First OS in Sofala Province, Mozambique

[WB-TrainConsult]

Artur and all the others who gave me a "be welcome again",

thank you, your immediate reactions give me a warm and cosy feeling
and it was nice to re-insert me into the discussion process. Thanks
to Michael M. for giving me the "kick" I needed to climb out of my
snail's shell.

On Wed, 9 Jan 2002 16:23:35 +0000, Artur F. Silva wrote:
>Welcome back, Bernd.

>Another point: when we talk about "letting go" we are normally
>thinking
>about letting *the others go*. I think that sometimes to let go our
>own gut
>feelings is equally important.

Yes, but we have to stay aware of  what Sigmund F. called
Gegenübertragung, just not to abuse the power situation and use the
others (to much) as therapeuts for yourself without having any such
contract. Whenever open space is really working, this is no problem,
because the law of the two feet is without doubt the best medicine
against abuse by (us) therapeuts, trainers, facilitators,
sonsultants,moderators,...gurus
>Of course, that attitude can not be repeated all the times as
>progressively
>people must take their destiny in their hands. I think it was Roger
>Debray
>that
>once wrote that the one very important thing that revolutionaries
>must do
>in the last part ot their intervention is to make themselves
>dispensable.
Yes, unfortunately, they usually started loving their power (to stay
the same), when they got it. There are few ones, who knew the right
point in time to despense themselves.

<But
>he was thinking about something one must care in the last phases of
>an
>intervention; not in the first ones...
Yes and no, I agree with many of the postings here in the oslist: The
better I are able, not to interfere with the ongoing self-organizing
prozess, but to stay "present", be "with" the process, the better the
things will work out.
>

>I am not sure if we can talk about an African context common to all
>the
>African regions and countries. Even if we consider only sub-Saharan
>Africa
>there are very different situations depending on previous origin,
>colonization
>culture and type.
>
>First in a country like Moçambique (or Angola or South Africa) there
>are many
>different original tribes with different characteristics and
>histories.
>Than the
>different colonizing countries introduced other differences. But
>even each
>colonizer country ruled in different ways and that had consequences
>in
>today's African culture.
>
>For instance - contrarily to Angola or Cape Vert, the Portuguese
>colonialism in
>Mocambique was strongly influenced by the English way (dominant in
>Rhodesia
>and part of South Africa) and also (specially in the North) by the
>Islamic
>religion.
>Also in the North (and specially in Gorongosa) very big agricultural
>labor
>intensive
>farms conducted natives to a situation close to slavery.

Yes, thank you for the differenciation. Which is a necessary one.

>What is common in all ex-colonies is that the colonizer deprived the
>natives
>of almost all decisions - so they get used to "follow the leaders"
>and expect
>decisions to be made by "those officially responsible". When, as in
>the
>majority
>of Portuguese ex-colonies, colonialism was replaced by pro-sovietic
>parties
>the same trend was still enforced.
>
>The other characteristic is that colonialism means that the
>economical power
>is out of the territory and so it prepares the conditions for neo-
>colonialism.
>The economical power continues to be in the ends of foreign
>countries (either
>exploiters or donors) and what is left to local authorities is to
>accept
>brides -
>Mocambique (like Angola) is among the countries in the world were
>corruption
>of the politics is bigger. So the population gets used to not take
>decisions
>that belong to others "officially responsible" as those will
probably
>change those
>decisions if that is convenient to the external economical powers
>that bride
>them...

Yes, these are good insights. Thank you Artur.

Still I have got the problem(, that I want more, because) this is
"our" way of perceiving, thinking, explaining -(semi-)external white
folks with a very specific intellectual political ethical,...
socialization. Of course: I am austrian,(well, I am from southern
styria, a "Sulmtaler") you are portuguese, but within the context of
my argument, we are simple part of the white,rich euro-american
social expert community
I try to lead this dialogue with my frieds and collegues, wherever it
is possible (in fact not so many around here in Beira, and when we
meet, we tend to use it to lick our wounds, to stabilize our egos,
produce cynical "worst stories" about "we & they", believe, that we
understand each other perfectly in a more or less 'hostile
ambiente'...and that is okay, but not the best starting point for
differenciating dialogue ).

But I still suffer from a lack of (being able? having the
oportunities, meeting the right people?..) solid and diferenciated
dialogue/polylogue with "the other side (s)" i.e. people who share
the community of practise, who are part of this new global learning
network, but were raised within "the colonies",the south, the poor
countries and had heard other stories, when they were little kids,...
My dream is, to get the "right" stakeholder mixture during such a
dialogue.
We will see.

Bernhard


>==========================================================
>OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>------------------------------
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
>view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
>Visit:
>
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>


-----
Bernd Weber wb-trainconsult at gmx.net, on 10.01.2002 at 06:13:35
Organization Development Consultant

"DEVELOP YOUR CAPACITIES - MATERIALIZE YOUR VISION"


C.P. 1462, Beira, Sofala, MOZAMBIQUE
fone: +258-3-32 98 59, cellfone:+258-82-43 79 77


-----
WB-TrainConsult
management- & human resources
training, consulting & development
-----
Gumpendorfer Straße 88b/18, AT-1060 Wien, AUSTRIA
fone & fax: +431 596 86 57
-----
Anti-Virus precautions:
1) All attachments of my mails are mentioned by name in this e-mail
Please do not open any other attachment!
2) Please send text documents in Rich Text Format (*.rtf)

attachment(s) : None

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html