[P2P-F] a little informal assessment of the flok on the day before my departure

[Michel Bauwens]

dear friends, I am leaving Ecuador tomorrow after a rich but difficult
experience with many up and downs ... (one of the downs being is that we
are leaving the country with still 2.5 months of salary due);  though the
summit was a success in terms of its own dynamic, we discovered that the
president of the country didn't even know of the existence of the FLOK, and
the one of our funding ministers even blocked his officials of attending
until one day before the summit .. 15 attempts to talk with our two funding
ministers about a supposedly strategic effort went unheeded ..
nevertheless, there are also good sides: one is that lower level officials,
those that feel the need to remain faithful to the ideals of the civic
revolution, are enthusiastic and are working on pilot projects; the other
is a number of civic movements intent on continuing the effort such as our
friends at Diabluma and the associated rural-urban coalition; amongst the
most inspiring efforts is that of Mario Andino, the mayor of Sigchos, the
third poorest district in Ecuador, who just bought a 2,200 ha. domain to
experiment with open agriculture, and that is at least partially a direct
result of our interventions, this will happen with our without the
government ... and then we leave a cultural and political legacy in terms
of the ideas; here is a sample reaction that I received, and that makes me
very happy:

".I know you have had good and bad moments here, but I truly believe that
you leave a relevant and unforgettable way of thinking in my community. I
personally have seen how my vision of reality has changed based on your
ideas, knowledge and will to change things...Farewell my friend...I´m sure
that wherever you go, you will make the difference that humanity
desperately needs... "

Then of course there is the legacy of the flok as the first ever effort to
craft a integrated commons transition program, legitimized even if
imperfectly supported by a nation state, which makes it a geo-political
event; we are already talking with a large cooperative group, 2-3 cities,
and a rural hub elsewhere in the world, to do local flok processes; and the
flok as a open and participatory method to craft policy, which is getting
interest from other governments in the region ..

So this is life, sometimes we do a seeming huge step forwards, only to fall
back, and even as we may be disappointing in the short term, we have
planted a seed that may bear more fruit than we expected later on

Goodbye to Ecuador then, or perhaps just hasta luego, as it is a most
spectacular country ... let the hundred flowers bloom, here and elsewhere
in the world, we certainly would love to return to Sigchos and help the
mayor, the assembly of the people and the population as a model locale for
commons-oriented practices and transitions. After all , it is a
mini-Ecuador with four climate zones ..

With thanks of all the flok team members, volunteers, and the  local
citizens who supported us; special mention to Fabien and his team at
Allianza Solidaria, the most inspiring project so far,


Michel Bauwens, Quito, June 30, 2014

-- 
*Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no
record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..*

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

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