Applied Complexity in Cuba

[Tom Johnson]

FRIAM-ers, et al. --

In January, I was one of a half dozen Americans who was able to go to Havana, Cuba to attend a fascinating conference on Complexity Theory.  As a result of friendships made then, I have been working with colleagues in Cuba to create some pre-conference workshops in applied complexity for a conference next February 23-27, 2009 in Camagüey, Cuba.  (See http://tallerencamaguey.pbwiki.com/)

 

We are currently working to raise $30,000 to take a team of seven or eight applied complexity researchers and practitioners, mostly from the Santa Fe Complex community, to Camagüey.  Such a trip is not easy in terms of the bureaucracy in both the U.S. and Cuba, but it is possible for U.S. scholars and journalists to get a "license" from the U.S. Department of Treasury to legally go to Cuba.  (Yes, you can get there through the back door of Montreal or Mexico, but realize that the U.S. customs guys have pretty well figured out most of the scams, and fines can start at $10,000.  That said, if you go legally you can bring back $250 in cigars.)

 

After much back-and-forth conversation with our colleagues in Cuba -- much of it via wikis -- I think we now have everything smoothed out for those of us in the U.S. to begin the process to attend the "III Seminaro Bienal Internacional Transdisciplinario sobre el Enfoque de la Complejidad."  (See http://tallerencamaguey.pbwiki.com/  Conference languages will be Spanish and English.) 

Our friends in Cuba have also have opened the conference to complexity researchers (very broadly defined) from the U.S. and around the world.  Prof. Marcelo Chacon, who is organizing the February meeting, recently wrote:

 

Any other colleague from the USA, who wishes to attend, is welcome to send an email to [hidden email] with individual information [i.e. your name as it appears on your passport, your professional affiliation, your mailing address, your e-mail address], as soon as possible, in order to facilitate the process of legal permissions from Cuba and USA.

 

Steps to get to Cuba:

1.   Cuba's Ministry of Education must issue "letters of invitation" to each individual to participate in the seminar.  Prof. Chacon will literally hand-carry our individual information to the appropriate ministry office.  This needs to be done in July if we hope to receive the official Cuban letters by September, so you must complete this step immediately.

2.   Marcelo will send you (via e-mail) your letters of invitation from the Cuban ministry.   With luck, we will receive the letters from Cuba in early September because we can't tell how long it will take for Americans to work through U.S. officialdom.

3.    You will then write a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department's "Office of Foreign Assets Control" (http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/  ) to request a "license" to visit Cuba.  Last November, we six or seven Americans received our licenses in two weeks, but colleagues who had requested permission to attend the same conference two years previously reported months of delay.  No one seems to be able to explain the difference in policy.  If you're interested, I can send the letter I wrote last year.

4.   Once you have your license, let me know and I will put you in touch with the travel agent in Miami who will make all the flight and hotel reservations.  These have to be paid in advance.  Team Santa Fe will also be going to Havana for two or three days of turismo and presentations.  I encourage you to also consider spending some time in Havana.

Comments:

• If you would like to present a paper at the Camagüey meeting, indicate that in your initial note to Marcelo (his English is excellent).   I also suggest sending an abstract directly to Marcelo at [hidden email] as soon as possible.
• There's a new book out (in Spanish) that will give you some insight into what the Cubans have been doing in terms of Complexity Studies.  Look for Rizo, Jorge Luis Fontenla y Antonio López Admiral. "Archipiélago Cubano: Biogeofrafïa histórica y complejidad" at  http://archipielagocubano.notlong.com    The CD version is at http://www.friendsofcomplexitytheoryincuba.org/cubalibribooks.html
  
  

Finally, in addition to the $30k that we are trying to raise to cover the Team Santa Fe expenses, we are also trying to raise another $10k to help build a "Complexity Classroom" at the University of Camagüey.  Any donations would be most welcome.

Thanks again for your interest in this unique project. 

Saludos y adelante,
Tom Johnson

Institute for Analytic Journalism

--
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com [hidden email]

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
-- Buckminster Fuller
==========================================
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org