Blame the foreigners

If you examine recent history, you will notice that whenever there's some crisis in any country, the foreigners are inevitably used as the boogeyman most often than not. I guess they are easiest and most convinient target to place the blame on. This has happened in India, in Malaysia and now in the UK as well.

It has probably been shimmering below the surface for some time but it has just come out into the open now. Or should I say forced into the open after the BNP made immigration THE issue (they always have) and suddenly they got an audience. Now the Conservatives and Labour both acknowledges that it is an issue of concern in the UK as well. Now foreigners are blamed for almost every problem ranging from unemployment, crowded school places, housing issues, NHS problems, crime and maybe the banking and financial crisis as well. It sounds ridiculous until you realise that a large number of people do really believe that foreigners are the cause of all these problems in the UK.

Who are the foreigners?

I am not really sure what people mean by "foreigners". I assume they mean everyone from outside the UK but talking to people and reading comments on articles, realise that there is a wide range of views. Officially, the term refers to people from outside the EU. They also lump those who are here legally and illegally along with the asylum seekers.

Moreover, reading comments on any article on immigration, you can see that a lot of people actually mean "South Asian and African". Though a lot of people don't admit it but clearly colour of skin and country of origin, is an issue. Hardly anyone talks about Americans, Eastern Europeans, Australians, etc. And if you read all the comments you will find at least one or two comments talking about the rise of Muslim population in the UK.

From time to time, the authorities do try to correct the picture but they are not really doing a good job.There is a need to clear some of the misconceptions.

So are foreigners really taking away the jobs of locals (read EU)?

I seriously doubt it. I know personally how tough it is to get a job here in the UK. You won't get a job unless you are really good and there's no local to fill the job. Of course there are those unscrupulous employers who employ foreigners because they can get away with paying minimum wages (sometimes less) and a lot more. Citizens from other EU countries can travel and work freely here in the UK without the need for any visa and vise-versa of course.  

Many foreigners are students
A large proportion of the non-EU foreigners entering the UK legally are actually students. They pay almost three times as much as the students from the EU countries and I do believe that the education Industry is one of the largest foreign exchange earners for the country regardless of economic climate. Like the US, British universities have been able to attract the brightest brains from all around the World (some countries like India and Malaysia is trying to reverse this brain drain to varying levels of success).

Students are allowed to work part time for a few hours every week (one of the attractions of working in the UK) but the jobs include waiting staff, translators, cleaners and the like if you get what I mean. I was fortunate to get a job as a web developer and later as a part time teacher in the University of Warwick but as I mentioned earlier, depends on your capability and if there's no local around to fill the post. Some students do eventually settle down here and contribute to the intellectual capital and economy of the country (I mean most end up paying taxes and not on the dole). But it getting much tougher after the Government introduced the points system (copied from the Australians?)

Foreigners protecting local jobs
Actually foreigners have created jobs by rescuing or taking over failing British businesses. Talking about failing British companies, they are the main cause of unemployment not foreigners but many don't see it that way. I guess they need to blame someone and the global economy is too vague to blame. Thank God for the welfare state here or there would have been serious problems. The economy is improving but the country is not really fully out of it yet. Hopefully people would be less negative once businesses start thriving and unemployment starts falling.

Anyway, I recall that a number of people here were unhappy when Malaysian car company Proton took over Lotus but I hope they now realise that Proton actually rescued Lotus and saved British jobs in Norfolk. They have recently brought back the British marque back into the Formula 1 with a little help from the Malaysian Govt. There were a lot of snide remarks as well when Tata of India took over Jaguar and Land Rover. With minimum job cuts, they actually made a profit - something Ford had been unable to do in the past. Jaguar Land Rover announced a net profit of £55m (US$140.7 million) end of last year. There are more examples.

Some unsolved issues
I am not saying that there is no immigration issue because there is. The hundreds of illegal immigrants waiting in France to cross over across the channel is an indicator of the problem. For every one caught I am sure a few get through and they are here somewhere. Another issue is that of the asylum seekers. I recently read an article about how many of them (several with families) were left in limbo for several years, unable to work and no certainty about the future. The Govt. definitely needs to look at these issues.

What I hope is that people here would realise that foreigners are not really the source of the problems.

Lush soaps and inspirational words

My wife is a big fan of Lush soaps and we were running low on our stock of bath bombs and soaps. This Monday, on our day out at Coventry city centre with our daughter who's having her Easter break, we took the opportunity to drop by the Lush shop at the Lower Precinct.

For your information, Lush was started by husband and wife Mark and Mo Constantine, who originally supplied cosmetics to Bodyshop. Their handmade soaps are really popular and they now have more than 600 stores in 43 countries. What we like about the company is that they are totally against animal testing, are hand made and they support a number of ethical issues.

After we got back home I was reading what was written on their shopping bag. I am not sure how many of you do that but as a marketing student, I love reading stuff written on packaging. Anyway, I really liked the part about

"We believe that our products are good value, that we should make a profit and that the customer is always right."

And I do believe them.

Greenwich Park

Visited Greenwich Park last Sunday. This was my first visit to the park which is quite near to my sis-in-law's house. The park is said to be oldest enclosed Royal Park in the UK and covers approx. 73 hectares (183 acres).




The daffodils were in full bloom and looked fantastic

Was looking forward to taking some great pictures but let down when I found out that the camera batteries were down. Ended up taking pictures with my old Skypephone but in the end, the results were not that bad.




The Observatory

I was looking forward to going into the Observatory and posing on the Prime Meridian but the gate was closed.


Shepherd gate 24-hour clock


View from the top of the hill

Will definitely be going back again, making sure that the batteries are fully charged.

Earth Hour 2010

Yesterday evening we celebrated Earth Hour 2010 by shutting off all the lights and electrical appliances. It was fun discussing about the environment with our daughter over hot tea and snacks.

Thinking of doing a PhD?

Well Don't!

Nah! I am just joking.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and also hated it, have been ecstatic, depressed and excited in turns and sometimes all at the same time. A PhD is never easy and is a life changing experience. Some had mental breakdowns, miscarriages, breakdown of relationships and some got pregnant (I am not joking). You develop a love-hate relationship with your supervisor and sometimes hate-hate. Only a fortunate few get supervisors that are kind, helpful and considerate.


Ups and Downs

Somehow I have become a guy to contact for prospective PhD students in the Warwick Business School and my weakness is that I always reply to their queries and several of these guys have now started their studies here at the school.  I belive in Karma and sincerely do like helping out people.

The University should actually pay me for my service.

Anyway, I find that the queries are quite similar and it's gets repetitive after a while. After replying to yet another query a couple of minutes ago, I suddenly realised that I could actually have the info up on my blogs and just point them to it. Wonder why I never thought about that.

So given below are some of the key questions to look at before you apply in order to have a better chance of getting into the WBS PhD programme (or any other phD programme for that matter).

1. Is there a gap in research?

For this you will need to read up and see what research has been done
in your area of interest and if there are any gaps in the research that has not been explored. I am not talking of merely changing the context but of gaps in theories. This can be sometimes quite difficult when you are looking at something relatively new - like blogs in my case. Some people commented that being a current topic is great because no body has done it. It is actually problematic because you don't have any or very little research evidence to fall back on to back up your research. It really helps if you are researching a topic you are really interested in because after a while you do get sick of reading about the same things again and again. Fortunately, I am a compulsive blogger and have a deep interest in social media of which, blogs form a very important part.

2. Do you have access to data or subject of study?

This is very important to prove that the research is possible. A number of grand proposals failed because the students simply didn't have access to the data they were looking for. Companies are notoriously difficult to access (naturally) unless you have contact inside.

Thus a good methodology would be required. In other words, how are you going to access and ultimately analyse the data. If you plant to do a quantitative study, it will be helpful to specify the methods and tools you are are going to use to analyse the data.

3. Do you have a prospective supervisor?

Many prospective PhD students make the mistake of applying without looking to see if there is anybody interested in their study. Sometimes a great school doesn't mean that the people are good in your subject area. For example, Warwick Business School may be way better in terms of expertise in a particular suject as compared to Cambridge or Oxford.

There is no point if you have an amazing proposal but no one in the Faculty is interested to take you up as a student. Even if someone is interested,they might not be able to take you up if they already have too many PhD students.

Have a look at the list of experts in your field and approach them directly (via email), providing a brief outline of your proposal. If they respond positively, you can then send in an extended proposal. I even had a chat with my potential supervisor over the phone before I got here.

Once you have covered all the 3 points, you can then proceed with the formal application process.

Finally, do not forget to contact the doctoral programme office in the respective schools with all your queries as well.

My special day

It was my birthday a few days back. Normally I don't make a big deal out of it and usually celebrate it with my wife and kids but this time my sis-in-law and her family joined us. She brought along a lovely cake as well.








We we supposed to go tho the Afghan restaurant in Stoney Stanton but it was closed and we decided to have our lunch at Nando's in the City Centre instead.







Thanks for the delicious cake Eju and Muz.

The cat that came to visit

Sometime back we had to take care of our friend's cat while they went on vacation to Rome. I was a bit apprehensive as my kids never had any pets. I am more of a dog person  and have never had any cats in my life but in the end it turned out ok. The cat actually liked me would come purring and rubbing her side on my legs.


Moreover it was toilet trained and really well behaved. All I had to do was clean the litter and feed her.

My kids loved the cat and my son was fascinated but he probably thought it was a moving teddy bear and tried to hug it and the cat never came near him after that. Ultimately our friends came back and she went back with them. 
It was a nice experience but would I ever keep a cat.Not right now but maybe in the future when we have a bigger house and the kids are big enough to clean the litter ;-)

Hey! Get off my table.