Procastination and Enlightment!

Do I make a differnce in this world?

Today I have been to the cinema and watched ”Baader-Meinhof Complex”, a story about German terrorists who created the RAF. They killed and where killed, took hostages, robbed banks, organized several bomb attacks and had major media appearances whenever they caused trouble. I am a pacifist, which means that I do not support any action connected to violence. Still, movies like this one make me think about the thin line of opposition behavior. I understand their rage, even though I do not support their actions.

One of the things that impresses me is the fact that the RAF had quite a lot of female members who fought equally with men. When I see women in my age, a lot of them are only concerned about their outer appearance and not what is inside their heads. They care about fashion, soap operas and their social connections. Who made out with whom at the last party, how many pages did we have to work through in our last class, and who’s boyfriend has just cheated? I don’t care. Where are the ideals gone women fought for in the last century? Today’s western female takes history’s achievements for granted and rests on the rights that where achieved so long ago. When you look at the election in the USA, people had to chose between a “colored” and a female candidate for the Liberals. The people chose the man, I support Obama, don’t get me wrong, I just want to underline that women have a long way to go. I am disgusted by drunken girls, who barely wear anything and then show off their independence, while they go home with some random boy. I doubt that this is the kind of emancipation I want.

The second thing, I began to think about, are the scenarios these people made about the future: we will live in a police state, media will dictate our lives, we will be animated to consume as much as possible, while the imbalance becomes bigger and bigger, and people in other parts of the world have to receive the consequences of our luxury world. Take a look into our current society. I grew up with stories of my parents and what they did while they were young and at the university. They reflected about their society and discussed alternatives to their way of life. They taught me that young people are the ones to make a difference, with their ideals of a reality they want to live in. This was one of the reasons why I was so eager to enter the university. I got incredibly disappointed of how life as a student looks today. In our Bachelor/ Master system we are forced to study as focused and fast as possible. Instead of an universal education, are we now faced with specialized study lines. We have to get prepared for our working life in which we need to perform and create growth, this is the only goal now. People are not encouraged any longer to reflect on their society, they also do not find the motivation themselves. They are overwhelmed with media everywhere which tells them about what happens in the world and which threats there are. Today it is alternative to use an Apple computer instead of the Microsoft supporters. We show what we are and what we stand for through consuming and there are but little groups who resist against this. I can see the effects of this consuming society on myself: instead of reading a book, I watch TV, I already think about which new mobile I will choose in August and I want to have green sneakers that would fit this one skirt of mine perfectly. I am impressed about the great apartment I will move into in Copenhagen and its super huge plasma TV. In moments like this right now, where I see clear, what I am doing wrong, I regret the above mentioned actions. These are moments where I want to quit everything, move to some crappy apartment in Berlin and write the books I have in my head.

Now you might ask yourself, why I am doing the things I do. Why am I not participating in demonstrations against G8 or chain myself on rail tracks to stop the transport of atomic waste? My problem there is that I cannot really see results, the influence is too little. Instead I am part of AIESEC, whose vision is “peace and fulfillment of humans kind potential”. If we enabled people around the world in every part of society to unfold their potential, I believe we can create peace and a better world. What I do not support with AIESEC are some of the organizations we work with and how we thus compromise our vision. I do not think that companies like Unilever create peace, they create capital. That’s all. They want success and attract people who want success. This success is only reserved for the best, for the privileged and does not support fulfillment of human’s kind potential. And members of AIESEC participate in huge G8 like assemblies of students because they think that this creates more chances for other people. The reason why many companies engage socially is first and foremost their own monetary growth and not because they want to make a difference. And this is why I am skeptical toward all this growth talk I mentioned in my last entry. AIESEC for me has the ideal ground for reflecting about the world we live in and a lot of organizations we corporate with are great. I sometimes ask myself if I am doing the right thing, being a member of AIESEC, but when I meet people that inspire me and support my thoughts, I get reassured. It is up to us what we make out of our experience and mine will be to enable and inspire people to make a difference. I think I have found my way to have this impact: words.

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Is growth equal to success?

Right now I am sitting at the AIESEC office down in the dungeons of my university and trying to concentrate on my assignment I have to hand in next week, a crucial key to my Bachelor degree. Unfortunately, I do not really know how to grasp the assignment, yet. So I am currently faced with a black out.
I am going to use my empty brain to reflect on a theme I have spent some thoughts on already, but never really let them out on paper. Firstly I do not think that I am a very educated person when it comes to economy or social systems, but I still care about the use of the term "growth". I mean, I am a linguist and words are my business, especially the understanding of these. Do you remember the last time you used the term "growth"? You grow as a person, your fortune may grow, an economy should grow. Growth is seen as a positive movement, the bigger the better.
I come from an organization, where a lot of success is measured in growth, but where personal development is a key learning experience. If our exchange rates grow, we must be doing good and if we grow fast, it seems even better. At the same time I hear stories of people going to another country to work, who do not get an apartment directly, whose job description is very different from the actual work they are doing. Would it be better to deliver less life changing experiences with a higher quality? We are working hard on delivering quality and grow at the same time, and I suppose it is similar in most other organizations.
Personally I want to grow in this fluffy hard to measure way, I want to evolve into a person with a positive impact in the world. But at the same time I think that this urge to grow makes us western people greedy and in want for more. Do we really have to choose between so many options? Growth is perceived negatively when it comes to diseases, cancer that grows is a bad sign. Here, shrinking is the desire of both patient and doctor.
Last week I have been to a conference, where a lot of Danish business hot shots where present and the theme of the day was "How to use the Financial Crisis in a positive Manner". One of the key speakers was the HR director of Roskilde Bank, Søren Enggaard. The bank was worst hit by the financial crisis, no one even wanted to buy it. They struggled their way onto secure ground by firing a lot of staff and getting bought in the end by three other Danish banks. The task of the current staff is to try and make as little loss as possible and prepare the organization to be handed over by 2012. Søren Enggaard said that this was the most exciting work experience he ever had. His bank has now costumers who also are hard beaten by the crises and growth is not their goal at all.
In times like these we are facing new challenges. Generally the western countries do not grow in population (just another success factor), this is achieved by immigration. On a global level, world population grows massively and especially in countries who do not have the resources to feed all their inhabitants. With the current perception of growth, only a small part of this world is able to enjoy luxuries like education, electricity and food. We need to redefine what success means to us and if growth has to be connected to us as individuals, organizations, or countries. What if my work in Denmark would be able to create growth in Gambia? Success should be accessible to more than the current small elite, because there are great minds out there with the ability to change the world, but with the lack of resources.
Personally, I do not want my growth to cause reduction in other parts of the world, and if that means that I have to pay three times the price for a banana, I would be happy to do so.