Wednesday 30 June 2004
Not really Ready to Wear
Tuesday 29 June 2004
The Bush Doctrine
Monday 28 June 2004
American misconceptions of a greater world
Sunday 27 June 2004
How dare you ... ?
News
I have once been accused of being a
news junkie, wherever that person got the idea from escapes me. However, I must
say, I do like to know what is going on, locally and remotely, whether it
directly affects me or not.
Something about just being informed is
exhilarating and enlightening, especially the kind of information we are
getting from the press nowadays.
As long as it is more of reporting than
the analysis, psychoanalysis, autopsy and post-mortem, one at least has the
opportunity to form one’s opinions without bias.
For me, news is about what happened
where and when - how and why, should only be included to provide a balanced
background rather than a bias in favour of the commentator’s subjective views.
I once dealt with a similar line of thought in News, Opinions
and Propaganda.
My hotel TV had only one English-speaking
channel, 6 channels pertaining to Tarot card gypsies - at times we should be sorting
our lives out than trying the sport of mountaineering in a swimsuit; that is my
analogy - a smattering of Spanish game shows and lots of German fare, since
this is more a Germanic haven, and Tenerife is the Anglophile haven.
I finally got fed up with listening to
CNBC, the language was arcane, jargon, inscrutable and probably too pompous to
be of any use to serious long-term investors.
Programs like Closing Bell, Squawk Box
& Power Lunch are typical of the pretentious restaurant patrons who pretend
to be wine aficionados when they should simply seek the advice of the waiter or
sommelier in a more exclusive setting.
If the wine is rotten, you really
cannot own up to choosing a bad wine, just as following the advice of the share
and market hacks could have brought you more grief than comfort and success.
As they say, "A fool and his money
are soon parted" having wisely followed the advice of charlatans. Do not
get me wrong, there is some good advice out there, but nothing beats understanding
what you are doing through your own research.
Eventually, I fetched the remote
control, retuned the TV, no BBC World, but up came CNN, good enough, they seem
to have toned down on the propaganda, having had their fingers burnt a few
times now with the bungle of America’s sham election of 2000 and the reporting
of official policy on Iraq.
Basically, each news agency must go out
and do their research, analysis and gathering, then subject all that to
scrutiny, balancing the news test with the truth test - maintaining standards
of probity is no chicken run.
The dare mentality
There is a growing tendency of the
government in America to forget that they are part of an accountable
elective democracy - crooked as that might seem - and not a theocracy of biblical
omnipotence.
The advent of September 11, 2001 and
the terrorist attack on American suddenly made the front pages of every global
policy. Even though we all recall terrorism well predates 2001 and it has its
causes.
No one becomes a terrorist because it
is a career move, it stems from the deprived, dejected, despondent,
disillusioned, disappointed, oppressed, abused, outraged, angry and
uncompromising - that list is hardly exhaustive, but accounts for the fact that
terrorism does not occur in a vacuum.
Much dissent regarding the Patriot Act,
the war in Iraq and coalition’s aims and Guantanamo prison
camp has been characterised as unpatriotic almost reading as treasonable.
The questions being raised about going
to war, the weapons of mass destruction, the neo-conservatives’ vision of a
democratic Middle East, the role of Halliburton in the reconstruction process,
the issues of stress or torture revealed in Iraq and extrapolated to Guantanamo
and the tenuous link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda are being rebutted
fiercely.
Fiercely, in the sense that we are told
to shut up, how dare we question.
- the people we put into government no matter
how wrong their policies about going to war or sending troops to war
against the wishes of the people.
- the fact that no link can be found between
Saddam Hussein and September the 11th, and whilst Dick Cheney recently
denied he said there is a confirmed link, the wonders of recorded
interviews showed that he said so in 2001.
- the values and actions of the soldiers in Abu
Ghraib when Saddam Hussein was worse - I suppose this introduces a
principle of degrees of moral grounds or steps, rather than a single solid
and firm moral ground.
- With respect, if Saddam Hussein’s evil (call
that a unit of measurement a Saddevil) equates to 100 Saddevils), then at
99 Saddevils we are still better on the moral scale than Saddam. A warped
logic but has been spewed out by a few commentators.
- ask to be privy to documents that are usually
kept secret for 30 or more years then are selectively declassified to
discredit opponents or affirm what is in fact self-righteous incompetence.
Commands from on high
Amazingly, all the subjects of these
news stories are now being buffeted at each stage, even the kudos Dubbiyew
might has gotten from the Reagan pomp and pageantry would seemingly ebb away
with another smart son of a president - Ron Reagan Jnr clearly articulate,
focused and coherent saying the Republican Party is meaner and nastier than
when his father was president.
More so, in tribute to his father, he
made a statement about his father not wearing his religion on his sleeve like
many do nowadays, this was read as a broad swipe at the sitting president.
Scary considering Dubbiyew chatted to a higher Father than his father the first
president Bush about the war in Iraq.
Well, I have nothing against prayer,
but the same principle is chatting to a higher being for direction is what
drives Osama bin Laden- the mind boggles.
America is a democracy, not a
religious government, the way the religious right has captured the political
conscience of the nation to the detriment of liberty and freedom of choice is
amazing.
Everything protected by the
constitution is undermined by an inordinate desire by the conservatives to
crowd the waves, the opinions, the lobbies and the papers whilst arguing that
the liberals are having more of a field day.
How is it that marriage has become a
constitutional issue rather than a basic fulfilling institution of partnership?
The truth is that a Christian president
does not necessarily make a good president; neither does a secular one make for
a decent one.
Clinton, who by those standards would
be considered immoral and reprobate was intelligent, charismatic and
put America in a position of esteem, which has now been squandered by
the divisive and unilateral machinations of the sitting president.
Leadership is a matter of principle,
courage and determination, your beliefs are supposed to reinforce the qualities
of these virtues, the beliefs are not the governing principles in themselves.
On a lighter note
Allesio Vinci said, "Pizza with
pineapple, that's a cake ... Pizza with cucumber it's an insult." I agree,
how dare they represent those things as pizza? You have been warned.
Saturday 26 June 2004
Holiday blogs
Friday 25 June 2004
The context of career development
- He is entirely content with where he is
- He has reached the pinnacle of his ambitions and sees no where else to go
- He is averse to people who intend to improve themselves
- He relies of on the organic/osmosis process of promotion that comes because it is there rather than because it is deserved
- He has no ambition and will suffocate any ambitious underling
- He probably knows nothing about visionary management
- If you were to spend 2 years in the job, would you have improved your marketability?
- By learning new skills
- Assuming new responsibilities
- Receiving relevant training that could also be useful when you leave the company
- Had some decision making or opinion forming role when your input and initiative are appreciated and utilised
- Are you taking up a role where your ideas are of greater import than your raw skills?
- Brains are what move people within companies
- How your contributions earn recognition and the respect of your peers travels through the corporate grapevine and eventually yields dividend
- What are your manager’s prospects?
- Whilst you cannot ask him that dreaded 5-years time question, you can probe him as to how you see the team going forward in the future and where does he thing core influence of the team would be as thing development