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Dare to Dream: Making responsible young leaders
‘In our minds we have a vision;
it’s in our hearts that we make it happen’
Dreams & Teams Course Books – Youth Sports Trust, UK
‘To inspire the desire to lead, to create one team, one dream, one world’ is a quote on the cover of the Dreams & Teams Young Leader’s Learning Log Book. So, this has got to be a special programme and it is.
As I sit here in the make shift Dreams & Teams secretariat at the Chipasula Secondary School in Lillongwe, Malawi, there are nineteen enthusiastic Young Leaders setting up for their maiden sports and arts festival for sixty young children from two local primary schools.
It’s a cloudy, cool day and the Young Leaders are swinging to the music blaring out of the PA system as they help erect the tent, move chairs, set up cones and demarcate areas for the games - the positive energy and the vibes are palpable.
These Young Leaders, ranging from ages 12-17 have gone through a two-day session where they learned about leadership, teamwork, communication skills and values. Their assignment at the end of the training is to organize and manage this festival for younger children. They pass with flying colours if at the end of the festival, the children leave happy and smiling.
Their trainers are six teachers who have been taught to be facilitators of this programme. I conducted the training as an International Trainer for Dreams & Teams to take the teachers out of their comfort zone from their normal ‘chalk and talk’ process to a more interactive and experiential learning method as facilitators. The most difficult part is managing the shift in the power relationship from ‘adult-child’ to ‘adult-adult’. The process begins with respecting the Young Leaders as significant individuals, expecting them to rise to the occasion required of responsible learners and leaders.
The programme is sponsored by the British Council and designed by the Youth Sports Trust of United Kingdom and happens in over forty countries around the world.
I went through a five-day facilitations skills training programme at British Council in Oxford followed up by a supervised practical session in Sri Lanka in 2003 to gain the skills to run the programme. The focus then was leadership through sports. The Dreams & Teams programme was re-designed in 2006 post 9/11 to include culture and arts and I went through a re-orientation in India with a Youth Sports Trust trainer. I have run over 20 training programmes in Sri Lanka, India and now in Africa and every one of them has been a learning experience for me.
I have also adapted this model of training for cricket in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. For instance, I have worked with both country under 19 and 17 national pools where they organize a cricket festival at the end of the leadership training programmes.
The Dreams & Teams Charter
The aim of Dreams & Teams is to develop Young Leaders and global citizens through sport and cross-cultural awareness. Through the programme these young leaders get an opportunity to be constantly challenged in their assumptions, beliefs and behaviour relating to sport and arts leadership and cross-cultural awareness. It will also help them to think about other cultures and different ways of doing things and, particularly, how to become open to people who are not the same.
Dreams & Teams has a distinct feature because of its international linking and cross-cultural dimension. Sport and the arts provide a platform for these young leaders in different countries to explore together issues relating to fair play, equity, mutuality, cultural diversity, inclusion, religion, ethics, global communication and many others. By establishing international links, these young people will join other Young Leaders in each participating country and form a global team, working towards periodic celebration events, perhaps a global sport and arts festival to be held every year.
Taking from my own experiences as an entrepreneur, trainer, researcher and community leader, I add value to the training of teachers by dwelling deeper into topics such as emotional intelligence, self esteem, values and behavior. Esteem, beginning with self leading to the collective social esteem is especially an issue in the developing world for many reasons. Poverty, lack of access to opportunities and information as well as issues related to justice and human rights in emerging nations makes this extra dimension important for us in Asia and Africa. High self and social esteem makes for strong and confident individuals and societies. The only way to ensure stewardship in this area is through the positive use of power as leaders in the way we speak and act. We have to create a new leadership ethos for the world, if we are to change the destructive direction it is taking at the moment in social and environmental terms. Values, behaviors and the use of power become important considerations as the models we see in politics, business and even sports with its corruptions is not worthy of emulation.
Therefore, Dreams & Teams provides a wonderful platform to enter into this important dialogue and to provoke thought in changing towards a more compassionate way of leading for the next generation.
A Happy Ending
As the festival is ending, the music is blaring, children and adults from all over the Chipasula community are dancing, laughing and enjoying. The festival has touched not only the young children who participated, but even younger children and adults from the community around the school. The Young Leaders did extremely well to organize the event in such a short time - to work as a team, with good leadership, design and manage the games and activities, decorate the grounds, manage the funds, entertain the crowd – there was music, mini dramas, folk tales in the African tradition – and to experience taking responsibility for themselves and their actions.
“I have learned so much in the last few days about myself, my friends and about leadership – I feel proud that we got together and did an event like this”, said, Mervis Liwonde, one the older Young Leaders.
The six teachers were thrilled with their achievement in getting out of their comfort zones to empower the Young Leaders to take responsibility. George Makande, the Local Tutor from the host school, Chipasula said “I think I have changed as a teacher through this programme. I learned something interesting about self esteem and how my way of speaking to students effect their esteem. So, I will be much more aware about the way I speak to my students”.
For me, I enjoyed the wonderful energy in the “heart of Africa”. The more I work with these kinds of programmes around the world, the more reassured I am that there is hope for the world. Dreams & Teams is one of the most important gifts the British Council and the Youth Sports Trust of UK has given the world and its new generation, so we can indeed realize the dream someday of a more loving, compassionate and a contented world.
‘Dreams+Teams allows all nations, as one spirit, to grow as one. It allows the smallest voice to travel the furthest distance’.
Dreams & Teams Course Books – Youth Sports Trust, UK
A concept to define a workable, uniform, world-wide, religious and philosophical, moral compass is needed. So I have designed it. And, because I designed it I have called it Old Man Schmiddy’s (OMS) Religions and Philosophies Pan. Generally, I refer to it as just Pan. While the word Pan has some historical connotations that might be associated with the ancient horned Greek God of the Forests and pan-pipes, and even Paganism, it is not intended that the word is used in these contexts. The word is, however, used as a reference to ‘encompassing’ – and more specifically the universal environment, and it is also intended that there should be a close association with the ideas of Panentheism (but not the fundamental tenets of Pantheism).
The idea is that the word Pan is to be positioned following a chosen belief, or belief system, and when placed there, it indicates an undertaking by a person to start to develop a long term sustainable relationship with the environment they impact, in conjunction with the ideas and guidance they source from their chosen belief, or the belief system. Pan, when placed with a belief or belief system, is recognition that the belief system chosen has a central teaching that requires conscionable ‘good’ behaviour (from good will) towards all people, of good will, from all over the world. The trick being that this ‘fraternity’ must become equal towards very different people who are plainly of many and varied cultural groups with very different ideas about ‘the meaning of life questions’.
The world needs people who are Islamic Pan, Shiite Pan, Sunni Pan, Christian Pan, Protestant Pan, Roman Catholic Pan, Evangelical Pan, Jewish Pan, Hindu Pan, Buddhist Pan, Secular Pan, Secular (with a tendency towards Confucius teachings) Pan, Democratic Socialist Pan, Humanist Pan, Agnostic Pan and even Atheist Pan, depending on how you might define the word Atheist. And, so on.
The current intention of Pan is to create the first grouping of people in this world that might be truly called a ‘Global Public’. To do this Pan will ask, for example, Muslim people to befriend Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, people who believe in Tao’s teachings, or Confucius, or in those teachings in earlier traditional Chinese historical books, those who believe in Shinto, Zoroastrians, Animists, Humanists, Secularists, Democratic Socialists, and those who believe in none of these things, but have an open mind. Furthermore, Pan asks all people of ‘good’ will to others all around the world, to also befriend those who just accept that conscionable ‘good’ behaviour is required to share in collective well-being while choosing not to search for any answers to the meaning of life questions. These are the people that argue that what might be offered as answers cannot actually be known; well, not in their lifetimes.
These are all widely diverse views, of course! And, are the concepts being developed in Pan enough to bind all these people to one cause, and achieve an understanding between vastly different types of people that fosters global fraternity? I believe by emphasizing common humanity and deriving from it a range of basic and common moral themes with some rules, in ways that have been successful for many thousands of years, this can now be achieved for what we now understand to be our finitely resourced world. It is important to know that ‘civilization’ was flourishing long before the Sumerians and Egyptians. These two cultures tend to have been readily researched by Western archeological scholars and it is no accident that their findings are well suited to the fundamental precepts of the Abrahamic religions.
For argument’s sake, at this point, let’s agree with some knowledgeable people that there are just five basic moral themes. The priority placed on basic and common moral themes is an important consideration. Generally, most societies place, the belonging and loyalty to a particular group, as the first priority. Second is the acceptance and role of an authority for that group. Together, perhaps in the next two places, are aversion to contamination and aversion (and awe) with regard to killing and death. Finally, and in some cultures, in practice, a long way in fifth place, comes loyalty and consideration to the wider grouping of human beings. The ‘good Samaritan’ factor in religions and philosophies and the problem concept ‘altruism’, when considering the broad scope of evolution philosophy’s expected behaviour of social animals. But, where knowledge of the world’s dire circumstances concerning exhaustion and contamination of clean and good air, food and water is well understood such ‘altruism’ is clearly not altruism any more. Truly globally coordinated and conducted effort, impartial to the interests of any particular nation state or corporate entity is plainly now essential for the benefit of every living human being’s descendents (every human beings evolutionary lineage).
Pan sees an initial goal to be the creation of a ‘Global Public’. This is necessary for development of a functional standard of global justice with a view to providing some standards of equity regardless of origin or wealth. Without such justice the world continues to tear at, and foul, its very substance. And it is now necessary for a Global Public to build impartial organizations to promote assessment of damage, assessment of factors, assessment of options and then to create circumstances for lives that among everything else to be done renew our environment. Under the current cultural and economic circumstances we tear and foul our environment with unthinking consumerism and global conflicts that despite rhetoric are might still appear to be far more about policing poverty, and providing access for corporate interests, than providing lasting quality of life assistance and better futures for all. There seems to still be little reporting on ‘whole of situation’ circumstances for such things until many years after major events?
There is the opportunity to be in ‘Pan in Principle’. This requires nothing more than registering approval of the ideas that I am presenting and being aware that this registration is freely available to all who may wish to read the Pan in Principle ‘List’ to go on a Pan web-site (still to be set-up). This, I believe, could become one early small step towards achieving a Global Public. People will also be able to become ‘Pan in Practice’ and this will require a level of commitment. The aim of Pan in Practice will initially be to produce and market home-grown (home, meaning small Pan groupings that eventually are part of the over-arching Global Public) foods and some ‘home’ built housing. These products will not be needed by many people in Pan however they will be available to some who may have few other choices. The physical ‘good Samaritan’ work with initially relatively unknown companions, done by the small Pan groups, for these ends, is one way that will assist in actually achieving the first over-arching grouping that will eventually be so encompassing of the world’s people, that it will simply make good sense to refer to it as the Global Public.
In all organizations, religions, philosophies and governments there are rules; laws and guidance, and while there might be just a few major moral themes there will need to be some, globally appropriate, rules for the Global Public. Pan does not judge the attributes of religions or philosophies with regard to their answers to the meaning of life questions. Pan is intended to be a supporting structure to uphold the major religions and philosophies and particularly their ‘good’ teachings regarding behaviour towards one another. Pan will however judge governments and their decisions and will debate in the community their rules. Pan, firstly, strongly, supports the idea of a constitutional democratically elected Global Government which is committed to the most effective contemporary checks on its distribution of power in the legislature, executive and judiciary. Pan does not support the advancement of a blindly consumerist culture to accompany Global Government. While true world government may be a long way off the establishment of a Global Government is an obvious step in bringing about a suitable global plan to create a worldwide sustainable environment. This must in time give the great majority of the world’s people (the Global Public) real opportunity to achieve fulfillment, fraternity and happiness.
There will be some religious and philosophical administrations and followers, and some governments and supporters, that will vehemently oppose both a Global Public and a Global Government. The greatest difficulty with their opposition is found when the record of global justice (globally defined and globally promoted rules of behaviour in commerce, law, science, education, warfare, and so on) is impartially examined. Currently it remains highly profitable for large numbers of the voting public of many powerful nation states to foster corporate bodies, especially their Defense Forces, that, as the first consideration, project power necessary to subjugate and cower those that they perceive to be opposed and even just detrimental to their nation state’s – economic – maximum growth objectives. This economic maximum growth at all costs premise is what continues to put responsibility towards building a globally sustainable environment simply out of the picture. Bringing about true global justice as a function of a ‘good’ global government is, exactly, what is now required, to reduce these pressures; which have been founded on greed, because in mainly unregulated competition, best for income production in already wealthy countries, blind self-interest still worked a treat for many people for many years.
Suffice here to make reference to just two of the main elements of Pan guidance at this point for the Global Public. Pan is designed to support good religions and philosophies and while not being a religion it is a philosophy, in itself. On controversial issues the question might be asked – “Then what is the Pan view, on this issue?” Initially the Pan view has been: as long as the religion or philosophy chosen by a person is ‘good’ and is not damaging to the global wide environment, then Pan can have no view as the view the person is to take is that of their chosen religion or philosophy, and Pan supports them. Nevertheless, there are of course some religious and philosophical teachings that in contemporary times are doing great harm to the global wide environment and Pan will take a strong stance when appropriate.
Some of these will be covered in a later submission to this site. People seeking to know more, directly, about Pan can email angusgraysmith@gmail.com Yours in good will to all people of good will, Old Man Schmiddy (OMS)
posted by Old_Man_Schmiddy on 9/13/2008 10:21 am