This question popped into my mind, while I was reading an article about German defence group Rheinmetall which is currently trying to persuade Indian authorities not to put it in the black list of corrupted enterprises.

The case: Rheinmetall’s subsidiary, ?Rheinmetall Air Defence, is under suspicion of having used bribes to win an order in India. Local authorities now want to put the unit on the black list which would mean it losing one of the world’s most lucrative defence markets.

Rheinmetall, of course, is denying any wrong doing and is saying that the rumours about it being involved in bribery have been spread by competitors who want to push it out of the Indian market. The company says ?Rheinmetall Air Defence was the favoured bidder for the order in question and that’s why rivals had attacked its good name.

The more I read the guiltier Rheinmetall seemed to me. It was very peculiar – the more arguments in its defence the company presented the more unconvincing it sounded. Now, why is that? I do not know whether they really have bribed somebody in India. Maybe they did not, but my first thought was to think they are guilty.

It is a state of mind I guess. Everyone’s talking about corporate greed and evil enterprises trying to make big money by cutting corners.

There’s a proverb in Bulgarian: Once someone says your sister is a whore it’s useless to try explaining you have no sister

The topic of discussion was “The role of the media in the fight against youth unemployment”.

The gathering was in the city of Varna, which in the summer becomes one of the favourite seaside destinations for many Bulgarians.

The itinerary called for an early start, so we got up in the morning and traveled to the town hall in Varna.

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We had a little time to prepare and for registration.

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After the greeting speeches of several officials on the side of the European Youth Press and the local authorities, we heard a couple of traditional Bulgarian songs.

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Then the official part was over and it was time for the participants to present some data about youth unemployment in their countries. We learned about the unemployment issues in twelve countries. I will try to summarize the things I’ve heard below, including the data from the presentations as well as the solutions to the unemployment problems suggested by the participants:

Poland:

There were two girls from Poland. They said many in their country think young people are not active enough and that’s why it’s difficult for them to find a job.  The girls, however, disagreed, saying not all Polish youths are lazy but the most active ones emigrate. Not only the people remaining in Poland are not active, but they also are often not qualified to take the jobs which are offered on the market. The presenters also said there is not enough work for all youths graduating from schools and universities every year.

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Romania:

The Romanian journalist blamed the recession for most of the unemployment issues in the country. Many small and medium-sized companies have gotten into trouble due to the crisis and cut jobs on a large scale. Another problem besides the crisis is the fact that employers in Romania prefer to hire people with working experience which creates a problem for the journalists just coming out of school. There are not much opportunities for young people to get some work experience  before they graduate. Furthermore, a large part of the offered jobs on the market are for low-educated workers. As many as 389 open high education jobs stand against 11,000 open jobs for low-educated people. The problem with emigration came up here too.

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Bulgaria:

The Bulgarian presenters named the lack of qualification as a on of the main problems on the local labour market. The education was dubbed inadequate for the market needs. Young people in Bulgaria rarely use career programmes or register with the Labour Agency when they are looking for a job. They go directly to an employer. The big number of youths leaving the country is also troubling, the presenters said.

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Armenia:

The Armenian presenter pinpointed several problems on the labour market in the country: The labour supply does not meet the demand, there is lack of professional education, there are not enough part-time jobs which could remedy at least part of the problem, the high level of emigration. Many of the young people looking for a job are not experienced and with the crisis shrinking the number of offered jobs they are the first to suffer.

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Portugal:

The Portuguese girls said the country is battling tough economic problems. Many people are affected by long-term unemployment. As much as 51% of the educated people aged between 24 and 35 have been unemployed for more than a year. There is a minimum wage in Portugal, of 400 euro, which is not enough to live on. The presenters said that many people over 30 years of age in Portugal are currently trying to catch up with their education and are going to high school and even to university. For my surprise, the Portuguese girls named emigration as a problem as well.

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Hungary:

The Hungarian presenter started off with some political facts, saying an interim government a few years back impacted growth in the country. University degrees, believe it or not, are not seen as a pro. According to the presenter, the Hungarian Labour Agency does not know how to deal with university diplomas and is not very efficient in finding them a job. She said something bizarre — people often hide their diplomas when they apply for a job. She also said that the labour market now needs engineers and financial experts while other graduates have it hard to find employment.

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Turkey:

The Turkish guy presented some basic facts about his country before starting talking about the problems of the local labour market. To be frank after I saw the statistics about employed men against employed women in Turkey I could not think about anything else. It was just shocking — around 25% employed women against some 52% employed men. What do women in Turkey do?!

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Italy:

The Italian presentation, I think was one of the most through ones. I’ve made several photos with the shown data and the offered solutions for unemployment in the country. As many as 21% of the young people aged between 15 and 24 cannot find employment in Italy. Many emigrate and work abroad.

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France:

The guys presenting for France were very passionate about the problems of youths in their country. They seemed to have a pretty strong opinion about their government as well, calling for more help and understanding for the 25% unemployed 15-to-24-year-olds in France. Both guys supported the idea of having paid internships for young journalists.

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Germany:

The situation in Germany is considerably more stable then in other countries. The presenter said the unemployed youths were 9.2% in 2009. According to him, one of the main problems is the lack of qualified personnel in some industries and the surplus of highly-educated people in other. The needs on the market are not met. There is excess of qualified workers for example in the communications sector, he said. The economic crisis also hit young people in Germany, as they are first to be laid off. The presenter spoke of unpaid internships as exploitation of young journalists.

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Switzerland:

I Switzerland, as the presenters said, unemployment has been an issue only for the last 15 years. The  unemployment among  non-Swiss citizens is higher than among native Swiss people. The figures speak for themselves — The rate of jobless Swiss aged between 20 and 25 years stands at 4.1%, while that of jobless immigrants is 20%. According to the presenters, however, one cannot rely entirely on the data of the Labour Agency. Many young people do not register as unemployed because their parents pay for them. As for the situation in the Swiss media industry — it is battling the same problems as in other countries, the second-largest newspaper Tages Anzeiger laid off many of its staff and other media are also struggling. One of the presenters said he pays to a radio station in order to work there. There are two free newspapers, Blick and Zwanzig Minuten, but the presenters said those papers lack quality and are more yellow press.

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The Netherlands:

In the Netherlands, the lady presenter said, there are fewer problems with unemployment. Things are better for young people as well, because there is a youth minimum wage. The presenter also said that the Netherlands have an advantage to other countries, because before people go to strike they first talk. Unemployment is relatively low, higher among immigrants, especially from Morocco. The most troubling statistics I heard was that one-third of the unemployed in the Netherlands have no income at all.

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After the presentations, the participants formed three groups to discuss and decide what solutions to propose. On the second day they told us what they’ve come up with.

France said there should be a liberalisation on the market allowing more private companies operate and thus giving more chances to young people. Immigrants should be integrated and have equal rights to get a job. All internships should be paid.

Germany said people should see what the market needs and then chose what to study. The problem with the immigrants should be solved by integrating them. Internships should be paid. The country needs more juvenile education programmes. Young people should get more information about the state of the labour market.

Switzerland said people should not be so picky when looking for a job. Also there should not be a segregation between native Swiss and non-Swiss citizens. As a solution to the segregation problem Switzerland proposed the introduction of no-name, no-photo CVs.

Hungary said the first step to improvement would be the change of values in society. People holding a university/college degree are considered valuable, therefore a lot of student enroll to universities though the labour market doesn’t need that many highly educated people. There should be a change in education as well — currently there is too much theory and not enough practice. Young people do not receive any real preparation for work. (quote Hajnalka Gyori who represented Hungary at the conference and gave the presentation)

Romania seconded Hungary, saying the education is too theoretical and there’s lack of practice. The Romanian girls went further and suggested more action on the students’ part. They said young people should seek more extra-curricular activities, as to be prepared for a future job.

Turkey also commented that the gap between university and the labour market should be closed and said the role of the government is crucial for closing that gap.

Bulgaria also complained of the educational system, which should be revamped in order to match the needs on the market. The young Bulgarians need more practice and extra-curricular training. Also the integration of minorities should be brought forward, as to give those people opportunities to join the country’s workforce.

Portugal underlined the importance of enlarging the number of well-educated people in the country and called for more business opportunities in the private sector.

The Netherlands criticised the import of talent from abroad. Employers should first look at home and then explore options abroad. Having said that the Dutch lady also said the country should do more for integrating immigrants.

Poland said the problem with many people leaving the country should be dealt with. There should be more efforts to raise the qualification of people who remain in Poland.

Austria and Belgium, which did not make a presentation on the previous day, also joined the discussion with proposals.

The Austrians said all should work on closing the gap between low and high education. They also had a very good idea, saying the EU should provide mobility for highly educated people and thus allow them to easily move and work in different countries in the union.

Belgium called for more practical training for young people, in order to ease their transition from the university to work. Students should get more information about the labour market. The language problem in the country should be dealt with and not solved by importing personnel from abroad.

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All photos from the conference:

Youth Journalism Conference

Marc Reeves: Journalists need to grow up — Jon Slattery’s Blog

Battle for the Nile as rivals lay claim to Africa’s great river — guardian.co.uk

KAL’s cartoon – THE GOAL — economist.com

Spain beats Chile at World Cup, both advance — nbcsports.msnbc.com

iPhone reception problem? Hold it differently, Apple says — latimes.com

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Videos:

Nat’s talk at Ideacity and audition for Toy Story 3

A post by Australian vlogger Natalie Tran, who is more popular as communitichannel on YouTube.

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Aditi Shankardass: A second opinion on learning disorders

Indian scientist Aditi Shankardass attempts to spread awareness of wrong diagnosis of some brain disorders in young children

Show Time: 30 jQuery Calendar Date Picker Plugins — source: www.1stwebdesigner.com

I Guarantee This Post Will Change Your Life — source: www.shoemoney.com

CONTENTLOBBY WIL GEBRUIKERS CONTROLEREN EN AFKNIJPEN — source: www.bof.nl (Dutch)

The Rise of Social Gaming and Zynga — source: www.onlineschools.org

Customer Experience Mapping & — source: desonance.wordpress.com

Who is buying my snails? Comparing ecommerce conversion rates from different traffic sources — source: www.jonathanbriggs.com

Outside the Box — from www.escapeintolife.com (Outside the Box is a hilarious short film that won the Digital Artist Awards in 2009 for the animation category.)

What to expect as an online community manager — from www.communityspark.com

BBC Radio 4 Blog: Joshua Rozenberg on photography and the law — from blogs.journalism.co.uk

A newspaper industry response to Craigslist and Ebay — from www.ejc.net

Mail Group Mulls Global LocalPeople, Doubling Network — from paidcontent.co.uk

I read two articles that shook my every believe in modern society to the core. I’m always the person to try to observe the rights of everyone. Not that I always succeed but if you know me closely you would know that I care about issues like human, civil and animal rights.

I’ve kept repeating in every conversation I’ve had on the topic in the last ten years that anyone should be allowed to choose what they want to do, who they want to be and how they want to live. Free choice was my mantra.

The horrifying articles I read today, however, let me see what a total freedom of free choice could mean to society and humanity. It could destroy them. I cannot believe I’m saying that, but apparently it could.

The articles called “Gendercide” (a leader) and “Gendercide – the worldwide war on baby girls” (if you like you can look them up here and here, although I should warn you that the page requires subscription). One of the articles starts with a story told by the Chinese writer Xinran Xue who witnesses the killing of a baby girl in a local village directly after its birth. They just through the baby in the trash because it is not a boy. And that is not because they bad people and hate girls. They just cannot afford to have girls, they need boys because boys can do hard work.

” ‘It is not a child’, she corrected me. ‘It’s a girl baby, and we can’t keep it. Around these parts, you can’t get without a son. Girl babies don’t count.’ ”

According to the articles, 100 million girls have been killed or aborted in China and India so far. And it does not happen just in the villages. In big cities, rich families which want to have just one or two kids and prefer to have sons than daughters often decide to abort the unwanted baby girls and wait for a boy. How does that happen? Well, there is ultrasound — the miracle of modern medicine which can tell a young mother whether she has to buy blue or pink cloths for the little toddler. Except in many cases the pink clothing is just unnecessary, ’cause they have abortion doctors who would allow you to wait for the blue.

Many have blamed the China one-child policy for the gender discrepancy in the country, but the boys-to-girls ratio is getting so big that it cannot be just because of that or due to lack of education. Women in many well-educated, rich families in India for example  will decide to abort a girl and wait for a boy. Why? I’ll quote Economist here:

“In fact the destruction of baby girls is a product of three forces: the ancient preference for sons; a modern desire for smaller families; and ultrasound scanning and other technologies that identify the sex of the fetus.”

So, it all comes to that. A family makes the choice to have a son, the free choice, because they just follow they believes and desires, and 20 years from now we have 30-40 million young males more than young females in China. 30-40 million males who would never have the opportunity to marry and have kids because there are not enough women in their country. They would have to immigrate if they wanted a family. According to the Economist, 40 million are the males below 20 years of age in the entire United States. What do you do with that?!

And all because some families followed their dreams to have a boy.

The paper recommends a solution — promoting females as able members of society, more discussion on women rights and more examples of valuing females, so the “son preference would seem old-fashioned and unnecessary” after a while.

I’m still astonished how making a personal choice about your own life could affect so many people…

It is quite simple to make a List. You just click on the Lists section on your Twitter page (shown on pic below) and then select New List (pic bottom) :

A little menu opens — give a name to your list, chose what kind of List you want Private or Public and then select Create List.

What Twitter tells you about lists is that this feature helps you organize your contacts.

There are various blog posts and videos explaining how to create and use Twitter Lists as well as such which recommend Twitter Lists that you should follow.

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Here are some links for more information:

How to use  Twitter Lists — help.twitter.com

10 Twitter Lists You Should Follow — readwriteweb.com

As the last link is from last October and we all know how quick things change, there is a website (listorious.com) which follows the creation of new popular lists. It contains a list of A-lists, has sorted lists by topics such as Food, Sports etc.

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So far, I’ve created several personal lists and have not started following A-lists.

What organizing my contacts did for me was that it helped me realize how many wonderful people I’ve been connected to and how few of them I was able to follow over the past year.

The Problem: Too many contacts, most of whom I’ve lost contact with or was never able to establish real contact with over time.

The Solution: Trim my contact list. I did trim it and I am very happy about that.

My real aim on Twitter is actually follow the lives and thoughts of people that are far away and I cannot see them every day. And I am not able to do that if I have another 500 people on my contact list. And if I have a list of friends and pay attention only to what they tweet than why have another 500 people listed?!

In my opinion a Twitter community cannot be very large in order to work well. In that case online life is not very different than real life.

I am not a celebrity and do not have a business that requires a lot of contacts on Twitter. I do not want to add people or services that I cannot learn from, as the whole idea of having a Twitter community will lose its meaning, at least for me.

I’ve enjoyed organizing my contacts into Lists and reducing their number. It was like treasure hunting I’ve discovered people I’ve completely forgotten, because I’ve not been able to see their tweets for months.

I know that some would say I could have used services like TweetDeck in order to organize my contacts earlier. I’ve tried TweetDeck and several other websites and did not like them.

The truth is that I like visiting twitter.com. I like how the website looks and I also like looking at my Twitter homepage with the picture of a lovely Swedish kitty I’ve put on. I am very happy Twitter has introduced the Lists feature so I can at least try to follow the daily tweets of everyone who is important to me.

Even with this feature, I had to reduce the number of contacts. It is not possible to follow hundreds of people and get glimpes of the daily routine of them all.

Personally I like a smaller community where people are close to each other. To be frank, 300 people is not a very realistic number as well, but I’ve just started reducing.

Puns in the sun/Revenge of the word nerds — The Economist

200 Fresh Articles for Designers, Developers and Freelancers — TripWire Magazine

Wired makes a first generation iPad magazine — John Gapper’s business blog

Rupert Murdoch has to become an elitist — John Gapper’s business blog

Two cheers for Facebook’s privacy reforms — John Gapper’s business blog

Gaza-bound aid ships leave Cyprus — Aljazeera

North Korea: Not waving. Perhaps drowning — The Economist

World Tourist Hot Spot Map — psfk.com (An Estonian software company, Bluemoon Interactive, has created the World Touristiness Map, a heatmap of popular and not so popular vacation spots of the world…)

Stop The Presses: ‘Sunset’ For Print In Five Years, FT Sees – paidcontent.co.uk

Twitter to Launch Twitter Business Center — mashable.com

3 Underrated but essential skills for journalists — 10,000 Words blog

Do users really want to pay for separate Times and Sunday Times sites? — Online Journalism blog

Twitter art, Irkafirka and tweet #3125 — My Digital Notebook blog

What happens to your Twitter followers when you change jobs? — John Welsh’s blog, These Digital Times

For the love of Hanoi — OurManInHanoi blog