Belarus

Jo Toepfer jotoepfer at boscop.de
Tue Apr 11 23:41:05 PDT 2006


...and I hope that they'll continue the mistake and give me the visa 
next time.

greetings form Minsk
Jo
**********************
At 00:11 12.04.2006, Harrison Owen wrote:
>Well Done! Not that I would expect anything less from Jo. But it is always
>such a remarkable pleasure to hear of exploits in lands where space doesn't
>get opened very often. The Human Spirit is indeed a remarkable critter. It
>seems that the more it is repressed the more impressive and luxuriant the
>blossoms. Hardly poetic, but seems to be true. And Jo -- I am glad they let
>you in. I think that may have been a mistake. :-)
>
>Harrison
>
>Harrison Owen
>7808 River Falls Drive
>Potomac, Maryland   20854
>Phone 301-365-2093
>Skype hhowen
>Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
>Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
>Personal website www.ho-image.com
>OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
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>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jo Toepfer
>Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 5:06 PM
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: Belarus
>
>Dear colleagues,
>
>after 5 years of being 'persona non grata' I got a visa again and was
>able to travel to Minsk where I arrived last Saturday (the same day
>as the president of the country was swearing in to his third term in
>office after the criticized elections last month). I came here not
>only to work with Open Space but to conduct an Open Space training
>for some 30 folks from different walks of life interested in the method.
>
>First surprise: It happened that I met Sergey here in Minsk. He is
>working with OS since some years. He read all Harrison's books, has
>facilitated some 10 events in different areas, is in contact with
>Raffi and plans to come to Moscow. He helped me very much with the
>training and helped to facilitate and sometimes translate some bits.
>We worked together in a brilliant way. Clearly a person that one
>would not expect to meet with in Belarus.
>
>The training did what you may expect - it worked: spirit showed up,
>went on a journey through confusion, conflict and chaos and arrived
>at peace. Here some milestones of the journey:
>
>morning day 1
>break, welcome by the sponsor, planning meeting for the first OS with
>creating the theme and finding the sponsor. The theme "How can we
>organize seminars and trainings more effectively?"
>
>afternoon day 1
>Complete Open Space with welcome by the sponsor, introduction (my
>part in 16 minutes in Russian), 3 break-out sessions, evening news.
>We saw 27 issues posted, 16 reports made it into the book.
>
>morning day 2
>Break, morning news, reading the book, outlook, action planing,
>closing circle. 10 action steps were designed.
>
>afternoon day 2
>Open Space on Open Space with welcome by the sponsor (one of the
>wonderful ladies from the group), introduction by Sergey,  2
>break-out session, reading the reports at the gallery (and later this
>afternoon copied as part two of the book) and closing circle. 10
>issues posted and 7 reports were created.
>
>The training was wrapped up with a little conversation in the circle
>called "press conference". The opportunity to clarify remaining
>questions. I assume the intention of this exercise was to reduce
>confusion but the opposite happened :-)
>
>The whole training activity was accompanied with: OS library, cinema,
>audio station, cyber space, self-organized Questions & Answer wall.
>
>What I understood here in Belarus is that we all can learn a great
>lesson in "Muddling through" from the people here. It is amazing how
>people navigate their organizations through the mess of bureaucratic
>and political barricades and are still alive and even enjoying this.
>Regardless to the very unfavorable political climate for any kind of
>self-organized citizen initiative people are doing it anyway.
>
>greetings from Belarus
>Jo
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Jo Toepfer, boscop eg
>Dolziger Str. 40, 10247 Berlin
>++49-30-42018000
>www.boscop.de  www.joconsult.de
>
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Jo Toepfer, boscop eg
Dolziger Str. 40, 10247 Berlin
++49-30-42018000
www.boscop.de  www.joconsult.de  

*
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