Local Talent (1)

Let’s start with retail. When was the last time you had a good shopping experience? The last one in recent history was when Porco went clothes shopping with his Mom. Now Porco’s Mom (hereinafter known as the “PM”) does not buy expensive clothes so Porco was surprised by the attention and service that the PM got in a shop in Raffles City for what was a mid-priced, mid-range item of clothing. Thing was, all the sales staff in the shop were from the PRC.

What Porco really hates is the service in expensive shops – like the high end stationery shop he had to go to the following day. Sure, he was pigging it in his scruffy Sunday sloppies but that was no reason for the ladies in the shop to treat him like mud. So the service you get depends on how you are dressed.

Worse of all, they did not know their product. Now Porco does not expect sales people in a stationery shop to behave like engravers or paper craftsmen but they should at least know what can be done with an order and what alternative are available. And how quickly things can be done.

Back to clothes – Porco really likes shopping at retail outlet malls in the US and Europe. It’s good stuff at low prices, it may be last year’s fashion but they pile them high and sell them quick. Nobody is under any illusion as to why you are there and best of all, the sales staff tend to leave you alone.   

But first …

Porco’s budget wine of the year – Yering Station Shiraz Viognier 2002. $38 from Cold Storage, 91 points from Robert Parker. Fruit, fruit, fruit but what would expect from an Australian wine? Dense but the 5% Viognier really gives it a lift. Cheap cheap, good good, plenty plenty. 

How good is local talent?

Starting this week, Porco begins to look at local talent – how big and how deep is the pool? How easily can they be trained? Why are certain sectors of the economy 15 years behind the rest of the world? Watch this space.

Googlewhacked!

How did we get here? No, this is not an existential question but Porco was idly scrolling down the referring pages to this blog and one section was linked to search engines that got people to this sty on the ether and what words they were searching for. There were lots of wine references and quite a few to art and one phrase that lots of people were searching for happened to be “masala tea” however that was spelt – but Porco was much amused by a search that got one reader here. Stunted beech. What is that? Who searches for stunted beech? How did that link to this blog? Porco is stunned beechless.   

And now, something completely different …

Put the party back into politics! Extend the longevity of an MP’s career! Outsource the boring stuff! Meet the people sessions online or by phone in – Bangalore has it all! Heartlander accents available! If the Indian call centres can do Scottish accents, they can do Singlish! And now, for one parliamentary session only – electric opposition! Just plug in and play! Volume adjustable! Batteries not included!  

In another country, and besides …

When Porco was a young pig, he decided to apply for a training work permit in England. This was straight after university, with no experience whatsover. The permit was given on the basis that once the training was done, Porco would have to leave the country. No extensions were possible.

So Porco trained and left. A few years later, Porco had to get another work permit in England. This time, the permit was renewable and upon renewal, carried a right to remain in the country. Similar to permanent residence.

In both cases, you had to have a job offer before applying and in the application, your prospective employer had to prove they could not find anyone in the UK or the EU who could do your job. Porco received neither encouragement nor incentives from the British government and each time, had to pay the full whack of the going rate of taxes.

The point is, in the West, foreign workers are no less necessary to the economy but they are only tolerated. Not encouraged. Ostensibly, no locals were harmed in the production of the work permits. None of the applicants felt they had a right to be there and in the end, after working some years, some stayed on and others left. They were quickly replaced. It was fluid.

Perhaps it is time now to recognise that people will come to work in a country if there is a good job to be had (in the modern world, there are no more careers, just jobs) and if the economy is thriving, foreigners will want to be part of it. We should start thinking about the first type of work permits Porco described above. We could even call them Foreign Non Talents.