Congratulations if you have a sense of huumor

After listening to many different opinions about humour, I started to look for more points of view on humour. So I decided to check what some famous peole have thought about humour and how they see this phenomena.

I think the scariest person in the world is the person with no sense of humor. Michael J. Fox

I don't think comedy is necessarily an attack. It's finding humour in life. I don't think if you're making a joke about something you're automatically demeaning it.
David Walliams

Humour is a great vehicle for getting a message across. If you get too serious, you could die of starch.
Cyndi Lauper

I think if you come from a history of persecution you have to develop a sense of humour.
Sacha Baron Cohen

Mixing humour and harsh reality is a very human behaviour, it's the way people stay sane in their daily lives.
Jorge Garcia

Humour has always been a self-defence mechanism for me.
Brooke Shields

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.
Mahatma Gandhi

Humor is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.
Mary Hirsch

The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes.
William Davis


These are just some of the quotes I picked up. I would say the ones I mostly agree.

Don't live up to your stereotypes

More than 100 different nationalities and ethnic groups are represented in Estonia and they all have their own version of Estonia.

Even Estonians each have their own Estonia.

I was reading the book with one eye looking at myself in that story.  

 What I found didn’t surprise me:

·        Poker face in the tram - check

·        Being punctual - not me

·        Eating blood sausage - check

·        Being blond - check

·        Eating porridge in the morning - check

·        Keskturg is parallel universe - agree

·        Garlic cures everything - agree, check

·        In the middle of February I desperately miss the sun - check

·        Dead people’s pictures in the family album - check

·        Love basketball - not me

·        Love esoteric stuff - not me

Unity is strength - so why are we afraid?

There was once a farmer whose sons were always quarrelling bitterly.  No matter what he said to them they would soon start again.  One day he decided that he would give them a lesson.

 “Come my sons,” he said.  “I want you to go into the woods and each of you comes back with some sticks for the fire.”  The sons went off and after a while they returned with the sticks.  “Now, my sons” he said.  “Tie them into a bundle.”  The sons did so.

 “I wonder,” said the farmer. “Which one of you is the strongest and can break this bundle of sticks?”  Each son tried his best but no one was able to break the bundle of sticks.  “Now,” he said, “untie the bundle and take the sticks one by one and break them.”  “Oh that’s easy,” said the boys and they soon had the sticks broken, ready for the fire.  “Let this be a lesson to you,” said the farmer.   “If you let quarrels divide you, you cannot do well, but if you stand together you will be strong and overcome your problems.”

Bauer brings out that identity and (identified) unity culturally and politically are dealt as a resource of power as it shown in the story. 

The moral of this story is so obvious, but why it`s so hard to follow this principle? 

We know that stronger stays alive so we are used to „fight“ with each other  - to get what we want, to show power etc. Instead of crossing the swords we fight with the words. We see it every day around us and mostly it’s vulgar and sometimes even ugly (you remember Martin Helme words "If you're black, go back").   

Sometimes we just need to be reminded that bundle of sticks are unbreakable. Our president said one month ago that would be heedless against ourselves to divide people “we” and “they" whether based on ethnic or world view.

Bauer idea is simple: a dialogue is much more challenging in stating the own standpoint and facing the other one, but rewards (or challenges) with more resource of decisional criteria. He also brings out another argument as a question, which I totally agree - if the own position is clear and stable, why avoid to get involved with another point of view. 

So why are we afraid?

 

If one size doesn’t fit all…

If we offer everyone the same blouse from the collection “Integration” that is exactly the same  - the same colour, same design, same material, same washing advice etc.-  some of the people might say:

-         It’s not my colour!

-         It’s too big for me!

-         It’s so old-school!

-         It needs to be ironed every day!

But if you have decided to be successful, you will ask your client for feedback and observe what they really like to wear.

Suppose you design a new blouse for, let’s say, a Russian target group. On the catwalk the new blouse looks so beautiful, but when people finally have it and  try it on at home… “No no. It’s not my colour, it’s too big for me, it’s so old-school and it needs to be ironed every day. Thank you, but no thank you”. 

Some of them might even be angry and say  “How many times do we have to say we don’t want a blouse, we need a jacket?”

But there is another group of people who think the blouse they saw on the catwalk is so beautiful and they try to wear it. For them it’s too big, but with a belt it might look cooler. For those who think it doesn’t have enough colour, they might add some accessorises. For those who think it’s too old-school, they might redesign it a bit until it suits them, and so on.

The owner of the brand has to admit that they used quite cheap material and also the design is a bit of copy-paste, but let’s face it: “We are just a start-up company. In the future our aim is to use original designs, only the purest silk, and the variety of sizes will be broader.” At least, that’s what the “Integration” collection designer says.