Author: sereshk

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There’s a Method to the Madness – Or: When Male Life Runs Berserk – Or: When Business Meets Cruelty

Image by Bárbara Cascão from Pixabay

It can be one of those dark days in life when you face real evil in your own life for the first time. I have read so many books and ‘digested’ so many stories, those that were told in person and those that you see on the big screen; yet, to see real evil is new to me, even.

A few patterns emerge:

I. The Patriarchal Hierarchy and Willfulness in Play Again

    • Patriarchy not for decades but for thousands of years has enforced the stereotypes:
      Man is the ‘hunter’ – and not just for game (deer, wild boar, etc.); women are the ‘hunted’, the ‘booty’.
    • Any man who is really interested to be counted among ‘the guys’ will do what he can to ‘get it’ as often as possible.
    • If it should so surface, the management power in business can be used to ‘serve’ the ‘booty’, the ‘dish’, right up – nice and ‘easy’:
      • *Women, single and apparently easy to fool into believing they did something wrong can be used in order to ‘try one’s luck’:
      • Hire them under a pretense then do your best to get them into the ‘prone position’.
      • Should that not work legally, in a manner of a certain time, fire them under those pretenses.
      • Repeat from *.
      • And so turns the merry-go-round of jobs and people who seem to be job hopping – when in effect they are part of that secret game of ‘push and shove’…

II: Intricate Business Calculations

    • Say, your branch of business is facing a severe slump. No sales, much and that due to a saturated market segment.
    • Yet, you need to take care of customer demands in a certain department.
    • But the budget doesn’t allow to hire a person or persons over a longer period of time.
    • Additionally you have found that searching these people takes time, effort and some experience to filter the really good ones.
    • What do you do?
      • *Find an agency that does the searching and finding.
      • Hire the good ones.
      • Make them work hard and almost reach the finish line.
      • Bother them and intimidate them in a tough market with ridiculous claims of misbehaviour.
      • Even invent false claims of shortcomings and spread those by and by among colleagues and the rest of the management.
      • Use the accumulated ‘reasons’ to base a lay-off on and – fire them, after a year.
      • Then pretend to be searching another, better fitting employee – for another year.
      • Finally, hire the next candidate.
      • Repeat from *.
    • What’s the result?
      • You get the agency ‘on the cheap’ because firing those employees too soon for reasons of being unfit saves the fee due to the agency – who will have to return at least part of it.
      • You save lots of money on salary, you actually pay half the price, because, in alternating years there’s an employee.
      • Then, there is not….

III: Intricate Business Calculations No 2

    • Say, you need to lend employees to other companies.
    • But the economy is slow, salaries are too high for some businesses.
    • In addition, really well-trained employees are hard or impossible to find.
    • *So, you start actively searching.
    •  Make them an offer of the appropriate high salary.
    • Hire.
    • Let them work in the actual customer’s place.
    • After a little while start bothering them, s.a., with ridiculous claims of misbehaviour, intimidate them.
    • After a few months working this method get them to sign a ‘reduced-hours-per-week’ agreement.
    • After a year, fire them.
    • Result: Cheap salary; except for the employee facing unemployment and job hunting all over again – all concerned are satisfied.
    • Repeat*…

IV: Intricate Business Calculations No 3

    • The business you have runs well, but sales are slow.
    • The economy’s contracts with trade unions rule that every four years salaries have to be raised.
    • Also, that beginners in the company or a certain job earn less than the ones already in place for more than four years.
    • What do you do?
      • *Hire employees, sign the contracts.
      • Every four years, make lay-offs appear necessary, firing the previously hired employees.
      • Fire under pretenses, also after four years.
      • Hire from other countries, even far away where knowledge of local conditions, contracts, systems, taxes and prices is nil.
      • Keep a couple of employees – perhaps even with different contracts out of trade union conditions – to make the image credible that you have employees in place for long periods of time, the ‘faithful ones’.
      • Repeat*…
      • Result: The salaries stay low and the employee turnover is not too apparent so the company’s reputation is safe.
Whatever the patterns – they are shameful to watch and cruel to suffer from.
Additionally, it’s a huge waste of resources for any country’s economy…
Make it stop. Now.
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In War there is Conflict – Conflicts need Solutions – War is NOT a Solution!

(Image licensed Adobe CC)

Whoever told us that life is either wonderful harmony – or we will have war? In the sense that you cannot have it both ways?

Da…n and blast to all who believe it! Is it that male (patriarchal) idea that you have to have predominance and prove ‘strong’ by shouting at people a lot? Because that way you establish ‘authority’?

Maybe. But war is not a question of gyms and some old-fashioned training ideas!

The civil society brought an even more wide-spread understanding of responsibility and the preference for peace and calm that let us thrive for a good life and good relations in peace.

Conflicts are a natural part of human life – always were, always have been.
(Cruel) arguments or wars are not ‘natural’.
They are the consequence of a mindset that values predominance and ‘first place’ the most. To force your opinion or your preferences on people is  – according to that idea – a sign of strength and power.

BUT – and this is one of those BIG BUTS – it is a question of perspective:

Because anything that causes pain and suffering to many people – and additionally over a long period of time – is not a good thing! Period.

There are many ways out of conflict, some are short, because the conflict is small.
Some ways are long, because the conflict is large.
But whatever it is, if we respect the fundamental human rights we will do all the negotiating it takes, even if years, to avoid pain and suffering. Full stop.

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Quiet vs Talk? – Talk and Quiet!

sunset trees lake

Times can be tough, I have seen many and gone through a lot of such times. I still consider myself lucky, in many respects.

I find that talking can be overestimated. But so can quiet. As has been said similarly elsewhere:
there’s a time and place for everything.

Sometimes we talk to others in order to exchange ideas, or information.

Sometimes we talk to others to feel close by being understood and listened to.

Sometimes we talk to others so we can make the heart’s burden lighter, or to let off the steam of anger.

Sometimes we talk to others to clear up things or answer questions.

But often, there’s nothing of the above necessary. We are at one with ourselves and our emotions and ideas.

In such times, being quiet can be the order of the day. Know that our near and dear understand.

In hard or sorrowful times, a good cry can help. Or letting off steam by punching something…

Hugging near and dear helps.

Work helps.

And laughter helps. Always.

(First published in 2021, reposted.)

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Vote Democrats: Elections 2024 as Proof of a Strong Democracy in the US

President Biden and Vice President Harris meeting with Former President Obama (Image Wikimedia Commons)

The two attacks on the actual Republican candidate may be false – fake – a fluke to ensure his presence in media. I am not naming names, these days, if I can help it. Real or staged there’s no room in a real democracy for such acts of violence.

Be that as it may: He has been proven to be a person with no responsibility except towards himself and those with money. The kind of money that comes in cartloads. Bluntly put.

The Republicans stand for all the values that endanger a democracy. Their candidate was actively involved in the attack on the Capitol. They do not favour the support of the unfortunate, support weapons and their lobbies, and in general are in favour of an economy that is regulated by the markets alone.

But history is ample proof, in the US as well as elsewhere, that this does not work. The favouritism with capital will constantly shift the wealth of a society towards the already rich and wealthy – when everybody in truth is involved creating products, goods, marketable output.

Democrats on the other hand favour a wise and socially responsible policy for all concerned. Their advocating a society of equality, diversity and freedom in accordance with human and civil rights is legend.

Check the values!

Vote wisely, the Democratic party, as I stated before, may – just as any human institution – not be perfect; but they strive to do the best for the whole of a society – not just a select few.

And: They made the first African American president Barrack Obama possible!

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When Business Meets Conscience – Or: The Inhuman Side of People

Skyscraper, image courtesy pixabay.com

Business: It’s probably the term derived from the verb, “busy”, which means, at least, to be very wrapped up in work.

I have gone through quite a number of businesses, that is places of work, which happened willy nilly: While studying I had to work my way through it – and took care of my kid.

We all know – or at least some of us do – that “business” is an entirely different matter from being ‘just’ busy.

“Lay-offs” are a term connected to the darker side of it. Since they mean, letting people go in large numbers due to corporate issues.

To think though that you have been hired on false pretenses and also let go after such and such an amount of time, without previous knowledge, yet planned in advance – is still a sort of higher level, rather a low point, not to say, an abyss of falseness and abuse.

I tend to be loyal, hard-working and also have a good and very good quality output. Numerous references say that. I am – also referenced multiple times – a good colleague.

To feel (ab)used this way feels disgusting, actually. Yet, there are a few comforts in all the darkness of this situation:

    • I know a couple of people who haven’t yet handed over the whole of their conscience at the door…
    • I also know a couple of people who care about me as a person enough to support me.

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
(Nelson Mandela)

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Stop the Republican Candidate – Vote Democrats!

Screenshot taken from democrats.org at 18-08-2024_15-44-37 CEST — showing Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and followers

The former president D. Trump running for office again and being part of that party misleadingly calling itself “Republicans” is not to be pitied.

I wonder if it wasn’t a ruse even — that attack. But that is actually not really important at this time. He is neither to be trusted nor is he a good man, or ever was.

His past is full of financial irresponsibility, he actually only recently has been found guilty in a court of law of the United States after a proper action before that court.

He has hurt thousands of ‘little’ people during the 1970s that had trusted him and his enterprise, ruining their existence by taking their money and getting out in time himself.

He was best buddy to president Putin in Russia, who even supported his election the first time using illegal, online measures that have been proven.

Link to the Pulitzer Prize committee‘s official site, stating that fact:

“The 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner in National Reporting — Staffs of The New York Times and The Washington Post”

Seems he is billions of dollars ‘worth’ — but when you look at his deeds (not his words) you will find it proven, too:

He ist not worth your vote.

Why Democrats? Because although being human and thus not flawless — they are the only ones smart and strong enough to prevent the hell of a second presidency of that Republican sorry-excuse-for-a-man.

Vote for peace and equality.

It’s the Bible even, that says it clearly:

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
(English Standard Version, 2016)

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No to Violence! — The Attack on a Former President

Image courtesy Arek Socha on pixabay.com

Whatever somebody may have done or is doing: There is only the court of law and a proper action before it in a working legal system to convict and punish them.

Nothing is an excuse for such an attack as has been made known today. Without knowing any details yet since I have learned to take in news at a measure I still feel that in view of past criticism I owe my readers this clear statement:

There is no excuse for violence.

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“Supreme Court”? “Justices”? – Support Democrats in 2024 Elections!

Monday already the ruling was out and amid an uproar of news flashes there’s some comfort…the Washington Post explains
(screenshot taken from here at 05.07.2024, 05:59 h (CEST)):

Screenshot from Washington Post Website

Personally I think it’s not overly surprising when you think of how the majority of the present Supreme Court Justices came into office: They were named and instated during that former president’s time in the White House.

Let’s hope and pray  – and keep going for democracy! – for a better and eventually true-to-their-best-roots society, especially in the US.

Because three dictatorships all across the world is too much even for this planet, namely Russia, China and a would-be president D. Trump in the United States.

Ancient Rome had seen similar situations: A huge empire that grew, benefited the few – and saw Caesars as well as dictators for centuries.

Let God – and NATO – forbid.

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Peace — Power Games — Chances — Talks and Negotiations

Image courtesy Erik Karits on Pixabay

There’s no doubt about it, war is always a means to an end…which is tragic and cruel, no doubt about that either.

Yet, war has some striking differences to other kinds of conflict in human life!

It practically never happens over night, without any warnings or talks in advance, usually power and money are involved.
At the same time, in practically any case you may want to look at in recent or ancient history, the fame or the dignity of a country or its leader(s) was a ‘bone of contention’ as well.

The diverse political societies and international organizations show the will to ‘power games’, and also the need for a sort of balance in power.

There’s always a way, if we keep talking and negotiating, in politics — as well as in every day life. The recent problems apparently occurring between Iran and other nuclear power-holding countries could have been avoided, if under the last but one US-government the contracts with Iran hadn’t been cancelled — completely irresponsibly. Where it had taken close on ten years negotiating those in the first place.

One very deciding aspect of eventually successful negotiating is ‘putting yourself into your opponents shoes’. Try imagining what it would be like to be on their side, even if only for a while.

Alas, it seems, every generation has to learn all the lessons of the past all over again. That’s why proper and enlightened education is so crucial for our children! And grandchildren and great-grandchildren, because:
As long as this planet and its peoples are revolving, living, breathing, I refuse to call any generation ‘the last’!

In other words: Where’s life, there’s hope!

So many of the forecasts of also recent as well as ancient history proved to be wrong!

To ‘throw in the towel’ long before anything is desperate or dead, really, is no option.

Let’s keep to it – and remember about the breaks!

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Life – People – Kaleidoscope – or Black and White?

Image by un-perfekt from Pixabay

“My way – or the highway?” In many parts of the world we can see people believing that there is only one way – or another. That other people or their behaviour or their ideas are one of two things: Black or White. A duality concept.

In truth, life and situations and people are colourful, like a kaleidoscope. Sometimes, when you are full of emotion, such as anger, wrath or a loving passion, the emotion has no ‘colour’ in the mind — it’s more of a temperature, perhaps, rather cold, or rather hot… and if you would start thinking and getting to know yourself or your emotion(s) better you would find out more details – and start finding words for them.

To think that there are only two sides to a coin is a rather narrow concept. You wil miss out on all the other possibilities – or colours.

Sometimes, when we are very sure that only one way or solution is right — at least for us — we tend to judge harshly.

That way we will overlook all the other — even beautiful — colours, in a situation, a solution to a problem — or a character.

Even peace or peaceful coexistence become easier to find, if we allow for alternatives, see the ‘other colours’, the full picture.

The big idea.

And should you wonder if that was too much bother — you may want to think again: Is peace really so much more difficult, than war — or conflict? And when was it written that the good or the better things always are easy…?

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