Nitin Desai: 'We have to spur action
now!'
Conference News Daily
Dear Lord and Sir Desai, Dear Nitin,
specially in these times we need to sit back, resume and resonate. And so I feel I want to remember you that at our first meeting in Malente with the DRÄGER FOUNDATION in Germany 1991 or so, we where looking for the "unknown" signs of hope, you might even remember my recommendation from the floor, which brought UNEP_IEO in PARIS out of nowhere into the "global" spotlight – raised the attention of all this great "concerned generalists", such as Mrs. Brundtland, Maurice Strong, Schmidtheini, ... and all the people who are making all this possible, even when not on the podium...
I am writing you today, as I had needed a week to step back, after writing for LIFE ONLINE when this WORST CASE in NEW YOERK happened Sept. 11st...
http://www.confnews.com/sep/johannesburg2002nitindesaisep8_01.htm
Yes, I agree fully with your article from August and want you to see some of the directions I outlined in the link above, just when one of the "worst scenarios simply "happened"...
When looking back now only 7 days after Sept. 11st, you see that there are even worst cases or worst cases possible ahead of us, so I feel after mapping "CHERNOBYL" it is time too look for broader, deeper and wider perspectives, taking individual or nationalistic "ego" - trips out of the picture (in order to be able to solve the problems ahead...
I feel I need to point you first to Lynton Caldwell's "POLICY AND LIFE SCIENCES" (APLS) roundtable: "IS HUMANITY DESTINED TO SELF DESTRUCT?" and the answers of deep concern and constructive depth:
http://planetaryrenaissance.org/mpcollab/html/print.php?sid=15
and if your speak GERMAN also to "SAYING NO - a culture of constructive refusal": http://www.benking.de/verweigerung.html
As much has been said and written in the last 15 years, I just want to point at LIFE_ONLINE:
http://www.benking.de/Global-Change/lifeonline_ES2002.html
and "WHAT IS HOT" (always updated on www.benking.de )in order to raise the steam and go not back to normal, but jointly thinking deeper and more reflective and collective/empathical/compassionate.
My recommendations were to look into
VUN.org and www.open-forum.de
and give new "SEEDS OF CHANGE" a chance, ones I was allowed to edit and publish in the "VIEWSLETTER of the CLUB OF BUDAPEST for years..
To introduce myself, maybe you like my contribution, my SEED OF CHANGE from some years ago:
http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/genre/benking/inviting.htm
http://www.newciv.org/cob/members/benking/CreativeMemberPresentation.html
http://www.newciv.org/cob/members/benking/hbbio.html
(all quite "old" in our times, but not out-dated and relevant in their messages, just needed some up-date on the "surface" like "ranks and titles – but this is provided anyway already elsewhere....)
and maybe we can "focus attention" at the vun.org or VIRTUAL UNITED NATIONS PROJECT and other activities which are SEEDS which could potentially have rich fruits,
just as an alternative to following the news of yesterdays AND todays and tomorrows grief and desperation... my exercising global dialogues with the youth and do STORY TELLING to see FUTURES as Stars, alternatives we have to decide every moment on which road to take and which to avoid, and so jointly or co-create positive futures... (see also last para).
In this we might be able to look into more "sober" and "responsible" alternatives, instead of waging the war of "ignorants without tolerance", looking for "wise" directions like we tried for example to collect with the INTERNATIONAL PEACE UNIVERSITY`s "magic" round tables:
http://open-forum.de/cultures-generations-dialogue.html
exercises and "discourse games"!, which allowed young and old, surprise guests and honorary guests, "small and big potatoes potatoes (celebrities) so sit back and jointly reflect the bigger and shared picture in inter-generation and inter-cultural dialogues, a new "dialogue culture" as "spelled out at: www.open-forum.de
and http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/genre/benking/dialogue-culture.htm
and in VOICES THAT MATTER - a SOCIAL INNOVATION:
http://open-forum.de/voicetxt.html
in order to experience and learn from and with "common frames of references" as we wrote with/for NOEL BROWNS, UNEP-RONA at that time, as the SYNOPSIS or RECOMMENDATION after RIO '92:
http://benking.de/Global-Change/FIGXX-Melbourne-1994.htm
I hope I did not loosely you by now
and your have the patience and calmness to steer the proper course and
help to gauge collectively the human prospectus, see NOEL BROWN citation
in the link above.
Last not least you might want to know who is writing. My name is Heiner Benking, I am an "associate" of the MILLENNUM PROJECT and presently establish the BERLIN NODE, for more see: www.stateofthefuture.org
and www.mpcollab.org
I deeply hope that you are not overwhelmed and we find and create the peace so we can "wisely" care for the next stops / futures...
BY THE WAY: the STORIES to be told at the vun.org "CAMPFIRE" are the ALTERNATIVE and LONG TERM FUTURES" as presented last year for KOFI ANNAN:
http://www.geocities.com/~acunu/millennium/sof2000.html
and will be released in a few weeks as the times permit...:
(we are planning presently to hit the streets in Germany Okt 30. in Berlin, but in Washington or New York, we really can not tell.......
http://www.geocities.com/~acunu/millennium/sof2001.html
So maybe visit the news "virtually"
on the web.
Pls. excuse the rush and the missing spell-checker of an ill-equipped "alien" or "Kraut".
All the best and PEACE !
heiner benking
presently establishing the BERLIN Co-Lab
of the MILLENNIUM PROJECT (AC/UNU)
personal page: www.benking.de
--
PS:
I have uploaded this mail on the web, so you do not need to type in the links and we can share better in order to "SPUR ACTION NOW" !!!
See:
http://benking.de/Global-Change/for_DESAI-ES2002-Sept2001.html
PPS:
PLEASE VISIT ALSO "ONE DAY" my reflections
and work about shared and immersive spaces and models of challenges and
opportunities in "SPACIAL versus SPATIAL": http://knowmap.com/contributors.htm#benking