How do you define idiots - and I mean, total idiot? Try Dharun Ravi, the 20-year-old ex-Rutgers student who thought it's funny to use webcam to spy on his roommate with another man, and then, announce it to the world, inviting everyone to look see.
If it were in grade school, I'm sure this would be considered bullying, and the kid would get an earful. When it's in college, Ravi and his parents and supporters call it "pranks." To him, sure it's no harm no foul. To Tyler Clementi, the victim who couldn't bear to be out'ed by his roommate in such a public, humiliated way, jumped off of a bridge and killed himself, it's an entirely different matter.
While it's true this doesn't involve violence or coercion or the traditional type of hate crime traits that one can easily identify it with, words and actions can equally kill.
What I find most callous, is the lack of emotion or remorse from this perpetrator, who never even came out to say he's sorry, or utter some word of apology, or express certain remorse or regret that his actions led to the death of his roommate (although I'm sure Ravi didn't consider Clementi a "friend"). The only time he cried, was when he realized that he's going to spend 30 days in prison, for causing someone else to die. He regrets it simply because he got caught and was getting punished for the crime.
Sure, sure, I can already hear people jumping up and down, saying that this prosecution is not about the death of the victim, but the process (the spying, the singling out the gay, and for exposing him to the world). Being a spectator, I have no care about the technicalities. The outcome is the same. This guy, through the process, directly caused the outcome; and someone died, as a result. Someone has to pay for the crime. Dharun Ravi should be made to pay, one way or the other.
It's equally callous, for Ravi's family and proponents to say he doesn't deserve to do time in jail. He did the crime; he did the time. That's how I see it.
The controversy of the verdict ends with the judge's sentencing which includes only 30-day prison time (out of 10 years potential maximum), some community service, small fine of $10,000 to help with victim's fund, and no recommendation of deportation. When I first hear of it, I'm, like, no way, this is not fair for the victim. The guy died because of his action, and he got 30 days of jail? It's like having do retention after-school at principal's office for pushing a classmate over a cliff.
On second thought, it sounds like quite a well-thought out sentence. Ravi would remain a felon after the 30-day jail term, he's going to do crime, he could still face deportation (back to India), he's kicked out of Rutgers. Being a supposedly bright 20-year-old, his future is probably done for. He'll live with the stigma of being the stupid idiot from Rutgers who spies on friends and acquaintances. A total wanker.
With the high profile trial, I hope it raises sufficient awareness among other idiotic teens, young adults, and adults alike, that bloodless pranks can have serious consequences. Crimes don't pay, and they should think twice (if they're able of using their heads, for a change) before they commit to idiotic acts, as Dharun Ravi did.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
On robot sex/love...
I don't know if you know the movie Lars And The Real Girl. It's quite a decent movie, though I haven't though much of it after I watched it a few years ago. And then I read the article the other day about the coming of age of robot sex with humans; this movie all came back to me.
Granted that the protagonist, Lars, in the movie was never portraited to have sex with the doll; his attachment to the sex doll is all psychological and emotion. But it's certainly not that big of a jump to consider Lars' needs for the doll was physical and sexual too.
And why not? I don't know why anyone finds it distasteful. I see it as a good thing, for men who would use a robot for their physical/sexual needs, rather than subjecting another human being to demeaning task of releasing them of their semen, one way or the other. I would not imagine any prostitute working that job really enjoy it; though these women (and men alike) in the hooker industry often don't have a choice, given their financial needs for the money. This is not to mention young children being subject to the same kind of animal urge from men. If there is just this way - the robot way - to alleviate this problem industry, it would be a very welcome sign.
As the article rightly points out, younger generations these days are more comfortable to indirect contacts anyway. The use of robots for physical and emotion needs is only a natural extension of this social trend.
I'd say, bring it on. I don't want to see those men exploit women/men/children anymore. This millennia-old vice has gone on for far too long, and the society has turned a blind eye. Would there be one day when sex dolls can replace human prostitutes to eliminate exploitation some day? I'd hope so.
Granted that the protagonist, Lars, in the movie was never portraited to have sex with the doll; his attachment to the sex doll is all psychological and emotion. But it's certainly not that big of a jump to consider Lars' needs for the doll was physical and sexual too.
And why not? I don't know why anyone finds it distasteful. I see it as a good thing, for men who would use a robot for their physical/sexual needs, rather than subjecting another human being to demeaning task of releasing them of their semen, one way or the other. I would not imagine any prostitute working that job really enjoy it; though these women (and men alike) in the hooker industry often don't have a choice, given their financial needs for the money. This is not to mention young children being subject to the same kind of animal urge from men. If there is just this way - the robot way - to alleviate this problem industry, it would be a very welcome sign.
As the article rightly points out, younger generations these days are more comfortable to indirect contacts anyway. The use of robots for physical and emotion needs is only a natural extension of this social trend.
I'd say, bring it on. I don't want to see those men exploit women/men/children anymore. This millennia-old vice has gone on for far too long, and the society has turned a blind eye. Would there be one day when sex dolls can replace human prostitutes to eliminate exploitation some day? I'd hope so.
On the pain of being unemployed...
I was reading a featured article on CNN on interviews of the unemployed over the past three years (2008-11) across walks of life and across the nation. It's painful to read of the lives and times of these less fortunate folks, some of those who still suffer from the aftermath of the unemployment, as they are yet to find another job. That big void, of being rejected by fellow coworkers and an employer to whom some folks have devoted their lives, of the depression, of the unspoken shame, of the loss of hope to some (though some still hold a brighter outlook than others).
It's sad too, that losing a job in a poor economy comes at no fault to these people, yet they bear the brunt of the impact of the recession.
I have little doubt that Republicans like Mitt Romney, the GOP hopeful who is vying to be the presidential nominee of his party in the general election in the fall, have little (or none at all) sympathy or care about these folks who struggle to find jobs in a market where jobs have evaporated in some parts of the country. I'm sure GOP would give their standard lines to folks like these, telling them to be self-reliant, to not expect handouts from government, to try harder to find jobs. If they still fail to land on any jobs, it must their own fault and making, and no one else to blame. I heard those lines so many times. Romney is simply regurgitate those tired script from folks like Newt Gingrinch and Wall Street Journal.
I hate it, that these well-greased politicians would not miss a beat, in providing handouts to their corporate buddies like candy, at the expense of taxpayers' money (hello, government handout). I don't hear anyone telling these Big Corps to be more self-reliant, and quit sending lobbyists to Washington to send them more pork-barrel perks.
It's not that the Democrats are not doing their own version of scratching the backs of their lobbyist buddies. The GOP simply comes across as more hypocritical, for rejecting big government, handouts, promoting self-reliance, yada yada, yet at the same time, doing exactly the opposite when they're not in front of a camera or out of earshots of main media. In the end, only the little guys (and they are taxpayers too) who play by the books, follow all rules to the T, are going to pay the price for an economy gone awry, and a Wall Street run amok.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some years back - it must have been more than a decade now - my brother was working in middle management (management accounting) in an European Bank. Everything seemed to be on the up and up, and the economy worldwide was chugging along; and then the news broke. The bank wanted to cut costs, and the whole department that my brother worked was eliminated. News got out, that the backoffice functions were relocating to India.
I can't remember exactly when this was, but it's at the beginning of the globalized trend, when corporations, large and small, suddenly found religion and realized that they could get the same bodycount from India for a substantially reduced salary level and pretty much no benefits. There's no hassle from unions in India either. The Indians were scrambling to work in an office of overseas companies inside an air-conditioned cubicle. Never mind that they needed to work the graveyard shifts in order to accommodate the timezone differences with most of the developed countries (where the corporate offices and customers really reside).
My brother has always been reticent. He's not one that talks about feelings. Some years later, my sister-in-law declares that my brother has Asperger Syndrome. I find it almost comical. I have this feeling that my brother has been in depression for a long time; but, being a nurse as she is, I don't think my sister-in-law ever truly understands him. In any case, her declaration never does anything good; afterall, what good does it do if you have a "diagnosis" with no follow-up or treatment? Ah, but she's a whole new story, for another day.
I do remember how bitter my parents were when they got the news that my brother was laid off. Afterall, they have the same notion as most of those in the article have had, that if you work hard and are good at your job, you will be appreciated, and you work your way up the management ladder. It took my parents a very long time, perhaps even longer than my brother, to accept the fact that he's going to eventually just treat this as an early retirement (from the very prime age of his mid 40s). Even though my brother has resigned to that fact, and he's found other things to keep his mind busy; I'm doubtful if my mom, in particular, ever gets over the rejection that her only son got, in the form of firing and prolonged unemployment.
My parents feel bitter too, that my brother seems to be still being picky about what jobs to apply for. From their perspective, if he's desperate enough, he should try harder, and cast a wider net in his job search. He never did. Eventually, after some years, all his previous contacts - and he's never good at networking with people anyways - fade out, and he's pretty much shut out in his own ivory tower, working on a pet project that has been going on for the past ten years, with little to show for.
Everytime I read others' life stories like those less fortunate ones who remain unemployed, I think about my brother. Oftentimes I'm unsure what and how to offer help to him. I'm not sure if he wants to go back to the corporate world, or if he can adjust back to corporate workplace at all. Perhaps it might as well that he takes early retirement, since he seems to look a tad bit more cheery than in the past.
I don't want to treat him like a loser. He's a very smart and intelligent man, and his insights on things can be startling (though at times he tends to have tunnel vision). All I can think of, is the tremendous loss of talent; so much unfulfilled promises; so much broken dreams. And, multiple that by millions of times (for those who are still unemployed and underemployed), and one can only appreciate the amount of wasted talents to society as a whole. There's so much loss of productivity.
BUT, corporations don't see things that way. They make calculated moves, measured by dollars and cents. They don't measure intangible, abstract human costs (and why would they care anyways?), not to the individuals, nor to society as a whole. That's what I feel Romney is good at, in cutting costs, boosting profits, and fattening the bottomline and pocket books of the investors and the wealth (ie. those who don't need to work anymore) when he's at Bain Capital. For all that, Romeny wants us to believe that it's fair that these investors should be taxed at 15% while those who actually toll to work for a living should pay 35% taxes. Go figure.
I'm not a proponent of socialism, and I don't believe in governments creating jobs, just for the sake of creating jobs to keep people busy. (Just look at what happens to Greece, and its very bloated public sector that threatens to cripple the whole nation with its huge unjustifiable salary and pension obligations.) There must be, however, some threshold by which the costs (salary+benefit) of Joe Blo are measured. The quality of work that oftentimes is in direct linear relationship to the costs that the staff are paid must also taken into account. But I don't see the corporate sectors (not only in US, but around the world) behave like good corporate citizens; more often than not, they exemplify very bad corporate citizenship.
Although it's been smooth sailing for me during the past few downturns, including the tech bubble burst in 2000, and the property market and financial market meltdown in 2008, I must admit I've lost substantial confidence in the corporate private sectors, in particular, Big Corps, in stepping up and doing the right thing. Naturally, the keyword here - should any lawyer type parse my words - is the word the "right" thing. That's because what's right to the corporate oftentimes are not the right thing for individuals anymore. (It's no longer the big corps like GE and IBM and GM and Ford after World War II.)
To that, I'd say, Congress and Obama should re-regulate big corps, especially banks and financial institutions that have been left to their own device for far too long by the likes of Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin. I'm truly, truly sick of this. If we don't do this, there's going to be another repeat of the 2008 financial meltdown in a few years. Just look at the $2 billion blunder of JPM. These folks are incapable of policing themselves. If GOP would tell us otherwise, they're lying through their teeth.
It's sad too, that losing a job in a poor economy comes at no fault to these people, yet they bear the brunt of the impact of the recession.
I have little doubt that Republicans like Mitt Romney, the GOP hopeful who is vying to be the presidential nominee of his party in the general election in the fall, have little (or none at all) sympathy or care about these folks who struggle to find jobs in a market where jobs have evaporated in some parts of the country. I'm sure GOP would give their standard lines to folks like these, telling them to be self-reliant, to not expect handouts from government, to try harder to find jobs. If they still fail to land on any jobs, it must their own fault and making, and no one else to blame. I heard those lines so many times. Romney is simply regurgitate those tired script from folks like Newt Gingrinch and Wall Street Journal.
I hate it, that these well-greased politicians would not miss a beat, in providing handouts to their corporate buddies like candy, at the expense of taxpayers' money (hello, government handout). I don't hear anyone telling these Big Corps to be more self-reliant, and quit sending lobbyists to Washington to send them more pork-barrel perks.
It's not that the Democrats are not doing their own version of scratching the backs of their lobbyist buddies. The GOP simply comes across as more hypocritical, for rejecting big government, handouts, promoting self-reliance, yada yada, yet at the same time, doing exactly the opposite when they're not in front of a camera or out of earshots of main media. In the end, only the little guys (and they are taxpayers too) who play by the books, follow all rules to the T, are going to pay the price for an economy gone awry, and a Wall Street run amok.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some years back - it must have been more than a decade now - my brother was working in middle management (management accounting) in an European Bank. Everything seemed to be on the up and up, and the economy worldwide was chugging along; and then the news broke. The bank wanted to cut costs, and the whole department that my brother worked was eliminated. News got out, that the backoffice functions were relocating to India.
I can't remember exactly when this was, but it's at the beginning of the globalized trend, when corporations, large and small, suddenly found religion and realized that they could get the same bodycount from India for a substantially reduced salary level and pretty much no benefits. There's no hassle from unions in India either. The Indians were scrambling to work in an office of overseas companies inside an air-conditioned cubicle. Never mind that they needed to work the graveyard shifts in order to accommodate the timezone differences with most of the developed countries (where the corporate offices and customers really reside).
My brother has always been reticent. He's not one that talks about feelings. Some years later, my sister-in-law declares that my brother has Asperger Syndrome. I find it almost comical. I have this feeling that my brother has been in depression for a long time; but, being a nurse as she is, I don't think my sister-in-law ever truly understands him. In any case, her declaration never does anything good; afterall, what good does it do if you have a "diagnosis" with no follow-up or treatment? Ah, but she's a whole new story, for another day.
I do remember how bitter my parents were when they got the news that my brother was laid off. Afterall, they have the same notion as most of those in the article have had, that if you work hard and are good at your job, you will be appreciated, and you work your way up the management ladder. It took my parents a very long time, perhaps even longer than my brother, to accept the fact that he's going to eventually just treat this as an early retirement (from the very prime age of his mid 40s). Even though my brother has resigned to that fact, and he's found other things to keep his mind busy; I'm doubtful if my mom, in particular, ever gets over the rejection that her only son got, in the form of firing and prolonged unemployment.
My parents feel bitter too, that my brother seems to be still being picky about what jobs to apply for. From their perspective, if he's desperate enough, he should try harder, and cast a wider net in his job search. He never did. Eventually, after some years, all his previous contacts - and he's never good at networking with people anyways - fade out, and he's pretty much shut out in his own ivory tower, working on a pet project that has been going on for the past ten years, with little to show for.
Everytime I read others' life stories like those less fortunate ones who remain unemployed, I think about my brother. Oftentimes I'm unsure what and how to offer help to him. I'm not sure if he wants to go back to the corporate world, or if he can adjust back to corporate workplace at all. Perhaps it might as well that he takes early retirement, since he seems to look a tad bit more cheery than in the past.
I don't want to treat him like a loser. He's a very smart and intelligent man, and his insights on things can be startling (though at times he tends to have tunnel vision). All I can think of, is the tremendous loss of talent; so much unfulfilled promises; so much broken dreams. And, multiple that by millions of times (for those who are still unemployed and underemployed), and one can only appreciate the amount of wasted talents to society as a whole. There's so much loss of productivity.
BUT, corporations don't see things that way. They make calculated moves, measured by dollars and cents. They don't measure intangible, abstract human costs (and why would they care anyways?), not to the individuals, nor to society as a whole. That's what I feel Romney is good at, in cutting costs, boosting profits, and fattening the bottomline and pocket books of the investors and the wealth (ie. those who don't need to work anymore) when he's at Bain Capital. For all that, Romeny wants us to believe that it's fair that these investors should be taxed at 15% while those who actually toll to work for a living should pay 35% taxes. Go figure.
I'm not a proponent of socialism, and I don't believe in governments creating jobs, just for the sake of creating jobs to keep people busy. (Just look at what happens to Greece, and its very bloated public sector that threatens to cripple the whole nation with its huge unjustifiable salary and pension obligations.) There must be, however, some threshold by which the costs (salary+benefit) of Joe Blo are measured. The quality of work that oftentimes is in direct linear relationship to the costs that the staff are paid must also taken into account. But I don't see the corporate sectors (not only in US, but around the world) behave like good corporate citizens; more often than not, they exemplify very bad corporate citizenship.
Although it's been smooth sailing for me during the past few downturns, including the tech bubble burst in 2000, and the property market and financial market meltdown in 2008, I must admit I've lost substantial confidence in the corporate private sectors, in particular, Big Corps, in stepping up and doing the right thing. Naturally, the keyword here - should any lawyer type parse my words - is the word the "right" thing. That's because what's right to the corporate oftentimes are not the right thing for individuals anymore. (It's no longer the big corps like GE and IBM and GM and Ford after World War II.)
To that, I'd say, Congress and Obama should re-regulate big corps, especially banks and financial institutions that have been left to their own device for far too long by the likes of Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin. I'm truly, truly sick of this. If we don't do this, there's going to be another repeat of the 2008 financial meltdown in a few years. Just look at the $2 billion blunder of JPM. These folks are incapable of policing themselves. If GOP would tell us otherwise, they're lying through their teeth.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
On the protest vote against Obama...
How do you identify protest vote (or more appropriately, insanity vote) in a presidential election? Look no further than the 2012 Democrats' presidential primary in West Virginia in which close to half of its Dem primary's voters would rather pick an unknown jailbird than a known quantity (Obama).
It has indeed come very far (in the downhill direction) for Obama, when he rode into White House on the premise of Hope and Change. When you're a clean slate, with no burden to prove what your position is (since you haven't achieved anything yet), it must have been a liberating campaign for Obama, to project himself as the change agent that voters across the spectrum is hoping a new president is going to be like. Back in 2008, Dems want anyone that is not George W Bush; in fact, anyone that is not GOP would fit the bill. So, instead of picking Hillary Clinton who is a known quantity to most everyone, Dem voters, in particular, the young voters pick Obama.
You can hope all you want, and you can talk about change until your tongue gets tired, but hope/change Obama is not. I never bought into the rhetoric of Obama. Deep down, I'm too pragmatic to bet my life choices on just hope, even though I'm an upbeat and hopeful person by nature. I've voted for Hillary Clinton since she's done things that I'd like to see done in the past, even though some initiatives (eg. the infamous "HillaryCare") failed miserably. Time and again, Obama backpedals on issues and campaign promise. Then again, he's a political animal; what do I expect? In fact, I was so peeved by so many 2008 insanity votes for Obama that were based on nothing but fancy, that I've voted for John McCain. McCain might be an old, tired dog, and I would be the first to admit that I didn't feel comfortable giving the White House (and another four years of the country going down the wrong path, again), but the guy has backbone. I don't get the feeling that Obama has. The more lofty Obama's speeches got, the less trustworthy I found him. Talking about insanity vote; I've been there. :)
Having said that, I have not wished Obama ill as he took office. Afterall, if he goes down, the country will go down with him; I would not have wanted to see that happened.
But, such is the hatred that some voters have come to define Obama. The latest West Virginia Dem primary is but the latest episode of such. You should see the right-leaning Wall Street Journal reporting, and more indicative, the readers' forum of almost every article online. A large majority of its readers can attribute every single ill in this country, the world, and their household, to Obama's doing; and I seriously mean every single ill. It's got to such ridiculous point that I can't help but can only laugh about it.
I don't think - and I'd certainly like to think so - that I'm capable of rejecting a person so utterly, when that person has nothing to do with me personally. Those insane lot of WSJ readers have taken things to such personal level that you would have thought that Obama might have stolen their family jewel, or killed their mothers along the way, or something.
The protest vote in the WV Dem primary is indeed loud and clear. What would that mean in the general election this fall, I'm less certain about. Afterall, we're talking about a few thousand votes in the rural areas of WV. How representative are they for the tens of millions voters across the nation that have nothing in common with these rural folks? The talking heads, like the ridiculous Rush Limbaugh, would like everyone to think that those few thousand votes are going to be translated into the presidential numbers. But, remember, it's only a primary; can Mitt Romney carry the day? When it comes to real hard choice, would people pick Romney over Obama, even though both men have likability issues?
I think I'm going to write in my vote to go for Ron Paul this time.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
On unpaid internship, youth unemployment, exploitation and opportunities...
A few months back, I was listening to NPR on a BBC news report about corporations pseudo-exploitation of unemployed youth, disguised as government job program. It's exploitation since the unemployed youth would have to do it, no matter what, since it's the precondition for the continuation of government benefits that many of the unemployed have come to rely on as the last resort.
I have thought of jogging down my thoughts about it at the time, but it slips me. And then, there's another opinion piece about some young folk's own experience of unpaid internship, with his expressed ambivalence about the ethical (and yes, exploitative) aspects of it, yet unable to deny the benefits that have come of it.
Given the state of poor economy around the world and the outrageously high youth unemployment, I really feel for the youth and their predicament.
I really do, because once upon a time, I was in their shoes, and I still remember how it felt, and the uncertainty of how and whether I would land a job that would provide me with the relevant experience to get me the foot in the door. In IT, as much as any other field, relevant experience and technology skill sets count as much as an Ivy League resume.
The bachelor degree program in Computer Science that I was in has an internship component. During the junior year, every student in the program would go find a paid internship, with credits counted towards the degree. Students would then go back to the university to finish the senior year, with final year project and what-have-you. My alma mater is quite famous for and proud with the industry connections, and in its ability to place students in relevant paid internship, allowing students to get a job in the IT field right after graduation. This was during the good times, when everything's on the up and up, and jobs were abound.
And then, the economy in the country went south, albeit not as bad as what Europe and US are suffering right now. Australia went down the shit hole. Out of the few hundred of students (CS, EE, ME, etc), less than 5% were able to find any internship (paid or unpaid). Since this internship is a mandated component for the program, students would not be able to graduate without the job experience. With the economy going down the dump, the Engineering schools had made an extraordinary decision to allow students to proceed with the senior study/work, and switch the order of the work/study for the junior and senior years. A year or so had passed, and all foreign students (who originally had had high hopes of landing a paid jobs in a western country) had to return to their home country, in the hope of finding some job. But times were bad back then, and the Engineering schools then made another extraordinary decision to allow students to use any job experience (which previously have to be IT related) to satisfy the work component of the degree program. Otherwise, those students would not be able to graduate, without any fault of their own.
I count myself as the lucky few who have been able to land on an IT position in an investment bank. It's a regular full time, paid position, and not just an internship or some job with probationary period. In hindsight, back then, corporations have been fairer in treating students, and unpaid internship was still quite rare. Indeed, I've stayed on with the employer for a few years and earned valuable relevant experience that provides me with launchpad to aspire for higher positions.
It breaks my heart, to hear that the younger generations these days do not have the lucky break that have been afforded to me.
I'm also disgusted to realize how widespread the unpaid internship or forced labor (in the case of the unemployed youth in UK). It's disgusting because corporations don't seem to care much (forget about respect) about its employees or anyone who provide work for them.
Looking back, it all seems to have started with the globalization (with cheap labor in IT from India, and even more dirt-cheap labor in manufacturing from China). Suddenly, these low cost labor across the sectors become the benchmarks for low-cost labor around the globe. Corporations, with their relentless push for profits, love cheap labor. For a while, those low-cost countries love it too; afterall, how could they not, when jobs (albeit with dirt-cheap pay compared with the developed countries) that were paid a lot more than they would have got tilling the land or in agriculture, suddenly became plentiful? No one would say no to that sudden ramp-up in quality of living, afforded by the higher take-home pay.
A decade or so later, we know now that good things (and times) don't last forever. Those lowly paid manufacturing jobs in China, and IT jobs with graveyard shifts in India, don't seem that alluring anymore. Suddenly, it's not just about the money, but the quality of life. Now, the Chinese factory workers want more pay raises, and the IT rookies (some of them straight from college) in India are giving themselves "pay raises" by hopping jobs every year, with the opportunities of asking for 20-30% more in salary.
These are all happening at the same time when the pay in western countries like US has been stagnant for years now. The great force of globalization is coming down on the cost and quality of living, with the salary/wages level to prove it.
For close to a decade (from the days when the tech bubble burst in early 2000 until property bubble burst in 2008), everyone in US and Europe are willing to overlook their stagnant salary and take-home pay, since general populace has been supplementing themselves with the rising property prices. The music has since stopped in late 2008; and we are yet to see where the next bubble engine is going to be.
With all those forces coming to a head, it's doubtful if the trend of unpaid internship for youths is going to be reversed.
I know it first hand because I've been interviewing candidates for my new company currently. Much as I had been back then, the graduating students are eager - you could even call it desperate - to come work on my team (IT). They don't even ask for pay, and I know most of them are even a bit scared to ask if what the pay might be, or if it's paid at all. For all of them, they just want a job - a job that allows them to gain relevant IT experience, much as my classmates had been back then.
However low the pay might be, I think I'll pay something to the interns and students who come work for me. It's a decent and right thing to do. I clearly remember how I was given that golden opportunity, and I'm forever grateful for that. Sometimes, all we need is a lucky break. I can only hope that I'll extend to the younger generation the same opportunity that was given to me.
I can only hope too, that others and those in power would extend that kind of basic human decency to others, because while money is nice, it's not all that matters.
I have thought of jogging down my thoughts about it at the time, but it slips me. And then, there's another opinion piece about some young folk's own experience of unpaid internship, with his expressed ambivalence about the ethical (and yes, exploitative) aspects of it, yet unable to deny the benefits that have come of it.
Given the state of poor economy around the world and the outrageously high youth unemployment, I really feel for the youth and their predicament.
I really do, because once upon a time, I was in their shoes, and I still remember how it felt, and the uncertainty of how and whether I would land a job that would provide me with the relevant experience to get me the foot in the door. In IT, as much as any other field, relevant experience and technology skill sets count as much as an Ivy League resume.
The bachelor degree program in Computer Science that I was in has an internship component. During the junior year, every student in the program would go find a paid internship, with credits counted towards the degree. Students would then go back to the university to finish the senior year, with final year project and what-have-you. My alma mater is quite famous for and proud with the industry connections, and in its ability to place students in relevant paid internship, allowing students to get a job in the IT field right after graduation. This was during the good times, when everything's on the up and up, and jobs were abound.
And then, the economy in the country went south, albeit not as bad as what Europe and US are suffering right now. Australia went down the shit hole. Out of the few hundred of students (CS, EE, ME, etc), less than 5% were able to find any internship (paid or unpaid). Since this internship is a mandated component for the program, students would not be able to graduate without the job experience. With the economy going down the dump, the Engineering schools had made an extraordinary decision to allow students to proceed with the senior study/work, and switch the order of the work/study for the junior and senior years. A year or so had passed, and all foreign students (who originally had had high hopes of landing a paid jobs in a western country) had to return to their home country, in the hope of finding some job. But times were bad back then, and the Engineering schools then made another extraordinary decision to allow students to use any job experience (which previously have to be IT related) to satisfy the work component of the degree program. Otherwise, those students would not be able to graduate, without any fault of their own.
I count myself as the lucky few who have been able to land on an IT position in an investment bank. It's a regular full time, paid position, and not just an internship or some job with probationary period. In hindsight, back then, corporations have been fairer in treating students, and unpaid internship was still quite rare. Indeed, I've stayed on with the employer for a few years and earned valuable relevant experience that provides me with launchpad to aspire for higher positions.
It breaks my heart, to hear that the younger generations these days do not have the lucky break that have been afforded to me.
I'm also disgusted to realize how widespread the unpaid internship or forced labor (in the case of the unemployed youth in UK). It's disgusting because corporations don't seem to care much (forget about respect) about its employees or anyone who provide work for them.
Looking back, it all seems to have started with the globalization (with cheap labor in IT from India, and even more dirt-cheap labor in manufacturing from China). Suddenly, these low cost labor across the sectors become the benchmarks for low-cost labor around the globe. Corporations, with their relentless push for profits, love cheap labor. For a while, those low-cost countries love it too; afterall, how could they not, when jobs (albeit with dirt-cheap pay compared with the developed countries) that were paid a lot more than they would have got tilling the land or in agriculture, suddenly became plentiful? No one would say no to that sudden ramp-up in quality of living, afforded by the higher take-home pay.
A decade or so later, we know now that good things (and times) don't last forever. Those lowly paid manufacturing jobs in China, and IT jobs with graveyard shifts in India, don't seem that alluring anymore. Suddenly, it's not just about the money, but the quality of life. Now, the Chinese factory workers want more pay raises, and the IT rookies (some of them straight from college) in India are giving themselves "pay raises" by hopping jobs every year, with the opportunities of asking for 20-30% more in salary.
These are all happening at the same time when the pay in western countries like US has been stagnant for years now. The great force of globalization is coming down on the cost and quality of living, with the salary/wages level to prove it.
For close to a decade (from the days when the tech bubble burst in early 2000 until property bubble burst in 2008), everyone in US and Europe are willing to overlook their stagnant salary and take-home pay, since general populace has been supplementing themselves with the rising property prices. The music has since stopped in late 2008; and we are yet to see where the next bubble engine is going to be.
With all those forces coming to a head, it's doubtful if the trend of unpaid internship for youths is going to be reversed.
I know it first hand because I've been interviewing candidates for my new company currently. Much as I had been back then, the graduating students are eager - you could even call it desperate - to come work on my team (IT). They don't even ask for pay, and I know most of them are even a bit scared to ask if what the pay might be, or if it's paid at all. For all of them, they just want a job - a job that allows them to gain relevant IT experience, much as my classmates had been back then.
However low the pay might be, I think I'll pay something to the interns and students who come work for me. It's a decent and right thing to do. I clearly remember how I was given that golden opportunity, and I'm forever grateful for that. Sometimes, all we need is a lucky break. I can only hope that I'll extend to the younger generation the same opportunity that was given to me.
I can only hope too, that others and those in power would extend that kind of basic human decency to others, because while money is nice, it's not all that matters.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
On the new HBO shows Girls...
I don't watch TV or cable since I don't find the shows and programming mostly unimpressive. Occasionally, when there are buzz around something, I'll take a look; and if they look good, I'll get them on DVD. That's always been my vetting process.
The other day, I heard the Fresh Air (Terry Gross) interview on a new HBO series Girls. Rarely do I take things to instant dislike these days, but I found myself tsk tsk'ing continuously as the interview went on. The writer/director, a 23-year-old white woman, proclaims on the show and during the interview that she wants to be independent, her voice to be heard, and to be treated as a grown-up, yada yada. Yet, my first response was, are you kidding me, by naming your shows "Girls" when you say you want to be a grown-up and be treated as such? Racial diversity aside (and there's plenty of complaint about how unrealistic the plots and casting and narrow-minded of this show are, with four white women in, of all places, New York city??!!??), I find the whiny tone of these women, with such entitlement mentality, most disturbing. If I have not made a bet with myself, to see if I can make myself sit through this interview without turning off the radio, I would not have been able to stand such whiny bitch.
To be fair, and to see if the Fresh Air interview has given this HBO show writer/director fair chance to explain herself, I did go on to YouTube to see the first episode, in which part of the dialog excerpt was played in the interview. So now, I can be satisfied with myself that, yes this show is indeed so stereotypically horrible and biased and annoying to the nth degree, that there'll be no chance that I would ever see this show.
Bottomline is, this 23-year-old woman needs to grow up, and to see the real world, rather than few blocks between her NYC existence and her sheltered privilege home afforded to her by her insufferable parents (particularly the dad who has no spine). Perhaps then, this show might get a bit more interesting, and to have others taken her a bit more seriously, as she has so righteously demanded.
In a way, this is a Sex And The City (SATC) wannabe, casting four female (no, I won't use the word "women" instead they prefer to call themselves "girls" which they clearly are not in a physical sense, yet mentally they most certainly are). But SATC has the universal appeal of the theme of sex and the quest for love, and the women can be quite funny in their own ways. It might have been the generational gap thing, but the tone of the four female in this show comes across as whiny, childish, very unfunny, with a subject matter (which I can't care less about) that only appeal maybe to those like them; judging from the criticism it's generated so far, this subset of audience demographics looks to be very small indeed.
I don't want to see this show survives its first season. Period.
On the declining way of life in Europe...
We just came back from Barcelona, Spain, recently after a short vacation. I love it, with all its culture, architecture and history. My son has his soccer fix, having the chance to train with a local soccer school, and then an invite to go back to train with their base team. My daughter has a blasting time visiting all the different places, including the chocolate museum, the porcelain shop, the paper shop, and more. For us the adults, the concert with Flamingo dance and music is perhaps one of the most memorable outings. Surprisingly (or not), the only thing the kids ask to do twice was to go feeding pigeons in Plaça de Catalunya. I suppose kids have their own perspective of what fun is, and it can be this simple pleasure that delights them.
As I've lived and worked in different countries and cultures, and I've been to Barcelona in the past, I don't find the idea of relocating to Spain that foreign to me, particularly since Barcelona is such a nice city. There are a few things that were new to me though.
Some years back, when I first visited Barcelona, I was a student on tight budget. I went with a few friends, and we mostly walked around to admire the city. Everything was expensive to us, and we found the cheapest place to eat was, paradoxically, MacDonalds. Yes, it's a totally wasted opportunity to be in a city with rich gastronomical treasures, and we're eating Big Mac and soda. You could say that we're genuinely tourists since we hardly expose ourselves to the culture. We couldn't afford to.
Situations have changed. We're more established now, and I would admit that when you don't count the pennies, a lot of opportunities open up to you. This time around, we sampled various restaurants and local food. We went to different museums and places. We could pick and choose what we want to do, and wouldn't have to worry about budget issues. It's rather liberating, in more ways than one. I have not realized how late the Spaniards would start their day, how late the lunch hours (2-4pm) and dinner hours (8-11pm) are. Ridiculously (or not, on our first day, when we were walking around, I almost passed out with little food in my stomach, trying to wait for a favorable restaurant to start serving. Catalans in Barcelona are mostly a friendly people, even though in general, no one above 40 years of age can speak a word of English. I must admit too, that I'm partial to Spain, as compared to other continental European cities like Berlin. I have said to myself, when I get back home, I need to make arrangement to start learning Spanish. :)
I find it rather surreal too, albeit seeing empty storefronts scattered here and there, and with graffiti everywhere, that daily lives seem so normal. This is in spite of the very dire financial news coming out of Europe (and more recently, Spain), with one bank bailout after another. Somehow, mentally I can't seem to reconcile the news with my observation. Some says Spain is still in denial which probably has some truth in it. I sure hope Spain would come out ok.
Some go further, in arguing that the way of life in the larger Europe is in peril, ranging from the concept of the cradle-to-grave welfare state, to its culture and more leisured way of life (as compared to, say, the American way or Chinese way), to its standing in the eyes of the world, and its political structure. Europeans (perhaps with the exception of the Germans) are looking to the Chinese for bailouts, perhaps through the possibility of the Chinese buying up assets in Europe. Although most everyone has been saying for years now, that the more socialist concept of welfare state in Europe is untenable, it's precisely the European way of life that the rest of the world admire the continent most. For Europe to auction off its prized assets and mortgage away its way of life, it's little surprise that the younger generations (whose unemployment rate is outrageously and stubbornly high) who are feeling the pinch most, are coming out in strong protests, both literally and politically.
I grew up in Asia and I live/work in America. I live the motto in which, as Americans would have it, you live to work. This is in contrast to the Europeans, in which they work to live. There are times when I realize that I can't slow myself down to appreciate things more. (Trust me, when you're high-strung all the time, it takes time to unwind and slow down, if at all possible). I find myself tucked between enjoying being busy all the time, and immersing in the leisure stroll on some unknown street, sipping coffee or whenever I feel like it. In a place like America or Asia, where there's no such thing as job security, one has to constantly watch out for opportunities, and to scramble to shore up assets and plan for the future. That's because no one is going to watch your back. We hear all the time, that by the time our generation is ready to retire, Social Security would have been bankrupt; so, don't count on it. I never intend (or like) to rely on government handouts anyways, even though it's Social Security which is something that I have earned in my working years. Medical costs are always a concern since one critical medical condition can bankrupt you.
All these are in contrast with the welfare state where the government safety net provides much coverage, and general populace would not have to do all these worries. No wonder they can - or have been able to - relax and rest easy.
But now, all these are going to fade away because the governments of these welfare states suddenly realize that they can't really afford to provide all these social safety net; not in its current shape or form anyways. Does it really help to protests against austerity that would chip away not only the social safety net, but even pension and government jobs, as the Greeks do? Does it really help either, to continually vote against any parties into government? I highly doubt that as well. No political party can magically make debts go away. With the Germans fully in control of the reins of Euro (and with good measures), there won't be loose monetary policy to flood Europe with cheap money and credits. Countries like Greece and Ireland and Spain and even France are stuck between a rock and a very hard place.
What is there to do? I don't think anyone has the answer. ECB (and Germany) has been trying to slow the crisis, hoping that somehow magically the economy will start growing again. (That's the same hope that the Fed in US and Washington have had as well.) Three years on, I wonder if it'll ever come.
As to the storied European way of life, it'll probably never be the same again. I hope it won't disappear for good. I love Europe, the old one.
As I've lived and worked in different countries and cultures, and I've been to Barcelona in the past, I don't find the idea of relocating to Spain that foreign to me, particularly since Barcelona is such a nice city. There are a few things that were new to me though.
Some years back, when I first visited Barcelona, I was a student on tight budget. I went with a few friends, and we mostly walked around to admire the city. Everything was expensive to us, and we found the cheapest place to eat was, paradoxically, MacDonalds. Yes, it's a totally wasted opportunity to be in a city with rich gastronomical treasures, and we're eating Big Mac and soda. You could say that we're genuinely tourists since we hardly expose ourselves to the culture. We couldn't afford to.
Situations have changed. We're more established now, and I would admit that when you don't count the pennies, a lot of opportunities open up to you. This time around, we sampled various restaurants and local food. We went to different museums and places. We could pick and choose what we want to do, and wouldn't have to worry about budget issues. It's rather liberating, in more ways than one. I have not realized how late the Spaniards would start their day, how late the lunch hours (2-4pm) and dinner hours (8-11pm) are. Ridiculously (or not, on our first day, when we were walking around, I almost passed out with little food in my stomach, trying to wait for a favorable restaurant to start serving. Catalans in Barcelona are mostly a friendly people, even though in general, no one above 40 years of age can speak a word of English. I must admit too, that I'm partial to Spain, as compared to other continental European cities like Berlin. I have said to myself, when I get back home, I need to make arrangement to start learning Spanish. :)
I find it rather surreal too, albeit seeing empty storefronts scattered here and there, and with graffiti everywhere, that daily lives seem so normal. This is in spite of the very dire financial news coming out of Europe (and more recently, Spain), with one bank bailout after another. Somehow, mentally I can't seem to reconcile the news with my observation. Some says Spain is still in denial which probably has some truth in it. I sure hope Spain would come out ok.
Some go further, in arguing that the way of life in the larger Europe is in peril, ranging from the concept of the cradle-to-grave welfare state, to its culture and more leisured way of life (as compared to, say, the American way or Chinese way), to its standing in the eyes of the world, and its political structure. Europeans (perhaps with the exception of the Germans) are looking to the Chinese for bailouts, perhaps through the possibility of the Chinese buying up assets in Europe. Although most everyone has been saying for years now, that the more socialist concept of welfare state in Europe is untenable, it's precisely the European way of life that the rest of the world admire the continent most. For Europe to auction off its prized assets and mortgage away its way of life, it's little surprise that the younger generations (whose unemployment rate is outrageously and stubbornly high) who are feeling the pinch most, are coming out in strong protests, both literally and politically.
I grew up in Asia and I live/work in America. I live the motto in which, as Americans would have it, you live to work. This is in contrast to the Europeans, in which they work to live. There are times when I realize that I can't slow myself down to appreciate things more. (Trust me, when you're high-strung all the time, it takes time to unwind and slow down, if at all possible). I find myself tucked between enjoying being busy all the time, and immersing in the leisure stroll on some unknown street, sipping coffee or whenever I feel like it. In a place like America or Asia, where there's no such thing as job security, one has to constantly watch out for opportunities, and to scramble to shore up assets and plan for the future. That's because no one is going to watch your back. We hear all the time, that by the time our generation is ready to retire, Social Security would have been bankrupt; so, don't count on it. I never intend (or like) to rely on government handouts anyways, even though it's Social Security which is something that I have earned in my working years. Medical costs are always a concern since one critical medical condition can bankrupt you.
All these are in contrast with the welfare state where the government safety net provides much coverage, and general populace would not have to do all these worries. No wonder they can - or have been able to - relax and rest easy.
But now, all these are going to fade away because the governments of these welfare states suddenly realize that they can't really afford to provide all these social safety net; not in its current shape or form anyways. Does it really help to protests against austerity that would chip away not only the social safety net, but even pension and government jobs, as the Greeks do? Does it really help either, to continually vote against any parties into government? I highly doubt that as well. No political party can magically make debts go away. With the Germans fully in control of the reins of Euro (and with good measures), there won't be loose monetary policy to flood Europe with cheap money and credits. Countries like Greece and Ireland and Spain and even France are stuck between a rock and a very hard place.
What is there to do? I don't think anyone has the answer. ECB (and Germany) has been trying to slow the crisis, hoping that somehow magically the economy will start growing again. (That's the same hope that the Fed in US and Washington have had as well.) Three years on, I wonder if it'll ever come.
As to the storied European way of life, it'll probably never be the same again. I hope it won't disappear for good. I love Europe, the old one.
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