West Wing of Wednesday Night #8

November is now upon us with grey skies and a noticeable chill – what a better reason to consider huddling around the discussion table for another dynamic rendition of the monthly Wednesday night salons – West??  As they say:
Information is a campfire around which people huddle for heat and light. The irony is in the fact that neither the heat nor the light yield a solution. The solution emerges out of the huddling.

So we’ll light up the candles and the fireplace and get into the really fun solution-finding stuff.

We do need to tackle what we didn’t get to in the last two editions: an issue that has been more and more intriguing– global citizenship and the notion of accountability (be it political, organizational or individual). From UK’s Chris Armstrong: For many recent commentators, the association of citizenship with the nation-state is under siege, as transnational and even global forms of citizenship begin to emerge. The nascent phenomenon of global citizenship in particular is characterized by three components: the global discourse on human rights; a global account of citizenly responsibilities; and finally “global civil society.”

I know many of you have worked on and thought about these issues for a long time – it will be interesting to see what solutions emerge from the huddle! Incidentally if one googles the topic of “global citizenship and accountability”, one gets exactly 200,000 links on the subject – and many of them are actually thought provoking (which is also worth discussing – see “Is Google making us stupid?”)

We also must spend some time on elections and on the markets – Predictions? Tips? Strategies? Since we are still low on having amongst us experienced financial gurus, here is the link to the Montreal predictions including the Time magazine article from Joseph Stiglitz entitled “How to Get Out of the Financial Crisis”

Many of you were away traveling the globe in October and we hope that you will be able to join us to share what you learned and loved on your trips. In particular, we still need an update on the Social Venture Institute on Cortez Island – if our friends who went can be with us to share – and from the Banff forum.

For a summary of last month’s edition, I am afraid you will also have to wait till next week as I am a bit behind getting it out this month. Suffice it to say one of our circle – Prof. Mark Winston – was seen on Rick Mercer and there were lots of bees involved – all during a conversation around ACD – Agricultural Collapse Disorder.

So come to think, discuss, be inspired, and exchange ideas and insights.

The description of the Wednesday night concept and other important logistical details can be found at “About us” at the top menu.
We will be adding new elements of structure to enhance the Chair’s ability to channel the increasingly large and passionate gathering – more details to follow soon.
We do have a new location since September, so for those of you who haven’t been here yet, once you confirm attendance, I will confirm location ; Also – don’t forget to pencil in your calendars Wednesday Dec 10th – same time, same place.
And above all, answer “yeah” or “nay” on whether we can expect you and what topics you want to tackle – this makes the moderator’s life so much better!

Carpe Diem!
Alexandra (& husband James)

P.S.  Just consider that at the Wednesday Salon HQ –  Montreal’s Wednesday Night – on Nov 12th, it’s going to be session #1393 – every single Wednesday night for over 25 years!