Sample of counties unhappy with #amnesty reporting their human rights abuses: China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Myanmar, Iran, Russia… + Israel.

#amnestyinternational is an equal opportunity truth teller when it comes to human rights abuses. It doesn’t take sides. Not with Iran or Saudi. Not with USA or Russia. Not with Hamas or Israelis. It always relentlessly sides with human rights of all humans.

Hopefully the truth about Israeli apartheid that many are finding uncomfortable results in reflection rather than blanket attacks and baseless demonization of Amnesty International. Attacks on a human rights organization like Amnesty are cowardly and ignorant, and accusation of bias only end up showing how weak Israel’s position really is when it comes to human rights abuses. Any refutation of the Israeli apartheid report should be based on facts, not baseless accusations of bias.

Consider donating to support Amnesty’s selfless pursuit of human rights of every human being on Earth:https://www.amnesty.ca/

It’s not Islamophobic to call for boycott and sanctions against Saudi Arabia for committing genocide in Yemen, starving millions, killing 100,000s for the last 6 years (source: ministryofwoke.com)

It’s not anti-Semitic to call for boycott and sanctions against Israel for its decades long occupation of Palestinian lands (Source: B’tselem) and crimes of apartheid

Four years ago, I posted a video with instructions on how to get your Android phone to read PDF files to you. That video was out-of-date, so now here is an updated version, with bonus content, so in addition to getting your Android phone to read PDFs, you can also get your computer to read almost any document via Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Enjoy!

The app mentioned in the video is available here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=udk.android.reader&hl=en_CA

PluralSight.com is an awesome IT training website with TONS of great quality Cloud, Systems, Process, Programming and Networking courses. They have an amazingly generous offer of making ALL their courses free for the month of April 2020! Now that’s AWESOME leadership by an IT teaching organization.

https://www.pluralsight.com/

Simply go to their site, make an account and start learning!

Also, as noted in previous blog posts, if you don’t know what to learn, LEARN ABOUT CLOUD! Go through Azure and AWS courses. Even in the crazy COVID-19 situation, with record unemployment, CLOUD professionals are STILL IN HIGH DEMAND!

Short version: Based on my experience, large majority of good jobs in Canada and America are fulfilled based on merit – your qualifications, experience and soft-skills. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you won’t get a job until you get to know someone inside a big company. Focus on your merit instead; do certifications, improve your communications skills, achieve more, work hard and work smart!

Details:

Being blessed with the opportunity to mentor hundreds of individuals over the last decade or so, I am always learning about real and perceived obstacles to employment or advancement faced by many individuals.

One of the most consistent perceived obstacle is the false belief that a reference from an inside a large organization is required to get a good job. One of the key sources of this false belief are cultures from which many of my mentees are from, particularly India, Pakistan and other Asian countries. I am a Pakistani-Canadian, and I have seen this in practice myself. It’s certainly true that many people in these countries get jobs based on nepotism, reference, favoritism and bribery. It’s an unfortunate fact.

Continue reading “The reference fallacy” →