Farewell to Germany... For Now

My agent at check-in for the flight home on Lufthansa.  It was a wonderful week of learning together with my colleagues from around the world, and broadening my horizons.  Thank you, Flying University of Global Integral Competence (FUGIC), CMM Institute, and Bundeswehr University!

Dachau

Today, my last full day in Germany, I chose to visit the former Dachau concentration camp.  Dachau, near Munich, was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933. More than 40,000 prisoners died there before it was liberated by US forces on 29 April 1945.

A remnant of the rail line that carried cattle cars full of prisoners to the camp.

 

I encountered a Syrian mother and her son at the camp.

Crossing Boundaries

Each morning on the cab ride from my hotel to the university, we have gone past this place, where a cluster of large tents have been put up in a public park.  My driver told me on the first day that 2,000 Syrian people, and another 1,000 people from Africa, are staying there.

This evening, I said goodbye to my friends at the conference, and with a full heart, began to walk to my hotel, a light rain falling.  Thirty minutes into the walk, the illuminated tents appeared on the horizon.  I decided to walk into the park to see how close I could get, and I quickly realized that it was possible to walk right up to the outer gate.  Just outside the gate, and inside, were a few men smoking, and someone on a cell phone. 

The gate was partly open, so I walked through it. 

I paused for a moment.  No one seemed to take notice of me.  I crossed the empty space, and approached the door to the tent.  A couple of men entered with me, and a man in an orange vest stopped me from going further.  I showed him a bill for 50 Euros, and told him I wanted to make a donation.  He told me to wait for a moment, and then came back with a person who I assumed was one of the staff.  I repeated my request.  He retrieved another man from an office inside the tent, a very tall man in uniform, with silver hair, and steady, deep-set eyes.  Again, I repeated my request.  He ushered me into his office, the staff member following.

The commander asked, "Now, what is it you are wanting to do?"  I looked down at a chocolate bundt cake on his desk.  It looked like a gift.  Maybe he would accept mine.  "My mother-in-law gave me this money to donate to the Syrian refugees. I brought it here because I wanted to do it directly - to make a personal connection."

"Your passport, please."

I dug out the passport.  He inspected it carefully, then asked me where my "mother" lived.  I told him that my mother-in-law lived in Montclair, New Jersey.  "Ah," he said, "the United States."  He told me that I would have to donate this money through an office in Munich.  At that moment the staff member initiated an animated discussion with the commander.  After a minute, the commander turned back to me.  "No, we can't take your money."  I looked into his eyes, and thanked him for all that he and the German people were doing to help the Syrians.  He nodded, and led me back to the door of the tent.

As he opened the door to let me out, he paused for a moment, looked into my eyes, and said, "Give my regards to your mother."

New friends

With Meredith Smith, a Project Coordinator for the Advanced Consortium on Conflict, Cooperation and Complexity (AC4), at the Earth Institute, Columbia University.  Meredith is an educator and community development specialist with over six years of experience in international and domestic development work in the U.S., Peru and Jordan.  Prior to joining AC⁴, she completed her Master’s degree in Public Administration in Development Practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. For her culminating project, she collaborated with a team to design and assess health related vulnerabilities of underserved urban communities in NYC post-Hurricane Sandy for Doctors of the World USA.

With Raphael Schmidt, who introduced us to The Oasis Game, a community mobilization tool developed by Instituto Elos in Brazil.  Oasis "materializes collective dreams" by bringing people together from  various sectors of a community, and helping them work together - not to "solve problems" - but to create positive visions, and then to make them real.  One of the team-building games that we played involved standing in a circle, and tossing a large spool of string from person to person.  Each time a person caught the spool, s/he declared a personal talent or gift that s/he could contribute to the group.  When we were finished, we had created a complex network of intersecting strands.  Raphael placed three bottles at various locations underneath the network, and then tied three pens to the network, each one hanging down far enough to reach a bottle, but located several inches away from a bottle.  Our task was to strengthen, slacken, and shift the network until we had dropped all three pens into the narrow mouth of each bottle.  To accomplish this task, we spontaneously entered an "intersubjective field awareness," and somehow managed to get all three pens into the bottles in under two minutes.  in a debriefing, I shared with the group that I experienced "an unexpected joy" when we completed the task.  One of the German participants said, "That's because you're an American!"

The Oasis Game is, of course, much more than team-building games.  Here is the video that Raphael showed us. It shows the impact that an Oasis Game can have on a community:

Organizational improvisation

Bart Beuchner and Rik Spann jamming (they were smokin'!) - with lead facilitator Sergej van Middendorp looking on. Through hints and invitations, the three of them invited the rest of us to join their games and rhythms and improvise, making sounds with whatever we could - our voices, hands, nearby objects...  eventually, many of us got up and started moving, too.  This was the text for a rich conversation on jazz music and improvisation as metaphors for cosmopolitan communication. Yes!  I loved this workshop.  Look out for some disruptive innovations in my teaching...

Meet Conference Presenter and CMM Fellow Paul Chappell

A West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran, Paul K. Chappell is now Peace Leadership Director of The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.  He gave a powerful talk on the first day of conference on "Why Peace is Possible."  His thought process is razor-sharp, and he has a "fire in the belly" about waking the world up to the real possibilities for peace.  He is passionate about doing all he can to help us understand the urgency of making the transition now, before it is too late.  I feel both inspired and challenged by his example.  Here he is laying out some of his ideas in an interview with Tavis Smiley.



For more on Paul's work, check out his website: http://paulkchappell.com/

Yes, I Raised the Question on the First Day

This morning. we began the conference with a process of formulating the "big questions" that will guide our inquiry over the next few days.  I  popped my big question about the Syrian refugees,  and it was warmly received, and thoroughly discussed in various small groups throughout the morning (one example above). The reformulation of the question that I like the best is "How can we act into this situation with intention, in ways that are helpful immediately and in the long run, and that promote dignity and respectful relationships for everyone involved?"  While some conference-goers are skeptical about the practicality and/or meaningfulness of direct volunteering during the conference, at least a few of them are considering joining me on Sunday in a visit to the Munich Train Station - or perhaps to a nearby campground, where 2,000 Syrian people are staying in an emergency shelter.  (I saw the shelter on my way into the university this morning.)  Short-term ideas that might allow a few of us to make an immediate connection include (a) just pitching in and doing whatever labor is needed; (b) bringing coloring books and crayons for some of the children; (c) providing translation assistance.  These ideas are very simple, and limited, but to me they are meaningful, as a kind of spiritual practice, a way of coming into direct contact with one or two or more displaced Syrian people, and offering a helping hand.  Why?  Because we're here.  Why?  Because we can.

I do not want us to be a nuisance, and I will turn away respectfully if I am told by the authorities that they can not or will not accept my offer of help.  But you see, one information officer at the airport told me that they are looking for volunteers to "roll up their sleeves.."  And so, I feel compelled to discover for myself whether or not we can be useful.  The effort, along with this discussion at the conference, and here on line, is worth something in itself - a kind of consciousness-raising about the possibilities and limits of generosity - whether those possibilities and limits are established within our own minds, or by outside conditions.

My student Ramla Walker-Hakeem, who is following my reports on this blog, has alerted me to the existence of Humanity First, a non-profit Muslim-affiliated organization in the UK that has been helping in various ways, most notably by providing Syrian refugee children in Jordan with access to education, by building schools. The effort is substantive, and sustainable, because it is well- planned, well-organized, and well-supported.

There is much, much more to say about today, and the marvelous presentations and discussions on cosmopolitan communication.  Due to time constraints I will have to pause for now.  But first - a couple of more photos!

Kazuma Matoba facilitates a debriefing on the morning session.

Lunch in the Biergarten with Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Ria Yoshida