Sustainability twisted

So the other day I paid a visit to my former employer. I was walking down the corridor, greeting acquaintances and new recruits. I have noticed that they were largely ladies in the office. After all, this is an NGO. At some point I had to realize that out of the 20 women I have seen, 3 were pregnant. Hm, I thought to myself, in this place they must have an excellent maternal leave policy. I could not help it but mention to the HR director. Right when I did so a girl who has just started working gave me a laugh. She said:"You wish, when I started I had to sign a paper stating that I am not planning to have a child in the next two years!" I looked at the HR director with dibelief, saying: "I had no idea that an NGO promoting sustainability in the world can offer such unfair labour conditions. This is unsustainable." She smiled back at me saying:"And do you think it is sustainable for me to keep chasing talented young people and once they start working here they just go on maternal leave? Well, I do not think my labour conditions would be sustainable if I had to constantly keep recruiting new people."
I have to admit, she had a point. It is interesting how sometimes the individual sustainability (fair labour conditions of the HR director) go against the sustainability of the bigger unit (general labout conditions at the organisation). Hm...I guess eventually more men may start working at this NGO.

Wants and Needs

The entire science of marketing is set up to satisfy our needs, but also our wants. To turn our wants into perceived needs. To come up with something that we were perfectly happy without and first turn in into a desire and ultimately make us believe that we cannot go on without it.
The financial crisis has numerous negative sides, no doubt about it. People losing their homes, jobs, their future...many people are faced with conditions that they may have not thought would ever be possible. When one has to give up their lifestyle, they have to revisit the deeper self and re-evaluate the values, the needs and desires. It is possible that many of us will realize that there are many things we got used to using, but ultimately, they were not our needs. Simply our desires. A Magnum Temptation cannot qualify as a need. Food and drinking water does. As long as not everybody on the planet has access to it, why are we constantly coming up with more "potentially desired" products and turning our back to those who pay the price of our lifestyle?
I have to admit, that Magnum Temptation does taste great... Could it turn into a perceived need? Is the financial crisis the right time to revisit our definitions of wants and needs?

What we say - What we feel - What we do

I am using this picture even though I probably should not, as it is not mine. I feel bad, but I still do it. I say (write) the truth, because I think by lying I could get into much more trouble. What I do, feel and say are totally not aligned. I hope the holy tantric man in the picture is better off in this case. Making music is a much more enriching experience than talking. Believes me, who cannot play any instrument.
So anyways, the point is that sometimes we do things with a good intention, but it does not come across that well. At other occasions, we have the best talk, but simply would not move to action. And then there are the times when we say what we feel and we do it and we feel great about it. I would have to examine my memory a bit to discover when was the last time that happened, since more recent and not so positive experiences are currently obscuring my view (memory) of my glorious moments in the past ;-)
Anyways, happy Valentine's day to everybody!!!
Today is however Friday the 13th and somehow I feel it ...