Open Space - a minimum?

Sun Aug 14 02:42:55 PDT 2005

Michael writes :
"There, I saw grand opportunities for open space and talked about it
to people."

That's what i do here, although it is not heard so quickly. But i can not 
get detached
so quickly from people's struggle.

I agree that self organizing, local resources, their lives and livelyhood
(as Harrison mentions)...their ability to create solutions are 
important...very important.

I still think that we ( the ones having more to eat, a shelter, health, 
space; who were lucky to get some education, travel, learn
appreciate, enyoy life,  so on)  can not say "them, their problems, their 
struggle, their solutions".

I feel our responsibility is more then that.

Funda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pannwitz, Michael M" <mmpanne at boscop.de>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2005 11:00 AM
Subject: Open Space - a minimum?

> Dear Funda,
> I live in a rich city: Berlin.
> My colleagues and I have facilitated about 300 os-events since 1996
> in this city alone.
> The dark sides of this city have in that same period grown:
> unemployment, poverty, homelessness, dismanteling of social services,
> cuts in primary education and health care, disentchantment with the
> political process....along with the widening gap between poor -
> middle income and rich people.
> So, whats all this effort led to?
> Heaven knows
> and
> almost every day I get little signs
> someone approaching me in a bus, on the street, an email, a telephone
> call,
> characterized by a smile.
> As far as I am concerned, thats pretty much all I need to keep going.
> A few days ago I returned from Karachi, Pakistan,
> somewhere between 14 and 19 million people,
> where Yaari and I lead a training for 26 colleagues from Afghanistan,
> Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
> There, I saw grand opportunities for open space and talked about it
> to people.
> That environment with its many challenges invigorated me,
> especially those thousands of people I saw while going to the
> railroad station, the harbor, the markets, along teeming streets...
> all of them, including the tenacious begging children, rising to the
> really difficult situation making a go of things,
> seemingly at a very high level of "muddling through".
> What splendid resources!
> And: I dont need to understand their struggle to facilitate an open
> space technology event.
> And: I am certainly not going to help them to get what they need not
> really knowing or being able to understand their need.
> Neither in Berlin or in Karachi.
> What I can supply, is assistance in getting an os-event set up and to
> facilitate it (or, in the case of Karachi, train people to do that)
> which will definitely provide the best known framework for
> selforganization including the optimal use of whatever resources are
> available.
>
> While I was in Karachi, I read the "Dawn" every morning (in fact,
> there is hardly a dawn or dusk in Karachi, it seems to go from light
> to dark to light within minutes)
> and a story about "Karachi 2020" caught my eye.
> It described in great detail all the stuff a huge staff of
> consultants (foreign) was hired for to "understand" the problem,
> about 20 fields of investigation, half a newspaper page full (census,
> roads, income distribution, migration patterns.....)
> with side remarks about the government scolding the local planners
> for not being competent to develope proper plans.
> I read it all and at the very end I found a note that after the plans
> would all be drawn up,
> citizens would be invited to explain the plans to them,
> with the possibility to then fine tune them.
>
> Well, what a neglect of local resources!
> What an upside down procedure, producing another set of eventually
> useless data under the ill fatet belief that this kind of planning
> will actually improve Karachi.
> Lots of room for open space, though.
> Maybe some of my colleagues will get busy on those and other areas
> there.
>
> Greetings from Berlin
> mmp
>
>
>
> On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 13:40:56 +0300, Funda Oral wrote:
>
>>Dear John and everybody,
>>
>>I live in a city where one can see extreme cases ( richness and poorness,
>>joy and powerty so on...)
>>in a short distance from each other.
>>
>>One sees so big problems, and so strong struggle for life
>>that sometime the word "open space" looks funny, silly and luxury.
>>
>>I still believe that "opening space", inviting people to
>>exist, to talk, to express their needs and struggle is
>>"something", a very small step maybe, but still helpful.
>>
>>But it's not enough, the ultimate aim is to understand their straggle
>>and help them to get what they need...we don't need to be poor with the
>>poor;
>>sick with the sick ( as Judi beautifully mentions)...the least we can do
>>is to open space to respect them.... but this is only the minimum.
>>
>>And i am very worried and sad to see that in many cases all i could
>>do would be to open space. I am not strong or rich enough to end
>>struggle.
>>
>>I guess we need more trembling hearts, more resources and better
>>cooperation for that.
>>
>>Funda
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- 
>>From: "john engle" <englejohn at hotmail.com>
>>To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>>Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 10:17 PM
>>Subject: powerful poem! help me understand it.
>>
>>
>>> hi brendan, kairi and others.
>>>
>>> i've never opened space in a prison but i have participated in a
>>> touchstones discussion (http://touchstones.org) with about 25 men 
>>> serving
>>> life sentences. the discussion centered around "power" and not
>>> surprisingly, i learned a great deal.
>>>
>>> great that you are doing this! i look forward to following developments 
>>> as
>>> you work toward opening space in prisons.
>>>
>>> on another subject, kairi, thank you for sharing that poem in your
>>> message. i love it! and, i loved being at OSonOS! Judi, you and your 
>>> team
>>> did a great job at receiving us and making us feel at home.
>>>
>>> while i love the spirit of the poem, i just don't know what to do with
>>> "banish the word struggle from your vocabulary." how do others see this?
>>>
>>> removing the word struggle from MY vocabulary seems like it could have
>>> some positive outcomes. at the same time, it's hard for me to think of a
>>> better word that describes daily life for so many people. and, not
>>> acknowledging this seems like i might be missing something as i work 
>>> with
>>> folks in circumstances so much different from my own.
>>>
>>> i'm in haiti as i write and catching up with friends and colleagues. 
>>> there
>>> are at least hundreds of thousands of people here--some estimate in the
>>> millions--that don't consume a meal each day. and when they do, they 
>>> don't
>>> know when they'll eat next. i can't begin to imagine what living with so
>>> much uncertainty and discomfort must be like. and i've also learned that
>>> far too often we who live in financially prosperous countries romance
>>> poverty, saying that poor people are happier.
>>>
>>> it serves us (people who live in financially prosperous countries) well 
>>> to
>>> see things this way and it pains me when i have US American visitors 
>>> with
>>> me in Haiti and conclude after a week here that the people are "so 
>>> happy."
>>> in many cultures, those in the southern countries included, it is
>>> appropriate to put one's best face forward especially when meeting
>>> visitors. those same Haitians who looked so happy to the visitor might 
>>> be
>>> totally stressed out because they're worrying about how they're going to
>>> pay school fees for their kids and get a meal together, etc. when they
>>> speak in their own language to me, "struggle" projects from their facial
>>> expressions, body movement and words.
>>>
>>> i would not feel comfortable asking folks who live such realities to
>>> remove "struggle" from their vocabulary.
>>>
>>> thanks for your patience as i vent and live emotions connected to being
>>> with friends in extremely difficult situations.
>>>
>>> john
>>>
>>>
>>> http://JohnEngle.net
>>> email: john at johnengle.net
>>> P.O. Box 337
>>> Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033
>>> tel. 202-236-6532
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>From: Brendan McKeague <mckeague at iprimus.com.au>
>>>>Reply-To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
>>>>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>>>>Subject: Re: There is a river flowing now very fast
>>>>Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:26:54 +0800
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>"Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary.
>>>>All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
>>>>aahhh....thank you so much Kairi
>>>>
>>>>What a moment to receive this gift - the start of a brand new
>>>>day...beautiful and inspiring...today I will let go a wee bit more...
>>>>I am about to depart for  a day's 'space-making' in a maximum security
>>>>prison with long-term offenders..
>>>>I will be present and holding space with individual men - my dream is 
>>>>that
>>>>one day there may be more collective open space within such 
>>>>confinement...
>>>>.
>>>>Anyone ever opened space in a prison?
>>>>
>>>>peace to all
>>>>Brendan
>>>>
>>>>*
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>>>
>>> _________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
>
> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
> ++49-30-772 8000
> www.boscop.de   www.michaelmpannwitz.de
>
> Check out the new Open Space World Map now with 309 resident Open Space 
> Workers in 57 countries (working in a total of 115 countries worldwide)
> www.openspaceworldmap.org
>
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