Bigthink - Idea Comments Feed

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:02:44 +0100

shet up yeh damn yippy!

Love is the most important thing, but especially when it is focused on the negative aspects. Thats where Jesus' teaching Love your enemies as well comes in. Transformational Love needs intent on the part of the one taking issue. I think that was one of the ideas of that south park episode that was criticising the hippy community, because getting together and having a good, loving time doesn't necessarily address the ills of the world. There needs to be applicability.

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:29:56 +0100

love

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:27:32 +0100

We went to the middle of China 2 years ago...facinating area and great people, but very different to the west. They are modernising at a rate of knots, but still don't know where it's going.. Shanghai is just like any large western city but the centre where the quake was, is pretty old school and western tourists are still an oddity.. my tall, blonde, long legged 14 yr old daughter may as well have been an exhibit in a zoo for the amount of stares she constantly got.. it's only been 15 to 20 years since China re-engaged the world, so it's got a way to go...thankfully they seem to be opening up a little bit.

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:31:48 +0100

D Gallo, Good point. Look at what's going on in China, not much response, and the body count is a staggering 50,000 and climbing, they can't cremate the dead fast enough! This is one of the up and coming nations, and the mentality, ie: value of life, has been and continues to be very low. Now that capitalism has taken hold, it will be interesting to see what the country and it's people evolve into.

There sure are a lot of them, and the poulation density is inhumanly high, in my opinion.

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:03:55 +0100

pokoj, I am somewhat introverted as well, and I experience the same phenomenon when I am in large groups. I always hated public speaking as a result. It's not lack of confidence, I think it's a desire for more personal or intimate communications or connections. I like to think that it indicates a good concience, being aware and concerned for others feelings.

Hilge posted that info about what he has done near the end of his first post. Quite commendable, as is your odyssey into the third world. I have always admired those who so selflessly give of themselves to help the helpless, often at great risk and sacrifice.

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:42:36 +0100

I haven't had a chance to discuss it with him, what is Hilge doing in the Dominican?

My problem is I am insecure in social situations (anything over 4 people in one room and I get weird, even if they are all my good friends...) and at that point I just stop talking, and many people take that as rudeness. In Africa that did not matter because I was out of place to begin with, so they all just took it as that... But I am always pleasant to those around me as much as I can be...

Keep chanting that mantra and it will become your reality whether you understand it or not...

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:03:21 +0100

pokoj, Thanks for all the info, and I am impressed with your efforts over there. It is a sad state of affairs.

I am also impressed with Hilge's efforts in the Dominican, I cannot claim any such heroics.

I think musycks philosophy is a good way for each one of us to make our small contribution to provide a better life for others. We have a lot of influence in our little worlds, and that makes a difference to others and the ones we love, which is easier to manage, and sustain.

This creates true happiness.

No god required.

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 05:04:23 +0100

Katrina, Tsunami, Myanmar, and this China earth quake...these are only the most recent NATURAL disasters, which only explemplifies our inability to prepare...WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT??? we have social ills now, wait till its REALLY every man for himself...

but really that's my point, in this world EVIRONMENT ALONE will KILL US...idont know, volcanos, global warming, lack of food, massive disease WHATEVER...but us killing eachother should NOT be one of the things killing mankind. WE HAVE SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT SH*T TO WORRY ABOUT...

i do think technology is the answer though, we've just got to build some infrastructure globally because its going to take the resources of 5 earths to keep this up.

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:32:22 +0100

I have changed the world.
I cannot save the world.
Only those who are willing to be healed, can be healed.
Heal thy self.

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:00:34 +0100

I can speak on Zambia a bit... I went there for a month in 2005. Their main export has been copper for years, and in the 1970s the demand for copper fell, crippling the economy. There was a push for bringing in outside investors into the country, and the gov't set up some programs to do so, which backfired horribly... They offered investors a 10 year tax-free period. Most went into businesses... so companies (mainly from india and china) came in to the country, bringing all their own supplies, and many of their own workers, and exporting all the profit, stayed for 10 years then left, and returned under a different name to do it all over again. There are a few "western" shopping complexes and chain stores (such as shop-rite) in each city, none of which benefit the native population. When they leave after 10 years, the few Zambian workers that they hire are left jobless...

as far as the lower class shopping centers go, where the natives have to shop, they are run mostly by Indian and Chinese investors. The workers employed are rumoured to be treated horribly, and the goods sold are of poor quality and often are unusable a week or so later...

The other main companies are tourism companies, all of which do not benefit the nations economy for the most part.

I was told around 65% of the country lives under the poverty line. Jobs are scarce, and even the few who manage to go to college are not guaranteed jobs. About 70% of Zambians are involved with some kind of agriculture, which didn't help in the several month-long drought that was going on while I was there... I didn't see one corn crop that was alive...

Of course AIDS is an issue, as it is in all of Africa, and there are many more children on the streets because of this... parents either dying, or sending their children away because of low income. Officially, about 16% of the population was infected by AIDS, that will be much higher now...

I was in Kitwe, which is close to the border of the Congo right on the copper belt, for about 2 weeks. The main problem with the street kids there is they have taken to inhalants. The little money they receive from begging they often spend on petroleum to huff. A cheaper alternative is placing feces into a paper bag and leaving it in the sun to marinate and steep in the heat, then huffing that.

The problem with Kitwe is that most of the population 363,734 (2000 census) lives in surrounding townships and compounds(there were 8 when I was there) with anywhere between 10-60 thousand in each all living in mud-brick one room houses with no running water or electricity and usually two families per house. The greatest source of relief (which isn't much) lies with the YMCA and the YMCA organisation on the whole does not receive anywhere near the adequate funding needed to maintain operation, never mind provide relief... I can't recall exactly what the national office in Lusaka receives to dole out to the branches, but a branch I visited in Kamatipa compound on the west side of the city (around 60,000 people) consists of 3 buildings which are unfinished (one is missing 2 walls) one of which is a schoolhouse that is about the size of an average american family's living room, with no windows and a hole in the roof. The branch receives about 100,000 Zambian Kwacha a month (about $30, and thats rounding up) half of which goes to the branch secretary who is also the teacher. Hearing that made me recoil as I remembered that my hometown YMCA just forked out thousands and thousands to re-wax their floors.

While their I met with the youth volunteers at the YMCA, I sat down with one and drew up a basic food program for the street kids... It started to get off the ground but I have been unable to provide enough funding...
We figured out it will take about $7000 to initiate, and about $500 per week to feed around 100 kids. The only problem is that even though we doubled the estimation of the number of kids that were currently in the streets, if word ever got out it would be swarmed by the thousands of children in the surrounding compounds.

Its is all very disconcerting...

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:56:29 +0100

Gents, influence your immediate environment as well as you can... small example..

I have 70-90 people who work under me mostly and I treat them humanely and am flexible to their needs re time off for sick kids, problems etc, I see this as a very small thing... I can keep the evil massive corporation that is paying our wages out of it mostly as long as I post good figures.. so I have worked out a model that does not treat people like machines. well good for me.. it's not much but it's something.. and incredibly I have had heaps of these guys come to me and say, you're the best boss I've ever had! and all I do is treat them decently! makes you think..

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:08:06 +0100

:) and it could end there...

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:59:36 +0100

It all started in Africa. Didn't it?

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:57:45 +0100

yeah, how could it not be...

Africa would be a good place to start...

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:56:55 +0100

It is overwhelming. Isn't it?

Comment on: How can you (yeah you) change the world?

Bigthink — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:54:06 +0100

Hold hands and love everyone? :)

I can't offer much on how to "save the world" at this second because if we start harping, it would start at religion for me because that is what I'm most comfortable talking about...

right now, I just wanted to input this:

I heard a great quote, though I can't quote it exactly it was along the lines of:
Innocence is never lost, it is only surrendered.