Those of us engaged in actively encouraging the emergence of a new mindset, which sees the unity of all life and encourages humanity to live in balance with the natural world, often write about the importance of “being connected to Mother Earth.”  It’s a positive and noble goal but, until personally experienced,  can just be another set of empty words describing a lofty sentiment. 

I never expected my true appreciation of this concept to occur within the sterile confines of the concrete jungle known as the Shanghai 2010 Expo in China, but it did. There, under the traditional thatch of a Samoan fale and  within the bright blue warehouse structure called the South Pacific Pavilion, I watched a contemporary and very brave woman participate in an ancient, indigenous ritual that connected her experientially and personally to Mother Earth in a way that provided a glimpse into the very meaning and mystery of being alive.

Last week I was privileged to join a team from the Samoan Tourism Authority and Government of Samoa who were attending the Expo and celebrating Samoa’s National Day on August 1st. A dear friend, Zita Sefo-Martel, celebrated fautasi  (longboat) skipper, High Consul to France, owner of Polynesian Xplorer, and devoted mother of four young boys, had agreed to receive her malu (tattoo) in public from the celebrated master tattooist, Tufuga Ta Tatau Su’a Sulu’ape Petelo. 

In western cultures, a body tattoo is an object of adornment; in Samoa it is a sacred covenant between the bearer and the earth and community that support him or her. 

Zita has described the meaning of the event in her own words: 

The generic word for tattoo in Samoan is tatau. The Pe-a (tattoo for men) or malu (tattoo for women) is not only an eloquent form of living art and a record of ancient navigation and traditional culture, it is also a Samoan's spiritual connection to Mother Earth through the physical pain and sacrifice experienced in the act of being tattooed. 

The symbolism depicted on a tatau or malu represents the sacred covenant between a Samoan and his or her way of life.  It is “O Mea Sina”.  It is sacred.   

The word malu means protect, shelter, security.  Malu also means house.  The woman is therefore seen in Samoan culture as the protector of the children, the family, and the village.  She is the giver of bloodlines.  

The symbols of the malu etched on the woman reflect the many roles of the woman in Samoan society.  The malu is applied starting from the knees and working up to and finishing at the top of the thighs.  

 

Now let me explain what that act of sacrifice actually entailed.  For four hours, Zita lay on a mat above a hardwood floor, while three skilled men worked expertly to adorn her thighs, upper legs and knees with a range of traditional symbols representing Zita’s environment, family connections and love of the ocean. That’s one way of describing it. Another is to say that for four hours she endured torture as the sharp teeth of the various instruments etched her skin, muscle, sinew and bone to leave this indelible testimony. 

As illustrated in the first video, receiving a malu was, as with all things Samoan, a community affair. Zita was never left alone; initially accompanied by another tattoo recipient – Roger Warren, an internationally recognized Rugby player, who was receiving the male tattoo; and a respected elder Lei Lua and various Samoan musicians and performers who soothed her passage with gentle Samoan songs and chants. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister of Samoa and his wife plus the Chinese official delegation and media came by and the act was viewed by hundreds of the curious and somewhat perplexed Chinese visitors that streamed past the fale. 

 

At no point did this event descend into a marketing spectacle – that fale was and felt like a sacred space, a setting for a rite of passage that was also a statement of profound connection linking all Samoans’ present to their homeland and extending an act of selfless welcome to their visitors. 

After four, painful hours, the work was complete and Zita’s bare legs had been transformed into a work of art that will permanently broadcast her unique identity and relationship to Mother Earth in a way that will evoke curiosity and respect in all who meet her – a living lesson; etched in flesh that gives a whole new meaning to the statement  “be the change you wish to see in the world.” 

After a quiet period of rest and reflection, a ceremony of blessing - the "Samaga o le Malu" could commence, starting with a prayer of thanks and song. The Tafuga Ta Tatau (master tattooist) Sulu’ape Petelo murmered a prayer, while cracking an egg on Zita's head symbolising her rebirth into a new woman of the earth. Then a lotion of lega-tumeric mixed with coconut oil was applied to Zita's body starting with the Malu. Finally, it was Zita's turn to celebrate her passage and proudly reveal her Malu to her admiring community in dance as shared in the following video. 

Zita Martel designed her malu in collaboration with the tattooist and in accordance with Samoan tradition. As a Tautai (skipper) of Samoan fautasi (longboats) some of the symbols depict Zita’s life, her personal journey as a Tautai and the  gift of being able to feel at one with the ocean waves, the winds, the crew and the fautasi.

Zita Sefo-Martel is one of many individuals who act as “agents of change” by living a different set of values to those that have dominated the prevailing industrial culture of the past 150 plus years. She acts as a bridge between an ancient indigenous culture (in this case Polynesian) and a contemporary western culture now engaged in a search for meaning and balance.  

I thank the Samoan government,  its people and Zita Martel herself for the opportunity to share a week with the Samoan team at the Expo in Shanghai and witness this remarkable event. 

By the way, this tiny nation provides the perfect destination setting - just look at this video to see why Samoa shouldn't be missed!

 

When H.R.H Prince Charles first started to speak about environmental issues over 30 years ago, many wrote him off as a crank. Thank God his upbringing developed a thick skin and he remained alive, curious and focused. One of his early advisors is another hero of mine - Laurens Van Der Post who spent years living with the bushmen of the Kalahari and wrote a classic on the subject. He also wrote the best biography of Carl Jung so it's not surprising that Charles has developed in such a balanced manner. Perhaps his time at bleak Gordonstone developed the thick skin, stubbornness and indefatigability, but it was time spent in his beloved garden with people like Van der Post and Jonathan Porritt who nurtured the immense wisdom of this man. 

He is one of the most committed "agents of change" our nation has. He has used his position to listen intently; to build relationships with people of all cultures, backgrounds, and incomes and to deploy his royal wit and influence to get things done. Thank goodness that his mother is so dedicated and vigorous because he can be so much more effective as an "agent of change`" than as a King. 

There will be thousands of words spoken now that the great and the good have arrived in Copenhagen but these sentiments expressed in this speech are likely backed by the most integrity and consistency. He may be a Prince, but I genuinely believe that he cares deeply for the the wealth of the commons - that's you and me. So if you have little appetite for more talk, take a few minutes out and view the following or read the transcript: 

After watching hours of coverage from Copenhagen over the last few days, I am convinced that we will get nowhere so long as we persist with an obsolete world view that sees me as separate from you; me as separate from and better than the rest of life. Dividing lines - of whatever kind - have to be blurred. As stated here, we don't need barricades; nor do we need guilt inducing prods to make us jump from from one mountain of thought, across the chasm of unknowing, to another. What we need are bridges of compassion. In deference to my Prince, I am British after all, I'll let him have the last few words:

This is not a problem resolvable in terms of “them and us.” For when it comes to the air we breathe and the water we drink, there are no national boundaries. We all depend on each other – and, crucially, on each other’s actions - for our weather, our food, our water and our energy......

...We cannot have capitalism without Nature’s capital – we cannot sustain our human economy without sustaining Nature’s economy...

...As our planet’s life-support system begins to fail and our very survival as a species is brought into question, remember that our children and grandchildren will ask not what our generation said, but what it did.

Thanks to SwitchNewMedia I was able to avoid 8 hours of train travel yesterday and participate in Reboot Britain from the rural heart of the country.

Faced with economic meltdown,  dismally low levels of public trust in political leadership, growing concerns about the ability of big government to succeed let alone sustain itself, there's an urgent need to "re-imagine, re-invest, and re-invigorate our economy and society." These words of Diane Coyle, editor and facilitator, apply beyond the shores of the little island that formed the focus of yesterday's event...

To provoke debate, the organizers (NESTA) commissioned a series of essays that are well worth reading. I also recommend you  bookmark the site as all the presentations will be available shortly and check out #rebootbritain to sense the Twitter pulse.

While the focus was on the public economy, there was plenty of interest to the private sector and associations in all facets of life and business in the UK and elsewhere.

Kudos to Stephen Moore(@stevemoore4good), NESTA and the organizing team for initiating the conversation - even though the format (mostly in the main lecture hall) was surprisingly conventional with limited opportunities for audience participation. Next time, a split screen would enable online participants to see what the speaker was referring to and it would be great if moderators could accept questions from tweeters/bloggers regardless of their location......

It was a rich experience - even from a distance and without the benefit of F2F buzz, but, despite Howard Rheingold's insightful conclusion and optimistic wardrobe, the title left me feeling very uneasy.

While eye and ear catching in its modernity, the concept of  ReBoot, is on reflection merely a 2.0 version of "kickstart." It implies an assumption that a traditional economy, which has gone into nosedive, can be brought back to life with a reset button and all will be well. Remember, it comes after the messages: "Abort", "Retry", and "Fail"! But the intent of the conference suggested that it isn't a reboot that's needed but an entirely new operating system, based on a fundamentally different set of operating assumptions and guiding principles - far greater even than a switch from PC to Mac! I notice that some other bloggers came to similar conclusions separately.

The term ReBoot also implies that a new economy (networked, open, lightweight, environmentally responsible, socially just, creative, agile and resilient...) will come about as a result of external intervention when, in fact, it's already emerging because the conditions are right.

Truth is, we're being carried forward by a host of change forces that have generated sufficient pent up energy to cause a tectonic shift in perception regarding who we are as human beings on a finite planet and how we should behave...

Talking about 2.0 versions of government, marketing, journalism, healthcare, leadership, HR and manufacturing is really healthy but will only move beyond talk to action when we can sustain our attention spans long enough to understand these deeper forces and harness their dynamics. It's ironic that here we are a pivotal point in human history when we could become conscious of our own evolution and the technology that binds also shatters our attention into tiny fragments such that we seem to be viewing reality through a kaleidescope rather than a microscope.

One agent of change never shy to use the term Paradigm appropriately and forcefully is Don Tapscott (@dtapscott) who, like David Weinerger and crew (Cluetrain authors), and Tim O' Reilly cut his intellectual teeth on IT problems but has just gets wiser and more insightful with age.  For those of us whose time is limited between meetings, tweets, emails, the following 2 minute video clip reminds  us that it'll take more than a reBoot to move Britain forward.

Another agent of change, Paul Hawken, recently author of Blessed Unrest also affirms that the ground is already shaking beneath the feet of traditional institutions. Every time I watch the following clip from the Bioneers conference a few years ago, I am reminded why we're living in such an exciting time, so full of opportunity, so filled with consequence.

References to the shift in power to the consumer are now commonplace within the output of journalists, bloggers, analysts, researchers, futurists. I also speak about it all the time. And, if there is one dominant characteristic of web 2.0,  it is that the fine line distinguishing actors from audience, sellers from buyers, politicians from voters is either blurring, disappearing or causing a complete role reversal. Banyak Film’s excellent documentary Us is Now, investigates some but not all these issues.

We have barely begun to appreciate the magnitude of this revolution, let alone the implications. Is transparency itself the most potent “agent of change?” Can transparency provide the protection and assurance that civil society needs to function effectively or will it unleash a wave of disillusion, a breakdown in trust, an unwillingness to delegate authority, a reluctance to step forward and exercise oth leadership and responsibility?

In the UK, two events – one recent and the other on-going – illustrate how difficult the next few years are going to be as we adjust to these new, transparent realities.

MP’s Expenses
For the past 6 or more weeks, the UK media has more or less forgotten about the financial meltdown and the steady march of the recession deeper into all regions and sectors of the economy. It was as if the news of an empire in such rapid and indisputable decline was too much and the rabble needed to be entertained and their attention diverted. Romans sent gladiators and those pesky Christians to their deaths in the Colisseum and, just like in the “X factor” and “Britain’s Got Talent”, empowered the masses with the ability to determine the hapless fate of those in the ring by signing thumbs up or down ( now the rabble simply presses digits on their phones). So in sophisticated Britain, the so-called bastion of democracy and ordered, enlightened government, we send our elected representatives into the lion’s den.

For those living outside the UK, here’s a quick snapshot of events. A British reporter started to apply the Freedom of Information Act to investigate whether our political masters (MP=member of Parliament) were playing by the rules in claiming their living expenses. It turns out that many were “on the take”. It also turns out that the there was this “understanding” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)  that the parliamentary authorities would turn a blind eye to all but the most excessive and fraudulent of claims,  as expenses were viewed in Westminster as a way of compensating MPs who could not be awarded legitimate pay increases for political i.e. optical reasons. No “leader” had wanted to be seen to approve pay increases for MPs.

The Daily Telegraph found some sensational culprits and the story took on all the force of a juggernaut with MPs being named and shamed on a daily basis and generating revelations that ranged from bizarre to distasteful and back to ludicrous.

And so it became necessary to publish every expense claim of every parliamentarian for the past five years in order to assuage the justifiable anger of the British public. Clearly this was an auditing task too great for even the Daily Telegraph. So its competitor, The Guardian, saw an immediate opportunity to steal the baton of “Guardian of the Public Interest” by using web 2.0 technology and by crowdsourcing i.e. inviting the public to help with the analysis of nearly half a million documents online – see story here.  

So what’s my concern? I’m all for public accountability and think it makes absolute sense for politicians to have a clear set of hard and fast rules regarding living expenses and be made to live by the rules. But I’m not sure that we’re ready to devolve the responsibility for fairness and wise judgement to a crowd – whose biases, motivations, competencies remain completely unknown and where no safeguards for slander and mischief have been set in place, let alone conceived. Even prior to the Guardian’s intervention, the review by the media was taking on the air of a witchhunt. Does crowdsourcing have the potential to lead to an electronic form of mob lynching? Do we know what we’re getting into here? Is it appropriate to be applying the brakes? Can we ensure that transparency accords fairness.

Watching the Watchers – keeping an eye on the police
In response to the question that Plato asked a mere 2.5 thousand years ago and poet Juvenal posed in Latin a few hundred years later -  “who guards the guardians?” or “who watches the watchers?” – a group calling themselves FIT watchers has been formed in the UK in response to the policy of police to film and photography anyone involved in a demonstration in case they become trouble makers. Climate change activists and other protestors are aware that that police have used this “evidence” to detain persons before a protest  - a form of pre-emptive strike, I presume.

It is both ironic and highly disturbing to think that while we applaud the courage of men and women in Tehran fighting for their democratic rights and freedoms, individuals are been treated quite brutally by British bobbies and arrested simply for taking photos of the police taking photos. This article and very disturbing video, published  in the Guardian today, reports on an incident in the UK recently, when protesters gathered to express outrage at the expansion of a major coal producing plant – Kingsnorth. In this case, the individuals weren’t arrested for protesting but simply observing and recording police behavior and conformity with the rules of engagement.

These two events are highly relevant to the topic “agents of change”. They remind us that change is rarely easy, often demands courage, results in bruises or worse,  and can produce very contradictory and ironic outcomes. In the same week, a daily newspaper had engaged several thousand watchdogs from the public to scrutinize politician’s expense claims, while three individuals (heretofore anonymous members of the public) were arrested and roughed up by the police force that is supposed to protect them, simply for ensuring the police played according to the rules agreed by society.

In this case, the video, was not "user" generated content but had been recorded by the police themselves and obtained later. You'll see from the story that, while the women had to spend several distressing days in prison, all charges were dropped and the case is now under investigation. 

So when you are watching the terrible scenes from Iran and thinking how lucky you are to be a free citizen, remember how fragile that freedom really is.