I just came back from a voice lesson with Maestro Daniel Ferro who is still teaching at 90. His work was careful, rich and positive. His apartment is beautiful. After my lesson he invited me to sit and listen to a Korean baritone who is working at the Metropolitan Opera. He was studying Verdi's Don Carlo, the part of Rodrigo. In America or England they would have put him to work in a shop or on an assembly line. He was a rough looking man with a family and grandchildren. But his whole country works with him and his voice is truly glorious. No one looking at him would guess. They would expect him to be waiting at midnight at WalMart with his government card but instead, his family, his culture and his country sent him to become an exemplary Italian Baritone in one of the major opera houses of the world coached by the premier teacher.
How grim our imaginations are compared to the people who come here from Asia and from Russia. The Europeans are less optimistic when they come although they are clear about whose cultural property it is. But owners are not necessarily the most competent and the rule about optimism being the seat of the human voice has been lost on them. REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2010 2:47 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, , EDUCATION Subject: [Futurework] Shopping for a reason "And you need not go further than one of our stores on midnight at the end of the month. And it's real interesting to watch, about 11 p.m. Customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items -- baby formula, milk, bread, eggs -- and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when government benefit cards (electronic) get activated and then the check-out starts. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher. "And if you really think about it, the only reason someone gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they've been waiting for it. Otherwise we are open 24 hours -- come at 5 a.m., come at 7 a.m, come at 10 a.m. But if you are there at midnight, you are there for a reason." [Bill Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart's US business, speaking at a Goldman Sachs Conference, October 2010] Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
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