Starting a new year

Nadine & Jeff 12.22.11After visiting my family back in Switzerland to welcome in 2012.  Look forward to ongoing work at IMD with leaders from around the world.  Will continue to focus on how to effectively engage stakeholders.  2011 filled with dramatic change like seismic shifts in tectonic plates in many places – literally (Tsunami, Fukushima; earthquake, Philippines; volcano, Iceland) and figurately (Arab Spring; Eurozone; Occupy Movement).  Yet, not enough change in other areas (Durbin, climate change; Uzbekistan, human rights). Post comments about what you think was important in 2011 and/or will be vital for 2012.

{ 14 comments… add one }
  • Raghida Haddad January 2, 2012, 2:09 pm

    Dearest Nadine:

    Happy New Year to you and your family…all of your extended family scattered all over the world. As a member of your amazing extended family, I want to wish you a year crowned with success, good health and peace. As you have touched my life a long time ago; may you continue to touch other lives, one at a time; especially during these challenging times! It is just great to be part of this amazing circle of friends.

    I am in Doha/Qatar consulting on a project and on a daily basis I apply methods I learned from you; my mentor!

    Nadine, I am so sorry about the passing of your beloved father. Please accept my profound sympathy and condolences. May he be resting in eternal peace.

    Warmest personal regards,

    Raghida

    Reply
  • Farai Chideya January 2, 2012, 4:58 pm

    Happy New Year Nadine:

    Hope you, Jerry, and your circle are great.

    I’m researching the transformations in the labor market, though my more long-range passion right now is really beginning to understand the global water crisis.

    Love,
    F

    Reply
  • Loren Jones January 2, 2012, 5:15 pm

    Because I am a policy associate for Positive Women’s Network-usa and affiliated with the 16 day Campaign to End Violence Against Women, my hope is that this is the year that we “Make Women Count” All women worldwide need access to HIV prevention tools that are designed and work effectively for them. Those who are already infected need the best treatment for themselves and their children. We need to be properly counted in the statistics and focused on in medical research. We also need our rightful place in decision making worldwide, our reproductive health care rights and choices should be under our control, and violence against us is not an option. I am excited to be back at work in a new year.

    Loren Jones/positive women’s network-usa/policy co-chair

    Reply
  • Susan Weliky January 3, 2012, 1:49 pm

    ——————–
    As I approach my 70th birthday, I want to be able to get the many people I know who are fighters for diversity and open-mindedness to be able to connect with each other. I see so many working in their own little spheres of influence without knowledge of each other.I particularly wish to highlight Tanya Odom, Sonja Ebron, Toshi Reagon, Judith Casselberry, Marc Gilliam and Krystin St. Onge.
    For myself, I continue to teach my little classes here and there. It’s amazing how you can infuse your life with opportunities to widen the thinking of others. Good luck in the coming years. Susan

    Reply
  • Anna Hill January 3, 2012, 2:28 pm

    Nadine,

    Wishing you a warm welcome to the year and hoping 2012 showers you and yours with human solidarity, progress and personal and professional rewards.

    Thanks for the invitation to share a few thoughts on the year just closed. It has indeed been full of extremes; the warmest year on record with fruit abundantly spilling out of season in usually temperate climes, food prices rising, Japan’s terrible tragedy and many lives lost, ageing populations receiving inadequate care, abused in “developed” nations social care homes, economic collapse in Europe and the US, abhorrent human rights abuses in Afghanistan and Syria ( a BBC report on the 1st of January reported 9 out of 10 women in Afghanistan are abused) and global environmental resource challenges pressing hard for urgently required reality check in relation to basic human life sustaining requirements of water, energy, housing and healthcare.

    Whist governance in many areas flounders in the midst of these challenges, citizens who have the bare minimum of resources are rising up and inventing solutions out of thin air– those that have access to the basic tools of communication and physical means to do so and this I find to be a source of inspiration strength and hope.

    The planet however we scientifically assess it, is becoming overheated, overcrowded and humankind is straining and feeling the pressure. The inventive are becoming more canny, yet our fragility as a human race has never been more apparent, nor more ignored.

    Personally, creativity, hard work and solid robust friendships kept me in balance through 2011 At times professionally my progress was equivalent to wading through thick porridge! I observed and felt some painful contradictions: hope through new solutions being created, new connections and the passing warmth of others and a sinking heart through our slow human response times and denial in the face of catastrophe.

    I met amazing people in 2011 for which I feel blessed and value the continuity of these relationships that I plan to nourish with renewed energy in the year ahead.

    What do I think is vital for 2012?

    2012 requires bold action and honest acknowledgement, new ways of working, grass roots action and a greater level of awareness.

    2012 is about embracing change: breaking cycles, creating new leadership and a greater global sense of citizenship. The wisdom needs to be rediscovered of pulling together to embrace collective, compassionate values and solutions through divergent participation. Organizations and governance have to learn fast to generate synergy between commercial, social and environmental impact and allow osmosis and contact with real innovation and genuine creativity through action, not just rhetoric. Teams require integrity and should be motivated by shared values rather than the limited conformity of personal gain and gratification. More honorable, and open business practice will be needed for sustainable return and profit that doesn’t involve removing basic human rights nor the essential resources from another.

    My vision and ambition is to facilitate a shift in organisations and mindset and to assist in the creation of active citizenship through behavior change: using technology to benefit all for a sustainable long -term habitat and the benefit of all as global citizens. We (Space Synapse) are kicking off 2012 with an education program and our mission is for sharing technology.

    2012 is about seeing the bigger picture, making connections across boundaries and experience, acknowledging the cause and effect of our actions and life styles, forgiving but not forgetting historically, allowing independent and remote and divergent thinkers a space to contribute their value in new styles and methodologies of leadership, for those with no voice to be given back a voice, not talked over or ignored. Governance and industry have to embrace innovative and creative technology, co creation and new ways of thinking and collaborating to make this possible. Bold vision and courage is necessary in 2012

    We require rapid solutions, communications and empowerment for change.

    These are a few of my thoughts on the year ahead.

    Warmest regards,
    Anna

    Reply
  • Robert Kesten January 3, 2012, 5:02 pm

    2011 was an amazing year, spending much of it in Egypt, some in Tunisia and the rest in 10 other nations around the world. I never learned more than I did this past year, but learning it and using it are two different things. The first thing is perspective, I have heard over and over again just how bad the world is…warming, violence, oppression, obesity, starvation, water, war…and I kept reading history, varied versions of the same history from any number of different perspectives…and low and behold, almost every single one of us is far better off today than we would have been 100 years ago, even 50 years ago. We can talk to people around the world, women are far better off, LGBT is making inroads, the US has a black president, women head some of the largest corporations in the world, we feed more people today than ever in global history, more people can read than ever before…people live longer because medical technology keeps moving forward, we may not solve all the issues facing us but we have organizations and institutions that keep them alive and discussed. Dictators are falling, human rights and democracy are high on the agenda and this year the US will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the US Constitution. We have a long way to go to reach perfection, but in context, we have already come a long way from where our great great grandparents started from.

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  • Paul Fitzgerald January 4, 2012, 12:03 pm

    Dear Nadine,
    The New Year is bright with possibility as the people (the 99%!) awaken and shrug off the ravages of unconsciousness. Our contribution to the awakening is the re-release of a novel we wrote titled The Voice, a dream inspired multidimensional story about the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. Visit our website at http://www.grailwerk.com for more background information. Read a review of The Voice on Huffpost Books at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hughes/book-review-the-voice_b_1152897.html

    We send our belief that 2012 will inaugurate a new conscious beginning for all.

    All the best to you and your family,
    Paul & Liz

    Reply
  • Simon Feldman January 4, 2012, 4:43 pm

    I feel that environmental issues , non proliferation of nuclear arms and the need to re-empower the people instead of corporate greed and control. Please support our environmental documentary by clicking on the link http://www.indiegogo.com/Help-us-to-Raise-the-Rainbow?a=363459

    Reply
  • Madelon Evers January 9, 2012, 7:17 pm

    Dear Nadine
    I feel the way forward is through the power and focus of our minds and hearts within a new mindset. There are many thinkers busy with this right now, but it comes down to making a difference by making a new / different choice. Stop living the way we did yesterday and embrace a way that is better for all of us, all living creatures and nature as a whole, not just humans, so that we can thrive on the Planet. How can we do that without being physically, spiritually and emotionally in contact with the planet that nurtures us? Women are great at nurturing but often very cut off from the outside world, of the tough side of nature and therefore from the power that resides in themselves. A message on this, that is inspiring to listen to while sitting quietly or drifting off to sleep, is by Lee Harris on 2012 and Power http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJJ_AM5C4ns

    Our mindset often separates us from our selves and our natural connection to the world around us, we often go ‘cerebral’, thinking about things but not doing anything real about it. That is why my motto is, “start doing great things rather than dreaming about them”, and that is my commitment for innovation and leading change for sustainability. Women are the key to this innovation, so I am delighted you are showing the way, in your line of work, Nadine!
    Warmly, Madelon

    Reply
  • Ennis Mittman February 12, 2012, 4:54 pm

    Dear Nadine,

    I trust all is well and and please accept my best wishes for your continued success. Also, please remember me to your family.

    Sincerely,
    Ennis

    Reply
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