coeworld's blog

The Value of Friendship, Tolerance and Respect within Education of Economics and Business

coeworld — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 20:35:53 +0000

Saskia Troy

Within the past years Ban Ki Moon (Secretary-General of the United Nations) has been stressing many times the role of education as the most powerful weapon in building peace across nations. According to the principles of the Earth Charter Initiative and the UN’s Human Rights Declaration in order to integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Education shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

Even though the situation might have slightly changed within the past decennia with the introduction of peace education, sustainable economics, holistic learning and dynamic system modeling within education of economics and business, nevertheless, the concept of the self-made individual man or woman who benefits society by doing what’s good for him or her is still being emphasized. Instead of teaching students to be sustainable leaders for the 21st century in many business schools and economic institutes still is thought how to serve the interest of the individual without taking care of the common good.

Let’s take a close look of what these kind of economics education has brought us within the culture of financial markets. In order to illustrate the foregoing statement with an example there’s been taken a look at the financial markets in the City in London and New York Wall Street. First, it has brought a culture in which fraud, injustices, waste and abuse are practices of daily business. Second, the amount of burned-outs, stress-related diseases has been increased within the past years while ruining the health and the life’s of people not able to offer resistance to the high work pressure. Third, the impact of the financial crisis has been responsible for poverty and inequality within Europe and the United States.

Within the words of Jordan Belfort (better known as the Wolf of Wall Street), who now earns 100,000 dollars a day for giving a lecture, he wasn’t the one that ruined up the reputation of Wall Street but it was Wall Street itself that did this. “The whole of Wall Street was screwing his customers. They aren’t objective and independent investment analysts. They are just sales people trying to sell as much as they can at the stock exchange and options market using any possible means” although Jordan while explaining the mistakes he made within his previous life while working as a broker in New York’s Manhattan.

This is also the case with the so-called quants which are well-trained PhD’s in mathematics or physics hired to sell so-called objective, academic models to companies that use them to illustrate what they already think they should do. Most of the time this has got to do with earning as much as money as they can. Though meanwhile their theories have presented as academic, intellectual and highly intelligent. In fact it’s just about consultants earning millions while smoking others with their exceedingly corrupted models.

Assumed is the egoistic, selfish behavior was initiated from the top management by a culture of earning bonuses they were more and more restricted. Even though these markets might have been lacking behind with regulation due to their fast growth and complexity more regulation is not the answer to the problem. The main answer to the problem is in educating people in economics and business in a way that differs from what has been done before.

Made clear by Smith’s second book Moral Sentiments the idea of the rational actor pursuing its own self- interest and thereby doing what’s good for society as a whole is one of the most widespread misunderstandings of theories on modern capitalism.

Nevertheless, it all starts with the inherent, dominant culture of egoism within economics teaching. The idea of teaching ethical values and principles in higher education within education of economics and business is still not convention as the goal is to deliver short term oriented financial professionals for the labor markets. However, this might not be the real value of higher education in economics and business.

The value of education in economics and business is in delivering sustainable leaders for the 21st century that are able to take responsibility, think independently and provide direction to others whereby being able to resist the many temptations of life that will lead to destruction of the economic system within the long term. Some business schools are already taking the lead within this challenge but others are leaking far behind still teaching paradigms that educate people in reductionist, narrow-minded ways.

For example, Rotterdam School of Management that according to Newsweek is leading within the Sustainability Index in Europe trains young people to think about how to deal with diversity management issues and respect nature. Also the idea of building on international networks of friendships that provide meaning for life is not unknown within the curriculum. The whole idea of the business education is to educate leaders for the future and not just professionals exercising their job.

Mental stress has become a large problem for employers in the City. Since October 2013 a group of companies has founded the City Mental Health Alliance that aims to strengthen the health of employers as well as provide more transparency about this topic. At the moment the City Mental Health Alliance has got twenty-five partners whereby amongst others Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, PWC and others. One of the main goals is to reduce the rising costs of illness for the employers.

During the past years some incidents have happened such as that with Morits Erhardt who is a trainee that almost past away after having worked for nights after each other, Lloyds banking Group CEO Antonio Horta Osoro who has taken a leave because of being burned-out, this as well as the stressed out supervisor of Barclays Hector Sans. Therefore in order to keep their employers for a longer time and earn their return on investment for educating them those banks and consultants invest in relaxing programs with mindfulness, meditation and music.

Also there are initiatives like the City Mothers that combine working in the financial sector with being a parent. Nevertheless, when the core business of what banks, consultants and lawyers are doing remains as Jordan Wall Street says it a bit harsh is “screwing your customers” this might be conflicting with the values they have raised with themselves or they want their children to grow up with. Psychological research has shown that having to deal within conflicting values during career and private life causes stress and illness. In order to stay healthy employers need a broad, moral framework of thinking from which they can make decisions.

The more people are educated in a broad, social-engaged manner the less problems the ones will have that stand up and ask for the contribution of their actions towards the common good with suffering from peer pressure. Like in the sports industry that has been cleaned from dope and other scandals new more honest winners will arise. The ones claiming victories based on criminal, egoistic and reckless behavior will soon leave the stage.

Within time is has become clearer within social science that compassion can be enhanced through teaching and practice within the education of economics and business. For example the ReSource Project of the Max Planck Institute in Germany is such a project in which participants practice a wide range of mental exercises to enhance attentional control, body and self-awareness, healthy emotional regulation, self-care, compassion empathy and caretaking and reduce stress. It improves mental awareness, increases life satisfaction and leads to a better understanding of others views, values and objectives.

Spending time in nature is part of these exercises. At the moment we lose ourselves in nature we feel connected with ourselves, others and the world. The techniques of meditation can lead us to inner calmness and more awareness of the current moment. In this way we can develop compassion towards others which could be an ethical guideline for future behavior of actors such as consultants, lawyers and bankers in financial markets while contributing to long term economic growth and prosperity.

“Care flows naturally if the “self” is widened and deepened
So that protection of free Nature is felt and conceived as protection
Of ourselves ... Just as we need no morals to make us breath ...
If your “self” in the widest sense embraces another being,
You need no moral exhortation to show care......
Aerne Nass (1990)

Title: Buddhist Economics
Photographer: Saskia Troy

University teacher Luit Kloosterman contemplating on the conventional, orthodox view on economics during conference on Economics and Buddhism at Erasmus School of Economics (ESE)

Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 20th June 2012

The picture has been one of the Winners UNESCO/Earth Charter Photo Contest for UN Human Rights Day UN Mandated University of Peace Costa Rica, had the third prices in the UN International Youth Day Competition Mental Health Care Matters from Synergy Youth in Dubai. Next to that the picture has been exhibited at the mosaic of The Whole 9 Arts for Peace Project which has been organized for UN Peace Day 2014.

Saskia Troy (MSc.) is a business economist specialized in Global Business and Stakeholder Management and amongst others Regional Coordinator Europe and Chapter Leader Netherlands Children of the Earth (NGO of the United Nations) and she is a member of the Working Group Sustainable Finance (Changing Finance, Financing Change) of the UNEP/World Resources Institute in Washington.

Source: NRC Outlook, Mental City, 12 July, 2014

My visit to Auschwitz … Nina

coeworld — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:02:36 +0000

Nina Meyerhof

“Many individuals and groups have been to Auschwitz to heal old wounds. We had come instead to start a Culture of Love…to call in the souls of the past to move beyond the heaviness into a sanctuary of supporting the evolution of consciousness for the new paradigm shift.”
- Nina Meyerhof, President and Founder of Children of the Earth

Visit to Auschwitz

How does one speak about peace in a place where horrors only existed. How does one allow these immense atrocities to extinguish their history and become something good. What can spiritual activists do when confronted with the disease of pain. How does new consciousness dislodge itself from the frame of pain into a new form?

This visit was a natural evolving growth. I had never wanted or been attracted to my historical past as I had thought I had moved on to a more positive plane and work in general for the higher good. I did not think it was necessary to bring my history into my work. But then one day I realized that this was the pinprick or kernel of the essence of my parents’ impulse that inspired me to do this work in the world for us as one humanity living together in peace. Now I was returning to the spot of origin for releasing and recovering and dreaming new futures.

I met a woman, via email, who is part of the GAMIP movement because she announced the Women’s Choir from Auschwitz playing outside the camp in memorial. This moved me as I had heard about the collecting of musicians in Auschwitz to play for the SS Nazis. Thus these women met me at the airport with loving open arms to embrace and support me into the darkness of the great abyss, the largest cemetery in the world. I had no idea how this would proceed but could feel the energy mounting.

We drove from Berlin to Poland.

A friend who is a film-maker discussed my upcoming visit to Auschwitz and its purpose. He thought it would be good to interview me on video. He became inspired to video the raw response of my visit and to help with a legacy piece. Who was to know that destiny was playing her game. He joined us.

We were forming a group….a seeding of sorts with deep roots into the history of Europe. The Camp was revealing its story to us. Then a man from a Japanese organization, Byakko and Goi Peace, found us. We were bonded souls as it quickly became visible that there was an inner purpose for all of this.

Many individuals and groups have been to Auschwitz to heal old wounds. We had come instead to start a Culture of Love…to call in the souls of the past to move beyond the heaviness into a sanctuary of supporting the evolution of consciousness for the new paradigm shift.

But to do this we needed to go through the eye of the needle and the dark nights of the souls. Our guide was determined for me to know every detail of horror that ever occurred on this site. She hammered away at me, running after me to tell me more and more and more. It was like bullets shooting at my mind and me attempting to deflect them. How could I stay in a LIGHTED intent hearing these atrocities. Everyone knows these stories but to walk the land that carries these is very different. Our film-maker became possessed and obsessed with filming each piece and then visioning it forward. We each were calling on our own inner strength to reveal a positive understanding of living life without fear from our pasts.

I came with hopes and dreams. I imagined bringing young people from all corners of the world not to learn about the pain but to transform a place designated by the town into an international learning center for the future: Educating for New Leadership. But I must admit as we walked through gas chambers, old barracks, the hospital for human experiments, it was hard to dream of transforming hate into love.

Our guide insisted on even taking us to places most people would never see…the disnfecting saunas, the rooms filled with holes in the ground for bathrooms and on and on…systematic dehumanizing.

The last building we came to was a beautiful exhibit set up by Yad Vashem of Israel. Our guide had worked on this exhibit…it was of families prior to their deportations…photos found of playing, skiing, picnicing families being happy. And the fatal last room where the names of the Jewish victims were listed. I was repulsed and attracted….intense feelings pulling on me. I found my grandmother right away. Her name was there. I really had never been brought up with an understanding that I even had a grandmother. I also found all my other relatives…names I had heard in the conversations…my father’s family and my mother’s. So many names listed and all part of my history. Their trauma is my trauma and how I revamped my thinking to believe and work for PEACE in all lands.

How does a peacemaker become free of her past? How do I release these cellular memories and yet have compassion and identification? How do I raise consciousness level so we are offering the opportunity for a better world? My goal is to leave this earth a better place.

Our little group is bonded together like glued from our essence and branching out. Each of us experienced something in our own beings that was separate and yet we knew the experience of UNION. This was Oneness that is so often described in words as interrelated and interdependent and unity. We were living this. Non-attachment, love and compassion. ..and these are values we wish to teach. How does one never do this again…yet it is being done worldwide? Our duty is to establish a Culture of Peace and LOVE….rather than oppressing others to feel superior. This is what education of young people in New Leadership is designed for. Transform the self and live one’s purpose and allow each human being to be valued. We are One Humanity.

PEACE, PEACE, PEACE …now and forever.

coeworld — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 23:49:32 +0000

Nina Meyerhof

“It is the heart that knows no boundaries nor ego gratification thus knows no violence and remains open to love. Love is PEACE.”

- Dr. Nina Meyerhof, Founder and President of Children of the Earth

Take a moment to savor the words and inner musings of “Mama” Nina Meyerhof, Founder and President of Children of the Earth, as she discusses Peace.

PEACE, PEACE, PEACE …now and forever.

Dr. Nina Meyerhof, Founder and President of Children of the Earth

Peace is something we all want. We know it is more than the absence of war. We know it is a state of Being as well. We learn the words and seek the experience of inner peace for the road to world peace. Yet, what is this nebulous peace? With so many wars, confrontations, challenges and competitions, how do we ever even learn to live this word PEACE?

First and foremost, what are the appropriate words to describe what PEACE would look like? How would we know when we saw this in our lives? What does PEACE feel like? If you walked into a store or sat at a table for dinner, how would peace look differently than your present behavior? Recently I believe I began to understand the true meaning of seeking PEACE.

Peace is a rare state of non-violence and the mantra is total harmlessness. This is a truism reflected through thought, word and deed. Violence is a projection that resides in the mind resulting from our many life experiences. In this pursuit of peace we recognize a state of mindful nonviolence. Violence, living in the mind, is every mental separation and slicing of life into segments for our own personal ego gratification. It is the heart that knows no boundaries nor ego gratification thus knows no violence and remains open to love. Love is PEACE.

The mind’s violent nature is our personal neediness and ego display of desire. If I desire a materialistic need or a personal want then I am expressing this ego greed. This is how all greed exists in the world. If I greed to have, and another greeds to have; then the competition begins until the “more” is the powerful and over seer of the lesser. This imbalance causes distress and power concerns. Separation is emphasized and love is constrained to attachment to another to fulfill this need. So how do we move into heart-centered living? How do we direct the mind from the heart?

Of course, it is practically impossible to be a non ego-centered individual in a world where we live as individuals uniting in families, cultures, religions and nations. This PEACE thus comes from releasing mind separations or at least recognizing that this is not love. We recognize the heart moves us to embracing life. As the heart takes leadership, life becomes more harmonious and well -balanced.

It is work to strive to live like this. We meditate and contemplate to hear the inner calling that enlivens the HEART. If we give our hearts full permission then we move into the love that is necessary for PEACE as a non-violent state. Our goal is to experience unitive synergy: uniting as one and furthering the understanding of the collaborative group. Oneness of the soul within the self, co-aligned with oneness within all other selves. The soul self becomes united until it experiences one with the whole. The heart is where this potential resides. PEACE is possible.

Once the soul self knows this experience of unity then the self begins the process of releasing the mind from attachment. The desires that become the acts of violence diminish and the growing heartfulness leads us towards a life of unity and PEACE.

Children of the Earth, founded by Dr. Nina Meyerhof, pioneers and activates this understanding for young people worldwide. We serve young people in over 60 countries and have touched approximately 15,000 lives or more to become spiritually conscious leaders, through personal and social transformation for the advancement of a peaceful and sustainable earth. We are determined to create an arena that serves to attract those who are inspired to serve the world through the discovery of their inner authentic soul self 's passion for living a life of meaning. The young people come knowing they want a change and are willing to forfeit many external desires for a rich life of seeking peace for world harmony. They respond in actualizing their personal intention, becoming inspired to altruism, and weaving a web bridging all personal, cultural, national and religious divides. We offer workshops based on our training model: Reflect-Connect-Act building unitive synergistic momentum. Children of the Earth houses this understanding, fostering an “inner revolution for our social evolution”.

Our book "Pioneering Spiritual Activism" is used to invite individuals to use our model of going beyond the visible for moving from I to We to ONE as well as listening to our latest CD heralding Wisdom of the Heart - Songs to Inspire Transcendence and Peace. Both are products emerging from this oneness focus.

A human being is part of a whole, called by us "universe" - a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest…a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

--Albert Einstein

Challenging Sustainable Learning with the Holistic Paradigm

coeworld — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 03:47:09 +0000

Saskia Troy

“An astounding number of children are ill fed, ill clad, badly treated and also illiterate and needlessly ill. Millions perish every week from diseases that could be completely eliminated, or at least prevented from killing with abandon. Depending on where they are born children can have the means and facilities for great prosperity or face the likelihood of desperately deprived lives (Amartya Sen, 2006)”.

The current challenges generated by an unleashed globalization include the loss of human values, such as peace, justice, dignity,solidarity and respect in our societies. The ideas of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum that democracy and economic development needs learning about the humanities and social justice have not yet been taken for granted in today’s discipline of academic economics.

Even though the world might be threatened by poverty, environmental disasters and war the discipline of economics and business is still focused on exchanging specialist, quantitative knowledge while trying to impress each other amongst a small group of scholars. As a result only incremental changes in knowledge in specific areas have been made which might have nothing to do with the political, social and economic reality of the modern world we are living in.

Economics during the times of Marx, Smith, Keynes, Ricardo and Schumpeter was based on philosophical thinking but has now has been reduced to the art of measuring the immeasurable while providing models to bankers, traders and investors – models that prove what they want to be true within financial markets. Since most of the generation of current scholars in economics and business has been educated in this way not much criticism would be expected. Due to the lack of academic knowledge in providing sustainable frameworks of economic thinking, a vicious circle opens the door to power abuse, corruption and free market fundamentalism.

Jakobsen (2011) states that the last decade of scientific development within economics and business can be characterized by growing specialization featuring narrowly defined fields of research. Classical economic theories have been reduced to abstractions by shaping and reshaping simplified, atomistic models. These models are mostly speculating about the future under simplified conditions and in linear terms. Specialized knowledge became more important than overall general insights into integrative wholes and dynamic networking.

Holism is a re-emerging paradigm based on a rich heritage from many scholarly fields. Holism affirms the inherent interdependence of evolving theory, research and practices. It is rooted in the assumption that the universe is an integrated whole in which everything is connected. This assumption of wholeness and unity is in direct opposition to the paradigm of separation and fragmentation that prevails in the contemporary world. Holism corrects the imbalance of reductionist approaches through its emphasis on and expanded conception of science and human possibility.

Arthur (1999) emphasizes that scholars in economics and business are now elaborating on the former equilibrium approach by turning to the question of how the actions of individual agents, their strategies or expectations might endogenously change while adapting to the aggregate patterns they create. The moment we emphasize the formation of structures rather than their given existence, the problems that occur when trying to forecast the developments within the economy are different. The complexity theory that holds this perspective on analyzing the economy portrays it not as deterministic, predictable and mechanistic but as process dependent, organic and always evolving.

It is not an adaption to the conventional economic equilibrium theory but a theory at a standard out-of-equilibrium level whereby reaching a perfect equilibrium is moreover the exception than conventional behavior.

Taleb (2007), for example, stresses that in measuring uncertainty one simple observation that can be characterized as an extreme event with low-probability and high impact can invalidate a statement derived from a million observations. During the credit crisis this could be for example the unexpected fall of Lehman Brothers. Such events could explain almost everything in the world, from the rise and fall of empires, the upcoming of religions but also elements of our personal career, family and romantic lives.

According to Gang, Meyerhof and Mayer (1992) individual persons find identity, meaning and purpose in life through connections with other elements of the learning system. This could be the interconnectedness with the community, the natural world or spiritual values such as compassion and peace. Spiritual learning calls for the fostering of differences in each and every person and a sense of respect, tolerance and appreciation for human diversity. Individual persons are inherently creative, have unique physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs and abilities and possess an unlimited capacity to learn.

“The art of spirituality in approaching the child from which we are so far is a secret that can establish human brotherhood: it is a divine art that will lead to the peace of mankind. The children are so many, they are numberless, they are not one star, they are more like the Milky Way, that stream of stars that passes right across the heavens “(Maria Montessori, 1939)”.

*For more information on holistic learning see the Global Alliance for Transforming Education (GATE) and the book “Conscious Education, The Bridge to Freedom” by Gang, Meyerhof and Mayer (1992)

The Spiritual Meaning of the Financial Crisis

coeworld — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 05:07:59 +0000

Saskia Troy

Saskia Troy is a business economist, philosopher and spiritual activist that aims to reclaim the philanthropic basis of capitalism. She has been dedicated to developing education and training for learning about sustainable system dynamics within economics. Currently, as the Chapter Leader of Children of the Earth Netherlands she intends to focus on the teaching of sustainability within the Dutch educational system.

According to the vision of Nina Meyerhof, our global systems are in crisis because they are based on individualism and we must see ourselves as a collaborating human family. The goal of Children of the Earth is to teach spirituality, leadership, sustainability and intercultural understanding to children and youth in the world. One would hope that these values would also be part of the core of the international educational system. However, while interviewing ten well-known and politically involved Dutch economists for her Master’s thesis “Greening Wall Street; The Way towards a Sustainable Financial System”, Saskia found that not one of the academic experts she interviewed came up with the idea that the financial crisis could be a spiritual crisis that provides meaning and direction for the future.

Even though most of the academic experts agreed with the fact that the concept of sustainability within education could provide meaning to education as well as being a support in preventing future global financial crises like the past crisis in New York’s Wall Street. According to Saskia, without recognizing the spiritual dimension of holistic and sustainable learning systems it is difficult to say anything positive about the lessons learned for the future – all growth requires spiritual learning. She wants to encourage academic scholars, business economists and students in economics and business to combine sustainable, holistic, dynamic and spiritual learning while staying in connection and never losing touch with their own personal, financial, economic, social and natural environment.

Youth Training Worldwide

coeworld — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:40:27 +0000

Based on Pioneering Spiritual Activism: A Handbook for Young Leaders

Children of the Earth is offering a 3-5 day workshop on LEADERSHIP. Spiritual Activism is the thread that weaves all humanity together as one family. Our youth leaders with an adult facilitator offer this course of study for any group anywhere in the world. We want to support the world movement of positive change to create a world that works for all. Invite us and become the leader of change you truly are. Together we will build a movement of young people as the voice of tomorrow. Peace is possible and you are this future! Contact Nina@coeworld.org… Our fees are based on expenses.

To learn more about this program, click here to download view the abstract.

Click here to support this project on IndieGogo.

	"COE has changed my perception about life and taught me what L.I.F.E. is. It is Leadership, Integrity, Fellowship and Excellence. I now have started M.A.D for children." Mark Conrad, Philippines
	"This training has given me a direction to which I can see myself and others living as one family of the one world within the sphere of love, trust, respect, unity, oneness and human dignity." Jimmy Lama, Nepal
	"I will always in remain in search of a peaceful nature and how can I use my talent and skill to provide inner peace in my self and how I can share that with other people, not only limited to my country. Children of the Earth is the forum that has provided me with the development of inner soul thoughts and initiating peace related activities." Ashfaque Hussain, Pakistan
	"I believe "Spirituality" is the key to harmony and oneness. It is a way to overcome our fears, doubts and limits. Because spirituality to me, is reaching into ones divine self and realizing what life is all about. Like no clouds could ever harm or violate the sun, I believe that no experiences, thoughts or action could ever harm or violate the deep soul within. Therefore I feel it is our mission to reach out and awaken all the beautiful souls. And from there we can all start acting towards peace and oneness." Yuka Saionji, Japan

Click here to support this project on IndieGogo.

Take the Pledge for Peace!

coeworld — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:52:55 +0000

There are literally billions of acts of peace happening around the world every day and many more are needed to address the most pressing issues facing our world. Partners like us from all around the world are coming together to reach a collective goal of a billion acts of peace in 2012. Help us get there together and Take the Pledge!

More Info

European Youth Forum of Alternatives

coeworld — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 01:27:56 +0000

August 23, 2012 to September 1, 2012
Five delegates from COE Europe will be attending the European Youth Forum of Alternatives (EYFA), taking place from the 25th of August to the 2nd of September.

More Info

COE Scotland - The BELONG Project

coeworld — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:24:59 +0000

Lucy Thomas

Questions from Inspired Times to the organizers of the Belong project, Children of the Earth Scotland

Could you explain how Children of the Earth Scotland came about and when it was set up etc. 
Our chairperson, Gavin Morgan met the founder of COE WORLD, Nina Meyerhof and she invited him to set up a Scottish Hub of Children of the Earth. Gavin and i have often said we'd like to work together and when he told myself and Lorenz (my partner) about Nina's invitation and we'd looked at and been inspired by the guiding principles of COE WORLD (see http://www.coeworld.org/guiding-principles) it was a natural yes. Soon after Em Magenta and Steve Gasgarth came on board. We constituted the group in April 2011.

What does the organization do other than Project Belong?
We are a new voluntary group and the BELONG project is our first. By doing it we hope to build a platform to realize our primary intention which is to provide a monthly gathering space for anyone living locally who regards themselves as a 'child of the Earth'. We want to do our utmost to make these gathering magnetic to local young people (16+) who often don't show up to such events. The reasons for this are complex; we cannot hope to unpick them, however, our philosophy is that first of all WE need to be enjoying and provoking ourselves and each other during these gatherings and this will over time create its own magnetism. The design of the Belong Project reflects our passions, if it didn't, it wouldn't be sustainable.

Who is behind the Belong project and what was the instigator for setting it up? 
The belong project landed in me (Lucy) as an idea inspired by my experiences as a teacher, a student and an ongoing thirst to connect with Life and express myself authentically. However the particular blend of talents among the people in my community make the complexity of the project possible. By virtue of their generosity and skills, BELONG is able to integrate creative performance- live and on film; nature connection and mentoring...

In addition I was inspired by an anti-bullying campaign called RespectME which in 2011 focused on cyber-bullying. Moray Council had previously commissioned me to do a small performance project on the same theme and what I learnt from the young people I worked with really made me think about the systemic causes of internet abuse in all its forms. These influences plus a week long experience in 2011 with Art of Mentoring UK (which puts personal connection to nature at the core of community regeneration) were the tipping points and helped inspire the structure of BELONG.

Who is it aimed at and why?
 Its aimed at all the people it touches! This includes the core team I work with, the mentors, the local young people who participate and their families and its also aimed at the local professional agencies who serve young people, some of whom have been really inspired by the idea and are helping us connect to the young people who would benefit from participating. A key aspect of the project is that it focuses on local action. Growth in the way we value it requires a lot of relationship and time so its important that even after the project is finished, people can still get on a bus or a bike and visit with each other, get creative together or even plan another community project...

What do you hope to achieve from this project?
For the mentors and the participants we hope they will complete the project feeling nurtured, confident, inspired and connected by and to the people and environment they live close to, we hope they will be motivated to co-create together in the future with coe scotland to support them. I hope that local youth services/agencies will be inspired to ask for more from us as a team and that BELONG provides a model for other communities to engage and create with....

 What affect do you feel Project Belong will have on the local community?
So far eleven people from a 5 mile radius have stepped forward to mentor for this project. This is significant in light of the fact that professional agencies often struggle to find volunteers for other mentoring projects. There is already in this area a strong feeling for community; Forres has more community groups than any other Scottish town its size, it is a Transition Town and the Findhorn Foundation community is close by. So we are building on our strengths, using this project as a means to better include the older teenagers/young adults in the web of community that already exists. We will be making a public presentation with the participants which will be an opportunity for us to make the project known to friends, relatives, press and youth care professionals. The participants will have an opportunity to express their own feelings about going unplugged for 5 days (which they do in the camp in stage 2) and hopefully provoke local debate around the theme. The project will also be documented on film which we will eventually show in the town hall and wider and so the potential is to create ripples that travel a long way..... We re definitely not against using the power of the screen to spread the debate!

Why is this project important to the team?
The theme carried in the question 'Virtual-natural, do you belong in both?' is a provocative one and it applies also to us as a team. Ironically, I have spent more time on my computer managing the project than I ever have done! There isn't a convenient solution. We re not making a judgement about screens or the internet – they have their place (I'm using one now ;-) but we are asking the question ; is sitting inside, in front of a computer/screen a reality we want to nurture at the cost of other more embodied experiences? We need to ask the question now while we can still remember the blessings of climbing trees, going awol with our friends in the woods and so on. In addition, the cost to the environment with every computer, cell phone, T.V we buy is enormous... and there's a growing mountain of them in our land-fill as a consequence of our obsession with 'the latest version'. As a team we all care deeply for our connection with nature and seek to balance time spent outdoors with time spent inside. We each do this in different ways but our love of all things green and wild is shared.

Personally co-creating this project with talented and inspiring friends while nurturing connections between generations and between humans and nature feels like a blessing and a privilege. it is the satisfaction of walking my talk. Rather than feeling depressed about what we re not doing for each other and the next generation, i'm weaving the talented people around me into a creative solution. It s about doing small things with great spirit.

What are the future plans for Children of the Earth Scotland - any other projects in the pipeline?
One of the CoEs guiding principles is 'allow decisions to emerge and embrace the process'. One of our greatest strengths is that we are a small community group running mostly on love and without share holders who demand a profit! In a few months this first round of BELONG will be complete and we'll know then the next steps. The documentary will open some doors as will the relationships formed between team, mentors and participants. We intend to nurture these by continuing to meet monthly, build our reputation locally as a unique community service and hopefully edge ourselves towards holding a youth symposium in the next year or so. We do need continued funding though,the teams' generosity and Awards for ALL with Moray Arts Council chipping in have enabled the BELONG project to happen. I'm dreaming of the day my phone rings and a mysterious benefactor makes a huge donation !! Dreaming is a good beginning to every happening.

A New Breed of Activist

coeworld — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:31:32 +0000

Oran Cohen

Imagine, if you will, a wave, a movement of youth who walk this planet and feel a deep urge to change it. This wave of consciousness is made up of individuals from every corner and every faith of Mother Earth. They live with a certain sense of reverence, respect, and love for all sentient beings that transcends the boundaries of countries, cultures and traditions. They feel, somehow, that they have a responsibility to humanity and to themselves to impact their world.

They believe that action alone will not save humanity from it's present trajectory. They also know deep within their hearts that sitting in a candle-dimmed meditation room or place of worship and praying for world peace is great, but still, not the whole picture. These individuals believe that to truly transform this world for the better, a future of unity and collective conscious evolution, the way forward is for those who are spiritual to dare to become active, and those who are active to dare to become spiritual.

They’re starting NGO's (non-governmental organizations), occupying the streets, and they are self-organizing, balancing spirituality with potent and deliberate acts. Learning to walk in both worlds. They are strategists, mediators, pioneers, system breakers and system makers who can sense that the status-quo is ready to be challenged! Oh, and a large majority of them also happen be under the age of 35.

Welcome to the new breed of activists. This is the new paradigm of thought. More and more individuals understand that to fundamentally transform the culture of war, physical measures will never be enough. If they truly wish to shift this planet, they need to shift their inner warring nature as well -- on behalf, and as part of, humanity. They know without a shadow of a doubt that their world mirrors their beliefs, judgements, values and perceptions. No one knows this better than these new activists. In fact, more and more people are awakening to this realization everyday!

They are learning that waving peace signs and marching won't change the world, but spiritual and conscious action taken with discernment and long-term planning just might. These individuals realize the need to deepen their spirituality and then transform that beingness into action.

They feel that the more we, as humanity, look at ourselves as the cause of our external experiences, the more we can stand accountable and learn to change our world. They know that by changing themselves, they can re-write their social script, and they use their writing tools with passion and determination -- compelled and inspired by something deeper, by an internal call from the genius inside themselves. They are aware that every thought, emotion and belief takes them closer or farther away from unity with themselves, their community and their world.

We are in critical times, and the movement is at a critical stage. On the surface, you might call one face of this movement Arab Spring or Occupy Earth. However, something deeper is stirring underneath the contempt and the call for change. A movement that takes us closer to our divinity is under way, and our most prized possession during this shift is bringing our individuality AND our indivisibility into play.

For humanity to thrive in the transformation that awaits it, we have to realize the truth about our nature on an individual, communal, and global level. We need to bite the bullet, and own up to the fact that humanity is an organism. It's a system in a sea of systems, a player in the grand orchestra of life. We are now being called to learn to see our world as systems rather than live under the illusion of separateness. And the destiny of a thriving system is fueled by the mechanisms of collaboration, decentralization and constant inner-vation. The new activist knows this intuitively.

Our role is to listen to what emerges, see what is needed, and act as facilitators rather than dictators -- as collaborators and students of the future. Our part is learning to create conditions conducive to life! These "New Activists" are the Mapmakers of the future. They carry the pin-code for the change humanity is destined to undergo. They represent the new order of freedom that is emerging! This "movement" has no borders, no criteria, no categories and no dogmas. So, all are called to join this growing force! It is about the freedom to love and the love of freedom. It is about awakening to our highest truth, whatever that may be, and uniting as humanity to fundamentally transform ourselves and our world. It is about living our highest values of love, truth, unity and peace.
Our only undoing is our inability to see the trends and signs that lead to the new positive, supportive ways of being in the world. There is a call now to re-imagine the way we relate to ourselves, to one another, to our world, and to the mechanisms to which we choose to engage. We are being asked in no uncertain terms to rethink our thinking and use tools that relate to the monumental times of exponential shifts that we find ourselves in.

Our most valued tool is our hearts and our ability to listen. Our gift is our uniqueness, our individuality -- our personal genius. We can only do this by listening with intensity and humility. And we can only change things by acting with intelligence, discernment, passion and reverence. This is the path of the spiritual activist.

This, I suspect, is our mandate. It is not an option, but the very foundation of the future we constantly say we desire to experience. The ‘new breed’ knows this and walks that path as a daily discipline.

If these words move you, then, my friend, you are one of those activists.

Your work is to learn this new way of being while simultaneously conjuring up new systems, paths and visions, to expedite your desires and ideas, many of which are still waiting to be born. Our work is to create places of refuge where magnificent souls, just like yourself, can safely explore mew models for the future --dreaming, loving and daring to-get-there, romancing ideas out of the collective wisdom and finding the clarity to act on these treasures. The more outrageous and courageous, the better!

Within each individual is the indivisible. Your mission, if you choose to accept it young grasshopper, is to unearth the song that rumbles in your heart, to uncover and discover your genius, and to courageously bring it to the world with audacity, imagination, passion and grace! Know that through doing this, you'll inspire others to do the same. That's