Was looking over the folks involved with the Freelancer's Union. I mean, what if we U.S. bloggers really decided that we were going to do this thing. We're going to join and get involved and help power this union. Am I crazy? One of us is writing their blog. They've set up a wiki. They're even trying to get gig info out there. I'm not saying that this makes them legit, but it shows someone is tending the garden.
We've got the dispersed, miscellaneous voice thing covered here on the net. But when it comes to counting in the wasteland of non-affordable healthcare in this country, we lack a centralized voice.
Affordable Health Care is now nothing more than a mantra. It's not going to happen. And if WE (you know who WE are) lose the next election, some of us are going to have to leave or die. It's that simple.
If you worry about healthcare once a week and are an indie worker, think about this union thing. What about disability? How often do you independents -- solo or with families -- fear having to take 8 weeks off to have surgery? (my hand's up!) Life insurance? At my last job I paid $2.50 per month for a policy that would have bequeathed my family $200K. Now I pay $150/month for something that would give them half of that.
Dental? not. Vision? not.
I don't know the answers for any of this stuff, but I wonder, could this union thing actually work? Would it hurt to put our shoulder to the wheel and see if we can make it work?
---
Showing posts with label cluetrain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cluetrain. Show all posts
June 21, 2007
choo-chooooo congrats
I hear that albert left kaboose and is in the news. someone send me a link. or is it one of those not-online stories? if so, at least send us the meaty details.
---
---
June 16, 2007
in the event of an actual emergency
the first time my skin turned inside out
i was six
and you were dead.
he must have talked to you
he must have said:
she is my daughter,
I will take care.
I will sell our house,
we will move here.
he must have said:
I give you my word,
I will make it okay.
permission for you
to fall away.
the next time my skin turned inside out
it was three weeks later
and he was dead.
routine visit, nothing serious,
discharged tomorrow.
one dose, two dose, cardiac arrest.
"a terrible mistake" / "these things happen."
my skin never fit right after.
no feeling when he took me
turned promises into warnings:
'don't tell.'
didn't he know
I had no words for this?
missing language for something missing.
I will spend my life finding words.
pieces cut away
innocence removed like a tumor.
hope festers
eyes drink pain
skin on fire.
aware, we are not broken.
alive, we mend eachother,
darn souls like socks
writing seams together
before they disappear
for good.
---
i was six
and you were dead.
he must have talked to you
he must have said:
she is my daughter,
I will take care.
I will sell our house,
we will move here.
he must have said:
I give you my word,
I will make it okay.
permission for you
to fall away.
the next time my skin turned inside out
it was three weeks later
and he was dead.
routine visit, nothing serious,
discharged tomorrow.
one dose, two dose, cardiac arrest.
"a terrible mistake" / "these things happen."
my skin never fit right after.
no feeling when he took me
turned promises into warnings:
'don't tell.'
didn't he know
I had no words for this?
missing language for something missing.
I will spend my life finding words.
pieces cut away
innocence removed like a tumor.
hope festers
eyes drink pain
skin on fire.
aware, we are not broken.
alive, we mend eachother,
darn souls like socks
writing seams together
before they disappear
for good.
---
June 15, 2007
Stormhoek and Corporate Social Responsibility
One of the groups mentioned in the recent discussions on the Blog-Marketed, South African wine Stormhoek -- a conversation ripe with questions about how much the company is doing to remedy the social ills in South Africa that stem from its industry and the legacy of the dop system -- is the Women on Farms Project. (Another is ActionAid, which is broader in focus).
I noticed these two groups in this article from 2006, "Worker Pleads with Tesco to Honor the Fruits of Her Labor, which South African blogger Mike Golby linked to in his post, "Tell The Truth, Nigga." From what I have read, my understanding is that Gertruida Baartman became a spokesperson for underpaid laborers in her fight to secure a wage more than the three dollars and change per day she was being paid to pick fruit for Tesco.
Awareness of Ms. Baartman shamed Tesco into action on Baartman's behalf. (ActionAid bought one share in Tesco in Baartman's name, giving her the right to speak up at the retailer's annual meeting. The share cost about the same as she earns for her nine-hour shifts.). But what has happened since then?
What are companies like Tesco and Stormhoek doing to make sure that paying wages in the currency of booze (still prevalent on 3 to 5 percent of South African vineyards according to one estimate) stops? What is being done to help displaced workers--when the CSR action of the day is to say: OKAY you sixth generation live-in laborer, you're free to go. (What? No mule? No 40 acres?) What are these companies doing to help reverse the alarming rate of alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome that are a direct legacy of the dop system?
Why am I interested in this story? Lots of reasons, because it has lots of hooks for me. As a blogger, I see a company using bloggers to market its product--a product no one really needs but some enjoy--and I wonder if they know how it got to them. Are they being exploited? Do they know? Do they care? As a PR blogger, I see an opportunity for vineyards and wine companies to actually come together as competitors to do something larger than their profit margin or next blog promotion, to help people who ARE being exploited. As a woman, as a mother, and as someone keenly aware of the legacy of slavery in this country and its toxic generational impact, I give a shit.
Stormhoek isn't going out of business because a few bloggers want to know about the practices in its associated vineyards, about its CSR programs, about the laborers who give Hugh a product to glue his cartoons on. But it would do well to address the questions
Mean Kids Disclaimer 230: I am not trying to poke holes in Hugh's project for poking's sake. I am really trying to find out what the current situation and practices are, and -- given the OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOMETHING POSITIVE (all bloggers like Positivity and Higher Purposes, right?), plus the wealth of EXPERTISE in and around the blogosphere ((which incidentally IS Stormhoek's marketing engine)) -- discuss what can and should be done.
For example, do Stormhoek vineyards have a Woman on Farms Committee on site, like Lanzerac, Kaapzicht, Fine Farms, Uitkyk, Blyhoek, Elsenburg, De Clapmuts, Spier, Groenland & Labonheur do? Do they have any representatives on the WOF's District Forum?
I'll stop now. But feel free to continue the conversation. Markets are, you know.
---
I noticed these two groups in this article from 2006, "Worker Pleads with Tesco to Honor the Fruits of Her Labor, which South African blogger Mike Golby linked to in his post, "Tell The Truth, Nigga." From what I have read, my understanding is that Gertruida Baartman became a spokesperson for underpaid laborers in her fight to secure a wage more than the three dollars and change per day she was being paid to pick fruit for Tesco.
Awareness of Ms. Baartman shamed Tesco into action on Baartman's behalf. (ActionAid bought one share in Tesco in Baartman's name, giving her the right to speak up at the retailer's annual meeting. The share cost about the same as she earns for her nine-hour shifts.). But what has happened since then?
What are companies like Tesco and Stormhoek doing to make sure that paying wages in the currency of booze (still prevalent on 3 to 5 percent of South African vineyards according to one estimate) stops? What is being done to help displaced workers--when the CSR action of the day is to say: OKAY you sixth generation live-in laborer, you're free to go. (What? No mule? No 40 acres?) What are these companies doing to help reverse the alarming rate of alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome that are a direct legacy of the dop system?
Why am I interested in this story? Lots of reasons, because it has lots of hooks for me. As a blogger, I see a company using bloggers to market its product--a product no one really needs but some enjoy--and I wonder if they know how it got to them. Are they being exploited? Do they know? Do they care? As a PR blogger, I see an opportunity for vineyards and wine companies to actually come together as competitors to do something larger than their profit margin or next blog promotion, to help people who ARE being exploited. As a woman, as a mother, and as someone keenly aware of the legacy of slavery in this country and its toxic generational impact, I give a shit.
Stormhoek isn't going out of business because a few bloggers want to know about the practices in its associated vineyards, about its CSR programs, about the laborers who give Hugh a product to glue his cartoons on. But it would do well to address the questions
Mean Kids Disclaimer 230: I am not trying to poke holes in Hugh's project for poking's sake. I am really trying to find out what the current situation and practices are, and -- given the OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOMETHING POSITIVE (all bloggers like Positivity and Higher Purposes, right?), plus the wealth of EXPERTISE in and around the blogosphere ((which incidentally IS Stormhoek's marketing engine)) -- discuss what can and should be done.
For example, do Stormhoek vineyards have a Woman on Farms Committee on site, like Lanzerac, Kaapzicht, Fine Farms, Uitkyk, Blyhoek, Elsenburg, De Clapmuts, Spier, Groenland & Labonheur do? Do they have any representatives on the WOF's District Forum?
I'll stop now. But feel free to continue the conversation. Markets are, you know.
---
May 11, 2007
death of a talisman
when he's not busy writing joint statements, he's rebooting in what looks to be one of the most fascinating talks of the town. interested in the human condition? bootbootreboot.
April 30, 2007
everything's coming up misc.
Excited to get a new-book-fresh-smelling copy of David Weinberger's Everything Is Miscellaneous today.So far, I love the little yellow dot, the blurbs by heavy hitters like Esther Dyson and Chris Anderson. I love the term "information omnivores" which has summoned for me visions of bizarre half-human, half-dinosaur creatures grazing in a field lush with data. Yum!
I love David's picture on the jacket, its sparkly blueness. And -- as if you can't tell -- I haven't started reading it yet. But I'm on my way.
...
February 07, 2007
Chick-Fil-A and the Straw-Coke Thing
It’s not all that deep, nor is it terribly interesting, yet it’s important enough that I’m taking ten minutes to write about it, this straw-Coke thing.
In the South, we USians are fortunate to have a fast-ish food joint called Chick-Fil-A. My understanding is that it’s run by a conservative evangelical type, but I don’t know enough about the company to say if that’s true, and it’s not the point of the straw-Coke thing.
Well maybe it is, but I’m claiming it’s not.
I don’t go to Chick-Fil-A often, but as quick food goes, their chicken breast sandwiches are not all that unhealthy, plus they taste good.
What little tendency I have toward ADD seems to love the Chick-Fil-A brand. It took more than a year after first arriving in Atlanta for someone to stop and inquire, “What are you saying?” when I asked if they wanted me to bring them anything back from the drive through.
“Chick-A-Fil,” I announced. “I’m going to grab a sandwich.”
“You’re kidding, right? ‘Chick-A-Fil’?”
The entire front desk staff doubled over when it became clear that I indeed thought the name was Chick-A-Fil – as in ‘fill you up with chicken.’
Old Habits Are Hard to Break
Even after I learned the real name, it was hard to break the old habit. It became an office joke—I’d write post-it-notes saying, “at chickafill, be rt bk!” and stick them on my monitor. Countless lunch discussions focused around which brand would really be better for the company: A-Fil or Fil-A. You could call it a meme. Or not.
But this isn’t even about that.
It’s about this week and the straw-Coke thing.
There has been, no secret if you read here or there, a ruckus going on at Tara’s blog, which emerged from what some -- present company included -- saw as her dogmatic, even careless, approach to discussing a loaded topic with her commentors, an approach I happen to think she takes too often, nice though she may be.
I have been knocking the whole thing around in my head for a day or more, trying to figure out what part of the interaction was bugging me the most.
As it happened, clarity was waiting at the Chick-Fil-A drive-through window.
It Really Is That Simple
As I was paying for my chicken breakfast bagel this morning, the cashier handed me my drink with my change. As usual, I sat staring at my drink wishing she’d given me the straw that goes with it.
But they never do.
At Chick-Fil-A, they always give you the drink, and you have to fish your straw out of the bag later, once you start driving.
I was thirsty, so I asked for my straw.
She went and got one with a smile. And I decided to ask:
“Why do you guys always wait to hand out the straw? It's pretty stupid. I mean, why not hand it over with the drink? Drink-Straw, Straw-Drink.”
She explained to me that usually they try to “expedite” orders so that there is just a little time between the drink and the bag of food with the straw in it. But usually that doesn’t work. Especially at breakfast.
So I said, “You don’t even have the straws nearby do you?” She shook her head, “They’re with the assembler—he puts them in the bag after he wraps the food.”
I decided to talk to her a little more. “But I’m thirsty when I get my drink. Doesn’t it make sense to have a straw with the soda?” She shook her head yes. “You wouldn’t believe how many people ask me for the straw after I hand them the drink.”
I told her maybe I would let Chick-Fil-A know that the straw-in-the-bag thing isn’t working.
She smiled and said she’d like that because she spends a lot of time getting straws.
The Generosity of Saying, "That's Stupid."
Beyond remembering that flawed processes tend to get passed along in franchise businesses – and downstream to the customer in all businesses – the interaction at the drive through window brought me some clarity on what’s been bugging me the last couple of days.
There is a generosity in telling someone they’re wrong, and there is generosity in hearing it.
When you take the time to explore with me where I’m off track—that’s an act of generosity from you, no matter how much I think I’m right.
“Enlightened” is not shutting you down for telling me what I don’t know, and making sure everything resolves to the easy key-of-C “My Truth and Your Truth.”
Enlightened is owning up, is learning and reapproaching, is stepping down into the muck, not stepping away from common filth onto the pedestal. Enlightened is willing, is stupid and messy, but is so much more beautiful than pretty.
It’s saying, “The fucking straw does belong with the Coke. How’d I miss that all this time?”
And maybe even saying, "Thanks."
In the South, we USians are fortunate to have a fast-ish food joint called Chick-Fil-A. My understanding is that it’s run by a conservative evangelical type, but I don’t know enough about the company to say if that’s true, and it’s not the point of the straw-Coke thing.
Well maybe it is, but I’m claiming it’s not.
I don’t go to Chick-Fil-A often, but as quick food goes, their chicken breast sandwiches are not all that unhealthy, plus they taste good.
What little tendency I have toward ADD seems to love the Chick-Fil-A brand. It took more than a year after first arriving in Atlanta for someone to stop and inquire, “What are you saying?” when I asked if they wanted me to bring them anything back from the drive through.
“Chick-A-Fil,” I announced. “I’m going to grab a sandwich.”
“You’re kidding, right? ‘Chick-A-Fil’?”
The entire front desk staff doubled over when it became clear that I indeed thought the name was Chick-A-Fil – as in ‘fill you up with chicken.’
Old Habits Are Hard to Break
Even after I learned the real name, it was hard to break the old habit. It became an office joke—I’d write post-it-notes saying, “at chickafill, be rt bk!” and stick them on my monitor. Countless lunch discussions focused around which brand would really be better for the company: A-Fil or Fil-A. You could call it a meme. Or not.
But this isn’t even about that.
It’s about this week and the straw-Coke thing.
There has been, no secret if you read here or there, a ruckus going on at Tara’s blog, which emerged from what some -- present company included -- saw as her dogmatic, even careless, approach to discussing a loaded topic with her commentors, an approach I happen to think she takes too often, nice though she may be.
I have been knocking the whole thing around in my head for a day or more, trying to figure out what part of the interaction was bugging me the most.
As it happened, clarity was waiting at the Chick-Fil-A drive-through window.
It Really Is That Simple
As I was paying for my chicken breakfast bagel this morning, the cashier handed me my drink with my change. As usual, I sat staring at my drink wishing she’d given me the straw that goes with it.
But they never do.
At Chick-Fil-A, they always give you the drink, and you have to fish your straw out of the bag later, once you start driving.
I was thirsty, so I asked for my straw.
She went and got one with a smile. And I decided to ask:
“Why do you guys always wait to hand out the straw? It's pretty stupid. I mean, why not hand it over with the drink? Drink-Straw, Straw-Drink.”
She explained to me that usually they try to “expedite” orders so that there is just a little time between the drink and the bag of food with the straw in it. But usually that doesn’t work. Especially at breakfast.
So I said, “You don’t even have the straws nearby do you?” She shook her head, “They’re with the assembler—he puts them in the bag after he wraps the food.”
I decided to talk to her a little more. “But I’m thirsty when I get my drink. Doesn’t it make sense to have a straw with the soda?” She shook her head yes. “You wouldn’t believe how many people ask me for the straw after I hand them the drink.”
I told her maybe I would let Chick-Fil-A know that the straw-in-the-bag thing isn’t working.
She smiled and said she’d like that because she spends a lot of time getting straws.
The Generosity of Saying, "That's Stupid."
Beyond remembering that flawed processes tend to get passed along in franchise businesses – and downstream to the customer in all businesses – the interaction at the drive through window brought me some clarity on what’s been bugging me the last couple of days.
There is a generosity in telling someone they’re wrong, and there is generosity in hearing it.
When you take the time to explore with me where I’m off track—that’s an act of generosity from you, no matter how much I think I’m right.
“Enlightened” is not shutting you down for telling me what I don’t know, and making sure everything resolves to the easy key-of-C “My Truth and Your Truth.”
Enlightened is owning up, is learning and reapproaching, is stepping down into the muck, not stepping away from common filth onto the pedestal. Enlightened is willing, is stupid and messy, but is so much more beautiful than pretty.
It’s saying, “The fucking straw does belong with the Coke. How’d I miss that all this time?”
And maybe even saying, "Thanks."
February 05, 2007
If My Purpose Isn't Higher, Then It's........
Tara Hunt falls prey to the Oprahization Movement, already in progress across Western Civilization.
Chris tries to take Tara to school, something he doesn't waste a lot of breath doing these days, rightly so. Instead of actually groking the links and facts-- never mind actually reading (the kids these days, they don't want to know), Tara tries to reason that even Hitler had a higher purpose.
Sphincter says wha? Define 'higher' kay?
You see, taking the time to learn, slows down posting.
And in the world of web 2.o, posting trumps everything. Even if it's a matter of say, eugenics, genocide, or other annoying topics that take us away from our net-naval-gazing and other important E commerce activities.
Oprahization Rule Number 1: when lofty concepts are threatened with facts, scream foul and claim higher purpose is a personal thing.
Oprahization Rule Number 2: Say, Good Point, now take it somewhere else. And watch your language.
Oprahization Rule Number 3: Have other clueless people reinforce rules number 1 and 2.
(p.s.: I got E. Commerce once from raw meat--I had to take Flagyl.)
ALL OF THIS is far less important than the fact that one of my favorite internet personalities is about to be abducted by aliens (see photo exhibit a)!!
Chris tries to take Tara to school, something he doesn't waste a lot of breath doing these days, rightly so. Instead of actually groking the links and facts-- never mind actually reading (the kids these days, they don't want to know), Tara tries to reason that even Hitler had a higher purpose.
Sphincter says wha? Define 'higher' kay?
You see, taking the time to learn, slows down posting.
And in the world of web 2.o, posting trumps everything. Even if it's a matter of say, eugenics, genocide, or other annoying topics that take us away from our net-naval-gazing and other important E commerce activities.
Oprahization Rule Number 1: when lofty concepts are threatened with facts, scream foul and claim higher purpose is a personal thing.
Oprahization Rule Number 2: Say, Good Point, now take it somewhere else. And watch your language.
Oprahization Rule Number 3: Have other clueless people reinforce rules number 1 and 2.
(p.s.: I got E. Commerce once from raw meat--I had to take Flagyl.)
ALL OF THIS is far less important than the fact that one of my favorite internet personalities is about to be abducted by aliens (see photo exhibit a)!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)