Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Business
It was one of those early summer Friday afternoons, the warm light baking the sticky sidewalks, the smell of grilled meat billowing from some happy grill somewhere, that make you want to head to that timeless child inside and gather your books and burn them because school is out for summer!
Continplating a paticular desire to burn my Russian-English Oxford dictionary, and pee on the ashes, I tacitly ordered my favorite coffee, for fair Coffee Beans was where we laid our scene that fine day! Yes, Chisinau’s dear oasis for us addicts, otherwise so terribly jaded by those unspeakable pieces of rat fecies, also called instant coffee mix, that pollute Moldova.
I was so happy to be at Coffee Beans, in fact, that I didn’t even care that my date was 20 minutes late, or 10 minutes early if we’re doing the Moldovan thing. No matter, I just ordered a rich Mexicana blend, nailing the Russian, as usual, for how many times have I chopped up those mystical words, “Я бы хотел заказать мекциканю, как обычно.”
Yes, just as Gastby had the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, I believe in my Coffee Beans. When the bust driver yelled at me that morning because I bought my ticket at the ticket counter of all places, I didn’t let it bother me, for I was distracted by the tiny coffee beans dancing off in the distance. Look at you little arabica in your sunglasses, all right guy, you got it! And now I’m here and everything is perfect. Look, here it comes. So fast, Oh, excellent. Still hot, but I think I’m going to go ahead and take just a little sip here...“$&#%!”, what the “@*#$”!, this is “@*$&#^@” pain oh yea! The mother *$&^@$ mug. I want it to... Ahh skulls, death, and smashed things!
In case you haven’t guessed it, the coffee mug had unprovokingly exploded all over my lap before I even got a sip in. The waitress pretended she didn’t see it, just as she pretended she didn’t look like a dead rat, with all that make-up and stuff. I even had to ask her for napkins. When the bill came she charged me for both the coffee and the glass, as I knew she would. As I looked over the check I told my date, who had just arrived, that I hated her, and then justified a preemptive invasion of Moldova.
The story I have just told is all true, and is one of hundreds of examples of poor business practicies that I have witnessed since arriving in Moldova a year ago.
ПУСК is our plan to do something about it. ПУСК is a 3 day seminar that introduces young Moldovans to the essentials of business and economics. Through classroom instruction, hands-on activities, educational games, simulation of economic models, and computer excersises, students will learn what it takes to start a succsssful business in a free-enterprise economy. At the end of the course each student participates in a presentation for a new business idea he or she developed utilizing the techniques taught during the seminar. ПУСК also seeks to engage the students outside the classroom with such activities as ultimate frisbee, basketball, movies, and more.
Obviously, 3 days is not a long, but, if nothing else, I want the kids to learn that business is a serious discipline that demands to be studied. We also want to kids to realize that, in order to be succsesful in business, they need to create something of value for their customers, or in other words, develop a succsesful business not by scamming people out of their money off but by providing them with a good or a service that improves their lives.
I haven’t been back to Coffee Beans since that faithful day. If they would have known anything about business they would have considered that it’s 9 times more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep one.
Continplating a paticular desire to burn my Russian-English Oxford dictionary, and pee on the ashes, I tacitly ordered my favorite coffee, for fair Coffee Beans was where we laid our scene that fine day! Yes, Chisinau’s dear oasis for us addicts, otherwise so terribly jaded by those unspeakable pieces of rat fecies, also called instant coffee mix, that pollute Moldova.
I was so happy to be at Coffee Beans, in fact, that I didn’t even care that my date was 20 minutes late, or 10 minutes early if we’re doing the Moldovan thing. No matter, I just ordered a rich Mexicana blend, nailing the Russian, as usual, for how many times have I chopped up those mystical words, “Я бы хотел заказать мекциканю, как обычно.”
Yes, just as Gastby had the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, I believe in my Coffee Beans. When the bust driver yelled at me that morning because I bought my ticket at the ticket counter of all places, I didn’t let it bother me, for I was distracted by the tiny coffee beans dancing off in the distance. Look at you little arabica in your sunglasses, all right guy, you got it! And now I’m here and everything is perfect. Look, here it comes. So fast, Oh, excellent. Still hot, but I think I’m going to go ahead and take just a little sip here...“$&#%!”, what the “@*#$”!, this is “@*$&#^@” pain oh yea! The mother *$&^@$ mug. I want it to... Ahh skulls, death, and smashed things!
In case you haven’t guessed it, the coffee mug had unprovokingly exploded all over my lap before I even got a sip in. The waitress pretended she didn’t see it, just as she pretended she didn’t look like a dead rat, with all that make-up and stuff. I even had to ask her for napkins. When the bill came she charged me for both the coffee and the glass, as I knew she would. As I looked over the check I told my date, who had just arrived, that I hated her, and then justified a preemptive invasion of Moldova.
The story I have just told is all true, and is one of hundreds of examples of poor business practicies that I have witnessed since arriving in Moldova a year ago.
ПУСК is our plan to do something about it. ПУСК is a 3 day seminar that introduces young Moldovans to the essentials of business and economics. Through classroom instruction, hands-on activities, educational games, simulation of economic models, and computer excersises, students will learn what it takes to start a succsssful business in a free-enterprise economy. At the end of the course each student participates in a presentation for a new business idea he or she developed utilizing the techniques taught during the seminar. ПУСК also seeks to engage the students outside the classroom with such activities as ultimate frisbee, basketball, movies, and more.
Obviously, 3 days is not a long, but, if nothing else, I want the kids to learn that business is a serious discipline that demands to be studied. We also want to kids to realize that, in order to be succsesful in business, they need to create something of value for their customers, or in other words, develop a succsesful business not by scamming people out of their money off but by providing them with a good or a service that improves their lives.
I haven’t been back to Coffee Beans since that faithful day. If they would have known anything about business they would have considered that it’s 9 times more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep one.
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