Everybody has a gay relative or friend today. Homosexuals are open in society. You expect them to look cool, well-dressed, fit, parfume’ – essentially looking like they live forever in their mid-20s.
In the last decade the homosexual look has contaminated heterosexuals. They (heterosexuals) want to look cool to seduce women. Then the metrosexual was created. I’m sure you have already found yourself in the situation wondering if that guy you have just met is gay or not; he looks like a queer but is pulling your girlfriend… and she doesn’t disdain!?!
Recently a new generation have come out: the bromosexuals. They sleep with men but look and behave like heterosexuals. It might have happened to you: You thought you were going out for a beer with a friend and it turned out he pulled you… not your girlfriend!?!
Society is changing at a dramatic pace. I feel already outdated by the new generations. Boundaries are liquid and identity melts and multiplies at the same time.
If sexual identity develops in so many new forms, can the sector stay the same?
Last Century retired old ladies worked as volunteers. Priests and nuns dominated running charities. Some lefties founded cooperatives and mutuals to escape from the hardship of capitalist exploiters. British Airways still have the “missionary tariffs” on flights – it’s the cheapest fare offered to volunteers flying to a developing country.
That is an old story. Since the 90’s we saw NGOs leader like Kumi Naidoo sitting alongside Presidents at the G8 and CEOs of Multinationals at Davos. National charities have more members than political parties. Mutuals and cooperatives competing with corporations. Legacoops better performance of food retailers owned by the PM in Italy.
Last week I exchanged emails with Adelina. I annoyed her because I called her a veteran of the sector. She replied leaders like her are pioneers, not retired military. She accused me of being influenced by the language of bureaucrats and fascists. And she may be right.
The sector has grown so much in power that we are not ‘pure’ anymore. We are not the activists who can point out misdeeds of governments and corporations claiming to be pure and uncorrupted.
It’s too late. We sit at the same table and must play the same game. However, we still imbed the same values and ideals, we just have more refined tools to realize them. We don’t need to look but act. This is the time of changemakers, social innovators and entrepreneurs. We are open to change, sharing our identity acquiring new skills and tools. We are not worried about changing but delivering change.
I can see resistance from the old guard. They are the Talibans of the sector who want to preserve their original identity at any price.
On Wednesday we ran a roundtable on innovation in funding the sector at the European Parliament. Many usual suspects didn’t show up because they fell threatened by a network that doesn’t follow the bureaucratic path, rely on ‘legitimate’ intermediaries and doesn’t repeat the same jingles. They are right – we are the Ambassadors of a new world order which doesn’t have room for nostalgia.
At that event a representative of the coops spotted the crucial question. She asked: “Developing the third sector as social enterprise, doesn’t it put in danger the tax benefits gained so far?” She is right. Social Innovation threatens the acquired benefits because we are raising the bar of competition, putting the sector on the same battleground together with the other players. Is this what we want?
It’s like asking if you would rather stay in your town with your family, keeping the safe job public administration or risking everything for an adventure. Or adapting to the changing climates: homosexual, heterosexual or bromosexual. If you are an entrepreneur or bureaucrat you know your answer.
Wednesday was another score for a new culture, a culture of change for a new Europe. It’s a culture open to diversity, a culture of multiplicity against any form of fundamentalism. When is the next match?
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