On The Other Hand

Musings with Old Friends : V

On balance, it may be fair to speculate on Western types here in Asia in the same way that we enthused in Musings (IV) regarding Indic types in the West. Its curious that with regards to Western types we may be referring to the physical personality experience in Asia ... a bit of ' the world's a stage,' and referring to people in the different walks of life ... a case of ' hands-on ' on life and its many activities, not ' screen presentations.'

At the top of the ladder is the corporate CEO of any of Asia's public companies. His management style is one of picking on the mind of his directors and officers and then returning to them later with what appears to be his decision making regarding issues. Carries a chip on his shoulder like royalty, insists on total support and promotes that as the all important norm in the workplace.

Then there is the think-tank. That's an older gentlemen, distinguished academic background, speaks softly and may be gender ambiguous. Unlike the CEO this gentleman does his own research and is not short on data. However he waits for others to affirm or approve his findings and keeps insisting sometimes that the study results should be named after him.

Finally, there's the lawyer or the legal eagle if you prefer. Kicks a*s, speaks like law is his blood and that he may be related to old man Moses himself. But it comes at a price. The greater the cause of justice the greater the fee, naturally.

A thinking man over here in Asia, himself engaged in a vocation and concerned about his virtue gets help from the most unlikely place ... the Indic types he imagines are running the Western experience over there. All in all, learning to speak well and communicate is highly important without getting yourself all garbled and tongue-tied and inviting people to stare at you in quiet disbelief. 

The organization that a person goes through at a personal and professional level is everything, especially if you expect to communicate to a wide audience. People have referred to this as juggling, muddling, fondling ... fondling? ... and grappling. That's a little of what the old Conger didn't teach to the mock turtle in the school under the sea. Well ... hjrrk! ... there's always the griffin.