[OSList] inquiry OS

[Jorge Amigo]

Dear Celia. Interesting is the case you raise
Some questions. You say you've been eight months in Kenya and has 
provided some OS, OS tell me all you've done in Kenya have been with the 
same subject and with the results that you describe? If you've done OS 
in Kenya with a different theme, it would be interesting to know what 
happened in those cases.
How do you explain the behavior you describe your professional Kenyan 
counterpart?
What cultural considerations into account when you had to call the OS? 
In light of the experience Are there any other cultural considerations 
that you think you should be aware of?
My impression is that not enough to have a good topic of interest to the 
audience and that participation is voluntary to run the OS, it is 
required to consider the cultural and contextual variables.
You indicate that Kenya is paid for attending a forum. Well, that gives 
a signal of something different and need to consider. How should I call 
in Kenya for assistance is voluntary and unpaid? or, is it possible that 
participation is voluntary and paid at once?
Regarding the issue, it may be a topic of great interest but is also an 
issue that will probably cause fear, which as you say, people avoid 
talking to strangers.
In short, the cultural and contextual variables, I think are important 
to take into account the experience of Open Space is full and satisfying.
a hug
Jorge Amigo
>
> Thanks so much for your feedback. To answer your questions so far. v
>
> 1)Participation was voluntary, although the culture in Kenya is that 
> people expect to get a payment to attend forums, so some of them were 
> misinformed and may have come for the expected money. This is a 
> culture started by foreign aid and is now endemic. The first thing 
> people ask if there is a forum is 'how much money will I get' to 
> attend. While the money thing makes true motivation for attending 
> cloudy, there were some that did know there was no financial gain for 
> attending.
>
> 2)The theme was peace in the community and it was 2 days before the 
> elections in Kenya. The theme was relevant and something that a lot of 
> people were directly effected by from the post election violence in 
> the 2007 elections. So relevance was there but that does not mean it 
> is something that people are passionate about.
>
> 3)It was an open community forum, not within an intact system.c
>
> 4)I noticed also that people stayed in their small clusters of people 
> they knew. They did not mix or move around to work with other people. 
> Not sure what that was about or how normal that is.
>
> 5)Kenya has an education system where children are told what to think 
> and what to do. It is not a culture that naturally lends itself to 
> people making their own decisions and breaking out of the usual tribe.
>
> 6)Another observation is that people seem to finish their discussions 
> very quickly and merge sessions so that they cover all the topics in 
> one or 2 sessions, leaving the later sessions as a blank space where 
> there is nothing to discuss. It feels like there is a very superficial 
> discussion of topidocs rather then getting into the heart of it. In a 
> forum of 100 people, to cover all the topics in a couple of sessions 
> is a surprise to me.
>
> Any further ideas would be much appreciated. I am a westerner working 
> in Kenya, so culturally I am still learning a lot. I know I am missing 
> something important. I think it is helpful to draw my attention to the 
> question of passion. It does feel like passion is missing, and also 
> the hunger to get to the bottom of things is missing.
>
> Peace
>

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