On Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability

Rivers do not drink their own water

Trees do not eat their own fruit

Clouds do not swallow their own rain. 

What great ones have is always for the benefit of others.

- Hindu Proverb

Sweet Rose of Virtue (for the worldwide day of Poetry)

Sweet rose of virtue and of gentleness,

delightful lily of youthful wantonness,

richest in bounty and in beauty clear

and in every virtue that is held most dear―

except only that you are merciless.

Into your garden, today, I followed you;

there I saw flowers of freshest hue,

both white and red, delightful to see,

and wholesome herbs, waving resplendently―

yet everywhere, no odor but bitter rue.

I fear that March with his last arctic blast

has slain my fair rose of pallid and gentle cast,

whose piteous death does my heart such pain

that, if I could, I would compose her roots again―

so comforting her bowering leaves have been.

by William Dunbar [1460-1525]

loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

Is minimalism the road to a fulfilled and worthy life? Watch the full documentary on NetFlix and comment by yourself :

https://www.netflix.com/title/80114460

Here's a short comment from me and things I've learned in life so far : 

The less you own, the more free you are. The less you try to be happy for others, the happier you'll be for yourself and the ones that really matter. The more you travel, the more you understand that happiness and bliss are to be found in simplicity and humility. Trust me, been there and done all that more than once!

Don't be afraid to take steps back. Having the wisdom to reiterate and reconsider is hard and it takes crushing your pride and your established lifestyle - including things and people you have been used to admire mostly for the wrong reasons. Ask yourself : are you truly fulfilled with the life you created or you're trying to create? What's missing? Money? Things? Or true people, true experiences and true friends that make you a better human being?

We all need a purpose in life. Define it in terms of the things that really matter. The important things. 

Maybe we shouldn't be minimalists after all! We can be maximalists in love, positivity, solidarity and caring. 

Maybe we can be humans again! 

P&L

                                                                                                                                              C.K.

Reengineering our Future

I always liked how technology sounds.

The art of observation merged with improvisation. Balancing on a thin line between science and engineering. Where theory becomes reality. Where nature meets the human.

We’ve tamed the sea and the skies, gone faster than the speed of sound, played dice with giants and cells and we have won. Is there a driving force to this eternal quest for progress? Where do we stand now? Are our problems solved? Is the passion still alive?

People say that humanity cannot avoid its nature. Let’s assume that progress is linked to our nature and thus is inevitable. Do we invent and innovate due to a nature call? We surely desire a better life for ourselves and our kids. What about the other kids though? Is their nature weaker than ours? In a world where money and power talks, progress tastes quite aristocratic. It seems we fail to acknowledge the importance of universal growth rather than hot-spot paradises. Our nature is the driving force but it is hard-wired to each other. If we focus on the tree, we miss the forest; the only path to real progress is the path of cooperation, solidarity and universal growth. By solving today’s problems of the world, we elevate and avoid the reverse inertia of progress which leads to wars, oppression and suppression of our nature. And technology is the key.

I guess you will agree with me to the fact that we have solved a tiny amount of the world’s problems. Let me recap for you some of them… Poverty, hunger, diseases, oppressing regimes, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, lack of human rights, ghettos, unemployment. All these exist today in some corner of the world. Today, 1 out of 10 people lack access to safe water. Isn’t this outraging? We managed to send robots through space till the edge of our solar system and we can’t provide clean water to the citizens of the Earth. May it be impossible or have we stop trying? I refuse to accept that humanity as whole can not deliver. We have the know-how and we have the resources. We miss two important things. Individual and global will. Resources need to be allocated towards projects that tackle the most important issues of our societies globally. Most of the scientific, research and engineering groups are way under-funded when it comes to those projects. This ill-conditioned environment is a direct consequence of the societies we have built. Profit, money, personal success, cheap recognition blind us from reality leading to big corporate interests along with corrupted governments and a world that revolves around false idols. Our problems are not solved and won’t be solved until we innovate again, boost universal progress and converge to a higher global status quo. Until we reengineer our common future.

In the end, it is a passion. It is a passion to create, fail, reiterate, succeed and move forward. Forward, together as one, because there is no other way. Progress is a passion, a natural one, when it involves the people and their needs. This is the real driving force. Technology is just a part of this process but once again it can be a key one. The basic needs of this planet can be solved through innovation and engineering. We need to start cultivate again this passion for technology. Teach our kids the beauty of science and technology, the passion of innovation and engineering, the need of solutions to real problems instead of virtual applications that provide useless services. Let’s define universal progress as our driving force instead of money and personal recognition.

Until we reengineer our common future.

C.K.

               Painting by Leon Zernitsky (Technology) 

            http://fineartamerica.com/featured/technology-leon-zernitsky.html

Something to believe in...

Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator

On Privilege and Social Racism...

First World Problems : Re-Engineering the Obvious

And yet, we march.

Patterns awake!

In ancient seeds, we trust.

We harvest greed in fields of aster

and brew relief in tanks of rust. 

Behold!

The ticking clock in glorious ignorance.

Trick the foolish with crumbs of hope,

 to treat your day with broken dreams.

Define and conquer!

Define lust, define life. 

Castles in sand won't fall by their own,

unless the wave is you.

And yet, we sleep.

And yet, we march. 

C.K.

Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy

Say hi to Lucy.

Lucy is part of Generation Y, the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s.  She’s also part of a yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y.

I have a term for yuppies in the Gen Y age group—I call them Gen Y Protagonists & Special Yuppies, or GYPSYs.  A GYPSY is a unique brand of yuppie, one who thinks they are the main character of a very special story.

So Lucy’s enjoying her GYPSY life, and she’s very pleased to be Lucy.  Only issue is this one thing:

Lucy’s kind of unhappy.

To get to the bottom of why, we need to define what makes someone happy or unhappy in the first place.  It comes down to a simple formula:

It’s pretty straightforward—when the reality of someone’s life is better than they had expected, they’re happy.  When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they’re unhappy.

To provide some context, let’s start by bringing Lucy’s parents into the discussion:

Lucy’s parents were born in the 50s—they’re Baby Boomers.  They were raised by Lucy’s grandparents, members of the G.I. Generation, or “the Greatest Generation,” who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II, and were most definitely not GYPSYs.

Lucy’s Depression Era grandparents were obsessed with economic security and raised her parents to build practical, secure careers.  They wanted her parents’ careers to have greener grass than their own, and Lucy’s parents were brought up to envision a prosperous and stable career for themselves.  Something like this:

 

 

They were taught that there was nothing stopping them from getting to that lush, green lawn of a career, but that they’d need to put in years of hard work to make it happen.

After graduating from being insufferable hippies, Lucy’s parents embarked on their careers.  As the 70s, 80s, and 90s rolled along, the world entered a time of unprecedented economic prosperity.  Lucy’s parents did even better than they expected to.  This left them feeling gratified and optimistic.

With a smoother, more positive life experience than that of their own parents, Lucy’s parents raised Lucy with a sense of optimism and unbounded possibility.  And they weren’t alone.  Baby Boomers all around the country and world told their Gen Y kids that they could be whatever they wanted to be, instilling the special protagonist identity deep within their psyches.

This left GYPSYs feeling tremendously hopeful about their careers, to the point where their parents’ goals of a green lawn of secure prosperity didn’t really do it for them.  A GYPSY-worthy lawn has flowers.

This leads to our first fact about GYPSYs:

GYPSYs Are Wildly Ambitious

The GYPSY needs a lot more from a career than a nice green lawn of prosperity and security.  The fact is, a green lawn isn’t quite exceptional or unique enough for a GYPSY.  Where the Baby Boomers wanted to live The American Dream, GYPSYs want to live Their Own Personal Dream.

Cal Newport points out that “follow your passion” is a catchphrase that has only gotten going in the last 20 years, according to Google’s Ngram viewer, a tool that shows how prominently a given phrase appears in English print over any period of time.  The same Ngram viewer shows that the phrase “a secure career” has gone out of style, just as the phrase “a fulfilling career” has gotten hot.

To be clear, GYPSYs want economic prosperity just like their parents did—they just also want to be fulfilled by their career in a way their parents didn’t think about as much.

But something else is happening too.  While the career goals of Gen Y as a whole have become much more particular and ambitious, Lucy has been given a second message throughout her childhood as well:

 

This would probably be a good time to bring in our second fact about GYPSYs:

GYPSYs Are Delusional

 

“Sure,” Lucy has been taught, “everyone will go and get themselves some fulfilling career, but I am unusually wonderful and as such, my career and life path will stand out amongst the crowd.”  So on top of the generation as a whole having the bold goal of a flowery career lawn, each individual GYPSY thinks that he or she is destined for something even better—

A shiny unicorn on top of the flowery lawn.  

So why is this delusional?  Because this is what all GYPSYs think, which defies the definition of special:

spe-cial| ‘speSHel |
adjective

better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.

According to this definition, most people are not special—otherwise “special” wouldn’t mean anything.

Even right now, the GYPSYs reading this are thinking, “Good point…but I actually am one of the few special ones”—and this is the problem.

A second GYPSY delusion comes into play once the GYPSY enters the job market.  While Lucy’s parents’ expectation was that many years of hard work would eventually lead to a great career, Lucy considers a great career an obvious given for someone as exceptional as she, and for her it’s just a matter of time and choosing which way to go.  Her pre-workforce expectations look something like this:

Unfortunately, the funny thing about the world is that it turns out to not be that easy of a place, and the weird thing about careers is that they’re actually quite hard.  Great careers take years of blood, sweat and tears to build—even the ones with no flowers or unicorns on them—and even the most successful people are rarely doing anything that great in their early or mid-20s.

But GYPSYs aren’t about to just accept that.

Paul Harvey, a University of New Hampshire professor and GYPSY expert, has researched this, finding that Gen Y has “unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback,” and “an inflated view of oneself.”  He says that “a great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations. They often feel entitled to a level of respect and rewards that aren’t in line with their actual ability and effort levels, and so they might not get the level of respect and rewards they are expecting.”

For those hiring members of Gen Y, Harvey suggests asking the interview question, “Do you feel you are generally superior to your coworkers/classmates/etc., and if so, why?”  He says that “if the candidate answers yes to the first part but struggles with the ‘why,’ there may be an entitlement issue. This is because entitlement perceptions are often based on an unfounded sense of superiority and deservingness. They’ve been led to believe, perhaps through overzealous self-esteem building exercises in their youth, that they are somehow special but often lack any real justification for this belief.”

And since the real world has the nerve to consider merit a factor, a few years out of college Lucy finds herself here:

Lucy’s extreme ambition, coupled with the arrogance that comes along with being a bit deluded about one’s own self-worth, has left her with huge expectations for even the early years out of college.  And her reality pales in comparison to those expectations, leaving her “reality – expectations” happy score coming out at a negative.

And it gets even worse.  On top of all this, GYPSYs have an extra problem that applies to their whole generation:

GYPSYs Are Taunted

 

Sure, some people from Lucy’s parents’ high school or college classes ended up more successful than her parents did.  And while they may have heard about some of it from time to time through the grapevine, for the most part they didn’t really know what was going on in too many other peoples’ careers.

Lucy, on the other hand, finds herself constantly taunted by a modern phenomenon: Facebook Image Crafting.

Social media creates a world for Lucy where A) what everyone else is doing is very out in the open, B) most people present an inflated version of their own existence, and C) the people who chime in the most about their careers are usually those whose careers (or relationships) are going the best, while struggling people tend not to broadcast their situation.  This leaves Lucy feeling, incorrectly, like everyone else is doing really well, only adding to her misery:

So that’s why Lucy is unhappy, or at the least, feeling a bit frustrated and inadequate.  In fact, she’s probably started off her career perfectly well, but to her, it feels very disappointing.

Here’s my advice for Lucy:

1) Stay wildly ambitious.  The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success.  The specific direction may be unclear, but it’ll work itself out—just dive in somewhere.

2) Stop thinking that you’re special.  The fact is, right now, you’re not special.  You’re another completely inexperienced young person who doesn’t have all that much to offer yet.  You can become special by working really hard for a long time.

3) Ignore everyone else. Other people’s grass seeming greener is no new concept, but in today’s image crafting world, other people’s grass looks like a glorious meadow. The truth is that everyone else is just as indecisive, self-doubting, and frustrated as you are, and if you just do your thing, you’ll never have any reason to envy others.

Originally posted by Wait But Why

www.waitbutwhy.com

The Manufacture of Consent (or mass control technics for dummies...)

Change...

It takes years...and it's never without consequences...Change was always there, inevitably and unpredictably... No, I am not writing Obama's next electoral speech... I am talking about real change in our societies, minds and consequently lives... 

It took some centuries to the Neanderthal man to change...and wow that was a big one! From a cave seeking, barbar talking creature he transformed again and again to a form of life where logic and spirituality would boost the changing process into unimaginable speeds... Say hello to today! Humanity is no longer waiting for a change...everyday is facing a new one. Technology may be the easiest example to support this argument, though there is not a single sector of our lives that stops changing. Food supplies, natural resources usage, medical treatments, psychological theories, love and hate, war and peace, transportation and housing, education and entertainment are subjects of its tremendous power. Just look to newspapers 100 years back, (or even 30), and I am sure you will agree. So now that we all agree ( I suppose) to the real fact that the world is changing extremely fast nowadays being a continuation of just an older slower process, think about this :

What is the only thing remained almost unchanged for lets say the last 50 years? No it is neither your husband's beer belly nor your wife's after sex talking habit (im pretty sure anyways, both have just raised exponentially)... Well, let's see...

Back in the previous century new economical theories were proposing new standards for our society... From Marx and Engels to Smith and the french philosophers, change took its place in the base of our societies and the way we think about their structure. People tried these theories, played a bit with them, even changed them proposing (and imposing sometimes) their own versions. Some of these versions got well established – others not, but all of them were products of people who believed to change and made it happen. Yes, this tranformed our societies. Now, we can not even imagine how this world looked like before these theories were put in action. Were they good enough? Do they still apply today? Is it the way to go on? Well, surely you will agree that they have their plus and minus. Good enough, could be for some – surely not for everyone though (remember this point it is essential). Yes they do apply – I mean everything can be applied in the end. Is it the way to go on? Hmm...

Let's say I am a farmer in central Africa... Having my country, occupied, colonised, torn apart by civil wars and extreme poverty, sold and resold to foreign (or domestic) enterpreneurs, makes my farm a tiny grain of sand that will be eatten alive. Will it be tomorrow or in a few years, it's just a matter of bad timing (in terms of another crisis) or greedy expansion (in terms of monopoly strategies). There is no way for me to stay on my feet and make a living out of my farm if external powers decide so. What about a union of farms? Sure, chances are better but what make you really think that you stand a chance against Monsanto or other agriculture monsters? You are to them exactly the same as this piece of feta is to me right now... an appetizer... What about a Party that will control and own the farms in the name of the people? Sure, Monsanto will never be allowed to play its games but the Party will create its own – sometimes even worse than the previous ones. Attention now! As mentioned before, this system of aggresive economy and open market policies, or full state control run by state officials can, will and does work for some people! You can easily become a puppet of the global or domestic elit, and eat your part of the cheese. Well guess what! It does not work for me!

It does not work for me for a simple reason. My idea of an ideal society is based on ethics and solidarity. What ethics do you expect from corporate people that dream of profits?? Which solidarity you seek in a system where you life is on the hands of over-powered officials that are bound to be corrupted??

Still in 2013, we struggle inside these same systems. Isn't it about time for a breakthrough?? For a new philosophy of economy and political relations that will make the establishment tremble?

Education-again is to play the most important role in this change. Solidarity can be taught as well as ethics among the people of the world. Each nation has such a rich library of religious or philosophical writings that include almost the same values. How can you be indifferent of poverty if you are a christian? How can you compete for profit if you are a muslim? How can you close you eyes on war crimes if you are a hindu or a budhist? Yet, we live our lifes like modern zombies, trying to make more money, travel a bit, eat a lot, drink when we can. How do you expect society to change if we are acting like that? The homo-consumius can not be our future! We need a system of love, solidarity and basic human ethics where money are a mean of transaction and not a goal of life. A system where paying a fortune for dinner while children starving would be madness! A system where the little farmer can have his self-sustainable farm and provide his society with its goods not for profit but by love and solidarity.

How can we make the change happen? Think, read and write your ideas. Get educated and educate your circle. Discuss for things that matter over things that cost.

That's what it takes. That's how they did it. That's our time.

If not now, when?? If not us, who??? 

C.K.

Artwork by Lori Spray

In Our Dreams...

In our dreams we sail free,
we speak ourselves and never kneel,
yet,
as soon as storms are settling in,
we're lost in the fog of what could be.

In our dreams, from birth to death,
the ones we loved, they're always here,
still,
as soon as they disappear,
like drops of rain they form to tear.

In our dreams, a thin line lies
demons by angels it divides,
though,
as soon as love prevails fear,
demons flee and angels cheer.


From our dreams, we learn to live,
we fight wars that build beneath,
now,
as soon as we're not naive,
let's turn our dreams to heaven's eve! 

C.K.

So this is Christmas...

''So this is Christmas.. and what have you done?'' the famous tune goes... Is it time to redefine our lifes or reboot them? Believers or not, Christmas is a sign of the Restart, the New Beginning, the Hope beneath everyday's struggle. It is a day of human feelings - the true feelings that protest our nature... and all these feelings can all fit in one beautiful word called Love... 

Believers or not, the Christmas spirit is inside us... Wherever you are, with whoever you may pass these days, the spirit of sharing, offering from the heart, helping and donating unconditionally love is here, and even only for these few days, gives a glimpse of how humanity should move on to another state of mind. I will not comment on the parasitic features of this spirit - concerning consuming etc - that as always are features of a system we have created and aims to make profit out of everything. The One message is that through the years, we the humans are still in need of days of love and solidarity that enrich us with the Hope of a better life to come... and as time passes for me too, I am still certain that this is the only way to go, the only goal worth living, the only dream I can still witness and smile each time I see these two words in action. 

How much better would our life be, if we'd have been living all year like Christmas time... 

Till next year, I wish we keep this spirit for a bit longer... Then wishes of peace, love and harmony would be useless, as we would live under these natural laws. 

Till next year, I wish you all, my brothers and sisters, to chase the life you deserve... Hang on Hope and let's take humanity one step beyond... 

Peace and Love,

C.K.

ESM: The European Stability Mechanism... Or maybe Slavery one??

 

The European Stability Mechanism is supposed to address the EU's ability to deal with the "economic crisis," but it turns out that this solution is even worse than the problem, if that's possible. It is apparently a totalitarian pact for a new European empire to be implemented within one to two years.

A new video (below) explains that the REAL import of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Apparently it calls for the creation of a fund of 700 billion euros that can be expanded at any time. It calls for a committee to administer this fund that is entirely above the law – one that can be neither prosecuted nor even questioned within a normal legislative venue.

It SOUNDS innocent enough when one doesn't delve into the details. Here's a description from Wikipedia:

Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism ... The European Stability Mechanism itself will be established by a treaty among the eurozone states: the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism.
According to this treaty, the European Stability Mechanism will be an intergovernmental organisation under public international law and will be located in Luxembourg. It would be open to other members to join and would be led by a Board of Governors.
On 16 December 2010 the European Council agreed to a two-line amendment (see below) to the treaty that would avoid any referendums. It would simply change the EU treaties to allow for a permanent mechanism to be established.

More lulling rhetoric, it would seem, disguising the real agenda. The EU was sold as a trade association. Later on it became a currency zone. Now it apparently seeks to become an Empire, complete with vassals and conquered territories sending unlimited amounts of tribute. You can see Anthony Wile's editorial on this issue in today's edition, entitled "Euro-Union Totalitarian Empire Emerges Full Blown With ESM?

 The Daily Bell

(Video from Abgeordnetencheck's YouTube user channel)

Which side are you on...?

"There's a battle between two wolves inside us all... 

One is Evil. 

 It's anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. 

The other is Good.

 It's joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness and truth."

"Which wolf wins...??? "

"The one you FEED!"

Old Cherokee Dialogue