OST and the Global Citizens Movement

Sun May 2 23:29:59 PDT 2010

Dear All *

This may be of interest. A group called the Tellus Institute 
<http://www.tellus.org/index.php> in Boston has created The Great 
Transition Initiative. <http://www.gtinitiative.org/> This is a growing 
international *network* of scholars and activists that analyzes 
alternative scenarios and charts a path to a hopeful future.

The GTI has a current proposal under discussion by its about 300 
'Participants'of which I am one. This is to create a Global Citizens 
Movement (GCM) to be launched at the time of the "Rio+20" UN meeting in 
2012, marking the twentieth anniversary of the seminal 1992 Earth Summit.

I see that my role is to bring attention to the 'Process' dimension of 
engaging citizenry in matters about which they feel passionate and wish 
to take responsibility for.

See below for a brief outline of the GCM proposal and for my recent post 
on this. If you wish to know more about this project
and about how it develops let me know. 

I would add that, in furthering my longstanding search for understanding 
(/knowing what to do next. Wittgenstein/) of self organising systems and 
their constructivist  underpinnings, I will participate in the annual 
meeting of the American Society for Cybernetics 
<http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/2010/>  in late July early Aug in Troy 
near Albany in upstate New York, all being well.  

And will then go on to Boston to meet with the good folk at the Tellus 
Institute. Their most thoughtful and hopeful essay 
<http://www.gtinitiative.org/documents/PDFFINALS/2GTToday.pdf> is well 
worth a read imo.

After which I return to NYC and on to the UK where I will be based for 
five weeks from mid July.

Go well

Alan
Hong Kong

* I send my good wishes to you lucky spirits who will gather at next 
week's WOSonOS in Berlin and at the Fringe satellite event in Melbourne 
to experience, enact and extend into multitudinous domains the 
principles which underpin you happening to be present ,,,

Here's a summary of the proposal:

TITLE: The Global Citizens Movement: Launching the Next Phase at Rio+20

THE CHALLENGE: An essential actor is missing from the world stage: a 
citizen-centered movement for a sustainable and just future that 
embraces a vision and strategy matched to the complexity and scale of 
the historic task.

THE AIM: The time has come to launch the next phase in the evolution of 
civil society activism: a mature Global Citizens Movement (GCM) 
dedicated to an overarching agenda, nurturing unity, and advancing a 
coherent vision of another world.

THE PROJECT: Following a two year preparatory process, a founding 
meeting of the GCM will be held in Rio just prior to the formal "Rio+20" 
UN meeting in 2012, marking the twentieth anniversary of the seminal 
1992 Earth Summit.

Please read the 4 page attachment for more details. Is this the right 
idea at the right time? Your feedback is critical to making this go -- 
or not.

Hoping for a little help from our friends,
Paul and Orion

Paul Raskin                             Orion Kriegman
GTI Director                           GTI Coordinator

On 28 April 2010 22:10, GTI Listmanager 
<GTI.listmanager at forums.tellus.org 
<mailto:GTI.listmanager at forums.tellus.org>> wrote:

From: "Alan Stewart" <alanmstewart at gmail.com 
<mailto:alanmstewart at gmail.com>>

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===============================================================

Dear GTI Colleagues

I support the proposed GCM in the strongest terms. My feeling is that 
the time is right to act on this bold and inspiring approach. I see it 
as a truly vital initiative at this juncture of the perilous predicament 
of our species and that of the whole ecosystem of which we are an 
integral part.

I also see that the GTI is the organization which has the vision and the 
capability to enact the process of promoting the 'Massive participation 
in healing the planet becoming a great source of pride for the global 
citizenry'. And would add that your seminal essay 'The Great Transition 
Today - A Report from the Future' has received a lot of attention here 
in Hong Kong and the region.

I would also add that there are group processes with which to engage 
citizenry effectively, potentially on a large scale (among whom are many 
who have no access to the internet). A nice example of this can be seen 
in the 'Harrisonburg Summits': 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpAtLKZ63u0&feature=related 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpAtLKZ63u0&feature=related>

I hope that indicating that approaches like this one could be promoted 
widely will become integral to considerations of 'Process' in the final 
Proposal on the GCM.

Looking forward.

Go well
Alan

*
*
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