Relationships Are Key
by Mirabai Bush
Perhaps it goes without saying in 1995 that for a "culture" to be
sustained, it must include and be relevant for everyone. At this point
the dominant cultures on the planet have not only excluded but have
oppressed many people, who must now be listened to with truly open
minds.
My experience in development projects in Central America has led me to
understand how most of the environmentally damaging practices that have
led to erosion, water pollution, loss of forests, and resulting changes
in weather patterns have not come, at least among the Mayan and most
other indigenous people, from lack of respect or understanding of the
needs of the Earth, and not from a selfish overconsuming materialism,
but rather from the pressures of poverty (in particular, the
distribution of land). In short, feeding ones family this month
becomes more immediate and more important than maintaining the forest
or using labor-intensive organic farming methods to restore the soil.
I have seen that changing these behaviors in the South is linked to
changing the behaviors of consumption in the North, and that until we
meet together in openness and develop trust, neither is likely to
happen.
It is possible. I have seen engaged partnerships between institutions
and between individuals develop, and I have seen them become the basis
for deep, innovative, and long-lasting change.
Therefore, I am concerned--
- That we build a diverse international network of trusting
relationships from which we learn how our different and apparently
conflicting needs and understandings can become a constructive dialog
from which we learn methods and strategies for living together on and
with the planet.
- That we are willing to explore the deepest levels of our personal as
well as community wisdom; that we are willing to acknowledge how much
we do not know and encourage each other to sit in that unfamiliar seat
of not knowing, opening ourselves to the immediate reality from which
new possibilities may emerge.
- That we recognize that a sustainable culture on the planet involves
cultivating a new kind of power--power with, rather than power over;
power to express and experience freedoms that have already been agreed
to in constitutions and international agreements but not realized in
local situations; power that arises from deep understanding rather than
what is superficially learned or taken from others.
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