[Oe List ...] Dialogue on the Future

Fri May 30 02:02:45 EDT 2008

Love you,  Marge

On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 5:09 AM, 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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