Hi from sunny Chester, U.K.

Socialist, George Ritzer wrote of the ‘McDonalization of Society’ by which he uses Weberian ideals to explain how American society, followed by other societies worldwide, became principally like a fast-food restaurant.  The modern, fast-food style society operates under dimensions of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control.  Bureaucratic rationality aims to achieve a ‘means to an end’ with the least amount of effort possible, breaking down operations into logical, calculable steps; efficiency is thus achieved with minimum wastage.

When considering fast-food outlets, each item of food is processed, weighed and dispensed to a specific measurement, again, predominantly aided by the use of computerised machines.  Every meal served can therefore be accounted for with virtually no waste to the company; making calculability a working criteria. 

The third dimension of Ritzer’s perspective follows naturally from the other two; if every item is the same, meals are uniform in their limited variety, therefore customers will know what to expect.  Returning to a sense of routine, comfort and pleasure, content in the knowledge that wherever in the world they are, whether ordering from a McDonalds in Dallas, Texas or Chester, they will receive the same sized and the same tasting meal as they would when ordering from a McDonald’s in Dubai. 

Lastly, control over the whole operation comes as a result of the afore-mentioned principles, plus the addition of non-humanised technology replacing human work load.  This dehumanising enables procedures to be controlled leaving little room for human error, innovation or variation.  Control is maintained throughout all processes; over the portion size, control over the raw vegetables used, over the training of the staff and how they prepare, cook and present the food, and finally over the customer. 

By rationalizing operation in such a manner; irrationality occurs.  Although there are benefits to efficient systems, Ritzer suggests that fast-food restaurants no longer supply fast-food.  Queues increase at ‘drive-ins’, health problems increase as a result of the high fat, high sodium and sugary ingredients thus increasing health care expenditure plus environmental consequences and mounted concerns as ever more waste produced by fast-food outlets pollutes the planet.

Do you think ‘McDonaldization’ has well and truly got ‘us’ by the short and curly fries?

I took the kids swimming at one of our newly opened municipal pools earlier this week here in the U.K. The last week of their summer holidays was typically raining and windy so what to do?

“How about a trip to the swimming pool”? I suggested. So we arrived, spent an age getting a ticket to enter (one receptionist you see) and then – to the pool.  I was hoping for a slide – maybe a water jet or an inflatable – no, none of that. Typically, a rectangular whole filled with water (surprisingly warm for a council pool) and a chilly breeze blowing from the ventilation system. Lots of fun to be had in a pool you know:

Rather than have diving contests we played Sharks – one of us is the shark and has to ‘catch’ the others (think tag in a pool), we played jumping in, we played splashing each other, we swam (for a bit), we did all of the above three times and then it was decided to get out. We’d been in there about an hour and a half.

Not bad value for £6 – 1 adult (me) and 3 children – we had a quick play in the park next door and then headed home. The £1 locker money (x2) being spent in the food vending machines on the way out. Of course, driving home, it struck me that it’s pretty crazy really – I mean it’s just a hole filled with water and yet we managed to pass the time quite successfully I thought.

What’s your take – do you have a local pool, is it nice or grotty & when did you last go swimming?

Hi from Dubai flower smellers. Jim here, confessing that this Busta rhymes song really appeals to me at the moment and I invite you to proceed with an open mind and your volume up:

Just added it to the flowers jukebox in forums and invite you to join in there as well or you can add a v after http in comments and throw in a few you tube clips in comments right here.

Comments welcomed here as this tune really does sum Doo-bye up right now or will some find it offensive? Do tell, oil be back later.

It’s getting close to Christmas Holidays for my kids here in Canada. And every day it seems like there is always a Christmas craft that comes home. I love that they do so many things in December, it really is one of my favourite times. So this week a letter to Santa came home and it was so cute that I had to share it. (Keep in mind that he is in Grade 1.)

Dear Santa,

santa claus I love you

How are your reindeer doing?

I want spike the dinosaur Please

Yours truly, Ty

I was so happy to see he had such good manners! And I’m so happy that he only picked one present instead of a million. This is the first Christmas for me in the whole time I have been living from my parents that I don’t have to worry about money. It makes this time a little less stressful. I have always worried that we wouldn’t even be able to afford a turkey most years. Even last year we had to make a trip to the food bank to get food during the holidays. It’s funny how the season has become how much money you have. This year will be so much sweeter because I don’t have to worry.
Do you have everything done and planned for the holidays?

Hi from surreal Dubai flower folk. Jim here still recovering from witnessing Nakheel’s iconic palm island development launch at The 1.5-billion-dollar “Atlantis, The Palm”. Shrugging off the global financial crisis, Dubai toasted a new luxury hotel with a 30 million dollar bash attended by film stars and sporting greats and marked by a spectacular fireworks display – talk about an alternative way to address the global recession:

More than 2,000 world celebrities were invited to the event, which began Thursday night and continued into Friday. Among those who showed up for what the local press described as the “party of the decade” were Hollywood stars Robert de Niro, Charlize Theron, Mischa Barton and Wesley Snipes.

Other notables who walked the red carpet at the  included singers Kylie Minogue, who performed before the fireworks display, Shirley Bassey & Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra and catwalk model Yasmin Le Bon.

Located at the trunk-top of the Palm Jumeirah, one of three palm-shaped islands, Atlantis occupies the entire central part of a huge breakwater and is opulence beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

Is it harsh to view Dubai as having………….

The environmental irresponsibility of Las Vegas, with the megalomaniacal social control of Disneyworld, and the government-sanctioned slave labour of India, all rolled up into a giant mess and inflated with oil money to the point of being visible from the moon.

Or am I having a bad day? How else could I sum this place up? I choose to live here and am determined to make a difference here, despite the bling and inequality around me……

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An OSHO 8a.m ‘Sir, room service, room cleaning ? ‘ morning call was my first glimpse of reality that earned the messenger 100 rupees. It was good he knocked otherwise I’d have probably slept the morning away and claimed man-flu although my calves were STILL slightly sore from dynamic meditation. My cold had dropped from my head onto my chest and throat now so maybe the sauna helped?

I still had plenty of vouchers left to use up for breakfast and with only 1 day of robe wearing left to GO! tucked into a bowl of cereal with Soy milk, a samosa, a bowl of yellow daal and a slice of delicious fresh papaya. Surely every other western lentil eating, Soya drinking guest here really wanted juice, coffee & chocolate?

Enjoying the listening to my Ipod mediation whilst doing a sudoku puzzle I made my way down to the OSHO campus shop….

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Day 6 at the OSHO commune here in Pune where I awoke at 0h! 5.55 a.m. Ideally, I’d like to write how I sprung out of bed with renewed vigor for another round of dynamic meditation.

It wasn’t to be, my calves were now very sore from the 6a.m dynamic meditation session 2 days ago plus I’d developed a nasty unable to breath through my nose head cold that was spreading to my chest. It wasn’t pretty so I switched the A/C off, put a t-shirt on and got back into my wet-with-sweat bed and hit the pillow again. It was either that or a coffee / cwaffy, as panic attacker Tony Soprano would say….

Where are you on the curve? Click on the graph for some peaceful music by Wainwright, Moby & Lennon!

My course! Of course, my course – the memory of my work/life workshop woke me with a start an hour too late as I’d slept through breakfast. It’s an Ashram, I was ill (maybe overdosed on too much too soon meditation) so they’ll understand at least it wasn’t the corporate world where you could be sacked for not phoning in before the 9a.m bell……

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Arvind here, getting back in the swing of things at Flowers.

A recurring topic I come across in my work is this theme of whether one can enjoy their true vocation and become rich at the same time.

For example, do artists always have to struggle or can they make it “big time”? Do they struggle because they are lazy and mediocre?

Looking at the wider picture, is it really possible for us to enjoy what we do and become wealthy through doing that?

With the current turmoil in the financial markets, should we all be revisiting how we gauge success and not just base it on our material things? What does success mean for you?

When you started out in your career or business, did YOU set out to enjoy what you do or did you want to make a lot of money? Or did you compromise your dreams along the way?

A lot of questions. Do share…