The complexity of modernity has systemically undermined the importance of an individual politico, at least in the realm of national politics. Nonetheless, the old institutions of governance and their staunch supporters still want to retain the archaic and absolutely nonsensical notion of leadership by a strong wo(man). To start with, the human individual is a very delicate creature, i.e., is susceptible to all kinds of afflictions, including diseases of the mind. By and large, the typical politico seeking the highest offices tends to be egoistic psychopath, with a very low level of integrity. To let such weaklings loose on society is not an advisable proposition, but that is exactly what is happening all over the world. The one-man show came into being when human societies only had rudimentary functions, institutions and objectives. In those days modern medicine was also not advanced enough to vet psychologically ill equipped individuals for high offices!
‘Ponerology’, the study of evil, is now shading light as to why collective existence should not rely on some megalomaniac to head major institutions/activities. Checks and balances as outlined in the constitutions of countries have become painfully outdated. Various technics in social organizations have gradually diluted individual responsibilities. Important decisions are streamlined so that numbed bureaucracy can deal with them mechanically. By only twitching the bureaucratic processes, major decisions like wars can be declared in a number of countries. So much for checks and balances! In late modernity, idiocracy is the rule of the game and the essence of good governance is completely undermined by the likes of the ‘deep state’. Again our definition of the deep state: the deep state is the military-intelligence-industrial-banking-media-complex of the advanced industrial countries. In such a highly organized manipulative environment of political contestation, to think that an individual can single handedly win elections and run countries is at best ludicrous. A single individual cannot (on her own) beneficially manage the affairs of societies comprising millions, sometimes billions of people. Besides being unrealistic, the whole cockamamie scheme costs millions/billions, to say nothing about the waste of precious time. Why does the highly rational system of global production/distribution still swears by this old system? The answer is quite obvious to the perceptive. It is to hoodwink the sheeple into thinking that the whole exercise is the epitome of democracy and serves the sheeple’s interests better than any other. We say baloney!
This whole thing is intentionally encouraged so that those who control the global phony money can control politics! Clowns running around the whole country, spending money and making fools of themselves (sorry for the redundancy) is a sight that is becoming appallingly stupid! Secretary of State of the US openly remarked that he wants to ‘push back’ against Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK Labor Party! The secretary’s remark is to ‘push back’ against Corbyn the individual, and not directly the Labor Party. If that is the intention, then the utterance is more sinister and can be construed as a bona fide interference/meddling in the affair of a sovereign nation. Why should the UK’s conservative party, which has only 100, 000 members decide on behalf of over sixty million people? In the UK, all the political parties combined have total membership of less than a million. By the same token, only 18% of the US population is represented by the two dominant parties, while the rest, i.e., 82% of the population has to go along with decisions made by the political honchos of these two ideologically identical entities. The priority of these politicos, as was demonstrated repeatedly by various studies, is to make sure corporations get what they want, despite the negative impacts such regulations/laws, etc. have on the unsuspecting sheeple. There is a name for such a system of political governance. The USA, as the former President of the US (Jimmy Carter) put it: is not a democracy but a plutocracy! A government of money, for money and by money, and nothing else! To protect the interest of capital such governments will go to war against everyone everywhere. This includes Mother Nature. After all, what does national interest actually means? Civilized society has to go beyond such stupid and idiotic system of governance. Life is not only money. Nature should be sacrosanct compared to other artifacts. But the current system doesn’t have such sensibilities! It is time humanity starts dismantling the greed system in its totality. This system is bent on destroying life and all the life support system of the planet. This has been proven time and again!
Theoretically, the party system is by far better that the so-called the presidential system, but there is a catch. Without genuine verifiable transparency, the party will end up becoming just another tool to satisfy the egos of the cravenly wicked politicos and their paying masters! Because of this obvious shortcoming, many a sheeple think the presidential system is to be preferred. But that is like throwing the baby with the water! In the UK and in many other European countries the dominant parties are being kicked out, because the sheeple is no more interested in palliatives and useless rhetoric. People can also see through the wickedness of the manipulative politicos whose interests are not always in tune with that of the people. Unfortunately, when the party system fails, it is not the task of the individual to save it; but rather the sheeple’s. Widespread civil disobedience, the likes of which is happening in the Sudan, is one proven method of challenging a rotten system. The ‘Yellow Vests’ are experimenting with an illusive strategy that is not only frightening the status quo, but is showing the way forward. Thanks to modern informatics, direct democracy is no more a pipedream. Obviously these developments scare the traditional global politicos. Another shortcoming of a presidential system is; an individual can always be coerced to toe the line by the power that be. One phone call from the deep state and the so-called leader (usually of the periphery) will reverse policy, fire undesirable individuals or even dismiss the whole cabinet, enact laws to undermine the interests of the nation in favor of transnational capital, etc., etc.! That is why the archaic system is very much desired by the paid lackeys and demented goons as well as the extremely gullible component of the global sheeple!
The sickeningly entrenched global project of commodifying all and sundry is the main source of human alienation. This process robs humanity its very conscience. The senile system (Samir Amin) has lost the capacity to differentiate good from evil and is leading the global sheeple astray.
DEVALORIZING POLITICOS
Name: Abdilkerim Usman Mohamed
Education: Auto mechanic
Company name: Abdulkeriem Mechanical and electrical garage
Title: Auto Mechanic
Founded in: 1998
What it do: Auto Mechanics
Hq: Around Kuas Meda, Addis Ababa
Number of Employees: 8
Startup capital: 100,000 birr
Current Capital: Growing
Reason for starting the Business: Because of the passion Profession
Biggest perk of ownership: Space for garage
Biggest strength: Excellent customer service, Persistent and committed
Biggest challenge: Finance
Plan: Car Assembly Company
First career: Auto Mechanic
Most interested in meeting: Haile Gebrselassie
Most admired person: Nelson Mandela
Stress reducer: Watching movies or reading books
Favorite past time: Saudi Arabia
Favorite book: Quran
Favorite destination: Seychelles
Favorite automobile: Ferrari
Are you in business?
While technology and products keep developing and renewing, we continuously need to adapt to the new realities as well. At the same time we must continue to pay attention to improving our present operations. We often see that while something new is being introduced and while the new product or service is not yet fully worked out, tested and functional, the “old” product or service is suddenly dropped. While the answer to address such a situation is often found in working harder, working harder alone does not solve the problem. We also need to work smarter. We need to continue paying attention to our present operations, while adjusting and anticipating to the new realities of the future. This is in fact a principle that we should apply not only in doing business but also in our personal lives. While we may have a vision of what our future will look like and work hard day and night to build that dream house for example, we may overlook spending our days in a way that is enriching our family and social lives. Instead we have no time to maintain and further develop the relationship with our spouse and we are not available to spend quality time with our children and be there for them when they need us most. Just like our customers, by the time our new product or service is available, they may have left.
While anticipating the future, we need to define what business we are actually in. We have to ask ourselves what is our business in terms of what our customers need and not in terms of the product or service that we offer. While products come and go, basic needs of different customers stay around. Moving our thinking from a specific product to the purpose of that product, expands our horizon, for example from “we print newspapers” to “we provide the latest news”.
When you think “What business am I in?”, ask yourself:
- What are our principle products or services?
- What are some possible substitutes for these?
- Why do customers buy these products or services?
- What are the principle benefits they expect from these purchases?
Once you have clarified customers’ needs, you can think about how you have shaped or will shape the organization to meet these needs. To do this corporate profiling, you need to study the interaction of a number of key factors or business elements, through which you provide your product or service to the customer. Let us look into some of these key business factors.
Core goals are broad notions of the future direction, the fundamental accomplishments the organization wants to achieve. Asking yourself what it is what your company or organization is to do, will lead you to your core goals, which define the reason why you exist as a company – your mission or purpose.
Core values are what the organization stands for, finds important, subscribes value to. Values are what is really important in an organization and is reflected in the behaviour of people working there. However, if workers observe that management is saying one thing and doing another, they will become cynical and value statements become meaningless.
Strategy is the approach used to achieve the mission of the organization. Ask: “How are we going to accomplish our core goals?”There are many different strategies and each company must follow its own. However there are a few things we want to focus on while defining our strategy: (1) Efficiency, (2) Product innovation, and (3) Customer relations.
Which of these three strategic approaches does your company now emphasize? You need to choose a primary strategy without neglecting the other two.
Business processes are interconnected activities that enable you to reach your goals. They include inputs (materials, capital, people), outputs (products & services) and feed back (required to continuously improve things).
Structure determines how people relate to each other and to the work flow and includes the following elements: departments, levels of supervision, job design, span of control, delegation of authority, physical lay-out. Structure determines whether a company can be fast and flexible or not, which is very important indeed in ever more competitive environments. The company which is able to produce and sell a new product first often takes the biggest market share.
Systems are the procedures, formal and informal, that make the organization function. They support the structure and include accountability, data/information system, feedback, recognition/performance assessment and training.
People and skills refer to the types of professions and skills that must be possessed by the people in the organization to be able to achieve its goals. Core skills are unique to each company and you must make your own list of operational competencies. Making sure that people in the organization possess these competencies includes recruiting & hiring, training & development, coaching & evaluation, career planning.
Culture refers to the norms of an organization, the way things are done.
Now you are in business!
Ton Haverkort
Reference: “Mission Possible” by Ken Blanchard and Terry Waghorn.
Solve IT 2023 Nationwide Innovation Competition Launched
The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, in partnership with iCog Anyone Can Code (iCog-ACC), has launched Solve IT 2023, a nationwide innovation competition. The project encourages Ethiopian youth to make contributions to their community and society through innovations in science and technology. Solve IT helps young entrepreneurs realize their ideas of sustainable startups and businesses. This third round of competition will reach six cities in Ethiopia: Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Dire Dawa, Jimma, Dessie, and Wolaita Sodo.
The program will provide hands-on support for startup business ventures by providing opportunities in areas such as business training, mentorship, seed funding, investment networking, and bootcamp events. The plan is to benefit 1,800 Ethiopians from six cities across the country.”
Solve IT 2023 encourages the use of local innovative solutions and entrepreneurial approaches to address challenges in the society through training in business, mentorship, seed funding, investment networking, and bootcamp events. In just two years since its foundation, the project has reached and supported 3,700 youth, and this year, the iCog-ACC team plans to register over 1,800 more.
