JonT
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Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: 22 May 2004 at 10:50pm | IP Logged
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I took a few notes from some of the talks. Here are a few of the, for me, key points and some comments. (Quotes are not neccessarilly word for word and please let me know of any inaccuracies.)
(I didn't make it to all of the talks so apologies for the missing details.)
John Whitmore - introduction
It is about the "elimination of the abuse of power".
Quoted by John (i missed the name) - "If we do not change we are liable to end up where we are headed".
Another quote "The environmental movement needs to change from seeking less bad to positive change".
We need joined up thinking, integral, whole systems.
We need to move out of our silo's to enable "you" to connect and become effective.
This event should be a celebration of what is possible.
We take ourselves too seriously.
Jim Fadiman
Jim said that we were at the event because we had all taken on more than our fair share.
There are larger forces at work than we know.
The world has not become what we wanted 25 years ago.
We are desperate to be replaced.
We are here to go beyond right and wrong to the place where good is.
If you do not intend to change the word, you may get a partial refund.
Frank Dixon
Total Corporate Responsibility.
Frank has 35 analysts looking at 2000 companies to measure their sustainability.
No one firm has yet achieved sustainability.
Firms are structurally barred from being totally responsible by costs.
We need to hold compaines totally responsible.
Socially responsible assets have grown 40 percent more than all other assets.
Bhutan's king has implemented a measure of Gross National Happiness rather than GNP.
Advertising is the most destructive influence in society today. It takes advantage of our emotional needs to create corporate profit.
We have a system problem, not a people problem.
For practicality, solutions must work within the current system - .ie maximise profit.
There is a need to integrate intuition into business.
Capitalism is really about improving human conditions. Profit is simply a means to this not the end goal.
We are not currently practising capitalism, the prices of the resources being used are grossly wrong.
We need:
An Enron Screen
Engage the markets in system change
Identify undisclosed liabilities
Management quality is the best indicator of performance but it is hard to measure.
(and much more in a packed and enlightening talk).
Don Beck
There is no more time for blame.
No more live and let live - it should now be thrive and let thrive.
Don't think out of the box, get out of the bugger.
A stratified democracy.
The Copenhagen centre for human emergence.
"Green is over" afriend of Don's in the green party.
The paradox: we are now more integrated yet more fragmented.
Buckminster Fuller "You can never change things by fighting reality".
ComQ - Complexity Quotient Intelligence.
Codes for human emergence - steps, stages and waves of human development.
Don showed a slide showing centres for development of the levels along the models of locks on a canal (Jon - I think this is critical for the rapid (small number of generations) advance of human civilisation).
Emerson - "finish each day and be done with it."
Don asked us four questions including:
What new questions do you have
Who else do you need to speak to
(Jon - My answer to these questions was simply - who else wants to do this and yes, i want to talk to them).
Lynne Twist
(Jon - my apologies, only having had 3 hours sleep the previous evening having caught an early train this morning I was by this time feeling rather tired and unfortunately did not take in all of Lynne's talk).
Lynne worked for many years with the Hunger project.
"When you let go of trying to get more of what you what you do not need what you do have expands"
Lynne told a story of how she returned a large cheque to a CEO of a large corporation feeling that he was giving it for the wrong reasons and that the money would therefore not be good for her purposes. Smaller donations, given from the heart were far more valuable. However, returning that cheque set the CEO thinking and several years later on retiring he gave the Hunger Project a 1/4 million dollars out of his own money and began to actively support the project as well.
Lynne gave her talk from her heart and was very moving for most everyone - even some people who were by this time in the afternoon struggling to stay awake.
Hafsat Abiola
Hafsat gave a very moving account of her parents struggle in Nigeria, her father being voted in as president but the military taking over before he came to power. It was almost surreal, the way that Hafsat gave this talk, with a calm strength of presence and a total lack of anger despite the fact that she eventually lost both of her parents in this struggle and she then took on the role of parents to her younger brothers and sisters as they lived in exile in the USA.
Hafsat then told the story of how she had asked Lynne Twist to become her new mother and the moving relationship that followed.
(more to follow soon)
Edited by JonT on 22 May 2004 at 11:44pm
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Be The Change Forums : Reports from the event
Topic: Jon�s Report
