Blog2005
31 December. Wifi Fireworks.
Snow and ice and lots of fireworks going off. The official notice in the newspapers this week announced that residents must blow up fireworks between 10:00 today and 02:00 tomorrow morning. My kids asked me if I would get in trouble if I did _not_ set off fireworks too. They are a bit too literal.
As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed my wifi today.
I put on my Noisebuster FX headphones, plugged them into my computer, launched iTunes to listen to my own music and to music stored on my son's Powerbook. No fireworks sounds disturbed me, and the music brightened up my own workspace.
Sitting on the living room sofa, I did email, wrote a bit on the wiki, and enjoyed being away from my desk and all the reminders of things left undone this year.
I got the network printing to work from a Mac, but from the Wintel computer it still would not. I kept getting an error message saying that the printer name was too long. "\\network printer Kyocera FS-1010\" seemed ok as a printer name for the Macs, but it was too much for Windows XP.
The wireless connection seems slow compared to the ethernet connection. I will set up two Powerbooks with the "MacStumbler" wifi signal meter, put one on my bed and one on the sofa, along with a kid-watcher and then I'll move around the wifi router at the end of a very long ethernet cable until both computers show the best signal strength. Then I'll find a way to hand the router from a wall or ceiling.
This is what portable computer should be--wireless internet, email, music. All from a comfortable place, either alone sitting on my bed or in the middle of family events in the living room. I've even had about 3 hours on my battery so far.
30 December. John Maxwell.
Big snow today and the kids spent hours out playing in it. Not me. I stepped out a few times to nail my oldest son, and then retreated to a sofa with a mug of tea and a book. The book today was interesting: John Maxwell's Winning Attitude / Developing the Leaders Around You / Becoming a Person of Influence. The main point I took away was that my influence can extend far beyond my own ability to do work. For example, until recently, I have done all the maintenance for the family collection of computers and electronic things. I've begun taking advantage of maintenance needs to train one of the older kids to do the diagnostics and repair steps themselves. It takes a lot more time initially, but pretty quickly training in troubleshooting becomes my approach. Not always, but enough to make a difference. A few times the older ones also step up to train a younger one how to do something. As a learning familiy, this should be our norm. Already the kids do most of the normal household chores of keeping everyone fed and the house clean. The older train the younger.
29 December. Statistical Progression in Analysis.
This project is frustratingly slow. I printed out 130 pages of data correlations today to begin the deeper look at my Basra project. I selected the 70 most important questions and ran correlations, comparing all possible answers among those 70 questions. For example, I compared answers to the question of "age" against all other questions. There were quite a few questions where the answers showed patterns related to the age of the respondent. Unfortunately, SPSS would only allow me to run these queries in small numbers at a time. So, I had to set up sets of questions to compare against each other. There is a way to change the SPSS settings for amount of memory available and the number of cells that can be treated at a single time. I tried a few changes, but it did not seem to make a difference to the program. It kept telling me I had insufficient memory (my 1.5 gigabytes is insufficient?) and that I was exceeding the maximum number of cells for simultaneous operation.
I am writing my notes on how to step through the analysis onto a page at Statistical Steps. This is not very practical yet, but I hope to make it more of a handbook, and to help me remember what I've done.
28 December. Wireless Family Life.
Today was the first time I actually moved my Powerbook off the desk in a long time. I wanted to be in the family room, acting a bit more sociable. Several points I noticed immediately: 1. 6 cables to undo before I was truly "wireless." 2. I had forgotten the contrast between using a small notebook keyboard and built-in trackpad compared with my giant desktop keyboard and separate giant trackball with three buttons. 3. There really is a huge difference between my 100k ethernet port and my much slower wifi connection, especially when I am relaxed on a pillow and not in "the optimal" orientation to the wifi router. 4. I really like being away from my desk, with all the other distractions. 5. I really, really like being with my family more than just snuggled up to my computers and techtools. People are life, and everything else is supplementary. 6. I like the quiet of being away from a printer, a phone, a buzzy power supply. Battery alone is quiet.
27 December 2005. Tags in blogging.
Snow, ice, wind, sun, rain. I guess we hit all weather types today. Except warm. Friends visited for several hours as we watched their very cute 13 month old wobble around our living room.
If I get it just right, I can lie on the very edge of my bed with my head at the foot, and can catch sunrays if there are any, on my face from about 12:40 until about 13:00. Just that little bit of sun seems to help my day feel happier. Today it was delicious.
Several new sources of help in my computer use:
Using "tags" to mark online text in blogs or webpages for finding again. I should make this learning how to tag a priority, I guess, but writing and formatting the wiki pages is now a lower priority than getting finished with my Iraq data, along with research projects for other clients. I enjoy writing, and will get better only as I write more. I've found that I enjoy most and am better at finding answers to specific questions from contacts. Running a longterm project is not as much fun for me if it does not meet needs of users.
Tips on blogging have great ideas on making blogs more useable and readable. Recommended.
Future of Web 2.0 gives insight as to where web content and control is leading. Recommended.
There is a lot I should do to make these wiki pages more friendly to me and to others. I used to feel good about my ability to keep up in many aspects of computer applications and hardware. Now, it seems that there are more questions than answers coming my way each day, with fewer experts in my network to ask questions of. Even finding experts who really know their stuff seems to be more difficult. I've hired several experts to do network wiring for me, or to work on computers for me, or to even fix my mobile phones. After paying them, I often end up doing the work again myself to get it right.
After paying 20.00 Euros to have my mobile phone repaired last week, it failed again yesterday. Based on previous experience, the dealer will send it off again for another week or two to the repair depot and they will send it back saying that they could not find anything wrong with it. I know what is wrong--it locks up if it has not been used for a few hours and it has to be shut off and started up again before it can be used to either send or receive calls. The expert claimed, the time before last, that I was not using it correctly and that was the source of the problem. I've used phones enough to believe that I should expect a phone to be always ready to either send or receive call, and not to have to shut it off and switch it on again if I should want to use it.
24 December. Jan Karon.
Cooking was the main event of the day for other family folks. My job was eating. I also tried (again) to get network printing to work. Not. I tried (again) to get my computer calendar synchronized among the home computers. Not.
The new project for the day was considering how to think different about speeding up my data analysis and writing projects. Several projects.
During our family advent sing-along time, we telelphoned to other family members to let them sing with us. This is fun, sharing our family memories. We also had fresh onion soup and Lane Cake icing on crepes. Several times during each day of the past week we continued our read-aloud of _Shepherds Abiding_ by Jan Karon, a story set in Miford, North Carolina, and the latest family acquisition in the series of the Mitford books. Highly recommended.
23 Dec. Apeldoorn Party.
Tonight I had a fun evening at a party of immigrants and their friends. About fifty people, lots of food, singing, dancing, and a lot of happy talk. Long drive for me and I only made about six wrong turns.
Earlier today I worked (again) on getting the wiki menu customized, catching up on email, and making a lot of phone calls.
New food in the house included several more types of homemade cookies and two pies.
22 Dec. GSM Remote.
My SonyEricsson mobile phone just came back after an extended trip to the service center. All data was erased, of course. I started up the "GSM Remote" utility and reloaded my old addresses into the phone and simcard. That was fast.
After working through the settings I took a long look at the phone's Bluetooth wireless capabilities. Then I looked at my Macintosh computer's Bluetooth capabilities. Hmmm.
My Eudora email program is synchronized with my Apple Address Book. I imported all the old phone's addresses into My Apple Address Book, which has an auto-synchronization feature. I looked at my iCal schedule program on the computer which has a syncronization ability. Hmmm. Eudora can read the Apple Address Book, but any changes I make while using Eudora will not be saved into the Apple Address Book.
I turned on the phone's bluetooth. I turned on the computer's bluetooth. I clicked on iSync. Flashing lights, whirling dials, and it said "Syncronizing with T68." After about five minutes it was done and I went to the phone's address book. All the names and phone numbers from my computer address book were there. I went to the phone's calendar function. All the dates and events for the next month were there.
I used to love having a Palm Pilot to carry my contacts and calendar items with me, but I never could keep it easily synchronized with my computer, especially the calendar function. For about a year I've used a weekly printout of my calendar on paper to carry with me at all times.
I still plan to get a "Smartphone" with a larger screen, larger keys, and ability to handle phone + text messaging + calendaring. Now I know that it can work, and that this Bluetooth wireless synchronization is fast. It just works.
The next challenge is to get my printer at home able to print from any of the home computers without wires. This is a frustration. Why can't a printer be more like a phone?
I look at my notebook computer with six wires I have to disconnect any time I want to work somewhere other than my desk. The plugging and unplugging makes me leave the computer on the desktop and just use paper when I want to do something sitting downstairs or on the bed or on a trip. I've got to figure out how to free up this notebook to travel.
21 December. Kid Shopping.
I took the children shopping this evening. I bought chocolates and gave them as presents to the owners of the mobile phone repair shop where I go by to visit once in a while and to get phones repaired. Then we split up and I took one child to buy normal food (lentils and rice) and to chat with a shopkeeper, while the other kids wandered through the shopping area. Their backpacks were bulging when we joined back up together. My little shopping buddy got candy and chocolates where we were. There are advantages to doing errands with Papa!
20 December. Back to the Dragons.
Dragon's Den on tv again. What a great show on the BBC. Each show presents the five venture capitalists who want to find good entrepreneurs to invest in. Each show usually has 4-5 sub-standard "pitches" and then the last pitch gets money from the dragons. One pitch tonight almost got a lot of money, but did not have a patent yet on his project for a wireless camera mounted on a helmet for cyclists or skydivers. Great project, but without patent protection, they all would have lost money. The final pitch was for a simple, high-end flatscreen tv trolley and mounting system. The entrepreneur had patents, was selling increasing amounts of products each year, and wanted money for expansion. He got the money because:
1. He knew immediately all numbers on sales (past and present), profit, costs, reasonable projected growth in the future, and all competition in the marketplace;
2. He knew his stuff, was not intimidated, AND he tended to understate his profitability and successes. The dragons seemed attracted because they could add the numbers and see the profit potential without him having to boast. They could easily see how they could make money by investing their money and their marketing expertise into his project and they were eager to join him. He was professional in his approach, and was prepared to answer any questions they might have, and he sold them on their benefit that would come by joining them.
19 December. Why is Iraq so Normal?
Reading and re-reading the August 2005 data from Basra, Iraq, and wondering why the respondents seem so "normal." There seem no really surprising trends or correlations among the selection of 100 business owners and managers. They are regular small business guys, well-connected within their own spheres of work and to neighbors who live close to them. This is actually so delightful to see that they are just men doing their best to run a business and make the world a better place for their children. I add a few data points occasionally to the Iraq research page. The main projects are to get this raw data to tell a unique story, in a reputable format that academics and others will appreciate.
18 December.
Wonderful fun visit today with Marc van der Woude and family. They joined us for lasagne, coffee and sweets. Marc writes the Joel News newsletters as well as one of my favorite blogs. Good talks about the Netherlands, church in the Netherlands and Europe, and childrens' learning styles. Marc writes very well about the concerns of church and state in Europe, and includes massive numbers of links to other sources of fresh information.
17 December. Me, a scorekeeper?
Kids had volleyball today and there was a panic when one of the simultaneous men's games had no scorekeeper. They asked me if I would do it. I have watched a lot of volleyball, but have never though much about the scorekeeping. I said, "I don't know how, but I will find someone." The spectator stands were empty, strangely, so I ran down the street and found my oldest son. He was willing. And he knew how. I sat next to him and said, "Will you show me how to keep score? I need to learn and this is a good time to do it." So, my son was the trainer, and I was a very attentive pupil. I got it.
But, I realized that this is not a good activity for me. All the noise, the balls bouncing around, the players yelling and pushing so close to me. And, I was supposed to keep an eagle eye fixed on the referee at all times because she only gave the pronouncement on point, cause of the point, time outs, and rotations in short motions and only once. If I was distracted by something, I missed her call and that was bad. There should be a sign on the scorekeepers' table saying, "THIS IS NOT A TASK FOR A BORDERLINE ADD OR ADHD PERSON."
15 December. Iraq Elections.
It was exciting to follow the blogs and news reports on these elections. There seemed to be much more intensity of participation, and the candidates seemed to be better known than those of last winter. With each election event, there seems to be more local ownership and global discussion of content. Not just "can we vote without getting killed," but instead, "How shall we vote to make a difference." The number of Iraq blogs is growing so fast that it is thrilling to see the alternate sources of news other than the standard mass media channels.
14 December.
Meetings today with friends from Amsterdam, Germany, and France. Learned more about immigrant integration in those areas, and how to access the immigrants to measure integration and assimilation and relations between indigenous and immigrant people. There is much more movement, like brownian motion, of all people, and so it becomes more challenging to isolate and measure change and assimilation on personal and group levels. I did several pilot assessments of acculturalization over the past few years, among Iranian and Ethiopian communities. It will be interesting to go back and compare that data with current assessments of those same people to see how they have changed. Maybe. After the current Iraq and Kurdish projects are done.
13 December. NL Demographics.
The Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics has available excellent data. For very detailed analyses of who lives where in the Netherlands, I went to Statline Databank, then Selecteren via Themaboom. In the pop-up window, I chose "Mens en Maatschapij. I chose Allochtonen (foreigners) by region of the country, and then could look at individual ethnic groups in the country, sorted by age, gender, and city or community of the community. Great data to understand the tremendous assets that some communities have when they have large immigrant communities bringing new ways of thinking and problem-solving, and building trade relationships back to other homelands of the immigrants. There is considerably more data available in the Dutch language version of the website compared with the English version.
12 December. Basra.
I continue to add details on the Basra findings. With the excitement of the upcoming Iraq elections, it would be great to have census data or even exit poll surveys to link with my social networks data, and have contacted repeatedly Iraq's Ministry of Planning, US Census Department, and UN Offices. Strange that public information is withheld from the public.
An appointment today kept me away from my favorite monthly event, the ERCOMER business meeting and seminar.
8 December. Honor-Shame.
People generally hate to be ashamed or embarrassed, and they like to be honored. Traditionally outsiders working into a new culture are warned about local sensitivities that might interfere with getting results quickly. In many places, outsiders may be tolerated, but they are not respected and are not admired. In the books by Bill Musk (in the Reference Library ), he describes the deep-rooted fears that drive Muslim cultures, especially Honor and Shame. Roland Muller expands the list to include: guilt-innocence, shame-honor, and fear-power. Mr. Muller gives in his short paper one of the best introductions to Muslim Arab culture that I have ever seen. This is highly recommended reading.
Introducing change into a culture with strong forces of these fears can seem to attack each of these balances, provoking hostility and resentment, even in "progressive" cultures. Or, at least, passivity. I
will describe these in a fuller paper later, as I attempt to unravel some strange twists in the Basra research on business owners and managers. Meanwhile, Mr. Muller's paper is well worth reading, especially the last third describing how such fears and inertias interact with western observers and outside forces.
7 December. Computer migration.
Today I migrated from my older (5 year old) Powerbook to a new Powerbook 17 inch. I delayed doing the transfer until I knew I had several hours to get it done. In summary it worked, and in less than the eight hours I planned. Using Apple's Migration Assistant helped get all the files, documents and applications, and settings moved. The rest of the time was setting preferences to a new way of operating that I want to test. And the aliases/shortcuts that I use to keep my systems organized. A big mistake was to not trust the computer and attempt to recopy all data after the computer indicated it was done. I ended up with double copies and because of my interference, the subdirectories were renamed in appropriately.
But, it worked and I am now successfully fully operating on the new system.
Next is to get my mobile phone back to the dealer to see if they can fix it; it stopped working a month ago and I had to borrow my son's. Now that I've seen friends using pda-phone/smartphone units, it make more sense to have a phone with enough space to handle all contacts and also a calender that stays in sync with a computer calender. The Sony Ericsson P910 seems to be ideal, except that it doesn't handle audio mp3 storage and playback. I have dozens of audio cds that I would like to listen to, on business, research, and training, but I dislike sitting somewhere to just listen while carrying around a dedicated mp3 or cd player.
One smartphone could replace my current set of mobile phone + pda + cd player + extra batteries for everything!
6 December. Dragons and style.
Tonight was the tv show, Dragon's Den. One guest tried to sell his vision for advertising on Smartcars, Taxis, and by stenciling ads on streets by cleaning away the dirt in letters and graphics. Nice idea, but he did not get much appreciation from the venture capitalists. One comment was from Doug, an American funder. Doug always wears a nice suit. The supplicant did not, and in fact was rather contentious against those he was trying to get money from. In the end Doug attempted to tell him that if he was serious about getting money from successful people, he should dress in a way that those with money wanted him to dress--respectfully. I looked at the other funders sitting with Doug; several other men did not wear suits.
In Iran, I was told that wearing a tie represented imperialism of the British.
It does seem strange to me that such a small item as a piece of cloth hung around the neck is seen to enhance one's appearance.
In Dutch, the word for necktie and badger are the same--Das.
5 December, 2005. Development Gateway.
One of my favorite sources of news and e-newsletters is that of Development Gateway, a portal to a very diverse collection of news, articles, research, and commentary on relief and development. I personally benefit from their "Iraq Relief and Recovery" section. A lot. Today's favorite link was to Terry Maguire's pages on Iraq and the Internet. Mr. Maguire's page asks many significant questions about the past and future of Iraq's role in the world wide web, relevant to his roles at the Monaco Media Forum and the Mediterranean Media Center, Nice, France.
As the numbers of Iraqis online grow, the next great step forward should be in online surveys and research. Online surveys offer the benefits of privacy, security, and anonymity. And, the speed of processing and publishing of results means that survey results can be live and updated instantly. I have experimented quite a bit with online surveys in these wikis, but the handling of several language systems, merging into and out of databases, and skillfully screening out bogus surveys requires some expertise that I do not yet have accessible in my networks.
2 December. Advent.
This time of year is my most favorite time for family events. The big deal is our family advent celebration. Every evening after supper, we put candles on the table for each person present, and each person gets to choose Christmas songs for all of us to sing. Sometimes one will play piano or guitar, but we usually enjoy just singing together. Then we have homemade cookies or cake or ice cream or something else very special. Having guests join us is also part of the tradition, and they can suggest new or different songs too. Advent is from 1 December until 24 December, and is fun for us as we celebrate together in anticipation. Want to join us?
1 December 2005. Pay Forward.
My daughter came in excited this afternoon after a neighbor paid her for "playing and watching" their young child. My daughter thoroughly loves small children and has spent many happy hours this summer and fall entertaining babies and small children so that parents could do yardwork or housecleaning or other projects that did not need the "assistance" of a small person. The more interesting point is that she has not asked for money or a paying job, but yet today saw that giving to help others, while learning how to do a job properly and responsibly, can give a benefit. A son learned this as well, when he kept on faithfully with his newspaper deliveries even when the payment system failed and he was not getting his due money for quite a long time. Because of his reliable work and good attitude, he gets asked if he wants other routes to do that are better paying with less travel time between houses.
As a family, we stress doing good for our community, and have met so many wonderful friends as a result. And, by volunteering to do scorekeeping at volleyball games, when a big game comes up, the scorekeeping family member gets a great viewpoint.
28-30 November. Barcelona and Vueling.
My wife and I went a few days to visit friends in Barcelona, Spain. This was my first time there since 1973 and this was one of the best trips we have had together. The sun was out every day, the people were friendly, the food was good, and we had many happy hours being together, walking. Except for the first day when I twisted my ankle and had to limp back to the apartment and keep it elevated with ice on it. I was intrigued by the prospect of learning about the supposedly large immigrant communities.
Several things I did to discern what was going on beneath the detailed statistics published by the city of Barcelona:
1. Watch and listen to how people on the street relate when they are of obvious different ethnic backgrounds;
2. Walk the streets in the lowest-income parts of the city and study how well maintained and clean and attractive the buildings and streets are;
3. Look for clusters of satellite dishes;
4. Look for large groups of unemployed young men hanging around on street corners;
5. Look at elderly women on the streets to see if they act afraid of being attacked.
In these terms, what did I see?
1. White europeans acted politely to those of other ethnic backgrounds, even those from sub-saharan Africa or northern Africa, and I saw little disrespect shown by foreigners against the Spanish nationals;
2. The streets were clean and neat and there was a lot of repainting and upscaling of many older apartment complexes, and the street sweepers did not look ashamed of their employment;
3. There were few buildings with very high concentrations of satellite dishes, and there were not too many dishes that I could see from street level, but were mostly sitting on top of the buildings, and this means that those seeking news and entertainment from other countries were not densely packed into a few parts of town;
4. Even very late at night, there were no crowds of young men hanging around, although I heard stories of pickpockets and petty theft from many people;
5. The elderly were not afraid to walk up to strangers to ask directions, and seemed not to be afraid to ride alone in busses or the metro.
I also did not see many ethnic hangouts, like teashops, where young men would tend to congregate. There were a few, but the glances I received from the patrons were not antagonistic. There were quite a few mosques and temples listed on the city website, and I walked by some of them, and found that they were very discreet, or hidden, and they did not have graffiti and were not guarded outside.
I'm sure that I will return to Barcelona, for another vacation or for work. This ranks as one of my most favorite places in Europe.
Favorite restaurant: Prince de Barcelona, Carrer de la Marina 66 (between Ramon Turro and Llull). Owner: Abdul. Excellent food at an excellent price-- 16.00 Euros for two at dinner!
Another comment:
I flew for the first time on the new airline, Vueling, and was very impressed. By leaving out the "free" food and drinks, and by using an internet-mostly e-ticketing service, their prices were half of what the traditional airlines could offer. The seats were still too close together, but they were almost comfortable, and the staff were very competent and helpful.
I missed celebrating the anniversary of Winston Churchill's birth in 1874. He did see clearly his present and future, and should be studied more intensely by those seeking to understand modern Europe.
27 November, Sunday.
I drove a son to a volleyball tournament in Aalsmeer, home to Dutch flower auctions. Giant glasshouses seemed full of trays where workers sort and clean and package flower bulbs. Not just tulips, but also lots of other bulb-type flowers. Almost every home on the streets backed up to glasshouses or fields where flowers are grown. I have noticed from an airplane these large glasshouses that are so brightly lit all day every day. Now I have seen them up close and they are nice works of art.
23 November, Wednesday.
Studied more on migration, especially North African immigrants into Spain, and their trail to the northlands of Europe. A new source of information is the World Christian Database. This is a very comprehensive source of information on nations and ethnic and religious groups. Being a large database, a user can study culture and religion in many combinations.
For example, I first looked at nations and Netherlands and found 400 (I think) data fields on aspects of life. Then I looked by "peoples" and compared populations of people groups inside Netherlands with those living in other places. The predictions as to changes in demographics over the next 45 years gave interesting insights into how some people think that the world will change. Full access to the database can be had for US$10 per day, or by month or year.
22 November, Tuesday.
Concentrated today on thinking about migration flows in Europe. And what is a "big picture" image of multiculturalism. It seems to me that ethnic minority people under the age of 25 are determined to become just like the ethnic majorities. Their worldview and culture is much more integrated into multiple parallel streams of identity. For example, an Iraqi 17 year old is the child of a friend. All day she is in school being just like the Dutch youth her own age. Afternoons find her with Dutch friends working in a small shop. Evenings find her going out with her Dutch friends. Her lifestyle is the same as theirs. Until she gets home late at night. Then she switches to speaking Arabic, she uses cultural behaviors that would be approved by her grandparents back in Iraq. Then she goes into her bedroom, starts studying in Dutch mode, and her learning now is in the Dutch manner, not in the rote memorization way of her parents. She switches personalities according to who she is with, and she told me that it is natural for her to switch back and forth between ways of behaving, since her behavior is according to her environment. When she changes her environment, or whom she is in conversation with, her behavior and personality automatically change. She tells her parents the version of truth that they expect, and she tells her friends and teachers the versions of truth that they expect from her. This is multiculturalism at the second generation level.
The conflict comes when her vision and understanding of the future (identical to that of her Dutch friends) comes against the expectations of her parents. The violent reactions will come when she has to choose between those two expectations. As a woman, that should be somewhat easier than for young men, who nurture peer approval differently than do young women.
21 November, Monday.
This was an exciting deeper look at results of the surveys from Iraq. Results.
I also wrote a lot of emails. A pleasure was writing a letter of endorsement to a young woman who helped with translation and data collection in Holland. Her school program can allow her some credit for professional work done in her field of study (sociology). We did spend a LOT of time discussing research strategy, data collection, analysis and reporting, so I have no hesitation recommending that she receive a considerable amount of school credit for the on-the-job training and experience that she received.
I listened yesterday to a lecture on mentoring. The talk was actually on retirement, but the basic principle was that retirement is no fun unless:
1. you can be involved in what you really love doing that is important to you and getting results;
2. you can build ever-increasing streams of income (security) while you are doing what you love.
The speaker, Michel Masterson, found his own satisfaction and security from helping younger contacts to become successful. He would seek out candidates with intelligence, passion, drive to succeed, and with whom he could sense a fun relationship. He would coach them along, building a new business that they were successful at, while his share of the profits of the business decreased from 100% to 75% to 50% to 25%, as he gave them increasing control and responsibility for the enterprise. He adds a number of new candidates to his pool of students each year, and by helping them to succeed, he feels satisfaction of passing on his wisdom to the next generation. And, by starting new businesses each year, he adds to his own financial security. He also makes money from writing newsletters (such as the "Early to Rise" e-letter mentioned via the link here by his name).
I like it when people make money honestly, and when they take the time to write what they've learned along the way that might help me and others do a better job of training our own children. And like he has learned, the most satisfaction comes from passing on wisdom to the next generation. You cannot do that if you do not write and do not mentor others. Instead, your wisdom dies with you.
20 November, Sunday.
The big news today was the family of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have disowned him in Jordanian newspapers. al-Zarqawi is actually Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, of the Beni Hasan tribe, and his family paid for large advertisements to distance the clan from his connection to the bombing of hotels on 9 November. The significance of this public act is understated in the western press, but for those living in a world of "family first," this means that his family, clan and tribe will no longer accept responsibility for his actions, and neither can he easily travel and live under their protection. Neither will he have access to their money. This is how families settle problems with rogue members, and it often works. They did not take the final step of regaining honor by killing him. That, too, makes a statement for those reading deeper.
The question then remains, why do other families allow or encourage their members to kill Iraqis, Egyptians, Saudis, Persians, or others? What was the trigger point for this family at this time to move them to action? What happened in the weeks since the bombing that made them weigh the honor/shame balance and find that supporting him was costing them more than they gained? Tribal pressure from the King? Economic pressure from the business community?
The al-Khalayleh family was in Kassarat neighbourhood of Zarqa, outside of Amman. It is an industrial area, with many Palestinians and Iraqis. Other news sources tell of Abu Musab being known as a thug. Details on how Abu Musab's networks grew and prospered, see Cicero Article.
For a humane and considered explanation of the differences to ordinary Muslims between resistance and terrorism, see NoTerrorismInIslam.com. The authors call for longterm vision of war against illiteracy and poverty, not innocent people.
For a perspective on the Muslim intellectuals on their own fear of attack from radicals, see the article, Arab Intellectuals: Under Threat by Islamists. This article is another source for the quote about not all muslims being terrorists.
18 November, Friday.
I've had a lot of late-night events this week, with full days of finishing reports on older ethnic relations research before jumping into my new data for deeper analysis. Too much time sitting at the computer or sitting in the car or sitting in the train, or sitting in meetings. Sitting long and good health feelings are incompatible in my current body.
The european ethnic riots and conflicts are not over, even though the western press has moved on. Several emails have come in this week from contacts wanting my opinion on the causes and solutions. A local commentator said that over all the world people have been made to feel that they have a right to be at least equal in power and money to everyone else, and that in their worldview, if they are not given easily what they want, then they have the right to follow the example of the "famous" terrorist organizations to make trouble for other people to show their dissatisfaction and anger.
This ultimate self-centeredness of killing others who do not give you what you want is the purest evidence of the depravity of humankind.
Humanity is not increasing worldwide, despite the billions of dollars being spent on social programs and poverty programs and human rights programs. There is something going on that money and good intentions cannot solve. Better administration does not stop personal moral failure. More wealth does not stop self-centeredness. Military power cannot force ethnic harmony. These are all different spheres of life, different planes of interaction. It is like fixing a flat tire by putting more fuel in the tank.
A new article caught my eye today, "Not all Muslims want to integrate" by Bruce Bawer in Norway. Few mainline newspapers are willing to point out facts the way that this article has. "The recent rioting in Paris suburbs and elsewhere in Europe should not have surprised anyone. Europe's Muslim communities are powder kegs, brimming with an alienation born of both an assiduously inculcated antagonism toward infidel society and an infidel society whose integration policies - which should actually be called segregation policies - have perversely encouraged this ire." In spite of several big words, this writer speaks what many of us think.
16 November, Wednesday.
I do not often sell things via the internet. I buy many, but seldom sell. Today was different.
A friend moved away and left me with some of his unneeded household items to dispose of. I decided to post a few adverts on the local sale page, Martktplaats. Within 9 minutes I had my first email asking about a certain item. Within 18 hours I had four phone calls, 2 emails, and 2 bids posted. I was amazed, truly amazed.
While I was posting the ads, we were watching a tv show called "Dragon's Den," where entrepreneurs pitch their products to a team of five venture capitalists. The basic idea is that if the promotion and sales potentials are well grounded, then any one of the VCs can hand over cash, or several of them can go together to provide funding in exchange for about 40% ownership of the venture. Most of the entrepreneurs were not adequately prepared with financial details, market studies, or how to sell their ideas. This is a fascinating show because the VCs explain why they do or do not choose to invest, and what the entrepreneurs could do to improve their own chance of success.
There is a "bottom line" to every type of business. That is the main point--how do I get to my own bottom line? Will others buy my explanation?
I look forward to the day when our family can work together to provide funds like this to small business startups and to charities working in the Middle East. It would be a lot of fun for me to work through financial statements and choose several projects each month to support.
15 November, Tuesday.
Useful links came in today.
1. what is a blog?
- What is a Blog?
- "Blog" Entry in Wikipedia
2. what is rss?
- Getting Started with RSS
3. What is the best way to stay updated on issues and documents in "forced migration?"
Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog
4. The Art of Chaordic Leadership? by Dee Hock.
This is a very interesting article on an alternate and more humane view of leadership. Instead of treating people like things, work with people as partners.
11 November, Friday.
Henk Dekker, director of the Ethnic Relations research group I am part of was quoted by the Boston Globe on the ethnic conflicts in Europe:
"Not all analysts agree that Europe is drifting toward an ethnic cataclysm. But most agree that alienation among Muslim youth is mounting, and that European societies are belatedly recognizing the danger. 'The young people raised by parents of one culture are trying to figure out their place in another culture -- and many are suffering a huge identity crisis," said Hank Dekker, director of the European Research Center on Migration and Ethnic Relations at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. 'If people believe they are deprived of their rights or the opportunities held out to others, they will respond with aggression -- that is as true for a quiet place like the Netherlands as for countries with even wider gaps," he said."
For years, our institute has provided leading analyses and commentary on migration and ethnic relations, with a constant stream of scholars working with us to understand better these topics. ERCOMER links include a virtual library of publications, and individual papers are available on the web site as well. This is a valuable website for those seeking to know a deeper perspective on the current problems between ethnic groups in Europe and beyond.
9 November, Wednesday.
Reading today To Give Their Gifts: Health, Community, and Democracy - by Richard Couto. An introduction paragraph stated that differences of health status among nations were most related to differences in social conditions within nations. That is, average levels of income or social status or healthcare of nations were not appropriate for comparing well-being among different nations. The most important way to compare wellbeing among different nations was by comparing the differences between social groups inside of individual nations. Countries with greater extremes of wellbeing appear to have deep-rooted problems that go beyond wealth of the national as a whole. I plan to study his source on this myself: "Is Inequality Bad for Our Health?" by Norman Daniels, Bruce Kennedy, and Ichiro Kawachi, 2000, published in Boston by Beacon.
8 November, Tuesday.
I did _NOT_ go to another seminar today, in spite of it being on a favorite and useful topic--social network analysis. I chose to use the large block of time to do my own statistical work. Hard going today as I attempted to finish the rewriting of an article on the Basra study of 2003. Some days I find statistical anaysis with SPSS so clear and logical. Today was not one of those days. I found myself unable to get the big picture of why some procedures with some data worked and other combinations did not. I guess I need another statistical book, since I could not find detailed references on the internet to help me work through my methodology. The newest book by Andy Field, Discovering Statistics seems to be the best solution for me. Unless I get a breakthrough fast, or can get a lunch meeting with one of my expert colleagues at the university.
I was up real early this morning to do my search thing of seeking census data on Iraq. I turned over a substantial portion of my Middle East books and resources to a university library a few years ago, including a copy of the 1987 census of Iraq. Unfortunately, it has disappeared from their holdings and I cannot find any Iraq census or demographic data at all. Gallup Organization collected some census-type data in 2003-2004, but they are unable to share that with others. Ministry of Planning collected some as well, but are also unable to share. The UN-HIC center in Baghdad had published initial reprints of the 1987 data, but it was very incomplete compared to the full census data set that I had before.
So, I will keep asking around until I find something. This is important. Collecting surveys of what individuals thing is best used in combination with general data about communities where the surveyed respondents live or work.
7 November, Monday.
Seminar today on ethnic differences in the labor market of Belgium by Marcel Lubbers. This was the most lively and passionate discussion I have seen at our seminars. Marcel communicated very clearly and enthusiastically about the employment differences between ethnic Belgians, Turks, Moroccans, and Italians on the community, province, region, and national level. Most of our seminars are in a traditional format: introduction by the moderator, 45 minute presentation by the speaker, 15 minute challenge to assumptions and methodology and conclusions by the "discussant", 15 minute break, 30 minute open floor for anyone to ask questions. Then we adjourn to a nearby pub for an hour or so to talk about ongoing research and teaching projects. Today was different. The discussant jumped in almost as soon as the presentation began, questioning Dr. Lubbers about a methodological point. That was the last of the calm. Since the floor appeared to be open, the questions and discussions almost prevented Dr. Lubbers from completing his overview, much less his well-planned explanation of his work. I enjoyed this seminar very much and eagerly look forward to reading Dr. Lubbers' book on right-wing voting patterns in Europe, where he also attempts to deal with how less-educated people are more inclined to vote for strong authoritarian powers.
5 November, Saturday.
While at a child's volleyball game, I reviewed notes on a special study I did in Basra two years ago. I collected three surveys in a row from the same participants. The surveys used specially constructed word choices to test for hidden biases or prejudices in ethnic or religious identity. This is known as "repeated measures with multilevel analysis." The fascinating result was that there was almost no significant difference between answers to the different types of surveys. Most academic journals only want to print articles showing significant positive outcomes.
However, the Journal of Spurious Correlationsis interested in this because they specialize in presenting research findings to show non-significant results as significant. Why is this important? To allow focus on research questions that may have significant differences and not invest more resources on questions that are not significant. I like the idea. Their journal description file is in the "Page Files" link in the right menu column.
4 November, Friday.
Today was m first deep look at the numbers coming from the Basra, Iraq new research.
The focus is on business owners and managers, and so it gives a different slice of Basra culture than most surveys which are focused on massive numbers of surveys with breadth of age and status of life. Basra middle class business owners and managers are older men, living and working in the same place for many years, are conservative, and represent some of the best stabilizing entities in Basra. They are above average in reading, following international news, and are well connected to government, religious and community organizations. This is a study on social systems, social networks, social capital, and how money and information actually moves in a community. The survey section on financial intelligence may yield surprising answers when I compare it to business counterparts in the European context. Hmmmm...I do not have data on European businessmen to compare with. That is another research topic for next week.
3 November, Thursday.
Early morning dentist visit. I've had several broken and chipped fillings the past few years. A repeat problem on one filling, with a lot of spreading pain caused me to do my best thing: do a search for information, skim a large body of information and distill it down to a few succinct points. My summary caused me to ask the dentist about the probability of a connection between recurring problems with a few fillings to the overall sinus and nervous system irritations. Without the speciaized instrumentation needed to measure chronic filling pain possibilities, he looked the x-rays. We discussed the overall health issues that might be related to my fillings, which are Amalgams containing 50% mercury, 35% silver, 9% tin, 6% copper and a trace of zinc.
Since the 1800s there have been increasing demands worldwide to stop using mercury in fillings, and Germany was one of the first countries (1992) to limit its use. A single dental amalgam filling with a surface area of only 0.4 sq. cm is estimated to release as much as 15 micrograms of mercury per day primarily through mechanical wear and evaporation. The average individual has eight amalgam fillings which release as much as 125 micrograms mercury vapor (0.125 mg/cubic meters) of mercury per day from their amalgams. OSHA exposure limits are 0.03 mg/cubic meters. (Interestingly, OSHA requires the use of breathing masks and supplemental air to be used in environments where there is the same amount of mercury found in the air inside of a person's mouth with 6 fillings!)
I think I am a strong candidate for removing my mercury amalgam tooth filling and replacing the mercury-silver with a composite material. I will be doing more reading, comparing traditional dental opinions with recent scientific studies. If there is any possibility of improving my health through reduced mercury poisoning, I will risk it.
2 November, Wednesday.
Conversations today with Richard Couto, a social scientist and leadership mentor attending a conference of the International Leadership Association. An interesting conference session is on leadership emergence in a post-totalitarian society.
Dr. Couto and I seem to have coinciding spheres of interest: mentoring, cross-cultural research, participatory research, social capital and participatory community development. Thank you, Richard, for the encouragement, and for laughing with my childrens.
Some of my favorite books.
1 November, Tuesday.
Even though I have been using this wiki system for over two years, I still don't understand how to use RSS and search engine optimization tools to allow more people to find these pages.
More information came now from the wiki, "Educational Uses of Weblogs, RSS, Wikis, and Podcasting."
I need to learn more, but this is similar to my ongoing frustration with maintaining my home computer network. The network works, but some parts are not stable and I hesitate to either invest a lot of time in researching tcp/ip protocol or in just plugging and moving around cables to see what happens. Time is valuable, but I don't plan at all on hiring (another) "expert" from the local business community only to find that they know how to string cable, but cannot be trusted to know much theory or even to correctly wire correctly my connectors. So many times I have bought even electrical extension leads and transformers and found that the polarity was reversed. If I use them for 2-conductor lamps they work fine, but when I use them to power sensitive computers or high-voltage devices it becomes dangerous.
31 October, Monday.
I have friends at the "Creating Abundance Foundation" that provides financial intelligence training. Two main categories of clients are children (training them how to manage money and how to stay of our consumer debt) and immigrants (training them how to get out of debt and how to make plans to improve their quality of life, both here and if they return to their homelands). Ideas for some of the youth activities come from "The Money Camp." Others come from Incredible Potential.
One of the most useful and small booklets I have read is "Raising Your Child's Financial IQ", included only in the children's finance game "Cashflow for Kids" by Robert Kiyosaki. This is a great package for adults as well as children. The game is a simple sort of "Monopoly" with the goal to save money from your work to invest in real estate or stocks or businesses so that your investment income is more than enough to cover all your debts. Simple, and brilliant. I play this children's game frequently with adults because it is simple and fast to play, and yet gives enough challenge to help players understand the difference between debt and consumer debt, and income and passive income.
Why am I involved in this? Because the single greatest problem that most immigrants and refugees in the Netherlands face is "How can I get more free time and extra money to enjoy life?" In most cases, the problem is not too little income, the problem is too many debts and expenses on non-essentials. With credit so easy to get, so many people buy items on credit, paying "only a little bit each month" but in the end having only more debt and less money. A large burden of debt is a dense barrier that keeps most people I know from truly being free to make changes in what they believe and how they live. They live to survive instead of making a better future.
I like helping others learn to solve their own problems, and playing "how to get out of debt" games is a great way to open discussions that are really important.
28 October, Friday.
Project last night was comparing diesel and gas/petrol/benzine versions of cars on the total cost.
Bottom line: there is no significant difference after two years of ownership, based on my needs.
Full details on comparison of diesel-benzine
27 October, Thursday.
Meeting today with an immigrant seeking to go to Canada. His wife and son left him a few years ago and he wants to go see his son. But, he cannot get a tourist visa without jeapardizing his residence process here. We talked through the options, including seeking help from IOM to get him to Canada on an asylum status. The real question: does he risk losing his residence here in order to apply for a chance to get a tourist visa to Canada? If he applies to Canada, and loses his Dutch chances, and then does not get the Canadian visa, he will have to return to his own country, and then have to deal with government harrassment or worse. I said that I would ask around my contacts to get some other ideas.
In some parts of the world, mothers have few rights over their children; in the European setting, fathers have few rights.
26 October, Wednesday.
Seminar today on Trust in social networks. Davide Barrera presented results of studies on how buying and selling activities, for example, are affected by perceptions of the trustworthiness of a transaction partner. Findings:
1. A person's own experience with relationships is more important to future trust transactions that the reported experiences of others.
2. The reported experiences of other peers is more important than the reported experiences of trading oppononents. For example, a buyer will trust more the reports and rumours about other buyers than the reports and rumours about sellers.
3. Uncertainties in the immediate environment have little effect on the actual trading activities.
4. Economists (vocationally) trust less than other types of participants.
See descriptions of a similar study also done at University of Utrecht by Vincent Buskins
25 October, Tuesday.
Iraq referendum results. Al-Jazeera news, along with most of the other main news sources affirm that the Iraq Referendum was approved. Some sources report 79% approval. That is a high approval rating. Compared with the European Constitution vote! Yes, the referendum was not perfect; yes, the constitution is not perfect; yes, I am sure that there was some fraudulent voting; yes, there is a lot of argument. But, votes are a sign that bullets are not the only way to solve problems.
Healthy Living. 24 October, Monday.
I have helped many friends move house, locally and internationally, and it always encourages me to change my own lifestyle, as described in these links:
1. Increase my own strength, endurance, and capacity for pain-free hard work. My body my life.
2. Live simpler, getting rid of non-essential stuff continuously, and judging any potential purchase in view of the future decision about keeping it, packing it, shipping it, or disposing of it. Extra stuff is limiting, not freeing. Basic rule that helped me in the last move: shipping goods by seafreight cost about US$15.00 per cubic foot (42eurocents per litre). This helped me to quickly assess value on an item to move.
3. Keep the house and car clean and attractive to reduce stress of repairs at the last minute before a move.
I have no plans to move, but helped this week a family relocate, and their stress is all too familiar.
22 October, Saturday.
EARLY, early morning trip to southwest Holland to attend a KnowledgeWorkx seminar, and for an extended talk about their projects in the Gulf.
They serve a very specialized niche market of international firms that need to improve effectiveness of multicultural staff. Scientifically-based, they are strong on psychometric analyses that carefully define the strengths and capabilities of both the individuals and team, and then coach teammembers how to work synergistically to give more tangible benefits to clients (airlines, hotel chains, and other multinationals).
I'm not sure how my own interests and capabilities will coincide with theirs, but our networks of contacts certainly overlap.
Topics to learn more about:
Total Organizational Renewal, one of the key successes of OTI Consulting.
Transformational Business Network, training businesses to invest in and improve quality of life in communities where they work.
Tear Fund, UK agency offering sponsoring and training in small business development
Emotional Intelligence, expansion of theories by Daniel Goleman on how reading other peoples' and your own emotions is essential to interpersonal relationship building.
Distance Learning Success. 21 October, Friday.
Early morning trip to the airport to welcome home our daughter who just finished all her university work. Total cost for her first university degree: 22 months and US$8425.
Distance learning works for those who are self-disciplined and motivated, and can be used in many contexts: lower education, higher education, continuing education, vocational training, and strategic planning through developing alternate scenarios of the future.
First look at the Iraq data: the first 25 surveys I went through were all from Basrah, all Shi'a, all Arab, almost all professional men who were business owners or managers.
I will be thinking through how to keep my findings updated on these wiki pages, and better than in 2003-4 research. Good news was that one of my research papers on using these wikis for scientific communication passed the formal review and is accepted for publication. One other (longer and more detailed) paper is still in process, and another short paper is not completed. With so much new data to look at and discover new mysteries, looking again at old, familiar work is not as exciting!
20 October, Thursday. Llstening precedes policy.
A long phone call with a friend from the Middle East reminded me that I do need to spend a lot of time listening to hear the issues and needs and crises in others' lives before I understand how I am to contribute to helping them work out their own success story. In this case, it was the familiar issue of returning to the birthland. If this friend wants the considerable amounts of money and support from international organizations who can make his return easier and more of a financial advantage, he must give up his autonomy and anonymity. And his European residence papers. As I asked questions in my normal way of helping others make decisions for themselves. My only advice was "Do not sell yourself to them only for the money. If there are other benefits that are important to you, then base your significant change of life on all aspects of your life, not just getting money without working for it."
As much as the European governments try to get immigrants to leave, and as much as they keep offering more money and other incentives, the overall benefits do not outweigh the costs and risks of leaving. The West offers a high standard of comfortable living, unemployment insurance, health insurance, a stable political and religious environment, and even simple freedom to make personal choices. The full package is why people come here, and why they are reluctant to go back. My friend has health problems that may not be easy to cope with in the other land; he has little vocational experience that would translate into a middle class job in the other land; he has no cash reserves to allow him to rent an apartment and buy furniture and find a good job environment; and he has legal protection here that he gives up if he returns to where he fled seeking refuge here.
Work options are the real issue. If he thought he could get a reasonable job it would make his return decision easier. Long-term, he needs to have ownership in a business that others run; own rental property for housing or commercial space that he could rent out. He cannot work physical labor and is to generous and kind-hearted to be a successful salesman. He could fit with a job requiring extreme extrovert skills in meeting new people and making them feel appreciated and cared for, but we were unable to come up with any ideas as to how to develop that kind of work opportunity.
So, why does he want to leave? To be with family. To return to his familiar and known culture. And to escape the "golden handcuffs" of a welfare state that gives a lot of benefits to its "refugee" clients, at a cost.
Useful information on Refugees and assistance to them.
19 October, Wednesday.
Favorite company of the day: Knowledgeworkx. Based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, they offer training, consulting and mentoring to multicultural companies, or to companies with demand for selling and workign across cultures. Their premier product is in "Cultural Mapping and Bridging," which maps cultural values and needs of individuals in an organization and then of the organization itself. Fascinating and very strategic contribution to business development.
I have a meeting with the director on Saturday to see what we might cooperate on doing in training.
Favorite company of the week: Apple Computer. Financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2005 report earnings of $430 million on $3.68 billion in revenue. Today they announced two new supercomputers, one a desktop and the other a new Powerbook. I bought last month their previous top-of-the-line Powerbook, and do not regret buying it at all. Except that my daughter keeps talking about "her computer" while carrying "mine" around with her. It did help her finish her last year of university in three months (as of last week), but I do not intend to give her the computer.
New Powerbooks: Higher monitor resolution, brighter, longer battery life.
Desktop: Power Mac G5 Quad—four operating cores with a total of 76.6 gigaflops.
iMac: Announced last week with a built-in webcam and wireless mouse.
IPod: Video iPod with a 2.5-inch LCD screen; the 60 GB model can hold up to 150 hours of video.
Apple shipped 6.45 million iPods during the last three months.
18 October, Tuesday. Monopoly Corrupts: Commerce, Religion, Government.
Study today on Sunni versus Shi'a Islam, in the Iraq context. Main point: Religious Sunnis seem to base faith and life on keeping their legal interpretations of what their religious law says (Sunni means "path" and implies keeping the traditions is the way to live rightly). Religious Shi'a seem to base faith and life on experience and mystical relationships to people of power. Other links and notes are at the CivilSocietyIraq Religion page.
Similarly, conflict over the governmental handling of Hurricane Katrina pulled me to a very interesting perspective from the Mises Institute. The main point is that under a monopoly system, whether commercial or religious or governmental, "there is no automatic feedback mechanism that penalizes failure, and rewards success, the essence of the market system of private enterprise."
17 October, Monday. Iraq Charter under the vote.
Yesterday Iraqis voted on the new charter (a .pdf copy of the draft is in the "files" link in the right menubar). Results should be available within a few weeks.
The significant point of this process, like that of the elections this past January, is that the people who choose to vote are giving direction to the future of their own government. yes, the candidate selection process is a bit rough, and not all 24 million Iraqis feel like their opinions matter in either the drafting of the items to be voted on, or that their own vote is important. But, I'm not sure if there has every been any sort of democractic or republican process in Iraq in all its history. So, this is a very important move forward, in spite of the violence and the critics. The new constitution (charter) is a remarkable piece of work and does a good, a very good job in setting out that the future of Iraq should be settled by law, and not by violence. The people are to direct the government, and not the other way around. Compared with the other constitutions in the Middle East, this one is simple and powerful in giving rule by law a chance to work. The next hurdle is to get the levels of power, from family level to those with more responsibility to agree to live by national law and to settle disputes in courts of law, not with violence.
This really is a great event and the whole world should celebrate.
14 October, Friday. TV Production
After my son and daughter's week of helping at a television studio, we had a coffee and debrief session with the producer. Television production is a factory--put out as many shows as possible on the smallest budget possible in order to get the largest audience possible. Work hard, work fast, work smart and keep moving ahead. This is not the realm for a lot of artistic creativity, but rather very much a factory to produce as many products for the least amount of money.
"I think anybody who has been in the theater, prefers it. Television is a... factory. You turn out things on a revolving assembly line. You don't have time to perfect anything in television." --Gale Gordon
"TV is a factory and to create a product of quality with the time constraints and budget restrictions is very tricky and not always possible." --Bruce Greenwood.
How is television judged a business?
"...television as a business makes money by selling audiences to advertisers, the Nielsen Television Ratings are the single most important element in determining advertising rates, schedules, and program content."
In other words, television as a business is largely defined by what advertisers and sponsors are willing to buy.
13 October, Thursday. Project Backpack--Katrina.
For a really great story on how a few people with a vision and passion can change the world, see Project Backpack. Beginning with a few backbacks for schoolchildren displaced Hurricane Katrina, it grew to thousands of donated backpacks--with a few volunteers in each location, no budget, and no large fundraising appeal. Reminds me of "Small is Beautiful" by E.f. Schumacher.
Grassroots civil society!
I just had a long talk by Skype with Kenneth Tyler, founder of Seedwiki.com.
Get Skype
New projects that I want to try:
1. Online calendar that would sync my different computers and cell phone. Something like the SyncML open standard, where iSync is a general-purpose application for synchronizing data, in 2003, Steve Jobs synchronized calendar events from iCal and contacts from the Mac OS X Address Book to an iPod via FireWire, to a Palm handheld via USB, and to a Sony Ericsson cell phone via Bluetooth. This is what I want! Why can I not even get my three Macs and my Windows computer to sync their calendars without subscribing to a fee-based calendar server?
2. Wiki for a real estate investment group that is building a carwash-convenience store-restaurant-gas station. What if they offered to patrons wikispace to host forums on Jackson clubs, such as real estate and small business development clubs, and a hotspot in their facility at no cost to patrons?
3. Wiki client to host on my home & office networks that would put shared folders always online between our computers with automatic updating of files and current versions of documents.
4. A directory that is automatically updated of all my wiki pages. My pages are scattered across sub-wikis and need to be searchable in a directory tree or by topic or by keyword or by tags.
5. A wiki of my own list of websites, documents, helpfiles, and techniques to keep my own computers running.
12 October, Wednesday. Culture and Poverty.
A sociologist is planning a new project to study how or if culture affects poverty and debt. The main question is if ethnic minorities have different types of debt than the ethnic majority. This is complicated because different families see debt and poverty differently. And, poverty itself is hard to define. Some international organizations pledge to eliminate poverty by a certain year. Their first task is to define poverty for each local situation, but that may mean a different level for each family! The basics of clean water, adequate access to food and medical care and education are part of the definition, but may be more social than economic. If economic definitions are used, then total income for the family must be measured against things that they want to buy or do with that income. Debt also has to be carefully defined, such as debt for survival (food, medical care), debt for possessions that hold or improve in value (land, houses, previous metals or jewels), or debt for possessions that decrease in value (cars, computers, furniture). Debt is also relative to the types of resources available to pay it off. Great book on the very basics of how money and debt can be used to improve quality of life at all income levels is Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Highly recommended, and easy to read and understand.
11 October, Tuesday.
Two streams coincided today in my thoughts. First was a request from a friend to talk him through some of the peculiarities of working in the Levant and Middle East. Second was a report on the cultural influences on impact of earthquakes in Pakistan. The First led me to consider the challenges of supporting agricultural development projects, especially the hindrances due to self-serving traditions. I will rewrite these later and add to this page. The Second was "Pakistan's mountain tsunami" report by Maruf Khwaja.
Travelers to the USA report back on the hugeness of the country and the large distances one must travel between homes and cities, and the large personal space maintained even in private conversations. They report on the giant portion sizes of food consumed by fat people. They report on how easy it is to become a friend to Americans, but how difficult to become part of their personal lives. American travelers to the Muslim world report back on the confusing babble of languages and lack of "personal space." They report on how everything is chaotic and not predictable. They report on how people are hard to get to know, but once they become a friend they will share many private parts of life with even outsiders.
Comparing across cultures is dificult because all you can truthfully say is that some things are very different. Attempting to label things as better or good or bad, while convenient, is not honest in most cases. One of the best books and film series is Going International by Lennie Copeland and Lewis Griggs. They attempt to broaden our understanding of differences that should make a difference to us, and those that should not.
10 October, Monday.
I seldom drive my car to appointments or meetings if I might efficiently use public transport. A car is to carry other people, not me. But, today I had two large backpacks full of paper surveys and it would have been uncomfortable to carry them by bicycle, then train, then tram, then walk to the meeting. So, I drove. Then put diesel fuel in the tank at Euro 1.06 per litre.
I met with the sociologist doing the data entry on the Iraq surveys. After tea, coffee, talking, chatting, and catching up on all the news, we opened up the SPSS statistical package and began working through the first of the surveys. Even after so many hours we had spent before discussing and revising the survey and the data and the analysis, there were still items to change on the data entry form. With 140+ questions, it took us a while to even go through one survey, making notes as we went. But, it was very pleasant to be together, and I am hopeful, very hopeful that there will be significant and useful material in the surveys to understand better how some Iraqis relate to each other, how they perceive threats from each other, and how they relate to sources of money and information.
We also discussed this friend's own research on how culture may affect debt accumulation and feelings of entrapment in poverty. Debt, like poverty, is not a fixed amount. The seriousness of debt is only accurate when measured in relation to level of income, level of assets, and level of equity. Playing the game, "Cashflow" by Robert Kyosaki helped me to see that lower income with lower ratio of debt to assets can become self-sufficient much more quickly than someone with very high income, but with a higher ratio of debt to assets. Making more money does not relieve debt pressure unless the ratio of debt to income also falls. Unfortunately, as income rises, debt usually rises even faster.
8 October, Saturday.
Son and I helped a friend put together stage backdrops for a television show. Paper, staples, gaf tape, a ladder--that's all you need to change the look of a tv show. And I used to think that backdrops were real!
There are a few important facts designing backdrops for television that also apply to home movies and even still photos: TV Backdrops. Basics: the background, the props, the costumes, the makeup and everything else should not distract from the main purpose and content of the event.
How to set up your own studio for video and tv work (even for home productions): Television Studio.
After reading comparisons of western and Middle Eastern reporting on the Middle East, I found very interesting the book, Al Jazeera : How Arab TV News Challenges America by Hugh Miles. All of us are dependent on highly-controlled news distributed by mass media, and all media sources have agendas other than "only report the absolute truth and do not include any bias." An Iraqi told me, "If it is mass media, it comes with approval of the government, and I do not trust any government to tell me the truth." Mr. Miles presents some biases of Al Jazeera, and in so doing, reveals motives of international news agencies in general.
7 October, Friday.
Dry and sunny day meant taking a few hours off to clean all carpets in the house. Clean is good. Sunny and dry with clean carpets is better.
I also learned a bit about the new international word processing system--Global Writer. Because it is truly unicode-based, with thousands of individual characters (glyphs) it can create documents in almost any written language of the world, and mix and match languages within a single document. A beautiful product. I learned that their technical support staff answer the phones FAST and they help a lot to make sure that users are happy with the product. I had a Kurdish document written in Global Writer and needed to use it with documents already in Word/Excel. Since Global Writer exports to standard unicode format, I took the unicode version of the Kurdish document and it opened straight into Excel, after I added another Middle Eastern unicode font. Perfect!
6 October, Thursday. Netherlands Demography Day
1st Netherlands national demography day. Big conference and a lot of excitement. Mostly centered around population change and predictions of the future of Netherlands population. More retirees will need more tax monies to support them since the pension funds may be be adequate. Fewer projected workers and declining population numbers and workforce means probable continued economic decline. Growing population with new technology and innovation leads and higher unemployment to increased quality of life and standards of living and more innovation. Low unemployment leads to lack of innovation and entrepreneurship vital to promote growth. Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute was the sponsor, along with the Netherlands Association for Demography and the Population Research Centre. I attended sessions on migration and gained some new contacts and a lot of useful ways to find and present research. Of interest to me were the population dynamics in the four largest cities of the Netherlands. Example: westerners are moving out of the old city centres, non-westerners (especially younger people) are moving into those centres, but as newcomers prosper, they also move out towards the surburbs because (apparently) they can afford better housing, lower crime, and better neighbors. A useful description of the multilevel statistical process: compare characteristics of the neighborhoods (from census and other community datasets) with the personal characteristics of the individuals and their inclination to move (from individual surveys). Ethnic factors: Antillians and Moroccans in the neighborhood increase likelihood that westerners will move out, but the presence of Surinamese and Turks do not have the same effect.
5 October, Wednesday.
Sociology colloquium. Rene Veenstra of Groningen spoke on the relationships between school bullies and their victims. 3,000 elementary school students interviewed, along with teachers and parents and peers. Bulliles seek improved status by finding those who are emotionally weaker and are easy targets. Both bullies and victims feel rejected. Victims feel isolated, but bullies see themselves as having approving onlookers. The bigger need is addressing problems with the bullies themselves, not consoling the victims. Bullies can increase problems, leading to delinquency and criminal behavior.
Met with Kurdish data collector. She spoke Dutch, I spoke English, we looked at Kurdish survey forms and discussed Iraq social systems and Arabic resources. The new surveys total 43 Kurdish and 160 Arabic. 20 England, 100 Basrah, 83 Netherlands. Data entry I hope to finish this month and then the fun of analysis begins.
3 October, Monday.
The first ERCOMER seminar of the new school year. Presentation was "Individualism-Collectivism and Social Capital" by Anu Realo of University of Tartu, Estonia. Very interesting work comparing trust, political involvement, and social interactions based on degrees of individualism and collectivism.
Books for follow-up on social capital and cultures:
Inglehart, R. Human Beliefs and Values: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook, with CD of data
Compares worldviews and beliefs across geographic and cultural distances
Inglehart, R. Islam, Gender, Culture, and Democracy: Findings from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey
Compares worldviews of Islamic nations with those of other nations, and is a valuable source of data and theories seeking to explain differences between views of "normal" Muslim citizens compared with those of non-Islamic nations. His 2005 book seems to have even more in-depth analyses of cultures.
2 October, Sunday.
A son had a volleyball event in Haarlem, so we all went to Haarlem. But, I took a few of my kids and we went to Zandvoort. I thought we would play on the beach for a few hours while the volleyball things went on. Instead, when I parked the auto, I saw people walking into the Zandvoort race track (Circuit Park Zandvoort) where European Formula 3 events are held. The gates were open so we went in, walked through into the Paddock area and saw crowds around big cars and little cars and scooters and piles of tires and a lot of clouds of exhaust smoke. We made our way through the racesuited and jumpsuited people who looked so very important and up onto the observation deck above the pits and garages.
One race finished just as we got on top, and we saw drivers climbing out of the cars, mechanics busy with the engines and fuel and tires. Then a great commotion began behind us and several dozen "superkart 250cc" vehicles were being pushed up into line in the Paddock corral. The engines began screaming their warmup cycles and tires were changed and drivers getting instructions from the marshall. What fun! The race lasted only 15 minutes or so, but it was a great thing to see for all of us.
Interesting note: The big cars with roll cages, immaculate paint, big sponsor names, etc, were driven by young "macho men". The tiny superkarts, riding only inches above the ground, and traveling about the same speed as the big cars, were driven by old, grey-haired, and often fat men. I'm not understanding that difference.
But, we all had a great time.
1 October, Saturday.
Today was the yearly celebration event of many organisations connected to the GAVE organisation serving refugee and asylum-seeker needs in the Netherlands. 24 workshops on many aspects of refugee work. And, a large buffet of tasty foods from many countries represented.
As I watched the speeches and listened to workshop leaders, I was impressed that so many volunteers from around the Netherlands will give so much time to help, serve and support refugees. There were doctors, advocates, government workers, media producers, counselors, pastors and church leaders, but, mostly, these were ordinary people who met newcomers and had feelings of compassion and concern that forced them to get involved.
As a "civil society" gathering, I was very impressed that there was no clamour for RIGHTS and demands for someone to do something. The focus was on how ordinary people can make the lives of these refugees better, and show kindness and compassion to them.
30 September, Friday.
Expectations. I talked by phone with a friend attempting to get a new company going, but who is having difficulty getting adequate legal and fiscal support to meet reporting requirements from the government. Working crossculturally in other countries can be a great challenge. I am very motivated to solve problems and move ahead with my own priorities. My stress level goes up when I notified that I must put my life into little boxes on another application or certification form. I found this morning a quote that defines what is my real problem in this.
"Frustration in life comes as a result of unmet expectations" --Stephen Covey
I expect certain events to sequence themselves out in my plans, and experience frustration when the sequence does not happen in the way I want it to.
Rethinking some of the frustrations I seen over the years with cross-cultural workers, I thought of expectations that lead to frustration. The list is long--Unmet Expectations?. From what I have seen, the majority of personnel failures and workgroup conflicts come from unmet expections that lead to frustrations. And those lead to a demand "for my rights." For now, I'm working on current frustrations and looking for the unmet expectations that made me feel frustrated. This is an interesting exercise that should help me achieve more and offend others less.
29 September, Thursday.
My son lost his identification card and I telephoned to the responsible government office to ask about getting a replacement. Again, I was very surprised when the lady answered with a very cheerful voice and asked how she might be of service to me. Someone is investing a lot of energy into helping public servants to be seen as public servants. This was nice to experience. In the end, I was pointed to a website where I should download a form to submit by post. At the end of our conversation she wished me a pleasant day. I like this new and friendly face to the government.
Customer Service Group offers newsletters for managers and staff on how to develop more effective customer services. Tradition has it that one bad customer experience will be retold to nine others, but a good customer experience will only be told to three others--so, it is very important to keep bad reports from circulating.
28 Septemer, Wednesday.
Back home, and I was pleasantly surprised that while the bicycle storage facility at the train station charges 1.10Euro for a day of storage, it only charges 0.30 per day after the first day. I expected to pay 2.20 Euro for my two days, but only paid 1.40Euro. That is called, "under promise, over deliver." We all should do the same in our service to others--under promise and over deliver.
Another example: last week I left my auto at a service garage for a change of oil and filters. When I arrived to collect the auto (and pay the bill!), I noticed that they washed the outside and vacuumed out the inside. It looked great. That type of service makes me pleased to go back over and over again--they do very good work, treat me politely, and keep a bowl of lovely candies on the counter for customers.
27 September, Tuesday.
I met today with the administrator of a non-profit agency with refugee and immigrant services. Much of our conversation focused on how to train and resource workers. Many new employees of charitable organisations do not have higher education or extensive training in running humanitarian projects. From what I have seen, managers of organisations spend much of their time going to meetings, not in training or mentoring their people. And the chronic shortage of money means that many employees are very frustrated and do not last very long in their jobs. Stephen Covey says,
"Frustration in life comes as a result of unmet expectations." I believe that when an organisation hires people, they should make a clear definition of expectations from both sides.
26 September, Monday.
Meeting at the airport to discuss agricultural and relief projects in Afghanistan. As the friend and I talked, many happy memories of previous agricultural consultancies came to mind. Many years ago I did quite a bit of work with poultry farmers in the Middle East, and used to think that I knew a lot about tree crops and large animal production. Today, I mainly know how to ask questions and how to find people who are the real experts. I have very high regard for the technical capabilities of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and their network of consultants. On their homepage they have a link to Virtual Library, where there are many significant resources on food production.
24 September, Saturday.
The lady of yesterday decided by her own decision that returning to her homeland was best for herself and her child. We spent out time focused on on which contacts were most able to help her move along the process. I was satisfied that she made her own decision and that all seemed at peace in that decision.
My time today went to cheer for kids' volleyball games and getting a failing computer back working again for a daughter to finish typing book notes for me.
INTERESTING NOTE: to upgrade a harddrive in an Apple Powerbook I had to remove five screws. To do the same procedure in a Compaq notebook computer it took 38! The Apple took about five minutes and the Compaq took about 90 minutes. When I compare these costs, the initial "cheapness" of the Compaq is seen in a different light.
23 September, Friday.
I just was contacted by a friend who is sheltering an asylum-seeker from 1ran. The lady left her country when she ran afoul of the secret police and she felt her life was threatened.
She entered the asylum process in the Netherlands, and for a number of years sat in a detention center waiting for her case to be heard. A local man met her and offered to marry her to give her legal protection under the law. She moved in with him but somehow the right papers did not seem to be arranged by him. She became pregnant and was put out of his life. She returned to the state system, gave birth to a child, and then the state ruled that they could not find adequate proof that she was in danger of persecution. She was put out of her housing and access to all housing, medical care, and all other forms of protection.
My friend and his family took the woman and child into their home. He now wants me to help him find a good solution.
What are the options?
1. Hire a lawyer to appeal for her case to be reviewed. This is expensive and generally has little chance of succeeding.
2. Take her to another country to try to get her into an asylum process there.
This is not legal but for some people it gives them another chance.
3. Find a way for her to live without papers and without legal permission to stay in the country. Eventually, she will be found out and the police will deport her back to her own country where she will be imprisoned and the child given to extended family or to others who will accept it.
4. Get help from an international organization that can arrange travel papers back to her country, and will pay for the travel. This will be a high-profile return and when she arrives at the airport, she probably will be held by the police while her full background is investigated. Maybe there would be no problem since it has been several years since she left. Maybe.
At least she would be legal in this country while the return trip is arranged.
My friend wants to meet in the next few hours to make a decision about what she should do.
How would you approach this question?
To what degree should my friend and I try to make the decision easy for her?
To what degree should we give help?
Is she a victim who deserves charity?
She made a series of wrong choices and is trying to get out of the consequences,
what is the correct balance of helping and letting consequences happen?
If this was a single, isolated case, my friend and I could take our time and pool our money and hire a lawyer and visit other refugee-helping organizations to see what resources they could offer. But, this type event happens to dozens of people each week.
How does that affect our capacity to do good?
How much can we interrupt our own family priorities and our own childrens' needs, over and over again because of the crises that others create for themselves?
Is this different from "victims" of hurricanes who do not leave their homes early enough and barely escape with their lives? I'm not criticizing, I just looking for comparisons to look for higher ways of looking at victims and the combinations of charity and self-help, of relief and development.
I am not looking forward to my meeting, where I know I will be pushed to find another solution to make life easier for this lady and child. I like this lady, and I really like my friend, and I want to help all of them to be happy.
Sometimes, all I can do is give them a hug and say that I love them and pray with them that God will give peace. That is what I will do in a few minutes, along with offering a list of contact numbers for other organizations that might have new ideas or resources.
But, I will not treat the lady as a victim; but rather as a person who has made choices and now needs hope that God does love her and that he has an honorable plan for her life. I will ask her to ask God to reveal in her conscience what she should do, and for God to give her strength to make right decisions.
22 September, Thursday.
After leaving our car at the local garage for servicing, I biked to the train station and rode about one hour to Ede-Wageningen, home of the famous agricultural and life sciences university. I had the pleasure to meet faculty and staff and students, including students from Iran and Korea. We had a very stimulating three hours together, discussing educational methodologies, competency standards for education and for agricultural development, agri-business entrepreneurship, and Egyptian monasteries. These are competent, and comfortable people for me to enjoy. I hope to see them again and see how our convergent paths might synergise something new.
One quickly emailed to me papers he has written on training for entrepreneurship in small and middle-sized businesses in agriculture-related work. This is very interesting to me as I look for better ways to help immigrants from the Middle East return home, and help them think through how to become more than dull employees. Giving hope that they can be in more control of their lives is what I most need to do. There is a lot to learn. With enough time, walking with them in their own village and world, I believe that I could help many of them to succeed. I want so badly to do that. For now, my task is both personal and academic, application and analysis, friend and family. But I am learning. Faster and faster, it seems.
21 September, Wednesday.
A son lost his local identity card. We went to the village police. They told us to go to the regional administration office. They told us to go to the regional police headquarters. They told us to go to the national immigration ministry. We went home. I will deal with this another day, because I have the feeling it will be another long day.
The fun part of the day, besides having a lot of time with my son, was a friend who dropped by for a few hours of talking about the housing system. There is a free market system for houses for sale, almost. But in the rental market, there are strict controls over some sectors that are considered housing projects for the common good. For example, 172 apartments across the street from our house are restricted to young renters, between the ages of 18-24, and with income less than about Euro 3200 per month. Since there is a great housing shortage, at least for young people who do not want to live with their parents, or to share housing with several others.
20 September, Tuesday.
Rule by law. It is a difficult concept. "Do officials serve the law, or do laws serve the officials?" This quote is from a New York Times article on China's attempt to preserve stability of government while appearing to recognize external standards of due process.
For me, the same quote appears relevant in my own process to renew my "permission to reside in the Netherlands."
19 September, Monday.
Europe is moving towards standardised rules and regulations among EC member states. With the failure of the Europe-wide referendum on a common constitution, there is even more pressure now on member states to nurture bilateral and multi-lateral agreements. For the official background on how this is described, see EU Governance. The basic rule is that relations are established and developed by dialogue, not dispute or conflict. This point of view certainly makes sense to me, but the breakdown is in the lack of trust with respect to national right to rule within individual state borders. This concept itself comes out of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, ending the "Thirty Years War." This treaty established that within fixed geographic locations, a nation-state would sole jurisdiction over its internal affairs. Before this time, there were city-states, provinces under the control of those city-states, unions of provinces for economic or defense purposes, and large empires whose boundaries changed as city-states rebelled and were subdued.
The recognition of geography as being "owned" by one government set precedents that today still define local, national, regional and transnational citizenship, and with it, barriers to international agreements. Fortunately, these barriers also give increased advantage to individuals and their networks to move faster than governments to create alliances and partnerships that serve the common interests. The post-Westphalian world is becoming dominated by international market forces, much to the discomfort and opposition of the far left and the far right, whatever those extremes really stand for! Five Pillars of the WW (Westhpalian World) can be seen as disintegrating, with some hope of global increases in quality of life for everyone. ("If it is anachronistic to elect presidents in 2001 using a system designed in the 1790s it is even more anachronistic to try and govern the world with a system conceived in 1648."--Kimon Valaskakis, Pari Center).
This is the dream of civil society activists, and of those not dependent on state tax revenues for their support. Interestingly, those most critical of western governments in their human rights and other abuses sometimes are heavily dependent on those governments for financial support. The Governance and Development Working Group is building new concepts on "multi-level governance." They say, "Global, regional and local levels of decision-making have gained importance alongside the national one, with networks and agencies other than the sovereign state playing an increasingly significant role." EADI - European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes - is an independent and non-profit making international non-governmental organisatio