Paulson: Burying the dead and ignoring the murderers

Bones of the bull

That was really the week that was and just as we were about the pick the dry bones of the bulls [1] slain by the plague of lack of confidence in the desolate Wall Street the great chiefs of capitalism prophesied the breath of socialism upon the bones and the cows live again to milked dry by blood-thirsty hyena cubs.

No, certainly, the events of the last week cannot have passed anyone by and I kept my counsel for as long as I could till I flipped through the pages of the Economist that arrived in the post this afternoon.

The elevenses

Just after the letters and on page 11, eleven being the number of the chapter that Lehman Brothers wrote at the beginning of the week, a firm whose existence has been swallowed in the sands of time with an 11^th hour buyout was reliving its past in an advertisement that proclaimed Merrill Lynch connects capital to opportunity.

It ended with “Our 94-year history of leadership in the financial industry has been a source of confidence for our clients in both good and challenging markets”.

I had to check if my magazine was current, it was, the advert had been paid for and basically the Economist was putting it out despite the fact that that 94-year existence had been terminated a few days before.

Dishonourable things abound

Now, if I were unaware of the events of last week, I suppose I would be expected to buy that bull with horns protruding like ones off a devil’s face mask and throw my money into the opportunity to see it swallowed up in great loss.

It was just over a year ago when I wrote about Baling Out Trust [2] which lamented the way the basic foundation of business following the dictum “My Word is my Bond” and its counterpart of trust had been eroded by dishonest, corrupt, vice-ridden and dishonourable practices.

In December I talked about how we were Fixing Capitalist Errors with Socialist Favours [3] ending my comment with the thought that these actions would create more problems in the future and that none of it had yet begun to unravel.

People were not focused on where the problem was as they got distracted with the idea black holes would be created by the Large Hadron Collider which is since been shut down [4], a more menacing black hole was busy swallowing banks and financial institutions in the United States in the United Kingdom.

Cleaning up a no-crime zone

Whilst these events require a lot more analysis what I see is simply this – guys with big guns came into town with a swagger and 10-gallon hats banging on tables, ordering the most expensive drinks, cavorting in wanton orgies with the women and having a raucous moment allowing the occasional tips to the locals who dared to join in.

Along the way there was something approaching complete social breakdown and a few of the guys were brought in for questioning, smacked on the wrist and let go.

By the time we knew it there were a good few dead bodies on the street and no one could do anything about it that it raised up the foulest stink everyone stayed indoors.

The sheriff walks in and says “We need this to be clean and to be quick”, and we need to get it in place [5], we’ll clear up the dead and bury them in the community playground, that may clear up the stink – meanwhile no one is worrying about the murderers, they are still walking around with big guns, probably with a little less ammunition, drinking less and having a low profile around the bar.

We need to get rid of the stink because no one is coming out unto the streets, nothing else matters.

The whiff of nothing

The funny thing is the dead are still in the streets, the stink is still there but in expectation of the clear-up – the stock markets are already behaving like the town is as pristine as a spring garden.

Well, in fact, let us pretend there has been no murder because by the time we do the forensics we would only have bones to exhume.

We are back to where we started and the vicious circle begins again and no one really paid for the crimes of the past rather the community lost their playground to an impromptu cemetery and anyone who dares to go out to play at night knows never to go out there again.

Source

[1] BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Ezekiel 37:4-5; Reference to a passage where Ezekiel prophesied to the dry bones in the valley

[2] Baling out trust [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] Fixing Capitalist Errors with Socialist Favours [akin.blog-city.com]

[4] BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Hadron Collider halted for months

[5] Paulson: Plan Needs To Be "quick" And "clean", By Patrick O'Connor - CBS News

A contractual dilemma

Pay me peanuts

The rage in me has barely been contained as I have tried to comfort myself that all will be well and things will turn out right.

Leaving the assumed security of contract that was in many ways grudgingly extended by fits and starts that it lasted two years, where the longest extension was 3 months; and that happened twice in that whole period, it looked like a relief.

Each time the contract was being extended I was subtly reminded that I was expensive and needed to be replaced with cheaper permanent staff, when in fact the people (other contractors) I was helping in my team who had considerably lesser responsibilities and clout than I had were paid on a whole a lot more than I was – it is debatable whether they took home as much money, but that is beside the point.

I had been caught in an Apes Obey [1] net of my own making – I was willingly working hard with less incentive than most races – as Lord Lugard [2] had so aptly observed some 86 years ago about people of my race.

Brutalised by opportunists

I was at a disadvantage where I could not promote myself any longer as a Solution’s Architect if I was charging 2^nd-line Support rates, there would be some wondering if I was genuine or a fraud and others thinking they had a bargain whilst pitying the fool I was – amends had to be made.

Generally, my demands have been modest and I have been most content trying not to allow the issue of remuneration to becloud the purpose for which I have contracted out my services. I had been seriously brutalised by opportunists in Nigeria years before where I was offering unique, expensive and rare desktop publishing training and when I gave a quote for my services I was called greedy to my face.

Not impressed

Normally, the “typical” young, up-and-coming Nigerian would listen to that and then negotiate the terms to a paltry fee because the man has a big car, he holds a doctorate, he is the director of projects in some grand firm, his sister was an executive in the diplomatic services, her husband was an ambassador and they lived in some swanky neighbourhood able to afford luxuries like kids in the best universities abroad.

To be candid, I have never been impressed enough with that sort of thing to allow myself to be insulted by anyone when in the act of providing services I am professionally able to offer with market-recognised expertise.

I do not think the conversation lasted another five minutes – I simply told them, they knew full well that they could not get that service and attention for less than three times I had charged, they were trying to take advantage of me and finally nobody calls me greedy and then has the opportunity to use my services – they tried to retract and apologise but I was out of the door and never looked back.

The scars endure

I now believe I was scarred by that affair and not long after that, as a partner in another firm where my partner was twice my age, had 70% of the concern (I had 30%) and was a director of the United Bank of Africa – again, this was because people recognized my desktop publishing expertise but felt they could both patronize and belittle me – money was thrown at me derisively across the table on matters that concerned the firm rather than my personal situation.

People just have the tendency to think their positions confer on them the right to be downright obnoxious and we the “underlings” are to accept such treatment as masochists, laid out on the altars of humiliating abuse, begging for more – No! I did not receive an upbringing or education to endure that kind of treatment from anyone.

That business relationship did not last much longer even though I had on the auspices of the firm visited the United Kingdom to purchase equipment for our business – You just do not give a 24 year old 30% of a firm and think it is the end of his ambition and life, he would throw it away and start over again – that is what I did.

Pay me enough to shout expletives at me

Many years on, I found myself working on a trading floor where men were treated like tin-gods, handled by everyone with undue deference because they made money and used to stupid technical people quaking at the sound of their voices, yielding to commands barely better than “lick my boots”.

Before I knew it, this man had a serious problem I could solve quickly but in relaying his problem suddenly spewed out a train of expletives longer than an old West wagon train. I gave him one look and told him, I was there to solve his problem if he took the time to calm down but I did not get paid enough to take expletives in my job.

He should contact me later when he was ready to have the problem solved – he was shocked at my reaction but he called round later, apologized and had his problem solved.

There is no reason why anyone at work should not expect to be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy regardless of your position at work.

The contract debacle

As I submitted my statutory one-month’s notice to end my last contract I was waiting on the affirmation of the contract terms that had been agreed in conversation just about a week before.

There was some movement a week after when I received an email first saying the contract was being arranged on short-notice but I had to provide all sorts of pertinent information necessary to draw up the contract.

I filled in the form, responding immediately asking other questions and got no response for about a week after other phone calls that ended up on answering services.

A few other phone calls to the people I was going to be working with and they were also frustrated with a lack of response, when I finally got to speak to one of the managers of the project I categorically stated that I would refuse to work for a company that does not treat me with courtesy – in this case, the courtesy of acknowledging my emails or responding to my phone calls.

Assurances, assurances and more assurances

I received assurances that all will be well but really nothing happened that I found myself writing one of those emails that I hate to read again after clicking on the Send button it stated I would not resume for work on September the first if I did not have a contract for my assignment – meanwhile I was winding down my activities at the firm where I had resigned.

More assurances where given with a deluge of emails and a phone call from the coordinator of contracts who was mad to call me under great duress where we discussed the agencies to handle my payroll and other issue, still a week before the commencement of the assignment – I relented and started eventually started the new assignment without a contract.

I was able to request all the access I required but no legal document showing the terms and conditions agreed for the assignment, calls were made, emails were sent from 3 other people and still no movement.

Enough!

Last Monday on the 11^th day of work, I sent out an email to all concerned stating if the situation had not become an embarrassment for the firm, it was already unacceptable for me – something had to be done to ameliorate the situation.

Assurances, no matter how gentlemanly do not constitute a legally binding and enforceable contract.

I got no response and upped the ante by suggesting that I would only return to attend the office when I had a contract in my mailbox within the week or I will be back on the market this week – I got emails that this would be done the next working day and arranged with the utmost urgency – and an apology from the coordinator, I deliberately decided not to acknowledge or accept the apology until things had demonstrably changed.

Still a mess – an opportunist agency

It was not the case, the payroll agency were only informed of the contract on Thursday afternoon and had scant information about my contract and I was being tackled by assistant who were clueless about what needed to be done, when I was passed on to those who appeared to know, they did not have the pertinent information to hand.

I furnished them with all the information and had a contract delivered by email on Friday morning, there was whole set of clauses in the contract where the payroll agency tried to insert themselves into the negotiations and exact a no-compete clause along with the ability to exact punitive damages without notification or recourse to judicial review or due process.

It was a menacing clause to serve as a deterrent because I believe there is no way that could be argued before a judge, but if it was signed off in a contract, certain inalienable rights would have been signed away.

This is dishonest in my book

I am no lawyer but even if that was a boilerplate contract that everyone else had not bothered to read and understand, I was having none of it. The payroll agency was not competent to assume the position they desired, they were selected on my advice because I had done business with them three years before and definitely not for their competence, I just thought archival material they might have about me would expedite issues.

The negotiations and arrangements for the contract had been completely long before the agency was involved, so really I did not think the agency could demand in their clause that were egregious as best and really patently dishonest to say the least.

I asked for a waiver, first got a waiver on a moot sub-clause and then when they noticed a two sub-clauses had been given the same number, that was edited – showing they finally read their contract, I was told none of my views were valid and the clauses were not open for discussion.

This is really a big mess

It meant I had the prerogative not to sign the contract and seek the services of another competent agency, however, I needed the coordinator to discuss some terms that were missing from the contract and possibly to arrange an alternative course – as usual, he was nowhere to be found and I have still not been contacted by the man since.

Meanwhile, because this whole issue had been handled with levity, even though I started working on the 1^st of September, the contract could only be signed from the 19^th of September, the hours I have worked have to be squeezed into the last 7 working days of the month of September.

Is it unlikely that there would be a need to exact the clauses in dispute, but once the contract is signed those dormant clauses can have effect and be executed on the force of the contract – it has become a case of caveat emptor.

At crossroads

My dilemma is whether to completely pull out of the contract and just put myself back on the market or grit my teeth and follow through on this botched matter considering the assignment does offer some interesting opportunities.

The problem is not so much the assignment but the administrative handling of my contract, never have I had to deal with such rank incompetence and unprofessional attitude in the handling of my affairs – I have the good mind of lodging a formal complaint to the superiors of that coordinator and ensuring that I exact my pound of flesh and not forgetting the blood too.

I have never been so pissed off and treated with as much discourtesy as this – I need to go for a walk and watch the iShares Cup [3] taking place just on the water behind my apartment block.

Sources

[1] Introducing the Apes Obey! Series [akin.blog-city.com]

[2] Frederick Lugard: Biography and Much More from Answers.com

[3] iShares Cup 2008

Sent off in a pasta wrap

Working for my supper

Yesterday was a day back at my former place of work to conduct a handover with my successor who I had only really spoken to before on the phone in an interview I conducted from Lisbon and to have an evening out for my leaving dinner.

I had more cerebral excitation than I expected with my old colleagues than with the guy who succeeded me, I should suppose he was all clued in on what he needed to do, which proves that age-old fact that no one is indispensable.

When the evening came we left for Veri Sapori [1] an Italian restaurant that clearly states on the entrance – we don’t do pizzas – and thank God for that.

Veri Sapori is a well known lunch haunt, not open on Mondays; we sometimes went there for lunch but have never been able to sample the deep Azzurri delights because of time constraints, we only had pasta and that was about to becloud my view of that restaurant as the choice for my leaving dinner.

I resisted the impulsive urge to fire off an email to the arranger to accuse him of lacking imagination and that was one urge I successfully restrained – that restaurant is a different place when you are not pressed for time.

An appetizer for an aperitif

Not all the invited guests could make it to the dinner for all sorts of reasons that were expressed to the arranger rather than I considering I was asked who I wanted to be at the dinner – anyway, we cannot have everyone we want and we are deeply honoured to have the ones that came.

As the eight of us settled down for a sumptuous night, manager asked for an appetizer when he meant an aperitif and that was before we had downed any alcohol, but we all started with a Prosecco.

One of the directors could not stay the whole evening so we decided to dispense with the speeches and gifts before the entrees were served.

What use are scissors for cutting ribbons?

Sometimes, you have no idea of what you have done until when someone does the reckoning at the end of your tenure, the words were gracious, full of praise, admiration and gratitude, I was truly touched.

My first gift was to be something that would keep me in remembrance of where I had worked before – from KaDeWe in Berlin[2], a kilogram of Darjeeling Earl Grey tea – I can imagine with the amount of Earl Grey tea I drink, I probably have an Earl-ish demeanour and I am nigh on looking gray.

It looked like an easy task, I took the wrapping paper off, the ribbon had a bow that was an easy pull, but like all projects, it then had a Gordian knot I could not undo.

We called for a scissors, it was blunter than using a hammer to cut the tape – the right tool in ideal circumstances but too overused to meet the current task. After struggling with the scissors as people looked on expecting the scissors to do its job, I handed it to someone else who proved that the scissors was literally useless, vindicating my experience. A typical project management scenario.

At which point a knife was suggested; like projects, we have the right tool but end up improvising with something else that appears to do the job even though it is suited for something entirely different – basically, take a knife to cut every problem down.

In the end, what should have happened in a snip happened in a long gnawing by the blunt scissors, then I needed a knife to cut the sealing tabs to reveal the bags of sealed Earl Grey tea – definitely, a good supply for a year.

Highly fed and lowly taught

My two colleagues went for the supposed humorous side of my clowning abilities and I was given a mug in which to take my tea – a bit wider in circumference than typical mugs decorated with Shakespearean insults. I could not desire that we be better strangers but I was about to be the anointed sovereign of sighs and groans.

The third present was acquired in Namibia where my manager having ridden altitudes in Ecuador last year was riding the sands of the desert earlier this year. I now have a staff of sovereign authority that allowed me to do a mock rain-dance at the end of the evening.

Then the senior men also presented me with a bottle of Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial champagne in a cask – quite a handful of presents to cart away.

The Berlin connection

Lest I forget, Ich bin ein Berliner [3] – or something to the effect of being a doughnut of sorts like a JFK malapropism, my love of Berlin, known to many was crowned with a book of photographs of Berlin landmarks by Wolfgang Scholvien [4] – it had German, English, Italian and Japanese footnotes – it was quite apt having a German director, we communicating in English in an Italian restaurant sending me off from a Japanese company.

I gave a speech which included the offer to seek therapy for being a sometimes difficult person to deal with, but the words spoken by the people who honoured me could not be bettered.

When our menu selections arrived, there was not a pasta dish in sight but genuine Italian cuisine at its best, washed down – such crudeness – with some of the best of Italian wine.

I did not see the bill but it was wads of crisp cash, [Veri Sapori does not have electronic payment systems] a wonderful night was had by all and at the end, I could only give thanks, express gratitude and be quite moved with the affection shown by people I really did enjoy working with that went back two years and one day – we’ll meet again.

Sources

[1] Italian restaurant Veri Sapori in Amstelveen – Iens.nl

[2] Kaufhaus des Westens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Ich bin ein Berliner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Wolfgang Scholvien : Photographie : Berlin

The Great Peace of Sabbath

Decisions far and near

Commuting for just about 4 hours a day means that weekend nights are not as available to fritter away even if one were propped up with artificial stimulants.

I had just cried off going to the Swingin’ Safari restaurant [1] which would have been a trip to The Hague from Apeldoorn, no problem with that, there are direct trains, but the thought that I would not be back home till the witching hours having left home at dawn did not appeal to me.

Besides, I am not your best car passenger, I prefer a Flintstone car ride [2] of manpowered acceleration than the daring-do of a car pretending to be in a Formula-1 race and I have been a few without being able to protest too loudly since I do not drive.

Missions revisited

Out of the blue came a phone call that flashed up a number and name I had not called for 5 years and I took the call with full recognition of the caller to find out that this contact had been instigated by visitors from the UK who were missionaries to non-Christians and those who through conversion had been ostracized from their communities.

They were once in the Netherlands till the laws on missionary work changed unfavourably about 6 years ago, so they moved to the UK where their work has been a blessing to many untold.

In the end, I was invited to dinner where my friend had whetted my appetite for roast lamb, potatoes, corn on the cob and other taste-bursting accoutrements, I could not refuse.

Sabbath Shalom

I arrived just before 19:30 having push back their dinner some 90 minutes, but it was handshakes, hugs and kisses as renewed our fellowship and friendship as well as an introduction to a family that had grown from just 2 to 5.

We were going to have the Sabbath meal [3]; so we sat at the table solemnly, lit the two candles, broke bread, poured the wine and the water and we sang the Sabbath Shalom song after which the blessing came at the end with Jewish chant.

We then got up, fell on each other’s necks, kissed and blessed each other and commenced our dinner.

The loss of Christian roots

At which point I lamented the fact that most of Christendom had lost its Middle-Eastern roots of community, fellowship, sharing and love.

We had become informal, indifferent, individualistic and literally independent of each other where togetherness, fellowship and the ability to share our deepest feelings with trusted co-religionists could help lift the burdens and find real solutions.

It began the discourse about the role of religion in humanity, the need to ensure that man is not sacrificed on the altars of customs, traditions, sacraments and creeds noting that Jesus clearly said the Sabbath was made for man [4] and not man for the Sabbath.

The gospel is the focus and viewfinder

We learnt that Christianity is still about the mission that Jesus Christ had to the world and that was clearly documented in the Gospels, meaning that it should remain the filter through which we view the Old Testaments and the Epistles – one could see how in many cases the Epistles had almost become post-Gospel and close to leaving the message about the man, Jesus too far away to be noticed.

Another issue was the way Christianity had evolved into Churchianity, people now say, that is not how we believe in our church rather than this is what the Bible says in relation to what Christ would or might have done.

Practical Christianity

In all the discourse, the most important thing was that we had congregated in fellowship for strengthen our friendship and communion part of which including sharing love, food, ideas and prayers – A most fulfilling evening it was; the core point was simply how to make Christianity practical, relevant and worthwhile without any religious encumbrance.

As I signed the guestbook again, I was able to flip pages back to when I first signed the book in March 2003, besides the missionaries from the UK, this couple whose mission with the youth [5] leaves one seriously unfulfilled in religious vocation, probably run the most welcoming and hospitable home in the Netherlands, they are a blessing to anyone who crosses their path.

In my view, that is the purpose of the Gospel.

Sources

[1] Swingin' Safari – Home

[2] The Flintstones - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] BBC - Religion & Ethics - Sabbath:

[4] Mark 2:27 - The Sabbath was made for man – World Council of Churches

[5] YWAM Amsterdam