Entitlement mentality

One young academically excellent man went to apply for a managerial
position in a big company. He passed the first interview. However, the CEO of the company would have the final say. The CEO discovered from the CV, that this young man had an impecabble academic record all the way, from the secondary school until his postgraduate. Impressed, the CEO asked "Did you obtain any scholarship?" and the young man answered "none" He then asked, " Is it your father who paid for your school fees?" the young man answered, "my father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.."

" Where did your mother work?" the CEO continued to prod the young man, "my
mother worked as a cloth cleaner". The CEO requested the young man to show his
hand, the young man showed his hand that was smooth as silk to the
CEO. The CEO then asked, " Did you ever help your mother wash the cloth
before?" The young man answered "never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me."
The CEO then said, "I have a request, when you go back today, go and help
clean your mother's hands slowly and then see me tomorrow morning"

The young man felt that his chance of landing the job was high. He went home
and happily wanted to clean his mother's hands. Obviously his mother thought this was strange but somehow happily showed both of her hands to the kid.

The young man looked at his mother's hands and began to slowly clean the hand. his tears dropped down as he did this. It was the first time he found his mother's hands so wrinkled and there were visible bruises clearly as a result of those years of hard labour. Some of the bruises brought sharp pain so strong that the mother shivered when her hands touched the water that was soaked with soap.

This was the first time the youth realized and saw that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to earn him the school fees. the
bruises on the mother's hands were the price that the mother paid for his
graduation and the academic excellence and probably his future. After finishing, the young man quietly cleaned all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That evening, the mother and son had a long talk that went through the night.
The next morning, the young man went to the CEO's office. The CEO noticed the tears in the young man's eyes. He asked: " Can you tell me what you did and learned yesterday at your house?" The young man with a deep remorseful look answered, " I cleaned my mother's hands and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'
The CEO then asked him again " please tell me your feeling."
The young man answered,
"Number 1, I knew what appreciation is, without my mother,
there would not the successful me today. Number 2, I knew how to work
together with my mother, then only I can realize how difficult and tough to
get something done. Number 3, I knew the importance and value of family relationship."

The CEO said, " This is what I am asking, I want to recruit a person
that can appreciate the help of others, a person that knew the suffering of
others to get things done and a person that would not put money as his only
goal in life to be my manager. You are hired"

As time went by, this young man worked very hard and received the respect of
his subordinates, every employees worked diligently and in a team. the
company's results improved tremendously.

A child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wants will
develop an "entitlement mentality" and will always put himself first. He is
ignorant of his parent's efforts and sacrifices. Once, he starts to work, he will assume every people must listen to him and when he becomes a manager, he will never know the sufferings of his employees and will always blame others. For this kind of person he can produce good results, may be successful but eventually will not feel any sense of achievement. he will continually grumble and will be full of hatred and will fight for more. Being over protective is a natural trait of being a parent and we may have the noblest of intentions of how we want to shower our kids with love. But are we showing our love the right way?

You can let your child live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn to play the piano or watch on a big screen TV. But when you are washing your car, please let them
experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plate and bowl with their other siblings. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, just like the mother in this story. The most important thing is to let your child learn how to appreciate the efforts and experiences or the difficulties of others and learn the ability to work with others to get things done.

Sent from my iPad

Gala night to welcome delegates to the first state party conference on the convention on cluster munition

40+years+on,+Laos+still+faces+threat+of+cluster+munitions

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/features/article_1596569.php

Sent from my iPad

The Rule of Law

Here is a true story that happened in a neighbouring country that I thought worth sharing. an 18 year old student was disqualfied from sitting a medical school entrance exam because her application to sit for the exam was missing a photograph. She had dreamed of becoming a phychiatrist one day and her hope was dashed when she learned that she could not sit for the exams as her application was deemed incomplete by the medical examinations board when 1 of the 5 photographs required was missing.

Believing that she didnt do anything wrong she began her crusade fighting what most of us thought would be a fight she would eventually lose. The david against goliath scenario was not however exactly the case as this David had a good powerful sidekick in the name of NHRC. Thankfully in this country, a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which is empowered by law to investigate any alleged human rights abuses has long been established. She filed her complaint with the Commission, and then it took up her case to court on her behalf which after 2 weeks of hearing ruled in the student's favour by saying that the board should have first investigated whose fault it was on the missing photograph. The decision to disqualify her was upheld by the court to be unreasonable.

In a country governed by a rule of law, every entity or person is subjected to the same law. He or it will be made legally accountable for his or its exercise of powers. No single exercise of power by man or any entity is above the law. Accountability and transparent decision making process is normally required by law. Exercise of discretion is never absolute and arbitrary powers are often checked by the same sets of laws that govern these powers. Any person aggrieved by a decision of another person will have recourse to the law if only you are willing to spend the time and energy to fight for your right. In this case this 18 year old's dream of becoming a doctor could not simply be wiped off on a silliest of decisions. It was just too bad for the other 41 disqualified students who failed to submit the 5 required photographs that didnt have the courage and wherewithal like this 18 year old. They would probably have won the same.

But here is another story. Not too long ago. an iban man got bitten by a crocodile and survived to tell the tale. He got hospitalised for the bite and thankfully was not that serious. He happily related his story to the newspaper. However strangely a few days later the man died not because of the bite but because he was allergic to the penicilin that was prescribed on him by the hospital. Unfortunately for him and his family this was just another tragic story that made to the newspaper headline for the next day. Tne day after, his story was all but forgotten. No action could be made against the hospital because the hospital could not be sued as it was a Government hospital and the Government could not be sued.

In my final year doing law, I took up medical law as one of my options. We studied real cases which we used as caselaw. Surprisingly even at the best equipped with the highest standards of practice known of the UK hospitals, there were still cases of gross negligence committed by surgeons and doctors. There were instances of cotton swabs or operating utensils such as a pair of scissors being left inside the bodies of patients after surgeries. The difference of course the hospitals in UK would have to pay compensations or even punitive financial damages once they were found to be negligent by the courts. They were simply subjected to the rule of law like everyone else. Because of this possibility of getting sued and pay hefty compensations, UK hospitals have to continue to maintain the strong best possible standards of practice and service. In essence the rule of law does improve effeciencies and the standards of services because of the prospect of potential huge legal liabilities should they not.

In a country with a strong rule of law, the option for the public to have legal recourse is always available and is an indespensible tool to check abuse of public power. silence is never an option when things are ill done...

Sent from my iPad

Champasack Province

Champasack Province

I have been busy of late. There was this international meeting that i had to attend and followed by a field visit to the south. We actually went to the Bolaven Plateau, the coffee heaven of laos, to see, well, coffee of course and how they are actually harvested by the farmers on a cooperative scale with assistance of the donor countries. The area is more than 1000 metres above sea level with day temperature in the 20s. It is the most beautiful part of south Laos and I was fortunate enough to make the visit. Being a coffee addict myself, i couldnt resist every coffee they had to offer from arabica to robusta. It so happened that the itenary included a visit to a coffee chateau owned and run by a friend, monsieur alex, who is a french lao. Its a 50 hectare coffee plantation with chalets that you can rent. There is a small stream with a waterfall closeby that actually runs just underneath the main chalet and I must say, the sound of the cascading almost pure transparent white spring water with cool surrounding temperature has to be the most therapeutic feeling i ever encountered. I promise I will post some of the pics that I took.

Sent from my iPad

@joma