One more voice with excellent global intelligence and in depth understanding.

Roger Cohen nails it down what G20 in London is about:

America Agonistes


By ROGER COHEN
Published: April 1, 2009
LONDON - Pax Americana, unlovely but effective, has endured for more than 60 years, the consequence of the post-war development of the United States as a European and Asian power. It has averted the worst, but it is safe to say that it is closer to the end than the beginning of its life.

I say this with no enthusiasm. As a beneficiary of America's far-flung garrisons, and a member of a generation blessed (as the Germans say) with late birth, I have few illusions about what greater disasters might have befallen Europe and Asia without the offsetting presence of U.S. power.

But, as General Motors has discovered, history moves on.

G.M., in fact, is not a bad emblem for this moment when the world's tectonic plates are plainly on the move. No corporation ever symbolized American might with greater vividness. It topped the first "Fortune 500" list in 1955, the year I was born, and was in the top three by revenue every year until 2007. Now it is all but bankrupt.

There are many reasons for this debacle, including GM's failure to adapt to the shift to a low-carbon economy, the general decline of manufacturing in the United States, and global competition. G.M. lost out as America changed. Emma Rothschild noted recently in The New York Review of Books that U.S. consumers spent less on new cars in 2007 than on brokerage fees and investment counseling!

Where that debt-driven American investment binge led is now clear: to financial meltdown, tens of millions of lost jobs and a global hunt for fat-cat scapegoats paying themselves bonuses for failure. Anglo-American capitalism is on trial, the Thatcher and Reagan revolutions exhausted.

read more..

After presenting a voice from Europe, Timothy Garton Ash, and USA,, Roger Cohen regarding g20 in London, here is an article from Asian Times Online. It shows that underlying nervosity and unsolved tensions at G20 is clearly perceived in Asia. And respect is rapidly decreasing:):)regarding Europe AND America.

Interesting.


The G20 Summit of Fear

By Walden Bello

The Group of 20 (G-20) is making a big show of getting together to come to grips with the global economic crisis. But here's the problem with the summit in London on April 2: It's all show. What the show masks is a very deep worry and fear among the global elite that it really doesn't know the direction in which the world economy is heading and the measures needed to stabilize it.

The latest statistics are exceeding even the gloomiest projections made earlier. Establishment analysts are beginning to mention the dreaded "D" word and there is a spreading sense that a tidal wave just now gathering momentum will simply overwhelm the trillions of dollars allocated for stimulus spending. In this environment, the G-20 conveys the impression that it is more

commanded by than in command of developments (In addition to the seven wealthy industrial nations (the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada) that belong to the Group of Seven, the G-20 includes China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, and South Africa.).

Indeed, perhaps no image is more evocative of the current state of the global economy than that of a World War II German U-boat depth-charged in the North Atlantic by British destroyers. It's going down fast, and the crew doesn't know when it will hit rock bottom. And when it does hit the ocean floor, the big question is: Will the crew be able to make the submarine rise again by pumping compressed air into the severely damaged ballast tanks, like the sailors in Wolfgang Petersen's classic film Das Boot? Or will the U-boat simply stay at the bottom, its crew doomed to contemplate a fate worse than sudden death?

Read more...


About Asian Times Online:


Asia Times Online comprises atimes.com, a free website, atimes.net, an advertisement-free site for subscribers, and atchinese.com, a free site for Chinese readers around the world. These are quality Internet-only publications that report on and examine geopolitical, political, economic and business issues. We look at these issues from an Asian perspective; this distinguishes us from the mainstream English-language media, whose reporting on Asian matters is generally by Westerners, for Westerners.

We are served by more than 50 correspondents and contributors in 25 Asian countries, the US, and Europe. Additional content is provided by news services and renowned think tank and investment analysts and academics.

Asia Times Online was founded at the beginning of 1999 and is incorporated and duly registered in Hong Kong. It derives its revenues from advertising, the resale of original content to other

publications and news services, and subscriptions to atimes.net.

Historically, in our publication policy and editorial outlook, we are the successor of Asia Times, the Hong Kong/ Bangkok-based daily print newspaper founded in 1995 and associated with the Manager Media Group, which had to cease publication in the summer of 1997 as a result of the Asian financial crisis. Like its predecessor, Asia Times Online gives its readers worldwide an overview of Asian news events, looking behind the headlines that are the staple of the news agencies and networks.

Asia Times Online is reaching a rapidly increasing global readership. Our readers are people of influence - investors, executives, diplomats, academics, journalists - who need to know about Asian political, economic and business affairs. We have become a "must read" for Westerners and Asians who do business with each

Marianne Williamson blogged about miracle power for Middle East.  am re-posting it here in sympathy, however with critical distinctions.

Peace/conflict processes of all kind -in personal as much as global large scale matters - are following complext adaptive intelligencies, codes, colors, content, condition and context. ( In terms of spiral dynamics integral).

A spiritual process, however potentially powerful and psychoactive isnt a natural design process. The Mideast is an example per excellence for this. Not even a healthy blue Nation Building as in Singapore for example can be considered a s kind of conveyor belt there. We have massive red purple spikes and trouble spots. Palestine/Israel, Afghanistan/Pakistan and other areas mirror this explosive constellations on a daily basis.

Its basically about dynamics of emergence. Beyond the War /Peace and Consensus/conflict soundbytes. its not about one magical and miraculous shift but diverse processes.

As Obama administration is realizing increasingly. The current Europe Trip of Barack Obama in UK, France, Germany and Turkey is reflecting it. And it will be mirrored even more strongly within his journeys to Asia and Mideast.

 I am writing this especially with my view from Germany. We have rich spiritual traditions and left quadrant practice. Even cultural creative activity in increasing amount. There are circles, salons, think tanks, foundations and peace initiatives. Consultancies, negotiation approaches, mediation, peace/conflict groups etc etc.

What is missing: How to put together these parts? As Beck/Cowan ask in another context in their book SPIRAL DYNAMICS :

"We are blessed with elegant tiles for a mosaic but have no design. There are mounds of great ideas, insightful bits, and clever pieces, but no artist with a plan for turning the whole assortment into an elegant, integrated picture and no grout to hold it together."

So the REAL miracle power will emerge as much as these parts of the mosaic come together in complex (horizontal AND vertical)reality just in time. A new type of foundation is needed too which Don Beck described as Meshworks Foundation

Extensive documentation, definitions and communication about such a design process in real time in Middle East can be found here:

www.che-mideast.org



Towards a Miracle in the Middle East


By Marianne Williamson

Today is a day to cry for Israel. Today is a day to cry for the Palestinians. Today is a day to cry for all of us.

Today is a day of war.

War anywhere, at this point in our history, is an action that threatens peace everywhere. Particularly when it comes to the Middle East. From its spiritual significance to its political significance, it is humanity's hot spot. It always has been and probably always will be. It's where all the rivers of human perspective meet, to become either a cauldron of hatred or an ocean of love.


While it might be tempting to “take sides” between Israel and the Palestinians, spiritually there are no sides to be taken. God does not give us victory in battle but rather lifts us above the battlefield. As a generation, our moral imperative is to end war period, to somehow move beyond the idea that war is an acceptable means of solving problems. Anything less then that makes us attitdinal conspirators with a line of probability leading to nuclear catastrophe.

According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, humanity's biggest problems cannot be solved; they must be outgrown. Our task is to create a field of consciousness in which the idea of war has dropped from the ethers.

So how do we outgrow war?

read more..

I am posting these statements from Ken Wilber as he honestly confesses not to know the way in this direction:):)His Buddy Jim Garrison seems to be more sure if one reads his book about America.

America As Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Power?

Well, some voices from Continental Europe seem to be needed to put things into balance. And its not only a challenge to communicate this endevor to the media. Its a challenge for Global Integral Field testing first.

No World Federation without this global field experiences. And this is lots of legwork and cliffhangers in the canyons of first tier reailties.....

From Integrallife.com:

Is an Integral World Federation Possible?

Here Ken discusses the work that is being done by Integral Institute, Integral Life, and Jim Garrison's State of the World Forum to help move toward a genuine integral "World Federation" government—one capable of meeting the complex and tightly-interconnected nature of our 21st-century problems with the clarity, compassion, and decisiveness they require.

 

Be sure to stay in touch with all the exciting developments between Integral Life and the State of the World Forum at TruthIsNotEnough.com.

A Multi media Experience by Kenji Williams.

BELLA GAIA is a Portal to greater Personal Understanding and Appreciation of Planet Earth




www.bellagaia.com

From the blog of Dr. Don Beck. I consider this news really as big. Coming at a moment in time - real Kairos! - when rarely exciting developments in global reality research are announced.

Large Scale Psychology: The Design and Transformation of Whole Societies

 

Cometh the hour …

Arguably the biggest news of the decade for friends of the Spiral: I am confident of introducing a new psychology division into the American Psychological Association.

Large-Scale Psychology is what I call it—a concept whose time has more than arrived.

My close colleagues and I look forward to introduce the concept of Large-Scale Psychology during a special symposium at the annual conference of APA next August in Toronto.  

The proposed symposium title is “Large-Scale Psychology: The Design and Transformation of Whole Societies” and our brief proposal says it all, really:

“The recent election of Barack Obama as US president has uncovered major cultural shifts which, like tectonic plates, are bound to realign the surface of our social and political landscapes. Likewise, the current global financial crisis is but a symptom of deeper dynamics which, like invisible fractals, we have yet to fully grasp and assimilate. 21st Century versions of City-States are emerging, as are new alliances of ethnic and religious themes now streaking the planet due to (im-)migration, globalization, and the spread of information and instant networking via the Internet.

“The resulting fragmentation has outstripped our models of governance, economic parity, and understanding of deep cultural codes.

“Our research indicates that we are poised for an unprecedented, momentous leap in our perspectives on our psychological selves and ways to deal with behavioral patterns that now coexist or conflict within new sets of defining life conditions and new limiting boundaries.

“Our global era has become rife with conflicting, rigid ideologies, polarizing dynamics, proprietary interests, technological utopias, and egalitarian needs and demands. Confounding to many is also the desire to address “global” dynamics while simultaneously retaining focus on the “local.” Many more people newly search for meaning beyond self and how to have an impact on the larger society.

“In all these areas there exists a need for in-depth understanding of psychology at the “large scale” that will be able to provide us with a new macro frame of reference to address major and complex problems from a large-scale perspective; that can combine with new research in genetics and complex adaptive intelligences, along with sophisticated scanning software, to provide a framework and process to support problem-solving, policy formulation and, ultimately, human and cultural development.

“Historically, the various fields and branches of what we know as Psychology have attempted to adapt to new developments. However, too often our social and academic textbooks still reflect the outdated products, assumptions and world views that once fit the age in which they were created and popularized, now inadequate to the task.

Read more..

I am just back from an inspiring meeting with Bieke van Dijk who is studying in Denmark at the KaosPilots. We met at  self Hub Berlin which is part of the global hub. Read this article from Tatiana Glad in Kosmos Journal:

The Hub -Creating an Ecology of Social Innovation

Global Hub Locations

Bieke was in Shanghai for some weeks and right now living in Berlin next months. Born in the Netherlands we found out how much North Rhine Westfalia in Germany where I was born (bordering over a large line with Netherlands) builds now a region of the merging creative economy . Together with Netherlands. However lots is born in Berlin in radical new ways these days:):)

Bieke is working about immersive gaming and process coaching. Will provide a synopsis later. it was very enriching for both of us to explore the landscape of social innovation in global ways and we absolutely agree that the dots and archipelagos, the islands and gaps, the hybrids and hidden connection lines of this emerging and converging landscape need attention and entrepreneurial energy.

Immersive gaming beeing at a frontier of playful and experimental change at the edge. Including face2 face reality and online environments. Connecting imagination and getting things done. Cutting through the nonsensical separation of so called serious and playful mentality.

She handed me over this piece of Team 13 at KaosPilots where she is member of.

Social Innovation - A Travel Guide

Check it out.

A funny Facebook Satire from The Atlantic:) Check it out...

As Ode Magazine publishes a new interview with Ken Wilber here:

Ken Wilbers take on saving the world through cross-cultural communication

I want to deepen and stratify the meaning of KW calls cross cultural communication.

For me its not only linking ones message to diverse languages and culural stages of devleopment. Its about aligning the work to the codes and life conditions of the referred culture and society.

As is done in work of the center for human emergence.

www.humanemergence.org

and its various country nodes.

Documented for example here:

www.che-mideast.org

www.nordicintegral.com

www.petermerry.org

The episode from Bill Clinton and world economic forum from 2006 is an example of initially getting some public attention. I am personally -since 2007 -creating connectivity to this forum and gaining ever new insights that name dropping by far isnt sufficient.

To establish global meshworking constellations and natural designs and how they create impact, value and momentum in an integral context isnt inspected enough in Global Integral.

One who started to enlargen the global radar screen is Steve McIntosh. See his book, blog and other ressources about the theme Integral Consciousness:

www.stevemcintosh.com

Manpower for doing the legwork is needed too. Creating big constellations and focus them laser.like on local spots and geografic areas requires lots conversion from conversations which matter to action with sustainable impact. I have done work in this directions last years and it can be incredibly exhausting.

However I am in very good cheer right now and simply discovering that the strongest developments often happen in a stealth mode, invisibly. Behind the stages more than on the stages.

Ken Wilber is adressing the very important theme of cross cultural communication.

It should be clear, from an integral point of view , what exactly, concretly and in a documented way is happening in the fields. And how much very ordinary, disciplined and unspectacular work is to be done too.

Everybody speaks about collaboration now. Facilitating this in horizontal diversity as much as in vertical complexity, in cross-cultural settings as much as in regional, national and continental nexus, in cities, health care, education, communities and countries needs ongoing precise documentation and dynamic feedback loops too.

Recommending here three more ressources of concrete cross cultural communication which adress more and more global orientation. With authors from across the globe:

http://www.kosmosjournal.org

www.integralleadershipreview.com

www.gaiasoft.com

www.gaia.com

Did anybody see the film already? I will do so next weeks. Here are the first six minutes:




See also this compilation of background infos:

         Valkyrie

             
  Tom Cruise is on the Way to Berlin/Germany to buy Villa for his newfilm: Valkyrie Locations will be in Berlin and Babelsberg Studios . Asthe film is still in pre-production, Tom is right... More »                                   

      Germany to Subsidize Cruises`s Hitler Plot Film

       
  I have also mentioned and commented Tom Cruise Film  Valkyrie   atZaadz. Now the government of Germany is supporting it partially which Iwelcome. The whole process carries within it the possibility forintegral transformation... More »                                            

  Tom Cruise`s Valkyrie should be quite a Ride

         
  GUARDIAN Film Blogger Peter Bradshaw writes about current staus of TomCruise`s new fim "Valkyrie". 'Sublimely weird': the first picture ofTom Cruise as would-be Hilter assassin Claus von Stauffenberg.Photograph: Frank Connor/AP Tom Cruise`s... More »                                     


     Valkyrie The Trailer

                        
  This is the trailer for THE film in cinema I am mostly anticipating forthis year: Valkyrie For more info: http://valkyrie-trailer.blogspot.com

This interview was given at April 18, 2009. its interesting for me as it indicates the principal intention of the UAE Governement to creat change in the GCC Region. Lots of Westerners left UAE last year due to many devlopments and fears of a bursting bubble.

However, as urgent a more sustainable model for diversification in GCC region and UAE its good to say how much the PM is seeing the basics already. It needs a global constellation with respect for the needs of the UAE and crystal clear blueprints to move the edge of growth and emergence in UAE even further.
World Economic Forum OnThe Middle East 2009, will perhaps throw more light on how Arab Countries will move through recession and towards the time after the oil requiem (as Elza Maalouf says it in a recent WIE audio interveiw).

But why not giving PM of UAE , HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum the word for now?:):)

First Media E-Session with the Prime Minister of UAE

First Media e-Session with the Prime Minister

There is an actual Newsweek article from Fareed Zakaria which deals with the first 100 days of Barack Obama. Once again I agree with Fareed in the resume. Later today the weekly GPS  panel  at CNN with Fareed and guests will discuss it. Interesting round of guests:

THIS WEEK ON GPS

Fareed brings together a panel of historians to discuss Obama's first hundred days in office. Walter Isaacson, Jon Meacham, and Peggy Noonan share their insights into Obama's successes and challenges. Plus, Niall Ferguson on the severity of the economic crisis, and Malcolm Gladwell author of Outliers explains whether or not there is such a thing as talent.

First 100 Days: The Secret of Obamas Success

What Obama has been able to accomplish in his first 100 days is enough to make any president envious.


Published Apr 25, 2009
From the magazine issue dated May 4, 2009


No other American president in modern memory has faced a learning curve as steep as the one Barack Obama has encountered. When he began his quest for the Democratic nomination three years ago, the Dow Jones industrial average was 14,000, and the world was in the midst of a great economic boom. By the time he took office, America's financial industry was in chaos, credit markets were frozen, housing values were plummeting and the economy was in its worst contraction since the Great Depression. Add to that Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and you get an extraordinary set of challenges.

And yet, by most measures, President Obama's first 100 days have been successful. The economy remains weak, of course, but he has put forward a series of initiatives to stabilize the capital and housing markets, proposed longer-term programs to create sustained growth, adjusted America's military priorities in Afghanistan and Iraq, and begun a process of reaching out to the world and changing America's image. These are only overtures, and naturally much will depend on how things turn out-in the economy, in Pakistan, in Iraq. But so far, any president would be envious of Obama's accomplishments.

The real question is, why has Obama been so successful?

Read more..

Why The World Should Get rid of the Term "Muslim World"

The Washington Post | Aprl 19, 2009 By Parag Khanna

Full bio of Parag Khanna

Since taking office, President Obama has made great efforts to address the "Muslim world." In his first formal international television interview, with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya, he announced, "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that Americans are not your enemy." Then, speaking to Turkey's parliament, he declared, "The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam."


Such statements have been heralded as a break from the Bush era, but in a way, they represent a disappointing continuity: Obama, like Bush before him, thinks that he can speak to some mythical community known as the "Muslim world." Like many other Western politicians and intellectuals, the president vests the term with too much meaning, and by using it incessantly, he misses the chance to truly win hearts and minds.

read more..

See also:

The new arab pragmatism

With a lecture given by Parag Khanna at Dubai School of Governement.

And, from Janera.com - The voice of Global Nomades:

Janera Soerel Speaks to Parag Khanna and what he believes lies in our globally integrated future

While I found yesterday Shel Israels interesting blog entry about his new book

Twitterville

I found via random generator another activisms Twitter adress:):):

ScientologyNews

Animated to visit once again the churchs homepage at

www.scientology.org

and discovered the remarkable film about Ron Hubbard.

L. Ron Hubbard Bio

This clip integrates the sense of magic, mythology, reason and science, and mystical dimensions. I would not say its clever. Even have a certain sympathy for it.)

It seems to adress the new yearning for a new enchantement of the world. Now venturing into global developments and featuring Hubbards own odysse.

Its more complex than THE SECRET and of course less complex than the mystery Stuart Davis adresses in his blog entry about the spiritual narcissism of THE SECRET. Weighing it against the great mystery of life and consciousness.

The Secret and the Mystery

"Now contrast The Secret with The Mystery. The Mystery, to me, includes all four domains (inner, outer, individual, collective) and does not privilege one over the other. It engages them as tetra-arising. It includes them as inextricably inter-woven, yet distinct in important ways. The Mystery includes every altitude in every domain, and values each of them, but also understand their differences. The Mystery includes every methodology, every ontology or Way of Knowing, but at also understands what they do, and what they don't do. The Secret is but a method, and it will not set you free from The Story. In fact, it will probably suck you deeper into it. It promises money, power, increased attraction, and tells you it is "spiritual" practice. Your story could become so comfortable, why would you ever forfeit it?"

I see the similar impulse in Shel Israels excursions about Twitterville. To reconcile intimacy and public spheres. To fill in small bottles the ultimate adventures of the next cycles and cycles of evolution.

Sri Aurobindo would certainly turn pale to see what these guys and approaches put into a nutshell.):)

So I see them -frankly- as stuntmen of the big unknown. And why not? The real self-discovery has lots of faces. The transition zones of various stages of life are explored up to second tier awareness. There is a promise and probability for more unknown territory. (Some speak about third tier awareness as stage..)

However still not documented in a large scale field test. And as long as we are awaiting this documentation a whole life of discoveries pre rocket science is calling us::)

One more insightful article from NYT journalist David Brooks.
He ends his article with this resume:

"The correct response to these dynamic, decentralized, emergent problems is to create dynamic, decentralized, emergent authorities: chains of local officials, state agencies, national governments and international bodies that are as flexible as the problem itself.

Swine flu isn’t only a health emergency. It’s a test for how we’re going to organize the 21st century. Subsidiarity works best."

Yes,  and I would like to remind Dons Beck answer to him when he reviewed Malcolm Gladwells book "Outliers". Its included here:

Lost in the Crowd

Globalism Goes Viral



By DAVID BROOKS
Published: April 27, 2009
In these post-cold war days, we don't face a single concentrated threat. We face a series of decentralized, transnational threats: jihadi terrorism, a global financial crisis, global warming, energy scarcity, nuclear proliferation and, as we're reminded today, possible health pandemics like swine flu.
These decentralized threats grow out of the widening spread and quickening pace of globalization and are magnified by it. Instant global communication and rapid international travel can sometimes lead to universal, systemic shocks. A bank meltdown or a virus will not stay isolated. They have the potential to hit nearly everywhere at once. They can wreck the key nodes of complex international systems.
So how do we deal with these situations? Do we build centralized global institutions that are strong enough to respond to transnational threats? Or do we rely on diverse and decentralized communities and nation-states?
A couple of years ago, G. John Ikenberry of Princeton wrote a superb paper making the case for the centralized response. He argued that America should help build a series of multinational institutions to address global problems. The great powers should construct an "infrastructure of international cooperation ... creating shared capacities to respond to a wide variety of contingencies."
If you apply that logic to the swine flu, you could say that the world should beef up the World Health Organization to give it the power to analyze the spread of the disease, decide when and where quarantines are necessary and organize a single global response.

read more...

Check also:

World Health Organization Info

Enterrasolutions.com is giving some insightful analysis about the connectivity of global health issues. I mentioned this great blog here in 2007:

Global Excellence in Corporate Blogging

 Globalization vs. Decentralization

Unless you have been completely cut off from the news the past few days, you are aware of the growing concern of swine flu pandemic. For years, the global health community has pointed to avian flu as the likely culprit that would spark the next pandemic. Researchers selected avian flu because many believe that the 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an avian version of the H1N1 virus. The 1918 influenza pandemic spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually and deadly of the Influenza A virus of subtype H1N1, which can be found in humans, birds, and/or pigs. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus, but it certainly was not from Spain. Most of its victims were healthy young adults. Normally, influenza outbreaks affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920 and left between 20 and 100 million people dead worldwide. To put it more graphically, it killed the equivalent of one third of the Europe's population and affected up to half the world's population at the time.

Even though this current outbreak of swine flu is in its beginning stages, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already declared that it is too late to contain it. As a result, WHO raised its alertness from level 3 to level 4 worldwide (there six levels in total). As of this writing, cases have been reported in Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Scotland, France, Spain, Israel, and New Zealand. Interestingly, some of the technology that was developed and used in Asia as a result of the 2002-03 SARS scare, is also being put to good use today. Passengers at some air terminals are being screened for elevated temperatures and those with fevers are not permitted to travel. Anyone who doubts that we live in a globalized world should have those doubts erased as result of this latest concern. Health concerns can no longer be separated from economic concerns ["Outbreak Threatens Global Recovery," by Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, 28 April 2009]. Faiola writes:

read more.