Spoilt Children – Parents Responsible

Children are the most intelligent living species on earth. No one else knows how much they can acquire other than children themselves. They can be very dangerous if not handled properly. Between the ages of 2 to 9 of the child parents have to be very careful about bringing them up.

It’s nice to pamper children but it’s important to identify where to draw the line. Over pampering could spoil your child. It is very important that the child must be taught basic etiquettes from the beginning. You should never delay teaching the child manners thinking that they are just kids. A child needs to learn etiquette and proper behavior right from childhood. There are parents who succumb to child’s little demands just to calm him down. Remember kids know that if they make a scene in public, they will get what they want. Kids usually make such demands at stores. If you just let the kid cry but don’t succumb to his cries, I bet your kid will not demand again. They have an unparalleled ability to test their parents’ patience.

I have seen some kids have a habit of peeping into rooms of the hosts when you take them to visit somebody’s home. I have noticed that the parents don’t stop them from doing that. This is just an example of parents spoiling their children. Remember the age old saying, “old habits die hard”. The child will not listen to you when they grow up if you don’t make them listen to you when they are kids. Discipline is the key word. It is the parents who need to identify the level of discipline for their kids. Teaching discipline does not mean that the parents have to be harsh on the children though. Majority of children need to be taught basic disciplines like value of money, respect to elders, friendly etiquette and their limits in doing anything.

We call trouble making youngsters as hooligans but they are like that because their parents have not brought them up in the right manner. We also need to remember that a child learns what he sees. Parents must behave in a manner that the child learns all the good things from them.

Children should be diverted towards better living and not towards a lavish life. Children should be given what they want but only after they have earned it. They should know the value of the gift that they have acquired. They should also be restrained from borrowing things from others. They should be taught not to compare their things with others. This comparison leads to materialistic competition within their social circle which leads to wastage of money. Children should be taught to manage their finances right from their teenage.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s managers. If they are not taught to manage themselves from their childhood, they will not be able to cope up with the competition when they face the real world. Home is the first school of a child.

Linus Orakles
http://www.authorclub.info/

Telemarketing Calls – Nuisance

You are driving and you are in heavy traffic. You have no time to even look at your watch. In this situation, you get a call from an unknown number on your mobile. You somehow pick up the call thinking that it might be an important call. You get to hear something funny like a ring-tone. Then someone starts advertising about ring-tones. The irony is that these are recorded calls and you can’t even interact with the caller. You get so frustrated with these calls, don’t you? There is a way to avoid such calls by registering your number with the “Do Not Call Registry”. The “DNC” is called other names in different countries. However, the registration process with the DNC is tedious. You need to pick and choose the categories in which you do not want the telemarketing calls.

The worst part is when you get calls from numbers which are mobile numbers. The recorded telemarketing calls should come from a number which should not look similar to a mobile number. They should consist of 5 or 6 digits so that people can identify them as telemarketing calls. The other way to control these telemarketing calls is by taking the customer’s consent when one actually takes up a new number. There should be a field in the new number application form which should ask for the customer’s willingness to receive telemarketing calls. Another effective way to make customers aware of the DNC registration is to provide the information on his monthly bills. A customer should be able to register himself for DNC through text message service and online too.

Further, telemarketing calls should be less jazzy and more informative. They should not sound like advertisements. People who would like to take advantage of the telemarketing calls would appreciate if they are informative not if they are jazzy.

Better management is required to handle telemarketing operations within telecom companies. It is becoming an increasing nuisance every day.

Linus Orakles

http://www.authorclub.info/

Perfume Vs Cologne

Majority of people I have seen or met have often asked the question about which perfume to wear. I did some research work and found out that perfume is for women and cologne is for men. I know you don’t have to get into a research for finding that. But I was never that interested in finding out about colognes and perfumes because I anyways don’t stink naturally. Ok, now why was a perfume invented? Of course, people must have been stinking real badly that led to the discovery of perfumes. Thanks to those people who discovered perfume, we have nice smelling people around.

A perfume is made by mixing varieties of fragrances, some natural and some artificial. Fragrances of flowers and fruits are mixed and concentrated into perfumes. Perfumes are mixed with ethanol, solvents and water. Perfumes have more percentage of essential oils than the colognes. Colognes usually are made of bold fragrances. Colognes are lesser concentrated than perfumes. Perfumes remain active for around 8 to 10 hours on an average but colognes stay for around 4 to 5 hours.

If you want that your perfume or cologne must linger on for a longer duration with your skin, apply a drop on the back of your neck and your wrist. These places of the body have the capacity to hold on to the perfume and spread it within the body because of the pulse rate.

It is essential these days that you wear a deodorant or a perfume or cologne when you move out of the house. Your own body odor is the last thing that you will identify yourself. It has become etiquette to smell good when you meet others. Choosing the right perfume or cologne is very essential depending upon the kind of occasion you are heading for.

Smell good and make others happy!

Linus Orakles

http://www.authorclub.info/

Misers Vs Spendthrifts

We always ponder upon our expenses. There are people who like to spend a lot and there are people who do not spend at all. It is important for all of us to categorize our expenses basis our priorities and our desires. Most of us are unable to prioritize our expenses. However, there are people who do not even spend on their needs. A human being needs some basic expenses to make. Good living, healthy food and proper communication facilities. Some people earn good money but they do not spend on their basic needs properly. And there are some who spend more than required on their needs. By good living we mean comfortable and not luxurious. People who are spendthrifts land up with burdens of loan and their repayments of other debts. On the other hand, misers save a lot and before the end of their lives do not know where to put the money.

Living a comfortable life means where you can afford a comfortable reasonable house at a convenient location. It also means eating healthy and nutritious food in a quantity that quenches your hunger. Commuting reasonably but comfortably also is a part of comfortable living.

Misers and spendthrifts can be differentiated with their definitions of comfortable living. Misers would spend the minimum money for their living. They will just spend for a shelter, to fill the stomach, to somehow travel and to just wear clean clothes, for the sake of it. Spendthrifts however prefer to live lavishly. They would spend their money to live in the best of houses with luxurious interiors and amenities. They would eat the best of food and top it up with the best of desserts. They would only wear branded garments and would commute in their own expensive car.

Being a spendthrift or a miser has its own pros and cons. A spendthrift never saves money and goes through a hidden financial crisis all the time. They are often neck deep in debts and keep running pillar to post to pay their debts. They maintain a very high lifestyle hence when they go through crisis it becomes very difficult for them to adjust to the fallen standards of living. Spendthrifts have a lot of friends and they spend a lot on socializing. Misers struggle all their lives even if they earn in millions. They do not enjoy even the basic amenities of life. They often land up with some or the other health problems because they do not spend on healthy food. Because of their forced misery, they are not social and they have very few friends. This becomes a problem when they need some people by their side at difficult times.

It is advisable to spend less but it does not mean that you live in self imposed pain. It is appreciated that you spend more but it does not imply that you fire up your bank balance. The most important is that you spend in a balanced manner and save money for rainy days as well. Maintain a moderate lifestyle and live comfortably.

Linus Orakles

http://www.authorclub.info/

Beware if you got a credit card

Credit cards are good till they help you spend when you need money. But these cute looking things can be very dangerous if you do not pay the bills regularly and keep any outstanding.

Initially the banks and credit card companies lure you to take a card by displaying unimaginable benefits and attractions. They say keeping a credit card is financial freedom. Its human psychology to acquire object of desire and this is the sentiment that the credit card companies strike on. They provide exuberant credit limits to the card holder so that he gets tied to the card with debts.

A debt is a debt. Keeping a credit card means never ending headache and tension. You pay around 2 % monthly interest rate on your credit card balance, it actually means 24% or more in a year. On top of that, if you have an outstanding balance, the interest rate is applied on the total outstanding balance. You have to add the late payment fees with the capital spent to the accrued capital on which the interest rate is applied. If you keep paying just the minimum balance due every month, you will notice that you have landed up paying more than the money spent at the end of the year and still your actual spent remains unpaid. Plus you will have to pay the compoundable interest rate on your total outstanding balance. God forbid, if you spend something new on your card when you are already paying a high amount of interest rate, your new spent will be added up to the previous balance and will be charged at a weird interest rate, not the 2%. So at the end of the year, you land up with a 36% or more interest rate on your credit card bills.

Added to the weird interest rate trauma, you need to pay annual charges which are actually baseless. The writing off of the annual fee might solve a minimum balance issue for a couple of months. This means, annual fee is an added problem. And they come with the outstanding bill. That means they get added up to the chargeable capital with accrued interest.

Lets say you don’t use your card for a quarter of the year and you have no outstanding to pay off. You will still get a minimum payment to pay every month. This is called the no usage charge. This is not all; you have hidden charges in balance transfer to some other new card. You need to pay extra interest rate on cash withdrawal.

The toughest part is, if you fail to pay your credit card bills for a long time, one day you realize that you can’t pay the outstanding any longer and you are lost. Then comes the part where you start running away from the bank’s collection agency. Enter trouble. You feel like a criminal and you can’t negotiate with the collection agencies so easily. They are a pack of goons hired to dig out money from the debtors. The irony is, first the bank comes begging to you to give you a credit card. Then you go begging to them to negotiate on the final payment. As if banks have taken an oath to label you a fraud and they are bound to deplete your credit rating. A credit card is like a witch which disguises as an angel and then leads you to the darkest of dungeons to suck your blood away.

Spend what you earn and be happy. Control your desires, kill your wants and be concerned only with your needs. Avoid owning credit cards.

Linus Orakles

http://www.authorclub.info/

An African Dictator

Mobutu Sese Seko was the president of the Republic of Zaire. He was one of the many dictators in the African continent who stood out from the rest due to his abilities of political manipulations, managing to be friendly with the west, lavish lifestyle and longevity of rule. He called himself by this lengthy name: Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, meaning, the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake.

Mobutu’s education was in a Catholic mission boarding school. A physically imposing figure, he dominated school sports. He also excelled in academics.
Mobutu once stowed away aboard a boat to his native town and met a girl. The priests found him several weeks later, and at the end of the school year he was sent to the Belgian Congolese army as a punishment where he had to serve for seven years.

Mobutu found discipline in army life. His interest for studies was kept up as he got to borrow European newspapers and books from the Belgian officers. He was often found reading them on sentry duty and whenever he had a spare moment. His favorites were the writings of French President Charles de Gaulle, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. His appetite for reading and writing made him quit the army and become a full-time journalist.
As a journalist Mobutu got chances to travel across the length and breadth of the country. He met many of the young Congolese intellectuals who were challenging colonial rule.

Lumumba was the Prime Minister of the country and Mobutu became closer to the prime minister and eventually became Lumumba's personal aide, though several contemporaries indicate that Belgian intelligence had recruited Mobutu to be an informer by this point.
Mobutu was then appointed as Chief of Staff of the Army. Lumumba was inclined more towards the Soviet Union. He received massive military aid from them and appointed Soviet technical advisers to assist him in his administration. The communist influence irked Mobutu. As Army Chief of Staff, Mobutu came under great pressure from multiple sources. The embassies of Western nations, which helped pay the soldiers' salaries, as well as Mobutu's subordinates who wanted him to get rid of the Soviet presence.

Mobutu took control over the country in a CIA-sponsored coup. The Mobutu era started as he assumed absolute powers.
Facing many challenges early in his rule, Mobutu was able to turn most opposition into submission through patronage; those he could not, he dealt with forcefully.
By 1970, nearly all potential threats to his authority had been smashed, law and order was brought to nearly all parts of the country. That year marked the pinnacle of Mobutu's legitimacy and power.

As he consolidated power Mobutu set up several military forces whose sole purpose was to protect him. The country was renamed to the Republic of Zaire.
Africans were ordered to drop their Christian names for African ones, and priests were warned that they would face 5 years imprisonment if they were caught baptizing a Zairian child with a Christian name. Western attire and ties were banned, and men were forced on to ethnic wear.

Early in his rule, Mobutu consolidated power by publicly executing political rivals, coup plotters, and other threats to his rule. To set an example, many were hanged before large audiences. A favorite Mobutu tactic was to rotate members of his government, switching the cabinet roster constantly to ensure that no one would pose a threat to his rule.

Mobutu owned a fleet of luxury vehicles that he used to travel between his numerous palaces, while the nation's roads rotted and many of his people starved. Infrastructure virtually collapsed, and many public service workers went months without being paid. Most money was siphoned off to Mobutu, his family and top political and military leaders. Only the special Presidential Division - on whom his physical safety depended - was paid adequately or regularly.

Mobutu was known to charter a Concorde from Air France for personal use, including shopping trips to Paris for himself and his family. He had an airport constructed in his hometown with a runway long enough to accommodate the Concorde's extended take off and landing requirements.
In 1984 Mobutu had an estimated amount of USD 5 billion, most of it in Swiss banks.

Mobutu shared a good relation with many US presidents, Mobutu's relationship with the U.S. radically changed shortly afterwards with the end of the Cold War. With the Soviet Union gone, there was no longer any reason to support Mobutu as a barricade against communism. In 1993, Mobutu was denied a visa by the United States after he sought to visit Washington D.C.

Mobutu had signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation between Zaire and Belgium. However, Mobutu tore up the treaty in 1974 in protest of Belgium's refusal to ban an anti-Mobutu book written by left-wing lawyer Jules Chomé.

Mobutu shared a cordial relationship with France. As the second largest French speaking country in the world and the largest one in Sub Saharan Africa, Zaire was of great strategic interest to France. There were many instances when France itself would send troops to aid Mobutu.

The downfall of Mobutu started when the elections were held in the country. Opposition parties during election called for Mobutu to resign. He responded by killing 100 student demonstrators at a university. This led to international outrage and uprisings throughout the country. The results were declared and Mobutu was defeated. He was unhappy with the results and he fired the new prime minister, which then outraged the west. Western countries demanded Mobutu honor the elected prime minister, which he refused.

This was the time for angered neighbors to besiege on Zaire. Rwanda planned an attack which it had been long waiting for to eliminate Hutu extremists who had been sheltered by Zaire. Rwanda had the support of Burundi and Uganda. Collectively they attacked Zaire. Ailing with cancer, Mobutu was unable to coordinate the resistance. Tutsis community had long opposed Mobutu, due to his open support for Rwandan Hutu extremists responsible for the Rwandan Genocide. Tutsis of Zaire also erupted in rebellion as they had been waiting to take revenge on Mobutu as his government had issued an order in November 1996 forcing Tutsis to leave Zaire on penalty of death. The troops attacking the capital Kinshasa and succeeded in capturing it and they renamed the country as Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mobutu went into temporary exile in Togo but lived mostly in Morocco. He then died of prostate cancer in Morocco.

Mobutu was the most corrupt African leader. By the time he was overthrown in 1997, Mobutu had stolen almost half of the $12bn in aid money that Zaire - now the Democratic Republic of Congo - received from the IMF during his 32-year reign, leaving his country saddled with a crippling debt.

Linus Orakles

http://www.authorclub.info/

Right Corporate Communication

Corporate communication is a very important part of the success and the brand imaging of an organization. No we are not talking about communication mannerism within the organization only but also with the outside corporate world.

We need to first understand the basics of corporate communication. How is it different from general communication? General communication does not have limitations of usage of words. However, it is still appreciated if we do not use slang in our general communications. On the other hand corporate communication has limitations on the type of vocabulary being used. Corporate communication displays the highest degree of mannerism and etiquette. It should not contain any grammatical error and should be in a clean and straight language.

Corporate communication should be precise and to the point. It should not contain jargons and should be easily understandable by the recipient. It should not be harsh but complains should be communicated in a subtle manner. It should not be insulting and should be addressed in a cordial manner. There should be clear signature of the sender on the communication. Nowadays emails have become an active and most used medium of corporate communication whether internal or external. Business related emails should be always sent from an official email id. If the organization does not own a domain name, all the employees should use the same email client for official purposes. However, buying a domain name and web space have become largely reasonable and are easy to buy. Hence it is appreciated that an organization buys a domain name and allots official email ids to its employees. Domain names should clearly display the organization’s name. Email ids should contain the full name or the correct initials of the user and should not contain any casual characters or nick names. Writing corporate emails is also an art. A lot of brand image depends upon the writing style of emails by the employees of an organization.
All official and corporate emails should be such that it covers a single readable screen of the recipient. Long emails should be avoided if not required. Attachments on emails should be named properly and should always be described in the covering email.

As far as corporate communication in a conference, meeting or a seminar is concerned, presentation is the most important part. Presentation does not only mean good oration, it also means the formal dress code and the grooming of the participants. A meeting or a conference or a seminar should always start on time. The agenda of the meeting should be clearly stated preferably in a printed form. Most of the communication should be supported with printed material. If the meeting is with external parties, there should be no ambiguity in the printed documents. There should be no disclosure of classified information in any form to the external parties. The participants should be treated well with cordiality so that all feel comfortable and respect the standards of the organization. Remember, a wrong or a rude word could make an organization loose millions of business.

Linus Orakles

http://www.authorclub.info/