[OSList] What could dialogue look like between people of Russia and people of the West?

Sun Feb 20 06:15:03 PST 2022

*Romy,* your retreat centre <https://www.walescottageandvenue.com/> in
Wales looks amazing.

*Paul and Michael,* thank you for the pointers to Marvin Weisbord and the
Helena organization.  I can't become an expert in what Marvin was
writing about fast enough, so I realize that my role would be to provide
infrastructure for these dialogues and partner with facilitators for the
facilitation.

*Funda and Toomas,* it will be truly great to work with you and anyone else
that would like to participate.  I think that something great is possible,
and it will take a collaborative effort among many of us to design it and
make it happen.

*How this could work as an open space...*
The simplest design I can think of would be a daily open space, with an
opening circle at 8am in California / 7pm in Moscow.  It lasts as long as
it lasts and it happens again the next day, every day, for as long as
people keep showing up.  Or maybe there is a closing session every day at
10am in California / 9pm in Moscow.

This can happen over the short term with volunteer facilitators and no
budget (I can donate the Zoom meetings through QiqoChat), but I would hope
that an initiative like this would eventually be supported by foundations,
so that the facilitators can do their best over many weeks and months and
be paid fairly for their work.

*How to bridge the language divide...*
I have used an automated translation tool called Wordly <https://wordly.ai>
over the past two years.  It can create instant subtitles on Zoom in
Russian, English, and about 20 other languages.  The team at Wordly is
great and I am hoping they would donate their tool (usually $150/hour) for
something like this if the project did not have any funding.  With live
people doing the translation in all the breakout rooms, the cost and
complexity of the project would be very high.

*The missing piece...*
The missing piece is the host organization that would send the invitation.
The closest thing I found was an article
<https://www.thenation.com/article/world/russia-women-peace-letter/>
published last week called "Independent American and Russian Women Call for
Peace".  Here is part of the article:

> "How might we seize the day and lay out a 21st-century vision—that not
> only advances peace and security, but can unite the world—essentially a new
> realism? What could creative, humane diplomacy look like? *If done
> thoughtfully, it could do more than resolve the standoff in Ukraine—it
> could pave the way for broader cooperation between the US, Russia, and
> Europe and beyond on climate, disarmament and more. It could lay the seeds
> for a new, demilitarized and shared security architecture.*"
>
I reached out to the author and women who signed the letter on LinkedIn,
and if they respond then we would have a path forward.

Lucas Cioffi

On Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 1:36 PM Romy Shovelton via OSList <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> I love your idea Lucas…… Why not ?! I’m not sure that I’d be a reliable
> partner in the venture…. Being constantly tied up in the daily life of my
> retreat centre…. And I shall certainly applaud from the sidelines and pop
> in from time to time if this happens….
>
> In deep appreciation
>
> 😊
>
> On 19 Feb 2022, at 18:00, Michael Herman via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> I know that this scale of dialogue is what Qiqo was originally built for,
> Lucas.  So I'm glad to see you asking this question.  I wonder if the folks
> at helena.org would appreciate it.  They did a small-sample program
> "American in One Room," a weekend gathering, folks flown in from all 50
> states, as I recall, in conjunction with the NYTimes and some folks at U of
> Chicago.
>
> Michael
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
>
> MichaelHerman.com <http://michaelherman.com/>
> OpenSpaceWorld.org <http://openspaceworld.org/>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 10:35 AM Lucas Cioffi via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear OSLIST,
>>
>>
>> Does anyone want to try opening up some dialogue channels between the
>> people of Russia and the people of the West?  It's way too late to affect
>> the current situation in Ukraine, but dialogue could be helpful for the
>> long term.
>>
>>
>> I believe that if the people speak with each other directly
>> and (eventually) on a large enough scale, then there is a strong chance for
>> understanding to be built, less us-vs.-them thinking, and that would give
>> political leaders flexibility to choose options other than war to solve big
>> problems.
>>
>>
>> It doesn't look like many are doing anything like this yet.  With a quick
>> Google search I could only find the Carnegie Moscow Center
>> <https://carnegiemoscow.org/specialprojects/relaunchingusrussiadialogueonglobalchallenges/?lang=en> as
>> an organization interested in a participatory US-Russia dialogue.
>>
>>
>> Assuming there was an unlimited budget, how could a dialogue be
>> designed?  Is anyone interested in working on something like this?
>>
>>
>> Lucas Cioffi
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>
> *Romy Shovelton*Executive Director
>
> Wikima & the 5*
> *Tyddyn Retreat Mid Wales Venue & Holiday Cottages*
> www.walescottageandvenue.com
>
> romy at walescottageandvenue.com
> romy.shovelton at gmail.com
> +44 (0) 7767 370739
>
> Tyddyn y Pwll, Carno, Caersws
> Powys, SY17 5JU, Wales, UK
>
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