Communities of Practice – Page 1232 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/02/012011/02/01

BLOWBACK, Legitimate Grievances, & Integrity Lost

08 Wild Cards, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Officers Call, Policies, Real Time, Threats

Phi Beta Iota: The announcement of the Egyptian Army that it recognizes the “legitimate grievances” of the public and that it will not use force is in fact a recognition of both the substance of the public grievances, and the fact that force would backfire–there are not enough guns on the planet to repress the public, that cat is out of the bag forever. Morality is a priceless strategic asset–individual integrity is a priceless enabler of a government's legitimacy. From Hawaii to Vermont, the USA is facing domestic demands for secession that reflect the lack of legitimacy of the financial crime families that “own” the two-party system to the detriment of the public interest. It's time to get right with God and our own Humanity. There is much that is right with America–none of it to be found on Wall Street or in Washington, D.C.

In Sorrows of Empire, Johnson discusses the roots of American militarism, the rise and extent of the military-industrial complex, and the close ties between arms industry executives and high-level politicians. He also looks closely at how the military has extended the boundaries of what constitutes national security in order to centralize intelligence agencies under their control and how statesmen have been replaced by career soldiers on the front lines of foreign policy–a shift that naturally increases the frequency with which we go to war.

Three More Covers & See Also Below the Line…

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2011/01/312011/02/01

Video: Jesse Ventura Rips Wall St & Goldman Sachs

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, Government, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
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2011/01/31

Food speculation: ‘People die from hunger while banks make a killing on food’

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Health, Civil Society, Commerce, Ethics, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, True Cost

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

article

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.

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2011/01/312011/01/31

Resources for Powerful Conversations

11 Society, Augmented Reality, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Methods & Process

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….

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2011/01/312011/01/31

End of Hegemony, Deceit, & Despots

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Strategy, Threats

Analysis: The US moral conundrum in Egypt

(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.

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.

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2011/01/302011/01/30

Two U.S. Companies Helping Egypt Restrict Its People

Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Law Enforcement, True Cost

Although snuffing out dissent and cutting citizens off from the world aren't actions generally associated with the American ideal, two U.S. companies are helping the Egyptian government do just that as populist protests continue shaking the African nation.

The tear gas and smoke grenade manufacturer Combined Systems, Inc. is based out of Jamestown, Pennsylvania. But its wares have been showing up all over the Middle East as of late. On January 20, a photographer with the Eurpean PressPhoto agency was killed when a CSI tear gas canister struck him in the head at a protest in Tunisia. And throughout yesterday and today, CSI smoke bombs and tear gas have clogged the air and lungs in Cairo.

A less visible but possibly more important American-Egyptian partnership is that between the tech company Narus and the Mubarak autocracy. A subsidiary of Boeing, Narus sells hyper-complex, slightly creepy mass surveillance equipment. Its most famous creation is Narus Insight, “a supercomputer system which is allegedly used by the National Security Agency and other entities to perform mass surveillance and monitoring of public and corporate Internet communications in real time.”

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2011/01/302011/02/13

Women of Washington–The Lunacy Continues

Government, Military

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

(1) This **could** be DoD's near-term future; (2) honestly have not heard anything bad about her; (3) my principal concern is that she has no personal military experience, which I personally think should be mandatory for any SECDEF.

Chuck Spinney Sends: Truely nuts. The article is a puff piece about an incompetent fraud who happens to be a woman … not the part lauding flournoy about the 97 QDR … that is a joke … see my critique of that QDR here. She also was the leader of the most recent QDR was equally flawed … here … so we must conclude she is incapable of learning as well.

Washingtonian
February 2011
Pg. 36

The Making Of Michele Flournoy

By Spencer Ackerman

UPDATED to add links for smart people interested in doing the right thing.

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