Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Wine tasting at the Lobby

Last night I attended the first wine and food-pairing event at The Lobby, An Inspired American Grille. The Lobby is a fun little restaurant bar located in the historic Paris Hotel. The gorgeous Victorian building was first established in 1891 and completely renovated in the late 1990’s maintaining the flavor and ambience of the original elegant structure. The Paris is now primarily private residences and the former hotel lobby houses The Lobby. Current owners maintained the lovely hardwood details and have exposed brick to give the room a vintage feel. There is a beautiful and spacious patio located in the courtyard hidden behind a brick wall and shaded by ancient trees. The courtyard is scattered with fragrant flowers and an elegant fountain.

The cuisine surprised me as much as the atmosphere. The first pairing was a steely mineraly crisp sauvignon blanc from South Africa that paired with a pungent prosciutto wrapped prawn. Although the wine pour was scant, the pairing played well on my taste buds. This was followed with a delicious sun dried tomato, goat cheese and chicken pinwheel drizzled with buffalo beurre blanc in a difficult pairing with an aromatic torrontes from Argentina. During this course, the patio filled up with Denver’s beautiful people. The women were decked out and sitting together. Yet the men, who showed up in flip flops or athletic shoes, were congregating separately at their own tables…typical of Denver. The third, and best pairing was a smoky tempranillo from Spain with a slice of seared tuna dressed with mint and cherry coulis. The last pairing of an Argentinean malbec and a seared rib eye doused with a tangy sauce, although very good, left me wanting to revisit the third.

The skies quickly turned dark. Lightening cracked and as it began to pour down rain the tasting wrapped up. The party scrambled indoors where the wine continued to flow. It was a fun night and everyone had a good time. The Lobby will be hosting wine and food pairing events on the third Tuesday of each month through the summer. Check it out for a splash of interesting wine and a taste of delicious cuisine in a fantastic hidden little corner of Denver.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Business Ethics Final Exam Question 3/Answer...

What do you see as the most significant element of the feminist movement that is concerning the development of the global economy over the past number of years? How does this movement reflect on doing business at the international level, and why? You may wish to draw on the analysis of Simone de Beauvoir, and her notions of the other in your reply.
The greatest contributing factor of the feminist movement to the global economy has been the rapid increase of the labor pool, and a cheaper labor in general. At the beginning of the last century, only 1% of workers worldwide were female. Between the 1970’s and 2000, that number rose to about 45%. In 2010, 49.83% of all workers in the United States are female and 50% of all workers worldwide are female. With the great increase of viable workers, most areas of commerce exponentially grew. Fewer men needed to work in agriculture, education, service, and sales, which meant more men could work in manufacturing and manufacturing could experience significant growth. Now, in nearly every field, there are basically equal numbers of each gender employed. There are a few industries such as heavy construction and manufacturing that experience vast occupational segregation and imbalance, but for the most part, things are divided fairly equally.
Feminism has not ushered in equality throughout the majority of the world. Employers worldwide, the United States included, still continue to exploit and subjugate women. In 99% of all fields, women earn less money for doing exactly the same job. Statistics vary, but on average the American female worker earns between 69% and 73% of what a male worker earns according to the US Census. My favorite way to illustrate this point is follows: If a female student and a male student take exactly the same multiple choice exam and they both answer every question correctly, the male would receive a grade of 100% and the female would receive a grade of 69-73%. He would get an A+ and She would get a D+ or a C- at best. Is that fair? No, of course it is not, but it happens every day, all over the world, in business.
The United Nations Human Development Report 2004 shows that in rural areas, women work 20% more than men (102 minutes a day) and in urban areas women work 5% more than men (20 minutes a day). These statistics do not necessarily reflect the often-lopsided gender division of domestic duties such as child rearing, cleaning, shopping, and other domestic duties such as personal accounting and administration. Women in general and in the work force experience significantly higher levels of exploitation, oppression, harassment, violence, violation, retaliation, are responsible for fewer decisions, and earn much less than their male counter parts. In the United States women experience the glass ceiling 84% more than men do. Only 16% of all executives in the United States are women. Strangely, the market fails to consider that women make nearly 70% of all private purchases made in the United States, including automobiles and technology.
On a global economic/business level, industry and business greatly benefit by having women in the work force. Not only do women work more, work harder, do more menial jobs, but also on a whole they are paid much less, which inevitably increases the bottom line profit margin for businesses across the globe. The most disturbing aspect of this analysis is that women put up with unequal pay and oppressive treatment in the guise of “making forward progress.” To quote a long standing advertisement slogan, “You’ve come a long way baby!” It is disgusting. Currently, women are just as much to blame as the businesses and men who oppress them. It is time for women to put a stop to this unfair treatment and continued oppression at the hands of men, other women, and an unbalanced society.
Feminism has lead to an interesting mix of liberation and continued oppression of women. In most places in the world, women are free to work and gain an education, and in many cases they have no choice in the matter. Yet, feminism also set women up for even more oppression, harassment, violence, and frustration through that employment and education. I am not saying that these conditions did not exist before feminism, because, of course they have always existed. This second-class citizenship for women has existed since men decided to dominate women and swing society from matriarchal to patriarchal systems of governance and control. Simone de Beauvoir illustrated this very well in her book, The Second Sex. She discussed the oppression of women in great detail. She argued that men chose to dominate women for the specific purpose of creating a patriarchal society, and their method was to create the myth of woman as the emotional, hormonal, incapable, unintelligent, weaker sex: a woman couldn’t be understood by a man so it is better to dismiss her and control her than to deal with her. This tactic worked quite well and it continues to work in nearly every society in the world.
It is amazing to think that just 150 years ago, most women were not even considered citizens or people for that matter. In many places in the world they still are not. I guess we should be happy at how far women have come, but I for one, am not. Yes, I am thankful for my education and for my employment, however unequal my work and pay are to my male counter parts. But, I think it is a disgrace to the United States, to men, to women, and to all humanity, that in 2010, in America, women are still unequal, still fighting an uphill and thankless battle for gender equality. The Scandinavian countries including Iceland have the best record for gender equality and they also top the lists for education, happiness, and for quality of living standards. These countries demand equality by enforced laws and the citizens happily embrace equality as the only logical political and economic system.*
* Norwegian gender equality policies attract attention partly because of Norway’s relatively high birth rate (top five in Europe). Having a strong female professional participation and top score on gender equality while still maintaining birth rates is made possible much thanks to the legislation in Norway:
• All big companies must have 40% representation of both genders in their board.
• The Gender Equality Act prohibits all discrimination on grounds of gender.
• Parents are entitled to one year leave after birth, and the parents can divide this between them as they wish. Six weeks are reserved for the father.
• Government ensures full day care coverage
An employee with small children has the right to flexible working hours, regardless of gender.
Norway: - Gender Equality is Smart Politics
http://www.norwayun.org/NorwayandUN/Selected_Topics/Gender_Equality/030209_CSWAHintro/

Cauchon, Dennis. Women Gain and Men Lose Jobs,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-02-womenwork_N.htm

www.ilo.org (International Labor Organization)

Ten Surprising Statistics About Women in the Workplace, Feb 15, 2010
http://collegetimes.us/10-surprising-statistics-on-women-in-the-workplace/

The United Nations Human Development Report 2004
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr04_complete.pdf

The Global Gender Gap Report 2009
http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Women

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Business Ethics Final Exam Question 1/Answer...

1. Some may assume that the values of Democracy are consistent with the values of free-market Capitalism. Others would deny such relevance. Armatya Sen provides a compelling argument for the universal appeal to Democracy, and claims that economic growth works best when melded with democratic principles. The question is, is Democracy a necessary condition for there to be economic growth, or is rather merely sufficient?

I do not believe that Democracy is a necessary condition for there to be economic growth. It may seem as though Democracy is consistent with free market Capitalism, but it isn’t necessarily so. While, from the western point of view, Democracy may seem like a universal value, it is not now, nor has it ever been valued universally.
The obvious case in point is China. The Communist Party of China wields vast and strict control over all areas of life in China including religion, communication, entertainment, education, labor, and politics, however they have relinquished small amounts of control over economy, industry and agriculture. China began moving toward economic liberation in the 1970’s under the unofficial rule of Deng Xiaopeng after the death of Chairman Mao in 1976. Deng Xiaopeng astutely moved the Soviet style planned economy into a more functional mixed economy under the one party rule. This system is termed Market Socialism. The transition first occurred in Special Economic Zones set up to experiment with pseudo-private ownership of agriculture to estimate if there were increases in productivity. The increase was dramatic enough for the government to extend the idea of pseudo-private property ownership to manufacturing as well. Although there is privatized industry, it is strongly controlled and regulated by the single party government.
The result of this economic liberation is that China has become the fastest growing major economy. China is the largest exporter and the second largest importer of goods. China’s economy has averaged 10% growth annually since 1981. The poverty rate in China has moved from 53% in 1981 to just 8% in 2001, which is extraordinary considering the population is estimated to be around 1,338,613,000. The standard of living is lower than that in the United States. The current poverty rate in the United States falls between 13 and 17%. According to the World Bank website, China is the third largest economy behind the United States and Japan. The Gross Domestic Product of China is slated to surpass that of the United States by 2027. In January of this year, China co-founded the Association of South East Asia or the Asean 6 Free Trade Zone, comprised of six countries and over 2 billion people. It is the largest free trade zone in the world.
The United States established their “economic engagement” policy toward China in 2000. This policy allows for trade with an otherwise closed country. When the United States granted China basic trading rights, it was with the hope that China would gradually lean toward democracy as a result of the influx of international (US) money and western cultural influence. The Chinese government relaxed travel restrictions both in and out of China. The Chinese became aware of the outside world and the Communist Party of China could only censor the inflowing information and news so much. Ten years later, the hope of democracy in China has not been realized, to the disappointment of the United States and most of the western world. This is largely in part to Chinese Nationalism, which is greatly misunderstood and underestimated. That, coupled with the rapid industrialization of industry and the enormous decrease in poverty, has only strengthened Nationalism. Communism is stronger than ever in China, and with the general increase in the quality of life, there is less and less resistance toward the communist government. China has become a major economic superpower without Democracy; therefore Democracy is not a necessary condition for economic growth.

Shirk, Susan. China, Fragile Superpower, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007
Spence, Jonathan, The Search for Modern China, Norton & Company, New York, 1999
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html/China

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

San Francisco in the Morning

Morning is quiet downtown. There are only a handful of tourists wandering about and the occasional native scurrying to work. I am sitting outside the “Il CafĂ©” at Union Square with my steaming coffee, watching. It is brisk and damp. The square is filling with artists and their easels peddling their wares, a lifetime of their labours, to hopeful buyers seeking an alternative to the trinkets found in tacky souvenir shops scattered across the city.

It is a life long tradition for me to take a little piece of art home from where ever I travel, so, I feel particularly lucky today as I watch the artists unpacking their volumes of work.
Paintings, drawings and photos are carefully displayed showcasing their best features and carefully concealing the reality. Prices are rarely high and never on display. Mostly, there are the typical sketch painting street scenes in duplicate and European city photography intermingled with fantasy done in acrylics or pastels, colorful landscapes, and harsh abstracts. I generally gravitate toward the street scenes representative of the city scenes of my travels, but today I am drawn to a piece of fantasy. Not usually my style. This piece is vibrant and strangely comforting. It is a smattering of flowers on the surface of a pond cut at a cross section. The scene reveals a book resting in the sand at the bottom of the water. Streams of light and flowers flow upward from the book, like knowledge or wisdom. Quite an interesting concept. Art fascinates and provokes.

In a city like San Francisco, the people often become works of art glazed in fashion embellished with monochromatic accessories. An older woman in an orange Capri length track suit, matching sun visor, sandals, and bag, trimmed with a salmon colored silk scarf, floats past me, coffee in hand and newspaper tucked under her arm. Blue and white nautical stripes appear on men, women, and children, jazzed up with splashes of vibrant red. Dark crisp suits and glossy polished shoes on a cool Saturday morning prove that elegance transcends even on the weekend, in the city. Ladies, young and old, are teetering on sky-high heels, patterned tights, swathed in scanty shirtdresses or mini skirts. Confections of jewels and encrusted glitter dripping from their subdued attire are starkly contrasting with the scrubbed clean, freckled and blond, natural types in faded levis and skin tight tee shirts that show off their taut forms.

San Francisco doesn’t seem like a city for lovers but more for faded companionship. The coolness and indifference lingering in the air extinguishes the passion and lusty sensuality found in Rome and the romance exuding in Paris. Yet, there are tinges of deep seeded intellectualism similar to that of New York City but San Francisco lacks the pretentious nature. This is a town that is for sale. The city is a chameleon that blends to meet your needs and wants. Truly cosmopolitan in that everyone can find a place to feel at home or completely alone. It’s a sentiment that is left completely up to the level in which you let yourself mesh with the vast diversity. Ultimately, San Francisco is like a beautiful watercolor painting caught in a sudden rain.