Receptivity Will the innovation be well-received in the target communities?

Resources What resources are required to get the job done right?

Risk What are the chances that things don’t turn out as expected?

Returns What is the bottom line in terms of quality and quantity of impact?

Those are five important questions, and I hope we’ll take advantage of this event to revisit them.

Some points we may want to pursue from the earlier event:

Picking up on Rick Dees’ fourth “R”, Cgasca noted, “It is important to understand that best practices or models are not always transferable to other cultural contexts.”

Probing a bit further, Peter Reese raised what seems to me the fundamental question: “Is the focus of multiplication on using similar methods in other settings or on achieving comparable results?

Along similar lines, Mitra distinguished between scaling up innovative ideas, and organizations. He commented that if your idea is sufficiently better than the ideas your competitors are proposing, they may become your local affiliates rather than your competition.

And Stefanski pointed out that if achieving the greatest social return while remaining sustainable is optimal, “it may be more practical for the entrepreneur to simply offer their knowledge and for future entrepreneurs facing similar challenges to find and apply the knowledge to their unique conditions.”

Each of these points probes the overall idea: they reflect some of the subtleties we should consider when thinking about the power of scaling up to multiply the good.

What’s your experience?

[Note: This is the first of two consecutive events focused on scale: the second, starting next week, will address what we might think of as the opposite imperative -- EF Schumacher’s idea that small is beautiful.]

Some great thinking on this topic has been done by Kirsten Moi and Greg Ratliff at the Aspen Institute. See http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.613655/k.70FA/Scale_and_Sustainability.htm for more info, papers, etc...

At Ford, we've done some thinking about scaled impact (not necessarily through social enterprise approaches). A publication that reviews some of our thinking appears at http://www.fordfound.org/publications/recent_articles/docs/asset_pathways.pdf.

she said she would not expand to a national program because the program would lose its personal contact which is what makes it work

NGO-in-a-box is a physical box of CDs consisting of a complimentary set of peer-reviewed and selected Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) solutions tailored to the needs of not-for-profit, non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In order to keep the product current and adapt to changing and regional user needs, the Tactical Technology Collective recommends establishing "a community of regional point people" to review use and make recommendations on how to adapt the box to suit the needs of their users.

the org. first finds a man ready to take on the task of leading - this leader then works in his area to develop a leadership team (the committee) - The committee - made up of about 6-12 people with like minded attitude towards the outreach begin small and grow thier own 'franchise' as they see fit.

• A new model for moving to scale with applicability in community development finance and, more broadly, in other areas of the nonprofit arena.
• A better understanding of the critical stages through which individual organizations and a field must move to reach scale, and the obstacles/challenges at each stage.
• A better understanding of interventions, intermediaries, systems and infrastructures that can facilitate and/or accelerate the process of moving to scale.
• A better understanding of the funding needed at each stage, and who the broader universe of partners/participants/stateholders might be.
• Descriptions of future research activities to fill gaps in knowledge and/or test critical hypotheses.

While all frameworks are flawed in that they cannot fully capture real-world complexities, many can be helpful in organizing ideas and actions. We offer ours as a potentially useful tool for grantmakers and social-change agents wrestling with the puzzle of obtaining greater impact in their quest to eliminate poverty and injustice.

I think part of the answer to whether or not an organization should scale up is what type of revenue stream does the organization have to support its operations in one or more places; and what type of work does the organization do.

For instance, in the traditional business model people exchange dollars for goods and services. If a business offers something people want at a fair price, most people will buy. Henry Ford got rich on this concept.

However, most non profits, supported by philanthropy or government grants, can't depend on this simple cash for goods/services exchange.  Donors and grant makers are driven by many different emotions and politics, which means money does not flow consistently to any single organization on a consistent basis for a long time.

This article by Clara Miller, titled The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money: Managing in For-Profits’ Shadow Universe, does a great  job of illustrating why non profits struggle so much to be successful:  http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/section/704.html

Thus, it would be foolish to try to operate multiple locations if you cannot assure consistent funding for staff and services.

A second consideration is the nature of service. If an organization is a "cookie-cutter" operation, that can be easily duplicated, with a few trained people, it's likely to have success operating in multiple locations. McDonalds, Starbucks, and many other corporations do this well.  However, if the complexity of operating is more in depth, and varies depending on the client/customer and the community, then it may be more difficult to assure an even level of service across many locations.

I read a study of the Quantum Opportunities Program back in 1995 (here's a link:

One thing I always remember from this research was a statement that said "while you can franchise structure,  you cannot franchise commitment". Thus, if an organization is a cookie-cutter operation that is easily duplicated, McDonalds, Starbucks, it is probably profitable to franchise. However, if the operations require a greater deal of local flexibility, or creativity, driven by variables such as the clients/customer, or the nature of the community, it's more difficult to operate multiple locations with any degree of consistency.

Thus, I  follow Stefanski's advise, “it may be more practical for the entrepreneur to simply offer their knowledge and for future entrepreneurs facing similar challenges to find and apply the knowledge to their unique conditions.”

I maintain a library of examples of what a tutor/mentor program might look like, as well as my own vision of what a program might look like. Then I organize events that enable people to look at this information and make their own choices of which ideas they will apply to their own situation.

I go a few steps further by organizing knowledge and a database of youth programs, and then leading efforts to help them get critically needed resources, so that the local owner has more of the resources he/she needs to innovate ways to keep a youth involved.

Thanks  for this discussion, and the other related ones. There is so much I would like to join in on here -  but I'd finish up writing chapters.

So - thanks to Charles and all contributors - and just an observation regarding “how the saying goes”.

I have had it wrong all this time – I genuinely thought it was the other way round.  I'm always quoting it to my Nigerian friends involved in local community development as "Act local - think global..." This is because I want them to find time to share what they know with a wider audience, because what they are doing is relevant to so many other locations in rural Nigeria – and maybe elsewhere in Africa.  They are are addressing real problems and have learnt so much over the years about what does and does not work.

It seems to me a tragedy if that expertise is only applied locally. Small is beautiful. Bottom up development is appropriate development. But local doesn’t have to stay completely local and unreplicated. We have to do far more to enable local actors to contribute to global thinking – but that entails opportunity costs for them – and local activists tend to be enormously overstretched. However they are the real experts and efforts should be made to learn from their experiences and knowledge. Surely now we have easier access to ICTs this should become more and more achievable. Maybe the saying should become  “Think global – learn local – then act” 

Pam McLean

Cawdnet convenor

Volumes have been written about best practices ... but it's just so much more compelling to have a chat with someone who has been there, done that, and has some war stories to tell.

Thanks for the replies Charles and ValerieB.

Ref "Learning how to do anything is such an iterative process."

Absolutely. And it's only as you are learning that you begin to understand what the question really is (or what it should be). Which IMHO is why the "traditional format" for doing proposals is all back to front - because too much funding is directed to "giving solutions" (as defined in the funding proposal - before work gets underway). Unfortunately precious few resources are available to get the question right first - so the "solutions" are often "less than helpful". Usually the people who do understand the questions/problems are not the people providing the "solutions"  (Except where local self-funded solutions are provided to solve local problems - which is done with insufficient resources - by people too overstretched to put a proper funding proposal together). To get things right you need money,ideas, skills and  networks - too often the money goes out insufficiently supported.

Ref "It's just so much more compelling to have a chat with someone who has been there, done that, and has some war stories."- I think my rant above comes from a feeling that Valerie and I may have some similar stories

Pam 

Er, yes, I imagine so!

I have been struck more than once with how things get sort of twisted around when one is writing a grant application... in an effort to make one's own initiative sound like a good fit for the solution proposed by the funders, one spins what is hoped to be a compelling narrative.  By the time I'm through, I almost believe the story I've written. 

It would be so refreshing to be able to write a proposal which said something along the lines of, "well, we're not sure, exactly how we are going to go about this, but we have some really smart, experienced people helping us and we think we stand a good chance of figuring it out if we're permitted to explore a bit!

And what about the ones that only seem interested in paying for the fancy stuff. So when you want help to kick start a new project or part of a project they only seem interested in photo-opportunity stuff (the stuff that actually you could manage to do in  cheaper ways than they are willing to pay for) It seems they'll pay for "shiny-and-new" rather than the "make-do-and-mend" "second-hand"  "borrow-mine"  "let's make a bit more space over here" creative maximising of resources that is the cultural norm - at least it is with the projects I know. But then they but won't help with the essentials - the things that can't be rustled up without finding the necessary money - because that's "only people" or "consumables" etc..... 

it's only as you are learning that you begin to understand what the question really is (or what it should be). Which IMHO is why the o"traditional format" for doing proposals is all back to front - because too much funding is directed to "giving solutions" (as defined in the funding proposal - before work gets underway). Unfortunately precious few resources are available to get the question right first - so the "solutions" are often "less than helpful".

things get sort of twisted around when one is writing a grant application... in an effort to make one's own initiative sound like a good fit for the solution proposed by the funders, one spins what is hoped to be a compelling narrative.

Reference "Places to Intervene in a System"  (Charles please give us the link).

It seems to me that there is often a good match between what funders want to achieve and what activists are trying to do. However,the mismatch comes at the point in the system where they try to communicate with each other. It is a typical problem of top-down and bottom-up failing to link up.

I am reminded of a useful analysis of this problem, by Stephen Musgrave (I could find the full reference). The analysis is based on a study of top-down and bottom-up initiatives related to e-gov in the UK, but he takes a systems approach which is widely applicable.   

He describes something that I remember as “areas of confluence” (though that my not be his exact term). Basically – he suggests that more attention needs to be given to areas of confluence if the different inputs of “top-down” and “bottom-up” are to meet together and flow on effectively. Steven addresses the problem of mismatch between the cultures by suggesting that each side should have people who are given *equal status* who meet at the area of confluence – he calls these people “information czars”.  

Dan’s suggestion of blogs is a step in this direction. In a way it is offering a strategy  for crossing the culture gap, so that funders can get to understand something of the culture in which bottom-up initiatives work, and, as a result offer more apporprate mechanisms for awarding funding.

Another example of communicating on equal terms equally at the area of confluence was the redevelopment of a public open space in a run down area of London (near Kings Cross station). It was a requirement that anyone putting forward a scheme must show evidence that their proposals reflected local opinion and need. The plan that was finally adopted had taken an innovative approach to consultation. The company concerned had provided public consultation opportunities, but recognised that no young people ever attended, so their voice was not being heard. The invitation to the consultation process simply did not seem to apply to them. I often have similar feelings about funding proposal processes.

To overcome the problem of youth involvement the company sent out a professional film crew, with a young person acting as interviewer. They went to local youth clubs and other spaces where young people met, and asked their opinions. The resulting video was presented along with written reports of standard consultations.

The point of this example is that both sides were able to communicate without leaving their cultural comfort zone. The young people presented their opinions in a natural way –speaking informally and spontaneously to someone they felt comfortable with; wearing their normal casual clothes; and on their own territory. They came up with useful insight into problems and possible solutions. Similarly the decision makers heard those opinions in their cultural comfort zone - formal suits; offices and conference rooms; considering evidence in formal ways that they felt comfortable with.

Somehow activists and funders have to develop a cultural meeting point that is appropriate for both sides - I'm hopeful that Social Edge is the place it could start to happen..

Reference "Places to Intervene in a System" (Charles please give us the link).

1. What is motivating your organization’s interest in an increased international engagement?
2. Is your organization’s culture open to a broader outlook on the world?
3. Are your vision and mission compatible with international engagement?
4. How will/could increased attention to international trends advance your mission, goals or programs?
5. What do you hope to accomplish by an increased international engagement?
6. Do you already have members or other leaders in your organization from outside your headquarters’ country? What role(s) do they play?

1. Integrating attendees and speakers from other countries in your annual conference.
2. Expanding your network for information exchange and learning (forums like this are a great opportunity!).
3. Summarizing relevant international ideas and themes for your organization’s leadership and staff (perhaps as an article or column in a newsletter).
4. Integrating lessons from other countries into your own daily operations or programs.

• Growing global demand for your product or service. In our case, the global demand for “sustainable” coffee trade finance has been and is expected to continue growing exponentially. The fastest growing market is in East Africa, which is where we first expanded to in late 2004. In terms of overall size, the next largest markets outside of Latin America are in East Timor and Indonesia, which is where we expect to be working by 2006.
• First mover opportunities for your sector. Based on our track record and growth, we are well positioned to be a leader in our field, but only if we have the breadth to address the global need, not just that of Latin America.
• Request of key stakeholders. A critical part of the success of our business model involves working closely with premier market makers like Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Royal Coffee, and Starbucks Coffee Company. When, across the board, these important partners expressed enthusiasm for expanding collaborative efforts to places outside of Latin America, it was difficult to ignore.

• How would geographic expansion affect your current operations and organizational structure?
• Do you have a realistic handle on the costs of expansion to new areas?
• How transferable is your model to other geographies?
• How will you address the language barrier in new locations?
• Are there greater risks inherent to new areas versus your existing geographic focus?
• Are there more untapped opportunities in your existing geography that you should consider before expanding geographically?

We are grappling with a similar suite of issues in rural coastal Oregon and Washington. In the last decade we've successfully and serially appended new geographic markets that share a history of reliance on natural resources, and thus culture, beliefs, values (in a broad sense). We've used these commonalities--and a shared crisis of economic restructuring--to deliver relevance to our portfolio of loans and relationships. But the combined and contiguous geography does not add up to scale, so we've settled on the interim notion of "density of impact" to achieve relative "scale of impact". Now we are seeking avenues to export our "advantaged" product lines--small business and community development finance--to other rural communities in the Pacific NW.

We're not dealing with a language barrier--just a culture barrier (think wheat instead of fish and trees). We're pretty clear that efficiencies are available through transaction volume, and we hope enough so that we can continue to customize investment terms rather than demand "conformity" from people who need anything but conformity. Technology--in sales and management--is clearly an expensive challenge. Likewise, we know that customer intimacy (read: localness) is necessary to take more than nominal investment risks (and manage them for return).  Finally, true scale will demand an urban presence--easy to do, difficult to achieve while remaining relevant to rural communities and people.

John, you are right that geographic expansion is one way to achieve volume and thereby, scale, but it can be easily thwarted without a good understanding of "cultural" factors.

We have definitely dealt with a number of cultural factors in our first foray into Africa.  It became clear very quickly that a key to our successful expansion was going to involve leveraging relationships with groups on the ground that had that "cultural" knowledge.  Are there partners outside your normal realm that you might look to help navigate the cultural barriers? 

In our case, we quickly found that the East African Fine Coffee Association would be a strong ally in the process.  The direct parallel for this organization serving Latin America isn't an on-the-ground type organization.  Hence, we would have never initially suspected that this type of organization would provide us the type of intelligence that would help us address cultural issues.

Another thing to consider is that, perhaps "scale of impact" may be the place you should continue to focus until some of the factors are in place i.e. the market demand and the relationships.

1. How does an organization decide if its innovation is ready to scale?
2. How do you determine whether your innovation will be well-received in other communities?
3. How can you ensure adequate resources for scale and replication?
4. How do you assess the risk of attempting to scale and replicate your organization?
5. What organizational structure (branching, collaboration, franchising, etc.) would increase your reach without compromising your service?

Very thought provoking subject matter - thanks to our host.

In reading the summary and reactions, it seems that although it is not implicitly stated (so I could be misinterpreting), there appears to be a false assumption that it is up to the incumbent innovator/entrepreneur to assess where and how to scale their solution.  This is a reasonable assumption for a profit-driven organization where market capture is an important facet of profit maximization.  But for a social enterprise, isn't an outcome of financially self-sustaining while achieving the greatest social return optimal?  If so, it seems more practical for the entrepreneur to simply offer their knowledge and for future entrepreneurs facing similar challenges to find and apply the knowledge to their unique conditions that they know best.  This thinking may not work for a product producing entrepreneur like ApproTEC where scale of production is a factor.  But for a service-oriented solution such as the wonderful New Heroes case of Albina Ruiz trash collection in Peru, I think this is a more appropriate approach.

I suppose there is a role for some sort of franchising model where licensing revenues could be applied to increasing awareness about the entrepreneur's solution, although it is probably more efficient to leave that task to 3rd party communication intermediaries.

With this in mind, going back to question #1, perhaps the question could be phrased as "What does a person need to know to assess applicability of an innovation and how to apply a proven innovation in their own setting?".  Question #2 might be posed as "How does a person validate that an innovation is applicable to their community and gain necessary partnerships and support?"

Each of these questions I think begs for a set of tools/replicable methods to help guide future entrepreneurs.  Many such solution frameworks exist in the commercial sector to address such questions and I think more can be done to create and disseminate such tools for social entrepreneurs.  This I think will lead to the most effective way to propagate these innovations.  I believe Stuart Hart is active in this area at the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise.  Are there particular methods/tools others have encountered they found helpful?

Kind regards - Scott Stefanski

First, the article that is summarized is: "Scaling Social Impact Strategies for Spreading Social Innovations." Stanford Social Innovation Review 1, no. 4 (spring 2004): 24-32.

Second, I' like to comment on one issue of scaling that may be a key one for the "hybrid" companies, like ours. We are a non-profit, using donor funds/investment to develop a technology to help clean up the air in Asian cities by retrofitting 2 stroke motorcycles. We plan to sell these retrofits as our primary business.  My comments reflect our plans, anticipated challenges and ideas, as we have not yet started sales.

These sales will provide our company with a small operating profit in time; however, we are aiming at making a significant impact. To do this, we will need to install hundreds of thousands of retrofit kits. The scale requirements to fund this level of inventory through our supply chain are significant. It is a challenge we will need to overcome as our business begins to grow. In a for-profit, debt financing could be used, but this is more difficult for a non-profit, operating with thin margins in Asia. But I am not aware of any non-profits that have been able to achieve significant scale of sales of a manufactured product.

My belief is that as other entrepreneurs tackle similar chronic problems with distributed solutions, they too will encounter this issue. Perhaps another enterepreneur will come up with a financing solution.

We have begun to investigate several ideas to address this challenge, but my belief right now is that at least in the early years, our supply chain will need to "clear" within the net payment period. In other words, the microfinance lending for the motorcycle driver will need to fund the various suppliers within the "net __ days" period. This is indeed a challenge in a supply chain with components coming from Europe and U.S. as well as Asia.

We are also looking at a franchise type approach for developing a system of installation garages in the Philippines. Our plan is to keep these very basic, for two reasons. First, the simpler they are, the easier they are to replicate. And second, the simpler they are, the cheaper they are to start, and the more likely the can be started with minimal capital.

A final observation. By being mission driven, instead of profit driven, I agree with one of the earlier posts that this provides a potential for faster dissemination and, perhaps, less need for control over the business model, franchise approach, etc. We will gauge our success by whether retrofit (or other cleaner transportation)technologies become ubiquitous, not necessarily by the size of our organization. Different capabilities and approaches in different areas may increase the speed of diffusion.

We will see!

Question for the discussion as a newcomer;  Is the focus of multiplication on using similar METHODS in other settings or on achieving comparable RESULTS?

Have seen how the same METHODS yield different results (nature of the impact on individuals and communities) and how seeking the same RESULTS requires significant variation in methods.

Looking forward to your perspectives.

Reading Mr. Hudnut's entry (#6), I am reminded of the challenge that we often encounter at Acumen Fund of finding business models that address both product financing and distribution networks. Since we work with both non-profits and for-profits, we find that both share the same challenges when it comes to reaching out to low-income markets. While for-profit companies may have an easier time accessing debt financing, it is still not guaranteed for companies with an innovative technology, or a business model designed to impact social issues like poverty or the environment, and not simply maximize profit.

Products designed to address the needs of low-income consumers are often out of reach due to high capital costs. However, before this even becomes an issue, the challenge of access to working capital for retailers and distributors prevents the product from even reaching the market, whether they are for-profit or non-profit. Without guaranteed sales, a retailer or dealer is rarely willing to invest their own resources in inventory. Often both distribution and financing need to be addressed with one solution, wherein financing is secured and made available to the end user, in essence by pre-financing products and projects.

At Acumen Fund, we see the opportunity to not only invest in products and services that can be scaled up to address large social problems, but also to develop and invest in financing mechanisms that make it possible for distributors and consumers to access products and services. We are currently working on financing mechanisms for low-cost housing, urban water infrastructure, and community-scale water treatment systems. Both for-profits and non-profits need to have access to financing mechanisms that can increase access to small-scale but high impact solutions. Without innovation in this area, the ability to scale up products and services will continue to be limited.

Interesting discussion!  I'm particularly interested in the issue of financing for scale. 

Paul Hudnut writes, "sales will provide our company with a small operating profit in time; however, we are aiming at making a significant impact...in a for-profit, debt financing could be used, but this is more difficult for a non-profit."  I think Paul faces a challenge that may be somewhat larger in scope because of the capital required for large-scale production of a 'product', but the nature of his challenge is typical for many social enterprises.

If an enterprise is likely to deliver significant financial returns to scale,  then commercial debt or even equity investment will probably be available to finance growth.  However, when scaling or replicating is primarily about social impact, it is understandably difficult to find commercial capital, even if the enterprise is well managed and will be financially sustainable or even marginally profitable.

Does this mean that social enterprise will always be dependent on philanthropic capital to scale?  Or that as social entrepreneurs we need to develop models that scale with large financial returns (perhaps sacrificing the scope of our social impact)?  Or is there some other solution?

Hi Everyone, Hi Jacqueline!

Isabel Maxwell here in Israel, International [Active] Chair of the Israel Social Entreprenreurs Program  ("SE")for the Israel Venture Network (www.israelventurenetwork.org) - a 4 year old 501 3c dedicated to systemically improving the education system here and other strategic intiatives, social programs , of which SEs is a new iniative now in its second year and selecting 3 new Fellows this summer; 2 are already active - developing innovative and sustainable solutions IN Israel specifically.    I really have enjoyed this whole posting and it gave me much food for thought.

I realise that most people don't think of Israel, a country the size of the state of New Jersey,  as a "poor country", iIt does not have the huge population numbers or malnutrition or disease issues common to so many larger countries.  Its external image to the world has long been one of a 'brainy country' (!) full of military might and innovation, alas constantly in the news for its long and terrible conflict with the Palestinians.  It is this very conflict that has had an appalling long-term effect on the economy and social structures of the country as a whole, to say nothing of the long-term psychological and behavioural damage to those directly suffering from the conflict .  The education system is infact in dire straits and as a strong believer in Education as one of the best ways to attack poverty and multiple social ills, we are very interested here in SEs who have innovative solutions in the area of education, as well as in other areas such as urban renewal, the environment and conflict resolution.  As "G-Day" approaches (pull-out from Gaza day coming right up in August), we are  watching here with bated breath...

The 5 Rs are extremely helpful principles to help one stay focussed and realistic about ones project/idea.  The one thing that came to my mind strongly which I thought might be helpful to share here, thinking about my experience here in Israel with my umbrella organization, IVN, is the value of Evaluation and Partering.

Professional and real Evaluation of projects is so vital.  We have hired a professional evaluator for the organization as a whole who divides up her time among the initiatives and we have a reporting structure that forces us in a good way to really examine regularly our work in the field and its impact.  Until we did this, our initiatives were benchmarked in an ad-hoc fashion and we were not able to report back to our funders or to ourselves with any accuracy or with meaningful data.  Now that we do we have gained their confidence and their continued and expanded support.

From the very beginning, our organization has sought partners in the field and they have been of immense help, not only with monetary resources for the projects but with real help and resources on the ground in Israel.  The New Israel Fund and Sacta-Rashi organization to name but two, are such examples.  Partnering is a great way too of fighting the huge fragmentation of citizen sector organizations, and in this way, IVN has been able to distribute 10X its actual direct resource distribution in the field.

These are the two most valuable things I have learned experientially from working here on the ground for the past fourteen months. 

All the best to everyone!  And thank you to Skoll for this highly innovative and superior interactive web site which is bringing together the SEs of the world and more.

Thank you all so much for contributing to this discussion. We really appreciate your willingness to share your challenges and the lessons you’ve learned through your own experiences. As we wrap up the discussion today, I’d like to try to address some of the great points you’ve raised.

Thanks to Mitra (#3) for the very interesting post-mortem of APC. In a world where data is hard to come by, some of the best learning has to come from the kind of critical application of detailed case studies to frameworks like Dees, et. al. Very fair point on the nature of control and quality: innovation; more flexibility can indeed lead to important process and service improvements that will improve quality. But, it’s also true that where there are improvements, there are likely to be potential deviations from the model that detract from quality as well – in other words, some changes will be for the better, while others will be for the worse.

Scott Stefanski’s post (#4) was also helpful in surfacing an assumption with which we might quibble: that it is up to the incumbent innovator/entrepreneur to assess where and how to scale. We like to think that one of the more important value added services that intermediaries like Acumen Fund can play is helping to answer these questions during the due diligence process. There are several social entrepreneurs we have worked with that want to scale regionally, but have never considered national or international options for scale and replication. Not that national or international growth is necessarily the right answer, but we at Acumen Fund (and many other social investors) often help put these questions on the table and provide some of the analytical resources to help make the right decisions. One tool that we have developed to help answer these questions is a fairly simple (although it can look complex) financial and operational planning model (an Excel workbook) that asks the entrepreneur for historical and projected operating data, and then defines the required capital to achieve that level of growth (with various options in terms of debt, equity or even grant financing). While this is a fairly typical tool used in most private equity or venture capital shops, by adapting it to meet the needs of social enterprises, we have something that can help us get to this answer of whether and how to scale more quickly.

Karen Borchard’s innovation (#5) is quite exciting and the methodical way you are approaching scale and replication through licensing sounds like a very strategic approach. There is a great McKinsey Quarterly article on non-profit structure by Maisie O’Flanagan and Lynn Taliento (“Nonprofits: Ensuring that bigger is better,” The McKinsey Quarterly, 2004 Number 2 – it was discussed on this site when it was published) that outlines some of the pros and cons of affiliates vs. licensing vs. franchising. One resource that you might consider in terms of tapping into networks of campus administrators is the National Wildlife Federation’s campus ecology program that works extensively with university procurement officers on recycled products, renewable energy resources, and local agricultural product.

Paul Hudnut’s comment (#6) that mission needs trump the model is a fair point, and that diffusion of the idea might be more important than scale or replication within a particular organization or business. In its obituary of Jack St. Clair Kilby, co-inventor of the integrated circuit, The Economist this week (July 9, 2005, Vol. 376, No. 8434) notes that in Kilby’s Nobel prize lecture, he quoted fellow Nobel laureate and inventor Charles Townes as saying, “It’s like the beaver told the rabbit as they stared at Hoover Dam. ‘No, I didn’t build it myself, but it’s based on an idea of mine!’ ” I think we would agree with Paul’s point, but from a tactical perspective, believing in diffusion as paramount can tempt an organization to view “thought leadership” and policy advocacy as higher potential ways to “scale the idea” than the hard work of building the business. While we would agree that ultimately the results are what matter, don’t let that allow you to lose focus on building the business. (And if you plan to sell your product in India or Pakistan, please let us know!)

Michael Chertok’s point (#12) really nails the link between scale, financial sustainability, and the role of charitable capital. Acumen Fund believes that charitable capital, if converted into risk capital (debt, equity, credit enhancements), can have the patience and high-risk tolerance to help social innovations scale using the disciplines of a commercial mindset. We think that for some social innovations (but not all), financial sustainability and scale must go hand in hand, as it is hard to imagine scaling a model that has unsustainable economics at the operating unit level - otherwise, the bigger you get, the more you have to raise, which is a tall order for even the most determined fundraiser! But we believe that the sector has just scratched the surface of ways to tap into commercial capital to be used for social purposes, and think more charitable capital can be deployed to build financially sustainable enterprises.

Hi Isabel! Thanks also for your post (#13). You bring up an important point, which gets back to the first question we raised: the role of evaluation in assessing the readiness to scale. We have been investing heavily in metrics that aim to do the same as your evaluation initiative. We seek to work with entrepreneurs to develop a set of metrics that will help them manage their business (and assess opportunities for scale), and inform our decisions about whether we should continue, increase our investment, or consider a soft exit. We also firmly believe in creating a metrics culture where we don’t ask anyone to measure anything we are not capable of measuring and reporting ourselves. And as we realize the limits to our evaluation capabilities (and the cost of bringing them in house)—we can’t do rigorous academic studies evaluating the full impact of a malaria bednet—we have started to partner with organizations like the CDC, PhD students and professors at UC Berkeley, Michigan and Harvard to ask (and hopefully answer) questions we would never have had the resources to answer on our own.  

Finally, Cgasca’s point (#14) about understanding the underserved markets is exactly in line with our approach. Many of the world’s “poor” at the bottom of the pyramid have steady jobs, but face frustratingly high costs of housing, lack access to clean water, and can’t find affordable healthcare. Many of them resort to paying higher rates for legal goods, navigating the grey and black markets, or doing without. We believe that markets may never reach what Cgasca calls the crisis populations, but markets are functioning in many underserved communities—we’d just like to see them function more effectively and sustainably, in ways that give the poor access to goods and services and the dignity of choice. This, we feel, can be the right role for charitable capital to play, by taking the risk to help entrepreneurs make these markets function more efficiently, equitably and transparently.

Again, thank you all for your contributions to what we feel was a very productive workshop!

Warm regards,

Jacqueline

Charles Cameron writes that one of the brightest shining events of the many that SocialEdge has presented (and still contains in archived form) was the Sohodojo-inspired Small Is Good World at the Skoll World Forum.

In this week’s event, a companion to last week’s workshop on how and why to scale up, he returns to the theme of Small is Beautiful, asking for your experiences and reflections on EF Schumacher’s (small, beautiful) idea and how it applies to our field as social entrepreneurs.

Here is Toby Beresford’s description of the Small is Beautiful approach, taken from that forum.

Small is good is a change of mindset. A new way of approaching the problems and opportunities the world presents.

• In social terms it means direct one to one relationships matter – your family, your friends and your neighbours.
• In political terms it means communities matter – let the people closest to the problem choose how to solve it. It recognises that the man in Whitehall (or Washington, or Jakarta…) doesn’t know best.
• In economic terms it means small shopkeepers and producers can deliver better overall value to the consumer than giant chains. This value might come through stories of provenance (organic, free range, fairly traded), better service (be known by name), reduced environmental impact (seasonal vegetables), and local appropriateness (get your special Battersea cakes today.)

To choose small is good you have to let go of your centralising instinct. You have to believe in the potential of the empowered individual, the resilient family and the vibrant community.

How’s that for a set of criteria? Who among us doesn’t believe in the potential of the empowered individual, the resilient family and the vibrant community?

Please share with us your own experiences, questions and insights regarding the small-is-beautiful approach.

I was delighted to review CAWD and CAWDNET -- an interesting note is that I am currently involved in a "relocalization" effort in a small community in So. Calif. that faces some of the same challenges as does CAWD. Due to the "peak oil" crisis that is about to hit us full on as gas prices escalate, we see the need to grow food locally and learn how to process it for future use. And, guess what,I've just heard some women say "But I don't know how to cook" meaning "from scratch" so use to prepackaged food we are today.  And, I'm sure that before its all over we will be grateful for solar cookers.  So there's going to be a need here for vocatonal training to enable and empower us in relearning survival skills as the costs of transportation make food and other necessities of life unaffordable for the average person as the limits to resources force change of an unprecedented magnitude upon us.  The demand for skilled counselors to aid in facilitating this change will far outstrip the supply as community after community seeks to become self-sustaining and reaches out for assistance.       

I believe networked ICTs, as CAWD views them as:  "creative combinations of ICTs and human networks" (in small communities if I may add) are the answer, and am currently constructing what is intended to be a major website as part of the worldwide ICT that is spontaniously forming. In this sense, "small is beautiful" as we create spaces for learning/remembering to take place and then apply it at the local level. Since the natural flow of the Universe is from micro to macro this will allow for a natual transformaton to take place which will be "holodynamic" in nature and  replace the hierarchial and unatural structure we have today that leaves us in an  unbalanced and dis-eased position.  

Simply due to the magnitude of the challenges the human family faces today, micro-management offers the only humane solution which will avoid large numbers of people being dropped through the cracks. 

marguerite (ecopilgrim@aabole hm) 

P.S. My website at www.tii-clics.org needs maintenance and we are working on that as well as getting up several new sites which will provide curriculum for our virtual university.  We are also linked to the International Academy of Holodynamics, another virtual university,hosted by Dr. V. Vernon Woolf, who was instrumental in creating "perestroika" in Russia.  Vern will soon have courses online at the Academy. www.holodynamics.com  Dr. Woolf specializes in the development of high performance teams to manage social change. As well, he is developing a prototype Wellness Center which uses natural healing combined with some conventional methods.  This program has been 10 years in the development stage and is designed to work in small local communities to create change through health practices.

Thank you Charles, for the opportunity to post here.

I wish I had time to respond fully to the postings from Prof Madhukar and Marguerite. I would like to follow up areas of overlap with you both. I feel I could spend days talking with each of you exploring ways that our initiatives could complement each other – but resources do not allow. That is ironic really as we would probably find that we are duplicating effort to a ludicrous degree. Let us not forget each other’s interests.

Nigeria has the same problem that Prof Madhukar describes of graduates with no employment prospects. There are precious few real jobs on offer - unless you know people with influence. The young graduates know they should be doing something more intellectually demanding than subsistence farming, or petty trading - but what opportunities are there for self employment - other than armed robbery? That is not said flippantly - there is no social security system in Nigeria, and armed robbers are a constant threat and reality. There is such a waste of talent amongst Nigerian youths - made more tragic in my opinion because many of the young job-seeking Nigerians that I have met are idealistic, industrious and desirous of helping to create a better Nigeria.

I have heard of various initiatives that could be relevant for these young people – along small is beautiful lines that would promote genuine community development – but I haven’t got the resources to follow up those tantalising information trails on their behalf so that we can act on them.

Marguerite – I’m glad you relate to CAWD and Cawdnet - I see so much overlap with your concerns too - small-scale developments, enterprise, Californian and Nigerian experiences with solar energy, and more. We have much to learn and we need to learn with each other and from each other, There are so many of us doing similar things - if we consider it all under such headings as sustainable energy, enterprise and livelihoods. We need to come together more effectively – and that is what ICTs are helping us to do. It is simultaneously local and global in ways that “outsiders” do not understand. 

Perhaps this experience/lack-of-experience of the local-global reality is part of the conceptual difficulties that we are have sometimes regarding communication on issues of scalability and funding and suchlike. It occurs to me that the kind of activists I know, in their tiny, struggling and largely self-funded organisations are a bit like parentless children. We are continually pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, falling on our faces, picking ourselves up, learning from our mistakes, plodding on - because things can’t stay as they are and forwards is the only possible direction. It shouldn’t all have to be learnt in the school of hard knocks. We know where we are headed – but struggle to find the words to express it to people who don’t share experience of our reality

I don’t really think we want to “replicate” or “scale up” our projects and organisations any any more than children want to be cloned – we just want to grow naturally. Currently we are isolated and our growth is stunted.  Our vision and energy is sapped by constant struggle for the basics of day-to-day survival that mature organisations take for granted. We need some respite and nurturing while our organisations/projects/systems continue to learn and develop and grow. We need a chance to grow up more as “part of a family” rather than as “struggling street children”. Then that family will grow, as new collaborations and replications of ideas and projects happen. Maybe I take the analogy too far – but I don’t know how else to express it.

I am trying to express the organic growth of “our kind” of projects and organisations. It comes back to valuing and counting-in the intangibles of information, ideas, networks, trust and all kinds of social capital. It comes back to learning as you go along, within your own projects and through information exchange with other projects. It comes back to equal partnerships, mutual-mentoring, and community-based, needs-led development– development where problems and needs are evident but poorly defined. It comes back to solutions having to emerge – not be pre-defined and imposed.

Hmm - and that of course brings us back to the issue of funding proposals that we were discussing a few days ago…

My feelings are that writing grant proposals and waiting for funding is like waiting for a personal ride on an Apollo project -- it ain't going to happen and if it does the funding is going to be tailored to the funder's agenda and won't fit yours. There is an excellent book on this put out by Kumarian Press, sorry I can't think of the name of it right now but do a Google for them and search their catalog.  Lot's of good books written by people who have been working in development and in the know at the local level from this publisher if you haven't tapped into them as yet.  

Really do believe the answer is to create a local currency -- with the price of oil escalating we're going to see a major worldwide depression and the only way to survive this is for communities to delink from the national economy and become a sustainable living community that is self-secure regardless of where they are.  Another resource that is absolutely marvelous on this is: Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism by Richard H. Robbins.  He also has a website on the Net so again Google for it.  He gives an example of how the Guarani in Venezuela survived for hundreds of years using a local currency and investing in the conventional market when it was to their best advantage and staying out of it when it wasn't. They also practiced a form of agro-forestry which conserved their capital and acted as their savings bank from which they did not spend.  

I think also that employment opportunities are in short supply.  The statistics are that only 30% of the worldwide laborforce, due to technological advances, is necessary to provide all of the goods and services for the 6 billion plus people on the planet. So, we have a tremendous oversupply of skilled labor.  And while the need is for entrepreneurial skills, we have millions trained in management with no place to go. Also, for the first time in the history of the world in the early 1990's the labor market became delinked from the stock markets as more people derived income from the markets through passive investments than from the efforts of human labor.  (Rifkin - End of Work 1997) Everything is stacked to create more poverty and the push is relentless.   

I have copied our discussion here and will stay in touch. We must get these ICT's up and running so we have information exchanges going.  Warm regards and love to everyone. 

marguerite  ecopilgrim@aabol.com

following notes of anilpansari  Pamela McLean Jessica and  MargolinMarguerite down sizing is is a classical thought of all business giants . Down size to profit or scale up to profit and in the process eliminate labour , retrench office staff and  executives ,out source for momentary demand ,ditch people during lull periods and so on with their games.... .Traditional agrarian economies provided more security than the present where do the neoeducateds  go unpredictable corporations, suicidal agrarian economy

Madhukar

intechibm@gmail.com

I wish I had time to respond fully to the postings from Prof Madhukar and Marguerite. I would like to follow up areas of overlap with you both. I feel I could spend days talking with each of you exploring ways that our initiatives could complement each other – but resources do not allow. That is ironic really as we would probably find that we are duplicating effort to a ludicrous degree. Let us not forget each other’s interests.

Due to the "peak oil" crisis that is about to hit us full on as gas prices escalate, we see the need to grow food locally and learn how to process it for future use.

When I first heard a Social Edge talk over a year ago, I ended up with a grid, with the speakers down one side and the reasons I would need to talk with them along the top. In that way, by simply putting a note to myself in a box, I could track which things I needed to bring up with whom.

Checked in to this dialogue at the fag end but I like to place these in front of the group:

• Being small is being big at heart
• Being small is being sure
• Being small allows you to take informed decisions
• Being small says you are serious
• Being small says that you are available
• Being small states that you are accountable
• Being small says you are contended
• Being small says you are prepared to stretch to survive

These are learnings gained through the work we are involved in.

Dear Pamela, I am very much delighted to know that you are in Nigeria and you are doing a great work.  My name is Segun Benson, a British-trained Nigerian professional with many years of experience in consultancy and training.  I will like to meet with you as I am very much involved in this idea of small business incubation facilities which I developed as a way of achieving an integrated entrepreneurial development in rural areas of Ogun State, Nigeria.  Recently, I presented a paper to the 4th Global Conference on Business and Economics, which took place at the Oxford University, Oxford, England: 26-28th June, 2005.

It is true that there is need for entrepreneurship development, but we need to identify the sector area to be developed in order to achieve sustainability for our youths and unemployed graduates.  I feel that small business incubation concept with solve this problem greatly.  The paper which I presented to the conference is titled: The Dynamics of Small Business Incubation Facilities in Fadama Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria: An Anti-Poverty Device.  If you are interested, I will send a copy to you.

I will like to discuss with you further on how we can network here in Ogun State, Nigeria.  I am the current President of Kings & Priests Network Nigeria (a non-governmental organisation) as well as the President and Head of Missions of the Institute of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship here in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

I really believe that small is beautiful and the only way we can make it work in the area of entrepreneurship in Nigeria is to focus on high-growth enterprises in the area of agro-industrial development in the rural areas.

Please, let us talk further. 

Meanwhile, remain blessed.

Segun Benson

Pamela McLean - Apr 29, 2006 3:48 pm (#31 Total: 132)

And small is....

Thank you Surya Prakash for the list "Small is ….". In addtion I also suggest that small is:

·          Knowing where you are going and why

·          Finding others who are going in the same direction and working together.

·          Fitting in with what's happening elsewhere and going along with it - as long as it won't  take you backwards.

·          Moving ahead with frequent changes of direction (like a yacht tacking across the wind

·          Seldom going straight ahead  (we can’t go like a powerboat that can over-ride local winds and currents).

·          “Learning by trial and error, error, error”  - to quote Buckminster Fuller via Donella Meadows. (Thanks to Charles for the links  to Donella Meadow's work).

·          Being rich in things you *can't quantify* like trust, relationships, ideas, local knowledge, networks, vision.

·          Being poor in things you *can quantify* like buildings, equipment, finance. 
  

 

  

Pamela McLean - Apr 29, 2006 5:15 pm (#32 Total: 132)

Nigerian follow-up

Hello Segun

 

I am happy to hear from you. Please do send me a copy of your paper.

 

First I had better clarify my involvement and geographical location.

 

I live in the UK and spend “working holidays” in Nigeria. I got involved in community development projects “by accident” in 2000 when a Nigerian friend in the UK wanted help with some emails and phone calls and such like. I never expected my involvement to grow the way that it has – and never expected it would include going to Africa. I have now been to Nigeria seven times on what can probably best be described as “working holidays”. My home computer has come to serve as a kind of  “UK office” for various development initiatives. And I have found myself deeply involved with some of the work on the ground that my African friends are doing.

 

When I am in the UK I can be helpful because I know what is happening in the projects and I have a broadband connection 24/7. Because I am “bandwidth rich” and my friends in Nigeria range from “bandwidth challenged” to “bandwidth starved”, I can be a kind of pro-active information channel on their behalf. In that role I have to get my head around a lot of information, so I am a lot less ignorant than I was six years ago. 

 

I also have a teaching and training background, plus some knowledge of ICTs and systems, all of which has led to a long-standing interest in the relationship between educational systems and ICTs. This means that I am intrigued by how we can make the most of the improving communication channels that we now have (between the “connected community” and the rural community networks that I link with) in order to improve opportunities (formal and informal) for relevant education and training. Of course given the lack of employment opportunities we have to think about vocational education and business incubation. We are also concerned with health education and any other practical knowledge that is beneficial for community development.

 

To get an idea of what I do when I am in Nigeria see some news and photos from my trip to Kaduna State in February 2006 (emphasising links with schools).  News  http://www.cawd.info/home/writeup/#blog-9  Photos http://www.cawd.info/home/writeup/#blog-10  Other activities and more photos can be found at http://www.cawd.net/daisy/CawdNet/g1/748.html  There’s not much about the health work there. We don’t really have the resources to get more that a flavour of things up on the Internet.  Our small business ideas don’t feature there yet eithere as we don’t say we are doing things until we really have something to show – but I can tell you more about “work in progress” if we discuss ideas together. 

 

The community projects I am most concerned with are in Oyo State, and Kaduna State, but I do have additional links with projects elsewhere in Nigeria and some other African countries. I also try to network with people in various virtual communities if it seems they have interests that overlap ours.

 

Please tell me more about your work in Ogun State. Let us “rub minds” and see how we can finds ways to improve what we are doing by sharing information about what we are doing.

 

Pam

Marguerite - May 2, 2006 7:35 pm (#33 Total: 132)

Creating Community Learning and Information Centers

Charles, thanks for inviting someone knowledgable in sustainable living to the forum.  The Turtle Island Institute name came from Gary Snyder's poem; however, I am closely associated with Native Americans on both sides of the Border and live in a wilderness area of So. Calif. not too far from the Border.   

Let me tell you where I am coming from.  In 1997, I wrote a proposal which was presented at the highest level of the Mexican government, and which was received with interest.  The proposal, entitled: Hands Across the Border: Operation Lifesave was to build the Ecological Life Systems Institute along with a model for a sustainable community in So. Mexico -- possibly in Chiapas.  The construction of the community was to have been accomplished by *campesinos* who were potential migrants and the purpose of this was to dramatically reduce migration from south to north and as well make Mexico a model for sustainable development for the world thru ecological restoration.  The plan was for the government to pay for the "hands-on education" for the campesinos and in addition they would have been compensated for their time and provided with room and board.  In return, upon graduation from the University, each campesino would agree to committ the next five years to going out into other areas of Mexico and starting a satellite ELSI CAMPUS andcompleting other sustainable communities in the adjacent region.  In this manner, the whole of Mexico could have been ecologically restored and business development based in sustainability would create jobs for millions of potential migrants. 

There is funding for this type of project available from the UN as it fits into Agenda 21.  What is necessary is to lobby the Congress of Mexico (or another country) to request the funding from the UN. At that time, the governemnt would have provided us with the land to do the first project.  But in spite of interest from the gov't the project never came together -- perhaps it was just not the time. 

However, when I grasped what could be accomplished in this manner, I said: "why not do a "virtual institute" and we could then create "community learning and information centers worldwide  (spaces in which community members could come together and learn how to make their community sustainable aided by courses and info from the website) That vision is now coming into being as I am involved with several volunteers who are creating the online Institute. Funding has always been a problem and then all of a sudden a team comes together. So maybe this is the time. An associate and I are now involved in a small community in So. Cal. where I live in facitating transformation to relocalization and sustainable living. However, the gas prices have not as yet reached the "high" that will push the needed change, but it is in site now at $3.29 a gallon. 

Since I have been closely associated with Dr. V. Vernon Woolf for almost 18 years, www.holodynamics.com, who was very instrumental in creating social change in Russia, taking that country from communism to perestroika,  I am very well informed on "what to do" on large scale projects and would like to work with a team, or put together a high performance team, of those interested in creating change at the community level on a small yet potentially massive scale 

This can be accomplished with little funding. All a community needs to establish a community learning center is one computer.  There is no need for a fancy building -- just a place to meet and begin applying one's skills on the surrounding land using the creative skills of those who are most familiar with it and are ready to start small and build sustainably using whatever is at hand. With the end of oil we may again turn to human labor and doing things like planting four kinds of beans in a punctured hole in untilled soil to ensure that regardless of the weather one of those kinds of beans will ensure a healthy crop. 

Thank you for this opportunity to tell about my project. 

marguerite ecopilgrim@aabol.com

surya prakash.Vinjamuri - May 3, 2006 2:32 am (#34 Total: 132)
Life-Health Reinforcement Group

Want to miss Life?

Being big is like being away from reality.

While I serve (as part of my daily routine) 31 aged people in urban slum, I see their expressions towards 'Life' amazing.

I like to quote few of those:

• She is now ripe anyway she is going to fall.
• In life we cannot do away without food or work.
• I am forced into begging by my daughter-in-law, she says what will you do sitting idle at home.

Some of these expressions you would definetly miss if you are 'Big'.

And you will deffinetly miss Life.

All I want to say is being close to work and understanding dynamics of survival, will help to evolve a beautiful life and thus bringing meaning to our existence.

Charles Cameron aka hipbone - May 3, 2006 9:54 am (#35 Total: 132)
HipBone Games / Rheingold Associates

Re: [Pamela] And small is....

Thanks, Pam, for your addition to Surya Prakash’s list.

I suspect there’s a general rule here which we might be able to elicit, which would explain all the instances you’ve both quoted -- something along these lines:

Each human has an (enormous, but nonetheless) limited amount of attention to offer, and the larger the scale of a project, the smaller the amount of attention available to be spent on any particular aspect of that project.

What I’m trying to get at here is something like the idea that with two arms, you can hug one person or hold hands with two. Hugging conveys far more intimacy to the one person than hand-holding as the middle member of a chain can convey to the pair of people on either side of you...

So there’s a richness of contact -- and yes, a real, inimitable intimacy – when we’re hands on with a given kind of problem on a small (local) scale, and while we can also apply our insights to the same kind of problem on a larger scale, in so doing we diffuse the intimacy and sensitive exactness of touch which is the glory of the smaller scale effort.

In practice, this means that scaling up requires compromise while offering the potential for large scale effects, whereas scaling down allows far greater specificity and attention to (human and situational) detail, but has effect only within its (by choice) restricted canvas.

In that context, I’d particularly like to draw your attention to Pam’s observations about quality and quantity, to the effect that the small is beautiful approach means:

Being rich in things you can't quantify like trust, relationships, ideas, local knowledge, networks, vision.

Being poor in things you can quantify like buildings, equipment, finance.

So the choice of scaling up vs scaling down could also be viewed as a choice between working with an emphasis on quantity and working with an emphasis on quality. In a world that’s largely geared to quantitative approaches, might I gently suggest that we as social entrepreneurs -- since we work for heart as well as pocket-book – may be the most likely candidates to recognize the importance of quality (both in its own right and as an endangered approach), and deliberately choose to lean more strongly toward the qualitative and the local (the small that’s beautiful) as a result?

Charles Cameron aka hipbone - May 3, 2006 10:13 am (#36 Total: 132)
HipBone Games / Rheingold Associates

Re: [surya prakash] Want to miss Life?

Suriya Prakash:

Thanks once again.

Charles

Charles Cameron aka hipbone - May 3, 2006 10:16 am (#37 Total: 132)
HipBone Games / Rheingold Associates

Re: [Marguerite] Creating Community Learning and Information Centers

Hi Marguerite:

As so often here, your post contains plenty of points one could pick up on and comment at length about, but I’d really prefer just to single out one specific point and without further commentary, pose it as a sort of koan or meditation point for us all to consider:

the gas prices have not as yet reached the "high" that will push the needed change

To my way of thinking, that’s only peripherally a comment about gas prices, and mostly a comment on humans and their habitual resistance to change. A very important consideration for us all.

isbume - May 3, 2006 10:26 am (#38 Total: 132)

Promotion Of Small Business Incubation Facilities in Nigeria

Hello Pam,

I am quite impressed with your level of involvement with development efforts in Nigeria, particularly now that your home computer in UK facilitates as "UK Office" for various development initiatives in Africa and Nigeria in particular.

We will be very much prepared to work with you in the area of information exchange that can lead to an explosion of small scale agro-industrial enterprises in the rural and urban areas of Nigeria.  Through this we intend to strengthen the economic hands of the poor in Nigeria and thus participate in fostering economic independence of the poor majority starting from Ogun State.

On a personal note, I have the rigorous British education and training with many years of experience in the private sector of Nigeria as a Consultant/Lecturer.  The endemic nature of economic poverty in Nigeria challenged me to join the voluntary sector of the Nigerian economy.  I want to contribute to making a difference by facilitating an explosion of small scale businesses in the society, beginning from the rural areas of Ogun State.  In the urban areas, I am interested in contributing to the creation of job opportunities through sustainable entrepreneurship among university undergraduates, unemployed graduates in diverse disciplines, unemployed civil servants retired before their time.

The platform for realising these objectives is the Institute of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship (Centre for Integrated Rural Development Initiatives).  As the head of this non-governmental training and educational outfit, I have designed and implemented various training programmes on entrepreneurship and small business initiatives.  Presently, I am a part-time Lecturer at the Centre for Human Resources Development of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State.  I have authored two important texts on enterprise management.  The latest is titled: Introduction To Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis for A Developing Society.

In addition, I have over fifty presentations at Seminars, Workshops and Conferences.  The arrow heads of my recent presentations are targeted at popularising entrepreneurship and small business development initiatives.  In this regard, I am a member of the  Technical Committee on Resuscitation of Ailing Industries in Ogun State (a State Government project).  Last year, I presented a paper titled: "The Dynamics of Small Business Incubation Facilities in Fadama Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria: An Anti-Po verty Device" to the 4th Global Conference on Business and Economics which was held at the Oxford University, Oxford, England: 26-28 June, 2005.  This paper contained a concept for propagating agro-industrial small business enterprises.  The concept is what I called Small Business Incubation Facilities (SBIF) Concept. (A copy of the paper is attached as requested).

The challenge before us now is how to source fund to test out the concept before proceeding to set it up in various parts of Ogun State and other parts of Nigeria.  The incubation facility will be used to promote high-growth agro-indusgtrial enterprises that will accelerate the much needed industrialisation that will raise the GDP level of the society sustainably.

We will need your kind support by way of linkage to interested donors and agro-industrial technical volunteers that can provide the seed for an explosion of appropriate agro-industrial technology to be used in the Incubation Centre.

At the moment, we have in our team Agric. Engineers, Civil Engineers, Agric. Extensionists, Agric. Economists, Chartered Accountants and other professional compliments.

We are all committed to the philosophy of Selflessness and Volunteerism in order to realise an explosion of sustainable small scale enterprises among the poor in our society.  We have over three hundred graduagtes registered with us to be incubated.  We are only waiting for a seed-fund to jump start the project.

Pam, with your many contacts in the UK and in Nigeria, I want to believe that the good Lord is leading me to meet with you.  Please kindly lead our way to the gateway of funding opportunities to start the small business incubation facilities project in Nigeria, beginning from Ogun State.

I believe that many people in Nigeria are highly expectant about this project coming on stream. Again other social entrepreneurs across the globe will benefit tremendously from the success of this project.

The creation of this forum by Chales Cameron will go down in history as a powerful connectivity for raising the hope of many social entrepreneurs as we are able to reach out to influential individuals like you and thereby champion the interests of the poor across the globe.

Remain blessed.

Segun Benson

email: isbume@yahoo.com

Attachments:

gcbe[1].p_1.doc (410 KB)

Charles, you are correct about change and resistance to it  even though it is really the only constant in our lives. What I feel is that change is so incremental most of the time we don't notice it. However, we have now reached a point where the human family is facing what is described as "a crises unprecedented in human recorded history".  And in order to meet this challenge and survive as the human family, we are going to have to change from a waste-creating society to a sustainable-living society and do it through achieving a quantum leap in consciousness on a worldwide scale.  As Thomas Berry has written: We will go into future as a single sacred community or we will perish in the desert.

What science knows today is that societies and cultures form a "collective consciousness" which may be compared to a group of birds in flight or a hive of bees having "swarm intelligence" and acting as a single coordinated unit through largely "unconscious action".  Thus whole societies or nations may get locked into habit patterns that are a reflective of the "fight or flight" syndrome and not be able to see any other way out. It is in essence "an immature behavior pattern". 

However, by making the invisible visible, or bringing the subconscious into the "now" we can, using a newly acquired trait of the human family, reflexive consciousness, begin to make conscious choices thus releasing ourselves from unhealthy habit patterns of the past and create new pathways of consciousness that lead to healthy lifestyles and a viable future.

For me, this is also about rediscovering who I am in the context of the greater world today. Again, for myself, I find this easier to do within the small rural community in which I currently reside. I've been able to reconnect with the earth as I knew it as a child growing up on a farm. Like so many of us, I had become "dissociated" from reality and The Oneness of Everything as I got caught up in the specialization" and "advanced technology" that appears to have gone beyond what is "appropriate" by any means.  In so-doing, I have learned to treasure the infinite beauty of "smallness".  It is to me the heart and soul of what I consider "home". 

I appreciated very much what surya prakash.wrote about smallness and Pam's response to him.

marguerite ecopilgrim@aabol.com

Hi Segun, had the time to really read your project complete with attachment. It is very well layed out and reflects your years of expertise.  However, I am wondering as to the target market for your agro-industrial production, and would you also share what is intended as the source of both production and transportation energy?  Of intereest to me also, when I'm looking at "agriculture",  is whether or not you are planning to grow organically?    

marguerite

Please refer to 34 post of mine - Want to miss Life?

There while quoting expressions I wrote-

Today the person in the context passed away.

The aged lady is survived by 3 sons and a daughter.

Last son gave her a room with asbestos roof.

Since three months she is not well.

Frankly, none of her children ownwed her.

The slogan underwhich we serve the aged is - Add value to remaining years.

This is done by keeping them in their own homes and provide services at their doorsteps.

Being from medical profession a caution taken is not to medicalise the services.

The entire excercise is done to demonstrate need to take care of the aged by the community  

I am saying all these because - today when she passed away, I saw how real is this - knowing an unknown person and making part of our system and thus feeling loss, is possible only if we are small.

So my conviction is further strengthened being small and being available adds essence to life.

-Surya Prakash.

Hi, Charles. I have successfully uploaded my pix. Thank you.

Segun

Hi, Marguerite.  Thank you for taking the time to read through my post and the attachment.  I will be glad to receive your comments on the concept of small business incubation facility discussed in the paper.

Concerning the three issues raised in your post, I am very much pleased to provide the following responses: First, concerning the target market for the agro-industrial production activities of the incubation centre.  This consist of rural farmers, graduate and undergraduate agricultural students and other unemployed individuals interested in agro-industrial enterprises.  These are people interested in converting existing agricultural products into semi-finished products. 

The target market outlets for their products are primarily the local small/medium industrial concerns that are dependent on the products from the incubation centre.  Later the international market will be given consideration in order to generate foreign exchange. 

Secondly, the sources of energy for the production and transportation of the products of the incubatees are electricity, gas and petroleum products.

We are aware that these are now becoming expensive products for the kind of industrialists we are planning to incubate.  In this regard, we are in the process of entering into a partnership with a UK-based Charity organisation that is commencing a project titled "Let There Be Light" for impoverished people in Nigerian villages.  This project will provide low-cost electricity through the solar power system for the beneficiaries of our incubation facilities.  This project is built around the successful village solar cooperative approach in Sri Lanka and will facilitate solar electricity to our small business incubatees.  In this way we hope to expand rural enterprise activities considerably.

On the third point, we believe that growing organically is the only strategic option available for a project like ours.  This is the reason why we are concerned about starting with selected rural communities to establish the sustainability of the project before replicating it in other rural and urban communities in the country.

I will be pleased to hear further from you about what you are doing to strengthen the economic hands of the poor and to make our world better than it was before we were born.

Remain blessed.

Segun Benson

Suryah Prakash, your message touched my heart for I am an "old woman" age 74, but on many days, I look and act as if I were 54 -- so I feel age is relative.  It is my intent, if I can honor my committment to be of service to humanity and to remain active, to live another 20 years or more.  I am thankful for the Internet through which we may "travel" and get to know one another, and weave this beautiful tapestry of love and caring worldwide.  Being able to connect in this "small" way within the greater context of the whole of the Internet and World Wide Web is, I feel, a very special thing for us to be able to do. 

And I am in complete agreement with you that we should cease medicalizing people and instead create spaces of peace where people can learn to heal themselves. And people need to be at home with their families, not shunted away in some cold sterile medical facility.  In working to compose the website: "Pathways to Consciousness" one area which has emerged is "the placebo effect" or how our "belief system" influences our "wellness" or "illness".  This, of course has then led into the study of "natural healing practices" as conducted by many indigenous people worldwide.  The statistics of healing from the "placebo effect" are startling when compared to those of allopathic medical practices, and as in many other areas of "supposed" technological advances, there is beginning to emerge doubt as to the efficacy of the treatments in many instances.  That is not to say that allopathic medicine does not have a place in today's world but perhaps on a different level and after efforts at "self-healing" in a warm loving and supportative environment have been exhausted.  But along with Dr. Woolf and another associate, we are focusing on the power of the human mind and its ability to not only heal disease, but its application in the field of disease prevention through what is known as the "relaxation response" among other things. 

But, I do believe these things have to be conducted in the context of sustainable living practices which erase poverty and provide for security within the community so that we can safely and comfortably practice "homecare". Does this make sense?

What are your thoughts on these things, Surya Prakash? I am very much wondering what your "take" on "modernity" as practiced by the Western world is?  Do you feel it has more to offer than what is found in the so-called "developing world"?  

BTW, I have tried to upload a photo and failed.  I have some files that have recently become corrupted and I'm having some dlifficulties I don't know how to resolve.  Will keep working on this.

marguerite

Hi Segun,

Nice to get your response.  I am confused as to what the meaning of turning "existing agricultural products into semi-finished products" is. Could you please give some examples of these products? Also, am I to understand that the producers in some instances are also the end users of the products? 

I'm very impressed that in an oil-producing country you are planning to integrate the use of renewable energy into the process. Too bad the U.S. couldn't have been a little more foresighted -- we would not be facing the severe consequences that we are now had our leaders not suppressed initiatives in this field of endeavor. 

Anyway, if international marketing is not productive for you due to an international economic crisis, do you anticipate that local consumption can handle production sufficient to keep the incubation enterprises viable?  I suppose being in an oil-producing country has its advantages with regard to exports into international markets, but a concern might be with where the money will come from to purchase the exports.  I cannot help but feel we have already entered into an enormous worldwide depression that is not readily apparent as yet, but which can only deepen as the oil crisis deepens and global climate change progresses. 

It appears that unless local communities delink themselves from the national economy through creating local currencies, then poverty will only grow worse  as communities "go down with the ship".  Just the disintermediation in the marketplace due to the "churn" as we make the forced change to another fuel source(s) guarantees economic crisis. 

Segun, you wrote in your message: 

I will be pleased to hear further from you about what you are doing to strengthen the economic hands of the poor and to make our world better than it was before we were born.

My response is that other than creating local currencies, I really do not know how to strengthen the economic hands of the poor.  What I do realize is that the driver of our worldwide social system is The Global Monetocracy System which is based in capitalism which requires continual growth to remain in force, so it literally "eats" everything in sight. And in the hands of private enterprise, there are no built in controls with which to manage it. And in a world of finite resources the rapaciousness of this system is devastating.  Perhaps competition by the Euro is the answer -- only time will tell.  However, with the end of oil, we will see the end of "petro dollars" and there is, as yet, no one energy source that can replace the power that oil has given us.  With the end of oil, will control by the elite who have heretofore managed to maintain world control by controlling the majority of the world's wealth disappear? There is a lot up on the "option block" IMHO, which is why I feel so strongly that the people of the world must hold out their hands to one another and unite in a cooperative effort.  Always before we have become divided. It seems to me that now is the time to stand up and say "No more" as world citizens united for peaceful co-existence.   

May you remain blessed as well. 

marguerite

marguerite         

today when she passed away, I saw how real is this

The statistics of healing from the "placebo effect" are startling when compared to those of allopathic medical practices,

I was busy with Annual ritual of annual report writing, so the responses of Charles, McLean & Marguerite moved me and made me complete the job.

Here our work is small in nature but regular in charecter.

I see each one of you are blessed with tremendous knowledge and experience.

Good that I had opportunity to post & recieve replies, that too in depth.

When Charles quoted two in response to MLK quote, it was exciting enough.

When McLean extended my points with her experience, it helped to complete the cycle.

Marguerite's saying that "your message touched my heart for I am an "old woman" age 74, it only said how young she is.

Age has no meaning if you are not able to respond to situations which you could execute.

I see all three of you are blessed souls.

I dont know how many times I thanked socialedge within and in the report too.

I wish  I get a day where we can meet and I can see you and listen to your experiences.

Must be high ask but I will pray for that.

Keep smiling and keep sharing and help the society to grow to be more human.

with warm regards,

-surya prakash.

Hi Marguerite. Thanks for your response to my post. Your response contains a lot of points that could not be addressed in a single post.  I however will like to respond to the threads that are of importance for now.

First, about turning existing agric. products into semi-finished products.  By this I mean raw agricultural products like cassava can be turned into cassava pellets, industrial starch and its other derivatives for other industrial users.  The oil in cashew fruits nut can be extracted for use by industries producing thinner used in the automobile industries, cashew fruit can be converted into cashew jam and marmalade.  Palm tree fruits can be used to produce palm oil which can then be used by industries producing butter and so on.  These are some of the types of activities to be carried out in the incubation centre. 

These products have ready home market as well as international market.  The main concept is to use the incubation centre facilities to strengthen agricultural production at the same time encouraging agribusinesses that have export potential.

On the question of international market for the oil market.  I am of the opinion that the market will continue to remain viable.  But the fact is that those who control this market are the very rich people in Nigeria.  This is not done on a small scale because of the capital outlay involved.  We can not go into this area.  Interestingly, the way this market is being managed in Nigeria is such that electricity power generating sector is highly centralised to the point of being inefficient and and represent a waste of important national fund.  We have a convulsive electricity power supply and so every serious entrepreneur has to think of alternative source of energy in order to stay alive and competitive.  Our country's situation is curious and does not fall into the picture you have about the developed countries of the world.

In essence, our decision to combine alternative source of energy into electricity is a strategy to stay alive in spite of the hiccup in the electricity industry in Nigeria. It has nothing to do with the international market for oil.

You mention the idea of local community currencies as a means of strengthening the poor. Well that is an area that is difficult for me to comment upon, particularly from my background.  But I do know that creating local community currency is not the issue per se but that of the attitude of those people managing currency on behalf of the rest of the people.  Many people in authority are less concerned about the poor or underprivileged and as such they mess up the economy by their naked greed.

The only way I believe the poor can be helped is to open their eyes to the technique of income generation and entrepreneurship. Imparting to them the ability to scan their environment for income generating opportunities and providing them mentorial services with integrity and transparency.  When every one in society is able to make meaningful contribution to the economic developpment of their community, then there will be an upsurge in the aggregate income of the people.  This will be more relevant for everybody.

We will be glad to work with you on this platform.  Particularly where there is an opportunity to source agro-industrial equipment and machinery that can assist us in the sustainance of our agro-industrial activities at the incubation centre.

Wishing you the best as we seek for credible ways of improving our world.

Remain blessed.

Segun Benson

Hi Charles

Thanks immensely for that rich insight about mapping. It is a worthy contribution.

Thanks.

Segun

This is such a wonderful thing to be able to converse so openly with people from other countries and to find out about who you are and your lifestyles.  If we could just connect millions of people in this manner we could end the horror of war and begin to live in peaceful co-existence. 

Charles, your sharing of the story of how people watched the deer and followed their lead was wonderful. My research shows that homeopathic medicine has a greater healing ratio than do the drugs produced by the chemical companies. I do believe the mapping can provide colorful threads as we weave the tapestry that connects us all as we share in-form-ation. 

One of the things that has crossed my mind as we have communicated here is that the culture of the developing world is so rich.  I would say to anyone there that it is, IMHO, extremly important that we preserve the richness of your lifestyles and do not get caught up in the ideas of the modern world and its madness due to the "pathology  of dissociation" from which we suffer.  May I refer you to the website of Dr. Jay Earley.  www.earley.org  Both Freud and Jung felt that modern society was neurotic due to what Freud felt were "cultural urges".  Today, social psychologists such as Dr. Earley and Ken Wilber who has written about 18 books on the field of human consciousness and upon whose work Jay Earley's is in part based, and Dr. Vernon Woolf, agree that modern society suffers from the pathology of "dissociation" from reality, from the natural world.  Jay Earley writes that at the beginning of our social evolution there were certain basic qualities inherent within our world:  natural living, community, belonging, vitality, and equality.  But over time, as we began to seek more power in the world and what Earley termed:  emergent qualities,such as technology, rational thinking, and social organization (read government, global monetary system, legal system, formal education) suppressed the basic qualities at the expense of our health and wholeness. We became totally "unbalanced" as we are biologically unprepared to handle or manage these emergent qualities since these things were not part of our biological makeup in the beginning.  The dissociation from our basic qualities leaves us in a world that is largely devoid of meaning.  In essence:  we have lost our soul -- our integrity, our compassion for others, our ability to love.  This is reflected in how we manage ourselves and as we can readily see we have regressed backward into a world in which war and terrorism are assumed to be natural acts, as is the destruction of our life support system.  What is necessary for us to do is to reintegrate the basic qualities back into our lifestyles so that we may regain our health and wholeness.  Those of you in the developing world are still so much more connected to your roots, and herein I believe lies our hope.  So, please, I encourage you to value who you are and your culture.  Do not become mesmerized by the "American lifestyle" and its "siren's song" which is largely an "empty tune".

Along these lines there is an Internet Group:  The Global Justice Movement which is a discussion group with people from different countries on it.  A prime concern of this group is ending world poverty through changing the global monetocracy system. You may seek subscription to this group through the following  To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit  http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net

Marguerite - You once again made your point clear and loud.

I dont know how I am going to  sound , but the fact is that I/we are living in active zones of voilence.

I see war or terrorism is what we see - what we fail to account is -

1.  number of untimely deaths - every season, if it is summer - we have cases of deaths due to sunstroke, not just epidemic but pandemic. Last rainy season we had heavy rains in hyderabad, to clear rain water on roads they opened manhole's - unfortunately a couple were on scooter and got stuck in the middle of the road, so the husband asked wife to get down, she got down straight down into the manhole. She was 40 years old with two daughters and her body was found nextday a km away from the point she fell.
2. We dont have water, water we purchase , as water is available for commercial use.
3. Houses are constructed with no planning - a very visible lapse of sense prevails, each house is calcualted with value of money and the rent it can generate, just concrete jungles.
4. Food is sold and purchased with no thought - that it is food that saves, heals & protects.
5. Medicines are understood ( especially allopathic) cure for any ailment, with no proper prescription or reason are consumed, both genuine & spurious drugs are available & consumed.
6. Educational institutions with no infrastructure and atmosphere are available,but for a cost - as education is no more understood is the reason now we are able to communicate and relate.
7. Now I see if we enquire in random, one may not have had food but he will be having a mobile.

Why am I saying this, because I see we lost direction & purpose, I  like to quote Socrates here -

Socrates says at his trial,

"that the difficulty is not so much to escape death; the real difficulty is to escape doing wrong".(Apology 39a).

Friends of socialedge, we are living with painful heart,we have to release ourselves with these, we have to wake up and say clear and loud that we dont accept anything going wrong anywhere.

I see war or terrorism we can get some leads to question but what about this, if we educated people, who were fortunate enough to learn, intepret, are not able to fully deliver.

Education is for action not for survival or accumulate or get secured.

To live with pain though you are no way responsible, is enough reason for us to free ourselves by questioning wrong doers.

In developing world we dont need external enemies we have developed enemies within - Politicians, Bureaucrats & Buisinessmen, now we have new breed added to this list - Educational institutions.

I see they have to reflect and they have to understand what thay are in and what they have to do.

As long as people are understood as products to push products, we will continue hear and see things of worst kind.

I do not know when this forum will end, but want to remain connected and to enlarge the circle both through the Social Edge and uniting in other ways.

I can almost feel the interactions getting richer and deeper as [the participants in this event] get to know one another post by post.

Hi again everyone -- my apologies for taking so long to respond but sometimes there are not enough hours in the day. 

Surya Prakash writes in part:

In developing world we dont need external enemies we have developed enemies within - Politicians, Bureaucrats & Buisinessmen, now we have new breed added to this list - Educational institutions.

It is the same here in the developed world and as to the new breed you state being "educational institutions" this may be the worst of the breed for it indocrinates our children before they have a chance to develop their natural/ innate intelligence.  It is for this reason I want to spread the Habitats in Harmony Community Learning and Information Center concept internationally, encouraging people to create spaces within their community where hands-on-experiential learning may take place among members who hold tremendous amounts of wisdom within their psyche, but through the educational process we are "dumbed down" so as to be robots so as to serve the artificial world we have created through our pathology of dissociation -- the lens through which so many of us now view the world. 

What is so horrible is so many now view the aberrent world we have created as natural as we see through these distored lens.  We now justify and rationalize things such as war and terrorism and the use of depleted uranium with a half life of 4.5 million years, and which has the capability to change the genetic code of all humanity, and we call ourselves "civilized" while doing these things. 

What is necessary, I believe, is to create an alternative system which operates outside of the conventional modern system where authentic hands-on experimental life-long learning may take place as community members exchange in-form-ation and apply it at the local level, thus creating a pathway to consciousness and a return to wholeness through integrating the basic and emergent qualities so they are balanced. 

And this is how we weave the tapestry by holding our hands out to one another and beginning these learning centers -- sharing knowledge and creating friendships that cannot be broken because they are based in health and well-being and in unfolding of our fullest potential -- thus choosing life.  

A group that has begun a movement similiar to what I envision is The Post
Carbon Institute:  www.postcarbon.org They are involved in "relocalization" and creating sustainable living communities here in the U.S. 

blessings to all

marguerite

Segun, I noticed a message come through on the Global Justice movement list which I previously mentioned. 

It was with regard to the World Bank announcing that it is giving "interest free loans".  The comment with regard to this message was that even though "interest free" the dreaded "structural adjustment program" would still be in effect. This seems to tie into an earlier part of the discussion of how impossible it is to obtain funding that serves the interests of fundee rather than of the funder. 

I also recalled the name of the book on this subject:  Roles and Relevance and it is published by Kumarian Press.  www.kpbooks.com/

Since you mentioned "cattle raising" as still part of your agri-program, may I also  recommend "Beyond Beef" by Jeremy Rifkin.  While cattle-raising for beef production is the fourth largest revenu-generating business in the world, it is also the number one cause of desertification worldwide and is also the driver of world migration problems. In 1997, 100 million people were in forced migration worldwide, many of them women and children forced off land due to cattle-ranching and increased deforestation.  Topsoil is now disappearing at a rate of 17% faster than it can be  replaced.  Dependent upon region it can take anywhere from 500 to 1000 years to replace one inch of topsoil.  So, while it may provide for immediate returns, the long term outlook is devastating. 

warm regards and continued best wishes for your endeavors Segun. 

I've just read through the entire conversation and I'm glad someone tried to summarize if a few messages back.  I share many of the frustrations and goals of Margurite and agree, "If we could just connect millions of people in this manner we could end the horror of war and begin to live in peaceful co-existence."

I started coming to Social Edge almost two years ago and have built some growing friendships based on the knowledge we're sharing. As a result, I was invited to host a discussion, that's going on at the same time as this one. It's titled "Building a Network of Purpose" and it draws from many of the ideas discussed here in a set of questions aimed to identify new ways to overcome the barriers or create new paths to success.

While I'm hosting a discussion on Social Edge, I'm also co-hosting one at http://www.mentoring.org/community, and another on May 17 at an IUPUI portal. These will lead to a face to face conference in Chicago on May 25 and 26 (25th since 1994), and then more on-line forums in June.  

They are all intended to draw more people into the conversation and to focus on what we do now that leads to what we want to happen later.  For instance, while school is ending in a few weeks, the new school year starts in a few months.  The programs operating now will all be looking for volunteers in the fall, which means the ideas we share now, and the collaborations we build now, could lead to more volunteers in the fall.

Getting volunteers in August and keeping them through the school year are two distintly different challenges. Thus, while our event in May focuses on helping programs get volunteers in Aug/Sept. it also focuses on helping them keep the volunteers throug the year.  It also focuses on ways to raise money to support the process. In November we'll do another conference series, and the work we do now can lead to the one in November being more effective in building visibility, and building DONOR ATTENTION as we move toward the December charitible giving period in the US.

Thus, our aim is to think three, six, nine and even 12 months out in a cycle that must repeat every year with more people involved.  While I focus this on tutoring/mentoring, I think that this type of thinking can be duplicated by groups of people focusing on any common purpose.

I hope some of you will cross over and introduce yourself in the discussion I'm hosting and that this will bring some who are visiting me, into this discussion. 

That's one way we can work together to increase the network.

Since we are facing crises "unprecedented in human recorded history" it appears that the number one need is for "information" which will help people both cope with  and mitgate the crises.  The three major crisis appear to be:

1. Disintermediation in the marketplace as many businesses give way under the pressures created by the end of cheap oil, gas and other fossil fuels. Even were we to find the perfect enegy solution, which may well be "free energy", then it will be at least 20 to 30 years before production is sufficient to meet demand and make a difference.  The depression caused by the "churn" alone is predicted to be worldwide and run very, very deep. 

2. Global Climate Change - This phenomenon is proceeding at a far faster pace than scientists could possibly imagine as  computer models were inadequate to reflect the real pace of global warming and the melt down of glaciers worldwide.  Now the visual evidence is staggering and the implications far-reachng.  

3. The Pathology of Dissociation From Which Society Suffers. It becomes more apparent every day that as a society we have gone mad.  We only need to look at the devastation around us to know we have created an "aberrant society" -- no culture in their right mind would destroy their own life support system the way we are doing along with creating war and terrorism on other humans -- I don't know how many of you have seen the pictures of those committing torture on prisoners at Abu Graib and saw the smiles on their faces as they did so.  Those committing these acts were daughters and sons of our neighbors -- kids our kids grew up with.

If I were a TV station wanting to increase my viewership I would certainly design programming (learning modules) that addressed these issues.  It is my belief that the public knows there is something drastically wrong and are  getting tired of "the Great American Dream" kind of crap that is presented today as "reality" but they don't know where to turn for help.  

However, what I am witnessing are "hourse parties" or "salons",  as some are calling them, where select DVDs which provide  accurate information are viewed by small groups who bond together and take direct action to provide security in their  communities through enacting sustainable living practices.  This is like an  underground movement building toward health and wellness creation and a TV station that has the guts to jump in and grab this market and run with could soon be "top dog". What we know is that life its always moving toward health and well-being as it is our normal state. So, the "butterfly is seeking to emerge from its cocoon and expand in all of its beauty".  Now is time to grab its wings and fly away for those who dare wipe the clouds from their eyes and see Truth in all of its magnificense -- it is the way to "embrace life" and continue growth.   

marguerite 

I am holding the field for the fullest potential in this event to unfold now in the best interests of all concerned. 

marguerite

 .         

i 

Skills and Knowledge have no much space in the present day world especially development world, here we had elections in 5 states and the politicians promised, Rice, Color TV's and Mobiles.

When people are understood like this, how can we ever grow and how we can claim we are developed or developing.

Alternatives are less prescribed as they know life has alternatives and they are not marketable but they are useful and effective, they are less accepted.

When you have less of resources we have to search for alternatives.

They may not be replicable but are effectives contextually.

One has to encourage and support efforts for making life much easier and beautiful.

I think scaling depends on your objective.

Dear Kmniazi (Development Professional)

It is a great delight to have you come on the forum.  Thank you for the response to my post. I am particularly grateful for the link to www.smeda.org.pk.  I have been at this site and found it very useful for any serious person interested in entrepreneurship development.  The people have done a lot of work worthy of praise.

Concerning my paper, please click the attachment section of my post to Pamela, a contributor on this discussion. By clicking on the attachment you can read and download my paper titled: The Dynamics of Small Business Incubation Facilities in Fadama Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria: An Anti-Poverty Device. It is just that simple.  I will be glad to read about your comment.  You may send me a private response as my email address is contained in the post to Pamela.  Sincerely, I will be glad to exchange information and knowledge with you.

Stay blessed as you continue to find ways of empowering people for sustainable economic development.

Segun Benson

Hi Pamela,

How are you? You have been off the forum for too long.  We love your contributions and would want you to continue.  Have you been able to digest my paper and what is your view about the small business incubation facility concept which was discussed in the paper? I will be glad to read from you.  You may also contact me through my email address.

I want to express the desire that people like you and others in this forum should keep the communication alive even after this forum.  I have seen a lot of serious development professionals from different backgrounds and culture making productive contributions to this forum.

I love it and I pray the wisdom of the Lord will continue to abound to the originator of this beautiful concept.

Remain blessed.

Segun Benson

you might also want to explore the option of setting up a group in linkedin or any other social networking site, as long as it is free to use.

While I'm hosting a discussion on Social Edge, I'm also co-hosting one at http://www.mentoring.org/community, and another on May 17 at an IUPUI portal

I want to express the desire that people like you and others in this forum should keep the communication alive even after this forum.

I am drafting a reply to both Building Networks of Purpose and Charles' comment with regard to "comfort levels" as we discuss "change".  However, halfway through this exercise, all of a sudden the whole page just "flew" away and I lost it all.  I've had this happen several times and it is very frustrating as I am under time limits.  Will try to compose the message in MS WORD and paste it in to see if that works or else add it as an attachment.  Any insights on this? 

marguerite

Hi Charles,

At http://groups.blogdigger.com/groups.jsp?id=2849 you can see an example of how blog discussions on a common theme are aggregated in a single site.  That's one possible solution of the future.

However, when I participate in these discussions I have a vision of an inverted pyramid, or a funnel.  The walls of the funnel contain all of the various conversations where people are talking about issues related to the mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  These feed down to the bottom of the funnel, which in my case is http://www.tutormentorconnection.org, where I not only hope to aggregate people from many different discussions into one on-going effort, but where I also provide a vareity of information links that people can draw from in their discussion and deliberations.

While there are many things I'd like to be able to incorporate into my home base, this is where the Network of Purpose sees a map that shows all of the geography of a city where the network needs to achieve its purpose.

What I do should be duplicated in other cities, by partners who share the same goals, and who work with me to build this network of purpose.  However, it can also be duplicated by people who have a different purpose.

On May 17 I'm going to give an overview of the resources on the T/MC web site during a one our session hosted at http://econference.uc.iupui.edu/ I hope you'll join in if you have time.

Creating Networks of Purpose

 This is such a great concept as it encompasses

both small and big. Each separate component of

the network is a “particle” but when networked together

creates a “wave” effect with all of the parts working

together synergistically creating “bigness”.

There is an Implicate Order to the Universe (David

Bohm) which says that it organizes from micro to

macro.  

So, if we understand this then, we know that to be

effective, we need to organize from the individual

upward to the community/group level where we have

“swarm” or “systemic”  intelligence” operating in such a

way that we can utilize this “effect” to facilitate change

at a “mass” level.

We know that groups/systems/communities take on a

personality of their own – in other words, the system

”encodes” or “in-forms” itself taking on certain behaviors.

To change this system, we need to “re-code or “re-inform the

system so that it takes on a new behavior. Since form follows

function, this means “in-forming” the system as to what its

structure is to be in order for it to function at its fullest potential. 

(Thus we create the mission statement.)

In order to evaluate the system, we do a general systems

analysis and determine where the weak points are in the

system so that we can then go into the system and re-inform

it so that it is functioning at its fullest potential.

Since I am most interested in facilitating change for the purpose

of transforming society from a waste-producing society to a

sustainable living society so we can, as a world society, move

forward into the future in health and wellness, then I need to be

able to facilitate change at the community level by inserting new

and valid in-form-ation into the system at that level as it is most

closely linked to our life support system (ecosystems) which

supply our basic needs. This must be our first concern.

So, through forming community learning and information centers

in small communities worldwide and networking them together,

from a website, we can then re-inform many communities at the

same time and monitor the system created to ensure

that it is always in balance and thus working at peak

performance in the best interests of all concerned.

Since, like individuals, there are no two communities exactly

alike, each community needs the individual freedom to “in-form”

itself according to its individual needs so as to remain “in balance

at all times”.  

But each community (particle) maintains its own integrity and acts

autonomously.  Through networking, we are merely aggragating

the particles together to form a wave (whole dynamic) that is,

when taken together, more than the sum of its parts and acts

synergistically.  This is the way our bodies are designed with each

cell acting as a stand alone system that is frequently replaced.

Cells then create organs which are also stand alone systems which

become “organizations of systems” called a body. Think about how

we refer to our nervous system as a network".for instance. We as

individuals might consider ourselves as particles in the network

of life. We are able to disengage ourselves from these networks,

exerting freedom of "conscious choice" and form a new networked

pattern, and in so-doing create a differential holodynamic.Our potential

for creating different dynamics is virtually unlimited when we make 

conscious choices in networking ourselves together in different

ways.  

We are talking here about “organic spherical or holodynamic

design” as opposed to a hierarchial top down linear design.

So, we have created an “open system” which is free-flowing

as opposed to a closed system which can only lead to death

through stagnation at some point.

This change has a lot to do with the evolution of human

consciousness as we move from left brain linear consciousness

or right brain wave consciousness and into holodynamic or

integrated consciousness as brain function changes due to

our need to adapt to the environment we have now created.

We are now on a new frontier -- having met the "limits ot growth"

in our exterior world, we must now turn our attention to the

phenomenon of the human mind and begin to "think" in new ways.

Doubts now exist as to the ability of the human family to meet

this challenge. If we do, we will emerge from the present period

as not merely survivors, but as human beings in a new reality. 

These concepts are taken, in part from the work of Dr. V. Vernon Woolf, Holodynamics.

www.holodynamics.com Dance of Life - 2005

Charles, I appreciate your comments with regard to expressing "calm concern" rather than sounding "strident" or "anxious". But let me give you my point of view.  

For the past 5 - 6 years, I have facilitated what we refer to as a "Co-learner's List" on the Internet. And on that list I have people like Fred Burks, who was a former translator for both Presidents G.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Fred publishes a newsletter: www.WantToKnow.com in which he exposes information for which there has been a "cover-up" for some reason or other. And I have international journalists, several psychologists working in the field of social transformation, an ecological designer, several published authors of widely read books, college professors from major universities, etc., on the list, most of whom prefer to remain anonymous. Then there are "just people" who serve as "information gatherers" who survey the Internet for information published to major websites which are related to the critical issues of the day, and they forward them to me as the facilitator.  I then sort through them and pick three or four of what I consider to be the top stories and I comment on them and forward them on to the list.  And, until very recently, I have spent 10 - 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week doing this. So over the past years, I have reviewed thousands of articles which reflect upon the most critical issues of our time.  And, while I don't pass all of these articles on to the group (which totals approximatley 300 people) the group has become very sophisticated and well informed on a broad range of subjects. 

And, we frequently analyze this information to determine what's propaganda and what is valid. Over the past few days, we've been dialoging on energy issues and discussing nuclear vs solar/hydrogen vs zero point energy relative to the relocalization movement, global climate change and the end of the fossil fuel era, and how a new energy source will effect the world economy, labor markets, etc.  We then try to disseminate this information as widely as possible through other Internet lists.

So, when I'm posting here on this forum, that's what I'm doing -- disseminating valid "in-form-ation" so that people can, if they so desire, "in-form" their respective communities in order to provide for security through implementing sustainable living practices, which will not only enhance lifestyles with regard to "human values" but with regard to both planetary and cosmic (spiritual) values as well, paving the way for peaceful coexistence. 

In analyzing all of the data that comes across our desktops and realizing how many "tipping points" have been passed, or we are near to passing, it is difficult to present the information without sounding anxious.  Frankly, from my viewpoint, "the  sky is falling" and like Paul Revere, I'm riding through the darkness of the night as fast as possible trying to awaken people to the rocky road that lies ahead as we are faced on all fronts with resource shortages. 

But resources shortages are the result of the manner in which we think about and consequently use resources.  By changing the manner in which we think, (elevating our consciousness to another level) we can change the manner in which we use resources, and, thus, create abundance.

It is a matter of making conscious choices.

Which bring us back, Charles, to a point you made earlier about "being resistant to change". And what's so overwhelming about this is that in order to survive as the human family, given the current state of the planet, we have to make a 180-degree turn around and that's almost impossible for most people to imagine. Well known mangement guru, Peter Drucker, wrote in the Harvard Review awhile back, saying: "Every organization must be prepared to *abandon* everything it does.  Please note that Mr. Drucker did not use the word "change" he wrote "abandon". He also said that "there is no placid backwater in which to sit this one out" 

I frankly don't know what to do about people who get uncomfortable when its laid on the line like this -- we've soft-pedaled the seriousness of this too long.  I have six grandchilden whose futures have been stolen and that pisses me off -- excuse my French. And, I really don't know what else to say.

there are "just people" who serve as "information gatherers" who survey the Internet for information published to major websites which are related to the critical issues of the day, and they forward them to me as the facilitator… until very recently, I have spent 10 - 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week doing this

In analyzing all of the data that comes across our desktops and realizing how many "tipping points" have been passed, or we are near to passing, it is difficult to present the information without sounding anxious. Frankly, from my viewpoint, "the sky is falling" and like Paul Revere, I'm riding through the darkness …

Hi Everyone,

Charles, the Creating Networks of Purpose is sort of a "catch all" and since time is limited right now, just used it in that manner. 

I agree with Dan that there is a lot of overlap going on. In fact in conjunction with the "Co-learner's List" am working with a group that wants to either create some new software or find something appropriate we may not know about to use with the Pathways To: website that I'm creating as an "updraft" of the Co-learner's list.

The website in conjunction with forums will permit us more graphic content which can convey whole concepts at a glance thus eliminating the tediousness of so much text. The Pathways To: series will focus on "in-form-ation" related to different topics such as the evolution of human consciousness and how to apply this knowledge to achieving sustainable living communities which can lead to world peace. The pathways, in essence, are the threads of the tapestry. And, the website provides the "curriculum" for the "virtual university" into which internationally-located "community learning and information centers" can tap into for guidance as to how to get from Point A to Point B, etc., in creating this "great social transformation" in the shortest possible time, restoring the planet's ecosystems to peak efficiency, thus restoring our life support system. 

In essence, the community learning and information centers are really land-based co-learner's groups who take the in-form-ation gained from the virtual university and combined with their own "inner knowledge and awareness of their bioregion, apply it locally" in a "hands-on learning experience" to create sustainable living communities. And, it doesn't matter where in the world a community is located, its members can still access the "virtual university" in order to acquire any additional tools and skills necessary but not already available in the community.  In other words, they are getting the latest available in-form-ation and having conducted a general systems analysis of their community and identified the "breakdown" points, can then skillfully insert new information into the system so that it is always free-flowing and live-giving thus eliminating any possibility of corruption and stoppage.   

Those who want to be "information gatherers" who supply in-form-ation to the virtual university can form individual co-learner's groups and scour the internet and other sources for information so that it can be processed and formatted for inclusion into a "pathway" as part of the curriculum of the institute.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine what could take place -- the potential for positive change that we can create -- if we have this virtual university in place as a website, and we had communities worldwide simultaneously taking action to transform themselves from waste-creating to sustainable-living entities. And, they are all working together cooperatively as a networked "wave" creating harmonious love and peace. 

And, what if this was an all-volunteer effort with thousands of people donating a few hours every day as a "power-to-the-people effort" working synergistically?

Could we begin this here? recruiting retired people, students, and others who can spare the time, and have the creative mind power to organize this.

Essentially, I feel it is already happening but it has just not coalesced as yet into a worldwide movement with focus. But when as I interact here with all of you great people, the excitement starts to build because this is "doable" and we are making a great start I feel --What say the rest of you?

Dan, I am completely "out of the loop" as to your event; however, I see great relevance between Tutor/Mentoring, Co-learner's Groups, Community Learning and Information Centers, and facilitating the "great transformation" from a waste-creating society to a sustainable living society on a worldwide scale.  And I  support your efforts.

Co-learner's groups/Community Learning and Information Centers are actually "mentor-tutor" relationships based on the idea that learning is a two-way street and each of us has something of value to offer in the exchange with everyone else. So rather than being hierarchial in nature, it is a circular configuration based on sharing and cooperation with everyone in the circle "equal" to everyone else. 

This co-learner's idea actually emanated out of the need to set up organizations that were effective to protest against hierarchial organizations such as in the WTO protest in Seattle several years ago. The organizers saw a need to design a "leaderless" organization that had many "heads" and did not rely on just one source or leader for in-form-ation, but was designed so that everyone in the circle was equally "in-formed".  In this manner if one person was "disabled" anyone else in the circle/organization could take over any position so that movement was always open and fluid with a positive orientation. Initially, the person with the most "in-form-ation" on how to proceed in the appointed mission took the center position and then in a give and take manner (feedback combined with new in-fo) the group in-formed themselves. When special details were needed, the person most knowledgeable in this aspect took the center circle position and the process was repeated and "response-ability" shared among all. 

In the Habitats in Harmony Community Learning and Information Center/Co-learner's Group we are establishing, it has been determined that the highest priority for the human family right now is to restore our ecological systems in bioregions worldwide to pristine health so as to rehabilitate our life support system, for if we fail to do this then nothing else matters as we will not be able to survive if the destruction continues.  In order to accomplish this, the human family, beginning with each individual must relearn (re-inform) him/herself in order to rebalance the system so that we may move forward into the future in health and well-being as a whole integrated and fully balanced system that is sustainable. 

This is a humongous task and there are questions as to how we may accomplish this, but to use an an analogy: how do you eat an elephant? the answer is "bit by bit", and we can accomplish this task "community by community" and networking ourselves together "in a common purpose".  And, since "civilization was built on land" we must begin our restoration/rehabilitation efforts from this point (micro) upward, learning as we go "how to tread more lightly" on our Mother and treat her with respect. 

In this respect there is an organization "Redefining Progress" where individuals and communities may go to determine their "ecological footprint".  www.rprogress.org/newprojects/ecolFoot.shtml  Take a quick check and see what kind of impact you and/your community are making.

Hello Kamran,

I trust you were successful in downloading my paper from the attachment section to Pamela.  I believe you have a rich knowledge of SME.  Can we please dialogue.  I will be glad to have your comments on the Small Business Incubation concept discussed in the paper.

It may interest you to know that I am currently involved in the World Bank Assisted Fadama Development programme in Nigeria.  We are in the process of fine-tuning the concept in Nigeria.  We are also looking forward to an opportunity of replicating the concept elsewhere. The comment of an experienced development professional like you will be of great benefit to us.  Please speak.  You may wish to contact me through my email address: isbume@yahoo.com

I wait to hear from you today or tomorrow.

Remain blessed.

Segun

Hello everyone!

One of the key things I learned during last week

tragedy in my home is that, its good to be small on all counts,

but I see if you dont have mechanism of merging with or say be part of larger community there is danger of efforts being lost ending in no results.

I see being small you should spent quite a time to communicate.

Communication is vital or say backbone for the energy spent.

I see for small being beautiful - Turtle can be used as a symbol.

The entire effort should be how well are you related with community you represent.

Make sure you are part of the community.

Or say you are extension of the community.

The stronger the link, more the chance of you surviving in difficult situations.

Friends these days I am recollecting words of Wills Smith who on his recent  visit to India said in one of the interviews -"Life is not fare, so you have to be just".

Its just decision to be small but we will be unfare if we dont have merging mechanism with the community.

Hope I could communicate.

-prakash.

Surya Prakash writes in part: 

           The stronger the link, more the chance of you surviving in difficult situations.

Good to hear from you again. 

I very much agree with this, and it is much easier to build small strong links with flexibility than large links which tend to become rigid. 

Social studies reveal that it is difficult to manage more than 250 people in a unit/group. The ideal is "self-organiztion and management" which seems to occur naturally in a small group.   At this level the unit/group owns the situation and is much more able to resolve any problem that occurs because they are "close to it" and thus able to view the "whole dynamic" of it.  

The solution to any problem always lies within the problem.

And again, if one needs more "power" with which to resolve the problem, it is always easy to "network several groups or units together" and unite them in a common purpose -- the *mission* at hand determing how large the networked unit needs to be in order to be effective. However, no group in the unit would exceed 250 in number.  But again, there is no hierarchy -- each group appoints a representative and representatives continue the circular formation rather than the hierarchial one.  In this manner the strength of each group is reinforced, which, in turn reinforces the strength of the unit as a whole.

I also equate "power" with "presence" and feel that anyone having participated in martial arts will agree that power (of the mind) is much more potent than is "force" as it is achieved through "balance" or "being centered" at all times. 

Its small group who is communicating on small is beautiful.

But I see there is serious dialogue and acknowldgment also going on.

Why dont we become a small group within the small is beautiful and exchange views on a continuim, that is:

I like to share with you what I am going through,

Frankly I am going through a real rough patch.

But whenever I like to share I see whether I am deviating from the purpose.

Unfortunately after some age your proffession and personal life becomes one unit.

I see always sharing with you relaxes me.

Though I am trying to withold I will share- in january I lost my brother who was forty six and on May 15th my father who was 73 years passed away.

As I am medical person it happened when Iam around, virtually both collapsed in my hands.

My brother had long term illness and my father was very close to my brother as they were in same profession.

It's quite heavy.

Bye,

prakash.

Dear Prakash,

It's OK to share concerns -- with me there are no beginnings or endings -- it is just all part of the same continiuum of life. 

I am sorry to hear of the loss of your father and brother from this earthly plane.

Have you had any contact with them since their departure? 

Such beautiful country! And such kindly people in it. The sun shone, the hills rolled, the leaves of the trees sang in the wind. When the land thrives as it did that spring day, one can easily fail to think of the missing species (bison, beaver, waterfowl, etc.) that would have been there had it been wild, and believe that one is looking at Creation in its full glory. Certainly God’s glory shone through it. Cattle grazing at the fences next to the highway traded looks with one another as I appeared, and then retreated to the far corners of their pastures. I think I was offered a lift, unsolicited, from passing drivers seven times that day. I declined, thanking each driver for her or his good will and thoughtfulness.

I thought of how wonderfully knit the people of this region are, that they are so ready to give care even to passing strangers. And how connected might this knitting be to the hope of preserving the land and restoring the biotic community? I’d guess there’s some sort of connection. What would it take to nurture this sort of knitting elsewhere? Does anyone reading this have any thoughts?

http://journal.earthwitness.org/

I went to http://journal.earthwitness.org/, I saw his journey and interpretations.

I saw how beautiful the journey he has undertaken.

Each journey scheduled or unscheduled has a meaning and meaning gets enhanced if you communicate, Marshall Massey is fortunate that he is able to communicate.

I see there is need to observe & learn from the people who dont have this ability.

The one who draws milk

The cup which carries coffee

The paper we read

The pen which we use

The dress we wear

The house we stay

The vehicle we drive

We move

Without knowing or say

Without Acknowledging

That there are people

With heart, mind & energy

Who gave us luxury to move.

I see we need to create more space for such expressions and I think Marshall journey is towards adding meaning to these.

With best wishes for his journey and waiting to learn more from his intepretations.

-Surya Prakash.

I was reflecting on these days of mourning, the suffering one has to go through while death is on its way to take over life.

I saw both in the eyes of my father & my brother.

My brother looked towards me and the eyes said do something.

My father eyes & moves reflected that it's over.

No doubt I was a standing spectator, with no answer.

While my family is mourning, I am placed in a situiation where in I keep getting questions, one in frequent is the Knowledge around is it  insuffecient or is it that if it has to happen it will happen.

Are the people who are surviving or without disease, can avoid to go through process of death taking over life.

Then why we are not able to work towards developing or contributing for common good.

Why we became so complicated to understand the fact of Life.

Friends these days are haunting with thoughts.

A thought which is coming loud and clear for me is that - time has come to extend or expand family beyond fourwalls and see it merges with thecommunity so that any loss is societies loss.

-Surya Prakash. 

  For quite a few months now, I have been studying deeper than before into human consciousness and its evolution so as to attempt to answer some of the many questions about life and  meaning for a book entitled The Sacred Quest.

  One of the things of discovery is that the human energy system, as with all life systems, is always moving toward well-being.  So, now I have come to the place of understanding that even in suffering one is moving toward well-being,  And as it is with individuals so is it with social systems and the world. 

  For me anyway, life is about learning and while I am always learning, the lessons which arrive for me are always more profound and lasting if they are accompanied by pain. So, now knowing it intimately, I no longer try to escape the pain but bear with it and ask what the message is for me. In confronting the pain in this manner, it lessens over time and I have grown and become more balanced, so the suffering lessens. In knowing this, assume it is true for others. So, while I can offer compassion and understanding, feel that each of us must travel our own personal journey through this space of our own making.  So, while one  can "walk into consciousness" with others and hold their hand in comfort, we cannot take the walk for them.  

In my trainings I keep one excercise common : i.e pinch yourself and by it one realises that pain is deffinetly personal.

Intensity varies with pressure and area.

Similarily, pain I see one can understand, one didn't go through, in fact I keep praying that none should go through.

Life & Death is what I have seen and gone through.

I see we are hesitant to fully deliver.

We always have reasons for not able to give full.

Withholding resources is one of the reason for development inetrventions not able to happen with pace which they are supposed to move.

I see lot's of hesitation to express.

I see we are developing and spreading lot's of insecurity among our present generation.

I see small acts of expressions and acts only have lead to big effects.

This can happen only if reaction time reduces to bare minimum.

Thus confidence is built and we can have better tomorrow.

McLean,Marguerite,Segun,Charles,Dan.................

Where are you all.

I think this dialogue is happeneing.

Hope to see you sharing, in this forum.

-Surya Prakash

Where are we? - Pamela McLean is still around for one - still reading with interest when I have time - absorbing what is being said and adding it to my thinking - but not able to contribute at present. I hope the thread will still be open when I have time to come back...

Pam

Was it here or somewhere else that I saw a discussion about organic growth and organisational growth - and the way that way that living systems can be thought of as complete at the level of single cells, or organs (heart, liver kidney etc) or individuals (a person, an animal etc) or groups (families, teams, flocks, swarms etc)?  

I think in this model we (the various individuals and groups here) are all a bit like separate cells or organs -- and we don't need any one cell or organ to grow huge, or to replicate itself - we just need the appropriate cells and organs to cluster together and collaborate to create appropriate "bodies".

How do we know which organs will fit together? I think that is to do with being a "body of thought" first... then the different "organs" will come closer to start functioning together instead of separately. (I could explain this better, and take the analogy further - as I do in my mind - but time - and my typing speed is against that) I wonder what others think. 

Pam

One of the key  things I see Pam that if we can share memories, we will be able to thread better.

I see the time we are given and the activities we are involved in and the responsibilities we hold, not allowing us to be available to share and hear.

I see the game plan of multipliers is also that, that we who want to be natural are made into products, who are lost in doing the same thing for lifetime as the demand is such.

I see we have to move from the doing the samethings, see that they are takenover by next generation and thus we will be available to share our memories and hear beautiful experiences thus to grow, contribute & merge.

Friends,

This thought I like to share -

As I saw death taking over life, I felt is it so simple.

When I see life moving I see it is so tough.

So, is it that Iam advocating death.

No, I am glorifying the process of death overtaking life.

This lesson of being witness to death and its strength of putting an end to Life.

I always thought Life and glorified Life and now I see reality is death.

It's time to celebrate when we are alive and accept death.

So much into it, I see I have lots to say and I see it's this reason I keep posting.

Hope this small world has space for these expressions.

 -Surya Prakash.

Hi Everyone -

I'm still around, but have just kicked off a new Co-learner's list with former astronaut Brian O'Leary among others. This is an international list to discuss NewEnergy in the form of Zero Point Energy and other alternatives and the role they will  play in creating sustainable living communities. We are also discussing the great need for a quantum leap in consciousness to allow us to think in this manner and cut new neural networks that are the pathways to a peaceful future. Most people at this point cannot conceptualize Zero Point Energy, but then there was a time when almost no one could conceptualize a round earth, Jesus or God.  Neither did anyone know what a Nation-State was. I think now we are having to stop and consider what are "natural" boundaries and what are "artificial" boundaries and consider what artificial boundaries and/or mythology has done and continues to do to create an unreal and many times aberrent world due to the hatred engendered by mind-screwing about things that have no basis in reality -- racial prejudice for example, religious differences, and borders. 

Think about it.  How much less deaths and suffering would we have if we all lived in the real world with only natural boundaries.

Anyway just not enough hours in the day -- but please, don't go away. 

 .   

Hi, everyone, I am still around.  I keep looking for interesting ideas to stimulate me.  I am very practical on the side of poverty alleviation through small business development.  I want something sustaining.  That is the reason why I am glad to read Pamela McLean's post.

Pam, glad to have you back into this discussion.  Can you please post me a comment on my paper which was sent to you.  I will like to know what we can do together to move the people in Ogun State, Nigeria, out of poverty sustainably. I really love this kind of thought to flow in this discussion.

I look forward to hear from you soon.

Remain blessed.

Segun

Yesterday while I was thinking, I came across these words - "no matter how well you organize yourself to know, you always fall short of something"

Age,education,exposure do not assure, its but for this fact one has to make efforts to have dialogue to enhance, clarify & move forward.

Second major observation is that unless family becomes part of the community, issues & pain remain personal.

Friends, our efforts should be to unite the world and make the world as one unit( it is one unit), as said by Marguerite -

Think about it.  How much less deaths and suffering would we have if we all lived in the real world with only natural boundaries.

we have lesser chance of facing or we have more energy to face situations which hurt us.

Share, keep sharing, please dont withhold -liberate yourself.

- surya prakash.

Dear Prakash,

Thank you for charging us on.  We all need one another and as such we need to share and not withold.  Life is about sharing and prospering.  I wish we can plug ourselves into this philosophical thought.

Remain blessed.

Segun

Good Segun, good to read your words.

Your consistent note in your posts - remain blessed prompted me to send this site address -http://www.mayyoubeblessedmovie.com/onemillionblessings.html.Please visit if possible.

This was sent by my canadian friend.

I am happy the dialogue is on - I only wish this to be made known on the home page of SE, so that busy schedulers could visit or re visit the workshop and share their beautiful thoughts.

Hope Victor and his team reads this above sentence and takes a decision.

GOD BLESS SE.

-surya prakash.

This is an international list to discuss NewEnergy in the form of Zero Point Energy and other alternatives and the role they will play in creating sustainable living communities. We are also discussing the great need for a quantum leap in consciousness to allow us to think in this manner and cut new neural networks that are the pathways to a peaceful future. Most people at this point cannot conceptualize Zero Point Energy, but then there was a time when almost no one could conceptualize a round earth, Jesus or God. Neither did anyone know what a Nation-State was.

I think in this model we (the various individuals and groups here) are all a bit like separate cells or organs -- and we don't need any one cell or organ to grow huge, or to replicate itself - we just need the appropriate cells and organs to cluster together and collaborate to create appropriate "bodies".

How do we know which organs will fit together? I think that is to do with being a "body of thought" first... then the different "organs" will come closer to start functioning together instead of separately

I only wish this to be made known on the home page of SE, so that busy schedulers could visit or re visit the workshop and share their beautiful thoughts.

Hi everyone,

Charles thanks for bringing out the points in Pam's message because I've been flying through here at breakneck speed lately and really missed the essence of it. The way she expresses it reminds me of the Dalai Lama's book: The Universe in an Atom in which he mainly compares quantum physics and Buddhism finding there is little if any difference. It appears to be true that the Universe is just a replication of an atom but at with much greater depth and breadth of complexity. 

Anyway, as to 'the question" -- Our group, which is headed up by former astronaut Brian O'Leary, as he considers it critical that we get to Zero Point Energy if we are to have a chance at mitigating global climate change, needs to have a forum structured like this one at Social Edge because we need to address several other different topics at one time related to ZPE or other forms of energy we are referring to as "new energy".   

Is it possible to obtain the name of the software being used here? 

Or, another alternative -- would Victor consider putting this forum on the Social Edge with Bryan and myself as facilitators. He travels a lot which is why I am including myself as a facilitator. Or, you Charles as I could use some extra time to work on the book I'm writing and the accompanying website.  

 This is a subject on which we need "enlightenment" ASAP as much new research is available on it which needs to be made available to the public at large so we don't get hung up in the nuclear thing.  We have some very in-formed people on this list along with some who aren't and are committed to renewable energy -- so the dialogue gets very interesting and we cover a lot of territory each day. So a very lively happening as we get over into the area of human consciousness and realize that it will take a "quantum leap" for most to be able to deal with the future. This would attract another sector of people, including some research scientists, to The Social Edge.

You know, with the end of cheap oil in sight, we currently have no energy source that can power an airplane.  And ethanol, which will compete for land with our food supply, is now considered the top energy supply to power our automobiles.  This is very, very serious stuff.  

with warm regards,

marguerite

With Marguerite recent posts I see seriousness of science and scientific knowledge and need for convergence for sharing on - ZPE.

I keep getting stuck at this, I was a medical student when I lost my sister in 1983, I saw paucity of knowledge and technologythen, if she would have been alive now she would have had treatment for her problem - Tricuspid Atresia.

After 17 years my brother was diagnosed in the year 2000 june 7th that he is suffering from Primary Pulmonary Hypertension (PPH). The doctors world over declared that we can prolong his life but we cannot assure and he was on some experimental drugs and he survived for 6 years from the day of diagnosis and he died, in 2006 Jan 20th.

Unfortunate that I am writing about deaths and experiences after death in this floor, but I cannot quote from any other or others experiences - please excuse me for that.

I see that 20years fom now had my brother survived he would have treatment - Science always growing but at it's own pace - unlucky me.

Moving from this just let me share what is coming to my thought now:

I see that we have two worlds:

1) A world of plenty of resources of all kinds and opportunity to think, act and justify.

2) Another world lack of the above or inadequate access or selective access to resources and here in this world too justification exists and when questioned no answers would satisfy the reasons for justification.

Queit painful Charles,Pam,Marguerite,Segun, Dan and others who are reading these lines.

Still we have to move on.

I like to strip myself and shout at these shameless and ruthless individuals that - is this what we expected out of so much knowledge accumulated to be available for few and they have guts to justify.

With all respects to all the individuals who have spent their life time to help us relate like this with one touch of a button - I like to submit YES we have to move on, but with caution.

We are always, at the end of the day being dictated by the powerful and weak individuals who decide about our life - a life our parents who with utmost care and affection brought us up to survive and serve.

Friends this is deffinetly not an emotional post, but a post with heavy heart, to say I love you so much that I want you to spread the word that, let no being die to meet selfish needs of few.

Your,

Surya Prakash.

Hi Charles

Thanks for your quick response --

and quick message to Surya Prakash -- You have some great thoughts and I

will respond ASAP.     

Hi Charles, OK let's keep talking. Do you know that I still marvel every time I pick up the phone and talk with someone on the other side of the world. And now with the Internet and the marvels of it. Just a couple days ago I asked re: software and you came back with CAUCUS.com. So, just today I got a msg from my friend in London who has a server and it looks like we are going to be able to install it along with ImageMagick so as to continue the forum on New Energy which we have started as PTP, in a very professional format.  Not only that, but I love it that CAUCUS is really designed to do online ed courses -- The Turtle Island Institute   needs this kind of program as we are a virtual univeristy -- just getting off the ground -- and not knowing really how to go about things, but now with this program coupled with a website we can go, go, go.   

The idea also is for us to learn how to do things without money so that we are not indebted to anyone who can then pull our strings, if you know what I mean.  Originally, we had a 501(c)3, but then decided we did not want to go this route, but want to try and create a "self-organizing movement" of people who will create sustainable living communities internationally and weave this tapestry that is life-sustaining in a very organic way -- not something that is tied to the bottom line.  So, far it seems to be working.  It has been amazing how many things have happened along the way where out of the blue, a big chunk of information such as this software program seems to almost "fall out of the sky" just at the right time. So, I do thank you again, Charles for your assistance with this "small piece"  of a very large tapestry we are weaving here. And I'm so thankful for the miracle of communication we have.  I send a message from So. Cal. to you wherever you are and then one to London, England that will enable us to engage millions of people from all parts of the world in learning how to make this a better place. We are truly blessed.   

We have lot's of pigeons around.

For my work & life they are the motivation.

Whenever I am down I come out of my house, to see pigeons.

I usually see them in pairs and common site I see them is pecking each other.

Then suddenly they move and will hop back.

I see them pushing if any new commer comes & hops in their area.

Still they cometogether when grains are served, they neatly finish everything.

At night across the window I see they hanging on quietly, only move if they are disturbed by sound.

Small world no doubt but free of institutions & occupiers.

If you live them alone they live & survive.

All my work is about this - doing away with institutions & making food available for our fellow human beings, no doubt we are small but we have will to do & survive.

your,

surya prakash.

Sitting here at my computer, I just looked out the window and my very small hummingbird friend flew up to say "hi".  To keep myself sane in this chaotic world I garden and this year for the first time in almost eight years we had a good amount of rain -- so the blossoms are spectacular this year. Several years ago I decided that I wanted to live surrounded by beauty and moved to this wilderness area away from the traffic and the craziness of the city. 

My last home, before losing it all, was a six-bedroom, four-bath edifice complete with swimming pool. Now I live in a 24' RV in among pine trees, black locust, oaks and manzanita in the high desert and foothills.  I find I much prefer the latter -- the smallness of the RV with windows on all sides gives me the feeling that I am out-of-doors all the time and am a part of nature. Working on this book, The Sacred Quest, which is about the evolution of human consciousness -- the biology of it and how it works in conjunction with cosmic consciousness is the most rewarding and exciting thing I have ever done.  The environment combined with this rewarding work has allowed me to take down the last vestiges of artificial boundaries conferred by our present social structure and become part of the oneness of it all.  As my mind heals, I also pray that my body, which is beginning to feel the ravages of time lived in a hostile and stressful world, will heal as well and give me many more years in this paradise.  Given that I could do it all over again, I would never have left the peaceful beauty of the Ohio countryside that I grew up in for the artificial world of the city. 

Not too long ago, author Jared Diamond wrote that quite probably the biggest mistake that the human family made was giving up the "hunter-gather" way of life and becoming agriculturalists.  Civilization as we know it has been built on topsoil but at the cost of it -- today topsoil is disappearing 17% faster than it can be replaced.  Dependent upon location it may take from 500 to 1000 years to replace one square inch of topsoil. While our focus has now been drawn to global climate change and the end of cheap oil as the crisis, the end of topsoil and with it our water supply may be the "gotcha" of all times.   

The great question to ponder is: Why is humanity, wth all of our supposed intelligence such a destructive force against the very system that suckles us? our life support system?     

I hope to find answers as I search the secrets of human consciousness for "The Sacred Quest"           

Charles, Pam & Marguerite,

Whenever I read  your posts - I see wealth of knowledge.

So much of reading being done and I see your ability to quote appropriately says how well you read.

I see I am midst of such great resource and your quest to do something more meaningful and ability to acknowledge, says how well you  respect others view points.

Marguerite says - the most rewarding and exciting thing I have ever done - Writing the book  -The Sacred Quest, which is about the evolution of human consciousness -- the biology of it and how it works in conjunction with cosmic consciousness.

Energy & motivation I see in the posts is so inspiring.

As I said before I wish more join this journey - small is beautiful.

Towards bringing new energy I am sharing content with some of my friends and inviting them to write ( if they are convinced only).

I wish, just a suggestion - is it posibble others who are reading do invite your friends.

This workshop is turning out to be holy.

You can say visit the site  for small is beautiful and get blessed.

Your,

surya prakash

surya prakash, you are a jewel among jewels.  I feel so fortunate that we have met here like this.  And, "yes" -- I will prepare a message and invite some of my friends to meet us here and join in "weaving the tapestry".  Let us see what we can accomplish together -- those of us who are here now -- if each of us can bring only one other and we keep duplicating in this manner we could grow quickly.  

marguerite

I have sent out invitations to almost 300 people to join with us here, but so far no takers. This is extremely disappointing to me as I have just recently viewed a video containing the information upon which "An Inconvenient Truth" is based. For those not familiar with this new movie release, it is about the challenges the world faces with Global Warming and is presented by Al Gore. 

There seems to be a great deal of denial going on with regard to this subject; however, Jim Hansen, G.W. Bush's advisor from NASA on global warming recently said that the administration had been censoring his reports so as to play down the affects of this occurrence to the public.  How this jeopardizes our personal security is demonstated in the video I viewed by a glacier dissolving into the ocean just 35 days after scientists had viewed it and said it would be there another 100 years. 

The pictures shown as supporting data for global warming and as being "man made" are both dramatic and frightening.  There is evidence that the Gulf Stream has now slowed by 30 percent over the past decade.  And there is nothing to stop it from continuing.  The last time this happened, a Little Ice Age occurred making much of Europe an extremely hostile environment.  I also just read an article by well known biologist, Elisabet Sathouris, in which she writes that we will see a forced migration of unimaginable proportions due to global climate change. And, Al Gore is telling us that there is little doubt now that we will see this in his lifetime. 

I urge everyone who has the ability to see "An Inconvenient Truth" and wake up to the reality of what is occurring on our small planet.  Without cooperation and a williness to share information and resources, there is grave doubt as to how the human family will manage this worldwide crises unprecedented in human recorded history. 

It is obvious that government does not know how to address this crisis -- it appears that we the people are on our own. This demands that we hold our hands to one an other and form international "networks of purpose" for mutual universal aid and support.  This is not a time for war and more destructive behavior.

Dear Marguerite,

Right now I am holding your hand.......................................................did you feel it.

That's the power of human being.

We can place ourselves anywhere, only thing is that we have to feel for it.

I keep getting amazed power we human beings blessed with.

Unfortunately, when you say Life does matter there are 'N' who add 'n' to the word - Life does'n't matter.

I always lived and going to live till I last and I die everyday because of these 'n'.

But it doesn't matter.

But I live because when I know I am not alone.

In socialedge I see people like me who are serious about what they say.

That's beautiful isn't it.

So, we are limited only to the extent of being truthful to ourselves, we have to be cautious there are constant forces who tempt us to deviate, we are strong no doubt but they are weak, so we have to eat well, think well and execute.

I wish you great health and happy times.

Let insecure people fool themselves in closed environment.

We are birds, lets fly and spread the word.

Your,

prakash. 

Paramount Classics has committed 5% of the domestic theatrical gross for An Inconvenient Truth to be donated to a new bipartisan climate effort, Alliance for Climate Protection.

I see that we are pausing in between.

I feel or wonder whether we can afford to?

I see the so called "Development" (Market expansion) is happening, crossing all boundaries lets reflect right now the speed, absolutely no pause at all.

We are just pawns in there hands.

When food is what we need to  survive, grow & sustain, see how it is traded - brutelessly.

Actually like air,sun, ideally food should have been available without conditions, is it happening.

Reality is we paused and now we PURCHASE.

So, appeal my friends - dont pause just communicate and share your experiences, your expressions might help us not to pause.

your,

surya prakash.

Prakash - I feel you holding out your hand and am clasping it in mine.  Yesterday wrote two messages here and before I could send them, for different reasons, they got deleted -- so I got the message that what I wrote was not as valid as it could be and I needed to "phase space" or step back and look at things more closely -- ensuring I am acting with regard to the situation -- not being a "reaction" to it. 

Went to the participate.net website which Charles referred us to -- it was  interesting, and, also found a link to a new organization that is setting up a means for individuals like you and I to "pod-cast" -- it's like being a mini radio station.  Have you checked these things out yet? 

Am also trying to set up the Caucus program on the website where the Turtle Island Institute is hosted so we can do both forums and online educational courses re: evolving human consciousness to the next level, and achieving sustainable living communities, from that site. 

My plate is overloaded at present and am trying to give consideration as to how to rearrange things so as to focus my energy and make the greatest impact with the largest number of people possible at this time. 

I believe this is through formin "Co-learn'er's Lists" and engaging the largest number of people possible in forming "Networks of Purpose" -- Purpose being to evolve human consciousness to the level necessary to deal with the complexity of the challenges with which the human family is faced today. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto -- this is a whole new world that the human mind is not currently prepared to manage effectively. We have to develop this talent at the same time we are coping with the problems -- but, this is OK as the solution to the problem always lays within the problem itself. 

So, grant me the time to ponder this -- any suggestions are most welcome.  

Hello: I am impressed by the level of discourse that you Guys Prakash hip bone marg and others take this forum to.

I am a new entrant to this new world of connecting. I liked the concept of spiritualizing wok, life and lives and if this forum does provide just a few people that opportunity to re-live their passions and practice compassion- that is great. That is actually recognizing there is divinity present in every one and that is the first step to take. Practice compassion while building courage to accept reality and assist each other to build hope and resilience. I am a resilient worker. I teach practice and build hope.

Surya Prakash- Marg described him as  a jewel amongst this group of thinkers. I am sure she really recognized a think tank. A tank of ever floating wisdom. For his age that I can gauge by his jpg image this man would be under 40s. But he has seen a lot of suffering. Others- suffering and his own. Built around this reality is his struggle with attachment. He is attempting to come out slowly but steadily.

I have gone back into the posts to read some of his views on greed as opposed to need. How so few accumulate all knowledge and let several others walk in ignorance- yet while that walk could have been together, sharing, rearing and nurturing.

Dear Fellow thinkers and most beautiful people in the world. I have met this Dr Surya Prakash.   We met when I was last in the city of Hyderabad to talk about strength based strategies to build individuals, groups, communities, organizations and the whole of society. You can find more on this at

http://strengthbasedstrategies2006.cfsites.org/  

From then on a sort of mutual respect was built around the work we do in different parts of the world.  - I admire what Dr Prakash does.

It is nice to ponder over the Indian names -at least the ones which have some great meaning. The word 'Surya' or 'Soorya' means the Sun and 'Prakash' means the light.

Surya Prakash is sunlight.

Sunlight is always there. Some clouds travel closer to sun and like all planets earth moves too. This is what science taught us.  I suppose that is why sun rise is warm, glowing, invigorating, graceful, life giving and assisting in our growth. Seeds sprout. Buds blossom. Leaves start their starch preparation. Ants move in a single file. Birds chirp and cuckoos and crows fly away. The day begins and Life begins.

But as the clock ticks hour after hour in another part of this very planet sunlight reveals itself as scorching heat of the desert sun. Businesses come to halt. People hide their skin. Life looks as if it has come to a halt. Sunlight reflects well on the gold bars sold in the markets of Dubai at that point of time. All on the road. No one to steal. I suppose there is a metaphorical competition between the rays and light reflected by gold bars by the kilos and straight on them the sun light. This wasn’t healthy sunlight for the human hides. But life continues on.

The clock ticks away and when dusk settles down, birds, ants and all life reutrns home. Life appears as if sun light is not there. A certain amount of calmness engulfs.

Sunlight was always there. Some clouds traveled much closer to sun. The sun set looks kinder than warm, , calmer and slowly disappearing than glowing, settling us all down after a days invigorating work;  gracefully letting us rest along with the birds, ants and all other life forms Those sprouts that have grown an inch further- Amazing- though you don’t really venture into gardens in the night. But if you did, you will see that a small leaf has appeared only to become placid and pick up some rest before commencing its own starch preparation tomorrow.

As it is dusk, even blossomed buds turn inwards. Leaves too become docile. Ants rest too I am unsure if they rest in a single file in the opposite direction ready for tomorrow.

Birds including cuckoos and crows chirping loudly before they return home. The dusk has settled in. The day has ended a night has begun. But the sunlight was always there. We humans, plants and bird and all life only saw darkness.

The clock ticks hour after hour unmindful of sunlight.  And fair enough we comfort and cajole nurse and look after ourselves. So does the rest of life. But sunlight is always there.

Dawns and dusks are both life. Both healthy. They are created here and they do end here only to start yet another cycle. We remorse due to attachment.

Put things in Helder Camara’s words:

‘Join together all

Stone brick and the tile

Compose the house.

Unbuilt the pile

of single elements

are the hope of a house.

But more important is to plan and put it up.

The building done

Is greater than

The unassembled material’

What is sunlight teaching us overtime?

To recognize change- as each day begins and ends. Each day, day after day enveloping 24 hours we see change- 24-7 and 365 days we see change- what wisdom do we get through this? That there is no once for all transformation?

There is not a pill   here to stop ageing or a process to vanish decay. They cloned a sheep which was aged be fore it was born.  And they wall clone or mummy us and have us in the drawing room for ever so that our children don’t miss us?

Sunlight brings the freshness of the beginning. Imagine the most beautiful aroma of the first rain touching a piece of parched earth.

 You couldn’t contain that in a bottle if you wished to. It is there for a fleeting moment. The earth gets soaked and that lovely smell that your nostrils consumed remains only a thought transformed and enters your brain. You can now visualize the smell but you could not return to the smell as the earth starts soaking and if the forecast is great and you have incessant rain for some period even foul smell comes from the same parched earth? Has life stopped? No. Life is there even in evaporation. The freshness of sunlight brings fundamental structural changes. These can go sour or crook for a number of reasons. But we must accept that we do not live in a world of absolutes. We do not have total sickness nor a perfect prescription. Every beautiful blonde ages. Earthworms decay and decompose. Nevertheless we should not give up. We should never give up because some people are too greedy if we do we are then not recognizing our power to interact with light. If we give up we only take the darkness.

This Very dawn to some, brings suffering. Is there a facilitator somewhere to make these people see an opportunity to work in that suffering and work through that suffering? Every dawn brings desperate problems. Why do we fail to see that it also brings along a learning based on how we attempted at previous problems?

If there are people who always want to take there are also people who have nothing really much but are always giving? Which side of the light we want to stand to end the darkness?

Things are not just the way they are. Never will be. It is possible to change. It is possible to do things better and differently and that’s what we all need to re-learn and en-courage each other. That is the beginning of surya prakash- the sunlight.

Why worry about next birth? Why waste time? Let us give our best here. Now.

Was it Paulo Coelho who said?

‘We will only understand the miracle of life when we allow the unexpected to happen”

I have a full quote of his.

But for the present I want to say this much I have enjoyed reading the wisdom, genuine feeling, empathy and camaraderie of this group and if you think I have said some insane things. I beg your indulgence. I will return again.

Thank you. It was beautiful to read every one’s posting

Dr Venkat Pulla

5 Mandell Close Coopers Plains, Qld 4108

Australia

Dr.venkat.pulla@gmail.com

At the outset I like to say thank you all for the kind words bestowed on me.

I also have to say this - I felt uneasy to have so much of extensive expressions.

I said in open what I went through only to have few friends who would understand the tough phase I was in.

When compared to unexpected earthquakes in indonesia where more than 6000 died or when war planes cloud around unprepared citizens or BT Cotton pushed in the fields by the dealers for want of profit or young girls to the tune of 1.5 lakhs are trafficked .................................................... in front of these some situations my pain is nothing.

Unfortunately I had to express somewhere what I was going through and fortunately - Charles workshops in social edge - 1) How to prepare for unexpected & 2) Small is beautiful were in the run during difficult periods of mine.

So, I expressed -

This I see a limitation of me -I share what I am going through, I am not a well read person, 'Yes' I saw life and I see life and I am learning from wealth of knowledge shared in social edge.

Friends - I see any floor created for promotion of common good sustains.

I see any expressions of promotion of individual thought might hamper the process.

No individual is individual he carries so much - his life, others, by way of reading, situations and imaginations.

It's difficult to judge whether it is indeginous or borrowed as even indegenous do have genetic predisposition.

So, we are carriers of good word  just like Typhoid carriers, we might have the bacteria but we may not be effected, so so we might be saying and we may not be following.

So, let this holy execrcise on social edge remain holy.

With love,

your,

surya prakash.

When compared to unexpected earthquakes in indonesia where more than 6000 died or when war planes cloud around unprepared citizens or BT Cotton pushed in the fields by the dealers for want of profit or young girls to the tune of 1.5 lakhs are trafficked ....... in front of these some situations my pain is nothing.

I just enjoy dew.

The same way I enjoy your response, your moderation is beautiful.

I see one has to work to survive & serve.

We should not get lost in serving ourselves.

Thus we can avoid becoming indebted.

Freedom is lost when we accumulate.

To free ourselves we have to shed sweat.

Thus all negative energies will get mopped out of our system.

Frankly I saw death and I know it's beautiful.

So lets work towards spending each minute, so that when the sweet moment comes, we will smile.

When we smile at tough situations - we conquer.

With love,

Surya Prakash.

I was just reflecting one of the ways we could induce discipline is by communicating how insecure environment we are living. As I feel when you are absolutely sure you tend to relax more than what you should and you are opening avenues for few who like to catch up with your peace & destroy.

This era is of communication & with it we are gifted with uncertainities - a very difficult situation,where in to monitor becomes difficult unless & until everybody is alert. 

Just a thought.

Is it true we can promote discipline by this.

But need to be disciplined or say self regulator, that is, we should be able to draw a line and say this, this I will & this I will not.

Being strong enough to say no is as important as saying yes.

We are filled with so many sensory stimuli we fail to undersatand purpose of life.

Unless & until we have regular prompters who are responsible we are dragged towards uncertainities.

Firefighting approaches should take back seat.

Thus we could be filled with ideal picture of sorrounded by greenery, noise of only humming birds, running fresh water, smiles everywhere................................

Just waiting for a day where we are freed from this running around in crowded streets, honking horns, live action of street fights, accidents, hanging wires of - eletricity, telephones & cable tv's, hoardings of  movies showing mindless voilence, bar & liqour shops right under & infront of schools, open drains ..................

The above situation is what I am living in - I am sure it's the same everywhere, wherever "development" is happening.

Real development is possible only if realize life & be alert & be available.

Your,

Surya Prakash. 

Did you see the match between Netherlands & Portugal aired on 25th June.

Voilence personified.

Game is so beautiful, but voilence on the field & out the field, demonstrates how much time & money we are wasting.

Referee he did his JOB by throwing record # of Red cards.

If rule permits I would have disqualified both the teams.

They have set a trend for the future matches.

So cross your fingers and wait for more voilence.

How beautiful it would have been if we had only radio, we could have avoided witnessing the live drama.

Keep posting against this wherever possible, so that we protect the game and enjoy its beauty.

-surya prakash.

Hello!

Once an young enterprenuer who was good at fixing door bells, was hired by an electrical shop owner.

In response to one such request he was instructed to respond to an complaint, that to fix the problem of non - functional door bell.

He returned to the shop after attending to the problem.

The complaintant came next day in furious mood and blasted the owner " why his problem was not attended to?

The shop owner was shocked and called the enterprenuer and asked why he didnt do his JOB.

Enterprenuer cooly answered he did visit the house but " what to do none attended when he pressed the door bell?

your,

Surya Prakash.

How are you?

Paused for a while and eagerly waited to hear a word from you.

Couldn't control but mail again.

To say I am waiting.

Sitting in a corner

I think of you

Never know

When

You would respond

Passed through the phases

of

UP & DOWNS,

Miseries & Celebrations

What matters now

is

the WORK

AND

Your words encourage me

To move forward

-surya prakash vinjamuri

Hi friends @ social Edge,

I am relatively new to this and have been actively browsing various topics for quite some time. Feels that time has come for me to act.

It is a reality that we are a part of this big universe, but the very fact is that the universe itself is a quantum of enrgy, informed both by modern science and ancients Indian vedas.

So this small quata of energy may be full and huge within itself and it could be this fullness that helps us in maintaing the balance intact. May be this could be the reason of Shanthi Manthra, which says

That is Whole, This is whole

if Whole is taken from whole, the rest too is whole

Ohm santhi santhi santhi

I would also like to quote from Zorba the greek of Kazantzakis, where Zorba the nomadic friend of the author prepares and send a letter from his deathbed.

".......And tell him that whatever I have done, i have no regrets, tell him I hope he is well and that it's time he showed a bit of sense.

"Listen, just another minutr. If some priest or other comes to take my confession and give me a sacrement, tell him to clear out quick, and leave me his curse instead! I've done heaps and heaps of things in my life, but still I did not do enough. Men like me ought to live a thousand years. Good Night!"

So we are like this as we feels that we need to do lots, and let us act as we feel for we really dont have an explanation for that feeling, even then we work for that.

srijith Sridharan 

Marguerite ,Pam, & Charles,

It's been real long time that you came to this dialogue, a dialogue which is very close to my heart.

How are you?

When we travel and deviate and come back to tracks, we always wish we meet.

How sweet to be with known people and especially when so much to share.

Two months back I started a new initiative called "Open House".

A place where these things are of primary focus:

1. Sharing of Knowledge on food & health.
2. Dialogue on Life
3. Sharing of food at night between 11 PM - 1 AM.

 Of all the three the one which is close to my heart is sharing of food and the idea to intervention is what thrills me.

I believe the saying " Treat every Idea as King".

And I follow it.

Deffinetly conviction is the driving force and I am now working almost 22 hrs.

Deffinetly maddening but I like to comeover the tragedy I faced and I thought best way would be giving my full energy to the society.

Please make efforts to drop few lines,

With warm regards,

your,

Surya Prakash.

MarandaMurphy - Oct 20, 2006 9:28 am (#132 Total: 132)

Connecting Entreprenuers

Hello! You are all brilliant, I love reading your messages. I am new to this site and fairly new to the field. I am a grad student studying NPO Mgt and have been designing a business to connect entreprenuers in developing nations via text messaging and the internet. It seems like all of the communication tools and marketing materials are to the NGOs and Govt leaders that strengthen these small businesses, not really to the individual entreprenuers themselves and for that reason many businesses, even if successful, are limited in their influence.

What do you think of this idea? THANK YOU!