Posts about Perseverance

Sign "closed": Don't close up! Dare to disagree instead!

TED Talk. Margaret Heffernan: Dare to disagree!

24.02.2014

Are we all hopeless ignorants? Or pitiable cowards – heads in sand? Why is it, that we are readily looking for others to prevent distaster from striking? Why are we so frequently shying away from making unfavourable decisions and why do we not speak our minds in all those meetings or seminars we attend on a regular basis? Most people instinctively avoid conflict, says Margaret Heffernan and demonstrates in this talk, that a good disagreement is vital to progress. The best partners aren’t those who echo an opinion in a stereotype way. Quite on the contrary! Great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to fundamentally disagree.

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A tailor cutting a pattern. Fashion and Couture: There are many creative minds active in Berlin.

Berlin: A City on the Catwalk

15.01.2014

From 1961 to 1989 Berlin, divided into East and West since 1945, was scarred with an invincible concrete wall topped with multiple rolls of impenetrable barbed wire. Armed Vopos, the East German ‘people’s’ policemen equipped with a licence to kill, controlled from their watchtowers the so-called ‘death strip’ passing between the two Germanies; none of the GDR’s involuntary citizens were to escape the socialist paradise imposed on them. Inhabitants of West Berlin belonging to the Federal Republic were better off – and seemingly unimpressed by their severed freedom. Although fenced in, neither their positive attitude, nor their special sense of humour could be suffocated – nor their creativity be paralysed by the circumstances.

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The Nelson Mandela Museum in Howick: Freedom is a basic human right.

South Africa: The ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ has ended

7.12.2013

Nelson Mandela is dead

August 05, 1962 in KwaZulu Natal: Coming from Groutville in the Midlands Meander, an Austin Westminster was rolling along the R103 country road, chauffeured by Nelson Mandela, who acted as a driver in disguise for his comrade Cecil Williams. They were heading back from a visit they had just paid to Albert Luthuli, then president of the African National Congress ANC. Near Howick, the car was stopped by armed police and Mandela captured. 27 long years of incarceration followed, 18 of which Mandela served at the high-security jail on Robben Island off Cape Town’s coast.

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Kilroy is watching us!

TED Talk. Mikka Hypponen: How the NSA betrayed the world’s trust

13.11.2013

We will, we will watch you!

Is there any such thing as digital privacy? Aren’t we still sharing personal information far too generously and aren’t we all thoughtlessly jumping onto the cyber-fuelled bandwagon, just because it pretends to be the done thing? We are exposing our sometimes innermost secrets to a seemingly tangible community; after all, it is such a good feeling to be ‘liked’ by our diligently accumulated friends, 500+ at least, whom we trust blindly. Human vanity displays itself in many shades. So does human voyeurism. When friend turns into foe, the resulting mudslinging is witnessed by the same interested internet public. And then the desperation is individual and very real – and not just fleetingly virtual.

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LGBTI: Colourful and diverse Helsinki.

LGBTI – der unterschätzte Markt

1.10.2013

Diversity Tourism: Reisen im Zeichen des Regenbogens

Vom anderen Ufer rollt – nur scheinbar urplötzlich – eine kraftvolle menschliche Welle heran. Weil lange ignoriert und immer noch stigmatisiert, wird ihr wahres Potenzial dramatisch verkannt: Bis zu zehn Prozent der Weltbevölkerung sollen homosexuell sein oder LGBTI angehören. In Realität sind die Zahlen aus nachvollziehbaren Gründen unmessbar und auch ehrgeizige stochastische Akrobatik kann nur an ihnen scheitern. Es bleibt ein Segen, dass zivilisierte Länder auf ihren offiziellen Formularen auf die Rubrik “Sexuelle Veranlagung” verzichten. Gemäß Statistik von ILGA wird Homosexualität weltweit noch in etwa 80 Staaten und Territorien strafrechtlich verfolgt. Die Palette variiert von einem Monat Gefängnis bis zur Todesstrafe.

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