The Occupy Movement has provided something of a case study in leadership — or lack thereof. I don’t say this in a demeaning way: my friends and acquaintances in movement are quite adamant that Occupy is non-hierarchical and free of any centralized authority structure. In a word: leaderless. And most occupiers I know see this […]
Right now, all over the world, there are well-meaning friends encouraging each other to leave their past behind them, to look to the future with sparkling optimism, and to bury yesteryear’s woes in the sands of time. However, we ought not forget this ageless proverb: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. […]
About 465 people in my city are in the middle of a labor dispute that is rippling across North America, even provoking substantial reporting in the New York Times,1 Reuters2 and the Wall Street Journal.3 At issue: an American company (Caterpillar) who owns a local locomotive plant (Electro-Motive Diesel) has locked out the unionized (Canadian […]
Pride is the toxin. Indignation is the cancer. Forgiveness is the antidote. Grace is the cure.
Democracy, married to technology, has given us all a voice, yet we seem to be finding it difficult to exercise this voice in productive unison. With so many issues to decry, our voices must first drown out each other before our own pet cause can be heard. Glen Pearson has put considerable effort into articulating […]
Amidst the uncertainty swirling around the global occupy movement, a group of citizens in my city are forging ahead with a laser-sharp plan. Like many people (indeed, perhaps the majority of the population) I find myself supportive of the occupy movement’s general values, at least in principle. (In fact, most of the people I talk […]
What kind of healthcare ‘system’ do we want? I’ve gotten into some trouble in Silicon Valley for saying that the patient in the bed has almost become an icon the real patient who is in the computer. I’ve actually coined a term for that entity in the computer, I call it the iPatient. The iPatient is […]
Last night I visited the occupy movement’s camp in my city. It was a chilly, October evening, and from the standpoint of meteorological comfort it is clear that Arab Spring was much better idea than Occupy Fall. I went to chat with the demonstrators about their personal agendas for protesting. Above all, I had a […]
Wade Davis is an anthropologist, internationally recognized for his research on ethnography, botany, language and history. In a recent interview, he was asked “how he managed” to overcome the challenges along the way. His response: First of all, I’ve never had a job. I did the commencement speech for my oldest daughter’s graduation, and it […]
For us to move forward, three things must occur. We need to trust one another, communicate, and work together. Any given time you are either helping or hindering this cosmic endeavor.