Academic articles on OST - myths

[Brett Barndt]

Maya

this is a very very interesting project you are working on. Very important!

In open space, or any other self-organizing process, you may consider
inviting stakeholders and experts from way outside of Israel. The sad or
happy reality is, our countries are now all tightly tightly connected to one
ecosystem on the planet. The wider you can cast the circle, the greater will
be the unexpected insights and outcomes that result from the process, and of
course the greater the potential long-term impact. I speak specifically
about a hot water project being piloted in Cairo amongst the urban poor.
But, all of us suburban and urban super rich could also significantly reduce
our carbon footprints by heating water through solar on our rooftops.
Particularly in sunny places like Herzaliya and Natanya! Those Israelis can
make a significant and fast impact fast by following the lead of their
neighbors deep in the depths of medieval Cairo!

I speak for example in America, the water crisis in Georgia is directly
affecting the people in the Mountain States on the Interiour because Georgia
wants to find ways, and in fact needs to find ways to get their water for
10M people who inauspiciously believed 20-30 yrs ago, that life in the south
can be sustainable for millions of northerners at a standard that we had no
trouble affording back then, when we 'mapped' out that plan collectively in
our minds. In cynical circles, it is called "the great Georgia water grab!"
(this is a play on words because in America in the 1800s there were many
scandals described as "land grabs". Of course the whole US national
formation myth was one giant 'land grab', but we don't discuss that too
widely now since anyone who might listen is way marginalized at the moment).


The same thing is happening to one of the Native American reservations,
because the millions of (I might say somewhat short sighted or at least not
very future orientated) Americans have decided to go live in Las Vegas, NV
over the last 20 yrs. So, who is being dragged into these discussions??? The
Navajo Nation or something like it (I only know this because the leader of a
panel at at UN conference I attended a few weeks ago apologised for a
speaker Chief from one of the Native American Nations, because he was called
into 'emergency' water negotiations with the City of Las Vegas, NV.
Emergency for whom? I for one resent that I was unable to hear this
gentleman's insights into our world challenges from a Native American
viewpoint, because of the water emergency of some amorphous people in Las
Vegas, NV that I frankly don't know and don't want to know!

For example, in some of the economic justice work I am doing, I want to
invite people from Soweto, South Africa, or Favellas in Brazil, because
these urban populations have self-organized new forms of social services and
structures that a western educated American would not even dream up with our
mindset and belief frames. Yet, our working families increasingly compete
with and resemble families in the global south urban context. So, by
bringing these people in who do not constitute in any way a normal view of a
stakeholder, we radically alter the potential outcomes of the Open Space. I
am vindicated in my thinking because Muhammad Yunus, who founded Grameen
Bank and micro-credit lending in Bangladesh, is opening his first operation
in the US in one of the urban working neighborhoods in NYC. He believes that
Americans need the same opportunities the people in Bangladesh have taken to
great effect, which of course I find very inspiring.

Anyway, your project sounds so so amazing, and I am sure there is a great
deal of work to do toward conscious sustainability for all of our
lifestyles, but the conversation and definition of what constitutes a
stakeholder is up to your imagination! You might want to look at the UN
Development Pyramid frameworks about the interconnection between the wealthy
countries and the global south, and the <$1 (EURO .66) day crowd. This you
can get from The Earth Institute at Columbia Univ and
www.stateoftheplanet.org. That crowd is just about equal to the number of
people at the top with loads in the middle living on $2 and up as you can
imagine.  Wealthy ones at the top constitute no more than 1B out of a
population of circa 6.5B on the planet. I became critically aware of just
who the 'stakeholders' are in my comfy cushy glam self-indulgent and
atomized Western lifestyle, not to mention the ones who work in shops,
delis, cleaning, taxis, buses, subways in NYC all on about $8 an hour! Can't
even go into the workers who make stuff I buy in Asia which is so vast and
unknown to me. 27M and counting of whom on the planet are living in actual
real old fashioned slavery! (UN stats again).

UN people say that natural resource competition is directly responsible for
the genocidal conditions in the Sudan and Darfur, and all ethnic or racial
strife narrative is created by the major 'stakeholders' and 'string pullers'
to fuel that.

So, we have a lot of learn about who we're living off of, but when we do, we
are going to make a difference!


Best regards,
Brett

It is hard not to tell a lie, when you don't know what the truth is.  Peter
Esterhazy

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