- Hafiz

—-

Now
That
All your worry
Has proved such an
Unlucrative
Business,
Why
Not
Find a better
Job.

- Hafiz

—-

Known also as Hafez.
Some info on the poet

A few weeks ago one of the members posted this simple sentence.

I’ve had 4 “real” programming jobs in my 5-year career. They’ve all ended the same way: innovation isn’t allowed, new features are all emergencies, and development ends up the least of my responsibilities.

Sounds like some self pitying whining talk to me… except every so often I wonder if I’ve been in the same boat as well… Then my optimism and naivety kicks in and I forget about complaining, and just do the best job I can. But it still was there, scratching at the back of my head… Something is wrong, at a larger level then I can identify…

A friend of mine, who follows reddit as well apparently noticed one of the comments on in the thread. I’m reposting it here in full, but please visit the thread to at least give reddit a few more hits in their ad counters

Direct link to this comment

If you are talking about the US, no, it’s not just your job – it’s most medium to large corporations, and too many small companies. The last decade of corporate strategy can largely be characterized at all levels of operation as a “fear strategy”.

The company I used to work for has been in pure fear mode for most of this time – it is economically imploding now largely due to its own mistakes caused by this fear, not for lack of market opportunity as they tell their shareholders. Most other companies I visit as my customers or suppliers are also.

Fear strategies are characterized by irrational risk fear and reduction efforts, by inward looking diminished goals and reduced scope of activity and outlook, by general pessimism and CYA.

The negativity is so pervasive that we now are gaining major advantages over far larger competitors with just our small modicum of optimistic planning, strategy and execution. Most of our competitors have literally lost the capacity to innovate as far as I can see. I like it but it’s scary for others who depend on them to be otherwise.

There are two coupled reasons: most Fortune 1000 companies are in their terminal phase of life cycle “fade”, and various major events have triggered fear. Each of these feeds on the other in a positive feedback loop (taking them in the wrong, fatal direction).

The first is the diametric opposite of corporate start-up and being on a leading edge of something productive which is dominated by optimism. Just as corporations are born, they can and usually do die. There is usually a small cluster for key mistakes that get made that transition the company into a declining, trailing edge organization – most of corporate America is in that phase.

One of the big ones was to abandon manufacturing almost entirely and embrace financial services. Remember that before the crash, FIRE was 70% of US GDP. The Fortune 1000 was 70% of GDP. Not always the same 70% but close enough when it’s the majority of economic activity.

The events are the obvious ones such as the displacement of Cold War fear attention, the dot-com crash, 9-11, general fear-mongering by politicians, over-reliance on single point, profit-driven news sources (the Internet partly ameliorates this), the Wars, Peak Oil, Boomers reaching a similar biological terminal life cycle phase, etc.

Only creative destruction and embrace of their deaths will ever fix anything. The Fortune 1000 is largely not repairable and trying to do so is akin to putting a terminal, comatose 90-year-old on life support; mostly a futile and wasteful effort despite the superficial emotional satisfaction of false continuity and false permanence it brings.

Individually, join or start a small, new company. Consider emigration. Be responsible for your own destiny – the Fortune 1000 never really cared about that and certainly won’t now. Downsize to what really matters, which once you try it you’ll discover is a whole lot less material and less expensive.

My wise father said that you can tell what part of a corporate life cycle a company is in by the credentials of the CEO and executive staff: start-ups have creative professions which include engineers and scientists to imagine new ideas, products and markets for a new company; young adult companies have sales and marketing people to take advantage of the leading edge profit opportunities; the middle-aged company is led by process people and accountants because there is no growth left and every dime of profit comes from cost control and efficiency; and terminal phase is led by lawyers and politicians because the company must do merger & acquisition to grow, lie about its products’ value and have legal cover, or must go through “probate”.

Think about why the Fortune 1000 “needs” to own the political process at all these days – this is why we have the political corruption they’ve caused: if they could compete at all it would be easier and cheaper for them but they can’t so they have to “buy” political cover to survive. Have to have bail outs from the government to survive. It’s pretty obvious.

… join or start a small, new company. Consider emigration…

How about both?
An interesting read, that helps cement some things I’ve been thinking about pretty hard.

Education is not a non-sustainable endeavor. It may not be FINANCIALLY profitable, but it is critically important to any society and civilization, to maintain, improve, and grow that society.

The benefits to education are not realized immediately, they are grown in the on going efforts of the individual who has been educated, and what they return to the community and society in which they live and breathe.

You’re absolutely right.
College is nothing more than a finishing school in many cases. There are a lot of people that I know as well who have gone to just a little college, decided they were bored, and have left for their own world and have flourished. (My Brother is one, so I’m pretty familiar with the idea).

And, the problem here is not that education isn’t needed, I agree that it is… It is that the entire system is broken so badly that our focus is in individual success and wealth instead of long term prosperity and societal growth.

For each person who doesn’t go to college, who doesn’t get exposure to the history and culture that is available to them in college, it become harder and harder for that individual, and the whole society to maintain things other than what it takes to be successful and wealthy.

My undergraduate experience was invaluable to me. But not because of the professional skills I developed there (on my own time, and not in class room), but because of the world view it gave me. The exposure to international students, art work, history, language, literature. That I simply did not have access or exposure to in my 97% white high school in a upper class part subburb.

In my view, libraries need to be less about storage of knowledge, (though this is actually very important if you’re worried about hard drive reliability) and more about sharing knowledge and growing knowledge.

Libraries of the future, in my mind become a place where people come to learn in dynamic and interactive ways, with other people, in voice, music, writing/reading, sharing and working.

Much like IndyHall has fostered a number of innovative people to start to work together to create new and exciting things, Libraries should be the place where people go to share ideas and work on ideas together.

They should be equipped with the knowledge and ways of training people to do things, and then provide the mediums in which to do it.

This is exactly what they do now, but right now its about being quiet, and reading something.

As the storage of knowledge becomes more compact, (how many ‘books’ fit in your laptop?), the space in each of these grand buildings can be freed up for other functions and other ways of sharing knowledge and exploring the art of learning.

The exploration of what we do with these spaces should focus on what it takes to bring people together to learn, and share knowledge, and what it takes to facilitate that behavior.

This all requires a shift in our culture though back to rewarding, and favoring education and creativity over greed and conquest. It is all too easy in this world to bomb your neighbor, but our nation struggles endlessly to cure our sick, feed our hungry, and protect our children.

As we scale back on our cultural expenditures as a nation, something I hope to see reversed under the new administration, we scale back our possibilities to grow as a nation and a society.

These learning establishments, or libraries, of the future should be seen as a stepping stone in to returning the value of education as a long term investment, and less about learning how to do a job. We as a society need to learn the value of those lessons in culture, history, reading and writing, and make sure they are a priority to us, that can be shared, and that will help us with our commercial ventures, and not be a seen as something that will delay or gathering of wealth and success in the financial world.

I appreciate any comments.

• 1am: Wake to sound of neighbor banging on his door for 10 minutes before his room mate lets him in. Neighbor proceeds to yell at room mate for about 15 minutes
• shortly after, I’m able to fall asleep, annoyed, but not so bad in the grand scheme of things.
• sleep…
• 4am: Wake bolt upright in bed to the sound of pounding music directly above my bedroom, in my neighbors bedroom. Wonder out loud “what the fuck?”
• 4:15am: consider arson, but am in unconscious zombie land, and time slips away.
• 4:45am: realize I’m still awake, return to thoughts of violence
• 4:50am: think of calling the cops, but remember that they won’t do anything besides ring the door bell unless you say someones being murdered, or you’ve been shot, decide that lying to cops isn’t a good idea in the grand scheme of things.
• between 5am and 6am: zone between sleep and awake and half asleep, mostly angry
• Comprehend, from my days as an RA in college that trying to quell a drunk or high neighbor at 5-6am is not usually that productive.
• 7am, somehow fall asleep, possibly out of sheer exhaustion.
• wake up at 830, realize that I’m going to be late for my 9am meeting with the VP of Technology and the VP of Communications
• This is where I find my rage, that I should have had the night before, instead of paitence and hope it would quiet down
• 905am as I am walking out the door, receive a personal phone call from the VP of Technology asking where I am…

Today is not only a day where I was late for a 9am meeting, but its going to be capped with two holiday parties, that i was really hoping to be present and functional for.

But I suspect around 8pm I’m going to crash pretty hard, and thats going to suck.
A lot.

But at least its time to really have a conversation with my neighbor, and the landlord.

I stare at the wall sometimes, wondering what it will be like if my mom is deported, and what that will entail.
I stare at the same wall other times, and am amazed at the ground swell thats come up to support me, her, and fight this. I wonder if I deserve it. I know my mom does, but… where did I get so lucky?

I would in such a world of helplessness if it wasn’t for all of these people.
I mean, I felt alone and helpless when it started, but as its progressed its gotten more and more serious.

I spent 2 hours today helping my mom fill out legal documentation to help line up the facts, and establish a timeline of residency. Its so scary to hear my mom say stuff like “But, I didn’t save the receipts to the rent bills I paid from 92-95, will the believe me when I say I lived there?”

Maybe?

I can’t even begin to imagine what this process is like for someone with no support system, and no real knowledge of how the system works, or any help from anyone in dealing with it.
As an overly educated person who has spent so much time railing at the system for what it does… And having lost count of how amazing the people are who are helping us… I’m lost, and alone in what is washing around me.

The week of thanksgiving this year is the first hearing.
From what I understand the judge can do a few things.
Grant us our day in court to prove that my mom should be allowed to stay here.
Send her packing.
or Dismiss everything.

After living here for 53 years… does someone really deserve this?

I think most of my regular readers, by now, are fully aware of how much I detest the current administration of this country. That I feel that George W. Bush, His appointed lackeys, and anyone who who curries favor with him, are not worth any of the rights and powers they hold. That if I had my way George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and a few other of those assholes would be facing Criminal Charges for what they’ve done to this world, and our own country. In short, I’m not a happy guy right now.

I’ve worked in both elections to fight the the Neo Conservative movement on a voter level. Trying to convince those I know, those I talk to, that what GWB/Cheney, and their right wing radical neo conservative religious policies stand for are the Antithesis of our republic. I’ve been heart broken twice in what the majority of our citizens decided on, and convinced that in some cases the elections were flat out stolen for the republican party.

I’ve ranted, written, and foamed at the mouth about this.
I’ve pissed people off, and been pissed off.
I write letters to the government, my legislators, and even the White House (I’m sure I’m on a special ‘burn on sight’ list for my envelopes), I make phone calls. I do everything that I’m supposed to do to make this country better. Simply enough, I participate. Because I see things that we’re doing, in the name of Freedom, Liberty, and America, that make me SICK to my stomach. This is not the nation I grew up and learned about as a child. This is not the nation our fore fathers built. This is not the nation that a lot of people naively think it is.

One of the worst things that has developed out of this Presidency, has been the way it has treated our citizens and legal aliens. I’ve lost count at the number of times I’ve read about a person being taken off the street, locked up, and prevented from having the due process of our legal system available to him. Jose Padilla may be a criminal, and he may be a terrorist. But he is an American citizen, and deserves his day in court. The constitution was written to protect every American from that abuse of power. Every American has the right to know the charges, and face a judge in fair time with fair representation. The acts committed against Jose Padilla, regardless of his own crimes, are of the highest nature, and should face the highest levels of judgment, and punishment.

In similar nature, the USA has committed crimes against foreigners in many of the same ways. Our Military Prison Camp in Cuba, known as Git-mo is a perfect example of the KNOWN offences against human rights that we’re committing right now. Foreign nationals, citizens of sovereign nations, who may, or may not have been planning criminal acts against our government and/or private citizens, have been snatched out of their beds, off the street, and out of their homes by our allies and operatives for the past 6 years. Thrown in these prison camps, and prevented in many cases from contacting proper legal council, or even their own governments to seek help and aid for their plight. If any other nation did this to our citizens or soldiers… Well, there would be hell to pay for that offender. America tramples over international law because it thinks its better then everyone else. Its truly a sad state for our nation to be in, that we break our own laws to protect our selves. That those who are criminals, and terrorists have been captured, I am happy, how we have done it is an embarrassment.

All of this though, to me, has been an exercise in political theory, news analysis, and acts of debate between my friends and co-workers. Farther then arms reach away, I lived in a world where I thought none of this would effect me. That I might die one day in a giant fireball, has always been something of a morbid wish, but I never expected directly that I would be one of the few people in the world killed by a “terrorist”, considering the relative affluence and luxury I live in, compared to the rest of the world. I for the most part, was arrogant, and aloof of how it felt, and how it effected me.

Recently though, all of this changed.

My mother is a foreign national, and lives here as a green card holding, legal alien. She has a passport from the United Kingdom, and technically is still a citizen of the UK. Born in Scotland, she moved here with her family when she was five years old. My mother grew up as an adventuring soul, and after high school decided it would be more fun to travel, then go to college. She traveled internationally, and through nations that back in the 60’s were much safer, and friendly to British and American citizens. I have seen amazing photography of places in Afghanistan, India, South East Asia, that I don’t think even exists more. I’ve heard stories of silent dark nights driving across deserts escorted by border guards trying to get to the next city with the threat of “desert raiders” hanging in the air. My mother has lived a life I can’t imagine.

And being the 1960’s, she’s done some things that were, and still are illegal in the USA. As my mom jokes, “If you remember the 60’s, you weren’t there.” With out covering the exact details of those crimes, I’ll state clearly, and honestly, that she paid her dues. That she went through thejudicial system, and paid for her crimes in the manner proscribed by the courts. There are no outstanding warrants, or unfinished cases that she has to deal with. And both of them happened 40 years ago.

Let me explain something before I continue this story. In the USA, when you commit a crime, and are put in front of a court to face judgement on those crimes. It doesn’t matter what the ruling is. If you are ruled innocent, or guilty. You can not, ever, be tried for those crimes again. The parties over, go home, you can’t do it over again. Its called Double Jeopardy. Direct from the Fifth Amendment…

“nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.”

Keep all of this in mind… as you read on.

On 30 June 2007, a man drove a burning car in to an airport in Glasgow Scotland. He was something of a nut job, and a badly trained terrorist if he’s even able to be called a terrorist. (The stupidity of his crime makes me think he’s just dumb, not dangerous).

At that time, my mother was flying back from Europe after having been in France for over a week. Her vacation over, she flew back to the states ignorant of what was going on in Scotland, until she landed in Philadelphia to find an extra layer of security at the air port.

Going through security, her Green card and UK Passport set off some bells in some system, and they ran a more detailed check on her records. They pulled my mom out of the line to get out of the air port, and had her sit in a secure office for over two hours answering questions about the criminal record she has from 40 years ago. In the process she had her Green card and Passport confiscated, and given an order to present her self to the Department of Homeland Security in 30 days with proof that she is not a wanted criminal from the two police departments involved in her past exploits.

The DHS agent informed her during this detention (my own word) that if she was a US Citizen, none of this would have even mattered, and that if she even began the Naturalization process during these proceedings, that it wouldprobably be waved, and that this was most likely a paperwork red tape hassle, but at the worst…. She would be deported.

I heard about all of this a day later, when my mom had gotten settled and had the time to call me.

Needless to say, I am angry, and upset.
I’m disgusted by the events.
I’m frustrated at the system.
I’m annoyed by the idiocy.
I’m stunned that its even happened.
I’m made nauseous by the violation of my mothers civil rights.

Her status as a Permanent resident is being threatened, only because she happens to be an old grown up hippy who has a UK Passport.

Her existence as a member of this society is being threatened because of the need of DHS to justify their existence in a world that Isn’t beset by terrorists, as they sit on their asses hassling old women instead of securing our ports and finding the real threats at our borders.

My mothers life, in the United States of America is in jeopardy because of a database that knows she was arrested at some point, but doesn’t have the end of the record that says she paid her dues to society!

The nature of Double Jeopardy should be apparent at this point.
The Government has dug up a loop hole, that in suggestion that at one point she violated their rules, she may now be a threat to this nation, ignoring the 40 years of innocence, the birth and raising of two sons who are full bloodedamerican citizens.

That the government is spending the time to investigate, hassle, and potentially prosecute my mother for something she already was prosecuted for, 40 years ago, makes me rage.

I’ve reached a new level of detest and anger at this government.
I’ve watched them strip money from needed social programs to fight a war that no one wants.
I’ve seen them scrap progressive plans so that a health care company can get richer.
I’ve watched them lie, cheat, steal, and violate the trust of the American people for so long, I’m numb.
I’ve fought for change.
I’ve worked for progress.
I’ve debated, argued, and taught.

I’ve never been in the sights of the government though.
and I finally understand how helpless the world feels against us.

This has been going on since July 1, and the last two months have been something of an emotional roller coaster for me because of it. The concept that there was a chance my mother was going to be forced to move back to England over this has had me in tears, with clenched fists, and 2 steps away from moving to Europe my self and saying “FUCK YOU AMERICA” as I crossed the tarmac and stepped up in to an airplane.

Whats the point of it, when no matter what you do, they just keep trying to keep you down.

The point is, that its not the government that makes this country great.
Its the people.
And its actually the people that make me fight for this place.

At the lowest point of this process so far, My mother had gone to a preliminary meeting with a Lawyer, who told her that to take the case, he’d need $8000, after the $200 she paid to sit in his office for an hour, listening to him say “You’ll probably get deported if you don’t have a lawyer”. After hearing this I was at a loss as to what to do. Sitting in a restaurant with my mother, girl friend, with tears running down my face. I honestly had nothing left to suggest. I don’t have that kind of money, and no one in my family really does. We’re not rich, and we’re not able to afford the best legal protection money can buy.

I had this mental image of my mother, my self, and some young legal aid being curb stomped by the US DOJ with Alberto Gonzales in his jack boots burning the constitution and letting its hot ashes fall on our dead bodies…. Ok maybe that’s melodramatic, but I was not a happy person at that point. And was the closest I’ve been to simply packing a bag and moving to Canada.

A few days later though, things started to Turn around.
A family friend, and her husband approached my mother, and told her simply

“We’re going to find you the best lawyer in Philadelphia, and we’re going to pay for it. We’re successful people, we have a beautiful home in a beautiful town, two beautiful children, and we’re both retired, and able to do this, so we want to do this.”

Hearing this simply put, repaired the hole in my heart.
Having felt totally alone, and violated by having the trust I had in the government, no matter how corrupt and bloated, doing the right thing taken from me, I had suddenly remembered the goodness that exists in all of us.
And that it is the goodness in you, me, and those around us that makes this country worth fighting for, makes it worth living here.

My mother, in 2 weeks has to go face a DHS review board, where they will evaluate the status of her past crimes, of which ironically, there is barely any record remaining. And that review board will decide if the case is dismissed, or if she has to go to court.

The lawyer that my mother is now using has told her that because the police departments for both cases under review by DHS, have no record of her transgressions any more, and have both signed notarized documents stating she is not wanted for any questioning or arrest in either municipality, will most likely have this case dropped by the Government.

There is still a chance that it will be in front of a Judge at some point, at which time she’ll have to provide documentation of my brother and my self being American Citizens (both of us will be there, of course), statements of character from people she’s known for years and years, and other such sundries to prove that she isn’t a burden on society, or god forbid a terrorist or some such bullshit.

All of that is enough to keep me angry and on edge about things, but my over all demeanor and feeling about the situation has improved drastically.

The nature of the beast though, is that the Department of Homeland Security is a waste of tax payer dollars, and yet another useless cabinet level office that is adding red tape and further stupidity to our nation.

We have a Immigration and Naturalization Service.
We have the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA.

At which point does it make sense to add more chefs to the kitchen, instead of getting all of the existing ingredients to work together properly.

I will update the situation as it progresses.
But as of now, it is the goodness of the few, that out weighs the wrong doing of many.

Thank you to our benefactors, from the bottom of my heart.
It is people like you that make it worth fighting for.

Thank you.

_______________________________________________
The story continues …
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

version 2 will have a Z-Axis for “sanity”…