[Springboard] Dialogue on the Future
Carolyn Antenen
cantenen at mac.com
Wed May 28 16:14:01 EDT 2008
Dear Larry,
Your questions are worthwhile.
FYI ICA USA is sponsoring 3 Global Workshops (per your design) in
preparation
for the November Global Conference in Japan.
Dates and locations are still being finalized. Info will be on the
web ica-usa.org
Tenatively: San Francisco, October
Chicago, July or August
Eastern US (NY or NC?), September
Regards,
Carolyn
On May 28, 2008, at 6:09 AM, Larry Philbrook wrote:
> Dear Colleagues and Friends
>
> I have been thinking a lot about the future lately. I have been in
> Taiwan 17 years and am still enjoying myself and learning a lot but
> I also see my role as changing - many more of our colleagues are
> fully capable facilitators and wise mentors for the next generation
> so what is my role? The past year I have been asked to work in 9
> countries besides Taiwan and each offered a great opportunity for
> me to learn and interchange with new cultures and great people. I
> am doing my best to make no assumptions and to continue to go with
> the flow of what life is offering me.
>
> As many of you know my organization, the Institute of Cultural
> Affairs, will be doing our 7th global conference in Japan. This
> represents 28 years of conversation about what is going on in the
> world. I am trying to figure out what the critical questions are
> that need to be asked and who might be people to involve in the
> conversation. Below you will see the official context from the
> website if you want to read it you can. I thought I would share my
> questions and see if anyone else wants to share either in this
> dialogue on or offline.
>
> 1) I have been seeing a lot of negative signs the last several
> years – signs of hopelessness like Iraq and perhaps the final
> destruction of the myth of America as the good guys - What are
> signs of hope for you in the world today?
>
> 2) Despite the enormous efforts made each year to address the
> world’s persistent development challenges, the international
> community can point to only incremental impact on the status quo.
> Why? What is going wrong or right with societal and community
> transformation?
>
> 3) What are the critical questions that it would be worth having
> a group research and discuss in depth?
>
>
> I figure if I am asking others to venture their answers the least I
> can do is give it a try so here are my current thoughts:
> 1. What are signs of hope for you in the world today?
> · For me a sign of hope is that the choice for the
> democratic candidate for president in the US is between a black man
> and a woman – both seen as strong and viable
> · For me a sign of hope is some of the youth I am working
> with in Hong Kong who are trying to figure out how to be young,
> Chinese and in transformative relationships
> · I connected with a group call the Generative Change
> Community (GCC) who are supporting the use of dialogue in deep
> conflict situations like the southern Philippines – adding the
> concept of dialogue before decision-making to deepened the trust
> and build community.
>
>
> 2. Why? What is going wrong or right with societal and community
> transformation?
> · I see the business of development as being a major
> driver – one of my colleagues was talking about working with an
> NGO and no one wants to talk about the costs they have because it
> will reveal how much their operation overheads eat into the
> donations this is even in internal conversations – How do we build
> viable development models based on real costs without getting
> caught by the same profit motive of the private sector?
> · Value based NGO’s have learned that they can use
> development to convert people to their belief system which has long
> term consequences on the communities and individuals involved this
> shows up a lot in madrassah movement and Christians teaching
> English in China - At what point is service for the needs of others
> and at what point service to my own vision of how others should be?
> · Development that is tided more to the givers needs than
> the communities - wheat growing in Africa because that was the
> technology - cash crops over food because of the need to pay debts
> to donor countries
>
> 3. What are the critical questions that it would be worth having
> a group research and discuss in depth?
> · The economics of today and tomorrow are driving the poor
> to be poorer and the rich to be dramatically richer – expectation
> of return of investments of 10+ % is very destructive – How do we
> shift the context of more more more?
> · Healing has become a business how do we return to healing
> as a vocation - levels of stress and cancer grow every year - we
> have begun to have diseases of the poor countries and diseases of
> the developed countries. One way to know if you are becoming
> developed is the increase in cases of certain types of cancer.
> · How is facilitation a transformational role in
> organizational and individual development? What is the edge today
> in facilitation?
>
> Just a few thoughts
>
> With respect, Larry
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> My name is Larry Philbrook
> I am with the ICA in Taiwan – I have been with the ICA since 1970
> based in 6 nations and have worked in more than 30. I have worked
> in community development since 1968 and with organizational change
> since 1984.
> I am happily married to Evelyn Kurihara Philbrook and we have two
> wonderful children Lela and Lloyd both of whom are now in Chicago.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------------------------------------
> GLOBAL CONFERENCE ICA International Unlocking the potential to
> create a new world together
> “Despite the enormous efforts made each year to address the
> world’s persistent development challenges, the international
> community can point to only incremental impact on the status quo.
> As a result, many have called for a paradigm shift, in order to
> usher in a new era of holistic social change.
>
> The Institute of Cultural Affairs International’s 7th Global
> Conference on Human Development: Unlocking the Potential to Create
> a New World Together will serve as a launching pad for realizing
> the paradigm shift needed to overcome our deepest human development
> challenges. Breakthrough is possible only through a comprehensive,
> integrated approach, which facilitates the exchange of information
> and collaboration across disciplines and areas of interest.
>
> The 7th Global Conference will take place over five days, from
> 17-21 November 2008 in Takayama, Japan, and will include more than
> 1000 participants. It will bring together key stakeholders from
> civil society, government, and the private sector to explore our
> most pressing human development challenges and design
> groundbreaking approaches to resolving them. By bringing together
> peoples from the various sectors, as well as different fields
> within each sector, a tremendous opportunity for partnership is
> achieved. To guarantee the productive engagement of all
> participants, facilitators will be engaged to guide the conference
> process. “
>
> The Central Challenges for this Global Conference are：
>
> 1. The Effective Governance and Protection of Human Rights
> 2. Persistence of Poverty
> 3. Environmental Degradation and Climate Change
> 4. Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods
> 5. Violent Conflict and Social Disintegration
> 6. Access to Heathcare and Preventing the Spread of Diseases
> 7. Literacy and Education
> 8. Consumerism and Over-Consumption
> 9. Disconnectedness and Barriers to Engagement
> 10. Private Sector Collaboration
>
> http://ica-international.org/global-conference/index.html
>
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Carolyn Antenen
cantenen at mac.com
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