ieth_wk

Pre-election decisions

2004-09-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

I feel that politicians have forgotten the premise of democracy. They are chosen to represent the will of the people, not to abuse power. It seems that most of the really big decisions, are made just before the elections so that the new people arriving won't spoil the deal struck by everyone currently in power.

For example yesterday the Helsinki city concil decided to privatize the public busses. This became a big issue in the news and I bet a big portion of people had an opinion on it. The idea being that service on the buslines will now diminish, the working conditions of the drivers will become worse and our wellfare system crumbles. Now my point is not to enforce this opinion of mine, but to state that nothing would have been lost by waiting for after the election. This issue could have been one of the key issues in the election.

The same was done with the old Makasiinit building in front of the Parliament house. People would have wanted to save that building as a place for keeping various urban happenings, but now it will be ripped down to be replaced by a building that serves classical music, as if there weren't enough of those buildings in the center of Helsinki already. The point again being: The people did not get to decide! That is called oligarchy.

How about the fifth nuclear power plant? Why not let the people decide? The list goes on and on. And when the time for elections comes, suddenly there are no interesting issues anymore, but all the parties have the same meaningless opinions that entail no direct action.

This is wrong and doesn't represent the will of the people. What should be done is to lift those issues up for the media to present and have the people decide by voting for candidates that represent their opinions on those issues.

That is democracy.

This is not.

How to give constructive criticism to chinese people?

2004-06-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't come very far in actually answering the question I posed. It has taken long enough to realize that it actually is a totally valid question and that there are really vast cultural differences in receiving criticism.

My road on understanding costructive criticizm started in Singapore.

I got a terrible haircut in Singapore. OK I understand that western hair is different from Chinese hair, but the concept of a disappointed client actually tring to ask them to change their service was totally alien. Asking them to please next time give western people a hairdresser that has even a vague undesrtanding of the english language was considered arrogant behaviour and I'm glad that the person controlled himself enough not to put up his fists. Later that day I went to another hairdresser for a new haircut.

I had several similar incidents in Singapore and started employing the tactique of repetition which ended up in resigned expressions and acceptance of failure from the people whom I was critisizing. I don't think that I reached my objective though with that technique. In Hong Kong I started to stress that the person I'm talking to is not to blame.

me: "Can you please tell your boss that I do not like travelling 5 km just to pay my phone bill!"
Sunday: "I'm sorry I cannot help you!"
me:"No don't be sorry. Just tell your boss and I'll be happy."

The results improved slightly by stressing that the person I'm talking to is not to blame, but I've still to gain complete satisfaction from my constructive critisizm. The reasons for the difficulty of receiving suggestions seem to have something to do with the hierarchical nature of most companies here as well as emphasis on tradition. I believe the work culture is such that employees should not really make any suggestions to the boss since making those suggestions in a way undermines the prestige of the people above you in the hierarchy. The traditions involved in most companies and products in a way make the employees proud of what they are doing and more loyal as well.

So it seems that to avoid the problems caused by tradition one should carefully start by pointing out all the good things in the product or company and then move on to the defects. The defects should be pointed out in such a way that the person whom you are talking to himself feels that the product would be even better if some minor changes would be made. And even better if he feels that he was really the one who got the idea on how to make this best product into a superb product.

Overtaking hierarchy is a slightly more challenging issue and especially in the case of customer given constructive criticism. As an employer you should take an issue up not with the employee himself but rather his workmate and thus give him/her the chance of improving. But as for taking an issue up with the boss of a company is just too big of a bugger.

I have yet to try out these new hypotheses in real life consciously trying to use them in the way I give feedback. I will tell you if I succeed and you can give me ideas on what to try.

How ignorant can you security guards get? - Manila International Airport Philippine Airlines Terminal

2004-06-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

This terrorism thing combined with sars and whatnot has made airport security so tight that it is sometimes even comic in it's triple checks and bureocracy (yes/no Are you going to blow up this airport with a bomb?). Why in Manila I even had to take off my shoes and put them though the xray. But that is not my complaint since probably the airport manager cannot affect the level of security.

Perhaps I should express my disappointment with the evil plot created in unison by the leaders of the western world and the terrorists that have diminished human rights in these few years after 9-11. But that is an other issue altogether.

The complaint is to the totally ignorant and plain out stupid security guards that are taking care of checking the people and taking care of the xray machines. Elina, my girlfriend, was forced to take her glasses off as of course she is going to murder someone with the needle that's hidden inside the bows and not break the glasses and use the shards (jeez). Well she had to put them in a small plastic cup which proceeded through the x-ray machine with the normal huge handluggage that people are carrying around to circumvent the normal 20 kg allowance for checked-in bags. As she herself stepped through the metal detector to collect her fragile glasses the security guard had to bodysearch her first (she was doing it for everyone). Well meanwhile the other three guards watched with joy as the huge handluggage coming after the glasses crushed the small plastic cup and threw the now unprotected glasses around on the line. My keys and coins were in the next plastic cup and they flew under the whole machine.

The guards that were totally overcome by stupidity picked up maybe two of the coins (not that they were valuable, but they were my property) and placed them back in the cup. Elina rescued her glasses from even more scratches eventually and we proceded to the gate without a big noise as you never know what pissing off Filippino borderguards will lead to. Besides it was clear that at most we might just might get an apology and not a sincere one at that.

I'm getting really pissed off even now that I'm only writing about the situation. Anyways I don't know what these guys would do if there was actually a security situation. I think they would probably just look stupidly at the shooting terrorists and pick their noses.

We complained later on to Philippine Airlines as this terminal was solely for their use. The office were we sent the complaint replied promptly that it was the responsibility of the manager of the airport and forwarded our letter to him. They promised the manager would get back to us very soon. He didn't.

If and when (as the Philippines are otherwise definately worth a dozen of visits) I fly back to the Philippines I will chose not to fly on Filippine Airlines

Manager-> treat your customers like customers and not like terrorists. If someone has a legitimate complaint you should at least care enough to reply if you cannot placate your customer with gifts or compensate for his/her damaged property.

The Best Baked Potatoes in Hong Kong - Paris Zone 8 cafe in Causeway bay

2004-06-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Although this cafe might not be an exact copy of a french cafe on the Champs Elysee the atmosphere inside is still nice enough. It is actually the first place I have visited where I didn't find boyband music annoying.

After eating the dry tasteless baked potatoes of Olivier's Super Sandwich for a couple of months, I thought that you just can't eat decent potato in Asia. But Paris Zone 8 cafe proved me wrong; I really really enjoyed their baked potato. And they aren't even expensive.

Hóu sihk.

the king of uncomfortable movietheatres: UA Times Square - Hong Kong

2004-06-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

This movie theater is situated in Times Square in Hong Kong in the center of the famous shopping area of Causeway Bay.

You buy your tickets from a small booth open to the street and continue up with an escalator into a way too small waiting area. But that is not my cause for feeling cheated as space in Hong Kong is limited anyways.

I truly believe the staff of the movietheatre has not tried to watch even a single movie sitting in their own theatre. First of all the rows are so tightly fitted that you cannot sit in the chair. I mean you have to basicly spread your legs and lift them up against the seat in front of you just to fit there. And I don't even have exceptionally long legs! GRAAAAgh makes my knees hurt even to think about it.

And the headache! You thought that movietheatre seats are supposed to be comfortable and designed so that you can comfortably rest your head on the headrest and watch the movie. Well these chairs have anti-headrests. There is a hard plastic edge lining the chairs throughout which wouldn't matter otherwise, but that edge is also where the headrest is supposed to be! You try to rest your ear on the edge or your neck or just plain normally put the back of your head there and you continue trying to find a position that wouldn't actually hurt. And you continue trying. And continue. And... And finally the movie is over but don't worry - the pain will last for the entire evening!

Manager -> This movietheatre is only for midgets and masochists. Change the chairs.

the idea

2004-06-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

The idea of this blog is to praise nice service or a nice atmosphere or whatever happened to be good in a certain place so that other people might know that at least someone had a nice time in the facility mentioned and thus perhaps use the power of the customer to do good and give them more customers. (I am not even employed at the moment so no use claiming that I would get paid for advertising those companies)

The idea is also to vent my anger on stupid companies or service provided or just tell about some other totally unacceptable behaviour I have received so that other people might know that at least someone had a shitty time in the facility mentioned and thus perhaps use the power of the customer to do evil and give them less customers. (and perhaps change the way they do business)