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Gary A Blythe
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- BMT Commodity Corporation
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- What motivated you to become involved in peace and conflict resolution?
- Unswerving belief in the inherent potential of humanity.
- Please feel free to provide a short bio about yourself (no more than 3 paragraphs)
- Gary A. Blythe is the Marketing Director of a Commodity Corporation. Gary manages the most critical corporate functions of daily operations and is responsible for planning and directing all aspects of the companies operating policies, objectives and initiatives. Gary has lead the company through one of the most exciting periods in it’s history and help advance the companies market share. Under his leadership in corporate management, events planning and sales, the company will implement a new operating model to win untapped business in emerging markets.
Gary is an accredited mediator and certified ombudsman in personal, intrapersonal and International disputes. Prior to his commercial positions, he served as a mediator and program leader for a number of International non-governmental organizations and UNESCO run workshops specializing in the middle-east, peace-building as well as training trainers in mediation and transformative conflict resolution techniques.
Beginning in 1999, Gary served as Senior Sales Director for a major worldwide events management corporation.
Gary holds a first class bachelor's degree in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford and Master of Arts in Politics and Diplomacy from the University of Lancaster in England.Gary was awarded the Mahindra Nahraine award for the most outstanding post graduate student of 1996 and became a Mahindra Nahraine fellow. A native of the United Kingdom, Gary lives in New York with his wife Sarah and their two children
- Please list the countries and/or regions in which you have direct and significant expertise
- Isreal
Palestinian Territories
India
Haiti
North America
UK
Tibet
China
South Korea
Pakistan
Nepal
Japan
Australia
- What is your current country of residence?
- USA
- What is your current job (and organization) and/or where and what field are you studying?
- BMT Commodity Corporation
- What is your personal or organizational website?
- http://www.thoughtnetwork.ning.com
- Which are your primary sectoral areas of expertise?
- Conflict Resolution, Development, Education
- Which are your primary skills areas?
- Training, Evaluation, Program Design, Fundraising, Program Administration, Research
Gary A Blythe's Blog
Class of 2027: Book for Peace: Visit: www.thoughtnetwork.ning.com
Dear Friends,
I am embarking on a huge project to write a book entitled Class of 2027 which is set in a history class of 2027. This book is a personal contribution to humanity and I will use it to freely expose many of the difficulties we all face in our search for economic, social, political justice and development. The book will be set in a history class of 2027, years after 75% of the world's population have been sytematically wiped out due to poverty, hunger, disease, environmental
… ContinuePosted on August 27, 2007 at 5:40pm — 4 Comments
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EMU Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) 2010 accepting applications
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Violance,war,conflicts,sufferings my desire to see world in peace and non violance has motivated me to join this network."Vasudev kutukbkam" entire world as a family, this was a teaching of our culture and traditional.we created countries,boundries,religions,cast,race for a genuine reason or a false reasons for any reason.but this the time to realise that we are one and we naturaly interconected with each other ,which we can just realise by watching inhale and exhale of breaths the source is same ,without any descrimanation,religion,bonundries, equaly for all living life of universe .When we understand this simple thing then we must understand how our and other's life is equaly important,valuble ,respectable .we should follow the nature's rule ,non violance .peace ,god has given us a human life not for destruction but for lookafter the wellbeing of all living life.
i shall be happy if you could include me in your circle of friends
In my opinion the main reason would be corruption and greediness among the ruling class. As of now it is our duty to forestall such a situation envisaged by you.
SOME WAYS AND MEANS TO HELP ERADICATE CORRUPTION FOR THE PREVALENCE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE IN ANY COUNTRY
In my humble opinion to achieve good governance with transparency and accountability the powers exercised by parliament must be separated and the separated powers must be given to different sets of people’s representatives elected and empowered directly by the people to execute and administer one of those separated parts of the power exercised by parliament.
The set of representatives elected to perform a function must be restricted to that function only and must be forbidden from interfering with the functions entrusted to another set of representatives.
Say a set elected to enact laws to administer the country must be forbidden from interfering in the functions of the set of representatives elected to frame laws and regulations or in the functions of the set of representatives elected to implement development projects or a set elected fiscal management of the country must not indulge in planning maters and so on and so forth in respect of other functions of the parliament.
In these suggestions the powers of Parliament have been so distributed among different sets of people’s representatives so as to dilute the powers of an individual representative or a set of representatives.
Through this system of representation - different sets of representatives for different distinct and defined functions of parliament - "corruption" of any kind and at any level cannot easily arise. If there is no "corruption" then there will be good governance, which is the need of the inhabitants of a country.
For this purpose a new concept of democracy delivering good governance, while preserving the sovereignty and dignity of the people, has to be developed.
Since all political and other powers flow from the sovereignty of the people, it is proposed herein that these powers be not given to only one set of representatives but distributed among different sets of representatives (groups) of the people elected on different area basis (village and villages grouped) to perform the different, defined and distinct functions of one and the same institution - the Parliament – like the organs of our body – heart, lungs, kidneys, eyes, nose, ear etc. – performing different and distinct functions to sustain normal life.
To be more explicit the concept is explained below:
1. A group entrusted to enact laws for good governance, taxation and connected affairs (One Group functioning at National level elected on district basis).
2. A group entrusted to generally manage the finances including collection and disbursement of revenue, national planning and connected affairs (One Group functioning at National level elected on regional basis, would consist of fifteen members elected collectively by the members of the various Councils within that Regional Council area from among those residing within that area and not having stood for election to any Council, making a total of 60 (4 × 15) members.
3. Groups entrusted to administer different regions of the country and approve project proposals submitted (Four Groups functioning at Regional level elected on divisional basis)
4. Groups entrusted with the functions to prepare and submit project proposals for confirmation (More than 20,000 Groups functioning at Village level elected on village basis)
5. Groups entrusted to implement approved project proposals (25 Groups functioning at District level elected on sub-divisional basis)
6. Groups entrusted to coordinate and confirm project proposals submitted (More than 2,000 Groups functioning at Sub-divisional level elected on village basis).
7. Groups entrusted to monitor the functions of all groups for transparency, accountability and irregularities with an eye on the elimination of corruption. (325 Groups functioning at Divisional level elected on village level basis)
All the above groups are equal (pari pasu) in status as they are part and parcel of one and the same institution – the Parliament.
There is a line of thought that there are too many elections in this concept, forgetting the fact that even in the present system we have many elections. We have elections to elect an Executive President, a Parliament, nine Provincial Councils and a large number of local government institutions. But there is a difference between the elections that are being held now and the elections proposed. In the existing system, elections are being held for four different institutions or four different establishments with the functions overlapping and connected vertically with one above the other – Executive President, Parliament, Provincial Councils and Pradeshiya Sabahs – and while one institution controls another it is dependent and/or is a competitor to the institution next or all others. But in the new concept it is entirely different –different groups are elected on different area basis to perform different functions of the same institution – Parliament that do not overlap and all these groups are of equal status and connected horizontally and are part and parcel of one and the same institution – the Parliament.
There would be only one institution – the Parliament – that would satisfactorily govern the entire country and thus reduce the financial burden and cumbersome bureaucracy while increasing all round efficiency coupled with streamlined speedy development, resulting in the thunderous prosperity of the country with a pleasant and happy living to all its inhabitants
Election and Composition of members of the various Councils would be from among those residing within that area on “first passed the post” basis subject to gender and age group conditions being fulfilled and where necessary and possible trade, political ideologies and ethnicity being considered. The number of members of any one gender or age group shall be a minimum of 20% of the total to be elected from an area to a Council and at least one member from an ethnic minority if they form more than 10% of the eligible voters. The members so elected would be considered as independents. The number of elected members in a given Council – other than the Legislative and Executive Councils – would vary from Region to Region depending on the number of sub-administrative areas in that region governed by the principle of equal number of members from similar areas – irrespective of the size and population - to the same or similar Councils as is done in respect of the election to the Senate in the US – two members from each State.
Eligibility: No person shall be eligible to contest or to become a member of a Council if he had been a member of that council within the last two years immediately preceding the date of election. He shall be eligible to contest to any other Council. This clause shall apply to all members of his/her immediate family and only one member of a family can seek election to any of the councils at any one time
A person while holding a ‘post’ in the government or government controlled institutions or public limited liability companies quoted in the Stock Exchange shall not be eligible to seek election to any Council.
The term: (period) of all councils shall be four years and elections should be held ONLY once in every four years and dates to be fixed in the constitution itself as in the U.S.A. with a succession clause to fill any vacancy in between.
Responsibility: Any person or group or groups of persons violating the constitution shall be personally held responsible for same and dealt with suitably.
Independent Commissions: shall be appointed for the proper administration and control of the various services that have to function independently according to laid down procedures. These commissions are accountable and answerable to the Head of State. No interference of any kind by anyone including the Head of State, Heads of Councils or any member of any Council shall be permitted.
Composition: Every commission shall consist of one member from each of the Regions elected jointly by the members of the Regional and other Councils of each Region. The members of the Executive and Legislative Councils shall jointly elect the 5th member of any Commission, who shall be the Chairman.
The Head of State: The Governor of one Region will act as the Head of State with the Deputy Governor of another Region as the Deputy Head of State for a period one year with the Governors and Deputy/Assistant Governors of the other Regions taking their turns in rotation. If the Deputy Governor of one Region happens to belong to the same ethnic group as that of the Governor who is acting as the Head of State then the Assistant Governor of that Region would act as the Deputy Head of State. The Head of State and his/her Deputy would be guided by the Executive Council in their actions and would have the powers and responsibilities similar to that of a Head of State of a country where the Parliament is supreme. (India and Malaysia might be quoted as examples.). The Head of State is accountable to the Executive Council.
Group 2 above would consist of fifteen members elected collectively by the members of the various Councils within that Regional Council area from among those residing within that area and not having stood for election to any Council, making a total of 60 (4 × 15) members.
The constitution to be remodeled so as to empower the people to elect different groups one for each such as administration, fiscal management, planning, implementing, policy and law making, auditing and for any other function you may deem necessary.
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Looks like you've got a lot of countries where you have experience. Maybe you can advise me about impressive on-the-ground peace initiatives you've seen in the course of your work and travels? I'm always looking for more subject matter...
Best wishes,
Heather
If someday you have a way to Bulgaria, please contact me and I will guide you into local civil society. :)
In case there is anything I could be helpful with, notify me: I am at your disposal!
Good luck.
Rosen Dimov,
Bulgaria
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Carey
Thanks!
David
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