Arend van Campen

Dear Global Citizens, On this last day of the year of our Lord 2017, I'd like to reflect on the precarious situation all species and our planet find themselves in. In January the World Economic Forum will, as usual, meet with business and political leaders in Davos, not too far from where I live. But after having followed the WEF for the last 7 years, not much of their promises have been kept, nor goals have been achieved. In fact, it now seems worse than when I started monitoring their so-called 'Global Risks' report. What to do? We, as global citizens should unite, forming a cohesive entity focusing on saving all species and our planet from entropy, chaos. However, Fritjof Capra and I agree that a significant, worldview altering event (catastrophy) is needed, before mindsets of those responsible can be changed deontologically. (Science of Duty - or 'how one ought to behave' ) Perhaps, we could form a counterbalancing movement which is not just able to und...

Leontine en haar Opa.  20 december 2017 Leontine was pas 11 jaar oud toen ze voor het eerst alleen naar haar opa mocht fietsen. De oude man woonde in een boerderij die in de vorige eeuw gebouwd was. Opa was al met pensioen, maar had toch nog een aantal kippen, konijnen en een valse hond om de ratten te kunnen verjagen, die regelmatig, vanuit een stinkende sloot zijn erf opkropen. Leontine had zich zijn vaak gebezigde uitspraak ‘ die verrekte ratten vreten alle voer en bijten mijn kippen dood ’   in het brein geprint. ‘ Die verrekte ratten ’ sprak ze uit toen ze haar moeder een kus gaf om te gaan vertrekken. ‘ Vergeet zijn sigaren niet, ’ sprak moeder. ‘ En kijk je uit lieverd ’ , uitte ze op bezorgde toon. ‘ Het zou wel eens kunnen gaan sneeuwen. ’ ‘ Ja ma, ik ben toch al elf en ik weet de weg precies. We zijn er samen met pa toch al vaker heen gegaan? ’ ‘ Tja, maar toch. En, heb je je muts en wanten bij je? Als het gaat sneeuwen zet die dan op en doe die dan aa...

In the first of a new regular column, Arend van Campen of TankTerminalTraining emphasises the importance of teamwork When a football team wants to win the championship it will spend a lot of time, many hours per week, preparing for the next game. This is what training is. The team needs to form a strong connection, unity and cohesion to operate as a machine; in systems thinking terms, this would be a system that constantly improves itself. The training programmes use feedback as a method of controlling a system by re-inserting into it the results of past performance, which in fact is called learning. The team then functions as a living system, adjusting to opponents, adapting to circumstance and always learning from its environment in order to stay flexible, resourceful and finally victorious. TankTerminalTraining (TTT) incorporates a similar line of thinking in its training programmes and this improves the overall results dramatically. In order to understand how systems opera...

Last month I talked about teams and feedback. The last two weeks I have been working in south-east Africa teaching and training petroleum people how to build a safety culture. Much has been written on HSE but, as far as I am aware, cybernetics has not yet been applied as a useful tool for governance. Risk prevention and risk management are methods to control risks, but often do not consider the cybernetical law of requisite variety or philosophical solutions such as a science of ethics. To prevent and control HSE risks, we have to first know ourselves. Who am I? How do I react? How do I communicate? These so-called ‘Human Factors’ are, in my opinion, insufficiently explored and understood. In Africa we spoke about narcissism, arrogance, recklessness and other human character traits and concluded that they are always dependent on the interaction with others. On an island alone, people would not have much use for such traits. Let me first explain the Law of Requisite Variety, which ...

Leon de Winter noemt Caf é Weltschmerz het belangrijkste journalistieke online burgerplatform buiten de gesubsidieerde omroepen om. Ik was er onlangs te gast om te worden ge ï nterviewd door een Congolese Nederlander Alphonse Muambi, de schrijver van ‘ Democratie kun je niet eten ’ . We spraken over het verband tussen olie, grondstoffen en emigratie (economische vluchtelingen) uit Afrika naar Europa. Dit verband is er. In mijn nieuwe boek ‘ Coltan, Congo ’ s Curse ’ leg ik uit wat er aan de hand is in Congo en dat er qua exploitatie en conflict sinds Koning Leopold II ’ rubberterreur niet veel is veranderd. En daar wil ik het over hebben deze keer. Nee, niet over Afrika alleen, maar over het analyseren van zogenaamde ‘ Eerste Oorzaken. ’ Waarom proberen mensen weg te komen uit hun geboortestreken, iedereen die ze kennen en alles wat ze ooit hadden achterlatend? De eerste oorzaak die de emigratie vooral uit Afrika heeft doen toenemen is nog steeds dezelfde: armoede. Iemand in A...

Realimiteit Theory © – Realimity Principle © – Realimiteit © Lynn Margulis: ‘if it metabolizes it is alive, if it not metabolizes it is not.’ 1.      We have to take into account that there is a natural limitation for the realisation of goals. 2.      Desired realities or goals can be achieved and be sustainable only if they remain within natural boundaries of functionality which are dependent on cognition, i.e. interaction with environment by a continuous exchange of information. Life or living systems (Capra, Bateson) depend on the criteria needed for survival; for example health: a non-polluted environment, social safety, biological and ecological balance. According to Maturana and Varela’s Santiago Theory of Cognition, life is autopoietic; this means it creates, maintains and sustains itself through communication (cognition) with the environment. The sustenance of life therefore depends on the availability of creative conditions. Li...

On our website, we talk about systems that can only maintain stability and sustainability when they operate within natural boundaries of functionality. Here is a listing of nine planetary boundaries suggested by the Stockholm University Resiliance Centre we already crossed. Yesterday the US President decided to ignore the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. This will inevitably lead to non-linear effects beyond anyone's control and will end in entropy. This can be predicted by our Realimiteit Principle. We are in for a rough ride.... The nine planetary boundaries Stratospheric ozone depletion The stratospheric ozone layer in the atmosphere filters out ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. If this layer decreases, increasing amounts of UV radiation will reach ground level. This can cause a higher incidence of skin cancer in humans as well as damage to terrestrial and marine biological systems. The appearance of the Antarctic ozone hole was proof that increased concent...

Here is a listing of some negative interdependent industries, organisations, corporations, political ideologies. I will also add the non-linear effects (beyond control). Let me first start by explaining what negative interdependence means and compare it with the opposite which is 'positive interdependence’. Positive interdependent?   All stakeholders will benefit. Negative interdependent? Only some stakeholders benefit because others (people, society, environment, flora, fauna, etc.) will or cannot. It becomes quite easy to understand which organisation, services or products are negatively interdependent and which ones are not but luckily the number of sustainable ones is growing fast. Let's start with the First Cause Principle: the financial industry, which in fact is causing organisations, people, industries, political processes to act with in mind the intention of financial gain. The intention to make money has become prioritised and leads to ignoring in...

Realimity Theory – Realimity Principle – Realimiteit Lynn Margulis: ‘ if it metabolizes it is alive, if it not metabolizes it is not. ’ We have to take into account that there is a natural limitation for the realisation of goals.  Desired realities or goals can be achieved and only be sustainable within natural boundaries of functionality which are dependent on cognition, i.e. interaction with environment by a continuous exchange of information. Life or living systems (Capra, Bateson) depend on the criteria needed for survival; for example health: a non polluted environment, social safety, biological and ecological balance. According to Maturana and Varela ’ s Santiago Theory of Cognition, life is autopoietic; this means it creates, maintains and sustains itself through communication (cognition) with environment. The sustenance of life therefore depends on the availability of creative conditions. Life that encounters ‘ destructive ’ conditions will perish as it ca...