Building Bridges

2011-08-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

I have long wanted to write this post, but have had considerable hesitation until now. This argument is not meant as having to find a solution to a problem or for that matter, pointing fingers at anyone. I'm not at my age of 24 any rights to having to teach people about anything. And I'm for that matter, not smart enough. This is just my opinion.

As the title so harshly illustrates this argument is about building bridges. Bridges between people. Between cultures. Between everything which makes ME different from YOU. And vice versa. For too long humanity has consisted of individuality (which is good in many respects), jalousie, hatred and diversity. The endless struggle for world domination has done far more harm than good. A sobering fact, as my friend so beautifully wrote on his wall on facebook is: " Cutting global poverty in half would cost $20 billion dollars, less than 4 % of the U.S military budget".

The Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede developed a framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures. With just one click you can see how DIFFERENT you are from the person who lives in the country next to you ( http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php?culture1=23&culture2=42#compare). The process of developing this framework had surely made Geert gray-haired.

Dude kills 90+ people in Norway

2011-08-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

When I first heard about this tragedy I was waiting at Heathrow Airport (6½ hours transit!!!). The first thing I saw was the rest of the government-building in Oslo after the explosion, and i was like: "daamn, I live in Denmark, that's not far away!!" But after I wept my pants, I started realizing that the media already suggested who stood behind the bombing. It was apparently a terrorist, and by terrorist they mean a man with a goatee who lives in the mountains and eats grass with his donkey.
BUT!! Not many hours after the explosion there was a white man, dressed as a police oficcer, who started shooting around on the Norwegian island, Utøya! This man litteraly killed/shot about 65+ young people. After his arrest (Anders Brehring Breivik), police and the media discovered that he is extremely right-winged (ehmmm... well the .. ehm .. terrorist... is.. not a terrorist after all... we will just call him an .... ehm.. assassin!...)
This guy didn't just kill nearly a hundred people. He scared the shit out of every Scandinavian out there. Just think about it. This guy stood behind the bombing AND the shooting. He had been blogging about his hatred towards leftist so this "mission" was surely planned for a long time.

May all the victims of this massacre rest in peace!

Thanks for reading my first blog ... Stay tuned for more

Sorry for my bad English