Corroded Liberty

When I visited the statue of liberty, first I appreciated the art and then I said "wish you were here liberty". I think the 'liberty' has been oxidised over the years as the copper statue itself. The only difference is that the copper has gone green but the liberty has gone black!.

Who can say better than the great persian poet Saadi (1200),

Saadi's mausoleum in Shiraz

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.

بنی آدم اعضای یک دیکرند........ که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار....... دگر عضوها را نماند قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی.......... نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

The irony is that, this poem is used to grace the entrance to the Hall of Nations of the UN building in New York, with the call for breaking all barriers.

Where are you Saadi to see that how little and strange your invaluable thoughts have become in our world!

Larger Companies, Greater Graduate Pressure

At last some people have started to realise the predatory and disgusting graduate recruitment process that usually large corporations adopt. The article below by Mike Barnard is only pointing out one of the many facts that unfortunately many graduates are facing today in this country. What these employers don't realise is that, their recruitment attitude will cause a negative feedback on themselves as a consequence.

Employers place unrealistic demands on fresh graduates by Mike Barnard on 7th March 2008
Firsts and 2:1s are unfairly used to benchmark graduates when they apply for jobs.
It is claimed those with anything less than a 2:1 face an uphill struggle to be called for interview as employers look at grades first when choosing potential candidates.
The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) reveals the findings in its Winter Review 2008, claiming employers will discard graduates with lesser qualifications.
It adds this is causing a recruitment shortfall as graduates without a first or 2:1 are ideal candidates for the jobs available, but they are being automatically discarded.
Elspeth Farrar, of the AGCAS, claims companies are placing unrealistic demands on graduates. She said: “There has been a major shift in what companies expect graduates to come out of university with and how prepared [for work] they expect them to be. In the past, employers were more prepared to take the time to train new workers themselves, but the assumption increasingly seems to be that this is the responsibility of universities.
"It seems now that companies are expecting students to come out of university work ready.”
http://www.milkround.com/s4/jobseekers/news/general/editorial_display.asp?newsid=122739

Vincent van Gogh, Orsay museum, Paris

There are only few people (which most of them are dead) I would be very interested to meet. Vincent is one of them.