alicevirgo

Most honest AMA answer ever.

That's a good principle to have.

Did your experience / the situation between your parents regarding custody affect your view on marriage?

Me too. I'm starting to doubt my personal standard of cleanliness.

In addition to Dr. Kinari's answer, I'd like to add my two cents. A few grassroots organizations in Toronto that I know of also apply this to their organizations. It's basically trusting the community that they know what the solution is. For example, youth programs that help youth actually ask for solutions from youth.

It's radical because a lot of non-profit or charities are very hierarchical and they tend to send "experts" to solve the problem, thinking that these "experts" know best. The "experts" are educated, usually upper class, and - if the community is in a developing or third world country, the "experts" are usually from North America. Often times the disparity between the "experts" and the local community can cause tension and power imbalance. This is also an ongoing conversation among anthropologists on the ethics of having someone from a privileged background and not local come to a community to observe them. An example is the recent article on Red Cross in Haiti where a lot of the locals complain that the money mostly goes to "expert" companies that in turn hire more "experts" to do the job, and then they didn't get the job done because they simply don't know the local situation.

With radical listening, the staff who are not from the local community use their skills to help achieve the solution as seen fit by the community instead of determining what the best solution is. They act as tools rather than masters.

I can say that as an Indonesian who have heard stories about North American charities and people acting like they know the best, and then when their "solution" don't work out proceed to blame the locals, I'm very impressed that Dr. Kinari and her organization applies Radical Listening in their work.