The School of Thinking shares the shock and sadness that has overtaken the world with the tragedy of the sudden and extravagant loss of President Kaczyński along with so many other distinguished leaders of the Republic of Poland.
The loss is incomprehensible and so hard to accept.
SOT has many members and friends in Poland. At this sad time we offer our thoughts, meditations and solidarity.
GLOBAL VILLAGE 100
What if we could shrink the earth’s population, as a thought experiment, to a village of precisely 100 people with all the existing human ratios remaining the same?What would that little global village look like?
This micro-village would look something the following. There would be:
DFQ:
Think about it and post your comment:
When you think about the world from this compressed perspective what, in your opinion, is the most interesting thing for you to consider?
Are you a child who is in need of protection?
Are you a child who has a friend in need of help?
Are you a parent or grandparent? A brother, sister, uncle, aunt or family member?
Are you a neighbour or a community member?
Are you a teacher or health worker or do you work with children at home, in school or at play?
Are you a social worker, law officer or government member?
Are you a church member, a nun a priest or a bishop?
Are you in the media? Are you a screenwriter, a singer or a publisher online or offline?
Whoever you are, if you have read this newsletter and you want to act, then you can spread these words of Jesus on child abuse to someone who cares.
Who can stop you?
DFQ: Do you feel these words are worth spreading?
Today, the pope is the figurehead of a big institution.
This institution is a very big multi-national conglomerate with a billion members. It has centralized administrative bodies in the Vatican in Rome with strong and ancient traditions. It has a vast patrimony and priceless global assets. Then, there is a worldwide network of national and local bodies with bishops as administrators and fiscal guardians. There are community groups with their priests and salaried staff. There are also semi-independent orders of priests and professional educators, and nuns and health workers with their own national and international assets and networks.
In reality the office of pope is a uniquely difficult and challenging one. Sometimes a pope can do a lot and sometimes only a little. John XXIII said, “See everything, ignore much and change a little”.
For example, the current pope, Benedict XVI, has personally accomplished more on the child abuse problem than perhaps the previous ten popes put together. Yet, for many, his progress seems too slow and there is much more to be done. Big institutions have vested interests in the status quo and, by their nature, are slow to move.
So, what can a pope do?
Recently, Benedict wrote a letter to his national body in Ireland. In the pope’s pastoral letter he said he was “deeply disturbed by the information which has come to light regarding the abuse of children” .
In his letter the Pope proposes “some concrete initiatives to address the situation”. His two main initiatives proposed in the letter were: 1 “intense prayer” and 2. “Apostolic visitations”.
Many people in Ireland and in the media and even the Archbishop of Canterbury have said that these initiatives may not be enough to restore the moral authority and credibility of the church in Ireland.
So, what else can a pope do?
Top-Down Fix
• Encyclical – He could write an encyclical letter to the whole church which has a higher status than a pastoral letter but yet another letter may not seem adequate.
• Council – He could call an ecumenical council of the pope and all the bishops. Since too many bishops failed in their duty to protect the children in their care against these crimes this may seem an appropriate option. Ratzinger served as a peritus, a chief theological expert at the last ecumenical council, Vatican II, which was held in 1962.
• Infallible – The pope could make an infallible teaching from the Chair of Peter. Speaking ex cathedra, he could invoke his highest authority as pontifex maximus.
Only two popes have ever done this – Pius XII on “the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary” and John Paul II on “the doctrine of forbidding the ordination of women priests”.
These and other institutional fixes of the top-down kind are no doubt necessary and long overdue. And, compared to the past, genuine progress is now being made.
Bottom-Up Fix
In addition to the institutional responses of the Vatican there is also a pressing and overdue need for bottom-up solutions regarding the current scandal in the church.
There must be a strong direct and immediate response from the People of God. The Catechism describes the People of God as those people who have faith in Jesus. The words of Jesus are clear that direct action is required, now!
Jesus does not talk about letters, or meetings or councils or prayers. He does not talk of long delays, of secrecy and of passing the buck.
When it comes to children and their protection Jesus’ prescription is plain and clear: immediate and direct action of a preventative kind!
DFQ: What do you think the pope should do?
Post you comment here …
Jesus had a very definite view about the value and importance of all children, in general.
He had a lot to say about how he personally felt about children. He also had a lot to say about how His Father in Heaven felt about children.
Evidence of this came up one day when he was teaching his disciples. They were curious about rank and precedence in Heaven. Naturally, they wanted to know who Jesus thought would secure the most favourable positions in Heaven. They may even have been thinking of themselves.
They were asking him about who would be the VIPs? Who’d get to be in the inner sanctum? Who would be given the best positions? Who would sit closest to the Father Himself?
Interestingly, Jesus did not avoid the subject but embraced it and in no uncertain terms. He addressed his disciples in one of his most poignant lessons about rank, precedence and preference in the kingdom of Heaven.
This teaching of Jesus is recounted first by Matthew and then corroborated by Mark and Luke:
At that time the disciples engaged Jesus and asked him: Who do you think is the greater in the kingdom of Heaven?
So, Jesus called over a little kid, and sat the kid in the middle of them all and then taught the following important lesson to his disciples …
Well, here we see Jesus at his most passionate and he’s using the strongest possible language in this teaching …
Not afraid to face the issue with realism and wisdom, Jesus talks about the problem of child abuse in the world …
Here Jesus talks directly to any adult who may be involved in the abuse of a small child or children …
Did Jesus really say these things? In this book I have written Jesus’ words plainly as he would say them to us today.
These words are sourced directly from my copy of The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) which I bought from the Vatican bookstore on the Via della Conciliatore on Palm Sunday.
The New Jerusalem Bible is a scholarly translation direct from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic texts and is one of the most widely used Roman Catholic translations of the Bible. NJB was first published in 1985. It carries the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.
Jesus’ words are reported first and in detail by Matthew, Chapter 18, Verses 1 – 10. They are corroborated by Mark, Chapter 10, Verse 15 and also by Luke, Chapter 9, Verses 47 – 48. Here, for reference, are these verses from the NJB:
Matthew 18
1 At this time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?’ 2 So he called a little child to him whom he set among them.
3 Then he said, ‘In truth I tell you, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. 4 And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
5 ‘Anyone who welcomes one little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6 But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith in me would be better drowned in the depths of the sea with a great millstone round his neck.
7 ‘Alas for the world that there should be such causes of falling! Causes of falling indeed there must be, but alas for anyone who provides them!
8 ‘If your hand or your foot should be your downfall, cut it off and throw it away: it is better for you to enter into life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
9 ‘And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out and throw it away: it is better for you to enter into life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into the hell of fire.
10 ‘See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven.
DFQ: What do you think about Jesus’ words on this issue?
Do you think they can inform this discussion? Why?
Since Good Friday I’ve been in Italy and Rome on business. I was invited to lunch by our wonderful family friend, Lorraine, who’s not only an accomplished movie producer but an articulate person of great curiosity and wide interests. As always, we had an excellent conversation across a range of issues and she introduced me to burata a delicious kind of creamy mozzarella cheese I had never tasted before. Yum!
As it was a sunny spring Saturday. Lorraine had chosen a splendid outdoor restaurant in the Piazza Maddalena, one of the most enchanting settings in all of Rome.
After we settled and took a sip of wine she asked me, “So, what’s your latest book, Michael?”
I said I had a few ideas I was working on but nothing quite ready for publication. But, by the time lunch with Lorraine was over I had decided to write a new book which I started the very next day.
Much of our lunch conversation was about the subject which had been prominent in the news headlines of world media for some time – the issue of child abuse in general and in the Catholic Church in particular.
The pope had recently sent his pastoral letter apologizing to the people of Ireland and now there was much speculation about the growing number of reports in Germany, Austria and even in Italy itself. What the Vatican had previously described as “an American problem” was now emerging to be “a catholic problem” in the universal sense.
Lorraine is a clear-thinker, well-informed and a faithful Catholic and we sat and talked for 3 or 4 hours mostly on this critical issue. We talked about Jesus and his views. What did he actually say?
We noted the size of the gap between the pope’s words and Jesus’ words on this issue. And, finally, what could we, ourselves, do as individuals? I left lunch thinking …
By the time I had woken the next morning, on Palm Sunday, I had focused on the idea for a little book and began writing. The idea is a simple one:
The book should be pro bono and widely available for anyone interested. This newsletter is a precis of the book.
The purpose of this book is plain and simple: the protection of small children from abuse by adults.
This idea of this book is to present the recorded views of Jesus on the value of children and on the occasion of child abuse by adults. In his characteristic and provocative style, Jesus discusses both the pre-eminence of small children over adults, and, the scandalous evil of child abuse by adults.
Although this issue is of global significance and features in daily headline news it’s rare to see Jesus’ words quoted in the discussion. Yet, one can search all of literature and will hardly find more eloquent, more authoritative and more poignant words than these words of Jesus.
- Michael Hewitt-Gleeson, Rome, Palm Sunday 2010
Not long ago I was invited to address the 800 students and teachers of the Senior School of St Michael’s Grammar School, St Kilda, Melbourne .
I was asked to talk about “Diversity in Thinking”.
In 1983, School of Thinking originated the idea of ‘Six Thinking Hats’ to show that there is more than one way of thinking besides the traditional Greco-European method called logic.
Today, after 30 years of teaching thinking and training teachers of thinking around the world, it is plain to me that there is a vast, virtually unlimited, number of ways of thinking ( for example, see this Wikipedia list).
There are not just 6 thinking hats, nor 60 thinking hats nor even 600 thinking hats, there are in fact many, many more … at least 6 billion thinking hats on Planet Earth!
To get you thinking, here are over 100 THINKTIPS reprinted from my book THE X10 MEMEPLEX: Multiply Your Business By Ten! (Prentice Hall 2000):
ESCAPE: How can I escape?
“Help! I’m trapped. How can I escape?” This is the cry of the thinker. Why? Because THE most difficult feat of thinking is to escape from your point-of-view. All of us are trapped in the special world we create for ourselves in our brain, our own unique viewpoint, our CVS. Your world and my world are different. You are trapped in your CVS as surely as I am trapped in my CVS.
Innovation and strategic thinking are critically important faculties for the survival and growth of businesses.
For at least the last decade world class organisations have been investing in genuine expertise to raise the innovation intelligence of their enterprise.
So, it’s such a shame to see that the ABC has neither the wit nor the wisdom to take innovation seriously.
As reported in Business with The Wall Street Journal:
THE ABC is encouraging staff in Sydney to exercise their creative talents by using Lego in the staff cafeteria in an initiative that is already facing plenty of internal derision.
The ABC’s NSW director, Mike McClusky, has sent a memo to all staff, asking them to see the future of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the form of Lego’s colourful plastic building blocks.
“The ABC in NSW is holding a competition to try and give exercise to our creative minds,” Mr McClusky told staff on the eve of April Fool’s Day last week.
Only it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke; it was a team-building exercise of the type modern organisations are so fond.
“We have set up a Lego building station in the level seven cafe area of ABC Ultimo as well as sending kits to all regional offices,” Mr McClusky said.
“This is to offer each of us an opportunity to form big ideas from small building blocks.
“Also of course, the objective is to have a little fun on the way.”
None of the staff The Australian spoke to was laughing.
“What’s next? Finger-painting and plasticine?” asked one senior broadcaster.
Many in the corporation’s news and current affairs departments thought it was absurd, and it became the joke of the week at the Ultimo headquarters in the run-up to Easter.
Mr McClusky’s idea was inspired by the ABC’s The Spark Awards.
Ian Carroll, the director of innovation, and Ursula Groves, the director of people and learning, are holding a separate but regular competition to “uncover good creative and innovative ideas”.
“We know that it’s sometimes hard to get your ideas listened to, especially if your ideas are not directly related to your day-to-day job,” Mr Carroll told staff in an email last month.
“So this is just one way we hope that a few really good creative and innovative ideas can be recognised and given resources to develop.”
The use of Lego as a corporate training tool has grown over the last 10 years with the introduction of the Lego Serious Play scheme, sponsored and developed by the parent company in Denmark. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Toll Holdings and Coca-Cola have reportedly used Lego to encourage creative thinking and take participants outside their comfort zones.
In order to spark interest in The Spark Awards in his state, Mr McClusky came up with the Lego idea as a way of attracting interest in the competition for new ideas.
Mr McClusky is aiming high. “The aim is to build an object depicting the ABC of the future,” he said.
For those ABC broadcasters, technicians or producers who are game to take the Lego challenge — most of whom would not have played with Lego for at least 20 years — there is a prize.
“Once your creation is finished all you have to do is take a picture of you holding it (or standing next to it) and send it through to . . . this office and you will be in the running for a $100 ABC Shop voucher (for the winner) and a $50 ABC Shop voucher (for the runner-up),” Mr McClusky invites.
Mr McClusky did not return calls yesterday.