building democratic society

john engle englejohn at hotmail.com
Sat Apr 19 08:33:02 PDT 2003


Friends,

Here are portions of a translated report that my colleague, Fremy Cesar,
shared on our yahoogroups list serve which is in Haitian Creole and
occasional French. There are 80 of us on this list serve.

I participated in this meeting and found the subjects and conversations to
be rich, especially in light of Haitian history and current world events.

Here’s a little backdrop for those unfamiliar with Haitian history. Haiti
was a colony of France up until African slaves revolted and won their
independence in 1804. The indigenous population-Arawak and Taino people-were
completely destroyed by colonization either because of disease or simply
killed. The French imported Africans and enslaved them. It is estimated that
there could have been as many as 1 million slaves when they won their
independence.

Practices and structures of exploitation and cruelty which characterized
Haiti’s colonial period of nearly 300 years were maintained by slaves who
become war heroes during the revolution and who quickly took power once
victory was achieved. Since 1804, there has only been two times when power
transitioned peacefully from one head of state to another. Both took place
during the last 8 years. Haiti’s first true democratic election of a
President took place in December 1990. Even with a two paragraph history, it
deserves to be mentioned that the US has had a very negative roll overall in
Haiti’s evolution, which began with a trade boycott that lasted from Haiti’s
birth as a new republic in 1804 until the 1860’s after slavery was
officially abolished in the US. More recently, the US government gave
hundreds of millions of dollars to a dictator (Francois Duvalier) who was
known to be a horrendous abuser of human rights and terribly corrupt, to
make sure that communism was not allowed entry into Haiti.

While it is encouraging that democracy has appeared, the economy is
dreadful. Just in the last 6 months, local currency has lost 50% of its
value. Thus, there is great instability. About 5 years ago there was a study
done which concluded that an estimated 60% of Haiti’s 8 million people, live
on less than US$100 per year. Subsistence farming is what helps to sustain
people.

The theme of our full day Open Space meeting on April 11 was, “How can
Reflection Circles contribute to the building of a democratic society?” My
colleagues and I are using a strategy to spread the practice of Reflection
Circles-discussion based education (www.touchstones.org)-which parallels the
way Harrison and company have spread Open Space: decentralized training and
printed materials, and things like Open Space meetings and list serves to
foster shared learning.

85 of us came together from places all over Haiti. Those who traveled
distances arrived the day before. In Haiti, 200 miles can require two days
of travel because of poor roads and slow boats.

Many in this group come together once or twice a year for these types of
gatherings. Most present fit into one or more of these categories: school
teachers, literacy instructers, community leaders, usually several students,
people with grassroots or NGO’s. Many in the group are either already
practicing, or on the way to be practicing Open Space.

Here are 16 of the 31 topics posted. My colleague, Johny Saint Louis, Opened
Space twice during the day: once in the morning to get started and then
again after lunch to allow people to converge, if they wanted to, on action
oriented subjects. The day began at 9:30 and finished at 3:30.

Democracy, for which society?

What is the roll of a leader in the democratic process?

Where does democracy come from?

Does democrasy mean liberty?

If we are interested in democracy, who will be our example?

What are the fruits of democracy?

Between democracy and dictators, who’s table will our children sit at
tomorrow?

Can a poor country have democracy?

What is the importance of democracy in society?

Democracy, liberty, occupation: what is the importance of each?

Between democracy and dictatorship, which is more fierce?

What is our struggle toward the democracy that we dream of?

Why?

Different kinds of societies and democracies, what’s at stake?

What truly does it take for a society to move forward?

Democracy: this means what?

Because we use Open Space and Reflection Circles together, one impacts the
other. For instance, an important practice in Reflection Circles is to
invite people into a conversation by asking a question. Thus, subjects
posted at Open Space events with Reflection Circle practitioners, more often
than not, are in the form of questions.

Johny did a talking stick exercise with the chimes for the closing circle.
Comments were virtually all positive. Like Open Space practitioners at
OsonOS’s, all present were there because they chose to be.


http://www.beyondborders.net/experiment.htm

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