The Futures Foundation

Anyone who can call for dual citizenship to be outlawed is walking backwards into the future, according to Jan Lee Martin, founding chair of the Futures Foundation. 

Former business leader and prominent Liberal Party supporter Hugh Morgan made the call in a speech at Deakin University last week, claiming that a person with dual citizenship had “at least the beginning of a bipolar disorder”.  (The Age 26 04 06)

Lee Martin found it ironic that the call came in a speech about the future, entitled Can Australia survive the 21^st century?

Coca-Cola, which has had more opportunities than most to learn about corporate social responsibility, may finally be facing an issue that’s bigger than its advertising budget – the right of local communities everywhere to their own fresh water.

As aquifer levels around the world fall, the tide of protest rises.  Stories in both alternative and main media, as well as several books, are drawing attention to the way the world’s water supplies are being sold off to international corporate interests at the cost of local farmers and other citizens (see Future News Sept. 03) 

Now Haider Rizvi reports from New York that as the level of anger and resentment against Coca-Cola touches new heights in India, rights activists in the US have increased pressure on the company to mend its ways. At a shareholders' meeting last week (April 19) activists demanded the company disclose the full extent of its liabilities in India, but failed to receive any positive response from the company.

 Q:  Why would a futures website want to review a new thriller from a bestselling author?   A:  Because John le Carre’s latest novel illuminates some of the key issues affecting the future more powerfully than anything we could write. 

Futurists, as you know, explore the future.   They encourage others to do the same.  As with any exploration, it helps to know precisely where you are when the journey begins.  

That knowledge isn’t easy in today’s world.   Many of the things we thought we knew turn out to be political spin, manipulation of the truth to suit private agendas of power or money.   (For more on this, see Harold Pinter’s Nobel lecture or the short version on this site.)

TIME magazine issues a Special Report on global warming titled ‘Be Worried. Be Very Worried’; new books on global warming are thicker than flies; Newsweek calls it the “topic du jour”.  But evolution biologist Elisabet Sahtouris says, “Don’t panic, don’t worry.  Just face this crisis square on, roll up your sleeves and seize the amazing opportunity inherent in this very real crisis.  Remember that natural disasters bring out the best in people."

Dr Sahtouris, an international speaker and author on topics relating to the future, explains that evolutionary spurts in nature are most often responses to crises. Nature is very conservative when things go well­ - doesn’t fix what ain’t broken ­- and radically creative in crisis. New or suppressed species are abundant after every crisis from major extinctions to locally destroyed ecosystems; hostile species form cooperative ventures in the greatest evolutionary leaps. This is nature's lesson for us now: that global warming can be the crisis that finally drives us to global cooperation and sustainability. It is an awesome opportunity, indeed.