Conference on World Affairs
A forum on international affairs since 1948, the Conference on World Affairs is hosted annually at the University of C.U. campus and encompasses the arts, media, science, diplomacy, technology, environment, spirituality, politics, business, medicine, human rights, and more.
Sips from the Fire Hose: Distilled #CWA2015
Apr 10th
•Every voice is crucial. The eye cannot say to the foot, “I don’t need you.” Yay for having Robert Kaufman and Jim Smith and Valerie Wilson speak together…rich paradox, not comfortable, but Essential.
•”Friend your mom before you apply for jobs–she’ll clean up your page.” (John Smith) •Learn a language, get a passport, travel-it builds cultural intelligence and common sense. (Whole panel.) •If you want entrepreneurial funding, go West. Eastern establishment is a much harder sell. (Andrew Safir.) •Having your résumé sent via personal connection gets you much farther in the paper pile sorting.
•Understand what matters to organization to which you apply–ask them why they do what they do & see how your expertise can help.
•Synthesize vs. summarize with information.
•Whatever the work, “Own the outcome.” I am responsible. If things don’t turn out how I’d hoped, what can I learn? How can I do things differently? (Nina Richardson, former GoPro COO) (Kick-Ass Career Advice) 🙂
•We won’t know for at least six months after a nuclear agreement with Iran the nature of Iran’s intentions–we must look at follow-up behaviors, but musn’t we start somewhere?” (Jim Smith + Valerie Plame Wilson) •Can we afford to use force without understanding the I intended consequences of that use of force? (Jim Smith) •What are the stakes if Iran destabilizes the region further? Can we afford to believe that President Ruhani is sincere? The price tag is huge. (Robert Kaufman paraphrased) • Military service in U.S. Should be compulsory so that the public knows what it’s like to serve, be in harm’s way, what it takes to honor and heal our returning soldiers. (FYI: Thailand requires compulsory military service and at least one day’s service as a monk if all of it’s young men.) •Why can’t we have sacred circles of healing for our returning warriors? (Why is there such a dichotomy between being “mission ready” and acknowledging fear? Doesn’t this create a culture deeply resistant to healing? Isn’t it more psychologically whole to encourage embracing the real–me) Media must show the whole truth and not just sanitized version. Media has responsibility to tell the truth, so that public knows and supports those it sends/we send to harm’s way. We are responsible as a society.
(Malcolm Gibson)
Sipping from the Fire Hose #CWA2015
Apr 10th
The Globalization of Terror
In a Single Garment of Destiny
Gays Saved Marriage
Song making
Kick Ass Career Advice
Science Ethics: Means & Ends
Tuesday’s Jazz Concert
Negotiating Nukes with Iran
Lessons Not Learned in School
Performance: Art & Social Change
Wrangling with essential, complex questions, feelings, and conflicts about U.S. & international political issues, I am deeply grateful to end each conference day with the solace of cultivated beauty shared. Thank you, panelists, ALL, for your courage and willingness to come, to speak, to listen, to dare to live and give in ways that are uniquely yours. We need all the voices, all the knowledge and all the distilled wisdom. May we have the courage to sip and hydrate from the fire hose, not very comfortable….
Thoughts on the CWA by Leanne Soucek
Apr 7th
Moderated by Boulder’s beloved Rebecca Folsom, the songwriters’ panel in UMC 235 wasn’t so much a “panel,” as it was a jazz quartet, with melody, solos, improvisation, interpretations and queries on heart-themes…simply beautiful. The tenderness of the communication between David Wilcox, Lillian Boutte, Tanya Ellsworth Boutte, Rebecca Folsom, a young rapper and the audience served as a model to me: this is what I, we, can do…the illustrious panel welcomed a one-minute open to healing performed acapella by the brave audience member. I left feeling strengthened, nourished, hopeful, ready to try again to love…
Quoting Leonard Bernstein after the shocking news of JFK’s assassination: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
by: Leanne Soucek and Students at the #CWA2015