22 May 2012 **** Front Page 22 May 2012 **** Front Page
From ZNet
In just under two months the International Organization for a Participatory Society, or IOPS, has over 1700 Members. The 1700 Members reside in 80 Countries.
The IOPS Web Site is already in 10 Languages.
IOPS Membership is already engaging in discussions, projects, writing, as well as holding meetings to establish local chapters around the world. The IOPS blog and forum systems are already lively.
The IOPS Definition addresses mission, vision, structure, and program.
We at Z are urging that you examine IOPS defining document and consider joining.
And we are not alone in that request. Please see the testimonials about IOPS from people like Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, and many more...
We at Z see IOPS as an organizational idea trying to become an actual organization that will be able to contribute to winning a new world.
We intend to relate to IOPS with all the time, desire, and support we can muster. We hope others will see this moment similarly.
Visit, assess, and join — or do something better!
But there are lots of reasons to hesitate...
In just six weeks IOPS has moved from being hope, to plan, to actual practice. But now the questions arises, will IOPS keep moving forward?
It depends greatly on the response of people like yourself.
If you do visit IOPS and consider joining, most likely many issues of concern will arise for you just as they did for us and for other members. To help you deal with those, there is a rich and comprehensive Question and Answer Document on IOPS that offers information bearing on many such concerns, whether about organization per se, or about IOPS vision, program, structure, or prospects or about membership balance, etc.
Without people looking at IOPS and considering its prospects, there is no hope. But why wouldn't people look and assess? 1700 members from 80 countries including people you know and regularly read should provoke interest, no?
Without people liking the self definition, again, IOPS won't go far. But, honestly, those involved in IOPS are not worried about this hurdle. We believe that with serious assessment tens of thousands, even just among ZCom users, will like the self definition.
How many who like the self definition and who would root for IOPS to succeed, will actually join and help it to do so? That is the rub. That is what time must answer.
Here is a comment from Noam Chomsky that may provide some motivation or you to assess IOPS:
"Hardly a day goes by when I do not hear appeals — often laments — from people deeply concerned about the travails of human existence and the fate of the world, desperately eager to do something about what they rightly perceive to be intolerable and ominous, feeling helpless because each individual effort, however dedicated, seems to merely chip away at a mountain, placing band-aids on a cancer, never reaching to the sources of needless suffering and the threats of much worse. It's an understandable reaction, and can too often lead to despair and resignation.
"We all know the only answer, driven home by experience and history, and by simple reflection on the realities of the world: join together to construct and clarify long-term visions and goals, along with direct engagement and activism shaped by these guidelines and contributing to a deepening of our understanding of what we hope to achieve. But the formula, while accurate enough, does not respond to the pleas. What is missing is concrete proposals as to how to proceed.
"IOPS strikes the right chords, and if the opportunities it opens are pursued with sufficient energy and participation, it could carry us a long way towards unifying the many initiatives here and around the world and molding them into a powerful and effective force."