Dear Organlearners,
Douglas Max <dmax@bellatlantic.net> writes:
> Frankly, I was hurt and saddened by the fact that there was any reward at
> all, as I think that diminishes the true value of the reward that comes
> from doing (in my judgment) good.
and
> I think that the monetary reward bespeaks a more fundamental problem
> with the values of humans...and the fact that At's suggestion that
> the reward should have been $2 Billion seems to contradict the
> spirit of the rest of his presentation. (nothing personal At...just
> trying to understand)
Douglas, I was hurt just as much as you when the reward was mentioned on
our local news. In fact, at that very moment a thought entered my mind. It
is one that has frequently been visiting me the past few months "What is
the price of your spirit". In other words, how much money will it take to
transform a person's spirit? For me the transformation of a person's
spirit is priceless. Thus my increasing of the reward from $2million to
$2billion is the understatement of the year. I wanted to write $2trillion
($2 000 000 000 000) and should have done it to indicate that integroty is
priceless.
My wife asked me, as soon as she also heard it, what I thought of the
reward and what would I do with it should I get it. I said to her that
trying to buy a person's cooperation with money is a more vicious bomb to
the spirits of caring people than the embassy bombings. I also said that
should they reward me because I happened to know who did it, I do not want
a single dollar of the reward. I will donate every cent of it to the care
of destitute children.
This morning my wife woke up and thanked me for being so kind. I began to
worry that I have forgot that yesterday or today was a special
commemoration day. She laughed when she saw my worried face. She said:
"No. I dreamt that you gave me R10 000 (about $2 000) to spend as I see
fit. I bought clothes for needy children and it gave me much pleasure."
Douglas, you also ask:
> Sad to pose this question also..."would the US have had more impact by
> simply saying "please" tell us what you know so that we can stop this sort
> of thing happening again?"
No. We are too much engrossed by a culture of hurting all over the
world in every dimension of humanity.
> All of this is "off subject" of Learning Organizations technically, but my
> rationale would be that the world is the biggest Learning Organization
> there is. Sold?
I do not think that it is technically "off subject" for Learning
Organizations!
Forgive my clinical observations. A bomb and how it destroys people's
bodies and properties, is a phsyico-chemical phenomenum. It requires
a knowledge of physics and chemistry. Likewise we can use
any other branch of science to destroy. Consider, for example,
managerial science. Three major organisations / corporations in or
close to Pretoria have been destroyed or crippled recently by
applying the methodology of "down sizing". Thousands of workers lost
their homes, their children becoming destitute almost overnight.
The lesson we need to learn is that we can use almost any subject to
destroy the lifes of people. We can even use religion by becoming
so called "fundamentalists".
Yes, one of the biggest Learning Organisations I can think of, is
civilisation. What is wrong by extending LO concepts to a
civilisation?
Obviously, the biggest LO is this Universe to which we humans belong.
Thinking of the universe as an LO has afforded me many insights into
the nature of human LOs.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>