No whining allowed

[This was written during the Great Financial Fiasco…still seems relevant.]

 In the movie, “G.I. Jane”, there is a scene where the master chief reads poetry. He quotes from D.H. Lawrence’s “Self-Pity”:

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

The whole of this movie is about just that. You’d think that since it was such a popular film, we’d be seeing more stiffness in our collective spine as we face this economic implosion on a daily basis.

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Porfirio, my hero

As is always the case, when you attach proper pronouns to political rhetoric, the clarity of right and wrong begins to blur significantly.  It’s reflexive to rail against illegal immigration, to blame the burgeoning Latin ethnic segment of our population for the costly burdens of public “entitlements” or the increased pressure on social institutions.  We support millions of residents who aren’t here at the invitation of American law.  It’s hard not to agree with extremists on the subject, if the facts are selected carefully enough and if the balance of the opposing view is avoided.  But when you sit down and talk with someone who is living through the reality of being an immigrant, whether legal or not, you find that the “right” conclusions are not so easy to come by.

 

 

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Labor slaving devices

I wonder if I’m the only dinosaur that sees the dark side of gadgetry. I fully admit to being enthralled with my iPhone and I love the incredible power of the internet to provide information and access worldwide. I surely don’t want to have to return to making phone calls from gas stations and restaurants during my business day travels. I like not having to remember a hundred phone numbers. Using e-mail instead of snail mail for documents and correspondence has saved me a lot of postage, time and file cabinet space.

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How much is too much?

One of the hot topics among corporate directors and their constituents is executive pay. It’s been a hot topic for years and years. For some reason, each time it comes up in the public’s awareness, people react to it like it’s the first time. If that weren’t puzzling enough, so is the fact that what would appear to be a simple issue becomes a centerpiece for complex research and expensive consulting.

Executive-Compensation

 

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