My way

Ora de religie ?

Sa stablim in preambul citeva lucruri:

- sunt crestin-ortodox , nepracticant. De fapt, ca majoritatea oamenilor care au avut o preocupare pentru spiritualitate, am o versiune "proprie" asupra religiei si relatiei cu spiritualul;
- nu sunt ateu, extremist si nu pretind a emite "judecati de valoare"
- nu ma intereseaza polemicile anterioare si nici in continuare nu voi participa la ele . Nici nu este dorinta mea sa generez una aici.
- e doar o idee care ma framinta

Ce m-a pus insa pe ganduri : fiul meu este in primele zile din clasa I-a si are ore de religie.
Un lucru aparent benign si de ignorat insa nu pot sa fac asta. Existenta unei Ore de Religie in cadrul orarului zilnic imi pare a fi o problema grava si de exclus deoarece invatamintul public trebuie sa fie laic. Laic nu religios. Acest drept a fost castigat acum citeva sute de ani prin revolutiile culturale burgheze si este o idee fundamentala a existentei unui stat modern. Invataminatul este laic si se fundamenteaza in stiintele exacte.  Fundamentul societatii moderne ( a se reciti Contractul social J.J. Rouseau ) se bazeaza pe acest fapt.

O alta problema este impunerea unei ore de religie eminamente crestin-ortodoxe. Ok, so we won. Did we ? Nu cred ca cineva are ceva de castigat de aici. Cred ca insasi ortodoxia are de suferit prin aceasta impunere ca ( aproape) religie de stat. Libertatea religioasa este garantata de existenta statului modern si nediscriminarea este unul din pilonii de baza ai societatii moderne. Si ai ortodoxiei.
Poate nu suntem deranjati de aceasta ora de religie tinuta in spirit crestin-ortodox. Oare la fel am reactiona daca ar fi tinuta de un musulman? Sau de un adventist ? Cred ca nu. Aceasta este oricum o falsa-problema deoarece religia/spiritualitatea Trebuie sa se opreasca la zidul scolii care este eminamente un loc al stiintelor exacte.

O alta problema (viitoare) este juxtapunerea a doua idei prezentate in aceeasi institutie: peste citiva ani fiul meu va invata Teoria evolutiei darwinista. Teorie in care eu cred si nu in Geneza/creationism. Ce dilema nastem oare in mintea copiilor? Creatia divina vs evolutia si selectia speciilor ? Teoria Nasterii Universului/Big-bang vs creatia divina ?

Un carcotas mi-ar spune ca pot sa imi retrag fiul de la aceste ore. Oare? Punindu-i o stigmata din acest moment ? Alienindu-l fata de restul colegilor ? Trezind o lupta surda si de backround cu scoala ? Nici un parinte cu capul pe umeri nu ar face asa ceva . Este insa imoral sa fim pusi in fata unei asemenea masuri.

Sotia mea imi spune sa ... let it go. Of course I will let it go. Doar ca este absurd !

I really, really like some

I really, really like some blog posts. So I feel like republishing them on my blog so my readers will have them in front of their eyes. There is the 1st one in this category for Direct Marketing professionals. "

10 Ways to Reduce Costs, Save Your Company and Look Like a Superstar!

By now, we’re all feeling the pain caused by our faltering economy.  Most people I know are freaked out, totally stressed; and terrified of losing their jobs, homes and more. I haven’t seen this much fear in the eyes of marketers since right after Sept. 11 and the anthrax scare. But all isn’t bad. I swear! There’s an amazing opportunity in all of this chaos to streamline your business, strip away the dead wood in your budgets (like our presidential candidates promise they’ll do) and be a rock star in your company. Here are 10 steps to help you get started: 1. It’s time to renegotiate everything. Start with your key area’s of business — printing, mailing, lists, creative, prepress (oops, I meant premedia). 2. Do a print review. Have your printer bid against other printers. I did this for a turnaround I worked on and was able to reduce printing costs by 20 percent. (Seems my predecessor was asleep at the wheel.) 3. Tweak your catalog’s trim size or basis weight. You may find some cost savings there. 4. Co-mail! This can reduce your postage costs. 5. Take advantage of destination-entry discounts. (Ask your printer about what this and co-mailing entail, and what you can save. Or e-mail me and I’ll explain.) 6. List brokers are offering discounts and test pricing for mail files. Ask and you shall receive. 7. Look for more list exchanges. These can be had for run charges, a fraction of the rental fee. 8. Use the co-op databases, such as I-Behavior, Abacus and NextAction. They’ll model your customers and rent you prospect names for less than list rentals. 9. Do your matchbacks. Make sure you’re analyzing your mailings the best and most accurate way possible. 10. Run NCOALink, merge/purge and other list hygiene products before each mailing. I had a client who had the same name on his database six times. Waste of money! You only need one instance of a name to mail it. Find yourself a great service bureau to steer you to savings. In two weeks I’ll give you 10 more ways to save money and reach superstar status. In the meantime, if you need any clarifications on these or any other ways to save money, let me know and I’ll work your answer into my next column. Hang in there! Jim Gilbert is president of Gilbert Direct Marketing, a full-service catalog and direct marketing agency. His LinkedIn profile can be viewed at www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert or you can post a comment here or e-mail him at jimdirect@aol.com. "

Re-post with authors permission.

Guess I'm back

After having huge problems with my WordPress powered blog I stopped blogging. As I usually say : It's OK not Stop but never Quit. I guess I'm about to restart blogging after I managed to move over here.

I know you didn't missed me so do not even pretend :)

BBC's checklist for survivors in crisis.

You may see the original article over here. "Here small business expert Liz Barclay, a presenter on BBC Radio Four's You And Yours show, offers her advice for how SMEs can best beat any downturn. The FSB said the number of new start-ups was up, that manufacturing was seeing a bit of a renaissance, and there was no trickle down effect from the Credit Crunch. What a difference six months makes. At the beginning of September the head of SME analysis at Barclays predicted that there would be 150,000 fewer SME's in England and Wales by early 2010. He said the drop would be caused by both more firms failing, and fewer start-ups. And now - in the middle of October - those figures look optimistic. So how do you make sure your business survives a downturn that looks like being both deeper and more protracted than anyone imagined? Tougher times Even in the good times, around a third of SMEs close after two to three years, and that number is likely to go up substantially. It's getting harder to raise money because house prices are falling and the banks are reluctant to lend. If you do get behind with your payments, lenders are becoming more likely to pursue you, and big firms are squeezing their smaller suppliers - demanding price cuts and paying invoices later. Paul Mullins who runs Business Debtline, which advises small business owners on how to deal with their debts, says the number of calls his staff is dealing with has doubled in the first six months of 2008. Mr Mullins adds that the number on the edge of failure is 50% up on this time last year. But Alistair Tait of business support consultancy Tait Enterprises Development says enterprise is more important than ever in an economic downturn. He says now is not the time to sit tight and hope to survive the raging storm, it's time to improve performance and put yourself in a position to get ahead once the tide changes. Below is a checklist for how small firms can best survive any recession:

• Don't panic. Go through your finances checking what you have to pay out, what your order book looks like, and what you're owed. Get the facts before you worry
• Work out where you can make savings. This could be staffing levels. No one likes to make people redundant, but some firms tend to over hire in the good times. Could you hire people as you need them on short-term contracts? Rationalise your stock, renegotiate your contracts with your suppliers, hire better people at lower costs
• Are you spending on things that don't make a real difference - travelling to meetings instead of phoning or using video conferencing, using expensive business premises when you could work from home? Sadly the Christmas parties may have to go, but make sure your staff know you appreciate them
• You can save money with energy efficiency measures and reusing and recycling. Replace your fleet of cars with bicycles if possible
• Maximise your productivity. You need to sell product to customers. Do do this, spend more time with your customers finding out what they need, and what will keep them coming back to you. Work on ways to sell more to existing customers. How will you get the biggest return for time spent? Remember it is cheaper to keep existing customers than to find new ones
• Know who your competitors are and what they're up to. In the downturn more people become unemployed and some will set up businesses. You can find more people doing what you're doing and chasing less demand. Having a competitive advantage is even more important in recession than in a boom. Compete on service and quality
• Cutting prices isn't the only way to increase demand. Can you make your product more attractive without a lot of extra cost? Could you deliver? Delivering to local customers on your way home would cost you no extra but would add value. Or if you already deliver could you be more flexible - deliver when your competitors won't. Could you attract customers with special offers?
• Don't forget that not everyone will spend less and those who do may cut back on other products and buy yours instead. We may eat out less but buy more treats to eat at home.
• If you're lucky enough to be able to invest, get ahead of the game for the upturn. Can you buy new stores or premises? Revamp the ones you have? Recruit talented people others have let go? Invest in better services maybe even with more staff? Reduce the odds of sales going down and lead the recovery.
• You do have to make sure you get paid on time or your cash flow will suffer - but the reason that's not at the top of this list is that sometimes people put so much effort into this that they don't do any of the rest.
• Is there as much money in the bank as there should be? Make sure you have a good financial control system and controller who chases up invoices, makes sure they're paid on time and closes orders to non-payers.
• Stop using expensive advisers and use the free services available, such as the Health and Safety Executive, the Federation of Small Business if you are a member; the government's small business service - Business Links."