There exists a tale of a bucket of crabs. It tells of a clutch of crabs contained in an open bucket. If a crab starts to climb out, it will be pulled back in by the others, ensuring the group's collective demise. Imagination of how something can be different, be it a place outside the bucket or a more livable society, can unleash tailwinds. At times it feels more acceptable to infinitely tweak existing conditions rather than daring to re-imagine them from the ground up. Yet, mere tweaking and patch-working simply reproduces the conditions that gave rise to the issues one wants to solve. We are merely tightening the Gordian knot.

We invite you to a conversation with Jennifer Gaspar, whose 25 years of experience in humanitarian work have centered around preventing civil societies from cracking. More recently she built her organization Araminta, which, among other programs, provides emergency support to people who dare to envision a different society and speak out under constraints and risks we hardly encounter here in this country. Jennifer came to understand how central the capacity of imagination is to keeping civil society resilient and free. Those are the very two qualities a prosperous business landscape requires in the long run as well.

Amidst increasing pressure on free societies, it feels wise to acknowledge that every single decision, whether taken by an individual or a business, is a societal decision. Thus, to paraphrase psychiatrist and neuroscientist Ian McGilchrist: imagination is a moral act.

Before founding Araminta, Jennifer was Director for Special Programs at the CEELI Institute in Prague, managing programs on defense attorney independence, emergency support and relocation for activists and human rights defenders, and policy initiatives benefiting international defenders. Her rich experience in NGO management, philanthropic advising, and organizational strategy spans Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Former Soviet Union. She was a long-term consultant to the Oak Foundation's International Human Rights Programme and former Director of the Fund for International Nonprofit Development (US). Jennifer serves on multiple boards including PEP Watch (Prague), the Centre for International Protection (Strasbourg), and two Berlin-based exiled human rights organizations: Free Voices Collective, e.V. and Journalisten und Anwälte für Meinungsfreiheit (JAM). She is a Fulbright Fellow in Hungary and human rights laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Jennifer holds degrees in international affairs from George Washington University and a Masters in Organisational Leadership from the University of San Francisco.