Mexico drug cartel arrest with swine flu masks on (April 2009, Daily Maily)

I know this is an old story, but I saw something about drug cartels in Mexico on the news again tonight and it reminded me of an image like this I saw earlier this summer – just about the time when both the cartels and the swine flu were making big time news and overshadowing the economy from worldwide news coverage. Interesting – both of these problems are still very much with us, but now healthcare reform in the United States, the economy again, and the North Korean trip of Bill Clinton to help free the journalists is all the buzz. Sometimes I wish the media didn’t have such a one-two story overload. Why not try to keep hitting all the important stories all the time (like Hillary Clinton’s trip to Africa, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the three U.S. civilians captured in Iran, etc., etc., etc.)?

I was reading a story about the HomePlug Power Alliance this morning and a new standard they’re issuing/approving. There was a quote about how companies can begin developing products now that the standard will be available… and it hit me, we have so many different hardware and software platforms in technology today – just think of the myriad of mobile devices/”smart phones” and how each is different, comes with a different set of apps, etc. That and a recent story about Japan’s cell phone industry (which is very advanced hardware-wise, but completely incompatible with any cell networks used anywhere else in the world), made me think of Apple’s protective approach to tech in a different light. Perhaps they have it right. Perhaps open sourcing is so overwhelmingly prolific as a concept that we’ve ended up in an oversaturated innovation environment (some people may argue it’s consumers’ fault for wanting so many different things). Whatever the cause, it is intriguing to think of how popular and widely used the iPhone has become in a sea of wannabees that often have a handful of features that a better than the iPhone’s. Perhaps closing its product off from outside developer input has helped Apple keep the product coherent and consistent and maybe consumers are enjoying that one beacon of met expectations in a sea of random other devices that may or may not fit their needs and wants.

As much as tech “pundits” (i.e. bloggers, enthusiasts, influencers and journalists in the tech field) mock Apple for its set ways, maybe Apple’s on to something.

*shrug* Or maybe not. Maybe we need a vibrant and chaotic ecosystem in the tech industry to keep up this impressive pace of innovation (and along the way the Apples of the tech world can cherrypick the proven developments and incorprote and customize them for their own devices and software).

Life has definitely been a whirlwind in the past few months. After a layoff, several long weeks of semi-disheartened job searching, grandmother traveling back to Europe, sister’s graduation, new job (which was a surprise and has become a great learning experience), and lots of reconnections with friends, one moving wedding, and finally an apartment selection (and one more wedding prep), I have decided I’ll never “find” time to resume blogging. I had even taken to sending myself e-mails from my new smart phone (wow, never had a pocket-sized computer that makes phone calls before; they’re truly come along way, despite all the criticism) during my long commute via ferry – all with subject line “blog” and a sentence or two on a topic that was capitalizing my attention that day. Well, I won’t get around to developing full blog posts out of each e-mail, so here’s a hodgepodge list, just to get it out there and hopefully start blogging somewhat regularly again:

Celebrity deaths – what do they tell us? – I thought about this when news about Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, Walter Cronkite (and I’m sure I’m forgetting someone) hit within a few short days of each other. Beyond the stories I was reading about online journalism, mobile technology, etc. and how these worldwide (in case of MJ) news bits profliferated many new technologies, I was thinking that a lot of these folks were fairly young and succumbed to either cancer, heart disease, or drugs (prescrption and otherwise) – worth pondering what these trends say about U.S. healthcare issues in light of the healthcare reform debate currently playing out in government.

The world as a community – I’m not sure what I was thinking exactly here, but in that e-mail  I’ve written: “Obama approach – the global community organizer? Will that work?” Pretty cool to think about how global of a community we truly are – global warming, global economic crisis, global flu epidemic (that spread lightning fast), global mourning of Michael Jackson, etc. If anything, the United States is lucky to have so global of a leader again (I think the last to be revered abroad was Bill Clinton).

Why are we so afraid of government meddling – This was a thought brought about by the healthcare reform debates I kept hearing on NPR on my commute to and from work. To quote myself again from that e-mail: “Isn’t that the point of representative government? If they really mean it, why aren’t (Republican) politicians declining their government health plans & buying their own – after all that is the ultimate free market.” No need to elaborate here, I think (except to reiterate how irritated I am by blatant and not unintentional hypocrisy).

Reaction to NPR healthcare story on All Things Considered (July 1) – “Gov $ already going more & more to healthcare & decisions are out of patients’ hands b/c of insurance rules & coverage patterns, not b/c of gov bureucrats… & it’s much costlier often than just treating…” – basically what I always take issue with when Republican (and some Blue Dog Democrats) talk about the danger of having the government make healthcare decisions for you instead of that being up to you and your doctor. Hah! Who makes those decisions now? Insurance companies. They must know better than the government. (And don’t even get me started on the whole argument of whether the government will encroach that much into the decisions anyway.)

Media splinters – As a PR professional, I started in fall 2006 targeting “top tier” publications; today, for the best impact, we target “niche” publications – audiences have splintered into specialized interests thanks to the bloggosphere, other new media on the Internet, a-la-carte news and opinion even on cable news TV networks. It took something like MJ’s death to bring the whole world’s attention to one story, like a lazer beam.

Are we all spoiled consumers? – “Do we expect too much from our technology, too fast? Can’t help but wonder, reading all the new smart phone reviews (partial to Palm Pre – small keyboard actually a + for me, but would like better/more solid hardware & more apps..)”

The return of yard and garage sales – Is this a sign of the (tough economic) times? I can’t remember when was the last time I saw a sign for a garage sale and they were everywhere in the late 1990s when my family first moved to the United States. All of a sudden this summer they’re everywhere again.

A friend had an interesting point about newspapers today. We were talking about the speed with which newspapers are closing up shop these days; how 2-3 years ago the expectation was that the huge dailies (NYT-caliber) and the ultra-local small papers will survive, while everything else will be extinct thanks to declining subscriptions and advertising rates (cragislist killed the paid classifieds, which is – surprisingly – even more important than glossy ads for many print publicatons). Today, it turns out even older generation readers are canceling their ultra-local newspaper subscriptions because they get all their “news” online. Even highly educated friends of mine are enamoured with the “news” they have access to at their fingertips, 24/7, video virtually as-it-happens, and they like being able to participate in the “news”-shaping and read mostly blogs, etc. But then I have to stop and think about it – are they really getting “news” in the strict definition of the term? They are certainly getting a lot more commentary and even pure value-deprived entertainment… at least based on what I was taught in j-school just four years ago. So why are people so quick to embrace all of this other stuff that’s marketed as “news.” Well, partly because it’s tailored to their world view and interests (narrowly focused topic-based blogs, entertianing vidoes, slanted media outlets (read: Fox, MSNBC, Air America, etc.). But partly because it’s all become so ubiquitos and we’ve all become so impatient.

When the plane recently crashed in the Hudson, I remember a PR colleague say he specifically experimented with tracking all the blogs, i-reporter style web sites, various other online outlets and the big ones – i.e. the old school journalism outlets… Turns out NYT.com was the last of the bunch to upload a story. Why? Because their reporters, despite witnessing the event as-it-happened, did some journalism – they called sources in the mayor’s office, the fire department, first responders, etc. and tried to gather and confirm facts. Everyone else beat them – eyewitnesses with video-capturing cell phones who uploaded nearly real-time, etc.

At any rate, I have recently been wondering a lot about how quickly things are shifting in the communications industry. When I started in PR 2.5 years ago, we were targeting top outlets for the highest impact, most top-tier readers reached, etc. Now, we tout targeting the narrowest of publications, the most niche blogs, because readership continues to splinter into interest groups and that’s where the most powerful impact can take place.

My friend’s point was that perhaps it will take a cataclismic event, a rock-bottom of sorts, that will help people see what they’re truly being fed as “news” and only then will we as readers and consumers revive our thirst for fact-checking, balanced journalism. (The real kind, now “fair and balanced” as in Fox branding.) It’s interesting isn’t it? She even compared it to the economy with a metaphor – both will hit rock bottom (as they are spiraling out of control now) before we see a curve toward recovery.

I think this is fascinating time. Part of me wants to be in grad school to observe and analyze… but perhaps a bigger part of me wants to be in the business itself, participating, being part of the changes, truly working in, with, and during these unprecedented and increasingly faster changes. Fascinating.

Another radio show on the topic of illegal immigration and this one’s local – on OPB. Wow! The audacity of hypocrisy continues to amaze. The anti-illigal immigrant speaker says that a caller (Jennifer – I didn’t hear her story, but sounds like her family came to the US from Mexico when she was a few weeks old, illegally) who has continued on to college … OK, so he asked “who benefits more from her education (for which Oregon taxpayers have paid) – the US or Mexico?” Wow… First of all, taxpayers is not by definition only legal US citizens and residents. Moreover, there are both illegal and legal residents who don’t pay taxes, so stop blaming undocumented workers for “taking advantage” of services without taxation! Second of all, this spokesperson tried to spin his argument in a benevolent light – Jennifer should go back to Mexico, that country can definitely use a lot of educated young people who contribute to its development, so the US shouldn’t selfishly keep those young talented people.

Ha! How hypocritical! If anything, the US should attract the best talent from around the world to help us stay on top of innovation. I’m sure this gentleman would have no probelm with me, simply because I came here legally, or – more likely – because he wouldn’t guess about me that I was foreign-born when he met me.

We shouldn’t reward people for their parents’ criminal acts, he says! Who’s saying anythinga bout rewarding them? People like Jennifer put themselves through college, work and pay taxes, and contribute to our progress with their talent and hard work.

Hmmm… if indeed this gentleman was so altruistic and wanted to get these young people back to their countries of origin, doesn’t that mean that we should educate them in US universities and then send them back, armed with the tools they’ll need to help their countries prosper? Oh, wait, if we educate them here, we’ve invested in them. Why would we send them away instead of employing their enhanced minds into innovation right here?!

None if it makes sense. It’s just sad, furstrating, and offensive. Since when is it a crime to work hard to improve your life and your children’s lives? Isn’t that what we are all doing?

For a country made up of immigrants and migrants, for a country that is supposed to be symbolic melting pot of the world leading by example in its multicultural nature, we certainly have a long way to go.

The problem is not the illegal immigrants themsevles. The probelm is that the US legislative and enforcement branches of government have failed to put in place a speedy, legal process for immigrants from countries south of our border. Most recently this has been rendered even more difficult by the border violence by drug cartels (which both Mexico and the US share responsibility for). But this is only a recent development and for many years leading up to now, immigrants from Europe and Asia and our norther neighbor have been welcomed with much easier, streamlined process. Why?

I would be very interested to find out what the process is for immigrants from Africa and more about Asia. I wonder, also, how telling statistics would be if we compare immigration patterns and processes in place for affluent countries vs. developing ones; of European countries vs. other corners of the world.

This is driving me crazy! The discussion stemmed from a postmaster in England, who (himself an immigrant) refuses to serve customers who can’t speak English because they tend to slow down the line and infuriate English-speaking customers who are in a hurry.

There are so many ignorant assumptions going into the argument for “forcing” immigrants to learn English (or whatever the local language of the host country is). First of all, you cannot force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. After all, these host countries pride themselves in freedom of choice and expression, right?

Another assumption is that those people who do not speak the local language are choosing not to learn it. From my own immigrant experience I know that there are a million invisible reasons but very rarely is the reason that the individual is stubbornly refusing to put in an effort. Some of the discussion did go into the issues of cultural supression – for example in some instances women who are in forced marriages are held back by their own compatriots in order to control and suppress them – because language is power and liberation and would allow them to seek their rights.

People are just lazy?! Really!? An immigrant who took the plunge into moving to a new country (and often a new continent) went through a lot of trouble to get to where they are and have immense goals and aspirations. But the problem actually is that they work minimum wage jobs (like my father who started his career in the US working in a wood shop, wearing ear plugs 8 hours a day in the midst of loud machine noise). After a communication-deprived job for sometimes over-time, long days, they come home beaten and defeated, go to a restaurant where an arrogant owner sends them rudely away… well, what more in terms of motivation, energy, and drive do they need to keep defeating the continuing and omnipresent negative feedback and discouragement. How about some positive reinforcement and encouragement?

People are just stupid!? Wow! This has got to be the most ignorant (and stupid) assumptions! My parents were both engineers when we first arrived in this country, with nearly a decade of experience in the field. And I, at 15, was the only person in the family who spoke enough English to enroll my sister and myself in school. That was hurtful to my parents but they kept on pushing themselves and it did take them much longer to learn the language then their intelligence and already existing education would suggest simply because they had a family with young children to look after and they had to take those hard jobs that required no langauge skills and therefore offered to opportunity to learn English during the majority of their time in the work week.

People don’t want to learn it if they have been here for many years and don’t speak it yet!? Are you kidding? It took my father several years to become comfortable ordering a meal at McDonald’s simply because of the stigma of speaking broken English with an accent and because of his innate shyness. Nowadays, he is completely comfortable in any social situation and works as an engineer communicating constantly by e-mail, phone and in person with colleagues and customers. Should he have been kicked out of the country a few months, a few years into his experience because he was lagging according to some people’s standard?

People should go back to where they came from if they don’t speak the language after x amount of time? Hmmmmm… What if they are not here by their completely free will (the forced marriages come to mind, the elderly people whose children have brought them here, etc.)? What if they are a productive member of society within an immigrant community (essentially an island of culture and language within the greater host country)?

I dispise the argument from some who say “if I went to another country, I would definitely learn the local language.” It’s laughable because in my experience 99.9% of the time such assertions come from people who’ve never been abroad for longer than a vacation and when they did travel for vacation they went to places where English (or their comfort language) was spoken. And sure, maybe they picked up a dictionary and tried to order a meal in the local tongue. I wish they tried to get a job with a dictionary in hand. Or register their child for school. Or apply for healthcare insurance.

Oh, I also hate the “it’s simple, they just need to know how to order a (insert a culturally typical meal choice here).” Really? Well, I’d like to see that commenter go to Turkey and order a local customary meal, if that’s so simple. How about the fact that the “simplest” of things are foreign and completely strange here – cereal simply does not exist as a breakfast food (or any other kind of food) in many corners of the world. That’s pretty simple and basic, right? Microwaves. Clothes dryers. Dishwashers. Big Mac. Commonplace, simple things, right?

These arguments don’t even touch on the fact that we live in a global village today. The Internet, television, phones, satellites, etc. have brough US culture to the farthest, most remotes part of the world – or so Americans like to believe (don’t even get me started on the term US citizens like to use to describe themselves, ignoring the fact Canadians and Brazillians are also, technically, Americans). So, since our culture is so ubiquitos, why shouldn’t everyone else learn our ways? What about us learning all the other ways? I bet we’d get smarter, our lives will be more enriched, we will be more sympathetic, respectful of, and impressed with those of our compatriots who grew up speaking Swahili or German.

There was a gentleman who owns a Philly cheese steak food place and who hung a sign in his establishment that if you cannot order in English, you’d be served whatever was next on the grill, even if it isn’t what you intended to order. He thought that refusing the serve a customer because of language barrier was going too far, but his other customers would grow frustrated during rush hour if he tried to help one of the non-English speaking folks in line. OK, so those customers should take the effort to learn how to order a Philly cheese steak (the owner says it’s very simple – just choose what cheese you want on it and if you want onions or not, but then again, as someone who’s lived in the US for 12 years but only on the west coast, I’d be far more confused the immigrants who’ve lived in Philly for a few weeks and have had that local delicassy). OK, fair enough. But did the owner put in the effort to post that sign in the several languages that are most common to the local immigrant communities? That’s an actual question, I didn’t hear that detail in the discussion on the radio.

I could keep ranting on, but these are just a few of the conversations racing through my head (with myself and with some of the discussion participants while I was trying to calmly listen to all points of view in this radio broadcast.

Why is customer service so poor so often nowadays? I’d imagine that in a time when customers are become a rare breed, any potential buyer would be treated with more deference than ever. But no, it seems that increasingly I run into rude, short, presumptuous people who assume that you are about to damage or steal the goods.

Oh, well, perhaps we are all on edge lately. There is plenty of anger and heavy helpings of blame to go around with the economy tanking, scarce jobs, tight budgets, health care woes, homes in jeopardy, and a worldwide crisis hitting nearly simultaneously all around. Perhaps everyone’s attitude should flip to the positive – and perhaps we can start as customers and maybe it’ll then rub off to the grumpy customer service reps. Finger’s crossed.

On a related (or not) tangent, I noticed tonight – when chatting with a friend I hadn’t seen in nearly 10 years – there were two things I didn’t consciously recognize before: 1) people grow apart, in just a few years, and really don’t have much in common, making any run-ins somewhat mildly uncomfortable, as you try to feel out each other for new character traits… shouldn’t be that way; that was probably more me than the other person’s approach; 2) I’ve been very stealthily avoiding to mention that I’ve been laid off – in any circumstances, really – from a career networking casual event, to job fairs, to catching-up encounters with friends. I am not sure how to analyze that exactly… I feel ashamed a bit, as though I wasn’t strong enough of a link in a company to be kept on… I know that’s not the case, but I can’t help the subconscious voice in my head. Maybe that’s the key to the full-force “recovery” we all need – a collective attitude change and a resurgence of self-confidence, power and determination.

To borrow a clever metaphor from a good book, how is it possible that modern-day Republicans do not vanish in a puff of logic… or rather, a puff of oxymoronic statements: Pro life (read: women don’t have the right to choose abortion) and No government healthcare (read: the government has no business interfereing in you and your doctor’s decisons). Hmm… I can come up with so many examples, but this one just rang crisp when I was scanning this.

When you are unemployed and feel you’ve taken all the right steps, but the right opportunities just aren’t aligning yet, you begin to get frustrated. You try to catch yourself and take a deep breath every time exasperation creeps in, but it’s tough. Especially when loved ones – who only mean to help – begin suggesting the leadership phrases you should include in your resume, and where you could look for jobs, etc. You want to take it out on them for not giving you enough credit that you’ve done all of that legwork already, all of the preparation, all of the networking, all of the job application submissions with customized cover letters each… But you can’t, because it’s not fair.  They mean well. And they themsevles have a good job … in this economy. It’s not a derision on your accomplishments, it’s a good-intentioned helpful hand. Take a deep breath. Pause. Think about that. And it’s probably better that you say nothing if all you can muster to say is either a knee-jerk overreaction or a sarcastic comment that would offend the helpful, sympathetic friend or relative.

I guess the tougher challenge is to keep up your own good spirits. But the answer is definitely not taking out frustration on those around you who are genunitely supportive, even if their way of demonstrating support frustrates you.

Lay offs are part of life, and a very common one of late. It has affected me in strange ways. At first, friends of mine were impacted. It was surreal and I wanted to help them, but I knew the workforce would be struggling for a while. When it was my turn, I had so much in terms of foreshadowing and forewarning that I had been wringing my hands for long enough to actually feel relieved when I finally knew the certainty. Then, the first reaction was guilt at that feeling. The second reaction, very strangely, has been complacency. Anecdotal this could be a blessing in disguise – giving the type of time one always wish they had to catch up on reading for fun, to research graduate school programs, to volunteer, to examine in-depth where to take the career track next. But that’s just anecdotal. After only a short while, one begins to feel restless, anxious to move on to the next productive phase of life and all of a sudden, even though one’s out of a job, the rat race feeling descends back almost mysteriously.

After a beautifully relaxing weekend, Monday morning started off with snow falling in such big rags the the wind was actually picking it up and raising it up before it sank lower than my third-floor window.

There are things that one does find time for that are useful – joining a massive social networking site that has been on the back burner for years and reconnecting with long-lost friends; actually catching up on for-fun reading; organizing the home abode, shifting furniture around, and resurrecting board games; re-energizing the gym membership with regular classes; cooking more; spending more quality time with family and friends, etc.

There is just one thing that appears to be on the back burner now – job and grad school research. Strange, isn’t it! And definitely very guilt-inducing. But for some reason, the most effort I have to put in is for this seemingly natural activity. I worry, most days, that I let the news cycle, Twitter, the blogosphere, overwhelm me with “there is no hope and there will not be hope for economic recovery for a long time to come” and find that it is futile to look. How sad that the deterrent is actually getting to me. Or perhaps it is an excuse? How awful would that be.