I would really appreciate your opinion on this one…

Imagine you have applied for a job that you would really like, the agent submits your CV and you crack an interview with your prospective employer. They seem to like you and after the interview, the agent informs you that they are keen to go ahead.

They tell the agent that they are in the process of putting together an offer for PERMANENT employment, and …think that they can meet your minimum take-home pay. They even stress that the agent is to inform you of this and that they will come back to you on Monday (today is Friday). You are excited…

On Tuesday they invite you back to ‘meet’ the executive. This meeting goes OK because you are a little nervous. They then come back and say that they are now prepared to offer you a 6 month CONTRACT position. You are put out but need the job.

They ask you to wait while they compile the offer. AFTER A WEEK, your agent, being unable to get them on the phone, sends an email to ask for an update because you, the candidate is getting edgy. They then come back with a response that YOUR APPLICATION IS UNSUCCESSFUL!

When the agent follows up they are informed that they have withdrawn the offer because they DID NOT LIKE THE TONE OF THE EMAIL…? WTF Real story from one of my Coaching clients.

WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON HERE?

Feasts cause famine…

 I mean come on… Surely we need some perspective here?

I was channel surfing this morning, trying to find something interesting on at least one of the nearly 300 channels on DSTV when I came upon a doccie about the Festival of Las Fallas (pronounced faayas) in Spain.

The Spanish people just love passion and pageantry and tradition, but most of all they love the opportunity to get stuck into something as a community and not just in a small way either…

In March each year in Valencia, the populace celebrate the feast day of St Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters and the earthly father of Jesus.

The normally quiet city of  Valencia comes out in a five day spectacle of colour, wood, cardboard, maper-machè , plaster, paint and …. Fire: Las Fallas literally means “the fires” in Spanish.

The fiesta is involves the creation of ‘ninots’, extremely lifelike dolls or puppets, which usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current events designed to poke fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities.

Neighbourhood organizations immerse themselves in a year long, labour intensive, fiercely competitive mission to construct these ninots, which in some cases are several stories tall and need to be moved into their final location of over 350 key intersections and parks around the city with the aid of cranes, on the day of la plantà or ‘the rising’.

Then in the early evening of March 19th, the day known as La Cremá or ‘the burning’, young men with axes chop cleverly-hidden holes into the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly midnight in a blaze of light, smoke and jubilation.

 

Good clean community fun… but wait there’s more.

Many Ninots cost in the region of USD 75 000 to construct. Let’s put that in perspective: that’s R 525 000 in good old South African terminology. More than a half-a-million Rand for each ninot, and with say 700 ninots burned this year; that’s a staggering USD 52.5 million or upwards of 367.5 million Rand.

R 367 500 000.00 up in fire and smoke with herds of jubilant Valencians, and probably a bunch of tourists and assorted visitors, dancing around.

People, have we gone crazy?

In a world of extremes between rich and poor;’ haves’ and ‘have-nots’; starving and satisfied; educated and ignorant; housed and homeless; healthy and suffering …

Over and above the excessive amounts of money ‘utilized’ by politicians , diplomats, and celebrities to maintain their dignity (read lifestyle), and not to mention the obscene amounts of money devoted to guns and weapons of mass destruction to feed the god of war, we find it necessary to literally burn another R 367 500 000.00?

I wonder what the real Joseph would say, not to mention his son… I know what the leaner, sicker, un-learned and un-housed are saying.

Isn’t it time that common sense prevailed? Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating a spartan, ‘Mother Theresa of Calcutta’ way of life … a little luxury is good for the Soul sometimes, but seriously… where is our perspective?

Let’s get real about the real needs of our world and the people who inhabit it…

 

A different perspective …

 Interesting email from a friend…

Whist I, myself am not a hunter, I love the bush and way back in the day put in my 2 years compulsive National Service:

 Add up all the hunters in just a handful of states, and come to a striking conclusion:

 The state of Wisconsin has gone an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That’s great. There were over 600,000 hunters.

Allow me to restate that number. Over the last two months, the eighth largest army in the world – more men under arms than Iran; more than France and Germany combined – deployed to the woods of a single American state to help keep the deer menace at bay.

But that pales in comparison to the 750,000 who are in the woods of Pennsylvania this week. Michigan ‘s 700,000 hunters have now returned home. Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia , and it’s literally the case that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world.

 The point? America will forever be safe from foreign invasion with that kind of home-grown firepower.  And you wonder why the Government wants us to be unarmed?  Try to read what Thomas Jefferson said about the Second Amendment.  Gun control IS Government control.  Freedom is messy at times.  But we are free or we are NOT. 

Add those figures to those who bear arms in the home for protection, and law enforcement!

“Hunting — it’s not just a way to fill the freezer. It’s a matter of national security!”

II love my country…
It’s the Government I’m afraid of.

Is your credit rating the mark of the beast …

Read your Bible: the Book of Revelations tells us that “no man may buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

 I think what old St John had in mind when he wrote this long ago when the world was still young and the Happy Hooker was a virgin, was credit … more specifically your credit rating.

Recession or not, unless one has a spotless track record dating back to before the rinderpest in an unbroken line of sterling consumer behaviour, then you are stamped with the ‘mark of the beast’, and you simply cannot buy even a used kettle on credit.

The recent recession left many people, particularly small business people, reeling from the knock on effect of being at the end of an insidiously long payment queue. Credit facilities dried up thanks to the well intentioned National Credit Act which dramatically curtailed the efforts of the bottom feeders who, in many cases had lived high on the credit hog, preying on our society of in-bred instant gratification seekers living so far beyond their means that this year’s holiday seriously jeopardises the kids’ college fund in the year 2056 by enticing them to over extend themselves with artificially created” free money” … in short credit.

That’s all good and well and designed presumably with the purest of motives, no matter how paternalistic, to keep us poor children safe from the predations of unscrupulous credit providers and other piratical bottom feeders wallowing in the sin of usury, but what happens when the system breaks down…

What happens when Chris Consumer and Simon Small-Business move heaven and earth to get themselves back on track, paid up and current again, but the credit provider bureaucrats (spelled I-could-care- less) cannot be bothered to update the credit  bureau to the fact that you are back on track again.

Simple… you apply for a credit card, a store card, a new washing machine, a new car, a bond, whatever … and shock and horror, your application is curtly denied because of your bad credit record based on the fact that your creditors have now got your hard-earned cash, but not bothered to update the credit bureau…

Who gave them so much power over your life, your future, your happiness?

You did! By accepting the drivel and excuses and red tape that they love to hide behind and not calling them out as loudly as you can…

 So make a fuss. Rage, Rage against the coming of the dark…

Too many choices…

I had to drop Cathryn, my middle daughter at school this morning …then head off to work with clients in Pretoria.

 07:30 traffic! Usual feeding frenzy outside the school: self-important parents each with their own pressing agenda makes for interesting ‘people watching’ – one of my favourite pastimes.

 Then pick a route out of Edenvale: four principle choices; each with its own set of pro’s and con’s.

 Creature of habit that I am, I impulsively picked something different … turned out to be the slow route: bumper to bumper traffic all the way up Van Riebeeck Avenue.

 Choice made: no way around it, so endure it …and try to find a positive in the situation.

Microcosm of life: each day presents its own set of choices. Some small, like which cereal to have for breakfast; some big like which venue to host a workshop at; some seemingly small like melktert or pecan nut pie for dessert …a big deal if you happen to be allergic to nutmeg!

The real point is this: more often than not, once the choice is made… You get to live with the consequence; sometimes for a very long time – career path; business partners; spouse …or spice if the ‘traditional’ choice of more than one is your style.

 So, to twist an ancient Chinese saying: be careful what you choose, you might just get it…

Can you hear me …

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that it is illegal to drive whilst talking on a cell phone without a hands free kit…

 ”They who must be obeyed” must have rescinded the law. I say this with some confidence because everywhere I drive I see evidence to support my thinking.

Fat cat businessmen in slinky cars laid back in their leather bucket seats chatting away with their sleek new smart phone, used as the glue to stick their hand to their ear; chic soccer moms talking up a storm with the mobile clutched to their ear while blithely reverse parking, using only one hand to pick up he little darlings from school and drop them off for  occupational therapy; indifferently arrogant minibus taxi drivers unconcernedly blocking two lanes of on coming traffic as they cram yet another hapless commuter into the cab; superior young pre-yuppies idly holding their mobile in range of their ear whilst yelling to their ‘china’s china’s over the boom-boom of their sound system … Or worse yet texting their bud’s on Mxit.

Being the concerned citizen that I am, I did a little research: nowhere can I find even a gazetted alteration to the law, let alone a cancellation … So here are some ideas….

How about “the powers that currently be” making some laws that they actually mean to enforce instead of fussing about smoking on an enclosed restaurant balcony?

Brutal, mindless, senseless crime is raping and killing our citizens never mind our economy. You know we have a problem when criminals are free to advertise their intention to plunder world cup tourists on TV…

So instead of the Metro police brutalizing random motorists and encouraging bribes, why not do the job they get paid for and actually enforce the law? (With apologies to those dedicated officers who take their pledge to protect and serve seriously).

Or motor insurers insisting on a hands free device being fitted before they insure the car … They do it with immobilizers, so why not cell phones?

Or here is a truly way out, off the wall idea … Why don’t we all just take responsibility for our own safety and the safety of our fellow road users and NOT talk and drive without a hands free kit?

A strong Opposition…

Without challenges to overcome in life, we are told we will weaken, wither, grow old and die.

Paradoxically, having something to struggle against keeps us healthy, vigorous and alive: children who constantly get their own way grow up spoiled at best and unable to operate, or perhaps co-operate in the competition of society, or become disruptive elements who threaten the very fabric of our society at worst.

The same is true in politics…

Lately we have seen the ruling party of our beautiful country flex its muscles, and begin to do things seemingly to suit itself and its leaders. A milestone court action was literally cancelled and outrage followed… opposition leaders took every opportunity to vent their spleen… to absolutely no avail. The ruling party simply shrugged its collective shoulders and largely ignored the heat.

 

On Wednesday this week, South African voters will go to the polls to ‘choose’ their government in a hopefully free and fair election. The past 15 years leads us to believe that it will continue to be so.

We are faced with a choice of a dozen or so prospective leaders, all saying what they believe to be the right words and promoting their best solutions to address the ills of the nation as they see them. Hopefully more than just empty campaign promises.

 

So here is the problem: many people that I have spoken with over the past weeks and months display an alarming level of apathy… on both sides of the fence.

An alarming number of previously disadvantaged people, many of them young people who should, by virtue of their post apartheid regime education, hold the opinion that the election is a foregone conclusion and so there is no need to go and stand in a long tedious queue to exercise their right to cast their vote. A vote that was bought through years of dedicated conviction and lengthy jail sentences by their elders.

 

An equally alarming number of previously advantaged people, many of whom should know better by virtue of their experience, hold the opinion that the election is a foregone conclusion and so what is the point of standing in a long tedious queue to exercise their right to cast their vote.

Two opposing scenarios …

Picture the scene: The ruling party loses because their electorate complacently neglected to cast their vote… It is unlikely that there will be a peaceful acceptance of the results, particularly by the more militant elements among the current ruling party’s electorate. There will be blood!

Picture an alternate scene: The ruling party romps home because the numerous opposition factions were either too apathetic to cast their vote or more probably, too scattered to unite in a common opposition.

Either way the ultimate loser will be the country … ALL of us, because of the very dynamic outlined in the opening paragraphs of this posting.

We need a strong opposition … to ensure the balance; to hold the line and ensure that absolute power does not get the chance to corrupt absolutely.

Make the effort to show up and vote according to your conscience.

Embrace your freedom … stand in line … make your mark … have your say!

 

The alternative is grim!

What do they know…

What do they know…

The magistrate’s court is a curious place. Apart from ones own feelings of bravado tinged with anxiety, trust in the unknown and just plain old boredom, the vibe has that certain something.

People from all walks of life rub shoulders on the hard wooden benches waiting for their turn to tell their story and hope for justice in a court of law where justice prevails according to the guile of your attorney.

Quiet people, brash people, hesitant people, nervous people, confident people… All kinds of people bound by a common force, more often than not caught up in a current with a single minded purpose: to serve due process and consume whole rain forests of paper in a pedantic rush to make decisions and hand down judgment.

Facts are more important than feelings and process is more important than people in a system that is bound up in its own purpose.

So the people mill and wait and whisper muffled questions, asking for advice from people at least as confused as themselves.

Leaders rise to the fore. Those who know, those who want others to know that they know, people loudly proclaiming their rightness and people content to sit calmly and wait.

These last interest me the most: islands of calm amongst the turmoil. Lost in their thoughts or observing the fuss like patient parents watching the ebb and flow of the sandpit.

What do they know? What flickers behind those wise eyes and knowing smiles?

Perhaps they know that after all this is all just a game. A game in which sometimes the real winners are the losers…

What do you think?

Regards,
Graham

Lights Out…

Hi there!

My ezine this week is all about electricity … or the lack of it.

We have all been affected in some way shape or form by the energy crisis hampering our lives, businesses, financial well being and progress. In big ways or small ways we are all feeling the crunch. How do we deal with it? 

Mostly though it’s about victims of circumstances and creators of solutions and where you fit in.  

On both a local and global scale our world is changing and so our lives are changing with it. We have a hole in the ozone layer. Global warming, melting ice caps rising sea levels, freak weather. Petrol goes up by obscene amounts more often than I can remember. Crime statistics come down but actual crime seems to go up: hideous, vicious, brutal, unnecessary crime.

More importantly, what do we DO about it? Do we join the ‘madding crowd’ and vent to one another yet ultimately remain victims of things we perceive as being beyond our control or do we ‘take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them’.

The real danger is that we become used to it. As Derek Watts said recently on Carte Blanche…”It is not normal to have ‘planned’ power shortages”. Neither is it normal to endure the crime, the all too regular and increasing petrol price hikes, and the planned electricity price hike of a whopping 60% 

Complacency is our worst enemy here. Just putting up with it will only get us more of the same.

How to stop the mad rollercoaster ride …

There have been some creative solutions to the environmental, social, criminal and economic stresses that plague our South African society. Some of them have been opportunistic benefiting from other peoples troubles. Some of them have been altruistic giving hope and relief where there was none before. Some have even been win/win solutions benefiting those in need and those filling the need proportionately.

New products, new services, new solutions to old ways of doing things …

I invite you now to share your issues, but not in an ongoing whinge session. We are looking for creative solutions: answers that inspire an ever upward spiraling of resourceful, creative solutions.

Regards,
Graham