innovative way. Some examples taken from the various values levels show that the “life conditions” clearly influence the type of response to a particular issue.

At the same time innovation is clearly not only a developed world characteristic as developing countries and even failed states possess innovation of sorts but at very different levels of complexity. Some real life examples are illustrated below:

Survival Values: Innovation at this level depends on 'staying alive' and finding the next meal. This includes people in both the developed and developing countries who operate at this level of existence. Examples in developed countries are 'street people', with developing countries including those who forage on rubbish tips. 7% of current global population or 455 million people.

read more

Tags:

Bringing German Afghan mission to public consciousness

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:00:52 GMT

A postive, necessary article about new German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg. Indeed its necessary to communicate combat missions in war and war-like scenaios to civil society. As Thomas Barnett in USA is doing for a long time already.

In Germany its a novum. After the red-green coalitions NO to Iraq war the word "War" was anxiously avoided in Geman. The Defense Minister id doing a good and necessary job in speaking straight language!

Rising Star Guttenberg Embraces Difficult Defense Job

By Siobhán Dowling

It hasn't taken long for German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to make a mark in his new job. From referring to the Afghanistan mission as a "war" to announcing a slight increase in troop numbers, he has gained the support of the military. Back home, though, challenges await.

When Germany's new Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg visited troops at the military base of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan on Thursday evening he was feted more as a pop star than a visiting politician. Well into the night the young Bavarian aristocrat signed autographs and posed for group photos as soldiers responded with enthusiasm to Guttenberg's very different approach.

The 37-year-old Guttenberg has been barely out of the headlines since he became Germany's youngest ever defense minister just over two weeks ago. The country's most popular politician, he has dramatically raised the profile of Germany's mission in Afghanistan, breaking taboos about how the deployment is described, pledging solidarity with the troops and then embarking on the surprise visit to the country on Thursday.

His straight-talking manner, confidence and poise are in stark contrast to the lackluster and often bungling impression made by his predecessor Franz Josef Jung. When it comes to the optics then Chancellor Angela Merkel's choice of Guttenberg to take over the defense portofolio seems to be a remarkably shrewd move. However, it remains to be seen if this will be a change of style or substance when it comes to Germany's increasingly difficult mission in Afghanistan.

Germany has around 4,300 soldiers stationed the country as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. On Friday Guttenberg announced that he will send another company of 120 soldiers to the north of the country in January, bringing the overall number of German military personnel in the country close to the maximum allowed by parliament.

Unpopular Mission

While Germany has the third largest contingent of foreign troops in the country after the US and the UK, Berlin's allies have often berated Germany for staying in what had been the relatively stable north of the country, while they suffered heavy casualties battling a resurgent Taliban in the south. Yet the domestic unpopularity of the mission makes it almost impossible to comply with requests to put more soldiers on the front lines.

Two-thirds of Germans oppose the country's almost eight-year long involvement in Afghanistan, although the mission is backed by all of the political parties, apart from the far-left Left Party. If anything, recent events have eroded public support even further with an airstrike involving a German officer most likely having led to civilian deaths compounded by the fiasco of the Afghan presidential elections.

Nevertheless Guttenberg seems intent on raising the profile of Germany's mission rather than sweeping it under the carpet. Since taking office two weeks ago he has single-handedly overturned years of government efforts to present Germany's involvement in the ISAF mission as a kind of military led school-building exercise. The public have never bought this line. A war by any other name is still a war.

Guttenberg has recognized that neither the public nor the military are served by these attempts at a semantic smokescreen. Indeed he has argued that politicians need to "bring the mission into the consciousness of the public." In his very first interview after taking on the defense portfolio in the new center-right coalition, Guttenberg broke the long-standing taboo, describing the conditions in Afghanistan as "war-like." And he has repeated this term in subsequent interviews, saying that when soldiers are faced with danger and the risk of death and injury then they might well describe their experience as war. Guttenberg's predecessor Jung refused to use the term, instead describing it repeatedly as a "stabilization mission."

The different tone emanating from the Defense Ministry has certainly gone down well with the German military and with soldiers on the ground, who see his clear use of the word "war" as a show of support and solidarity with troops on a dangerous mission. German soldiers have been serving abroad for 10 years now but many feel there is little recognition back home of Germany's changed military role.

'Feels the Pulse' of the Troops

Jochen Hippler, an Afghanistan expert at Duisberg-Essen University, told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the soldiers are frustrated that their dangerous mission in Afghanistan "is misunderstood and even misrepresented at home."

Ulrich Kirsch, the head of the German Federal Armed Forces Association (Bundeswehrband) has already welcomed Guttenberg's "clear words," saying the minister had "felt the pulse" of the troops. Speaking to the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung last week, Kirsch said: "We are very grateful to the minister for calling things by their name. That makes the seriousness of the situation clear. Our women and men, who are serving there everyday, say this is war."

Any illusion that Germany was merely involved in a humanitarian reconstruction mission was well and truly dashed on Sept. 4 when a German officer called in a deadly airstrike on two tanker trucks seized by Taliban insurgents near Kunduz fearing they might be used in attack on German troops. The strike left as many as 142 people dead, and the German public prosecutor is now assessing whether to investigate the incident. The former defense minister's handling of the attack was an unmitigated disaster. Jung first categorically denied any civilians had been killed and then later conceded that there may have been some casualties that were not Taliban. Guttenberg has since defended the attack as "militarily appropriate," while regretting any civilian deaths.

read more.,

Tags: Germany, Afghanistan, zu Guttenmberg, War. Peace

Kosmos Journal: Seeing the world with new eyes

http://voyager.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:22:33 GMT

From the desk of editor of Kosmos Journal:

"We are pleased to announce the launch of our newly designed website - with a fresh look and lots of new content. Please bookmark and visit frequently as we add more interactive features."

Here is the new issue:

Seeing the world with new eyes

And, written by Nancy Roof herself the fEditorial.

Tags:

Tragedy: German National Team Keeper Commits Suicide

http://voyager.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:42:04 GMT

On Tuesday a young German sportsman committed suicide. This case is shocking the country.Me too. Its -once again- about the split of public life and the high pressure to maintain a mascerade , faking a friendly self for beeing successful. Robert Enke suffered from a hidden depression not known even by the doctors.

As Robert Enke is quoted at the end of the article within the interview he gave the magazine:

But it is difficult not to recall a different interview, one he gave to the German football magazine 11 Freunde. In that interview, Enke said: "When speaking with the press, I always have two opinions. My personal feelings, and those which I serve to the public

The divided Self. Countless authors since Ronald laing have commented the theme. Its high time for enabling more integration of private and public spheres. And critical, very critical questions to be adressed at the mentality of so called professionalism. The form who denies the authentic self and the core of a person.

I am mourning with Roberts family, with others in my country and my prayers are with all men and women who wish to speak out the real heart and what really matters for them

Football Tragedy: German National Team Keeper Commits Suicide

He was seen as the favorite to start in goal for Germany at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. But on Tuesday evening, Robert Enke took his own life.

He was one of Germany's best goalkeepers. But now, Robert Enke is dead. The 32-year-old national team player took his own life on Tuesday evening at a train crossing near Hanover, as his friend and advisor Jörg Neblung confirmed late Tuesday.

"I can confirm that it was a case of suicide. Robert killed himself just before 6 p.m.," Neblung said in a short statement.

Enke played for the German national team and was seen as a likely choice to start in goal at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. His professional career had been up and down in recent years, seeing him play for FC Barcelona and Fenerbahce in Istanbul before finding success again at Hanover.

The German soccer world has reacted with shock. "We are full of sadness," said Theo Zwanziger, president of the German Football Association, on Tuesday evening. "Our sympathy goes out to Robert Enke's wife and to his family." Oliver Bierhoff, who manages Germany's national team, said: "We are all under shock. We simply don't know what to say."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had expressed her shock and sympathy in a personal letter to Enke's widow, a government spokesperson said Wednesday.

Lower Saxony Governor Christian Wulff also expressed his sorrow at Enke's death. "Germany has lost an exceptional athlete and a very sensitive person who was an example for many. We mourn him," he said in a statement.

Minute of Silence

Enke apparently threw himself in front of a regional train not far from Hanover. According to a police spokesman, he apparently parked his car near a train crossing, walked several hundred meters down the tracks and stepped out in front of a speeding train. Police say he left behind a suicide note and added that the case would likely be closed later Wednesday.

In addition to his wife Teresa, Enke leaves behind an eight-month-old daughter Leila, whom the couple adopted in May. The couple's biological daughter Lara died at age two in 2006 after being born with a serious heart condition

Tags:

1989!

http://voyager.gaia.com — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:27:12 GMT

Timothy Garton Ash has written down some musings -for the New York Review of Books - about the year:

1989!

Ending with his wish for a fresh global look at the year written by a young historian. D``accord. Adding the wish that enough engaged, committed, courageous and globally acting and thinking people have the focus and intention.in.action to shape the unfolding now and set their fingerprints without knowing in the given moment how history will see the value of it.):)

"Unsurprisingly, the twentieth anniversary of 1989 has added to an already groaning shelf of books on the year that ended the short twentieth century. If we extend "1989" to include the unification of Germany and disunification of the Soviet Union in 1990–1991, we should more accurately say the three years that ended the century. The anniversary books include retrospective journalistic chronicles, with some vivid personal glimpses and striking details (Victor Sebestyen, György Dalos, Michael Meyer, and Michel Meyer), spirited essays in historical interpretation (Stephen Kotkin and Constantine Pleshakov), and original scholarly work drawing on archival sources as well as oral history (Mary Elise Sarotte and the volume edited by Jeffrey Engel). I cannot review them individually. Most add something to our knowledge; some add quite a lot. It is no criticism of any of these authors to say that I come away dreaming of another book: the global, synthetic history of 1989 that remains to be written.
...
The year 1989 was one of the best in European history. Indeed, I am hard pushed to think of a better one. It was also a year in which the world looked to Europe—specifically to Central Europe, and, at the pivotal moment, to Berlin. World history—using the term in a quasi-Hegelian sense—was made in the heart of the old continent, just down the road from Hegel's old university, now called the Humboldt University. Twenty years later, I am tempted to speculate (while continuing to work with other Europeans in an endeavor to prove this hunch wrong) that this may also have been the last occasion—at least for a very long time—when world history was made in Europe. Today, world history is being made elsewhere. There is now a Café Weltgeist at the Humboldt University, but the Weltgeist itself has moved on. Of Europe's long, starring role on the world stage, future generations may yet say: nothing became her like the leaving of it.

In any case, the longer-term consequences of 1989 are only now beginning to emerge. They, too, belong in the synthetic global history of 1989 that, partly for this reason, could not have been written sooner. But after two decades, the time has come for a brilliant young historian—at home in many languages; capable of empathizing both with powerholders and with so-called ordinary people; a writer of distinction; tenured, but with few teaching obligations; well-funded for extensive research on several continents; Stakhanovite in work habits; monastic in private life—to start writing this necessary, almost impossible masterpiece: a kind of Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk of modern history. With luck, he or she should have it ready for the thirtieth anniversary, in 2019"

Tags: Timothy Garton Ash, 1989, 2019, Gesamtkunstwerk, History

Germany: Nov 9th 1989 - Nov 9th 2009

http://voyager.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:33:49 GMT

Today Gemany Germany is celebrating 20 years after fall of the wall.

Berlin Celebrates the Day the Wall Fell

Instead of expressing my joy in a new post I am presenting a compilation of all 84 entries from 2006- 2009 I wrote here at Gaia:
Germany 1
Germany 2
Germany 3
Germany 4

The rest can be followed via the links at the bottom of the pages.

Its a good day for feeling the relevance o fhealthy national idendity in a global world. And, regarding Germany, to enter a new chapter of postive history after 20 years after fall of the wall and nearly 65 years after WW 2.

And therefore for even more and deeper integration of Europe too.

Tags: Germany, Europe, wall, re-unification, Berlin

First Weeks, Milestones and more

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:20:49 GMT

I did read the blog entry from Jon Twigge, Center for human emergence UK:

The First Week - A MIlestone

The" Right to be be" blog is associated with the newly launched Centre for Human Emergence (UK.

I consider this pioneering effort in communication very relevant. As it is about an integrated approach of real world projects in innovative communication style. Yes, in its babysteps, but this baby will grow and demonstrate a potential not seen up to now.

I commented below Jons entry these considerations(Slightly modified)

"The dynamics of creating momentum in this medium and online-spaces certainly require at least 100 days for a minimum.

So called Alfa bloggers like Instapundit (f.) reach over 10.000 visits per day.

An integrated f2f/online strategy and communication approach is always more, far more than only connecting the dots.

Its about permanently igniting an inspired field of inspired connection and action. As Otto Scharmer recently put in a paper.

Its not replacable by any marketing, or or some YouTube videos and single blogs.

There is soul in it. I like how Howard Bloom is summarizing lots of it on last pages of his new book “The Genius of the Beast”. Collective intelligence is far more than ANY concept about it has revealed up to now..

Its not only about multiplication of efforts , announcements and some content communication.

It has the potential of memetic innovation. Right now the tipping point for such accelerated momentum has not been reached. The unique strength of such dynamics will be in the vibrant and fast paced interaction of individual and collective too.

However mass communication AND change needs to put into new equations with the meshworking concepts.

This will be pioneering work for the next decade(s).

The cross-effects here in inter-continental and infracultural, intercultural and subcultural convergence and emergence is basically dark matter for the moment.

I am absolutely confident that new discoveries will be made next years. Remember the innovation jam IBM did with tens of thousands in Beijing in 2006?

This was only a beginning. I will engage with strong confidence and appetite for adventure and a new journey in this endvor for German speaking countries.

Very best, have a great time! Once more, thanks for your initiative to get it started!

Albert

Tags: Human Emergence, UK

We have no time to loose

http://voyager.gaia.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:32:06 GMT

SPIEGEL ONLINE presents the transscript of German Chancellor`s Angela Merkel speech before the US Congress. I aggree nearly completely with the chancellor and support the complex partnership in leadership constellation with USA.

We have no time to loose

In her speech before the US Congress on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked the Americans for their decades-long support of Germany and for their role in helping to end the Cold War. She also reminded US politicians that the world will be looking to America and Europe in December for leadership in forging a global climate change agreement.

Editor's note: This is the official German government translation of the speech given by Chancellor Angela Merkel before the US Congress on Nov. 3, 2009.

Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Distinguished Members of Congress,

I would like to thank you for the great honor and privilege to address you today, shortly before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I am the second German Chancellor on whom this honor has been bestowed. The first was Konrad Adenauer when he addressed both Houses of Congress in 1957, albeit one after the other.

Our lives could not have been more different. In 1957 I was just a small child of three years. I lived with my parents in Brandenburg, a region that belonged to the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the part of Germany that was not free. My father was a Protestant pastor. My mother, who had studied English and Latin to become a teacher, was not allowed to work in her chosen profession in the GDR.

In 1957 Konrad Adenauer was already 81 years old. He had lived through the German Empire, the First World War, the Weimar Republic and the Second World War. The National Socialists ousted him from his position as mayor of the city of Cologne. After the war, he was among the men and women who helped build up the free, democratic Federal Republic of Germany.

Nothing is more symbolic of the Federal Republic of Germany than its constitution..

October 2009 Integral leadership Review

http://voyager.gaia.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:56:17 GMT

Its out . The new:

October 2009 IntegralL leadership Review

Leadership Quote: Mary Parker Follett
Leading Comments: This Issue and More!
Leadership Coaching Tip: Responsibility, Accountability and Leadership, Russ Volckmann
Dialogue: Integral Leadership, Part II, Wendelin Kupers and Russ Volckmann
A Fresh Perspective: An Interview with Annie McKee—Emotional Intelligence and Leadership
Article: Predrag Cicovacki, Transdisciplinarity As An Interactive Method: A Critical Reflection On The Three Pillars Of Transdisciplinarity
Review: Regina Schulte-Ladbeck, High-Altitude Leadership: What the World’s Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success
Article: Michael Ben-Eli, The Cybernetics of Crisis and the Challenge of Sustainability, including an interview with the author
Article: Mariana Bozesan, The Power of One: How Influential Business Executives Transform and Lead into a Sustainable Future
Article: Yene Assegid, What Sets True Leaders Apart?
Article: Elza S. Maalouf, Emerging Patterns in the Middle East: The Thirty Year Itch for Lebanon and Iraq
Article: Otto Laske, On Change and Crisis
Article: Theo Dawson and Katie Heikkinen, Identifying Within-Level Differences in Leadership Decision Making Developmental Testing Service
Article: Kristoffer Nelson, It’s Time for the Bottom Line to Get a Little Bigger
Leadership Cartoon: Mark Hill
Notes from the Field
• Gary Hawke, Integral Leadership in Action Conference
• Erik Möller, Integral Leadership for Sustainability
• Terri O'Fallon, A Gathering of Developmentalists
• Raquel Torrent, Publication of Integral Evolution
• Ichak Adizes Brief Interview

Announcements: UK, Finland, US, Canada
Leadership Emerging
• Dalai Lama andLaurens Van Den Muyzenberg, The Leader's Way
• Leigh Zimmerman Gilchrist, A Snapshot in Philosophical Practice: How Executives Frame Openness in Public Higher Education (Reviewed by Dan Jenkins)
• David Cottrell, Leadership Energy
• John Pisapia, The Strategic Leader

Coda: Attending the the Collective, including attention to
• Alan Briskin et al, Collective Wisdom and the
Trap of Collective Folly.

Now available.

Now Available

Tags: Integral leadership Review, Russ Volckmann, Wendelin Kuepers, Elza Maalouf, Keith Belamy, Annie McKee, Mariana Bozesan, Yene Assegid, Otto Laske

Highlights: 2009 Conscious Capitalism Conference

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:11:14 GMT

Forewarded from Cindy Wigglesworth.

Highlights from 2009 Conscious Capitalism Conference:

Highlights: 2009 C3 Summit

Tags: Conscious Capitalism

A Taste of India

http://voyager.gaia.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:29:38 GMT

next month, in November, India will see at least 2 great, global forums.

A Taste of India is the TEDIndia conference in Mysore.

And world economic forum is having his summit in New Delhi:

Indias Next Generation of Growth

The greatest English speaking democracy of the world has moved forewards in large steps since the days of independence via Gandhi and others. The community of expats and intelligent great people outside this country is making history worldwide too.

This culture, full of ancient wisdom, beeing the origin of the worlds greates spiritual teachings and figures, is on the way into modernity. Within the next 50 years India will be without doubt one of the global superpowers. its location on the IIndian subcontinent has geocultural realtions to the Mideast a well as to Asia.

And as part of former British commonwealth India is well connected for a long time already to the English speaking universe.

It has some Bollywoods and lots of Nigerias.As Fareed Zakrai said. And, as Nandan Nilekani in imaginingindia.com says there are parts living in the 17th century, the 18th century as much as ones living in 20th century and 21st century. So to speak time zones measured in degrees of devlopmental dynamics.

My congratulations to all Indian friends here on Gaia and those who live in neigbourhood to India and were born there.

Namaste!

The Great Inidian Novel goes into a new big round and a new chapter:):)

Tags: India, TedIndia, World Economic Forum. Mysore, New Delhi

Wotan

http://voyager.gaia.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:42:48 GMT

Crossposting here something from the MUlti-Lingual Pod. Its about the power of mythological in the unconscious. Especially if and as much not felt and expressed in the developed and developing person. And of course in collective identity too.

This is an article from Carl Gustav Jung . Published in 1936. And an ecellent complimentary source to Heinrich Heines text Rat eines Traeumers presented here in Multi-lingual Pod too earlier.

Jung is referring precisely to the psychic side and the collective unconsciousness in German culture. Though this dimension is to be integrally broadened it nevertheless is abolutely crucial for any understanding .

And I am writing about it not simply as intellectual excercise. Its an existential endevor. And it was an even brutal experience within myself last 40 years.

Its clear that Nietzsche-as quoted here by C.G: Jung -felt and sensed this same psycho-physical force. He was the most lucid author from last 150 years in Germany. He ended as broken soul.

Its a fantastic and tough challenge at once to finally tame and galvanize Wotan for the 21st century

. Wotan

"...

In Germany shall divers sects arise,

Coming very near to happy paganism.

The heart captivated and small receivings

Shall open the gate to pay the true tithe.”

- Prophecies of Nostradamus, 1555

...

Itis above all the Germans who have an opportunity, perhaps unique in history, to look into their own hearts and to learn what those perils of the soul were from which Christianity tried to rescue mankind.Germany is a land of spiritual catastrophes, where nature never makes more than a pretense of peace with the world-ruling reason. The disturber of the peace is a wind that blows into Europe from Asia’svastness, sweeping in on a wide front from Thrace to the Baltic,scattering the nations before it like dry leaves, or inspiring thoughts that shake the world to its foundations...."

read more…

Tags: Wotan, Jung, Germany, Asia, Nietzsche, Mythology

Believing in Britian -Crisis of British Identity

http://voyager.gaia.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:26:32 GMT

An excellent blog entry from Rachel Castagne. At the newly launched "Right to be" blog which is asscociated with British Centre for Human Emergence. Once again the power of identity awareness in a national frame is integrally demonstrated. Congratulations Rachel! I could not agree more.

Beeing on the German side I see the theme here too. As I often mentioned here on Gaia last years.

Believing in Britain -Crisis of British Identity

A guest post by Rachel Castagne.

Rachel Castagne

I am reading Ian Bradley’s book on ‘Believing in Britain’. I used to think it was ‘just me’ or that I was in a minority when I didn’t consider myself British (being born in Trinidad gave me the perfect excuse!) or want to, was in fact ‘ashamed’ of being British; when my daughter came home from school a few months ago and said she was ashamed of being British, I wondered if I had ‘passed on’ the sentiment, like a hereditary gene, although I knew she hadn’t always felt that way, she’s become aware of ‘Britishness’ as a national identity in her adolescence, turns out, its not ‘cool’ to be Brit, turns out she’s not the only teen that feels that way…

In fact Bradley reports some interesting stats:
2005 Social Attitudes Survey found 44% of the population said ‘British’ was the ‘best’ or only way of describing their national identity, as against 52% ten years earlier.
Amongst those in Scotland 14% described themselves as British compared with 70% who described themselves as Scottish
Wales: 35% and even England only 48% of the population considered themselves British, 15% fewer than in 1992.

The 2001 census was the first in which the majority in England marked their nationality as English as opposed to British

read more..

See also, earlier this year:

A Summit and a Meetup in London about Britishness

Tags: UK, Britain, Rachel Castagne, Identity