Coexistence...!

For the first time on this blog, I am sharing TWO videos in a single post for a simple reason, they are not just on the same page but on the same lines when it comes to thinking differently about the Status quo. 

In the TED Talk above, Nick explains how the Capitalism and the Neoliberal Economy Theory is fundamentally flawed and what needs to be changed and how. In the course of elaborating his topic of discussion, he advocates the principles of coexistence and cooperation drawing similar strokes of ideas that are intrinsically similar to concepts of CSR. For example in the following passage, Nick eloquently presents the inner force of humanity to become those super-beings and evolve as master-of-universe.

"But, if instead we accept the latest empirical research, real science, which correctly describes human beings as highly cooperative, reciprocal and intuitively moral creatures, then it follows logically that it must be cooperation and not selfishness that is the cause of our prosperity, and it isn't our self-interest but rather our inherent reciprocity that is humanity's economic superpower."

In this second video Capt Raghu Raman, an Ex-defense officer with not only his name rhyming with the great visionary economist of present times Raghuram Rajan, but having similar progressive perspective of inclusive vision to boost the unorganized sector for its potential to contribute to the GDP in a great way with decentralization of concentrated economic power, lucidly explains how this supposedly India unInc is actually more organized, more proficient and also has about 50% of its fair share in nation's GDP. This is a perspective that must be pondered on particularly in times of jobless growth and concentration of economic power leading to an apparent recession.   

To complete this with a triology, I have published my recent paper 'Status quo and Paradigm shift' on ResearchGate. Read it HERE.      

Way to go for a decentralized economy and a balanced ecosystem for peaceful coexistence...!

Mantra...!

'Disorder afflicts the land...' has been the most commanding narrative for all the Religious and Political Powers to spell their cast on their poor, helpless and vulnerable 'subjects', indeed and George makes a very strong point here by painting a picture of 'Restoration' that has been shown to us for centuries together. It's high time we wake up to all these false narratives of a Superhero as our savior and pretentious approaches with deceitful intents.

'These are the central, crucial facts about humankind: our amazing altruism and cooperation.' The much needed New Narrative could be built around the capacity of Humans to cooperate with their altruism rather than the heroics of an individual or a fallacious nexus wherein 'We' replace our imaginary savior Superhero.  

'Our good nature has been thwarted by several forces, but I think the most powerful of them is the dominant political narrative of our times, which tells us that we should live in extreme individualism and competition with each other. It pushes us to fight each other, to fear and mistrust each other. It atomizes society. It weakens the social bonds that make our lives worth living. And into that vacuum grow these violent, intolerant forces. We are a society of altruists, but we are governed by psychopaths...' This is the story of this planet and not of any singular country or society that we must understand, analyze, interpret and react positively to!

'The commons is neither market nor state, capitalism nor communism, but it consists of three main elements: a particular resource; a particular community that manages that resource; and the rules and negotiations the community develops to manage it. Think of community broadband or community energy cooperatives or the shared land for growing fruit and vegetables that in Britain we call allotments. A common can't be sold, it can't be given away, and its benefits are shared equally among the members of the community. Where we have been ignored and exploited, we can revive our politics. We can recover democracy from the people who have captured it. We can use new rules and methods of elections to ensure that financial power never trumps democratic power again.' This could be a hypothesis for rest of the world, we Indians have models of this theory very much active and effective in forms of Mendha Lekha, Hiware Bazar and Ralegan Siddhi.

'Politics of Belonging' is the keyword of this new story of fighting those nefarious forces by building rich, engaging, inclusive and generous communities that would restore harmony to the land. We definitely need a new restoration story to guide us out of the political mess we're in, a story that tells us why we're in the mess and tells us how to get out of this mess. 'And that story, if we tell it right, will infect the minds of people across the political spectrum. Our task is to tell the story that lights the path to a better world...' This ray of hope full of optimism should be our New Age Mantra towards a cohesive and harmonious society that we deserve!

Way to go...!

Milestone...!

Thank YOU All...!

I sincerely Appreciate all this

Love, Support and Recognition...

50,000 could be just another number,

But it still is a Milestone and 

An impetus to keep going...

Way to go!

Graduation...!

"What I'm saying is, when we treat grades and scores and accolades and awards as the purpose of childhood, all in furtherance of some hoped-for admission to a tiny number of colleges or entrance to a small number of careers, that that's too narrow a definition of success for our kids. And even though we might help them achieve some short-term wins by overhelping -- like they get a better grade if we help them do their homework, they might end up with a longer childhood résumé when we help -- what I'm saying is that ALL OF THIS COMES AT A LONG-TERM COST TO THEIR SENSE OF SELF. What I'm saying is, we should be less concerned with the specific set of colleges they might be able to apply to or might get into and far more concerned that they have the habits, the mindset, the skill set, the wellness, to be successful wherever they go. What I'm saying is, our kids need us to be a little less obsessed with grades and scores and a whole lot more interested in childhood providing a foundation for their success built on things like love and chores..."

No matter how philosophical Kahlil Gibran sounds when he says 'Your children are not your children' or how profound 'Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to his Son’s Headmaster' seems or how sentimental Alice E. Chase gets when she writes her heart down in a poem, 'To My Grown-Up Son', Juile Lythocott-Haims has nailed it with her absolutely stunning spontaneous style of delivery with a little humor to spice it up. I am wholeheartedly with Julie when she says, '...and it's my job to provide a nourishing environment, to strengthen them through chores and to love them so they can love others and receive love and the college, the major, the career, that's up to them. My job is not to make them become what I would have them become, but to support them in becoming their glorious selves...' Indeed!

And the metaphor of Bonsai is the one that I love like anything... I mean there cannot be any better analogy or explanation, for that matter, for how the over-parenting can harm the potential of any kid. Just imagine planting a seed with a potential of becoming a Banyan Tree with a dense foliage that can provide shelter to handful of animals in its shade is being truncated and reduced to a Bonsai just to make a show-piece of it for decorating the drawing room of one house; it's not only conveniently bourgeois and orthodox but strategically criminal and cold-blooded, I believe! No offspring is a possession or property of its biological parents, it is just a carrier of the DNA for succession planning by the nature with completely new, independent and self-responsible identity that develops in due course.

Secondly, being a CSR Consultant and an ardent follower of the 'Trusteeship' theory, I hold it that an Individual and the Society are inseparable and have a integrated course of existence explained by UBUNTU, and thus an Individual in its forming (or 'developing', as the 'politicians' love to put it!) stages receives a lot from the society and it owes everything to the society and should always feel indebted for whatever it has 'achieved' and apart from being grateful, 'paying back' is the great way of showing reverence for what's been received. The purest and most profound form of payback is to gift it Individuals that might have borne from us biologically but have developed into free-thinking and socially responsible active elements of the society who can lift it up towards peace and prosperity.

We are glad, and proud, that we have been successful to that end, at least till this point. And there cannot be any greater or better measure of meaningful life than being successful parents; parents who can bring up such children! Although we might have come halfway, we are still learning and practicing the Art of Parenting to become sensible and responsible parents, as there is no Convocation in the course of Parenting, only Graduation...!

Way to go...

Fantasy...?

It is the ability to communicate eloquently that has brought us this far making us a Super-Species sitting on the top of the food-chain, now it’s high time we put it to good use for promoting Sustainability by controlling the irreversible damages that we are causing to the ecosystem before we push the nature to expedite Sixth Mass Extinction from imminent to immediate; if it means anything to you, that is…

(The Other) Way to go...

The Quest...!

While taking a Bird's Eye Review (literally!) of the Only Livable Planet known to us, as we humans changed its Natural Geography, Topography and Terrains to suit our 'needs' and continue to do so every passing minute, Jonathan Foley tries to put it in a perspective in his quest to find the answer to the one and only question of survival on this planet -

How do we feed the world without destroying it?

"As the world grows by several billion more people, We'll need to double, maybe even triple, global food production. So where do we go from here? We need a bigger conversation, an international dialogue. We need to invest in real solutions: incentives for farmers, precision agriculture, new crop varieties, drip irrigation, gray water recycling, better tillage practices, smarter diets. We need everyone at the table. Advocates of commercial agriculture, environmental conservation, and organic farming... must work together. There is no single solution.

We need collaboration, imagination, determination, because failure is not an option. Yeah, so we face one of the greatest grand challenges in all of human history today: the need to feed nine billion people and do so Sustainably and, Equitably and, Justly at the same time protecting our planet for this and future generations. This is going to be one of the hardest things we ever have done in human history, and we absolutely have to get it right, and we have to get it right on our first and only try..."

If we fail Mother Earth, She will fail us in reciprocation; Let us face it together...!

Way to go...

Treatment...!

We are products of logic driven by emotion. Had it not been for emotions, EQ would have not mattered more than IQ when it comes to leading a successful, content and enriched life. Incivility indeed is a red flag that obstructs the holistic development of human mind and reach its potential. As the say, 'It's all in mind...', small acts of disrespect or demeaning and belittling anyone for any petty or even sizable reason will leave a scar on the hurt mind and nobody would be able to foresee what that scar can turn out to be over a period. Most of the crimes including terrorism have their roots in the 'treatment' to an individual in its self-concept forming period.

Ultimately it becomes very important to understand and act on the wise words of a learned soul like Maya Angelou when she says,

"I've learned that 

 people will forget what you said, 

people will forget what you did, 

but people will never forget 

 HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL..."