Tag: economic competitiveness

Questions of a customer who reads …

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, aphorisms from living in and between worlds - impressions and conversations, thoughts on life and its philosophy
There is a poem, written by Brecht:
I recently wrote about academics who may also have some special questions.
Perhaps it could also be ‘re-writtten’, like this … as
Questions of a customer who reads …
What is it one can find in a shop, for instance in a small town like Confolens, FR:
The shop: it is Lidle, German company
a chain soaring across more and more countries
distributing Asian food
produced in Germany
sold in France
with English-language label
– where did they produce the package,
from where did they get the oil for the plastic
from where the truck to transport the stuff to the train
which railway company brought the stuff to …
and from where are the workers who uploaded and unloaded the trains and trucks ..?
Who looks after the kids of the workers – are there creches maintained by the enterprise, public facilities or what solution is there for them?
Where do the owners of the enterprises pay taxes
– if they pay taxes at all
And what do they do with the profits …?
Who prepares the meal for the workers if they have to work all day long?
And what do the boss and the worker talk about
if they meet on the soccer pitch …?
There would be so many more questions to be asked – though Lidle has a shop, not a school, and a school has not time to go to shops, there are too many models to be learned about, not leaving space for reality, the pace not allowing to think too much …

Digitalisation

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, thoughts on life and its philosophy

Yes, writing “quick comments” is admittedly always dangerous, hastily arriving at wrong conclusions. Still, there is occasionally a huge temptation, and it may be justified as such writing possibly provokes …, well, some really important and not so hasty thoughts, easily overlooked when it comes to detailed analysis of …, well detailed analysis.

Reference at presence is a European Commission’s press release, titled

How digital is your country? New figures show action needed to unlock Europe’s potential

It presents results of the recent study of the DESI.

What is the DESI?

The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) is an online tool to measure the progress of EU Member States towards a digital economy and society. As such, it brings together a set of relevant indicators on Europe’s current digital policy mix.

If I am not mistaken, it fundamentally solves one fear of the past. People were afraid of the development, as they did not want to be “just a number”. We do not have to fear anymore that this may be coming up in the future. It is already the case.

And it also allows us to understand the attitude of those people in the glass palaces towards migration and migrants: Numbers cannot simply decide independently to enter an equation. Only the magician with numbers is The Lord, able and allowed to present the formula …, the white hair and long beard now appearing as netting of bits speeding through fiber glass.

  • Action needed to reach the global top: …

Yes, summits have to be reached – erected like the towers of fortresses. Would it not be an alternative to start with action to reach true global cooperation?

  • Better connectivity, but insufficient in the long-term: … . The EU needs to be ready to meet future demand and to provide the next generation of communication networks (5G).

Sure, but I am still wondering if our brain is fast enough to cope with the improvement of obtaining information, barely allowing for the time needed to think about it. – Since some years now I am introducing in my lectures a unit under the heading “slow reading”, the aim of which is UNDERSTANDING.

  • Digital skills to be improved:

It may not be much more than a side note, it may be that it actually is more: Apparently there is a paradoxical constellation in China where the language is strongly characterised by characters (instead of letters) and sound/pronouncation. The computer keyboard requires to write first by using letters, and moving from there to “choosing characters”. The consequence seems to be the emergence of a new form of analphabetism.

  • e-Commerce, a missed opportunity for smaller businesses:

Two of the issues, if you want: major reference points, in mainstream economics are scarcity and comparative advantage. Well, there is no reason to question the empirical data:

65% of European internet users shop online, but only 16% of SMEs sell online – and less than half of those sell online across borders (7.5%).

However, instead of aiming on change there could be another suggestion: SMEs may claim to move towards comparative advantage: offering something special instead of mass web-products, offer excellent individual advise, offering products that are even individually produced, or produced by individuals working together in cooperatives, and seeing the consumer as co-producer …

  • More public services online, but they are under-used:

Underused? If so, the conclusio may be that there is still hope and people still have more sense than those who govern them.

As said in the beginning, there are problems with such ad-hoc readings – there is much ore to it, including coproducing in particular due to the internet-use etc. – part of it I will deal with next month, when working briefly in Havana. But the problem of blasphemy is not necessarily the heretic; it may well be the self-acclamation of gods who forget that their suggested prayers are mere phantoms as long as their only purpose is … the bubble of their own believe system, the believe system of an old society of which we may say with Shakespeare:

Sans teeth, sans eyes

Sans taste, sans everything

Sure, talking about the believe system of an old society may end in a paradox: it easily lacks the opportunity to get a really good caffellatte.

PS: I hope my students anywhere do not read this blog-entry – as I am required to push them towards the global top, so to say: migrants with global access rights.

HOPE II – The Story of Remembrance

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in general, thoughts on life and its philosophy, Uncategorized, works, projects, publications

The municipality of Haidari, near Athens, is implementing these days an interesting project – actually it is a follow up: HOPE II.

The discussion so far showed that learning from history is especially of importance when authoritarian statehood is gaining power and actually the EU is loosing direction. Starting from the idea of an Economic Community: surely driven by economic interests, but also acknowledging the importance of fundamental freedoms and rights of people, it drifted to a position that is fundamentally based in the idea of a neoliberal market strategy. We can see the current tendencies of separatist, regionalist and nationalist movements as part of the consequences of the social drawbacks of austerity policies and the orientation on competitiveness.
It is of remarkable importance that the municipality here engages in such a project on the

THE STORY OF EUROPEAN REMEMBRANCE AND THE CIRCLE OF EUROPEAN FRIENDS WHO RESISTED HITLER

To engage in an open dialogue and to engage young people in this important aspect of dealing with the dark side of history has to be seen as special meritL Remembering the past should be warning for today to make sure that there will be a humane tomorrow.

Tomorrow the speech will be available on this site.

freedom ltd.

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, general, Peter's Log

Limitating freedom by offering free markets

Sometimes I think people who say that things are further deteriorating after I said it is TIME TO SAY GOODBYE.

Yesterday I met a colleague – he worked probably for most of his life in Ireland (though “traveller” as myself – see Diary from a Journey into Another World: Diaries against nationalism, inspired by trying to overcome personal resentments (forthcoming).

After having worked for University College of Cork – and after not he best possible experiences in terms of collegiality, acknowledgment etc. – he moved to Italy. Of course, free movement – the fundamental freedoms ….

UCC runs a special pension scheme – basically a private one. Free movement now means that the time he spent working under that private scheme will not be recognised when it comes to calculating his public pension.

Don’t blame me now for having left working in the EU-lobbying area etc. .. – well, seriously, it is a complex issue where EU-law is surely as major hurdle int he way; and equally national policy of privatisation is in the way, and this national Irish path is surely not least enforced by EU-policies towards privatisation. Bottom line: nobody is “guilty” – and everybody has to pay: everybody as matter of our societies loosing sight of being societies. They are increasingly a collection of forced-to-be-individuals.
Can anything else be the result of a policy that defines general interest as matter of economic competitiveness?