Today was one of those evenings when you become completely tired after an active day:
--> swimming pool in the early morning
--> working day with phone calls to three potential clients in Croatia (I loved to speak Croatian once again) and learning yet new things about cyber-business
--> few emails and some work on our tourism project (Reisid Vabadusse)
--> few emails and phone-calls to my friends who requested something from me
--> Skype conversation with the most beautiful girl in the world
--> Some readings for my school
When I get physically tired, I tend to become emotionally tired as well. If to let it be so and not to direct my mind, I may start to feel sorry for myself, to imagine that some of the things are worse than they really are.
One of the best solutions during such evenings (when I still don't want to go to sleep yet) has for me been reading blogs of my friends. They are listed in the right menu. I am grateful to some of my best friends who keep themselves close to me by communicating their thoughts and experiences in the web.
Internet is amazing. It keeps me close to my friends being so far away from me. I smile. :)
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Interview with me published in Estonian magazine
Recently I was contacted by the editor of the magazine of my university in Estonia which I graduated in 2005. They thought it would be a good idea to make an interview with me as one of their graduates.
University of Tartu has been one of the best things which happened in my professional life apart from AIESEC. Of course, I did not have any doubts and accepted the interview.
The interview is in Estonian and can be found here in online version of the magazine.
I talk there about what I did in Kazakhstan, say some words about Kazakhstan as a country. I share my thoughts on challenges in co-existence of Estonians and Russians in Estonia and on potential of Estonia as a state.
University of Tartu has been one of the best things which happened in my professional life apart from AIESEC. Of course, I did not have any doubts and accepted the interview.
The interview is in Estonian and can be found here in online version of the magazine.
I talk there about what I did in Kazakhstan, say some words about Kazakhstan as a country. I share my thoughts on challenges in co-existence of Estonians and Russians in Estonia and on potential of Estonia as a state.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Reisid Vabadusse - my start-up enterprise
Several months of preparation, discussions, meetings, negotiations, learning and planning... And here we are - Viljo, Marko and me - started our first company.
We aim to offer travelling to the destinations and to be hosted by people that would otherwise be hard to find. Authenticity, beautiful nature, interaction with local culture are the keywords. No hotels, no restaurants, no excursions with the big buses.
In the first year, we offer travel packages for Estonian market to Croatia and to Kazakhstan - the countries I have lived and I have friends and partners in. Both are the countries with amazing nature and with very hospitable people.
Three of us met and worked in AIESEC. Marko and Viljo are both dedicated, entrepreneurial, daring and hard-working people - I couldn't imagine better partners to start a project with.
If the enterprise will be successful during the next six months, we will enlarge the pool of destinations and variety of choices.
Reisid Vabadusse means something like "Travel into a Freedom" in Estonian.
Campaign has started. It is now possible to pursue own way to freedom.
We aim to offer travelling to the destinations and to be hosted by people that would otherwise be hard to find. Authenticity, beautiful nature, interaction with local culture are the keywords. No hotels, no restaurants, no excursions with the big buses.
In the first year, we offer travel packages for Estonian market to Croatia and to Kazakhstan - the countries I have lived and I have friends and partners in. Both are the countries with amazing nature and with very hospitable people.
Three of us met and worked in AIESEC. Marko and Viljo are both dedicated, entrepreneurial, daring and hard-working people - I couldn't imagine better partners to start a project with.
If the enterprise will be successful during the next six months, we will enlarge the pool of destinations and variety of choices.
Reisid Vabadusse means something like "Travel into a Freedom" in Estonian.
Campaign has started. It is now possible to pursue own way to freedom.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Eesti ühiskonnast ja tolerantsusest
Following text is related solely to Estonia and will therefore be in Estonian.
Lugesin täna tavapärasel viisil Postimehe online-versiooni. Valik lugude pealkirjadest:
"Itaalia saarel murdsid sajad migrandid laagrist välja"
"Homod pöörduvad inimõiguste kohtusse"
"Oisaar: islamistid loovad Eestis sidemeid"
Ja igale loole järgneb kümneid ja kümneid vaenu ja viha täis kommentaare. Peamised sõnumid: "Mustad ahju", "Homod ahju", "Moslemid ahju".
Imelikul kombel jäi see kord puudu mõnest artiklist sõnumiga "Venelased ahju".
Kas see on kollektiivne alaväärsuskompleks - nii meediakanalite toimetustel kui üldiselt Eesti ühiskonnal? "Meid on varem kiusatud, nüüd saame meie kord end peremehedena tunda ja kedagi meist erinevat sõimata"...
Eesti patrioodina teeb see mind muidugi kurvaks. Just seetõttu ei tahtnud seda kirjutada inglise keeles - kahju, kui välismaalastel tekib just selline pilt Eestist.
Olukord ei ole siiski üldsegi lootusetu. Esiteks on sellised reaktsioonid mõistetavad ja nendele on seletused olemad. Teiseks on õnneks Eestis siiski väga palju neid, kes ei pea vajalikuks oma lahendamata jäänud psühholoogilised, seksuaalsed või füüsilised probleemid ja kollektiivsest mälust saadud kompleksid teistsuguste inimeste peale välja valama.
Lugesin täna tavapärasel viisil Postimehe online-versiooni. Valik lugude pealkirjadest:
"Itaalia saarel murdsid sajad migrandid laagrist välja"
"Homod pöörduvad inimõiguste kohtusse"
"Oisaar: islamistid loovad Eestis sidemeid"
Ja igale loole järgneb kümneid ja kümneid vaenu ja viha täis kommentaare. Peamised sõnumid: "Mustad ahju", "Homod ahju", "Moslemid ahju".
Imelikul kombel jäi see kord puudu mõnest artiklist sõnumiga "Venelased ahju".
Kas see on kollektiivne alaväärsuskompleks - nii meediakanalite toimetustel kui üldiselt Eesti ühiskonnal? "Meid on varem kiusatud, nüüd saame meie kord end peremehedena tunda ja kedagi meist erinevat sõimata"...
Eesti patrioodina teeb see mind muidugi kurvaks. Just seetõttu ei tahtnud seda kirjutada inglise keeles - kahju, kui välismaalastel tekib just selline pilt Eestist.
Olukord ei ole siiski üldsegi lootusetu. Esiteks on sellised reaktsioonid mõistetavad ja nendele on seletused olemad. Teiseks on õnneks Eestis siiski väga palju neid, kes ei pea vajalikuks oma lahendamata jäänud psühholoogilised, seksuaalsed või füüsilised probleemid ja kollektiivsest mälust saadud kompleksid teistsuguste inimeste peale välja valama.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
All people are equal - thank you, AIESEC, for reminding it!
I was a chair at national conference of AIESEC Norway about a week ago - meaning leading the whole process of conference, making sure everything runs smoothly, leading its flow. Apart from the nice feeling of having been back to AIESEC for a while and having done something useful for dozens of young people, I made one striking conclusion again - this conference was absolutely the same and the people here behaved in absolutely the same way as everywhere else at the national conferences which I have been to - in Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Croatia, and Kazakhstan. They were dancing, laughing, joking, having troubles with their responsibilities, having dreams for a future just like any other AIESEC member in Kazakhstan or Croatia, for example.
Sure, people in Norway, as true Nordic nation, are somewaht less expressive and more calm... but essentially there is just no difference!
It may sound very trivial thing to say that all people are essentially the same... but after having spent about six months in Norway, I started to have a feeling that there is something about people in different countries. Why do Norwegians live a life that 90% of world's population cannot match in even a close way? How come this society is so well-organised, secure and peaceful (there are surely many problems here as well, but compared to most of other countries it's paradise in terms of social quality fo life)? Are people here somehow smarter or more developed?
AIESEC as international youth organisation is an excellent place to prove that people, once put in similar conditions, are no longer a product of their societies. They are individuals instead, who can perform, achieve and be successful, despite their ethnicity or nationality.
Bad luck and bad governance are probably two most prominent reasons for people to suffer in so many corners of the world...
"All men are created equal" - the U.S. Declaration of Independence proclaimed more than two centuries ago. I am not completely sure if it is so. But if there is any inherited mental difference between us, humans, it definitely does not lie in geographical place of birth. Human stupidity is universal. Luckily, compassion, care and determination to create a peace where others don't believe it happening are universal virtues too.
Here is one AIESEC alumnus who proves the latter sentence:
Sure, people in Norway, as true Nordic nation, are somewaht less expressive and more calm... but essentially there is just no difference!
It may sound very trivial thing to say that all people are essentially the same... but after having spent about six months in Norway, I started to have a feeling that there is something about people in different countries. Why do Norwegians live a life that 90% of world's population cannot match in even a close way? How come this society is so well-organised, secure and peaceful (there are surely many problems here as well, but compared to most of other countries it's paradise in terms of social quality fo life)? Are people here somehow smarter or more developed?
AIESEC as international youth organisation is an excellent place to prove that people, once put in similar conditions, are no longer a product of their societies. They are individuals instead, who can perform, achieve and be successful, despite their ethnicity or nationality.
Bad luck and bad governance are probably two most prominent reasons for people to suffer in so many corners of the world...
"All men are created equal" - the U.S. Declaration of Independence proclaimed more than two centuries ago. I am not completely sure if it is so. But if there is any inherited mental difference between us, humans, it definitely does not lie in geographical place of birth. Human stupidity is universal. Luckily, compassion, care and determination to create a peace where others don't believe it happening are universal virtues too.
Here is one AIESEC alumnus who proves the latter sentence:
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Why global financial crisis is good fo us?
I had a blast New Year's eve with my girlfriend. Only me, her and enormous amount of fireworks everywhere seen from the upper floors of my dormitory in Oslo. Picturesque view it was!
There is a tradition in many countries for the top-person to deliver New Year's greetings to the people. I watched recorded speech of the President of Estonia, I read the speeches of the King of Norway and the President of Kazakhstan. They all had one obvious common trait in common - they all touched upon global financial and economic crisis as well as upon the need for national unity in order to overcome economic difficulties.
These days financial crisis (or economic crisis followed by it) is in the top list of the most discussed topics around the world. Many fears and many negative thoughts are expressed in relation to it.
There is indeed much trouble for people who have lost their money due to previously done risky investments, for people who are loosing their jobs, for small and large businesses which are losing their clients, for national governments which do not receive enough money with taxes to sustain necessary level of social services and so on and so forth.
Yet there is another side of the coin which is not that obvious. Taking an abstract side away from individual troubles and personal losses (which are hard to underestimate!) one can indeed find a number of positive sides about current economic outlooks.
1. A crisis cleans up a system. When we don't clean after ourselves in our apartment, the rubbish piles up. It may not worry us in the beginning if we are not all too aesthetes. Once it starts to smell badly, however - a crisis! - we move ourselves to clean up this mess and make our house tidy again.
Economic crisis wipes out inefficient corporate companies, shows clearly the holes in national and local financial governance, punishes people who have misused seemingly easy credit opportunities.
2. Growth is always followed by decline. Growth is not eternal. People and organisations tend to forget these two simple theses and become too careless. Living organisms grow, but then decline and die. Empires, states, organisations, religions all experience their growth and decline phases. Decline may well be followed by growth again, but this change is always there.
Investors putting their money into risky projects, people taking large loans, states expanding their national spending all have made these decisions taking into considerations that "my stock price / salary / tax revenue will continue to grow". Alternative scenario planning is always useful... Many have hopefully learnt at least that from current situation.
3. It's not wise to live beyond your means. People like to feel reach. They like expensive and shiny things.
People working in financial services have universally enjoyed the highest payments. If you work in the bank, investment company, trust fund etc, a very high personal bonus would be guaranteed. Yet financial services do not create any value - people there just move money around. And often this money is not simply moved from those who have money in excess to those in need for that, so that latter would pay interest to former (that should be the basic logic of finance world). In contrary, many smart people around the world spend days and nights playing on speculations, on risk perceptions and so on. Being straightforward, many people get paid a lot for doing something similar to a man going to casino.
Financial services' officers have indeed a very high responsibility. But don't engineers, scientists, doctors, journalists (you continue) have lesser responsibility than them?
Financial crisis has shaken this self-created money-creating-money-world. I am not naive to believe that many dwellers of this world have become poor thanks to that (ex-executives of infamous Lehmann Borther have gotten millions of USD as a compensation after the bankrupt). Yet probably many of them had to refuse from buying a yacht, a diamond or another expensive thingy making them a little bit more happy.
On the other hand, there were so many people all around the world miscalculating their ability to pay back the loans they have taken in order to have bigger house, another car, to consume more. I know personally people in Estonia who have taken a loan to buy something, then took another loan to cover payback of the first loan and so on... until they got in the real trouble with paying all of their debts back.
Island has been labeled a notorious victim of financial crisis. How about the data from 2006 which shows that Iceland has been of the biggest consumers of oil per capita in 2006 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7090664.stm)? One could indeed argue that Iceland is cold country which simply requires a lot of oil to heat up itself. People who have travelled to Reykjavik said that literally every household there had their own 4x4 Jeep or another huge truck (although most of them would go at most 2-3 times a year outside of the city)...
4. Crisis triggers entrepreneurial ideas and improvements. When everything is good and rosy, we don't seem to want to change something much. Difficult circumstances, on the other hand, push us to think in a creative way. Of course, this creativity may manifest itself in more creative ways to commit crime. But it also may mean improved effectiveness of existing companies, better calculation of personal expenditure and savings, new ways to do business.
5. Economic crisis pushes oil prices down. Oil prices have sunk dramatically over the course of October-December 2008 - more than twice. National economies don't simply need that much oil to sustain themselves in times of decline.
This is certainly bad for environmental reasons: cheap oil will not push humankind to think of new, environmentally-friendly sources of energy. Yet low prices of oil may make radical elements in governments in such oil-rich countries as Venezuela, Iran or Russia to think more before wasting money on populist nationalistic projects which are not sustainable for their own people and dangerous for other nations.
Happy New Year, with the crises or without them!
There is a tradition in many countries for the top-person to deliver New Year's greetings to the people. I watched recorded speech of the President of Estonia, I read the speeches of the King of Norway and the President of Kazakhstan. They all had one obvious common trait in common - they all touched upon global financial and economic crisis as well as upon the need for national unity in order to overcome economic difficulties.
These days financial crisis (or economic crisis followed by it) is in the top list of the most discussed topics around the world. Many fears and many negative thoughts are expressed in relation to it.
There is indeed much trouble for people who have lost their money due to previously done risky investments, for people who are loosing their jobs, for small and large businesses which are losing their clients, for national governments which do not receive enough money with taxes to sustain necessary level of social services and so on and so forth.
Yet there is another side of the coin which is not that obvious. Taking an abstract side away from individual troubles and personal losses (which are hard to underestimate!) one can indeed find a number of positive sides about current economic outlooks.
1. A crisis cleans up a system. When we don't clean after ourselves in our apartment, the rubbish piles up. It may not worry us in the beginning if we are not all too aesthetes. Once it starts to smell badly, however - a crisis! - we move ourselves to clean up this mess and make our house tidy again.
Economic crisis wipes out inefficient corporate companies, shows clearly the holes in national and local financial governance, punishes people who have misused seemingly easy credit opportunities.
2. Growth is always followed by decline. Growth is not eternal. People and organisations tend to forget these two simple theses and become too careless. Living organisms grow, but then decline and die. Empires, states, organisations, religions all experience their growth and decline phases. Decline may well be followed by growth again, but this change is always there.
Investors putting their money into risky projects, people taking large loans, states expanding their national spending all have made these decisions taking into considerations that "my stock price / salary / tax revenue will continue to grow". Alternative scenario planning is always useful... Many have hopefully learnt at least that from current situation.
3. It's not wise to live beyond your means. People like to feel reach. They like expensive and shiny things.
People working in financial services have universally enjoyed the highest payments. If you work in the bank, investment company, trust fund etc, a very high personal bonus would be guaranteed. Yet financial services do not create any value - people there just move money around. And often this money is not simply moved from those who have money in excess to those in need for that, so that latter would pay interest to former (that should be the basic logic of finance world). In contrary, many smart people around the world spend days and nights playing on speculations, on risk perceptions and so on. Being straightforward, many people get paid a lot for doing something similar to a man going to casino.
Financial services' officers have indeed a very high responsibility. But don't engineers, scientists, doctors, journalists (you continue) have lesser responsibility than them?
Financial crisis has shaken this self-created money-creating-money-world. I am not naive to believe that many dwellers of this world have become poor thanks to that (ex-executives of infamous Lehmann Borther have gotten millions of USD as a compensation after the bankrupt). Yet probably many of them had to refuse from buying a yacht, a diamond or another expensive thingy making them a little bit more happy.
On the other hand, there were so many people all around the world miscalculating their ability to pay back the loans they have taken in order to have bigger house, another car, to consume more. I know personally people in Estonia who have taken a loan to buy something, then took another loan to cover payback of the first loan and so on... until they got in the real trouble with paying all of their debts back.
Island has been labeled a notorious victim of financial crisis. How about the data from 2006 which shows that Iceland has been of the biggest consumers of oil per capita in 2006 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7090664.stm)? One could indeed argue that Iceland is cold country which simply requires a lot of oil to heat up itself. People who have travelled to Reykjavik said that literally every household there had their own 4x4 Jeep or another huge truck (although most of them would go at most 2-3 times a year outside of the city)...
4. Crisis triggers entrepreneurial ideas and improvements. When everything is good and rosy, we don't seem to want to change something much. Difficult circumstances, on the other hand, push us to think in a creative way. Of course, this creativity may manifest itself in more creative ways to commit crime. But it also may mean improved effectiveness of existing companies, better calculation of personal expenditure and savings, new ways to do business.
5. Economic crisis pushes oil prices down. Oil prices have sunk dramatically over the course of October-December 2008 - more than twice. National economies don't simply need that much oil to sustain themselves in times of decline.
This is certainly bad for environmental reasons: cheap oil will not push humankind to think of new, environmentally-friendly sources of energy. Yet low prices of oil may make radical elements in governments in such oil-rich countries as Venezuela, Iran or Russia to think more before wasting money on populist nationalistic projects which are not sustainable for their own people and dangerous for other nations.
Happy New Year, with the crises or without them!
Friday, December 05, 2008
CyberWatcher - the company I am working for
I am working in the company called CyberWatcher since the middle of October. It is the part-time job (15-20 hours a week) which allows me to study in university, develop professionally and have stable earnings. The latter is important when you live in one of the most expensive countries in the world :)CyberWatcher is a small Norwegian company established by AIESEC alumni, Morten. AIESEC has actually connected two of us. I'm generally quite happy with the way I manage to capitalise on my AIESEC connections and my network (and it is just one part of what has AIESEC experience given to me!). Morten has established and is CEO of the company.
As the name of the company says, we watch the cyber-space there :) And that is actually pretty much concised business-model of the firm: any client who wants to be updated with certain news about certain things from certain online sources, can get such service from us.
Since the time I was studying Journalism and Communication in Estonia, I have been interested in information management as well as effective information and communication skills (in terms of organisations rather than individuals). The work in CyberWatcher gives me opportunity to learn about the ways people and organisations can have more effective information management thanks to certain software platform. What is good about our service is the fact that it can be implemented everywhere in the world by everyone who speaks English.
As I am not the man created to work in big organisations, I very much like the fact the company has nine employees in Norway together with me (in additions, few more people in Sweden and the United Kingdom). It gives me opportunity to work on different tasks and projects. In fact, I don't have any precise job title or job description. Latter would be rather a disturbant factor for a freedom-loving, independent and critical person like me :)
Another nice coincidence is that Morten, the head of the company, has graduated from the same business school I am enrolled in (BI Norwegian School of Management). He respects my studieds and my AIESEC experience and gives me quite a lot of freedom.
It is actually a working culture in Norway in general - people are not being pushed or overly supervised. My colleagues all come and go in different times of the day, in case of neccesity they work from home. I find it all very welcoming - this is one of many aspects why Norway is so well-developed and quite harmonic society (compared to vast majority of other countries), in my opinion.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Women will save the world
I currently live in Norway, which is one of the wealthiest countries in the world - it has among the highest GDP per capita. Recent Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum reveals that Norway also leads the world in closing the gender gap between men and women. I live in the country which provides the most equal opportunities for women in social, political, economical and health terms.Coincidence?
The report shows that by far not. Although not 1:1, there is a very clear evidence of correlation of prosperity of the nation and its ability to close the gap between men and women.
I have recently spoken to one smart Norwegian businessman/traveller/anthropologist (he has probably visited over 100 countries during his life) in his 50s. He said he did not believe the society was able to advance very much on the long run if women were not given opportunity to influence events there. Indeed, women save by nature - social welfare, state harmony, social security - all that is rather typical for females. Conquest, competition and risk - those are words rather typical for men. As one my male friend from Latvia put it in a straightforward way: while women care about agreement and harmony, men simply put their d***s on the tables and start to compare their size.
All in all, it is not that black and white, but I am a firm believer that no society will ever achieve a peace and harmony within itself and with the others unless women there are given opportunity to fully participate in the social, economic and political life of the country.
Interesting: Estonia has 37th rank, Kazakhstan 45th and Croatia 46th rank among 130 countries which have been assessed. Croatia dropped dramatically (I wonder where this drop is coming from?). Kazakhstan scores almost the best in this list among the countries with predominantly Muslim population, which is yet another example of how big potential this country has if things will be led in the right direction.
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