Governance

If, like me, you find President Obama's already overused "Win the Future" catchphrase catching in your throat, you might also be wondering how he decided on this feel-good, but nonsensical slogan. It seems incredible that an administration that so readily talks about future technologies doesn't give better consideration to the strategies behind their promotion. Reducing the dialog to the metaphor of competition diminishes it before it has even gotten started.

This past Friday, I found myself in the midst of a close-to-capacity crowd at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland, Oregon for a screening of The Economics of Happiness. The documentary was made by Helena Norberg-Hodge, along with Steven Gorelick and John Page, via their foundation, the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC). It features such notable figures as Bill McKibben and Vandana Shiva among its impressive array of talking heads. The filmmakers are screening the film in various cities around the world as part of a cross-country build-up to the DVD release.

At our small office in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, the World Future Society welcomed the former Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph. He was accompanied by his son, Paul Joseph (a futurist and activist who arranged the meeting), and Emmanuel Henry, a retired Panasonic executive. The goal of the meeting was to explore ways that the tools of futuring can help rebuild their nation.

2010 is coming to a noisy end made by Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks. Regardless of positive and negative implications that Assange’s revelations may have for the future of mass media, the Internet, freedom of expression and global politics; different scenarios can be conceived in what I call: “Wiki-Futures”.

Rising demand for medical services worldwide means, among other things, more patients in need of organs for transplant. Supply of organ donors in many countries has unfortunately not kept up. Growing networks of “organ traffickers” are entering the void and inducing impoverished adults in some developing nations to sell them their kidneys and other organs.

On November 1, 2010, Dilma Rosseau was elected President of Brazil. The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, she was a revolutionary guerilla in the 1970's who was imprisoned for three years and tortured for 22 days with electric shock, but most importantly, today, she's a female leader, one of several political women selected recently to guide Latin American nations.

Here are some recent future-related titles from the Center for Strategic International Studies, Yale, Georgetown Press and some other organizations that produce exceptional material for the futurist who insists on the best possible material. Happy reading.