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Civil Society's Response
The Chinese ideogram for crisis consists of two characters, representing danger and opportunity. The dangers in the current crisis are plain enough, and an opportunity is the emergence of a distinct response from civil society.In the last crisis of this magnitude in the 1930s, any radical opportunity for change failed to be realized and the drastic alternative of a world war became the inevitable consequence of that failure.
Today we are in a different world, in particular because ordinary concerned individuals all over the world are able to communicate and act by means of the functions of the global Internet – blogs, wikis and Web 2.0 systems.
The opportunity which the UMUNGU Foundation here presents is nothing less than a completely new approach to people working together – an approach which is capable of creating meaningful and worthwhile work for many.
This opportunity commences with the creation of a parallel financial system, initiated and maintained by individuals in many countries and designed to serve its members.
This can be inherently free of the systemic faults which bedevil current financial institutions – the creation of excesses and instabilities.
This parallel system has at its heart a New Global Understanding.
This New Global Understanding is something which naturally emerges as a consequence of people meeting together in a new kind of format which has been fully described in John Michell's book “The Leadership Delusion – Travels in search of a new organizational model for the 21st century”.
To quote from the book:
Much in this model was new, the three essential findings being that leadership as it is generally understood in organizations is best seen as a delusion, that women have an essential and as yet misunderstood role to play in any new structure and that a suitably prepared environment can engender a harmonious leaderless group which in turn releases a potential which manifests as an organism displaying wisdom of a higher order than that of any individual.
This meeting format is called the GEM (Global Enterprise Model).
This parallel system has at its heart a New Global Understanding.
This New Global Understanding is something which naturally emerges as a consequence of people meeting together in a new kind of format which has been fully described in John Michell's book “The Leadership Delusion – Travels in search of a new organizational model for the 21st century”.
To quote from the book:
Much in this model was new, the three essential findings being that leadership as it is generally understood in organizations is best seen as a delusion, that women have an essential and as yet misunderstood role to play in any new structure and that a suitably prepared environment can engender a harmonious leaderless group which in turn releases a potential which manifests as an organism displaying wisdom of a higher order than that of any individual.
This meeting format is called the GEM (Global Enterprise Model).
The way a GEM-structured organization operates is that openness and transparency are designed right at the beginning in the organizations operating systems. Transparency means for example that every financial transaction within the organization is visible to all members at all times – in real-time via secure web servers.
Openness on the other hand means that any member who wishes to can contribute, check, control all deliberations of the initiative via the Web.
It is obvious that such an initiative can only emerge from within civil society, because both governments and private corporations are systemically unable to create a stable environment which is capable of meeting the needs of human beings.
Such an initiative will only work if large numbers of people act together across borders and reclaim the world for themselves.
If enough people take part in such an initiative then the powers that be will have no choice but to cooperate and change.
Individually nothing can be achieved - but across the Internet, MILLIONS of people can get together, and BE the change which is required!
Openness on the other hand means that any member who wishes to can contribute, check, control all deliberations of the initiative via the Web.
It is obvious that such an initiative can only emerge from within civil society, because both governments and private corporations are systemically unable to create a stable environment which is capable of meeting the needs of human beings.
Such an initiative will only work if large numbers of people act together across borders and reclaim the world for themselves.
If enough people take part in such an initiative then the powers that be will have no choice but to cooperate and change.
Individually nothing can be achieved - but across the Internet, MILLIONS of people can get together, and BE the change which is required!
Because it is a property of the GEM that a precise gender-balance is required, many women intuitively understand the vital importance of their role in such a group, and their interest is aroused in an area normally seen as the domain of men.
The first stage is to gather interest from around the world from amongst individuals who would like to actively participate in this project.
To do this anyone may register their interest by signing up to the UMUNGU forum
The next stage is for those interested to actively join the discussions on the forum, from which details of what needs to be done next should emerge.
These discussions will serve to discover in detail how the new financial institution will operate, and whose final goal is the implementation of such an institution on a global basis. Inevitably the infrastructure for such an institution will primarily comprise a network of servers on the Internet.
Our experience of GEM meetings, the effectiveness and wisdom they unleash leads us to believe that this project is realistic and precisely of its time as a responsible and appropriate reaction to this particular challenge that the world is facing.
The Umungu Team.
February 2009.
The first stage is to gather interest from around the world from amongst individuals who would like to actively participate in this project.
To do this anyone may register their interest by signing up to the UMUNGU forum
The next stage is for those interested to actively join the discussions on the forum, from which details of what needs to be done next should emerge.
These discussions will serve to discover in detail how the new financial institution will operate, and whose final goal is the implementation of such an institution on a global basis. Inevitably the infrastructure for such an institution will primarily comprise a network of servers on the Internet.
Our experience of GEM meetings, the effectiveness and wisdom they unleash leads us to believe that this project is realistic and precisely of its time as a responsible and appropriate reaction to this particular challenge that the world is facing.
The Umungu Team.
February 2009.