Prejudice

Couple of years ago, I attended a seminar on a technical topic. The seminar was being presented by a single speaker, and when he spoke the first couple of sentences, I found myself thinking "this is going to be a waste of time, I doubt if this guy knows much about this topic". What made me ashamed later was that I had jumped to that thought not because of what the speaker had said but rather because of his accent. As I sat through the seminar, I found that this person not only had good knowledge and command over the topic but was a good presenter as well!

A similar moment of weakness occurred when my child had high fever. We had already been to the emergency room at night when the fever crossed 104 and did not feel comfortable that the emergency care physician had figured out what was going on. We wanted to see a pediatrician. The next morning as we were waiting in the pediatrician's office an asian doctor walked in to attend to our child. My first reaction was a slight disappointment because I doubted the competance of this doctor and his ability to communicate clearly. Again, this reaction was based on the persons race rather than any fact or analysis. The doctor began by asking what our concerns were. He sat patiently listening to two young parents go on about how their child was sick, had high fever and how the antibiotics had not helped. This itself was unusual. Seldom do doctors take the time to really listen to what the patient has to say or to understand what they must be going thorugh emotionally. And so, just in that regard itself, this asian doctor was better that most other doctors. However, that was not all. He correctly diagnosed that our child may have contracted the rosiola virus which is characterised by high fever. He told us that most likely we will see a rash within 48 hours and the fever will subside immediately following that. If not, he said he needs to see us again. Just as he predicted the rash appeared the next day and the fever was gone.

When we think of racism, we usually think of blatant discrimination or attrocities based on race. If asked whether we are racist, we will seldom answer in the affirmative. However, there are many subtle forms of racism which may be aptly referred to as prejudice that we all need to watch out for. While there's lot of debate and discussion on racism, seldom does one hear about prejudice. I am glad I realized how unjust and narrow I was and this is probably going to be the case with most people who have prejudices based on race.

Soft Skills

When we think of education for our kids we typically think about match, science, reading and writing skills but how often do we think of organization, planning, and listening skills? The latter are what are commonly referred to as the soft skills.

When I first heard of soft skills and their importance, I was just getting started in my career and my focus and emphasis was on the hard skills, commonly referred to as technical skills. These are the core skills for the profession - accounting and book-keeping for an accountant, medicine for a doctor, programming for a software engineer, and so on. My initial feeling was that the concept of soft skills was made up by individuals who did not have strong technical skills and therefore needed something else they could pride themselves about. However, as I progressed in my career I began to realise the importance of the soft skills. At junior levels in any profession technical skills are of primary importance however as one advances, organizational, planning, influencing, listening, and such other soft skills begin to gain increasing importance.

In some respects soft skills are more difficult to acquire than technical skills. The latter are taught in schools and universities but there is very little focus on the former, if any, in traditional education. Also, soft skills are somewhat intertwined with an individuals personality. This does not mean that they can not be acquired. It just means one may have to work harder to cultivate them.

Simple things that one can easily weave into day-to-day life can help kids develop soft skills from a young age. For example, one can have middle school aged kids in the family plan family vacations. Besides teaching them to plan and organize, this may also provide an opportunity to hone influencing skills as they influence other members of the family to agree on a vacation destination. Participating in sports and performing arts also help develop soft skills such as teamwork.

Ceiling on desires

Most of us have probably seen those Ads on TV which say that for the price of a Starbucks coffee we could provide one meal for a family of four in some poor country. We often just do not think too much about these things but if we stop and consider how much good we could do by putting a ceiling on our desires and using the saving that accrue thereof to serve others in need, we're now on to something very interesting.

The practice of putting a ceiling on desires could start with simple things. If I am in the habit of dringing Starbucks coffee three days a week, I could decide to cut back to twice a week. Rather than eat out at resturants three or four times a month, I could decide to eat out not more than twice a month. As we get better at this we can put ceilings on bigger things. Do I really need designer glasses? Could I drive a Honda instead of a BMW?

It does not really matter where you place the ceiling as long as you pick one and stick with it. Your concience will guide you and bother you if you intentionally put the ceiling too high. The important thing is to steadfastly stay below your ceiling.

The ceiling on desires leaves us with some extra money and the best thing is to put it away lest we should impulsively spend it on something in a moment of weakness. For this, it helps to setup a separate bank account that one mentally ear marks as the Charity Account and establish an automatic monthly payment into this account. This way you do not see the money in your regular checking account so there are less chances you will spend it or even miss it! Also, when you have to make a charitable donation you do not have to worry about the hole it will leave in your pocket.

Such a simple and yet so powerful concept that anybody can follow. Some day may be some of us will be able to rise to the challenge of owning only what is absolutely necessary for us and using the balance of our resources to serve others like Mahatma Gandhi did. Until then let's at least start with a ceiling on desires.

Double Standard?

There was quite an uproar about Bill Gates' recent comments urging the Bush administration and the US congress to end the cap on hiring foreign workers. Many protested that allowing companies to hire foreign workers when some american workes are un-employeed is unfair. They also feel that companies are primarily hiring foreign worker to cust costs and bring down the wages of local workers. While cost may be one of the factors, availability of well qualified workers is certainly another. Qualified americans are seldom the ones who are unemployed. Often we tend to become complacent and do not keep up with emerging technologies where as our foreign counterparts are more abreast with the latest technologies! Thanks to the Internet, it has now become easy for anyone anywhere in the world with a broadband connection to the Internet to become well aware and familiar with the latest in technology.

Besides, I find that we seem to have somewhat of a double standard. On one hand we promote open and free markets and capitalism. We want all countries to allow free trade. How then could we justify putting limits on the number of foreign workers that are hired by American companies?

With the economy increasingly becoming global, it is inevitable that americans will be forced to compete with a global workforce, many of who live in areas with lower cost of living and quality of life. Already many companies have been setting up offices abroad to tap into the foreign workforce and capping H1 visas is only going to limit the competitive advantage of american companies.