Perceptions of time...

Author: Henrique Vedana
Published on Oct 24th, 2008
http://veds.nomadlife.org/

I watched a video a few days ago and I got totally blown-away. First of all the creativity, the imagination that allowed someone to come up with such a simple concept. Second, at the end, an amount of thoughts came to my mind and today I can't look at stones with the same way I used to!

First watch it yourself, it's the German animation video "Das Rad" (The Wheel), from 2002. It's only 8 minutes long:

What is my perspective of time? Is it real? What is time afterall? When we think a fly has a lifespan of 24-48 hours, who does't think "what a stupid short life!". How stupid short life is OURS, compared to our brothers from the movie... For sure short, too short to think it's important at all, but not stupid, to think it's not relevant. It's all we have!

Today as I get closer to my thirties, I realize that instead of thinking of time I rather think of timing, instead of hours, moments, instead of days, experiences... and stop worrying too much with the moss in my head! :P

CARPE DIEM :D

Choices

I'm currently reading Walden, by Henry Thoreau, and that makes me reflect a lot about choices we make in life.

Thoreau says "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone" and says he learned the walker is the fastest traveler. Whereas a working man works the whole day and pays the train to arrive somewhere else the next day, the walker walks the path, saves the ticket money and gains the experience.

On that same line, I watched a TV show last weekend called Troca de Família (Family Swap), at Record channel, where the Mum of a rich family swaps places with the Mum of a poor family for a week. The kids of the poor family were simple and fearless and the Dad took the new Mum for a boat trip, as he was friends with the boat owner. At some point he declared: "while other people work endlessly to make money to enjoy life, I enjoy life like a millionaire without stressing about the money".

I think these stories reaffirm that we always have a choice, and working long hours is one of them. If at some the activity becomes meaningless, it's much better to leave, enjoy the richness of possessing little and "live the life we have imagined".

Feelings outside in

Last week I had the pleasure of taking a course about Brazilian music, Which I guess could be described as an engaging two hours of hearing stories about some of the classic names of Brazilian music + singing their songs, led by two great musicians.

In love with music, one of the teachers expressed his special appreciation for this particular type of art which invades the listener. There's no way a person can "watch" a song; music always interacts with us in a different level, bringing remembrances, fostering daydreams and influencing on how we feel.

Reflect about that made me wonder why we tend to think we need a reason to be who we are and feel how we feel, when there are uncountable examples of "external" stimuli which influence our mood and / or the way we behave.

In one of his recent book (I think it is Blink), Malcolm Gladwell described he would arrive home angry after a whole afternoon practicing angry / upset / sad faces. Without a reason, anger would appear from the simple fact angry faces were being tried.

Even more impressive have been my yoga classes. Frequent physical exercises of chest opening, spine twisting, turning upside down and projecting the body forward have brought unbelievable benefits to practitioners when it comes to being more open and affectionate, becoming more flexible to different points of view, believing in ourselves and happily planning the future.

That is probably why in meditation we first learn how to maintain our bodies still before we are truly able to calm down our minds.

Blindness

Last night I had the pleasure of watching a strong but brilliant movie: Blindness, inspired on José Saramago's book and directed by Brazilian Fernando Meirelles. In the movie, people suddenly start to get blind. Suspecting the disease is contagious, the government sends all the new blinds to an ex insane asylum. As it fills up, issues like governance, lack of food and relationships start to arrise.

The whole situation made me thing about how oddly we are organised as a society, based on money, concentration of people, security systems and lack of trust, when everybody knows small cells of organisation based on care is always better.

Another thought persisting in my mind is what extreme situations do to human beings. I guess we often see dignity and values going down the drain. But we also witness love arising in the most unexpected moments.

And, finally, someone might ask: in a society where most of us is blind, what is the role of the few ones who see?

Cleverness, dare and luck

Last night, I was talking to my friend Vedana, recently back from 3 months in China. He told heaps of interesting stories, but I'm still processing the thoughts, so you can expect a post about it all soon.

One of the things that is easier to tell is the story of the picture of the student stopping the tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, one of the most famous photos in the world. The photographer was in his hotel window when he saw the scene and immediately realised there was something amazing going on. As soon as he shot his camera, he hid the tape under the toilet and kept on taking pictures. A few minutes later, soldiers invaded all the rooms and confiscated all the equipment. Luckily, they didn't flush the toilet.

When I heard that, I right away remembered the story involving another of the most famous images in our world, the picture of Kim Phuc running from a napalm bomb during the Vietnam War. That scene was captured by 2 journalists, who sent their material overseas for development, editing and publishing. One of the editors followed the rule of "no front nudism allowed" in newspapers and sent the pictures to trash. The other, noticing the potential impact of the pain captured in that picture decided to break the rules and publish it. It ended up strengthening the anti war movement and changing Kim Phuc's destiny for life.

These episodes make us wonder how many other changing opportunities we miss everyday and clearly tell us one single individual's cleverness, dare and luck can make a lot of difference.

Into the Wild

Definitely one of the best movies I've seen lately! And I'm not talking about the technical aspects (though they are really good), but about what it meant to me.

A young guy, searching for truth, leaves behind the theories from school, all the hypocritical relationships, his old car and all the money. He opens up himself completely, meets simple and diverse people along the way, builds a deep and trusting relationship with nature, keeps being free and grows fantastically in wisdom.

"So now, after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure.
The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution.
No longer to be poisoned by civilization, he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost... in the wild."


The soundtrack, written and sung by Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam leader), also freaked me out with parts such as:

"It's a mystery to me
we have a greed
with which we have agreed

You think you have to want
more than you need
until you have it all you won't be free

Society, you're a crazy breed
I hope you're not lonely without me"

More? Check out the Into the Wild official website and/or the clip below. And please leave your comments once you watch it.

Wisdom for the future

In this awesome video Gunter Pauli talks about designing a new system for the future, for

"The wisdom of the past is not the wisdom of today.
[...]
If we only teach our children what we know
they will only do as badly as we do."

Check it out!

New Zealand - Small is Beautiful

As I spend time in New Zealand, I quite like what I see. A place where:

- the Maoris (indigenous, who migrated from Polynesia 12 centuries ago) are acknowledged, respected and integrated in society;
- any person, independently of age or nationality, can have his/her opinion heard before a bill is introduced to be discussed in Parliament;
- economic freedom and transparency rates are amongst the highest in the world, while bureaucracy and taxes are relatively low;
- skilled foreigners (from builders to engineers) are super welcome;
- environmental conscience and practice is very advanced.

Noticing New Zealand combines some of the most important things a society could value - ethics, respect to nature and social integration - I started to wonder why it developed that way, differently from so many other places which struggled with corruption, wealth concentration, environmental disasters and violence.

I'm certainly not knowledgeable enough to have an answer for that, but it seems to me that the isolated environment, the small population, and especially the combination of the Maori deep respect to nature with the European ethics and hard work has a lot to do with that. More important than the foundations facts quoted above is the way they were integrated, with both Maori and Europeans fighting to maintain what they considered fundamental virtues, but also negotiating and giving in when it came to everything else - notably in the last 4 decades.


The inside of a Maori meeting centre

Beautiful Waiheke Island, a 35 min ferry ride from Auckland




The Parliament and the National Library




And here comes a story to illustrate the Maori relation with nature.

One day Rata
went into the forest
to cut down a totara tree
to build a canoe.

When he had finished
he went home to sleep.
During the night
the birds and insects
and fairy people of the forest
helped put Totara upright.

Again Rata cur him down
and again he stood up.
So Rata hid nearby and watched
then asked the children of Tane
"Why are you doing this to me?"

"Because you disobeyed
the laws of the forest.
First you must have a good reason
then you must ask permission
to cut down a child of Tane."

Rata was ashamed
and begged their forgiveness.
And so the children of Tane
helped Rata build his canoe.

The Noble Path

One of the books I read while travelling is called A fortune teller told me. It tells the story of Italian born Tiziano Terzani, a journalist in Asia who decided to follow the advice of a fortune teller from Hong Kong, who told him not to fly for one whole year.

The commitment changed his work profoundly: suddenly he couldn't cover breaking news, wars and unexpected events anymore, as it would take too long to get to the episode's site. Beyond that, the experience changed his perspective about life, places and relationships with others.

As Tiziano, I spent 7 weeks travelling to all corners of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia overland, taking old buses, crossing rivers and seas on boats and feeling some adrenaline flowing while on the back of motorbikes and tuk-tuks.

The fact that every trip takes many hours really changes things. Our commonly accelerated pace slows down and we appreciate the diversity and beauty of the landscapes around us. As well, our contact and conversations with people go much beyond a 5 minutes weather talk, once we have time to build trust and ask deeper questions.

If I would highlight one learning from this trip, I guess it would be the 4th Buddhist Noble Truth, which is the concept of Magga (or Middle Path). According to Buddha's teachings, Magga is the path leading to the cessation of suffering, consisting neither of sensual indulgence nor self mortification - and I would dare to say neither of religious extremism nor lack of spirituality; neither of government control nor economic single mindfulness; neither of deprivation of simple comforts nor empty advertising of goods; neither of lazy nor workaholic routine; neither of passiveness nor forcefulness.

Still according to Buddha, this Noble Path reveals itself in 3 steps: ethical conduct, mental development and wisdom. In my case, there's one thing I'm positive about: observation and reconnection to nature has a central role for pursuing such path, as for me there's nothing as tested, complex and beautiful as the intricate harmony of millions of years of dynamic equilibrium and constant re-creation. And nothing as calming and self correcting as the smell of the forest, the sounds of the birds and the sight of the underwater life.


Boat going to floating markets, Thailand

Communal breakfast in the NGO, Cambodia

Buddhist Monk in Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Waterfall in Luang Prabang, Laos

Life cycles

Behind its sophisticated, intellectual beauty, there is something profoundly simple, something archetypal and natural that reaches the heart without needing to pass through the head.
Tiziano Terzani, in A fortune teller told me, talking about Angkor

Some days ago I had the privilege of spending 14 hours (04:30 a.m. to 06:30 a.m.) in one of the most amazing architectural projects ever built by humankind: the ruins of Angkor, in Cambodia.

Erected between the 9th and the 13th centuries when the Khmer Empire was the main force in Southeast Asia, the temples (the only structures remaining, as the other constructions used less durable materials) were palaces of the ruling king-god. They commemorated Hindu, Buddhist and Animist figures (especially Vishnu, Shiva and Buddha) and had more or less the same general configuration: one main tower in the middle, various other towers nearby and a squared moat surrounding them. That's because the temples were the physical representation of the universe, where the gods sit on Mount Meru (the centre), amongst mountains and surrounded by the primordial ocean.

The uniqueness and richness of the details of the sculptures and bas-reliefs is unbelievable, as well and the grandeur of the constructions. Angkor Wat, for example, is 1,5 km X 1,3 km and its moat is 190m wide.

More than an isolated historical moment, Angkor for me represented the cycles of life: creation by a strong empire; fall of the empire and abandonment of the site; rediscovery centuries later (1863) by a French naturalist; partial destruction by the Khmer Rouge another century down the road; and finally the main symbol of a country, one that 1) attracts thousands of foreigners to visit Cambodia and 2) gives Cambodians a big reason for being proud, to the extent that they use the image on their national flag and the name in businesses, beer brands, guesthouses and any other possible opportunity.

This cycle feeling is especially strong in Ta Prohm, certainly my favourite site, where restoration was limited and the vegetation was mainly kept, showing that nature eventually takes over and life changes its forms, but never stops re-creating itself.

Sun rising behind Angkor Wat

Amazing architecture features in different temples

Giant tree taking over man made construction

A day in RDI Cambodia

We woke up at 6 a.m. and took advantage of the coolest hour of the day to go for a run. After uncountable hellos to friendly villagers, we came back to our bungalow, took a shower and headed to the local cafe to have breakfast with other 25 people, both locals and expats. I had the yummiest noodle soup and a fabulous iced coffee with condensed milk.

Arriving in the lab, I was introduced to the water monitoring program and spent a couple of hours helping to test the iron, manganese and arsenic levels of water from various sources. A run to the office closeby and I got to know my responsibility for that afternoon: draft a marketing plan for the expansion of the water purification program, a lot more in my field. After the communal lunch (this time in the NGO director's house), I dove into the plan, only being interrupted for some minutes because of the visit of the UNICEF global head of water projects.

6p.m. is dinner time, everybody together again. After that, 75 minutes of English class for the kids in the village, who were really interested in getting to know me. Back home, some meaningful conversations with my roommate, a bit o reading and bed!

I need to say I'm loving it! The community life, the shared meals and the short distances embrace us with such kindness that it's hard to describe. And working with smart, independent and idealistic people who are happy to dedicate their time for a cause and for the others is always a big pleasure. Maybe that's why all the expats are extending their stay. And perhaps that could be my life, too...

Visiting the Khmer Rouge killing fields

From 1975 to 1979 (yes, this recently!), the Khmer Rouge regime exterminated over 3 million people in Cambodia, notably ex government officials and "intellectuals" (teachers, educated people, people wearing glasses, etc). The method was ruthless: after some time in gruesome jails, weak prisoners would be transported in trucks to killing fields. Blindfolded, they would stand on the edge of a massive hole, would be strongly hit on the back of the neck and fall into their death graves (in case they weren't yet dead, some poisonous chemicals - also used to avoid the decomposing smell - and the burial would finish the job).

Digging to understand the context behind such cruelty, one might find a determined leader with a strong vision for his country. What Pol Pot wanted, seemingly, was a place based on agriculture, simple, where everybody would be the same and have enough - not a bad idea in itself.

Obviously, there was a lot wrong with the execution. The new regime didn't allow "dissidents", and we all know it's impossible to have everybody thinking the same. Even worse was the fact that, as most dictatorships, the system assumed all governmental decisions would be good; therefore all the force and power was concentrated and all civil mechanisms to guarantee basic values or legal actions to remove the leaders was nonexistent.

I guess we value democracy more and more when we are faced with these horrendous historical moments. Although it might be slower and more controversial in decision making - and in economic development, one may say - it theoretically never trespasses some essential values, such as (depending on the country) life, freedom, equality or family.

For the leaders-to-be, I guess there is a lesson to be learnt: the end does NEVER justify cruel means. We can never build an equal society with unequal respect to people's ideas and lives. In the end of the day, how can we foster happiness if not with love and consistent good actions?

Does tourism save or destroy culture?

Since I started this trip, one question has always been on my mind: does tourism save or destroy culture?

We all know that tourism interferes in the local culture: brings points of view from all over the world; injects money into the economy; stimulate constructions; demands the presence of ATMs; stretches business hours; puts a price in handicrafts and traditional arts expressions; etc.

Therefore, a tourist destination is more likely to have the presence of global brands, but also more money to support local cuisine and arts (there wouldn't be tons of Thai food courses in Chiang Mai or daily Vietnamese traditional dance performances in Hue without travellers). In the same way, it's very probable that the life of a touristic town be less simple and less community based; however, its residents will possibly have more access to goods and comforts than before.

In the book "Once while travelling", Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler - a travel enthusiast himself - brings up some interesting points:

The First World may have exported McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hit, but we've brought back Thai, Mexican and Japanese food to balance those exports.

and

...it's very patronising for those of us in the developed world to think people should maintain a simples life to please us: 'It was so nice when you didn't have electricity and cars and motorcycles and life was simple.' I've yet to see a Third World village that didn't rejoice when electricity arrived or cheer when they could enjoy motorcycles traffic jams instead of walking to work.

I don't have an answer to the original question above. Probably tourism both saved and destroys culture. What I'm sure of is we shouldn't measure its impact just through the material gains of the visited societies, as often cars, electronics and money don't represent a better life. Perhaps a better indicator would be the tolerance and cultural understanding raised through individuals' direct contact, especially in times of fear and unjustifiable wars.


Kao San, the crowded backpackers' street in Bangkok, Thailand

Magnificent forest on the way to an Akha village in northern Laos

The stories we tell

In this trip I realised I'm a constant observer and enthusiastic student of the stories, tales and legends we pass forward, much more than clothing, ceramics or even architecture. Perhaps that interest is always present because it strongly determine our perception of reality (maybe even more than unquestionable facts), as 2 situations happened today illustrate.

First, in the morning, I went to the National Museum (ex Revolutionary Museum), which tells Laos' history since pre-history until the present days. Unsurprisingly, it elevates figures like Marx, Engels, Mao, Ho Chi Minh and other chiefs of state of socialist countries.

On the other hand, one can easily perceive some resentment against the French and - what called my attention the most - a super friendly approach towards the Dutch of the East Indias Company, but an extremely hard naming of the US forces (puppet soldiers of the imperialism), even if their interests in Laos weren't too far apart.

In the afternoon, I joined a meditation session in the Wat Sok Pa Luang. Concentration demanded extra effort, as the monks were building a foot path 10 meters away, therefore doing a lot of noise. That moment represented daily life for me: heaps of things urging our attention (including advertisements with its intangible and unreal promises associated with products, which use persuasive stories and visual effects that make them sound essential), while the real and important things are slipping between our fingers, lacking our accurate perception, integrity and discipline.

No stress vs. War

Experiencing the tranquility of Laos is amazing! Nobody is ever stressed and always ready to adapt to all situations - e.g. transform one's dining room into a restaurant or wait 5 hours for a bus to have enough passengers.

We read some anthropologist saying that the "no stress" / "life exists to be enjoyed" culture is so strong that people are totally not encouraged to work or even study too hard, a fact that is pretty different compared to other Asian cultures.

I imagine how confronting was a war in such a place. The big population of villagers - who in reality don't feel any difference if the country is communist or capitalist - would probably find violence very alien and the fact that another country would waste a lot of money and human lives in such a theoretical mission just insane.

Time and space

In "The Universe in a Nutshell", Stephen Hawking explains the physics of the inexistence of time and space. In his example, if one twin person would stay on Earth and the other would travel in the universe in the speed of light, when they meet again, at some point in the future, they would have lived different amounts of time.

If I look back, I think I've lived a lot in these almost 14 months. I've worked with very competent people; spoken English all the time; taken part in various outdoors events; spent time in the city, in the desert, in the bush and under the water; eaten great Asian food and TimTams; made friends with people from all around the world; tested my physical limits; and explored my spirituality, all that in an extremely safe environment.

In such a fertile space, I guess I've learnt to appreciate simplicity, to be humble, to engage people without having any title, to understand the world a bit better and specially to be more serene in order to accept the present and make the best from it, without worrying too much - "no worries, mate!"

For all those reasons, it's hard not to have mixed feeling about going back. My intuition tells me I'm doing the right thing, though. So "it should be all right!"

Anyway, my relative time in this abstract Aussie land felt absolutely great! So thank you!

Self drive and coincidences

The great feedback session I had today with my company's director made me keep on thinking on a part of the Alice in the Wonder World story, which I remembered earlier this week.
Alice: Which road should I take?
Rabbit: Where are you going to?
Alice: I don't know.
Rabbit: Then it doesn't matter.

I think there's no doubt we need to be very driven and decide the course of our careers and lives. But what about the coincidences?

A couple of weeks ago, I received a bulk mail from an acquaintance I admire asking to fill in a survey. I didn't fill it in, but replied to him. He happily responded telling he was helping to set up a development consulting program focused on governments in Latin America. It obviously made my eyes shine! We exchanged a few more emails and last night had a great skype conversation about the opportunities there, to which I'm likely to apply. All because of a bulk email!

So, do things really happen because we choose or because coincidences guide us there? The Celestine Prophecy (book by James Redfield) would say there are no coincidences and every single person we meet carries a message for us.

I'm not sure about every single person, but I'm getting more and more confident that when we keep our nagging questions in mind and are alert for all the happenings around us, things effectively move fast and amazingly, as if the whole world was conspiring for it!

West Wing - commerce vs. ethics

I’ve been watching quite a lot of the West Wing recently, an American series that shows the routine of a fictitious President of the United States and its close staff.

It’s impressive how arts can subtly introduce messages in our minds. I found myself thinking about commerce solving some important democracy problems, when I would normally defend a less financial and more conscientious approach to the problem.

Anyway, as even the West Wing has its critique moments, look at a dialogue happened in the Chapter 11 of Season 7, discussing exactly this commerce vs. ethics issue.

Context: The White House is negotiating an oil commercial sanction against Sudan in order to avoid genocide. The agreement goes against China’s economic interests.

Chinese Ambassador: You know what I think about a lot? Capitalism vanquished Communism. Obliterated it. And here we are having a discussion where you are trying to restrict our markets.

White House Chief of Staff: We are trying to address a humanitarian situation in the Sudan.

Chinese Ambassador: Exactly. But you have always taught us that liberty is the same thing as Capitalism. As if life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot be crushed by greed. Your American dream is financial, not ethical.

White House Chief of Staff: This is a good deal for the Chinese. I hope you’ll consider it carefully.

Chinese Ambassador: Of course.

White House Chief of Staff: Thank you.

Chinese Ambassador: No, thank you. You have taught us well.

Explaining the new name of my blog - Eudaimonia

I've been thinking about changing the name of my blog for a while, as I would like it to be about something more important than myself (the previous name was Gabi Werner).

Reading a book, I came across the concept of Eudaimonia; found it clear, touching and revealing; and immediately headed to the library in order to explore it's original source - The Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle. Check what it's all about:

Eudaimonia is the WELL BEING that comes through the ACTIVITY in accordance with the excellence of the BEST PART OF US.

When I read the book, I was sure I had found what I was looking for. If you want to understand the idea a little further, explore the breakdown below and perhaps the original text by Aristotle.

Eudaimonia: this Greek word is used to refer to the life that is most desirable or satisfying. Therefore, it's the objective of each person, generally translated into English as "happiness" or "well being".

Eudaimonia is an end in itself: discussing who is the "happy man", Aristotle identifies 3 popular views of the nature of life. 1) Life is pleasure; 2) Life is honour; 3) Life is making money. But none of them are according to virtue, either because it doesn't consider its sources and impacts (1 & 3) or because it depends on an external recognition (2). Therefore, the happy life should be of a fourth nature, a contemplative life, an activity of the soul in according with virtue (both moral and intellectual).

Eudaimonia is not a state, but an activity: eudaimonia is not a state or a feeling of amusement (as the word happiness may imply). That's because it's not short-lived, it's not external to ourselves and it's dependent on how we do what we do (coherency).

Best part of us: it's our virtues, which differ us from other living beings. It comprises both moral and intellectual excellence, as well as both practical and theoretical wisdom. The consistent practice of these virtues is Eudaimonia.

Lovely weekend in Brisbane

I’ve been to Brisbane this last weekend. The weather didn’t make justice to the capital of the sunshine state, but it was certainly lovely anyway.

Quality time with Brett for riding bikes, seeing the contemporary art centre, watching movies and enjoying each others’ company and catch up with wonderful Anh, after 9 months in Cambodia, a broken fist and a Portuguese love story.

Talking to Anh, the development work issue surely arose. We discussed how it seems to be the right thing to dedicate one’s career to, as it directly addresses fundamental issues. On the other hand, it so many times doesn’t work, neither for the professionals, nor for the communities!

Facing that, Daniel Quinn would probably say that "kids don't follow the circus to give up about things”. So I guess we need to listen to our intuition more often and consciously follow our circus.

Heading for the future

Lots of people amongst my group of friends are finishing important phases in life and / or taking important decisions. So 10 days ago we organised a friends gathering / heading for the future conference. Objectives:
- self assessment and reflection
- inspiration and next steps planning
- having a good time close to friends and nature!
Cool, isn't it?

Kana, Josh and Lucy were great in leading us through this journey and I need to confess the outcomes were stronger than I could predict. Deep reflections about entrepreneurship and sense of belonging vs. current state are still in my mind.

One of the main insights for me was to realise that the "time in a company before I do something else" might not only not deliver the money, skills or anything else we say we seek, but kill the entrepreneurship spirit, which is probably the most important thing, as we need to be sort of domesticated in those environments.

If you were paid, you can’t complain!

Last weekend, I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art – MCA in Sydney, to check the Latin American temporary exhibition. Amongst lots of amazing stuff reflecting the culture, strong sentiments and socio-political tensions in the region, one piece called me my attention. A Spanish artist, realising how little Mexican workers earned, paid 465 of them to crowd up an art gallery room and spend the day there. Unfamiliar with the environment, the workers first felt confused, but got increasingly comfortable in the place. The underlining message was: if you were paid to do something, you’re not supposed to discuss or complain – you were paid how much you’re worth for your time and that's it.

Seems an exaggeration?

During this week, I’ve been taking part on corporate workshops, facilitated by the consultancy I work for. Unfortunately, the Spanish artist was not amplifying the problem. Amongst almost 30 very smart people in the room, I couldn’t see one single individual with a strong purpose to be there. Conversations floated around processes, competitors, profitability and I’m pretty confident I wasn’t the only one bored. Can individuals change the whole idea of a corporation existence? Can the companies create systems which inspire people to give their bests for something worthwhile? The only thing clear to me at this point is that selling biscuits and poker machines doesn’t stimulate the best in people. (Once I read a very wise phrase, with which I couldn't agree more: money doesn't inspire the best people nor the best in people.)

But, in the end of the day, all of us were getting paid to be there. So perhaps we can’t complain...

How to be creative

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is changing.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.

24. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

31. Remain frugal.



Source: http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html

Guns, Germs and Steel

I recently read a book by Jared Diamond called Guns, Germs and Steel. It intends to explain the world we live today through the humankind’s history in the last 13.000 years. Although it’s quite environmentally deterministic, there are some things that might deserve our attention:

- Colonies ended up being dominated because of the technologically advanced guns and fatal diseases carried by the Europeans, consequences of the centralised power and animals’ domestication respectively, as well as large population. All this factors, however, were only possible because of agriculture, which permitted work specialisation;

- In the evolution of human gathering from band to tribe to chiefdom to state (always growing bigger, more centralised and more complex), important problems we have nowadays, especially wealth concentration, hyper exploration of natural resources, violence and lack of “humanity feeling”, all started in the chiefdom phase, 7,500 years ago. Then, population gathering achieved thousands, decisions making was centralised and people didn’t know everybody else anymore (if a New Guinean happened to encounter an unfamiliar New Guinean while both were away from their villages, the two engaged in a long discussion of their relatives, in an attempt to establish some relationship and hence some reason why the two should not try to kill each other). If the population size of evolution is controlled, is nowadays complexity actually inverting the centralisation aspect

- Why would an elite gain popular support while maintaining a more comfortable life than commoners? Kleptocrats have resourted to a mixture of four solutions:
1. Disarm the population and arm the elite
2. Make the masses happy by distributing much of the tribute received in popular ways
3. Use the monopoly of force to maintain public order, curb violence and therefore promote happiness
4. Construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy

- Early government centralisation (221 B.C.) helped China to lead numerous technology advancement, amongst which sit gunpowder, the wheel, a writing system and the ship industry. On the other hand, due to political disputed in the 15th century, many advancements – notably the naval industry – were discontinued. In that case, centralisation was pretty bad. So the lesson seems to be a little bit of everything in moderation, i.e. government to organise consensual big projects, but not to stop the entrepreneurial endeavours of inventors and adventurous.

I haven’t yet organised many other thoughts in my mind...

End of the Australian CSIRO Sustainability Network

Since I arrived in Australia, I’ve been part of a Sustainability virtual network, fed by Elisabeth Heiji from CSIRO, an intelligent, sensitive and very coherent woman. Today the 14.000 people participating in the network received the newsletter with a note saying that was the last one, as CSIRO considered the program a proved success and would move resources to new initiatives.

I’d like to share with you some parts of Elisabeth’s last words to the network:

“Looking around, I see many of us thinking about sustainability – we may even be involved with it in our professional lives – but, whether as a result of inertia, complacency, the entrenched social systems around us, or a mixture of all of these, we are collectively doing very little personally in our homes and lifestyles. Actions such as replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents and installing low-flow shower heads barely scratch the surface and, furthermore, are consumerist solutions based on trading new goods for old. They fail to tackle the very basic issue of our reverence for the natural world and behaviour towards it. When change occurs at this more intrinsic level, it can radically transform for the better both our own wellbeing and our environmental footprint.”

She also quoted Manfred Lenzen saying that “troubling is the fact that research has indicated that there is little correlation between knowledge and concern and action: emissions attributable to households are strongly linked to consumer spending, which doesn’t seem to be affected by environmental issues, even when these issues and problems are well known by those households”

If welfare doesn’t improve our harmony with the planet, why a bigger government?

If wealth doesn’t really bring comfort for societies, why focus on economic development?

And the biggest of all:

If education doesn’t drive action, what does? Should we use the consumerism and create trends and fashions? Should we restrict our freedom and impose certain behaviours through law? Or should we finally accept that we only radically change in extreme situations?

What do you think?

Poems & quotes #6: Great quotes by amazing female AIESEC alumni

Because "normal" people say awesome things all the time...


"Learn to dance with the universe. My experience – increasingly – over the past several years is that we can learn to work in tune with the universe. Often when we are in flow, things don't actually come from us, but rather come through us, and it is our work to learn how to be this channel, and how to access flow."
Marianne Knuth


"Think about it ... is life something different than a journey where day after day we have the right to choose who we want to be? And who we want to be is driven by our dreams. Let´s be conscious around that and be clear that dreams are realities and they are not buzzwords! Let´s enjoy this constant activity of exploring and taking choices and let these choices be the guardians of our dreams. If we approach life like that, I am pretty sure there is always a reason to wake up every day with a smile and with this emotion on our hearts that we feel when we are so close to our dreams."
Oriana Torres

World Press Photo

Last weekend I went to the State Library to watch the World Press Photo prize winners.

World Press Photo is a non profit that organises the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest. Prizewinning photographs are assembled into a traveling exhibition that is visited by over two million people in some 45 countries worldwide. The idea is to develop photojournalism and consequently enlarge people's conscience.

As you can imagine, the exhibition is impacting. Amongst all the very interesting facts and stories featuring news, contemporary dramas, sports, nature and people, one picture called a lot my attention. It was taken by Espen Rasmussen, from Norway, and shows over 3,000 people gather for Friday prayers facing icy winter conditions to pray at the ruins of the main mosque in Balakot, Pakistan, one of the towns worst hit by the Kashmir earthquake.

That picture transmitted a sense of wrong and injust; but also a strength coming from an incredible faith, that makes people pass through one more disaster, overcome another unfairness and pray for a better future. Better than what? Was this dream possible at any point of our history? How do out minds work so unreasonably?

See the picture here (can't publish it here because of the copyright).

Tipping pont

Have you ever thought why some good ideas become big successes while others as good just don’t happen? Have you ever wondered why some trends just abruptly increase or decrease as some point, without a clear drastic change in the factors influencing it?

It’s more or less the following: there are 50 people with a disease that lasts 1 day. They get in touch with 50 people every day and the contagiousness rate is 2%. This means there are going to be 50 sick people every day. If they start having contact with less people, the number of people infected will slowly decrease. However, if in winter people start having contact with 51 other people in average (just 1 more person), there are going to be 61 people infected (and counting) in 10 days. Epidemic has started!

A book called Tipping Point by Malcolm Grandwell tries to bring some insights about the patterns of such tipping points: who is involved? How do the ideas spread? What’s the underlying context?

One of the interesting examples is the decreasing criminality rates of New York in the 90s, following a continuous increase of the previous 3 decades. According to Grandwell, the drop was due to the application of the Broken Window theory, which says that if you’ve got a house with a broken window and don’t repair it, soon you’re going to have another broken window, people will think the house is abandoned, other things are going to be destroyed and rapidly you’re going to have just ruins of what was a house. In practice, this means that murders and rapes in New York were fought through combating small well being infractions, such as graffiti, not payments of public transport fares, peeing in streets, leaving trash in inappropriate areas and so on.

To say the least, it was very interesting…

Aboriginal Conceptual Beliefs

Getting prepared for the desert trip we’re taking in 2 weeks time, I started reading about Aboriginal history and myths.

Talking about conception, Aborigines believed that in the beginning the world was an immense featureless flat floating disc. On tjukurita times, mythical giant creatures appeared. They had many similarities with aboriginal rituals and life style and planted an inexhaustible number of eternal spirit children .

Tjukurita era finished and the giant creatures died, but natural features stand where they’ve performed any tasks. This way, the mythical snake man became a watercourse, the camps of mythical creatures are now mountain ranges, and so on.

The spirit children – independent beings, about the size of a sand grain, who will became the children – o continued living in some welcoming spot, until they choose their mother and enter her body to develop into a child.

I found this story amazing because it, at the same time, sees humans as part of nature, children as community blessings and the individual as an independent decision capable being, since early times. I guess our scientific society has a lot to learn with the native inhabitants of this planet.

Arts and the new emerging paradigm

Some days ago I went to a beautiful, beautiful dance show, inserted into the Chinese New Year's celebrations and performed by awards winners chinese dancers.

As I was watching and sensing the show, I started connected it to what I've been studying recèntly. Many of the great authors I've been reading - Capra, Senge, Wheatly, etc - relate the newest organisational learning theories with science, especially biology, and nature, generally referring to the non-human aspects of it.

As I saw the chinese dance - and remember my times dancing in a high quality dance group, I figured out that humans also understand what that interdepence and holistic view mean, and constantly express that through art. That's nothing more interdependent than a great dance group: for being successful, it needs a great group of musicians (already depending on each other) and a good amount of dancers, each one with a specific role to play, with no space
for individualism, in the name of harmony and beauty.

It seems like we have a lot to learn with our culture, emotions and intuition. Maybe we should dance more often...

Convergence

Talking about the book (Presence), it's not only fanstastic, but its magic involved me since I touched the book. Look at the story I wrote to AIESEC International recently, for the purpose of a case study.

"This last week I had the opportunity to witness a fantastic moment of convergence. Everything started when I discovered a new great library in Sydney and borrowed a book related to sustainability and learning organisations, subjects I've been studying deeply since a certain point of my AIESEC experience.

From the library, I went directly to the house of the Romanian intern, Salma, who was hosting a Russian night, organised by another intern, Marina.

Arriving there, I met some members of the sustainability learning group we created here in Sydney, who automatically got interested in the book, as well as Mel and Ausra from the national committee of AIESEC in Australia, who recently looked for theoretical references about organisational development, read the book and got absolutely excited about it.

On the next day, Cornelia, the AIESEC International leader of the virtual corporate responsibility team I'm part of, sent us a website as inspiration for our next steps in engaging AIESEC leaders in the initiative, which was based in the exact same concepts.

Breathless with the coincidence, I sent the book recommendation to my Brazilian AIESEC mates, as well as to the CSR Directors of ERM and Philips in Latin American, with whom I worked last year as External Relations Director and who were absolutely thrilled about receiving the indication. They responded right away, asking for a conceptual discussion and for more news from my side.

I guess this little story, happened in 2 days-time, represents a bit what AIESEC has been to me: a fantastic space to discover myself and the world, and especially a place where I can find extraordinary people, who are converging to build something beautiful!

PS: Just as I finish writing this story, I receive a post card from Henrique, alumnus currently in Denmark, inviting me to start a practical entrepreneurial initiative about learning organisations in Brazil. Apparently the building phase has already started!"

Presence, by Peter Senge

I recently started reading a book that is seriously one of the most amazing I've read. Especially because it's connects so well with my moment: integrating sustainability, learning organisations, community impact, spirituality and a search for some sort of way out.

Some quotations about the book:

If you form and hold your intent strongly enough, it becomes true.
Srikumar

Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margared Mead

If you know what's right, you don't need to make decisions. If you know what's right, it's just for you, and you do it.
Ackerman

Do you think you can take over
the universe and improve upon it?
You cannot improve it.
In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.
Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
Lao Tzu

And my favorites:

Our capacity for democracy grows from our connection with nature. As we lose that connection, isolation, fear, and the need to control grow - and democracy inevitably deteriorates.

When people who are actually creating a system start to see themselves as the source of their problems, they invariably discover a new capacity to create results they truly desire.
Peter Senge

Reflection: Interconnections

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about what we can really and effectively do in order to improve our world a little bit. His point was that everything was extremely intricate that all changes didn’t seem to impact the system substantially.

Last night I went to the movies to watch Babel. In the same line as Traffic and Crash, the film shows different apparently independent situations, which are amazingly interconnected and influencing each other importantly.

All the three movies talk about the schizophrenia and inequality of our society. The interesting fact is that all the situations can be understood if analysed in isolation, but can never be genuinely comprehended or accepted in the broader context.

Adding to all this the facts that many people behave properly (in terms of fairness of their relations with other people and the world around them) and that some other feel the need to do something truly meaningful and transformativ