Tag Archives: Thinking

Improve the world…

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Kalinga FoundationHelp the poor

I bumped into the initiative of the Kalinga foundation a few days ago. And I sent them an e-mail as I still want to do something for the poor people in The Philippines. And I saw their focus is on helping children living on a garbage dump in Manila. And of course it’s a very good cause to help ‘poor children on a garbage dump’, but I think the economic problems in The Philippines go much deeper than just ‘people being poor’. The longer I am here, the more I realize there is a reason, there are reasons why The Philippines is poor, or at least why many people in The Philippines are poor. And those reasons go very deep, they go back to culture and upbringing and the resulting attitudes from that. And without changing that you can’t achieve any result in the reduction of poverty, as it’s the system, the culture that makes The Philippines, makes many people in The Philippines poor, even including me at the moment, but that’s just incidental, I’m just a sample. And maybe the statements I am making now are just the reason why I’m here, why I am in this situation I am right now, this situation also of poverty which I don’t like, even though I don’t really lead a life in poverty as I still have enough to eat and to drink and still have a decent house to live in and still take my daily hot shower. But yes, I feel poor and basically I am poor, as I still have some capital left in the form of the capital invested in the house, but related to day-to-day living I am poor as I don’t earn enough to sustain myself and my partner and I ended up in quite some substantial debts, even though those debts are smaller than the capital still present in the form of the value of the house.

So related to all those poor people I see all around me and all over The Philippines I am thinking more and more in terms of what I would tell myself to get myself going again, to get out of poverty. And I still didn’t find the answer to that as I basically lost hope to find a decent income, to find customers or even to find a job.

What I want and need

So maybe let’s go from there. What would I need to get me moving again, moving in a direction that would lead me to a higher income. Or what circumstances would need to change in order to give me hope again, make me move again. And don’t get me wrong, I’m still moving somehow, but somehow I also lost all hope of finding customers again, a sufficient number of customers to work forty hours a week or so and at least go back to a financial level where I can sustain myself and my partner and start paying back my financial debts.

So what would make me move again right now? Well, just customers finding me I guess. Customers wanting and needing my services, wanting and needing the stuff that I have built over time and use that to build websites and web applications. And no, not the other way around, because I have no clue on how to find customers. I tried many things and it just doesn’t seem to be my thing. And following from that I would also be inspired by someone believing in my skills, in the services and products I can offer, believing that much that he or she would sell my services and products to customers.

Alternative would be people enjoying to stay in The Malasag House and paying for it. Paying guests, although I might have trouble with my partner in that, but if people would be really interested staying here, staying with me, enjoying the house, enjoying my company, yes, that would also give me hope, inspire me.

And next step would be to find people who I can rebuild the company with, rebuild Active Discovery Designs with. People who want to be part of a professional ‘anything internet’ company. People who would enjoy learning from me and at the same time enjoying producing quality products for customers or doing other office work in a nice, efficient way.

And then, yes then, I would be able to think further again. Enjoy my own life again with a nice car and some holiday and indeed giving to the poor, giving back to the world. So sound simple, isn’t it? I just need other people needing me, needing my services, needing what I have to offer.

System changes needed

Ah, but I forget something here, something that came into my mind earlier. There are some things in the system, in the culture that are really annoying and are really blocking progress in The Philippines. Recent sample is that I found out that one of our internet providers is limiting our connection to something like half the speed with service interruptions for every second half of the month. And compared to other countries internet speed is already very slow. And internet is already very expensive. And that’s where somehow the culture, the government, isn’t able to make sure that systems, that companies work efficiently, at least not compared to at least the Western countries, the Western world. And those type of things are everywhere and they are very annoying and are taking away huge amounts of initiative and energy of people and of companies. So yes, if anything is to change, also something needs to change in the government, as somehow these things go back to how the country is government. But I’m not sure. It might as well be the culture, the system, the way how things work here, the way how things are done.

Start for the poor

So where to start when looking at ‘the poor people’, the people on the other side of the road (yes, on the other side of the road of where my house is there is a very poor community). Or indeed the children on the garbage dump that the Kalinga foundation is trying to help. Maybe the first thing they would need is indeed something like food and other daily needs, the things I still have, the things I don’t worry too much about. But I guess the next thing they would need would also be something like the feeling to be needed, the feeling of doing something useful. So maybe the first thing would be to just ask them what are their dreams, ask them what they want in life. Do they want to be a truck driver or a Jeepney driver? Or maybe an artist? Or a sailor or a ships captain? Or a pilot? Or a government employee, president of The Philippines of president of the United States?

Help the world

Well, maybe just discuss this with the people of the Kalinga foundation. Maybe we can find some answers there and maybe those answers would lead to solutions, for The Philippines and/or for the people in The Philippines. Or maybe even solutions for the world and all people in the world.

Because in the end I guess we all want the same: be needed, feel needed. Of course after our basic needs are met.

Good out of bad

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I guess most of you, at least in the future, wouldn’t know I am of Dutch origin and currently live in The Philippines. And right now the quote about negative things by definition somehow have something positive in them:

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.

And it seems to be true for me related to the typhoon that hit a part of The Philippines around a week ago. And in this case I was not even affected in a bad way myself, but what I see on TV the destruction in some areas is enormous, like the city of Tacloban seems to be virtually completely destroyed. And I have visited that city a few years ago and it was just a normal Philippine city, not just a shanty area or something. Just pretty decent built houses and shops and such in the city center. So yes, something really bad happened there, no matter what I wrote about Philippine culture a few days ago in my Dutch blog.

But something good came out for me as some people I did not have contact with for quite some time or even a long time were sending me messages to check if I was OK. And actually some people from a very long time ago, from my study time and my first job. So somehow very important people from the period ‘where it all began’ where I also have been thinking quite a lot about recently.

So while writing also something like ‘Law of Attraction‘ comes to mind. It seems that thoughts indeed have enormous power as I have been thinking quite a lot about the period of my first job recently. And the most important person about that period contacted me a few days ago. And i have been thinking quite a lot about my student home, especially a certain person. And it was not that person contacting me, but another one from exactly the same period, the same group. Coincidence? Well, while writing, cannot really be. There is indeed more between heaven and earth than we can see. And it is good!

Strangeness of life

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Jason StathamIt’s a phrase that stays in my my mind, the phrase ‘the strangeness of life’ from Napoleon Hill. I was watching the movie Safe with actor Jason Statham and that brought me to my jealousy again with movie stars and other successful people. Something like “I think I’m more intelligent, have better education, etc., etc., so why can’t I be rich and famous”. And I think that’s a very valid question. When reading about famous and/or successful people I do keep reading though that often some day in their life they met ‘some other famous person’ who made their break possible. And that’s exactly what I feel like I missed, but that’s also exactly what this site is all about. Give you that ‘break’, that inspiring person. And maybe this site is my ‘break’ as I see quite some opportunity in it, to pass my message, my ideas to the world. And be famous for that. The only issue for me is still that as far as I know I don’t know any person who would give me that ‘break’ I’m looking for.

However, that’s not what I really wanted to write about tonight. What was in my mind was all those things about how we have organized our world, what I was watching. And I was watching a movie that indeed is made perfect with most likely all people who are successful in what they are doing and very good where maybe indeed Jason Statham and the other successful people related to that movie go the extra mile where I don’t do that. But that’s not the point. The movie is made perfect as all good and famous Hollywood movies are. But the story is weird and there is an awful lot of violence in it e.g. And I am watching it and enjoying it and kind of believing it, kind of letting it in. And it has nothing or hardly anything to do with real life. The story, the killings, the car chases, the fights. But I am watching it and letting it in, together with all the commercials around it.

SafeSo somehow we have created a world where movies are partially paid by big companies advertising their products that are about a life that is not real. And we are taking it in, the whole thing, the story, the advertisements, the fights, the car chases, etc., etc. So knowing that I know now this would influence my thoughts, my thinking and especially my subconscious mind. And until recently I used to do that without any real thinking. So I let these crazy things ‘the industry’ wants me to believe in. These crazy thoughts from things, organizations that are bigger than me, in size, in power, in influence.

And I’m not against that. I’m not against entertainment. I have been enjoying this movie although I don’t like the ‘action part’ that much. But I am starting to believe that we, virtually all humans, all humanity, is taking these things in too easy, too much without thinking, too much without realizing what it does to us, what it does to our thinking and therefore also with our acting.

So better be a bit more conscious what you are watching and what it does to you. And then better just pick the positive as I also found that virtually all movies have some deep thinking behind them, some positive message.