Category: just a point of view

The Stars dim over Europe.

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Don’t panic! Don’t panic!

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are the stars dimming over Europe?

let’s not panic. It’s not a crisis!

It’s a joke combined with a bad dream.

Unfortunately its not and a majority of people in the UK have voted to leave the EU.

The consequences are of course, completely unknown but in my darker thoughts I worry that:

  • the austerity focussed Tories will use this opportunity to shift the whole country even more into the nether regions of neo-liberalism
  • this will lead to the end of the United Kingdom
  • the EU itself may unravel and halt its progress in helping create a peaceful Europe since the last world war.

But I’m naturally an optimist and usually see the beer glass half full. In that case this might be a wonderful opportunity resulting in a new election, different leaders and a rejigging of the political map on the lines of the political movements we’re seeing in Southern Europe in Spain, Italy and Greece.

I see brighter stars… Participative democracy, people’s increased engagement, new inspirational leaders and the sack for the elitist gits who are our current political representatives who have the riches to surf through this turmoil and probably just see it as one big joke!

its 2 am in the morning

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It’s 2 am in the morning and I’ve just given the dog, Lucy a final walk of the day. In the shadows I noticed a mother and daughter, covered with shawls, scarves and carrying bags.Waiting tentatively for me to pass. Once I and the dog had passed by they continued on their journey.

Who are they? what are they doing?

As they continue to walk through the area I can hear the wild street dogs kicking off.  I guess that they are poor people just travelling through. It must be quite scary and daunting with barking dogs at most corners and now I’m back at home I hear the whistles in the distance of the policeman on their beat.

What must their life be like?

It makes me stop and reflect for a moment and think about those poor people and what I assume are very different and difficult lives.

I might live in India but as you might expect, in a middle class lifestyle and quite detached from the experience of many very poor people.

I recognise how important it is for me to not lose sight of the difficulties that people face and somehow to connect.

lets introduce some brevity

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Slogans, pithy sayings, brands gone wrong… there must be tons of humorous examples. I’ve spotted a fair few in my travels and many more since I came to live here in India. So let’s have a break from all this boring stuff about IDs, bureaucracy, passports, visa. Can you find examples from here in India or elsewhere? of often unintended or everyday humour?  So the gauntlet is down, let’s see your best examples. …..I’ll start us off….. Here’s a couple on T shirts, to get us going

for me it’s not just the slogan but the context, often poor innocent guys who may have little idea what they’reDSC00985 wearing.

 

 

don’t get me wrong. I’m not putting the guy down. just the whole idea that there’s a leap quantum or otherwise, just seems so funny.

 

 

 

 

Now the next one knew exactly the nuance of the message, I met him on a cycle tour up Chamundi Hill and he was interested to know its origin with the band: Pink Floyd. Now some smart alec is going to inform me it originated somewhere else!

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So this is an open invitation, give us your suggestions.

I think we should try

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IMG_1143I still facilitate ‘training’ workshops for corporate clients. An absolutely critical part of the sessions is to help people see things from the others’ point of view. This is, of course,  not just relevant to business.

Alexander McCall Smith puts it like this….

“People tried to understand, and many did, but not everybody could make the imaginative leap that landed one in a position of another person, in their shoes, in their very garments, looking out on the world with their eyes, feeling what went on inside their hearts; being made to cry by the things that made them want to cry. That was easy in theory, but hard in practice. They pretended to understand because they could not know – not really know – what it was like to be the other. That was because it was not them. That was why they could not think that. It had to be you.”

in his novel: Trains and Lovers.

If I understand some of his teachings correctly the Dalai Lama shows that this is what compassion is about. Seeing things from the others’ point of view.

I know its hard but in life, it’s important that we should try.

passport service, a deserved award winner?

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I must congratulate the passport service on gaining triple ISO certification and its various digital awards.

In my view, and I say this as a sometime consultant who has reviewed services and systems in the Government, not-for-profit and corporate worlds, a system and service is best judged on how well it performs when everything doesn’t go smoothly or according to some abstract plan. It should perform even better when it doesn’t go to plan. It’s essential that a citizen’s service such as this can be properly accessed by all sectors of the community including the poorest, least able and uneducated. Only then should it be considered a success and have met its objectives.

It’s critical that individuals operating the system should be able to spot problems and resolve them, with flexibility and an absolute focus on serving the recipient.

OK, rant over but it’s hard to convey how powerless this makes one feel because as you’ve probably guessed, I don’t think the service has performed well.

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