So here's a question for you: What can the West learn from the rest? Or maybe even better: What should the leading Western world learn from the rest of the world?

It's quite clear that Western culture - or at least the Western economic model - is dominating the process of globalization. Big corporations dictate the shopping behavior and the aspirations of billions of people. Hollywood is reaching the furthest corners of the planet. Money is the primary driving force behind this globalization. As a result other important aspects of life tend to suffer. Humanity seems to be is losing many kinder and better solutions to many problems that have worked for centuries.   Read more...

I live in Malaysia and manage a training school that shares a knowledge known as Mastery. The knowledge is a path to celebrate your uniqueness and beauty. It is used to restore your power back to you to create that which you want to experience in your life and ultimately to share your success with the world as a Friend to Mankind. We invite you to say yes to being a friend to mankind, as an inner commitment, that will translate to an outer reality. Please visit our websites at www.schoolofmastery.com and www.friendstomankind.com.   Read more...

While I was shopping with my friend one day, she asked if we could browse the school supply isle. She proceeded to fill the cart with pencils, erasers, construction paper and other material that I always remembered getting as a kid to fill my backpack on the first day of school. I asked what she was doing and she explain that it was the best time of year to go shopping for her students because of the early bird sales. I had always assumed that schools provided these basic materials, but to my surprise she said that most of the time, they don’t even get pencils. The books that they do get are in bad condition.

Since my friend works in a low income area, the kids can’t afford these basic materials. There are options to receive grants but those usually never make it on time. Therefore, out of the kindness of their hearts, most teachers, she explained, usually pay out of pocket for these materials. This is a tough thing to do when teachers don’t get paid nearly as much as they should these days.   Read more...

I was led to ODE today by the peoples of the Ecuadoran rain forest, people that I have never met, yet to whom I owe a new vision of our collective positive potential. Two days ago I had the extraordinarily positive fortune to find myself, unplanned, in a symposium of the Pachamama Alliance. ( http://www.Pachamama.org ) Without a doubt, it was the most inspiring experience of creating good news that I have had. This is saying a lot, since I train trainers in appreciative inquiry, the art and technique of focusing groups on identifying and leveraging their greatest strengths and most positive qualities to change their world for the better.

The Pachamama Alliance has put together a Symposium called “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream.” I urge you to take a look at their website, http://www.awakeningthedreamer.org.   Read more...

No, this is not the swimsuit issue of some men's magazine. It's an Australian "women-led initiative to cut CO2 pollution and create social change." According to the Climate Coolers website (www.climatecoolers.com), Australia has the highest CO2 emissions per capita of any country in the developed world; per capita emissions are 6 times as high as China's. Australia is also the largest exporter of coal, and one of the world's most coal dependent nations. So for AU$120, Climate Coolers promises to offset your car's CO2 emissions for one year by cutting 4.5 tonnes of CO2. Cuts are achieved by purchasing carbon credits on your behalf from energy efficiency and renewable energy activities and projects, as well as via government-accredited schemes. (Australia is one of the few places where individuals can trade carbon.) A pretty cool idea...   Read more...

Lost in time and space I find myself waking up in Amsterdam daily. Get on my mountain-bike and paddle to the Adventure Parc to organise adventure activities. To bring the adventure home, was the mission of Project Adventure when it all started. I was one of these kids who needn't sit in a classroom to be taught how the world works. I wanted to find out myself and so I did. Adventured all around the world, guiding people on mountain trips, kayaking, canyoning, skiing, hiking and much more. Now I pass on my knowledge and experience through working at Project Adventure Amsterdam to help kids discover their capabilities, their wants and needs, and how to get there in an ecological way. Take a look at : www.projectadventure.nl and www.pa.org   Read more...

I'm an old hippy and new culture co-creator. How? Hitting the road in an RV to produce our webTV show, Ascension Central, a walk on the lighter side of planetary evolution. Launches August 1st, 2007, on AscensionCentral.TV. For all you cultural creatives & lightworkers, it's a road trip adventure of our personal meanderings, articulations & hallucinations as we explore The Great Shift, evocative people & places we meet on the way. Yikes!   Read more...

I'm the soul proprietor of Whitelight Communities. I created this company to align with others who are co-creating dynamic and empowering communities through exemplary leadership and collaborative team building. I'm currently working with the International Leadership Association to spread the word about a dynamic conference taking place, here in Vancouver British Columbia this October/November 2007 - Leadership: Culture, Impact and Sustainability - see www.ila-net.org for details on sponsorship and registration.

Along with some amazing women, I'm the co-creator of an emerging network - Women of Vision and Passion. We're organizing a most inspiring retreat at the end of November at a spa resort on Vancouver Island for women leaders. email me at whitelightpromo@telus.net for details.   Read more...

I am a single mother to my own personal heroine in a little Northern California town at the base of a beautiful mountain. In my work I am the Executive Director of a small non-profit whose vision and mission is to help youth connect more deeply to themselves, their communities and the earth so that they can become activists and stewards for their lives and their world. In a world of increasing disconnection, I seek union with others who share this vision, understanding that the mantel of power rests on the shoulders of youth who need guidance from elders to help them strengthen their inner moral compasses to help them make wise choices. No small feat. If you care to, please see what I do at www.steppingstonesproject.org   Read more...

A friend of mine stutters. He is also a bit clumsy, but everybody loves Paul. The other day Paul had to give a speech, the first – and maybe the last – he ever gave. His boss, for whom he had worked for over twenty years, was going to leave the company and Paul was very sad to see him go.

At the reception in his boss’ honour, his successor gave a well prepared and witty speech. People smiled politely at the – not so spontaneous – jokes and intellectual wisecracks. After that it was Paul’s turn. Nervously he took the stage and tried to remember what he wanted to say. He fumbled for his notes, but couldn’t read them and decided to just try to express how much he loved his boss, that he had been like a father to him and how much he would miss him.   Read more...

The biggest story of hope for humans hit the news a few days ago. The Blue Moon butterfly on Somoa went from virtually extinct (down to 1% male population due to survival crisis) back up to 40% in less than one year! (Stay with me here...)

Scientists baffled, say it typically takes hundreds or thousands of years for evolution of this kind to happen (www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10451669&pnum=2). So here we have the Blue Moon butterfly making a quantum accelerated evolutionary leap in the blink of an eye!!   Read more...

I am an conscious optimist. I recently gave up life in Philadelphia to return to my hometown where I am privileged to be working for an organization that is helping to aid in the preservation and interpretation of one of the National Trust's 11 Most Endangered Places in America (www.nationaltrust.org/11most/list.asp?i=154). I find it essential to continue to study and work on "remaining in the present." I am fascinated by the industrial history of the U.S. I think it is essential to use our global neighborhood to work together instead of against each other.   Read more...

Fit for Service: Re-cycle Inefficiency into Philanthropy is a new book (www.fitforservice.org ) that provides 81 specific ways that organizations can improve their daily operational efficiency, reduce waste, become more efficient/competitive, then donate a portion of their operational savings/new profits to philanthropy.   Read more...

ErasmusPC (www.erasmuspc.com) calls for your contribution to help write the Culture Paragraph in the next UNFPA State of World Population. Writing the paragraph is open source, and must involve many disciplines, from each continent.

Mega-Cities in 2030 "Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth" In its 2007 report, the United Nations call on policy makers to start making the right decisions now to use the inevitable growth of cities for the benefit of residents, instead of prevent people from leaving rural livelihoods.While the UNFPA stresses the positive chances of urbanization, ErasmusPC found that it misses out on culture as a driver for creating positive urban conditions. The word 'culture' is mentioned only four times in the 100+ page report, and only one of these four is in relation with urban culture. Go to www.erasmuspc.com for more info!   Read more...

"The Secret History of the American Empire" by John Perkins documents what many of us have long known: corporate greed runs much of our world, and is behind the greatest challenges we face. Perkins was part of the system that created the mess. And he is a clear voice for the changes we need to make to take back power. This book is well-written, often shocking, ultimately hopeful and helpful. Please read it and pass it on. www.johnperkins.org/paperback.htm   Read more...

Just by chance, after turning my hot water heater to PILOT, I found out I have enough warm/hot water to take up to two showers a day plus have enough to do the dishes by hand. The other night I even got a hot bath! This means I never have to hear my hot water heater come on (especially great if you have hard water) and I am sure I am saving a lot of propane! Try it if you are a single person or just a two person family.   Read more...

WiRED International is a California-based non-profit foundation that has brought the riches of the Internet and other computer technology to a number of less developed or war-ravaged nations. It was founded in 1997, the brainchild of communications professor Gary Selnow of San Francisco State University. The foundation's original purpose was to bring educational materials to the Croatian city of Vukovar, which Selnow calls "the poster child for destroyed cities."

Soon, however, Selnow changed WiRED's mission to bringing modern medical information to parts of the world where it was sorely needed. By 2000, WiRED was in Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania. In 2001, Kenya and Nicaragua joined the list, and in 2003, the most challenging place of all: Iraq'in mid war. Several of WiRED's Iraq facilities have been destroyed; still, by 2007, the foundation had also moved into Honduras and Sierre Leone, and in June 2007, the U.S. State Department provided WiRED partial funding that will enable Selnow and his 20 U.S. volunteers to re-open the foundation's Iraq telemedicine center, allowing real-time video connections between U.S. and Iraqi physicians in that country's medical schools. The focus will be on children's and women's health.   Read more...

What started off as an inspirational outburst from a 15-year-old kid in California, has steadily grown into a platform for today's youth to secure the future for millions of others. With its unique approach and being maintained entirely by kids of the age group 14 – 19, YTA hopes to one day become a truly global forum for kids of all ages to do their part for society.

"Imagine no gifts on your birthday this year. Not just this year, but next year and the following year and the following year…. That sure would be one sad birthday. Right?"   Read more...

Eddie O'Toole inspires and amazes with his recycling projects. He tears apart unwanted buildings, collects school and medical equipment headed for landfills, and sends it all down to Guaimaca, Honduras. There, at El Centro Capitación Nueva Esperanza (The New Hope Training Center) he puts it together again. Local youth learn bicycle repair, mechanics, building construction, ceramics, music, reading and CPR/EMT - and turn around to teach others the skills they've learned. O'Toole has shipped down used ambulances, school buses, truck containers filled with used equipment, bikes, desks & chairs, computers, microscopes, dental chairs & accessories, ceramic kilns, file cabinets, wheelchairs, walkers, English & Spanish books, prosthetic legs, soccer balls, even riding lawnmowers for those living in rough terrain who need electric wheelchairs (this way they can mow and earn while getting around!). Please go to www.eddieotoole.org and you can hear Eddie speak on a radio spot, find out about the status of the last truck container sent down, see what's up and running and what needs your help - lots of pics too. You're invited to visit in Guaimaca and, if you want to teach & share, you'd be most welcome. Although the Center provides much needed teaching and services, part of the place still needs a roof (!). So, if you can, send a US$ check and make it out to UU Church of Pittsfield, Honduran Project in the memo line, and mail it to: UU Church of Pittsfield, 175 Wendell Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201, US (donation is tax-exempt in US). Eddie, his family, and all of their neighbors in Guaimaca will be thrilled to know you're concerned and want to be involved!   Read more...

The world's poorest people in the world pay more for everything. So, I have this fundamental belief that the world's poorest should not have to pay for advertising or for organizations that have a product or service that benefits these deserving women and men. So, we created a community at www.spangy.com to provide free of charge advertising in a social networking setting, which we launched in early March 2007. If there is a great cheese or nice throws both made from Yaks in Tibet, Oprah should know about it and so should you. If there is an enterprise that makes fine writing paper from elephant dung, Hallmark should to and so should you. So, in the meantime I continue to serve as a manager of strategic projects during the day and at night I promote wonderful companies that are changing how people live. I hope you join our community and share the innovation taking place all over the world at www.spangy.com Donations are like Christmas presents, they are nice to get, but what do you the next day when you wake up. People want to have sustainable lives which means having purpose, working, contributing.   Read more...

I am a past 60 Swedish townplanner, since long engaged with finding ways of improving the living conditions of poverty stricken people, particularly in developing countries (incl. Sweden). I have developed ideas about building housing and enabling environments in the regime of the target groups. Since many years as well intrigued by the concept WE, I have suggested a model for cultivating this. See www.weworld.org. Included in this is the establishment of a global means of transportation under control of "The WE-world community".   Read more...

Please investigate the amazing things this Returned Peace Corps group from Wilmington, NC is doing to promote an amazing simple machine designed by Jock Brandis that will change the lives of more than a billion people around the world. www.fullbellyproject.org/index.asp   Read more...

In February of this year I made a decision to run for Congress and represent the 3rd District in Arizona. As the rhetoric of partisan politics grow it is time to bring forward solutions based on information and not ideology. I would like to share with you three stories of committed individuals making a difference in our community in Phoenix Arizona.

Nestled in a neighborhood that has suffered tragic gang violence, StarShine Academy is a mini United Nations providing hope and opportunity for the youth and the community. Founder and President Trish McCarty, a community and business leader in the financial industry, was approached about starting a school for kids that had very few opportunities, five years later StarShine is a model for the future of community schools. StarShine Academy is dedicated to helping every child find their talent and grow into a peaceful, productive, and successful person. I've had the honor to watch this community school grow to be a leader in excellent education and not just well tested. I witnessed at their fourth graduation this year, the most exceptional speeches by students I have ever heard. They are a beautiful example of planting the seed and growing amazing leaders. Find out more – www.starshineacademy.org.   Read more...

As we move along the journey of life, we find surprises – voila! If it is the good we want, we embrace it. If not, we spend energy to fight it, resent it or push it away. Some things turn out not the way we wanted or expect it.

When you compete for sports or a contest, it's natural to expect to win with all the preparations made. When you invest on a job application, you want to get that job. When you invest on a business, you want it to make money. When you love someone, you want the relationship to last. When you buy something, you expect it to serve the purpose you got it for. And so on…   Read more...

Some reflections on how to come from 'talking about realizing a sustainable world' towards 'realizing a sustainable world'

One of the most striking aspects of ongoing debates regarding sustainability, security of energy supply and social justice is the fractured nature of the perspectives used. All perspectives are true, but partial. And with all due respect to the qualities inherent in each perspective; not seeing the larger picture will lead the EU and humanity as a whole further astray. Further away from a sustainable, secure and socially just future.   Read more...

A good friend of mine calls himself a “light worker”. He constantly travels the world to help people find the light inside them selves again. For some reason however, whenever he leaves a country usually something dramatic happens. The other day he was in Palestine where he did a praying session with a large group of people. Two days later torrential rains caused a mudslide and four people died on the very spot where he had done his healing session. I wondered: if our world is kept together by polarity (yin/yang; minus/plus; zero/one; matter/anti-matter), could it be that whenever my friend brings more light to some place, something or someone else automatically ends up in the dark? Somehow the overall balance has to be kept, right? If that is the case, then what good is my friend doing? We talked about this for many hours until another friend offered a beautiful insight. She said: “Our world doesn’t need the be saved, it needs to be loved.” What she meant to say, was that whenever we try to save someone, we judge that person as being wrong, bad, dark, victim, etc. We don’t see the person for what they really are, but reduce them to a fragment of the whole. This is how we create polarity and duality: good/bad; yin/yang; black/white, etc. The only way to escape from this dualistic mind set, is to go beyond all polarities to a place of oneness. Love does that. It doesn’t judge. It includes everything and everyone. When all are included, there is no need for anyone to stand in the dark. When no one stands in the dark, no one needs to be saved.   Read more...

I'm interested in how we build communities and connect ourselves. One of my contributions to that is a collection of true stories of synchronicity that one reader called "a tap on the shoulder from the Divine." Please stop by and read at connectingstories.com   Read more...

The green consumer movement has gone mainstream with breath-taking speed the last year or so following such events as Hurricane Katrina, the release of An Inconvenient Truth, and significant coverage in both popular consumer magazines like Vanity Fair and Time, and business magazines like Fast Company and Business 2.0.

While many in the environmental movement have welcomed this trend with some caveats, others, mostly individual commentators, are criticizing it (see, for example, "Buying Into the Green Movement" in The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/fashion/01green.html?pagewanted=2, and my recent blog entry on an AlterNet article, www.srbmarketing.com/2007/06/corporate-america-environmental.htm). The main criticisms seem to be that we can't buy our way out of global warming or other environmental problems, and that the mainstream media and corporate America are seducing Americans into believing just that while continuing their gluttonous consumption patterns.   Read more...

Recently I had the pleasure of reading Jurriaan Kamp's book on Microfinancing. I'm not sure whether it has been published in English as well, but then the title would be something like "Small Change - how 50 dollars changes the world".

It provides a decent and easy to understand overview of how microfinancing came about, how it is implemented in different ways, and that it will by itself not solve all of the world's problems, but can certainly be a big contributor.   Read more...

Dear Ode Compatriots: I was inspired by Jurriaan Kamp's invitation to share our stories here on this site. I'd like to share a little of what I've learned over the last year since the birth of my dear daughter with eczema. I hope it will help others with skin conditions.

First, soaps, body care products, and detergents (amongst other things that come in contact with our skin) are full of very scary chemicals. Though I am and have been fairly health conscious and am a trained acupuncturist, before the birth of my daughter I never gave this aspect of health much consideration. She has inspired me to pay more attention (in many ways). I would urge you to read your soap labels, body care labels. Notice how many unrecognizable chemical ingredients are in them. Then realize that everything you put on your skin gets absorbed into your body--very scary.   Read more...

Here is the short story. I was born and raised on the Oregon coast US. I was raised in and by an Ancient Rain Forest. It is mostly gone now. What is left for us coastal types is restoration forestry. Soooo I did a music album to commemorate that forest (www.blueagate.com ) and now I am actively working on building the Oregon Coast Community forest (www.coastrange.org/forestry.htm ). Anyone wanting to reflect and act on such matters? I am asking for help to help the forest and honor and restore the spirit of the wild...   Read more...