Why are you still here!

At Apple, per Jobs’ biography, a director reported a problem perhaps with Foxconn or one of their contractors in China. The meeting moved on to next item…when Steve Jobs suddenly turned around, “Why are you still here”.

That Director of the Far East bounced out of his chair, went to the airport and took the next flight out.

We are creatures of comfort. Meetings often take on their own time line, go on for hours and follow protocols with fruitless results.

Once I was in the library, thinking I could just take it easy…then a picture in Newsweek set me on a course of activism: Boat People crisis.

Today, we never lack in drama per Internet and 24/7 news cycle e.g. Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi. Why are we still here! All overloaded, anaesthetized and desensitized.

More (stimuli) means less (action).

Between stimulus and response, our delay stretches out longer. The PAUSE.

Like Mitch’s “freeze up” in mid sentence. A frozen state of mind.

Researchers are trying to save coral reef by deep freezing them for future revival. Back in Austin Powers days, Dr Evil could be deep-frozen for years and came back to take charge. Today, he cannot use the same script (caressing a white cat).

Time has moved forward fast.

The digital generation is ” killing me ‘Swiftly’ with her fingers”. Girls take charge, take the Grammys and take over. Period.

I feel for the Afghan girls and women, who had tasted the honey (freedom) which once again is denied.

Like bound-feet women of China past not free to spread their wings.

Current Earth population can use all the help, male and female. Double the productivity, less reliance on machine.

We’ve got work to do, from supply chain to humanitarian aids.

Why are you still here!

I have seen those water containers (yellow) given out by UNHCR. I have experienced first hand how desperate people are for needed supplies.

For Steve Jobs, the question was not even rhetorical. It’s a statement of awe, given his mindset “stay humble” etc.. He could not have understood why someone, anyone, would “do the same thing, day in day out, knowing he only has a few days or weeks left to live”. (per Commencement Address).

(BTW, the same could be said about the definition of insanity, and I paraphrase “sitting day in and out in a box, talking about ‘thinking outside of the box'” hoping for a different result.)

In that Apple Director’s shoes, I wouldn’t even try to mumble a reply. I would just pull a Mitch -a freeze – a long pause, in hope Steve’s stare-down would soon past (an unplanned trip overseas requires more than just a travel kit).

We’re all guilty of inaction and complicity. For not questioning the state of things. Social media caters to our lowest tastes, requires a brain of a child (with lots of after-school time on hand). Machine-aided and machine-nudged, we are to “amuse ourselves to death”.

Meanwhile, with limited tools to face today’s complex reality , world leaders are like deer facing oncoming headlights : where is that Fail-Safe point!

Judge not. The moral arc keeps on churning. Perhaps we need to get out of the way and out of our seats. Time goes faster when one is busy. Otherwise, just join the whole 8 Billion and ask:

Karma, why aren’t you here just yet!