The story of connectivity

He is humiliated while trying to vend fruits on a cart.He has,hitherto,contracted a debt to sell his produce which -without question- the police will confiscate at will.He protests,but a middle aged police officer(woman) slaps him and with the help of her colleagues forces him to the ground in public.At 26 they still bully him as they had 16 years ago when,just at ten, began providing for his family.He never stepped into a college,but his love for education is expressed in financing his younger sister’s university education from the meagre proceeds he gets from selling fruits albeit with difficulty.The act of producing and selling isn’t difficult when juxtaposed with the confrontation he had to endure from corrupt local authorities.Today marks the culmination of years of repression.Infuriated by the abuse,he seeks help from the local municipality which,happily(it may seem) turns him down.At this point,he resorts to setting himself ablaze.This is the story of  Sidi Bouazid whose self-immolation,became the epicentre,which the wave of Arab Spring emanated from.

<> on January 15, 2011 in Paris, France.

 

But how did this event climax into a global phenomena while other similar acts of self-immolation went unnoticed as was the case with Bouazid’s predecessor and fellow country man(Tunisian) Abdesslem Trimech?

 

It is well understood that one of the basic human needs,is the need for belonging.The desire to be part of a certain community.The quest for acceptance and unconditional positive regard  from others.It so happens that you readily find this,from people who are like you.These are people who,without  doubt,are interested in your ideas,they are animated by your presence and even hold you in high esteem than you’d normally deserve.And if you are in a clique other than theirs,you feel ‘cold’, even vulnerable like a puppy in a pool of water.Through the pursuit of meeting this need do people who share the same ideas,values,mindsets,beliefs seamlessly connect with each other at a very personal level.As a result ‘tribes’ are formed.Tribes of techies;tribes of poets;tribes of activists;tribes of fans.Therewith,members gain a sense of belonging and admiration towards each other, even when they are few.

 
Bouazid ,thus, became an icon  of the Arab spring;not because he was famous but because like minded people who shared the quest for freedom and self determination formed one large ‘tribe’ to change the course of their future.

Building one large ‘tribe’ within a very short period is impractical,if utterly possible;it would seem.But something else catalysed the building of this ‘tribe’:Social media! Through it,chances of finding similar characters as yourself are high-compared to those ordinary social interactions you usually have.Consequently, people who experienced pains similar to those of Sidi Bouzid,found each other through a click of a button if not a tap on the screen.Their numbers exponentiated by the hour.And in no time,a wave of change was triggered.

It is worth noting that all it takes to form a ‘tribe’ ,as Seth Godin would suggest is:

• A person(leader).
• An idea.
• A group of like minded individuals who share the same idea.

Justin Bieber and his Biliebers;Al Gore(former US vice president) and his climate change movement;Margaret Kenyatta(Kenya’s first lady) and her ‘beyond Zero’ campaign;Apple and its raving mad fans(not just customers)- are a classical example of how people with ideas,meet like minded peers to effect change in their worlds with social media as their catalyst.

You too can bring the change you want.Social media is a good avenue to begin with.As Rochdi Horchani – a relative of Mohamed Bouaziz observes,people protested in the streets with “a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other”

Intuitives Vs Practicals

It’s been quite a while since I spoke to my former classmate.Tonight she’s calling from Germany.Immediately,Imaginations of Berlin wall conjure up,and as expected,my mouth is executing as fast as my thoughts are formed .Call it “Thinking aloud”,the next thing i know,I’m spewing historical facts of  Berlin wall and how it was destroyed in 1989.At this juncture,a sigh -pregnant with boredom- is heaved on the other end.Alas! I am talking to a ‘practical’ human being living in 2nd April 2016.This and many other instances,remind me about two kinds of people:The ‘intuitive’ and the ‘practical’ some of us are at the extreme end of either traits while others oscillate in between.

So who’s this ‘intuitive’ person? She’s the kind who looks beyond the facts.In fact,she gives meaning to everything she sees.While you see a finger nail,she sees Keratin, and if you’re keen enough,she doesn’t mind bombarding you with information on the chemical structure of the amino acids that make up Keratin.I proudly identify myself in this category,though with time i have learnt to bite my tongue when talking to a ‘practical’ character,as is the case tonight.At this point, our conversation hovers around the German car industry,we talk about the pristine design of the Mercedes Maybach .Meanwhile, my mind randomly picks a principle of design ‘form follows function’  from an archive of industrial design literature that i have,thus so far,read.But with grace i swallow it back as quickly as it came.Of course,for the sake of a lively conversation with my ‘practical’ friend,on the other side of the phone.In a nutshell,these ‘intuitive’ types like to see the big picture,they trust impressions,symbols and metaphors more than what they actually experience.They’re fond of leaping between ideas and possibilities when solving a problem.They effortlessly spot patterns and create connections between seemingly unrelated facts .They are dreamers who see possibilities that sometime exceed their ability to turn them into reality.These are ‘intuitives’

On the opposite end,are people like my friend.Unlike their intuitive counterparts who would imagine the pixels making up the screen.To them, the screen is just that:A screen! They’re concerned with what is actual,present, current and real.A very efficient way of losing their attention in a conversation;is to rant theories-explaining why things are the way they are.They trust experience more than they trust words and symbols.They start with facts then form a bigger picture.They pay so much attention to facts that they miss new possibilities.Be actual,be real.That’s how you appeal to these kinds when communicating with them.

Either way,i don’t intend to say which is better.As a matter of fact these personalities can work seamlessly while occasionally complementing each other.At any given time the intuitive will see the bigger picture within a project and thus provide direction through plans and strategies while the ‘practical’ assesses and operationalizes those plans

Welcome!

 

You are the reason I’m writing this post for ,you’re tired of “cheap talk”,you want to look beyond what’s obvious,you want some depth in whatever discussions you find yourself in,most of all you feel you want to change something in your world.

This makes you and me similar. I feel that way too! Perhaps it might explain why i feel the guy  in the portrait(Steve Jobs) aptly echoes our sentiments, he says:

 

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.

I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.^[11]

You may be a techie who has a deep seated desire to disrupt your industry;may be just a simple person ,swelling with a quest for helping the less fortunate in the society,you might want to be the next Barrack Obama if not a Maya Angelou kind of persona! This blog is here to feed your curiosity,to open up discussions that give you ‘Ahaa’ moments,and most importantly to help us learn,share, connect and grow in the directions of our dreams.