Of Chief Insolence Officers

Before we proceed

Let me conclude before I start, these are the lessons from my story.

When you have resigned, strive to maintain your professional integrity but not at the expense of your well-being.

No matter who is your mentor, do not become a clone just in case you also clone the terrible traits.

You can be a good manager without having to subsume your integrity for the purpose of fulfilling your role, honest definitely garners more respect.

You have every right to be different and act differently but beware of the universe of stupidity bordering on the utterly absurd from which you will never recover once you have arrived.

Honestly aspiring to great things is noble, pretending to be great when you are not is not an aspiration.

Learn from history and move on to make a productive future.

Always seek the light of knowledge in all your circumstances, knowing where you are at is the most important part of knowing where you are going.

Just move on when you are done

You might be well acquainted with the saga of my career progress in the summer months of last year where one encountered the unusual phenomenon of the resigning party being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

It transpired that on learning that my then boss (Mr Tragedian) had nothing to offer but more of the same, the only option left to me was to seek more productive prospects for my career.

This was coupled with the complete lack of support for my decision to undertake a post-graduate programme in Information Technology.

One has moved on, though it is with amusement and incredulity that Mr Tragedian lack of foresight has left my role unfilled and that function in complete disarray within that organisation.

As it goes, the systems one used are still quarantined in the concern that information contained therein might still be relevant; the same systems still hold a pride of place even after an office move.

Door signs of hopeful excess

One notes with interest the fact that the department one worked was named CIO where the O inferred Office and not Officer. Mr Tragedian was beaming when an old colleague from another placement visited and could have thought the sign on the door to his office meant Mr Tragedian was the CIO.

Mr Tragedian was Chief indeed and obviously some kind of Officer in the organisation; but spare me the Information part.

Indolent, Insolent, Idiot, Irresponsible, Irreverent, Irritable, Indiscrete and Insulting would read better for the "I" part. He was most of that to many but that trait was literally Invisible to his bosses or he had something on them such that he had it all sewn up. The mind boggles.

Situations vacant filled from without

Most recently, the CIO retired, fine lady she was, considering anytime we met in the elevators we talked about hats, being a wearer of hats myself.

There is something about the sophistication of ladies in executive positions that sets them apart from ladies who are not in the fast track. [Just an observation, corroborated by a few.]

The way things were last year, there was the fear that the CIO would be replaced by Mr Tragedian who somehow exuded the schizophrenic ability of being able to smell like roses to his superiors and like dog-shit to those below him.

Mushrooms would be more content with their culture of farming than staff that had to report to him. [Mushroom farming is a euphemism indicating the act of keeping ones staff uninformed, de-motivated, treating them dishonestly, disrespectfully and with disdain - expressed as "keep them in the dark and feed them shit" - just how mushrooms are cultivated.]

As good fortune would have it, someone else was brought in to fill that post and rightly so. Mr Tragedian had so clogged up every progressive function that helped the enterprise that the attrition rate could beat world records. His promotion would have just promoted the range of his damaging influence.

Protégés of shame

Even more word comes out of the grapevine of how protégés of Mr Tragedian who have mastered the art of management by utter insolence have been read the Riot-Act by the new CIO.

The whole culture of terminological inexactitudes [lies] to embellish untenable situations [failures] as problems created by others have been busted; big time.

Those managers now live in the same terror that they have to-date unleashed on the others they manage. One cannot complain; what goes around comes around - that is good enough for anyone.

It is rumoured that Mr Tragedian probably has the fattest complaint file in the toothless and ineffective HR department that seems to be so efficient in handling holiday requests but not resolve weightier matters of employee conflict.

It is even a greater shame that one of the managers who had a good case on the Mr Tragedian's incompetence did not have the bottle to pursue it to a conclusion; he is now on his way out. Well, a manager without balls will not fit in any ball game. Anyway, lessons might be learnt from this situation.

Ridicule beyond expression

Mr Tragedian once had as part of his quite generous remuneration a well-appointed Mercedes Benz car befitting of his status in the company. He then negotiated a settlement in that allowed him acquired a mobile home truck which has replaced his car.

That truck is now his working vehicle that it elicited the most unkind of comments from the new CIO to ensure that the truck is parked not only appropriately but out-of-sight.

The joke in town however is the warning parents should give their kids when it ends up in a caravan park - whilst some may say "Don't play with that man", the better command is "Don't even as much as look at that man and run like hell if he as much as steps in your direction screaming at the top of your lungs"

As one just has an indifferent view of the whole matter, ones unconcerned distraction is diverted by the question - How ridiculous can one get? With Mr Tragedian, he has only just begun.

References

Spoiling the Mushroom Patch

Mushroom Management: Don't Keep Your Workforce in the Dark

The Mushroom Song

Resignation?

A new spitting cell

Primary school nightmares

One can only reminisce with amusement those kinds of myths and rumours that pervade the mid-mornings of primary school breaks on events that purportedly happened after closing the day before.

Before the rumour another primary school memory surfaces with the event of having all my hair shorn after a visit to the barber's though one is not sure if that was a professional mistake on the part of the barber or a Machiavellian ploy by my father for his amusement.

I never lived that episode down, with all the name-calling at school the next day. Suffice it to say kids can be so unknowingly unkind.

However, getting to school one morning the air was filled with the rumour of a spitting cobra having been caught and killed in the alleyway that leads to the playing area.

Every sort of embellishment followed with the legend of spitting teeth, blindness, terrifying and nightmarish aggressive attacks that made on walking daintily for days in the playing area thinking a brood of cobras had arrived to paralyse our quest for fun.

Faced with a spitting cobra

You may wonder why this diversion into triviality, even I wonder at the consuming triviality that accompanies the purposeful and deliberate lack of vision and social determination of our politicians.

News reaches one that a social miscreant who alleged tried to spit in the face of the Dutch Immigration and Integration Minister still languishes in a police cell pending unknown action beyond the complaint lodged by the minister.

That the minister should draw such animosity is no surprise; though she did so deftly evade the attack; her seemingly obnoxious policies one of which involves having to gain fluency in Dutch and its customs before applying to reside in the Netherlands is covered in another of my blogs.

Once again, one does not condone the unwarranted personal attacks on persons, especially those of importance in governance and society.

To pretend that certain actions and policies can be promulgated without some reaction or reactionary seeking to express dissent in some unusual albeit despicable manner is to forget the nature of society, especially when one is the Integration minister.

The unfortunate event occurred on a family outing and so probably would have affected the members of the minister's family, but then it exposes them to the fact that the wife and mother can be held both in esteem and utter contempt - such is life.

Comfortable crime figures

Not wanting to contrast the inaction of the police to ones plight when three young men put their feet into me in many bodily places which eventually required hospital treatment.

One can only subsume that lodging a complaint with the suspect to hand is easier resolve to the police than reporting actual crimes against the person where the suspects have bolted.

However, one should think that person should have now been charged with an affray except if some innovative terrorist related  crime is about to be evoked, hence, the euphemism 'The motive of the "attack" remains unclear', that said entirely without prejudice. One has to explore if a spitting cell is operating the Netherlands; that represents enough terror to our leaders.

Nonsense and sensibilities

One has documented repeatedly the apparent pre-occupation of politicians with burnishing their image and seeking redress from the most playful name-calling or irreverence that government and leadership suffers.

Might it be that the lack of inspirational ideas to get involved in mean that there is just enough time to sue for being called a toddler, or risk a diplomatic fallout for the out-spoken commentary of a truthful foreign minister.

All this, in face of the fact that the Dutch are considered blunt, if not altogether brusque.

To want to sanitise oneself from the rough and tumble of politics in the cocoon of a bye-gone age of serf and unimpeachable master is fallacy to the extreme, but that fallacy is suddenly too present in the Dutch policy, none of which leaves us with much to be surprised about.

One wonders in the end if the freedom of expression through spitting is not being curtailed by this new crop of political untouchables that crowd the Netherlands political landscape.

If one lesson can be learnt of history; Julius Caesar, a model of political office did have the opportunity to say, "Et tu, Brute"

Reference

Spitting cobra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Man held for spitting at Verdonk

Tolerance as a mindset of choice, prejudice and hypocrisy - Part 2

Poster Dogs Potter

Lame game

Even I

Coming to 40 years of age, one is at times deluded into thinking; all that could be seen has been seen such that one is hardly ever lost for words. Generally, one is hardly ever lost for words.

However, it was with utter incredulity that I viewed a clip of a young cyclist who was being chased down by a car, knocked off his bike and when he took to running was run over by the car.

Well, that is unbelievable in the least, it would have me calling the police in no time, taking photos with my mobile phone and recording everything that would lead to definitely getting adequate and speedy redress.

The occupants of that car should and would justifiably rot in jail if there was any justice in this world. Well, I do wonder if there is any justice in this world at times - Selah! [A biblical punctuation in the Psalms signifying pausing for thought].

As word would have it, someone got fined and had 5 penalty points applied to their driver's license further along the line 10,000 pounds ended up in someone’s account with a statement of utter regret - you will note, jail never featured in the whole episode.

Going over the detail again

The occupants of the car were the police, the evidence of being chased down and run over was recorded from a police helicopter during the a supposed drug raid that had them chasing after an entirely innocent man of colour in England in 1999.

The cyclist was at the receiving end of the fine, penalty and compensation after 5 years; however, for 6 years the police used every sleight of hand to prevent the publishing of the footage of that utterly despicable activity of law enforcement.

The reason this issue is in the news is because that footage finally saw the light of day having been extricated through the vagaries of the Freedom of Information Act, the police having run of out the state security excuses of concealing information that portrays them in the worst of light.

One is almost at  point of sympathising with the police in those circumstances, we cannot afford to have civil society knowing that the police could be that reckless - even that does not begin to describe my pique. Basically, we need to be able to retain confidence in law enforcement, but NOT at any cost.

Closing comments

The body of evidence developing from this story and many others that inform my opinion can be summed up as follows; whilst there is a case for running away from the police if you are an ethnic minority most especially if you are innocent and blameless to escape the privation of getting beaten up, it appears if you do run you might suffer the greater privation of losing your life.

Our cyclist escaped with sufficient injuries to scar him for life, Jean Charles de Menezes unfortunately did not, apparently, and neither was he running from the police.

This is all regrettable, more so regrettable when those who are meant to protect turn against those they are meant to protect.

Reference

BBC NEWS | England | South Yorkshire | Crash footage released to victim:

BBC NEWS | Politics | Police chief's apology rejected:

A fatwa in everything but name

The message

When one was in Nigeria in the 1980's viewing the 700 Club revealed an insight that Christianity never had to be sackcloth, ashes, sad faces and plainly surviving. The message albeit almost subliminal helped give rise to a sweeping Christian revival of the Pentecostal brand.

With that came the inclination to aver that we were conquerors of our circumstances, but then that in excess gave rise to practices of faith without commensurate discipline, commitment and devotion, though ecstasy, hysteria and emotion was in abundance.

People left commonsense things undone in favour of mental assent that things would just fall into place. Many then came to a rude-awakening and the fall-out began - not everyone really can handle this devotion without good guidance.

The most complex aspect of this is church government and the way discipline, order, doctrine and civic society is marshalled like a flock of sheep and how to weed out the goats, the shepherd which leads on authority from above but in the humility of service, commands, persuades and convinces his survey on the basis of this authority, to abuse it is great dereliction of duty.

The following commentary is made the in full context of my introduction.

Sometimes ...

I do sometimes wonder about some pronouncements I hear on television, but this did prick my ears, a Pat Robertson who was once a presidential candidate in the US [Read: People left commonsense things undone in favour of mental assent that things would just fall into place], he magnificently failed.

However, he did say in not some many words that the President of Venezuela be assassinated.

The United States does have a history of assassinating other heads of State but this was banned by President Gerald Ford in 1976, if that principle gets revived then that would be unfortunate.

Does that however, from the eyes of the Americans make everyone fair game and what world would be in if our elected officials get gunned down like they have in Serbia, Iraq, Lebanon and the United States? [OK, that was 1963].

That said

Any Muslim cleric of suitable authority can on the request on a follower offer a pronouncement of clarification on a wide range of matters, this is called a fatwa.

The most famous fatwa however was the one issued by the Iranian leader for the death of Salman Rushdie on the publication of the Satanic Verses which presumably denigrated the religion.

The commonly accepted meaning of fatwa is an ordered killing issued by a religious figure, I am at pains to separate Pat Robertson's statement from that basic principle.

He issued a fatwa against the President of Venezuela.

Standards and their doubling effect

The President of Venezuela is the duly elected representative of the Venezuelan people, even twice so. Not long ago there was a coup to unseat the president to which the United States responded with the muteness that would make a dumb man a class act.

If anyone anywhere had made a statement that was only published to one person about assassinating the President of the United States, all the force of the realm would be mustered to track the person and associates down and eliminate that threat.

As bastions of democracy, the flimsy denial rather than outright condemnation of Mr Pat Robertson's comments is a complete letdown on the part of the United States, smirks of double-standards; it is rather unfortunate and is typical of the cant that many now associate with the United States.

We face the anathema of a world policeman who is unjust, unfair, uncouth, impolite, garrulous and undisciplined.

Goodness is now a matter of degrees rather than the virtue of being good in itself. The countries listed below just show how inconsistency rules in policy - China, Cuba, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

If Mr Pat Robertson had made those comments in the UK, he would have been subject to the immediate deportation litmus test of preaching hate and incitement to terrorism such that he would have been bundled out in the first plane to the United States and there are quite a few.

Leaders Untouchable

Conversely, Mr Pat Robertson being a religious leader of a big following put the government in a desperately difficult situation, I emphasise, but no religious leader is above the law, something must be done and be seen to be done.

References

CNN.com - U.S. dismisses call for Chavez's killing - Aug 23, 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/08/23/robertson.chavez/index.html

World Hum - The Politics of Travel Warnings
http://www.worldhum.com/weblog/item/the_politics_of_travel_warnings_20050801/

Murder on their minds: Robertson not alone... [Media Matters]
http://mediamatters.org/items/200508230007

The 700 Club with Pat Robertson -- CBN.com -- The Christian Broadcasting Network
http://www.cbn.com/700club/

Fatwa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatwa

In office but not in power

In Office and losing credibility

One would not cast oneself as a political observer of any note but at times things do become too obvious to be ignored after a while.

It is generally thought that politicians in a final term are lame-duck politicians in that there is nothing to fight for but the confirming of ones legacy for the sake of posterity.

That is the view that prevailed at the re-election of George W. Bush, however the radical ideas and appointments that have ensued show that there is going to be a bit of moving and shaking before he calls off.

The same has already been said of Tony Blair of the United Kingdom who was re-elected last month for a third term albeit with a reduced majority, the parliamentary plan does look radical and full, but having said he would not serve the full term, we should expect he would be off in a few years.

Another European leader also appears to fit into the second term lame-duck scenario having had a squabbling first term that lasted just 9 months. Well, some people view that 9-month period as the gestation that has given birth to the least imaginative and innovative government in recent history.

That said, most of the radical activity that proceeds out this office has centred around burnishing his image for every criticism or parody made of him in the courts. For a politician, this is the thinnest-skinned ever encountered.

Today, offers the opportunity to pass severe judgement on the ideas, policies, demeanour and vision of this cabinet. The European Constitution referendum debate been hijacked by both the extreme and the indifference who have excited the concerned has left the government of the day cack-handed and stuttering about the real benefits of being in Europe.

Only arrogance and indifference can explain why the coalition that makes up the government has failed to look available and present in the campaign for the advancement of Europe.

In more common parlance, they are just completely clueless; in the world we live in, being clueless could as well be a complement.

Even now, the citizenry might just be secretly hoping that Harry Potter who bears a striking resemblance to our protagonist was the Prime Minister for the fact that he is smart, agile, bold and resourceful. The real alter ego just seems to have his wand pointed the other way and his broom flying backwards.

Two exchanges in the British Parliament to the Prime Minister of that time in the early 1990s typify the circumstances in which we find ourselves in the Netherlands.

The non-Midas touch of the Prime Minister here leaves us in dire need of a new and representative government and even though they are in office, they are definitely not in power. Alas!

Culture of Life - I

But not in a Petri-dish

I have just about have had my fill of the clamour and mass-hysteria that has engulfed the whole of America in the matter of Terri Schiavo. [1]

Terri Schiavo happens to be an unfortunate lady who for the lack of potassium and the stoppage of her heart in 1990 suffered severe brain damage and has been in a medical state for 15 years where heart, lungs and essentials function, but she is paralysed, cannot feed herself. [2]

Her legal guardian who happens to be her husband, who has also started a new family, has been to court time and again to have her feeding tube removed and allow her die a natural and dignified death, but in a bizarre case of hoping against all hope, her parents who have now taken to hyphenating her matrimonial name top Schindler-Schiavo have turned this into an ridiculous public circus so reminiscent of a wolf-pack’s dinner.

If that was not hard enough, the whole of congress and the President weighs in with a bill to have the feeding tube reinserted to maintain a “Culture of life” in which medical treatment can be discovered to help people like Terri.

However, in the case of brain damage, the lack of stem cell research, which became such an issue during the presidential campaign, leaves that a forlorn hope.

This is an unfair case of Mr President having eating his cake, now asking for seconds. It leaves you with one question – Does the “Culture of life” include having some quality to it?

Finally, I note with incandescent rage the hypocritical mission of the Culture of Life Foundation.

“The mission of the Culture of Life Foundation is to provide the leadership and financial resources to promote a universal commitment to protect and nurture all human life from conception until natural death.”

In the carefully chosen phraseology, I note that conception is not qualified; suggesting test-tube babies are allowed and obviously feeding people unnaturally through tubes is nurturing until natural death.

If I have anymore to say, it would be in the morrow.

[1] Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation
http://www.terrisfight.net/center.html

[2] BBC NEWS | Americas | Fight over Florida woman's fate
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3141058.stm#timeline

[3] The Culture of Life Foundation & Institute
http://www.christianity.com/cultureoflife

Presence without essence - Internet

Snail mail, no call

I just received mail in the post from a renowned retail and catalogue services concern in the Netherlands with an Internet presence [1]. The contents suggested that I call to arrange when I would be available to receive my order.

Such communication should not be strange; it does have an element of customer service which until quite recently was not to be expected in the Netherlands.

It can only mean that organisations are implicitly working on some other aspect of their business model and fabric that allows for their employees in the customer-facing departments to feel a little more involved as representatives of their organisation and a very interesting touch of shared responsibilities.

However, this mail came about when I was shopping around for some exercise equipment, this time, an exercise bicycle having already acquired the Total Gym XL and the Ab Burner which is usually advertised as the Ab King Pro.

The history of my desires for a perfect body over the laid-back approach of easy-living without the complications and vain-glorious hedonism is not too well documented, but work is apace at getting fitter and looking better. Suffice it to say, the gym on the second floor of my apartment block has been visited thrice, however, not in any attempt to break any sweat, even though aerobics presents an interesting spectacle.

Left in the pre-history of e-Commerce

The issue on view here is the number of companies that have an Internet presence but have not fully inculcated the essence of being on the Internet, having a web present and offering opportunities to transact business with them.

The first observation was months ago when having observed what the Ab King Pro does for working on the abdominal muscles on one of those ubiquitous and at times utterly loathsome shopping channels [2], I went to their web site and placed an order.

Having been an Internet user since 1994, I have been rather confident of Internet transactions since 1996 when I could book flights on the British Midland site then called http://www.iflybristishmidland.com - it was awfully nice to be able to eliminate completely the middleman and enjoy the convenience of seeing all the options and making your own choices to your particular convenience. The foray into e-commerce in its infancy encouraged my subsequent activities of conveniently preferring the Internet ordering system to the calling the customer service or sales desk.

I had inadvertently mistyped my credit card details, which eventually turned out to be convenient, because having placed the order, it offered no record of the transaction on screen or by email, even though that transaction had successfully registered an email message to their sales department. Basically, on the tip-off of a friend the gym kit was obtained for about a quarter of the price at a retail outlet [3] having done the requisite research on the Internet.

Premium call deterrent

In fact, the charges for calling the premium rate number are outrageous; where the possibility of keeping you connected for over 30 minutes is likely, with 20 of those minutes being on a waiting queue because all sales people are engaged. When you finally get connected to the "friendly" sales person, just hope that you can both agree on a language for your dialogue and that what you are ordering is what is being offered. Once before after waiting over two and a half hours, I was put back in the queue because he spoke Dutch, I spoke English - How is that for communication breakdown?

Unreasonable form options

Anyway, I made this order on the company's web site, only to find out that there was no means of payment, rather someone was going to call me to arrange delivery. There was a restriction of only allowing fixed line phone numbers rather than mobile numbers which offer a sense of contactable ubiquity. Eventually, a letter arrived rather than the call a good seven working days after.

What is most irksome about this is I now take the cost of the phone call they were supposed to make and probably for all their Internet presence; I would have to pay at the doorstep when the goods are delivered. In arranging a window for delivery which at times is based of a 4-hour morning or afternoon, I am prepared to be surprised if they offer evening deliveries at no additional cost.

Aspiring but despairing

The most amusing of these Internet presences without essence firms was a personal computer firm; it took the best part of 2 weeks to adequately shop around for a laptop. What was quite striking about it was the fact that it was nigh on impossible to walk out of over 8 PC shops with a ready-built computer, everything required a waiting period of days in some instances.

I then decided on the convenience of Internet-shopping for a laptop and did get one of the best specifications I could find. As I placed the order I suddenly realised the order had been confirmed without a means of payment. Then I called the firm only to be told I could pay at the door. That was plainly and utterly inconvenient for the risks and circumstances.

With much persuasion we agreed on making a bank transfer, and then the parcel arrived through the regular parcel delivery service. Having gotten the impression that a company courier would deliver the laptop and collect the payment at the doorstep, they used the regular post.

Ideas should fit in your strategy

In conclusion, it is evident that those who have jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon, did so without securing a think-through of what they intend to achieve by having a web presence. The concept of basic web presence is now Internet pre-history, the Ice Age of thawing of innovation just before the dawn of the DotComs.

If a company is interested in engaging customers in an interactive choice-driven environment that allows them to make quality decisions on products of interest, then they should complete the process by offering the full experience of convincingly ordering, knowingly paying and confidently expecting service of those orders or requests.

Just being a supermarket style trolley which never gets to the check-out till is no fun to either the buyer or the seller. The start-up of an e-commerce business could incur large initial costs, but once the audience and marketplace is established, it is still no operation for the faint hearted.

References 

[1] Wehkamp http://www.wehkamp.nl/homepage/p_homepage.asp?Page=HOM [2] Telsell http://www.telsell.com/ [3] Perry Sport http://www.perrysport.nl/ [4] Computerland http://computerland.com