This I Too Believe - "All Men Are My Brothers"

While driving this afternoon and listening to NPR, as I always do, I was taken by this short essay by James A. Michener. I was familiar with at least one of this Pulitzer Prize winner’s work, but it is this essay, “All Men Are My Brothers”, that I probably not forget as it is a lifting message. I looked around and found the essay and a recording of the same reading I heard on the radio. I like to share it with you. You can listen to "All Men Are My Brothers" here or read it below.
The http://thisibelieve.org/ site I discovered today is a gem, from what I read so far I can tell you I will be doing some reading here from time to time.

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I believe that all men are brothers. I really believe that every man on this earth is my brother. He has a soul like mine, the ability to understand friendship, the capacity to create beauty. In all the continents of this world, I have met such men. In the most savage jungles of New Guinea, I have met my brother, and in Tokyo, I have seen him clearly walking before me.

In my brother’s house, I have lived without fear. Once in the wildest part of Guadalcanal I had to spend some days with men who still lived and thought in the old stone age, but we got along together fine. In the South Pacific, on remote islands, I have sailed and fished with brown men who were in every respect the same as I.

Around the world I have lived with my brothers and nothing has kept me from knowing men like myself wherever I went. Language has been no barrier, for once in India, I lived for several days with villagers who didn’t know a word of English. I can’t remember exactly how we got along, but the fact that I couldn’t speak their language was no hindrance. Differences in social custom never kept me from getting to know and like savage Melanesians in the New Hebrides. They ate roast dog, and I ate Army spam, and if we had wanted to emphasize differences, I am sure each of us could have concluded the other was nuts. But we stressed similarities and, so long as I could snatch a Navy blanket for them now and then, we had a fine old time with no words spoken.

It was in these islands that I met a beat-up, shameless old Tonkinese woman. She would buy or sell anything, and in time we became fast friends and I used to sit with her, knowing not a word of her curious language, and we talked for hours. She knew only half a dozen of the vilest English obscenities, but she had the most extraordinary love of human beings and the most infectious sense of this world’s crazy comedy. She was of my blood, and I wish I could see her now.

I believe it was only fortunate experience that enabled me to travel among by brothers and to live with them. Therefore I do not believe it is my duty to preach to other people and insist that they also accept all men as their true and immediate brothers. These things come slow. Sometimes it takes lucky breaks to open our eyes. For example, if I had never known this wonderful old Tonkinese woman, I might not now think of all Chinese as my brothers. I had to learn, as I believe the world will one day learn. Until such time as experience proves to all of us the essential brotherhood of man, I am not going to preach or scream or rant.

But if I am tolerant of other men’s prejudices, I must insist that they be tolerant of me. To my home in rural Pennsylvania come brown men and yellow men and black men from around the world. In their countries I lived and ate with them. In my country they shall live and eat with me. Until the day I die, my home must be free to receive these travelers and it never seems so big a home or so much a place of love as when some man from India or Japan or Mexico or Tahiti or Fiji shares it with me. For on those happy days, it reminds me of the wonderful affection I have known throughout the world.

I believe that all men are my brothers. I know it when I see them sharing my home.

James A. Michener wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Tales of the South Pacific, during his naval service in World War II after seeking a transfer from a desk job in Washington to the Pacific theater. Michener’s literary career spanned 50 years and 40 books.

Are Data Executives Salaries Under Pressure?

On June 25th at the FISD General Meeting in NY, Dale Richards, CEO, Lakefront Ventures presented preliminary results of the “Data Management & Financial Information Professional Salary Survey”. While it is difficult to draw conclusions from the data collected, it creates a baseline for future year’s comparisons. We will need more data before we can extract trends and have a big story to tell. But it is a great start. If you have not already done so, go to http://www.lakefrontdatajobs.com/salarysurvey to participate in the survey and register to receive future results.

There are interesting observations based on current events which may be supported by this sampling. Due to past consolidations, outsourcing and the busting of various bubbles, there has been a definite downward pressure on salaries. But the ground lost does not appear to be great and I would venture to say there will be a bounce back relatively soon. In my mind the reason for a quick recovery is simple, as for every action there is a reaction.

Consolidation - now economists and governments are assessing the dangers of too-big-to-fail organizations. There will be room for spin-offs and divestitures which may benefit the employment in the low to mid level in technology, analytics and data management space. Most of it I expect to be voluntary, a strong motivation being to focus on core business and keep regulators at bay. Nevertheless job losses are expected and consequently downward pay pressures will exist but probably felt most acutely in the high end of the pay scale. In the sell side and data vendor space we have examples of consolidation such as JPMorgan-Bear Sterns, Barclay-Lehman, Wells Fargo-Wachovia and Thomson-Reuters where top jobs were eliminated. The boutique organizations or other areas will not be able to support the previous compensation of the laid off managers. Consequently we will see an impact on the over 100k ranges.

Outsourcing - probably the biggest downward pressure on salaries on the lower to mid of the scale is also being re-evaluated. You will hear lots of talk about the cost and difficulties in managing these relationships. Onshore or nearshore is the new focus. The benefits are clear: improved cost in communications and access to new local or near pools of talent. Let's not forget political pressures to limit outsourcing. Some form of outsourcing will continue albeit more cautiously and to new near locations. Opportunities will be available to some low to mid experience managers who retain extensive knowledge of the business.

The Bubbles - The reaction to the economic, speculative bubbles and the unchecked excesses of the past dozen years has been taking shape over the last few months and will be likely to produce results -- not only in the financial industry but in the whole US economy. Economists and regulators are focusing on creating new tools to recognize and prevent future bubbles. With the promise of greater oversight and, to some extent, re-engineering of the economy, this task will rally heavily on IT and data professionals. So the new development in these areas should cause the salaries to trend up.

By the way, go to the Inside Reference Data site and read the Majority of Data Executives "Earn $100,000+" story where I was quoted.