Western Foreign Policy and Narendra Modi

A great many media outlets have been highlighting the recent decision of the British government in reconsidering it's position vis a vis Narendra Modi, the reigning Chief Minister in Gujrat for more than a decade. View the recent write up in the Economist or this one at IAT .

The facts why this development is being viewed as an extremely significant move has multiple reasons -

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

• Narendra Modi is currently the longest serving Chief Minister, of ANY state in India, during the past 20years.
• Modi is also the longest serving Chief Minister of the State of Gujrat, having completed 11 years.
• Modi is also up for re-election next month.
• Modi is one of the most prominent figures from the single largest opposition party in India the BJP, as well as part of the alliance national opposition parties in the central government.
• Modi is quite often projected as a the future leader - Prime Minister of India.
• India is scheduled for national elections in the Spring of 2014, though the possibility of a mid-term election being forced on the people is looming large due to a very fragile and splintered UPA-2 Alliance.   

The Indian political scene is currently in a state of turmoil on the national level with key individuals from the ruling Gandhi clan led Congress-UPA-??? combine being accused, investigated, and indicted for billions of dollars worth of corruption and fraud of taxpayer money and even foreign aid  involving arms deals, allocation of natural resources, real estate development deals, telecommunication licenses, financial sector irregularity, tax evasion, etc. You name it and there is documented evidence of widespread corruption and bribery anywhere and everywhere you look!

It is against this backdrop that Narendra Modi's supposed rehabilitation by western governments, against a backdrop of alleged human rights violations in 2002, becomes all the more poignant. This after vilifying Modi personally as well as his administration for almost a decade. Western governments including the US have revoked his privilege to enter their countries by denying him entry visas, as a means to bully him. They have knowingly and / or unknowingly become pawns of the Congress led UPA combine in India to declare him persona-non-grata against popular and overwhelming support of him across the world.

Anyway, the announcement by the British Foreign Office and a leak from a senior high ranking US diplomat to review their governments status about their one sided and contentious relationship with Narendra Modi, his administration, as well as his political ideology has been welcomed by Indian-Americans, Global-Indians, and the Indian public. They are rejoicing at this opportunity as well as looking to celebrate "the victory" of Modi having prevailed after all these years.

However, in my opinion it is too premature to even think of celebrating, my reasons are listed as follows. My analysis is mainly US centric since that is where I am based, yet it clearly reflects the basic tenets of Western foreign policy vis a vis the rest of the world.

Regardless of the political party in power in the US - President / Senate / House, the basic tenets of US foreign policy are unwavering. Unless the US is looking to dump the Gandhi family led Congress-UPA-? combine the status quo will not change. The Jasmine Revolution which was the precursor to the Arab spring has brought more than anticipated and acceptable anarchy to the MENA region. Europe and US will not allow that to happen again especially in India which is geo-politically and economically more than a keystone in the global context now.

Let's not get myopic and ignore reality from the historical past in the South-Asian region, before we start to gloat. In Pakistan Musharraf was dumped. Benazir Bhutto (the nurturer of the Taliban) was brought in, but then was assassinated and a puppet regime headed by her widower Asif Ali Zardari (who is the defacto leader of Bhutto's PPP) has been in place since. 

Just because there is widespread unrest against the Gandhi clan and it's supporters right now doesn't mean that Narendra Modi is in the good books of the Western interests now. Don't forget the AB Vajpayee govt. was disposed of as soon as it asserted it's independence on various issues including nuclear proliferation. Even after the Arab Spring and the change at the top in Pakistan the behind the scene players remain the same in those places with continued support from Europe & US.

 
One more thing to always keep in mind US economic interests have never been sidelined despite whatever political ideology has been in place at the policy making level as long as American companies profit! The sad part is we equate popular sentiment to the official stance of overt and behind the scenes position US policy should reflect. This has never been the case. Cases in point American business interests and trade with Communist China, oil purchases from Venezuela, trade with Putin's Russia, aid to Pakistan etc. Or take the unwavering US support for Taiwan despite enormous risk in strategic and crucial bi-lateral relationships with China. There is already quite a bit trade of activity with Gujrat notwithstanding Narendra Modi. So dropping an unpopular public stance to placate a vast majority of Indian-Americans / Global-Indians is really not a big deal. I strongly believe that Narendra Modi does not need to be vetted by European or American policy makers.

Let's keep our eye on the big picture! Indians deserve more importantly a reliable pan-India organization with integrity which needs to have the overwhelming trust of the Indian electorate. That will be the tipping point for global policy makers to align their interests with the Indian middle class instead of just viewing them as an economic and profit making opportunity!

Until individuals and organizations, both in India and abroad, can grasp the above sentiment and are able to put behind their petty personal grudges to unite and come together on a common platform to help the majority of Indian people they are merely pontificating in the air to bring about change... a la someone else we know from the recent and immediate past from the American political scene! ;-) 

By the way here is a recent presentation of the socio-economic accomplishments of Narendra Modi and his administration over the years. GUJRAT PRESENTATION.

9/11 Anniversary - My reactions

FIRST OF ALL MY RESPECTS TO ALL BRAVE, SERVING, AND MARTYRED AMERICANS!

On the anniversary of 9/11, to gauge world opinion I have been reading articles and essays by purported experts on America & Americans in foreign publications trying to describe the psyche of Americans and their government. It has been painful reading them give advice to us, which I consider nothing but stupid or short of senseless drivel. Their articles and essays may appeal to the less aware people who get swayed by even a light populist breeze, however I have to inform them their analysis is dead wrong! You cannot spend 4 years in an isolated environment of an academic institution in America and let that make you and expert on American psyche! That's doing no better than the terrorists hijackers of 9/11.

I can tell you as a person who grew up here and has now spent half my adult life in this country their "analysis" is way off the mark. One doesn't become an expert on America living in a closed environment like they did.


As much as I am saddened and humbled by the events of 9/11, and bow my head to the Heroes. I dearly wish from the bottom of my heart for the sake of the ones who lost their lives, their near and dear ones, my own children, family, friends and myself the events of the day would have never happened!


Without being an apologist for anyone, have some people in American government and corporate houses made mistakes along the way I'm sure they have. Tell me a nation or corporation that has not bungled along the way? Do you then go out and try to destroy them completely unless there intentions were clearly maleficent? Being a follower of history I can find less than a handful of such instances. America the government and America the corporate has never done anything close to that. Jokes aside, there is no arrogant and loudmouth America. This notion that America the big brother is trying to control the world as the single evil entity is nothing short of poppy seed ingested hallucinations that I can attribute to!

There is only ONE AMERICA, the warm loving, caring, & sharing ONE! The America these people will never know because of their inbuilt and deeply ingrained subconscious prejudices. If America and Americans are so bad why come here? Why not stay in the comfort of your cold dusty cave, or pest filled tropical jungle, or hot, dry arid desert, or wherever else you are coming from? I have yet to see people immigrating to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, China, Mexico, or even Japan and Europe, in droves like they make a bee-line for America even now!

For the last 3 years the country has been in a recession, bottoming housing market, high unemployment, and various other issues, yet the American people or the American government and business has not turned their on backs on anyone anywhere whether it be helping the earthquake victims in Haiti or Japan, rescue trapped miners in Chile (YES, American Technology at it's BEST!), trying to contain the financial meltdown in Europe (would have never guessed it, right?).

Does the world standby Americans when a natural calamity befalls us? Thank goodness we don't have half the problems they rest of the world has or we would be left up the creek to dry...

It confuses me that the rest of the world thinks that Americans have unlimited patience to keep on accepting the hurls and abuse it constantly throw at us yet we keep turning the other cheek! Has 9/11 changed Americans? It didn't immediately, but the procession of subsequent events is surely bringing about a slow and marked change in the thinking of "American" people.

Let me tell you what the event of 9/11/2001 has done, it has made the majority of simple minded, loving, and trusting Americans realize the world is a much deadlier and vengeful place than they can even imagine. That it is not all about "do unto others as you would have others do unto you"! There are people, countries, and ideologies that want to hold you(Americans) responsible & destroy you for the real and imaginary grievances which are inflicted on them by their own people!

Here's a thought if the Saudi hijackers were so upset at their monarchy why didn't they do something in their own country? Because they knew they would have faced a certain and mind you horrible death if their government had even got a whiff of their plans. So they come to America abuse our hospitality, take advantage of our law enforcement mechanism (innocent until proven guilty of an actual crime), prey on the tolerance of American society (had it been any other country they would have been marked men), to kill our people! If once was not enough we have another guy try to do the same almost a decade later by trying to use a SUV as an IED in New York - AGAIN! Yet it was not the first or second time that New York was made a target. In 1993 the WTC was the target of the first of many attempts to kill thousands of Americans by blowing up a truck filled with explosives in its' basement parking lot. So these were and are not isolated one off aberrations, but a series of well thought out deadly projects to inflict harm on the United States of America and it's citizens!

The American people are the ones that ALLOW their representatives to spend billions if not trillions of dollars on foreign aid helping other people. It is the American people who have ALLOWED their C-suite executives to export millions of jobs outside of the country to places like India & China. Yes, there is a business motive to it, but don't forget we could have done sent those jobs anywhere else had we wanted. Don't forget companies like Dell, HP, and others have shut down operations in India and elsewhere before and moved them elsewhere. America, could become a closed and protected economy like China, India, and dozens of other countries. America could also start imposing high tariffs on foreign imports like Europe, Japan, and others. Yet, we don't do it, at-least not yet; and don't tempt us into doing it! The tide is turning as 9/11 has started to make common Americans more aware of what has been and is going on in the rest of the world. Instead of trying to become equals the rest of the world does not think of rising up to the level of America, so what does it do try to do drag it down to their level!

Americans and myself included, because I am an AMERICAN and a PROUD one, are coming to the realization we need to take of our country and people first! We are getting sick of hearing there was a tsunami, earthquake, genocide in a certain part of the globe so we need to send billions of dollars of aid there and put our peoples' lives at risk! We don't care if people are starving in certain countries so we need to send jobs there to help them out. Why? Because look what 50 years of do gooding did to America, more than 3,000 killed in New York City!

For the last 200 years America took care of itself and the world when no-one was there to be a role model, now I think the time has come for America and Americans to once again take care of themselves, but let the rest of the world step-up it's own game!

Am I upset? YES, I am UPSET! Upset as an AMERICAN! Upset as a parent of couple of great ALL AMERICAN kids! UPSET AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN WHO HAS HAD ENOUGH!

On behalf of most(see we still have freedom of choice!) AMERICANS I'm giving the rest of the world notice don't take us for granted, at-least not anymore!

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

The Myth of Osama Bin Laden's Lavish Lifestyle

Team Six of the US Navy SEALS successfully assaulted and were finally able to bring an end to the OBL and his terrestrial existence on planet Earth. I believe this is a fact we should rejoice on and congratulate the administration and the brave men and women of this country who risked their lives to make this happen!

I am saddened that even the American media forgets to mention that he, i.e. OBL was one of the major brains behind the 9/11 WTC carnage that took 3,000 lives on American soil and countless many overseas! Let's not forget those whose lives were lost and the sacrifices their family members have to still endure! As well as the permanent changes that have happened in the daily lives of billions of people worldwide since that fateful morning of 9/11/2001.

However, I am more dismayed at the general media who has tried to milk this event by trying to portray a larger than life image of OBL after his death! Let's get one thing straight and clear everyone OBL was a COWARD! And NO he was NOT charismatic or a leader! He preyed on the weak, poor, socially, economically, and mostly uneducated youth like his partner Al-Zawahiri to entice young Muslims to fight for their (OBL+Zawahiri) personal ideology. Yes, there were a few educated folks who supported the same agenda, but they were and are still the minority contrary to what the media wants us to believe. This is no different from how gangs find recruits from modern urban inner cities or militias recruit new converts for their cause in the American Suburbia.

This weasel or rat whatever you want to call him was hiding in a small town being protected by elements of the Pakistani intelligence and military. For days I have been reading about reports of the multi-million dollar compound where the brave and outstanding members of Team Six finally put an end to him. If you have seen pictures of the building where OBL finally breathed his last he wasn't living like a shadow of what moderately well-off Pakistani's live like. The place while big clearly looked in a state of disrepair. It was more like a dilapidated safe-house.

I can bet for a fact that his Pakistani or other handlers lived ten times more lavishly than what he was found living like in his last days. Okay so the compound was large, but big F#$%*&^ deal! OBL was a global multi-millionaire, the media doesn't get tired of telling us this every single moment! If you look at the compound around this large building it didn't even have a garden or a lawn that was properly manicured or well kept, just a dirt field. Small time local-millionaires in the region live in better comfort and style than what OBL lived before he died.

Even the furniture, which you see from the pictures and video released by the US, in the so called mansion looked like it was from the middle ages. OBL was living like a rat in a sewer, not like the Sheikh he was supposed to be. This is no different than when Saddam was found hiding in an underground hole by the US forces years ago! For all the palaces that Saddam had he was literally found trying to survive and stay alive in a rat hole!

What people in the west don't realize is that in most other countries having high walls and gated courtyards is the norm for anyone who is even slightly middle class or above. For Americans who have traveled to places in Mexico, Puerto-rico, DR, or Asia, etc. they will know this is a fact. Again unlike the US or Europe very, very few houses are wired for internet in these countries. With the proliferation of mobiles (cells phones for Americans) most people don't even have landlines for telephones.

Secondly, I can bet most average folks would probably have more than a couple of hundred bucks on them plus at-least couple of credit cards most of the time. All OBL had was 500 Euros (they say he hated the US & everything American so probably no dollars ;-). OBL was a legitimate Sheikh a multi-millionaire who was hiding in a country where credit card acceptance and usage is very low compared to US, he had to have cash on him to survive if ever even in a minor pickle. 500 Euros is not a lot of money, even an economy airfare out of Pakistan costs twice as much. The cost of a weekend stay in a decent hotel in a Pakistani metro would have cost him more than 500 Euros!

In all reality the poor bugger was running scared, hiding in Pakistan where power outages and brownouts are the norm. Life was not even normal forget about being lavish for him at all, he was pretty much stay'in alive by the skin of his teeth! Maybe the CIA guys paid (or were charged) a million bucks for the house next door to watch him from. Which is why they think his house was also worth the same. Just like the US Govt. pays $500 bucks for an ordinary hammer, that sells for $10 at Home Depot!

So read between the hype and garbage the traditional media reports.

Outsourced - The TV Series

Episode #4

Coming...

Episode #3



Episode #2



Episode #1

Outsourced - The TV Series

The episode today - #4, was much much better -

Looming CWG Fiasco in India

I'm trying to grasp the frustration everyone seems to have as well as the overwhelming urge to appoint blame and lay responsibility on a few individuals trotting around as figureheads... BTW, not absolving anyone from taking personal respon...sibility. Yet I am probably correct to assume that everyone of us who is demonstrating this "supposed" indignation is miles away from the ground reality in the planning, organizing, and execution of these games. Come on guys these are just games! Seems we are living in a pre-cold war world when the US & USSR tried to project their capabilities via the Olympics and we now know how hollow that projection of capabilities was / is. SCREW THE CWG, WHY THE HELL HASN'T ANYONE COMMENTED ON THE PLIGHT OF THE FOLKS DISPLACED BY THE ONGOING FLOODING IN NORTH INDIA!!! See how F#$%ed up our armchair brougeoisie mentality has become! If the events leading up to games had not been exposed by the media as a humongous SNAFU, I bet everyone here would have then reveled in basking in the glory of such great CWG games, and hailed the capabilities of India Shining! While we all know how superficial and limited those capabilities are... Development of infrastructure has always been the Achilles heel in India. Let's first accept this only then can we hope to move ahead, otherwise we will only move on...(!?!?!?)

Update: 12Hours later...

It was interesting to see Sr. Editor Headlines Today Sandeep Bamzai echo the exact same sentiment about India's weakness in infrastructural development as the major cause of the current CWG fiasco as well as the issues facing the general public due to flooding.

Follow-up: More Facts About $35.00 Indian Tablet

A NDTV report with Indian Union Minister of HRD Mr.Kapil Sibal with a working prototype of the $35.00 Tablet computer.

Gadget Guru - NDTV LINK



See a video from a few other Indian Tech wizards from a company called AllGo Systems at Trade show in Florida, USA.

Evaluating the $35 Indian Computer

After reading a comment by Ajay Vaishnav, from the Times of India about the low cost tablet computer developed in India and just announced this week, I could not help myself in responding to it. For his take on it, please click on his name.


Sometimes we become victims in the desire to create a perfect world, where we fail to realize that while things may not always be perfect there is usually an opportunity to make an incremental or even marginal difference which over a period of time will gather enough momentum to create a self sustaining cycle.

How else due you think India has become the back office of the world without having the necessary infrastructure to support it, in terms of human and other resources? If it was only about a quality vs. cost the mega-corporations would have found another place by now...wouldn't they?


Yes, there are large tracts of poverty and under developed infrastructure in the country, but there are also extremely large tracts of developed and affluent areas in India that would shame any progressive western economy. That development did not happen overnight by being transplanted from somewhere else, it gradually evolved due to small efforts over time that coalesced to create the current vibrant economy. You can see the opposite of that happening in the US with the minor, but steady erosion of the education system, the numbing down of the work-force, and decay of built up infrastructure with no investments being made to maintain or create anything of new or lasting value. Just as every business has a life-cycle, every nation has its glory days till things start to wane and then the cycle of re-building and creating new systems and values begins anew!


I’d like to mention that companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, etc. did not suddenly make a big splash on the world stage in the latter part of the '90s when personal computers and the internet started becoming ubiquitous first in the US then the world over. Yes, the general awareness of these organizations was greatly amplified, along-with the newly discovered capabilities of the Indian workforce. Those visionaries kept toiling away quietly without any hope of impending fame and fortune. Just imagine a group of engineers from India trying to convince C-level executives of large corporations in Europe and US to let them do their back office work and handle phone calls for them in India in the mid-'80's, when there was hardly a reliable telephone network or any other similar infrastructural network in the in the country to handle local calls let alone international calls and a regular uninterrupted supply of electricity, even in the so called developed metros. There was no way they could have met the agreed upon SLAs based on the available facts!



If they had looked at the reality of the situation they should have come to the conclusion that the situation was bleak and the hurdles insurmountable, so they should have given up on it...? Tenacity and the will to forge ahead in spite of formidable odds are what create larger than life inspirations and role models; while naysayers keep repeating the same old tales of doom and gloom, without thinking even once that they have the opportunity to do so because of the efforts of those that they are belittling! Had someone not have planted the tiny seeds of the technological revolution in India years ago I wonder how Ajay Vaishnav would have found a way to voice his reservations that can be heard the world over? I doubt he would have taken a megaphone in hand and marched the world over holding a placard in the other to let everyone know his thoughts... or maybe he would have.... When you're talking about the human spirit anything is possible!


The pilgrims that arrived on the shores of America over 300 years ago not only survived and prospered, they reinforced to individuals across the world the concept of what we now term the "American Dream". Like Alexander, the Vikings, or even the Britisher's before them (let's not get into the politics of it) they were pioneers. That same indomitable will and passion for innovation and continuous urge to better oneself and move on ahead is present in each and every one of us the world over.

LEADERSHIP - IS IT A MYTH???

I often wonder if the behavior of top management of various companies, businesses, or for that matter any organization is just short sighted now or if has always been so myopic through the ages. Could it be that due to greater scrutiny and supposed greater oversight we are able to observe their fallibility much more often than was possible in the past.

Look around closely at almost any organization be it public or private and you will see supposedly brilliant individuals who we look/looked up to and revere make meaningless and absurd decisions that effect the lives of hundreds and thousands, if not millions, of people in their immediate vicinity. Yet these folk go about living their lives as if nothing has happened, completely oblivious to the plight of all the people around them.

This leads me to contemplate - Is Leadership really such a great trait, and if it is, what exactly is the secret sauce? I know, have read, and even written about the qualities that make a supposedly good or even great leader, but is it really so...

Let's take a few luminaries who are hailed as some of the greatest leaders objectively dissect their behavior as leaders... I know I am probably going to get raked over the coals for bringing up these names...

John Francis Welch, Jr.- Chairman of GE Corporation for 20 years from 1981-2001, more commonly known as "Jack" and "Neutron Jack".

Here is a recent quote from him -  “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world,” he said. “Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy … your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”

However, this is the same man who initiated the concept of "Shareholder Value" or pursed the concept by laying off more than a quarter of GE's workforce within 5 years becoming CEO to pursue higher profits, and increase market cap.

He also pushed the managers of the businesses he kept to become more productive, by constantly working 70-80 hours a week. "Jack" worked to eradicate perceived inefficiencies by trimming inventories and dismantling the workforce. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls and cut lackluster old-line units. For a company that touts innovation and new products what is there to show right now? He is also the same person who pushed for the expansion of GE Capital which almost took the entire company down and caused it to lose it's 'AAA' credit rating. As well as begging the Feds for a TARP bailout, as it was deemed too big to be allowed to fail! Now granted Jack was not at the helm when these things went down, but he took credit for everything good that happened with GE even after he left office, often boasting how he had laid the foundation for everything during his 20 year reign at the company.

If Jack was such a great manager as he has been made out to be then how did everything start to unravel so fast as soon as he left office, that too only after he was assured of an $8,000,000.00 annual pension with lavish company perks. Was there a great smokescreen and mirror show going on, which made him larger than life!?!

His so called "VISION" has decimated so many lives, leaving carcasses all over while he lives in his glass tower in New York, oblivious to the plight of many, still pontificating now!!!

Does anyone ever stop to think that it's not all about widgets and processes, there is a human element to it also! Widgets and processes are there for the use and consumption by human beings. If people can not afford to buy and use the widgets and services no matter how great they are what is the use of creating them. That is exactly the situation the US landscape is in right now. The likes of Jack created this "Shareholder Value" ponzi scheme to pay themselves and now we are there to pick up the pieces...

Maybe one should read Jack's biography with a new perspective, after taking off the rose tinted glasses....

More to come...

Business and Politics

Did you ever stop to consider that Business and Politics are almost identical! Except, that businesses have no multi-party system, which kind of makes business similar to the communist party where anyone can reach the top, but everyone has to toe the party line!- RaviD


The above has to the above ultimate irony for a capitalist business from an ideology point of view.

Some more nuggets -

Monopoly - Monarchy

Big Business - Oligarchy

Board of Directors - Senators / Congressmen / Member of Parliament

Chairman Emeritus - Queen of England / King of Spain / etc.

Institutional Shareholders - Power brokers

Individual Shareholders - Voters

Venture Capitalists - Lobbyists

Transnational Corporations - World Domination

Mergers and Acquisitions - European Union

Corporate De-merger - Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Corporate Cartels - NATO


By the way did you notice there is no mention of democracy here. Democracy is about promoting equality which is a supposed need (disguised wants), business thrives when there is inequality, which promotes wants. So essentially in a thriving economy or business environment there is not need for a democracy...???!??!? Comments...?

Some more analogies -

Walmart - China

Conglomerates - Ex-Soviet Union

Google - India

GE - USA

Goldman Sachs - Switzerland

Microsoft - Japan

Exxon-Mobile - Saudi Arabia

SAP - Germany

Yahoo - England

Ask.com - France

Apple - Canada

Patent Trolls - Al Qaeda

Bear Stearns - Greece

Lehman Bros. - Iceland

Cisco - South Korea

NAFTA - United Nations

PIGS in the Euro-Zone

On Feb.25th of this year I had blogged about the coming global financial meltdown that would be precipitated due to turmoil caused by the financial profligacy of the European Union member states in the last decade. The Euro-Zone has even joined a visually enticing acronym for the countries most likely to default now - PIGS = Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. Friends if you have any doubts please go back an look up the stats on my blog that I refer to, Greece was the country with the least amount of issues. Just imagine what will happen if Portugal, Ireland, Spain implode or explode depending on what word you would like to describe the event as. All I can say is Europe will be knee deep in - PIS!!!

A fact that had been staring us in the face for anyone who cared to look, but not one major economist or financial guru was willing to admit to. So folks how does it feel to be lighter in the pocket? Invest in currency & commodities - Euro, metals,  and energy? Gee whiz crude is down 15%, the Euro is down 15%, Gold is down from it's high, so friends what is going on.... ? Stay tuned...

Politics... taking the plunge!

Entering the political arena requires you to be ready to bare not only your deepest darkest secrets, but also your soul! Speak nothing of being under constant scrutiny even if trimming your toe nails. Also, entails very, very long hours and finally walking the talk you preach... I guess that is why people are terrified of politics...

So in the end it's ... hard to like what you are afraid of, which is why I believe politics is despised so much.

Sometimes I think where and how these folks get the energy to continue from early morning to late night on a regular basis.
 

I guess the best analogy it to think of it like getting into a warm mud bath at a spa-salon, first you have to cleanse yourself by taking a shower, stay naked and get into the warm mud, seems so yucky!!! ... but they say it has therapeutic value and as you get used to the warm mud so don't want to get out of it as it seems so relaxing and comfortable!

If ever you think you want to come out the mud bath then imagine you look like a pig wallowing naked and caked in mud, and by then staying in the mud bath seems more enticing than getting clean and going about your normal business!

What happened to - AVATAR, at the Oscars...

What happened to AVATAR, at the Oscars yesterday...?

Seems the critics saw past the Na'vi  and their blue skins... James Cameron you can take us for a ride as many times as you want whether under water in the Abyss, on water on the Titanic, or across the galaxy to Pandora, but don't expect Oscars to be showered upon you every single time you make a movie now.

Gatekeepers and Screeners at the door - That's what HR recruiters call themselves!

As mentioned in the prior post I got a bunch of responses to my questions on HR and Recruiting. Some of the responses were just amazing!!!

Listed below is the query I framed and a few selected responses -


"Quite often I hear - "... a resume has less than 30 seconds to make an impact to a recruiter - independent or corporate HR.." WHY?"

- "Let me first correct you: It takes 3-10 seconds to review a resume to verify if it meets qualifications for a majority of positions. If it was 30 seconds, I would never get any work done."

-  "Because time is money."

- "10-15 seconds tops... You have to market yourself if you are missing some requirements on the job description...otherwise 10 seconds is all you will get."

- "My goodness, I don't read resumes for a living, but do you know how many of these answers I could skim over in 30 seconds and get a pretty darn good idea of what they were talking about?"

- "For the same reason cyber security is in such great (sic) shape in this country and beyond. As far as I can tell that's 29 seconds past the maximum attention span of most recruiters."

- "The way we see the problem is often greater than the problem we're trying to solve.

To most people;

1. Busy = important, 30 seconds "I must be busy, I'm important"
2. Decision Making = Important, "5's" (performance level relative to the 1,000's in their industry) aren't asked their thoughts on "move the needle" issues, thus, why not make it up in volume, 30 seconds at a time ... important again
3. Believe their intentions are good; say a prayer and move on

I coach the coachable HR people on how to do the process more effectively and efficiently. However, my systems reward / create consequences for HR performance as most don't.

Litmus Test on the Culture of an HR Dept:

What % of the HR Payroll will be paid, regardless of who is hired?
Example: $5M in salaries and $4.7 is paid regardless while $4.9 - $5.1 has a 95% chance of getting paid. Where's the motivation?

Life's too short to worry about it unless you're helping someone that is open to changing it." 

- "They're not, by and large, out there searching for talent. They're the gatekeepers, who screen applications sent in."

- "Because HR people are the equivalent of soccer goalies - their job is not to let anyone in but to keep just about everyone out. ...Getting your resume or a letter in front of the hiring manager is the only way you can get through the stonewall the square peg HR gatekeepers put in your path."


Now keep in mind the above are just a few excerpts from from about 25% of the responses received, the majority of them were basically of the opinion "How dare I ask this question and bring this issue up!".

Well here are a few of my rebuttals - enjoy!

- "...most of the responses seem to validate the "30 Second" rule / hypothesis.

So taking that for a baseline if one was a great recruiter and received and average of 100 resumes a day, that's about 50mins of your time in the day. I'll be generous and round it up to 60min, wait I'll be magnanimous and give you 1min per resume that's 2 hours of your day every single day of the month. Almost every recruiter out in the field would kill for those kind of potential leads, the fact is none have them, get them, or come even come close to generating them!

So, what do you do the rest of the day? Waste of company time and money if internal Dept. and do outrageously high billing if an external recruiter!

If I was a CEO/CFO/COO I would take a quick look at my HR recruiting Dept and partner recruiting companies and FIRE THEM! HR guys you just discredited your entire industry! You just proved that you provide very little value addition to the hiring process which can be completely substituted by an automated system, albeit one that may require a little more fine tuning"

- "The responses here themselves say a resume is a way to get your "toe" into the door! How can you make a judgement call for an individual by "seeing" their so called "toes" only? It's like the story of the 5 blind men who touched a different part of an elephant and came to a different set of conclusions as to what it was and what it could do, without seeing or even feeling the entire elephant."

- "...almost every other function that you said a "Generalist" may handle has been outsourced or is in the process of being outsourced and automated, or the employee is being "empowered" to handle on their own with the service provider.

So the one pure HR function that you can add value to internally is recruiting, however if that seems too much for most don't blame outsourcing and automation when it takes over completely. What you call "screening" can be done by anyone sitting half way around the world in a window less room, and then making an appointment for the hiring individual by an email or a phone call."

- "...In this day and age of almost 12% unemployment in the US, why employers are unable to fill positions with the "right" and properly "qualified" candidates is the mystery worth exploring..."

 

What does "Over-Qualified" mean for Today's Workers?

Yesterday, I asked a few HR and Recruiting related questions on the social networking site Linked In. I received a bunch of responses.

One a of the few that I found interesting was withdrawn for publishing by the respondent for some reason. However, since they responded to me I will publish the response in my blog for the benefit of everyone to review. I would love to give credit to the writer of this, however the person who actually penned the following statement does not want to have their views published or wishes to remain anonymous. Therefore, I am not identifying them, except to let everyone know that she is a Professional Career Coach with a Global HR Solutions provider.

Typically, "Over-Qualified" for a position in the US is used as a euphemisms for being "too-old" for the particular position or even company culture. Her take -

"I'll respond to being "overqualified." If you are 35 and spent the last 5 yrs in a managerial role and were not "hands-on" then apply for an individual contributor role with no management/supervisory responsibility, you are "overqualified." WHY? Most likely, no matter how much the applicant says they are "ok" not managing people, most likely they will not be a "fit" and will seek a better opportunity before the company sees it's ROI. The applicant isn't "old" but used to working in a different capacity than the job being offered.

Again, if an applicant has 10+ yrs of HR exp at the Dir and above level, they are OVERQUALIFIED to be the HR Assoc responsible for scheduling interviews, processing paperwork, and ordering lunches for the departmental meetings.

Are there cases when applicants may be discriminated against for age? Of course, but a good HR/Recruiter will look for fit and most often we know and have experienced the downside of hiring an overqualified person for a job. Only once in my career did it work and it was because the employee admittedly wanted a "place to hang out" until he retired in 2yrs."

Hope the above helps...

Are the economic experts reallly that stupid...?!?!?!

In the last quarter of 2009 there was great deal of optimism that the global economy was on the verge of turning around, but the US economy was doomed to complete annihilation, which was the reason gold was having such a great run up.

Now I'm not an economist or an expert on the subject, but I have studied it a little and do read a bit, more than anything I like to look at facts before making any kind of predictions.

Anyone who claims to be an economist even as a passing dilettante on the subject usually has reams and gobs of paper pass under their nose that would show factually where the fault lines are in the global economy. Yet, there is either a global conspiracy to suppress the evidence or the academics who teach the subject have no idea what they are talking about these days, or even in the past when were proven dead wrong(!); and still fail to admit that the academic theories they have grown up studying and teaching are fundamentally flawed in this new age of instant global inter-connectedness!

Let's get to the real issue - a great global meltdown is staring at us in the face yet nobody sees - EUROPE!!! All everyone can report about is the failures of the American economy, which are miniscule compared to what has already happened in Europe, is now happening, and will unfold in the coming months!!!

Greece is just the very "tiny" tip of the financial meltdown volcano that will erupt if people these so called economic experts do not take their heads out of places where the sun don't shine, and start initiating more sound economic polices rather than blow air as they did at the WEF recently!

Anyway, to satisfy my own curiosity and see how and why my hypothesis may just be right I created the following tables to analyze and draw my own conclusions. The information is as of 2008, so still current.

Rank	Country	GDP in Billions	% Debt. Of GDP	External Debt. in Billions	Per Capita Debt	Per Capita GDP
20	United States	$14,260.00	94.35%	$13,454.00	$43,793.00	$47,440.00
19	Hungary	$196.60	105.76%	$207.92	$20,936.64	$19,553.00
18	Australia	$800.20	111.38%	$891.26	$42,426.18	$36,918.00
17	Italy	$1,823.00	126.71%	$2,310.00	$39,741.00	$30,631.00
16	Greece	$343.00	161.17%	$552.80	$51,483.00	$30,681.00
15	Spain	$1,403.00	171.70%	$2,409.00	$59,457.00	$30,589.00
14	Germany	$2,918.00	178.48%	$5,208.00	$63,263.00	$36,320.00
13	Finland	$193.50	188.55%	$364.85	$69,491.00	$36,320.00
12	Sweden	$344.30	194.34%	$669.10	$73,854.00	$37,334.00
11	Norway	$275.40	199.02%	$548.10	$117,604.00	$53,738.00
10	Hong Kong	$306.60	205.85%	$631.13	$89,457.00	$43,847.00
9	Portugal	$236.50	214.38%	$507.00	$47,348.00	$22,232.00
8	France	$2,128.00	235.95%	$5,021.00	$78,387.00	$34,205.00
7	Austria	$329.50	252.63%	$832.42	$101,387.00	$39,887.00
6	Denmark	$203.60	298.32%	$607.38	$110,422.00	$37,304.00
5	Belgium	$389.00	320.31%	$1,246.00	$119,681.00	$36,416.00
4	Netherlands	$672.00	364.88%	$2,452.00	$146,703.00	$40,558.00
3	United Kingdom	$2,226.00	408.22%	$9,087.00	$148,702.00	$36,358.00
2	Switzerland	$316.70	422.48%	$1,338.00	$176,045.00	$43,196.00
1	Ireland	$188.40	1266.45%	$2,386.00	$576,805.00	$42,110.00

I have highlighted the US and six largest economies in Europe.


Just look at the per capita debt per person vs the per capita GDP and draw your own conclusions from the comparisons. By the way the population of US is approx. 311 million, while the population of European Union for those wanting to do more analysis is approx. 500 million.

Besides the teetering economies that we are already aware of Iceland and Greece, there are greater underlying problems in Europe specially in the realm of politics and it's proximity to Russia and the turbulence that arises from the Middle-East. Let's not factor out geo-politics when it comes to the occurrence, division, and allocation of natural resources, and ethnic tensions in the region.

If anyone of the readers was a betting person and was aware of the geo-political-economic world order which country would you place your bets on... to successfully emerge intact with the least amount of collateral damage from the current economic crisis?