Category: Change Leadership

Exactly How Broken is Finland´s Educational System?

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Education Management, Educational policy, higher education
"Businessman Tearing Sheet Paper"
Photo Credit: Freedigitalphotos.net. ID: 100245639
Citing On internet privacy, be very afraid, a scholarly article published by Liz Mineo on Harvard Law Today on August 25, 2017, where she writes that “Americans in general tend to mistrust government and trust corporations. Europeans tend to trust government and mistrust corporations”. Although Mineo here refers to general government surveillance, the statement that Europeans tend to trust government and mistrust corporations is, in my opinion, a generalization.  
This informative article about internet surveillance allowed my mind to awkwardly transit from one topic to another concerning our educational system in Finland and mis/trusting government.
In Finland, where I currently live, the very basis of our educational system is to provide free-of-charge, public education at all levels and to every (EU) citizen living in this country. However, following the recession that begun in 2008 as a consequence of a series of world events and as a conclusion of many factors, our current government decided, against earlier promises not to make any cuts into the educational system, to make a major cut (600 million euros) in Finland´s educational system.
As a consequence of these decisions, many teachers, university lecturers, professors and researchers lost their jobs, many of whom are now either unemployed or found new vacancies in universities around the world, e.g. in our neighbouring country Sweden.
Teaching used to be a rather secure profession in Finland. That, however, has drastically changed. Today, many teachers not only graduate to become unemployed or work with constant temporary contracts, but also have to face continuous challenges in their profession e.g. caused by the fact that teachers, in general, are no longer as valued as they used to be at schools. What happened to authority and respect?
Especially since Finland has ranked so high in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) surveys and has for long been a leading country as of having one of the best educational systems in the world, the recent drastic financial cuts into our educational system have received a lot of attention both on national and international levels. Finland, a leading country within research and development, received notes from a number of sources: the academia, private individuals, economists, the European Commission, and OECD, only to mention a few. The news was shocking to many.
Is this a method of psychological influence, a straight way of destroying intellectual capital in a country? Who can estimate the long-term effects of our current government´s decisions upon the future of Finland that has, historically excelled at education. Especially now that our government, simultaneously to making these unreasonable financial cuts in our educational system, makes efforts to export Finnish education to the world.
The financial cuts into our national educational system remind me of what happened to teachers and other academics/intellectuals in Cambodia in the 1970´s, where a communist regime, the Khmer Rouge, suddenly took over the country only to slaughter at least two (2) million (according to some estimations, the number was more than 3,3 million people, which at that time was 25% of the total population in Cambodia) of its own population within a few years as an effort to get rid of educated people in the country. Finland is neither a communist state nor comparable to Cambodia, but I keep asking myself what exactly our current government thinks they are doing.
Furthermore, it is highly questionable why a country invests such a high amount of tax payers´ money into an educational system that quite clearly no longer works. Why does this country offer free-of-charge (financed through tax incomes) education to its citizens widely, when it simultaneously and/or as a consequence leads to academics and highly educated people ending up being unemployed, or, basically being more or less forced to either a) employing themselves b) starting their own businesses and/or c) leaving the country to live and work in a country where academics are still held in high value?
There is something very wrong with our current educational system, and it remains to be seen what exactly the consequences of these decisions will be. For it is certain that drastic cuts into the educational system will have consequences, both short-term, and long-term.
Anne-Maria Yritys 2017. All rights reserved.

“The Future Belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Coaching for excellence, Leadership Development

Courage and heart

Bitterness, doubt, envy, fear, grief and hatred are all a waste of our life energy. We have all experienced these negative feelings in one way or the other, but in order to heal ourselves we have to let go of our worries to heal our wounds.

I have personally lost many friends, one of whom suddenly died at the age of 45 with a heart disease, leaving behind a loving husband and two small children. I have personally survived two near-death experiences, which I did realize only months and years after they occurred. My guardian Angels were there for me.

One of my aunts had a rare lung disease, and received a rare lung transplantation in 2011. Without this donation, she would not be here today. I also have two very close relatives who have suffered serious kidney problems, one of whom had a new kidney transplanted in 2012. The other person has this in front of him, and I am only praying for him to have courage and health to go through all of this.

We often waste time on useless activities, worry too much, fear too much. While you are healthy, make sure to live your life fully and never waste a day to do the things that are really important to you. You never know what will happen tomorrow, so let go of all fears and negative feelings, make sure to transform them into positive actions and energy and live your life fully.

Did Nelson Mandela end his life in bitterness after 27 years of wrong imprisonment? No, he was a true hero and a leader who we all should admire greatly. Even after he was treated maliciously, he rose up after spending almost three decades in prison to become the person who ended Apartheid in South Africa and who became a hugely loved president and world leader.

What are you waiting for? What do you personally want to change/improve in society? Do not hesitate – take action NOW! And, always remember, the future is created by those who believe in the beauty of their dreams (Eleanor Roosevelt).

I hope this post was helpful. Stay strong!

Thank you for inspiring me!

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Inspirational Leadership

I wanted to send a brief thank you note to all my new (and, old) contacts and friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & other social media sites. It is truly amazing to be surrounded by so much greatness, so many beautiful and courageous individuals. You are all a great source of inspiration to me in these times of social networking and the Internet era. Keep on believing in yourselves people, and continue working with lots of passion and purpose in your lives. Especially for those who are entrepreneurs and/or self-employed, as I know very well how rough the road of self-employment and entrepreneurship can be. Of course, we all need encouragement and support on a regular basis, and if we cannot get that from people around us, we have to go deep within ourselves and seek inspiration from within. Although how I see things is that each one of us is a tiny part of the Universe, and we are all influenced by each other and things that happen around us. It takes great courage these days to be able of standing out from the crowd. Finding your own true path, your personal creativity and your personal voice in this “noisy” world can be quite difficult. It is a matter of selectivity and tapping into our stillness through various means, such as meditation, which is not easy for most people in a world where everything seems to become more and more hectic, unless we are capable of finding inner peace and security.

 

Bill Nye.jpg

Inspiration

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Inspirational Leadership, Personal Development

https://www.slideshare.net/annemariayritys/inspiring-quotes-77997665

Change, Futurism & Innovation

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Futurism, Innovation Management

Love & Friendship

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Love and friendship

https://www.slideshare.net/annemariayritys/love-friendship-77885024

Serenity & Zen

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Inspirational Leadership, Personal Development, Personal Transformation, Spiritual Development, Spiritual Leadership, Spirituality

Collapsing Ecosystems

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

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A few days ago, I spent two hours talking to a 78-year-old Lady & her husband (80+) at their Summer cottage. Both of them hardly had any wrinkles. She said, they spend all Summer in nature. In Winter, she goes ice swimming regularly and she uses FINNISH HONEY every single day, both applied on her skin & inwards.

We also spoke about CLIMATE CHANGE. She said, recently you can no more find FINNISH HONEY in the stores. There are no bees. Even their cottage neighbor, who keeps bees, has lost them! This is not only a Finnish problem. It is a GLOBAL problem.

Bees, and other insects important to our global environmental ecosystems, are disappearing. If not already, please do hear the alarm bells. If we humans cause extinction of species important to our global ecosystem, we will ultimately destroy ourselves. It has long been urgent to rethink our ways of living and consuming. If not already, do take action in your personal AND professional life.

 

 

Missing bees: The Mysterious Case of Colony Collapse Disorder

Climate Leadership

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

A year ago, in May 2016, after years of climate activity and months of reflection, Global Climate Change Think & Act Tank was born. What started out partly from a willingness to learn more about climate change, but foremost out of a deep concern for our global environments, the nature, and sustainability in general, has now become an active (social media) movement involving professionals and people from all kinds of industries across our world.

Climate change, environmental protection, and sustainable economic development are core factors affecting businesses, corporations, organizations, individuals, and thus societies holistically. In today´s world, none of us can afford ignoring climate leadership as a core value, and as a long-term competitive advantage, as well as an investment, in business practices across industries AND in our personal lives. Instead of denying the truth about the long-term negative effects caused by human behavior and unsustainable ways of conducting business/living our lives, we must embrace change not only in business practices, but in our everyday lives. Holistically. We already know HOW to do it. It is only a question about a willingness to embrace positive change, improve our ways of consuming, living, and conducting business. Of course, inter/national climate policies and regulations do have a significant impact, whereby local/global politics plays a significant role. Although, at the core of climate leadership, societies consists of smart individuals – the driving force to all change.

Climate leadership and taking responsibility for our environment belongs to EVERYONE. No individual can outsource his/her personal responsibility, wherefore we are all responsible for taking action and committing to changing our societies into sustainable places to live, now and in the future.

97 % of all scientists agree upon the fact that climate change, as it occurs in today´s world, is caused by us human beings. According to NASA – Global Climate Change – Vital Signs of the Planet, the evidence for this is fact-based and relevant. The (future) consequences of human caused climate change are yet partly unknown, although climate change in today´s world has already caused: sea level rise, global temperature rise, warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, declining Arctic sea ice, glacial retreats, extreme events, ocean acidification, and decreased snow cover – to mention a few! How these changes affect life upon Earth, unless we take action and implement necessary changes, is to some extent yet a question mark.

According to The UN Migration Agency and based upon climate research, the number of climate refugees could rise up to 200 million by 2050. As per today, the UN Refugee Agency estimates that more than 22.5 million people have been displaced due to climate and/or weather-related events in the past decade. And, the number is continuously growing. Without hesitation, these are unsustainable facts and numbers.

With a reference to Adger,W.N., J.M. Pulhin, J. Barnett, G.D. Dabelko, G.K. Hovelsrud, M. Levy, Ú. Oswald Spring, and C.H. Vogel, 2014: Human security. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 755-791. , climate change affects human security in a wide variety of ways, including food security, displacement, migration, mobility, inter/national conflict/s, critical infrastructures, state capacities, and geopolitical issues.

Climate leadership, including the necessity to act upon climate change and driving change that concerns all of humanity, must be taken seriously by everyone. It is not enough to have local/regional/national/global policies and regulations . Businesses, creating innovative solutions, are the true sustainability ambassadors, together with aware consumers/individuals.

ACT NOW – become a supporter of our global movement – Global Climate Change Think & Act Tank:

@GCCThinkActTank on Twitter

GCC Think & Act Tank on LinkedIn

GCC Think & Act Tank on Facebook

Climate Leadership by Global Climate Change Think & Act Tank

https://www.slideshare.net/annemariayritys/global-climate-change-think-act-tank-72400257

 

Empowering Women Worldwide

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, Empowering Women, Female Leadership, Gender Equality, International Women´s Day, Universal Human Rights
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Each year on March 8th, International Women´s Day is being celebrated worldwide. Some men have asked, why women must be celebrated? Why do men have no International Men´s Day? Should we rather ask why we actually need an International Day for Women?
The purpose of International Women´s Day is to remind us all of the fact that we are yet far from having reached gender equality. Women across the world must get their voices heard. Due to many different reasons, including culture, tradition, legislature etc., many countries/societies across our globe prevent women from having the same opportunities in life as men.
What we all must understand is that empowering women through women´s birthright, Universal Human Rights, that apply to both genders, we contribute to developing a sustainable global economy, where all human beings have equal access e.g. to education and to workforce (and, a profession of their choice/level of education, knowledge and skills), narrowing down gender gaps and transforming societies to become less gender oriented.
According to research and statistics, girls and women that have equal access to primary, to secondary, and even to higher education give birth to fewer children. Not that children would be unwanted in our world, but when girls and women are economically empowered through education and through an unlimited access to the global job market/have the possibility of practicing their learned profession/becoming entrepreneurs, it has multiple beneficial effects upon societies, including better health for both women and children, and less poverty. In our overpopulated world with too many children suffering from hunger, malnutrition and poverty, it is important for parents to have the opportunity of raising healthy children which ultimately will lead to healthier economies and societies.
By giving girls and women equal opportunities and allowing females to access their basic human rights, economies and societies worldwide empower and help women to be capable of taking care of, not only their own futures, but the futures of their children equally.
What can you do as a man to help and to support an equal economy? There are countless ways of empowering girls and women, starting within the close family system/relatives/your community. Learn more about the worldwide facts regarding gender equality. Integrate gender equality into your daily life at home, at work, in your community. Understand that empowering girls and women will benefit men as well, when responsibilities are distributed equally within homes, and in working environments.
What can you do as a girl/as a woman? There is no simple response to this question, since the state of equality between genders varies from country to country. I could write, learn and be aware of your (human) rights as a girl/woman, but it is not that simple taking into consideration that currently not every girl/woman is aware of their Universal Human Rights. How can you empower yourself to take action for improving your life as a girl/woman if you are unaware of your basic human rights? However, those girls and women who are aware of their basic human rights should claim access to those fearlessly, empower themselves and other women to become active citizens of the world to make their voices heard and contribute to an increasingly much democratic world where both men and women can live up to their full potential as equal human beings.

Happy International Women´s Day! 

Click here to read related post: 

365 Days a Year Dedicated for Women Globally

Click here to access International Women´s Day presentation: 

International Women´s Day Thought Leadership

 

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