From South Africa to Palestine, a Radio Station ...

93.6 Ram FM Peace Radio http://www.ramfm.net/display.asp?cid=32
Israel and Palestine Linked as 93.6 Ram FM Gets Them Talking

"John Berks?!" Don shouted..."Berks and I go way back to South Africa and 702 Talk Radio, the station that played a major role in the transition from Apartheid."

Two of our colleagues called 93.6 FM to set up an interview for Dr. Beck with the station that is based in Ramallah. They knew that this was a sister station to 702 Talk Radio in South Africa. However no one knew that Dr. Beck and John Berks, legendary South African talk show host, have done many interviews in South Africa during Apartheid and knew each other very well.

What a pleasant surprise that was...

"You were one of the architects of the peaceful transition from Apartheid, Don. Are you coming here to Palestine to work on a similar design? And where do you see the similarities in these two conflicts?" Berks asked Dr. Beck.

(we will be posting an audio of the interview soon)

The interview that followed marked an important moment in discussing a rare application and model that was successfully applied by Dr. Beck in South Africa and now is being applied to design the transition from this Middle Eastern conflict.

Here's a description of the Radio station and it's potential role in a meaningful dialogue:

• "If anyone should know about creating peace in a potentially explosive situation, it is the South Africans.
  Johannesburg entrepreneur Issie Kirsh of Primedia has launched a state-of-the-art FM radio station broadcasting 24 hours a day in English to audiences across Israel and Palestine in an attempt to get people in the Middle East talking to each other. "There is a need for a daily debate on the issues affecting both Israelis and Palestinians," he says, "and this is the driving force behind 93.6 Ram FM. We are doing it in English, which will also soon open the broadcasts to international listeners via satellite."
  
  

... And it so happened that Issie Kirsh was visiting Ramallah this week. The station manager Maysoun Ganga made sure that Dr. Beck and Issie Kirsh met at the station. Don and Issie embraced like two old friends. Issie said to Don, "Do you remember the first time you told us in South Africa about a paradigm shift? We didn't know what that meant back then. Now we know."

Maysoun and I will be working on a format for a radio talk show moderated by young people from the region, that will use the Spiral Dynamics integral framework to address change.

Again the power of GenY...