The world is far better place for the likes of former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. He is not exactly a household name in the United States, but he should be. I will trade you one Ahtisaari for 10,000 Paris Hiltons. Finally, this global mediator par excellence received his just reward yesterday with the announcement that he has won the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.
Ahtisaari has been on the front lines of peacemaking for decades, from Namibia and South Africa to Banda Aceh and Kosovo. He now heads the Crisis Management Initiative based in Helsinki (learn more by clicking on title of this blog). This good man reinforces the essential value of discipline, maturity, patience and creativity in the name of peace, contrasted as these qualities are with the boorishness, arrogance, hate-mongering and propensity for needless war found in too many of those who purport to lead us today. There are better ways, and they are available to us in the work and wisdom of Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari.
p.s. And speaking of boorishness, why is that Boston Celtics' legend Bob Cousy has to find out that he is being fired from his Comcast in-game commentary role via telephone and from somebody he barely knows. I'm sure Comcast leadership locally were always pleased to pose with Cousy in publicity shots over the years. So where were they when the hard call had to be made? Yes, in the usual places. People are too often fired by individuals who are not their bosses in tasteless, classless and uncaring ways or, worse, by e-mail or in the newspapers. As somebody who has had to fire more than a few individuals over the years, some of them good employees and some of them not, I suggest following the Golden Rule of treating others the way we wish to be treated. Cousy deserved better.
Ahtisaari has been on the front lines of peacemaking for decades, from Namibia and South Africa to Banda Aceh and Kosovo. He now heads the Crisis Management Initiative based in Helsinki (learn more by clicking on title of this blog). This good man reinforces the essential value of discipline, maturity, patience and creativity in the name of peace, contrasted as these qualities are with the boorishness, arrogance, hate-mongering and propensity for needless war found in too many of those who purport to lead us today. There are better ways, and they are available to us in the work and wisdom of Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari.
p.s. And speaking of boorishness, why is that Boston Celtics' legend Bob Cousy has to find out that he is being fired from his Comcast in-game commentary role via telephone and from somebody he barely knows. I'm sure Comcast leadership locally were always pleased to pose with Cousy in publicity shots over the years. So where were they when the hard call had to be made? Yes, in the usual places. People are too often fired by individuals who are not their bosses in tasteless, classless and uncaring ways or, worse, by e-mail or in the newspapers. As somebody who has had to fire more than a few individuals over the years, some of them good employees and some of them not, I suggest following the Golden Rule of treating others the way we wish to be treated. Cousy deserved better.