oneVillage Initiative: a chameleonic method for mindless imitation

Ever since the publishing of this blog that seeks to make sense of what the oneVillage really is underneath the layers covering its core, the oneVillage people, though choosing not to respond directly, have been busy honing their web-based message as more inconvenient facts are uncovered and more questions about the true nature of their intentions are raised. 

These past months have seen several key people either leave the OVF for greener pastures (such is the case of Kafui Prebbie, former chief representatitive of Ghana) or keeping very low profiles (such as OVF key people in the U.S. Jeffrey Buderer and Mark Roest), possibly waiting for the storm to pass before resurfacing in a different shape. Yet however skilled a chameleon the OVF may be, its ability to blend in with the environment does not alter the fact that it is preying on the fly to devour it - not to make friends with it. 

Though oneVillage as a foundation is still being used, notably as an entity interacting  with the community university setting in Hsinchu in Northwestern Taiwan, its founder Joy Tang is redirecting focus from a legal form that it has never complied with (see delinquencies) to a methodology called the oneVillage Initiative. So far, according to the OVF website, the oneVillage Initiative is defined as:

"...a comprehensive, community-based approach still in the development stages. It aims to promote the rapid replication of ecologically and socially sustainable systems around the world. The goal is to maximize the potential of physical and virtual communities to do good for themselves and the larger world." (own emphasis)

This methodology, with its emphasis on the rapid replication of existent systems is in itself quite interesting, when put together with the professed aims of OVF to "guide unity and transformation". The OVF people do not create anything, but use ideas and techniques created by others for other settings to make a name for themselves as community-builders. 

From a presentation by Joy Tang in Taipei on Sept. 27th, 2009

As any person with experience of strategic change will know, real transformation is not consistent with the rapid replication of anything and does not occur as the result of "borrowing" quick fixes - as if nothing were context-specific and the motivation of the people behind the implementation did not matter. Though there may be shortcuts to a few minutes of glory, nothing great in sustainable terms has ever been built based on such a logic to "pick the plums out of (someone else's) pudding". The oneVillage methodology is certainly not based what is referred to as "altruism", namely reaching out to others for their sake even when there are no benefits in sight for oneself, despite such claims being made by OVF founder Joy Tang:

"Through the practices and transformation, we believe, over time, we will create a just society collectively through the intention of altruism as the ultimate sustainability for humanity to evolve positively." (Own emphasis; quoted from the OVF website).

Transformational initiatives that build prosperous communities are generational projects, laying the foundations for resource-renewal and sustainable livelihoods for generations to come, rather than seeking ways to gain control over resources that are rapidly depleting. Real transformation - be it labelled community development or social enterprising - requires the dedication of people who are willing to consistently walk the talk and invest themselves in a vision for a very long period of time, motivated not by what they hope to gain for themselves but by what they hope to create for others.  

We - the editors of this blog along with victims of OVF left scattered by the wayside in different parts of the world - are strong believers in new beginnings, conditioned only by the liberating power of truth. Yet so far, despite the altering façade, we hear no words of truth being spoken. Instead, we see the same ambitions take on different clothing, as the OVF people look to incorporate new causes under the oneVillage umbrella in their efforts to maintain the illusion of a core that is genuinely concerned with the welfare of others. OVF foot-soldier in Ghana, young Nii Tete Saashi Quaye, is thus seeking to establish himself on the political arena in Ghana through the Convention People's Party, endorsing prof. Edmund Delle for party chairman. Considering their fraudulent practices in Ghana (see the Jukwa farm scandal), the fact that OVF people are trying to use their so-called accomplishments within the aid community to establish themselves on the political arena without a change of heart is most worrisome. Are these the kind of people and morals that should be "guiding and transforming" how we think about our world, let alone influence the future of a country?