Novosibirsk reflections continued

[Elena A. Marchuk]

Hi Birgitt,

that's OK
don't worry, be happy,

thank you very much again for your sharing your knowledge, your heart and love with us
we are learning from you to be patient and democratic, kind and courageous - you came to Siberia!

I hope everything is going well for you now and sometimes to know about what you have - people really need to know how to be without usual things. sorry for some not pleasant learnings, but you have now all your world back and you can compare, what are your givens...

best wishes to you and good luck

elena

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Birgitt Williams 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 1:13 PM
  Subject: Novosibirsk reflections continued


  Dear friends and colleagues in Open Space,

  My last e-mail to the list regarding the Working With Open Space Technology training in Novosibirsk was an e-mail regarding my experiences during the training and my admiration for the people who attended, their leadership and their vision. Thank you for your notes regarding this.

  Today I choose to write more about the conditions within which these people are planning to do this work. From my perspective. Please keep in mind that I only spent five days in Russia. 

  Today, I am in Holland, leading another Working With Open Space Technology session, this time with Koos de Heer. Koos met me at the airport June 7th, a welcome face. I was in deep gratitude to him for taking over the care of my cases (suitcase, computer case, and book bag) and whisking me away in his car along well ordered streets to a quiet apartment, green salad for lunch, a chance to use his computer. I was exhausted and needed some tender care. The trip from my place of stay in Novosibirsk was 11 hours. Elena with her husband, had picked me up at 4:45am. Some of my exhaustion came from the trip itself, which included carrying my bags onto and off of buses, up stairs and down stairs, and always trying to hurry so I wouldn't miss my connections. There are no ramps etc. to wheel suitcases. I thought a lot about handicapped people. There are no visible signs of assistance for them. 

  I look down at the bruises on my legs, arms, hips. From being bumped by people and suitcases. I would have had many more bruises, if it were not for Elena. I had a great deal of difficulty coping with the mob scenes of people, particularly during the trip there and the one back. Elena accompanied me back as far as Moscow so that she could get me transferred from one airport to the other one. She became aware that I did not know how to navigate the mobs of people and that I kept getting pushed back, by elbows and by suitcases. Hence the bruises. Elena explained to me that people did not line up, did not queue but knew that the art of getting what they needed/wanted was to push others aside, to use their elbows to get to the front of the line. She explained that for a long time, people were used to not having enough, so to be sure to get their share the pushing became required behavior. She said the same applied to getting onto a bus or a plane. Even with a boarding pass in hand, she said that people had too much experience of being turned away, not being able to get on their flight because someone had used money to get a spot on the plane without a ticket. Losing a spot on the plane might require days to get another. So, how our trip went was that Elena would negotiate our next steps for us, and she would wedge herself into a spot and then make space for me to get right in front of her. Like a body guard. I was so thankful to her. She knew the art of navigating and knew it well. I was not so lucky on my journey to Novosibirsk and had a number of very difficult moments.

  As Elena's friend, Natalia, said, the transformation that is needed in Russia is for people to do a total shift in perspective to believing in abundance rather than in scarcity. She said that until this shift took place with a critical mass of the people, that the entrenched scarcity behaviors would not likely shift. 

  The scarcity mentality affects organizations, communities. People compete rather than cooperate. I used the word "collaboration". Elena explained that the word was not understood. "Collaboration" did not mean something positive but rather something negative like collaborating with the enemy.

  There are also very strong attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to do with "customers". I think someone like Elena knows how to get through all of this too, to get something to happen. However, here is my experience. In the hotel, as I walked in, the lobby is dark, unappealing and two men sit at a desk in front of me. I struggle with my cases. They are not there to help, or even to take registrations. They are there to ensure security, whatever that means. To the left is the reception area where two women sit behind glass, with windows. They clearly control the situation. And deal with the registration at a slow pace, also needing to keep my passport to get me registered. Upstairs, on my floor, was another desk with an attendant. She was there to be in control of keys. And who knows what else. I do know that everytime I opened my door , if the attendant was not at her desk, she poked her head around the corner, not to see if I wanted anything but to see what I was doing. Elena explained that maybe I misunderstood some things. And she explained that many of the people I was witnessing were barely making a living, and they did not see a way out of their situation. She said it was all part of the Russian way of life.

  Most people in Novosibirsk live in large housing complexes, built in the 50's by the government when they were establishing the town for both military and sciences. The housing was provided. Private residences are not allowed. It is obvious that there has been little money for upkeep. I can only imagine what it is like to live in these congested conditions now, despite abundant forest and land around, with a rule against ownership of personal land. Sometimes a decision is made about no water, or no hot water, or heat in that cold winter. The summer is hot and there is very little evidence of air conditioning. No screens for the windows and many mosquitos get in. The mosquitos are carriers of encephalitis. At least, that is what some of the people told me. Elena was telling me that last winter, some people had to create fires outside and huddle around them, just to get warm during a period when there was no heat. There is not money to pay the fuel.

  There is a lot of disillusionment amongst people. The government had been supporting their work. They are no longer supported except for subsistence wage of $70 per month. They continue to work, not knowing the value of their work, what it will do. I picked up that this is some of what is causing an attitude that I felt, of needing to exert a sense of control in other ways.

  Disillusionment, combined with generations of living with scarcity is not a good mix.

  There is a lot more to Novosibirsk that is positive. I know that Elena loves her city and is proud of it. 

  I may be wrong in aspects of what is so and not so in Novosibirsk. The above are my perceptions. Raffi, who has joined this list, can give incredible insights. Welcome Raffi! Raffi is an amazing man who is working to be of influence for positive development of people. And as he says in his e-mail, two days by train to get from Moscow to Novosobirsk for the training, and that isn't an easy trip.

  I write this background, to share with you as best as I can, what Elena with her colleagues and friends are working with. They provide leadership, they are networked with others. They are collaborating and cooperating with each other. They have a common vision of improved development of people for a better community. A solution focused community.

  But as Natasha says, the critical required transformation that will lead to all of the other transformations is the one in attitude from a scarcity mentality to an fear to one of love. 

  This is the backdrop that Elena and her friends so courageously work in, to bring about hopeabundance mentality. And a shift from pervasive d for change. I hope I have been able to convey it fairly.

  Respectfully submitted,

  Birgitt Williams

  June 10, 2001


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20010615/c49b739d/attachment-0017.htm>