The Insider (1999) is a true story based on an Ex-tobacco executive who planned to whistle blow against his company Brown & Williamson. However, going against a tobacco manufacturer is not that easy. There are political pressures, ups and downs, life threats and off course legal concerns.

The film illustrates how tobacco manufacturers are exploiting the consumers by not letting them know what happens next after smoking. In this case an ethically driven generous executive, who belongs to the scientific know how of tobacco manufacturing has planned to raise his voice. He took help from a veteran CBS news reporter to help him file a lawsuit against his ex-employer. Nevertheless, whistle blowing is not that plain and simple especially if the employer is a giant tobacco manufacturer.

The movie also explores ethical issues that underlies within the tobacco industry in general. There are certain laws pertaining to the degrees of murder. Some critics might even believe that this is a planned assassination by the tobacco manufacturers. Anyway the arguments are left to the jurisdiction. Has anything sturdy been done till now to combat against smoking? However, we are aware of the numerous international litigation made against many tobacco companies, but these companies have always survived the great legal campaigns.

Obviously, questions may arise regarding the validity of the statements made by the tobacco executive in 60 minutes. Therefore, if we just look into an organizational perspective, what choices are left with the company? Would you want to feed a Frankenstein who wants to kill you?

Darwin’s Nightmare (2004) directed by Hubert Sauper, is the Oscar nominated documentary film which portrays the economic Darwinism in Tanzania and the other countries associated with the Lake Victoria. The film explains how the economically advantaged big fishes of the world are exploiting the underprivileged tiny fishes of Africa.

We are aware of barter systems where people used to exchange goods and services for other goods and services. In fact many nations still have barter exchanges. Such examples include Saudi Arabia/UAE exchanging food in return for oil and cash from Australia/US. But question always lie with the gains from trade. In most cases, it is not a win win situation in international business and trade. When we get greedy for business and trade, we ignore many other issues like the ecology, the business ethics, and the poverty. Rather we focus on exploitation, creating tension and enforced dumping.

The film depicts an in depth analysis of an extensive research (although it may look controversial and offensive to some groups). It gives a vivid description of the case of Lake Victoria of Tanzania and the inhabitants nearby the lake. A new breed of fish, which looked commercially successful, has eventually transformed some of the African economies into a bloody economic and politcal war. See it for yourself and find out what has changed the life in that region.

This is one of my all time favorites. It just reminds me that we don’t have enough time for our life. All we do or whatever we do, is only for nothing. We rest in peace without our materials, we rest in peace with the failure of incomplete leisure.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

I’ve once been to a winery in Melbourne and heard that quote while testing a wine. Though it was a part of a guided tour, I really had a nice time over there. The good thing about wineries is that you will feel like you’re in a different place far from the crowded materialistic world. The quote

If life is a waste of time and time is a waste of life, then let’s all get wasted and have the time of our lives.

I didn’t carefully judge the phrase at that time. After couple of years, while watching a winery in the National Geographic channel I suddenly heard that quote. Although humorous in nature, the quote looks pretty interesting. It raises an intrinsic query whether life or time or both is a waste of each other.

Organizations, or say managers want their employees or workers to be more productive in respect to their outputs. On the other hand, managers also want that you maintain the product quality. This creates a dissonance in employee minds’. What do the manager really want? Is it quality or quantity?

As a generalized fact we are aware that quality does not go well along quanity. For an instance, just think about an accountant who is being given  a limited time frame to complete the profit and loss statement. Addionally if the manager demands that there should not be any single mistake in the analysis, that would be a quandary. So what is optimum solution to this problem? Well it depends on the organizational viewpoint. What is performance for the organization? Is it producing more or producing better?

Why do organizations outsource? What happens when work is being outsourced to other countries? How do people of other countries manage those work? Is it that simple to handle a native American customer by an Indian whose culture, language and accent is largely distinct? No, should be the answer.

Outsourced (2007) is a learning based comedy film directed by John Jeffcoat. The major roles played are Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker and Asif Basra.

The film discovers the generic stereotypes that Americans have in regard to Indians. An American sales executive (Todd Anderson) who works for a novelty merchandise company realizes that their entire department has been outsourced to India. Moreover, he was forced to travel to India in order to train the call center employees and as well as to find his replacement. The objectivity of such training by the company was to make sure that an American expatriate teach those Indian call center employees about the American culture, the native American accent and to ensure the minute per incident comes down to 6.

However, things are a bit different on this part of the world and one might easily identify the culture shock that Todd Anderson has faced. His perceptions and attributions were largely incorrect about India. The film has cleverly explored various areas of cultural differences between the two countries. Additionally, many other management issues like corporate greed, outsourcing, job loss, cheap labor, expatriate failure, culture clash, etc has been evident in the film.

It’s shocking and I’m saddened by the news that the “King of Pop” Michael Jackson is no longer alive. He was just 50 and it’s so early for him to die. News reports that he had cardiac problems and died of a heart failure.

Our world had a lot of media celebrities and famous people but there wasn’t so many legends. Elvis, Jackson and Madonna are considered to be the most influential persons who shaped the music. But I still believe there is none to  be compared to Michael Jackson because he came from a ethnic background and was widely accepted by the whole world.You can talk about many black influential people like Mohammad Ali, Steve Wonder, Oprah, and Obama but, Michael Jackson was the  one man inspiration to the cultural diversity that we see these days.

No matter what the people express about his character, innner demons, child molestation cases, or the facial surgeries; but there can never be a true legend like him. His breaks and dances, his music pattern had a lot of influences to the pop, disco, rap, and hip-hop music. He is the one who made a revolutionary change in the western music.Many of us who listened to his music from our childhood, will never, ever forget this genius. We’ve just lost the icon of the century. R.I.P.  M.J.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) is a humor yet interesting film based on Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel. The two major roles played are Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep.

The story explores some unheard realities of workplaces that can be real challenging (pain in the ***) for individuals if they don’t fit into the position itself. However, the movie has gone beyond the challenges of fitting into a position. It also explores how bosses can be annoying. But the boss is always right! Right?

The story is based on a young lady named Andrea who studied journalism and dreamt of having a career in journalism. Eventually, fate took her into a different role, a different position, an inflexible workplace environment, and a boss from hell. So do you have what it takes to do any job? You are educated and the issue is whether as a GEN Y, you are willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of a career or not. Not everyone has that much of patience or should I say talent?

What do we mean by a job or a position? You do a 9-5 duty and do not bring office commitments to home.While some professions such doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc may require us to bring task into home (but that’s flexible). But in the movie/novel it was “so so different” in the job that Andrea was doing in the Runway Magazine. As a GEN Y girl, it may look quite obvious that she will leave the job. But she didn’t, rather sacrificed her social and family relations and especially a freedom of life. But eventually after putting so much of effort into it, she quit. Did she do the right thing? I guess so, because she proved her boss that she’s competent but is not willing to sacrifice everything for career.

Yet, we might find people like Miranda Priestly who will go crazy for a career and forget that they have a life.

I have always realized that the format of cricket is ever changing and more and more fans are joining cricket these days. This change is inevitable as because of the demand of the new generation. However, I won’t make any proletarian judgments about the future fate of Test cricket and 50 over matches. Those longer formats of the game are the real game because the chances of a weaker opponent to win with a major opponent are very less.

But as we are going through the new format of the game, we have already observed that in T20 format, it can be anybody’s game. In the T20 World Cup  2007, Bangladesh made a major upset beating a top team West Indies and Zimbabwe beat the mighty Australia.   This year, the less known rookie Netherlands took the nerve to beat England in the very first game of the T20 world cup 2009, unfortunately at the England’s best boosted Lords venue.

Source: Cricinfo and AP

Would we call these upsets? I guess not. I reckon there are no minnows in T20 format. You play the right shots, you take risks, and if you are a hard-hitter who can play all shots in the book, it’s  gonna be your game. Like I said before T20 is anybody’s game, but you gotta have nerves and talent to win with a major team. I also expect that more newer teams should be included in the T20 format to make the Cricket promote to a more wider sports community around the globe. This does not actually mean that star teams will loose with minnows every now and then in 20-20 format. Star teams will always remain top teams as long as their strategy, nerves, talent and experience is there. But they need to be a little more cautious in this format of the game.

Source: The New York Times

The US automobile giant GM which was founded in 1908 have just filed bankruptcy. This is definitely a tragic end to a very old business giant. GM brands includes Chevrolet, Hummer, Pontiac, GMC, Cadillac, Holden, Saab, Vauxhall, Opel, Buick, etc. The company fell into a liquidity crisis during the global economic recession and asked for financial assistance from the US federal government.

Today, the US President Obama has said on his speech that GM is a very complex organization with worldwide operations and it would be a reluctant investment on the company not just because it employs many workers but also carries an American pride and provided economic contribution to the US. The governement will provide $30 million after the bankruptcy.  GM’s operation in other parts of the world will somehow survive (God knows how). For example, the Canadian government will support the GM Canada; the Australian government will support the GM Holden with financial loans. But I am just wondering, who’s gonna convience the general consumers to purchase a GM auto since the company is bankrupt! As part of the bankruptcy, more 14 plants in the US will shutdown and the company will cut off approximately 21,000 jobs and axe 42%  of its dealers.