Daily Lessons from Life 19 December 2009

"Castro mocks Obama visit to Copenhagen - Sat, Dec 19, 2009 AFP

HAVANA - Veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday dismissed US President Barack Obama's trip to UN climate change talks in Copenhagen as a 'show,' and complained that the world's poor will shoulder the burden of any summit agreement."

The evergreen revolutionary leader, Mr. Fidel Castro, is in the news again. He is simply just remarkable for his longevity in politics alone. He has seen many more ex-President of USA than President Obama has lived! Still, it does not mean that he is always right about his judgement and his bets on world development. ;-)

Lessons for me are:

1. this is a free world as long as the leaders of the country allowed it. Since Mr. Castro is speaking on the world stage and the world embraces free speech, his criticism of President Obama get heard around the world. I wonder if someone try to criticize him in Cuban will get similar free space;

2. The UN Climate Change Talks is about 'to sacrifice a bit now for a longer and sustainable future' or 'to have the good time now and damned the future (or let's take a chance that the future will be alright!)'. As I shared previously, our brains are developed to accept 'short term pleasure' rather than 'short term sacrifice for long term benefits'! So, it is understandable why some countries want to continue the present stage of affairs as they have not fully understood or fully prepared to make that short term sacrifice;

3. the Climate Change project is the ultimate collaboration project of a global scale. The spirit of collaboration will not be achieved as long as the sacrifices and benefits for each member are clearly spelt out and agreed upon. Unfortunate, to please everyone will means no agreement. To insist on each other's ultimate bottom line will means no 'give and take' spirit that will surely mean no agreement too. The classic Game Theory at play I guessed, at some level. "What Is In It for Me?" needs to take a back seat to 'What is left for me if I don't collaborate with others?'.

It seems that the talks will yield an imperfect outcome. Hopefully, that leave rooms for all participants to regroup and reassess the 'new' potential consequences and get back again to work on reaching a better agreement.

Personally I believed it needs a 'new value system' globally before anything concrete and tangible can be achieved.

May the creator save this earth before man destroyed it - misguidedly!! As for Mr. Castro, he probably will not live to see this agreement. Neither will he be commenting on it!! ;-))