Reporting here from Boudhanath, Kathmandu, with some random observations…
- little kids playing frisbee here in the street, using a 6″ square of cardboard for a frisbee
- whole chickens sitting out on tables in front of meat shops, heads and feet still attached, proprietors shooing flies from the tables
- a teenager passes by wearing a black t-shirt with a farrah fawcett blond on the front, with a gold nosering inserted through the fabric
- reading jonathan schell’s the unconquerable world and sitting around talking with maggie camfield about her travels in india and tibet, and the future of india, china, usa, tibet, nepal
- we stop in a tibetan carpet store i visited last year, the owner is napping but jumps up when we enter… and says, “hello, michael!” as we’d just talked yesterday
- the smell of garbage and incense, the play of little kids in tiny school uniforms and big backpacks, beautiful eyes and smiles, old lamas limping along dragging malas and chanting mantra under their breath
- a chorus, nay veritable cacophony of dogs erupts at one a.m.
This is some of what it’s like here. Some other observations posted in LondonCalling and also my NepalConferenceJournal is posted in the wiki.
That conference was conducted as a blend of Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology. The results are summarized and translated from the official declaration that was reported in national and local media and delivered to important government officials here.
- Initiating support to concerned stakeholders for conflict transformation and peace building, to protect and to muliply the past achievements and present life energies of Nepal, as identified in the Discovery phase of the conference.
- Protecting and multiplying the district-level Imagine Initiatives in all 75 districts of Nepal, as a movement for peaceful development.
- Developing an organizational structure for Imagine Initiatives and regional and national networks that supports egalitarian and autonomous functioning, on the ground and on the internet.
- Adopting Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology as theoretical guides and grounding principles of all AI Networks and Imagine Initiatives in Nepal.
- Organizing regional AI network summits in all five development regions and a Second National Summit of Imagine Initiatives of Nepal, in Palpa, West Nepal, in the Fall of 2005.
- Inviting, respecting and appreciating the contribution made by each citizen, private organization, and government institution as our primary vehicle for peace and peacemaking, community and development.
We also set up a suite of weblogs there, so that now they have a leading edge sort of web presence that we’ve linked in to the sCNN as well. It’s all good.