HyperActiveX's (Pre)Posterous Posts - A mini-blog for posts that are too long to be micro-blogged at http://twitter.com/hyperactivex and too short to be mainframed at http://hyperactivexs.blogspot.com

November 9, 2009

Hopenhagen: Woodstock Redux?

Earlier today, a tweet from one of the sources of sustainability related news that I follow through my work handle on twitter took me to their post on Cause Marketing.

As I read the post and browsed through some of the sites it pointed to, notably Hopenhagen (a play on the words 'hope' and 'cope', symbolizing the momentum of hope building around COP15, the UN conference on climate change scheduled for December 7-18 in Copenhagen, Denmark), Ogilvy Earth and the stirring Yes We Can video on YouTube, I experienced a feeling of frisson caused by what I can best describe as a memetic atavism of Woodstock, the music festival from back in 1969 that made history. Through sheer association, the song Woodstock (originally by Joni Mitchell though popularly known through the CSNY version) started playing in my mind and I was amazed by the relevance of its lyrics (particularly towards the end - the part that I reproduce below, from the Joni Mitchell original) to the current zeitgeist on climate change control. For a moment there it almost seemed to me like the song was written for COP15.

By the time we got to woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Yes indeed, we're caught in the devil's bargain, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden!

P.S. Do sign the petition at hopenhagen.org and let's get to the half mill mark soon (though I bet it will be more, by December 7)

P.P.S. (added Nov 10, 2009) here's a video clip of Joni Mitchell singing Woodstock (at some other event)

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Filed under // Activism Environment Music Sustainability Twitter

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November 4, 2009

The Paradoxes of Diversity

Quite a controversy these last couple of days, over the Deoband fatwa against the Vande Mataram. I always loved that song (and still do) and I sincerely hope they don't yield to political pressure and ban it just to appease the Deobandis! Much has been said, reported, blogged and tweeted on this topic, but one news report just caught my eye: http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article43180.ece

So here's a Muslim politician (Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi), who happens to be not just a member but a Veep of a hard-core Hindu right-wing political party (the BJP), criticizing the home minister (P Chidambaram), a Hindu Brahmin, for attending an event where a Muslim organization (Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind) adopted a resolution against the singing of a national song (Vande Mataram), calling it un-Islamic.

Several cultures across the world tolerate diversity, but a few seem to revel in it to the point of absurdity! THIS is why I love India. Show me one other country where you might find such contradictions and paradoxes. As much a source of levity as a cause for pride.

Vande Mataram!

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Filed under // Diversity Indian Politics Right-wing Tolerance

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October 9, 2009

The Effort IS The Attainment ...

... to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan.

And this message is addressed to all those who've been asking "But what has he actually DONE?" in response to Barack Obama being named for the Nobel Peace Prize 2009. The official statement on the decision was fairly clear. Yes, it came as a surprise, and yes, there just might have been better candidates for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. But that applies to the awards in other categories as well this year, and last year ... and so on. Are we going to question all those as well? And if not then why this one? What exactly are we questioning? The Committee's judgement? Or their integrity? I think both are unquestionable and above and beyond reproach (and these days, given that several institutions we've held in great respect over the years have crumbled to dust, that's saying a lot). If they've arrived at this decision, and we don't agree with it, surely, there's something we're not getting.

We live in times that are unmatched, in terms of complexity, tension and risk, in the history of the world. It is everywhere, not confined to a country or a region or continent. The entry of Barack Obama on the global stage is an encouraging sign and fills us with hope. His adversaries are mostly powerful lobbies, vested interest groups and others who have been benefiting from the status quo all these years, and who don't want anything to change. Naturally, they will not applaud him for this award (and I guess the media will carry the most rabid comments tomorrow, when the US wakes up and the hard right gets a hold on their megaphones and their cameras and their laptops). His supporters may have grown disappointed over time, but they need to remind themselves that change is not easy, as any change agent who has tried to bring about real change would know. And a change agent who wants to move ahead by consensus, in the true spirit of democracy, has an even more difficult task ahead.

However, this award is not about reforms in the US - it is about the kind of transformation Obama represents at a global level. De-escalation of conflict, easing of tension, renewed hope for peace. Is that a bad thing? Hasn't he been bold and gone where others have not had the guts to go before? It's easy to heckle, and what the heck, I'm quite a heckler myself. But I save it for the ones who are truly callow and devoid of substance, and yet aspire to stations of eminence. Give this man, and peace, a chance.

On the occasion of John Lennon's birthday, I'll leave you with this link

Have a great weekend! It's easy if you try!

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Filed under // Freedom Leadership Peace Perspective Politics Tolerance Values

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September 26, 2009

Will all you chronic WTFers kindly STFU? Kthxbai

Seriously, it can get tiresome, and at times downright annoying, when every second or third tweet has a WTF and/or an STFU in it. Tweeple should realize that such messages inject negative energy that vitiates the 'tweetosphere', for want of a better word. And this is equally applicable outside the tweetosphere as well, in the real world. Which is why nobody enjoys the company of curmudgeons.

There's a whole bunch of good stuff going on out there too, in this great wide beautiful wonderful world. Those who don't see or can't see or won't see it, should just STFU. Vent your spleen somewhere private, please. I mean, WTF!

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Filed under // Behaviour Twitter

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September 18, 2009

Reconstructing the B.S., One Sacred Cow at a Time

I've been busy over the last day or two and so I missed all the on-line action on Shashi Tharoor's tweet and the aftermath (though I did catch an off-line glance at some headlines that gave me a general idea of what happened there). Being a Friday evening I thought I'd dig into all that B.S. a little and get to the root of it. Only to find that there is just too much silliness and stupidity in this world, and there's just no saying how many 'intelligent' people get trapped by it. And then there are the clever ones who try to get away with verbal prestidigitation.

It all started with a poor pun in a tweet by Shashi Tharoor about cattle class and holy cows, in the wake of announcements regarding austerity measures promulgated by Pranab Mukherjee, that advised MPs to travel by economy class. I don't follow Shashi Tharoor on twitter and I couldn't find the original tweet - guess he deleted it, but what I gathered this evening was that in response to a journalist's query on twitter, on whether he would be traveling "cattle class" on his next trip to Kerala, Shashi Tharoor had tweeted something like:

Of course! in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows

Silly comment, that. Cattle / holy cow ... I didn't even find it funny, really (though I think my title for this post is hilarious - c'mon, admit it). I wouldn't make that comment if I were him. What was he thinking? That twitter is some exclusive club where nobody other than the cyberati elite get to know what one says? Silly comment, but also sarcastic in a very tongue-in-cheek way. Again, what was he thinking? That nobody in his audience (174,824 followers in Twitter at the time of writing this post) could get what he really meant?

Apparently someone found his seemingly opprobrious tweet (surprise! surprise!) and showed it to his bosses in the Congress Party, who promptly threw a fit. Ah the holier-than-thou Congress! Their outraged outcry was that this was a contemptible contumely. Why? Because it was egregious to economy class passengers. Silly, again, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the smarter ones in the Congress got what he really meant. And I think that's what pissed them off and had them frothing at their collective mouth as they called it out as unacceptable, across the media.

More news coverage, more TV discussions, more interviews, more panels, more expert opinions, more silliness followed (and I think there'll be even more B.S. about this over the weekend). Several personalities - politicians and journalists alike, unabashedly exposed their abysmal ignorance on a whole bunch of topics, including, of course, twitter / blogging / social media.

Then came the apologies and clarifications about the 'misunderstanding' (and of course, deletion of the terrible tweet that triggered this avalanche of silliness). In a subsequent tweet, Shashi Tharoor admitted it was a silly expression (and I am reproducing here below the tweets that followed, just in case they magically disappear by the time you read this post and click on the links to the respective tweets).

it's a silly expression but means no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for herding us in like cattle. Many have misunderstd

A feeble attempt at back-pedaling, I'd say. And again, this is different from tweeting, for example, something like "it was silly of me to have tweeted that". Anyway. This was followed by :

i now realize i shldnt assume people will appreciate humour. &u shouldn't give those who wld wilfully distort yr words an opportnty to do so

Oh? NOW he realized that. And also that there are 'those' humorless people out there, waiting and watching, who'd grab any opportunity to distort his words. Tsk Tsk. Politics I tell you! Full of such evil people. Wish we'd known this before.

And then there was this edifying tweet - a gem of a clarification, presumably in response to a tweet from someone else:

@dilnawazpasha holy cows are NOT individuals but sacrosanct issues or principles that no one dares challenge. Wish critics wld look it up

Aha! Is that right, Mr Tharoor? So you're dealing with people who don't know the language, huh? OK. Let's do some nit-picking then. First of all, the mot juste is "sacred cow", if you meant "sacrosanct issues or principles that no one dares challenge". Secondly, the expression "holy cow" (actually, "Holy Cow!") signifies something else, FYI. True, sometimes people use it in the same sense as "sacred cow", but YOU can't get away with that - you, who are so good with words. And lastly, the word "solidarity" is meant to be used with respect to individuals, yes, individuals, and not ideas or issues or principles. One doesn't do things out of solidarity with an issue or principle: one does things out of solidarity with individuals that one identifies with or supports, such as one's colleagues or team members. "Wish U wld look it up" back at ya - the whole lot: sacred cow, holy cow, solidarity. Oh but what am I saying .. you know this stuff ... you were just trying to find an escape hatch. Sorry, didn't mean to sound so patronizing about your command over the language.

So then, Mr Tharoor, when you said "... out of solidarity with all our holy cows" in your own subtle sarcastic polished and oh-so-classy tongue-in-cheek style, who, really, were you expressing your so-called "solidarity" with? Mr Pranab Mukherjee? Heh. No wonder your party colleagues are so pissed off with you - you were poking fun at their austerity drive! They got it too, but they wouldn't call it out. How could they? We don't slaughter sacred cows in this country. So here's a word (or two) of advice from a well-meaning fella: Careful who you have a beef with. Do not yield to the temptation to rib, delicious as it may appear, for someone or other will have a bone to pick with you, and you have a lot at stake.

Good luck and have a nice weekend!

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Filed under // Indian Politics Twitter

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September 15, 2009

She moves in mysterious ways

A tweet from CNN that popped up in my twitter news account last night caught my eye. It said "Media shut out from Palin's Hong Kong speech". Curious, I clicked on the shortened URL which took me to the web page that had the story.

The more I read, the more I was intrigued. Sarah Palin is going to talk to investors? C'mon! Seriously? In China? You've gotta be kidding! I'd give a lot to watch that. But alas ... no media coverage of her speech. Why? Because she doesn't want to give the media access to her speech. And what is she going to talk about? Sorry, cannot be disclosed. So now, those who are not going to be in the room will never know what she said and how it was received. And all kinds of stories could be spun around that. How could anyone verify them? More mystery - nobody knows how much they're paying her for this, though it is speculated that it could well be in six figures. I guess she just loves getting involved in mysterious controversies like these. And getting paid for it!

If she's managing to create such an enigmatic aura around her, after palin' into insignificance (sorry, couldn't resist it), then imagine the kind of mystique she'd be wrapped up in after she wins the 2012 elections to become America's first woman President!

On a different note - I wonder if she is going to ask them if she could go Panda hunting over the weekend. They might even let her.

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Filed under // China US Politics

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September 11, 2009

The Beatles Widget

Get your own at: http://www.clearspring.com/widgets/4aa4cbc0d1c4b34a

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Filed under // Music The Beatles

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September 4, 2009

Are You Being Served?

I don't mean to carp over trivial matters, but I've had two really lousy customer experiences in the last couple of days, with two global majors - Max New York Life Insurance and Vodafone. And in the last month or so, I struggled with a prolonged issue with HSBC that only recently got resolved (thanks to the committed and diligent follow-up by my highly competent Relationship Manager, who must have put up quite a fight, I'm sure, with his back-office processing set-up). Will spare you the gory details of each case - for you, it would be most uninteresting, and for me, I don't wish to relive the annoyance and frustration. When I shared some of this on twitter yesterday, I got a lot of empathetic tweets from others who've had similar experiences with the same or similar brands. So I know the problem is not me :)

Why can't big brands like these get their act together in terms of design and execution of smoother customer experiences? In each case, the issues were at a simple transactional level, nothing complex. Handling such issues is not rocket science any more, and there is so much learning out there on how to do this cheaper, faster and better. I do realize that handling 'outliers' is not easy - for each business, no matter how big or small, there's always the question of how far do you go to satisfy the customer. Seth Godin makes the point rather eloquently, as he usually does, in his recent blog post. In my case, I am not an outlier and I am not expecting customer delight - just basic transactional efficiency. Why is that such a hard promise to deliver on? And if it is, then why make such a promise? One would think competition would solve these problems, but sadly, it hasn't. I can't even say "Screw you, I'm taking my business to the next guy" simply because I know that the next guy is going to be equally bad, if not worse. And I know this from previous experiences. It is almost as though they all collude and decide to remain inefficient and apathetic to customer needs.

As is my wont, when in a more relaxed frame of mind, I look for the silver lining in all my bad experiences and ask myself what's in it for me. And this was my (re)learning this week: when it comes to customer interactions, learn the art of listening and never undermine the 'importance of being earnest'. Nothing fancy, just a simple truth that we need to remind ourselves about, each time we're facing our customers. They can walk away. When they have a better alternative, they will. We don't have to wait till then - we have the opportunity to become the better alternative!

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Filed under // Behaviour Big Brands Customer Service

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August 28, 2009

A week well spent

Achievements for this week (don't expect this to be a regular feature!)

Got the RSS feed aggregator widgets working more or less the way I wanted them to - check them out here
Successfully edited html in the Blogger template to get the formats I wanted at the feed widget site (looking at code after so many years felt weird!)
Finally got down to some less frivolous blogging and would really like to take that debate to a wider platform
Managed to get Disqus to work at Blogger, yet to try it out at WordPress - which I don't think will work since WP.com does not let you edit their html
Attended PTA meetings for BOTH the brats :P
Signed up on a new engagement! Am so excited about this one!

And now .. off to enjoy my well-deserved Glenlivet ... and maybe I'll have a Miles Davis evening. Be good, keep well and enjoy your weekend.

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Filed under // General

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August 26, 2009

Leadership begins at home

I think its about time the BJP leadership decided to call it a day. Too bad for L K Advani if it means that he can never become PM. Yesterday, Arun Shourie launched a philippic (not unlike Demosthenes) against the BJP top brass, to which the BJP has sought a clarification (it is a clarification, they clarified later to the press, not a show-cause notice). I'm surprised they didn't sack him over a phone call. Then today we see more anger and defiance - this time from Vasundhara Raje. Soon there'll be others ...

So much for the strong leadership they boasted about during their election campaign, while deriding Manmohan Singh as a weakling. How could they aspire to lead a nation when the stewardship of their own party is such a challenge? They should quit now, bring this to an end quickly and let the rebuilding begin, so that there is a robust Opposition Party in place soon enough. That would be the best way in which they could serve the nation at this point.

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Filed under // Indian Politics Leadership Politics Right-wing

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