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BORA Consulting - Consultancy for Entrepreneurs - Ralf Borlinghaus
contact: ralf.borlinghaus@bora-consulting.com, +41 44 58 66 157

The Olympic flame has enflamed heavy and emotional discussions about the question whether the Olympic Games should be boycotted or not. Those having no stakes in the Games are ready to cancel "their" participation without major hesitation to force the Chinese to observe human rights. Those making business with the Middle Kingdom think that a boycott would make everything much worse and just force the Chinese back to isolation again.

I am tired of our western attitude to make all mankind happy. We've got enough to do with keeping our front-garden neat. Being told by my neighbours what to do or not do, honestly spoken I wouldn't like that neither. Each family has its own culture which has to be accepted. Some do a prayer before eating, some do not. In some families both parents go for work, in some mother stays at home. In some each kid has its own room, in some they have to share it with their brothers or sisters.

Those who have a basic understanding of cultural uniqueness are children. They visit each other after school and get the chance to go in and out in their friends houses. They are able to accept and to adopt to the differences. Only the adults try to make their way of life binding to the others. However, the more they try to change their neighbours the more the neighbours stick to their habits. Very strange, isn't it?

But if you really want to change your neighbours habits, there is one secret way: You have to become a role model: Buy a new car and put it in the front of your house. After a while, your neighbour also will buy a new one. Renovate the facade of your house or put a new roof on it: Your neighbour will do the same. Tell them where you go for vacation, very soon they will pack their suitcases, too.

Unfortunately, the West is a bad role model. It presents a very luxurious livestyle to its neighbours who naturally put all their energy in copying it: Meat all day, new cars, air condition, flights. Since that ruins our blue planet (we don't like our fresh air polluted) we tell them not to do so. But the neighbours don't like to be told what to do (I wouldn't neither). Do you know the secret way how to change their mind...?

And if we really mind how they treat the Tibetans, let's switch off our TV during summer and don't buy Chinese products. But the latter would affect our luxurious style of  live... 

 Your comment is welcome

"The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."

Olympic Charta, 2007
                                                              

First Olympic Torch Relay in 1936                             

Strategic Self-Manager                                               

Olympics Under The Swastika

72 Years ago in 1936 the 11th Olympic Games were held in Nazi-Berlin. It's worth having a short look back. Same questions as today - same answers. What's yours?