What Is Your Question?
Sat Aug 19, 2006 at 06:28:57 AM PDT
In 2004, I came across a website posing a striking concept:
The idea to bring together 112 people from around the world, seated at a round table, to answer 100 of the world's most probing questions. Each person would have their answer recorded and video taped, which would then be put in an internet "library" for everyone to access, promoting dialog and the sharing of ideas from around the globe.
The impetus of this idea has grown tremendously since the first time I visited.
http://www.droppingknowledge.org/...

This "Table of Free Voices" will finally come together in 21 days, in Berlin.
On September 9, 2006, the nominees, ranging from artists, teachers, activists, writers, humanitarians, scientists, and philosophers from different races and cultures will answer questions narrowed down from thousands submitted to the dropping knowledge site. The idea is that however knowledge is defined, in dropping it freely to others, we all gain wisdom.
The organizers are truly asking us to turn apathy into activity.
In a world of complexity and contradiction, apathy has become a sort of survival technique. How could you face the evening news without it? Another famine, another flood, another terrorist attack - if we truly identified with the pain and suffering of others, it would paralyze us. And so our apathy extends not only to those on the other side of the world but to our families, friends, neighbors, selves. When was the last time you questioned the way things are? The last time you refused to accept the unacceptable? The last time you turned your apathy into activity? Ask yourself.
The backbone of this idea are the questions; and they range from "Where is real freedom possible?" to "Why are people afraid of questions?", and everything in between.
The nominees to sit at this vast round table are just as worthy of reflection:
Possible participants include:
-Hafsat Abiola http://kind.org/
-Kamilya Jubran http://www.kamilyajubran.com/
-Sima Wali http://www.refwid.org/
-Howard Zinn http://www.geocities.com/...
-Dith Pran http://www.dithpran.org/
-Noam Chomsky http://www.chomsky.info/
-Sean Penn http://www.peace.ca/...
-Cindy Sheehan http://www.gsfp.org/
-Arianna Huffington http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
This project of global interchange of thoughts & ideas and problem solving is unpresedented.
So, I ask my fellow Kossacks:
What is your question?