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The Tragedy of Okinawa: A Lesson for the World
By Shlomo Maital
Consider Okinawa, a Japanese island. A sad natural experiment is underway. A natural experiment is when without intervention of scholars, changes occur that enable us to gain major insights.
Once, Okinawa was a ‘blue zone’, a region where the elderly lived very long lives in good health. But… no longer. As a scholar reports to the German Deutsche Welt website: “An influx of foreign influences, ranging from fast food to less exercise, the stress of modern life, as well as a loss of the traditional sense of ‘ikigai’ in younger people are all to blame.”
“For generations, the people of Okinawa prefecture in Japan have enjoyed the reputation of being among the longest-lived humans on the planet. Medical experts and gerontologists have flocked to these semi-tropical islands off southern Japan in search of the secret to the local population’s longevity, with most concluding it was a combination of a nutritious diet, regular exercise and the support of family and the broader community.”
But then? US military bases in Okinawa began exposing young people to fast food and American diets. And then…
“The life expectancy of the people of Okinawa is coming down quite rapidly and we believe the problem is that younger people have failed to follow in the footsteps of earlier generations,” said a part time as a clinical cardiologist and is joint-founder of the Naha-based Okinawa Research Center for Longevity Sciences. “The people of Okinawa have been influenced by the food and lifestyle choices of other societies, particularly that of the United States.”
“Since Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II in 1945, Okinawa has remained home to a large number of US military bases and tens of thousands of troops. A culture of fast food and television over physical exercise has rubbed off on local people, he said, and the results can now be seen.”
And “ikigai”? An 89-year-old Japanese man, Suzuki, recounts: “”I believe the concept of ‘ikigai’ is important to our lives, especially in older people,” Suzuki said, referring to the traditional idea of the reason a person has for living. “My job at the hospital is very busy and that is my ikigai,” he said. “It is important for me to help people who are sick and I do not consider them my patients, I see them as my friends. But being with them also helps me as isolation and loneliness are very dangerous for old people.
Diet. Activity. Exercise. Purpose in life. As Okinawa replaces its own culture with that of the US and the West – people live shorter lives, and perhaps, less fulfilled ones.
Is there a lesson here?
Pile-On Meetings: How to Fight ‘Stovepipes’
By Shlomo Maital
Kathleen Finch
Kathleen Finch is the chief programming officer for several cable TV channels: HGTV (Home & Garden Channel), Food Network and Travel Channel. Her job requires a great deal of creativity, in keeping programming fresh, relevant and lively for viewers.
Interviewed in today’s International New York Times, she reveals some of her methods for maintaining creativity. One of them is called “pile-on meetings”. I believe this is a remedy for stovepipe management – that is, narrowly defined management responsibilities, vertical ones, with very little interaction or overlap for creative ideas. Stovepipes are one of the reasons that big organizations with detailed vertical organizational charts struggle to innovate.
“I have a meeting every few months that I call a pile-on meeting,” she told the NYT. “I bring about 25 people into a room and go over all the different projects that are coming up in the next 6 months and the goal is that everybody piles on with their ideas to make those projects as successful as they can be. The rule walking into the meeting is that you must forget your job title. I don’t want the marketing person just talking about marketing. I want everyone talking about what they would do to make this better. It is amazing what comes out of those meetings!”
Another key insight? “I love when things don’t go right, because it’s a good time to talk about taking smart risks. If everything worked all the time, that would mean we’re not trying anything crazy, and it’s the crazy ideas that end up being the really successful ideas.”
Again, another reason big organizations fail to innovate. Who would attempt anything, in the corporate world, that could well fail?
Young Man, Young Woman: Go West! Go East! Just…Go!
By Shlomo Maital
Each year, New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof chooses an intern, to travel with him and report on ‘neglected issues’. This year’s winner? 20-year-old Nicole Sganga. In his column “Go west young people! And east!”, Kristof makes an interesting point.
First, a little joke. If ‘trilingual’ means knowing 3 languages, bilingual means knowing 2 – what is a person called who knows no foreign languages? Answer: an American. Most Americans do not have a passport, do not know a foreign language, and do not travel abroad. The result is an insular nation ignorant of geography and other cultures.
Kristof notes that of all the 50 American states, the most cosmopolitan, and the best state in which to do business (according to Forbes magazine) is…not New York! It is..Utah, the state with a large population of Mormons (Church of the Latter Day Saints), a religion not known for liberality. Why? Because young Mormons are required to do two years of missionary work in a foreign land, and they return speaking Thai, Mandarin, Korean and a blizzard of languages – 130 languages are spoken in commerce in Utah, as a result!
Kristof notes that fewer than 10 per cent of US college students study overseas during their undergraduate years.
In my country, Israel, young people complete their compulsory army service, then pack a backpack and trek through India, South America, Thailand, anywhere, partly to cleanse themselves of the early-rising army discipline. One result is to make Israel a very cosmopolitan nation, which I think helps our startups a lot.
Kristof suggests: How about if American colleges gave students a semester credit for a gap year spent in a non-English-speaking country?
America has paid heavily for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bungled in part because America had little understanding of the complex cultures of those nations, cultures you can understand only by living there and learning the language. So simply as a matter of survival, if America wants to understand this complex often hostile world, more young Americans need to experience other nations. It’s a matter of national security.
TIMnovate 