One the fascinating things about attending a school as internationally diverse as the London Business School is the wide range of relationships one makes with others living around the world. Just due to my study group, I have friendships with people in the UK, Belgium, Argentina, New Zealand, India and Israel.
The wonderful side of these relationships include having someone to see when traveling; learning about other cultures and being able to boast about a fantastic network. See, when you’re working side by side with those around the world the country of origin disappears and the real relationships begin.
The relationships are based on mutual trust, understanding and common interests. Is the person from Israel or India? Doesn’t matter when the project is due at 9pm that night.
The flip side of the coin on global relationships occurs when there is trouble in one of those countries. If anyone had relatives in New York City on 9/11 you’ll immediately know what I mean. Or, living in London. Or, in Mumbai. Or, in Bali. Or, …
The current conflict in Israel is really the topic of this post and the concern that comes from not just seeing a growing conflict, but having friends with family and their homes in Israel (other places in the region but for brevity). The battle isn’t just on CNN. The destruction in Haifa is quite personal, see our Semester At Sea ship docked there and one of my study mates is from there (or that area).
So the concern isn’t global, but very personal as are the prayers asking for calm and peace to find its way to this troubled land. This would be a good time to ramble on about if we got to know each other, broke down barriers and built friendships but that does very little good when there’s incoming fire.
For all in harms way, be careful and may this very personal conflict come to an end soon.
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