On the way to my favorite Italian, in a very Christmas mood, I noticed the large showcase wisdom of an architecture office. The future of this trade would lie in “emphatic flexibility”, it said. What a sentence.
Such a mixture of empathy and thinking is not only desired by architects, but by everyone involved in conflicts of faith and direction. The virologists, for example, who argue about “No Covid” or “Live with the virus”. So empathy and flexibility. But what are the other terms that can carry us through 2022? The virtues that help us? An approach in seven steps.
I. Hope. Who better to symbolize this than Amanda Gorman, the young American who became world famous with her poems at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden? And that on that Capitol Hill in Washington, where previously Trump radicalized democracy had stormed. In her new volume of poetry “Call Us What We Carry” she writes: “Who are we, if not / what we make of the dark” – we are what we make of these dark times.
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Gorman recalls a saying of her teacher: “You are not you. You are us. ”And she proclaims the war lusters in“ War: What, Is It Good? ”:“ There is no such thing as a gentle war / There is no peace / That can’t be flung aside. ”There is none Gentle war / There is no peace / That can just be tossed aside.
(Photo: imago images / Cavan Images)
II. Innovation. The city of Nazareth in the north of Israel fascinates Christians, it is considered to be the hometown of Jesus. But it also attracts high-tech disciples because 70 start-ups have been launched here. Corporations like Microsoft or Salesforce maintain research laboratories. The NGO Tsofen is aiming to triple the proportion of Arab citizens in the Israeli high-tech sector by 2025 – that would be a “revolution”, says Tsofen boss Ramzi Halabi in the Handelsblatt report. The critical mass of companies is still missing – because the city administration has too little understanding of digitization. We know that.
Nevertheless, it is gratifying in this country that 12.4 billion euros flowed into start-ups by September – more than ever before. But investor Klaus Hommels also says: “To build a new medium-sized company, you need 100 billion euros in venture capital a year.”
III. Generosity. These days we remember Charles Dickens and his Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy merchant who at some point in “A Christmas Carol” no longer explains, so to speak, “Avarice is cool!”, But “Good is cool!” In the dream this becomes ossified Got Scrooge to think of “Tiny Tim,” his clerk’s seriously ill son, and ended up sending him a fat turkey for Christmas. The converted shopkeeper celebrates the Christian festival itself at the end of this Christmas story.
In 2021, the Schwarz Group (“Lidl”) and Würth showed that returns are not everything: They helped flood victims with ten million and five million euros respectively. US tech billionaire Jeff Green also looks like a new Scrooge. He left the Mormon denomination saying he would donate 90 percent of his five billion dollar fortune to good causes – and started with $ 600,000 for an LGBTQ group.
IV. Hunger for education. The promises of advancement of democratic societies – often ignored – are the great opportunities that everyone, regardless of social status, has if they succeed in school. Bulgaria actually made this myth come true after twelve years of corruption in the government. In the elections, Kiril Petkov, 41, rose to be prime minister and Assen Wassilew, 44, became finance minister, two sons of the Balkans who studied at Harvard Business School. The two are called the “Harvard Boys” in the poorest country in the EU, where they were promptly successful as entrepreneurs after their return from the USA.
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V. Versatility. Word has got around that even a high school diploma, university studies, stays abroad, an MBA and doctorate are not enough for a great career. In our working life we collect up to 30 qualifications, known as “micro-certificates”. But the decisive factor is something completely different, believes business coach Barry O’Reilly: unlearning the things that may have been important in the past but are now in the way. Unlearning is also an art, teaches the consultant to British Airways and Disney. In our weekend report, the lesson of unlearning is the fourth of ten major trends. We will live faster and more radically, writes author Thomas Jahn in his essay, but we will also take better pills and eat healthier food.
“Self-reinforcement” is the secret of the modern world, thinks philosopher Peter Sloterdijk: “From knowledge, more and more knowledge emerges, from machine science ever more machine customer, from money ever more money.” And from Sloterdijk ever more Sloterdijk.
VI. Sobriety. Two current studies may help against all the new lockdown fantasies. The first, by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, explains that the risk of being hospitalized for Covid-19 is two-thirds lower with the Omicron virus variant than with the Delta type.
A second study from South Africa shows that the likelihood of being hospitalized is 80 percent lower. Perhaps the greatest danger is not Omikron, but an overreaction to it. The fact that under Major General Carsten Breuer more than 28 million vaccinations have been administered since mid-November and that the 30 million target will probably be achieved by the end of the year is more than just a side note.
Incidentally, the large amount of research and development work that will follow from the digital boost and the green restructuring that has gripped the country gives cause for optimism. It is nice to see that you no longer have to travel to Silicon Valley to experience groundbreaking technologies, writes editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes in the editorial for the weekend report: “Today a trip to Munich, Berlin or Paris is enough.”
VII. Courage. In order to deal with our future tasks, we will need the courage that Khalida Popal, 34, once an Afghan national player, has shown. In the summer of Denmark she organized the departure of 35 young players from their home country – They fled the Taliban via Pakistan. The players’ union and sponsors such as Rabbi Moshe Margaretten’s Tzedek Association helped. “We worked day and night to get the women out. I have the power to be the voice of voiceless women. And I’ll use my power, ”says Popal.
And now my culture tip for the weekend: “Not only at Christmas time” by Heinrich Böll, the first satire by the Nobel Prize winner for literature. Presented in 1952 and set in 1947 as a parable of a society that dispose of the past and unpleasant in behavioral kitsch, represented here in the person of Aunt Milla. Even after Candlemas she does not want to leave the Christmas tree, whereupon the family continues to play Christmas for two years until they are completely exhausted, in the end with unemployed actors and wax dolls. The others emigrate, become communists and cheat or go to a monastery. Only for the aunt does the angel whisper daily from the tree: “Peace, Peace, Peace”. Conclusion: Unsurpassed tinsel literature.
And then there is the Christ Child, 500, who gave an exclusive interview to the weekly publication “Die Zeit” and revealed that he should respect the Highlander principle when it comes to the leadership question vis-à-vis Santa Claus: “There can only be one.” As for Christmas, the cinematic Christ Child even quotes Hollywood diva Mae West: “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” So also see the debt makers of the federal government, who experience the principle of Christ Child all year round, so to speak.
After all, by issuing federal securities – to finance the budget – in 2021, thanks to negative interest rates, the federal government received a whopping 5.9 billion euros. So you could borrow the record sum of 483 billion and ask in June: “Yes, is it Christmas tonight?”
I wish you a nice, peaceful Christmas season. My colleague Christan Rickens will take over the wake-up service “between the years” and in the first week of the new year. We read and listen and then we meet again on January 10th.
I warmly greet you
Her
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
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