In the lexicon of human migration there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word “expat”.
What is an expat? And who is an expat? According to Wikipedia, “an expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (‘out of’) and patria (‘country, fatherland’)”.
Defined that way, you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad.
Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for ‘inferior races’.
Don’t take my word for it. The Wall Street Journal, the leading financial information magazine in the world, has a blog dedicated to the life of expats and recently they featured a story ‘Who is an expat, anyway?’. Here are the main conclusions: “Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants; and some simply as migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status. It’s strange to hear some people in Hong Kong described as expats, but not others. Anyone with roots in a western country is considered an expat … Filipino domestic helpers are just guests, even if they’ve been here for decades. Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese are rarely regarded as expats … It’s a double standard woven into official policy.”
The reality is the same in Africa and Europe. Top African professionals going to work in Europe are not considered expats. They are immigrants. Period. “I work for multinational organisations both in the private and public sectors. And being black or coloured doesn’t gain me the term “expat”. I’m a highly qualified immigrant, as they call me, to be politically correct,” says an African migrant worker.
Most white people deny that they enjoy the privileges of a racist system. And why not? But our responsibility is to point out and to deny them these privileges, directly related to an outdated supremacist ideology. If you see those “expats” in Africa, call them immigrants like everyone else. If that hurts their white superiority, they can jump in the air and stay there. The political deconstruction of this outdated worldview must continue.
The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine.
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"
So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer $ 2.00 Knowing where to tap $ 9998.00
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!
Karl Moore remembers the moment he fell out of favour with his boss.
He was working as a manager at IBM in Toronto when a new person joined his department. Up until then Moore had been part of his boss’s “favoured inside circle” — but suddenly everything changed. The transferred employee became his boss’s new right-hand person, the outcome of brutal office politics.
“Good news for the team. but I was soon put on the bench,” said Moore, now a professor at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management in Montreal, Canada. It certainly wasn’t a fun experience — and it definitely made his job harder, he said.
If your boss plays favourites — but you’re not one of them — is there anything you can do about it? And should you even care if you're never flavour of the month? After all, nobody likes a sycophant.
After about a year, once again the sun shone upon me.
Moore eventually made it back to being one of the favoured few. But it took some time waiting for “the new person’s halo to diminish a bit”. More importantly, Moore was able to change the tide after he delivered on a couple of key agenda items for his boss that were central to his success. “After about a year, once again the sun shone upon me,” he said.
Falling out of favour for no good reason is a difficult turn to take. But, it doesn’t have to be permanent. Here’s what you can do.
Office politics can lead one person to get most-favoured status.
Deliver
Think about exactly what your boss needs to succeed and look good to his bosses. Find a way to help make it happen.
“One of things that makes virtually all bosses smile on us is if we help them deliver on one of the top items on their agenda for the year,” said Moore. “If you can better understand your boss’s top three agenda items and help them achieve one of those, they will tend to nudge you toward the favourites category.”
Sometimes it can be as simple as asking about priorities and then helping to make sure that at least one of them comes to fruition, said Moore.
Boss as customer
For Andrew Wittman, a former marine, police officer, and federal agent, the solution is to change your perspective.
It's important not to start feeling bad about yourself.
“No matter where you work or for whom, when you approach work from the perspective that says, ‘My boss is not my boss; he or she is my customer or client’, everything changes,” said Wittman, managing partner of South Carolina-based leadership consultancy Mental Toughness Training Center. “You’ll instantly have all the power and control. You are merely leasing your services to the company. They are your client and you give them great customer service.”
It’s important not to start feeling bad about yourself — or letting the idea of not being a favourite take over your thoughts, said Wittman. Otherwise, that’s all you will think about and you’ll lose out on opportunities to get ahead.
You can get back to the inner circle with the boss.
“If you focus on making your boss a satisfied customer and making she or he look great to the higher ups, which will lead to being a ‘favourite’, your brain will sift through all the facts and data and confirm you are a favourite,” said Wittman. As a result, you’ll be less critical, be able to focus on solving problems more intently and act in ways that will naturally make the boss happy.
The inner circle
Just because your boss doesn’t seem to like you doesn’t automatically mean other people won’t.
If the crowd likes you, it can help sway the boss's opinion.
“Try to get in good with the people who are the boss's favourites,” said New York-based Vicky Oliver, author of Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots. “Sometimes if a boss's pet raves about you, it can help ease the friction.”
And always strive to be a good team player. “If the crowd likes you, it can help sway the boss's opinion,” she said.
A fine line
Don’t go overboard fawning on your boss, thereby alienating yourself from your colleagues or making them resent you. For instance, if your boss tells a lame joke and you laugh louder than everyone else, that is just outright brown nosing, according to Oliver.
Don't try too hard or people will think you're brown nosing.
“But if you come in with a solution to a problem that no one else has considered, that is simply shining on your own merit,” she said. And, spread the love when you do: “If you laud others on the team for helping you arrive at a solution, that is bound to score points with the boss and with your teammates.”
Keep your options open
Rare these days is a boss — or subordinate — who sticks around for life. So, luckily you are unlikely to be wedded to this person for eternity.
You probably won’t like working for someone who plays favourites, even if you become the flavour of the month. But don’t let yourself fall into a workplace pit of despair over it. Instead, continue working hard and behaving professionally and show that you care about the team, company, and clients.
“At the same time, you should be working your way into a different position where the boss is a better one and so you can focus more on being great at your job and growing toward your next promotion,” said Moore.
African women have worn headscarves for many years for religious, cultural reasons and even as a fashion statement but they were traditionally worn by older, usually married women.
They are a common feature in ceremonies such as weddings and even funerals.
Many also love the convenience of it - it can be a quick fix for a bad hair day.
And young African women are embracing the doek (in Afrikaans) or dhuku in Malawi and Zimbabwe.
One of the most popular forms of headscarves across Africa is the gele from West Africa. It can be incredibly elaborate and is usually starched so the material becomes stiff to hold its shape.
In Nigerian how a Yoruba woman wears her headscarf can be a sign of her marital status - if worn with the ends facing down its means a woman is married and if worn with the ends up, she is single.
Here in Southern Africa, there is a necessary debate about the dhuku in the corporate world.
A news reporter from an independent news channel trended on social media after it emerged that her story had been taken off air because she filmed it wearing a doek.
Cue social media storm.
The hashtags #RespekTheDoek #RespekTheDhuku and #DoekTheNewsroom trended for a number of days here last week with many people - including men and even women from all racial groups - wearing a dhuku to show their support for the young journalist.
The channel, while explaining that its dress code does not allow on-air journalists to wear headgear to work, has said it is now reviewing that policy.
But many believe the channel's reaction showed how the workplace has not changed with the times.
Some say it shows an intolerance to black culture.
"We are, after all, in Africa where we have to be sensitive to everyone's culture and not just of those that don't wear dhukus," says one former entertainment writer.
"But don't forget that the workplace also insinuates that black natural hair is unprofessional. It seems looking African is unprofessional, which is rather ludicrous."
Kgothatso Maditse, a poet, agrees.
"It just goes to show just how far we are from accepting anything African if it doesn't have the 'right' stamp of approval. The longer we keep avoiding these topics, the longer we prolong and pacify an obviously stale way of thinking," she says.
'Good woman'
Image caption
My mother-in-law, who has been married for more than 40-years, wears it the same way.
For a while I had a love-hate relationship with the doek - it felt like a throwback to the past. It seemed like yet another way society was controlling how black women should look.
But a new generation of young women have now reclaimed the look - sporting a range of prints from all around Africa, they see the doek as an expression of what it is to be African.
And so I've grown to appreciate the delicate balance between ancient symbolism and modern identity - and made it my personal mission to celebrate its new-found power.
Kamogelo Seekoei, a Johannesburg writer, describes her headscarf as "a crown".
"Only a matriarch will know that a covered head means queen. We as black girls are out here celebrating our existence like never before," she says simply.
She says headscarves are a sign of "Queening" - a term used to refer to a social movement of black women from around the world who are embracing black beauty and power.
A selection of names for headscarves around Africa:
A number of high-profile African women are often pictured in elaborate headscarves, such as Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, African Union (AU) head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
But the doek here is also rooted in racial politics.
Image copyright
The dhuku has become a popular fashion accessory among young Africans. #VivianCollections
In South Africa, black domestic workers have worn it as part of their cleaning uniform for decades and it has served as a not-so-subtle reminder of that person's social standing.
It is a way of exerting control - an outward symbol of the gulf between servant and master.
This perhaps explains my reservations about headscarves at first.
Some say it is beginning to shed that image.
Image copyright Image captionWearing a headscarf is also about convenience. #VivianCollections
"Africans are going through a state of being woke [awakened]. Africans are coming back to themselves," says Tumi Ndaba, the owner of Tuku Affair, a Pretoria-based company that sells headscarves from materials bought all over Africa.
"The doek never left, it was just worn in a way that wasn't really appealing us, but the more we fall in love with ourselves, the more we work harder at perfecting and beautifying everything that belongs to us," she tells me.
South Africa, whose constitution is rooted in celebrating cultural diversity, is growing up and its people are now more than ever using their voice and asserting their identity.
And so on days when I wear a doek (which is admittedly sometimes on bad hair days), I feel regal.
Like many young people here, I now wear it as a statement, to celebrate Africa - with all its flaws and beauty and its journey to finding itself.
Model Ashley Graham has made powerful moves toward greater body positivity in the fashion world—and she’s looked gorgeous every step of the way. Graham made body acceptance history earlier this year when she became the first size-16 model to rock the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. While serving as backstage host at the 2016 Miss USA Pageant this month, she spoke out in favor of including more diverse women in the competition. She even walked in designer Christian Siriano’s first plus-size runway show. (Um, when does she sleep?)
Graham’s latest step towards body positivity is an Instagram photo reminding her followers that cellulite is NBD. The photo, shared yesterday, features Graham riding a bicycle in a cheerful purple dress, laughing and evidently having the time of her life. The picture also features her beautiful legs, complete with cellulite (which is very common and normal, by the way). In the photo’s caption, she wrote, “A little cellulite never hurt nobody. Stop judging yourself, embrace the things that society has called ‘ugly.'”
The post must have struck a chord with followers, because it has now received over 124,000 likes and countless uplifting comments. “You are an inspiration,” one commenter wrote. “The reason you’re so fabulous is because you’re brimming with confidence.” Another shared, “you help me be confident.” Others still just wanted to know where Graham’s fantastic dress is from. (So do we!) Take a look at the post below and get ready to feel inspired. The picture serves as a great reminder that whatever you look like right at this moment is perfectly gorgeous.
Her fans cheered her on, leaving comments like, “My hero,” “#preach,” and “What real women look like.” I guess you could say Graham puts the “model” in “role model.” And she’s not the only prominent voice calling for self-acceptance.
Body-image specialist Holli Rubin applauds Graham’s bold move, saying the model is “not only allowing her cellulite to show without covering it up and Photoshopping, but even … attempting to change followers’ views by highlighting what is usually deemed ugly and in need of being hidden.”
In April, comedian Amy Schumer slammed Glamour magazine for including her in its “Chic at Any Size!” issue focused on plus-size women. “I go between a size 6 and an 8,” she said on her Instagram. “Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine are not cool glamour not glamourous.”
Recently, body-positive singer Meghan Trainor expressed her anger over having her waist digitally altered in her video “Me Too.” “I don’t know how [they] would shave my waist off,“ she told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America. “They made me skinnier than the dancers next to me.”
The average price of a Canadian home sold in May was $509,460, a 13 per cent increase in the past year and the highest figure on record.
The strong gains are largely tied to hot markets in Ontario and British Columbia, according to the numbers released Wednesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
Stripping those two markets out of the calculations, the average price of a house sold in May declined 0.7 per cent in the past 12 months, and sold for $310,007 in May.
After rising to a record sales volume the previous month, sales volumes fell sharply."Sales activity dropped in May from the previous month in about 70 per cent of all markets, led by those in British Columbia and Ontario where the number of homes listed for sale has fallen to multi-year or all-time lows," CREA said.
"There are housing markets where sales continue to reflect a cautious mood among homebuyers and uncertainty about the local economy," CREA president Cliff Iverson said.As has been the case for more than a year, the realtor group singled out hot markets in Toronto and Vancouver for skewing the numbers higher.The drop in sales and new listings in those cities are of grave concern for policymakers, because they could be a sign that high prices are convincing would-be buyers not to bother, and would-be sellers to stay where they are since they can't afford to move up after they sell.
The numbers for Vancouver are eye popping. According to CREA's house price index, housing costs in Greater Vancouver increased 29.7 per cent in the year to May, and in nearby Fraser Valley they were up 31.7 per cent.Both those figures are more than 17 times Canada's current inflation rate of 1.7 per cent."The warnings are piling higher on the Canadian housing market," is how Bank of Montreal economists Doug Porter and Robert Kavcic put it in a separate report on Canada's housing market on Wednesday.
"While record low borrowing costs are the most obvious factor behind lofty home prices, the fact that the surge in prices is so heavily concentrated in just two cities (and their environs) means that there are other important factors at play as well," BMO said.- ANALYSIS:
Why governments are terrified of popping the foreign buyer bubble Among the factors the bank cites are foreign buyers, who many watchers claim are driving prices out of reach. While BMO says more hard data is needed on the topic, the bank makes it clear that foreign money is a factor.
"Excess global savings sloshing around have driven many asset prices rocketing higher in recent years, and now that wave has washed upon Canada's biggest cities."Moreover, recent changes to downpayment rules requiring 10 per cent minimum up front will make it harder for locals to buy, while doing little to curb foreign buyers, the bank warns.The new rules "will simply crowd out the domestic buyer and leave the field wider open for foreign capital inflows."
More than a million young people will be enrolling in universities in England and Germany this autumn.
But in financial terms their experience couldn't be more different.
In Germany tuition fees have been abolished, while England has the most expensive fees in Europe, with every indication that they are likely to be allowed to nudge even higher.
But what difference does it make to their universities?
The Higher Education Policy Institute's director, Nick Hillman, has published an analysis - "Keeping up with the Germans?" - which looks at the impact of these contrasting funding systems.
The biggest difference is that a much smaller proportion of young people go to university in Germany.
In Germany, about 27% of young people gain higher education qualifications. In the UK, the comparable figure is 48%. The expansion in university entry in the UK has been one of those changes that has been so big that no one really notices.
Degrees of 'free'
But it would be wrong to think that the absence of fees means that the German system is starved of funding.
Germany spends a slightly higher proportion of GDP on higher education, there are more academic staff in German universities and Germany is significantly ahead in spending on research and development, both from public and private sources, investing 3% of GDP compared with 1.7% in the UK.
Image copyrightPAImage captionWhile tuition fees were acrimoniously increased in England, they were scrapped in Germany
Students muttering about what had happened to their £9,000 might be relieved that spending per student is about 20% higher in the UK than in Germany.
In terms of quality, there are more UK universities at the top end of international league tables. But this is because league tables do not always include research institutes which do not teach or award degrees - and Germany has a much more distinct separation between teaching and research universities.
Report author Mr Hillman says that if the elite German science institute, the Max Planck Society, were included in global rankings it would overtake both Oxford and Cambridge.
The biggest difference seems to be not the outcome but the political decision about who pays. In Germany it's the taxpayer, in England the individual student gets the bill.
And that poses different types of question for what happens next.
Can the German university system afford to expand and produce more graduates under the current taxpayer-funded "free" model?
Value for money?
For the English system, the questions are for the students who have to pay. How much is too much? Even with a system of loans and deferred repayment, when do the costs outweigh the benefits?
Image copyrightPAImage captionFigures published this week showed that more than half of young women now enter higher education
Questions about value for money - and warnings about debts - have been recurrent since fees were introduced in the 1990s. They've risen in volume as fees have risen rapidly from about £1,000 to £3,000 and then £9,000.
While tuition fees have stolen the headlines, the biggest financial challenge for families might often be the low level of maintenance loans for living costs.
Adding to these money worries are stories about graduates who cannot get graduate jobs or who are unemployed.
A report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development last month claimed that more than half of graduates were overqualified for their jobs. In contrast, the institute said that only 10% of German graduates were in non-graduate jobs.
But such anxieties about the cost of going to university tend to overlook the the cost of not going to university or getting high-level vocational skills.
Figures last week from the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed unemployment for graduates had fallen back to pre-recession levels, with 2.6% of graduates unemployed. Rising numbers of graduates did not mean more graduates without jobs.
There is no breakdown of graduate and non-graduate jobs, but 86% of graduates were satisfied with their careers.
The international evidence from organisations such as the OECD has remained steadfastly in favour of the financial benefits of higher education.
The economic think tank has argued that an increasing proportion of jobs will require high levels of skills and qualifications - and it rejects the idea that there is an over-production of graduates.
'Precariat'
The OECD has warned that the biggest risk is not to disgruntled graduates, but to young people with few qualifications competing for an evaporating pool of unskilled work.
In the US, the Pew research group highlighted that while graduates might have had a tougher time during the recession, the real losers were those with few qualifications.
The so-called "precariat" - those trapped in low-skilled, low-pay, insecure jobs - might not get the same attention as under-employed graduates, but they are the other side of this polarisation of the workforce.
While such economic viewpoints tend to take an overview of the labour market, for individuals it's about personal ambitions and family aspiration, rather than percentages.
And in the UK there has been a seemingly irresistible rise in demand for university.
Despite the surge in tuition fees in England, this week's figures on higher education participation show no sign of a reduction in demand.
These latest figures show 47% of people entering higher education in England, up from 43% the year before. Among young women, the proportion is 51%. It's now an expectation for a majority of young women.
Don't expect the arguments about value for money to go away, but don't expect any fall in demand for places.
