Power Is As Power Does

Public sector union members in Wisconsin are loudly protesting to uphold their right to collectively bargain, or to unionize.  It seems absurd that the legislature of Wisconsin, the "Republican" legislature, believes it can take away such a fundamental right.  As much as I support the right, I will also add that collective bargaining "power" is subject to the same abuse as the power wielded by employers.  I have never been a great fan of unions because all too often their power is used at the expense of consumers...and in the case of teachers' unions, those would be the students, i.e., our children.  If a union uses its collective bargaining power to keep bad teachers in their jobs, then it is an abuse of power, pure and simple.   Just like if an auto union uses its collective bargaining power to make U.S. car manufacturers uncompetitive in a global market, then it is an abuse of that power and ultimately it is their own members who are hurt.  Yes I stand with the protesters in Wisconsin who are refusing to allow this Republican legislative power play to deny them a fundamental right.  A right whose purpose is to prevent the unbridled power of ownership in a capitalistic society to run rampant over those who do the hard work that creates value for all stakeholders in any public or private enterprise.  However, it would serve the greater good if unions, as well as employers and owners, would remember to use their power responsibly.

In Defense of Charlie Sheen

I will start out by saying, or typing, in between gulps of Toña (one of the truly great Nicaraguan beers) that Charlie is crazy....out of his mind!  But is that necessarily a bad thing?  Well, would Two and a Half Men be half as good if he weren't?  His recent rage against the machinery that brings us this hilarious show (my personal network favorite), while bringing down all manner of media judgment, probably does carry a spark of truth.  It is so easy to judge those who air publicly their personal foibles, while ours go unnoticed by the media and the masses.  I could only imagine how it would appear if a reporter from Entertainment Tonight ever got a shot of me exiting one of my favorite San Jose watering holes.  On a personal note to Charlie (we do both frequent La Mansion Inn, so I feel authorized to give Charlie a few pearls of wisdom), I too have had my own mid-life crisis meltdown.  I know how it feels (and sometimes it doesn't feel too bad, until the morning hangover hits).  I too was told that I was addicted to this and to that.  And I also rebelled.  Where did it get me?  Well I am here writing this in a so-called "third-world" country if that provides a clue.  I say leave Charlie the heck alone. Sure he has his vices, but he seems to manage them better than most.  Maybe one day Charlie and I will decide to grow up.....nah!  Sounds a bit too boring, at least for the next, say, couple decades.  See you in geriatric rehab Charlie my boy, or, if not, somewhere on the other side.

A Profile in Courage

Standing up for what's right, at all costs, is the hallmark of true courage and conviction.  Kimberly Blackwell had such courage...such conviction.  Blackwell was found brutally murdered on the patio of her remote home on the Osa peninsula, bordering Corcovado National  Park.  She had acquired a tract of land and planted cocoa trees and started a chocolate making business in order to hire locals and dissuade them from illegal hunting, or poaching.  She would confront poachers on her land, often shooting at them with a BB gun.  It is likely that her strong stand against illegal poaching is what led to her murder.  The case has yet to be solved and local police in the community of Puerto Jiminez had two suspects that they had to let go due to lack of evidence.  In a country where murders generally go unsolved, it is likely that as time passes so does any chance of finding the culprits of this brutal and senseless murder.  What will happen to the chocolate factory, known as Samaritan Xocolata?  I read that her family has vowed to keep it in operation.  Many might say the lady was eccentric and foolish to risk her life in order to defend the rights of animals in the jungle.  But that is what she believed in and she stood for her beliefs in the face of danger.  I wish I could have known this valiant warrior for sustainability in the heart of Costa Rica's most biodiverse area.

Am I Just Stupid, or What?

I have been reading an interesting book on the subject of "emotional intelligence."  The book is named just that, Emotional Intelligence, by author Daniel Goleman.  I have never been a big fan of books about intelligence.  I really didn't like The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray that put forth the supposition that only those that go to Harvard have a right to rule the world.  Books like that have a way of making me feel very, well, stupid.  This book by Goleman is interesting.  Haven't you met people who seem to be deficient in the "EQ" category.  They tend to be ruled by their emotions.  If they are depressed, then the whole world takes on a depressed tone...they become simply unable to see anything anywhere that is not "depressing" or boring or sad or whatever their current ruling emotion may be.  But I am really not buying all this stuff about intelligence.  To me good old common sense (or, intelligence) is mainly the ability to see the big picture.  To put yourself in your appropriate place in the scheme of things, which is usually a much diminished position than we like to delude ourselves into originally thinking.  Higher levels of raw intelligence seem to come in the form of an ability to explain both why things are and how they might turn out.  Problem is most of us suffer from a marked degree of blindness when it comes to predicting the future.  Those who sometimes get it right do so perhaps with a small degree of what one might call "intelligence" and a larger degree of what I might call "luck."  One person is not smarter than the next just because he picked the winning lottery number, or invested in Google when it was trading in the pink sheets.  He was just intelligent enough to know there might be some potential there and lucky enough to have turned out to be right.  However, that person is vaulted above the rest of us as being of superior intelligence (emotional, or intellectual, or whatever).  I just flat out refuse to allow books about intelligence get me down any more.  I know I am stupid and I am damn proud of it.  I guess I should boast that I am reading Emotional Intelligence in Spanish, albeit very slowly...does that make me smart?