Google honors Cesar Chavez but not Easter on Easter- Why?

Well Easter 2013 has come and gone..

Its not something we overly celebrate but we have respect for those who do, which it seems makes us the exception rather than the rule, especially as far as corporations are concerned.

Take Google..

We really weren't aware of it but it was brought to our attention by someone in our inner circle that for Google's "doodle".. that is to say the little artistic picture that the search site often uses to acknowledge special days..  Easter was once again completely ignored.

Instead, was a doodle honoring labor leader Cesar Chavez, whom two years prior President Obama stated March 31st being a day to honor him.  Thus the excuse was given to ignore the real meaning and significance of yesterday for a billion or so people...

This is what the doodle looked like:

Now we at A&G are not interested in defending nor disparaging Chavez nor even Google..

We know why the decision was made this year and in previous years to completely ignore both any Christian or even secular references (easter eggs, bunny rabbits, etc..) to the holiday...

It comes down to two reasons:

1)  Google does not want to offend China.

They are currently the #2 search engine in China behind a search engine called Baidu, and remember, China's population is 1.321 Billion... That's a little more than a full billion people more than the total population of the US.

Now the People's Republic of China does not recognize Christianity as having much significance in their nation.  Even though there are probably 75-80 million Christian Chinese that only represents 5-6% of the populace at most..

Officially, the government census minimizes them even more so.. In 2000 they stated their national census counted only 4 million Chinese Catholics and 10 million Protestants.

So you see that to put anything pro-Christian on their website is a dangerous proposition for Google in their goal to maintain a foothold in China.

You think our reasoning is unfounded, perhaps??

Not only has Google for many years capitulated to China's demands that many websites be censored to Chinese users based on content leaders feltdeemed worthy of blockage of access, but have at various times assisted China with spying on the Gmail accounts of Chinese citizens.

The only reason Google ever took a stand of any kind against the Chinese government was their servers were hacked by China in 2010 and the symbolism offended Google greater than any fear of profit loss.

Also remember, Google is an international corporation.. they profit in many nations where Christian populations are minimal to non-existent in size.

So why would they want to go out of their way to offend groups easily offended in order to placate a group of people who pretty much tolerate everything?

And this kinda leads to point #2 why Christians are disrespected..

2)  Practicing Christians aren't really that important to Google's business model.

Really that statement can apply to a lot of companies, especially the ones who think they're clever-clever by smushing Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Kwanza into the pathetic umbrella of 'Happy Holidays'..

~ Notice the safe symbols Google uses to acknowledge Christmas-- a snowflake, Santa, a bell, a snowman, a candle and a gift box..

Its the ultimate disrespect to anyone who has any core faith or religious conviction in any belief system.  Its saying.. "Eh.. whatever it takes to get your $$ without offending others since we want their $$ equally so.."

The business mindset is: Christians can have their 'Santa', Rudolph and Frosty and everything in red/green motif..  For the Jews, we'll have those spinning top toys, um..um.. dridels displayed everywhere.. harmless enough.. OK, they're appeased..

Muslims?  not sure what to do about them but as long as we don't display crosses or Stars of David anywhere, they should stay calm, and those Kwanza celebrators? Well, technically their 'faith' doesn't start till after Christmas so we'll worry about them then...'

Let's be very cut and dry about it...  look through an advertiser's eyes...

Who's more likely to try new things... to leach on to new looks and fads?  To need the latest toys, gadgets and gizmos to show off to their friends, neighbors and co-workers...  To need to shop to fill the inner void...

Is it the person of faith who is content with their belief system and place in this world and who embraces a certain level of orthodoxy of custom and tradition in their religion; a person who has a scheduled yet happy life full of work, family time and church or synagogue or mosque

OR

Someone more secular and open in their belief system; someone more accepting of different points of view and lifestyles as they will ultimately be more accepting of different products and services sold in different wrappers and slogans;  someone needing to show the world they are special and different and unique.. a never-ending quest through consumption...

Both kinds of people are good.. there are no 'baddies' here..

~ Everyone's opening presents & have no reasoning as to why.. Yay!

But Madison Avenue finds the second option much more desirable than the first... Dramatically so.  And thus businesses like Google and even entertainment will craft and cater content to appease and please the secularist because that's where the money is.

Remember, how do advertisers get you to buy toothpaste and cookies and soap?  Temptation..  And what is it that people of faith fight because it goes against religious teaching?  Yes.. Temptation..

See the conflict?

It's really no different than how media and advertisers discriminate with age.  Which group of people are treated by advertisers and Hollywood with the greatest insignificance and irrelevance?

Yes..the elderly... and why?  Because statistics show that once people reach their late 50's, they reached the peak of what they're going to spend.  Instead, this is a time of contraction...

Generally speaking, the kids have left the house so no need for a 4bedroom, 3 bath home...  No need for the extra furnishings, the family SUV.. etc.. If one has a business, they're in the process of selling it to another or just closing up shop.. etc...

But because people by this age are pretty set in their ways and shopping preferences, it takes more than scantily clad bikini girls and cool, hip slogans to get someone 60+ years old to try a new soda or automobile brand..  It takes the one thing businesses don't want to do..

Lowering of the price.

So the elderly are ignored like Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus who actually practice their faith and have contentment inside from it..

So Google knows those offended by their lack of acknowledgment over Easter will make a mini-stink but there will be no sincere, effective boycott.. No sincere harm to Google's profit or its stock market share value..

As long as their shareholders are happy with no Easter acknowledgement, then there never will be one in the future

So the only real question left is this... Those who genuinely care and are sincerely upset-- how can you organize and galvanize so that maybe next year Google will do the right thing?

Only you out there can answer that..

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Norway: A rare example of a Successful economy

As we end another week here at A&G, we thought we'd shift our attentions from nations who are economic failures and frack-ups (Yes, the word 'frack' is intentional... our swear jar is already filled to capacity after the whole Cyprus fiasco)

So we turn our eyes to northern Europe; a a very beautiful country that admittedly we fell in love with during the 1992 Winter Olympics in Lilyhammer...   Norway.

Norway is the envy of the world: growth is strong, per capita GDP has exceeded $100,000 and the nation sits on a $700 billion rainy day cash reserve, or $140,000 per man, woman and child.

This is due to a combination of Middle East-style oil wealth combined with a generous Nordic welfare model.

What is more interesting than finding a success story amid the the economic rot and sewage which is Europe thanks to the continued existence of the Eurozone, is how others want to portray all Norway's successes as negatives or impediments.

We found a Reuters article last Sunday on this topic entitled, "Sitting on too much money, Norway risks going off course".  Just reading that title made us shake our heads in irritation..

Here's some 'nuggets' from the silly Reuters article..

"It may just be too much money as Norwegians, more keen on leisure and family life are working less and less.  Immigration is not filling the gap in the skilled part of the workforce, so productivity is stagnating, wages are surging and firms are pricing themselves out of their own market."

Isn't that terrible!  Norwegians have more time to spend with their families where its well documented that children are more likely to be raised properly and live healthy, normal lives from a stable two-parent home...

Just awful... Don't they know it would be so much better if they made dramatically less salary, worked longer hours and paid less taxes so there'd be far fewer social services.

And those poor firms!!  Those poor corporations..  Making them pay good wages and 28% corporate tax rate...  Its just so mean!

Why can't these people be miserable, personality-less entertainment-addicted zombies like us, dag-nabbit?!

Continuing...

"Wage costs are up 63 percent since 2000, about six times more than in Germany or Sweden... Unemployment is a barely visible 3 percent as more prefer part time work...

The government recently warned that unless working hours are increased by 10 percent over time, the state will eventually start eating into its savings. The central bank also warned that the welfare model is simply encouraging people to leave the labor market."

Ahh... here's the real Alice In Wonderland 'black is white' Kicker...  Everything that is supposedly to be Good about a nation--  Everything that a nation is supposed to strive for-- extremely low unemployment, good wages, free time to pursue other interests or family bonding, minimal to no poverty, low crime,etc...

Its all treated as 'Bad'.

Banks can't profit off people when times are good.  You want to buy a car or a home.. maybe you take out a loan for 50% the total... or 25%... or pay free and clear... And how can any bank gouge you for 5-30 years then??

How can there be debt slaves when people aren't getting into debt??

And what's the #1 cause for adults over 30 years old getting into severe debt-- enough to end up going bankrupt??   Medical bills.

And how can you make the Nordic people suffer financially if their welfare system takes care of everyone?  Or complain about the drain on the costs to the national economy when so much income is being generated that no one's complaining over the taxes?

See what we mean... gotta follow the dots..

Norway has a budget surplus of 12% of GDP. We in the US as well as most nations in the world are running deficits...  Which is better?   Correct..

In the US as well as most nations, the people serve four purposes-- Work, pay taxes, consume and obey the law...  If they aren't working, you the government can't tax them to death and profit off each person living and breathing...

Few governments will say this openly but its in no one's interest to have a society where productive work is accomplished in 80% the time, leaving endless leisure time for citizens to pursue their dreams or worse have time to actually follow political news.

Governments get away with murder simply because a vast percentage are soooo exhausted mentally and physically from work, they want to watch silly, light fluff on TV to relax them rather than watch or read news.... Just too tiring...

The reason its important to know how government values you is simple-- so that you and we, and everyone in between learn to look at ourselves as Individuals and not accept the Collectivist mindset that the decisions of a few or one affecting us all, is a good thing.

Norway is the economy the world should be tirelessly striving to be like..Instead, with a 'Billy Budd'-like envy (Herman Melville short story about everyone jealous of a genuinely good looking man), the goal is to create warts where none exist..

If/when there's another global crash, it will be nations like Norway and Canada who ride out the storm pretty well in comparison to others...

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