Democracy or Freedom?

 image by axinia

The meaning of the very word democracy is power to people, not freedom.The trouble is that the people did not get much training in learning how to handle power. It seems that the relationship between democracy and freedom depends upon the tension between power and people. Must freedom in a democracy mean a free-for-all grab at power? If so, we are perecisely in these deeper troubles that Rousseau, Jefferson and oterh godfathers of modern democracy wanted to prevent.

“Demos” means the people, “kratos” means power. However, who is the real ruler when the people rule? Nobody? Everybody? Or somebody. This body may act with such familiarity that its existence is unnoticed. Its shape is ill defined and its desire and purposes are not understood. Is this hypothetical ruler of democracy now inheriting the earth?

Gregoire de Klabermatten, “The third Advent”

P.S: The word on the picture (LUXUS) means luxury in German. In my personal view the modern democracy is almost the same as materialism. I find this photo very interesting, because one can see the shabby house wall and the “rich” word on it, showing the illusory power of riches on the fading facade of democracy.

LOVE, axinia

One Russian Tourist visiting … Russia

My holidays this time was a double-exotic journey. From cosy and stuffed Austria I went to hot and developing India via cold and diverse Russia.

Born Russian and being a Russian citizen I actually spend only 5 years of my life in Russia: every time I visit it I feel more like a tourist (which gives me an interesting perspective and still the ability to act like a native).

This slide show can give you some impressions I got from staying in Moscow for several days.

My last visit to Russia was 2 years ago. Any changes? Any new impressions? 

It feels like people have become more satisfied, more peaceful. At the same time more reserved

What is really wrong with capitalism? Or Why I believe in communism.

 photo by axinia

 Capitalism, Neo-Liberalism, Corporatism - call it whatever, I personally have a big difficulty with the kind of a system I live in. One of the reasons for that difficulty can be that I spent my childhood and youth in a society that was not driven by money and consumption (at least not to that extend like in the West). It seemed to me that people  - because they were not that stressed to make money and to spend them - lived happier, enjoyed more and appreciated the human values like friendship, family, creativity.

When I came to live in the West 10 years ago I was most of all shocked by the concept of profit, which seemed to be very natural for people here. Profit, copy-right, interest… It took me years to comprehend the ways and methods of this system. And now, while working as a Sales Manager in the Marketing and PR business (!)  - imagine what I think about all that machine. Day by day, the more I can penetrate into the depth of the capitalism, the more I understand that my personal belief lays somewhere else. May be I am a communist?

Are you a B-person?

 photo by axinia

Yes! Yes! Yes! - great news indeed for someone like me: it is scientifically proved that some people need to start working later. Denmark’s B-Society was found in order to advocates the rights of ” B-people” who are sluggish and bed-bound first thing, but whose energy spikes in the evening.

Every individual has their own biological rhythm (known as the “Circadian rhythm”), which means we have our very own sense of time and planning of time. There are lots of different kinds of circadian rhythms. Most people are B-persons,which means that their circadian rhythm has a cycle that runs through 25 hours or more. Science has shown that our biological rhythms through “a day” (i.e. “Nychthemeron” = “a day and a night) are regulated by a so-called “clock gene”.
 
B-persons have a clock gene lasting 25-27 hours, whereas A-persons have one that runs for approximately 23 hours.

Dr Roberto Refinetti,a biopsychologist at the University of South Carolina, is an expert on circadian rhythms. “These rhythms describe anything in the body that shows a daily oscillation,” he says. “Your temperature rises and falls at the same time every day and you probably feel drowsy at around the same time daily. But circadian rhythms also control your blood pressure, glucose levels and much more.”

Female Voting or “babysitter” candidate test for US Elections

 photo by Amsterdamned

A good friend of mine Pryanka Joshi, an Indian journalist in America posted her impressions of attending one Obama´s performance. She says she is ”not covering the Obamamania” and yet she preferrs him over Hillary.

As an honest journalist, Pryanka asks if there is actually something more behind the charisma and the Obama`s spirit of “change”:

Lo and behold, in no time, this is what the first voter results started saying too, and it took no time for the candidates to start saying they were the ones with “real change” on their minds.

But, what ARE those new ideas? Where are they? Are they too afraid to be shot down? Are these candidates’ offices full of spin doctors, and poll pundits? Why do they not employ think tanks to come up with solutions to global problems? What is their answer to Outsourcing? To the war? To Pakistan? To education? We’re hearing, “Ya, we’ve gonna do great things”, but have no idea what they may be?!? How can they convince a whole country to vote them into power without concretely sharing their ideas? Isn’t that absurd?

All these questions are very reasonable, but… That passage reminds me of an abstract from one modern Russian novel where one young woman is thinking of voting for the Russian president.

Trend Blend 2008 and my Top 10 Trends

 

Nowandnext.com and Future Exploration Network have once again collaborated to create a trend map for 2008 and beyond. 

I love the positions like Spirituality, Collectivis, Karma Capitalism  and Search for Meaning on the Society Line (yellow).

The cross stations named are: Digitalisation, Virtuals Worlds, Globalisation, Anxiety and Ageing.

I find really cute the trend of making things: the Internet has allowed people with weird and wonderful interests to find each other. Hence hobbies that everyone thought had died out are now enjoying a renaissance because individuals and small groups all over the world find it easier to find each other.

Or this smart one: Someting for nothing -  One of the emerging business models in the closing half of 2007 was giving stuff away for free in the vague hope that customers could one day be persuaded to part with money to upgrade their experience (or subscription). This has been labeled ‘Freemium’ and is, perhaps, the way that all digital products and services will be ‘sold’ in the future.

And I was very amused about Russian nationalism!

Some other intresting trends: Reality mining, 3-D printers, Virtual protest, Simplicity, Celebrity worship, Networked risk, The attention economy.

My top 10 out of this list are:

Makarenko: the jewel of education

 photo by axinia

If you have been visiting my blog for some time, you might have noticed that I am interested in various topics like spirituality, beauty, linguistics, politics, culture, business and poetry. But one of my biggest passions was still hidden from the all perwading Internet power: pedagogics.

Educating and actually upbringing the children seem to be one of the most important human activities, although little respected in many societies. I dream one day to dedicate my life fully to that fascinating and absolutely wonderful task.

Since my studies and early work experience I was keen on pedagogics in theory and practice. I studied the main schools and educational traditions and was able to try something out. And now I want to share with you the system that I like the most, the system that seem to me the most suitable for the generations to come.

The dead breath of Materialism

  

  

Putin Q&A to TIME magazine and what I like about it

 photo: TIME

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin was chosen TIME’s 2007 Person of the Year. What a scandal! The Austrian press even forgot to write about a damage of one Alpine oil tube and ecological consequences of it while negative featuring Russian President.

I was actually going to post something about the unfair attitude to the Russians in the western media, even made up a nice title ( “Bad Russians everywhere, even in The Golden Compass Film”)… And here comes Mr. Putin, my dear President to help me out!

I really enjoyed reading his brilliant interview to the TIME magazine putting them all right, with the typical Russian directness, with dignity and self-confidence.

The Fire, The Water and The Copper Trumpets

 photo by axinia

The deep wisdom of the legends and fairy-tails from all over the world keeps fascinating me.

One Russian fairy-tale called “The Fire, The Water and The Copper Trumpets” tells about 3 great tests a hero should undergo in order to reach his goal (marry a beautiful princess, of course!). 3 kinds of tests reflect 3 main problems we normally face in our personal development.

The water: all kinds of troubles of our emotional self. Depressions, doubts, our past, unfulfilled desires… All that heavy and sticky stuff (labeled as “the left-side” in the yogis terminology).

The Fire: all our action (mental and physical), stress, over-activity, anger, excessive planning and pushing, aggression towards others… All that hot and hard stuff (labeled as “the right side” in the yogic terminology).

As soon as we overcome all that and become a balanced, peaceful and pleasant personality - here comes the best part!