The Hub in Brussels

Saturday afternoon. Brussels. Five young enthusiastic people, relaxed atmosphere, good music and one-item agenda: Feasibility of creating The Hub in Brussels. What is The Hub?

The Hub is an incubator for social innovation. We offer membership of inspirational habitats in major world cities for social innovators to work, meet, learn, connect and realize progressive ideas. The Hub is a place for making things happen. All the tools and trimmings needed to cultivate an idea, launch a project, host a meeting and run a business. (http://www.the-hub.net)

At the moment the hubs can be found in London, Johannesburg, Bristol and Sao Paulo.

In short, The Hub borrowed from the best of a professional office, friendly cafe, independent cinema and the comforts of home, creating a new kind of social space.

This is a space in which to move and be moved. To take risks and make mistakes. To collaborate and participate. To laugh and despair. To lead and to learn. It's a networked space, fertile space, social space.

And is it feasible in Brussels? We still don’t have the answer but we will try to find one! Stay tuned.

Silvio [Italy] - Antigoni [Greece] - Jason [USA] - bORIS [Serbia] - Simone [Germany]

 

Meeting Pedja Djokic in Rotterdam and Brussels

Last Saturday I spent in Rotterdam, meeting Pedja Djokic, an old friend of mine. After more than a year of not seeing each other we finally managed to catch up in Rotterdam. It made us laughing a lot, simply because we were trying to meet in Serbia few times earlier this year but never made it successful… and now, we did it in Rotterdam! The time passed by pretty fast since the conversation run smoothly and there were so many topics to be covered in just one day. Focusing on conversation rather than the road we’ve been walking we even got lost [believe it or not] couple of times. The good thing about it is that we discovered some new parts of the city and its sites, mainly modern architecture (due to the fact that Rotterdam was almost totally destroyed during WW2), people and cafes.




On Tuesday Pedja returned me a visit. I took a free afternoon to show him the best of the Brussels. Since we had just few hours we went to City Centre [Grand Plaza], Manneken Pis [the symbol of Brussels, don’t ask me why, I don’t like it], the great Atomium, Chinese house, Japanese Tower, Royal Park, the Cathedral, Delirium [café with more than 2.000 different beers], famous Belgian chocolate shops, etc. Again, time just passed by as if it was just few minutes and we had to split up again till next meeting…

The thing I like the most about Pedja is that he is such a good conversationalist – good listener always asking the right questions and challenging your worldview in the same time sharing his thoughts and wisdom with you. He knows how to get it right to the point! Our meetings always result with plenty of new ideas ranging from how to make our own lives better to how to make this world a better place to be in [making the link perfectly clear]…

For the end, I was very very happy when I was told that he’s going to become a father in one of the following months… Isn’t that just great?

Love and life come in pairs: without life, love cannot come about; without love, life cannot begin.

Good luck my friend. Let the force be with you!

b

 

Sharing is Caring

Two things to share with you today.

1: Moby – Slipping Away. Click on the song to download!

All that we needed was right
The threshold is breaking tonight

Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it's all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can't really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me

Focus on everything better today
All that I need and I never could say
Hold on people that slipping away
Hold on to this while it's slipping away

All that we needed tonight
Are people who love us and like
I know how it feels to meant
Oh when we leave here, you'll see

2: The Wisdoms of Humanity exhibition - selection of photos and thoughts.

Download the song, play it and enjoy the following...


The Wisdoms of Humanity by Olivier & Danielle Follmi

The Himalayas inspired and guided our lives for twenty years. In villages nestling at the foot of the great peaks, we shared the long winter evenings with families, learning the universal language of the soul by the light of flickering flames. Slowly, we came to understand from tender look, simple words and attentive gestures how much each individual can contribute to the creation of the Work, by generating beauty and life. We also met some Tibetan masters who, in words as simple as poems, explained to us the workings of the conscience, the secrets of life.

…we hope that the wisdoms of the great masters of all time and of all cultures will prove an inspiration to each one of us, enabling us to brighten our own path through life and to help make the world a more generous, a simpler and a more profound place.

Climb up to the sun, on a ladder of light… 3.563m, Sayar d’Uyuni, Bolivia

What we play is life. Louis Armstrong

I am a link in the chain of human beings who has to pass on to my descendents the life that I myself received from my parents, which does not belong to me...

Power is like an egg: if you hold it too tightly, it will break in your hand; if you do not hold it firmly enough, it will slip out of your hand and, again, break. Power needs to be exercised with neither too much severity nor too much laxness… Joseph Ki-Zerbo

To you, my dear child. I can teach you all about AIDS, but I cannot protect you from HIV. I can tell you things, but I cannot be responsible for them. I can advise you, but I cannot decide for you. I can talk to you about alcohol and drugs, but I cannot say No for you. I can teach you kindness, but I cannot give you morality. I can teach you respect, but I cannot make you honourable. I can pass on values to you, but I cannot give you morality. I can give you love, but I cannot give you an inner beauty. I gave you life, but I cannot live your life for you. A.A. Xoagub

Nonviolence is te greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. Gandhi

We advance under the absolute monarchy of the sun. There is total harmony between being here and being alive. Jose Emilio Pacheco

Your reactions are shared by all humanity. Your brain is not yours, it has evolved through centuries of time. So we are questioning deeply whether there is an individual at all. We are the whole of humanity, we are the rest of mankind. Kirshnamurti

Each one has a special nature peculiar to himself which he must follow and through which he will find his way to freedom. Swami Vivekananda

If we think about the vast majority of human problems, both on a personal and on a worldwide scale, it seems that they stem from an inability to feel sincerely involved with others, and to put ourselves in their place. Violence is inconceivable if everyone is genuinely concerned with the happines of others. Mattheiu Ricard

Peace must develop on mutual trust. The 14th Dalai Lama

Man cannot be broken down into emotions, intellect, or action. Man is a whole. When these three elements of intellect, feelings and action are in harmony, they make up man. Svami Prajnanpad

Confidence is closely linked to how well our perceptions match reality. Matthieu Ricard

Let us try to recognize the precious nature of each day. The 14th Dalai Lama

This body with which I move, leading me towards death with every step I take. That body which I carry at each new moment entrusts me to fate. How else could I express rock-paper-scissors. How else could I enjoy the past and the compassionate present. Roberto Monzon

Without the soaring spirit, we are nothing. And quest that raises mankind above man is the only one that honors humanity. Irenee Guilane Dioh

Amsterdam #3

Last week I went to Amsterdam again. I attended ABN AMRO training course about Turn of the cycle and Early Warning Signals [Risk related mainly for people involved in Credit Portfolio Management and Risk Management within the bank] and it wouldn’t be enough to say that I’m satisfied with it because I’m more than that. The course came in the right time for me, on the start of my career in this field and the knowledge I’ve gained there is really useful. Furthermore I was the most inexperienced one [logically] and it was a great opportunity for me to meet and get to know better people doing more less the same job in different countries [the Netherlands, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Germany, France, etc.]. It’s my pleasure to note that all of them are quite nice and interesting people! By the way, the course lasted two days and it was held in Duin and Kruidberg – amazing place [take a look at the picture].

After the course, on Friday afternoon, a colleague of mine from the Netherlands gave me a ride to the ABN AMRO headquarters where I met Zoka and bunch of other people already familiar from AIESEC, at the moment working or having their traineeships in ABN AMRO Amsterdam, and I was quite surprised because I had no idea that some of them were there. It felt really good to see them again. After the walking tour through the buildings we had couple of drinks in the bank [as I understood every Friday afternoon there is a drink in a garden of the bank] and it was good. Later in the evening we went out to some karaoke party and afterwards to café tour through the city. You should have seen Zoka performing on the stage – she was really cute! Nevertheless it wasn’t just Zoka, because when one of the ABN AMRO trainees is singing, all the others immediately join and make the crowd goes crazy and singing with them :)

Of course I stayed over Zoka’s place. She has been living in a really nice house with beautiful view from the living room and in the safe neighbourhood. There is a lake nearby as well as plenty of parks with nice bicycle and jogging paths. Saturday was sunny and it was a perfect day for Amsterdam by bicycle tour, arranged by ourselves. We were cycling the whole day through the city, having coffee breaks and enjoying live conversation with each other after more than two months. It was great! I didn’t want to, but I had to go back to Brussels in the evening…

Serbian community in Benelux countries is definitely growing :)

Ziveli. Bravo!

River IQ Game

Recently I came across this interesting game again. I remember it was couple of years ago when I noticed this game in one of the Serbian newspapers (www.blic.co.yu) and funny, on that time I bought few copies of that newspaper and spread them around my LC. We were solving this game in one of the EB meetings and later on, I used to give this game to the newcomers to see how they are doing in this problem solving, acting as a team in the same time with all the diversity present… The instructions are below, give it a try and enjoy!



1) Left click on the member that needs to be put on the raft.
2) Left click on the red signal pole on the right side of the river to set the raft into motion and transport the members to the other side of the river.
3) To bring back the raft left click on the red signal pole on the left side of the river

Combinations for selecting people:
a) Father must never be alone with girls.
b) Criminal must always stay with cop.
c) Mother must never be alone with the boys.
d) A boy and a girl cannot travel together.
e) Raft only carries 2 persons at a time.