Purpose
This project supports raising the awareness of European and Middle Eastern societies to respect each other’s values, talents and contributions. The idea is to create new narratives of people in the Middle East emphasizing a positive, more diverse and integrative view.
He who understands other people has knowledge; he who understands himself is seeing clearly.
Laozi , Dao De Jing §30
With the approach of connecting hearts building bridges, we want to bring people together and inspire Europeans for learning impulses and the chance to question own beliefs and cultural norms. A focal point is to challenge the narrow way, how women and their roles in society are being viewed.
Mind/Heart Radar
What can one say after spending a few months in Israel? I found many different worlds in this beautiful land. They mostly felt disconnected from each other with disparate realities.
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Taybe, Kfar Qara, Jizr AlZarqa, Nazareth, Safet, Kiryat Tiv’on … separate worlds and realities reflecting the diversity of the Israeli society and its people.
Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouins, orthodox and secular, the perspectives are manifold and such are the struggles, potential confrontations and conflicts in this small country. At the same time, there is much to learn from this richness and diverse perspectives. I am very grateful to all the wonderful people I met and who openly shared their ideas, ambitions and hopes for a better future for Israel and Palestine.
Haifa, May 2022
What is?
The mind / heart radar gives glimpses of the current state or mood in an area.
How do people feel, what do they do, how do they express themselves? The radar is just one way of looking at how people are balancing out system’s challenges. The short description just captures some main impressions from the streets, the photos behind illustrate stops of this journey.
Paul Parin writes about creating islands of reason.* Let’s look out for them. Sharing experiences can make one realize that there are alternative ways of seeing and acting upon circumstances. This can be a starting point for learning.
*Find more about the background and supporting research in the Theory of Change.