Finding the right questions in a crisi

During today's session of 'The Rights and Emergency Congress 2009; Ubuntu: From Crisis to a Just and Sustainable World Economy,' I was continually struck by the great importance of the question we ask. And this was a group that had some interesting, and slightly unusual, questions. For your enjoyment, I'm posting some of them below. They are from civil society, religious leaders, development actors and socially responsible business leaders, who did not always agree with one another. Many borrow the rhetorical style of Kennedy 'ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you'.

For some, the question was, what is the moral thing to do. For others, it was, what will increase growth (in order to reduce poverty).

And it was the good questions that sparked the most audience interest. Questions such as, 'We should ask, not when will it end but how will this crisis change us' from Jim Wallis, Or, 'Let us ask, not, what should 'they' do, but what can 'we' do?' from a prominent rabbi. Or, how can we change corporate law so it reflects environmental and human justice? And, 'if we have seen the death of neo-liberalism, then the question becomes, what capitalism shall emerge from this crisis?" Or, 'are we going to be able to bail out the poor'? And, 'we must admit that Roosevelt's New Deal did not work; before we create another Global Green New Deal, we must ask, what will make THIS New Deal more successful than the last one?' And, what about the 'G 6 - the 6 billion that don't live in the G 8?' and, 'will the power of rights yield to the rights of power?' And, 'The question is not only, what is this crisis about, but, what will the next crisis be about - for the answers to one crisis always sow the seeds of the next crisis.' And, of course, 'will we make the most of this precious, unusual crisis?' And, 'whose voice counts in this crisis?' And, 'what can we really, practically, do?' And, 'where are the women? Where are the children?' 'how can we support green businesses in africa now?' 'why should we care about africa?' 'Why should africa pay for our problems?' (Both of those from non-Africans.)

As I left, one of the questions for me was, how can we turn dreams into reality?