Originating off the tip of Africa, hurricanes often flood various parts of the US; sometimes Miami, now New Orleans. In Europe, “hurricanes” are merely very heavy rains. In 2002, Prague was greatly affected by the flooding caused from excessive downpour. You can see there is a striking difference.
When a hurricane occurs in America, news coverage tells not only of the damage caused by the rains, but also of the simultaneous destruction caused by the people of the cities these natural disasters affect! Namely uncontrolled looting is referenced time and time again during these times of crisis.
In Europe, when there is news of rain damage, there is never reference to looting, murders, or any of the atrocities that are happening right now in New Orleans. Interestingly, when the Tsunami hit South East Asia less than year ago, the news was also of death by nature. There was no mention of uncontrolled rioting and looting. Even rival factions in Sri Lanka ceased fighting during the tragedy. The question(s) I am trying to answer now is why these two reactions to natural disasters are not only on opposite sides of the globe but on opposite ends of the spectrum? Why is it that in America looting happens after blackouts or natural tragedies whilst in Europe and Asia focus is seemingly on humanitarian outreach alone?
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2005 17
Offshoring and Immigration are Greatly Exagerated
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
I just read this in the latest McKinsey Report on Offshoring:
While 11 percent (161 million jobs) of the 1.46 billion service jobs worldwide could be performed remotely, only a small fraction of employment that could potentially go offshore will do so. The number of jobs companies are actually expected to locate offshore in low-wage countries by 2008 will reach 4.1 million, or 1 percent of total services jobs in developed countries. Across sectors and occupations, potential and actual offshoring varies widely, as documented in eight in-depth industry cases (automotive, health care, insurance, IT services, packaged software, pharma, retail, and retail banking).
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2005 12
Tired of losing: Outsource your Rival, American Law Firms
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
I lived in the States for 18 years. During that time I completed my schooling at NYU and Columbia University and my first 10 years as an entrepreneur. Overall I loved living in NYC, this city has some of the best universities and most remarkable entrepreneurial opportunities in the world. Everything is there. Unfortunately everthing includes a serious impediment to business: expensive American law firms. Americans called Europe beaurocratic and that is true. But at least European beaurocracy is mostly free. American beaurocracy comes in the shape of law firms and it´s outrageously costly. Lawyers in America are as priviledges as members of the Communist Party of China: they are people who walk around charging $400 an hour to talk to each other while they make rules for all the rest of us to live by.
But wait, there´s hope for this abuse and it´s in India. Some American entrepreneurs have realized that the “knowledge” that American lawyers have can easily be replicated in India and there are now people in India who are receiving an American Legal Education. Imagine the education institutions now focus on turning out amazing software engineers coming up with a new training, American Law and graduating lawyers who can do most of the legal work that needs to be done supported by a few coordinators in America who yes, could bill $400 an hour but for very very few hours. And after that, how would you like to have Indian lawyers trained in American law working for you over the net at $10 an hour? Well, it´s coming. Soon one of the most important useless drains of cash for American businesses will stop… in India.
Sometimes things are wrong in the world and we think we know how to fix them. For example, we know that we’re polluting the atmosphere and we know that if hybrid cars became mandatory around the world, pollutant levels would drastically fall. We know the problem, we know the solution. But what about situations when we know something is wrong in the world and the solution we’d like to propose would make things even worse? This is the case with US military spending.
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2005 29
What to do if Al Qaeda drops an Atomic Bomb in Manhattan
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in General with No Comments
The attacks of 9/11 reminded us of humans’ seemingly inexhaustible imagination and capacity to kill innocent lives. What was unthinkable one day, became reality the next. Today, in the back of everyone’s mind lies the irrepressible fear that one day, terrorists will orchestrate an attack that would make 9/11 look like a Saturday night brawl. What would happen if Al Qaeda dropped a nuclear warhead on Chicago or New York City and kill a million people? How would the US retaliate?
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