"We are close and yet we are not communicating."
Work Begins in the Regional Groups

A word has emerged from all of Saturday's workshops: "communicate." Two days away from the drafting and adoption of a final Charter, the World Assembly participants met this time in Regional Groups. Twenty workshops were constituted out of more-or-less artificially determined groups. There are many connections among regions. For instance, West, East, and Central Africans quickly felt that it would be interesting to all be in the same group. North, South, and Central Americans felt much the same way, but as a premise for discussions in separate groups.
The geographical proximity of the participants certainly facilitated relations. They spoke the same language, even though it was not easy to find a compromise between Spanish and Portuguese for the South Americans, or between English and French for the Africans…
In this more local scope, the grand global projects gave way to concrete considerations. The solutions drawn up during the previous workshops came up against the sense of realities of those who are used to facing difficulties on the field.

The basic principle that stood out was that there was not enough communication going on: "We don't know each other," declared an African participant. "We are all in networks that don't ever meet … ." The first principle to apply was to exchange addresses, to publish lists of e-mail addresses, and to exchange information. "Don't expect any miracles," exclaimed a facilitator. "Exchanging addresses is not enough. People don't communicate unless they have some project in common … ".
The project remained to be built. People from the cities and those from countryside disagreed. There was never-ending discussion between the local and the national, between the modern and the classic, sometimes over details. Recourse to group discussion made it possible to unblock the situations. There was progress. To make a better world we shall have to constitute regional alliances. This will be surely be in the final Charter, but such alliances are not that easily defined.