pi-squared
Joined 13 years ago
Joined 13 years ago
For many in my generation (90s), the dream of leaving the country has been propagandized by parents who were never able to leave themselves due to the Iron Curtain. Many would attest getting the Serbian radio close to the border in a desperate attempt to hear something "western". As much as the nation longs for the old-times, it longs for the West. And the split is maybe about 50/50. However few would leave for the East and many, many would flood the gates once we entered EU 12 years ago.
12 years ago is when late 80s and 90s children were graduating. We didn't have much idea exactly what is bad with the country, as no teenager knows too much. But we all saw the opportunity and we've all heard the stories of the successful uncle who managed to "fix their life" abroad. So we flocked. Cheap flights accelerated the process, free education in some countries like Scotland and the Netherlands. So the "brain-drain" was accelerated. If people could leave before with hard-obtained visas or illegaly, now it was easy and free for all.
Yet, 12 years later we are still the poorest country in EU with the poorest overall north-western region which was once one of the most prosperous regions back when aggriculture was the main sector. Turism and services instead is now the main sector and sure, there are some companies that are succesful, the low salaries compared to what you can make abroad is worth a bit of home-sickness endurance. It's hard to get out of it with the open borders - it's a feedback loop as more "brain drain" happens, less innovation and money can come towards the country and corruption proliferates.
What are your queries usually? Take a look at your own Google history, find and try to group what you are looking for and what would you ideally find that Google/other search engines don't satisfy.
I understand your desire to do something "revolutionary". But most things are incremental.
The most actionable item (that is of course MUCH harder than not eating meat) is doing something to to convince the nations with most children per woman [2] to have less. But this is not easy - joining organizations that would educate women and doing volunteering or even dangerous work is insanely hard. Not buying meat, recycling and not riding your car seems hard for western people and so you FEEL like you are doing something, but you are not.
I will not have children but do 50 transatlantic flights this year, eat all the meat, hell, I'll even teach myself to drive a car just to show off how useless these individual actions are. You can't convince the world, stop CHANGING the world and change yourself, seek data and find the most actionable item. Jeez!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_action_on_climate_c... [2] http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/total-fertility-r...