Jerusalem is in the heart of an apparently endless conflict.

Religion, culture, terrorism, military forces and Holy tradition confront each other every day. Most of the world’s intolerance and incomprehension is represented in a small scale there.

The source of the conflict between Jews and Arabs is the claim of a religious priority. Israel claims that the land, as it is biblically written, was promised only to the descendants of Abraham’s younger son Isaac. On the other hand the Arabs claim that the land was promised to all the descendants of Abraham, and the Arabs themselves claim to be the descendants of his elder son Ismahel.

So far all of the solutions for peace have failed.

What do they all have in common? The negotiation processes has the same pattern and the leaders who make the decisions were the highest in charge, head of states.

1 . The negotiation process:

It is common sense to try to work on the easy issues at the beginning and leave the big ones for the end. This is done both in our daily life and in the Israel-Arab conflict. Jerusalem, the water issue, the Gaza Strip are often left to the end. What if we try things the other way round and solve the Jerusalem issue first?

We all know that decisions are made more easily if we are four or five people around the table. One peacemaker can be good and beneficial. Five peacemakers are unproductive. It is problematic if there are too many people around the table. How is it possible to solve a problem when we have the Palestinian position, the Israel position, the US position, the UN position, and the UK position, the European position (which could be divided into 10 different positions) and the Holy See position?

The one I prefer is the Holy See position (Jerusalem as an international city) with the addition of what has been decided at the Taba Summit in 2001 (Jerusalem capital of both states, with both the Israeli and the Palestinian Parliament there).

That Summit was probably the pinnacle moment in the peace process, it was the only time when Palestinians and Israelis came to an agreement. We should start from there. It is just unfortunate most of the public opinion simply forgot about that summit.

2. The leaders.

Decisions made from the top are good, but decisions made from the very top (ie. too far) can be a disaster. How to translate handshakes into a real solution? How much power leaders at the very top have at the local level?

How many steps, levels, bureaucrats, powers are there between their signatures and the problem of a mother afraid to leave her child at school? Who is leading and managing the electricity company? Who is leading and managing the water company?

Focusing on the local level means analysing job-by-job, street-by-street, house-by-house, for us to gain a better understanding. It is also for them to gain a better understanding of themselves.

The purpose is to bring people together, to make them share problems, feelings, worries and successes. “To involve” everybody must be the objective.

Why is IKEA so successful? It is because customers participate in the building process, which is why they love the end product. They feel an attachment to it! If you build your own furniture you will not criticize yourself about your work.

The same principle should apply in Jerusalem. People should work to build the city as a “team”, it should not have been Clinton, Arafat and Rabin in the past, nor should it been Obama, Abu Mazen and Netanyau today.

Jerusalem is a very diverse city, inhabited by Jews, Arabs, Armenians and Catholic: put the people together and let them work alone.

Just before World War I, both the Jews and the Arabs were TOGETHER supporting the allied powers against the Ottoman Empire. The hostility started around 1920s during the rapid influx of Jewish immigrants from Europe and it grew to today’s instable situation.

The Orpheus Chamber orchestra in New York has no director. The players have reached such perfection in their team building that there is no need for a leader. There is no excuse, no scapegoat and everyone is accountable for perfection in their performances.

If we work together on the bus, on the water management, in the construction company, to distribute energy, then we will know each other better.

We will understand each other better.

We will be less afraid of each other.

There must be a first step towards peace.

Note: The information and figures mentioned here are taken from Wikipedia. And Wikipedia is the example of how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results, if they work together!

In 2005 I was spending one month in Cambridge, UK, where I had the chance to meet a journalist from NY City and a lovely girl from Florida.

The journalist was very upset about the situation in the US as they were, according to him, turning from a liberal democracy into a socialist oligarchy: “We have fewer companies, the power is in the hands of few banks. I am not a communist and will never be. But I don’t recognise my country anymore. Where are the liberals? Where is the FREE market? This is a socialist country!”
The lovely girl, on the other hand, was very happy about her country. She was 24, she was enrolled on a bachelor's course and she was an entrepreneur: “I have three flats. The banks financed them; I did not put any cent into them. I buy and rent them. Since the house price is going up I sell them after 2 or 3 years and I can make a lot of money. Look this is the picture of my new mercedes, do you like it?”.
I think in the US everything is easy. One can easily make a lot of money, can easily have a fast career, can easily make very important friends. But.
But the same one can easily loose all his money, can easily get fired and can one day, end up being very lonely.

And this is what I think happened in the US.
Few big mortgage companies/banks have been able to play on the edge/outside of the rules, with a complacent government and a complacent security institution.
People who were scared of the situation have been marked as “communist against the free market”.
People with no skills or experiences thought that being an entrepreneur means riding a wave. While being an entrepreneur means adding value in whatever activity you do. And which value do they add if they were just buying, renting and selling?
As easy as the access was to the credit, it has also been easy to loose all the money gained in the real estate market, in the stock market and so on.
This is my analysis; but if you are looking for a more rigorous one, please click here.

What’s next?

1- This is not the end of the United States of America. But it is a new phase, with new protagonists rising up (China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam etc) and others coming back (Japan and Russia). With these players joining the global scene, the market is expanding. It is not going up or down. It is just getting bigger, which means that it will go up faster and down faster. We should get used to daily double digit gains/losses. Nowadays we are in a period of double-digit losses.

2- This is not the end of the free market, this is just the end of the greed attitude that comes from the Eighties, the yuppies generation. It’s time for less Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas in “Wall Street”) and more Oscar Schindler (Liam Neeson in “The Schindler's List”), more social responsible entrepreneurs and investors. The Eighties are over!

3 – This is the beginning for some Young People. It is time for us to take more responsibilities and to be protagonists. If we want to get into the field we have to do it now as a lot of companies/ industries /nations are restructuring themselves completely. It is much easier and much cheaper to join the show now, if some fields are starting from zero than it’s time to get involved!

A last remark: business, finance and economics are the sciences who developed the most in the last Century. Why has nobody been able to foresee what has happened?

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On September 16th the Lisbon Council hosted in Brussels The 2008 Skills and Human Capital Summit . The story is well known: Europe suffer the competition of Asia and the business culture of North America, how do we distinguish ourselves? Education, education, education.

When I was young being considered an outstanding student was not exactly the first one of my priorities.
Coming from Brianza, one of the most entrepreneurial Italian/European region, we were surrounded by examples of very successful entrepreneurs without a degree, not a university degree, an high school one.
Finishing high school was already considered a way to distinguish yourself and university was not seen as a smart way to achieve your dreams.
Most of us were used to say: “Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Renzo Rosso have never gotten a university degree, why should I?”

In my life I had the chance to meet extraordinary people. Politicians, CEOs, football players, entrepreneurs, journalists, employees and Nobel Prize.
There is one thing that great people have in common: they are willing to learn. It does not matter whether they hold an MBA or a primary school degree; they are curious and passionate about life, about people. They are thirsty of knowledge, they are hungry of knowledge, and they are looking for knowledge in every single inch of their life.
And this is the future.
Lifelong learning: keep learning, do not sit on your university degree, do not be satisfied with your MBA at Harvard, do not feel comfortable with your company’s trainings.
Knowledge is power.
It has always been it will always be.
But now there is one difference: Internet.
Every single one of us, at any stage of his life, has access to knowledge.
As I wanted to start from Brianza I taught my mother how to use a computer (an apple of course, it’s much easier) and how to use google and check news online. She is now my first source of information.
Next step? Teaching her about wikipedia!

For the one who are young, get to know the languages of the knowledge you want, English French Arabic Chinese Italian Russian German Portuguese... the more you speak, the more culture you can have access to, the more knowledge you can drink.

Cheers,
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Considerate la vostra semenza: fatti non foste a viver come bruti ma per conseguir virtute e canoscenza. (Consider your origin, you were not made to live like brutes, but to pursue virtue and knowledge)

It’s called the  “Lisbon Strategy”, the aim to make the EU “the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world. Capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion and respect for the environment by 2010” EU Council, Lisbon, March 2000.
Some people say this target is too wide, some say it’s the wrong one, others, that it is not achievable.
But the one thing in which everybody agrees: we won’t make it by 2010.
2020 or 2025 look more reasonable.
Being pragmatic, let’s not dwell on the past eight years already spent on the Lisbon Strategy, but focus on how best we can achieve its aims. In order to do this we have to look at the positive aspects and build on our strengths.
Firstly: Since 1943 Europe has become a relatively peaceful continent. Considering how we used to kill each other, this is a great achievement.
Secondly: We have the eldest, most inclusive and diverse education system in the world.
Thirdly: Environmentally, we are leading the way and making ambitious targets. Countries like Germany, Sweden and Denmark have already faced issues that US and China will soon have to deal with.
Peace, Education, Environment: this is what Europe can teach the world.
Peace is the fundamental need of any stable economy.
Education, the fundamental need of any innovative knowledge-based economy.
These together with well designed environmental policies, are the three key elements in strengthening Europe’s economic performance.
I think the Lisbon Strategy is on the right path.
We have only to be more focused, more persistent and proud of what we have already achieved.
Europe; the home of culture, Europe; the place to study, Europe; an expert on peace. Education, education, education; the key for a new European Renaissance