Replying to LO26937 --
Dear Organlearners,
In my reply to Winfried Dressler's question:
>>Is there any hope for a vampire to become human again?
our host Rick commented:
>[Host's Note: Hmm... Sometimes our dialog seems
>to drift a bit from organizational learning... Then, it
>usually drifts back. ..Rick]
Greetings dear Rick.
Thank you for your caution that we have to keep an eye on Learning
Organisations and not to drift into trivialities.
In my reply to Winfried I merely tried to paint the picture of what a
"free energy vampire" amounts to. A "free energy vampire" gets into the
"free energy" circulatory system of an organism/organisation so as to
divert some of the "free energy" to another organism not living in
symbiosis with it. It strikes its "fangs into" the victim and so as to
suck "blood out".
Please allow me now to drift back to organisations and their learning. I
will try to avoid being judgemental and harsh, but I will not sweep any
insights under the carpet just because they may be offending. I will focus
merely on physical free energy. Should I extend this reply by focussing on
the spiritual free energy too, it will perhaps become too complex to
understand. Thus I will merely end my reply by asking a question
concerning the emergence of an OO (Ordinary Organisation) into a LO.
Here in South Africa poverty is rampent, although not as worse as in the
rest of Southern Africa. More than 50% of our population live under the
"bread line". Many pupils in schools, even here in Pretoria, fell asleep
in class because of not having had breakfast to eat (and perhaps not even
supper the previous day.) They fell asleep because they do not have the
physical free energy to keep their bodies and brains functioning. Hence
they cannot learn. We help where we can, but the essentiality spareness is
as real as any of the other 7Es.
Although they lack physical free energy, it cannot be infered directly
that a "free energy vampire" is responsible for it. We will first have to
find out whether there is a specific agent (metaphor "vampire") taking the
food (or the means to buy it) for itself. Well, our country is indeed
fortunate among the other countries of Southern Africa to still produce
more food than what all its inhabitants need. So why does some of that
food not reach these unfortunate pupils and all the millions of other
hungry adults? Some of it is exported to earn foreign currency while the
rest becomes too expensive to afford for the jobless parents of these
hungry children.
Our country needs foreign currency to pay for by far the import of all
kinds of technology. Our country export goods (food, minerals, basic
products) low in added value and thus at low price just to import goods
with high added value from the first world countries. Our country cannot
add value primarily because the far majority of its inhabitants have not
learned how to do it self. And since they cannot do it, they do not earn
money to pay for educated teachers and food for children. Thus we have a
tragic "catch 22" situation here. Our new leaders claim it is the legacy
of apartheid and thus we Afrikaners have to bear the brunt.
It is even far worse in the countries north of our border. One important
reason was that through apartheid, hideous as it was, our country was
protected from massive importations by international sanctions levied
against our country. Since these countries were not protected by sanctions
(because they did not have apartheid officially) they bled themselves
faster to death. What happened to them? Out go products (to 1st world
countries) low in added value (i.e. little entropy and thus much free
energy) and in comes products (from 1st world countries), but now with
high added value (i.e. much entropy and thus little remaining free
energy). Hence there is a netto flow of even capital out of those
countries so that their foreign debts rise to lethal levels. Their leaders
claim it is the legacy of colonialism. Thus the white Europeans in those
countries have to bear the brunt.
Since the dismanteling of apartheid, South Africa has become part of this
network of sucking up its local free energy so as to sustain the "value
adders" in the 1st world countries. It is called the global economy. South
Africa was promised that should it end apartheid, massive investments
would follow. Nobody even asked in what these investments would be. Now it
is clear that the main investments of the much promised ones which did
actualised, were those to divert even more the "blood" away from South
Africa. Hence the netto outflow of capital, thus the foreign debt and
ultimately the devaluation of currency have increased alarmingly the past
8 years.
I live in the province Gauteng, the economical and industrial heartland of
South Africa. We have many regions for industrial development where many
building were errected for housing small to medium sized firms
manufacturing all kinds of products. Ten years ago, even during the height
of sanctions, these premises were fully occupied by mainly manufacturers.
Now, depending upon the region, up to 50% of these premises are empty. In
the remaining premisses those firms importing and distributing goods are
displacing increasingly the manufacturing firms. The signs of what is
happening to our country is clear to be seen. Just search for the "fangs".
Allow me to ask the following question. Consider as organisation an
international corporation XYZ which manufactures its goods with high added
value in 1st world countries. It exports those goods to even 3rd world
countries provided they can still pay for it by making even more debt at
banks owned in 1st world countries. Most of its members know that these
countries cannot match these imports with its own exports in goods with
low added value. Most of its members know that these countries will
eventually bleed to death and hence it is ready to pull its sales out of
those countries when it happens. Its members know that the global economy
has become so complex that nobody seems to understand any more the
mechanisms by which a minority becomes rich and empowered while the
majority becomes poor and disabled.
My question now to fellow learners is:
Can this OO (Ordinary Organisation) XYZ emerge into a LO by
continuing its business as usual, i.e diverting free energy to itself
for its own entropy production?
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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