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Editorial B u s i n e s s m a n’s B l u e s

The Blame Game

The older you get…
Many years ago, I worked for a major UK retailer in the Research to draw on. So, these teams made decisions on the best available
“The older you get, the quicker the Forty-one years later, we have now and Development division of the company implementing new evidence at the time. It comes as no surprise that some of the
years pass by,” my colleague observed seen the breakdown of the former technology from loyalty cards, to logistics, automated checkouts and decisions were spot on while others were inadequate, untimely, or
the other day. “Did you know that, communist states, the emergence of a variety of other innovative ideas. They had 5 stores throughout the wrong.
according to some contemporary new independent states, a couple of UK, branded differently from the mother company and were open
historians, the most important year financial crises, the disappearance to the bemused public to shop in those stores as though they were Being lockdown for days and weeks with little or nothing to do, and
in the twentieth century was 1979? I of former Marxists and Communist normal stores. This division was set up as a separate legal entity and with the help of many data sources, including social media, we resorted
presume that was before 2020 and the ideologies replaced by neo-liberalism in addition to field testing innovative retail ideas, they attempted to to accumulating superficial knowledge on the pandemic subject. We
Covid19 that knocked out the whole and extreme consumerism leading to make a profit, or at the very least, break even. formed our individual views and validated these views with like-
world for quite some time. Generations global economic crises, social unrest, minded friends and relatives to fortify our opinions. We became
after us will definitely be curious to devastating wars and huge refugee I worked there for about three years and largely enjoyed the experience armchair critics of the government and the team that was actually
know what it was like to live under problems. Geopolitics and economic and eventually moved on when I had a better and more interesting fighting the pandemic. We ignored all the decisions and actions taken
these conditions. interests now take precedence over television ads, making people aware that opportunity elsewhere. I gained a great deal of experience with the and proved to be adequate and focused on those decisions and actions
everything else. We have seen the we do not have to possess everything; R&D division, not least of which was managing complex projects. that seemed ‘inadequate, untimely, or plain wrong’ and pronounced
“Going back to 1979, I do remember terrible disasters in Syria, in Iraq, in it’s possible to rent. Every day we see on those who took such decisions to be negligent, incompetent, or both.
that year well and it seems like Libya… just to mention a few. television, through their ads, that big My first project was a resounding failure but, the company persevered We could have told them it wouldn’t work!
yesterday,” he continued. “It was the companies are moving in this direction with me and I felt duty-bound to try again and improve my project
year of the Iranian revolution; the However, nothing we have seen up to too. management skills to help deliver another piece of this gigantic This wouldn’t be so bad if it was confined to us, the masses or the
overthrow of the Shah of Iran; the date can beat the Covid19 pandemic I jigsaw puzzle. One fundamental lesson I learnt was to deal with silent majority, as we are often referred to. Deep down, we know
end of the Sino-Vietnamese War; the would say. Since March 2020 when the People of all ages have now become project risks / issues, regardless of who was to blame for the situation those in authority mean well, the establishment does its best for all
independence of Malta; Greenland whole of our modern society was turned climate activists, and were up to the in hand. Analysis of what went wrong or right was left after the and as human beings, they are bound to make mistakes every now
granted limited autonomy from upside down, we have become more emergence of COVID, fighting against conclusion of the project where a post-mortem would be conducted and again. Besides, if we have a collective view, we are not afraid to
Denmark; and the opening up between and more a digital society, where we plastic and all types of litter. They walk, with participation of most, if not all, stakeholders. It was the job of express our displeasure overtly and exercise our democratic vote at
the United States and China – just to are under constant surveillance owing they cycle, they recycle, and they try to the project manager to ensure such a process took place at the end of election time.
mention some of the most important to the Covid19 pandemic. It sounds reduce their consumption as much as the project and resist fracturing the unity / team spirit of the project
events on the international scene terrible, but it’s reality unfortunately. possible. It has even become possible by allowing finger pointing during the lifetime of the project. The problem is with those who are in semi-responsible positions
marking our time.” to recycle one’s clothes and furniture. like experts, commentators and media types who are not part of the
However, we have also seen some Therefore, we are definitely seeing
1979 was also the year that Pope John positive trends such as the emerging the emergence of new orientations in I was committed to this concept and carried with me for the team dealing with the pandemic. They form views and cannot wait
Paul II arrived in his native country, of collective conciousness about the society, with, we hope, more social remainder of my career, aiming to deliver the project objectives to express them through their media or cloaked in their academic
Poland, on his first official visit. It was disastrous state of our planet. “Although justice and solidarity. within the stipulated parameters of time / budget / scope of work. qualifications. They pronounce the work being done as not good
an event that is now considered “the some politicians say that there is no I remain a firm believer in this principle and advocate it at every enough, or timely enough, or goes far enough, or is too much, too
nine days that changed the world” planetary warming, the people are So, on these rather positive notes, opportunity. soon, and so on.
and that brought about the solidarity starting to act like responsible citizens, despite confinement, social distancing
movement of the Polish people in their and they are acting, make no mistake and a tricky virus floating in the air, we It is important to stress that continuous review of progress, risk They form a constant cloud over daylight, permanent din over the
opposition to the regime that Stalin about it,” my colleague continued. wish you all a very pleasant day. Stay exposure and resolution of unexpected issues were always kept in focus music, drip-drip of toxic liquid on the road to recovery and in the
had bequeathed them. Who does not healthy and safe! in order to ensure stumbles along the way are dealt with effectively, process, undermine our collective hopes and prayers for deliverance
remember Lech Walesa and the Gdansk We see more and more examples of without dissipating too much energy and focus, by identifying the from our predicament. They wait for every opportunity to shout out:
shipyard where it all started? circular-economy-driven concepts in person(s) that may have caused the problem in the first place. The I TOLD YOU SO!
exception being if someone is so obviously and clearly not doing
their job or are collectively believed to be a disruptive element, then This is not a new phenomenon. As a project manager, I have had
action must be taken to out-place them from the project. However, characters like this standing on the edge of the project whispering
this is an exception rather than the rule. into their own hands where things are going wrong and who is to
blame. Should the project prove to be a success, they melt away with
The views expressed are the Mailing address: Editor: Marit Fosse Most, if not all of us, have experienced the 2020 Coronavirus words trailing behind them to the effect ‘they were lucky to get away
responsibility of the authors and do DIVA International Diplomat Deputy editor: Sanjay Acharya pandemic. We all felt its destruction and disruptive effects on our with it’. If however, the project should fail, irrespective of the reasons,
they are there with rooster-like puffed up chests, reminding anyone
societies, with varying degrees of intensity of damage. On the whole,
not necessarily reflect the views p/a Salle de Presse 1 most governments set out to deal with the pandemic in ways that best willing to listen, that they told us so!
of DIVA Palais des Nations Graphic Design: Iris Hariz suited their circumstances and made judgments based on scientific
® 1211 Geneva 10 Contributing to this issue: and medical advice they received from their experts, taking into So, if you are one of those ‘malcontents’, please stop it; you are
www.divainternational.ch
Tel: +41 22 917 43 01
DIVA International is a publication of Mufid Sukkar, Sanjay Acharya, a v id , account the degree of acceptance by their own societies of restrictive subtracting value from the total sum of an organisation’s strength.
You don’t even have to step up and volunteer to help but, it would be
measures they could apply to halt the spread of the virus.
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Evelina Rioukhina, Christian David,
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Graficim Media Ltd E-mail: Ekaterina Pinchevskaya, Ita Marguet, nice if you did.
29 Linconl’s Inn Field, Holborn, diva.international@gmail.com Robert J. Parsons, Jean-Michel Wissmer, A government would assemble a team of politicians, experts and
WC2A3EE, England implementers to review the situation on daily if not hourly basis and If you are a person in a position of authority and it falls to you to guide
Jean-Claude Pallas, David Chikvaidze,
Pierre-Michel Virot, Marit Fosse, come up with appropriate measures as the situation continued to and protect the project, watch out for those toxic characters and shoo
ISSN: 1660-1934 deteriorate or improve. Given the last pandemic was the Spanish them away; you will be doing your organisation a great favour.
Muriel Scibilia, Jean Fabre
Flu some 90 years ago, the World had little or no practical experience Mufid Sukkar
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