Catarina's World

If so, you personify the findings of Edelman's 2012 Trust Barometer. Watch Chrystia Freeland talk to Richard Edelman about the current erosion of confidence in the workplace and governments:

Respondents in 25 countries indicate trust in government have declined with nine percent and that Brazil is the country where confidence in elected officials have fallen most.

Not surprisingly the debt ceiling debacle in the US, bailouts in the European Union, corruption in Brazil and India as well as the nuclear disaster in Japan are the main reasons behind the mistrust. And it's interesting to note that Westerners have lower faith in their governments than citizens of the developing world. 

Half the public distrust companies

Businesses need to be regulated according to half the participants in the survery. And they are of the opinion that governments are not doing enough to rein in immoral companies. A high number of people would also like their authorities to increase consumer protection and ensure ethical corporate behaviour. It comes as no surprise that banks and financial institutions are least trusted. 

Trust in social media on the rise

Traditional media and online search engines are still the most trusted sources of news and information but social media including blogs, networking sites and content sharing sites showed the biggest increase in trust this year. Surprising, considering the amount of incorrect information circulating on such forums. 

Do you agree with the findings of the 2012 Trust Barometer and what Richard Edelman had to say? Have we lost confidence in authority figures? How can they build trust again and manage their reputations?There is now an opportunity for governments and businesses to lead in ways that earn trust. How would you like to see that done? Can they convince the citizens of the world that they are not about self interest but taking their responsibilities in society? Do you agree with Richard Eberman that confidence in governments and businesses will start rising again this year?

Video: ReutersTV

The prospect of war with Iran is headline news. But how prepared are we for cyber threats? Or worse, the prospect of cyber space turning into a nuke? Devote four minutes to listen to what a high level delegation from Europol, Israel, NATO, the EU and US has to say on cyber security:

According to a new report on cybersecurity by Security & Defence Agenda, a think tank in Brussels, Sweden, Finland and Israel are best prepared for cyber attacks. Better even than the United States, Germany and Britain, which is alarming since the latter three are more likely to be targeted than Sweden and Finland. India, Brazil and Mexico on the other hand, rank near the bottom. 

More than half the respondents believe a cyber arms race is already going on and 36% are of the opinion that cybersecurity is more important than missile defence. Nearly half said that it's as important as border securiry.

Global agreement to share information recommended

Governments and private sector companies need to cooperate better on sharing information about possible threats. The public also needs to be educated and more attention being given to secure smart phones and cloud computing.

China lagging behind

Considering how active China is reputed to be in cyber warfare, it's surprising that the report finds that they are no better equipped to defend themselves than countries like Poland and Austria. Makes you wonder if the talk about China's super elite Cyber army is exaggerated? If not, why don't they make sure they are better protected against attacks? Provided, of course that the report has the right information. 

Apparently the West is so far scrambling to bolster its capabilities as I wrote about in Cyber Warfare – hackers to the rescue? six months ago. Hackers are both a concern and possible assett when it comes to defense in cyber space. A few days ago Anonymous released a recording between the FBI and UK police discussing efforts against hackers. Once again, can't avoid thinking that it would be much better if the members of Anonymous and other such groups could give governments a helping hand. Let's face it they exist and could use their skills in beneficial ways.

US warns against Iran, China and Russia

On January 31st James Clapper, US intelligence officer told the senate that Iran is accelerating its activity in cyber space and warned that China and Russia have aggressive capabilities. Iran, Russia and China on the other hand accuse the United States of being the main agressor in cyber space. 

What's your opinion? Do you agree that an arms race is already going on in cyber space? Are Iran, China and Russia as active as we are led to believe by US intelligence and the news? Did you know that 1,000 attacks a minute take place world-wide? Is a full scale online war more likely than a nuclear conflict? Is enough being done to protect us against attacks in cyber space? What more could be done? Will it actually go as far as an online war? If so, will it paralyze the world and who will be the winner?

Video: InfoSecDefAgenda

You can't hide lack of energy and motivation since it's evident from how you carry yourself. Sit down somewhere and watch people walking and you will quickly notice whose got what it takes and who hasn't. How are you going to be able to move forward and create new beginnings if you don't have it? Who would hire or do business with someone without the drive and energy to succeed?

What kind of exercise you choose is entirely up to you. Personally I thrive on swimming, yoga, roller-blading and walking.

To be inspired will not be enough if you don't have both the physical and mental energy it takes to succeed. So now that many of you are between jobs you have no excuse for not exercising, sleeping enough and making sure you get the nutrition you need, both for your health and mental wellbeing.

At least half an hour a day

When you are tired and under stimulated you don't perform well and your results consequently leave a lot to be desired. So now is the time to change that. You have the time and it's not more expensive, or difficult, to lead your life in ways that give you energy. Are you getting the nutrition you need through what you are eating? Are you exercising enough? At least half an hour a day, now that you have the time? Are you sleeping enough? Have you got positive relations with the people around you? How about goals? Have you set them yet? And are you taking time out for yourself to be able to think and reflect on what is important to you and why? Not to mention learning from what is not working out the way you intended?

What kind of exercise do you do?

There is no set formula for this since we are all different. What kind of exercise you choose is entirely up to you. Personally I thrive on swimming, yoga, roller-blading and walking. But if you prefer football, jogging or whatever that's what you should do. Exercising makes your body produce endorphins, which is like a natural feel good drug. And yoga has the added benefit of completely removing stress if you breathe properly while doing it. Not to mention pranayama, the yogic breathing exercises, that have amazing benefits on your health an well-being. Sauna and steam baths are great too since you sweat out the negative energy.

You are what you eat!

Whenever I'm in a supermarket anywhere in the world I'm amazed at what people have in their trolleys. Not as bad as junk food, but almost. There is very little nutrition left in such food, so how about eating more fresh vegetables, fruit, whole-grain bread and other good sources of fibre? And to be on the safe side, take at least a multivitamin supplement to make sure you get everything you need.

Sleeping enough to recover and repair is essential. You may be one of the lucky ones that thrive on four hours a day or you may need eight? Personally I'm fine as long as I get six hours. Anything less and I'm tired. You know how much you need, so just make sure you get it.

Avoid negativity

Being surrounded by negative people have a really bad impact on you. How about trying to improve relations, when possible? Failing that I would suggest you just ignore negative people and the discouraging comments you get. Simply make an effort to be tolerant and accept that what he/she thinks is his/her opinion. We're all different and whose right and whose wrong?

Regarding goals, if you don't know what you are aiming for, where will you end up? Now is the time to decide what you really want to achieve in your life. But don't be too rigid since that may prevent you from even noticing other lucrative possibilities that come your way.

Make plans and evaluate

Getting time for yourself may be difficult, but it's essential in order to move on. If nothing else how about thinking through what happened during the day and how you could have done better just before you go to sleep? And then first thing in the morning thinking through and deciding what you would like to achieve during the day.

And whatever you do, don't feel sorry for yourself or, worse, start drinking or doing drugs, because then you really are doomed. Sitting at home watching television is not a good idea either. Read inspiring books about people who have achieved something, Dale Carnegie or other motivating authors.

Scientists have actually proven that flowers and plants make us more creative and able to come up with innovative solutions to problems. So get out in nature and get energy. Not only is it delightful but it also brings you closer to your goals. Even buying a plant will have a positive affect on you. So what are you waiting for, make an effort, get more energy and succeed! No health – no wealth, is another way of putting it.

(re-published on popular demand)

(Photo Stana Photoxpress)

Is being a leader a service job or an insurmountable task of being perfect in every respect? Does a leader have to know more than everybody else?

Successful leaders surround themselves with people who know more than they do - and listen to them.

In my opinion the mission of a successful leader is to make sure colleagues know more than he/she does about the tasks each of them are carrying out. Have interviewed a multitude of heads of states and without failure they had several advisers present who, if necessary, filled in regarding details and areas the president didn’t know about.

Nobody’s perfect

So why do so many heads of companies and organisations believe they have to know everything there is to know? In today's business climate it's impossible to master everything. On top of it it's futile to try to know everything. Nobody does. So don't make your business dependent on one or two people only.

It's the leaders job to make sure that the company rests on a huge platform of knowledge and competence. And to ensure the staff really know what they are doing, not that you beat them to it in every respect.

Are you competing with your staff?

Are you a leader that gets stressed by colleagues knowing more than you do? How about looking at it as the day your staff are more skilled in what they are doing than you are, you have succeeded?

Leaders that competes with their colleagues are detrimental to the organisation they are running. Compare that with Ronald Reagan, a good example of a leader who didn't know everything but surrounded himself with experts that did and listened to them. Another prime example is Richard Branson who delegates to qualified people. And it's no secret that they are both regarded as very successful leaders. So how about following in their footsteps and make sure you thoroughly master the art of leadership and allow your colleagues to be experts at what they are doing? If you do, you will not only succeed as a leader but make sure your business flourish as well. Provided of course you listen to the experts you surround yourself with.

Photo: PhotoXpress – Alexandr Shebanov

You can have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down, Mary Pickford once said and it's so true. And only you can do it. If you wait for others to lift you up, not only will you be disappointed – you will stay down.

Get back in the saddle again and look at your problem in ways that will allow a solution.

Now it's time to make an effort and make sure your life and/or business benefits. Many of you actually ask me to write more since you are feeling better after reading what I write. Makes me wonder if you feel good long enough to get back in the saddle again? Because you simply have to.

Are you brave?

These are difficult times and it's essential that you realise that the problem isn't you and get the courage to move on. And it has to come from within you. I appreciate that it's hard but it's in times like these that you separate "winners from loosers"

Opportunities disguised as problems

Being positive is crucial and to look at your problem in ways that will allow a solution. Maybe you have to look at possibilities you never considered before? But no matter what, it will be a question of persevering until you succeed, and not allow yourself to feel down. And don't forget that we are often faced with great opportunities disguised as insoluble problems

Are you "problem friendly"?

How creative are you? Ever thought about the fact that creative people are “problem friendly”? Don't get me wrong, nobody is delighted to deal with problems but now is the time for you to roll up your creative sleeves and find opportunities to improve your life. How? The solutions will be different for each of you. We all have problems that need to be solved every day. Even if it's just that we got dirty and have to wash. There's no running away from problems since everybody has them. If someone says they don't, they are simply not telling the truth. So the important thing is to try to find solutions that will enrich your life.

Don't discard your ideas

Don't discard the ideas you have, value them instead and take the challenge of developing them. If you are creative you will be persistent and optimistic until you succeed. If you, or others around you, dismiss your ideas too early you will never get anywhere. Many of the ideas that I have had would in the beginning have appeared crazy to others, but nobody called them crazy after I succeeded. What would have happened if I had talked about them to early? Maybe criticism would have killed off my ideas? Be flexible as well. The fact that you are developing one idea doesn't prevent you from working on other ones as well. In fact, I think you should work on several possibilities at the moment because so much is changing in our world. Covering your back is always a good idea. Have noticed that when I don't, things go wrong.

Still stuck in the rut? How about re-framing your situation by looking at it from different angles? It has the power to change your entire perception of the problem and finding new solutions.

And always, always remember that the only thing that's certain in life is that everything is uncertain. That's a fundamental fact of life and you have to get the strength from within to handle it, because whatever happens to you in life, it's up to you how you perceive it. Positive or negative? Your choice. Or as Lincoln once put it “You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves”. Remember that failure happens on the road to success, which may be just a step away.

(Photo: Photo Xpress)

Should the US government have the power to shut down web sites world wide? Or do you agree with Wikipedia and Google that the proposed bills amount to Chinese style online censorship? Devote 2 minutes to watching an informative video about the bills:

If congress pass the bills, anyone posting a home video online with a song playing in the background could in theory be accused of piracy and their site shut down. The Obama administration has stated it's not in favour of the proposed legislation since it threatens an innovative and open internet. So if worse comes to worse, the president could presumably veto it? Some members of congress however, are keen on the bills in order to please Hollywood and the musical industy. 

Would the bills be the end of internet as we know it?

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the bills: ""They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed.

'Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. And, Sopa and Pipa build a framework for future restrictions and suppression. Proponents of Sopa have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy". 

According to Jimmy Wales, "The bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."

Sopa and Pipa actually propose that anyone found guilty of streaming copyrighted content without permission 10 or more times within six months should go to jail.

Would Sopa and Pipa completely change social media networks like Linkedin and Facebook because they would need to police everything their members post? Will online freedom of speech be severely resticted by the bills? Or do you agree with Robert Murdoch who has complained about the White House not supporting the most extreme elements of the bills? Do you want to keep the internet as it is or should it be censored world-wide by the US government? 

Video: Al Jazeera English – You Tube

Tehran says it not only will, but is ready to, counter attacks from Israel and the United States. They are angry about the new sanctions and have threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. Devote 6 minutes to watching an interesting video with Seyed Mohammad Marandi from the University of Tehran explaining how Iran looks at the current stand off:

Yes why not? If Caesar was alive today he would easily have got himself elected to what is still the most powerful position in the world. Life today is actually very much like during the Roman Empire. Crassus personifies big business and banks and Cicero, Julius Caesar and Catilina today’s politicians. And as far as dictators go,  Sulla did what that category are doing today already 2,000 years ago.

Gaius Julius Caesar would have felt at home on Capitol Hill and in the White House. He, or Cicero for that matter, would easily have managed to get himself elected president.

The headline “Financial reform compromise rebuffed in Senate” could easily be applied to the Roman Empire. Not least since that’s where the original Senate was located. The difference is that today you read news in the media and in those days Roman citizens talked about news on the Forum.

Roman elections, taxation & justice

Just as in some countries today the elite ruled at the expense of the common man.The main tools for power were already then elections, taxation and courts of law. Making profit was crucial to Roman businessmen. Crassus almost had hundreds of slaves executed just to serve his business interests. He had houses burnt down to buy them for nothing to increase his wealth.

Oportunisism still works

Power corrupts and Cicero, just like any opportunistic politician throughout time, completely changed his policies to get elected (does it sound familiar?). And no doubt a fabulous orator like him would also have been able to convince any electorate today to vote for him.

Envy and opinion can alter history

Shakespeare’s play has wrongly made many people believe Caesar was a tyrant, which is far from the truth. He usually refrained from executing his enemies which was his downfall. Would history have looked different if he hadn’t spared Brutus’ life? And the irony is that Brutus may very well have been his illegitimate son. Can’t help thinking of some royal families where assasination today still seems to be the way to the throne. The Julian dynasty emperors after Caesar however became increasingly more tyrannical, which is not unusual in similar families today.

Human nature doesn’t change

So haven’t we learned from what went wrong with the Roman Empire? Why doesn’t humanity evolve, learn from history and move on? Because it is not big business, the banks or politicians that are at fault. It is human nature. Once a generation has learnt from its mistakes another generation takes over that have yet to learn.

Human nature doesn’t change. Many people, even though they would rather die than admit it, would do anything for money, power and glory. Not to mention fame and just simply feeling important.

Vested interests rule the world

Many of us would like to see a fair world. But the world has never been fair and it’s unlikely that it ever will be. About 15 years ago I told a friend of mine who used to be minister of foreign affairs in Mexico that I would like to see all people in the world eat three meals a day and have basic schooling. He told me, “Catarina, it will never happen because vested interests will not allow it”. In other words powerful countries and people will look after its own interests.

But since empires come and go who does what to whom evens out throughout history. In the future the Chinese and Indians will do to the West what the West has been doing to them.

Makes you wonder what makes today different from the past, doesn’t it? Why should people who genuinely want to make a difference succeed today where caring people in the past failed? Will the fact that the whole world is so interconnected make a difference?

Maybe the most important lesson from history is survival? Marcus Mummius, a Roman army commander put it very well over two thousand years ago: “ When you are hurt (in battle) the worst you can do is stop fighting. If you do the pain takes over and you are finished. I have seen many soldiers die of wounds that shouldn’t have been fatal just because they stopped fighting and gave in to the pain. No you just scream and throw yourself right back into the fight. That way you will neither feel the pain nor bleed to death since the blood will rush to your brain and the arm that holds your sword  to enable you to succeed”.

(photo: genjo m Flickr)

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Scott Atran, psychologist at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s behavior shows he is out of touch with reality:

The Syrian president, just like Hitler and Stalin were, is so out of touch with reality that what’s normal to them we consider evil. They don’t believe they are doing anything bad against their people – on the contrary. Stalin, for instance, had a deep held belief that it was necessary to sacrifice people in order to develop a perfect Bolshevik state. Uncle Joe was so convinced of that, he actually sacrificed members of his own family to reach his goal.

Do you agree with Scott Atran that Bashar al-Assad is out of touch with reality? Or is he insane? Or maybe you are of the opinion that he knows perfectly well what he is doing but power is so important to him he would do anything to keep it?