Dear LO'ers, dear At,
I hope that this dialogue is of interest for you all. I shall try to
separate my comments in two parts: one directly related to the message of
At de Lange (LO19609), and the second part generalizing to the main themes
of LO. I will do this by putting an extra margin in this second part. I
hope this makes things clear.
On Fri, 23 Oct 1998, AM de Lange wrote:
[snip]
Leo M. wrote:
> >South Africa is confronted with the problem of
> >receiving large numbers of immigrants, as in Europe,
> >as in the United States
> (snip)
AT de Lange wrote:
> Leo, you have given us a compassionate analysis of what we may call the
> "squatter problem".
At,
The focus will be on this issue now. However, the sad thing of this
dialogue is that we deepen only one aspect of the original message of you.
And there are so much other learning elements in your story.
But here, I will focus on the squatter problem, as you have called it.
I like to make an important distinction in the large mass migrations that
occur at the moment all over the world.
REFUGEES: migrants that fled from an unsafe (because of military actions)
country (Soudan, Angola, Kosovo), or unsafe (because of political
pressure, no freedom of speech) like the Kurds from E. Turkey, Iraq and
Iran.
SQUATTERS: migrants that are mainly attracted to rich countries for
economical motives.
Here we have thus two fundamentally different reasons of movement:
refugees driven by rejection; squatters driven by attraction. Ofcourse,
all sorts of combinations of motives may occur.
In a certain way these two mechanisms can be observed in
organizations: those who are fired becoming unemployed and looking
for safety in another organization. The other catagory are the
applicants looking for a job in a succesful company.
> If you think carefully about it, it is the exact antithesis of our thread
> "Learning by Touring". They are not touring (the becoming), but squatters
> (the being), even after having traveled with many hardships. They are not
> learning (the becoming), but beggars (the being), even after having fled
> from poverty. Why this antithesis? Because they have not experienced that
> authentic learning requires "touring of minds, one's own and those of
> others".
Yes At. What happened in other words? A squatter has migrated his body,
but forgot to take his soul/mind with him (a car without a motor; see my
contribution LO19625 on the conscious/competent issue). The soul/mind is
still left in the original place.
> But note my warning has also two other important facets to it:
> * People in the country of origin have to lift themselves
> up by becoming a LO. They need people who can
> guide them into irreversible self-organisation.
> * Travelling to paradise without the learning to make
> a living there is fatal to the traveler. Hence paradise
> becomes hell for the far majority of squatters.
>
> I have worked from these three warnings to save many a student from the
> brink of disaster.
>
> One thing we should never forget. Most of these people
> KNOW
> * that they are poor and
> * that they have to do something about it.
>
> That is why many of them traveled to become squatters. This is the strong
> point (seemingly very week) from which we will have to begin guiding them
> because it is their knowledge. Those who have travlled to become
> squatters, have managed through this very action to express their tacit
> knowledge into formal knowledge. Should we ask them why they are
> squatters, they will clearly tell you this.
So here we have the reason of migration again: they were poor and they
hope/think that they become less poor in their new destination. The
attraction.
Squatters were poor and are beggars. What do they lack and what are they
begging for? Is it food, money or knowledge? Did they come to South
Africa, Europe or the US for food, money or learning? Most of them have
the tacit knowledge that with money one can buy food. Therefor, they beg
for money, not for food. If they had originally enough money, there was no
reason to migrate.
The applicant looking for a job in a succesful company, is he
looking for food, money, or learning? Certainly not for food, but it
is interesting to know if the primary attraction is the money or
the knowledge.
They could buy the food from a distance (as I do with my South African
apple; or people living in nordic countries where nearly every piece of
food must be imported) if they had the money. Squatters (but probably also
others) have forgotten that food is the primary goal to survive. Now they
think it is money. A world full of money, but without food will soon be a
dead world.
Even the squatters in Europe come for money and luxoury not for food. As
does the Mexicans who think that the El Dorado lies in the US.
But squatters don't know that for earning money, you need knowledge. A big
bag full of money is soon empty if one must transfer the money for food,
unless it is regularly (weekly, monthly) supplied with new money. And that
is only possible with knowledge. If the squatter will beg for learning and
information is given (which he can transfer in knowledge), most of their
problems are solved. Knowledge - money - food is the survival chain.
So if we are able to help the original countries from where the squatters
come from, with creating a climate of learning and knowledge would grow
there, we will have solved most of the migration problems.
And here we have closed the circle: we must change these countries
into Learning Organizations. We - the attractive countries - must
set up an action plan for such a program. It is not simply a brain
drain towards the third world, it starts with the chalk for the
blackboards the next step will be the teaching of thinking. To teach
the way how to transform information into knowledge. This could
be done nation wide, but also in our own countries. And also
towards your neighbour or colleague. There are lots
of places were learning organizations could be created. It will be
a long, but inspiring path for all of us.
And for the economical thinkers: it will save a lot of money,
which is now spend for weapons, bureaucracy, short term profits,
and all sorts of programs to deal with the problems of squatters and
refugees in the rich countries.
Is it not nice to think of the time that the future Nobel prize winners
will come from Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Guatamala or Cabo Verde?
dr. Leo D. Minnigh
minnigh@library.tudelft.nl
Library Technical University Delft
PO BOX 98, 2600 MG Delft, The Netherlands
Tel.: 31 15 2782226
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Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of ideas.
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--Leo Minnigh <L.D.Minnigh@library.tudelft.nl>
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