Archive for
April 10th, 2009
Stories
Brazil: Tips to face the crisis from a popcorn street seller
Well before the beginning of the global economic crisis, a Brazilian street seller was on his way to becoming a very famous entrepreneur in the country by doing just one thing: selling popcorn, with a personal touch. 36 year old Valdir Novaki used to work as an itinerant farm labourer, until he arrived in Curitiba, in 1988, where he started working as a newsagent, then as a car park driver. His ambition was to get a license to open a popcorn trolley, and become a successful business man. His ultimate dream was to become the best and best qualified popcorn seller in Brazil. Here is his profile:
"If everyone one can have a website, why shouldn't a popcorn seller have one?"
Contact: Through the “contact” form on the website or mobile phone: (+55) 41-8417-6579
Personal characteristics: Communicative, helpful and observative.
Skills: great ability to understand business opportunities; quick learner from lessons/guidance; great managerial potential; good teaching skills with people of all levels.
It took Valdir 12 years to become licensed by the city council, and by the time his dream came true he had already been in business for 3 years, operating a friend's licensed popcorn trolley which he used to rent. On getting his own license, Valdir was able to sell popcorn on a fixed spot in Tiradentes Square, where he has been working for nearly 3 years. The business quickly flourished, in a quite unusual way for this narrow field. Álvaro Borba [pt] tells us what makes Valdir special, and so attractive to customers: he has managed to innovate in a field that many would think has little room for imagination:
O novo carrinho foi levado para a Praça Tiradentes, o marco zero de Curitiba, e ganhou uma identidade visual feita especialmente para ele. Surgiu, também, o kit higiene, que inclui palito de dente, guardanapo, balinha de hortelã (sempre providencial depois da comilança) e material promocional elogiando a qualidade dos ingredientes, aos quais o pipoqueiro hoje se refere como “insumos”. No bolso frontal dos uniformes usados por ele foram estampados os dias da semana, para que o freguês tenha a certeza de que Valdir não usa hoje a roupa suja de ontem. Por fim, foi criado um plano de fidelidade para beneficiar os mais assíduos e um site (saboreie aqui) para divulgar a marca Pipoca do Valdir.
Valdir offers two main promotions through loyalty cards: with one of them, the customer gets a free bag of popcorn for every five bought. The second, called “a dozen of ten”, the customer pays for ten popcorn bags in advance and gets twelve. In his website, there is a map of his usual spot for new customers to find him and a detailed description of equipment and products, including the providers of his raw materials. Valdir also shares popcorn recipes and curiosities, his customer testimonials and also information about his volunteer work with an institution for disabled people Pequeno Cotolengo and the Cancer Hospital Erasto Gaertner, where he takes his popcorn trolley to entertain kids. There is information regarding his new professional development: business and marketing lectures too.
Valdir, in a lecture for a bank. Picture from his website.
Despite the fact that Valdir only had the opportunity to finish elementary school, he now coaches students and business people of all ranks. For just over a year, Valdir has travelled around Brazil giving motivational lectures, entrepreneurship tips, and maybe some inspiration. Some of his ideas on how to develop business came from Ricardo Coelho [pt], a marketing and business consultant and professor, and a loyal customer of his popcorn. He saw a natural talent in Valdir and has since helped the popcorn seller on the ladder to become a business coach:
Todos nós sabemos da importância em ajudar quem quer ser ajudado e a satisfação de participar do sucesso destes nossos parceiros. Isto ocorre comigo, quando referendo o pipoqueiro Valdir como um exemplo vivo do que é ser empreendedor e como a prática é uma escola com muito mais conteúdo do que muitos livros de grandes pensadores mercadológicos.
Marina [pt], a self confessed popcorn addict, gives us first hand accounts of her experience as a customer and explains why Valdir is her favorite popcorn seller ever:
Com dois reais você compra um BIG pacote de pipoca (que vem com aquela sacolinha para você poder levar melhor pela sua caminhada e onde a ajudante do pipoqueiro faz questão de colocar mais pipoca ). Só que além disso, olha o que é ser pipoqueiro no século XXI: ele coloca um pacotinho com um guardanapo, um palito de dente e uma bala de hortelã. Quer mais do que isso? Ele ainda te atende como se você fosse a melhor cliente, a mais especial e que ele ficou muito feliz em ver! Além de alguns visíveis cuidados de higiene. Para ver, que até no mercado de pipocas é preciso se adaptar… Viva o Valdir, o melhor pipoqueiro do mundo!
The Hygiene Kit - Why didn't anybody think of it before?
Geziane de Mattos Diost [pt] interviews Valdir and confirms that he is extremely friendly, kind and charismatic, a person who knows how to make all customers happy and attend to their every need, always with a large smile on his face. Focus, innovation and creativity are his keywords, but besides, he just loves what he does and that might make his popcorn just more tasty than his competitors':
Mas o sr. Valdir vive sempre assim, de bom humor? “Ah, todo dia eu tô de bom humor. E o segredo pra isso é a gente olhar pra trás. Se a gente olhar pra trás, vai ver que tem gente muito pior que a gente. Eu tô com saúde, tô trabalhando, minha família não tá passando necessidade… então, é só alegria! Dessa forma a gente supera as dificuldades! Tô sempre com o sorriso no rosto porque eu sempre digo que o sorriso é a menor distância entre duas pessoas. E pra eu ser um pipoqueiro eu tenho que estar feliz!”.
Valdir working at his “craft”, as he calls his trolley. Both pictures by Bruna Bazzo, used with the author's permission.
Iraq: Remembering April 9, 2003 - When Sitting on the Fence is Difficult
While the 9th of April 2003 was a defining day in the history of modern Iraq most of us Iraqis can’t really agree on what to call it. Is it the Fall of Baghdad or the Liberation of Baghdad? Using one or the other pins you to one side or the other. Sitting on the fence is difficult.
In previous years, the Iraqi government used to mark the day with a public holiday, calling it simply ‘Baghdad Day’. That’s good fence sitting, don’t you think? This year though Baghdad Day wasn’t a public holiday. A couple of thousand people from both ends of the Shia and Sunni spectrums went out on demonstrations but millions of Iraqis just went on with their lives as if it was any other day.
The Iraqi blogosphere reflects this collective shrug. Out of more than 100 blogs listed on Iraqi Blog Count, only 11 bloggers wrote about this day and they were mostly bloggers living outside Iraq. But before I move to them I want to turn your attention to a blogger writing from within Iraq first.
Baghdad Dentist, whose last post was exactly one month ago, puts together an insightful situation report on Baghdad six years after that eventful day. If you’re going to take a look at one blog in this summary make it this one. From the security situation to fun, it’s all there and in bulletin form!
On relationships, he writes:
I've noticed the increase of divorcing couples.
On Education, he observes:
Better to be called deterioration!
And, my favourite, on the Baghdad Municipality, he says:
The municipality bought artificial palm trees. For god's sake, we have enough palm trees to fill Baghdad. [The plastic ones are] not as nice as the natural ones. Yellow made of plastic with lights during night (if the power is on)!!!
One of my pet peeves… how could a city that prides itself on its dates use yellow plastic disco lit palm trees? That is just so sad. As I said previously, if it’s just one post you’re going to read, Baghdad Dentist’s is the one.
MixMax, writing from Sweden on his blog Iraq The Lasting Love, looks back at the last six years. He talks about his joy at seeing the statue of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein being toppled but notes how quickly was that joy drained away with the chaos that followed.
After 9 April 2003, Iraq became a different country from that I used to know. It became entirely different from the Iraq I was dreaming of.
It’s a long post but really worth a look. It’s in English too, so what are you waiting for? What I personally find interesting is that he shows how difficult these times were and still are for us as Iraqis - how difficult it is to be stuck in this moment of time between a regime that ruled with fear and cruelty and a war that rid us of that regime but plunged us into deeper chaos.
While MixMax’s post did not make it clear whether he is commemorating the fall or liberation of Baghdad, blogger Zahra al-Rawi has no time for fence sitters. She’s written a passionate post titled Lest we forget:
Who could have imagined that six years pass and Iraq would still be occupied? We know that America is stalling and fooling us with what it calls ‘withdrawal plan', with no withdrawal. Six years we've been suffering from them. Sucking away our oil and the riches of our country and more importantly our blood.
There is a single comment on her post. Mahmoud al-Rawi who blogs on the Arabic blog Mahmoud: Muslim Iraqi Pharmacist writes astutely:
Dear sister, these tragedies weren’t the result of the occupation only.
His own post on the day is a transcription of a prayer for divine guidance for all Muslims.
Eye Raki, from London, also posted on the 9th of April. In 6 Years Today, he looks back at the blog post he wrote in 2003 on the same day:
At the time I was angry that people had given up on Iraq. Many journalists wanted to portray Iraq as a failed state because that type of news sells well.
But unlike Zahra, Eye Raki is much more optimistic and thinks Iraq has turned a corner under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s leadership. The post is more ‘Liberation’ than ‘Fall’ and Hayder al-Khoei, who writes Eye Raki, says a new Iraq was born in 2003 and it is here to stay:
I don't know how Iraq managed to survive. I don't know how the Iraqi's managed to survive. But they did. Every morning bad news and then in the evening even more bad news. The instinct for survival was probably just as vital as the surge and Maliki's jihad against the terrorists.
A notable if slightly lengthy commemoration post is published by Layla Anwar on An Arab Woman Blues. It’s a two-part interview with Malcom Lagauche, author of The Mother of All Battles: The Endless US-Iraq War, who talks with her about ‘the fall of Baghdad as seen by an American’.
So there you have it. There are a couple more posts on the anniversary but as Layla notes we all have the attention span of squirrels. She split her interview into two parts in order not to scare you with a lengthy post and I shall end mine here too.
Georgia: Opposition ultimatum passes
- Students marching from the State University toward the Parliament building © Khanim Javadova / GIPA, Licensed under Creative Commons
An hour after an opposition ultimatum for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to resign went unheeded, reports indicate that thousands of people continue to protest in the country's capital, Tbilisi. Radiobedniereba’s Blog, a GIPA Journalism School blogger, has more on the latest developments.
The Opposition parties, raised an ultimatum to President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign in 24 hours. The ultimatum time expires on 3 p.m. today. If Saakashvili will not resign, permanent demonstrations will start in all of Georgia, the opposition leaders say.
[…]
Protestors are waiting for Saakashvili’s decision and the opposition parties’ plans that are going to be announced today, at 4 p.m.
- Protesters late at night on April 9 still in front of Parliament building © Marika Kochiashvili / GIPA, Licensed under Creative Commons
However, the number of people taking to the streets is believed to be much lower than yesterday, a national holiday, and expat blogger Wu Wei isn't expecting them to succeed.
At the end of the day, the Opposition gave Saakashvili 24 hours to resign. It doesn't seem very likely that he would do so.
[…]
The police were only bystanding or inside important buildings and had instructions only to take action if the demonstrators tried to enter the buildings and take them over, which didn't happen.
It seems it was a fun day, but the Opposition did not impress anyone with a coherent plan to take over. Nor did Saakashvili impress people with his offer to the Opposition to discuss and improve the Election Code. It's not enough to improve transparency and debate over policies, which is really needed. There needs to be more debate in the press and TV and Parliament.
According to Alanaga's Blog, one of many set up by the GIPA Journalism School especially for the protests, the Georgian president had made that quite clear earlier in the day.
President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili answered the second day of demands for his resignation with a call for dialogue, Friday.
[…]
Saakashvili expressed his satisfaction that violence didn’t take place during the demonstrations from none of the sides: neither from the demonstrators nor from the Police. He also pointed out that his plans for dealing with protesters was transparent, as he briefed partner governments and the press on his plans to maintain order during the demonstrations.
In fact, one tweet from a veteran Georgian blogger seems to imply that the embattled leader appears remarkably calm.
dv0rsky: @onewmphoto only news at this moment is that president #saakashvili was yesterday in sighnaghi with his friends - in a restaurant… :)
-
Teens marching toward the Parliament in masks, perhaps worried that tear gas will be used as in Nov. 7, 2007 protests. As of yet, not one tear gas cannister has been fired. © Marika Kochiashvili / GIPA, Licensed under Creative Commons
Indeed, so far free from the clashes which led to a state of emergency being declared, the GIPA Natalie5n Blog confirms that the atmosphere is far from tense.
Both sides took credit for the peaceful first day protests. According to opposition leaders the peace lasted during the day because the protestors were “well organized and in a nonviolent mood,” said Zviad Dzidziguri, a prominent member of the Conservative Party. Government officials maintained the fact that the police was restrained and instructed not to obstruct any peaceful protests.
Some Georgian experts are saying that much depends on how long each side can maintain the goodwill.
[…]
Another political scientist, Soso Tsiskarishvili, who ran Georgia’s External Economic Relationships Department under ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze, adding:
“The side which will use violence first will lose.”
Late last night, fieldreports posted a mobile video interview with the head of the Young Georgian Lawyers Association whose organization is monitoring the protests.
However, the GIPA Journalism School Blog says that there has been at least one case of violence and intimidation.
Three activists of the Why? Public Movement were beaten yesterday at 11.30 pm Thursday when driving home from protests in front of Parliament.
Natia Kobalia, one of the leaders of “Why?” said that men in black masks, driving three jeeps, stopped the activists’ car, pulled out the six activists, and began beating the three boys with cudgels. The girls weren’t harmed.[…]
One boy was treated for a concussion at Saint Michael’s Hospital in Tbilisi, and other two had more minor injuries.
- Day 1 meeting gathered tens of thousands of protesters in front of Parliament building © Marika Kochiashvili / GIPA, Licensed under Creative Commons
And as Arevik’s Blog explains on why many Georgians from all walks of life are discontent with the situation in the country, the GIPA Journalism School Blog says the opposition plans to hold daily rallies until their demands are met.
In response to President Mikheil Saakashvili’s refusal to resign Friday, opposition leaders urged people to protest daily at 3 p.m. in front of Parliament, Georgia Public Broadcasting, and the president’s administration building in Avlabari.
“We are not going to break into the buildings, our disobedience will just be demonstrations,” Levan Gachechiladze told a crowd Friday, April 10, gathered in front of Parliament. […]
More updates will be posted on Global Voices Online if and when any new events occur. In the meantime, it's worth keeping an eye on the GIPA Journalism School Blog as well as Twitter at #tbilisi.
mishab: RT @govtofgeorgia: Opposition Leaders Say Want ‘Public Talks’ with Saakashvili http://civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=20706 #tbilisi
[…]
perspectivelute: #tbilisi is this a divergence in tactics? Gachechiladze wanting civil disobedience, Burjanadze wanting a public debate with Saakashvili?
[…]
mhikaric: As predicted, the Opposition is doing a lot of nothing, leaving the ball in Misha's court. Alasania is probably glad he hedged. #tbilisi
perspectivelute: @mhikaric not much the opposition can do, is there, except hope the govt. loses its cool? they've trapped themselves #tbilisi
[…]
mhikaric: Maybe Burjanadze can hope nomenklatura friends send money to keep the protests alive. W/o Patarkatsishvili's money they're stuck. #tbilisi
There are are also updates from the mobile phone of Frontline Club blogger Guy Degen on Twitter (text) and Utter (audio) as well as Qik (video) and 12 seconds (video).
Links for Fri, 2009-04
Writing on the Frontline Club blog, Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor says that the online coverage of two days of protests in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, by student and professional journalists has set new standards for citizen media in the South Caucasus.
Adil Najam at All Things Pakistan reports that troubles are brewing all over Pakistan. Quetta is burning due to riots, violence spreads in Balochistan and Karachi is tensed due to the clashes in the Shanaakht Festival 2009 - no respite for Pakistan.
WBC afterglow? A video of a portrait of Ichiro Suzuki drawn with sidewalk chalk by artist Phil Hansen has recently been making the rounds in the Japanese blogosphere.
Snigdha Sen at Blogher terms the upcoming Indian election 2009 as the biggest, the fanciest and the craziest celebration of democracy in the world.
Eusebia discusses the recent speech by the Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, “The speech was so full of truth that it made me realise that at least we have one man in the coalition government who has the intelligence to objectively evaluate perfomance of the coalition government and point out exactly were they are going wrong.”
Vietnam's informal economy may be helping it survive the economic recession, writes blogger Antidote to Burnout
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party is poised to dominate the polls. akhyari mentions the possible nominees for the Vice President position.
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