Two tales of a City

The opening lines of the book "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens (1859)
go like that:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct

the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present

period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its

being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree

of comparison only. (*)

My story is by far less tragic than the French Revolution, but it still has its
charm and drama - I guess. I'm back to Amsterdam, after 3 years, this time for a short
2-month period, until Christmas.

I'm working for the Global Reporting Initiative, starting-off a research on CSR
"landscape", trends and hubs at national and regional level. In my short period I'm in charge
of seeting up the methodology and research on Latin America.

When I arrived I thought my life would be simple, easy and fun - just like when I arrived 3 years ago, which actually also marks the beginning of this blog!!

In 3 years, most of my friends have moved away, or got very busy into their careers. Housing in Amsterdam became much more complicated and expensive. The banks and authorities seem much more bureaucratic then never. Albert Heijn is so boring. De Heffer gatherings do not exist anymore. Nice girls got boyfriends, fiancés and husbands. Yes, the city has changed, but more important than that - I have changed! A LOT over the last three years.

I go to different bars, I listen to different music, I hang out with different people, I eat different food. How can we change so much and be the same person at the same time? I start to realize that I'm more of myself, each day, and to be conscious about that evolution is a revolution by itself! Scary eh? Yeah, sometimes... hard to understand? Yeah, sometimes...

Amsterdam will always be one of my favourite cities, a kind of tricky place that feels like an extremely comfortable couch. You love it, but you might fall sleep too easily. Amsterdam has a similar effect in people: the easygoing, laid back, relaxed and fairly safe atmosphere needs to be balanced with excitement, risks, emotions and danger, in order to keep someone awake (in life) - oh well, in January I'm back in Denmark, back to the Kaospilots, for my last 6 months in the roller coaster! :P


(*) Freely available by the Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/98/98.txt

BBC World Debate: How Accountable is Business?

Hello dear friends,

An interesting debate will be broadcast through BBC this weekend (17th and 18th of June), as part of their series on global issues called BBC World Debate. This debate was filmed during the GRI's Conference on Sustainability and Transparency last Friday in Amsterdam. It was a fair and straight forward debate, I must admit, and I hope you like it :)

(and you might see me on the second row... ;-))

If you prefer to listen to the full non-edited version, you can go to the GRI website and download the podcast - Friday morning Arena debate.

Showing Times (check your local time...):
Saturday 17th May: 0710 GMT, 1510 GMT and 1910 GMT;
Sunday 18th May at 0010, 0710, 1510 and 1910 GMT.


How Accountable is Business?

The World Debate asks whether companies, already forced to report on their finances, should also have to reveal details of their impact on the environment and society? How transparent do we expect companies to be and can we trust them to come clean? Can openness and profitability go hand in hand?

Speakers

Alessandro Carlucci – CEO Natura
Natura Cosméticos S.A. is a leading player in sales of cosmetics, fragrances, and toilet products in Brazil. It was founded 40 years ago and is based near Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Gerd Leipold - Executive director of Greenpeace International

Maud Olofsson - Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Enterprise and Energy.

Sir Michael Rake - Chairman of BT
Former Chairman of KPMG International.

Alex Sink - Chief Financial Officer of the Florida Department of Financial Services
Chief Financial Officer of the Florida Department of Financial Services and (Former President of Bank of America) Florida's Chief Financial Officer, responsible for monitoring the state's fiscal health and managing more than $74 billion in tax revenue coming in and out of state government annually.

Bruno Prior - Director, Summerleaze
Summerleaze is a UK based renewable energy company. His company is a renewable electricity generator primarily from landfill gas, but with an increasing emphasis on anaerobic digestion.

My hitchhiking and couchsurfing trip

In about 9 hours I'm starting a two-weeks trip around center-southern-Europe: France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, (maybe) Hungary and Czech Republic. It's a brake from my work in Rotterdam and a good opportunity to recharge my energies for the second semester.

This time I decided to make it a bit more challenging and special: hitchhiking and couchsurfing.

For that reason, I'll be updating this blog twice a week (if I get access to the web) to tell where I am and what is going on.

I intent to meet new people, visit different places (including random small towns and mountains), talk with different people (both young and old) and be curious, learn and be open, take some risks too!

At the CouchSurfing Project website, there is an interesting quote, and I liked it:

"We make a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge cultural exchange makes available. In sharing important moments, deep and meaningful connections cross oceans, continents and cultures. "

Ready to hit the road!
Henrique

PS: I'm available by phone +31 6 3863-6351 during these days.

Netherlands again, this time Rotterdam :)

I returned safe from Brazil, our project ended up to be extraordinary for us and it was an amazing experience. I still need to finalize some details and update our project website. While in Brazil I wrote a short article, that my friend Frauke published (click here). The article was also featured at the Kaos Pilots website.

After the final exams, loads of (crazy) parties and 2 weeks of beach-time in Århus (great weather), I came to Netherlands to support Kaos Pilots Netherlands (go to website kaospilots.nl) to select the Team 1, the first team of students. The school is opening doors in Rotterdam by mid-September. After two amazing days in Dordrecht (I really enjoy being observer and running workshops!), I managed to get some free days in Amsterdam, seeing old friends and enjoying a bit of the town. I even visited Rijksmuseum!! Of course the rain was annoying...

During these days I met with KPNL and an interesting proposal came on the table: to work for them during the summer, to setup the "Landing Zone" for Team 1, which means support in logistics, recruitment, location, curriculum and other thousand things, necessary for the start of classes in 2 months.

Well, I accepted the "summer-job" immediately, and just flew back to Århus to pack my stuff and go back to Rotterdam. I'm here until 20th of August, when my 2nd year starts in Denmark. The payment is less then working in Denmark, but the satisfaction and the challenge is much higher, especially working next to "education entrepreneurs", it gives me a lot of insights and I've learned a lot from this experience so far.

So, if you're near by, just come and visit me! :)