My parents came to visit this week-end. Over the last cup of tea, I told them about TH!NK 3.
Here are some of my Dad's insights. I'm still not sure what's most disturbing - agreeing or disagreeing with him?
On this competition
DAD: You'll have to be politically correct.
DAUGHTER: Not necessarily, Dad. Upfront contributions can be much stronger than consensual ones.
DAD: But you can't write that, say, we turned our former colonies into passive, assisted folks.
(Yeah, maybe not.)
On long-term, collective action
DAD: I received an e-mail from (so-and-so) asking for money to pay for his wife's chemotherapy in another country. That's not the way to go! Why not raise that money to fix the hospital's equipment in his home country?
On humility
DAD: Obviously, we don't have all the answers. Our model is failing in many ways. Take population growth: can we really tell developing countries to have less babies when we don't have enough young people and workers to pay for our pensions in Europe?
On giving
DAD: It's good to be generous when you're young. But you have to be more selfish when you get older.
(That reminded me of a quote - which I thought was Churchill's, but apparently isn't: "Not to be a socialist at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." I'm between 20 and 30, so I'll take it that it's still OK for me to have both heart and head.)
Babies… I have real trouble telling people NOT to have babies, i.e. restricting this freedom. But I have to acknowledge that babies in China are not babies in Germany… That is due to the borders and their implications; so I fail to see the point of your Dad.
Ivaylo! Deepest apologies for responding so very late. I realise I wasn’t clear here. My Dad didn’t actually mean that we need babies from other countries for our own workforce. He meant that, since that our pension systems are crumbling in many European countries, our model is not one to emulate, and we’re in no position to preach for radical birth control in developing countries. What do you think?
Tania! I loved this form and wish I had discovered it earlier! Fair play to you - hilarious!
Thank you again Helena! The humour goes down well or it doesn’t, right?
thanks.. also for recalling me Chruchill’s quote