Iranian water concerns aside, I wonder how much of Iran's decision-making in this situation is tied with Iran's fixation on keeping Iraq in check / within Iran's political sphere.
One fallout of this is the rise in prices of old / used cars. To give you an idea, a 2018 Toyota/Honda minivan is Canadian dollars 10,000 higher than pre-covid times.
It's ok for folks who have a newish car and want to buy another used car as their current car prices would have increased. But if you are like me, who drives a 15+ year rusty old car and is desperate to buy a 3-4 year old car, then good luck. Not only are the prices much higher (and your car's value is junk) but at the same time, inventory (even for used cars) is super low.
I would have loved to live in a City / Country where car is not necessary but this city I live is built for cars...
Purely as a joke:
Maybe car manufacturers should revive the production lines to produce 1980s Toyota Cressidas, Camrys and Chevy Impalas.
In my experience and opinion about studying till High school and then University here in Ontario, Canada:
- Canada seems to be obsessed to maintain high-stats. when it comes to 'literacy rate' - that is why till Grade 12, education is intentionally dumbed-down to the point any kid could just do bare minimum and still pass. Even if the kid is dumb-as-bricks, they can choose to do watered down versions of maths, physics, chemistry and still complete their High School Diploma requirements.
- However, as soon as you enroll into STEM program at University, it is on-par in terms of difficulty with their counterparts elsewhere. What was a easy-peasy style of mathematics taught in Canadian High School makes way to the old 'no-calculator and Professors don't help' style engineering calculus and maths.
This is where I found students who had studied even in 3rd World countries like Pakistan and Eritrea (I kid you not) had advantage in math and science courses throughout their degree program. Heck, it took me few tries to get into the groove but in process wasted 1000s of dollars and couple years trying to retake the courses.
The severe downside is that if your kid has above-average intelligence (as it was in my case) and if they join the Canadian education system at young age (in my case at age 13), by the time majority of these kids become adults, majority of them (as in my case) permanently loose their spark and thus get destined to think only inside the box.
I don't want to rant but another thing I notice is the leniency showed by Canadian Education system when it comes to the whole 'culture' in K-12 years. It is hands down meant to destroy bright minds / make them outcasts. The whole toxic culture of labelling those who are intelligent and/or less fashionable as nerds/geeks/dorks and nonsensical encouragement for sports and arts activities ends up alienating majority of smart kids and many just intentionally dumb themselves down to blend in with their peers.
Had the Canadian education system taken leaf from countries like Singapore/India/Pakistan/Iran/Russia/China and actually made efforts to academically grind their students and to promote discipline (with uniforms and academic competitions leading to glory) - Canada would be producing far more intelligent adults.
The current status is: Canada manages to 'import' bright and gifted scientists / university students from all corners of the World and is happy to grant them passports and claim 'Canadians are damn smart' -- what really is smart if you can take army of Canadian children and ensure they are smart-as-heck when they become adults.
Reading the article, I agree with the Author's sentiment. But the battle is not only for the Management it seems. As as example, if you are stuck working from Home due to pandemic with toddlers at Home and you are unlucky not to have a large house where you can have your total privacy during work hours from the entire family, you will struggle a lot to focus.
Also, whether for better or worse, that commute time is often working adult's (who has family) only 'free' and 'personal' time during the weekdays. I took the train and that sweet, sweet hour of no interruption was a bliss - I could browse the internet, listen to music, read tech articles or just chill. Now, I close the laptop and boom - the family is right there...don't get me wrong, I love them but I also love to have my sanity and that healthy separation from my family which the work on site afforded.
would this lead to era of enhanced employee loyalty to the Company? For example, if the company town provides comforts of a well supplied, suburban AND closed-gate lifestyle for workers and their families, people would think many times over before leaving the company.
This phenomenon is present in Saudi Arabia - Abqaiq (Spelling) and Ras-Tanura are both company towns for Aramco Oil Company and even Universities like King Fahd University (KFUPM) has comfortable, suburban-style residential quarters for its Faculty.
In fact, driving through Abqaiq and Ras-Tanura would seem as if you are magically transported to suburbs of USA. I kid you not.
I was talking with specific regards to couples living together -- not about single/divorced/widowed folks.
And yes, I was referring to nuclear families being the norm in wealthy countries as opposed to multi-generational housing arrangements found typically in less developed countries.
nuclear families + rise in dual income households = greater GDP = greater inflation = push for knowledge economy = loss of unionized workplaces = reduced workplace benefits such as defined benefit pension = increase scrutiny of worker = more educated workforce = more competition at workplace = greater time commitment towards work and self knowledge upgrade = greater demands for expensive leisure activities
Not against any step of the process that I listed above. I am just stating the societal transformation as I see it for any xyz country out there that becomes wealthy over time.
However, this model ultimately ends up treating children and sometimes marriage (And even romantic relationships to an extent) as shackles and hurdles on the road to success. And for those who still want to get into relationship and have kid(s) unfortunately means you have to work and save for a lot longer time before making it economically feasible to have kid(s).
While this may still work out in case of males, for females, unfortunately, the more they wait to have kids (hey, I am not saying anything against this -- it is their body and their choice and their is nothing wrong with this and yes, all the power to them -- I get that, thx) - the more likely they won't have as many kids as in previous generations (Due to their biological clocks).
Of course, it is always going to be down to individual will power and personality, but I am stating from common person's perspective.
As a Pakistani living abroad, here is my suggestion to avoid diarrhea:
Simply avoid eating food from outside anywhere besides KFC. No, not even McDonalds or Pizza Hut. Doesn't matter how fresh or clean the food or restaurant or bakery look.
I love meat and dairy - avoid these both things while in Pakistan (KFC is alright). Only drink canned cold drinks (Try to do as locals -- they prefer 'white' / transparent cold drinks over coca cola. Only drink boiled water (or mineral water from some large supermarket/pharmacy/hotel). And avoid eating salad after sunset -- don't know why, just don't.
If you can, take dried instant oats/ramen noodles/etc. and chuck them into bowl of boiled water. Fruits and veges are good - just make sure you wash your fruits such as apples and grapes thoroughly with cooled boiled water / mineral water before eating them.
Finally, if you do get diarrhea in Pakistan, DO visit the local clinic and get some medicine prescribed. It will help you feel better much faster then trying to 'brave it out' or relying on some simple medications from back home.
Frankly speaking, it sounds the author ended up joining a 'dud' team where the entire team is well steeped with playing politics rather than actually being productive. It happens in large companies and sometimes in small ones as well. How these unproductive teams survive is beyond me but they do.
I hope the Author realizes one thing: Never ever complain to Manager and/or HR in any company about other team member UNLESS they disclose themselves to you that they don't like that person and ask you for your negative input -- even then, keep it almost neutral / slightly negative. And if you do make the mistake of complaining, DO NOT EVER do it over email/chat/anything written -- a simple call / over-the-coffee conversation is more than enough. Based on this fact, its hard for me to fault the Senior Manager / Director / VP at Apple the Author talked about -- once this kind of thing starts, at any company it is expected outcome from Management.
From what I can deduce - the Manager and the violent co-worker were best of friends and Manager was going all out trying to protect that co-worker who was a toxic and non functioning employee. The Manager and co-worker kept on making stupid rules and confrontational policies and the Author kept on thinking she doesn't have any choice and is stuck otherwise she will get deported -- I mean, USA (or any other Country) is not a place where you would end up going in depression over for and start popping mental health pills for while contemplating suicide. I would choose my dignity and sanity even if it meant going back to Yemen or Somalia or somewhere similar. The Author could have simply started applying for jobs in lots of countries for some R&D job or post-doc position and should have left Apple.
Microsoft under Bill Gates, Apple under Steve Jobs, Amazon/AWS under Jeff Bazos, and Tesla under Musk. To a somewhat lesser extent - Alibaba under Jack Ma, Oracle under Larry Ellison and Dell under Michael Dell.
You see a trend here? I reckon there is a connection between how well a Tech Company's products are received by the consumers based on whether it has an identified / globally recognized, Billionaire Head? I don't know but that's what came to my mind.
Sure, Jobs is not there any more nor is Gates the head of Microsoft but their legacy certainly carries on with the consumers.
It's a generalization on my part - countries like India and Pakistan (as I am sure others as well) have a very competitive lifestyle (more so than in North America) if you were to look at their major Cities (Karachi, Mumbai, etc.).
I was pointing more towards relatively wealthy countries where the Governments are still subsidizing various aspects of life AND they are still classified as 'not first world yet'. They definitely have it easy to a large extent (Citizens of GCC for example) -- but even the sands of time are also shifting the tide over there, in socio-economic aspects, that is.
1990s was a long time ago - economics and demographics around the World have changed a lot since then (in fact, The Simpsons lifestyle - at least in earlier seasons - seems to be more reminiscent of 1980s era). Things like inflation and changing consumer trends have led to what we see now -- don't know about small towns but at least in major North American Cities.
What we have now is either people staying single longer and eventually they end up with Simpsons' style living standard (while staying Single) or they eventually achieve it via DINK lifestyle.
I think a huge part that has played into making this transformation is due to people's increased access to cheap loans (mortgage) and the idea that real-estate is the ultimate ROI game-in-the-town and the new pension fund.
What we see now (compared to say 1980s): almost no major corps offering pension, inflation to the point where both Husband and Wife need to work in order to just afford a property and perhaps a kid, creeping fees/charges (cellphones, internet, netflix, disney+, etc.).
This all leads to people, in my opinion, to look for safety net in order to fend themselves in old age: buy house -- no, make it 2 or 3 houses so you can live off their rent income, delay (or forget about) having kid(s) to achieve that financial goals. Automation and globalization has also caused some pain points: IT jobs are much more competitive than say even 10 years ago and there is always threat of being left out in the cold due to outsourcing.
See, funny thing is, here in Canada, I would always see hardworking immigrant families where the Husband and the Wife would be working in multiple low-income jobs and even their teenage kids would be picking up retail/factory job while studying to balance their family's financial books. To me, it always seemed excessive or even mindboggling - but now, it makes perfect sense...it is the very future for the masses in North America.
And for folks in developing World: Don't worry, your turn will come to experience all this (if you haven't yet) soon enough in your lifetime. I guarantee it.
If we are talking about freelancing or individuals doing remote work, than why outsource exclusively to India? If it is indeed remote work than let the cheapest bidder win -- whether its Afghanistan or Zimbabwe. If folks are competent enough and electricity + internet is stable. Then why India only?
So Mr. Musk doesn't have swarms of top MBAs working in upper echelons of Management in each and every one of his Companies?
I am sure Mr. Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs can succeed without having MBAs but I would believe that they heavily rely on MBAs to actually run the financial matters of their respective Companies.
But alas, who am I to differ Elon Musk - he is the Thomas Edison + Henry Ford of our era.
From IT point of view, they along with Canadian Tire still use mainframe - I remember 10 years ago Canadian tire had a billion item inventory, can't imagine how much its now.
The studies are certainly interesting but as Father myself, I would chime in my 2 cents worth:
- less sleep which causes elevated levels of stress which pushes you to eat unhealthy food more, combined with your Body's natural slowdown of digestive system as one ages (compounded by less sleep) will definitely hit Dad's biology quiet a lot for at least the first 3 years of a Child's life.
- Icing on the cake is the hit it takes on Dad's IT career (if Dad is in IT) as he is unable to dedicate meaningful number of after-hours for his skill upgrading.
- Modern Society (at least in Toronto Canada) places unreasonable expectations on Dads to partake in expensive/time-sink activities with their kids such as organized sports and other extracurricular activities as opposed to having kids in neighborhood naturally play at each other's house / local park. This to me is a problem because I am naturally inclined to work and focus on making money/getting promotion rather than extending my family time.
- Raising a Child, especially in a society that is comprised of nuclear family structure and where Grandparents (Wife's Parents) are not geographically near causes immense pressure on both Parents. No wonder, people, especially immigrants in Toronto Canada, rarely have more than 1-2 kids...