Wow! Sutha tagged me and in the process summed up a lot of my thoughts and aspirations for the world.
- Freedom of Speech
- Equality for Women
- Make Meaning
1. Freedom of Speech
I am appalled to read about the Canadian government restricting journalists from covering the arrival of our fallen soldiers serving in Afghanistan. I am equally appalled to see a Canadian journalist expelled from Uganda because he wrote about the president’s wife. Freedom of the press is a great starting point to help ensure openness and accountability of governments. Eroding it also erodes the rights of individuals.
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”
We need to encourage people to question, to challenge, to push. You don’t have to agree but you should have the right to do the freedom of opinion and expression.
2. Equality for Women
Most of the influential people in my life have been women. They inspire me, they think differently than me, and generally they are treated a lot worse that me. Yet in an enlightened society, we continue to exclude or not consider women equally. I thought about giving up my time slot at mesh for an open discussion on women in technology. Call it what you want, but the continued examples of inequitable treatment are unacceptable. The persecution manifests itself in issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, sexual harassment, discrimination, rape and mutilation. This is unacceptable! We need to rally, raise our voices and support women’s rights, our mothers, sisters, aunts, wives, daughters, friends, colleagues, and inspirations!
3. Make Meaning
“Changing minds is ultimately more powerful than blowing things up.” – Brenda Laurel
We need to do work that “corrodes extremism and intolerance”. I get inspired by humanity and the stories people tell about it. I chose my new business cards because it captured what I’ve been thinking about lately.
“the market for something to believe in is infinite.” we are here to find meaning. we are here to help other people do the same. everything else is secondary. we humans want to believe in our own species. and we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. that is human nature.
We shouldn’t stop building things. We should build companies and products that make the world a better place. I want to make meaning, to make the world a better place. If we were to start making meaningful products and companies, you know what, we might just make here a better place.