Monday, April 11, 2005
Death day of Culture Shock.
Oh the drama of leaving this blog alone. I've determined that my analysis of culture, whether done through this blog or not, has only begun. I love to analyze culture, it may, in fact, be my primary addiction.
The truth of the matter is I'm addicted to culture. As a result, I love to travel, read, watch movies, eat spicy food, and examine peoples' thoughts and subsequent actions. I love stories that represent a specific culture - whether it demonstrates a positive outcome or not - because it tells us something about human nature. It tells us about a series of decisions that were made which bring about the essence of that specific culture. It tells us about moments of uncertainty, risk, and overwhelming comfort that override the ability to think any other way. The analysis of culture - ours and others, independent and collective, local and global - brings us closer to understanding ourselves, our nature, and ultimately, our values.
Dream great dreams. Live your dreams out despite how much they may seem impossible to realize. Above all, figure out what your culture is and share why with the rest of us. I'm interested. And obviously, you are too.
Thanks for your readership - I truly appreciate it.
Cheers!
Oh the drama of leaving this blog alone. I've determined that my analysis of culture, whether done through this blog or not, has only begun. I love to analyze culture, it may, in fact, be my primary addiction.
The truth of the matter is I'm addicted to culture. As a result, I love to travel, read, watch movies, eat spicy food, and examine peoples' thoughts and subsequent actions. I love stories that represent a specific culture - whether it demonstrates a positive outcome or not - because it tells us something about human nature. It tells us about a series of decisions that were made which bring about the essence of that specific culture. It tells us about moments of uncertainty, risk, and overwhelming comfort that override the ability to think any other way. The analysis of culture - ours and others, independent and collective, local and global - brings us closer to understanding ourselves, our nature, and ultimately, our values.
Dream great dreams. Live your dreams out despite how much they may seem impossible to realize. Above all, figure out what your culture is and share why with the rest of us. I'm interested. And obviously, you are too.
Thanks for your readership - I truly appreciate it.
Cheers!
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
More on my reasons for boycotting Walmart:
Over 200 university intellectuals have signed a public petition to denounce Wal-Mart's labour practices. I have read several unbiased labour and economic studies written by Pradeep Kumar and as a result, I deeply respect and trust his analysis of work today. He has, notably, signed this petition.
Over 200 university intellectuals have signed a public petition to denounce Wal-Mart's labour practices. I have read several unbiased labour and economic studies written by Pradeep Kumar and as a result, I deeply respect and trust his analysis of work today. He has, notably, signed this petition.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
In studying Intro to Industrial Relations, I read an interesting paragraph in the study guide that describes trade union goals.
The text states the following:
"Goals must be realistic to be distinguished from "wishes". What is realistic is determined by the resources to achieve them. Goals and means are interrelated, and union goals have evolved as old goals were replaced by newer, more realistic ones. Herein likes the basis of the frequently voiced contention that today's union have betrayed their earlier radical promise, and that what were once "means" have become ends."
What I realized while reading about this version of trade union's goals, is how similar the union(s) is to that of the individual's struggle to realize dreams and goals. Despite the impactful observation about the primary issue facing the labour movement today, is the fact that as individuals, we get stumped in our ability to accomplish our goals (and wishes) because of the limited resources available to us to perpetuate them. I believe that this a merely a perception maybe even an excuse. I believe, rather, that the resources required to live our dreams and wishes are not necessarily immediately recognizable, and thus they appear unattainable. For me, this reinforces that it is vital to spell out what our goals and dreams are to others so that we can identify whom and what our resources, in fact, are.
Getting back to the attainment of trade union's goals - I'll go so far as to say that this statement demonstrates why the traditional approach to trade unionism is faltering. The labour movement in the USA is weak and has been dwindling for 20 years. The Canadian labour movement is steady, yet it needs infusion from that of its members and future members. Each Canadians' workplace goals, collectively woven together, can be realized because of shared knowledge of formerly-unknown resources in order to establish fantastic realities.
My goals and wishes are to infuse greater workplace gender equality, integrate purposeful yet innovative work solutions for work-life balance, and set up examples for the developing nations of the world for quality, job security, training-infused work environments. A tall order, but do-able. Imagine, if we all told another person what our goals and wishes for work are and correlating ideas as to how to accomplish them what resources we might discover and utilize!
The text states the following:
"Goals must be realistic to be distinguished from "wishes". What is realistic is determined by the resources to achieve them. Goals and means are interrelated, and union goals have evolved as old goals were replaced by newer, more realistic ones. Herein likes the basis of the frequently voiced contention that today's union have betrayed their earlier radical promise, and that what were once "means" have become ends."
What I realized while reading about this version of trade union's goals, is how similar the union(s) is to that of the individual's struggle to realize dreams and goals. Despite the impactful observation about the primary issue facing the labour movement today, is the fact that as individuals, we get stumped in our ability to accomplish our goals (and wishes) because of the limited resources available to us to perpetuate them. I believe that this a merely a perception maybe even an excuse. I believe, rather, that the resources required to live our dreams and wishes are not necessarily immediately recognizable, and thus they appear unattainable. For me, this reinforces that it is vital to spell out what our goals and dreams are to others so that we can identify whom and what our resources, in fact, are.
Getting back to the attainment of trade union's goals - I'll go so far as to say that this statement demonstrates why the traditional approach to trade unionism is faltering. The labour movement in the USA is weak and has been dwindling for 20 years. The Canadian labour movement is steady, yet it needs infusion from that of its members and future members. Each Canadians' workplace goals, collectively woven together, can be realized because of shared knowledge of formerly-unknown resources in order to establish fantastic realities.
My goals and wishes are to infuse greater workplace gender equality, integrate purposeful yet innovative work solutions for work-life balance, and set up examples for the developing nations of the world for quality, job security, training-infused work environments. A tall order, but do-able. Imagine, if we all told another person what our goals and wishes for work are and correlating ideas as to how to accomplish them what resources we might discover and utilize!
