Why is war so important to humans? From the time I was old enough to read, I read about battles, about wars won, wars lost. About heroes, and foes. About miraculous circumstances that revealed a wonderful end result, or a terrible chain of events that brought about suffering and dispair.
And even then at a very tender age I questioned, why did we go to war? Why was it necessary to kill each other to come to an agreement. Why did my brother go to fight a war miles and miles away, and came back with horrible scars on his head.
My brother said, it was the scars of bravery, but I still wanted to know why?
His explanations were vague, at my early age, I could see, he was not completely sure he knew the answers.
I grew up and finished high school, took a few college courses, and out of curiosity and a wish to travel, I joined the Army.
Spent three years, learning how to use primitive computers, the size of a refrigerator, and being told by all the men in my battallion, that women should not be in the army, and I should go back home and make babies.
I guess women were not supposed to participate in the logic of war, we did not "fit in" back then.
So war has a gender, it's male, it brings with it testosterone.
Why do we accept it as a form of life, why don't we change?
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Retail monsters
Well, I work retail. It amazes me how many people, in my case women, come to stores to start some kind of fight with the sale associates. It never fails, every week we get a complaint from a distraught costumer that was not treated right at the store, or who claims to have been treated rudly.
As a point of investigation, I have sat around the store to listen to this so called rude behaviors.
I have seen female customers, treat the sales associates as if they were indentured slaves who had to jump at their every request.
Where did these women get the idea that they are in charge of the universe as we know it?
If there was any rude behavior to be seen, it was on the part of the customers. I've seen good employees, fired, reprimanded and abused by their superiors, based upon a complaint that a disgruntal costumer placed against that employee, without as little as asking the employee what really happened.
In a way, the obsession with the premise that "the customer is always right" has created a society of self indulged, insuferable people who think nothing about ruining someone's life based on the fact that they did not get their way that day.
One good example is the following. A woman came through the door, I could see that she had the fighting attitude in her eyes already.(And believe me after working retail for years I can recognize that look a mile away).
She goes to the sales associate which she knows is the most recent adquisition of the store. She displays a number of coupons that are at least a month old, and proceeds to tell the young sales associate, that since she was not able to make it to the store before then, because of personal reasons that we should honor those coupons. Some were from stores that did not even sell the same merchandise we had in the store. When the young girl said that she did not think she could do that, the woman started screaming at the young girl, accussing her of being rude to her. And demanding to see the manager.
At this point most managers do the same, in the name of peace and quiet and to make sure the situation does not escalate any higher, the manager agrees to let the woman use the discount coupons that are a month old. This is further cemented by the fact that if the manager says she's sorry but can't honor the cupons, the customer will call coorporate office and will claim being treated rudly by the manger.
What did she do there?
She said to this woman that she can get away with this kind of behavior anywhere else she wants to. And believe me she will repeat this behavior in the next store unfortunate enough to have something she wants to buy.
Retail has made these monsters. And now we have to live with them.
It's ok to compete, but it's time to apply the rules equally, we all have the right to be treated in a polite manner, salesperson and customer alike. We all have the right to get what is on sale, as long as we are following the rules. And no one, and I mean no one, has the right to insult another human being, regardles or her or his place in society, just to get his or her way in the process. We need to deflate this trend.
And believe me the customer is NOT ALWAYS RIGHT!
As a point of investigation, I have sat around the store to listen to this so called rude behaviors.
I have seen female customers, treat the sales associates as if they were indentured slaves who had to jump at their every request.
Where did these women get the idea that they are in charge of the universe as we know it?
If there was any rude behavior to be seen, it was on the part of the customers. I've seen good employees, fired, reprimanded and abused by their superiors, based upon a complaint that a disgruntal costumer placed against that employee, without as little as asking the employee what really happened.
In a way, the obsession with the premise that "the customer is always right" has created a society of self indulged, insuferable people who think nothing about ruining someone's life based on the fact that they did not get their way that day.
One good example is the following. A woman came through the door, I could see that she had the fighting attitude in her eyes already.(And believe me after working retail for years I can recognize that look a mile away).
She goes to the sales associate which she knows is the most recent adquisition of the store. She displays a number of coupons that are at least a month old, and proceeds to tell the young sales associate, that since she was not able to make it to the store before then, because of personal reasons that we should honor those coupons. Some were from stores that did not even sell the same merchandise we had in the store. When the young girl said that she did not think she could do that, the woman started screaming at the young girl, accussing her of being rude to her. And demanding to see the manager.
At this point most managers do the same, in the name of peace and quiet and to make sure the situation does not escalate any higher, the manager agrees to let the woman use the discount coupons that are a month old. This is further cemented by the fact that if the manager says she's sorry but can't honor the cupons, the customer will call coorporate office and will claim being treated rudly by the manger.
What did she do there?
She said to this woman that she can get away with this kind of behavior anywhere else she wants to. And believe me she will repeat this behavior in the next store unfortunate enough to have something she wants to buy.
Retail has made these monsters. And now we have to live with them.
It's ok to compete, but it's time to apply the rules equally, we all have the right to be treated in a polite manner, salesperson and customer alike. We all have the right to get what is on sale, as long as we are following the rules. And no one, and I mean no one, has the right to insult another human being, regardles or her or his place in society, just to get his or her way in the process. We need to deflate this trend.
And believe me the customer is NOT ALWAYS RIGHT!
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