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Interfacing
Alternative and Complementary Wellbeing Ways For Local Wellness Intercultural
Peacehealing and the Netherlands Document Guidelines for
Programmes Psychosocial and
Mental Health Care Assistance in (Post) Disaster and
Conflict Areas A Conversation Paper
prepared by UN-Inma (Laceweb) for the SE Asia Oceania
Psychosocial Emergency Response Network
- A UNICEF Initiative Last updated Feb 2007. The wisdom on the Laceweb website has been drawn from the grassroots people of the East Asia Oceania Australasia Region. Consistent with their way, this wisdom is freely available on the Laceweb Internet site. Now a simple secure process has been set up, so people reading and downloading this wisdom may contribute financially if they so desire. You may send a tiny amount or as much as you desire. Information about donating to Laceweb Way EMERGING POSSIBILITIES This paper emerges from a
blend of action research and contemplation and ends with an outline of
possible actions whereby the natural nurturers of wellbeing in the First,
Third, and Fourth Worlds may engage together in supporting people in the
aftermath of man-made and natural disasters in ways that enrich local way,
have positive second and third order consequences, that detracts from the
wellbeing of no one involved, and that does
not compromise local self help. THE CONTEXT FOR WRITING
THIS PAPER The current practice is for
First World Aid bodies to come to the E Asia Oceania Region often with scant comprehension of local ways and logical frameworks. First World Aid
bodies naturally use First World wellbeing ways. First World way is not the primary
way of the East Asia Oceania Region How psychosocial support is
provided to Grassroots people in the E Asia Oceania Region was one of the
foci at a meeting of experts (all of whom did not like the designation
‘expert’) convened by the East Asia Pacific Office of UNICEF in August 2001.
This meeting set up a working group made up of attendees at that meeting and
a process for forming an Emergency Psychosocial Response Network in the
Region. The view was expressed by the principal writer of this paper (and
resonant with others present) that while First World support is needed in the
Region, this currently comes with a price – the fraying of the cultural
fabric of the very people it is intended to support. Working Group members had
their own personal and secondhand experience of how First World Aid, done
with the very best intentions in the World, alienates local grassroot people. This paper is a response to
a call from members of the working group for a discussion paper on the
interface between First, Third and Fourth World healing wellbeing way, and
especially on interfacing with the healing ways of Oppressed Indigenous
people and Oppressed Small Minorities in the Region. There were massive dilemmas
in writing this paper. Hearing about one’s trauma support being traumatizing
may be traumatizing. Heaping a lot of ‘things’ in one place, especially
things relating to the aversive implications and role-out of action, can
easily up the ante. At the same time it seems that setting out what others
may not have seen - that others do not seem to know, and it seems, do not
know they do not know, seems useful. Using words, description,
explanation and categorization are a distorting pale caste of alien life
experience. Words fail. A First world way is to attempt to ‘capture’ it.
Wrong metaphor! Categorizing fragments the pervasive holistic. Throughout this paper we use
tentative language, non linear and matrix linking of ideas (creating
repetition), and the passive voice. These forms are familiar to Third and Fourth
World people. For First World people this may fire off aspects of the core
issues of this paper – that the writers do not know how to write ‘properly’.
We right out of respect for Third and Fourth World way. We are feeling our
way. In the First World, left
brain rules. This paper tends to the right. An issue is that many First
World people operate on the assumption that everyone shares their reality –
that First World way of doing and way of thinking is universally applicable.
This is NOT so. First World way is
not the way of the Region. This is not to say, one or other way is best or
better. It is just that there is difference. If using First World way
with the very best of intentions is experienced by locals as imposition and
is doing harm, then this needs to be said - though how to explore these
issues in a loving caring way - that nurtures all of the nurturers of the
world, and encourages them to continue nurturing – though perhaps tempering
some of their ways - in ways they work out themselves - extends the essence
of the loving heart. More and more we are sensing
that in the rich diversity of the World’s cultures, especially the small and
micro-cultures – those that are closely connected to nature – humankind, homo
amans, as in Maturana’s ‘loving people’, is a thrival wellness resource pool
for us all (Maturana, Verden-Zöller 1996). This paper sets out many
challenges, though it seems that our (and fellow members of the Study Group)
own wellness may be maintained and extended by meeting these challenges. Let us first define some
core terms, which jointly go to the heart of this paper. Context - From the
Latin contexere : 'to weave together' or 'webmaking'. ‘The setting in
which experience takes place which can shed light on its meaning’. We are
mindful that people may impose their defining of the meaning of context to
the exclusion of any other people’s meaning (This is the place for a hydro
electric scheme and you have to all move out and we don’t want trouble’,
compared with, ‘This sacred beautiful place is our home and we don’t want any
trouble)’. Awareness of context, especially the scope for viewing and living
in multiple realities held jointly and/or severely is a sustained mode of
being for the nurturing peacehealer (see below). Connexity - A central lived,
embodied, and experienced framing concept is ‘connexity’ – that everything
within and between people and context (which see), culturally and
inter-culturally is inter-dependent, inter-related, inter-connected and
interwoven, while maintaining, respecting and celebrating difference.
Fostering and maintaining connexity relating is a potent force for resolving
and peacehealing (which see) of the inter-cultural and inter-ethic tensions
in the region. Culture – ‘Culture’ is used
in the sense of what a community, or people in communities do as they go about our lives. Heal - ‘Wellbeing Healing’
is used in the original meaning of ‘heal’, as in ‘to make whole’ and
‘integrated’. Only locals know when they do not have their Wellbeing, and
know what is missing. Logic - We speak of logical
local frameworks - where the term 'logic' has the originally meaning - 'the
universal principle through which all things are interrelated and all natural
events occur'. Nurturing Wisdom - Nurturers are the
humane carers and are typically present in any community. These are typically
carriers and users of the local wisdom. These people have a feminine, soft
yin energy. They are for wellbeing and the realizing (in its two fold sense –
to understand and to make real) of wellbeing and connexity (both of which
see) as both an inherent aspect of their social life world and way of being
within their own community, and with different communities and cultures. Peacehealing - ‘Peacehealing’ is a collection of mutual-help
Wellbeing processes. These have been evolving for over 40 years within
Laceweb, an informal network of Wellbeing enablers among Oppressed Indigenous
and Oppressed Small Minorities in the East Asia Oceania Australasia Region
(refer www.laceweb.org.au). Wellbeing - The word 'Wellbeing' is used for the
experience of wellness in the Illness-Wellness Continuum. What constitutes
wellness may vary considerably between different cultures, communities and
people in their varied habitat and context. It is more about better
feeling in context, rather than 'trying to feel better'. Wellbeing is
holistic and includes psychosocial, emotional, habitat, environmental,
cultural, economic, spiritual, mindbody, and intercultural Wellbeing. To use all of the
above terms, this paper is about naturally and logically identifying,
linking up and supporting the natural nurturers in the region using the local
nurturing wisdom in unfolding daily contexts as people go about
their daily lives (their culture) for healing wellbeing and
fostering connexity based relating between people and cultures. Most wellbeing issues
revolve around what we do, or do not do, as we go about our lives; that is, our
culture. It is trivially true that if people in the region started living the
above concepts, inter-ethnic, intercultural and other strife, (and use of
terrorism, torture and trauma by both the powerful and the weak) would
naturally settle down and Regional security would increase without oppressing
or marginalizing the weak and without costing a cent. But it's not that
simple. A very small
proportion of loss of wellbeing relates to the action of germs, viruses, and
chance occurrence. Wellbeing loss can be
attributable to government and business decision-makers (use of traumatizing
militia, pollution, environmental degradation, and the like). Natural
disasters are another cause of wellbeing loss. A very large proportion is
imposed on others or self-imposed – torture and trauma, terrorism and other
violence, substance abuse, domestic violence, becoming insane, committing
crime, poor eating habits and life styles, polluting, causing soil erosion,
and so on. An aim of this paper is to
encourage conversations about local grassroots self-help and mutual wellbeing
actions among torture and trauma survivors in the context of man-made and
natural disaster in the Region, and about how others may support these
Actions in ways that do not compromise them. More widely this paper is
about fostering dialogue between First, Third, and Fourth World nurturers -
about how each can support each other in connexity, co-learning and
co-reconstituting their own Wellbeing for a better life and shared World. At a macro level, the
natural World is giving those with the capacity to perceive (the sense we
make of our senses), ample evidence that people are placing unsustainable
demands upon Earth living systems. Something has to give. Maybe the natural nurturers
of each of the worlds, in realizing (in the twofold sense of ‘re-cognize’ and
‘make real’) their connexity, are the natural source for support. They may
explore how - in respecting and maintaining their difference - they may be
complementary. Cleavered unity is
common in living systems (Firth 1936). Further, this paper is about
exploring and respecting difference. The 'alternative' in the title has
multiple implications. It hints again at difference between First, Third and
Fourth World ways and exploring new (alternative) ways of First World
support. It also refers to the possibilities for working with First World
nurturers in altering First World nurturing ways that disintegrate, such that
First World nurturers do not even see their decimating. It also refers to
local endogenous (internally produced) and exogenous (externally produced)
wellbeing emergence - that is, individual and shared internal experience of
individual and shared contexts that unfold in everyday life. The Region is racked with
man-made and natural disaster. Support is needed, especially by Oppressed
Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minorities - people who have collective
experiences of colonization and violent oppression of their ways. Local
people have used self-help and mutual help for centuries in the face of
man-made and natural disasters. First World service delivery
is characterized by being preplanned, remote-from-context (alien) and
prescriptive. This Aid may have aversive consequences that while evident, are
rarely beheld by First World people. We return to this latter, but first some
shrimps and greens. SHRIMPS AND GREENS As a glimpse of possible
futures, consider what was thought to be an intractable issue in the early
Nineties - child malnutrition in
Vietnam. The NGO, Save the Children knew that traditional First World
solutions would just not work - providing lots of food was not a sustainable
solution. There were dozens of
inter-related issues contributing to malnutrition such as poor local
knowledge of hygiene and nutrition, lack of clean water, poor sanitation, and
the like. A simple local solution was
found in the poorest villages - shrimp and greens (Pascale R. T., Millemann,
M., & Gioja, L., 2000, p. 175-181). A few children were found who were
not malnourished. Their natural nurturer families were positive deviants.
These families were making their children nutritious meals from rice mixed
with two ingredients freely available nearby. These were fresh water shrimp
and the vitamin rich leaves of the sweet potato. The recognizing of these
local natural nurturers started a process that radically altered child
nutrition throughout Vietnam. This local natural nurturer
wisdom was obvious once made visible. Their practical ways were passed on to other
families in the same village. The 'price' to attend small informal gatherings
about caring for their children was a handful of shrimp and sweet potato
leaves. Natural nurturer mothers
showed the others what to do and how to get their children to accept the new
tastes. In the process of 'finding their voices' these natural nurturers
increased in confidence. Previously, they had been hardly noticed in the
village. In the continuing conversations about their children's wellbeing,
other connexity initiatives arose such as village school life and curriculum.
These conversations and shared experiences engendered other wellbeing action
including engendering second and third order benefits (e.g., income
creation). Once energized, local action
was self-organizing, essentially self-funding and sustainable. Wellbeing actions unfolded in everyday
life. The natural nurturers and other mothers evolved additional joint
activities that they could all engage in. There was local participation and
'ownership' of all these actions. This shrimp and leaf diet
'solution' was not expanded to other villages. Rather, the same process
was replicated. Natural nurturers with the well-nourished children were found
in other very poor villages. These were also using local food (such as sesame
seeds) in a particular way. Again, these foods were freely available nearby. The process respected the
local wisdom, intelligence and capacity. Local people took on what other local
people were already doing. The process involves gentle respectful
rapport building and conversing. Within 6 months, two thirds of the children
in the first village had gained substantial weight. After two years, 85% had
grown to acceptable nutritional status and were no longer clinically
malnourished. Within five years the
Vietnamese government had adopted the practice of extending positive deviance
nationwide to great effect. From such a little
'butterfly' as shrimps and greens, the non-linear 'butterfly effect'
sustainably flowed on to create far-reaching winds of change that millions of
dollars of introjected food could not achieve sustainably. The multiplier effect was
sustained throughout the wider action as women found their voices, passing on
nutrition, hygiene and sanitation ideas spontaneous as they went about
everyday life. These young women increased in status, increased in
self-esteem, engaged in small and large group conversation in everyday life,
and sustained all manner of simple wellbeing action research. This action
research involved trying things that work, or modifying them till they did
work for others, and passing on to other locals what works. Things that
worked tend to become local informal ‘policy’. Informal policy is ‘that which
works’. Therefore, informal policy works. No one solution is turned
into a big package solution and imposed on everyone. Each local solution is
spread locally. The work of Lien Yeomans and
Helping Hand is also resonant (Yeomans, 2002). Lien took the simple act of
riding a bicycle around Vietnam identifying the natural nurturer women.
Vietnamese by birth, Lein married Dr. Neville Yeomans, founder of the
Laceweb. In the Australasian context
a superb example of positive deviance is the work of Aboriginals Geoff and
Norma Guest. Geoff has Aboriginal, Islander and other youth nourish
themselves psychosocially on metaphoric shrimps and greens. Geoff uses the
ways of the Aboriginal storyteller and the lore of the wild bush horses and
other Australian animals to prevent petrol sniffing, other self-harm and
civil disobedience. For Geoff, nature is culture. Over the past 24 years over
3000 youth have changed their lives around at Geoff and Norma’s remote farm.
(refer www.laceweb.org.au/ggl.htm). Energy is evolving to have Geoff
and Norma’s pass on their ways to people in remote Central Australian
Aboriginal communities to prevent endemic petrol sniffing. Some communities
have over 8% of the total population addicted to petrol sniffing. The
percentage of youth addicted is much higher. Petrol sniffing quickly kills or
reduces the person to requiring 24-hour care. Geoff and Norma’s way is a
model for the Region. For example, tentative small beginnings have been made
exploring the sharing of Geoff’s experience of remote area therapeutic
community with nurturers in East Timor. A local concern among some local
nurturers is that some of the young men who had been hiding in the hills for
years during the occupation may get caught up in the emerging East Timorese
Criminal Justice system. Some local nurturers are exploring was of
re-introducing adolescent and young males to civil society via therapeutic
community. WIDER APPLICATIONS There are many coherent
aspects of the above action that differ from First World way of thinking and acting.
Indigenous way of the ages is living naturally in connexity and being mindful
of this connexity - being pervasively connected and a part of natural living
systems in mindbody, ideas, feeling and acting. All of this is embodied with
implication for function. This 'emerging integrity in unfolding context' is
fundamentally a very different mode of being to the way of most people in the
First World. The implication of this is immense. The First World has had a
split between mind and body, and between mindbody and nature for centuries.
For all its economic might, the First World has a lot to re-learn and
re-member (as in to embody) about human integrity. Humankind is facing immense
issues threatening the quality of life of future generations. The ways of the
Third and Fourth Worlds hold profound implications for the First World. Each
of the Worlds have so much to share with each other without imposing each
other’s way. This may be respected and celebrated. It is understood that self
and mutual help by local nurturer networks has been evolving in Cambodia.
This may be explored further by members of our Group. This same model of
supporting positive deviance is embraced by Laceweb. Informal local natural
nurturer networks have been evolving in the East Asia Oceania Australasia
Region for over 50 years (refer www.lacewewb.org.au/soc.htm). Oppressed indigenous
people along side Oppressed Small Minorities have been taking small actions
to restore their wellbeing decimated by man-made and natural happenings. In the Vietnam example, the
wisdom about local wellbeing was in the community. Laceweb experience is that
wellbeing wisdom is pervasive and profound among Oppressed indigenous and
Oppressed Small Minorities. It embraces all aspects of wellbeing. It typically
is carried with a soft Yin energy that acts quietly. Laceweb processes mirror
natural living systems. They entail using: ·
self
help and mutual help ·
self-organizing
local networking ·
nodes
(people at the junction of network strands) and links along network strands ·
the
wellbeing wisdom disbursed in the local populations ·
local
solutions locally ·
catalytic
local and intercultural enabling action to trigger local action ·
living
systems capacity to survive and even thrive in disequilibrium on the edge of
chaos ·
non-linear
effects - small actions having large first, second and third order effects An ongoing central focus of
Laceweb action is people who are survivors of torture and trauma. Experience has
established that people who have experienced torture and trauma can return to
wellbeing through self and mutual help. As in the Vietnamese
experience, natural nurturers may be found among survivors of torture and
trauma. They may use the local 'psycho-emotional-social-spiritual'
equivalents of shrimps and greens to thrive. They may do this using
simple wellbeing ways fitting to the local way of life - their local culture.
The word 'may' is used as a positive tentative. It is a respectful natural
tentative. It is a tentative that fully respects that it is a local matter.
Locals do it if locals want to. Local people are not focused on certainty.
Tentative (fuzzy logic) is nature's way. Within informal local
Laceweb networks, indigenous and small minority natural nurturers act in a
catalyst role as nodal people. They seek out the local natural nurturers.
They help evolve conversations and relationships between other local natural
nurturers. They seed possibilities for
mini gatherings (two or more people) and celebrations for evolving simple
wellbeing action. Possibilities for sharing wellbeing ways as locals go about
their daily life are also shared. These wellbeing networks evolve viral like.
They have potential to have non-linear growth. Small input may have large
effects. This nodal enabling action refines intercultural insight and
respectful ways of being and relating with diversity. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES The sheer size of man-made
and natural disasters in the region tend to stretch conventional service
delivery beyond capacity. It may well be that using the positive deviance
ideas mentioned above may spread possibilities for wellbeing that is just not
possible using a service delivery approach. Micro Laceweb action is
evolving throughout the East Asia Oceania Australasia Region (www.laceweb.org.au/aose.htm). People engaging in
preparing emergency psycho-social response in the Region could well explore
using this positive deviance wellbeing networking already in the region as an
integral part of action. Fostering Laceweb like
action may strengthen the resilience and wellbeing capacity in the Region
generally, as well as have many second and third order wellbeing effects. Skilled nurturers may be available
as a quick response wellbeing team in times of emergency. As well, ‘mediation
nurturers’ and ‘peacehealers’ - both processes developed within the Laceweb -
may be an invaluable resource in settling down conflict and supporting the
process of co-reconstituting collapsed society (refer www.laceweb.org.au/ext.htm). The local process outlined
above is profoundly different to the conventional service delivery by
'professionals' approach of the First World nations and Global governance
bodies. In
this context it is useful to distinguish outcomes and outputs. Locally
developed self-sustaining process such as ‘shrimps and greens’ produce the
same output (nourished children) as service delivery may attempt to do, but
outcomes (wellness) are massively different. Thrival outcomes (system thriving)
emerge as the natural life sustaining processes which produce the conditions
for more life in a wide web of ecological relationships. In contrast, survival outcomes
manifest as a system is functionally isolated from the context of its
ecological relationships, and its ability to reconnect and re-establish these
relationships through the exercise of self-determined strategies is
attenuated. Therefore, the non-locally derived service delivery model
tends to deliver and perpetuate survival outcomes because it
perpetuates exogenously determined and artificial (not pertaining to the
local ecology of relationships, culture, history and environment) problem-solving
strategies. Service delivery ‘clients’
tend to remain within a vicious cycle of dependency, creating the need for
ongoing welfare and ongoing employment of Aid bodies, which brings up the
question of, ‘Who benefits the most in the ‘core-periphery’ relationships
between the First and Third/Fourth Worlds?’ In contrast, self-help
modeling tends to enable self-perpetuating thrival outcomes as people make
sense of, and embody their experiences, develop endogenous strategies for
employing themselves, which are consistent with their logical frameworks, and
pursue authentic wellness. Wellbeing emerges naturally
and spontaneously as people develop new ways to ‘take the helm’ in their
lives together. It is pertinent to recognize that no-where in nature is
there evidence of living systems being ‘empowered’ by other living systems.
Living systems develop authentic power by traversing the threshold of a
previous relationship with their ecosystem and emerging into a new reality. Consider how a fledgling eagle
learns to fly and how a duckling learns to paddle and dive. There is no
instruction manual provided on how to move its body, only an enabler (parent)
who places a ‘wellness demand’ - essentially a stressor that challenges the
system to come alive in new ways and who supports it to meet the ensuing
challenges. Closer to home, remember how
we learnt to drive a car. Was there a section in the Road Rules manual on how
to reconfigure your central nervous system to perform the highly specialized
co-ordinated movements that enable one to drive? Rather, we were given a
challenge, told what to do and somehow, our mind and body came together to
work out how to do it. The skills became embodied. Perform a thought
experiment - what would have happened if we’d never seen a car in all our
life and on the day we became legally eligible to drive, we were presented
with a new car and an instruction manual written in a language we did not
understand? The point being that it’s difficult to learn and embody a new
skill without the right enabling. The role of the enabler is vital to the
development of authentic power. We weren’t given the power to physically
perform the actions of driving (the myth of empowerment); we developed it
ourselves after being enabled to do so. Our power, which may be
described as the spectrum of our functional capabilities and capacities, is
an emergent (rather than a latent) property that only arises when a system,
understood as a unity, is enabled and engaged in the performance of a
self-determinative function to meet a new adaptive challenge. We need to redevelop our
theoretical basis as we remember that these complex biological and social
living systems are self-steering and self-governing adaptive systems. We need
to recognize that self-organizing and emergent phenomena form the basis of
living processes and that attempting to impose order and organization on
processes which are naturally and spontaneously self-organizing tends to
produce negative long-term outcomes and often the opposite of what we were
trying to achieve. Complexity science puts forth the possibility of learning
about ways to create conditions and contexts in which self-organization and
growth oriented emergent phenomena are maximized in complex adaptive systems. THE NETHERLANDS DOCUMENT The Netherlands Document
(the Document) 'Guidelines for Programmes - Psychosocial and Mental Health
Care Assistance in (Post) Disaster and Conflict Areas' is fully consistent
with First World way. First World way is not the primary way of the East Asia
Oceania Region First World Aid bodies come
to the Region using First World way often with scant comprehension of local ways and logical frameworks. The
Netherlands document imposes one particular alien cultural framework and
derived logical system and proceeds as if this particular way is universally
applicable. The document systematically excludes other ways and gives
superficial recognition while excluding local ways of thinking from the
theory-base. The theory base is a monocultural monologue. It is simply a
masquerade to assert that an operational approach is ad hoc culturally
sensitive or appropriate when at the fundamental level of theory there is no
evidence of the integration of cross-cultural and intercultural logical
frameworks. There is talk of co-opting
locals though co-opting them within First World way. Local ways of nurturing
for wellbeing are locally appropriate logical frameworks. Recall that 'logic'
is being used with the originally connexity meaning, 'the universal principle
through which all things are interrelated and all natural events occur'.
Local ways are fully consistent with the latest understandings in connexity,
complexity science and the science of living systems. The concept of cultural
unemployment (as in, 'in use', not as in, 'working for the man') is apropos.
A system can only well employ those processes that have been successfully
explicated (developed). Indigenously, these have emerged over millenniums for
thriving, often in habitat where First World people would not survive. Local Wellbeing is directly
proportional to the capability and locally appropriate employment of these
inherently local mindbody-habitat-context strategies and processes. Imposing
foreign strategies on a system may simultaneously lead to unemployment of the
existing processes. For example, had Save the Children brought in massive
injections of food aid, the simple nutrition practices of the local natural
nurturers may have been swamped and lost forever. In the case of the Netherlands
document this invasive imposing from an alien environment could equate to,
and result in, local cultural unemployment, with a corresponding
lowering of local based wellbeing and other related thrival outcomes. Conversely the Laceweb, by
its very nature supports a local thrival process among disaffected
individuals, with additional outcomes that amplify indigenous
strategies. Recall, that the 'Shrimps
and Greens' strategy created local second and third order action 'employing'
local resonant way. In First World terms this is 'delivering cost effect
outcomes' that avoid the typically ignored cost of local cultural
unemployment and cultural impoverishment. Islamic, Buddhist and
Animistic traditional way is pervasive in some areas of the Region. Western
Aid bodies often have little knowledge of these traditions. Oppressed
Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority people of the Region have rich
psycho-social community healing traditions which are profoundly different to
Western way and also profoundly different to local ‘mainstream’ (dominant)
way. 'Heal' and 'healing' are
here used again in the sense of making whole. Using Positive Deviance and
self/mutual help networking is one example. The cultural frameworks and forms
of logically consistent ways of acting, thinking and being have evolved
through very different selection pressures than Western and Other First World
way. Hence it is quite inappropriate to assume that First World way can be
readily introduced into these cultural systems without messing with and
spoiling the local cultural environment. It is also inappropriate to assume
that local people will 'buy into' alien Aid schemes in sustainable
non-superficial ways. And yet this imposition of Alien Aid way is what happens
regularly. First World Project failure is typically slated home to the 'lack
of buy-in' (a First World concept) by locals. Consistent with Western way,
the Netherlands document prescribes (specifies what shall happen prior to
context) and proscribes (specifies what shall not happen prior to context).
Pervasive in the Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority way of the Region is
moment-to-moment context based socio-healing for cohesion as people engage in
their everyday social-life world. Anyone to everyone may enter into wellbeing
healing acts. Emergent co-reconstituting cohesion is possible in and through
the daily passing on of the minutiae of family, clan and community life
networking. For hundreds of years their life together as a people, as a way
of life in their place has been precarious because of man-made and natural
disintegrating, and they have evolved natural local ways of reconstituting
their extensive integrity. Prescriptive non-locally
developed 'formulaic' service delivery is observed to systematically
annihilate emergent self-organizing phenomena developing from within local
communities. Imposed planned action interrupts local self-organizing action. One example mentioned at the
UNICEF organized meeting in Thailand in August 2001 (to explore setting up an
Emergency Psychosocial Response Network for the Region) was the simple
healing wellbeing ceremonies by the grassroots villages in response to the
massive volcanic ash build up in their villages a few years ago. Even though
the person mentioning the example pointed these local healing practices out
to First World Aid Agencies, it is understood that this person observed that
these practices were disdained and ignored by the visiting psychosocial
expert professionals. These spontaneous self
organizing Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority networks have potential
for trauma healing that may exponentially evolve in contexts where First
World delivery by experts would fail through resources been stretched beyond
capacity. Resonant outside support
may foster the potential of these local processes. Non-resonant support may
disintegrate these local ways. In the following paragraphs
some differences between First World and Third/Fourth World ways are
outlined. A more comprehensive exploring of difference is included later in
the paper. These local ways differ
profoundly from First World service delivery of 'programs' designed by
distant non-local 'experts' - experts with no knowledge of local healing way,
operating from alien pre-prescribed frameworks. The term pre-prescribed is
used here to emphasize that alien people with virtually no knowledge of local
context let alone the exiguous moment-to-moment trauma contexts, deign
beforehand on the other side of the globe, 'that which shall be done'. The Netherlands document
does nothing about interfacing first world 'expert professional skill' with
'Local self-organizing wellbeing experience of what works in action'. There
is nothing which meshes local and non-local ways in functional and unfolding
context molded ways. There is nothing that ensures local buy in and
sustainability. Intercultural exploring is absent - and typical. The Indigenous and Oppressed
Small Minority way of the Region is self-help by, and mutual help between,
survivors of torture and trauma - the continuing ancient tradition of the
shaman/healer supporting pervasively social shared
socio-reconstituting-action, socio-healing, and socio-medicine. The ways are
pervasively social, holistic, natural, and inclusive. In stark contrast the First
World way sectorises, dichotomizes, fragments and cleavers. There is a
cleavage between the doer and the done to. The doer decides well prior to the
presenting context, that which must and must not happen. Experts specialize in the
'fixing' of various fragmented aspects of wellbeing. 'I am a counselor'. 'I
am a 'mental health' expert'. 'I restore infrastructure.' 'I am the healer
and you are the target.' It is germane that the term 'fixing' means to
immobilize! The local way is inclusive.
'I engage with others in socio-spiritual-emotional-mind-body-community
healing of ourselves mutually, and for the healing of our place.' This local
way is not 'delivered'. Rather it is pervasively lived - embedded as an
aspect of their way of life together. In local way, those
initiating and sustaining healing may provide something approximating
'service'. It is more 'enabling' – as in, supporting themselves and other
locals in self-help and mutual-help to be more able. The local people
together are the re-constituters, not local or outside 'experts' doing things
to and for people. The psychosocial dynamics of
such bi-directional feedback (co-learning and co-reconstituting) profoundly
alter the healing experience and are notably absent in the service-delivery
model deriving from Western way. Other locals may take up
this enabler role. Outsiders sensitive to the enabler role and sensitive to,
and familiar with local way and intercultural merging, who are accepted in the
enabler role by locals, may contribute to unfolding processes, if locals want
their support. The informal Laceweb networks serve as an example of how this
works (refer www.laceweb.org.au/tcj.htm and www.laceweb.org.au/indexA.htm). In this most sensitive area
of support for survivors of torture and trauma, perhaps local way may be the only
Way that ensures local ownership of the process and overall sustainability of
development strategies. Intercultural enablers
(those able to move freely between ways) may be used to support the Local
way. The Netherlands document
sets up Western Way as THE way. No other way is contemplated or considered.
'Local' has to be 'accommodated' from deep within the Western way. This is
typical of Western way. Typically, if First World
way is used with the 'proviso' that local ways, self-help and local people
will be 'allowed for' - local way is ignored or compromised. That is, there
is often a divergence between First World 'espoused way' and 'way in use'. The Western way is neither
right nor wrong. Neither are other ways. Strife may come from not being
mindful of, and respectful of other ways, and in imposing - in insisting, via
a fait accompli, that First World way has to be used. That the Netherlands’
document implies applicability around the World, and unequivocally assumes
the use of Western Way for 'delivery' is, with respect, characteristic of
neo-colonial ignorance (unintentional arrogance?) about other ways, although
perhaps done with the best will in the world. It is pertinent here to
distinguish between outcomes and output. Locally developed self-sustaining
process such as the 'Shrimps and Greens' example produce the same output
(nourished children) as that which may be pursued by service delivery.
However, the outcomes (wellness) are typically massively different between
local nurturer way and First World way (feeling better). First world way may
have the outcome of further distintegrating local self-organizing networks.
It is respectfully suggested that first, second and third order consequences
be continually monitored by local and intercultural people to ensure 'Aid'
actions are systems-enabling ways rather than systems-disabling ways to
deliver output, so as to generate living-thriving outcomes rather than
disintegrating-dead outcomes. The First World has the
financial resources to be of considerable help. Local people have the
know-how and know-what about sustainable local way. Local wellbeing nurturers
among indigenous and oppressed small minorities as well as Laceweb
interculturals in the region are skilled nodal people. What is being proposed here
is the exploring of behaving in functional effective and mutually respectful
ways resonant with the local ways of the Region. Thinking like a
self-organizing living system rather than a bureaucracy may be explored. Aid acts may be undertaken
within the pervasive frame of being part of a living system - enmeshed and
interconnected in a mutually sustaining connexity web of life - rather than
thinking and acting in fragmented, divided and bureaucratic ways; in computer
programmer terms – ‘Rubbish In, Rubbish Out’. Sensitivity to the
possibilities flowing from the above may allow for a recasting of the role of
First World potential towards supporting rather than ‘contributor to the
marginalizing and devaluing of local way’. LACEWEB – AN OVERVIEW Throughout the East Asia Oceania
Region, Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority healers have been quietly
evolving small informal networks. These networks have been supporting
cultural healing action for restoring wellbeing in response to continuing
oppression and conflict for a number of decades. See:
www.laceweb.org.au/cwhw.htm, www.laceweb.org.au/soc.htm and www.laceweb.org.au/cha.htm). The
latter web page (Cultural Healing Action – <cha.htm>) is resonant with
PETA in the Philippines. Some Western and other
healing processes have been explored and adopted/adapted into Laceweb Action. A common experience in using
local way is that those most traumatized are those most transformed towards
wellbeing. A typical finding in Western way is that the severer the
dysfunction, the more difficult to 'treat' it becomes. While typically an alien
notion to First World 'professionals', Laceweb has a history traceable back
to the 1930's of demonstrating that severely traumatized, dysfunctional
people (and violent protagonists and combatants) may be enabled to help
themselves (self-help) to humane wellbeing. Refer: ·
Clark
and Yeomans (1969) ·
www.laceweb.org.au/ck/ck.htm, DIFFERING WAYS AND DIFFERING
AGENDAS There are major differences
between First World way and local way. Both First World way and local way
have evolved within, and have been adapted to their own respective place and
cultures. Difference can be respected and celebrated. Noting difference can
aid understanding of the respective ways. However, putting these
contrasts and the implications of Western Way for Third and Fourth World
people all in one place may be for some very confronting. Stating these
contrasts and implications may 'up the ante'. The need for support is
massive. It is the mode of support that is being raised here as a
conversation point. It is germane to look at
principles underlying First World Aid generally. First World Aid Agencies are
often 'big concerns'. People have very good careers carved out for themselves
helping Third and Fourth World People. National Donor Country Aid
works closely with National Donor Country Trade. Why else would Sixty billion
(in Australian dollars) of Aid come into the Region annually in the late
Nineties - Aus$45 Billion from Japan with a struggling economy? The standard
rule is a seven-fold multiplier effect of Aid on flow-on trade; that
represents 420 billion (in Australian dollars) annually as the anticipated
trade spin-off from donated aid. That is Big business self-interest in the
context of, 'Look what we do for you!' We are suggesting change
effecting big money interests. The current norm/process is that organizations
from donor countries 'do the work' and not the local people ('We know.' 'We
are the experts.') and hence much of Aid money finds its way back into the
donor country. Aid is linked into business opportunities which again are
snapped up by donor countries and wages and profits return to the donor
country. This process was openly
acknowledged in the Australian Government AusAid/AusTrade conference in
Melbourne in the late Nineties, 'appropriately' called, 'Aid Business is Good
Business'. Speakers at that
conference revealed that the common experience was that around 75% of Aid
projects failed because of lack of 'real participation' and lack of local
'buy-in' by local people. That they fail does not alter the multiplier effect
on trade. It approximates full employment in time of war when the economic
product is being destroyed. It is like military spending (product to be
destroyed) currently priming the giant American economy. There will be pressure to ensure that local people do not have buy in or any substantial say
in Aid matters. It typically remains as 'government bureaucracy to government
bureaucracy'. A Self-Help based aid focus would radically alter the above
funding and payoff context for donor countries. There will be pressure to
ensure that local people do not have buy in or any substantial say in
Aid matters. A Grassroots based aid focus would radically alter the above
funding and payoff context for donor countries. Directly and indirectly,
global trade and First World Nation interests are placing all manner of
pressures on the Oppressed Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minorities of the
Region - threatening their very survival. It is suggested that it is
appropriate to have Aid conversations in the Region based upon a value system
centered on being humane, caring, local Wellbeing and respecting diversity
(refer www.laceweb.org.au/ext.htm). Because of the above issues potentially
upping the ante, just giving this paper out to people could well be
counter-productive. We have in our group, or a sub-group of the working
group, a golden opportunity to explore ways of fostering respect for
difference and ways in which local way may be supported in the Region. What follows is a comparative analysis of the two ways,
implications of current patterns of implementation, and possibilities for
productive integration of strategies for future implementation. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FIRST
WORLD WAY AND LACEWEB WAY
EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES The Illness-wellness continuum and the experience of, or lack
of, Wellbeing is embodied. This happens to all people on Earth, whether we are
aware of it or not. Lack of awareness of this embodiment goes hand-in-hand
with notions of mind body split and all of the ways First World people use to
have ‘flight from body physiological awareness, sensitivity, and
groundedness’ – fast cars, entertainment, alcohol, etc. All manner of
dissociation processes and other system function/dysfunction are the
indogenous correlates of the fragmenting ideas. Ways of acting and thinking
about the world, in this case producing fragmentation and dissociation, feedback
into the ways we relate to our own mind, body and spirit; our actions in the
world all have physiological or embodied consequences. Quality of Life/Wellbeing outcomes are legitimately experienced,
owned and may be authentically self-reported by the local people experiencing
these outcomes, while 'Standard of Living' or Output indicators like 'Per
Capita Income' derive from a First World virtual or artificial realm. This
artificial realm - the realm of Cartesian or fragmented expertise
(expertise which excludes and dissociates parts from a living whole, in
contrast to integrated expertise - about inter-relating,
interconnecting and sustaining living systems) conforms to the operation of
conditioned intellectual processes which tend to disembody and fragment the doer, the done to and world in which
deeds are done. In contrast, endogenous
self-organizing wellbeing actions conform to the operation of embodying and
integrating processes which employ the intellect but do not give it the
driving seat. This is a feature of self-organized complexity in real living
systems and real social systems that Western scientific discourse is only now
beginning to recognize. Authentic wellness processes
in complex living and social systems appear to be characterized by
physiologically and intellectually coupled processes, rather than
deriving solutions to ‘problems’ through rational intellectual operations. Living systems explore their
environment, learn and adapt through complex embodied contemplative feeling
and not simply conscious decision-making. Life proceeds through emergent
phenomena as systems, self-steer through challenging ecological topography.
In this sense, reliance upon exogenously sourced solutions to the pressing
problems of community, war, and disaster, disables the system – by dissecting
it from its historical roots of mutual experience, and self-determining and
deciding behaviors. For some local people even ‘deciding’ is alien. It is
more that a shared sense of what to do emerges from a shared knowing and
people who sense this and reflect it to the group become people of high
degree. Enabling a system to develop
its own unique context dependant solutions to its own problematic, allows
Wellbeing action to draw upon living non-linear processes of wisdom (wise
actions) which are embodied and embedded in appropriate logical frameworks
resonant with the history of the region. In contrast, the knowledge of
the non-local professional expert is disembodied from the local history,
local logical frameworks and, importantly, from feeling and sense-ability
(ability to sense). It represents an intellectually driven or determined
process rather than sense or physiologically coupled process. It is illogical
because it is not whole, it is incomplete and its principle effect as a modus
operandi in the world is to fragment and disintegrate living wholes into
devitalized and alienated parts. This is why the short-term outputs of such
interventions are acceptable on a surface reading, yet the long-term outcomes
tend to have non-fitting second and third or effects that are often
detrimental to the ‘target’ group. Often that these second and third order
effects will occur is patently obvious to locals who have the local knowing
of how to live well in their place and what not to do – and yet Aid action is
typically unilateral in implementation when it comes to grassroots people. A similar outcome is observed
in epidemiology, in which, for many diseases treated by pharmaceutical
prophylaxis, the disease process is successfully interrupted. However, this
has little if any effect on the overall quality of life of the person and may
even accompany a reduction in their overall wellness. Simply increasing the
amount of symptom free time available to the person has not been shown to
improve the quality of their time. The point is more than a moral assertion,
it is a principle of the field of complexity science. If we persist in
treating a complex living system as an object that can be directed, steered,
controlled, disassembled and reassembled, normalized and corrected; in other
words - like a machine - then we are contributing to the ultimate
annihilation of that system. We need to recognize, from the
longtitudinal first, second and other order outcomes of our interventions,
whether our discourse and our praxis are actually part of the problem, rather
than part of the resolution/evolution.
As one example, Laceweb encourages the local embodying of
mindbody action processes. These characterize endogenous grassroots
self-organizing living system nous-processes-of-wellbeing - as in, ‘Shrimps
and Greens. Ideas
among the Laceweb are exploring the 'complementary' roles of the non-local
service-provider and self-help/mutual-help local and/or intercultural
enabler. These roles may help to hold a space for local self-organizing - to
identify, nurture and amplify - again using endogenous processes to do this -
the local endogenous self-occurring rhythms of wholeness which are locally
authentically alive and naturally seeking to reconstitute wellbeing. There is a dearth of Western psycho-social aid
bodies that have any experience of
Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority nurturing/healing wellbeing Way, or
experience in enabling locals engage in self-help as outlined above. Laceweb
has three decades of such experience in micro-projects. Indigenous and Small
Minority Natural Nurturer may be available as a resource – refer www.laceweb.org.au/cwhw.htm#lacet Laceweb and other Wellbeing
Action in the Region has been engaging in small ways supporting strengthening
the Wellbeing fabric of communities. Man-made and natural disasters typically
create emergency contexts where a quick response is necessary to save lives
and minimize immense suffering. Laceweb and other local wellbeing action has
been creating some capacity for inter-culturally sensitive quick-response
healing teams. Energy may be available - and supported by First World
capacity - in ways which do not place lives in jeopardy. Western and other
funding may be made available in ways that do not compromise Local Way. ·
Funding people could ensure
accountability for disbursement. ·
Indigenous academics and
others resonant with Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority way may enter
into co-learning review of unfolding Action. This paper has discussed the
notion ‘way’ - drawing distinctions between Western ways and ways in use
among Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minorities in the East Asia Oceania
region for the purpose of healing all Worlds. Local fostering of Positive
Deviance at local levels has been outlined Recognizing difference in
ways, there remains aspects of the Netherlands document and this document
that may form the basis for further exploring of non-compromising supporting
and funding of Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority Way and other Way in
the East Asia Oceania Region. It may be that in emergencies and with
sensitivities to the issues raised in this paper, First World Ways may be
used so as to have minimal negative impact on local way. Given the tenor of this paper,
to have the Netherlands document adopted as ‘policy’ and imposed on Third and
Fourth World people may well further entrench the imposing of First World way
and support tragic consequences. It is relevant that all in our
‘Expert’ group distanced themselves from the term ‘expert’ because of the
connotations that have been noted above. Our Expert Group is an ideal forum
for exploring ways for building bridges between the nurturers of all worlds. SPECIFIC POSSIBLE
FUTURE ACTION Here is a scenario in point form: ·
A Disaster occurs and there is a need to act quickly ·
Essential everything has been destroyed; the local area is a
mess ·
There are dead, dieing and traumatized and little or no food and
shelter ·
The living system – people and habitat - is fragmented ·
Local people are in shock and concerned about loved ones and
survival ·
Life threatening and critical things have to be addressed
quickly ·
The First World has what has been called ‘grunt’ – it has the
capacity and will to get resources anywhere in the world quickly ·
The First World Aid bodies can quickly and effectively establish
a transitional zone and enable basic survival functioning (we would
characterize this temporary period as the rescue phase of the Aid process) of
the shattered systems (biological and social). ·
The local people have the feelings and knowing about what is
missing from their wellbeing ·
The local people have the capacity for healing their wellbeing,
though this is stressed and may need enabling support from within the local
community and/or from without by intercultural enablers ·
the store of local knowing and wisdom is in the local
communities – there is special wisdom among a few, and general wisdom among
the many ·
The local people have the capacity and potential to self
organize and establish self sufficiency though non compromising support may
be very welcome ·
Given sensitive intercultural enabling support, the local people
may provide important information about what they need and how they need to
reconstitute their own wellbeing. ·
First World Aid people arrive with scant knowledge of this local
context/capacity ·
The First World provides Aid and
the issues raised in this paper unfold The question is how to nurture
the locally emergent context imbedded within the disaster context - enabling
the local voices, resources, wisdom and capacity for co-reconstituting
themselves according to their local way. This is a missing piece of the
Netherlands document. They hint that they want to embrace the locals, though
their framework makes no provisions on how to do so. Intercultural enabling and
support of this local way is embodied action finessed by mentored experience
engaging in enabling real contexts. It is being able to draw on
embodied inter-cultural wisdom to act in ways appropriate unto the moment. It
is being able to gently be present to identify and engage with the local
wisdom and way. Intercultural enablers are very special people with a scarce
and vital experience base. Intercultural enablers for East Asia Oceania Australasia are
already in the Region. They may be found
among other Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority People in the Region -
within the Laceweb. These intercultural enablers
could play an interface role between First World Aid - as well as Aid from
NGO’s and CBO’s from within the Region - and the local people. Intercultural
enablers’ connexity and living system perception and perspective may be of
support in increasing integrity and connexity based cooperation into
fragmented sectorised Aid efforts. They could look for and encourage the
modeling and use of the ways of the positive deviants existing within all
Worlds. The First World can only naturally use First World way. The
Third and Fourth World can only naturally use their respective ways. Those
who move and act between Worlds using meta-wellbeing processes are a rare
breed – people of high degree. The Netherlands document is highly specialized and the distilled
wisdom of highly specialized people. This current paper is endeavoring to
provide hints of bits that are missing and that which may complement for
everyone’s wellbeing. We seek to have a meshing of the intrinsic of all
Worlds such that the energy at the interface enhances the respective
different wellbeings of all those involved, and detracts from the wellbeing
of no one involved. It is hopeful and a blessing that it is in the nature of things
on Planet Earth that along with adversity comes advantage. It is nature’s way
that emergence, innovation, new life and adundance takes place at the edge of
chaos far from equilibrium in living systems. Live thrives far from equilibrium (Sahtouris, Capra). We are seeking to encourage thriving action at the interface of
the Worlds. To this end: 1)
We will work on a sequel to
this paper focusing on suggestions for specific action. 2)
Members of the Study group
interested in the issues raised in this paper may enter into email exchange. 3)
It may be that those of the
Group interested in the above issues may have telephone conference link-ups
and a sub-group meeting either associated with or independent of any future
Expert Study Group meeting. 4)
It may be that key nodal
intercultural enablers from the Laceweb may be open to contribute. It is
sensed that the starting place is linking intercultural enablers with the
nurturers within local at-risk communities. 5)
From years of first-hand
experience intercultural enablers know that First World and Regional governance
as well as NGOs and CBOs use what they learn about grassroots self help to
undermine grassroots self-help. A way ahead of this impasse may be to
non-compromisingly explore the wellbeing interface between grassroots self
help and these other entities. (Refer
www.laceweb.org.au/gfg.htm) As mentioned at the August
2001 Expert Group meeting, a database of nodal enablers is not wise. Those
who use torture and trauma in the Region for social control, target the
healers, nurturers, teachers and natural leaders. Such a database could be
used as an assassination list. Funding
could be sought for small (two or three people) local community visits to
identify the local nurturers. Local camp-out micro-gatherings could emerge in
the Region. A campout environment may allow participants to be ‘close to the
ground’ and to ‘sit around the fire under the night sky’. To bring these
people into dominant power places (upmarket conference facilities in upmarket
hotels) would be inappropriate. Micro-gatherings may allow people to discover
each other. Local grassroots natural nurturers may be the hosts. Nodal
intercultural enablers may be invited. Exploring together the notion of a
grassroots emergency response network may be a focus. It is suggested that
First World Aid and Regional governance people not be involved. Having done this,
a subsequent step may be for intercultural enablers to host gatherings
fostering possibilities for genuine dialogue about the interface between the
nurturers of the First World and the nurturers of the Third and Fourth
Worlds. These dialogues may produce very different perceptions between the
groups involved than the typical core-periphery, expert-target group, and
client focused-professional obscured conversations (monologues) which
currently predominate. Out of these
processes and hopefully authentic alive dialogue, may emerge new, and perhaps
more holistic perceptions of each other and insights about non-compromising
action. In the living body, the heart and the liver perform differentiated,
specialized and non-transferable vital functions. Both are living componentry
of a living unity (living system). Similarly, both the locals and the
non-locals have vital and to some extent non-transferable roles to play. At this juncture it
is germane to conclude with a segment of a Laceweb paper written in 1993.
That paper outlines four possible roles for Laceweb. REFERENCES Clark A. W. & Yeomans N. T. 1969. Fraser House - Theory, Practice and Evaluation of a Therapeutic Community New York: Springer Pub. Co. Firth, R. 1936 We the Tikopia Maturana, H., R. Verden-Zöller, et al. (1996). Biology of Love - Online http://www.ozemail.com.au/~jcull/articles/bol.htm, (Hrsg.): Focus Heilpadagogik, Ernst Reinhardt. Mulligan, M & Hill, S Ecological Pioneers – A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action Cambridge University Press Oakleigh, Victoria Pascale R. T., Millemann, M., & Gioja, L. 2000. Surfing the Edge of Chaos - The Laws of Nature and the New Laws of Business London: Texere Publishing Yeomans, L. The
Green Papaya. New Growth From Old Seeds GOVERNMENT AND THE FACILITATING OF GRASSROOTS ACTION A paper by Dr Neville Yeomans, et al How can Local Community based Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority Wellbeing way be supported by First World way? Three issues will be introduced. Firstly, Western policy and program processes are presently geared for traditional top-down expert-driven organizational undertakings. Currently, committees evaluating funding submissions presuppose that traditional top-down expert driven approaches will be used. Grassroots community wellbeing action also has both their equivalents to ‘policy’ and ‘program’ processes (as described above). However these are generated by lateral and occasionally bottom-up action. Specific and general ‘programs’ evolve out of this action. ‘Programs’ and actions that 'work' are consensually validated and adopted as policy at the local level. The fundamental aspect of Action is that local people have the first and last say about everything to do with their own wellbeing. A second issue is that global and national governance and their bureaucracies, funding entities, and Western NGO’s and CBO’s have tended to fragment the world into narrow separate bits - economics, health, housing, agriculture, forestry, the environment etc. Each of these are also subdivided into sectors. For example health may be subdivided into mental health, aged care and the like. Each government and NGO program area tends to jealously guard onerous apparent prerogatives as a 'dispenser of public/private funds'. Few, if any, government/NGO inter-sector funding arrangements exist. In contrast, local action (outlined above), which we will from here on refer to as ‘grassroots wellbeing action’, is holistic in a manner that is at the same time both pervasive and detailed. A third issues is that while people may aspire to lessen public expenditure and obtain better value for the public dollar, there is a strong pressure towards putting self-preservation first if achieving the above goals appears personally detrimental. Traditional government and non-government wellbeing agencies may see grassroots initiatives as a threat to their own funding. If grassroots wellbeing action really starts to be effective on a larger scale, this may raise a fear of presupposed downsizing within sections of the bureaucracy and a similar fear within traditional wellbeing services. Because of these perceived threats, the foregoing entities may mistakenly seek to undermine grassroot wellbeing initiatives. They may fail to see scope for multiple lateral integration between lateral/bottom-up and top down processes, or appreciate the scope for shifting from vertical integration to lateral integration. The obvious claim from within the existing Western paradigm is that grassroot wellbeing action is 'unprofessional' - that it is not under the direction and control of professed experts. Also, that it is not organized 'properly' - in other words, it is not 'top-down'. THE LACEWEB The Laceweb has experience dating from the 1940's in
working with grassroots healing action. The Laceweb is a source of influence,
confluence, understanding and enabling in linking up peoples, contexts,
issues, and actions in sustained lateral/bottom-up nurturing culture for
action for wellbeing - refer ‘An Example of
Enabling Indigenous Wellbeing’ http://www.laceweb.org.au/ena.htm Other Laceweb roles are seeking out people who are generating nurturing cultural Actions that work, letting other grassroot people know about them and sharing healing ways that work. For example, Laceweb people have evolved mediation therapy© and peacehealing©, both relevant to the present context. POSSIBLE LACEWEB ROLES The Laceweb is well placed to take on a number of roles in exploring the possibility of government and NGO facilitation of grassroot community wellbeing action. Firstly, The Laceweb can continue to expand in its current Action role. Secondly, The Laceweb can work along side governments, NGO’s and CBO’s to develop processes for resolving the many matters arising from the three issues previously mentioned and the differences cited above. Thirdly, The Laceweb could provide an interface and support role between government/top down NGO/CBO and grassroots nurturing action. This could relate to the evolving of action agreements and other funding arrangements for specific local action initiatives. Fourthly, The Laceweb could provide intercultural support in the cooperative interfacing of Western way with other ways in the East Asia Oceania Region. Laceweb ways are explored online for non-compromising facilitating and funding of Indigenous and Oppressed Small Minority Way and other Way in the East Asia Oceania Region. These ways may be extended in supporting survivors of man-made and natural disasters, and evolving Quick Psychosocial Emergency Response Networks for ensuring the integrity and full involvement and ‘ownership’ of continuing local self sustaining and self replicating wellbeing action – refer www.laceweb.org.au/gfg.htm and www.laceweb.org.au/aose.htm
Appendix A Keyline and Cultural
Keyline Geosocial
Mindbody Processes A conversation paper prepared by a UN-Inma enabler
Psychiatrist Barrister Dr. Neville Yeomans was one of the founding energizers of the Laceweb. The concept 'Cultural Keyline' was developed by Dr. Neville T. Yeomans from his father P.A Yeomans' 'Keyline' concept for water harvesting (Mulligan, M. and Hill, S 2001). This paper briefly introduces Keyline and Cultural Keyline. The later concept is a guiding concept in Laceweb Action. The above panorama is of the property at Richmond (an hours drive out of Sydney) where Neville’s father, P.A. Yeomans developed 'Keyline'. Notice the Keyline design features adapting natural placeforms in the above photo. The closest dam is sited so it is in the highest point in the valley floor where the convex curve shifts to being concave. The keypoint is where the steep landfall first flattens at the ‘head’ and ‘floor’ of a primary valley. Making a dam at the keypoint allows water storage at the highest point in the valley so the free energy of gravity can be used to freely distribute water for stock and irrigation. The upper section of the dam is at the keypoint. The line extending a certain way along the contour through the keypoint is called the Keyline. The Keyline has some very unique features allowing the natural flow of water to be shifted 85 degrees towards the ridges. This slows the flow, prevents erosion, spreads the soaking, and with chisel plough evolved by P.A., allows for a massive increase in the moisture levels in the soil without water logging – that is, storage of water in the soil as well as in all the dams. These changes are vital in the driest inhabited country in the World. All of the concepts evolved by P.A. Yeomans are now included under the name ‘Keyline’. The dam wall has a specially designed and constructed pipe that comes out at the base of the middle of the dam wall. The pipe is fitted with a valve on it. Other dams are situated so that overflow from a higher dam can flow by gravity into it. The irrigation channels are filled from the valve outlet and the overflow channel by gravity flow. The irrigation channel is sited below the overflow channels. Keyline has many design features all resonant with natural system connexity (meaning contexts that are simultaneously interconnected, inter-related, interwoven and inter-dependant). This is discussed more fully in other places. P.A Yeomans is viewed by many as making the greatest contribution to sustainable agriculture of anyone in the world for the past 200 years (Mulligan, M. and Hill, S 2001). No farmers through all time had noticed what P.A. and Neville noticed. Neville was with P.A. when he evolved Keyline (refer the foreward of P.A’s book, The City Forest (1971)) P.A. perceived system connexity and how he could design landscape to merge with the natural design features of nature. Once under way P.A. allowed nature to be his guide so that he, his farm design and nature were self organizing. Thirty years after P.A.'s death the system he established on the farm still works with little maintenance required. As can be seen from this photo taken in Oct 2001, the farm still looks like sweeping gardens or golf course. The subtle changes P.A.Yeomans made to his farm created a context where natural emergent processes in nature made a quantum self-organizing shift to abundance in soil producing detrivores and related aspects that massively increased the farms fertility and output. Four and a half centimeters of new top soil was created in two years – something that was previously thought to take around 800 years! Yeomans actions were resonant with indigenous way. Things were placed relative to other system parts and place - for maximizing functionality, emergence and use of free energy in the system. Perceptive readers may see links in all this to the shrimps and greens process in Vietnam – use of inherent aspects of the local area, allowing for system emergence and self organizing capacity and allowing nature to take its course. Dr. Neville Yeomans, the founder of the Laceweb evolved the concept ‘Cultural Keyline’ from his father’s work - adapting natural placeforming and placeforms to the sociocultural sphere - linking people, processes, place and landform. An example is the isomorphic (of identical form) relation between primary and secondary ridge systems in nature, and informal Laceweb healer networks. Key Laceweb people have a nodal role at key positions or nodal points at the junction of network pathways for the free flow of information and energy. Context are created that have emergent self organizing properties (refer www.laceweb.org.au/tcj.htm and www.laceweb.org.au/rsig.htm) REFERENCES Mulligan, M & Hill, S Ecological Pioneers – A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action Oakleigh, Victoria: Cambridge University Press Yeomans, P.A., 1971. The City Forest: The Keyline Plan for the Human Environment Revolution Sydney: Keyline Publishing Last updated Feb 2007. The wisdom on the Laceweb website has been drawn from the grassroots people of the East Asia Oceania Australasia Region. Consistent with their way, this wisdom is freely available on the Laceweb Internet site. Now a simple secure process has been set up, so people reading and downloading this wisdom may contribute financially if they so desire. You may send a tiny amount or as much as you desire. Information about donating to Laceweb Way |
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