Introduction
Survival and Happiness seem to be the two main goals of the living world on planet earth. Some people might argue that reproduction is right up there also, however this paper will concentrate on the first two only. We humans (can’t talk about animals and plants ) do not seem to be doing extremely well on either of the two lately. Consequently we might want to consider changing something! A precondition to effect change is to first realize that one is needed. Once the realization sinks in then someone or some people need to decide how they will attempt to course correct.
A critical question that relates to this is : who exactly should feel responsible to steer the world in the right direction? Should we look for an answer at the individual level, should we look for communities, countries, nations, International Organizations to step up to the plate and bring happiness and fulfillment to the world? As usual the answer of difficult philosophical questions with two extreme options probably lies somewhere in the middle. A top-down approach should meet a bottom-up approach and thus include everyone on the planet. The attempt of this article will be to examine everyone’s potential (groups and individuals) to support the drive for positive change. In doing this we need to create a way to measure progress. Progress can be defined in financial terms and in achievements of the people as individuals or as members of a larger group such as a country.
Back to defining our full potential though. What does that mean exactly? Will we ever? Is it a destination or a journey? The answer is there is indeed a destination that can be defined, and if we arrive together as humanity a “game-changing niveau” will be reached.
Hierarchy of needs
If the basic needs of humans are not fulfilled then we will not find time to evolve and reach our full potential or course correct. Check out the two graphs below from Dr. Jan Callebaut one of the founders of the Censydiam Institute in Belgium (currently a Synovate Business Unit):
I apologize for the bad quality of the visuals. If you leave me a comment with your email address I will send to you a clean copy as a pdf.
Survival and Happiness seem to be the two main goals of the living world on planet earth. Some people might argue that reproduction is right up there also, however this paper will concentrate on the first two only. We humans (can’t talk about animals and plants ) do not seem to be doing extremely well on either of the two lately. Consequently we might want to consider changing something! A precondition to effect change is to first realize that one is needed. Once the realization sinks in then someone or some people need to decide how they will attempt to course correct.
A critical question that relates to this is : who exactly should feel responsible to steer the world in the right direction? Should we look for an answer at the individual level, should we look for communities, countries, nations, International Organizations to step up to the plate and bring happiness and fulfillment to the world? As usual the answer of difficult philosophical questions with two extreme options probably lies somewhere in the middle. A top-down approach should meet a bottom-up approach and thus include everyone on the planet. The attempt of this article will be to examine everyone’s potential (groups and individuals) to support the drive for positive change. In doing this we need to create a way to measure progress. Progress can be defined in financial terms and in achievements of the people as individuals or as members of a larger group such as a country.
Back to defining our full potential though. What does that mean exactly? Will we ever? Is it a destination or a journey? The answer is there is indeed a destination that can be defined, and if we arrive together as humanity a “game-changing niveau” will be reached.
Hierarchy of needs
If the basic needs of humans are not fulfilled then we will not find time to evolve and reach our full potential or course correct. Check out the two graphs below from Dr. Jan Callebaut one of the founders of the Censydiam Institute in Belgium (currently a Synovate Business Unit):
I apologize for the bad quality of the visuals. If you leave me a comment with your email address I will send to you a clean copy as a pdf.
The two illustrations shown here suggest that it is a luxury to look for spirituality and reaching our full potential when the main concern is: will I find something to eat today? This in-turn suggests that if all of us are to be working toward reaching our full potential as humanity, the stronger should help the weaker catch up. This would represent a combination of a bottom-up and a top-down approach. First people that “get it” – and can afford to - help their families/communities/ countries reach their potential by participating in “cause driven movements” or government, and then these countries help other countries/governments to help their people fulfill their basic needs so that they can also enjoy the “luxury” of spirituality.The Individual
Let’s start with bottom-up. How can an individual help drive positive change?
Here is a continuum for you to consider:
Individualist --- family focused --- community focused --- country focused --- Global Citizen
Here is another one:
Global Citizen --- Patriot --- Nationalist --- Jingoist---Fascist
Here is how the two can be combined:
What is Patriotism’s role in reaching our potential as members of a nation, and as citizens, as inhabitants of the planet Earth, as life forms of this universe?
Patriotism, even though conventional thinking has it as a very positive state of mind, sits on the crossroads of divisiveness if you look at the illustration above. Being a patriot is a thing of the past in the author’s humble opinion. In today’s evolutionary stage of our planet there is no place for patriots. Being patriotic is a very dangerous state of mind that can lead to conflict. It is hypocritical for Christians to say they are Christians and at the same time to support the existence of an army in their country under the guise of patriotism. If turning the other cheek is what defines Christianity then how can any Christian argue that a country needs an army (I only mention the Christianity as an example I am sure the same hypocrisy exists in other religions/states)?
Having said all that we should not confuse patriotism with being proud of our heritage and culture. Diversity is a positive element and it needs to be maintained. To be a global citizen does not mean to live in a “flat” World. It means to be able to accept each other’s culture and heritage and at the same time steer towards a convergence of ideas when it comes to achieving our full potential.
So is being patriotic an anathema for “world positive change”? Ekhardt Tolle the author of “New Earth” is telling us along with many other enlightened (in my opinion) humans that on our planet we are all one. He also says that unless we realize that and come together the earth is doomed to destruct (global warming, weapons of mass destruction, hunger, disease etc.). The answer to the patriotism question is: we should avoid terms/emotions/states that separate us. We should enter a new era that will help us get to a “New Earth” the way Ekhardt very eloquently describes in his book. We should use new terms instead, that make the old obsolete and guide us toward a new direction. We can talk about and explore universal consciousness, universal love, peace and global prosperity.
The Country/Nation
In the absence of a “Planet Leadership Committee” (or a Planet President) for now let’s consider the Country/Nation level the “top” in a top-down approach. For the distant almost non-existent possibility for this write-up to be called a scientific paper let’s try to objectively define a country and a nation. A nation is people who share the same nationality, language, history (to some extend). Now there is “race” that is not clear if it should be one of the elements that characterize a nation and there is also “religion” which more and more is distancing itself from being one of those elements. Some times a nation is bigger than a country and sometimes a country is bigger than a nation. This fact makes the attempt to define them more difficult, but let’s try to also define the term country and then see if we can bring the two definitions together. A country is a geographic location defined by borders with other countries or international waters/ground. With the exception of international waters and maybe the north and the south pole i.e. Antarctica every other spot on the planet earth is part of a country. A country is usually occupied by its citizens with the exception of guests (tourists and workers) and illegal immigrants (this is for you Lou Dobbs J).
We should also look at some examples on both sides of the coin. The USA, the former Soviet Union, Great Britain, former Yugoslavia are (or have been) countries that included citizens from more than one nations. The flip side is the Greek Nation, the Germanic Nation, the Armenian Nation, the Turkish Nation, the Arabic Nation exist in several countries each and not just in the form of minorities but some times as whole different countries.
Since the lines are so blurred and since the languages of the world use the two terms in an interchangeable way do we really want to attempt and draw a clear line that differentiates a country from a nation?
Before this question is answered and in order to make things even more complicated than they are let’s talk also about a number of opposite trends in our world:
- Globalization is an economic phenomenon that connects countries through the existence of multinational companies in them.
- Federations like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia are breaking up to accommodate the wishes “of ethnic groups” which is another way to say “of nations”.
- The countries in Europe are coming together as the European Union with the intent to build a new federation which could end up becoming a …..Country!!!
Now that we have defined what a country is let’s get back to the top-down approach. Let’s take Greece as an example of a country. Request permission to side-track a little here! Thousands of years ago Greece used to be the center of the then known civilized world on earth. The Hellenic spirit has been one of the foundations of the western world on our planet since then. Today Greece is among the poorest European countries (not counting the ones that were behind the iron curtain two decades ago) . No world renowned scientific discoveries, nor music or art for that matter have Greece as their origin. Some literary success with 2 Nobel Winners (Seferis and Elitis) but that can hardly be called equal or even close to what the Ancient Greeks (more than 2000 years ago) or other countries/nations have produced in recent times.
Here is an example on how a country can go top-down in order to drive all its citizens from the bottom-up. Once this is done the country would then qualify for top-down support of another country (i.e. its leaders could help other leaders of countries). Let’s use Greece and four main areas that have been neglected and where Greeks have demonstrated total lack of leadership: Education, The Economy, International Cooperation and the Environment. This is an attempt to explain my point of view using own experiences.
For a non-Greek reader the following four paragraphs might appear irrelevant – in which case – feel free to skip to the next dotted line – with the exception of the text in bold letters!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education
Four days of study of known philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hops, Machiavelli and Socrates at an executive seminar of the Aspen Institute organized by the Young Presidents Organization in the Czech Republic were enough to make me wonder more intensely than ever: how could the Greek education reach such low levels. What has happened during the last 2000 years to Greece? During these full four days during which Managing Directors, Presidents and CEOs of companies from 8 different countries discussed philosophy and “Values Based Leadership” myself and another fellow Greek felt real shame to be Greeks. You know why? I refused to believe it at first but the company executives (YPO members) from the other countries knew more about the Greek philosophers than we did. The involvement of the Greek Church in running the state was not helpful in this respect. It is incomprehensible why the Greek state has rejected and still is the brain products of great Greeks philosophers. One could almost say that we Greeks are ashamed of Socrates, Thales, Plato and Aristotle and so many other timeless giants of philosophy. Two Pakistani fellow YPOers and an Indonesian had more hours of Greek philosophy at school than the two Greeks in the room. The important point here is the lacking curriculum at the Greek schools and not the nationality of the people who knew more than we did. If you compare the Greek schools with those of other developed countries (and some times developing countries) you can easily come to the conclusion that instead of being taught judgment, how to think, how to ask questions and how to find knowledge we get dry information/facts. Our scores reflect our ability to learn by heart like parrots. The Greek author Nicos Demou (who wrote the book “the misfortune of being a Greek”) fully agrees with the thoughts expressed above (or rather I agree with him…he said it firstJ)! The bottom line is Church and Religion have no place in interfering with the political systems and the way governments are run. Churches become hypocritical when they start amassing wealth and when they tolerate the existence of an army in the countries where they exist. Also when they interfere with the education system in order to block free thought then they enslave their host countries and disallow them to progress and reach their full potential.
The Economy
Dubai and Singapore are two great examples of countries (one is an Emirate and the other is a country to be more specific) that Greece (or Cyprus) could mimic with success. What both of them have managed to do is to create knowledge based economies. Both small in size (like Greece) one with rich resources (trying to not be as dependent on oil as currently) the other without. Their common denominator: both managed success with leaders who saw themselves also as CEOs rather than just politicians. The President of a country like Cyprus with a GDP of US$ 18 Billion can be compared to the CEOs of Sara Lee, Staples and Whirlpool who have annual sales around US$ 18 Billion. There are company CEOs out there such as those of Wal-mart, Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Chevron and General Electric who manage annual budgets of US$ 200 to 350 Billion. These are companies which in terms of annual production are by 10-20 times larger than a country like Cyprus. Proven business practices work with countries equally well as they do with companies of equal size. Unfortunately I do not see the Government of Cyprus or Greece use knowledge and experience from the world of successful multinational companies. An economist from Harvard Business School said at one of the YPO executive seminars something very wise. Two of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) which are the four largest emerging markets can be described by terms that were first used in the Soviet Union by Gorbatschov. India has Glasnost and very little Perestroika whilst China has Perestroika and very little (or none at all) Glasnost. Cyprus and Greece both require Political and Economic progress in order to face today’s challenges and to offer their citizens a high standard of living. It seems that for all the politicians in Greece the political situation is much more important than the economic. Communism in Eastern Europe has failed mainly as an economic system whilst China which was an exception in this respect still thrives. By extension the Cyprus problem along side with the Palestinian problem can both be resolved if the necessary attention is given to the economies of the two sides.
International Cooperation
Interpersonal relationships of members of the Government of countries in conjunction with global initiatives (e.g. Al Gore and the environment) can help in promoting a country and its issues to the global community. As useful personal sympathies can be ( e.g. Reagan-Gorbatschov) so catastrophic can personal dislikes be ( e.g. Makarios/Castro – Kissinger). As much as Barack Obama is liked by the international community John McCain is disliked. Which candidate do we think will be best for the US and for the RoW (“Rest of the World”! )?
With regards to the EU: Greece and the Continent as a whole are moving toward the right direction. However there are two areas of improvement:
Α) reduction of bureaucracy and uncontrolled spending
Β) more global cooperation and less focus on the EU taking over economic control from the US and becoming the second major military power.
Every European leader has a duty to put the rest of the world at ease when it comes to Europe’s agenda and to find more ways to reach out to the US, Asia, Latin America, Africa etc. with the aim of global connectedness and cooperation.
Environment
This is the toughest part to focus on for a political leader in countries like Greece given all these issues they face (except of course if the leader is from the Green party). However this is maybe the most important issue that faces humanity today. Each one of us has to develop environmental consciousness NOW if this has not happened yet. To educate our children to feel the urge to switch off the light when they exit an empty room is as much the job of the minister of education as it is of the parents.
Here are some questions we should be asking:
- How developed is recycling in Greece?
- Is there a law that says that all buildings have to have solar heaters (a much cheaper approach than solar cells applicable in countries with a lot of sun).
- What is the degree of information of all the citizens about subsidies for alternative energy?
- Are there government subsidies for the production of wind, hydroelectric, solar, bio etc. energy.
- What is the impact of the damns to the environment?
- Did Greece protest along with other countries to the US that they did not sign the Kyoto agreement yet?
There are so many unanswered questions on this subject (maybe there are some good answers to some of these) have we ever thought of dedicating a ministry to one of the most important issues our planet has ever faced…the environment?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are countries that are better-off than Greece and there are others that are worse-off. The question of potential needs to be asked by every person and by every government on this planet. Are we on the right trajectory to reach our full potential. If yes great, if not what is the formula to course correct? Could it be this one?:
(Top-down + bottom-up of countries that have some individuals who get it) X (Countries who do not have individuals who get it) = ONE WORLD HEADING TOWARD ITS FULL POTENTIAL
Leadership
What is the role of leadership in getting where we need to be? Since the aim is to become a large interdependent family is there any room for leaders? We all know that hierarchies in all adult families often collapse. If we maintain a hierarchical structure some of us will be more equal than others! One good way to answer this is to say we need leadership from each and every one of us. However the moment this is articulated it becomes clear that it is a utopia at this point in history. There is no doubt that this is part of reaching our full potential, but in order to get there we need leaders that “get it” now. Leaders that can grasp the BIG IDEA which is for all humans to come together and become one force.
Should our leaders of government be politicians, business executives or spiritual leaders? Most of our leaders today are career politicians, a few are spiritual (rather religious and they are the worst) leaders and even less are business executives. The answer to this question must be found like in many cases at middle ground. A composite skill-set and personality is required that can master diplomacy, business acumen and spirituality.
A precondition however will be that all leaders out there share the same vision. Each and every one of them is applying leadership to her immediate environment that drives the “herds” toward the same direction and the same goal: Global Citizenship, Oneness! Humanity needs to be helped to awaken to a higher consciousness and this cannot happen from one to day to another. It will not happen without a lot of work by those “enlightened” to help lead the rest of us to find the true light…in order to see differently!!!
In Closing
The answer to the question about reaching our full potential and if it is a destination or a journey can also be defined as a forward progress journey (as opposed to backward progress) with the destination being the full potential. I would define as backward progress ANY attack, be it simply a verbal attack of one person to another or a terrorist attack or a war against a country or countries ratified by the United Nations.
We will have arrived when we understand that we are all “Interdependent” and that the status of Global Citizenship is what we should be looking for!!
The ultimate goal to reach our full potential I would describe as a world of love and prosperity where each individual can live a meaningfully productive and happy life (part was borrowed by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation tagline) that can take us all a step closer to: One world, one nation, one country, one community, one family one fulfilled entity. Each and every one of us as humans is necessary in order for humanity to make the leap….”no child left behind” J kind of thing!!...And since we are using clichés I will borrow Visa’s main message in their Olympic Games TV Advertising and shout with all my strength: “GO WORLD”!!!
Patriotism, even though conventional thinking has it as a very positive state of mind, sits on the crossroads of divisiveness if you look at the illustration above. Being a patriot is a thing of the past in the author’s humble opinion. In today’s evolutionary stage of our planet there is no place for patriots. Being patriotic is a very dangerous state of mind that can lead to conflict. It is hypocritical for Christians to say they are Christians and at the same time to support the existence of an army in their country under the guise of patriotism. If turning the other cheek is what defines Christianity then how can any Christian argue that a country needs an army (I only mention the Christianity as an example I am sure the same hypocrisy exists in other religions/states)?
Having said all that we should not confuse patriotism with being proud of our heritage and culture. Diversity is a positive element and it needs to be maintained. To be a global citizen does not mean to live in a “flat” World. It means to be able to accept each other’s culture and heritage and at the same time steer towards a convergence of ideas when it comes to achieving our full potential.
So is being patriotic an anathema for “world positive change”? Ekhardt Tolle the author of “New Earth” is telling us along with many other enlightened (in my opinion) humans that on our planet we are all one. He also says that unless we realize that and come together the earth is doomed to destruct (global warming, weapons of mass destruction, hunger, disease etc.). The answer to the patriotism question is: we should avoid terms/emotions/states that separate us. We should enter a new era that will help us get to a “New Earth” the way Ekhardt very eloquently describes in his book. We should use new terms instead, that make the old obsolete and guide us toward a new direction. We can talk about and explore universal consciousness, universal love, peace and global prosperity.
The Country/Nation
In the absence of a “Planet Leadership Committee” (or a Planet President) for now let’s consider the Country/Nation level the “top” in a top-down approach. For the distant almost non-existent possibility for this write-up to be called a scientific paper let’s try to objectively define a country and a nation. A nation is people who share the same nationality, language, history (to some extend). Now there is “race” that is not clear if it should be one of the elements that characterize a nation and there is also “religion” which more and more is distancing itself from being one of those elements. Some times a nation is bigger than a country and sometimes a country is bigger than a nation. This fact makes the attempt to define them more difficult, but let’s try to also define the term country and then see if we can bring the two definitions together. A country is a geographic location defined by borders with other countries or international waters/ground. With the exception of international waters and maybe the north and the south pole i.e. Antarctica every other spot on the planet earth is part of a country. A country is usually occupied by its citizens with the exception of guests (tourists and workers) and illegal immigrants (this is for you Lou Dobbs J).
We should also look at some examples on both sides of the coin. The USA, the former Soviet Union, Great Britain, former Yugoslavia are (or have been) countries that included citizens from more than one nations. The flip side is the Greek Nation, the Germanic Nation, the Armenian Nation, the Turkish Nation, the Arabic Nation exist in several countries each and not just in the form of minorities but some times as whole different countries.
Since the lines are so blurred and since the languages of the world use the two terms in an interchangeable way do we really want to attempt and draw a clear line that differentiates a country from a nation?
Before this question is answered and in order to make things even more complicated than they are let’s talk also about a number of opposite trends in our world:
- Globalization is an economic phenomenon that connects countries through the existence of multinational companies in them.
- Federations like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia are breaking up to accommodate the wishes “of ethnic groups” which is another way to say “of nations”.
- The countries in Europe are coming together as the European Union with the intent to build a new federation which could end up becoming a …..Country!!!
Now that we have defined what a country is let’s get back to the top-down approach. Let’s take Greece as an example of a country. Request permission to side-track a little here! Thousands of years ago Greece used to be the center of the then known civilized world on earth. The Hellenic spirit has been one of the foundations of the western world on our planet since then. Today Greece is among the poorest European countries (not counting the ones that were behind the iron curtain two decades ago) . No world renowned scientific discoveries, nor music or art for that matter have Greece as their origin. Some literary success with 2 Nobel Winners (Seferis and Elitis) but that can hardly be called equal or even close to what the Ancient Greeks (more than 2000 years ago) or other countries/nations have produced in recent times.
Here is an example on how a country can go top-down in order to drive all its citizens from the bottom-up. Once this is done the country would then qualify for top-down support of another country (i.e. its leaders could help other leaders of countries). Let’s use Greece and four main areas that have been neglected and where Greeks have demonstrated total lack of leadership: Education, The Economy, International Cooperation and the Environment. This is an attempt to explain my point of view using own experiences.
For a non-Greek reader the following four paragraphs might appear irrelevant – in which case – feel free to skip to the next dotted line – with the exception of the text in bold letters!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education
Four days of study of known philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hops, Machiavelli and Socrates at an executive seminar of the Aspen Institute organized by the Young Presidents Organization in the Czech Republic were enough to make me wonder more intensely than ever: how could the Greek education reach such low levels. What has happened during the last 2000 years to Greece? During these full four days during which Managing Directors, Presidents and CEOs of companies from 8 different countries discussed philosophy and “Values Based Leadership” myself and another fellow Greek felt real shame to be Greeks. You know why? I refused to believe it at first but the company executives (YPO members) from the other countries knew more about the Greek philosophers than we did. The involvement of the Greek Church in running the state was not helpful in this respect. It is incomprehensible why the Greek state has rejected and still is the brain products of great Greeks philosophers. One could almost say that we Greeks are ashamed of Socrates, Thales, Plato and Aristotle and so many other timeless giants of philosophy. Two Pakistani fellow YPOers and an Indonesian had more hours of Greek philosophy at school than the two Greeks in the room. The important point here is the lacking curriculum at the Greek schools and not the nationality of the people who knew more than we did. If you compare the Greek schools with those of other developed countries (and some times developing countries) you can easily come to the conclusion that instead of being taught judgment, how to think, how to ask questions and how to find knowledge we get dry information/facts. Our scores reflect our ability to learn by heart like parrots. The Greek author Nicos Demou (who wrote the book “the misfortune of being a Greek”) fully agrees with the thoughts expressed above (or rather I agree with him…he said it firstJ)! The bottom line is Church and Religion have no place in interfering with the political systems and the way governments are run. Churches become hypocritical when they start amassing wealth and when they tolerate the existence of an army in the countries where they exist. Also when they interfere with the education system in order to block free thought then they enslave their host countries and disallow them to progress and reach their full potential.
The Economy
Dubai and Singapore are two great examples of countries (one is an Emirate and the other is a country to be more specific) that Greece (or Cyprus) could mimic with success. What both of them have managed to do is to create knowledge based economies. Both small in size (like Greece) one with rich resources (trying to not be as dependent on oil as currently) the other without. Their common denominator: both managed success with leaders who saw themselves also as CEOs rather than just politicians. The President of a country like Cyprus with a GDP of US$ 18 Billion can be compared to the CEOs of Sara Lee, Staples and Whirlpool who have annual sales around US$ 18 Billion. There are company CEOs out there such as those of Wal-mart, Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Chevron and General Electric who manage annual budgets of US$ 200 to 350 Billion. These are companies which in terms of annual production are by 10-20 times larger than a country like Cyprus. Proven business practices work with countries equally well as they do with companies of equal size. Unfortunately I do not see the Government of Cyprus or Greece use knowledge and experience from the world of successful multinational companies. An economist from Harvard Business School said at one of the YPO executive seminars something very wise. Two of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) which are the four largest emerging markets can be described by terms that were first used in the Soviet Union by Gorbatschov. India has Glasnost and very little Perestroika whilst China has Perestroika and very little (or none at all) Glasnost. Cyprus and Greece both require Political and Economic progress in order to face today’s challenges and to offer their citizens a high standard of living. It seems that for all the politicians in Greece the political situation is much more important than the economic. Communism in Eastern Europe has failed mainly as an economic system whilst China which was an exception in this respect still thrives. By extension the Cyprus problem along side with the Palestinian problem can both be resolved if the necessary attention is given to the economies of the two sides.
International Cooperation
Interpersonal relationships of members of the Government of countries in conjunction with global initiatives (e.g. Al Gore and the environment) can help in promoting a country and its issues to the global community. As useful personal sympathies can be ( e.g. Reagan-Gorbatschov) so catastrophic can personal dislikes be ( e.g. Makarios/Castro – Kissinger). As much as Barack Obama is liked by the international community John McCain is disliked. Which candidate do we think will be best for the US and for the RoW (“Rest of the World”! )?
With regards to the EU: Greece and the Continent as a whole are moving toward the right direction. However there are two areas of improvement:
Α) reduction of bureaucracy and uncontrolled spending
Β) more global cooperation and less focus on the EU taking over economic control from the US and becoming the second major military power.
Every European leader has a duty to put the rest of the world at ease when it comes to Europe’s agenda and to find more ways to reach out to the US, Asia, Latin America, Africa etc. with the aim of global connectedness and cooperation.
Environment
This is the toughest part to focus on for a political leader in countries like Greece given all these issues they face (except of course if the leader is from the Green party). However this is maybe the most important issue that faces humanity today. Each one of us has to develop environmental consciousness NOW if this has not happened yet. To educate our children to feel the urge to switch off the light when they exit an empty room is as much the job of the minister of education as it is of the parents.
Here are some questions we should be asking:
- How developed is recycling in Greece?
- Is there a law that says that all buildings have to have solar heaters (a much cheaper approach than solar cells applicable in countries with a lot of sun).
- What is the degree of information of all the citizens about subsidies for alternative energy?
- Are there government subsidies for the production of wind, hydroelectric, solar, bio etc. energy.
- What is the impact of the damns to the environment?
- Did Greece protest along with other countries to the US that they did not sign the Kyoto agreement yet?
There are so many unanswered questions on this subject (maybe there are some good answers to some of these) have we ever thought of dedicating a ministry to one of the most important issues our planet has ever faced…the environment?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are countries that are better-off than Greece and there are others that are worse-off. The question of potential needs to be asked by every person and by every government on this planet. Are we on the right trajectory to reach our full potential. If yes great, if not what is the formula to course correct? Could it be this one?:
(Top-down + bottom-up of countries that have some individuals who get it) X (Countries who do not have individuals who get it) = ONE WORLD HEADING TOWARD ITS FULL POTENTIAL
Leadership
What is the role of leadership in getting where we need to be? Since the aim is to become a large interdependent family is there any room for leaders? We all know that hierarchies in all adult families often collapse. If we maintain a hierarchical structure some of us will be more equal than others! One good way to answer this is to say we need leadership from each and every one of us. However the moment this is articulated it becomes clear that it is a utopia at this point in history. There is no doubt that this is part of reaching our full potential, but in order to get there we need leaders that “get it” now. Leaders that can grasp the BIG IDEA which is for all humans to come together and become one force.
Should our leaders of government be politicians, business executives or spiritual leaders? Most of our leaders today are career politicians, a few are spiritual (rather religious and they are the worst) leaders and even less are business executives. The answer to this question must be found like in many cases at middle ground. A composite skill-set and personality is required that can master diplomacy, business acumen and spirituality.
A precondition however will be that all leaders out there share the same vision. Each and every one of them is applying leadership to her immediate environment that drives the “herds” toward the same direction and the same goal: Global Citizenship, Oneness! Humanity needs to be helped to awaken to a higher consciousness and this cannot happen from one to day to another. It will not happen without a lot of work by those “enlightened” to help lead the rest of us to find the true light…in order to see differently!!!
In Closing
The answer to the question about reaching our full potential and if it is a destination or a journey can also be defined as a forward progress journey (as opposed to backward progress) with the destination being the full potential. I would define as backward progress ANY attack, be it simply a verbal attack of one person to another or a terrorist attack or a war against a country or countries ratified by the United Nations.
We will have arrived when we understand that we are all “Interdependent” and that the status of Global Citizenship is what we should be looking for!!
The ultimate goal to reach our full potential I would describe as a world of love and prosperity where each individual can live a meaningfully productive and happy life (part was borrowed by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation tagline) that can take us all a step closer to: One world, one nation, one country, one community, one family one fulfilled entity. Each and every one of us as humans is necessary in order for humanity to make the leap….”no child left behind” J kind of thing!!...And since we are using clichés I will borrow Visa’s main message in their Olympic Games TV Advertising and shout with all my strength: “GO WORLD”!!!
