Pilgrim sites: communication without words

What are the eight great places of Buddhist pilgrimage we are visiting, telling me? How can I better phrase it than the great Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote in 1935: "I once had gone on a visit to Bodh Gaya, and it had thrilled me to think that he who hallowed the earth by the touch of his feet had once come to that very place in the flesh. Why, had I thought with a pang, had I not been born in this day, that I might have received his holy influence directly with all my mind and all my body." Visiting the sites on which between 500 BC and 1200 AD stupas and temples were build, reminds me also of the Teachings: developing a strong sense of compassion, responsibility and concern, cultivating sensitivity and sharing, developing deeper human insight, refraining from violence, engaging in social action that benefits society. In many places there is only a few hours electricity; our mobiles don't work; the beds in the viharas are hard; there is little water; we have to cook ourselves; the roads are dusty and full of pot holes; everywhere beggars flock - almost aggressively - around us: a training in patience and compassion. In the end helping to make the earth a better place by "living" the sustainability ethics, serves our own happiness.

Engagement based on compassion

Buddhism is about transformational change of one's mind through training in compassion and wisdom. Many Buddhists just concentrate on their own mental change. Not so an engaged Buddhist such as Dr Adriana Ferranti. Since many years her Maitri (Compassion) center serves the poorest villages in the Gaya district with health care (leprosy, TB, HIV/Aids, mother and child care), primary education, animal care and natural resource management. The center operates in a decentralised way. Daily most of its 35 staffs are in the field advising villagers and patients, making sure medication is taken, looking after neglected animals and providing teachers to local schools. For Dr Ferranti it may provide her with good karma. At the same time her leadership contributes to transformational change beyond the individual level. Over the last decade the oasis of trees, she created in the midst of a desert, is an example of a different way of development compared to the urbanization that takes place in Bodhgaya town. The mud brick buildings combine aesthetics with local technology and climatic comfort. Contributing to better health, education and access to natural resources are small but basic steps towards sustainable development in the villages. Especially where essential government services are completely absent, true compassion has to lead to an engagement that benefits both the self and society.

Sustainability: not missing out on the important!

In reality phenomena are not always what they look like. Or actually never are. As a consequence our distorted perceptions make us miss out on many of the good things of life and often cause us only suffering. This is one of the tenets of Buddhist philosophy. So the content of the first email I opened here in an internet cafe in Bodhgaya (India) resonated very much with me. The mail was from Tina Trampus, a colleague from Slovenia. This is the story - it happened in 2007 - she sent me:

Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 mins a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. 4 mins later the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk. 6 minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. 10 mins: a 3 year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on. 45 minutes; the musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. 1 hour; he finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100. This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments .... how many other things are we missing?

Tina concluded: "Live here, live now, live THIS moment and enjoy it – is the best and the only you really have."

Bring The Comfort Of Indoors To Outdoors!?

In Europe already for some years, the market is lured into the new hype of patio heaters. As temperatures drop at nightfall, and people still want to sit in the garden, they invest in a patio heater of some sort. Since the ban on smoking, smokers flock round them outside bars. Restaurants now serve dinner even in midwinter on their terrace. It irritates me every time I pass these examples of extravagance. Why warming up the night sky by burning energy and therefore casting a carbon shadow? Ban not only smoking, but also outside heating. Yesterday with Copenhagen in mind my environment colleagues here in Delhi discussed how much less countries like India should contribute, compared to Europe. They took me out for dinner to their favorite Italian restaurant. We were to sit on the terrace - yes: with patio heaters! To sit inside was no alternative. This section is closed, said the sign on the door of the restaurant. As action speaks louder than words, I insisted to go somewhere else. The Delhi Supreme Court forced buses, taxis and rickshaws to change from diesel to natural gas. Why not also ban patio heaters? Until that time, environmental leaders should set an example as consumers both in the developed and the developing world.

Communication without words (2)

My new year's greetings Naturally Less Words and More Music, triggered even more response than last year’s. “Are this your hands?” "Music carries the meaning of the words itself “. “I could not have agreed more”. “I have started this year with more music and less words. So your wish has already become a reality”. “Keep up the playing, and the serious work as well!” Others sent their own images about communication without words. This Vietnamese gouache is one of them. I wrote back what it triggered in my mind: the two seem to communicate about mindfulness and nature. Cleaning up your mind and life. Understanding and being receptive of the laws of nature: What behavior to develop and what actions to avoid.

In return the sender made me aware of her own observations. Not the content of the dialogue but the difference between the two creatures: “one with external protection and another one with an internal one”. This made me think of the turtle’s behavior as driven by genetics and natural instinct. And the sage reflecting how long and what it takes for sentient beings to see reality as it is, be compassionate and become enlightened. One of the Jataka stories tells of a previous life of the Buddha, when he was a large sea turtle and saved sailors from drowning after their ship was wrecked. He brought them ashore and then seeing their hunger, offered his body for food. Maybe they are sharing this story. Both with a smile of their own.

The difference of participation in the South

Participatory planning – does it work in every context? Why did the participants from Western Europe do their assignments better that those from Central and Eastern Europe, not to speak of those from Africa? How much is this inherent in the University’s approach (a government driven approach) to establish a protected area? This is what I learned so far.
In developed countries public participation is an approach for government or governmental institutions to improve their decision making. It requires a range of pre-conditions, e.g. transparency, freedom of information, the ability for adaptive management and to deliver on promises. Good governance.
When the appropriate legal and economic structures are lacking, participatory planning can be successful. But the focus is then often on empowering communities to help themselves without having to lean too much on government or other outside support: see e.g. the Maya Nut case. Mostly it means that the government is at a distance and NGOs or the private sector are the drivers of the process.
In cases where through the support of international cooperation, governments engage in participatory planning, communities quickly ‘smell’ whether the government institutions are serious in terms of follow-up of the participatory planning: mostly a matter of making available appropriate financial and human resources. If not, communities sooner or later back out. Or the process drags on, like in the Nariva Swamp case. In other words what trainers and (future) managers should realize is that participatory planning processes are different - depending on the context.

Teaching is learning

You learn when you have to explain, when you facilitate other people's learning, or when you have to grade the papers of your students. Part of my duties as a lecturer for the MSc Course Protected Area Management of the University of Klagenfurt is to read and grade the assignments of the students. This time I had 16 students from a range of different countries. The nine entries below reflect my learning from cases of interactive planning of protected areas they described in their assignments. I learned that major issues in interactive planning are the difference between communication and management objectives. The time needed for the phases from establishing relationships to mapping change pathways. And the need to formulate objectives before one designs a program for a workshop or stakeholder meeting.

Stakeholder engagement in Montenegro

In selling the idea of new protected area in Montenegro, the issue of trust in the governmental bodies would be the major one, because of the long period of centralized decision-making. This is the issue my student adresses in her communication strategy. And this is my feedback.
Good: Your plan proves you have internalized most of the theory of the CEPA toolkit and the participation cases and exercises of the lecture. What I like is that you thought of collecting names and addresses – such a database is vital in a communication plan. If you add interets, values etc. to nbames you get slowly a relation management system. What I also like is that you specify objectives for the meetings before formulating an agenda. And that you check the agenda with stakeholders. The more stakeholders are involved in the organization of a meeting the more productive such meeting will be. You also thought of how to publicize the meeting. I also like the idea of a local product fair – this also is a way of generating ownership of the process by stakeholders. What you did very well is to include learning from the process through monitoring and evaluation.
To improve: A next time you should formulate the objectives per targetgroup by specifying their existing knowledge to the level of desired knowledge. Or from the level of trust or mistrust they have now, to the level of trust you need (if you do not specify that exactly you never know how to evaluate your communication. So this type of stakeholders analysis is needed to formulate and establish criteria to assess the effect of your interventions.

Stakeholder engagement for Paleśsie National Park

How to get local support for the idea of a national Park? This is my feedback on the paper by my student from Belarus.
Good: What I like is that you have tried to visualize your communication plan in a real situation in Belarus. You have sketched well the area, the culture of the people and the gap in trust between citizens and the government.
To improve: A next time you should realize that most elements of your communication plan (benefits, jobs etc.) belong more to the management aspects of the project to establish a PA than to a communication plan. The communication is about improving the knowledge of audiences, their attitudes, their actions. So you need to establish first what they already know, and what they need to know; what their sttitudes are and what they should be etc. That would change also the mapping of your communication plan from a series of almost random activities to convey information to a series of strategic communication interventions to contribute to a change in the social and maybe economic systems of the communities.

The case of Tatra National Park

My Slovakian student describes the role of communication in the establishment of this park in the period 2002 - 2004. This is my feedback on his paper.
Good: Your paper is a good description of a real case to formulate a new PA management plan with participation of key stakeholders. It shows how long this project takes (three years) and what phases one has to go through. And what the strengths and limitations of participation are. Especially where you touch on what the project learned and the recommendations it made to the government (early communication, time frame, etc.).
To improve: Although communication should be integrated in the total management of the process to formulate a new management plan, you should be much more specific on how communication can help improve, influence and change knowledge, attitudes and practices of the various key audiences. That way your would showcase that you have internalized the various aspects of the communication and participation theory. This would also underpin and illustrate your comments about the information focus and public hearings as opposed to other two way communication modalities. The planning is very global and more about the management plan than about the communication activities. Next time make clear in what currency the budget is made.