Monday, December 18, 2006

Dictators

During the turmoil in Russia during the 1990s a little know general called Aleksandr Lebed became a name to fear. He was a general who, during the dying phases of Soviet Union kept order with an iron fist. Lebed allowed for his soldiers to sharpen the ends of their spades, so that great masses would be easily controlled.

For some reason Lebed admired the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. He said that by sacrificing the lives of ‘only’ 3000 people, Pinochet restored order back into the country under the reign of communism and claimed that Pinochet saved the lives of atleast 30,000. That is usually the minimum number of casualties where ever communism was implemented as the ruling form of politics.

When general Pinochet passed away last week a handful of people in Chile mourned for him, but the world judged and condemned him even after his death. The intellectuals of the wesk wont admit that perhaps Pinochet with his coup de dat and dictatorship saved Chile from an even worse communist terror state.

If you line up Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot or any eastern European communist country, under which people were systematically butchered, only Hitler can compete with the amount of atrocities committed. Franco and Pinochet were good Samaritans compared to the fore mentioned and their only defence is that after their deaths or fall from power flourishing democracies were formed.

Today Chile is the wealthiest country of Southern America, were the Peso has been devalued many times. Dictators have the edge over communist tyranny, from likes of Stalin, that they have left the trying middle class alone. After Lenin was done with the upper class, he went after the middle class, the engine of every thriving society. Without this engine, not a single society will work. Stalin had the farmers murdered. It can still be seen from Russia, that after 15 years since the fall of the Soviet Union it has not been able to establish a solid middle class or wealthy farmers. The former superpower of agriculture has become a leech to other European countries.

Communist dictatorship have been far worse for its people than say your Pinochet’s, because you simply cannot remove a communist dictatorship. Where ever communism has risen to power they have always built a regime where those who do not agree are systematically murdered. People could not fight power of this magnitude. It is just like East-Germany’s secret police was far bigger that Hitler’s Gestapo.

Southern American revolutions were co-ordinated by Soviet Union’s massive networks of KGB agents, whose core were professional revolutionaries, who escaped from the Spanish civil war to Soviet Union. The Soviets set up boarding schools for the children, so that their mothers and fathers could take the revolution in to all Hispanic countries.

It is risky to write about Franco and Pinochet, or of any dictator for that matter, or compare who was worse. All of the dictators have committed horrible atrocities against humanity and have all deserved the title, Dictator. Even though Franco, before his fall from power arranged a king who respected Democracy into Spain and Pinochet, after losing the election bowed out from the seat of power. The fact is that without Franco and Pinochet, Spain and Chile would have been the next Cuba or Cambodia.


Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Big Brother Teaches Us So...

The reality TV Behemot Big Brother has offered us countless of valuable lessons that we can really learn from. One competitor long gone and forgotten once said he could "forget all other jobs and could only focus on TV-shows." Though the sad state of affairs is that Big Brother is not really work. People who sit, drink, fight and fuck on live TV can't really be called workers.

At schools children should receive secure basic education, which will help them get places in life. But in the light of the Big Brother phenomenon, or any reality TV phenomenon for that matter, the department of education should reconsider what to teach children. What do they care about mastering the English grammar and spelling, when they spend more time trying to imitate their reality TV idols.

What good is learning about DNA or biology if you sit at a dinner table wearing a hat, burbing and you laugh at your loudest farts of all time. Is there any point in reading classic novels or analyse art/poetry when participants reflect their views on life from the various marketing strap lines.

I think the Department of education is teaching kids the wrong things don't you?
Another great lesson Big Brother has offered us over the years is the increase in divorces. The reason being only in man's stupidity and nothing else. If some one wants to get busy with some one else rather than their girlfriend or wife you do it and don't get caught. Or then you can go the Big Brother way: go live in a reality TV house and exercise bed wrestling with an airhead blonde and hope that no one sees. It only goes to TV.

Friday, December 01, 2006

People's Wonder

A young CEO is starting his first day on the job. He marches proudly into his room and finds his predecessor packing his things. As an enthusiastic learner the new recruit asks if the older more experienced CEO can give any pointers to start the company running on a solid base.

The older, CEO looked at the new recruit tiredly and wearily. “I’m not giving you any tips now, but you will get three numbered envelopes. When you feel you are under pressure open one and you will get proper instructions.”

The first year went how it went and the new CEO started to feel under pressure. The company wasn’t producing as expected and the board of directors wanted an explanation.
The CEO opens up the first envelope. The advice was: Blame your predecessor.

And the CEO did as instructed. The board was ecstatic and encouraged the new CEO to take radical actions. As a result two hundred employees were laid off and the stocks took off.

This only lasted for a while though. Soon the CEO found himself with another envelope in his hand. Initiate organisational restructure, was the advice. Soon full blown chaos took over the whole office. No one did what they were supposed to, but work did seem like work.

Another year on the young CEO looked twenty years his age. The board wanted more effective actions as the investors ideas and profitability was not up to scratch. So he opens the third and final envelope. It read: Prepare three envelopes for your successor and pack your things.
International companies’ CEOs lifespan is on average 2.7 years. Is it a surprise that the business world lives like it is the last day on earth. Shit happens, as they say.

The latest example is the ever struggling gas and electricity industry. British Gas lost a bundle of money and customers as it hiked up its prices in the early part of the year. The rationale was that the company would lower its prices in the future and the price hike was only a temporary solution. But what happened? The people rose up and ditched the company, in what looked like a revolution.

Businesses do not operate or adhere to natures laws. It is a system created, controlled and corrupted by humans. If a company wishes to perform ethically it requires an ethical CEO and an ethical board of directors. And the more aware that the public are of the company’s action the healthier the company’s future will be.

Now companies across the globe are polishing its ethical armour. It is a powerful marketing tool to advocate ethics and an equal, greener world. This will unfortunately face the same ending as Communism did. Free competition in an industry luckily means that the public has freedom of choice.