People Matter ∴ Do Good

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Month: August 2009

Those poor happy people…

13 August 2009 /

I was talking to an ex-colleague the other day who fulfilled her dream and went to Costa-Rica. She said that she stayed with a really poor family by some beech for 2 weeks, and they were the so incredibly happy.

Poor happy people!

Then I found a recent article that states a full 27 Million Americans are now on anti-depressants. 10% of their entire population.

Rich unhappy people!

Maybe poor people don’t take anti-depressants because they can’t afford them. I am sure there are plenty of sad poor people around. OR maybe if we, (Western culture ‘we’), weren’t so worried about climbing the socioeconomic ladder, we wouldn’t be so sad.

Maybe then, we would focus on doing things that bring true happiness and not focus on buying things that brings happiness.

Maybe…

 

21 years ago today my life changed

8 August 2009 /

Baycourt I remember it because it was the 8th of 8, 88.

Bob Addison and Dale Henderson took a punt and gave a young, uneducated, skinny bum the opportunity to work at Baycourt theatre.

I had been hanging around the theatre for about 5 years, and looking back I must have been one frustrating young guy. Full of potential but lacking discipline and a little bit strange to boot.

But I got opportunities to clean toilets, learn more about sound and lighting and play with pagemaker on computers (no mean feat in 88).

I learned about creativity, long hours, leadership, communicating with people older than me and doing crap jobs I didn’t enjoy.

I was 18, and I was privileged that Bob and Dale gave me a shot. After a while I moved on and learnt other things from other leaders. But they were some of the first people to see something in me, I didn’t see, even though they never got to see it delivered.

So anyway two key points I considered today.

  1. 21 years later, I wonder which 18 year I should be giving a similar opportunity to?
  2. Where did 21 years go?

Tipping Points. Positive and Negative!

1 August 2009 /

Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Tipping Point’ speaks of single events that then trigger other unrelated people to do similar things. I have been wondering if the Hawkes Bay Police siege might be a Tipping Point.

There have been a couple weird shootings that Police have been involved since the siege in Hawkes Bay with Jan Molenaar.

Last month, Shayne Sime, a paraplegic man was shot, and a connection made to the Hawkes Bay shooting and it was referred to in the media as "suicide by cop".

This week actor Rob Mokaraka was shot when he 'engineered' a confrontation with Police. He has a distant connection to the Jan Molenaar shootings.

Gladwell talks of a high profile person committing suicide in a car crash, and then the number of car crashes increasing, as people almost have permission to do the same.

I hope that Jan Mollenaar’s actions in Hawkes Bay aren’t a tipping point for people wanting to go out in a ‘blaze of glory’. I hope the media coverage doesn’t put more police personnel in harms way.

So now to the implication of this post…

It seems many Tipping Points are negative ones. I wonder what it would take to create a truly positive Tipping Point.

One that really makes a positive difference in the world.

One that the media would follow with as much interest as police shootings.

I am not sure it is possible?

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