Do What You Love: Help the GMH Become a Real Thing

José Antonio Vanderhorst Silverio, PhD
Organic Seed of the GMH

The GMH aims to a very small segment of the Dominican and Haitian populations that is determined to "do what they love." According to Daniel H. Pink, op-ed contributor to the New York Times (today's edition), that's the advice given by commencement speakers. We need "a labor market that increasingly confers an economic advantage on the activities that people do out of a sence of intrinsic satisfaction - designing cool things, telling stories and helping others." That is what Mr. Pink is telling the class of 2005. In addition, he says that "'Do what you love' is no longer a soft-hearted sentiment. It is also a hard-headed strategy."

Mr. Pink says that there are three powerful forces at work: automation, jobs going overseas, and prosperity. He concludes that "In other words, to make it in the emergent economy, we will have to do things that software can't do faster and that overseas knowledge workers can't do more cheaply. In addition, what we produce must also satisfy the growing consumer demand for products and services infused with emotion, spirituality and artistry... Look, it's a rough world out there. There's only one way to survive. Do what you love."

My humble contribution is that DR-CAFTA is a two way street. GMH has been thought for Hispaniola "do what you love" people. That is what I have been doing all my life. That was what I taught all along to my INTEC students. That is what I have been telling all along in this blog. That is why I call myself a seed. Don't be dependent, or just independent; become interdependent. Don't be followers, be leaders: develop your ethics, your vision, your reality, and your courage. In summary, do what you love, and help the GMH become a real thing.