Petey's
Pipeline E-zine
Issue #17
October 17, 2005
Contents
Business
First Editorial Beyond the Next Quarter
Random Ramblings and Miscellaneous Musings
The Problem with Problems
Write Thinking Using "a"
and "an"
Business
First (Editorial)
Beyond the Next Quarter
by Phil Hanson
We
live in interesting times. Ours are dangerous times, perilous
times, confusing and uncertain times, highly volatile and unstable
times, but interesting times, nonetheless. Chalk it up to cupidity,
stupidity and apathy, three negative human traits that exist
in superabundance.
The
prevailing attitude among the wealthy seems to be I don't
care what happens as long as it doesn't prevent me from getting
richer or having fun. The prevailing attitude among the middle
class seems to be I don't care what happens as long as I'm
having fun. And the prevailing attitude among poor people
seems to be I don't care what happens.
Cupidity,
stupidity, and apathy!
Where
does business fit into the overall scheme of things? Business
is behind the overall scheme of things. With its propensity
to destroy vital resources for the sake of manufacturing and
marketing an excess of non-vital ones, business has led us to
the brink of economic, environmental and social disaster. Simply
put, current business practices are not sustainable. Businesses
of all sizes need to focus their gaze into a future far beyond
the next quarter, and act on behalf of long-term interests.
The
problem with unbridled capitalism is that greed gets in the
way of good sense. An unrestrained profit motive blinds the
eyes to the damage it causes. It's cheaper to discharge the
effluvia from our manufacturing processes into the rivers than
it is to dispose of them properly. Who cares? The fish care.
It'll save us a bundle if we spew our smoke and noxious gasses
directly into the atmosphere instead of filtering it. Who cares?
Everything that lives and breathes cares. We can boost
our profit margin by 6% if we bury our toxic wastes in the field
out back. Who cares? Gaia cares. People exposed to polluted
groundwater care. All people of good conscience care.
Despite
what the corporate pimps and their political whores (or is it
political pimps and corporate whores?—the distinction
between them gets ever blurrier) are saying, the economy has
never been about economy. It's always been about rampant greed,
extravagant waste and obscene short-term profits.
Failure
to redefine our values, failure to curb our lust for instant
gratification, failure to adopt new paradigms for ethical conduct
in regards to the social, political and economic infrastructures
that are vital to the commonwealth will hasten humanity down
the road to extinction. We can't afford to fail.
If
mankind is to survive into the next century and beyond, businesses
must be more responsible, more accountable, more in tune with
sustainable practices. So must the people who own those businesses,
the people who work in those businesses, and the people who
patronize those businesses.
They
used to call it citizenship. Maybe they still do. One thing's
for certain; it's time we all started behaving like good citizens.
The continued survival of our species—perhaps of all species—depends
on it.
Copyright
© 2005 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Random
Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
The Problem with Problems
by Phil Hanson
Global
warming, environmental destruction, polluted water, depleted
fish stocks, an endangered food supply, an energy crisis, a
shortage of affordable housing, poverty, education funding shortfalls,
rising healthcare costs, declining numbers (relative to the
population) of living-wage jobs, war . . .. These are among
the most egregious, most vexing, most persistent problems that
plague society today. What are we going to do about them?
The
conventional mindset is that if society's problem solvers throw
enough money at a problem, or do something equally stupid, the
problem will just go away. Sorry! Reality doesn't work that
way. In reality, one must attack the source of a problem if
one has a serious desire to solve the problem.
Everyone
has their own ideas about how to remedy society's most pressing
problems, but that, in itself, creates another problem. Most
remedies postulated by concerned citizens and well meaning (or
not) politicians concentrate on treating the symptoms, not the
disease. These are nothing more than feel-good solutions that
dull the pain of failed policy while ignoring the underlying
cause. They give the illusion of making progress, but deliver
nothing of substance.
Feel-good
solutions are band-aid solutions; they're stopgap measures at
best. The sore that is the crux of the problem continues to
fester under the band-aid until the band-aid falls off, at which
point the original problem becomes a little more difficult to
deal with.
Virtually
all of the problems mentioned in the first paragraph of this
short essay stem from one source—overpopulation. Until
all members of society, from the movers and shakers to the moved
and shaken, can recognize, understand and accept this simple
truth, and will themselves to act in concert to end our collective
nightmare, the nightmare will continue, unabated, to its ultimate,
frightful, painful conclusion.
We
can take decisive, positive steps to limit population growth
by placing sanctions and controls on the front end; we can implement
harsh, brutal, extreme measures on the back end; or, we can
do nothing, thus letting the status quo prevail. We can do it
the sane way, we can do it the insane way, or we can let Mother
Nature do it her way. That, too, is a choice. The only certainty
is that we, as a species, will either live or die by the choice
we make.
Copyright
© 2005 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Write
Thinking
Using
"a" and "an"
Using
"a" and "an" can be a bit confusing, at
times. The old rule of thumb says to use "a" before
words beginning with consonants and to use "an" before
words beginning with vowels. Examples: a diamond, an
opal.
This
rule, however, can be problematic when using abbreviations;
some consonants, when spoken, begin with a vowel sound. Examples:
F (ef), H (aitch), L (el), M (em), N (en), R (ar), S (ess),
X (ex).
"U"
sometimes throws us a curve, too, even though it's a vowel.
Some words beginning with "u" start with a vowel sound
(as in upward, unknown, ultimatum), while others start with
the consonant sound "Y" (as in union, universal, uranium).
Examples: an unknown quantity, a universal appeal.
A
better, more refined rule of thumb says use "a" before
words that begin with consonant sounds and use "an"
before words that begin with vowel sounds. Examples: a
National Basketball Association franchise, an NBA franchise;
a sexually-transmitted disease, an STD; a
Master of Business Administration, an MBA.
Whether
you use "a" or "an" depends on the beginning
sound of the word that follows.
Copyright
© 2005 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
