[Springboard] Dialogue on the Future

Thu May 29 10:23:11 EDT 2008

Larry, your last answer was another question . . . ;)

Larry Philbrook <icalarry at ms69.hinet.net> 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 ¨C 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 ¨C 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 ¨C 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 ¨C 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 ¨C 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 ¨C expectation of return of investments of 10+ % is very destructive ¨C 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 ¨C 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£º 
  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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