The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
In his new book, Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities Across the Globe (2008: MIT Press), Xavier de Souza Briggs shows how civic capacity—the capacity to create and sustain smart collective action—is crucial for strengthening governance and changing the state of the world in the process.
Analyzing emerging practices of collaboration in planning and public policy to overcome the challenges complexity, fragmentation and uncertainty, the authors present a new theory of collaborative rationality, to help make sense of the new practices. They enquire in detail into how collaborative rationality works, the theories that inform it, and the potential and pitfalls for democracy in the twenty-first century. Representing the authors’ collective experience based upon over thirty years of research and practice, this is insightful reading for students, educators, scholars, and reflective practitioners in the fields of urban planning, public policy, political science and public administration.
Some blame the violence and unrest in the Muslim world on Islam itself, arguing that the religion and its history is inherently bloody. Others blame the United States, arguing that American attempts to spread democracy by force have destabilized the region, and that these efforts are somehow radical or unique. Challenging these views, The Clash of Ideas in World Politics: Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change, 1510-2010 reveals how the Muslim world is in the throes of an ideological struggle that extends far beyond the Middle East, and how struggles like it have been a recurring feature of international relations since the dawn of the modern European state. John Owen examines more than two hundred cases of forcible regime promotion over the past five centuries, offering the first systematic study of this common state practice. He looks at conflicts between Catholicism and Protestantism between 1520 and the 1680s; republicanism and monarchy between 1770 and 1850; and communism, fascism, and liberal democracy from 1917 until the late 1980s. He shows how regime promotion can follow regime unrest in the eventual target state or a war involving a great power, and how this can provoke elites across states to polarize according to ideology. Owen traces how conflicts arise and ultimately fade as one ideology wins favor with more elites in more countries, and he demonstrates how the struggle between secularism and Islamism in Muslim countries today reflects broader transnational trends in world history.
It's not just bad harvests and climate change – it's also speculators that are behind record prices. And it's the planet's poorest who pay
John Vidal Sunday 23 January 2011
Just under three years ago, people in the village of Gumbi in western Malawi went unexpectedly hungry. Not like Europeans do if they miss a meal or two, but that deep, gnawing hunger that prevents sleep and dulls the senses when there has been no food for weeks.
Oddly, there had been no drought, the usual cause of malnutrition and hunger in southern Africa, and there was plenty of food in the markets. For no obvious reason the price of staple foods such as maize and rice nearly doubled in a few months. Unusually, too, there was no evidence that the local merchants were hoarding food. It was the same story in 100 other developing countries. There were food riots in more than 20 countries and governments had to ban food exports and subsidise staples heavily.
The explanation offered by the UN and food experts was that a “perfect storm” of natural and human factors had combined to hyper-inflate prices. US farmers, UN agencies said, had taken millions of acres of land out of production to grow biofuels for vehicles, oil and fertiliser prices had risen steeply, the Chinese were shifting to meat-eating from a vegetarian diet, and climate-change linked droughts were affecting major crop-growing areas. The UN said that an extra 75m people became malnourished because of the price rises.
Continue reading “Food speculation: ‘People die from hunger while banks make a killing on food'”
In Egypt, a Facebook page administrator known only by the handle El Shaheeed, or Martyr, is one of the driving forces behind the historic protests. Mike Giglio tracks down the mysterious figure, who talks about his crucial role in organizing the demonstrations.
Iran’s Green Revolution had a martyr named Neda, a 26-year-old woman gunned down in the streets of Tehran. Tunisia’s was Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed university graduate who set himself ablaze outside a government building. Egypt’s is Khaled Said—because someone has been agitating under the dead man’s name.
Read rest of article with interview….
A scientist at the network security company Arbor Networks has used data from 80 Internet service providers around the world to create an image of the Internet block in Egypt.
The graphic, which was compiled using anonymous traffic engineering statistics, shows traffic to and from Egypt dropping sharply around 5:20 p.m. ET. As of about three hours ago, traffic has not picked back up.
Dear friends,
A large and growing body of knowledge exists about how to carry on powerful conversations — methodologies, facilitation know-how, dynamic understandings, and more. This knowledge informs professions ranging from therapy to diplomacy and conflict resolution, from organizational development to creativity and innovation, from community revitalization to activism and deliberative democracy, from family relationships to education and spiritual development.
At the leading edge of the deeper understandings of conversation's power are innovative contributions like Peggy Holman's recent book Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity, and her related earlier paper, Engaging Emergence — and the ambitious project to create a “pattern language” for group process now nearing its first stage release by Tree Bressen, Co-Intelligence Institute president John Abbe, and many others (including me).
Stepping back from the leading edge, we find a wealth of incredible knowledge, broadly useful in many aspects of life. Over the last year I've found some excellent resources about this, compilations of pathways into and around the world of powerful conversational practice. You'll find these resources in this email.
One amazing compilation is the “Best-of-the-Best Resources about Dialogue and Deliberation” compiled by Sandy Heierbacher, coordinator of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD). Read over her list below and, if you find something interesting, go to the original URL. There you will find active links to virtually everything on her list.
Building on Sandy's work, I've developed an additional list, given first below: “The Best Online Compilations of Conversational and Participatory Processes”. Together, the sites linked there describe and link you to well over a hundred different processes.
May this information serve you well in your efforts to serve your groups, your community, your organization, your world and the unfolding future we all share.
Blessings on the Journey.
Coheartedly,
Tom
Lists with Links Below the Line….
(AP) – 2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — As with Iran 30 years ago, American leaders again are wrestling with the moral conflict between Washington's demands for democracy among its friends and strategic coziness with dictatorial regimes seen as key to stability in an increasingly complex world, particularly the Middle East.
The turmoil in Egypt — and its potential for grave consequences for U.S. policy throughout the region — was inevitable. The recent WikiLeaks release of U.S. diplomatic reports showed that Washington knew what problems it increasingly faced with the regime of President Hosni Mubarak and his three decades of iron-fisted rule.
Read article and view five photos….
Phi Beta Iota: For decades we have been citing Will and Ariel Durant, who state in Lessons of History that morality is a priceless strategic asset. Max Manwaring et al nailed it in The Search for Security, identifying legitimacy as the sole basis for stable effective governance. Ambassador Max Palmer nailed it in Breaking the Real Axis of Evil, addressing the fact that the US Government has consistently chosen to support 42 of 44 dictators over the public interest. To the best of our knowledge this is the only website that has consistently stated that morality, legitimacy, and integrity are the essential foundation for a prosperous world at peace.
1. The US Government has no strategy and no standing. Obama and Clinton are puffery without a clue. What has been done in this region and “in our name” has been a Web of Deceit and a Legacy of Ashes. Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude.
2. Israel has lost all credibility as well as all practical power–Turkey and the publics will do to Israel what Gandhi did to the British. Israeli genocide (and Arab dictator neglect) of the Palestinians will stand as the modern Holocaust.
3. Saudi Arabia, not Jordan, should be the next regime to fall and fall hard. There are 60,000 “royal” perverts and thieves there that need to be exorcised, exiled or executed. Jordan is on the edge of the razor–our Queen Noor's Leap of Faith is central to the possibilities.
This is going to take a quarter century to play out. A fine beginning.
Related:
Assisi, Egypt, US Hypocrisy, Global Revolution
Marginalization Not Al Quada the Real Atrocity
Women of Washingtonian–The Lunacy Continues
Below the line: one paragraph from selected reviews, other book review links.
Revolution has become fate of country: Altaf
* MQM chief urges youth in Punjab to join hands with his party and asks army, rangers and police to support poor
* Says his party will support creation of more provinces, proposes referendum on it
By Masroor Afzal Pasha
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has said that revolution has become the fate of the country.
In his telephonic address at the MQM’s Qaumi Yakjehti Jalsa (National Unity Meeting) at Jinnah Ground in Azizabad on Sunday, Altaf said, “Whenever I spoke about a revolution, I was criticised and questions were raised about revolution.”
“Revolution is unfolding in Tunis and Egypt which everyone can see. This assembly in which people from all ethnic and cultural entities are participating is a revolution in its own right,” he added.
He said, “I ask the journalists and intellectuals from Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and other parts of the country that have come here to witness this public meeting to see for themselves if the people present here were brought out through force or at gunpoint.”
“MQM does not have guns that kill, but it has the guns and rockets of love, peace and brotherhood,” he added.
Only a revolution would usher in an era in which those looting the country and orchestrating kidnappings-for-ransom should be publicly hanged, he said, adding, “The properties of landlords and feudals will not be destroyed rather educational institutions and hospitals will be established on them.”
Continue reading “Stronger Signals: Revolution from the Punjab”
