Here is a little story about our upcoming work in Palestine. It wont be easy, but Susanne is really working for her project every day with so much energy, no matter what the news are. Sebastian -------
Keeping the spirit in turbulent times The impact of the political situation on our project in Jericho/Palestine What On Earth Can We Do Together In 7 Days? For the past few months we have been establishing a growing network of support and participation in a project we call What On Earth Can We Do Together In 7 Days? It had and has the goal to co-create future community life in Jericho together with locals, experts and laypeople from all over the world. Jericho is the blueprint and model city for our work; other cities may follow. Due to the political situation of the past months and weeks we have been challenged, almost daily with emotions of hope and fear. Up until the incident in Jericho when Israeli soldiers invaded the local jail, Jericho had been a quiet small town at the edge of the Jordan Valley. Then all of a sudden, due to the worldwide press coverage, our participants became aware that the project was planned to take place in occupied territories. Within one week 15 out of 23 participants cancelled due to security reasons. We planned an Open Space workshop on community development and transformation. The goal was and still is to create a blueprint for sustainable community life. This year though we are facing extraordinary difficulties that will have a strong impact on what we can do together in the days we stay in Jericho. Our financial budget is facing a loss due to the cancellations of the participants, as one Western participant would have funded two locals. In addition two important sponsors withdrew their support due to the present political situation. One was unwilling to risk its business connections with Israel; the other had to reallocate their sponsorship to more immediate emergency aid arising from the present situation in Palestine. A small group of courageous people still want to travel and transform the challenges of the moment. We plan to introduce the idea of Open Space to as many people as possible. We will promote the project for the year 2007 which will again include an Open Space conference called What On Earth Can We Do Together in 7 Days? It takes place form May 3 7 2007. We hope you mark these dates in your calendar and join us. Our planned activities also included a one-day workshop with about 60 Arab Israelis and Jews coming for a visit to Jericho. Unfortunately Palestine cannot guarantee their security. We had to cancel the event. We may spontaneously come together with locals and others who are able to make it through the checkpoints but as it now stands it would be irresponsible of us to force a meeting. We had counted on 150 participants coming to the second Together21 Gathering of non-verbal communication. We have gone through many ups and downs together since we first announced the events in Jericho. We know that everything will fall in place once we are in Jericho and we hope to get enough financial support to hold a few great meetings. We cant plan more may life take us into the flow. What else can we do? Trust the process of self-organization and believe in the people: Whoever comes is the right people Whatever happens is the only thing that could have. We thank you all for your kind thoughts, spirit and support. Warmly, Susanne Triner and Sebastian Umlauft. -------------------------------------------------- Susanne Triner Together21 (Together to One) >From Humanity to Human Unity Switzerland Phone: +41 31 9525553 s...@together21.org www.together21.org Sebastian Umlauft Germany Phone: +49 351 3140227 Mobile: +49 170 7520115 sebastian.umla...@gmx.de * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist