Skip to content

Category Archives: Personal Observations

Competing for power

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

When I was a young, guileless student finishing my college degree in my mid-thirties, one of my favorite professors gave a lecture about seminal years in the course of history. He said modern times seemed to have seen one of these per century. The most recent was 1968, when students took to the streets to fight for “people” power. Previous to this were the French Revolutions of 1848 and 1789. . .

Also filed in Corporate Governance | | Comments (0)

Breaking free

Thursday, July 3, 2008

It’s harder than one might think to break with the past, to begin anew, on a new footing. But that’s what we tried to do in the United States of America 232 years ago, and we are still struggling to make a go of it. It’s a never-ending revolution. But a revolution it is, a great turning of the wheel, vastly altering the landscape. Consider this, written a century and a half ago, by the great French economist, Frederic Bastiat - it is from the introduction to the then current French constitution:

Also filed in | | Comments (2)

Walls

Friday, May 23, 2008

When I was young, we lived in a neighborhood where people felt completely safe leaving their doors unlocked. It didn’t matter who was home or not, alone or not. You could read a book in the back yard, stop over to the next-door neighbor for a chat, or even make a quick run to the store. It wasn’t that big a deal. The intruders we most feared were mosquitoes. Things are different, now, of course. . .

Also filed in | | Comments (11)

Wishful thinking

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Just a short while ago I was speaking with a doctor practicing Western-style medicine in a hospital equipped and administered in a Western fashion in a non-Western country. He offered some advice that was distinctly, and to my view quaintly, local. I smiled and noted it. He evidently didn’t find my remark to be particularly quaint. . .

Also filed in Culture, Management | | Comments (3)

Magic, technology, and culture

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Some years ago, I was on a beach of a not-so-remote nation which was developing rapidly. I was looking out to sea with a group of locals who were highly educated, and who seemed perfectly sophisticated and at ease with the modern world. And then it hove into view . . .

Also filed in Culture, Management | | Comments (2)