Civilisation in need of transformation

Many of these political leaders are behaving like 18^th century oligarchic Regents.

Anyone who knows anything about how governments operate, particularly since Wikileaks, must be questioning whether our leaders are really up to the job?

The situation in the Middle East and North Africa is also very much a part of this global turmoil. Here also people are protesting and demanding better performance from their leaders.

Trans-sector policies are needed to penetrate the silo mentality

Today's society apparently lacks the level of smartness needed to cure the current malaise. As already mentioned the key is leadership, and in particular leadership of the kind that will take the necessary steps towards real transformation. It is unlikely that solutions will be forthcoming if we hang on to the past. To rely on the old structures, many of which have created the problems or, in any case, cannot resolve them, is not smart.

The way the financial crisis is being handled in the USA is a classic example of this. Very little has changed that would prevent another financial crisis from happening – perhaps not immediately, but in a few years, when the pain of the current one has been forgotten and a new group of acquisitive people, fostered by the system, takes over from those retiring with their bonuses. The 'Regents' who created the crisis are the same people who are now supposed to get us out of it.

The key to looking to the future is to work on transformation and cutting through the various silos – they are run by the vested interests which are all bent on protecting the status quo. It is no longer enough to try to solve isolated problems within the silos as we have done in the past. We need to acknowledge the interconnectivity between the silos and address the issues horizontally – connecting the brilliant minds with others, across silos. With the brains of world linked in such a way surely we will be able to come up with the solutions we need – it appears unlikely that our mediocre politicians are going to be able to do so.

Decentralisation of power and a further democratisation of our societies is the way forward, and the internet and mobile phones are providing a great service in this respect. All around us we see that people are taking advantage of this technology, and those same principles can be used anywhere in our societies and economies.

People power is emerging everywhere – in politics, retail, healthcare, education and so on. Clearly people are driving the change, but often they are held back by politicians. The climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009 was a prime example of this – people wanted change but our leaders failed to deliver.

In Australia the National Broadband Network has won enormous public support, despite the relentless political infighting around it – another clear indication that the people are ahead of their politicians.

New energy policies

Be it climate change, CO₂ emission or nuclear reactor disasters, it should be clear to governments that action is needed, and that more of the same type of solution will not suffice. The endless politicking, denial and indecisiveness is putting more people in danger. For example, it is obvious that reliance on centralised – either dangerous or heavily polluting – power plants is not the answer. The correct way forward is to work on decentralised systems, and that also brings renewable energy into the energy grid. Electric vehicles are another element that can assist in addressing these problems.

True, this might not fit the current business model of the energy sector; and, yes, it requires a total transformation of the full supply chain from mine to consumer. But is that a reason to not do it?

Yes, it will cost money to speed up these smart grid developments, but the disasters in Japan are proof of what inaction can cost the local and the global economy. Politicians in the USA, Australia and other countries can continue the argument about the negative effect on their constituency of imposing taxes to fix these problems, but what use will that money be if we create more severe social and economic disruption to these people?