Posted by: mbconsulting | May 12, 2010

Opinion – Mr. Boc – Are you OK?

After the last monitoring visit of IFM that were a lot of criticism regarding performances of PM – Mr. Boc.

I am coming now with arguments in his favor:

1. Mr. Boc did not have any previous experience in governmental activities. He was not prepared for this. So do not criticized him too much.This is a problem in Romania, in general speaking, to have people prepared to lead at the highest level.(see how weak are Geoana/ Ponta or Tariceanu/ Antonescu just to compare him with similar politicians).

Maybe Mr. Boc imagined that PM is like to be a teacher in a University, or like a lawmaker in Parliament. OK, these assumptions are wrong.

PM is one of the most difficult job in Romania, even if not the most difficult one.

PM is under the pressure of work, under the lights of mass-media, from morning until night and indeed is a tired job,nothing related with a teacher.

PM is not a lawmaker is much more an implementer, must be a pragmatic person, an unrested monitoring individual, always prepared to adapt to new situations.

2. Mr. Boc faced a difficult situation in Romania, and I do not expect that are many persons able to perform well under similar circumstances. So again, do not blame too much Mr. Boc.

3. Mr. Boc is not an economist, therefore the complexity of the economic situation is overwhelming him and the tasks are fare more above his head (by the way, he is not too tall, he is rather small).

The agreement with IMF requested from the beginning an expert, and here was the place for Mr. Croitoru as PM or for another person with a similar professional career. If during the last winter, at the beginning, somebody laugh about inability of Mr. Croitoriu to speech in front of camera, now he is remembered as the person that drafted 2010 budget in less than 10 days.It was a performance. Not so many people in Romania…

4. The crisis imposed hard decisions and Mr. Boc seems not to be prepare for them. He is thinking more with his soul that with his mind. Please, make a switch Mr. Boc and you will see that you will feel more comfortable. I think that this last point destroyed the PM’s self-confidence.I am sure that he will pass on.

I honestly think that nobody was prepared for such difficult times, but we have no other way and therefore we must go on and take this responsibility and carry on.

At the end of my writing I would like to mention that each person is passing right now through difficult moments, but fighting makes us stronger and more powerful. The good things always prevail over the bad ones, even it takes a little bit longer to be demonstrated.

My message is an appeal to responsibility and understanding, just for the sake of peace: When a man is down, please, stop to hit him again.

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 30, 2011

My Home, My Land…

"The Motherland" by William-Adolphe ...

The image of the mother coutry

Ok, here is my home, there is my land, but is this my homeland? My soul is telling me, day by day, that here is not my place, it is not a place where I may share my values!

Then, what shall I do? Where is my homeland?

My homeland is…

My place is where I find proud to belong to myself in terms of values, norms and styles. But these are submitted, more or less genetically in us, these values belong to the family and to the environment from which our family. When you grew up, these values are coming normal and took a place in our souls.

My place, my homeland – it’s just warn me where values are recognized and appreciated by those around me.This is my homeland!

My homeland may be my home, my street, my city or my country. There not always has to do with the place where you were born. It is more related to your soul and aspirations that you held.

If the place is strong, it will impose the values, norms and styles that will be folded on the wearer’s soul. If the wearer of the soul is not proud of them he/she will always look up to find it, his/her homeland.

Therefore every child says and assumes U.S. citizenship, the place is strongly required, but do not know if you can say the same thing about another country.

So maybe it is a start in thinking more global?

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 31, 2011

Romania – What you wanna do?

Despite the difficulties and half measures, in some cases, lack of firm response to the condemnation of abuses, corruption within  PDL, PNL, or PSD,  Basescu is still continue his way because he knows that there is no other better solution and does not want to stop.

Romania is still weak and every drop that comes and strengthens it is very good!
Rebuilding a nation almost totally destroyed after 1948,choked to revive after 1990, still has little need for  governing the development, even if this development is coming from different stimuli. It is not easy, not honorable for Romania, but this is the only way to get better! Coagulation of forces is slow, river cleaning from politics is much slower,so we have only two ways to the future: to go forward or to go back!

What do you wanna do?
I want to go forward towards a more clean and educated society, and I really know that this is the path that is going all over the world! Come forward and let the world to know clearly that we are going in that direction!

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 23, 2012

My city (Amersfoort) in early spring

Hihihi, is not winter, the sun is sun-shining, the flowers are on the field, only a few days with snow and a lot of joy….

I loved this time and please see a perspective from a wonderful city in a nice presentation:

My city (Amersfoort) in early spring.

Have a nice week,

Mbconsulting

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 13, 2012

A Vocal Leader – “Don’t stop me NOW!”

Called by himself a vocal Leader Freddy Mercury has a message for us that was called “the greatest driver”…

What shall may be said? Wordless – please  just listen the voice and follow the message!

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 3, 2012

2012 – What I Would Like

Well, here we are in 2012.

What I would like for 2012?

In brief I would like to continue my studies, to get an inter-ship where I would like to be, and this, for sure, would help me to find a “cool” job just to be ready for another place, another country.

I would like to meet a spirit in my life and ask to make come true my wishes…

Hey, where are you my spirit??? Please, come and help me, a little bit…

Hmm, no answer yet…

Maybe I have to do something else, to try to work harder and harder…

What do you think about?

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 1, 2012

2011 in Review – Toxic relation 

Well, in 2011 I raised a question about how to handle the “toxic” boss or colleagues and expected for an answer. I imaged that I created a new term: “toxic” boss, but surprise the term was used more before as Google quickly demonstrated.

Yes, indeed, I received an answer to my question.

In brief the message was centred on the power of change on myself. I thanks for it, it will help me a lot, but inside my mind I was not considered that is much more than these and tried to analyse.

Ok, I thought and I discovered that the issue is about a relation, and not about persons. I also try to develop a pattern to handle such relations that is drafted below.

Communicating means sending a signal, but you can;t always control the receiver and the way the message is decoded. Sometimes decoding depends on the level of education, sometimes is related with the cultural issues, but all these are related to the other person – the person to whom you address.

So, for a better relation among two persons or two groups I developed a process in three steps:

1. Improve your behaviour – transform yourself.

This is a long process, is continuously, and suppose that is never-ending. But is under your control and maybe manageable according to you. Great, but is not enough! You maybe the star, the best person on the world and …

It is almost in probable that perfect person could have any connection with me, because I am imperfect, perfectible, but not looking for perfections.

2. Know better your “receiver” – let’s call like this your colleague or your boss.

I would recommend the following soft step: figure from her/his body language, tones, attitudes, previous experiences how could react to your message and improve/adapt it to your receiver.

Be aware that in a fast-moving environment, a bad relation is a waste of time and maybe a lost of business opportunities.

As the earlier step, this one is also continuously, never-ending, especially when you may face stubborn blocking “receiver” – of course, personal issues are more important than interests in a common businesses, didn’t you know it?

If you face the Latino world the personal interests are most important element, so be aware  about it, and treat your “receiver” with deep courtesy.

3. Influence your dear “toxic” receiver!

Well, if there are not relevant results under the first two steps, you must develop the hard step: use carrots – money, awards, prizes –  or sticks – punishment, penalties- as you may find properly. This step does not exclude the confrontations, hard talks and/or debates. And after all, after all efforts it may come to a fair good end or not!

There is not a specific answer on how to transform a toxic relation.

Transformation of a relation is an art and it is really depending on a case by case how each relation is changed, because in fact, we are not discussion about persons, we discuss about connections among people. Sometimes is more important the value of X or Y may be fabulous, but mixing X with Y may produce a chaos.

It is also important to mention that people who liked themselves are more likely to work together, but, in time their results go down, for sure. There are not creative contradiction to stimulate the creation and development. It is a relation like a Dead Sea.

It is also important to mention that are situations when in spite of a step by step process, the relation is still a toxic one: one person/group maybe stubborn and incapable to react to the other. And then, without regrets, leave the relation and look in other direction for a better opportunity. Easy to say, difficult to do, but not an impossible mission.

Waiting for your responses and, why not, let’s debate about possible processes that may end with a good resolution among a toxic relation.

Hope that my post was not enough boring and did not fall on sleep therefore,

I would like to wish you a Happy New Year with passion and hope into your heart!

Sincerely,

Mbconsulting

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 1, 2012

2011 in Review – Lucian Pintilie,Liviu Ciulei and communism

There are moments in life, even if these are sad such as the one related with the commemoration of creator Liviu Ciulei, when persons, more than others, are enlightening those events. Lucian Pintilie was one of them.

At the ceremony of commemoration of Liviu Ciulei, his friend and supporter, the director Lucian Pintilie could not express in many words there, but in spite he announced his decision regarding  writing a book about Liviu Ciulei, as he could not express all the feelings and facts only in a few words.

From that commemoration it passed more than 1 month, but I could not bring my energy to focus on Lucian Pintilie. He is the creator of “magical reality” and if you would like to have a better understsanding of the meaning I would reccommend to listen and to watch a few fragments from his films.

Here there are two moments from “Too late” (1996) related to miners from Valea Jiului, those  real miners that marched to Bucharest in 1990, 1991 and 1999 :

 

 

 

If I could critisize something is the lack of managerial qualities of the Director of miners, the role performed by Victor Rebenciuc, as were in facts. The film only loops them.

The “magical reality” is in fact the crudity from our lives.

As my words are too poor I will quote from Mircea Deaca saying that:

“The performative acts there are attempts to make the world fit the words. Words in the world are trying to provoke a certain state of affairs. Turning to other forms of representation, we can say that the use of representations as performative structure is a form of status quo represented by the act of representation, through his performance, which is causing the acts or generates in the world. Examples of non-linguistic acts are performative rituals and magic sphere.They also have a metaphorical component. By changing relationships represented within the space are exchanged and relationships in the physical space itself. Thus, white symbolizes purity costume sex marriage virginity (and is thus a metaphor). But for divorced women, white refers to a desired state of purity (not a factual description of a situation, but is intended as an aid to bring purity).

This is what was done in reconstructing successive representation devices (film filmmaker, film prosecutor, the staging of the victims). They are metaphorical devices to create a “new man”. Reconstruction is not a descriptive resume of what happened (last action which is represented today by a formula story), but a performative action. Reconstruction is not an identical repetition of a resume, but a re-formatting, re-establishment. If characters regret their violent acts and have nothing now, after surgery the new constitution, just by staging violence, tomorrow they will be immersed in violence.The film follows the episode “re-educating” (with kindness, with words, with persuasion, with gifts, military treatment or torture of “the channel”). At the end of the film, the protagonist of “free” will be dismantled, crushed, thrown in the mud or be lost in the anonymity of a crowd with outbreaks of violence.

One way to dominate Romanian communism legally citizens’ behavior was the turn of all the offenders. Communist laws were designed such that whatever you have done, still does not comply with a law. None of the repressive apparatus not to apply any sanction, but account for all deviations. Power continuously close your eyes, but when he wanted to get power to silence or remove you, and would be outweighed by the law do not respect. I could not have a behavior that does not defeat a law or another and, anyway, some of the fault not of your behavior on purpose (maybe you had relatives abroad, maybe you had a parent or priest can talk too much and too impertinent to address system in public areas or may bear beard). Everyone was guilty, guilt was universal.

Re-type reconstruction of education is a form to make an ingenuous in delinquent, to turn an innocent in criminal. If young first offenders are used as “volunteers” for a propaganda film, the second they can be more easily manipulated to make them do whatever they were ordered to do, morally or otherwise, in exchange for avoiding punishment.

Re-education is a form of participation in a fault that power for the time in its sole discretion prefer not to punish him. To produce a good obedient servant is required of an accomplice to a crime because, then, as absolute power to absolve him from punishment in exchange for a service not refuse and which, however, is a minimal - such as a small give-away at another citizen, and so on.

In “Reconstruction”, which is designed as “fiction” that pretends to be a “documentary” is contradicted by the facts more dramatic: a violence that creates irreversible chain generalized violence and annihilation. But, as I said earlier, re-establishment is to just create this type of socialization.”

Nothing more to be added except a wish: watch the serial short videos about and with genius Liviu Ciulei that are starting here . There is a history embeddable in videos.

 

 

Thanks for watching them.

Have a nice and warm evening!

Sincerely,

Mbconsulting

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 1, 2012

2011 in Review: 10 years after 9/11

One of the most important event that took during 2011 was celebration of 9/11 that also brought into attention the dead of Osama bin Laden – the brain of operations from that time.

9/11 means for me a shocking moment, unbelievable true, accompanied by a lot of drama, but in the meanwhile demonstrated a strange powerful war machine ready to attack innocent people and to destroy their lives, confidence, their believes and finally the democracy.

I saw also that in less than 30 min. the shocked people were really to stop this terror and continued, restless until the enemies were withdrawn.

Of course 9/11 demonstrated some fragile aspects for U.S., as former President Bill Clinton mentioned them during a “hot” interview on Fox News.

Please enjoy the interview:

But after all, from ashes the nation is rebuilding itself, stronger and the people could not forget the drama from that day and are paying a tribute and commemorate those that lost their lives.

Have a nice and peaceful year!
Happy New Year!

Sincerely,
Mbconsulting

Posted by: mbconsulting | January 1, 2012

Politics and Leaders – Something must be done…

As you may notice already I am fan of using YouTube for learning more about leaders, politics and history.

There are rare occasions when two strong leaders are confronting on a very dedicated problem near by their borders. In the confrontation that I had on my mind, Indo-Pakistan border differencing, one of them was  Indira Ghandi, a remarkable and famous Indian leader that seems not to be necessary to present any more who was she, but on the other side is placed Zhulfikar Ali Bhutto – that is indeed the father of Benazir Bhutto.

I could discover that Zhulfikar Ali Bhutto was such an incredible powerful leader, with strong statements and with a really strong voice where ever was placed. One occasion was at UN Security Council on 15 December, 1971 – please see the video attached. It is far away from me to decide if over all his activity the Pakistan Leader had a well coordinated policy or politics, useful for his country, but the way the speech was held at UN Security Council I found impressive.  Please watch the video.

On the other side there was madame Indira Gandhi and her position.

Finally, there was a statement: “Something must be done…”

Please let me know what are your impressions?

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Mbconsulting

Posted by: mbconsulting | December 27, 2011

I want the truth! – Hard talks!

Sometimes somebody may consider that telling the truth is difficult.

From my perspective, the truth is the most important element that makes us grow and develop and therefore the confrontation  with the truth is a necessary and a useful tool. Indeed is not easy, sometimes is not pleasant, but, here we are, here we stand and therefore fight for better in a reality with the uncomfortable truth.

The idea of this post was suggested to me by an extraordinary scene from a movie: ” A Few Good Men“. Do you remember it? If not, please enjoy a small part from a confrontation:

I want the truth!

Posted by: mbconsulting | December 27, 2011

I really like Christmas!

A Norwegian Christmas, 1846 painting by Adolph...

Image via Wikipedia

Well, I hope that you enjoy the Christmas with your family, friends, neighbours or alone…

Christmas brings to us not only the speed for searching for and buying gifts, but also the atmosphere of happiness that sometimes is missing in our ordinary life.

Do not want to  make propaganda, but there is a sad story that only a few days or hours the peace is around the place where Christ was born – believe or not believe in Bible – the peace and stability are important elements for people as the air and water are…

Hey, keep the spirit and don’t give up as somebody may say…

Here is a song that keeps the spirit of Christmas:

For my friends that are running or not, there is an interesting point of view.

Running A Marathon Does Not Make You Mother Teresa.

Oh, running 26.2 miles at the break of dawn doesn’t sound enjoyable to you? Too bad, sucker. That’s what all the cool kids are doing these days. If my Facebook feed counts as a scientific sample, then 83% of people in their twenties are currently training for, have just run, or are pretending to have just run a marathon. It’s an epidemic! An over-priced Lululemon wearing, cutesy motivational poster posting epidemic! The worst kind. You know, other than Ebola.

Naturally, I have a theory. Our generation’s sudden interest in running boils down to this: We’re a bunch of jerks. When we graduated college, just a few short years ago, we were wide-eyed and optimistic. Y’all, we were going to save the world! That job we took, wresting candy and toys from cancer-ridden orphans? Temporary. We just needed to finish up our Peace Corps application. Fast-forward a few years, when we’ve trashed the application altogether and are really enjoying our new gold-plated toilet. Shit. What happened to that spunky, quixotic kid we used to be? There must be a way we can recover that golden aura of inner goodness! Enter the marathon.

Pardon me, while I get a little academic up in here, readers. You see, I live for studies on body image and cultural perceptions of beauty. One of my favorites is the “What Is Beautiful Is Good” study, which basically found that we think attractive people are nicer, more successful, and have rectums made of rainbows. In America? Universally attractive = physically fit. And nothing says “I am a fashionably trim bad-ass who can delicately bench-press a baby elephant!” like training for a marathon.

It’s a big deal. I will grant you that. You have to train like crazy, go on carb-loading binges, and there’s the ever-present danger of chafing. It’s a lot of damn work. It has a pretty big pay-off, however. When you tell people what you’re doing, they will act as if you just cured cancer. You will be called disciplined, persistent, and amazing! People will probably make t-shirts with your face on them, then come cheer you on at the race. When friends set you up on blind dates, they include your new-found athleticism in your vital This Person Is Awesome statistics: She works as an orphan oppressor, speaks Farsi, came in second for Miss Travis County, and runs marathons! You are suddenly like a cross between Marilyn Monroe and a star high-school quarterback. Obviously, you are on the road to sainthood, one mile at a time.

Nope. Sorry to rain on your parade, but you’re still an asshat. You’re just an asshat who now brags about that crazy cramp you got in mile thirteen. I know it’s hard to believe, but running dozens of miles does not erase your fondness for drop-kicking puppies or that time you slept with my boyfriend. That’s okay. We all have disappointments. Drinking tea and adding a “u” to color hasn’t made me British yet either.

What’s more, marathons aren’t necessarily good for you. Hear me out. I’m almost a doctor. (Really.) Running is good for you, yes. Extreme running is potentially not. Your heart is actually worse off at the end of running 26.2 miles than it was before. Cardiac Troponin T, one of the signs of possible heart damage, may now flow through your blood like herpes on the Jersey Shore. In some cases, your heart has actually changed shape and its ventricles are less efficient! It can take months for it to recover. If you repeat this multiple times? If you become that holy grail of fitness, talked about in hushed, awed tones by others: a marathoner? You could end up with scarring on your heart and calcified arteries. Fun

times!

Here’s my advice: Instead of signing up for that marathon, where you will exchange money for a t-shirt, paper number, and a case of mild dehydration, go volunteer. It will make your soul smile, will still fool others into thinking you’re nice, and won’t damage your heart! Plus, I will find you less annoying. Please, just don’t go to the animal shelter. They still haven’t found a home for that poor Goldendoodle you “walked.”

- Grace

Author’s Note: If you’re one of those people who purely loves to run, you may continue. Just understand that when I don’t compliment you on your new, glittery 26.2 bumper sticker, it’s not that I don’t think you’re neat. Unless you’re Ryan Reynolds, I just don’t give a shit about your marathon time.

Author’s Note Part Two: It should be noted that I don’t hate marathoners or runners or even Lululemon lovers. Follow your bliss, my dears. My point was this: running 26.2 miles doesn’t make you a good person. It doesn’t make you a bad one either. You’re just a person who runs a lot, good or bad. Happy Holidays!”

Please let me know that is your opinion.

Thanks.

Mbconsulting

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