Whenever I talk to young people in Montenegro, I hear "that can't be done here, this is Montenegro". To the question "have you tried", the most common answer is "no, but I know it can't be done here".
Probably many of you have heard similar answers and attitudes. I, who had some international experiences, and if I were not Montenegrin, I would probably think that Montenegrins are a specific nation, different from all others on this planet. Over time, I realized that everything was just an excuse, because of the fear of dreaming.
We as individuals are not aware that we all possess incredible power. Paradoxically, in a democracy, we are led to think that an individual cannot do much, unless he has the support of a large number of people for the fulfillment of a certain task or the support is financial.
But, every thing we do during our existence and life shapes our destiny, affects us and the people around us, and that is exactly the strength of the individual - to cause change, in himself, and change in things and people around him.
Dreams are very important
The desire to change comes with the ability to dream. The dreams we dream are very important. Dreams that are so big that we cannot reach them, dreams that we go towards to reach some goals that we want to achieve and that is one of the most important things that should be energy for each of us.
Volunteers of the first Podgorica TEDx conference, Photo: Aleksandar Aleksić
My life changed significantly when I was 16 years old and when I received a scholarship to spend two years of secondary education abroad. At the age of 16 I went to Wales and spent the last two years of high school there. I lived in an isolated village for two years with 360 people from 85 countries of the world. These are the things that incredibly change your perception of the world around you. In two years I lived alternately with a German, a Jordanian, a Spaniard, a Japanese and an American.
Experiences of interaction with other people who are practically outside the domain of safe operation of some of your known geographical zones make you change. It expands your mind and definitely affects the realization of something that has been neglected in you, something that you have forgotten - and that is that you can change the world.
What military service means for young people
I have the feeling that in this society, the feeling for others has been lost, that we really lack that. And one of the potential reasons for such a thing is the fact that this country abolished compulsory military service. The army has become professional. And congratulations on that. But the state forgot to make an analysis - what does military service really mean for young people?
I have the feeling that in this society, the feeling for others has been lost, that we really lack that
Army of students for the development of society
According to the 2011 census, Montenegro has 625 thousand inhabitants. Of that number, 7.900 graduate from high school each year. Imagine if there was a quality service established by the state through which these young people could contribute. These young people could find themselves helping in hospitals, orphanages, homes for the elderly... to volunteer in some initiatives that already exist and to start their own initiatives. All that could contribute a lot to the development of society.
In his inaugural address in 1961, US President John F. Kennedy addressed his nation and said: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country".
Photo: Aleksandar Aleksic
And that is one of those sentences that still resonates today and is very applicable in Montenegro.
When we talk about these concepts, maybe everything seems very abstract, maybe the concept of the state is big. Think about your local community, your city, your neighborhood, where you could act.
There is no small act of kindness
Your sphere of influence affects other people. Helping someone cross the street, helping an elderly person carry their bags to the third floor, may not be important to you, but for the person you are doing something like that, that sign of attention does a lot. Scott Adams, the creator of the comic "Dilbert" once said that there is no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act of kindness is a wave that has no logical end.
Let's remember the time when we were all children, when we all thought we could be superheroes - astronauts, firefighters, policemen...
All it took was a towel, a sheet... around our neck and a little imagination, and everything became possible.
Jumping off a chair, some went even further than that and... Why did we want to do that?
Your sphere of influence affects other people. Helping someone cross the street, helping an elderly person carry their bags to the third floor, may not be important to you, but to the person you are working for, it is such a thing, that sign of attention makes a lot of difference
For many of us, the job of helping is quite complicated. Basically, many people want to help, but then when they collide with the system of helping, especially when it comes to bureaucracy, that initial desire simply dies out for many of us. We as a community have a collective sense of solidarity, but it only appears in those moments when major disasters occur. Let's remember the (railway) tragedy in Bioč - the whole nation stood on its feet.
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Citizens responded in large numbers, among other things, to donate blood. But is it necessary for a tragedy to happen so that we all stand together and be ready to help the community or can we do some small things every day?
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Whenever our effort to help is short, when we know how much our effort is, we are incredibly supportive. Imagine that you are only one SMS away from helping a certain initiative. That's the moment when we all want to help, because helping is incredibly easy.
But, the moment it becomes complicated, as soon as we have to do some additional actions, many people stop helping.
Take an example when you need to help with something that bothers you, and what you need to do is to sit down at the computer, type a letter, call the service that is in charge of it, and when asked "to which email should I send this", you get they only have a fax, that only the director has an email, and he is on vacation. And this is something that happens all the time.
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That's why we wanted to create a platform that would serve local communities to improve their situation. That local platform is conceived on a non-commercial basis and wants to involve the community in the whole process.
Today we have the technology at our disposal and we can do a lot. Each of us can help, whatever our profession. We all have an invisible cloak that makes us heroes, just waiting for us to put it on and do some good deed
Montenegro experienced incredible fires this year, snow last winter, a large number of mountaineers get lost in the Montenegrin mountains... Our wish is to use this platform to enable people to report certain things - traffic accidents, fires... misconduct by officials... The possibilities for something like this are great. Each of us will be able to report when we do not receive a fiscal bill, so we will be able to see how much money the state is really losing.
None of us calls the number of some service to report that we have not received a fiscal bill. The time to come is different from the time behind us. Today we have the technology at our disposal and we can do a lot. Each of us can help, whatever our profession. We all have an invisible cloak that makes us heroes, just waiting for us to put it on and do some good deed.
Don't let that cape gather dust but do something for the local community.
The text is the author's lecture at the recently held TEDx conference in Podgorica
The author is the CEO and creative director of the interactive design studio "Fleka".
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