Open Space - a minimum?
Harrison Owen
hhowen at comcast.net
Sun Aug 14 05:35:00 PDT 2005
Funda -- seems to me it always has to be a personal decision and judgment as to how one may best contribute. It is quite true that my resourses vastly exceed those of most people in the world. I therefore have a special responsibility to use those resourses in the most judicious fashion to do the best I can for the people who need it most. But then the question arisies where and how do I make the maximum impact? I don't think there is any easy or "right" answer to this -- but over the years I have come to the conclusion that everytime I can help folks to do for themselves what might more quickly be done by somebody else there is a double bonus. The situation gets taken care of and the people are more effectively equiped to handle a similar situation the next time around. I guess I have also seen too many disasterous attempts to fix the world for people according to the "fixers" vision of what needs to get done and how to do it. I have never found it possible to isolate myself from the pain and misfortune of the people I have lived and worked with, and hopefully I will never find armor thick enough to do that. I always wish I could do more. But at the end of the day I have found that my most effective contribution has been to create and hold the space/time so that the people can find their own way. For an impatient, pragmatic, practical American doing that can be a terrible burden. It is the "not doing" that really twists my mind. And you will have to find your own way.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
301-365-2093
207-763-3261 (summer)
website www.openspaceworld.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Funda Oral
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2005 5:42 AM
Subject: Re: Open Space - a minimum?
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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