Why do terrorists hate us so much that they are willing, even eager, to die while inflicting upon us tremendous strife and devastation? Many are asking this question. Most answers I hear are related to religion, ethnicity and perceived victimization.
All these, no doubt, play a role. But I believe that the main cause of terrorism is resentment. Most terrorists come from extremely poor countries. They see how we in rich countries live, and are resentful. Resentment turns into frustration and eventually despair. A despairing person is easy prey to radical fanatics.
If resentment is the cause, reducing resentment should decrease the number of terrorists and thus help win the fight against terrorism. How do we do this? We need a multi-prong strategy. But for people in business, the answer is: By building an anti-terrorism economy featuring anti-terrorism businesses. What will anti-terrorism businesses be like? They will enshrine the concept of helpfulness and apply it in a big way to individuals and companies in the poor countries of the world. This is not idealism. This is a practical way for business people to fight terrorism while at the same time strengthening their own bottom line.
Resentment Breeds Terrorism
In the free world we have the richest countries in the world. Their peoples have mastered the arts and the sciences. They have developed sophisticated technologies, products, systems and services that fuel their vibrant economies. They have produced millionaires and billionaires. They live in big houses and have a plethora of gadgets to reduce drudgery, keep them mobile, and supply entertainment. Life is good!
In contrast, people in poor countries, are not too gainfully employed, live in thatched or mud huts (if they have a home at all), don't have enough money to buy food, and are subject to floods, disease, AIDS, and brutal neighbors. Life is fiendish.
The rich countries have perhaps 15% of the Earth's population. Yet they produce 88% of the users of the Internet. Many of the remaining 85% of the people in the world have never used a telephone.
Religion is not the primary cause of terrorism. Poor, frustrated people turn to religion for solace. However, there is a limit to the amount of solace they may get if they have nothing to eat. So they become radicals. They become terrorists. What do they have to lose? They become martyrs.
How to Reduce Resentment
There will always be some resentment of rich and powerful people and of rich and powerful nations. But the amount and intensity of resentment may be reduced greatly if poor people and countries become more prosperous.
Yes, rich countries have established the IMF and the World Bank to help the poor countries. But every time these financial institutions offer a loan it comes with such tough conditions that rarely can a country abide by them and still grow its economy.
The trouble with these financial institutions is that they are based on the principle:
> The rich should help the poor
The implication is that the rich know best what to do and how to do it. They feel superior because they are helping these inferior people. For poor countries to be made more prosperous we must use the following principle:
> The rich should enable the poor to help themselves
Instead of making plans, allow them to make their own plans. Instead of teaching them how to do things, set up an environment that enables them to learn. Instead of selling them sophisticated technology, help them develop their own technology.
Anti-Terrorism Economy
Build a world economy that fights terrorism by making the economy as inclusive as possible, thus enabling poor countries to grow and prosper. This will produce more optimistic people, people less eager to become terrorists and martyrs.
Take a look at our recent economies;
1 - INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY - We had an industrial economy only in rich countries. Poor countries were used primarily to obtain raw materials for use in industrial products for the rich. Colonialism subjugated and impoverished poor countries further.
2 - NEW ECONOMY - Some called it the Information Economy. I called it the Learning Economy. But again, primarily the rich were part of this economy. Poor countries, who were hungering for information and learning, did not have the wherewithal to participate.
The main focus of companies has been on serving the rich market. The reasoning has been: Rich people have money to spend, so let us dream up gadgets and services to sell them. They forget, however, that poor countries represent a vast untapped market.
Globalization has been touted as a boon to all. But in practice, Globalization has meant the ascendance of multi-national corporations, not the growth of many small companies in all countries.
So I think we should start building an
3 - ANTI-TERRORISM ECONOMY - The purpose of this economy should be to replace terrorism candidates with peace candidates, illiterates with doctorates, and starving nations with booming nations. This can be done by infusing our efforts toward Globalization with the spirit of helpfulness:
> Globalization with a Local Face
Anti-Terrorism Business
An anti-terrorism business markets to the world, not merely to rich countries. It does its marketing by following the 3 principles of Helpfulness Marketing:
1 - LEARNING - Help poor countries learn. They need to learn about agriculture, small business, and about AIDS. We talk a great deal about distance learning. Why not go the distance to poor countries?
2 - COOPERATION - Help them build their infrastructure, so they may use the Internet. Leap frog their telephone systems to wireless technology. The poor need wireless for fundamental learning tasks, not for talking to their refrigerators, as the rich are planning to do.
3 - COMMUNITY - Make the poor part of your community. Form alliances and partnerships. Work together on common projects.
Anti-Terrorism Business Examples
Examples of anti-terrorism businesses do exist. Here are 3:
1 - NOVICA - http://www.novica.com - This company travels all over the world in search of local crafts: ceramics, jewelry, paintings, clothing, games, sculptures, music, dolls, basketry, lacquerware, etc. Beautiful items from developing countries are offered for sale. Novica makes a fair profit and so do poor artisans.
2 - RAINTREE - http://www.rain-tree.com - Raintree works in partnership with indigenous Amazon tribes to develop sustainable resources to advance their income as well as the income of Raintree. According to Raintree, the following statistics show the gain:
Raising Cattle $ 60/acre
Timber $ 240/acre
Sustainable Resources $2400/acre
The sustainable resources they work on are medicinal plants, from which Raintree obtains all sorts of pharmacological products. Raintree is stopping the destruction of rainforests, increasing the income of indigenous people, and making a good profit!
3 - WORLD E-INCLUSION - http://www.hp.com/e-inclusion - Hewlett-Packard is investing a billion dollars to search for "local knowledge" and "creative genius" all over the poor areas of the world. The company wants to help the developing countries develop. It says it will choose projects based on the needs of local people, develop them in partnership with local people, and offer sustainability and fair value. HP plans to do well by doing good.
It is instructive to quote Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP, with regard to the World E-Inclusion program:
"HP has always believed that we can do well economically and do good socially at the same time. In other words, invent for the common good. We believe World e-Inclusion is a great example.
As part of a long-term HP effort to find new revenues one, three, five and ten years down the line, World e-Inclusion targets the 4 billion people that are seldom, if ever, served by traditional information technology companies. By providing people with the social and economic opportunities of the new information economy, World e-Inclusion is setting the stage for tremendous growth, both for HP and for developing countries."
Hooray for HP! It is a model for the rest of us.
Summary
Fight terrorism by reducing the number of poor people that fuel terrorism. Reduce resentment and despair by building an anti-terrorism economy consisting of anti-terrorism businesses like HP, that aim to use the principles of Helpfulness Marketing - LEARNING, COOPERATION and COMMUNITY - to bring prosperity to the poor as well as to themselves.
Paul -the soarING- Siegel is a provocative Internet speaker and author of HELPFULNESS MARKETNG, an ebook stressing learning, cooperation and community. Learn about it at http://www.learningfountain.com/. Subscribe to newsletter, LearningFOUNT, by sending blank email to: mailto:LearningFOUNT-subscribe@topica.com.
FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DESK - AN EMPLOYER REVEALS THE SECRETS OF A SUCCESSFUL JOB APPLICATIONDarren RobinsonI have processed about five thousand job applicants in the last two years (that's about 7 per day) and I gotta tell you this - most of them stink !
Not literally of course - but when it comes to methods of stupidly & unnecessarily blowing a "no-brainer" interview process to get selected for a "no-brainer" job, then my cleaning agency has just about seen them all !
DO YOU QUALIFY ?
I really didn't think we were asking too much. Applicants needed to be able to do housework. They needed a car & a license to drive it. They needed to read, write & speak English. Okay, they also needed a resume, but it didn't have to be full of spectacular cleaning-related careers - any kind of checkable work history was fine.
Likewise, the application procedure was also (we believed) not too demanding. The applicant telephones us. We have a chat to them about the job requirements and ask them if they fit the above qualifications. We ask them to make copies of their resume & references and then we schedule them for an interview in about 3 - 6 days. We interview them for about 40 minutes (though about 30 minutes of that is us doing the talking - a fierce interrogation it ain't). Within a day or two we start giving them cleaning jobs. Fairly simple, we thought.
Unfortunately for my agency's collective sanity, most of the job applicant population saw it differently.
To start with the most basic of errors we encountered, quite a number of people making the initial phone call didn't have a driver's licence, despite our job advertisements clearly stating this requirement. Or if they did have a licence, they didn't have a car. Or if they did have a car, it wasn't actually theirs and they have to share it with several other people. Or if they did actually own the car, it was broken down & was undergoing lengthy and extensive repairs.
Still, this major obstacle was attacked with determination by almost all car-less applicants. It usually went something along the lines of "But my husband can drive me" or "I can take public transport" or "I can ride my bicycle".
What a revelation ! Now why didn't WE think of that ? These applicants are sitting there thinking "This employer has only paid out good money to insert 'CAR & LICENSE ESSENTIAL' in huge letters in the job advertisement because I was not around at the time to point out other possibilities"
Hint for jobseekers (1) - If a job advertisement specifies a requirement, and you do not have that requirement, DON'T bother applying for that job, EVEN IF you think you have an alternative that the employer hasn't thought of yet. It's a bit like a prospective surgeon saying that he's hopeless with a scalpel, but is VERY handy with a butter-knife. ****
DON'T INTERRUPT
Still at the initial phone-call stage, another fundamental error is not allowing the employer to do his spiel. You are not the only person ringing up about the position. You are more likely to be the 75th person, so please assume that the employer has his routine all worked out. He does NOT need prompting to fill you in on all the details - he knows what you need to know and he will tell you in his own good time.
The correct time to ask questions is when he finishes explaining what the job is about & what the application procedure is and when he finishes asking YOU questions.
Hint for jobseekers (2) - Let the employer talk. Do not interrupt. Taking over a conversation and putting your potential boss on the back foot is not going make a good impression.
****
DON'T GET LOST
Okay, so about 25% of people make it through the gruelling 2 minute phone interview and are then scheduled for a "real" interview.
To deal with the simplest situation first, approximately 50% to 80% of these applicants do not show up at the appointed time and are never heard from again. While it's annoying, and as employer I never really get used to the fact that people go to a lot of trouble to apply for jobs they don't actually want, at least that person is out of the way and we can concentrate instead on the serious people.
But it's not that simple. There are a number of variations on the "not showing up" trick that conspire to further annoy & waste the valuable time of the prospective employer.
For example, those people who have had 5 days notice of the interview, but neglect to look up the actual location of the interview until they are hopelessly lost in a neighboring suburb with only 2 minutes to go. They ring up from a phone box asking for directions. They invariably arrive at the interview flustered & late.
Hint for jobseekers (3) - Make sure you know exactly where the interview is being held. If you don't know, do a practise run the day before. ****
DON'T BE LATE
Even worse than the people who get lost (who at least deserve a tiny amount of sympathy) are those who turn up 20 - 40 minutes late for no apparent good reason. "Oh hi, I'm here for the interview" "Which interview, the 3 o'clock or the 4 o'clock ?" "The 3 o'clock. I'm a bit late"
This type of applicant doesn't see a problem with being late, probably because it's not a problem for THEM. However an applicant needs to understand that businesses are constantly running to deadlines, and punctuality is vital. If we sit around waiting for a late applicant and start an interview later than planned, it means the NEXT interview is going to be delayed and, more importantly, whatever I had planned for AFTER the interviews is going to be delayed, and possibly even postponed until the next day.
Hint for jobseekers (4). Time is money. Don't be late for an interview. No matter how dazzling you may be in the interview, the main thing the employer will remember the next day is that you were late, and therefore probably unreliable.
****
ONLY APPLY ONCE
Then there are what we term the "serial-applicants". These people are constantly applying for jobs over an extended period of time, to the extent that they actually apply to us more than once, perhaps several months apart.
Here at the agency, we sometimes collectively shake our heads at the nerve of these people who fail to show up for a scheduled interview, and then a couple of months later apply again, expecting us to welcome them with open arms.
Hint for jobseekers (5) - If you apply for a job and don't get it, don't apply for exactly the same job later on. They don't want you. ****
DON'T BRING THE FAMILY
So let's suppose an applicant makes it through the complicated business of turning up on time.
Question - What else could go wrong or annoy the employer before the interview actually begins ?
Answer - A couple of things that happen more often than you might expect. Applicants turning up with one or more relatives expecting to also participate in the interview are a classic.
Hint for jobseekers (6) - If you are not brave enough to face an interview by yourself, employers will not respect you. The WORST thing to do is bring your mother. This basically proves that you should be back in school. ****
IF YOU ARE A SPECIAL CASE, SAY SOMETHING One other thing on a rather more touchy subject are the problems associated with scheduling Islamic ladies for interviews. Arriving fully-masked except for their eyes, their religion does not permit them to be alone in a room with a man. But of course they only tell me this AFTER THEY ARRIVE. So if my (female) business partner is not available at short-notice to take over the interview, then we have no choice but to send the lady home. Her time is wasted and so is ours.
And it's not quite as simple as just asking someone on the phone what religion they are. There are different degrees of Islam, and many such ladies do not have a problem with showing their face or being alone in a room with someone who happens to be a man.
Of course, there's also the legal aspect. Businesses these days must be VERY careful about exposing themselves to the threat of court action from an irate applicant. If we asked someone what their religion was, and then later on did not give that person a job for whatever reason, there is nothing to stop that person getting up in court & proclaiming that we rejected them solely due to religious discrimination. So we don't ask.
And for similar legal reasons, when any regular applicant asks us why they haven't been given any work, we do not give them any ammunition that could later be used against us in court. Instead of saying the truth like, "We think your phone manner is awful and university students are usually completely hopeless at housework anyway", we would say something safe like, "We had 87 people applying for only 2 positions, so unfortunately someone had to miss out. I'm so sorry. I can give you the number of another agency who may be able to help ..."
Hint for jobseekers (7) - If you have religious or moral objections to any aspect of a normal job interview process, tell the employer on the phone beforehand. Don't just spring it on them when you arrive. ****
DON'T INVENT QUALIFICATIONS So the applicant is finally through the door and getting comfortable in our big lounge-type interview chairs.
Some people don't even get through the first minute and here's why - they don't possess the documentation or qualifications that they said they had on the phone. For example "To start, could I just have your driver's license please ?"
"I don't have my license" "But I asked you on the phone if you had a car & license and you said 'yes' "
"I'm having lessons. I'll have it soon." "When ? When are you going for your test ?" "Soon"
"Have you set a date"
"No date. Soon."
"Give us a call when you actually get your license. Good-bye. I'll show you out."
Or this, "Could I just have your resume and references please?"
"I don't have a resume"
"But I asked you on the phone if you had a resume and you said 'yes' ".
"I haven't worked before ....".
You get the picture by now I'm sure.
Hint for jobseekers (8)- Don't pretend to have qualifications that you don't actually have. ****
SAY YOU'LL NEVER LEAVE
In the 21st Century, applying for a job without a resume is a waste of time. You will not be accepted. Whether you think it is fair or not to have your life story reduced to a few lines on a page is completely irrelevant. With large numbers of applicants competing for small numbers of vacancies, an employer has no choice but to filter out many applicants in the most efficient way possible.
When an applicant hands over their resume to me, I go to an adjoining room to read it over while they fill out the application form.
The first thing I look for is the authenticity of the references. Sometimes references are handwritten, and it has happened on occasion that I begin to suspect they are all written by the same person. Similar handwriting, similar paper, similar format, similar spelling mistakes, sentence construction & grammar.
Most resume templates have a space for "Career Objectives". I received a resume today from a gentleman whose objective was "To make use of extensive experience in stores, logistics and warehouse operations ....". Well that's all very admirable, but not much use for housework. Not until people start buying forklifts to tidy up the house. Jobseekers should try making just a little bit of effort to customise their career objectives to fit the job they are applying for. Employers only care about your ambitions if they contribute to their own.
While I initially assume that all jobs listed in the resume are genuine, I am not impressed by people who have four, five or six pages full of jobs they have done in the past few years. I think our record here is a 12 page resume. It was spectacular & impressive, but the person didn't get the job because it was quite obvious they were a job-hopper. They kept moving their place of residence and frequently went on big holidays. So why would I hire someone who clearly isn't interested in staying in a job for any length of time ?
Hint for jobseekers (9) - Don't proudly announce in your resume that you can't hold a job. Don't fake references. ****
YOU MUST ACTUALLY WORK
Of the few people who manage to make it all the way through an interview at our cleaning agency, some still find further ways to stumble. Within a day or two, successful applicants are given their first cleaning assignment. A small percentage will accept the job, ring the client to confirm they will be coming and then on the day, simply not show up. They then refuse to answer their phones for several days.
To this day I wonder why some applicants go through the whole process - and I acknowledge that applying for a job is not the easiest thing in the world - only to give up & disappear just as the money is about to start rolling in.
