What really matters - and when

The sustainable and responsible lifestyle of the Bhutanese and several African and South-American communities is an inspiring story. The connectedness to one's environment and the community of living at large is a powerful example.

Sometimes, when empathy and care seems so absent from our lives, pragmatism and survival seems to be the main message that comes across. I have however recently become aware of two cases that allowed me to think: when the time comes, even though it will be painful, we, as humanity or as smaller communities, will return to our roots, our values and re-evaluate our way of being.

The first story is about Iceland, in September 2009, during the unimaginable economic recession.The news came on Euronews: Jon Olafsson, a social sciences professor, said that the heroes of yesterday are considered the villains of today, and that people's values and lifestyles are changing together with a shift in mindset. This extraordinary example shows, that once circumstances change and we cannot go around living our life as before, we may be at the right spot to rethink, what we actually are doing right and what really matters. Material possessions matter, but maybe not as much as we often think they do.

The other example was Haiti - the news in the New York Times reported "Fighting Starvations, Haitians Share Portions", saying that new rules of hunger etiquette were emerging. Regardless of how hungry the person is who receives food, it always needs to be shared. Many women started up improvised soup kitchen selling food at discounted price. Even though it will be very difficult for the country to get out if its current situation, people are not sitting around idly, but are trying to rebuild their lives, thereby even becoming social entrepreneurs and caring for the community's needs.

Haitians are in this together and while the Western world is trying to help out, it will be up to the locals to rebuild their lives. It is beautiful to see that they are already doing so - based on the laws of sharing and caring. While no one knows how the road to recovery will look in Haiti, it is already visible that the Haitians will do their best to to it together, to be there for each other, to create an economy based on sharing, not on quick growth.

There are beyond doubt mane more similar cases, even in our respective neighborhoods. These examples are truly powerful and empowering. These prove that an alternative way of thinking and acting is possible and viable. It makes 2010 a really hopeful year and the years ahead even more so.