Open Space in conflict zones

[john engle]

hi paul, lisa, and others.

thought i'd chime in on this one. paul, its kind of you to acknowledge our
work in haiti.

as you can imagine, i'm asking all kinds of questions right now about haiti
and our work.  one question that i was asking myself for more than a year as
tensions and clashes were mounting is, "should i be investing more energy
toward convincing folks in power positions to try open space?"

i decided instead to invest my time in strengthening the base: working to
build and nurture the communities of os practitioners, most of whom are ages
25-35, and for the most part are not in positions of significant power. in
general, os practitioners in haiti have influence in their communities,
schools, and grassroots organizations and in some cases NGOs, but they do
not have political power.

i never read the book entitled "the tipping point" but have had
conversations with many who have, including michael h. tova is another one
that uses frequently the phrase "the tipping point." seems to me that the
nature of open space is to influence practices, habits--culture--, in such a
way that things tip. its organic.

while my colleagues in haiti and other folks there, in different ways, work
to sow new habits, we still have a long way to go before things "tip" into a
new way of being. and, this should not discourage us. its simply the
reality.

furthermore, the white-black issues are so intense, especially now, that it
will be much healthier and more effective for my haitian colleagues instead
of me (a white american), to facilitate os events in environments of higher
profile/greater concentration of power.

i have a close friend from holland who has lived in haiti for 20 years. he
says it this way, "in haitian culture, generally speaking, the notion of
abusing power does not exist. it is just assumed that leaders and people
with big influence will use their power to accomplish what they wish to even
if it means abusing people. this is the right of power, its is not abusing
it." fortunately, there are exceptions, but they have not yet "tipped" the
norm. a haitian that i know, who's about 65 years old, tells stories of how,
on several occasions, he watched his father (a black man who owned a
plantation) shoot dead, in public, workers who complained about pay. and
there was no recourse. this was acceptable behavior. this is just 55 or 60
years ago.

when we look at haitian history, the model of leadership that took root in
the 1600 and 1700's was one of a master over a slave. it (this model) had a
couple hundred years to establish itself. its now 200 years that its more or
less lived on, yet not unchallenged. and this is where my colleagues and i
along with others who promote participative practices come in.

to think that we're going to do some os events, even over several years, and
that its going to quickly usher in peace and harmony where peace and harmony
are rare, is naive, in my opinion. and perhaps this is your point about
questioning terms like "marvelous" to describe this. sure, lets have an open
spirit and be ready for quick and magnificent results, but lets also prepare
ourselves to be engaged for the long haul: lets measure our expectations. if
we don't, we'll burn out and this is not healthy nor constructive for
anyone.

in terms of me leaving haiti, the conflict simply meant that i left three
weeks before my wife and i originally planned to leave. i have american
colleagues who are still there and they are fine, but relatively
unproductive in a western sense because of not being able to leave their
homes. as we prepare for this new chapter of establishing our base in US, we
couldn't afford to be unproductive. and, we didn't want to get stuck in
haiti for longer than we planned. before i was married, things were
different. i allowed myself to get stuck in haiti during the coup years
(1991-93) on a number of occasions, appreciating the opportunity to be 'on
the ground' with my haitian colleagues.

for me, there's not a great deal of 'hoopla' in doing open space (and
reflection circles). when i ponder my work, i picture some of my haitian
neighbors who get up each morning and go work in their gardens. with faith
and hope and measured expectation, they prepare the soil and plant seeds.
they do what they need to do and leave the rest in 'god's' hands. throughout
haiti, people like fremy, ulrick, bayyinah, (the ones that many of you have
met) and dozens of others are preparing the soil and planting seeds, day in
and day out, with faith that eventually, things will 'tip.'

thanks for creating space for me to articulate my thoughts.

john

http://JohnEngle.blogspot.com - Reflections about Haiti, life, and our work.
http://JohnEngle.info
http://TheExperiment.info

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