By Jim Selman | BioSomeone
said to me in a meeting yesterday that there are a billion blogs. The
number seemed high, so I did what we all do these days. I went to Google
and in about 30 seconds of looking at “How many Blogs are there”, I was
assured there are closer to 100 million, with about 175 thousand new
ones being created every day. So while the billion estimate was a bit
exaggerated, it is obvious that there are a LOT of blogs. This got me thinking: why so many?[Read More]
By Jim Selman | BioWhen I was growing up, you needed to be master
the 3 Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) in order to be educated.
Today we need to master a new 3 set of ‘Rs’: Rights, Rewards and
Responsibilities. When I first started traveling to other countries in the 1970s, the
conversation about the USA was always in a context of respect and even
admiration—even when criticizing certain aspects. But for the last 10
years or so, I have noticed that the conversations are changing. Fewer
people are envious of who we are and our way of life. More and more see
us as recalcitrant, self-centered, parochial and unable to recover
whatever it was that made us great in the post-WWII years. Most people
across the globe have access to the same newspapers, the same media
channels and the same websites that we do. The prevailing and
unavoidable conclusion being touted from many of these sources:
governance in the USA is a mess![Read More]
By Jim Selman | BioDo we have an economic problem or a spiritual problem?
My teacher and friend Dr. Fernando Flores was a candidate for the
Presidency of Chile. In one of his speeches, he declared, “We don’t have
an economic problem so much as we have a spiritual one…we’ve forgotten
who we are…we lack a vision and purpose for our nation”. He dropped out
of the presidential race, but this phrase has stayed with me. I think it
is true of most nations, including our own.
There is a maxim that states, “A vision without action is just a dream.
Action without a vision is a nightmare.” A vision provides a context, a
ground of being for our lives. A vision is not a goal: it is the
organizing principle for whatever goals we may have. A vision is a place
to stand—the future as possibility—a place to ‘come from’ in all that
we undertake.[Read More]
I read an article recently describing what can only be described as a ‘feeding frenzy’ over the name and legacy of Nelson Mandela—one of the great leaders of our generation. This isn’t different from the kind of greedy infighting between family, friends and constituents that happens far too often when patriarchs become unable to manage their own affairs or
By Jim Selman | BioIt seems to me that there are three
fundamental relationships that we all share as human beings: 1) our
relationship with ourselves and other people, 2) our relationship with
our circumstances, and 3) our relationship with time. When we are
inflexible or stuck in habitual ways of being in any of these areas, we
become trapped in a condition from which we cannot extract ourselves: we
are caught in a ‘self-referential’ spiral in which the more we attempt
to improve a situation, the more intractable it becomes. In the extreme,
this condition becomes an addiction— whether to a substance, a behavior
or an ideology.[Read More]
Martti Ahtisaari on the right to security and the fight against poverty. Fourth in a series of short videos from The Elders supporting one goal: education for all.
Mary Robinson on a human rights approach to the Millenium Development Goals. Third in a series of short videos from The Elders supporting one goal: education for all.
[Read More]
Dr. Gro Brundtland on the right to health and the link to poverty. First in a series of short videos from The Elders supporting one goal: education for all.
By Jim Selman | 
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