Memo to Obama: The Global Civil Society
by Fritjof Capra
Dear President Obama,
I am sure you know that a new global civil society has emerged over the past ten years. But you may not be aware of the extent and qualities of this international coalition of NGOs. We are globally interlinked through our websites and emails, and we also maintain a global network of personal contacts and friendships. In particular, we have a network of scholars, research institutes, think tanks, and centers of learning around the world, which largely operate outside the leading academic institutions, business organizations, and government agencies.
These include (to name just a few) the Worldwatch Institute, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies, the International Forum on Globalization, Global Trade Watch, the Land Institute, and the Center for Ecoliteracy in the U.S.; Schumacher College in the UK; the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy, and the Environment in Germany; the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in India; and the Third World Network in Malaysia (please see my book, The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living, for further details).
Our scholars and community leaders formulate and continually refine a new ecological paradigm, based on systemic thinking and on the shared core values of human dignity and ecological sustainability. An important characteristic of this global dialogue is that it includes a significant number of voices from the Southern Hemisphere.
The scholars and activists of the global civil society, who work in its research institutes and centers of learning, include experts in every imaginable field — energy, transportation, climate change, water, agriculture, food security, ecodesign, economics, finance, foreign policy, fair trade, health care, education, etc., etc. Most importantly, these scholars and activists all know how all of these issues hang together; how local lifestyles and consumer choices have environmental and economic repercussions around the world.
While these scholars and activists explicitly embrace values that are often different from those in business and in the academic world, the caliber of their expertise in various fields is as impressive as that of any experts you will find in the establishment's institutions.
Mr. President, here is my main point. The scholars and community leaders in the global civil society are very enthusiastic about your presidency and are ready to help you with valuable advice. All you have to do is ask, and once you know a few of us you will have easy access to the entire global network. Since this network includes significant voices from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other Southern regions, its members will often be able to provide you with perspectives you will not be likely to find in Washington.
I have come to believe that there are three centers of power in today's world — government, business, and civil society — and that we need the cooperation of all three to solve the world's many problems. As far as I know, Brazil is the only major country in the world where such collaboration has been facilitated and institutionalized by its president. When President Lula da Silva took office in 2003 he had already many contacts in business and in civil society (he had regularly attended the World Social Forum, hosted in Porto Alegre by his party, the PT). He created special administrative channels through which members of the civil society had direct access to government, and he appointed many civil society leaders to important positions in government ministries.
In addition, it has become a tradition in Brazil for business executives to do volunteer work in NGOs, helping their members with accounting and management tasks. I believe that discussing with President Lula how this collaboration of government, business, and civil society is organized in Brazil might be helpful and inspiring for you if you want to create similar channels of communication in Washington.
You may know that the World Social Forum, where the global civil society meets regularly, has coined the slogan "Another world is possible." I feel that this statement is very much in harmony with your agenda.
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE — YES, WE CAN!
Fritjof Capra is a physicist and systems theorist, the founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, CA, and the author of The Tao of Physics as well as many other works.
