Haircut / Corte de Cabelo

Cabelo… cortar ou não cortar?
Um insight cultural sobre algo muito simples... corte de cabelo!!

Como muitos amigos do Brasil, incluindo minha família, estão reclamando da minha juba (nunca esteve tão grande), é melhor explicar o porquê! Cortar o cabelo é algo muito dependente de cada cultura. Deixa contar como: se você estiver na Suécia os cabeleireiros vão fazer um corte no estilo Sueco, se estiver na Espanha, estilo Espanhol, e se você estiver na Holanda... bom, daí depende de onde você vai! Como cortar o cabelo aqui pode ser até 7 vezes mais caro que no Brasil, eu fui logo procurando o lugar mais barato. Achei um na Waterlooplein, de uns caras de Suriname. Lugar simples e limpo, e a pessoa que me atendeu falava Inglês perfeito, e acabamos tendo um ótimo bate-papo sobre Brasil e Suriname. Longo porque ele demorou mais de 45 minutos para cortar meu (curto) cabelo! Me liguei a certa altura ao ver uma mesa de espera com revistas de “modelos” para escolher seu estilo: Cuba Gooding Jr, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, etc... acho que eu era o primeiro “branquela” que ele já tinha cortado o cabelo na vida! Até que no final das contas o cabelo ficou mais ou menos...

Enquanto isso uma amiga minha se negou a cortar o cabelo durante o tempo que esteve na Suécia, porque todas as cabeleireiras só sabiam cortar um estilo – o Sueco! (e ela tem um lindo cabelo moreno longo, bem Brasileiro).

De volta a Amsterdã, outro amigo esteve no mesmo lugar em Waterlooplein um tempo depois (todos os Brasucas íam lá ;-)) e não teve a mesma sorte que eu. O cabeleireiro não falava bem Inglês e o resultado pode ser visto na foto exclusiva (ao lado), tirada logo que ele chegou em casa! Jeff, eu tinha que publicar essa foto em algum lugar antes que tu voltasse pra Oslo... foi massa te conhecer, brother... te cuida, aproveita a Noruega que eu vou te visitar em breve!

Europeus em geral não se importam para o estilo do teu cabelo, na verdade a maioria dos meus colegas e amigos não-latinos sequer mencionaram alguma coisa sobre meu cabelo... bom, é o estilo Holandês deixar crescer mesmo!

Bom, desculpem pelo posting extremamente superficial (cabelo!), mas eu tinha que escrever algo sobre isso... :)

Vamos ver até onde ele vai crescer... só fui cortar uma vez, ainda em novembro...



Hair... cut or not haircut?

Some cultural insight into something very very simple... haircut!!

As many friends from Brazil, including family, are complaining about my long hair (longest ever!), I better explain why it's like that!

Having a haircut is something highly culturally-dependent. I'll tell why. Swedish hairdressers cut your hair like Sweds, Spanish do it the Spanish way, and Dutch, well... Depends where you go... as having a haircut here is about 6-7 times more expensive than in Brazil, I had to search for the cheapest options. I found a small shop at Waterlooplein, ran by Surinamese guys. Clean place, when I was there the person who served me spoke perfect English and we had a long nice conversation about Suriname and Brazil. Long because he took 45 minutes to do my (short) hair!! I realized at certain point, when I saw on the side table some magazines to "choose" your style: Cuba Gooding Jr, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, etc... I think it was the first time he cut the hair of a "white skinny boy" in his life! My hair was fairly ok afterwards...

Meanwhile a Brazilian friend of mine refused to go for a haircut in Sweden, because all hairdressers knew only one hair style - the Swedish style! (and she has a beautiful long Brazilian hair...)

Back to Amsterdam, another friend of mine has been to the same place at Waterlooplein (all Brazilian guys used to go there ;-)) and unluckily the hairdresser couldn't understand good English... the result can be seen in this exclusive photo (above), taken as soon as he arrived home! Thanks Jeff, I had to publish this photo before you leave back to Oslo... great to have you around meu irmão... enjoy Norway and I'll visit you there soon!

Europeans in general don't care about your hair style, in fact most of my non-Latin friends and colleagues here never mentioned a word about my hair... well, it's the Dutch style to let it grow anyway!

Well, sorry for this absolutely superficial subject (haircut), but I had to write about it :)

Let see for how long can I keep it growing... I had only one haircut, still in November...

Professional changes / Mudanças de trabalho...

As random as life can be... The following real story is an ultimate proof that we cannot try to control our lives, if at most influence it (I’ll write more about it later…). This episode told me much about it. When I arrived in Amsterdam and started to get involved with sustainability reporting, I ended up investigating more about GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) and I found out they are based in Amsterdam. “Nice place to work when my internship is over” - I thought - “and it’s on Keizersgracht, by the downtown canals!”

Seven months later (a month ago), as my main project (ABN AMRO 2005 Sustainability Report) was published, my manager called me one morning and offered me the position to work for GRI and their Global Conference (to happen in October 2006). The bank is a big sponsor of the event and they would “second” me to work there for a period of time. In a few hours I was having an amazing conversation with Teresa Fogelberg (GRI Director) and her assistant, at the last floor of GRI’s headquarters, a splendid 1620’s house in downtown Amsterdam. Two days later I was already working there, and it seems I’ll be there until the end of August…

GRI stands for Global Reporting Initiative and it was initiated in 1997 as a Collaborating Centre of United Nations Environmental Programme. Today is an independent institution, multi-stakeholder process whose main “product” is it’s Guidelines for Sustainability Reporting, most globally used standard for non-financial reporting. Over a thousand companies and organizations voluntarily use GRI’s Guidelines to publish their reports, increasing transparency with their stakeholders. The Secretariat is based in Amsterdam and it’s made of around 20 people from over 12 countries!

The third generation of the Guidelines (called G3) is being finalized and will be launched in October this year, together with a Global Conference on Transparency and Sustainability, hosted by the City of Amsterdam, and having key note speakers such as Al Gore (ex-Vice President USA), Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (ex-CEO Shell) and Gerard Kleisterlee (CEO Philips). A total of over 100+ panelists and other specialists will share their ideas and dialogue with over 1000 participants expected in Amterdam on October 4-6, 2006.

Well, where do I fit? I’m back to my AIESEC times, organizing conferences!! From supporting to invite/confirm speakers, fundraising, website, registrations, and some other tasks along the way in a team of only 4 people!

I’ll share some ideas as they come along. The best place to see my work is the Conference website: www.grig3.org

Later!

Tão aleatório quanto a vida pode ser... a história a seguir é uma prova final de que não podemos tentar controlar nossas vidas, se ao máximo influenciá-la (vou escrever mais a respeito disso mais tarde...). Esse episódio ilustra tudo. Quando cheguei em Amsterdã e comecei a trabalhar com o relatório de sustentabilidade do banco, passei a conhecer melhor o GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) e percebi que está baseado em Amsterdã. “Lugar bacana pra trabalhar depois que meu traineeship acabar...” – pensei – “e ainda por cima é na Keizersgracht, nos canais no centro da cidade!”.

Sete meses depois (um mês atrás), como meu principal projeto no banco estava publicado (Relatório de Sustentabilidade 2005 do ABN AMRO), meu gerente me liga um dia de manhã e me faz a oferta, de trabalhar para o GRI e a organização de uma conferência global (que acontecerá em Outubro). O ABN AMRO é patrocinador do evento e estaria me “realocando” junto ao GRI por um período de tempo. Em poucas horas estava tendo uma conversa maravilhosa com Teresa Fegelberg (Diretora do GRI) e sua assistente, no úllimo andar de uma esplêndida casa de 1620 no centro de Amsterdã. Em dois dias eu já estava trabalhando lá, e parece que estarei por ali até o final do meu traineeship em Agosto...

O GRI foi fundado em 1997 como um Centro de Colaboração do Programa de Meio Ambiente das Nações Unidas (UNEP). Hoje é uma instituição independente, gestora de um processo multi-stakeholder cujo principal “produto” são as Diretrizes para publicação de relatórios de sustentabilidade, o padrão mais utilizado hoje em dia para relatórios não-financeiros, envolvendo indicadores sociais, ambientais, econômicos e éticos. Mais de 1000 empresas e organizações publicam de forma voluntária relatórios de sustentabilidade, usando as diretrizes do GRI. O Secretariado fica localizado em Amsterdã, composto de mais ou menos 20 pessoas de mais de 12 países!

A terceira geração das diretrizes (chamada G3) está sendo finalizada e será lançada em Outubro desse ano, junto com uma Conferência Global sobre Transparência e Sustentabilidade, hospedada pela Cidade de Amsterdã e com a presença de pessoas como Al Gore (ex Vice Presidente EUA), Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (ex-CEO Shell) e Gerard Kleisterlee (CEO Philips). Um total de mais de 100 painelistas e especialistas dividirá idéias e dialogará com mais de 1000 participantes esperados em Amsterdã, entre 4 e 6 de Outubro de 2006.

Aonde eu me encaixo? Estou de volta aos velhos tempos de AIESEC, organizando conferências! Desde suporte para convidar e confirmar palestrantes/painelistas/moderadores, captação de recursos, website, inscrições online, entre outras tarefas a medida que surgem, sendo que a equipe é formada por apenas 4 pessoas!

Vou compartilhando idéias e histórias com calma. O melhor lugar pra saber como meu trabalho está indo é o próprio website da conferência: www.grig3.org

Até mais!

Activism pays off and it's respected

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I understood much better the role of international NGOs after being inside a multinational corporation. At first I was even surprised to see on how some companies respect (or fear) the actions of these NGOs, and rather keep good relationships (dialogue sometimes!) than ignoring them. Dedicated staff on NGO engagement and issue management, constant efforts on communications and increasing transparency are some common strategies taken by many large multinationals nowadays.

But this peaceful scenario might change soon. This interesting article explain a bit why...

"... [Georg Kell] believes that the recent period of cooperation between non-governmental organizations and corporations is coming to an end..."

"... NGOs are the most trusted institution (over business, government and media) in 10 of the 11 markets surveyed in 2006. As trusted brands, the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace rank as highly as Microsoft, Samsung or Sony in countries as diverse as China, the UK and Brazil..."

AIESEC and ABN AMRO

This is for our great community of interns at ABN AMRO in Amsterdam.

This picture was taken back in February and it's covers the interns based on the Gustav Mahlerlaan building...

Being a Test Pilot...

A really short summary of some personal reflections and what happened in March... As I completed 6 months in the Netherlands (half-way through this 1 year experience), a lot of thoughts, ideas, doubts and tensions came to my mind. For over 3 weeks I was unable to sleep properly - not insomnia, but simply waking up agitated early in the morning, before the alarm clock! Those who know how much I love sleeping can imagine the situation...

So, after many conversations, readings and some reflections, I realized some important things for myself. I'll share some of them in the near future - maybe a different blog? - but the one thing I found (or came to me...) was a school in Denmark called Kaos Pilots (http://www.kaospilots.dk)

Kaos Pilots is a different kind of business school, focused on innovation, creative and entrepreneurship, with studies on Project Management, Business Design and Process Design. Very very interesting... I found out a friend of mine (Ulli) was studying there and after contacting her briefly and checking the website, I decided to applied for the classes starting in September 2006 - in the last day! I sent the application late, but luckily they accepted it.

The important factor was writing the application (which was basically the most unique questionnaire I ever filled up! - check here - http://www.kaospilots.dk/pdf/Application_form_2006.pdf). Immediately after writing the application, I felt released and managed to sleep once again. The day after I arrived at work at 11am!! I believe I needed to write down some thoughts, get them organized and out of my mind. This is also another reason for giving this blog a "second chance", and trying to write more from now on...

Anyway, summarizing the story: I was called for the selection workshop, a 2-day event that happened last week in Aarhus, Denmark, at the school. It was an amazingly organized workshop, very powerful and intense, that made me feel very good, even though it was a competitive environment (75 applicants - test pilots - for 30-35 members of the future Team13 of pilots). The results of the workshop should be announced pretty soon, and then I might write more about the school and its kaothic ideas :)

For those interested in Education for the Future, take a look at the Curriculum of the Kaos Pilots: http://www.kaospilots.dk/pdf/TheKaosPilotCurriculum.pdf

That's it for now...