Posts about Perseverance

A Camel Train: OBO-Thomas-expedition, Kingdom of Bahrain

Oman: Crossing the Empty Quarter revisited

16.11.2015

Responsibility, self-dependence and endurance are the magic keywords: the example the Sultanate of Oman is setting this December is of a practical but none-the-less spectacular nature. Predominantly addressed to young nationals, an adventure of Crossing the Empty Quarter previously undertaken in 1930, will now be reenacted to detail. The intended benefit: to symbolically illustrate to the young generation how to adopt the requirements of a rapidly changing world and to pursue their goals with ambition.

The most astonishing lesson for adolescents to be learnt may perhaps be, that survival is actually possible without an almighty digital device glued to one’s cheek. In all likelihood, internet reachability is limited in a quarter as empty as the one named Rub al Khali.

Read article

One can mix concrete - or ideas, and become a multipotentialite.

TED Talk. Emilie Wapnick: Why some of us don’t have a true calling

26.10.2015

You have varied interests, are blessed with subtle potential in a number of fields and a rapid learner? You have changed jobs often because you got bored quickly? Well, then perhaps you are what Emilie Wapnick calls a „multipotentialite“ – a person well-versed in a wide range of disciplines. Multipotentialites are never glued to their comfort zone, readily take on new challenges, are used to being beginners and thus, not afraid to start from scratch – over again. The most intriguing and valuable part may be ascribed to synthesis: by combining two or more areas, something new is being created at the intersection. And this is where innovation happens.

Read article

Germany: 25 years of Reunification

3.10.2015

The young boy holding on to the concrete steel bars that reinforced The Wall, was nine years old when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. The lady next to him became one of the innumerable so-called „Mauerspechte“, „wall peckers“, who secured themselves a morsel of the unholy structure to bring home a grisly souvenir. The „antifascist protective wall“, as the German Democratic Republic had chosen to name it, not only separated West from East Berlin and barbariously split the German nation, but symbolised the rift that divided the entire world in two political camps. Erected in August of 1961, The Wall finally came down after decade-long diplomatic efforts and a peaceful revolution during which not a single shot was fired. Hacked apart piece by piece by citizens and visitors flocking in from all over the globe, The Wall ceased to exist and with it the Cold War.

Read article

Huge links of heavy iron chains: Minds cannot be enchained.

TED Talk. Suki Kim: This is what it’s like to teach in North Korea

7.07.2015

To be able to write her book from an insider’s point of view, South Korean-born Suki Kim took the risk of going undercover in North Korea. For half a year, Kim worked as an English teacher at an elite school honing the country’s future leaders. While sensitising her students through concepts based on “seeking the truth” and “critical thinking“, massive doubts arose on her part at the same time: Was she putting them to peril by merely exposing them to usually unspeakable topics? “Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite,” is the memoir of Kim’s stay in Pyongyang during Kim Jong-Il’s final six months. Her work offers unprecedented insights into the psychology of North Korea’s ruling class.

Read article

TED Talk. Bel Pesce: Five ways to kill your dreams

7.05.2015

The journey of life proceeds in small steps – and making a dream come true is a tough task asking for all the powers a person can muster over a long period of time. To hope that the big boom happens in one’s stride is another misconception that predestines ambitious projects to shipwreck.

Believing that success sets in overnight, that somebody else has all the answers for you, to snugly lean back once the business has started to prosper, that the responsibility for plans not working out is somebody else’s and that the only thing that matters is the dream itself, are the five mythical mechanisms hindering entrepreneurs from achieving their set goals, says Bel Pesce.

Read article