THE MYTH of the HUNDREDTH MONKEY

by Tom Heuerman
The hundredth monkey is the name of a new myth. It's a story that has arisen, been repeated, and written about only in the last two decades. It is of very recent origin and yet, like Greek myths that tell of the Trojan war, it's not clear where fact ends and metaphor begins. The story was based on scientific observations of monkey colonies in Japan.
Off the shores of Japan, scientists had been studying monkey colonies on many separate islands for over thirty years. In order to keep track of the monkeys, they would drop sweet potatoes on the beach for them to eat. The monkeys would come out of the trees to get the sweet potatoes, and would be in plain sight to be observed. One day an 18-month-old female monkey named Imo started to wash her sweet potato in the sea before eating it. We can imagine that it tasted better without the grit and sand; maybe it even was slightly salty. Imo showed her playmates and her mother how to do it, and her friends showed their mothers, and gradually more and more monkeys began to wash their sweet potatoes instead of eating them grit and all. At first, only the adults who imitated their children learned, and gradually others did also. One day, the observers saw that all the monkeys on that particular island were washing their sweet potatoes.
Although this was significant, what was even more fascinating to note was that when this shift happened, the behavior of monkeys on all the other islands changed as well; they now all washed their sweet potatoes - despite the fact that monkey colonies on the different islands had no direct contact with each other.
The "hundredth monkey" was the hypothesized anonymous monkey that tipped the scales for the culture: the one whose change in behavior signaled the critical number of changed monkeys, after which all the monkeys on all the islands washed their sweet potatoes.
"The hundredth monkey is an allegory that gives hope to people who have been working on changing themselves and saving the planet, and wondering if their individual efforts will make any difference at all. As a myth, the hundredth monkey is a statement that affirms a commitment to work on something, like ridding Earth of nuclear weapons - even if the effect is invisible for a long time. If there is to be a hundredth monkey there has to be a human equivalent of Imo and her friends; someone has to be the twenty-seventh and the eighty-first and the ninety-ninth monkey, before a new archetype can come into being."
Jean Bolen, M.D.
British biologist Rupert Sheldrake believes that "morphogenic fields" shape the form, development, and behavior of organisms - even if there are no conventional forms of contact between them. Fields are built up over time by the repetitive actions of animals or people of the same species. When a certain number of the members of the species learn the behavior, it is automatically acquired by the other members of the species. Sheldrake has proven the action of morphogenic fields experimentally with both animals and such elementary phenomena as the growth of crystals. This theory is consistent with field theory and nonlocal causation in Quantum physics. We can think of shared vision, values, and purpose as an invisible ordering (field) in organizations.
In organizations, disappointing change efforts, mediocre leadership, the loss of trust and credibility, and the inner turmoil are so great that life may, at times, seem hopeless. We think not. While the destructiveness of an incomplete worldview is apparent all around us, the new growth that is emerging is not always so obvious.
I will not forget the barren, ash covered landscape surrounding Mount St. Helens a year or two after the volcano erupted spewing ash and destruction for hundreds of miles. I felt stunned and said to my wife, "This must be what the aftermath of an atomic war would be like" as I scanned the area. The destruction was overwhelming; it was easy to overlook the grass beginning to grow through the ash. Cleansed by destruction, nature began again.
Like Mount St. Helens, new creation is taking place in our organizational lives. We meet people weekly who are seeking new forms for their lives, for leadership, and for organizations. We see a critical mass of people growing who want to be part of the potential of the transformation the world is experiencing. They are the courageous artists and pioneers who are discovering, creating, and beginning to live from a new, organic worldview.

The stunning Cíes Islands

The Romans called the Cíes Islands (Galicia), “the islands of the Gods”. To this day they are an idyllic paradise in northern Spain where you can enjoy nature and the sea. When you see them for yourself you will understand why their main beach was chosen as best in the world by The Guardian newspaper. Heaven on earth? If not, then this is close.
Crystal clear, turquoise water. Beaches with the finest white sand. A lake whose transparent surface allows you to see the wide variety of fish that live below. Are we in the tropics? No, these are the Cíes Islands, in northwestern Spain. There are three islands and they are located in the Rías Baixas region of Galicia, facing the coast of Vigo. This archipelago, besides being a fairy-tale setting, is also of great ecological importance. Its stunning landscapes form part of the Islas Atlánticas National Park, outstanding for its rich sea beds and some of the most important colonies of marine birds in the world. The Atlantic Ocean, dunes, pine forest, cliffs… You will see for yourself – the Cíes Islands have incredible landscapes, worthy of the gods. How to visit Peace, quiet and cleanliness are further qualities that make these islands outstanding. To protect the environment and avoid mass tourism, access to visitors is limited to 2,200 people per day. During Easter week, at weekends in May and throughout the summer, there are regular boat services from Vigo, Baiona and Cangas de Morrazo. If you want to sleep on the Cíes Islands, then there is a campsite with capacity for 800 people. It opens for Easter week and 15 June to 15 September, and stays are limited to a maximum of 2 weeks. To make use of these facilities you should book in advance by telephone (on +34 986438358 or +34 986687050) and complete your camper’s registration card at the campsite office at Vigo Marine Resort. When you buy your boat ticket, don’t forget to show this card – otherwise you will only be sold a 1-day return.

Flush With Cash, More Asian Tourists Flock to Japan

SHIRETOKO NATIONAL PARK, Japan — Once prohibitively expensive, Japan is suddenly drawing soaring numbers of Asian tourists who splurge at the nation’s department stores, lounge in its hot spring resorts or explore remote corners, like this stretch of pristine mountains and forests on Japan’s northernmost tip.
While a boon for Japan’s faltering tourism industry, the new tourists are also a sign of larger economic changes in one of the world’s most dynamic regions.
Japan itself was once known for its free-spending tourists, who flocked to boutiques from Hong Kong to Fifth Avenue. But as Japan’s economy stalled for the last dozen or so years, rapid development in countries like China and South Korea raised living standards there.
Those countries are now catching up with slow-growing Japan, long the region’s dominant economic power. Indeed, Japan’s dwindling, but still potent, lead in technology is a major draw for Asian tourists, who are as likely to visit a Toyota car factory as a Zen temple.
At the same time, there has been a decline in the number of people going abroad from Japan. The number of Japanese traveling abroad has fallen 3 percent from the peak in 2000 of 17.8 million, the government-run Japan National Tourist Organization said.
The decline was particularly pronounced among Japanese in their 20s, whose trips abroad fell to 2.8 million last year, down 40 percent from a decade ago. Officials from the tourist group attributed the drop among the young Japanese to falling wages and more modest lifestyles.
By contrast, the number of visitors to Japan from South Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong almost doubled last year from five years earlier, to 5.36 million, according to the tourist group. Those four regions alone accounted for nearly two-thirds of all foreign visitors to Japan last year, the organization said.
But far from being concerned about yet another sign of their nation’s declining status, many Japanese seem to embrace this change. The government helped open the gates five years ago by waiving visa requirements for tourists from Taiwan and South Korea.
Asian visitors are now regarded by a growing number of Japanese as a financial shot in the arm for Japan, whose vitality has been sapped by economic maturity and an aging population.
“Asia has closed the gap in economic power,” said Yukiko Fukagawa, an economics and politics professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. “And Japan is slowly realizing that maybe this is not such a bad thing.”
In the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo, the excitement these days is all about the large numbers of rich Asian tourists, most from China. This has pushed stores to begin hiring Chinese-speaking clerks and keep stacks of Chinese bills by cash registers.
At the marble-columned Mitsukoshi department store, one of Tokyo’s fanciest stores, wealthy Chinese buy Japanese and European-brand clothes and handbags by the dozen, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, apparently on a whim, for a watch or painting in the store, said Shoji Saito, manager of overseas-related business.
Mr. Saito said the store had not experienced such big-spending shoppers since Japan’s own go-go era in the 1980s.
“Asian tourists are our new growth market,” he said.
Many Asian tourists interviewed said they liked to shop here because Japan has the latest fashions first, and at prices way below those in many other Asian countries, where tariffs are steep. They also said they liked visiting Japan because it was close, safe and cleaner than much of the rest of Asia.
But many also say they are drawn by a deep fascination for Japan. Now that they can afford to come, they say they want to see the country that has long been the region’s front-runner in high technology, fashion and other realms of popular culture. They said they felt envy and respect for Japan as the region’s only fully developed nation, even if they did not always see eye to eye on matters like the events of World War II.
“We feel very close to the Japanese culturally, but they are also still ahead,” said Kao Yu-jeng, a 50-year-old schoolteacher who was part of a Taiwanese tour group visiting Shiretoko park, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. “We want to know more about what makes them tick.”
According to the Taiwanese government’s Tourism Bureau, Japan passed Macao last year to become the second-most-popular overseas destination for Taiwanese going abroad, after Hong Kong.
“Japan used to be a very distant presence,” said Hsu Ya-shan, assistant director in the Tokyo office of the Taiwan Visitors Association, a Taiwanese government-run tourism promotion agency. “Now, it feels a lot closer.”
Officials at the Japan National Tourist Organization called the surge in Asian visitors an unexpected result of their Visit Japan program, a 2003 advertising campaign whose goal was to double foreign visitors to 10 million by 2010. While they initially envisioned planeloads of arriving Westerners, it was Asians who actually showed up, officials said.
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During the 1980s, Americans were the largest group of overseas visitors to Japan, but have now fallen to fourth behind South Korea, Taiwan and China.
“Japan always had this huge, unnatural imbalance of sending out far more tourists than it took in,” said Daisuke Tonai, a senior assistant manager at the tourist group. “The situation is finally becoming more normal.”
Mr. Tonai said surveys also showed Asian tourists came to Japan for different reasons than Westerners. While Americans said they came to see cultural attractions like temples, Asians cited shopping, followed by hot springs and nature. Visits to factories are also popular, he said.
Recently, a top draw for Asian tourists is Hokkaido, Japan’s least developed major island, with open spaces and picturesque farms reminiscent of the American Midwest.
Mr. Kao, the Taiwanese teacher, called Hokkaido’s natural beauty a welcome change from pollution-choked cities in Taiwan, and China, where he has visited.
As the group’s bus wound along Shiretoko’s rugged coastline, the tour guide, Yu Li-fang, warned the travelers of the dangers of entering a true wilderness area.
“What do you do if you see a bear?” she said.
“Run,” one voice said.
“Kill it,” said another.
“Do you know how to kill a bear?” Ms. Yu asked, only half jokingly.
While the group did not encounter a bear, many members did experience a different kind of shock at a gift store, where the prices were far higher than in Taiwan.
“Taiwan is getting closer, but Japan is still ahead when it comes to prices,” Lin Hsiao-ching, a 44-year-old homemaker, said with a laugh. “We still have to keep an eye on every bill.”

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