The pandemic has accelerated something that began a long while ago, something that could be called the ethos of work. Back in the 50’s and 60’s one did what the employer wanted. Award winning movies of that era like The Man in The Grey Flannel Suit or The Apartment depict the personal sacrifices an employee had to make in order to climb the corporate ladder or even in some instances keep their job. Slowly the balance has shifted and selling out to the corporation or company that employs you in some circles has become a taboo. People want a job that fits within their ethical views, a job that has meaning. The pandemic contributed to a change in the 9 to 5 model being outdated, but it also accelerated the meaning of work. People are earning more and they are demanding more, they want better work conditions, but also they want all this within a job that fits their values and sometimes personalities. Instead of fitting themselves to the demands of the job, they expect the job to fit withing their demands and expectations. This is particularly so of millennials and the younger generation Z. There are no studies as yet that document this, yet researchers are noticing the shift. What I think is relevant is that whereas work was something one had to do and which was usually outside the main of one’s life, work now has to be more a part of oneself, has to reflect who one is. The word passion is used a lot by those describing the change, people want to feel passionate about the job they have. There are exceptions of course, compromises one willingly makes, or perhaps even people who have to accept the work there is whether or not they are passionate about it, but it does not change the trend, the movement forward that equality between employee and employer is gaining momentum.
June 2022
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Elizabeth The Human Being
Now that the festivities of the Jubilee are over and the excitement abated one can stop and look at the life of Elizabeth II in plainer terms without the context of her belonging to a royal family. She was and is irretrievably a human being and because I believe that our lives are meant to accomplish something or in some small way however slight advance the cause of humanity, I want to acknowledge her, not as a queen, but as a person. To someone like me, and I hope to others, If there is a thread to her life it is not that she was a monarch, but that she placed duty first, in her case that duty leading her to a life of service to country and to those who are called her subjects. Among us rare is the person who is called upon to place duty and service first, much less on a consistent basis. And if we are as were Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King, our lives become what can be called sacrificial. I don’t think of the life of Elizabeth II as a sacrificial life, but it has been a dedicated life, she dedicated her life to a cause greater than herself. In that her example can be useful because many of us can or could be inspired by that kind of accomplishment. Many in both the US and the UK see her through the lens of the monarchy, but if one takes away the crown and look at the person, personal achievement emerges. Here is someone who faced disappointments, her uncle’s, the Duke of Windsor, abdication, which made her queen in waiting, compromise, those she had to make in order to have a marriage that was decades long, compassion, in dealing with a troubled sister, mother’s love in having to handle the issues faced by several of her children. And all of this under the public glare of living in what really is a gilded cage, nor does it include the challenges of what she called her job, dealing with the likes of Winston Churchill when still a young head of state, or later on with Margaret Thatcher, something that for just about any of us would be bound to be intimidating. Many step up to the plate when challenges come, many grow as a result, in that she did not do anything the rest of us can’t do, already do or ought to do. And that’s one reason she is an example: her life reminds us it is possible.
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Anti-Abortion Activists in Spain
Spain as we know is a conservative Catholic country. Yet in 1985 it decriminalized abortion in the case of rape, an abnormal fetus or harm to the physical or psychological health of the mother. In 2014 the law was widened to be abortion on demand for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. In practice the law worked mainly for doctors working in private clinics, those working in public hospitals often refused to perform the procedure. The legality of abortion didn’t of course stop anti-abortion activists, including right to life groups there. 89% of women seeking an abortion reported that they had felt harassed and 66% felt they had been threatened. Now Spain has criminalized harassment or intimidation of women seeking an abortion. It means that anti-abortion activists who try to convince women not to have abortions could face up to a year in jail. The law applies mainly to protests outside abortion clinics but also to the harassment or intimidation of the health care professionals who work there. The legislation was proposed by the prime minister who now plans to go further, making sure that public hospitals are able to practice abortion and also go still further, making it possible for 16- and 17-year-olds to have an abortion without parental consent, something that is possible in France and the UK.
Abortion is a divisive issue in the United States, and the example of deeply religious countries is instructive and encouraging. When abortion is legal in countries like Spain and Mexico, it suggests that somehow, down the road, however far down, the right and freedom to choose in the United States will have to prevail.