Nothing lasts

I am reading a book called "a little history of the world" by E.H. Gombrich. Now and then, you stumble into something great - and this is one of them. I have been looking for a history book that is easy to digest, educational and not trying to turn you into an academic professor.

This book, in its kids friendly storytelling, is perfect. It covers the history of the world from the pre-historic age to the world war 2. It has a bend towards Europe, but it touches all the key milestones in the history. It is certainly a fantastic book to buy as a gift.

Imagine the stories of the Macedonia with its Alexander the Great, The Egyptians, the Roman empire, the Germanic tribes and the Franks, the Ottoman empire, the knights, crusades and the church, the Persians, the Chin dynasty, the Huns, the Arabian invasion. The land of Europe and Euro-asia were criss-crossed by legions, horses, elephants, arrows and chariots for thousands of years. Millions of lives have paved the way for the creation of powerful civilizations and massive buildings.

However I am not writing to tell you about what I have read. Instead I want to share what I took away from reading this book. It has made me realize that throughout its history, humanity has been defined by the greed+ambitions of a few, realized by the blood of millions, and destroyed by the incompetence of a few (sometimes by the same person who had the ambition). At the end, none lasts. So my question is whether humanity has invented anything between then until now that will eliminate our helpless tendencies to self-destruct and cause suffering to majority of the people.

Let me list a few things that have defined the modern world after the latest global self destruct of world-war 2, and see if any of these are the antidotes from it. Is it the Americans with their version of democracy? Is it the Europeans with their version of slow + (un)steady creation of a European Union? Is it the Chinese with its version of communist-capitalism, which allows people to build wealth while keeping their communist version of state control intact? I believe we have seen enough by now to doubt that a single model works for all.

Or maybe it is not the social inventions that will safe humanity from the next self destruct. Could it be the technological inventions like the internet which made the world so open? Or is it the global trade and financial industries that has made the world so interdependent? I have my doubts.

Or maybe it is not the inventions at all. Maybe the solution to our self destruct happens when the world finally gets its act together to fix urgent world's problems like hunger (1 of 6 people goes to sleep hungry in the world), environmental danger and pollution, global-warming and brutalities of some remaining dictators. I think I am running out of ideas.

At the end of this analysis, I am just not convinced. If anything we should learn from the recent greed crisis (i.e., the financial and economic crisis), it is that humanity is not moving anywhere near the right direction. The notion in the recent past that the USA or the western world is the keeper of the world order is practically proven false, as false as those who thought that the Roman empire were supposed to rule the world forever.

It is still a very unsafe and fragile world, at the mercy of the ambitions of a few. The antidote of self-destruct never lies on the few ambitious "world leaders" - as they are clearly not positioned to do the job. The solution lies in the masses. So the choices are clear – it is either we pretend that the next world-self-destruct will not affect us, or we can try to do our little bit of contribution to prevent the next one from happening.

Listen and Observe

I was trying to listen to one of my French colleagues spoke to me the other day - he was telling me that there is an emergency at the factory and I need to participate in an urgent meeting. My French language skill is average at best, but having lived in France for 3 years, I have enough vocabularies to catch the key words and understand what he was saying. More importantly, as I listened, I sensed a certain 'frustration' behind his otherwise composed mannerism. I realized I had to attend the meeting, although I had made other plans.....

As I sat in the meeting with 5 French colleagues in a "very French" company near Versailles, a typical scenario happens. I was the only Asian, (Chinese-Indonesian) in the room, with my foreign accent and mixed up French grammar. I jumped in to the conversations whenever I had comments and ideas - sometimes in French, sometimes in English. Most of the time, I stayed quiet, listened and observed, because I cannot converse with my colleagues as fast and fluently as they did among themselves. I also stayed quiet because that has been my nature being an Asian in this foreign land - although after 3 years I have become more assertive. I have gotten used to it, and they have gotten used to me.

As we finished our meeting I left them with a little bit of contribution - some ideas to solve a part of the problem. I observed that one of my colleagues were quiet when I spoke - not expressing a disagreement, although I sensed a certain reservation. He is always on my side, but maybe this time he did not fully agree and decided to just be quiet. I observed that two of my French colleagues have developed some tension - something that had become even more obvious during the debates. I noticed that their French accents were a bit different - I wondered whether that could be one of the cause. I observed that the only woman in the meeting seems to be getting a special attention from the group, especially from the director of quality. I concluded that she would not get away with it if she was a man.....

There are much more to life than just what we hear and see - if we just listen and observe. I believe that those that are blessed with the acute ability to observe and listen are the ones well equipped for greatness. If everyone listens and observes more, there will be much less problems in the world. If teachers listen better, they will be better teachers. If parents observe more than just watching over their kids, they will become better parents. If world leaders observe more beyond just the statistics – they will make better decisions.

This is my first posting in my blog. I have been fortunate to have lived and worked in so many cultures and societies in the world. Through it my observation and listening capacity have probably improved exponentially, although from a low base. I believe there are much more that I missed than I absorbed. So I swear to myself that as I continue my life journey, I will work hard to listen and observe. As I share my observations with you in many subjects, I would love to listen to yours too.