[These are 5 examples from Part B in Section 9 of the original 161 page document “1000Communities2”]

 

 

 

Question 3.  Arriving at Working Definitions of “Right Livelihood”

 

Consider what ways of earning a living you would identify as “right livelihood.” 

 

Now imagine a local community resource guide relating to employment, apprenticeships, training, and volunteer opportunities associated with “right livelihood.”

 

And further:  imagine a committee commissioned to produce such a “right livelihood” resource guide…. And the individuals who make up the committee commissioned to produce such a resource guide….

 

a)  What background (qualifications, experiences, etc.) would you like such

individuals to have?

b)  What local institutions would you consider most appropriate to commission

such a resource guide, and oversee its production?

 

 

Question 6.  Global Drugs Trade, Global Arms Trade—and Solutions?

 

Consider the following excerpt from the “World Report of Violence and Health:  Summary (Recommendations for Action)” (by WHO):

 

“The global drugs trade and the global arms trade are integral to violence in both developing and industrialized countries.  Even modest progress on either front will contribute to reducing the amount and degree of violence suffered by millions of people.  To date, however—and despite their high profile in the world arena—no solutions seem to be in sight for these problems.”  (for complete source reference, see p. 89)

 

a) Do you believe “no solutions seem to be in sight for these problems?”  Why or why not?

 

b)  Please check the box (or boxes) which best corresponds to the way you view of the following statement.

 

How much daily contact with the treasured wisdom of religious, spiritual, and moral traditions do you feel people in general would need before we would see noticeable progress on the above two problems (drug trade and arms trade)?

 

                                                                                                                          X                                       Y

     □                          □                          □                      □                                □                                       □   

more than       a profound        a lot more     a little more      additional solutions         have different

is likely           increase from                                                           will be essential            view—or different

to happen      current levels                                                          to make noticeable       understanding of

                                                                                                                   progress             our present circumstances

 

 

c)  If you checked boxes  X  and/or  Y, please describe below any solutions to the above two problems (drugs trade and arms trade) which you feel would be helpful contributions to making noticeable progress on resolving these problems.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Question 7.  Proactive Measures to Encourage Constructive Activity during Community Visioning Initiatives

 

Organizers of Community Visioning Initiatives should be aware that there may be people in the community who—regardless of the difficulties and urgencies associated with resolving multiple crises—choose to focus their attention of trying to make money by preying of people’s fears, manipulating people’s trust, and/or encouraging people to abandon hope in higher aspirations, and indulge in unhealthy, or immoral behavior.  Such behavior is clearly counterproductive to the building of caring communities; it can be very dangerous for community morale, and it can become a crippling obstacle in times of crises. Responsible people will take sufficient preventative measures to proactively encourage a high percentage of constructive thinking and constructive action in their community.

 

Please list at least 5 preventative measures which you believe would proactively encourage a high percentage of constructive thinking and constructive action in their community.

 

 

 

Question 9.  Curriculum Changes in Local Educational Institutions?

 

a)  Please check the appropriate box—and also offer comments if you wish—to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with the following statement:

 

The curriculum in our local and regional educational institutions will  ______________ for our community to build the knowledge base and skill sets necessary to overcome the challenges of our times.

 

 

                □                             □                                         □                                     □                                 □       

          need to                   need to                     have different view--            need to                be sufficient

   be transformed     be modified often         or different way of       be modified some             as it is             

                                                                             understanding our                                                       

                                                                           present circumstances

                                                                               

 

 

Your different view, or different way of understanding our present circumstances:  ___________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

b)  Please use the scale below and, for each section below, indicate your level of agreement with the following statements:

 

 

Scale:

 

(3) = high level of agreement

(2) = moderate level of agreement

(1) = low level of agreement

(0) = do not agree with the statement

 

 

 

Creating the knowledge base, skill sets, and the compassion for our fellow human beings necessary to resolve the challenges of our times will require

 

i)  recognizing deficiencies in the knowledge base and skill sets of our communities as they are now (which can be brought to the forefront by Community Visioning Initiatives)

ii)  recognizing deficiencies in compassion for our fellow human beings (which can also be brought to the forefront by Community Visioning Initiatives)

iii)  linking together the concepts of Community Visioning Initiatives, “Community Teaching and Learning Centers”, “teacher-leaders”, ongoing workshops, and “sister community” relationships

iv)  curriculum development “on the fly”

v)  teacher training “on the fly”

vi)  community centers which are neighborhood-friendly, and which provide ongoing workshops which are deliberately affordable

vii)  encouraging as much formal and informal meetings with other people in thelocal neighborhoods for discussion, information sharing, mutual support and encouragement, fellowship and friendship—so that the result will include the building of a close-knit community of people with a healthy appreciation for each others strengths, and a well-developed capacity to resolve even the most difficult challenges.

 

 

Please use the space below for ways of completing the above statement “Creating the knowledge base….” which are not listed above, and which you would have the highest level of agreement with.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

  

Question 12.  For the questions below, please check the box (or boxes) which best correspond(s) to the way you view the following statements:

 

 

b)   “There are countless numbers of ‘things people can do in the everyday circumstances of their lives’ which will contribute to peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecological sustainability efforts, in their own communities and regions—and in other parts of the world.”²

 

           □                                           □                                       □                                       □                                      □         
I believe it-- and                I believe it-- and             I would like to                It is difficult to           I don’t believe it—

there is much evidence      there is sufficient       believe it, but there        believe it, with the           there is no 
     to support it                      evidence to              isn’t enough evidence       way things are               to support it

                                                   support it                      to support it                     going now                 

 

 

 

i)  “Overcoming the challenges of our times will require fully utilizing all the knowledge, tools, and resources accessible to us for the highest good possible in every area of capacity building (physical, ecological, medical, spiritual, educational, social, economic, technical, political, etc).⁹

 

 

      □                                             □                                        □                                     □                                      □   
       agree                     agree in some ways       have different view--         disagree in                      disagree

                                                                                  or different way of            some ways

                                                                                understanding our

                                                                                present circumstances

 

Your different view, or different way of understanding our present circumstances:  _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________