You are so right Guillem. We live in a global village whose survival is thretened by our greed, anger and stupidity. One of our most important missions is to use dialogue skills together with Earth Charter principles to teach people that everybody can make a difference and that we must all learn to work together to change the world. We need to connect people to their greter self, the enlightened part of them that experiences the reality of our mutual interdependence (no man is an island). We need to restore our respect for the dignity of all forms of life and find solutions to our many  problems (food scarcity,hunger, poverty, energy crisis, global warming, wars, crime, terrorism and domestic violence) by using the resourcefulness of a united world community.

Dennis

Well I think that connecting via the internet is a powerful medium. Connecting the ordinary person to the global community immediately connects them to the new civilization that is developing. This is why I started Earth Charter Communities -- to enable people to become global citizens -- in the first place. Everytime the ordinary citizen connects this civilization develops a little bit more.

It takes a while but you can see how effective these conversations can be in changing old attitudes and developing more global ones. Before the Middle East Peace process, for example, used to depend on local and international media for information and wisdom -- all of which would slant the coverage, just naturally sometimes or for different editorial reasons, in different ways. People who read these get their opinions from what they read. But with ECI and others, real people, Israelis, Jews and Muslims, Semetic peoples and the global community, can actually talk with one another and develop relationships. It is really a whole new world waiting for us out there. So the more the ECI community develops, the more impact we will have on one another and on our environment and the more the Middle East Peace process evolves.

وأعتقد أيضا أن يربط عن طريق شبكة الانترنت هو عنصر المتوسط. ربط شخص عادي الى المجتمع العالمي يربط منهم على الفور الى حضارة جديدة وهذا هو الناميه. وهذا هو السبب في أنني بدأت ميثاق الارض المجتمعات -- لتمكين الناس من ان يصبحوا مواطنين عالميين -- فى المقام الاول. المواطن العادي في كل مرة يربط تطور هذه الحضارة أكثر قليلا

تأخذ بعض الوقت ولكن يمكنك أن ترى مدى فعالية هذه المحادثات يمكن ان تكون في تغيير المواقف القديمة والناميه اكثر العالمية. امام عملية السلام في الشرق الاوسط ، على سبيل المثال ، تستخدم لتعتمد على وسائل الاعلام المحلية والدولية للحصول على معلومات والحكمة -- كلها من شأنها ان الميل التغطيه ، وبطبيعة الحال فقط او في بعض الاحيان لاسباب تحريريه مختلفة ، وبطرق مختلفة. الناس من قراءة هذه آرائهم من الحصول على ما يقرأون. ولكن مع ECI وغيرهم ، أناس حقيقيين ، والاسرائيليين ، اليهود والمسلمين ، semetic الشعوب والمجتمع العالمي ، يمكن أن تؤدي فعلا الى الحديث مع بعضها البعض ، وتطوير العلاقات. إن الواقع العالمي الجديد برمته الانتظار بالنسبة لنا هناك. لذلك فإن اكثر ECI المجتمع يتطور ، فإن تأثير اكبر سيكون لدينا على الآخر وعلى بيئتنا واكثر فان عملية السلام في الشرق الاوسط يتطو

Stephanie

Thank you Beth for commenting on the issue.I would like to know: what is a wellness coach? With what problems do you work? It is so obvious that Dailogue Skills are requiered in every endevour or undertaking we are in, the BIG question is: are we really aware ALL the time about the Dailogue Skills, or are we sometimes less aware, sometimes-forgetting to use our skills of Dailodue? What happens then?What and how do we react when sometimes we are dealing with manipolative clients?

Thank you for sharing with us your experience and knowledge.

Pnina 

Great experiences and ideas about dialogue.

I agree that listening is very important and don't know why we all talk so much all the time - at least in the UK. It's like we just have to make a noise! Instead of communicating with another person we are just trying to distract ourselves by the sound of our own voice. We have to really desire to understand the other person, as if they are a new lover we are fascinated with!

Also difficult is trying to find the best way to say exactly what we want to communicate, trying to think how the other person will interpret it. It is quite good to speak a second language for this. I speak English and French and so often make a mistake, not so much in the language, as in the way certain types of language are accepted.

In the UK if we are formal it is a means to insult someone.
The more informal and casual we are the more we are saying we like someone. also if we want to say 'No' we don't say anything, we appear to acquiesce. This means no! In Nigeria you have to ask if someone wants to drink/eat etc but they should say no, usually to accept is impolite. In England if you turn down an offer of tea and biscuit it is very rude. The worst thing is to request a decaf. This is totally ouside our culture, almost as bad as being a vegetarian in France.

Ronald Reagan famously upset the Queen at a function by requesting decaf, then complaining that it was taking a long time. The function was on a boat, and they had to row to shore, find a night shop, buy decaf and row back out to the boat for him. her Majesty was not amused.

Trying to interpret subliminal messages is important, don't you think? And so very difficult!