I  am inviting all seriously committed and intended friends to join the global presencing Institute Community. Co-creating a large scale system of accupunture like points of change across the globe.

http://www.presencing.com/community/index.shtml

I blogged repeatedly last years about the work-in-progress of Otto Scharmer. its about creating landing stripes for the future on a global scale.

See here some randomly picked entries:


 
   Dialog on Leadership

Posted on Sep 24th, 2006 by  Albert
In In March 2004 I met Otto Scharmer and  we had three hours of vivid and great conversation. It was funny that Otto and I lived and studied in Berlin in the beginnning of the... More » t




Rebuilding the "Atlantic Bridge"

Posted on Jan 5th, 2007 by  Albert
As a convinced translanticist -in the sense of confluence,emergence and shared values as much as economic, political and other cultural dynamics -I am delighted that German Chancellor Dr. Angela Markel at the beginning of her EU Presidency... More »


Integral Leadership Review January 2007

Posted on Jan 13th, 2007 by  Albert
The January 2007 issue of Integral Leadership Review has been published.   Again it becomes clearer and clearer that Integral leadership is work in progress. And -personally for me - Hundreds and thousands of facettes are... More  

» CEOs In, Celebrities Out

Posted on Jan 27th, 2007 by  Albert
While the 37th annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos is ending today I feel that the resume for me as interested blogger is definitely not that of a Big Bang or thrill. But... More »

Offering from Society for Organizational Learning

Posted on Apr 3rd, 2007 by Albert
This is an offering from SOL -Society for Organizational Learning -regarding the arrival of Otto Scharmers new book. Perhaps interesting for some of you. Sherry Immediato, Managing Director and Publisher of Solonline forewarded it to... More »

• 
  
  
  Kosmos Journal: Spring Summer 2007 : Call For Visionary Leaders
  
  Posted on Apr 28th, 2007 by Albert
  KOSMOS AN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO GLOBAL AWAKENING the journal for creating world community http://www.kosmosjournal.org/ From Editorial of Nancy Roof. I agree completely with Nancyabout the need of new types of leadership as I said elsewhere... More »
  
  
  
  2 Newly Emerging Online Spaces
  
  Posted on Jul 24th, 2007 by Albert
  Here are two newly emerging Online spaces, which belong to the work of Otto Scharmer. http://www.ottoscharmer.com/ http://www.theoryu.com/ And: The Presencing Institute
  
  
  
  Corporate Innovation , Transformation and Jamming
  
  Posted on Aug 21st, 2007 by Albert
  Its about John Kao. This guy is really an out of the box entrepreneur and innovator. Unconventional, free of dress code, humorous and embodying(!) what Josef Schumpeter called creative destruction. A Maverick thinker and challenger.... More »
  
  
  The KaosPilots - A Blue Ocean Strategy
  
  Posted on Aug 25th, 2007 by Albert
  About us KaosPilot International - International School of New Business Design and Social Innovation KaosPilot International is an entrepreneurial education for young entrepreneurs and project leaders with a creative edge and a global mind.... More » Add Comment views (399)
  
  
  
  
•  Social Presencing Theater for scaling up Collective Intelligence
  
  Posted on Nov 7th, 2007 by Albert
  At least two times a year I come across some flashs of insight which strangely co-incide with some of George Por:):)This lengthy Blog entry from George Por from Evolutionary Nexus presents very potent injunctions... More » Add Comment views (280)
  
  
  
  
  What inspires Otto Scharmer?
  
  
  Posted on Feb 11th, 2008 by Albert
  Its my pleasure to present this short 5 min Clip with Otto Scharmer. My favorite statement is already Ottos first sentence. There is it, this special energy, presence and powerof Otto...) My name is Otto... More »

A short video Intro to work and approach of my favorite strategic thinker Thomas PM Barnett. he brings civil society and strategic thinking and acting together for the post 9/11 time. Innovative, imaginative and radically clear.

 http://www.ted.com In this bracingly honest and funny talk, international security strategist Thomas P.M. Barnett outlines a post-Cold War solution for the foundering US military: Break it in two. He suggests the military re-form into two groups: a Leviathan force, a small group of young and fierce soldiers capable of swift and immediate victories; and an internationally supported network of System Administrators, an older, wiser, more diverse organization that actually has the diplomacy and power it takes to build and maintain peace.





http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/

And a compilation of some blog entries with reference to Toms work:

 From the Clash to the Confluence of Civilizations

Posted on Dec 21st, 2006 by  Albert
This is a hint to the Washington Summit of SDi in January 2007. It deals with macro*Memetics and I consider this approach -though not enough advanced in the SDi learnig curve -as currently the benchmark... More »



Shaping a Free World and Foreign Relations

Posted on Nov 3rd, 2007 by  Albert
Preparing for Grand Berlin Launch of European Council on Foreign Relations I Located different voices and contributions which will be most interesting and relevant to interact with. Especially Mark Leonard and Timothy Garton Ash are brilliant... More »

Global Excellence in Corporate Blogging

Posted on Nov 22nd, 2007 by  Albert
After the many Prizes this year for this and that I want to add one very personal acknowledgment for a Global Coporate Blog I discovered recently in this article: At the Nexus of IT and ET... More »



Reconsidering Role of Warrior in Our Post-Enlightenment World

Posted on Jan 8th, 2008 by  Albert
Another insightful review of book from Lee Harris "The Suizide of reason -Radical Islam is a Threat to the World". this time by Edward Rothstein in NYT. The other one was posted by ~C4 here... More »


Report Calls for Radical Overhaul of Nato

Posted on Feb 1st, 2008 by  Albert
The global new emrging world order is in need of fresh security architectures too. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO -did a good job during the Cold War. In uncertain times after the end... More »


International Isnt Just IBM`s First Name

Posted on Feb 23rd, 2008 by  Albert
Busienss Week is reflecting changes in IBM strategy and global orientation. Global Integrated Enterprise as Sam Palmisano et al put it. This shift in philosophy and direction is remarkable. And the  Innovation Jam 2006 in... More »



Probing the Edges of Globalization

Posted on Feb 29th, 2008 by  Albert
Finishing two great workshops about Future and Dynamics in Dubai and Abu Dhabi (and greater GCC Area)I just checked this most insightful sequence of Blog Entries of Stephen F. De Angelis from Enterprise Resilience Managment Blog... More »



Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing and China Bashing

Posted on Jul 31st, 2008 by  Albert
Olympic Games 2008 will start soon, next week in Beijing. Michael Buerk  from BBC chairs a live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories: combative, provocative and engaging. The Panel... More »


Why not jumping on the demonizing Russia Bandwagon?

Posted on Aug 22nd, 2008 by  Albert
This is one of the very few statements of the last weeks- regarding the Russia Georgia Conflict and its broader nexus and context - which is really impressing me and convincing me that no global... More »  


A Strategists Demand: Love it, Change it or Leave it

Posted on Sep 9th, 2008 by  Albert
In the last months- catalyzed through different personal, global and public tensions, dramatic ones and more playful ones - I sensed an increased collective nervosity , energetic insecurity, emotional frictions and mental vibrations in the... More »



WIE interview with Thomas PM Barnett

Posted on Oct 25th, 2008 by  Albert
There is an excellent WIE Audio Interview with Thomas PM Barnett . This interview is as much a good sign for the new directional shift of WIE into EnlightenNext.  As it is for bringing back... More »

Once again international press-like SPIEGEL ONLINE before too - is ciriticizing lack of German Leadership.

See also Joschkas Fischers Pre Christmas sermon in  German FAZ here:

Germany Is Failing As A leading Europen Power?

And:

Leadership , Crisis Mangemernt, perspectives in Germany and Europe

Diagnosis quite sufficient. Cause and effect consideration insufficient and reflecting lack of in depth understanding of German mentality.

In a German Comfort Zones, going nowhwere fast
By John Vinocur

Monday, January 5, 2009
One of Europe's interesting newspapers made a list last week of events in 2009 it said would impact on its readers' lives. Germany's national election on Sept. 27 wasn't among them.

The omission can't come as a total shock.

The vote itself - essentially a rerun of the internal debate between the fairly immobile and complicit governing coalition partners of the last three years - promises mostly motion rather than real movement in what usually gets described as Europe's most important country.

But there is something more striking: in its response to recession and a series of global confrontations, Germany is giving the impression it's comfortable with a diminished hand on European and global leadership

Claiming preeminence means taking clear positions, accepting potentially uncomfortable responsibilities, getting ahead of events, and being willing to champion points of view that can be both a guide for the European Union's membership and a statement to the world on where Europe stands.

All of which is more assertiveness, it seems, than Angela Merkel thinks is safe to muster while facing, as a front-runner, a famously risk-and-change adverse electorate.

Read more..

The new Integral leadership Review 2009 is out.

From Russ Volckmann:

Happy New Year!!!

And welcome to the January 2009 Very Special Issue of Integral Leadership Review: Integral Leadership in Australia, guest edited by Ron Cacioppe. And notice that you can stream the audio of David Hudson playing didgeridoo!

And while I have your attention, note that Insights on Leadership, Volume 3: Executives has now been published. Order your copy today.

Table of Content, January 2009          




"Yigi Yigi" Listen to David Hudson Play Didgeridoo

Leadership Quote: Peter Rennie
 
Leading Comments: Ron Cacioppe, Guest Editor
 
Leadership Coaching Tip: Russ Volckmann, Mentoring and Coaching
 
A Fresh Perspective: Exploring the World of Integral Leadership: A Conversation with Jay Davies, Russ Volckmann
 
Review: Laura Santana reviews David V. Day, Michelle M. Harrison, Stanley M. Halpin, An Integrative Approach to Leader Development

 Article: Wendelin Kupers, Thoughts on Leadership in Australia
 
Article: Roger Stace, Evolution and Integral Leadership: How the Homo Got Its Sapiens
 
Integral for the Masses: Keith Bellamy, Focusing on Differences-A Critical Trait for the Aspiring Integral Leader?
 
Article: Mark Edwards, Seeing Integral Leadership through Three Important Lenses: Developmental, Ecological and Governance
 
Article: Ron Cacioppe and David McDermott, Integral Environmental Sustainability: Achieving an Integral Vision of Business Success with Zero Environmental Impact Leadership Cartoon: Bill Bates Update
 
Leadership Cartoon: Guest Cartoonist, Mark Hill

 Article: Steve McDonald, My Integral Change Journey
 
Article: Tom A. Morris, En Route to Effective Workplace Leadership: An Integral Novice's Exploration
 
Review: Russ Volckmann, Obama, Leadership and Hierarchical Complexity, A Review of Don Dunoon, In the Leadership Mode, Michael Commons and Sara Nora Ross, On Hierarchal Complexity, World Futures

 Global Values Update: Alan Tonkin, Evolving Values in the 21st Century: An Integrated View with Annexure on India and Australia

Notes from the Field
 Michael Dewan-Herrick, Integral Neuroscience at the LIC

 Prasad Kaipa, Igniting the Genius Within Conference

 Brian Van der Horst, THE FRENCH LETTER: Integral News, Happenings and Events in France

 Yung-Pin Lu and Katherine Gaines, International Leadership Association Conference

Announcements: Integral Leadership Review, France, Indianapolis, Tucson, Australia, Dubai, Prague, Los Angeles
 
Leadership Emerging:

Harvard Business Review Online-The Obama Victory
Business Week Online-Advice for Obama's First 100 Days
Ellen McGirt, "Revolution in San Jose: A Hard-Core Republican Turns Cisco into a Socialist Enterprise-One with $26 Billion in Cash," Fast Company
Juana Bordas, Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age
Patrick Warneka, Timothy H. Warneka, and Lao Tzu, The Way of Leading People
Timothy H. Warneka, Leading People the Black Belt Way
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
John C. Gordon and Joyce K. Berry, Environmental Leadership Equals Essential Leadership
Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman, The Leadership Code Coda:
The Futurist, Top Ten Forecasts for 2009 and Beyond
Tom Murray, "On Joining the Integral Community: My Journey to the First Integral Theory Conference, August 2008," Integral World
Douglas Schuler, Liberating Voices: A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution          
   

Tony Blair, EX Premier of UK and now Mideast Quartet Representative gave a speech in December 2008 in Washington DC. I always appreciated Tony Blair as most relevant European Politician for the last 10 years. Its good that the contributes his long Mideast experience and perspectives in conversations with President Elect Barack Obama and his advisors.

See:

Salam Alaikum, Tony!

Building foundations on the ground key to sucessful Middle East negotiations, says Tony Blair

Speech of Mideast Envoy Tony Blair to CFR


Speech by Quartet Representative Tony Blair to the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington DC

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

In the past 15 months as Quartet Representative to the Middle East I have learnt a great deal.

I have learnt that the Israeli-Palestinian issue - seemingly intractable - can be solved. I have had reinforced my belief that indeed it must be.

So, how can it be done?

The past 40 years are littered with initiatives, signposts to various potential breakthroughs, unsatisfactory compromises, new dawns that swiftly turned to dusk and failed negotiations. Along the way, there have been immense gains that sometimes are obscured by the central impasse. Egypt and Jordan are at peace with Israel. The Arab Peace Initiative of the then Crown Prince Abdullah in 2002 signalled a new pan-Arab approach. The contours of the final status issues, if not their outcomes, have been clarified.

The Annapolis process and the limited but, nonetheless, real change on the West Bank during the past year - for which the President and Secretary Rice deserve much credit - have yielded a genuine platform for the future.

But the central impasse does indeed remain. My view - formed since I came to Jerusalem and refining much of what I thought when I tussled intermittently with the issue for 10 years as British Prime Minister - is that it remains because the reality on the ground does not, as yet, sufficiently support the compromises necessary to secure a final, negotiated settlement. In other words, we have tended to proceed on the basis that if we could only agree the terms of the two state solution - territory, refugees, Jerusalem - i.e. the theory, we would then be able to change the reality of what was happening on the ground i.e. the practice. In my view, it is as much the other way around. The political process and changing the reality have to march in lock-step. Until recently, they haven't.

The reason this is critical to resolving this dispute is as follows. The problem is not that reasonable people do not agree, roughly, what the two states look like. I don't minimise the negotiation challenge. But listen to sensible Palestinians and sensible Israelis and you will quickly find the gaps are not that big; certainly are not unbridgeable.

Ask the people, Israeli or Palestinian, and they will say very simply: yes, a two state solution is ideal; but then they will say, equally simply, no it can't happen. Why? Because each people has lost faith in the other's good faith. Israelis don't believe they have a partner for peace. Palestinians don't believe Israel is sincere in offering statehood.
The reasons for this are also simple. Put yourself in the shoes of Israel. For years Israel has fought for the right to exist. For years it has been surrounded by other nations, much larger than Israel, which question that right to exist. They tried, so they would say, to reach a settlement, most recently in 2000. They despaired of negotiation. So under Prime Minister Sharon, they decided to disengage from the Palestinians and create a de facto separation into two states. So they leave Gaza. In their eyes, they end "the occupation". They take 8000 settlers with them. They get Hamas and rocket attacks in return. Look at the map. Gaza threatens Sderot and Ashkelon but rockets cannot, as yet, reach from Gaza to the main centres of population in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.
Israel cannot live with a Gaza-type mess on the West Bank. It cannot live with Hamas and their rockets a few miles from Ben Gurion airport. So now Israelis say: we have a failed set of steps for peace, a divided Palestine, a divided Palestinian authority and therefore no proper partner for peace.

Read more..

Timothy Garton Ash, one of the founders of European Council On Foreign Relations, is expressing some strong feelings and observations about current state of global shaping power of EU. I enjoy his special emotiona/rational writing style.His statements integrate the biggest amount of emotional intelligence regarding the newly emerging level of European Union as holon, as collective entity.

However, stil missing is any developmental perspective. Pragmatically he is. Yes.
But Europe as a evolving entity is utterly complex in its vertical layers. They need in depth inspection . And a new defining moment in history for even changing constitutional fundaments.

With new purpose, mission, vision and understanding of all the evolving identities.
And a feeling of the SOUL of this process in at least all pioneers moving this edge.

Co-Shaping the function of Foreign Policiy- as European Council on Foreign Relations does-can produce, evoke and catalyze those processes. The more pain is felt for any deficiancy as TGA et al are expresssing the more it will become clear what needs to be done.

And this is by far more than any take-home-lessons  the crowds of consultants, coaches, advisors and cultural astrologers can provide right now.

Thanks TGA for this piece!( I created some hyperlinks for the sake of immediate background about some persons.)

Europe is faling two life and death tests: We must act together now.

By Timothy Garton Ash - 09 Jan 09

This article was published in The Guardian on 8 January 2009. 

The EU has taken great strides in the last decade. But when dealing with the world beyond, it is as weak and divided as ever

Weak, divided, incoherent, hypocritical and infuriating - that's how you hear the EU described privately in Beijing and Washington. The events of this first week of 2009 suggest that our critics are entirely right.

Look at the mess we're in. Europe faces two acute crises that threaten both our interests and our values. The Gaza war is a negation of every principle for which Europe claims to stand. It directly affects our vital interests, not least because the latest round of Palestinian suffering (compounded by the Palestinians' own divided and irresponsible leadership) will further inflame the anger of Muslims living in Europe. The Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute has already resulted in elderly citizens of some eastern European member states shivering in unheated apartments. If protecting our people from dying of cold is not a vital interest I don't know what is. And this conflict, too, mocks European ideals of conflict resolution by peaceful negotiation under the rule of law.

So how does Europe respond? Ludicrously, it has been represented in the Middle East by not one but two separate missions: an official EU one led by the Czech foreign minister, since the Czech Republic has just taken over from France the still-rotating six-monthly presidency of the EU; and another consisting of the king-emperor Nicolas Sarkozy  who clearly liked being president of Europe for the last six months so much that he feels Europe and the world cannot possibly do without him. To adapt Louis XIV: "L'Europe, c'est moi."

At a moment when the United States is suspended between an outgoing president who won't do anything to stop the slaughter and an incoming president who feels he can't yet, Europe has a chance to show what it can do. So here it is: weak, divided, and still as infuriatingly pompous and vacuously self-aggrandising as it was in the early 1990s, when the foreign minister of Luxembourg descended on disintegrating Yugoslavia and cried "the hour of Europe has come". Like the Bourbons, the EU seems to have forgotten nothing and learned nothing.

The official EU delegation's demand for an instant ceasefire was simply rebuffed. Sarkozy, to his credit, has at least worked urgently with the state on Gaza's southern border - Egypt - to come up with a concrete plan. But even if Israel agrees to some version of the Egyptian plan, it will be for its own combination of operational and political reasons, and/or because effective pressure comes from Washington.

Ach, Europa! sighed the German writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger some 20 years ago, with affectionate exasperation. Ach, Europa! I cry in 2009, more in anger than in sorrow. While the human suffering caused by the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute is less acute than that in Gaza, Europe's failure here is even more culpable. For all its economic power, Europe cannot stop the Gaza tragedy without help from the US. Not true in respect of Russian gas. If we had done what the experts have been urging since the last Russian pipeline throttling and had begun to create a single European market in natural gas; if 27 EU member states consistently acted as one in the positions they take with both Russia and Ukraine then we would never have descended into this sorry mess. As it is, when I hear officials of the European commission huffing and puffing - this is "unacceptable", they say, "Russia must ..." - I not merely anticipate but inwardly almost share the contemptuous reaction of Gazprom and Vladimir Putin.

Read more..

More references to writings of TGA:

 


09.Nov 07 ECFR Grand Launch in Berlin

Posted on Oct 26th, 2007 by  Albert
I was very happy to be invited as new Associate Member of  European Council on Foreign Relations to the Grand Launch on a significant day. As the ECFR is really the first pan-European Think Tank which has... More »  

Shaping a Free World and Foreign Relations

Posted on Nov 3rd, 2007 by  Albert
Preparing for Grand Berlin Launch of European Council on Foreign Relations I Located different voices and contributions which will be most interesting and relevant to interact with. Especially Mark Leonard and Timothy Garton Ash are brilliant... More »


A House divided against itself cannot stand

Posted on Nov 7th, 2007 by  Albert
Daniel Korski   from European Council on Foreign Relations wrote an article about current status of EU and Europe. He referred at the end of article to a brilliant speech Abraham Lincoln gave in Springfield, Illionois,... More »



Birth Hour For First Ever Pan-European Think Tank

Posted on Nov 9th, 2007 by  Albert
I am back from the: ECFR OFFICIAL LAUNCH IN BERLIN It was a great event. See Executive Director Mark Leonards: Welcome Message For ECFR Portal. 600 invited guests, political leaders, ambassadors, experts and members of... More »


China and Africa

Posted on Nov 12th, 2007 by  Albert
I already wrote about Roger Hamilton and his: Biggest Entrepreneur and Social Enterprise Network in Asia Pacific This is an interesting snapshot from his newletter. Indeed it underlines the rapidly growing importance of Asia Pacific... More »



European Treaty Lisbon: Ode to Joy or Manual for forklift truck?

Posted on Dec 13th, 2007 by  Albert
While European Politicians celebrating today the new treaty for Europe and listened to Beethovens ecstatic Ode to Joy there are still lots of under-expressed feelings, thoughts and wishes. Timothy Garton Ash, co-founder of recently launched... More »  


Enlightened Fundamentalism or Racism of Anti-Racists?

Posted on Dec 15th, 2007 by  Albert
A snapshot of fierce discussions in Europe about MUlti-Culturalism and different values. Provided by: sign and sight Thats again stuff for considerations about national and stratifed global democracy. About stratified Values and  Integral Considerations on... More »  


Who should be the Worlds most powerful Person?

Posted on Jan 10th, 2008 by  Albert
At the Beginning of this year 2008 US nomination- and election campaign Timothy Garton Ash  who is also co-founder of newly launched European Council on Foreign Relations , asks a relevant question. And, as always with... More »



Broadening Global Constellations and International Anthem

Posted on Jan 25th, 2008 by  Albert
   Timothy Garton Ash did it again. here are two insightful articles about the state of the global world. So far no World governement even in sight, but relevant considerations about the next stage . TGA... More »


Integral Global

Posted on May 8th, 2008 by  Albert
As the 9th Annual Confab of SDi is nearing, Don Beck communicated some very important points.And I see them all in realtion to what might be called Integral Global. Moving far beyond European and North... More »



The EU cannot afford to become a symbol of weakness or decline

Posted on Jun 30th, 2008 by  Albert
As the EURO2008 is over I feel more than ever before the unique colors, powers, energies and flows in the different European Nations. it was a great celebration in Austria and Switzerland and I feel this... More »


Advice for Obama from 10 Leading Global Pundits

Posted on Aug 2nd, 2008 by  Albert
This is a Newsweek Special with an article of Fareed Zakaria, reflecting his impressions and view from his interview with Barack Obama . I agree with Fareed nearly completely. And I see signs in Baracks... More »

Roger Cohen, one of my favorite global top journalists, is once again on spot. Since December 2008 I am asking myself and others: Why is there this strange silence in the Obama Transition team when it comes to Mideast?

Now this piece for NYT really gives stuff for thinking about it. Check it out...I created some hyperlinks for additional information.


Mideast Dream Team? Not Quite

By ROGER COHEN
The Obama team is tight with information, but I've got the scoop on the senior advisers he's gathered to push a new Middle East policy as the Gaza war rages: Shibley Telhami,  Vali Nasr,  Fawaz Gerges, Fouad Moughrabi and James Zogby.

This group of distinguished Arab-American and Iranian-American scholars, with wide regional experience, is intended to signal a U.S. willingness to think anew about the Middle East, with greater cultural sensitivity to both sides, and a keen eye on whether uncritical support for Israel has been helpful.

O.K., forget the above, I've let my imagination run away with me. Barack Obama has no plans for this line-up on the Israeli-Palestinian problem and Iran.

In fact, the people likely to play significant roles on the Middle East in the Obama Administration read rather differently.

They include Dennis Ross (the veteran Clinton administration Mideast peace envoy who may now extend his brief to Iran); James Steinberg (as deputy secretary of state); Dan Kurtzer (the former U.S. ambassador to Israel); Dan Shapiro (a longtime aide to Obama); and Martin Indyk (another former ambassador to Israel who is close to the incoming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.)

Now, I have nothing against smart, driven, liberal, Jewish (or half-Jewish) males; I've looked in the mirror. I know or have talked to all these guys, except Shapiro. They're knowledgeable, broad-minded and determined. Still, on the diversity front they fall short. On the change-you-can-believe-in front, they also leave something to be desired.
...

Enlightenment will require a fresher, broader Mideast team than Obama is contemplating. As noted in "Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East," a fine evaluation of U.S. diplomacy by Kurtzer and Scott Lasensky, the lack of expertise on Islam and an Arab perspective was costly at Camp David. At one point, the State Department's top Arabic translator had to be drafted because "the lack of cross-cultural negotiating skills was so acute."
Obama should take note, name an Arab-American and an Iranian-American to prominent roles, and beware of a team that takes him - and the region - back to the future....

.."

Read more..

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Esquire Magazine presents:

What Now? 22 Influential Citizens on the New American Era

What Now? 22 Influential Citizens on the New American Era

Buzz up!

Now that we've officially got ourselves a 21st-century president, we asked people who matter - from Senator Jim Webb to Stephen King - a simple question: Where do we go from here?

What Now? 22 Influential Citizens on the New American Era

See also, from Robb Smith, CEO on Behalf of the Integral Life Community:

Congratulations, President Obama

 This article is from the August-October 2008 Issue of Enlightennext. Very fascinating topics. Most articles are now online available for free. 

 
What Ever Happened to the Vikings?


A quizzical look at the Scandinavian experiment to create a
gender-neutral society
by Elizabeth Debold


1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7


I've never wanted to be a man. Despite the obvious inequality between men and women when I was growing up, it never seemed to me that men's roles were that much of a bargain. My dad and the other men I knew as a child didn't seem happier than my mom or the other women in my neighborhood. Sure, they earned real money, and often controlled it, but it was in return for doing a lot of things that were dull, dirty, and sometimes downright dangerous-not in the sense of being exciting but rather flat-out life-threatening. Yet there is one thing I have always envied about men: they can pee standing up. It may seem silly, or even trivial, but I can't count how many times in how many places it would have been such a relief to stand and deliver.

So when I read recently that in Sweden for a man to point his plumbing at the pissoir is increasingly considered, as one writer explained, "the height of vulgarity and possibly suggestive of violence," I couldn't believe it. These guys once were Vikings. How did they become persuaded to take a seat? Sleuthing a bit, I discovered that in 2000, a feminist group at Stockholm University demanded that all urinals be removed because they were discriminatory to women. Talk about penis envy! I had no idea that this was how culture was evolving in Sweden, Holland, and all the Scandinavian countries that are leading the gender-equality revolution.

In 2005, the World Economic Forum deemed Sweden as the "most advanced country" for women in regard to economic and political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and well-being. Sweden and the other small homogeneous nations of Northern Europe have generous maternal and paternal leave policies, free access to higher education, affordable child care, and more. They have legislated a smorgasbord of policies designed to level the playing field between women and men that make my feminist heart beat faster. But it never occurred to me that as women took to their feet, men would sit down-on the john, no

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Over the years the contributions, insights and outstanding clarity of Elizabeths Debolds work fascinated and resonated more and more with me. Here ia s 5.52 Clip about:

The New Women` s Liberation

Once again a groundbreaking integral Initiative from Center for Human Emrgence Mideast:

www.humanemergencemiddleeast.org/


The Center for Human Emergence - Middle East proposes a:



Design Conference for Palestine/Israel
To break the cycle of failed "Peace Negotiations"


The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a collision of "tectonic plates" - deep values system codes - that have created a logjam. It is this underlying logjam that generates continual surface-level blockages that erupt in conflict.



We propose a problem-solving methodology with the power, precision, and complexity to span over human groupings to construct the unique economic and political structures that overarch the mountains and valleys of those unique human groupings.

We need to see the patterns as through a prism - where all the various colors of worldviews are made visible, each with a different "tint" on the world. The goal is to understand the needs of all the mind-sets, so as to begin to craft "full-spectrum" solutions which are fundamentally different from those that a single perspective would offer.


Capacity to uncover the deeper dynamics within each society, as well as between societies.
Craft decisions and measure priorities not against the past, nor based on who is responsible for what;
Avoid the typical problem resolution systems such as majority rule, rule by the elite or by the wealthy, or rule by the so-called experts, or those that have military strength.

Defuse the ideologies that produce "us vs. them"
Avoid raising expectations which can be faulted.

Focus on who the people are who live in the region and what their resources are
Design a strategy to mesh people, geography, and resources together into a workable solution for all who live in that region.
Draw upon all of the solutions which are currently available (as well as many that haven't been thought of yet). We often call these "scaffoldings of solutions",

Solutions that involve the whole region: Israel, Syria, Jordan, Palestine

"The issue is less about democracy, rather the question is to design the best structures for meeting the needs of the people as they develop through the stages that are most natural to them; open, adaptive systems appropriate to their life conditions."

See also:

From the Clash to the Confluence of Civilizations


Newsweek posted this at Jan 23:

The Arab World Gives Obama Poor Grades

So its utterly urgent to bring such a proposal to the attention of the President and his advisors.

Remembering also Roger Cohens critical questions:

Mideast DreamTeam? Not Quite

And from Dr. Dennis Roberts, who is blogging as American professor since Nov 2007 directly from Quatar. Qatar belongs to the Arab GCC Region.Where he works inside Education City, the flagship project of Qatar Foundation:

Covering the News

A most interesting article of IHT that shows the degree of understanding of Barack Obama for forms of collective intelligence and P2P networking:

Retooling a grass-roots network for a presidency

By Jim Rutenberg and Adam Nagourney

Monday, January 26, 2009
WASHINGTON: Lyle McIntosh gave everything he could to Barack Obama's Iowa campaign. He helped oversee an army that knocked on doors, distributed fliers and held neighborhood meetings to rally support for Obama, all the while juggling the demands of his soybean and corn farm.

Asked last week if he and others like him were ready to go all-out again, this time to help President Barack Obama push his White House agenda, McIntosh paused.

"It's almost like a football season or a basketball season ? you go as hard as you can and then you've got to take a breather between the seasons," he said, noting he found it hard to go full-bore during the general election.

McIntosh's uncertainty suggests just one of the many obstacles the White House faces as it tries to accomplish what aides say is one of their most important goals: transforming the YouTubing-Facebooking-texting-Twittering grass-roots organization that put Obama in the White House into an instrument of government. That is something that Obama, who began his career as a community organizer, told aides was a top priority, even before he was elected.

His aides ? including his campaign manager ? have created a group, Organizing for America, to redirect the campaign machinery in the service of broad changes in health care and environmental and fiscal policy. They envision an army of supporters talking, sending e-mail and texting to friends and neighbors as they try to mold public opinion.

The organization will be housed in the Democratic National Committee, rather than at the White House. But the idea behind it ? that the traditional ways of communicating with and motivating voters are giving way to new channels built around social networking ? is also very evident in the White House's media strategy.

Like George W. Bush before him, Obama is trying to bypass the mainstream news media and take messages straight to the public.

The most prominent example of the new strategy is his weekly address to the nation ? what under previous presidents was a speech recorded for and released to radio stations on Saturday mornings. Obama instead records a video, which on Saturday he posted on the White House Web site and on YouTube; in it, he explained what he wanted to accomplish with the $825 billion economic stimulus plan working its way through Congress. By late Sunday afternoon, it had been viewed more than 600,000 times on YouTube.


Read more...

 Roger Cohen has once again shown his superb geopolitcal and global capability of perception. He adresses the role of Germany for the 21st Century. Having written some snapshots earlier about Germany (always in European Context) and especially very good observations during FIFa Worldcup 2006

Roger Cohen about Germany,New Identity and FIFA Worldcup 2006
 
he realizes earlier than most international voices and journalists the new and powerful potential of Germany in the midst of the new Europe. However internal realties and perspectives from within yet need to be adresed in his writings. As with other appreciated journalists too.

Here again unique contributions from Germany are possible. As dealing collectively for more than 40 years with its past and mistakes valuable insights were devloped. Very interesting for me a kind of synergy with Israeli people and Jewish community worldwide perhaps. as so many connectivity since the time of first enlightenment was lived for last 300 years. its interesting that Roger himself has Jewish identity.
But seldom comunicates issues of identity and thinking traditions.

He is focusing on the global role. Good to hear. New global roles for developing holons always can trigger other shifts too.  Have said again and again a new German identity in European context must express more global impact. Heres to the article:

Cohen: Remembering Germany

By Roger Cohen

Sunday, January 25, 2009
WASHINGTON: When my thoughts turn to wreckage, and there's a lot of it about these days, I tend to think of Germany's "Stunde Null," or zero hour, the moment in 1945 when a once-powerful nation faced its utter moral and material bankruptcy, the rubble of its collective suicide.

No doubt that's because I lived in Berlin in the 1990s, at the time when the capital returned there from Bonn and a reunited Germany felt confident enough to face the ghosts of its darkest hours. Berlin was still raw, its past present at every turn, and so the miracle of Germany's post-war recovery was palpable.

A country in disgrace had fast-forwarded from ruin to peace and prosperity.

That miracle, of course, was in large measure a German-American achievement, from Marshall Plan reconstruction, through West Germany's insertion into NATO, culminating with the astute U.S. diplomacy that allowed the country's unification within the Western alliance.

It's easy to forget these days that solving "the German question" took much of the 20th century. It's also easy to forget that the U.S. embassy in Bonn was once America's largest in the world, comparable, with its thousands of staff, to the Baghdad embassy today.

What a difference a couple of decades make. The U.S. alliance with Germany has soured. Donald Rumsfeld's comparison of the country to Libya was a low point, illustrating how differences over Iraq poisoned a relationship already complicated by the disappearance of its strategic imperative.

Things have looked up a bit since then, but not a lot. The Germans still feel a little like jilted lovers. Many Americans have a vague notion of an ungrateful nation that's gone soft and smug. It's safe to say President Obama, his campaign speech in Berlin notwithstanding, does not have Germany high on his "to-do" list.

That's a pity. Germany is important to the United States right now. It's time to rekindle a dormant relationship. While America is not at Stunde Null, it's at a moment of disarray when it has to rethink the nature and exercise of its power. Germany knows all about reinvention. It can help in four important areas: Europe, the economy, Iran and Afghanistan.

A strong Europe is essential to America's recovery. The United States is too stretched - militarily and economically - to do without the cohesion of its closest allies.

There are three major European powers: Britain, France and Germany. Britain is going through a meltdown so severe that the joke there is that the country is the next Iceland. That aside, its European credentials are always a little suspect.

In France, the notion of the European Union as a "counterweight" to American power still lurks, although President Nicolas Sarkozy has done much to dispose of such Gallic intellectual baggage.

Only in Germany is a powerful commitment to the strength and effectiveness of the European Union matched by an equally powerful conviction that the trans-Atlantic relationship remains critical.

Read more..

This important new project is a virtual Charity Project of DLD09 Conference in Germany, Munich. Which ends today.I always found that a revival of the great Jewish-German thinking traditions in the context of 21st century is of biggest importance. Not only for Europe but on a global scale.

As Integration and emergence of new realities always need roots , in-depth understanding and a living, breathing, buzzing presence here and now.

Thanks to Dr. Hubert Burda and Salomon Korn!

A New Nexus of German.Jewish Intellectual Life In Europe



DLD09 Charity: Books for bridges

Author: Desiree Martin


Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, David Grossman and Amos Oz are among the figureheads who stand as symbols for the centuries long tradition of German Jewish literature, arts and science.

To honour their memory, this years' DLD charity project is a virtual project, with a real impact.

A virtual library on German-Jewish intellectual history has been created to support the newly expanded College of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg. The college is a truly unique institution, sharing responsibility for the development of the Jewish community in Germany and Europe, as well as furthering the comprehensive study of Jewish religion, history and culture. "Nowhere else in Europe can Jewish studies be pursued in comparable breadth and depth." says Johannes Heil, First Vice-Rector of the college. Courses include Biblical Studies, Rabbinics, Jewish Art history, and Jewish Philosophy, to programs in community work and rabbinic training.

In 2009, the college is relocating to a new building which will unite lecture and seminar spaces, the Central Archive for Research on the History of Jews in Germany and the library itself. Under the patronage of publisher and DLD chairman Hubert Burda, and Salomon Korn, Vice-President of the Central Council of Jews in German, this project encourages people to value the new building not only as a structure, but also as a buzzing nexus of German-Jewish intellectual life in Europe.

Our DLD-friends also have the chance to get involved and support this inspiring project.


With a book-sponsorship, you can make a huge difference to the Virtual Jewish Library. Just choose a title from the list of over 1,500 suggestions in the field of German-Jewish literature and intellectual history to make a donation. Once your donation has been received, your name will appear in the Sponsors' Gallery, together with the book you have sponsored.

Please join this important project - take a book at the virtual library

    
            
  World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009
Davos-Klosters, Switzerland
28 January - 1 February 2009
Shaping the Post-Crisis World more >>

    Interview with Professor Schwab
The Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum explains his vision for the Annual Meeting 2009. more >>


           
  Open Forum Davos 2009
The Open Forum is inviting members of the public to participate in discussions on the key issues facing the globe. more >>

    Bringing the world to Davos with the "Davos Debates" on YouTube
Participate in the Annual Meeting 2009 discussions through the Davos Debates. more >>


           
  Uniting Africa's champions
A strong Africa community will participate in the Annual Meeting 2009 led by 8 African Heads of State or Government. more >>

    Network of Global Agenda Councils holds historic summit
700 of the world's most innovative thought leaders from business, politics, academia and civil society met at the Summit on the Global Agenda. more >>


           
  Current crisis exposes systemic vulnerabilities extending beyond financial sector
The World Economic Forum's latest Global Risks 2009 report warns of a series of challenges facing the global economy this year. more >>

    Forum report explores the future of the global financial system
The World Economic Forum's Future of the Global Financial System report offers a near-term outlook and long-term scenarios for the evolution of the industry. more >>


           
  Global CEOs launch first-ever anti-corruption campaign on YouTube
The World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) launched the first-ever anti-corruption campaign on YouTube to mark International Anti-Corruption Day. more >>

    Norway tops the World Economic Forum?s Gender Gap Index
Norway (1) leads the world in closing the gender gap between men and women, according to the overall ranking in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2008. more >>


           
  US remains on top of global competitiveness rankings
The US tops the overall ranking in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009. more >>

    Young Global Leaders: Innovatively and creatively shaping the future The Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL) has engaged in a number of activities to strengthen global networks of social change. more >>


   
 

             
  Annual Meeting of the New Champions hails corporations emerging amid global crisis
Tianjin, People's Republic of China
27-28 September 2008 more >>

    The first World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia concluded on note of cautious optimism
Istanbul, Turkey
30 October - 1 November 2008 more >>


           
  India Economic Summit closed with warning of falling growth, "but no crisis"
New Delhi, India
16-18 November 2008 more >>

As I want to welcome and introduce new Gaia member

Marc Gafni

I feel drawn to express my appreciation for his special and specific work. Others have commented already in the past.

The three part event series - together with Diana Musho Hamilton, Natya Priya Sofia Diaz - Marc announces at his Gaia page sumarizes the 3 S`s of >personal and dynamic evolution:

Sexuality, Spirituality & Shadow

What I especially appreciate in Marcs work is his public communication -in Internet too-about these themes. There is a collective blind spot in attention in these spheres.

The connectivity between the personal realms and the cultural, poltical and soicietal areas is basically expressed in dilemma modus of communication.

In no way these realms are sidelines for me. They have to do with very basic and advanced meridian systems of conductivity and presencing. With connection of private spheres, shared intimacy and public spheres. With authenticity.

I am using the term presencing here in a broader way than Otto Scharmer in his outstanding specific approach and work.

www.presencing.com

The evolving work-in-progress of Marc Gafni -as far I have learned from the ressources on his homepage -brings an evolutionary and integral perspective to these themes. Beyond spiritual. sexual and poltical correctness.

This is a bold adventure. Its a pioneering effort especially for the public spheres.
In a time when change has its buzz since Baracks campaigne last year. However the collective unconsconsious has a special density and center of gravity. And- embedded in global dynamics one may find its a luxury. Not relevant to crisis management in times of recession.

Wait a moment.

Why is it that in journalism, literature, films, Blogging and TV basically deficit, drama and dilemma is made a theme?

The more passion, purpose and deep perspective are developing the more conventional media and other realms of communication are keen to find the 3D:

Deficit, Drama and Dilemma:):)

Welcome, Marc and his collaborators. Welcome to illuminate, develop and cultivate these broken zones of attention ,life and consciousness. And liberating their evolutionary potential in the public spheres too.

The Centaurian, a private, non-commerical Academic Literature Website, says Good Bye to the great writer and novelist. I have read only fragments of John Updikes work several years ago. he was dealing with identity questions of American middle class his whole life. In a wonderful expressive and feeling way.  A Pity he received no Nobel Prize in Lifetime.

And one word from here to the self-declared cracks from edge.org

Read novels!

Why?

I answered here:

Why John Brockman does not read Novels

However, the inherent dilemma, subtle tensions and dramatic frictions and unfullfilled promises of the 60``ies, the great utopian pretension of the boomers and their time in 20th century , the felt certainty of death is crystallizing more and more in his later work. He did not find perspective and new vision for radical new horizones.

Who will write the great American novel for the 21st century?

The 1990 poem written by John himself is a wonderful one:

A JOHN UPDIKE WEBSITE FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION



 John is gone . . .

I came to this sad news while I was away from home today and word found its way to me while I was busy on life's errands here in Maine.  So my guess is that most of you had heard the news of John Updike's passing before I did.  It was hard news to receive.  If you want a quick link to online news you may go to The New York Times story at

 http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na.  

Much more public information will be appearing over the next few days.

Certainly there will be things to write about later here on the website.  While there is obviously no way around the profound sadness I feel so deeply in this passing of a friend, a sadness also shared by hundreds of you who read this tonight I know, I can think of nothing more appropriate to share with you than one of his poems which over and over again is requested from me by persons having recently lost their own loved ones and friends.  And to a person almost they have wanted this poem in order to read it at the funeral or memorial service to be observed.  So as a tribute to John and as expressing my own deep sentiments about this singularly brilliant artist and graciously loyal friend here is that much-used poem. 

 Could there be any poem he wrote which expresses our wounded but thankful feelings better than this one?

Perfection Wasted

And another regrettable thing about death

is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,

which took a whole life to develop and market-

the quips, the witticisms, the slant

adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest

the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched

in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,

their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,

their response and your performance twinned.

The jokes over the phone. The memories packed

in the rapid-access file. The whole act.

Who will do it again? That's it: no one;

imitators and descendants aren't the same.

--John Updike

Composed 1/24/90

Collected Poems 1953-1993 (Knopf, 1993, p. 231)

Full transscript of President Obamas Interview with Al-Arabiya Arab TV Network



Full transscript of President Obamas Interview with Al-Arabiya Arab TV Network

And a blog response from an American Academic Teacher working and living in Qatar, Arab GCC Region:

Bridge between the East and West

Some Memos to President Obama. From current issue of Tikkun Magazine.

http://www.tikkun.org/

Included some statements from Andrew Cohen too. Spiritual teacher and Founder of EnlightenNext.


Kabir Helminski on Regaining Our Moral Compass


Posted Tuesday, December 16 2008 @ 11:00 AM PST
In this memo to President Obama, leading Sufi author and educator, Kabir Helminski, outlines America's new possibilities for cooperation with the world's Muslims. read more


Andrew Cohen on Conscious Evolution


Posted Wednesday, January 21 2009 @ 05:40 PM PST
Andrew Cohen's memo to President Obama. read more


Becoming a More Complex "We"


Posted Wednesday, January 21 2009 @ 12:20 PM PST
Diana Eck urges Obama to embrace American Muslims. read more


Catherine Keller on the Green Shift


Posted Tuesday, January 13 2009 @ 05:20 PM PST
"At the tipping point of this kairos," writes Catherine Keller, Professor of Constructive Theology, to President Obama, "we know that the Green Shift is possible." Will Obama use the moment and the momentum to make the deep change the planet needs? read more


Uri Avnery On How To Create Israeli-Palestinian Peace


Posted Tuesday, January 13 2009 @ 05:16 PM PST
Sixteen "humble suggestions and observations" for Obama from the dean of the Israeli peace movement. read more


Dan Shanahan Gives the View from Prague


Posted Tuesday, January 13 2009 @ 04:46 PM PST
Professor Dan Shanahan says that Obama's community activism experience is exactly what he needs to negotiate with Iranians, Russians, Czechs and Poles on nuclear weapons. read more


Mel Duncan on Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping


Posted Monday, January 12 2009 @ 03:09 PM PST
The co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce presents a creative option to President Obama. read more


Fritjof Capra on Global Civil Society


Posted Monday, January 12 2009 @ 03:00 PM PST
Here are the scholars and activists from around the world whose expertise you can call on, says the noted physicist and author to Obama. read more


Robert Hardies on Dancing in the Streets


Posted Thursday, January 01 2009 @ 10:15 AM PST
On Obama's victory, Unitarian minister Robert Hardies danced with a multiracial crowd in DC streets that had burned 40 years ago. read more

John Welwood on Healthy Relatedness


Posted Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 02:35 PM PST
Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, John Welwood, on our need for healing. read more


Mitchell Plitnick on Human Rights and Mideast Progress


Posted Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 02:30 PM PST
B'Tselem's Mitchell Plitnick suggests some basics to achieve the change we need read more



Ulrich Duchrow on Listening to the Victims


Posted Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 02:08 PM PST
German theologian and critic of neoliberalism, Ulrich Duchrow, outlines in a memo to President Obama  specific steps that must be taken for justice, peace and the integrity of creation. read more


Fred Dobb on Curbing Carbon as a "Faith-Based Initiative"


Posted Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 02:02 PM PST
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb's memo to Obama. read more


Neale Donald Walsch on Changing The Story


Posted Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 01:46 PM PST
The author of Conversations with God kicks off a conversation with Obama read more


Joseph Schwartz on How a President Creates Change


Posted Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 01:35 PM PST
Joseph M. Schwartz reminds Obama that major political change is never top down. read more


Jerome Kagan on Maintaining the Public's Trust


Posted Tuesday, December 23 2008 @ 02:00 PM PST
Advice to Obama from the well-known Harvard psychologist. read more


An open letter from Italian organizations for nonviolence


Posted Tuesday, December 23 2008 @ 02:00 PM PST
An open letter from Italian organizations for nonviolence to Barack Obama, next President of the United States. read more


Joan Borysenko on Creating a Civilization with a Heart


Posted Tuesday, December 23 2008 @ 02:00 PM PST
A bestselling author's memo to Obama tackles the central "question of the century." read more



David Loy: Don't Waste the Crisis!


Posted Tuesday, December 23 2008 @ 02:00 PM PST
To this Buddhist social theorist, crisis can mean opportunity as well as pain. read more


William Schulz on Expanding the Meaning of Rights


Posted Tuesday, December 23 2008 @ 02:00 PM PST
A memo to President Obama by the former head of Amnesty International USA. read more


Bob Edgar on Fixing the Electoral Process


Posted Tuesday, December 16 2008 @ 01:00 PM PST
The president of Common Cause, former head of the National Council of Churches, identifies critical steps for our democracy read more



Bill Moyer on Progressives for the Obama Administration


Posted Tuesday, December 16 2008 @ 01:00 PM PST
Moyer names individuals who could be invaluable to the Obama administration read more


Gary Dorrien on Taking Social Investment Seriously


Posted Tuesday, December 16 2008 @ 01:00 PM PST
Gary Dorrien, the eminent writer on social ethics, outlines how Obama's new New Deal needs to do a great deal more than FDR's did. read more


Carol Lee Flinders on Ending the Death Penalty


Posted Tuesday, December 16 2008 @ 01:00 PM PST
The medieval scholar and feminist author asks Obama if execution is not a form of torture read more