Egalitarianism is a pipe-dream

When the Queen speaks

The Commonwealth represents the extent to which the British Empire grew in the 19th Century which then diminished in the first half of the 20th Century.

Mozambique is the only country that has no historical ties to the Commonwealth, but has joined this community on the realisation that it is surrounded by other countries including the rogue Zimbabwean state.

On gaining independence, a number of countries became republics and had the complete mantle of government vested in the local citizenry. The Queen’s representative in those countries then becomes a British government representative with the title of Ambassador.

Where the countries have not adopted a republican status, the figure-head head of government as the Queen’s representative in that country is the Governor-General. Canada and Australia are not republics.

Many of those former British Empire states started off as democracies and descended into governmental chaos when certain groups grabbed the reins of government as a right rather than elective privilege.

This was worsened by other factions, feeling marginalised and resorting to arms and plunging their countries into civil war and complete anarchy.

Others either had years of military misrule or populist governments that abused the rule of law and all due process.

The Commonwealth is more peaceful now, though the last meeting of governments did threaten to undo the relationship. Zimbabwe and Pakistan remain outsiders for misrule and military dictatorship respectively.

Anyway, every Christmas day at 15:00 hrs GMT the Queen’s Christmas message is relayed to the Commonwealth. The message is supposed to cover issues of the year, the hopes, the fears, the thanks and the regrets.

However, this traditional atmosphere is continually getting a touch of modernisation, one expects the speeches of the near future to be the Queen rapping her message on Top of the Pops. God forbid!

The Queen represents a documented and traceable heritage of history, circumstance and development of the British identity. Though the class structures of feudal servitude have all but disappeared, these have evolved creating new battle lines.

The moneyed, the celebrity, the politician, the fan, the deprived, the refugee now make up the obvious classes. However, the class struggles along the erstwhile lines still continue without specific appellation.

The equality of democracy as we know it does not produce the liberality of a government of the people, by the people for the people. No modern democracy can boast of that lofty definition in practice.

Rather the government of the day seeks to impose a set of class values on majority society, where they are mostly in government with less than 35% of the total enfranchised population.

On Christmas day, the Queen reminds us of history, how society has evolved and gives a time frame to the era we live in. The Second Elizabethan era of the late 20th Century which now includes the early 21st Century?

Long live the Queen - by the which we know our identity as members of the Commonwealth.

An Englishman abroad.

More opportunities for irrelevance abound

Between retiring and having a new lease

I bought my apartment from a couple in their 70s who in turn were purchasing a comfortable retirement apartment in Arnhem by the Dutch Rhine. Four years earlier, they had come up to Amsterdam buying this apartment whilst it was still a drawing plan, having lived in Eindhoven for 25 years.

Not many people buy a new house in their 70s, one knows of none other who has done that twice in their 70s. More so, they could easily have retired in Eindhoven and lived out their lives there having lived there for 25 years already.

The couple might have been in their 70s, but they were young, youthful, young at adventure, given to opportunity for change and getting themselves a new lease of life when many of their peers were wasting away in idle retirement.

I want to be a 70 year old who has purpose, who is relevant and can still do things people half my age do and possibly do it all better.

Early retirement

In the last two decades middle managers arranged to take early retirement at around 55, however with an average life expectancy of 75, one wonders what the next 20 years would be spent doing. Golf and travel eventually take their toll on enthusiasm, a life of leisure does not equate to being relevant apart from being useful baby-sitting grand parents.

As we have all noted with the pensions crisis in Europe, we apparently cannot afford to retire before 70. Each individual now has 70 reasons to alter the course of their lives and careers to suit working until 70.

The fight against irrelevance has never been bloodier with youth, technology, globalisation, business practise and trends leaving the unprepared behind in the land of wasted dreams.

More so, it appears those in their 20s have at least 50 years of working life ahead of them, they had better be on the right train or as certain as taxes and death, irrelevance would overtake them and consign them to the scrapheap.

Strong reasons to be reasonable

Take account of your age and have a reason for each number of years to remain relevant.

At birth, you may have no reasons for anything, but even you have to draw sharp breaths to live, to cry and survive.

At 5, you might have 5 reasons why you want that present.

At 10, you might have 5 reasons why you want to stay in this school and 5 given to you about the need to go to another.

At 15, you possibly have 15 reasons to rebel against authority and do your own thing.

At 20, there are 20 reasons to realise you are becoming independent and are taking on some responsibilities.

At 25, there are 25 reasons to succeed and excel at all costs and possibly start a family.

At 30, there are 30 reasons to wonder if you are in the right career, if your dreams are getting fulfil and the weight of responsibility is easy or stressful.

At 35, there are 35 reasons for a life-audit and the same number for where you want to be at 40.

At 40 and beyond

At 40, there are 40 reasons why do you do not want to have a mid-life crises because of what you have done at 30.

At 45, there are 45 reasons why if you are beginning to feel out of place, you have to rethink some reasons you had at 35 before you reach 50.

At 50, there are 50 reasons to be at the pinnacle of your career and the beginning of a new one of mentoring to remain relevant.

At 55, there are 55 reasons to be a grandparent and the same not to be a young parent, with great concern if you are already a great-grandparent. However, there are still 15 years before retirement, how are you doing?

At 60, there are 60 reasons to earn all the accolades working a 2-day week for as much as you earned working a 12-day week in your 30s. You should be during really well and grooming a successor. Enjoy the next 10 years or else there would be 70 reasons why you did not have the reasons for every time you had the opportunity to reason.

One probably has 38 reasons for working on the changes to remain relevant.

Opportunities for irrelevance abound

Your rank in the Army of Relevance, Sir!

One being a collector of quotations, it is easy to recite and regurgitate quotations without finding out more about the particular persons and circumstances that lead to those gems of human wisdom and intellect encapsulated in words.

In fact, a quotation is a phrase or sentence of relevance. Relevance is a beacon; it stands out from the other group of words that give it a context to exist.

One's reference to the army stems from the time one has spent thinking of Gen. Eric Shinseki's very notable quotation.

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less"

One has paraphrased this to "They who hate change would hate irrelevance even more" - Every aspect of one's life has to experience a concept of evolution or irrelevance sets in - Irrelevance = Extinction. There is no time friend to be an endangered species; the endangerment was there when you ignored the trends of change.

The recruitment drills of entering the Army breaks down the individual and develops the team based on trust, enforced by authority, nurtured by respect, rewarded by promotion, reckoned by discharge and sanctioned by expulsion.

Discipline governs the ability to remain relevant in the Army and that lack of it brings sanctions that could lead to expulsion if there is no means of reprove that can convince authority of your further relevance to the Army.

Jesus identified that understanding of authority as the highest form of faith when the centurion in asking Jesus to heal his servant by speaking the words.

The Centurion reckoned himself a man who had authority by being answerable to his superiors, respectful of his peers and leading his subordinates. In that station, he was an example to all around him.

How to become irrelevant

What appears below may sound ironic; however, the full appreciation of the knowledge of anything is, knowing what it is and knowing what it is not.

Change what you cannot and leave what you can.

You read that right. There are we cannot change and things we can.

• There are people younger and smarter than you are, you cannot change your age, but you can get smart.
• These younger people will come up with the strangest and seemingly weird ideas, you may not be as radical, but your wealth of experience can help in making those ideas practical.
• Your organisation may be changing to make your circumstances untenable, but you can change your circumstances for the better without having to rely on your organisation.
• You may have been there long enough to have the delusion of being indispensable, however, if you keeled over now, after two weeks, someone better and smarter would replace you.
• What you know in terms of experience may not be valuable, but understanding how to adapt that experience to trends is most invaluable.

Be persuasive in peace but invincible at war.

Another of General Shinseki's quotes

The theory of evolution has moved on, it is no more the survival of the fittest, but the ascendancy of the smartest. The species would not change into anything other than the humans - homo sapiens sapiens - that they are. There is no point having two heads, four hands, six legs and eight reproductive organs, that type of fitness is redundant.

The greatest resource available to man is their intellectual capital - ideas, dreams, vision turned into the reality that changes humankind for the better.

New and Improved is OUT - Radical and Groundbreaking is IN.

I do not want more of the same I want something different. Enough of the tremors in office politics, what we want are earthquakes.

Radically uproot it all and build it somewhere else. Only smart buildings survive earthquakes, not mammoth edifices.

Finally, whatever game is played in the quest to remain relevant, be principled, honest, trustworthy and reliable. Those unimpeachable qualities endure after the smoke has cleared up. Those were characteristics lacking in the leaderships of Enron, Andersen, WorldCom and many more failed organisations in their heyday.

Postscript references

Tom's 60 TIBs - It's a PowerPoint

Why Associations and Consortia fail

Trends you should know to survive tough times

Corporate inversion to produce excellence

Losing that Corporate umbrella

Having worked in a number of organisations, conglomerates and enterprises, one has seen the tyranny of pointless political battles, internal markets, Russian-doll-empires and departmental rivalries that beset all good intentions of the board of directors.

The Organisational Chart

The Organisational Chart, possibly created in that dreaded PowerPoint or this time Microsoft Visio (See earlier blog on PowerPoint), creates the fertile ground for the at times credible generalisations that:

• Working for the same organisation does not mean you gel as an organisation.
• Each departmental function is an unchallenged monopoly in that organisation.
• Collective responsibility of corporate goals is dispersed amongst departmental heads who work a double agenda of both trying to be efficient and the desire to succeed the incumbent corporate officers.
• Responsibility is aggressively acquired from other units for successes and promptly evaded and blamed on other units for failures.
• Employee value and talent is lost in the bean counting of cost-centre accountancy.

One is saying that the comfort of working under the umbrella of ABC Corporation is failing the corporation and stopping the corporation from evolving fast enough to respond to the change necessary for its profitability and survival.

The logic of proper outsourcing

Imagine your organisation being changed into something completely from what it is now. It now just consists of a board of directors with the ideas and capital for a particular venture.

• The facilities department becomes a facilities management firm competing in tenders to provide a block of offices and run all the facilities necessary for a corporate headquarters and the satellite offices.
• The legal department becomes a law firm providing legal advice to the company and any other companies needing that expertise for a fee.
• The personnel management department becomes combined talent resourcing and payroll management firm managing all Human Resourcing needs for a market that includes your organisation and the departments that have become firms.
• The finance department becomes a corporate finance advisory firm and facilitator for managing the board's capital interests in this venture.
• The IT department becomes a service provider of end-to-end IT services to the organisation and all the firms employed by the board for the organisation. The IT firm also competes on the open market.
• The marketing, sales and publicity departments become a PR firm with professional research and marketing facilities, holding a respectable PR budget.

This is the same organisation with a centralised core of the board with a clear set of goals, requirements and principles. Now, each firm competing on the open market to fulfil the requirements is faced with tougher choices to either perform or face extinction from competition.

The Organisational Chart is no more a hierarchy but a star with one reporting line between the office of the board of directors (the customer) and the firms that provide customer service. The complete inversion of corporate government.

The Board Expects

 For the fee the office of the board pays for each service they have acquired they should expect the following:

• Clearly set contract service levels and penalties for default.
• Professional customer service with performance metrics, which include bonuses for exceeding expectations.
• Well planned and organised project deliveries that cut the muster of competitive market scrutiny.
• Firm managements that can negotiate realistic timelines, costs, requirements and deliverables.
• Considerable improvements if the service contracted is provided or the option to renegotiate or fire the service company if they under perform.

The Firm

The firms face the continual test of if their service is worth paying for; they have to cost and value every negotiated settlement balancing the provision of service with staying competitive.

 This would do wonders for the erstwhile department in these ways:

• All resources that have survived for so long under the corporate setting but brought no value to the company would be exposed and offered severance terms.
• Projects properly researched before any negotiations begin and only within the resources available to service that project.
• Poor management within the firm would be under pressure to perform or depart.
• The level of service required or the firm would require skilled personnel on better remuneration to fulfil contracts signed.
• Market forces would compel the firms to adapt to trends more quickly.
• The organisational issues which plagued the larger organisation and were buried the weight of internal rivalries would have a smaller field of play, but its impact would be immediately felt and dealt with.

The individual

How this affects all the individuals involved depends if you are on the board to demand or in the firm to provide a service.

If on the board your question would be - If I had to pay for this kind of service from an external firm, what should I demand and expect?

If in the service firm, your question would be - Would one get away with giving this level of service if someone had to pay for it?

The Utopian Organisation

The mindset of the organisational entity is completely changed and that is outsourcing in Utopia, if only the world were a perfect place.

Birthdays - A lot more people were involved

Escape the Claustrophobia

So many things make the day one was born rather unique and very interesting. Christmas came very early for one's parents but one did not spend Christmas with either of them.

As students in England then, mother had arrived to join her spouse just six and a half months before; the rest is history. One is no master of suspense, so here goes.

One was born at about 27 weeks, after a Caesarean Section, one was told. [Google, yes one did mean Caesarean Section and have never meant to search for Caesarean Section].

In 1965, 27 weeks was considered rather precarious and the borderline of viability, well one is now 38.

One's take on premature birth

• No birth is premature, especially if you are no more a foetus but a baby
• For some babies, 40 weeks is just over-indulgent [Absurd suggestions that gestation human gestation periods should be 21 months]; I will say, I was claustrophobic and wanted out
• OK, one only just fitted in one hand, but many saw the sense in making sure one realised one's intentions of living
• No further research is done on early babies once they begin to thrive
• It is possible the year-cycle of early birth babies is shorter than that of full term babies

Going on the last assumption, in full-term years, one would is 38 however on one's terms, one might really be rather sprightly 56 years and 3 months. The birthdates being a movable feast of recurring intervals.

Apart from the birth throes of mother, one was in incubation for another 2 months until February the 19th when one was allowed home.

One medical allusion to that day was when at eight the optometrist [compare with optician and ophthalmologist] in spite of the large amount of light shone in one's eyes at birth; one's sight should improve with age. One only found out about that kind of improvement 2 days ago.

One might not have been a bouncing baby boy, but one was still a bundle of joy tinged with anxiety, which prayerfully gave way to the life one has now lived.

Names

It is no surprise one's given name connotes heroism the gift of one's paternal grandpa. Eventually, one ended up with about 20 names. The Yoruba culture of Western Nigeria gives their children meaningful names based around the circumstances of birth.

The Yoruba given names supposedly have a psychological influence on the bearer; at times, certain observers have suggested people can exhibit characteristics of their names. The extensions to names are encouraging works of literary value recited by grandparents called Oriki.

On further research, it is interesting to see that quite a number of Japanese names look and sound very much like Yoruba names, considering we have no known historical or cultural links.

Aki in Japanese means autumn or Autumnal prefixes names like Akinobu, Akinori, Akiyuki and so on. There is a possibility that one possesses some the characteristics of the Turkish variant of Akin.

On a visit to Hungary a few years ago, the chauffeur from the airport had one's name card expecting to see a Japanese tourist, imagine his shock and surprise.

This presents an opportunity to thank the staff of Manor Maternity Home, Walsall [Vandalised by the Tory Health Deforms of the 1990s] and the Brooklands Hospital Marston Green, Birmingham for their hard work of love and care on that beautiful day in December 1965.

One will have a happy birthday.

The Dutch Experience

One is impelled to revisit an issue that came up earlier about stores and customer service. Having just spent nigh on €1,000 on equipment, which included the Dyson DCO8 Allergy+Carpetpro, one required the simple assistance calling a taxi and moving the goods to taxi rank.

In the typical nonchalant Dutch attitude, one was informed no such service existed and one had to do it all alone. Guess what happened when one asked for one's money back?

When one purchases to the tune of a €1,000 from a large electronics store like Media Markt, it should come with an implicit customer service and help offer; you never have to ask in the UK.

Postscript

Yoruba

Here are a number of websites pertaining to Yoruba names and culture.

Nigerian names and origins

Orisa Yoruba Names ISBN 0964424754

Learn Yoruba Names

Without Prejudice - The Manor Hospital

Rebuilt and renamed Manor Hospital as part of the first tranche of National Health Service reforms in 1991. Some of the stories are hardly what the people of Walsall were accustomed to in the 1960s.

The introduction does not include the history of a pre-existing hospital on the site.

Hospital from hell

The Guardian - The facts behind the figures that damn Walsall

HR Departments - Homo Rapprochement departed

Would HR become the Rock Stars of the Age of Talent?

This tome is hardly a whipping post for HR Departments but a radical assessment of what function they serve.

In all the organisational upheavals that have characterised changes in organisational behaviour, focus, goals and results, one can say Human Resources or Personnel Management Departments have been the dinosaurs that have held back the winds of change.

Generally, HR represents every negative impression of resources they engage for the bringing value to the organisation. Think retrenchment, reorganisation, downsizing, rightsizing, outsourcing, offshoring and so on, quintessential HR black arts aplenty.

Reform of personnel management

There is no doubt that the context of Personnel Management is in need of radical reform. They set the parameters on which employee value is quantified and remunerated.

One has yet to see a letter from HR that recognises employee value apart from the initial employment offer letter occasional promotion or salary increase notice. HR never drives those aspects of recognising employee value.

Quoting liberally from Tom Peters' Re-Imagine!.

HR people are a classic example of "staffers" who are looked upon with suspicion ... as the ultimate paper-pushing, form-demanding, "just say no" bureaucrats.

Maybe they have earned that reputation. Maybe they have mostly behaved bureaucratically. But that is ancient history. (I pray).

We acknowledge (right!?) that this is an age where value will be created on the basis of Intellectual Capital. And if that is duly acknowledged, then we must also (obviously) acknowledge that it is an ... Unadulterated Age of Talent.

And to continue this incredibly pedestrian logical chain ... if it is an Unadulterated Age of Talent ... WHO IN THE HELL OUGHT TO BE LEADING THE PARADE, ENERGISING THE ENTIRE VALUE-CREATION PROCESS?

The HR people.

(Duh.)

If they conceive their jobs correctly. If they understand the monumental nature of their opportunity.

It is an interesting point that the board of directors recognises that their HR departments are too staid for the job of headhunting the next CEO or senior partner in an organisation.

Supposedly, to attract talent one has to be talented. Do not get me wrong, there are many talented and valuable people in HR, they are also caught up in the absurd organisational barriers we all experience that sap talent and value in haemorrhaging quantities.

The change the HR department has to under-go involves changing from law-enforcers (police officers) to lawmakers (leaders). Law enforcers need a quality of subjectivity to profile the lawbreakers.

Lawmakers are supposed to be more objective, visionary and forward-looking, shaping society in such a way that citizens are encouraged to be adherents of the law.

Lacking impetus

One recognises there involves a leap of faith to contemplate such a career realignment. However, HR should recognise that they should be at the forefront of talent resourcing, realising the potential that brings value to the enterprise.

They should create the visionary concept that makes management understand that productivity improvements come from engaging the employee in all aspects of their lives - making them happy at work whilst being considerate of their lives outside work.

HR has tried to be radical with the employee recommendation programme where an existing employee can recommend someone else for a job in the firm.

Where the recruitment processes are objective, talent involving people who have worked together before can be invited into the organisation; abuse however can be incestuous as to recruiting similar dead-weights killing value and productivity.

As pedestrian as Victorian

Enough of the notices informing us of CCTV recording possible reprehensible behaviour and codes of practice and conduct. If HR had been in the job of emancipator 21st Century value recruitment, those notices would not see the light of day.

There is no doubt that if all HR does is wrapped up in Dickensian practices of work and pay robotics, they function does not belong in the enterprise, rather it should be outsourced to Professional Service Firms that are experts to seeking useful talents that contribute to the bottom line and company profile.

One place where HR is in peril of corporate irrelevance is where permanent employees are treating so differently from contracting and short-term employees. There is some need for differentiation, but not where the firm is acknowledging value and contribution.

Not appreciating value

Typically, only permanent employees are invited to Christmas parties or functions like that, whilst through out the year, the contractors put in as much toil and sweat to bring value to the enterprise.

They are part of that whole productivity chart, bringing in fresh thinking and ideas that could be lacking in permanent staff.

They at times prevent creative teams from fossilising. An infusing of such temporal talent in HR departments might just make a whole world of difference.

Once again in the paraphrased words of General Eric Shinseki...

"If HR hates change, they are on the way to irrelevance"

The New HR Department.

The Company policy is to recruit talented and creative minds, allow ideas to flourish, recognise and compensate employee value, inspire independent thought.

Dissolve unnecessary corporate barriers, listen to reasonable comment, promote excellence and condemn sycophancy. Encourage everyone to give their best and understand why their fail to improve.

Outlaw empires within the enterprise, expect commonsense to rule in decision making whilst being objective. We galvanise change and respect the uniqueness of our talent base.

Finally, we appreciate everyone who works for this organisation in whatever role, you are really our most valuable assets and we would do everything to keep you realising your ambitions and career goals for as long as you as you work for this company.

I acknowledge the phrase Rock Star of the Age of Talent is an idea from Tom Peters in his book Re-imagine. ISBN UK 1 4053 0049 3

When to close your year

Counting the years

One has had the advantage of being able to close ones working year, the weekend either before ones birthday or just at ones birthday. When one was self-employed, one had no problems making that decision and sticking to it. One used to have the luxury of 10 weeks holiday a year and still declare it a good and profitable year.

However, last year, ones work status changed and one became a salaried permanent employee with a fixed number of holidays amounting to five, each bean-counted on pink or green cards through out the year.

In these circumstances, one becomes rather more perceptive at selecting what holidays to take off allowing enough days to close the year as one is accustomed to doing. Having no particular allowance for time off in lieu of extra hours, days or weeks worked, five weeks does not amount to much a year.

In Europe, we do place more premiums on holidays than the Americans. Though they seem to have had this unassailable improvement in productivity over the last few decades, one's candid, view is "They who do not know how to work can never know how to play".

The point of high productivity without ample time off amounts to just two weeks a year is absurd. One would think the whole purpose of high productivity is to have more time off to be leisurely having achieved whatever goals, aims, purposes or plans.

Anyway, looking at the working year of 2003 - we started in a flux of change, managing infrastructure we had aggressively taken over the previous November and handing over to the new team brought in to ensure that the future became just as we had mapped it out.

Experiences

One can refer to some issues that became highlights of the year.

• The remnant after the November retrenchment were systematically deprived of privileges to perform functions they were once managers of and they did not help issue with their bickering about rights - a failure of their management to inform them of their drastically changed circumstances.
• The major deployment and upgrade of our backend and front-end CRM solution - this was an uphill task of educating the backend teams of full-cycle deployment; the logic being, what you roll out on the server is not complete till the end-user confirms that it all works. Broadening the horizons of such personnel to the realities that the user is the linchpin makes all the difference.
• The client operating system upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP - a classic tale of how not to run a project. One must state here that in conversation with one of the project managers involved; the project did run as planned, only that the whole system was short-circuited by irrational management targets that preferred immediate implementation to reasoned and ordered assessments leading to working solutions at the point of presentation.
  We never learnt the lessons throughout the whole year.
• Knowledge unravelling the effectiveness of our solutions integrators, when we repackaged all their applications for the new operating system. The sharp practices of shoddy coding that went unnoticed when deployed to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 were laid bare in Microsoft Windows XP. Polish up your act, you are failing dreadfully, still.
• Are you trying to absolve yourself from thanks for a job well done? One of the many questions or rather classic statements one made in the year. This after a successful client deployment even the local staff could not bring themselves to acknowledge that success.
• A number of projects that required weekend work also brought to light some of the inconsiderate practises that involved petty purveyors of power mortgaging our weekends without due consultation. In all the cases we were involved, where no one had the courtesy to seek our consent and availability, we successfully rescheduled for our convenience. The morale being, nothing is set in stone, even if the milestones are in the project plan.
• Project managers came up with ingenious ideas that made technical prerequisites obsolete in favour of pressing issues, which eventually would lead to dealing with those prerequisites. All doom for the department was forecast if we flunked the deadlines. Eventually, reality got the better of the whole situation we had two rescheduled deadlines within a week. One could never bring oneself to say, "I told you so", nay, never said I.
• We delivered time and time again, albeit with regular but temporary setbacks driven by the quest to PowerPoint [Sorry for using this as a verb] all activity. We had to be like them, the only difference being we did our jobs and so covered our arses, they just covered their arses and gave us grief - customer demands, uncertainty, bungling, accusation, problems and at times unprofessionalism - NEVER!

We had a good year, full of work, new experiences and many lessons, hopefully properly learnt for the New Year.

Take time to count the cost, survey the availability of resources and set your target dates with achievable realism.

One is ashamed that in many cases we could not deliver on promised time because we were driven by unrealistic projections with no bearing to existing volume of work and priorities.

The hopes and fears of all the years* which are met at Christmas, should give rise to new purposes to do better in the year 2004. It has been great working with all my colleagues whom I respect, even those who flinch at being called gentlemen and deserted me at lunchtime. One acknowledges your apologies, but you had to get a mention.

* O! Little town of Bethlehem