AIESEC Explanada

Personal thoughts by Nabeel Khalid

Even as a 'newie', I can explain what kind of values are to be incorporated into AIESECers' personalities. I don't feel I need to have read loads of AIESEC literature to explain what some of these core values are. Courtesy, friendship, cultural understanding, embracing diversity, inculcating leadership, practical experience, open-mindedness, optimism, expanding our world-view and facilitating positive change. These are some of the values I can think of off the top of my head. Basically each AIESEC value has to do with positivity. This is what the "AIESEC XP" has come to mean to me.

But from all this positivity a problem arises, I feel, when you interact with non-AIESECers. After a certain amount of AIESEC work, your level of interaction with AIESECers increases resulting in little or no interaction with people who have different values, ie. non-AIESECers. I don't mean non-AIESECers as in CEOs or corporate managers - that's a different ball-game altogether, rather our very own friends and the social network we have [beyond AIESEC]. These people can be offensive on a number of levels in a number of ways, and if you have gotten used to not dealing with such offences since some time, you feel left out.

Then there are those that accept reality the way it is and never attempt to change it, whereas we, as AIESECers, aim to bring about positive change in society. There are those that just get-by in life whereas we aim to create an impact on the face of this planet. They can not bond with complete strangers well and might even be rude to them in various situations [knowingly or unknowingly] whereas we try our best to appreciate diversity and have the skills in place thanks to our exchange network and exchange programs [conferences and internships]. Basically it's like sociopaths versus social animals. Also, most people are not aware of what's going on in the world, or it doesn't make much difference to their lives, but we, on the other hand, try to raise awareness about important issues, like, through PBoXes.

I think being an AIESECer is about finding the right balance between these different forces and aspects of social life. I would love to develop more friendships with AIESECers and engage in more and more activities, but I also want to be a well-rounded individual. Not one who can deal with optimistic people only, who, for some, might as well be living in a utopian world. We need to learn to tolerate all kinds of people, and appreciate the diversity present in them as well. It's up to us to decide what suits us individually. After all, AIESEC is about what we can gain from it.