Workplace Democracy
This is a paper I wrote a while ago that reflects more than a rant on my beliefs on staffing and the current workplace environment. John Lennon wrote the following lyrics that are still worth listening to today:
http://www.esnips.com/webfolder/52135549-69c0-4a9b-8c71-10cac7d5f02f/?refresh=1Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
A million workers working for nothing
You better give ’em what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
I gotta ask you comrades and brothers
How do you treat you own woman back home
She got to be herself
So she can free herself
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Now, now, now, now
Oh well, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Yeah, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
I still wonder why he didn't just come right out and say what he was really intending...
Mark Dowds
Curiosity Killed the Cat
Today I was reminded of the continuous need to remain curious in life. I don't know who coined the term "curiosity killed the cat" but they have a lot to be responsible for. It would appear that in a constantly changing world like we live in that belief in some form of fatalistic determinism that leaves us devoid of choice and play would make sense. At the same time it is worth considering great people of the past like William James, a father of American psychology. He was tormented and led to a deep crisis because of the influences of people like Darwin who left choice as a concept of the past. James entered a life full of depression until this paradigm was challenged and he chose to believe that we as human beings have choice in our day to day actions. This discovery healed him of the depressive ailment and led him into many focused years of experimentation and deliberation on our active role in our own lives and in society as a whole.
Today I have to acknowledge that the choice to be curious and belief that we have a co-creative role in our small but influential worlds is significant. If we choose to remain curious we can look for the positive intent in those who would suggest we seek our own gain or our pressure our own way. To look at others with an angle of believing there is something more beautiful yet to discover can lead us into a more exciting and beautiful experience. At the end of the day, we only have one life to live so we may as well live it as best we know and enrichen the lives of those we interact with...
Mark Dowds
Birds of a Feather
Claire and I ventured outside today here in the great white north. Now that spring is in the air and all of have had our seasonal flu, it seems reasonable enough to subject our Irish bodies to the sunshine. Shaughan and Eirann rode their bikes while Claire and I did the parental panic as they nipped across streets and curbs to eventually arrive at the park.
I spent the morning reading about Freud and the development of psychoanalysis, hence the reason for noticing something different today. The kids ran daft for 15 minutes, up and down slides and climbing over anything in their way. I got distracted for a moment chatting with one of the other dads only to glance back and see all the kids more or less sitting on each other in one corner of the sanded area. Then the fun began. There was one bucket, one spade, one rake...and seven kids. Everyone wanted to do the same thing at the same time as all the parents talked about how wild kids are and the joys of teaching them manners...as if they share less than we do.
The sanded area was approximately 25 ft long and 10 ft wide and all the kids sat in the tightest possible edge taking up about 3 square feet all getting occasionally agitated as they invaded each others spaces. The need to belong and be part of the action seems to be in us from a child. Maybe this is why we live in a big city when there is a vast unexplored world.
Mark Dowds
