| 8. GOVERNABILITY
�To govern means to teach�36 |
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The need for creating a truly participative and practical government that could be applied to everyday life requires two conditions:
- To accept the conflicts and find the way to share life beyond any differences; keeping the collective identity as an example to follow in order to defend ourselves against the powers that keep and promote the exclusion, and reach a consensus upon that basis.
- To get organized, starting from less conflictive and more practicable dreams that facilitate the process of harmonizing, so that the consensus could be feasible and not only a temporary project; let the desire (talking about the realization of the utopia) grow stronger despite the differences, since it can be foreseen as something possible, reachable individually or collectively.
"When we understand that differences are represented by only one thing, then disagreement becomes agreement, battles become dance and ancient enemies turn into lovers. Then we are ready to strike up an acquaintance with the entire universe and stop dividing it in halves or in pieces..."37 (IP)
To make these two conditions bear fruit, society needs an original and everyday construction based on alliances and peace. That is exactly the opposite of the current fragmentation, confrontation and violence.
Democracy is constructed by means of simple systemic models; starting from the hearth and home, where children learn to decide in a responsible way, sharing the decision-making process at different levels within the family. The universal knowledge of meeting, respecting and communicating to each other is learnt since early childhood.
A democratic debate culture in a group as the generator of knowledge and shared decisions has been generalized, institutionalized and internalized in every socio-cultural aspect.
The creation of identity and the sense of belonging (when recognized as part of their concrete reality -not virtual) should be revised in the light of the individual imaginaries and the collectives and from every local (home, community) and international (geographic region, the continent, the world) place so that the appropriation of the cultural values, that belong to each culture, could be the supporting dynamism of the universalization process39.
The identitarian process that started at home is strengthened by means of the collective and at local and national levels. Then, it will be joined to the universality process.
In this building process of the course that goes from the individual to the universal, there is a principle that cannot be waived which is the positive acceptance of the differences and the respect towards diversity and the plurality as a mechanism of harmony and exchange.
These setup processes of the identity, the feeling of belonging and universality have to be based on real practices of decentralization and conversation, both to take decisions and to carry out plans that pave the way for the construction of more universal identities.
An interesting point is that, by means of the ITCs, duality can be optimized in terms of space (local and international; presential and at a distance) and in terms of time (synchronic and asynchronous). The point is to work out and harmonize in:
- local and synchronic space and time with
- virtual asynchronous space and time,
managing synchronically the local sensorial, sensual and cultural and asynchronously the local and international reflection.
"Due to the slow process of the ITCs, it is possible to combine the duality of the local and synchronic space and time with the virtual asynchronous space and time. This fact starts to transform the social relationships. The sensual and cultural aspects predominate in the local sphere; the reflective prevails in the asynchronous sphere... This organization helps to soften the human schizophrenia characterized by both a destructive tendency in the professional field and faith in the future of the family. The neocortex performs its reflective function when it is more isolated from the rest of the most ancient parts of the brain. That is when the asynchronous human being who is able to think and to be responsible comes into existence and is able to channel his impulses and passions!" (DP)
During the process of identity, there is a need to articulate global spaces in a dynamic way (at the international level, universally speaking) with the family and the community (at the national level). This should be done by means of democratic debates. What has to do with the mechanisms or spaces where the principles and rules of the game are discussed will determine the sense of belonging (to be part of something).
In the same way, from the viewpoint of meaning and thought linked to developing levels, in the process of articulation of identities at local and universal levels the North and South concepts lose their meaning and their identitarian sense.
"Video games that entertain, value and project the greatness of our cultures (for example: Peru, Mexico), our warm and peaceful people (like the tainos people on this island), the riches of our identity (Brazil, Venezuela, etc.), the respect for our land (like the natives' culture and their relation to the Pachamama, i.e. Mother Earth, since the Earth belongs to one of the five kingdoms in the oriental tradition and is also the center of them all). Games designed and made in the South to support the South, that at the same time serve to wake up the sleepy ancient memory in the North. The best way to produce cultural changes and make people assimilate them is by means of games. Play activities are essential for the understanding of what is unknown or what is already known with forgotten elements" (SJ).
The new culture of the asynchronous dialogue strengthens the real exercise of democracy and the appropriate governability, and therefore is opposed to the centralization of the representativity.
In this sense, the exercise of a good governability and democracy suggests that
"the laws are made collectively, the issuing and passing of laws are clear processes and they are the result of prioritizing the concept of BEING before the concept of HAVING, KNOWING before CAPITAL and KINETIC ENERGY (en movimiento) before POTENTIAL (DP)".
"Actually, it is something everybody can see, no one is beyond control... We must understand that democracy, decentralization and other aspects of the citizenship are the fruit of a social, cultural, political and economic process... it is a process we are supposed to initiate" (LE).
The relation between nation and citizenship becomes dynamic progressively, and the election and eligibility factor is getting more and more important. Public and private institutions learn from the community and receive feedback.
The truth is not unique, nor it is as divided as human beings on earth.
The truth is built in the dialogue process in the calm and reflective confrontation of ideas, opinions and interests. Consensuses are reached on the basis of respect towards the differences and then, the suggestion of solutions will help find an agreement to keep on working together to achieve the aims.
"In this new culture of asynchronous dialogue the truth does not come out of the manipulation, the imposition, the hierarchical roles, the capacity to impose one's speech over the rest or the chance to be in the right place at the right time. It is constructed by means of calm and reflective confrontation of ideas and opinions, where the respect for the differences of all kinds promote the consensus. This network culture has been spread through the new acquired customs of the social process and is transforming the world" (DP).
The WSSs have their own expectations based on the needs of every culture. Dreams are not exported nor imported; they come from the human beings' viewpoint and from their relation as an intermediary with the earth and the sky that protect them.
"She is like that40
She doesn't compete, she only shows. Moves forward, evolves, progresses. She shows and shares with the rest of the societies... I want her that way! Strong for herself and towards the others!" (SJ)
9.1. Universal citizenship
The idea of a universal citizenship surrounds us, starting from the fact that "whether we like it or not, we move forward (not 'to') but 'inside' the limits of that globality that drives us to makes changes; changes that we will have to adapt somehow to our identities, keeping our inner being, our ego, the people we are at ethnic, racial, national, sexual, generational levels, etc. and at the same time let us flow at the international level.
"This globalization is imposing such high costs such as the war in Iraq, in a world where the mechanisms of international control do not work (an example of this is the defeat of the UN when war broke out in Iraq), and although technology has served its purpose, which is to keep us relatively well informed, due to its indiscriminate use it was useless when it was necessary to halt those situations (see the thousand of mails we received against the war)...
"...before this why not define our universal rights...
"It is about defining the limits of a universal citizenship that rests on the principles of solidarity, democracy and proactive collaboration, that would be defined by a certain number of fundamental rights in relation to this new society (the promotion of the public domain of information, transparency of information, the right to communication, etc.)"41...
"If we take into consideration that it is necessary to set up the Wisdom Sharing Societies from the point of view of coexistence, cohabitation and the world view most people have, then it is also necessary to think, suggest and demand that the international legal system which protects and limits our rights is established as well as real proactive agents in that same globalized world (SJ, 4.20.03)
This ideology is not wholly accepted yet due to some distrust on the part of the international law system and in particular the inequality in the exercise of rights according to the Northern or Southern interests, exemplified by means of the migratory policies in both hemispheres.
"Personally, I believe that I disagree with the global citizenship, since we are different -talking about hierarchy and position in the world" (Bibiana, 4.15.03)
"The term 'global citizenship' leads us to global rights that, we know, should be applied differently in the North or in the South... we should find out which are the hidden intentions behind this 'Global Citizenship' and the epistemological relations that support it; while at the same time it declares that "this doesn't imply not to work for 'the rights' of specific reception in different countries, because the 'legal' settlement leads to progress and responsibilities in the societies and many times this helps prevent illegitimacy." (Gustavo C, 4.22.03)
However, during the "Taller sobre Sociedad de la Informaci�n y Mujeres"42,
["Workshop on Information Societies and Women"], the team that worked on "democracy, proper governability and the search for peace" suggested that "a universal statement of human rights in the cyberworld is necessary". Similarly, it was suggested that "the development of the Information Society should occur on the basis of respect for the human rights and the civil liberties of all citizens, principally, those of the most vulnerable communities and, in particular, the rights of women".
[36]
Chapter taken from "Girasoles' Synthesis".
[37] IP is quoting Ken Wilber, "La conciencia sin fronteras" ["Conscience without borders"] page 49, Kairos, Barcelona, Spain. 1991.
[38] Chapter taken from Girasoles Synthesis.
[39] See note
30.
[40] "She" refers to the WSSs
[41] Proposed by the workgroup that dealt with "Governability". It was presented at the '"II Coloquio Tres Espacios Ling��sticos: Cooperaci�n, Diversidad y Paz" ["2nd Three Linguistic Spaces Colloquium: Cooperation, Diversity and Peace"], held in Mexico, DF, from April 2 to April 4 - Organizaci�n Internacional de la Francofon�a - OIF, Uni�n Latina and Oragnizaci�n de los Estados Iberoamericanos - OEI - quoted by Senaida J., 4.20.03).
[42] This workshop took place in Bordeaux, France, on April 28 and 29, 2003, carried out by the Instituto Franc�fono de las Nuevas Tecnolog�as de la Informaci�n y de la Formaci�n - INTIF. [Francophone Institute of the New Information Technologies and Training].
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