Artur and all the others who gave me a "be welcome again", thank you, your immediate reactions give me a warm and cosy feeling and it was nice to re-insert me into the discussion process. Thanks to Michael M. for giving me the "kick" I needed to climb out of my snail's shell.
On Wed, 9 Jan 2002 16:23:35 +0000, Artur F. Silva wrote: >Welcome back, Bernd. >Another point: when we talk about "letting go" we are normally >thinking >about letting *the others go*. I think that sometimes to let go our >own gut >feelings is equally important. Yes, but we have to stay aware of what Sigmund F. called Gegenübertragung, just not to abuse the power situation and use the others (to much) as therapeuts for yourself without having any such contract. Whenever open space is really working, this is no problem, because the law of the two feet is without doubt the best medicine against abuse by (us) therapeuts, trainers, facilitators, sonsultants,moderators,...gurus >Of course, that attitude can not be repeated all the times as >progressively >people must take their destiny in their hands. I think it was Roger >Debray >that >once wrote that the one very important thing that revolutionaries >must do >in the last part ot their intervention is to make themselves >dispensable. Yes, unfortunately, they usually started loving their power (to stay the same), when they got it. There are few ones, who knew the right point in time to despense themselves. <But >he was thinking about something one must care in the last phases of >an >intervention; not in the first ones... Yes and no, I agree with many of the postings here in the oslist: The better I are able, not to interfere with the ongoing self-organizing prozess, but to stay "present", be "with" the process, the better the things will work out. > >I am not sure if we can talk about an African context common to all >the >African regions and countries. Even if we consider only sub-Saharan >Africa >there are very different situations depending on previous origin, >colonization >culture and type. > >First in a country like Moçambique (or Angola or South Africa) there >are many >different original tribes with different characteristics and >histories. >Than the >different colonizing countries introduced other differences. But >even each >colonizer country ruled in different ways and that had consequences >in >today's African culture. > >For instance - contrarily to Angola or Cape Vert, the Portuguese >colonialism in >Mocambique was strongly influenced by the English way (dominant in >Rhodesia >and part of South Africa) and also (specially in the North) by the >Islamic >religion. >Also in the North (and specially in Gorongosa) very big agricultural >labor >intensive >farms conducted natives to a situation close to slavery. Yes, thank you for the differenciation. Which is a necessary one. >What is common in all ex-colonies is that the colonizer deprived the >natives >of almost all decisions - so they get used to "follow the leaders" >and expect >decisions to be made by "those officially responsible". When, as in >the >majority >of Portuguese ex-colonies, colonialism was replaced by pro-sovietic >parties >the same trend was still enforced. > >The other characteristic is that colonialism means that the >economical power >is out of the territory and so it prepares the conditions for neo- >colonialism. >The economical power continues to be in the ends of foreign >countries (either >exploiters or donors) and what is left to local authorities is to >accept >brides - >Mocambique (like Angola) is among the countries in the world were >corruption >of the politics is bigger. So the population gets used to not take >decisions >that belong to others "officially responsible" as those will probably >change those >decisions if that is convenient to the external economical powers >that bride >them... Yes, these are good insights. Thank you Artur. Still I have got the problem(, that I want more, because) this is "our" way of perceiving, thinking, explaining -(semi-)external white folks with a very specific intellectual political ethical,... socialization. Of course: I am austrian,(well, I am from southern styria, a "Sulmtaler") you are portuguese, but within the context of my argument, we are simple part of the white,rich euro-american social expert community I try to lead this dialogue with my frieds and collegues, wherever it is possible (in fact not so many around here in Beira, and when we meet, we tend to use it to lick our wounds, to stabilize our egos, produce cynical "worst stories" about "we & they", believe, that we understand each other perfectly in a more or less 'hostile ambiente'...and that is okay, but not the best starting point for differenciating dialogue ). But I still suffer from a lack of (being able? having the oportunities, meeting the right people?..) solid and diferenciated dialogue/polylogue with "the other side (s)" i.e. people who share the community of practise, who are part of this new global learning network, but were raised within "the colonies",the south, the poor countries and had heard other stories, when they were little kids,... My dream is, to get the "right" stakeholder mixture during such a dialogue. We will see. Bernhard >========================================================== >[email protected] >------------------------------ >To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, >view the archives of [email protected], >Visit: > >http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > ----- Bernd Weber [email protected], on 10.01.2002 at 06:13:35 Organization Development Consultant "DEVELOP YOUR CAPACITIES - MATERIALIZE YOUR VISION" C.P. 1462, Beira, Sofala, MOZAMBIQUE fone: +258-3-32 98 59, cellfone:+258-82-43 79 77 ----- WB-TrainConsult management- & human resources training, consulting & development ----- Gumpendorfer Straße 88b/18, AT-1060 Wien, AUSTRIA fone & fax: +431 596 86 57 ----- Anti-Virus precautions: 1) All attachments of my mails are mentioned by name in this e-mail Please do not open any other attachment! 2) Please send text documents in Rich Text Format (*.rtf) attachment(s) : None * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
