Category: Interdependence
-
The Enshittification of Government
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR The enshittification of government refers to the decay of government systems and institutions that were originally designed to serve the Common Good. Over time, they become corrupted, dysfunctional, and, in many cases, exploitative — benefiting a small elite while abandoning the needs of the public.. I borrowed the phrase from Cory Doctorow…
-
What is Crapitalism?
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR CRAPITALISM describes the negative aspects of capitalism when it becomes dysfunctional, exploitative, or excessively focused on profit at the expense of the Common Good: Is your business following Crapitalism’s degenerative playbook? Or is it working to regenerate the Common Good? Christian Sarkar is an author, artist, and activist consultant. He is a co-founder of the Regenerative Marketing…
-
The Yezidi genocide devastated Iraq’s community 10 years ago − but the roots of the prejudice that fueled it were much deeper
BY GÜNEŞ MURAT TEZCÜR NOTE: The Assad family ruled Syria for more than 50 years with an iron fist. Now that has come to an end. The new regime is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria that used to go by the name Al-Nusra Front. They are not known for…
-
Frankenpolitics: An Interview with George Tsakraklides
George Tsakraklides has a diverse background in the sciences, having trained in molecular biology, chemistry, food science, and Earth sciences. He has also worked in data analytics and marketing sciences for some of the world’s largest corporations, giving him a front-row seat to some of the most profit-driven and exploitative aspects of human society. After…
-
WICKED7: Where do the US Presidential candidates stand on solving the world’s most urgent problems?
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR and PHILIP KOTLER Which candidate offers the best chance of actually working on the world’s most urgent problems? Which candidate would make things worse? Let’s give the US Presidential candidates the Wicked7 assessment – clarifying their positions on the seven most urgent problems facing us today. Wait, what is the Wicked7 assessment?…
-
Water Under Siege: Corporate Control vs. Community Rights
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR Jef Teugels invites us to explore the critical issues surrounding modern water management, focusing on the increasing commercialization of water and its implications for equity, sustainability, and indigenous rights. DOWNLOAD PDF >> Teugel’s essay – Water Under Siege: Corporate Control vs. Community Rights – examines how corporate interests and governmental policies almost…
-
Food Insecurity: Serious Challenges Ahead
By CHRISTIAN SARKAR Food insecurity, which refers to the lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life, can result from a complex interplay of various factors. What are the causes of food insecurity? The main reasons include: Food insecurity is a multifaceted challenge that requires a holistic approach involving governments, international…
-
Death of Nature: Biodiversity Loss
By LAURA GALDI The loss of global biodiversity has reached historic levels and it is continuing to accelerate — due to increased pressure by five direct drivers strongly interconnected to each other. With more than 1 million species at risk of extinction, we are witnessing a biodiversity crisis, inextricably linked to and directly affected by…
-
F-minus: A new report card for Lobbyists
By CHRISTIAN SARKAR Launched in July 2023, F Minus has built a revolutionary database of state-level lobbyists for upstream and midstream oil, gas, and coal interests to demonstrate the extent to which these lobbyists are also representing people, schools, communities, and businesses being harmed by the climate crisis. This is a problem, not just for…
-
Steel Pulse: “Only One World (Wicked Problems)”
On this, the last day of COP26, Grammy-winning legends Steel Pulse have a message for us: we must come together to tackle the world’s wickedest problems – because there is no Planet B. What can we do to bring people together in our communities? How can we unite across the walls of hate and mistrust…
-
Webinar: Population & Migration
With us for the webinar – a group of dynamic Palermitans: – Leoluca Orlando. As Mayor of Palermo, Orlando’s extraordinary vision and courage has changed our understanding of immigration, tolerance, and the fight against corruption. – Claudio Arestivo. A co-founder of Moltivolti – a unique regenerative business – which serves as an example for the…
-
WEBINAR: “Health & Livelihood”
Join us as we welcome: Stuart Hart – a leading authority on the implications of environment and poverty for business strategy. Hart is the Founder and President of Enterprise for a Sustainable World Bob Freling – Executive Director at Solar Electric Light Fund, Freling developed the “solar village development model” – a wholistic community-based approach to development.…
-
WEBINAR: “Work & Tech”
Our webinar on the issues facing the future of work and tech >>
-
The Death of Nature: Deforestation
The problem of deforestation mapped out by Laura Galdi and Chiara Falvo. Details here >>
-
WEBINAR: “Power & Corruption”
REPLAY >> Join our guests as we discuss – “Power & Corruption” with: Obiageli “Aunty Oby” Ezekwesili, a former vice president of the World Bank (African Region), co-founder and founding director of Transparency International, co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement and has also served twice as Federal Minister in Nigeria. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, the Founder and Honorary…
-
The Roots of LGBTQIA+ Discrimination
BY KARTHIGA RATNAM AND ARYSSA YOON “It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.”– Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir The right to live. It is guaranteed in most constitutions and in the universal declaration of human rights. But today it seems that basic human rights are stifled. How…
-
The Movement of Movements: A Last Chance to Save the Planet?
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR, KARTHIGA RATNAM, & PHILIP KOTLER On this, the 90th birthday of Philip Kotler, we ask the world to come together to save the future. One way to do this is to build a “movement of movements.“ It’s time to put aside our toys – our ideologies and guns – and look at…
-
Today: Webinar on Inequality
Join Philip Kotler and Christian Sarkar as they kickoff the second challenge: Inequality. The webinar includes a special presentation by Karthi Ratnam and Aryssa Yoon on Gender Inequality and Climate Change.
-
Plastics and The Death of Nature
BY SUSI WEISENEGGER Interested? Here’s how you can participate >>
-
The Impact of the Death of Nature on Gender Inequality
BY KARTHIGA RATNAM & ARYSSA YOON Climate Change. Environmental Degradation. Extinction Emergency. We have all heard the terms. The problem with climate change or the death of nature is that it’s usually tightly integrated with a host of other problems. We are focusing on the impact of climate change on gender inequality. To understand gender…
-
Climate Change: what would 4°C of global warming feel like?
BY ROBERT WILBY, Loughborough University Another year, another climate record broken. Globally, 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year ever recorded. This was all the more remarkable given that cool conditions in the Pacific Ocean – known as La Niña – began to emerge in the second half of the year. The Earth’s mean…
-
The Powerlessness of the UN
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR The only power the United Nations has is the “power of persuasion” – and that doesn’t seem to be working too well. Here’s a profound interview with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about everything from climate change to vaccine nationalism (h/t Naveen Srivastava): Besides powerlessness, a second powerful idea we hear about is…
-
Food Waste and The Death of Nature
Our second “map” of the World’s Wicked Problems is about the impact of food (production, handling, storage, consumption) on Nature… Interested? Here’s how you can participate >>
-
Webinar: How Jobs-to-be-Done can help solve the unmet needs of society
Here’s the replay of the webinar ‘How Jobs-to-be-Done can help solve the unmet needs of society’ with Strategyn’s Tony Ulwick:
-
Mapping the World’s Wicked Problems. Kickoff – April 1, 2021
The Wicked 7 Project is mapping the World’s Wicked Problems to understand the causes and then see how we can work together to find solutions. We have divided the World’s Wicked Problems in to seven categories – Death of Nature, Inequality, Hate & Conflict, Power & Corruption, Work & Tech, Health & Livelihood, and Population…
-
The Unmet Needs of Society: Introducing Multi-stakeholder Jobs to be Done
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR, ANTHONY ULWICK and PHILIP KOTLER In his e-pamphlet — Rebalancing Society — Henry Mintzberg points out that a balanced society can be thought of as “sitting on a stool with three sturdy legs: a public sector of respected governments, to provide many of our protections (such as policing and regulating); a private…
-
The Moral Intelligence of Ruby Bridges
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR The Moral Intelligence of Children by Robert Coles. Still relevant today. By refusing to face history, we are forced to live it again. How do children learn right from wrong? How do we teach values in a world that prizes profit over all else? It may just come down to a “questioning…
-
The 4th element of category creation
BY KARTHIGA RATNAM With great power comes great responsibility — Stan Lee I love watching superhero movies. When I watched Spiderman 2002, the phrase that stuck with me was Uncle Ben’s quote — “with great power comes great responsibility.” Doing a bit of Googling I found out this quote is also called the “Peter Parker…
-
It’s Time to Depoliticize Decision-Making
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR & PHILIP KOTLER UPDATE: On the day we published this article, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott lifted Texas’ mask mandate – declaring the state 100% open for business. Health experts warned it was too soon. Texas Was Warned a Decade Ago Its Grid Was Unready for Cold reads the headline in Bloomberg Green…
-
High-Tech Holistic Medicine: Closing The Gaps Between Sick-Care And Whole-Person Care
BY TRISHA SWIFT In America, sick-care is “doing business as” health care, which is precisely why our health care system is so costly, error prone and fragmented. To be healthy, we must begin to look at ourselves as a whole person and account for all the things that make us unique. This is a different…
-
The Alarming Decline in American Authentic Dialogue
BY CHRISTOPHER LOCHHEAD I fear the value of authentic dialogue is dying in America. Stanford research shows us that people are caring more about themselves and less for others. Clearly, social media plays a role. When you can swipe people away on Tinder or yell at people you will never meet on Twitter, a drop in…
-
In 2050, there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish
BY JEF TEUGELS Introduction: Made in Belgium On November 17, 1909, the Belgium-born Dr. Leo H. Baekeland explained Bakelite at the Franklin Institute (Baekeland, 1910). PlasticsEurope, the Association of Plastics Manufacturers, describes Bakelite as the first real synthetic and mass-produced plastic (PlasticsEurope, 2020). However, plastic is a form of fossil fuel since natural resources like gas…
-
From corona anxiety towards a new Enlightenment – Why a return to normal is not a meaningful option
BY GUIDO PALAZZO Why do societies collapse? Jared Diamond (2005) finds a rather simple, but frightening, explanation. When we are in a crisis and we do not know what to do, we tend to reinforce established routines. Sometimes, those routines make things worse. These might even be the driving force of the crisis and, as…
-
The Wicked 7: The APO Interview
Watch: The Asian Productivity Organization’s David Sehyeon Baek interviews Christian Sarkar >>
-
How to See: When Narratives Create Reality
BY CHRISTIAN SARKAR AND PHILIP KOTLER In this video – more timely today than ever – James Baldwin explains that “reality” depends on our point of view: How you view the world is largely shaped by where you are in it. The cultural narrative we believe in dictates our understanding of reality: This makes our…