 |
|
 |
Society
May 01, 2012 02:08 AM
In 1989, a young college student named Alkesh Patel started volunteering in Portland, Oregon with the local chapter of a brand new nationwide organization called the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA). His goal was to help immigrants such as himself better understand the opportunities offered by America’s world of work.
Over the years, Alkesh Patel and AAHOA have both grown.
Today, Alkesh Patel – who was born in Nadiad, India and came to the United States in 1986 – is a successful entrepreneur who together with his wife, his four sisters, and his brothers-in-law own and operate eight hotels in the Pacific Northwest.
Today, AAHOA has 11,000 members and is one of the most influential groups in the hospitality industry with an ambitious agenda of programs on such topics as fair franchising, advocacy, education, member services, and community involvement.
Now in May during AAHOA’s Annual Convention being held in Atlanta, Alkesh Patel begins his one-year term as ...more
Mar 28, 2012 07:26 AM
The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) is one of the most powerful and most respected voices in the hospitality industry – and since the group’s Annual Convention last June in Las Vegas, it has continued its ambitious agenda under the chairmanship of Hemant Patel. Indeed, during the past year, AAHOA has scored significant new achievements in such key areas as political advocacy, fair franchising, and charitable giving.
Founded in 1989, AAHOA has almost 11,000 members who together own more than 20,000 hotels with a combined property value of almost $130 billion. These hotels employ almost 600,000 full-time and part-time workers with a $9.4 billion payroll. While these statistics are impressive, even more significant is the measurable impact of AAHOA’s many important initiatives in four key programs areas: professional development; advocacy; products and services; and community involvement. These “pillars of progress” are helping today to build a better tomorrow for AA ...more
Oct 31, 2011 12:29 PM
Ten years ago, America had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now it has no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash. Or so the joke goes.
Only, it’s no joke. The line is pretty close to reality in the US. The less said about Europe the better. Both the US and Europe are in decline. I was asked by a business channel in 2008 about recovery in the US. I mentioned 40 quarters and after that I was never invited for another discussion.
Recently, another media person asked me the same question and I answered 80 quarters. He was shocked since he was told some “sprouts” of recovery had been seen in the American economy.
It is important to recognize that the dominance of the West has been there only for last 200-and-odd years. According to Angus Maddison’s pioneering OECD study, India and China had nearly 50 percent of global GDP as late as the 1820s. Hence India and China are not emerging or rising powers. They are retrieving their original position.
In 1990, the share of the G-7 in world GDP (on a pu ...more
Sep 27, 2011 11:28 AM
History mirrors culture and traditions of a people and defines their social and national identity. No civilization can remain alive if its past values and traditions are not recorded truthfully without any element of fancy, preconceived ideological interpretations and distortion. People who are unaware of their roots will move towards a cultural holocaust and the eventual destruction of their civilization. George Orwell has rightly said: “The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their History.” He also points out: “Who controls the present controls the past, who controls the past controls the future.”
Unfortunately, victors write history of vanquished people and their civilizations and the Indian history is no exception. It was imperative for the British for their imperialist rule to portray Indians as an inferior and primitive people in respect of their culture, education, traditions and intellectual accomplishments. Some of t ...more
Aug 24, 2011 12:24 PM
The medieval Christian Church considered the state as its secular arm. During the time of European Renaissance, the European intellectuals defied and challenged the Church’s teachings, breaking the hold of the church over the state. Thus, the term secularism was accepted to characterize the worldly concern irrespective of the Biblical dogmas. Though the majority of Europeans are Christians, their nations are governed today by the common laws for all citizens irrespective of their religious beliefs and without any interference from the church. The United States separated the state from the church with the passage of the First Amendment.
While legally the state does not recognize any particular religion, in practice all European and American leaders and government heads practice and participate actively and openly in the Christian religious functions and festivals. For example, Christian holidays like Christmas and New Year are observed as state holidays throughout Europe and America ...more
Apr 26, 2011 11:42 AM
A colleague called me the other day for some advice on productivity. He was going to be doing some training for a client who wanted a short segment on time management.
I asked him to tell me about their problem.
He told me his client has a team of sales professionals who are frustrated with having to do a lot of paper work, but it has to get done. They want to know how they can be better or more productive at the paper work.
I asked him how much money they make while filling out the paper work. He said, "Nothing. But it's part of the process and has to be done."
"Can or will the company hire a person to fill out the paper work for them?"
"No."
"I'm imagining that the sales professionals are on commission and earn their money when they're sitting in front of prospects, toe-to-toe, giving presentations. Am I correct?"
"Yes."
"Then the best use of their time that would make the company and themselves the most amount of money in the least amount of time would b ...more
Sep 21, 2010 01:51 AM
The recession and its aftermath have already pushed down some older workers. In figures released last week by the Census Bureau, the poverty rate among those 55 to 64 increased to 9.4 percent in 2009, from 8.6 percent in 2007. Since the economic collapse, there are not enough jobs being created for the American population as a whole, much less for those in the twilight of their careers. Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older. Nearly half of them have been unemployed six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate in the group -7.3 percent - is at a record, more than double what it was at the beginning of the latest recession.
After other recent downturns, older people who lost jobs worried about how long it would take to return to the work force and also that they might never recover their former incomes. The truth is that it will take years to absorb the giant pool of unemployed at the economy’s recent pace, many of the ...more
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
