I am looking at a lamp post outside my window. I see how drab it is just standing their all alone and naked. Something needs to go on it.
Ah, I have an idea...
Ann Coulter.
This woman is GOP in microcosm. What a wonderful blessing to man-kind this one is. And to think that we for the longest time did not know that we were in dire need of a woman like that. Wow, how did we ever survive?
This beautiful woman has said things directly of her desire for another terrorist attack on New York; someone should assassinate presidential hopeful John Edwards (the last i checked, calling for the assassination of ANY government official is illegal and that person can be arrested and charge with conspiracy, why is this woman walking free?) She has also went as far as hoping for a nuclear attack, either on US soil or a foreign country and performing genocide on Arabs and other muslims.
What happened to this woman to fill her with so much contempt for everything? Her daddy must have gave her "too much" love as a child? Or maybe it was mommy who did that. Maybe while using the coat-hanger trying to expel the demon seed inside her, mommy just scrambled her brain a little.
The hate that this woman spews is beyond compare and that what she says and many of her actions skirt morality, decency, and in many cases, law it amazes me that no one has stood up to her.
Having just scratched the surface with Coulters shenanigans, I have figured out the solution for the bland lamp post outside my window, just need a little rope.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
More Fun with Right-Wingers
OK, I started a little fire with that last post as I have more questions. The way Bush talks and brags that he, not congress anymore, is the decider he looks more and more like that cop in the Harold and Kumar movie.
You guys talk about the constitution as if it is old and out of date with the times.
I say that about the bible.
Newt Gingrich. What a man. If he decides to run and actually gets elected, you can kiss our constitution goodbye as he supports rewriting it completely. Even doing away with the freedom of speech and religion as "we are in new age and these rules do not apply anymore."
Here is something that right-wingers hate...
Question: Why when you redraw district boundaries do you call it "redistricting" and a democratic thing to do, but when say Vladamir Putin does the EXACT SAME THING you call it an act of tyranny? Can you answer that?
Do you actually have the nations best interest in mind when you think of some of this stuff or do you just want to protect yourself or do you just like being pricks and bully people around?
You guys talk about the constitution as if it is old and out of date with the times.
I say that about the bible.
Newt Gingrich. What a man. If he decides to run and actually gets elected, you can kiss our constitution goodbye as he supports rewriting it completely. Even doing away with the freedom of speech and religion as "we are in new age and these rules do not apply anymore."
Here is something that right-wingers hate...
Question: Why when you redraw district boundaries do you call it "redistricting" and a democratic thing to do, but when say Vladamir Putin does the EXACT SAME THING you call it an act of tyranny? Can you answer that?
Do you actually have the nations best interest in mind when you think of some of this stuff or do you just want to protect yourself or do you just like being pricks and bully people around?
What is Right is What is Wrong
OK right-wingers, answer me this question:
"If you support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so much, why don't you go fight in them?"
Yes its old, but no one really gives a good enough answer. Every right-winger I asked avoids the question as much as many of them avoided the draft when there was one. That or they bring up the same tired Bill Clinton and Oxford and the Draft episode.
So really, I want answers. Why not go fight it? I have heard excuses from injuries, to age, to college attendance. The same excuses people like Pat Buchanan, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity (he is gulf war age and he did not go) et al said. Ted Nugent is my favorite, he just freaked out at his physical then later took target practice at "those pussy protesters".
Is it me, or is it so ironic that 3 Vietnam Vets lost to a man who, lets face it, avoided the draft just like Bill Clinton did. Al Gore, John McCain and John Kerry all veterans of that conflict were all victims of the Bush/Rove machine. So does that mean that Bush et al actually hate the military? I mean, when Karl Rove goes mercilessly after 3 people who did more in their lives than he ever will do, and gets support and direction from the president, what kind of message does that send?
My favorite is Saxby Chambliss. This wonderful piece of shit, chickened out of service in Vietnam and then went on the attack against a man who lost all but one limb in Vietnam. Just like GWB went after John McCain and called him a traitor because he "broke" under the stress of torture. Saxby Shitless had the nerve to call Max Clelland a similar traitor and had pictures of Max superimposed with bin Laden and Hussein. To learned folk, this would not matter but Saxby (he is a guy, not even a fruity guy, but a guy. yeah, i know.) aimed this at the people in Georgia.
So, here we are and I want my answer. Its OK if you are scared to go or think it is more important for other people to do the things you really should be doing.
For the record, I do not support the war(s) so I have no need to fight.
I don't support the troops either. Why? when they signed up, they knew what they were getting into. As for that protecting my freedom bullshit, well, my freedoms and yours ended when congress blindly passed the Patriot Act.
Let me rationalize this so the hate mail does not get too out of hand. I don't feel sorry for a boxer who gets killed in the ring. I do not feel sorry for a football player who gets paralyzed or a baseball player who gets nailed in the nuts by a line drive. See a pattern? They know the hazards of their job. Hey, its horrible what happens, but that is par for the course.
"If you support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so much, why don't you go fight in them?"
Yes its old, but no one really gives a good enough answer. Every right-winger I asked avoids the question as much as many of them avoided the draft when there was one. That or they bring up the same tired Bill Clinton and Oxford and the Draft episode.
So really, I want answers. Why not go fight it? I have heard excuses from injuries, to age, to college attendance. The same excuses people like Pat Buchanan, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity (he is gulf war age and he did not go) et al said. Ted Nugent is my favorite, he just freaked out at his physical then later took target practice at "those pussy protesters".
Is it me, or is it so ironic that 3 Vietnam Vets lost to a man who, lets face it, avoided the draft just like Bill Clinton did. Al Gore, John McCain and John Kerry all veterans of that conflict were all victims of the Bush/Rove machine. So does that mean that Bush et al actually hate the military? I mean, when Karl Rove goes mercilessly after 3 people who did more in their lives than he ever will do, and gets support and direction from the president, what kind of message does that send?
My favorite is Saxby Chambliss. This wonderful piece of shit, chickened out of service in Vietnam and then went on the attack against a man who lost all but one limb in Vietnam. Just like GWB went after John McCain and called him a traitor because he "broke" under the stress of torture. Saxby Shitless had the nerve to call Max Clelland a similar traitor and had pictures of Max superimposed with bin Laden and Hussein. To learned folk, this would not matter but Saxby (he is a guy, not even a fruity guy, but a guy. yeah, i know.) aimed this at the people in Georgia.
So, here we are and I want my answer. Its OK if you are scared to go or think it is more important for other people to do the things you really should be doing.
For the record, I do not support the war(s) so I have no need to fight.
I don't support the troops either. Why? when they signed up, they knew what they were getting into. As for that protecting my freedom bullshit, well, my freedoms and yours ended when congress blindly passed the Patriot Act.
Let me rationalize this so the hate mail does not get too out of hand. I don't feel sorry for a boxer who gets killed in the ring. I do not feel sorry for a football player who gets paralyzed or a baseball player who gets nailed in the nuts by a line drive. See a pattern? They know the hazards of their job. Hey, its horrible what happens, but that is par for the course.
Fun facts of the day
This should have been included in my previous post, "Immigrations Song(s)" but it seems more effective and the numbers stand out more on their own.
Average wait time for a Non-Immigrant Temporary Visitor visa for peoples from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and other Asian countries as well as countries south of the U.S. border:
90 days to a year.
Average wait time for same visa class for peoples from Canada and nations in Western Europe:
2 weeks.
Approval rate for same visa for peoples from Asian and southern countries listed above:
10%
Approval rates for same visa for peoples from Canada and Western Europe:
99%
Average wait time for a K-1 "fiance" visa for peoples coming from non-European countries:
1 year.
Average approval for same:
5%
And for Europe:
Immediately to 30 days for waiting and approval is 99%
A person is 40 times more likely to get a student visa if they are from middle eastern countries than they are from any other non-European countries.
All stats come from the US State Dept website.
Average wait time for a Non-Immigrant Temporary Visitor visa for peoples from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and other Asian countries as well as countries south of the U.S. border:
90 days to a year.
Average wait time for same visa class for peoples from Canada and nations in Western Europe:
2 weeks.
Approval rate for same visa for peoples from Asian and southern countries listed above:
10%
Approval rates for same visa for peoples from Canada and Western Europe:
99%
Average wait time for a K-1 "fiance" visa for peoples coming from non-European countries:
1 year.
Average approval for same:
5%
And for Europe:
Immediately to 30 days for waiting and approval is 99%
A person is 40 times more likely to get a student visa if they are from middle eastern countries than they are from any other non-European countries.
All stats come from the US State Dept website.
Immigration Song(s)
Is it me, or has this immigration bill and all its debates just seem a euphemism for the underlying cause? I here-by rechristen this bill and all legislation by its true and rightful title, "The 2007 Anti-Mexican and Other Brown People Bill" (AMOBP for short, or just Anti Mexican)
Is that bad?
Lets cut the crap. This bill in all its guises is anti-Mexican to the core. Well, anti-"new" Mexican. I bet Bill Richardson would pitch a serious bitch if he heard that. Of all the people this bill will affect, it is the Mexicans and not by name, other brown people as well.
Stop denying it and face up to it! The truth will set you free!
This bill goes to limiting immigration and allowing those here illegally, to become citizens at some point in the future after paying a $5000 fine and doing a 12 month "touch back" to their home country. There is also a provision for a wall. Yes, a wall. A big Roger Waters cum Nikita Khrushchev type of wall. Complete with razor wire, man eating dogs, watch towers, mine fields. God bless America!
Thank god we won the cold war.
I can see it now. In the not so distant future a world leader, since this time the roles will be reversed this leader will be communist or at least far-left leaning. Hugo Chavez will come to the wall and say "Mr. Bush (or whoever is president at the time) tear down this wall!" It is so ironic, that we pay homage to the 20th anniversary of the speech given by Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate where he told Gorbo to tear down his wall and we are talking about building one that will have the same purpose!
Why aren't we building a wall along the Canadian border? What is that? Because Canadians are not coming into our country en-masse and taking our bottom of the rung labor jobs or becoming cooks? How do you know? Do you have stats on that? No! Why? Because Canadians -for the most part- are...wait for it...WHITE!
Tell me again why this bill should not be called "Anti-Mexican and Other Brown People."
Probably because it just sounds so bad, as the truth so often does.
Is that bad?
Lets cut the crap. This bill in all its guises is anti-Mexican to the core. Well, anti-"new" Mexican. I bet Bill Richardson would pitch a serious bitch if he heard that. Of all the people this bill will affect, it is the Mexicans and not by name, other brown people as well.
Stop denying it and face up to it! The truth will set you free!
This bill goes to limiting immigration and allowing those here illegally, to become citizens at some point in the future after paying a $5000 fine and doing a 12 month "touch back" to their home country. There is also a provision for a wall. Yes, a wall. A big Roger Waters cum Nikita Khrushchev type of wall. Complete with razor wire, man eating dogs, watch towers, mine fields. God bless America!
Thank god we won the cold war.
I can see it now. In the not so distant future a world leader, since this time the roles will be reversed this leader will be communist or at least far-left leaning. Hugo Chavez will come to the wall and say "Mr. Bush (or whoever is president at the time) tear down this wall!" It is so ironic, that we pay homage to the 20th anniversary of the speech given by Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate where he told Gorbo to tear down his wall and we are talking about building one that will have the same purpose!
Why aren't we building a wall along the Canadian border? What is that? Because Canadians are not coming into our country en-masse and taking our bottom of the rung labor jobs or becoming cooks? How do you know? Do you have stats on that? No! Why? Because Canadians -for the most part- are...wait for it...WHITE!
Tell me again why this bill should not be called "Anti-Mexican and Other Brown People."
Probably because it just sounds so bad, as the truth so often does.
His Panics!
Pat Buchanan. There is a man for the ages. A man so filled with love of all things white its a wonder he wears black suits sometimes.
Virgil Goode. Congressman from Virginia. A fine outstanding man of principles, carries his own lynching rope in his briefcase and is so apposed to all things dark, even his own shadow is white.
Michael Savage. Vox Populi who so hates democrats and foreigners in general, liberals and "brownies" in particular, he has gone so far as to set up shop in and broadcast his love for all things Aryan from San Francisco!
God Bless the GOP!
These men, who glowingly speak for the party as a whole. Along with Ann Coulter, a woman who so passionately hates the left, that she supports the forced amputation of left arms and legs!, if they were in charge of this country the only thing we would have to fear is ourselves!
Now to get serious.
These people, the spokespeople for the GOP, have a lot of love to spread recently. Mainly dealing with immigration. Boy, you should read and hear what they have to say!
It is well known that Pat does not consider anyone worthy of American citizenship unless they are from Europe. Well, Western Europe. And Canada as long as they are not from Quebec or are Inuit. He does not have any love for non-english speakers unless they speak a language that is either the basis for english (teutonic) or some romance language (like italian or latin -he being catholic) French is not allowed, and woe to he who dares speaks in Spanish tongue. (Tom Tancredo is the same, I will get to him in a minute) Pats love for whiteness goes as far as to exploit all the failures of those of color (ie non western europeans) that he went so far as to say that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were black! (so help me he said it! Tancredo said they were mexicans who used fake names!)
Tom Tancredo is a fine piece of work. His home district is in the sepid backwater of Littleton, Colorado just outside of Denver. Tom hates immigrants, which means he hates his grandparents for immigrating to this country, probably illegally, but he will not admit it. He favors a border fence with Mexico a la Berlin Wall with mine fields, razor wire, M16 toting vigilantes guarding the top and just to show he is serious, he suggests the same thing for southern Colorado to keep those pesky New Mexicans out of his state. Bad enough the old Mexicans are coming in.
What is it with Italians and Irish and why are they so damned racist!?
Michael Savage, god could not create a more wonderful being. He is not Irish, or Italian. He is Jewish. I never met a racist, gay-killing Jew before, but there is a first I guess. You may remember Mikey as the person whom got fired from his job at MSNBC for telling a guest -who is gay- that he hopes he gets AIDS and dies. Saying that to anyone is like telling a Jew to go to the gas chamber. I don't get it. He claims to be an environmentalist, but he is the spokesman for a party that claims mercury is a vitamin and Agent Orange actually pairs nicely with roasted duck. So, I think maybe that is some kind of satire that he has a Ph.D as well.
I only mentioned the other two as filler. Everyone knows Ann from her wonderful voice of inspiration to terrorists everywhere "my only regret is they [9/11 hijackers] did not crash into the New York Times building and kill everyone inside" among others. What's wrong Ann? Did daddy not give you a hug after he was finished with you? As far as Virgil Goode, no real word on if he actually carries a lynching rope in his briefcase, but you never know about them people from the south!
Virgil Goode. Congressman from Virginia. A fine outstanding man of principles, carries his own lynching rope in his briefcase and is so apposed to all things dark, even his own shadow is white.
Michael Savage. Vox Populi who so hates democrats and foreigners in general, liberals and "brownies" in particular, he has gone so far as to set up shop in and broadcast his love for all things Aryan from San Francisco!
God Bless the GOP!
These men, who glowingly speak for the party as a whole. Along with Ann Coulter, a woman who so passionately hates the left, that she supports the forced amputation of left arms and legs!, if they were in charge of this country the only thing we would have to fear is ourselves!
Now to get serious.
These people, the spokespeople for the GOP, have a lot of love to spread recently. Mainly dealing with immigration. Boy, you should read and hear what they have to say!
It is well known that Pat does not consider anyone worthy of American citizenship unless they are from Europe. Well, Western Europe. And Canada as long as they are not from Quebec or are Inuit. He does not have any love for non-english speakers unless they speak a language that is either the basis for english (teutonic) or some romance language (like italian or latin -he being catholic) French is not allowed, and woe to he who dares speaks in Spanish tongue. (Tom Tancredo is the same, I will get to him in a minute) Pats love for whiteness goes as far as to exploit all the failures of those of color (ie non western europeans) that he went so far as to say that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were black! (so help me he said it! Tancredo said they were mexicans who used fake names!)
Tom Tancredo is a fine piece of work. His home district is in the sepid backwater of Littleton, Colorado just outside of Denver. Tom hates immigrants, which means he hates his grandparents for immigrating to this country, probably illegally, but he will not admit it. He favors a border fence with Mexico a la Berlin Wall with mine fields, razor wire, M16 toting vigilantes guarding the top and just to show he is serious, he suggests the same thing for southern Colorado to keep those pesky New Mexicans out of his state. Bad enough the old Mexicans are coming in.
What is it with Italians and Irish and why are they so damned racist!?
Michael Savage, god could not create a more wonderful being. He is not Irish, or Italian. He is Jewish. I never met a racist, gay-killing Jew before, but there is a first I guess. You may remember Mikey as the person whom got fired from his job at MSNBC for telling a guest -who is gay- that he hopes he gets AIDS and dies. Saying that to anyone is like telling a Jew to go to the gas chamber. I don't get it. He claims to be an environmentalist, but he is the spokesman for a party that claims mercury is a vitamin and Agent Orange actually pairs nicely with roasted duck. So, I think maybe that is some kind of satire that he has a Ph.D as well.
I only mentioned the other two as filler. Everyone knows Ann from her wonderful voice of inspiration to terrorists everywhere "my only regret is they [9/11 hijackers] did not crash into the New York Times building and kill everyone inside" among others. What's wrong Ann? Did daddy not give you a hug after he was finished with you? As far as Virgil Goode, no real word on if he actually carries a lynching rope in his briefcase, but you never know about them people from the south!
A fews thought in immigration reform
I hate to tell you this, but we are a racist nation. Come on, admit it. You will feel better about your self if you are honest with yourself. Now, isn't that better?
Now, I hate to be Mr. Negative, but there is too much going around, so I may as well get my slice of the pie.
All this immigration debate has to do with getting rid of the illegal alien culture here. Or supposed anyway. It is a no-brainer to know that when I am talking "illegal alien" I am referring to Hispanics, those lovely people whose language is the most widely spoken in the western hemisphere. I honestly do love them. But why then did I say we are all racists? Read on...
The debate du jour (english-only people, look away, you will find no quarter here) has the US creating what would very well could eventually be the most fortified and heavily defended border in the world. It would make the 38th Parallel look like a picked fence. (yes, i have heard the long tired joke about if we kick out the mexicans, who will build it?) All stated in the guise of national security, which I can get behind. At least that is just one facet of this argument. Protecting our jobs, protecting our culture, protecting our children, blah, blah, blah....bullshit!
Pat Buchanan, in a way that triumphs the right-wing cause, goes out of his way to point out that the shooter at VT was Korean, and he loves to point out the race of anyone who does a crime here. Except white people. The republican party and their spokes-ilk like to triumph the supposed superiority of the white race. However, not too much has been made about the race of those Albanians (remember them?) who wanted to thank us for liberating them from the so-called Serb genocide by attacking one of our military bases. Which is why I say we are a racist society. Let me get to my point now.
In all this jibberish about illegal immigration, not one...ONE mention has been about sealing or otherwise guarding the Canadian border. The argument supporting that is they are not spilling into our country and taking our jobs. Oh no? How do you know? Because they, and I know I am generalizing here, are white. If you go to Montana, Minnesota or any other northern state, you can pass freely and unhindered into Canada and back again if you cross in the wilderness. Do you know what marks the border? Well, in some places there are poles spaced about 10 yards apart and no sign. In more remote places, you need a GPS to tell you where you are. Aside from road crossings, there is absolutely NO security along the 49th parallel making it the largest undefended border in the world. Now, I suppose you can argue that so much of the border crosses over mountain ranges and forested areas making it a bit difficult to monitor constantly and not too many people are going to bother crossing it as it would be too much of a hassle for them. Let me remind you that one of the complaints in Afghanistan is the ease of which the taliban cross into Pakistan, which, is a mountainous frontier not unlike the Am-Can border.
But not to worry, the mounties do do their jobs in keeping America safe. Do a search and see how many confirmed reports of mounties catching undesirables trying to cross into the US to do us harm versus how many times these same people are reported to freely cross from Mexico.
And to those who say illegal immigration is our greatest threat to national security, I want to ask you how many Hispanics were flying airplanes into the World Trade Center?
In the late 1970's, as we were coming to terms with our adventures in Southeast Asia, we accepted a lot of refugees from Vietnam and Pol Pots Cambodia (a regime we actually supported because he hated the Vietnamese, who eventually toppled him and put an end to his fun) and most settled in California but many settled into the Gulf states and became fisherman. I remember all the brouhaha about that. They were so efficient at fishing, they were driving the local fishermen out of the water. Those local fishermen were white by the way.
Now, to make my long awaited point. Just for fun, if all our IT, Call Center jobs were going to Canada, UK, Germany, or somewhere else in Europe, would we make a stink? Sure, I am sure you would say we would, but that is just to argue with me. If those Vietnamese fishermen in the Gulf were say, Norwegian, would anyone make a complaint?
Go ahead, be honest with yourself.
Now, I hate to be Mr. Negative, but there is too much going around, so I may as well get my slice of the pie.
All this immigration debate has to do with getting rid of the illegal alien culture here. Or supposed anyway. It is a no-brainer to know that when I am talking "illegal alien" I am referring to Hispanics, those lovely people whose language is the most widely spoken in the western hemisphere. I honestly do love them. But why then did I say we are all racists? Read on...
The debate du jour (english-only people, look away, you will find no quarter here) has the US creating what would very well could eventually be the most fortified and heavily defended border in the world. It would make the 38th Parallel look like a picked fence. (yes, i have heard the long tired joke about if we kick out the mexicans, who will build it?) All stated in the guise of national security, which I can get behind. At least that is just one facet of this argument. Protecting our jobs, protecting our culture, protecting our children, blah, blah, blah....bullshit!
Pat Buchanan, in a way that triumphs the right-wing cause, goes out of his way to point out that the shooter at VT was Korean, and he loves to point out the race of anyone who does a crime here. Except white people. The republican party and their spokes-ilk like to triumph the supposed superiority of the white race. However, not too much has been made about the race of those Albanians (remember them?) who wanted to thank us for liberating them from the so-called Serb genocide by attacking one of our military bases. Which is why I say we are a racist society. Let me get to my point now.
In all this jibberish about illegal immigration, not one...ONE mention has been about sealing or otherwise guarding the Canadian border. The argument supporting that is they are not spilling into our country and taking our jobs. Oh no? How do you know? Because they, and I know I am generalizing here, are white. If you go to Montana, Minnesota or any other northern state, you can pass freely and unhindered into Canada and back again if you cross in the wilderness. Do you know what marks the border? Well, in some places there are poles spaced about 10 yards apart and no sign. In more remote places, you need a GPS to tell you where you are. Aside from road crossings, there is absolutely NO security along the 49th parallel making it the largest undefended border in the world. Now, I suppose you can argue that so much of the border crosses over mountain ranges and forested areas making it a bit difficult to monitor constantly and not too many people are going to bother crossing it as it would be too much of a hassle for them. Let me remind you that one of the complaints in Afghanistan is the ease of which the taliban cross into Pakistan, which, is a mountainous frontier not unlike the Am-Can border.
But not to worry, the mounties do do their jobs in keeping America safe. Do a search and see how many confirmed reports of mounties catching undesirables trying to cross into the US to do us harm versus how many times these same people are reported to freely cross from Mexico.
And to those who say illegal immigration is our greatest threat to national security, I want to ask you how many Hispanics were flying airplanes into the World Trade Center?
In the late 1970's, as we were coming to terms with our adventures in Southeast Asia, we accepted a lot of refugees from Vietnam and Pol Pots Cambodia (a regime we actually supported because he hated the Vietnamese, who eventually toppled him and put an end to his fun) and most settled in California but many settled into the Gulf states and became fisherman. I remember all the brouhaha about that. They were so efficient at fishing, they were driving the local fishermen out of the water. Those local fishermen were white by the way.
Now, to make my long awaited point. Just for fun, if all our IT, Call Center jobs were going to Canada, UK, Germany, or somewhere else in Europe, would we make a stink? Sure, I am sure you would say we would, but that is just to argue with me. If those Vietnamese fishermen in the Gulf were say, Norwegian, would anyone make a complaint?
Go ahead, be honest with yourself.
How much did you pay?
So, how much did you pay for a gallon of gas this weekend? Where I live, the prices actually went down from a weekly high of $3.37 to $3.21 as we went into the long weekend.
It has been threatened by pundits that gas could go to $4 or $5 a gallon easily and of course that draws the droning whine of people who complain and complain and complain and will not do anything about it. Actually, there is nothing they can do.
How much will you pay for a gallon of gas? How much they tell you you will pay. Pure, plain, and simple.
I don't mean to sound pessimistic or fatalist, but they control our lives deeply and they have no incentive to change. Why would they? Think about it, if you found a way to make billions, do you want to find away to lower those profits? I didn't think so.
What are we going to do?
Nothing.
That was easy.
Seriously, you going to take the bus and sit next to the homeless guy who has not bathed or brushed his teeth in about a year or so and is too caught up with some conversation only he can here. Also, it is just too inconvenient to take the bus or train. Unless you live in a city that life is based around public transportation, it is simply too inconvenient and if you live in a town without it, well, you really have no choice.
There is absolutely no incentive for the big companies to do anything to lower the prices. Yes, I know, petroleum is traded as a commodity and the prices are set by supply and demand and this is true, to a point. Bringing refineries off line for regular maintenance and repairs at the start of the summer season was made to seem just like bad timing. These refineries and pipe-lines could have been worked on regularly over the past several years and yet they weren't. The Katrina excuse is old and weathered. There have been hurricanes in the Gulf before.
I think it is common knowledge that the quoted daily price for a barrel of crude is the spot-price. The companies do not pay that for oil. They have contracted prices that they pay which is far less than the spot-price. Think about this, if the price for a new barrel of oil is, say, $65, then why is the gas that is already produced and sitting in a tank so expensive? That is where a little bit of gouging takes place. The same happens with any commodity. If the price of corn skyrocketted, then the price of those ears in the grocery store will in turn rise.
People whine all day about it and it never stops. People who pay $80 or more to fill up their humongous trucks or SUVs have no right to gripe. When you sign that line for purchasing the vehicle, you knew what you were getting into.
How about replacing petroleum? OK, with what? All this talk about plant and vegetable based fuels is fine and a step in the right direction, but if demand is so high, how are we going to keep up with the demand with plant based fuels? Thats a lot of farming! Hybrids may say you money at the pump, but will really do nothing to lower prices. In fact just the opposite is true here. The more gas they can keep, thats more money for them in the future. The only way to lower prices at all is to completely replace it, but that is not going to happen in my lifetime or my kids or their kids. Move along now.
I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, as we all more or less know this as gospel by now that Iraq was all about oil. If it is not, can someone please tell me why maps of Iraqi oil fields were part of those energy task force meetings that Cheney led? (PS, I grew up in that backwater podunk known as Wyoming when he was a representative there. The man is evil!)
It has been threatened by pundits that gas could go to $4 or $5 a gallon easily and of course that draws the droning whine of people who complain and complain and complain and will not do anything about it. Actually, there is nothing they can do.
How much will you pay for a gallon of gas? How much they tell you you will pay. Pure, plain, and simple.
I don't mean to sound pessimistic or fatalist, but they control our lives deeply and they have no incentive to change. Why would they? Think about it, if you found a way to make billions, do you want to find away to lower those profits? I didn't think so.
What are we going to do?
Nothing.
That was easy.
Seriously, you going to take the bus and sit next to the homeless guy who has not bathed or brushed his teeth in about a year or so and is too caught up with some conversation only he can here. Also, it is just too inconvenient to take the bus or train. Unless you live in a city that life is based around public transportation, it is simply too inconvenient and if you live in a town without it, well, you really have no choice.
There is absolutely no incentive for the big companies to do anything to lower the prices. Yes, I know, petroleum is traded as a commodity and the prices are set by supply and demand and this is true, to a point. Bringing refineries off line for regular maintenance and repairs at the start of the summer season was made to seem just like bad timing. These refineries and pipe-lines could have been worked on regularly over the past several years and yet they weren't. The Katrina excuse is old and weathered. There have been hurricanes in the Gulf before.
I think it is common knowledge that the quoted daily price for a barrel of crude is the spot-price. The companies do not pay that for oil. They have contracted prices that they pay which is far less than the spot-price. Think about this, if the price for a new barrel of oil is, say, $65, then why is the gas that is already produced and sitting in a tank so expensive? That is where a little bit of gouging takes place. The same happens with any commodity. If the price of corn skyrocketted, then the price of those ears in the grocery store will in turn rise.
People whine all day about it and it never stops. People who pay $80 or more to fill up their humongous trucks or SUVs have no right to gripe. When you sign that line for purchasing the vehicle, you knew what you were getting into.
How about replacing petroleum? OK, with what? All this talk about plant and vegetable based fuels is fine and a step in the right direction, but if demand is so high, how are we going to keep up with the demand with plant based fuels? Thats a lot of farming! Hybrids may say you money at the pump, but will really do nothing to lower prices. In fact just the opposite is true here. The more gas they can keep, thats more money for them in the future. The only way to lower prices at all is to completely replace it, but that is not going to happen in my lifetime or my kids or their kids. Move along now.
I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, as we all more or less know this as gospel by now that Iraq was all about oil. If it is not, can someone please tell me why maps of Iraqi oil fields were part of those energy task force meetings that Cheney led? (PS, I grew up in that backwater podunk known as Wyoming when he was a representative there. The man is evil!)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Should people use "FACEBOOK"???
Thanks to the technology today, so that people can make net pals, meet friends, find colleagues, keep in touch with friends all over the world by using many different find-people websites, such as, facebook, WYAN, Targeted, HI5 and many others. But how security are these websites? Can all these create a personl profile online to public bring any disadvantages to us or damage our future career?
A true story about some people created online profiles leading they getting fired by the company. How did this happen? And what did this has to do with people having a profile just in order to make internet friends?
The reason behind this was a person who in charge of hiring employees of a company, found out his/her employees' internet profiles containing alcohol abusing at pubs or clubs, sending naughty messages to his/her friends, and telling the public that he or she is a gay or a lesbian. This hiring person automatically thinks employees behave like this will influence others by their messy private life, and will bring negative impact to the company. This kind of assume is especially happening to the Airlines because the airlines' employees represent the company, and happening to the school because parents will preserve sexual abuse on children if this teacher is a gay or a lesbian.
Yes! People argue that a person's private life should have nothing to do with their jobs, and having a horrible life after work doesn't mean that they do not perform well at work.
Yes! Indeed, people think companies should hire by skills not by the personality or should hire by personality or skills. However, companies can always make up unreasonable excuses just to fire you in order to save more labor costs.
As long as you are the owner, you have the right to choose what kind of people you want to hire, such as religions, skin colors, politic preferences, nationalities, beliefs and so on. Also, some diseases or illness can be a excuse for owners not to hire you.
The story above explained why these people got fired, simply because their owner think naughty or discrimination messages they send to other colleagues had already proved they are discriminal to others. Does this discriminal issue need to be proved again? No, it had automatically been proved by the public or others without any checking to done by the owner.
And it gives the owner a great excuse to dismissal workers just to save more money.
A true story about some people created online profiles leading they getting fired by the company. How did this happen? And what did this has to do with people having a profile just in order to make internet friends?
The reason behind this was a person who in charge of hiring employees of a company, found out his/her employees' internet profiles containing alcohol abusing at pubs or clubs, sending naughty messages to his/her friends, and telling the public that he or she is a gay or a lesbian. This hiring person automatically thinks employees behave like this will influence others by their messy private life, and will bring negative impact to the company. This kind of assume is especially happening to the Airlines because the airlines' employees represent the company, and happening to the school because parents will preserve sexual abuse on children if this teacher is a gay or a lesbian.
Yes! People argue that a person's private life should have nothing to do with their jobs, and having a horrible life after work doesn't mean that they do not perform well at work.
Yes! Indeed, people think companies should hire by skills not by the personality or should hire by personality or skills. However, companies can always make up unreasonable excuses just to fire you in order to save more labor costs.
As long as you are the owner, you have the right to choose what kind of people you want to hire, such as religions, skin colors, politic preferences, nationalities, beliefs and so on. Also, some diseases or illness can be a excuse for owners not to hire you.
The story above explained why these people got fired, simply because their owner think naughty or discrimination messages they send to other colleagues had already proved they are discriminal to others. Does this discriminal issue need to be proved again? No, it had automatically been proved by the public or others without any checking to done by the owner.
And it gives the owner a great excuse to dismissal workers just to save more money.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Chinese are absolutely SENSELESS!!!
Chinese usually think they are the best on the planet, lack of senses because most Chinese children are the only child in a family and also because of their government covering the truth on news and presses.
One of my classmate poped out a silly and foolish sentence out of her mouth when she saw the US teacher writing the Engliah alphabet on the white board. She proudly said to me, "oh, the teacher is writing the Chinese pinyin, we create it". I laughed and said, "there is no Chinese pinyin and that's not created by China, those are your evil government copied from, just wants to become the most powerful country in the word and it is just easy for foreigners to learn how to pronounce Chinese characters ".
Haha, it can be seen that most Chinese are so foolish and simply believe they make everything. Every Taiwanese food company which has a branch factory in China, Chinese immediately think that's their Chinese company. Oh god, so many stupid questions or answers they tell are really busted my laughing. And they don't want to accept the fact. How childish and unwilling to lose just like little frog lives inside the well, have absolutely no sense at all what so ever. Haha
One of my classmate poped out a silly and foolish sentence out of her mouth when she saw the US teacher writing the Engliah alphabet on the white board. She proudly said to me, "oh, the teacher is writing the Chinese pinyin, we create it". I laughed and said, "there is no Chinese pinyin and that's not created by China, those are your evil government copied from, just wants to become the most powerful country in the word and it is just easy for foreigners to learn how to pronounce Chinese characters ".
Haha, it can be seen that most Chinese are so foolish and simply believe they make everything. Every Taiwanese food company which has a branch factory in China, Chinese immediately think that's their Chinese company. Oh god, so many stupid questions or answers they tell are really busted my laughing. And they don't want to accept the fact. How childish and unwilling to lose just like little frog lives inside the well, have absolutely no sense at all what so ever. Haha
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Motivation=Sex + Money?
In European workplace, people put a lot of efforts doing research on "motivation", trying to figure out what really motivates people to increase their productivities.
Yes! We all came across having a wonderful dream and vision of how we can be in the market place after we graduated with a glory. However, the reality is usually opposite to what we imagine, realizing that this society isn't what we expect and getting a promotion isn't that easy no matter high our education are.
We all have a plan to work all the way up to be an manager or director, we carefully measure what we can do in order to be successful. But it's difficult for us, people don't own a company, not knowing someone from the company or not kissing our bosses asses. This will decrease our motivation after couple months working at the company, but it is also sad that we cannot leave our jobs even we don't like/enjoy it. Because we might have a family to feed, a house to pay off, and so on, plus the whole inflation is like a butterfly effect affects every country glob wide. This suck economic society keeps us stay in where we are, just to make some life and not to end up in the street.
And then, here comes the problem, many companies start to layoff their employees might with reasons, such as the company is closing down or cutting labor costs, or without reasons, like we don't need your service anymore or replacing my relatives/friends first and so on.
Some companies will even hire consulting companies which also called "efficiency management" to investigate employees' productivities, and reporting to our bosses, so that our bosses can decide who can stay and who should go. For what i think about this, i really feel unfair for having outside company to give me interview and monitor me for the whole week, these consulting companies do not work at my firm, they know nothing about what my job but viewing us in their own professional perspectives.
Yes!!! Telling them that i got a family to feed, having a car and house to payoff are not going to be part of their considerations. So, we keep our nerves by increasing our productivities and hope we won't get fired. This kind of motivation is called "Fear" which i talked about last time and this is an forced motivation. How long does this motivation last? We don't know but we will need to do what we have to and exceed it even though we hate it. Fear can only motivate people in the short-term, as long as the economy gets better, people will leave without doubt.
People should have motivation by their own, in this way, people's productivities will be higher and our working environment will be pleasant. But what really motivates people to stay at a firm and work happily? The answer is "Sex and Money", no doubt, money always comes first, we all want more money so we can have a better life quality. And we are all willing to bend our knees if we get more salaries even if we know the company is trying to control us by using this. But how many companies are willing to pay more just in order to motivate us? Not many, you should feel happy that they don't cut your pay check or you don't get fired.
Therefore, many previous researches found motivation on jobs were expectation, enjoining the workplace, and so on which were not totally true. Yes, there are still some people who actually motivate by these factors. But why i said the real factors behind this research isn't true because many researches are done by quantitative means, we only have few options to choose when we are trying to complete the survey, it can be known that if there was not have the option we want, we leave it a blank, we won't even want to waste our time on filling out a survey, of course, we won't have time to write down what really motivates us.
Yes! We all came across having a wonderful dream and vision of how we can be in the market place after we graduated with a glory. However, the reality is usually opposite to what we imagine, realizing that this society isn't what we expect and getting a promotion isn't that easy no matter high our education are.
We all have a plan to work all the way up to be an manager or director, we carefully measure what we can do in order to be successful. But it's difficult for us, people don't own a company, not knowing someone from the company or not kissing our bosses asses. This will decrease our motivation after couple months working at the company, but it is also sad that we cannot leave our jobs even we don't like/enjoy it. Because we might have a family to feed, a house to pay off, and so on, plus the whole inflation is like a butterfly effect affects every country glob wide. This suck economic society keeps us stay in where we are, just to make some life and not to end up in the street.
And then, here comes the problem, many companies start to layoff their employees might with reasons, such as the company is closing down or cutting labor costs, or without reasons, like we don't need your service anymore or replacing my relatives/friends first and so on.
Some companies will even hire consulting companies which also called "efficiency management" to investigate employees' productivities, and reporting to our bosses, so that our bosses can decide who can stay and who should go. For what i think about this, i really feel unfair for having outside company to give me interview and monitor me for the whole week, these consulting companies do not work at my firm, they know nothing about what my job but viewing us in their own professional perspectives.
Yes!!! Telling them that i got a family to feed, having a car and house to payoff are not going to be part of their considerations. So, we keep our nerves by increasing our productivities and hope we won't get fired. This kind of motivation is called "Fear" which i talked about last time and this is an forced motivation. How long does this motivation last? We don't know but we will need to do what we have to and exceed it even though we hate it. Fear can only motivate people in the short-term, as long as the economy gets better, people will leave without doubt.
People should have motivation by their own, in this way, people's productivities will be higher and our working environment will be pleasant. But what really motivates people to stay at a firm and work happily? The answer is "Sex and Money", no doubt, money always comes first, we all want more money so we can have a better life quality. And we are all willing to bend our knees if we get more salaries even if we know the company is trying to control us by using this. But how many companies are willing to pay more just in order to motivate us? Not many, you should feel happy that they don't cut your pay check or you don't get fired.
Therefore, many previous researches found motivation on jobs were expectation, enjoining the workplace, and so on which were not totally true. Yes, there are still some people who actually motivate by these factors. But why i said the real factors behind this research isn't true because many researches are done by quantitative means, we only have few options to choose when we are trying to complete the survey, it can be known that if there was not have the option we want, we leave it a blank, we won't even want to waste our time on filling out a survey, of course, we won't have time to write down what really motivates us.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Attribution Training
Attribution Training is how people make judgments concerning the causes of behavior, it has similar meaning with Symbolic Inteaction. That is, for example, we usually attribute meanings by others actions from our own culture, we know that in most of our cultures, smiling means happy, crying means sad, feeling sick is okay to tell people, these actions are interpreted as "Norms" from the culture that we grow up with. However, smiling might mean sad, getting an headache might not okay to tell others in some other cultures which we are not familiar with. Also, we will automatically think of some kinds of actions and react about it, for instance, imagining if someone passed by and put an cockroach on our plates, we will think that's disgusting by nature and say 'god, that's so gross'.
So, this training is to train people to control it and stop it, before we attribute meanings, think of it and then react it.
This also has the relationship with human mental programming, Hofstede illustrated three levels of uniqueness in human mental programming. The first level is Human Nature which could be divided into universal or inherited, in inherited level which means the nature of we were born with, and they are abilities to think, feel, and express ourselves. The second level is culture, it can defined as specific to a group and learning, for example, stores place those small toys or candies right next to the checking desk just to attract kids' attention, and kids like to ask their mothers to buy those stuff by asking hundred times, "can i have this? can i have that? how about this? how about that?", some parents will finally surrender to children and put those small stuff in the shopping car, some parents will slap on kids' faces and tell them to shut up. And this is where children learn how to behave, what's norms and what's not. Another example is parents usually warn kids to behave by a list of Don't, and parents will reward kids or say something good to them if kids behave good. Kids might be taken to cars and sit with parents when they are not behaved. Finally, the third level is personality, this is what you were born with and being unique from others. This is what no one can change because it was given by parent's gens, yes, you can learn how to change your personality, such as being a spy or actor/actress who needs to change personality not to show this on their faces just to do their jobs.
~from xiao mei
So, this training is to train people to control it and stop it, before we attribute meanings, think of it and then react it.
This also has the relationship with human mental programming, Hofstede illustrated three levels of uniqueness in human mental programming. The first level is Human Nature which could be divided into universal or inherited, in inherited level which means the nature of we were born with, and they are abilities to think, feel, and express ourselves. The second level is culture, it can defined as specific to a group and learning, for example, stores place those small toys or candies right next to the checking desk just to attract kids' attention, and kids like to ask their mothers to buy those stuff by asking hundred times, "can i have this? can i have that? how about this? how about that?", some parents will finally surrender to children and put those small stuff in the shopping car, some parents will slap on kids' faces and tell them to shut up. And this is where children learn how to behave, what's norms and what's not. Another example is parents usually warn kids to behave by a list of Don't, and parents will reward kids or say something good to them if kids behave good. Kids might be taken to cars and sit with parents when they are not behaved. Finally, the third level is personality, this is what you were born with and being unique from others. This is what no one can change because it was given by parent's gens, yes, you can learn how to change your personality, such as being a spy or actor/actress who needs to change personality not to show this on their faces just to do their jobs.
~from xiao mei
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
F-word missing from a model workplace
Years of theorizing and experimentation by for great thinkers do not seem to have given fear its proper place in the motivational armory.
Why do we work?Is it the money? Is it because we love our jobs? Or does it have something to do with fear? In eight years of looking at this issue, I have read plenty of motivational theories that associate work with people's needs or wants but very few that mention fear.
Yet it seems to me that fear remains a significant source of motivation. Fear of failure, fear of getting fired, or missing a deadline or of losing face: are these not all powerful emotions that tie people to their regular jobs? How many people are prepared to endure tyrannical bosses, harassment and miserable working conditions simply so that they can hold on to a job?
It seems extraordinary to be considering these questions today, after so many years of theorizing from the likes of Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg and Douglas McGregor-the "big four" of motivational theory. But for all their ideas that did so much to advance our thinking on motivation, they failed to create a satisfactory theory of work.
Mayo was inspired by perhaps the most famous of all experiments in motivation, those carried out at the Hawthorne factory of Western Electric in Chicago. I went there a few years ago in a kind of industrial tour of the Mid-west. Those at Midvale and Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, where Frederick Taylor carried out his work on scientific management are derelict although the old Bethlehem Steel plant is being made into an industrial museum.
The empty factory floors of the Hawthorne works were awaiting redevelopment at the time I called. The factory had hosted a series of experiments between 1924 and 1932. These had two distinct phases. The first was designed to discover whether electric lighting -then a new development for factories - could improve productivity.
The small "test" team of women assembly workers did indeed improve its output when the lighting was increased. What really threw the investigators was that when the lighting was dimmed to the level of moonlight, production rose again.
Mayo, the Harvard professor brought in to comment on a further set of experiments, this time looking for the real reasons behind the increased output, concluded that it had everything to do with employee morale. The women, he said, felt special because they had been separated from others and given much more managerial attention than their colleagues. People were talking an interest in them. The conclusions may well have been correct but the absence of a proper control experiment meant that other possibilities could not be discounted. Western Electric's personnel manager, for example, believed that money had been the biggest factor in the production improvements, since those in the test room had been given a better rate of pay. But Mayo chose to ignore this point. He also ignored the idea that motivation can vary in strength and direction depending on circumstances.
Maslow pursued this line of thinking in developing his theoretical hieracrchy of needs that explains how people's desires change as respective needs are fulfilled. Frederick Herzberg turned the problem of motivation on its head by looking at sources of dissatisfaction at work and found that the things that demotivated people differed from those that inspired them.
The conditions that needed to be right if people were not to become dissatisfied with their jobs he called "hygiene factors". In various studies, he found that the most important of these involved the culture of the company and the way that people were supervised. Work conditions and salary were important but less so. What he called the "intrinsic motivators" were the sense of achievement from a job were done, recognition, the work itself and responsibility, together with, to a lesser extent, potential for advancement and learning.
Curiously, although Herzberg considered what he called "kick in the pants" motivation, he did not associate this with fear. Rather he reflected that motivation was attached to the supervisor who was issuing the threat. There was motivational push - the kick - and there was an alternative "pull" that could be exerted through reward. This stick-and-carrot approach, he concluded was not intrinsic motivation, because people were doing things in response to some stimulus and not because it was something they really wanted to do. With this kind of stimulus, he noted, it was necessary constantly to up the ante.
In an experiment that did include control groups to avoid the distorting "Hawthorne effect", Herzberg's list of leading motivators such as recognition and added responsibility were introduced gradually at the rate of one a week among one of the groups. Subject matter experts were appointed in each group, supervision and the inspection of work were reduced and work quotas were dropped. Within six months the group was outperforming the control groups where no such changes had been introduced. The achieving group's members were enjoying their jobs more and experiencing less absenteeism than the other groups.
Unlike the Hawthorne results, Herzberg's studies had established beyond doubt the productivity that could be achieved by investing greater responsibility among work teams. So, why in spite of all that has been demonstrated about the advantages of investing responsibility in workers - so-called empowerment - do we still see so little of it in the workplace?
Why instead do so many managements feel that it is acceptable, even desirable, to maintain a climate of fear? Sally-Ann Huson, knowledge and intellectual property director at TMI, a UK training and development company, points out that a degree of fear can be helpful in some activities.
"Fear of falling off a cliff when you are skiing will keep you focused on what you are doing; but I don't experience the same fear when I am running a training program. It's less of an issue", she says. You could argue that it can be linked to your reputation or a worry of experiencing rejection.
" A lot of people don't realize that motivation is about the circumstances that exist at any given moment when a task needs to be accomplished. I love what I do and find it inspiring. But there are days when my energy isn't there and the "to do" list is as long at the end as it was at the beginning. We have to accept that motivation is a complex issue."
There's the rub. It helps to explain why Peter Drucker, the management writer, once remarked: "We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it."
by Richard Donkin
richard.donkin@ft.com
Why do we work?Is it the money? Is it because we love our jobs? Or does it have something to do with fear? In eight years of looking at this issue, I have read plenty of motivational theories that associate work with people's needs or wants but very few that mention fear.
Yet it seems to me that fear remains a significant source of motivation. Fear of failure, fear of getting fired, or missing a deadline or of losing face: are these not all powerful emotions that tie people to their regular jobs? How many people are prepared to endure tyrannical bosses, harassment and miserable working conditions simply so that they can hold on to a job?
It seems extraordinary to be considering these questions today, after so many years of theorizing from the likes of Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg and Douglas McGregor-the "big four" of motivational theory. But for all their ideas that did so much to advance our thinking on motivation, they failed to create a satisfactory theory of work.
Mayo was inspired by perhaps the most famous of all experiments in motivation, those carried out at the Hawthorne factory of Western Electric in Chicago. I went there a few years ago in a kind of industrial tour of the Mid-west. Those at Midvale and Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, where Frederick Taylor carried out his work on scientific management are derelict although the old Bethlehem Steel plant is being made into an industrial museum.
The empty factory floors of the Hawthorne works were awaiting redevelopment at the time I called. The factory had hosted a series of experiments between 1924 and 1932. These had two distinct phases. The first was designed to discover whether electric lighting -then a new development for factories - could improve productivity.
The small "test" team of women assembly workers did indeed improve its output when the lighting was increased. What really threw the investigators was that when the lighting was dimmed to the level of moonlight, production rose again.
Mayo, the Harvard professor brought in to comment on a further set of experiments, this time looking for the real reasons behind the increased output, concluded that it had everything to do with employee morale. The women, he said, felt special because they had been separated from others and given much more managerial attention than their colleagues. People were talking an interest in them. The conclusions may well have been correct but the absence of a proper control experiment meant that other possibilities could not be discounted. Western Electric's personnel manager, for example, believed that money had been the biggest factor in the production improvements, since those in the test room had been given a better rate of pay. But Mayo chose to ignore this point. He also ignored the idea that motivation can vary in strength and direction depending on circumstances.
Maslow pursued this line of thinking in developing his theoretical hieracrchy of needs that explains how people's desires change as respective needs are fulfilled. Frederick Herzberg turned the problem of motivation on its head by looking at sources of dissatisfaction at work and found that the things that demotivated people differed from those that inspired them.
The conditions that needed to be right if people were not to become dissatisfied with their jobs he called "hygiene factors". In various studies, he found that the most important of these involved the culture of the company and the way that people were supervised. Work conditions and salary were important but less so. What he called the "intrinsic motivators" were the sense of achievement from a job were done, recognition, the work itself and responsibility, together with, to a lesser extent, potential for advancement and learning.
Curiously, although Herzberg considered what he called "kick in the pants" motivation, he did not associate this with fear. Rather he reflected that motivation was attached to the supervisor who was issuing the threat. There was motivational push - the kick - and there was an alternative "pull" that could be exerted through reward. This stick-and-carrot approach, he concluded was not intrinsic motivation, because people were doing things in response to some stimulus and not because it was something they really wanted to do. With this kind of stimulus, he noted, it was necessary constantly to up the ante.
In an experiment that did include control groups to avoid the distorting "Hawthorne effect", Herzberg's list of leading motivators such as recognition and added responsibility were introduced gradually at the rate of one a week among one of the groups. Subject matter experts were appointed in each group, supervision and the inspection of work were reduced and work quotas were dropped. Within six months the group was outperforming the control groups where no such changes had been introduced. The achieving group's members were enjoying their jobs more and experiencing less absenteeism than the other groups.
Unlike the Hawthorne results, Herzberg's studies had established beyond doubt the productivity that could be achieved by investing greater responsibility among work teams. So, why in spite of all that has been demonstrated about the advantages of investing responsibility in workers - so-called empowerment - do we still see so little of it in the workplace?
Why instead do so many managements feel that it is acceptable, even desirable, to maintain a climate of fear? Sally-Ann Huson, knowledge and intellectual property director at TMI, a UK training and development company, points out that a degree of fear can be helpful in some activities.
"Fear of falling off a cliff when you are skiing will keep you focused on what you are doing; but I don't experience the same fear when I am running a training program. It's less of an issue", she says. You could argue that it can be linked to your reputation or a worry of experiencing rejection.
" A lot of people don't realize that motivation is about the circumstances that exist at any given moment when a task needs to be accomplished. I love what I do and find it inspiring. But there are days when my energy isn't there and the "to do" list is as long at the end as it was at the beginning. We have to accept that motivation is a complex issue."
There's the rub. It helps to explain why Peter Drucker, the management writer, once remarked: "We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it."
by Richard Donkin
richard.donkin@ft.com
Monday, April 21, 2008
A common silly statment among Taiwan job seekers
It is no doubt that most people look for jobs before, back to my parents' generation, people first needed to fill out a resume, then mailed it to the company they applied for, finally they have to wait for couple days after to be informed. Then, companies might call you to arrange time or mail you back before you go job interview. Thanks to the Internet, people can now research jobs on line, it saves more time and resume can be sent to many companies at the same time in one day. And companies can email you back to let you know if they want to interview or not.
In Taiwan, having English speaking, reading, and writing will gain chances to have a job, as long as you have the ability, you are likely to have a further talking with companies' department head or top management. About 3 years ago, I came across a real situation on reading people's on-line resume as a secretary. Yes, it is hard for people to compete with others as people's education are getting higher and higher, for those who don't have enough money to study oversea, they usually lie on their resume or being silly when they fill out the Language column. It is obvious to see and tell this person having a ability to use English or not by looking at their previous workplaces, experiences, and education. It is funny that people don't actually have the ability to use English as a tool but they still want to show they might have a potential ability to use their native language for applying a job. Here is a typical silly statement what i saw on hundred on-line resumes.
Language:
From above, it can be seen that some Taiwanese are funny, it is understandable that having an language skill is helpful but for native speakers, good at speaking in Chinese is radical since we were born with and speak along with.
And YES!!! Good at listening, speaking, reading and writing in Chinese is good but that is impossible for anyone, even for the foreigners to master their mother tongues.
And NO!!! We will not consider to hire you first.
In Taiwan, having English speaking, reading, and writing will gain chances to have a job, as long as you have the ability, you are likely to have a further talking with companies' department head or top management. About 3 years ago, I came across a real situation on reading people's on-line resume as a secretary. Yes, it is hard for people to compete with others as people's education are getting higher and higher, for those who don't have enough money to study oversea, they usually lie on their resume or being silly when they fill out the Language column. It is obvious to see and tell this person having a ability to use English or not by looking at their previous workplaces, experiences, and education. It is funny that people don't actually have the ability to use English as a tool but they still want to show they might have a potential ability to use their native language for applying a job. Here is a typical silly statement what i saw on hundred on-line resumes.
Language:
| English very good good average bad |
| Listening |
| Speaking |
| Reading |
| Writing |
| Japanese very good good average bad |
| Listening |
| Speaking |
| Reading |
| Writing |
| Chinese very good good average bad |
| Listening v |
| Speaking v |
| Reading v |
| Writing v |
From above, it can be seen that some Taiwanese are funny, it is understandable that having an language skill is helpful but for native speakers, good at speaking in Chinese is radical since we were born with and speak along with.
And YES!!! Good at listening, speaking, reading and writing in Chinese is good but that is impossible for anyone, even for the foreigners to master their mother tongues.
And NO!!! We will not consider to hire you first.
How do Chinese learn English?
It is hard for Chinese and Taiwanese to learn English, especially for adults. As English is still the most common required language in the world, learning English is essential in Asia countries. In Taiwan, if you are able speak, read, and write in English, it will benefit people for getting a better job and a better salary. However, it is hard for people to pick up English because majority speak mandarin every day. Besides, the main purpose for students to learn English is to pass the examination. Therefore, someone come up with a creative way to help students memorize vocabularies which English sound associates with similar Taiwanese phonetic nation. Also, separating the vocabularies into several parts will also help students to memorize the spelling. The following example will be shown as followed which is the most funny one for foreigners to understand what i am talking about.
Teacher: what's "Hero"?
Student: I don't know.
Teacher: Hero is "her" + "O", which means you make your girlfriend go OOOOOOOO, that's called Hero, understand?!
Teacher: what's "Hero"?
Student: I don't know.
Teacher: Hero is "her" + "O", which means you make your girlfriend go OOOOOOOO, that's called Hero, understand?!
doing laundry in Swizterland
In England and Ireland, people usually talk about weather everyday because the weather is pretty much the same. But, the “laundry” topic will be talked about each day in Swizterland. The reason people talk about and feel frustrated bout this is doing laundry having a specific timing. Here, every apartment has its laundry hours, some places are Wednesday at 8AM to 12AM, some are Thursday at 9AM to 2PM, unless you own your personal apartment. And this cause people feeling frustrated because some people might need to rush home or teachers cannot schedule any class at the particular time just to do laundry, otherwise, they have to wait till next well when the laundry room will be available again. The other thing about the laundry topic is all washing machines in Switerland will automatically go off in lunch time, so, if you are not a local here, you might think that you break the machine. But since you do not break the machine, how come it goes off when your laundry is in the half way through. That is most people going home or dinning out for lunch everyday, the Swiss government turns off the electricity on washing machines in lunch time just to offer power for restaurants, also they don’t want to overload the power in the whole society.
doing grocery in Swizterland
New residents in Swizterland found shops opening hours are very annoying which caused them feel irritate and anger. All shops close at 12 in noon and re-open at 1.30 PM or 2 PM because everyone goes home for lunch. But this is not the most annoying things brining people anger, to answer this is the Holidays in Swizterland. Many people hurry themselves to do grocery after work, usually stores close at 5 or 5.30PM from Monday to Friday. But when they finally get to the stores, the stores were closed because of the Swiss holiday, and many foreigners don’t know what’s going on, they see a sign saying “holidays closed” posted on the door, they look at the dictionary and finally know what the sign means. The case like this, it’s the worse enough, the most worse case is you rush to stores on Thursday or Friday afternoon, and you realized no shops open on holidays which means you will have no food, no toilet paper…from Thursday / Friday till next Monday. Therefore, people will try to finish doing their groceries whenever they get off from work each day.
Taiwan special culture
A Taiwanese couple travelled to Japan by joining the travel group, the travel guide announced something tourists should be aware of just right after they passed through Japan immigration at the airport. So, what kind of important issuse that taiwanese should be careful about, we thought our culture is similar to Japanese. The answer is "throw the toliet paper into the toliet after it's been used". Most people must laugh out load right now and thinking this sould be the common sense for everybody. In fact, Taiwanese has something exceptional from others culture, and this might be rediculous for others. People who heard this will start to ask themselves about the image of Taiwanese by asking "oh, i thought Taiwanese are well-educated, I can't believe that, i thought only CAVE MEN will do that. Yes, we might be looked like weirdos, and YES, we don't throw used toliet paper into toliet and flush it away along with. We were taught to throw papers to trash can when we were kids.
Complaints have been made by Japanese of seeing Taiwanese used toliet papers in the trash can causes them feel disgusting and unhygienic. Therefore, travel guides will inform Taiwan tourists not to do this just to keep reputation of Taiwan.
Today, learning deciding toliet papers' final destination is something that Taiwanese should be re-educated. It will be the essential etiquette leason for Taiwanese.
Beause of this bad reputation coming from Japanese, the mayor of Taipei city in Taiwan has already broadcast this news onto the TV news, also wants people to be aware of the difference between Toliet Paper (roll) and Tissues (for facial), so, people knows which kind of paper should people use in the proper places, also not to block the toliet and reduce the chances in getting drains too muddy.
~from Ms. Pei Chi
~source: und.com & yahoo news (04.21.2008)
Complaints have been made by Japanese of seeing Taiwanese used toliet papers in the trash can causes them feel disgusting and unhygienic. Therefore, travel guides will inform Taiwan tourists not to do this just to keep reputation of Taiwan.
Today, learning deciding toliet papers' final destination is something that Taiwanese should be re-educated. It will be the essential etiquette leason for Taiwanese.
Beause of this bad reputation coming from Japanese, the mayor of Taipei city in Taiwan has already broadcast this news onto the TV news, also wants people to be aware of the difference between Toliet Paper (roll) and Tissues (for facial), so, people knows which kind of paper should people use in the proper places, also not to block the toliet and reduce the chances in getting drains too muddy.
~from Ms. Pei Chi
~source: und.com & yahoo news (04.21.2008)
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