Seeds of Change - Heiner Benking's Blog - quergeist.info

43 COUNTRIES TOGETHER FOR DIALOGUE

2010-03-05T09:38:57Z

The Daisy and Sunflower http://www.euromedalex.org/news/43-countries-together-dialogue represent Unity in Diversity http://open-forum.de/Dialogue_toward_Unity_in_Diversity.htm http://open-forum.de/Dialog-selected-Publications.htm, the spectrum and variety of positions, perspectives and issues without domination and hierarchy. All participants might experience being on equal terms, no person dominates or sits on the top of the table, instead we see a rotation and beauty with the spectrum of tasted, opinions and concerns. Definitely there are Presidents, Heads of States and Networks, but also stakeholders, risktakers, drivers, observers, .... (all are needed !!: http://benking.de/open-forum/OF_Background_paper_0.htm) (see more at 21stCentury Agora http://benking.de/21stCenturyAgora/ and http://open-forum.de/guide2dialog-VUMC--1999.htm

We meet this week in Barcelonas a network of networks, the Anna-Lindh Foundation representing 43 countries in the EuroMed region. What I hope for is a Work-Nett of Networks. http://p-n-w.net & By the way I am representing here the Positive Nett-Works from Hannover and Berlin. http://www.euromedalex.org/node/9299 We will start with the first sessions now, so come back to check what is happening….

What I hope we can achieve this time? Something we already exercised around the 1001 Actions of the ALF at 1001 actions, http://www.dialogueinaction.net/en/node/1277 and the UN-CBD and UNESCO-DESD http://open-forum.de/re-invent-democracy.html#1001-dialogue-actions. Doing roundtables to dialogue in informal setting on “equal footing” what we call magic round-tables,http://roundtables.wikispaces.com/roundtable+outcomes+-+1990-+now a setting we do as media-delegated dialogues http://symposion.wetpaint.com/ http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v396/__show_article/_a000396-000037.htm around events of any kind to make sure people interact deeply and efficiently and at the same time co-create, empower voices that matter…. Maybe see Voices from earlier events and check if you want to not only talk about dialoge, but experience and do it.
PLEASE COME BACK LATER - we are rushing here in busy times....

Transmediale - space navigation and interfaces

2010-02-09T20:13:47Z

Berlin is again

beside the Transmediale http://www.transmediale.de/ and the Berlinale http://www.berlinale.de full of media glitter and creative media movers and shakers. What a time... We are at the edge to thinking deep - not new for me as 3D vizualisation was my think & do "thing" (in deep and in colour since 25+ years), but only now the technology is at the edge of reaching the public eye and mind as we can see in movies and interfaces.
I will hop between the events and lounges , and my heart and concerns are with immersion into old & new spaces, as an old and new door and vistas opened, for example with new intefaces. See gesture cubes ! http://www.gesture-cube.com/ or what we called Advanced Visual Interfaces. http://benking.de/avi.htm Interfaces even for Cultural Heritage ! - see also this more recent virtual worlds proposal: http://benking.de/futures/Humanities-VirtualWorld_Proposal_LOI-Benking.pdf
Going from 2d-3d is not new for me, from flat to deep and maybe also from Show to Schau ! http://benking.de/show-schau.html and being aware of interface design and immersion or the challenges of virtual reality http://benking.de/VR-Oeffentlichkeit-pro-con.html , but what it means to have all walls as monitors and connect the space in-between still rocks my mind. I know that we need spaces for knowledge in modern times of internet and media, like we need space for living, if we do not want to end in the noise of Cyberculture, and I know we can agree on spaces and frames, orders and rules, like we can agree to drive on the right lane and stop at the red light. But who dares to challenge orders and frames, not by postmodern irgnorance, but by negotiating, creating and moving line and objects. I always come back to the citation of Rueckert, maybe someone will check it out and help translate it to the modern media age!?

Whoever imagines mental deep permeable barriers which actually do not exist
and then thinks them away, has understood the world.
As space is entrapped in geometry's network of lines,
thought is caught in its (own) inherent laws.

Maps make the world comprehensible to us;
we are still waiting for the star-maps of the spirit.
In the same way than ambling through fields we risk getting lost,
the spirit negotiates its terrain.

Friedrich Rückert, Wisdom of the Brahmins, a didactic poem, Charles T. Brooks in 1882 – above is unfortunately only a clumbsy first translation by Robinson/Benking as we could only get hold of the original German version. More at BRINGING DOWN NEW WALLS: http://benking.de/no-walls.htm

So maybe we can find ways together between the movies, media, and realities locally and globally instead of being sumbmerged in the glut of endless, no-return Cyberculture http://www.benking.de/information-society-1998.htm

If you care to see what agreed frames and spaces might look like, goto: TONY http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs10s/lifedisx.php#poin
or check out what we mean by deep and flatworlds: http://in-betweener.org/flatworlds/maps/new-digital-worldmaps.html#NavComplex

A footnote:
I am shocked getting today this http://www.igi-global.com/journals to get a Journal covering the topics above for a subscription of 500+ Dollar per year. See still high tech with lots of insider development potentials.

Agriculture-Davos-Summit - Berlin Jan 2010

2010-01-16T22:41:48Z

Grüne Woche THE GREEN WEEK in Berlin
Berlin is an exciting but alsounique, but also strange hub - 50 agriculture ministers 50 agriculture ministers and their cohorts flying in and out , but the public takes little notice, except flooding the fair geting some food and drinks. Little discussion you find about our diets, out agriculture, fisheries, and forestry.
The way we produce agro-fuels is of little concern, buch much is decided on the very bottom, on the ground and per capita, by the people and consumers. So maybe some people should revisit the CopenVegan entries, just scroll down 4 weeks ...

Summit declarations, as always are marvelous, the question is who is implementing and who is going to live with other forms of energy, new healthy but stange diets, and the way we handle out soils and waters?

I was tempted to show above the typical picture of the ministers meeting the press for a photo, but I felt to show the stage better some hours later. This is telling much more - not only that we need a jam-session with many more instruments and voices, but that the whole summit was still goverened by strange, distoted pictures of teh world (in our minds and aon the wall). Nobody seemed to have noticed that it most convenient to show the Planet Earth without the Antarctic (nobody is living there) and Greenland much larger that for excample India, when in reality it is the opposite - India is 3 times larger than Greenland !

During the day we where in the Berlin ZOO - with an Eskimo-Inuit from Greenland - remembering us about compassion with all living things - not just with Icebears - we will meet him tomorrow again at the GRUENE WOCHE.

Some Politicians argue for their lot, they like regional warning unaware of global heating, or confuse per capita versus per area - or any kind on singularily arbitray number. There is much confusion about scales, change (slow and fast/rapid) and issues per capita or per area). Ignorance abound you meet in the discussion on the podia or on the way...
I can only recommend at this late hour to visit my earth literacy pages - as there is too much ignorance and confusion on the basics and terms, so how do you think communication can work !? I can also advise to check the COP15 UN Climate entries from December 09 in this Blog and maybe see me later...

I need morfe soon - but please visit meanwhile the Copenhagen dilemmata and our little side-event in Copenhagen called CopenVegan. - and come back soon with "UNCLE" at the Polarworld events. - I need to get some rest now !

40 years Problematique - Aleco Christakis Interview

2010-01-12T00:10:52Z

I finally have made available the interview with Alexander Christakis (PDF), who was sitting with Özbekhan and Peccei looking into the Club of Rome future work - early reports and possible futures in view of the mess already on the horizon - 40 years ago !
Please see the eulogy for Christakis' fatherly friend Özbekhan.
I think everybody who has heard about the LIMITS to GROWTH should also know about the bigger picture: shared and hopefully positive: prognostic, participative and normative futures !! what this means to democray I have just
TWITTER tweeted at DoemoracyIS here:

What is Democracy ? What are Walls ?

2010-01-11T08:16:35Z

Democracy is .... Please have a look and share widely: TWITTER feed: http://twitter.com/democracyis more: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/01/134861.htm
and: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23democracyis Real-time results for twitter.com #DemocracyIs

#DemocracyIs caring for variety: Requisite Variety, Parisomony, Saliency, Meaning, .. Variety.

#democracyIs shared prognostic, normative & participative FUTURES. More @ Club of Rome long ago:

Demoracy is voting and a dialog, deliberation & decision culture: See sharing, caring and daring. #democracyis

Sharing, empowerment, co-creation. Maybe see it happening at magic roundtables: & #democracyis

#DemocracyIs stakeholders, risktakes, drivers, observers, consultants, .. with rules & frames on one table for a given time: who is at the table ?

MORE AT: Peace Nobels and Crisis Summit? with new thinking, science, languaging,... ?.

see also the NO WALLS !! 2009 update:
2009 was not just Copenhagen CopenVegan “pitching”, bringing the sectors, scales, levels together, of the Interview with Aleco on 40 years Predicament of Humankind, but reconnecting with Indiana, and Lynton Caldwells new star, the Nobel Prize for see Elinor Ostrom.

Here my what is HOT at year 2009’s end:
Interview Aleco:
COPENHAGEN COP 15 see side-event at:
Berlin Change Days (BCD):
NEW Renaissance:
GOVERNMENT 2.0:
Sustainabiltiy Week Berlin HUB
HUMANE & CULTURAL DIMENSIONS X.0.
description. 1001 Dialogues & 10 001 Seeds:
Dialog Publications - ECO-THEO-Ethical and other dialog and decision culture links.
Last not least: I recommend: GLOBAL AGORA:

FOR BOLD DELEGATES of the UNFCCC COP 15 and CMP 5

2009-12-19T08:53:22Z

Two and a half year ago, at Commission on Sustainable Development held on 15 May 2007 at the United Nations in New York, we urged delegates to be bold ! and not only use the term "crisis" in an official United Nations documents, or headlines:

FOR BOLD DELEGATIONS
Give the title-less negotiating text a TITLE. Here is a proposed title in this carbon-constrained globalizing world where mitigation and adaptation are needed to cope with the climate crisis:

Commission on Sustainable Development +15 AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS: 2000 – 2100, see document (hand-out):

What happened in Copenhagen?
1) Many of the CSD members, were not at the COP conference, so there was no apparent continuance or cohesion.
2) Civil Society and Media were not in "place",
3) There was a lack of inter-cultural checking of climate change language, terminology or cultural expressions used in the preparation of the final document.
4) Insufficient participation and deliberation by those who attended such an important conference.

I urge bold delegates today at UNFCC [more] and in further summits to:
1) Outline the frames of reference using stronger words and communication. These must go beyond isolated words and values.
2) Harmonize information and follow the proposed route towards wider targets such as the EESC proposal side-event: "Climate Change, GDP and measurements of prosperity" , or this years Nobel Prize to Eleanor Ostrom, Economy and Political Sciences, Dec, 8., 2009, (slide 44).
3) Use the arts and role-play when showcasing their positions, and make these fit the situation. eg: See Richard C. Collins and the performance/video "The Challenge of the Madrigal Sea" (Chesapeake Bay 1993) "A Coastal Sea in Trouble", for example, or the round-tables to discuss "Another Earth in Trouble?" at UN Climate 1995 , the "non-predecessor" of Kyoto". [more]

This is a first hand response after attending to Copenhagen 2009 for two weeks. We have worked for many weeks prior to the conference with others around the world. This blog cannot give all the answers, but if you visit "pitch" (PDF 2MB) and look at the last side-event of the KLIMAFORUM 09, it will help you to be involved and add your views and also vote. What I mean is well described at the pitch - slide 22,25,28, 43,44, and 64. 21stCenturyAgora site, in the Obamavision exercise, and in the event mentioned above.
PLEASE COME BACK as I have to "jump trains" tonight and need to recover in the "calm season" at years end. Meanwhile maybe check the slides below: (I will use Lecturnity so you have a full presentation maybe at the end of the year).

In case you like FOOD FOR THOUGHT and ACTION I can recommend this roundtable recommendations done in a process over years in Toronte (PDF)- this years DRAFT by Julia Morton-Marr:
FOOD AND POPULATION ROUNDTABLE outcomes from Nov. 20 - 21, 2009

see also the 2007 WASAN ACTION FRAMEWORK on CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY - Interdisciplinary Round Table on Climate Change and Energy Strategies (CCERT)
September 14/15, 2007 Muskoka Lakes, Ontario, Canada, website.

and maybe check out the whole COUNCIL OF GLOBAL ISSUES site:

Harvesting in the Survival Academy

2009-12-18T08:00:14Z
Last night we harvested in the Survival Academy, revisited the side-events and looked into the future of the Academy and also the beautiful and precious planet, and not just of us Earthlings.
Stay tuned - check the links from yesterday and check out the young guy and ladies being the backbone of this UNFCCC COP15 in Copenhagen, CopenVegan, HopenHagen.... I am getting confused these days - sik more about the survival Academy and the side events here: One idea came up, was revisited !! It was to make again a parody about teh "situation", same as in the MADRIGAL SEE (Chesapere Bay, Baltimore) 1993 or so and then revisited at UN Clima'95 in Berlin, where we asked:
"Which world is in trouble !?" and how to go beyond Summits and Agendas !!.

Obama just passed by on the way to Bella Centre / no time for a breakfast deal / looks like he has to help bracketing and coping comming to survival ends hopefully tomorrow some time / and hopefully not a quick-fix but something towards something solid, lasting, helpful and that matters towards mount awareness and shared orientations and solutions... stay tuned - Copenhagen is "hip" these days...

I need to sum up this "negotiations" a.s.a.p. - but as we have fallen into deep solemn vigil coma after weeks and months of preparations, it seems better to take a deep breath, consider this proposal for an emergency summit, but also to relax, step back, look from above and with lots of oblique views http://benking.de/Global-Change/Geoecodynamics-1988.html. on the matters, as it it important to know where we and want/need to go, individually, socially, culturally and collectively !.
Mark Twain one wrote: "When we lost our direction we doubled our efforts" (or so). A case for general orientation and governace, not just for personal directions... beyond turns and turfs.
Good Night & Good Luck !

UNFCCC - Copenhagen a deja vue - 40, 30, 20, 10 years ago and NOW

2009-12-10T19:45:33Z
just arrived at the UN CLIMATE SUMMIT - will keep you briefed !
hectic and crucial times - sorry did not have time - but if interested in my farings maybe see the link to our side event and my "pitch" to open the participative section and give a controversial stance to discuss and mobilize concerted actions and alliances:
Pitch to open the dialog
INVITATION to the side-event by the SURVIVAL ACADEMY:
INVITATION & Preliminary PROGRAMME of the event:
VEG ALLIANCE CopenVegan:
Presentations.
my pitch. I believe some video productions / clips and photo series will be available soon, I have seen a couple of cameras and video teams...

This QUERGEIST BLOG:.

Turning Copenhagen into Copen(World)vegan

2009-12-08T19:48:00Z
We just learend that access at UNFCCC is a mess - so business as usual, the typical Murpheays law and exclusion as it is easier than to bother about others, or the Worlds... So we could not enter to the Press center, a calmity given teh preparation of months since UN-CBD and UNESCO-DESD in the l...

World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureats

2009-11-10T21:12:04Z
here is the full programme:

“Breaking down new walls and building bridges to ensurea World of Human Rights and a World without violence”

Berlin, Rathaus, 10 -11 November 2009

Participants and Invitees:

Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederik Willem De Klerk, Lech Walesa, Muhammad Yunus, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Betty Williams, United Nations (UN), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), International Peace Bureau (IPB), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Pugwash Conferences (PUGWASH), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Amnesty International (AI), International Labour Organization (ILO).

Walter Veltroni, José Manuel Barroso (President of the European Commission), Annie Lennox, Wim Wenders, Bo Hla Tint (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burma’s Government in exile), Ahmed Kathrada (Nelson Mandela Foundation), Martin Frick (General Director of the Global Humanitarian Forum), David Steward (President of Frederik Willem De Klerk Foundation), Piotr Gulczynski (President of Lech Walesa Foundation), H.E. Ambassador Thomas Stelzer (Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs), Alexander Likhotal (President of Green Cross International), David Ives (Executive Director of Albert Schweitzer Institute), Gensei Ito Salvador (President ASCA), Jonathan Granoff (President of Global Security Institute), Glenda Paige (Center for Global Nonviolence), Marc Dullaert (President Kids Rights Foundation),Maria Sachs (Congressman, Florida), Mario Luis Rodriguez Cobos aka Silo (World March for Peace and Nonviolence), Giulietto Chiesa (World Political Forum), Agazio Loiero (President of Calabria Region), Tom Brokaw (NBC), Michael Binyon (The Times), Luisa Brunori (President of the Italian Observatory on Microfinance), Peter Spiegel (Head of the GENISIS-Institute for Social Business and Impact Strategies), Prof. Franz Josef Radermacher, (member of the Club of Rome and founder of the Global Marshall Plan initiative).

Tuesday, 10th November

9.30 Opening speeches:

* Klaus Wowereit, the Governing Mayor of Berlin
* Walter Veltroni, co-Chairman of the Summit
* Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman of the Summit

* Greeting from Josè Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
* Greeting from Thomas Stelzer (Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs)
* Greeting from Bo Hla Tint (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burma’s Government in exile)
* Greeting from Agazio Loiero, President of Regione Calabria

11.00 – 13.00 First session: 20 Years after the fall of the Berlin Wall: what were its implications and what has changed since then?

Session Leaders: Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Frederik Willem De Klerk, Ahmed Kathrada representing Nelson Mandela

Remarks by: Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Urban Gibson (International Peace Bureau)

Moderator: Tom Brokaw (NBC)

Break

14.30 – 16.30 Second session: Walls between rich and poor: breaking down the barriers between the developed and developing world

Session Leaders: Muhammad Yunus, Morten Hovda (Member of the Office of the Director-General International Labor Organization), Peter Spiegel (Head of the GENISIS-Institute for Social Business and Impact Strategies), Prof. Franz Josef Radermacher, (member of the Club of Rome and founder of the Global Marshall Plan initiative), Thomas Stelzer (Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, UN)
Remarks by: Monika Lüke (Secretary General, German Section, Amnesty International), Marc Dullaert (President of Kids Rights Foundation), Falko Mohrs (German Youth Delegate to the UN General Assembly)
Moderator: Piotr Gulczynski

16.45 – 18.45 Third session: Walls of menace to the Environment: Breaking down the walls that constrain environmental and sustainable development prospects

Session Leaders: Martin Frick, (General Director of the Global Humanitarian Forum), Prof. Mohan Munasinghe (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Ian Dunlop (Independent international energy consultancy group), Thomas Stelzer (Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, UN),

Remarks by: Emily Büning (German Youth Delegate to the UN General Assembly)

Moderator: Alexander Likhotal (President, Green Cross International)

Wednesday, 11th November

9.00 Official presentation of the Charter for a World without violence

to the World March for Peace and Nonviolence

* Introductory speech by Mairead Corrigan Maguire
* Speeches by Mario Luis Rodriguez Cobos aka Silo (World March for Peace and Nonviolence)
* Nobel Peace Laureates handing over the Charter for a world without violence to the World March for Peace and Nonviolence

09.30 – 11.00 Fourth session: Walls of Nuclear Weapons and Armament: building up a world free from nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.
Session Leaders: Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederik Willem De Klerk, Paolo Cotta-Ramusino (Secretary General of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs), Alexander Liebeskind (Secretary of the Committee and Personal Advisor to the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross)
Remarks by: Ehase Agyeno (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War), Jonathan Granoff (President of Global Security Institute), Jacob Romer (Member of the Student Peace Bureau Heidelberg),

Moderator: Giulietto Chiesa (World Political Forum)

11.00 – 12.30 Fifth session: Walls of Intolerance: breaking down walls between cultural, religious and ethnic communities.

Session Leaders: Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Mary Ellen McNish (General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee), David Ives (Executive Director of Albert Schweitzer Institute), Piotr Gulczynski (President of Lech Walesa Foundation), Maria Sachs (Congressman, Florida)

Remarks by: Monika Lüke (Secretary General, German Section, Amnesty International), Luisa Brunori (President of the Italian Observatory on Microfinance), Falko Mohrs (German Youth Delegate to the UN General Assembly),

Moderator: Michael Binyon (The Times)

12.35 Greeting by Wim Wenders

13.00 Ceremony of the Peace Summit Award

Announcement of the Summit Final Declaration

Leaded by: Frederik Willem de Klerk
Moderator: David Steward