Ideals Matter

I got a link to this video through twitter. A few hours laters (perhaps minutes) a protest started taking place through the same channel and also through teachers' blogs and websites. At first I thought the video was absurd. I even felt embarrassed, but then I didn't think more about it. Later, though, when seeing my colleagues reaction, I decided to reflect a bit more on it. Immediately a memory came back to me. I though of this time when a reform was suppose to take place in the Venezuelan Law of Education. Through that reform, the government would gain power over kids from the age of 3, having the right to take them away from their families for some Circles, trainings. For me that was simply brainwashing. In the end, it all ended the same way it started: some articles here and there, some rumors, and then forgotten. The reform was not approved (or so we know). Of course I was against it. I found it was an atrocity.

Later, I connected the issue on the video with an article that an acquaintance had written. It was about Female Genital Mutilation. In the article, the girl explained that before taking a position against or in favor of this practice, one first had two consider: one, the cultural relativism and two, human rights which, according to a quote, should stop being define the same for all. The most important part of the article was a section in which the girl analyzed the issue as being a matter of choice. This choice, however, had to exist under certain conditions: in order to make a decision for yourself, you should be an adult and there shouldn't be any kind of external pressure, neither from family or friends, nor from the society you belong to.

What I mean is, though in general I consider myself an open-minded person and I try to understand other people's reality even if it's too different from my own, I also think that no matter how culturally particular something is, you just can't justify everything. I use the term cultural here in its widest meaning, so to avoid putting all the Spanish fellows in one basket, just because of one video. Yet, I do not support this sort of actions, for the simple reason of not liking what it means to label people and because I fear and condemn those green uniforms.

I remember the time when my eyes opened. When I couldn't move another finger without there being a good reason for it. A good reason being one that teaches me something, teaches somebody else something or makes something better for somebody. I had gotten inspired by professionals, people with talent and people with dreams in their pure hearts. I wanted to be one of them. I kept close to them; at the office, at conferences, while travelling and in everyday life. Each inspired me, taught me a lesson and contributed to changing my world.

Changing the world.

Everybody wants to be the best in this modern world - the best salesman, the best designer, the best producer, the best bank executive... While the best nature activists save an animal, the best butchers kill animals, the best producer makes a lot of stuff and the best soldiers destroy. These are some examples of The System. In the old times most people lived very small lives. They did their small things without seeing much furter from that. They didn't contribute to making the world a better place nor a worse one. There was balance.

The balance is long gone now. Only the blind and the ignorant don't see it. There is not much that can be done with the ignorant, but there are many more blind than there are ignorant. The blind are the people like myself a couple of years ago, before I got inspired and before I realized that I am too lazy or my values have changed too much to move another finger without becoming better, helping somebody become better or making something better. The side effect to that is that you learn to refuse to follow the ignorant. I believe the balance can be restored, if more blind people opened their eyes. Then the ignorant people would have less power to damage.

The key is who the blind people interact with. The people I accidentally came across with are hidden. But they should be the Britney Spearses in the news and the Aston Kutchers on Facebook. Ok, that is a huge dream.

So here is a slower plan - they should be the teachers at schools.

Here in Brazil, being a part of a CSR project (together with AIESEC and one of the pioneers in CSR in Brazil, Gerdau), I've become very interested in this area of business.

CSR means ethical business. It's a way of making business; it embraces responsibility for the impact of the activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities and stakeholders. Furthermore, this business style would proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public sphere, regardless of legality. Essentially, CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, Profit.

In Brazil, there is an NGO, Ethos Institute, that connects all the socially responsible private companies. Its 907 members comprise companies of different segments and sizes, which account for annual revenues of approximately 30% of the Brazilian GDP and employ roughly 1.2 million people. Impressive!

I started to research, to find what's the status of this kind of thinking in Estonia. I didn't find much to read on the companies' sides, but I did find that in 2005, some AIESEC members formed an NGO called Responsible Business Forum (http://www.csr.ee). They are working together with many other organizations (not just in Estonia), promoting the field and building competences. I'm probably the last to learn about this organization, but I can't help to be proud of these people and their achievements. And I have a strong feeling this topic is going to rocket high into the sky very soon in Estonia, as it has done so in many countries in the world...

If there's anybody else here, interested in this stuff, feel free to share information with me @ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it