The Economist: Nokia tries to reinvent itself:
ASK Finns about their national character and chances are the word sisu will come up. It is an amalgam of steadfastness and diligence, but also courage, recklessness and fierce tenacity. “It takes sisu to stand at the door when the bear is on the other side,” a folk saying goes.
We have this feeling. We have it. We likely don’t have a word for it. And that’s a damn shame.
We need something to change. Northern Ireland will always have difficulties because we lack the environment we need to excel. Part of this is historical, part of it is just the way our culture is built. We have the talent, we have the brains, we just lack part of the execution. We will never have the same number of angels and funds as Silicon Valley. So we have to make better use of what we have. We will never get the massive DoD contracts that Israel secured so we’re going to need to find other ways to make our mark. We need to have the foresight to prepare for the future, the charisma to make friendships that will last and the heart to build it. Not for our own gain but for the gain of tomorrow. Well, starting from today, the first week of January 2010, we’re going to change that.
We’re going to start an incubator.
We’re going to start building a fund.
And we’re going to do it in Belfast.
So I’m looking for a word in Irish to express something. To express the passion about how I choose to spend my free time. There’s some candidates here – and the front-runner so far in bold.
| dream | brionglóid |
| sight | radharc |
| To hell with you! | Go hIfreann leat! |
| friendship | cairdeas |
| The big race | An rás mór |
| connection, bond | ceangal |
| feat, achievment | gaisce |
| nerve, courage, morale, heart | misneach |
Hear hear!
Agree wholehearted with you, however there is one big problem standing in the way, Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland has the talent, however there is a large proportion looking to grant/fund jump rather than actually turn a profit themselves.
Anything that can boot this culture into touch is never a bad thing, our wee country has the talent, let 2010 be the year we kick it in the rear and get it into gear (don’t know the irish for that) MISNEACH
Lets use a word in Na’vi for this 🙂 http://www.learnnavi.org/navi-vocabulary/
@Alan – Earlier today we discussed companies which actively changed what they were doing to attract grants. But the reason they do this is due to grants being the only game in town.
With lower incomes and a lower standard of living (meaning we have to spend more to get the same comforts), we have a terrible lack of simple liquidity.
So, we’re going to do something about it. It won’t be the big numbers and budgets that people expect from grants and matched funding but we have to show leadership here.