TEAM  WORK  IS  THE  ONLY  WAY   -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

I have been doing a course in ayurveda for a few days. In parts of its practice, two people are working on you, standing on either side. If you keep your eyes closed, you can imagine that they are just one being with four hands controlled by one brain. The speed, rhythm, pressure, direction, …. of the four hands are so beautifully synchronised.

The team that wins is the team that works as a team – almost like one single organism. The captain of the German team in the World Cup in Brazil said it beautifully. “We did not have the best player of the tournament. The best player does not win; the best team does.”

Even a sport which is as much a one-man show as it can get – chess – is actually a team sport. BOSCONET’s brand ambassador, Viswanathan Anand is accompanied by a full team of assistants, specialised in various aspects, who help him win.

The days are far gone when a single person, a genius, a hard worker, could lead the pack in a contest. Even Nobel prizes are shared achievements these days. Success in innovation is the result of the joint efforts of a well-knit team.

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WOMEN  IN  THE  WORKFORCE   -   BOSCONET  THOUGHTS

In rural India participation rate of men in the workforce is 54.3% against 24.8% for women. In urban areas the corresponding figures are 54.6% and 14.7%. Overall, in our country, the participation of men and women in the workforce is 54.4% and 21.9%.

If women are not at work because they are giving their full attention to their children, how lucky our children are! Perhaps it is also because they are less educated and have less skills. Perhaps men refuse to allow their women to have a career of their own. Perhaps employers have sexist prejudices and do not want women among their staff.

If these latter are the reasons, it is unfortunate. What a loss to the economy; what a waste of human resources; what a speed-breaker to the development of our country. Above all, what disrespect and injustice towards half of humanity!

I am also wondering what the exact definition of ‘workforce’ is. If it includes all those who work, what exactly are more than half India doing? – studying? Growing up? Gallivanting? Living as parasites on the work of others? Enjoying the fruits of the sweat of their progenitors?

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PAY  ONLY  WHAT  YOU  WANT  TO   -   BOSCONET  THOUGHTS

It would be so wonderful if we could pick up something in a shop and pay only what we sincerely thought it was worth. Would that shop be able to survive? We do have the tendency to overvalue our products and services and undervalue other people’s goods and work – a version of “The grass on the other side is greener!”

At the initial stages of BOSCONET the director inducted five new staff. There was a three-day process that offered them opportunities to show their knowledge and skills. At the end the group was asked to suggest in writing what each of them should be paid – for oneself and for the others. The salary was finally decided using a series of calculations based on their suggestions.

In a second similar exercise, for the self-assessment of the staff this year, the director asked all the staff whether they themselves were being paid enough and to mention who, in their opinion, was being paid too high and who too low. Each one wrote that he/she was paid well and that everyone else was paid also the right amount as per their knowledge, skills, responsibilities and contribution to the organisation. It is, of course, not easy to say whether they were all being honest or only trying to please the director!

Well, five hotels in Paris, France, have decided to leave it to their clients to decide what they will pay for the facilities and services they received, according to their own calculation of what they were worth. Wish them well. Let’s hope, it works and the hotels can stay in business. Wish them success.

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A  10 –YEAR  OLD  MAY WORK  -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

The law in Bolivia used to allow children to start working from the age of 14. A new law passed this last week allows children as young as 10 years to start working under parental supervision provided they also go to school. From the age of 12 they may work under contract.

A sponsor of the bill says, “Child labour already exists. Rather than persecute it, we want to protect the rights and labour security of children.” The president of the country also worked as a boy, herding llamas. He says there is no alternative in a society where half the population is poor.

The opposite opinion is that “Child labour may be seen as a short-term solution to economic hardship, but is actually a cause of poverty.”

It is a pity Bolivia has decided to march in a direction directly opposite to that of the rest of the world. May all children all over the world have opportunities to study and be allowed to enjoy their childhood.

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STEPHEN  HAWKING’S  SUICIDE  ATTEMPT   -   BOSCONET  THOUGHTS

In 1963 doctors diagnosed Stephen Hawking as suffering from Motor Neurone Disease. He had only months to live. About 5% of its victims do survive over a decade. Hanwking is alive even today.

In 1985 Hawking had pneumonia. He had a tracheotomy and a tube was inserted through his throat into his windpipe. He could not speak any more. “I admit that when I had my tracheotomy operation, I briefly tried to commit suicide by not breathing. However, the reflex to breathe was too strong,” he said in an interview to BBC the day before yesterday. At present he cannot even breathe on his own. He is permanently on a ventilator, but he has no desire to end his life on his own.

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist on a par with Albert Einstein. The 72-year-old is a professor at Cambridge. His contribution to our understanding of the universe is immense (I hope you have read his book – A Brief History of Time).

The discussion on euthanasia or “mercy killing” is a very complex one. Do we let God – or nature – decide how long people live or does the person in question or the people around her decide when she can no longer have a productive or ‘happy’ life? To what extant should we use medical science to prolong a life that seems to have become merely vegetative?

TOO  FAT  TO  DIE !   -   BOSCONET  THOUGHTS

A 50-year-old woman in Nanjing, Jiangsu province of China, was facing a lot of problems. Finally, last week she decided to put an end to it all by committing suicide. She went and jumped into a two metre deep river.

Seeing a body floating in the river, the locals called the police. They were happy to find that the woman was still alive. The woman was so obese that she could not sink into the water. She could not drown herself.

Obesity does seem to have this ONE benefit but, that is certainly no reason whatever to aim at being obese. It could kill you in many other ways!

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WAR  AS  ENTERTAINMENT   -   BOSCONET THOUGHTS

“Sderot Cinema” is the caption the journalist gave to a photo he took in Israel. He shot a picture of about a dozen people lounging in plastic chairs outside the town of Sderot, and eating popcorn while they watched and cheered Israeli soldiers bombarding the plains of Gaza.

As we walk the streets of our cities and towns, we do not even ‘see’ the people living on the footpaths, the children working in tea-stalls, men, women and children looking for scraps of paper, cardboard and pieces of metal, and a hundred other similar scenes. We have been passing by such things from our childhood and we have become immune to them.

When people sit – popcorn in their hands – and watch live the bombarding of human habitations, we realize to what depths our insensitivity can go.

May God forgive all of us; may He help us become more human; may He enable us to put ourselves in the shoes of people who suffer within our sight.

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