We are intending to hold a Launch Event to introduce Watling Ubuntu Foundation to as wide an audience as possible. Possibilities include a debate or a TED talk style presentation, and will be based around the basic questions posed in our early documents:
- What part of your culture would you like the world to know about – what makes you proud of your heritage?
- What would you most like to change about your country or heritage?
- What aspects of your culture or country do you believe is most misunderstood by the rest of the world?
- How would understanding the effect of the answers to these three questions help to change the world for the better.
- How do policy makers globally help to restore faith in people, ideas, cultural development and reach good governance through “safe power”. We should be concentrating on exposing culture, values and individual wellbeing.
- Is nationalism and populism creating a vacuum for enlightened leadership in a different process to the current established norms. ‘There is so much good and inspiring in this world. Let’s make sure it stays that way through encouragement.’
Currently we are preparing a list for invitation. The basic philosophy of good healthy debate and discussion should be the basis for those invitations. Feel free to contact us with any thoughts or suggestions on this!
We will also be looking to establish the most appropriate means of communicating the event as widely as possible, so that not all who take part or wish to observe need to be present at the chosen venue. We are exploring the most appropriate ways to maximise our exposure amongst those individual and organisations who could help us in a meaningful way. We are currently identifying suitable venues so that a programme can be prepared accordingly, and as things stand now we are planning to hold the event in November 2017.
In addition to this event we are also looking to create an “Around the World Fair” in Canterbury, with a view to experience and learn about diverse cultures. Ideally we are looking to hold a day or weekend event with stalls, music and foods from a number of cultures and nationalities amongst other activities. This will form part of our intention to create a long-term international project. We could possibly look to Student Societies to offer an insight into what activities and events they would support. This event does not currently have an estimated date.
For the Foundation as a whole our immediate goals are to ensure we are kept aware of developments in Canterbury generally so that we can maximise our links to established bodies, both corporate and academic. This will help us to identify a suitable site for our International Centre, garner support to enable us to make permanent personnel appointments to ensure we carry out our plans efficiently, professionally and to the highest standard possible. It may be that supporters could engage in a long-term involvement in helping us to succeed with the project overall.
We would love to hear from you with any ideas you may have!
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