Ichak Kalderon Adizes's Blog: Insights Blog, page 31

The Decline of the United States

This blog post was featured in the Huffington Post on May 15, 2015.

I was privy recently to a thought-provoking inside analysis of American foreign policy. A highly respected Harvard professor, who is an advisor to the Washington establishment, told a small intimate audience, off the record, that one of America’s fears is that Russia, China, and Germany, will form a political and economic alliance. Such an alliance would make the USA irrelevant in world affairs and the United States would lose its position as leader of the developed world.

I believe that is precisely what is happening now. The cause?

Misjudgment in foreign affairs policy on the part of the present American government.

What happened?

America wanted to remove President Vladimir Putin from power for several years now. Washington set out to humiliate him and cause enough economic hardship in Russia to bring him down. At least that was the intention because Russia refused to follow American strategy in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Iran, to mention some.

To undermine Putin, the State Department supported the Ukrainian- Maidan revolution, and urged Ukraine to join NATO, which is set against Russia. Putin saw that as an opportunity to take over the Crimea.

That caused the West to impose sanctions on Russia, which removed Russia from the world financial system, and in collaboration with Saudi Arabia, kept the price of oil low. All in all, American hard-ball policy was designed to cause considerable economic hardship in Russia, with the aim being to topple President Putin.

However it all backfired.

True, the economic situation in Russia is not easy today because of the sanctions and low price of oil, but Russia has known hardship in the past. It survived Napoleon. It survived Hitler. It can survive American sanctions.

But not only survive. The people have rallied behind the Russian President, which is what usually happens when there is a threat from outside the nation. Today, most Russians see Putin as a national hero for taking Crimea and for supporting the Russian population in Eastern Ukraine. They view his action as one of regaining Russian pride, much of which was lost following the breakdown of the Soviet Union.

In reaction to the sanctions, the Russians are now making deals with China. They are drawing closer together. China announced airplane co-production with Russia, they are establishing a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Bank to replace the western dominated IMF.  Furthermore, Russia is considering using China’s payment infrastructure instead of the SWIFT system for bank transactions. There is also talk of removing themselves from the dollar as the peg for international financial exchanges.

The end result is that the United States could be getting marginalized…at least as far as being the world’s dominant economic nation.

So two thirds of the American nightmare is already underway. All that needs to occur is for Germany to join the party.

Will it happen?

It is not probable, but it can happen. The Russian and German economies are deeply interdependent. The two traditionally had relationships throughout history except for the period of the Second World War. Actually, they formed an alliance shortly before the war began in 1939.

The Russian educational system is designed around the German system with lots of emphasis on the sciences. Germany is also closer geographically to Russia (both are part of Europe) than to the United States. With Russia as a partner, Germany will have a stronger voice in the world arena. Today, allied with America in global politics, Germany is the junior partner. Should Germany shift and become Russia’s ally, it would become an equal, if not a senior, partner.

America has tried, and continues to try, to push President Putin and Russia out of a competitive role in world politics. But Russian counter moves can move America out of its position of world leader.

Just observing and thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

Impressions from Azerbaijan

When I was asked to lecture in Azerbaijan, I said, “Yes.” That made it the 53rd country to lecture or consult in, and I “collect” countries because when I lecture or consult in a new country, I am testing my theories, and l learn a lot from the questions or problems posed to me.

In this case, I did not know what to expect. There was a dearth of information on the Internet about Azerbaijan. So, I went there with open eyes; I expected to be surprised.

And I was.

Very much so.

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is a modern city. Very European. Big buildings with German or French architecture, wide boulevards, a beautiful promenade along the seacoast that stretches more than ten kilometers.

The city gardens are manicured, and what stands out most is how clean the streets are. I looked for a cigarette butt, for a piece of paper, for a plastic bag somewhere. None whatsoever, even though I was driven for hours through the streets of Baku. Not even in the underpasses.

The office buildings are made of glass just like any modern city. But it is not like Dubai, which is overbuilt. Surprisingly, even though everything is very new, you feel that this city, Baku, has been around for sometime.

After some inquiring the reason became clear. There is an old city which is under the protection of Unesco as a Heritage of Humanity. For those who have been to Dubrovnik, the old city in Baku is far more beautiful and romantic.

What particularly caught my attention was how “civilized” the people were. You do not feel any tension, any nervousness. People drive calmly and peacefully (in comparison to Moscow, Istanbul, or Los Angeles, to name only a few cities.) I was told there is hardly any crime. It is approaching zero.

Azerbaijan is a rich country. The nation has oil. Lots of it. So money is not scarce. Prices are high for housing (just like London). Services are expensive, but apparently that is not a source of major discontent because everyone is making money. That money is not a major issue – one can notice from the lighting of the buildings. Every building is lit like for Christmas. I have never in my life seen so much electricity being used except in Las Vegas.

Baku has top five stars hotels, great restaurants, and local and international music. In other words, you will feel that you are in Europe. In the one week I was there, I saw only two women with their hair covered in the way favored by religious Muslim women.

The political situation is stable, which might explain, partially at least, the success of the country. It is a democratic regime all right. There is opposition to the government, (I could not discern how powerful it was. It has a TV channel and several newspapers) but there is no political animosity that one finds in democratic systems. In Azerbaijan, it all looks peaceful.

I am starting to believe, after visiting fifty-two countries, that a benevolent dictatorship is the best system. There is stability. There is order. And people love it and appear content because there is trust and respect (albeit forced). In those countries where democracy is running, wild parties attack each other, and it feels like divorced parents having their fights in the open in front of children. And change of governments creates uncertainty, and graft, and political corruption.

Churchill I think said: “The best system is dictatorship with periodic assassination,” which is not necessary for benevolent dictatorship.

Jews have lived peacefully in this country. Up in the mountains close to Qabala, there is a settlement of Jews who trace their existence in Azerbaijan back over two thousand years. Probably they were the Jewish refugees dating back to the time of Babylonia.

Although Azerbaijan is a Muslim nation, Israelis do not need a visa in advance to enter the country. They can obtain the visa at the airport. Azerbaijan is an ally of Israel today. Apparently because Israel and Azerbaijan have a common enemy: Iran.

Both the Irani and the Azeri people are Shiites, but there is animosity between the two nations.

Why?

I was told there are forty million Azeris in Iran versus ten million in Azerbaijan. Iran apparently fears that Azerbaijan might ignite nationalistic fervor among the Azeris in Iran. Iran apparently would like it if Azerbaijan ceased to exist. It reminded me of the problem that Greece had with Macedonia when the latter established independence; the Greeks were concerned that the Macedonians in Greece might get the idea of nation building and try to align with Macedonia.

Azerbaijan is a multi-ethnic society where people live together peacefully – except for the Armenians. In the past, Armenians and Azerbaijanis waged war over part of the country. Today, one does not at all feel the presence of war with Armenia. A ceasefire exists.

It has been a long ceasefire and will probably remain to be for a very long time because no one now wants to go to war, and no one wants to give up the land. So a long, long ceasefire is the solution.

I wish it would be the same between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

I will be back there I hope. Loved it.

Just observing.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

On Police Brutality

This blog post was featured in the Huffington Post on May 4, 2015.

Everywhere one looks, the press and television are filled with accounts of police brutality. Ferguson, Missouri, now Baltimore…what is going on?

Here is how I see it.

People need rewards or some kind of reinforcement for what they do.

I see rewards generally falling into two categories: extrinsic and intrinsic.

Extrinsic rewards take the form of money and status. They need external verification for their worth. The value of money depends on what you can buy with it; thus, the external verification. And status has the same characteristic. How much the status is worth depends on how others view it or appreciate it.

The problem is that extrinsic rewards do not motivate individuals. Quite the reverse. If you receive an extrinsic reward – be it money or status – you are not motivated because you simply expect to be paid or recognized for the work you do. But if you do not get what you expect, it undermines motivation. (Hertzberg discovered this a long time ago).

Moreover, it was discovered by researchers that to keep extrinsic rewards from losing their motivating power, they need to be continually increased; otherwise, motivation begins to fall. It works somewhat like this.  If a worker receives a salary increase of five percent this year, to keep from losing motivation, he or she needs to get six, and then seven percent increases and more thereafter, even though they have done little to merit the raise in pay. In short, extrinsic rewards do not make people feel they have been rewarded.

Intrinsic rewards are different. They do not require any external verification. The job performed well generates the reward. This is the (P) reward, as a test pilot once told me after flying me at 1.9 Mach and 5 Gs: “Would you believe they pay me for this…”

The (A) reward is attached to how one performs ones job, from the source of power the task gives, from being in control, being powerful, being capable of inflicting pain or reward on others. That becomes the source of reward.

The (E) reward is internalized. It is related to a belief…essentially the belief that one can achieve a mission.

And the last, the (I) reward, comes from being helpful to others; there is a reward from realizing that you made a difference in someone’s life.

Now let us take some examples:

Who has no increasing financial reward, no recognition yet, no mission, no affiliation that he or she is helping anyone, no power? The only reward is from doing the task?

Artists. Like a painter or musician at the beginning of their career.

Who has no real salary, no real status, no power, and does not necessarily feel helpful? The only reward is fulfilling a mission?

Missionaries.

Who has no power, no sense of reward from affiliation, no sense of mission, no status, and the only reward is money?

Workers on the line. And that explains why they ask for salary increases all the time even if there is no inflation. Nor is it strange that they turn to unions to exercise some power on their behalf. And when salary increases are denied, and unionization is rejected, some workers sabotage the production line to show power nevertheless.

Now the point of this blog:

Who has not seen salary increases for quite a while, status is low, does not understand the mission well, does not feel helpful, the job is not that interesting, and the only reward lies in the exercise of power?

Bureaucrats?

Prison wardens?

Security people at airports?

How about police officers?

What do policemen receive? The salary is poor and, as we already said, it does not motivate. Their status in society is low. In terms of respect and recognition, their sense of being valued in society, they are nestled somewhere towards the bottom of the totem pole.

The job may be somewhat interesting for some policemen – it might keep them happy and excited on the job. But the reward rests clearly in the form of police power. And, alas, some overuse it. This becomes their only source of reward.

The way to cut brutality is to seriously indoctrinate police officers. Make clear to them that their mission is “to protect and to SERVE.” Where is the service? Think of how to make policemen and policewomen realize how truly helpful they are. Let them meet the victims of crime they have saved and protected. Fill their life with meaning that supplants the need to exercise power as a source of reward.

Give them status, recognition. Where was the last time any city had a day of recognition for its police officers?

Society needs to reward policemen with a sense of mission, make them feel how helpful they are, and improve their status with recognition. When that happens, I suggest, and believe, the need to use of power will decline.

Just thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

Men’s Stress

Much has been written and discussed about modern women in double career families who find themselves under double pressure: They must take care of their careers which generate stress, and then when they arrive home, they still have to tend to a woman’s family obligations, namely, to cook, clean, mend, and provide support for children and spouse. Not an easy burden.

In traditional society, the roles were more clearly defined. Men were responsible for the earnings while women, the homemakers, took care of the house, the children, and the family’s social activities.

One focused on the outside, the other on the inside.

Life was simpler.

All that has changed and is thus the source of stress.

Women are now working outside the home, sometimes in high paying positions. But regardless of income, they are also responsible for running the house. Their role now stretches from outside to inside.

But they are not alone in experiencing stress.

I wonder if there is much literature on what is happening to men.

They are supposed to earn a living all right, but when they get home the spouse wants attention and sharing of the family burdens. Men are supposed to play the father role more actively today, much more than our fathers. And give attention to the spouse. Help with household chores.

This is all new.

I, for instance, grew up in the neighborhood streets playing soccer or hide and seek. I had very little interaction with my father and did not miss it. I had my friends from sunrise to sunset.

Today, my kids expect for me to drive them, coach them, and spend time with them.

Men are now accused of working too hard, of not having enough time for family, wife, and children.

They find themselves between the rock and a hard place. They are confronted with both expectations from work and expectations related to fulfilling their family responsibilities.

From a man’s perspective, one cannot win no matter what he does: someone in the family is unhappy and makes him feel guilty for not meeting their expectations.

The roles have gotten mixed up. Expectations changed to the detriment of both sexes. We sure live in interesting times.

Just thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

How I Think

I end all of my blog entries with the words: “Just Thinking.” And people should not get onto trouble for thinking. Right?

But I do. People get upset because of what I am thinking. Ukrainians are upset with what I write about Russia and the Russians, with what I write about Ukraine. The Israeli are upset when I write about Israel. Some time ago, I wrote about Bosnia and all hell broke loose.

People write to me that they are unsubscribing from my blog forever. And that I should stick to management subjects only.

The worst reaction is when I write about women. Whoa. Here I am really in trouble.

Should I stop writing about God too? A subject that makes me think a lot?

Or maybe, I should explain HOW I THINK. Maybe that will take the heat off of my shoulders.

Let me try.

I work hard, rewriting every piece maybe a dozen times. I send it to my editor, Gene, and rewrite it again a dozen times after I get it back from him.

Why do I write and rewrite?

I try to UNDERSTAND what is going on. Not to take a position. Not to judge. Just to understand. And to understand, I need to think, and rethink, and rethink. And when I finally think that I understand something, I have to explain what I understand, or believe that I understand.

Maybe the reason people get upset with my writing is because they apparently believe that if I am explaining what is going on, I am supporting or defending that position.

Not at all. Not at all.

I am focusing on the IS. Not what I WANT, nor what I believe SHOULD be.

Take my recent blog on Putin and Ukraine. As an example.

I am not supporting Putin.

I’m trying to understand Putin.

How?

I am trying to visualize things the way he must be seeing them:

The Maidan revolution can spread into Russia. It will endanger his (Putin’s) power position. What to do?

Demonize Kiev and take over Crimea. Now he is a hero.

And it proved right. Putin received an 80 percent popularity rating.

But then East Ukraine revolted.

What to do?

Putin must support the Russians there or he will no longer be the hero of Russian people, wherever they may reside. Russian history will judge him. And overall, there is the larger, ubiquitous need: How to regain the Russian pride that was lost along with the breakdown of the Soviet Union?

I do not think Putin killed Nemtzev. He did not need to. The opposition is small. Noisy, but small. He has the support of 80 percent of his people. So what is there to worry about? Moreover, Nemtzev’s death, when attributed to him, will cause Putin to lose power, not regain it.

That is what is going through his mind. Or at least, that is what I think is going through his mind.

I try to identify what drives the decision-maker and then try to understand it, not to support nor justify it. Just to understand.

Do you see how I think?

Take another example.

Bibi at the US Congress.

What drives him?

The same thing that drives all the politicians that I have had the opportunity to interact with: How history will judge them. At least, that is my belief.

Bibi Netanyahu does not want to go down in history as the Israeli leader who did not do his utmost to avoid nuclear holocaust. That is it.

Do I support Bibi? No. I just try to understand him.

Take another example.

Serbia. No leader there wants to be known in history books as the one who gave up on Kosovo. It is considered as their “Jerusalem.” That is where the Serb nation was “born.” So they twist and turn and do not walk their talk. What is going on? What will history books say?

Take the Greek leadership. All of them. They are fighting over the name of Macedonia. No one wants to go down in history as the national leader who gave up the heritage of Greece to some little country up north.

The same is true for the Palestinian leaders. They negotiate, but in the last minute before signing, they find some excuse why not to sign. As Abba Eban said, “the Palestinians never lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity…to sign an agreement.”

How is this behavior explained?

Well, no Palestinian leader can afford to go down in history books as the one who signed an agreement that states that the Palestinians have no right to return to their land. That he gave up on the ownership of Palestinian land. That, in their culture, would be inconceivable.

What the Israeli are asking for in order to have an agreement is NOT DOABLE. No Palestinian leader can agree to it. The history books will condemn them. Forever.

For years, I have tried to understand women. Never could. And now it is more difficult than ever.

The human race is going through a disruptive change ever since the pill was invented and mechanization began to change the nature of work at home. Women are no longer continuously pregnant, and they do not need to be barefoot. They earn a living.

The whole power balance between the sexes is changing in developed countries, in favor of women, and I believe one reason why there is the uprising among Muslims against the West is that Muslim men do not want this change to happen.

Hello. Do not get upset now. I am just trying to explain what I understand…And trying to understand does not mean understanding. It means it is an attempt to understand and seek other peoples’ opinion, so that I can understand even better.

Whenever I say, “Just thinking,” I mean to say, “I am not sure if this is right…I am just thinking openly in public.” And if someone disagrees with me, that is the whole idea of the blog: to stimulate thinking and exchange “understandings.”

Believe me. The first thing I do every Saturday, and every single day thereafter, is to open the “comments section” of my blog to read who disagrees and why. So I can learn.

Just thinking.

More.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

Impressions from Israel

In April this year, 2015, I visited Israel again. My annual pilgrimage for the last fifty years to a country I consider my own.

This visit reminded me of a joke from the communist era. A person comes to a hospital and asks to see an eye and an ear doctor.

“There is no such thing,” he is told. “It is either an eye doctor, or a nose, throat, and ear doctor. Why do you want one?”

“Because what I see is not what I hear,” he says.

In Israel I hear a lot of despair. At least from the people I talked to. “Israel is doomed…I do not know how long it will last…the situation is terrible…” Do they have reason to complain? Yes, they do.

Every few years, there is a war and people die, and there is no peace in sight with the Palestinians. And Israel finds itself increasingly isolated and demonized in the world. The income disparity in the country is one of the greatest among developing nations. The price of housing in Tel Aviv almost competes with the price of real estate in Manhattan. There is hardly any housing for rent.

So, yes, there is reason to complain.

But I have heard complaints in Israel each and every time I visit. Never in fifty years have I heard an Israeli telling me, “It is fine, we are ok.”

Never. Only complaints. Complaints about the government. Complaints about the economy. About the weather. About the neighbors. About the children. You name it.

That is what I hear, but if I open my eyes and look around, Israel is flourishing. The differences from year to year are incredible. Wherever I look, there are residential high rises and office buildings that can compete architecturally with the office buildings in Manhattan.

The restaurants are full. Looking at parking lots, I see no old cars. Only the new, best models. Their price, because of import taxes, is higher than a Rolls Royce in the United States. So imagine a parking lot filled with Rolls Royces or Maseratis.

True, this observation is based only on Tel Aviv, but taking a longitudinal view, the periphery is not doing badly either. I remember Dimona, a settlement in the Negev desert on the way to the Dead Sea, when most of the buildings were empty. The trip to Be’er Sheva used to take half a day. It is not true today. Dimona is a city, a fully functioning city. And it takes only one hour of driving to travel from Tel Aviv to Be’er Sheva, a beautiful city with a University of considerable stature. The Negev desert is populated and green patches are visible wherever one looks. And Eilat is like a Mexican Riviera. Five-star hotels everywhere, a marina with yachts not to be ashamed of. I remember Eilat as a place where I had to sleep on the beach in a sleeping bag because there was not one hotel to be found.

So where is this nagging complaining coming from?

From being Jewish, I believe.

It is called the Jewish mother syndrome. She does not ask you, “Please turn on the lights.” Instead she complains: “Ok, I will live in the dark for the rest of my life…”

But not only Jewish mothers complain; Jewish men as well.

I work worldwide with companies. And I have noticed a common difference between Jewish and non-Jewish owners of companies.

The Jewish clients are never happy. No matter how well the company is doing, they always look for what is wrong, what is missing.

And I, being Jewish, suffer from the same syndrome. Instead of showing gratitude and noticing what is good about my life, I focus on what I can complain about. I seem to feel at home only if I feel bad.

Unhappiness is the source of our energy. We strive to get some achievement that will earn us happiness. It is in our religion. It is called Tikkun Olam. To repair the world. Not to accept the world as it is. Not to accept life as it is; to improve life for the better.

While this unhappiness is the source of our achievements, it is the source of our misery too. We all know happiness is not the culmination of something achieved. It is being satisfied with what you have. It is an attitude marked by gratitude.

Granted, for an Israeli it is hard to be full with gratitude when you live in a state of continuous threat, not knowing where and when the next terrorist attack will come from. And two thousand years of persecution, rejection, and anti-Semitism, does not make for a nation marked by gratitude.

This continuous state of being frustrated, losing hope that there will ever be peace with the Palestinians, being in a state of tension and unhappiness, I believe, causes Israelis to be on the edge. Very tense and intense. They can erupt into violence over an issue that other cultures will deal with casually, without any loss of energy. Like asking someone to get in line and not to jump the line.

The place is flourishing all right. The standard of living is improving and is one of the highest in the world. But the level of happiness is low even though it is one of the greatest place in the world to live.

Just observing and thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

The Dangers of Devaluation

 This blog post was featured in the Huffington Post on April 1, 2015.

One of the countries I am involved with has been hit badly by the drop in the price of oil. Government revenue has been significantly reduced given that the government owns the oil companies.

What effect has all this had on the nation?

Well, first, the government now spends considerably less. This has effectively reduced demand and so today there are fewer transactions within the economy, all of which have had a negative economic effect on the country. People are beginning to feel the pinch.

So the cabinet recently placed the subject of currency devaluation on the agenda. The idea being that the goods the nation has to offer will cost less with devaluation. This will encourage exports, which in turn will bring more foreign currency into the country. Presumably, all of this will help replace the monetary loss brought about by the low oil prices.

Good idea, right? Many countries have resorted to this economic maneuver in order to increase exports. So where is the problem?

Let me offer an analogy.

In medicine we understand (and accept) the concept of side effects.

A doctor, when diagnosing an illness, often considers prescribing drugs. But he (or she) must take into account the side effects of the drug. All drugs have some side effects. The question always is: are the benefits of the drug greater than the cost of the side effects?

The same concept needs to be applied to the “economic therapy” called devaluation.

What happens when people find that their life savings – all at once – are worth less?

Also, importing essential goods, like food, which must be imported because much of it is not available locally, suddenly costs more. The increases in the cost of food adversely impacts morale.

There is more to it.

I suggest to you that devaluation, like inflation, causes people to lose trust in the currency of the country. They feel cheated by the government. Devaluation is usually announced as a surprise. The public feels ambushed by the government it has elected. Everyone—from all socioeconomic groups—feel undermined by those they have chosen to lead their government.

Loss of trust becomes the price of devaluation. Devaluation has short term benefits, but long term costs.

The benefits are easy to see: an increase in exports. That increase is clearly measurable. The costs, however, are more difficult to assess or even notice. But they are there.

Here are some of the effects. People cut their saving, which impacts capital formation. Consumption begins to increase as people start ridding themselves of money because it has an unstable value.

And, most important of all, the lack of trust in government has its own repercussions, which are also hard to quantify, but they are there. Over time, for instance, the percentage of people voting probably will decline. The status of elected politicians will suffer; serving as political leaders will no longer appeal to many of the nation’s more desirable candidates.

Devaluation is a mechanistic solution: cut prices, increase volume. Simple. Done. The costs (or side effects) are organic (devaluation causes more (P) less (I)).

The country I am involved with voted NOT TO DEVALUE its currency.

I am thrilled with the decision.

Just thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

Why Are Westerners Joining ISIS?

This blog post was featured in the Huffington Post on March 27, 2015.

Why would Western young adults, 15 to 20 years of age, go and join ISIS? Take, for example, the recent case of three British girls who authorities believe traveled to Syria to join ISIS. According to NBC News, the girls, ages 15 and 16, ran away from their U.K. homes on Feb. 17th, and London authorities said they have reason to believe that the teens were on their way to Syria to join ISIS. Their families had no idea about what the girls intended to do.

Some of these young adults are not Muslims either. They even come from well-to-do families. So this is not a manifestation of their economic or social deprivation.

The answer for me rests upon a quote I saw, that is sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill, along the lines of: “If someone younger than twenty is not a communist, something is wrong with him. If he stays a communist after twenty, something is wrong with him too.”

This was at the time when communism was in vogue, but it made the point: young people NEED an ideology, something that justifies and propels their need to revolt against the older generation.

I believe the appeal to Westerners to join ISIS is a piece of a larger pattern, namely, a reaction to the vacuum they experience; they miss an ideology, a compelling vision that drives them.

The market economy model, materialism, is not attractive to the younger generation any longer. Communism and socialism ran their course, disenchanting the true believers. There is a search, now, a need, for something new that stirs the blood and elevates the dreams of today’s young people.

I believe ISIS is a part and parcel of the same pattern to which the hippie movement belongs. In this case, the “religion,” or ideology, is to renounce materialism along with achievement orientation. Or the drug culture, a total surrendering to hedonism. Religious revivals are another piece of the same cloth. Like Scientology.

As a civilization, we are going through a major change in values, ideologies, and belief systems. Man cannot live without embracing some mega ideology or faith. Something that propels him forward because it is charged with meaning.

As old systems of values become dysfunctional, materialism for example, it is destroying the environment. The world is ready for and seeking the next Jesus, or Buddha, or Karl Marx. Or whatever. And for some, ISIS provides that vision and the clear propelling values they seek.

What is the answer?

For a good answer, we must have a good question, the correct diagnosis.

If I am right that ISIS is attractive to some because it provides a system of values they need and thus seek, the answer is not bombing ISIS out of existence. Another “ISIS” will be born. Like ISIS replaced Al- Qaeda. The Muslim uprising did not end with the death of Bin Laden.

There is a need for a new compelling vision. New compelling ideology. One that promotes integration. Quality over quantity. Quality of life over standard of living. Humanism rather than materialism.

When there is demand there must be supply. And if there is no white market supply, a black market will develop. And that is, I believe, what is happening for some young people in the Western world.

Just thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

 

On Education

This blog post was featured in the Huffington Post on March 23, 2015.

In Yugoslavia where I was born, or Albania where I spent my childhood during the war, one was expected to finish elementary school or was considered uneducated.

In Israel, if my memory does not fail me, you were supposed to finish high school or you were considered a failure. Not everyone was expected to study at a university.

In the United States, I find that you are a nobody if you do not at least have an undergraduate degree. You cannot get a good job. A high school graduate is like a drop out. A failure.

And today I notice that even a BA is not enough. You need a Master’s degree to be considered for a job with some future. My administrative assistant, for example, has a Master’s degree and her responsibilities are primarily that of a secretary.

What is going on?

For one, in my opinion, we are adding more and more material and information that a student must know in order to join the work place.

As young people tend to join the labor force later in life it is getting more and more expensive to prepare for the real world.

Do they require more preparation; or more credentials?

Is it all necessary?

The educator Ivan Illich wrote books claiming we were over-educating our society. That not all that is taught is necessary.

I agree. I believe a person should continue studying after graduation. The norm should be continuous education, not one of cramming as much as possible in early life and then dropping learning as soon as one gets a diploma. There is no such thing as being educated “enough.”

The world is changing fast and much of whatever we learn at school becomes obsolete rapidly or, without practice or some kind of incorporation into daily living, it soon becomes outdated or forgotten.

What is missing in present day education is the creation of a thirst for knowledge. That is the most important part of education. Its reason for being.

What educators need to build into our education system is a program and a curriculum where students want to continue learning for a lifetime. A curriculum that excites the student to find where he can learn more about a subject that has aroused his/her interest and passion. The point is the student recognizes there is more to know.

To prepare us for life we do not need to know everything. Nor a sample of everything. We need to learn to love to learn, to know where to find what we want to learn, what we believe is essential for us to learn.

Within this educational framework it is most important that one learns not only from books but from other people, as well as from stones and bees and stars. From everything. In short, we need to teach how much there is to learn from experience. To have an open mind. To let go of what one knows in order to learn something new about the same subject.

I, for instance, was a very poor student if measured by my grades in high school. I graduated with a D in English, a B in history, and a C in all my other courses. That was my high school diploma.

Given that as my high school achievement I should have become a janitor. But I never stopped learning.

When I graduated with my Ph.D. from Columbia my chairman took me to lunch and told me: This is not the end. This is the beginning. Now you know how much you do not know.

I have never forgotten those words.  They became my “religion”:  good education is not to know, but to know how much we do not know…and to develop a thirst that will enable us to know more.

When I lecture I make a point to communicate to the audience that whatever I am presenting to them is just an introduction. I make it a point to leave them frustrated at the end of my lecture.  I want to make them feel how much more there is to know. I give value in my lecture, but what is more important, I make the audience want more. Like a good meal. A good play. A good book. When you read the last page you feel sad that it ended. You wish there were more pages to read.

That is a good education for me.

Just thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

Israeli Arabs as Allies

I just read a piece that was e-mailed to me written by a Druze Israeli military commander, Mazid Abbas, claiming Israeli Arabs are spoiled and ungrateful.

He makes the following points: the income of Israeli Arabs is high but they pay almost no taxes. They do not even pay municipal taxes. Their local services are subsidized by the government.

Their standard of living is quite respectable. Visit any Arab village and notice the size of the homes. Enormous.

Political freedom? They have more rights and freedom than offered in any Arab country.

They receive free education. Many Israeli Arabs graduate from Universities and serve as medical doctors in hospitals. An Arab is a member of the Israeli Supreme Court and some serve as Ambassadors abroad.

So how does one explain the Arab street support in Israel for Hezbollah and Hamas? That is being ungrateful, claims Mr. Abbas.

One can explain it, no?

True, their standard of living is high, but their quality of life is low.  If one takes into account pride, a sense of self-worth, the ability to advance one’s career, not for the few but for all Israeli Arabs, a picture emerges of a group that feels itself to be second-class citizens.

OK, that might explain their behavior. But why do they then refuse to be part of the new country, Palestine?

If they feel like second class citizens in Israel, they should welcome the opportunity to be part of their own country, Palestine. They had this choice. In the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, Israel offered to transfer one of its largest Arab townships, Um El Fahem, to the Palestinian state if it emerges.

The inhabitants of Um El Fahem rejected the offer. They voted en masse against the idea. And they are not alone. The Israeli Arabs prefer to live in Israel. But isn’t that is strange?  To prefer to be part of a society that discriminates against them?

To support those who consistently call for the destruction of   the country they prefer to live in?

Are they normal?

Yes they are.

Very.

Why?

What do you think will happen If Hamas or Hezbollah or some Palestinian faction succeeds in defeating Israel?

Blood will flow like a river in the streets of Tel Aviv. But not only Jewish blood.

I suggest to you the Palestinian victors will behead every Israeli Arab they find.

Men, women and children.

Yes, they will first kill the Arabs.

It is not unheard of for Arabs to kill Arabs.

There are precedents. The Palestinian terrorists bombed an Arab restaurant in Haifa. Some Israelis died, but so did the Arabs. And this was not a case of mistaken identity or a wrong address.

Look what ISIS is doing to the Sunnis.

It is clear they do not discriminate. They are more than willing to cut anyone’s throat so long as they consider him or her the enemy.

But why Israeli Arabs?

Because for a Palestinian from the refugee camps, the Arabs who reside in Israel as citizens are collaborators living in plenitude.  Meanwhile, they – the Palestinians – are starving in the camps. The resentment is even greater than their hatred of Jews.

What, then, is an Israeli Arab to do?

Buy “insurance.”

How?

Support Hezbollah, support Hamas. Initiate some terror acts to show they are not Israeli collaborators. And at the same time refuse to join the Palestinian state and pray that Israel survives.

I believe Israeli Arabs have a reason to be mortally frightened that the Palestinians might win a war and destroy Israel.

Israeli Arabs are on the fence. They want to show loyalty to the Palestinian cause while counting on the survival and eventual triumph of the Jewish state.  As long as Israel exists their survival is assured – which will not be the case if Israel loses.

If Israeli authorities will only realize it is Jewish and Arab citizens who have a common interest: they both need Israel to survive. The Jewish government needs to help those Arab citizens get off the fence and truly become equal citizens.

They will not need to “buy insurance” by acting as terrorists from time to time or supporting Israeli enemies.

It will strengthen the nation and not incidentally prolong its life.

Just thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes