Uninformed or Misinformed?

"If you don't read the newspaper,

you are uninformed;

If you do read the newspaper,

you are misinformed."

- Mark Twain

Since I do to have figures of India, I refer to American statistics as an indicator.
Why refer to America? Because Mark Twain was referring to American media and capitalistic America has driven modern global trends in technology and social change for past 100 years.

Television, news media and publishing whether it is books, magazines,or newspapers, were originally set up to provide a news service and generate advertisement revenue to subsidise the cost of bringing news to the public.

Now news is just a fig leaf for advertising revenues. When any entity is driven only for maximising revenue, hook or by crook it sells its soul. Now news has to be distorted, manipulated or downright fabricated to please those who pay money, for business, social, political or military gain.

The greater irony, is that the media place themselves on a moral pedestal high above other fellow citizens. Now the 'holier than thou', preach to others.

Unable to sustain themselves, newspapers are folding up rapidly particularly in the developed world. The noble ones died because they were too honest and the crooked ones died because they went overboard with manipulation, thus making themselves irrelevant.

I like an increasing number of people rarely read the newspapers or watch the news on TV. I prefer to be informed by individuals through the internet.

The internet posting by individuals is richly diverse. It provides refreshing alternatives, because much of it comes from the heart and minds of the effected or observer.

The information is generally genuine because it does not pass through a middle-man the media manipulator. As is to be expected, mainstream media is now trying to dominate and control the internet and the content.

The media and certain interest groups be they national, religious, or business groups now dominate even the internet. A case in point is that 50% of all wikipedia edits are made by just 524 most active users. Thus imposing their ideas making it seem that's is the universal view.

"Grab them by their minds, their hearts, bodies and wallets will be compelled to follow".

The neck of the bottle is always at the top.

F requently requested to assist organisations large and small, I observe a common and recurring theme. The issues revolve around the struggle of owners /managers to manage effectively. This is visible predominantly in companies that have started small and are growing, in family run businesses and families themselves. They are invariably puzzled that management approach, style and methods which worked so well in the past, now just don't work anymore. They resort to even more hard work and effort, yet the situation only worsens. Finding themselves in unfamiliar situations they dart here and there implementing fads, half hearted strategies alien to their thinking and character. They do this because they are getting frustrated and doing something is considered better than doing nothing. They change staff and managers. They churn product mix, vendors and even customers and markets. They try so many things but nothing seems to work. They chang...

You have to play the game to win it.

In life its not sufficient to be merely efficient but to also be effective. Someone once asked my father Man Singh ji, 'What is the secret of your success?' He remarked, "I do not always make right decisions. I make decisions, and then almost always make them right" Read more ..........

The boss is always right

It was in 1502 that the egoistic mayor of Florence (Italy) Piero Soderini was under great pressure. He had appointed a novice to work on a giant piece of beautiful marble to make a sculpture under his guidance. Typical of many bosses Soderini had overestimated his own capabilities and by drilling a big hole in the middle of the block of marble Soderini and the novice had ruined it. Soderini had to find a solution, and finally commissioned Michelangelo to do a sculpture . Michelangelo agreed and using the available shape decided to sculpt a young David with a sling in his hand. A few weeks later as the statue was finished, Soderini came to see the sculpture for himself. Soderini was pleased with what he saw. However like many patrons and bosses Soderini had to impose his ideas and have the last word. Soderini instructed Michelangelo to change the shape of the nose because it was too big. Michelangelo grasped the situation immediately realising th...

Enigma Solution

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