Setting up my stall
UPDATE: Today, 7 June 2013, I received a telephone call from an Executive Customer Representative with Amazon's South Africa office, who drew my attention to the fact that the Amazonpage of my book "Woman-I-Zen: Studies In Soft Power"(formerly subtitled "Olympian Oracles" now has pricing information - US$7.14.
Thank you Mr Bezos. Thank you Amazon.
Dear Mr. Bezos
According to Wikipedia you are the top rated CEO in the world, having risen from second place, with the death of Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs, in 2011. Congratulations on your progress, such as it is.
As it happens, I might be adjudged the bottom rated CEO in the world – depending on the criteria used to measure effectiveness of leadership.
My primary purpose here is to invite you to stand with me, at CEO ground zero, in my efforts to reform global capitalism by emphasizing human interdependence.
Through my Intelek Domino Effect Associates (IDEAs) project I hope to demonstrate the principle that the global chain of capitalist commerce is only as strong as its weakest link: I propose to explore the catalytic, mountain moving potential of human communication and convergence, as this is manifested in conversations of various kinds between persons like you and I, who notionally or otherwise exist or operate at opposite ends of a given communication continuum.
The late Mr. Jobs possibly did not believe in human interdependence, though I imagine he, like others, paid much lip service to it.
Indeed, a story in today’s Daily Mail here in England reports on a trial in which Mr. Jobs and three publishers are accused of violating United States anti-trust laws in a bid to ensure Apple’s dominance of the electronic book trade, rather than sharing the top position with your company, or anyone else.
These and other rather unflattering allegations that have come to the fore since Mr Job’s death – like how his treacherous betrayal of trust made Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak cry - suggest that he was not the most clued up about the Yin-yang of human relations.
And actually, I am inclined to think that Mr. Jobs’ demonstrated indifference to principles of human ecology was at some level responsible for his death by pancreatic cancer.
I note elsewhere that the demise of tragically deceased and latterly disgraced Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson, who also died of pancreatic cancer, was comparable with Mr. Jobs’ passing, in having a sense of jinx or Karma about it.
One of the aims of my campaign is to save other top tier thinkers and movers and shakers on the world stage – including the United Kingdom's top Domino’s Pizza franchisee Surinder Kandola, Bain Capital founder and former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney - from such ignominious, lamentable ends.
(And to my mind, Mr. Jobs' post-mortem legacy shares some features with those of Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) and paedophile "priest" of the BBC, Jimmy Savile.)
I hope to underscore the possibilities of organic bilocation, which can make even the most peripheral of us a“Malcolm In the Middle” of things – as previously highlighted in an instance of news media convergence that this series of articles is interpreting.
Thank you Mr Bezos. Thank you Amazon.
Dear Mr. Bezos
According to Wikipedia you are the top rated CEO in the world, having risen from second place, with the death of Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs, in 2011. Congratulations on your progress, such as it is.
As it happens, I might be adjudged the bottom rated CEO in the world – depending on the criteria used to measure effectiveness of leadership.
My primary purpose here is to invite you to stand with me, at CEO ground zero, in my efforts to reform global capitalism by emphasizing human interdependence.
Through my Intelek Domino Effect Associates (IDEAs) project I hope to demonstrate the principle that the global chain of capitalist commerce is only as strong as its weakest link: I propose to explore the catalytic, mountain moving potential of human communication and convergence, as this is manifested in conversations of various kinds between persons like you and I, who notionally or otherwise exist or operate at opposite ends of a given communication continuum.
The late Mr. Jobs possibly did not believe in human interdependence, though I imagine he, like others, paid much lip service to it.
Indeed, a story in today’s Daily Mail here in England reports on a trial in which Mr. Jobs and three publishers are accused of violating United States anti-trust laws in a bid to ensure Apple’s dominance of the electronic book trade, rather than sharing the top position with your company, or anyone else.
These and other rather unflattering allegations that have come to the fore since Mr Job’s death – like how his treacherous betrayal of trust made Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak cry - suggest that he was not the most clued up about the Yin-yang of human relations.
And actually, I am inclined to think that Mr. Jobs’ demonstrated indifference to principles of human ecology was at some level responsible for his death by pancreatic cancer.
I note elsewhere that the demise of tragically deceased and latterly disgraced Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson, who also died of pancreatic cancer, was comparable with Mr. Jobs’ passing, in having a sense of jinx or Karma about it.
One of the aims of my campaign is to save other top tier thinkers and movers and shakers on the world stage – including the United Kingdom's top Domino’s Pizza franchisee Surinder Kandola, Bain Capital founder and former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney - from such ignominious, lamentable ends.
(And to my mind, Mr. Jobs' post-mortem legacy shares some features with those of Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) and paedophile "priest" of the BBC, Jimmy Savile.)
I hope to underscore the possibilities of organic bilocation, which can make even the most peripheral of us a“Malcolm In the Middle” of things – as previously highlighted in an instance of news media convergence that this series of articles is interpreting.
Laying out my Derek Walcott-like wares
But before I go any further, let me introduce myself. My name is Junior Campbelland I am an England-based Barbadian holistic communications and education specialist. I trade as Intelek International (www.intelek.net).
Some people, like my compatriots and fellow poets Margaret Gill and Edward Kamau Brathwaite might say that I am like a strong drink: a bit hard to take.
It might therefore help to think of me as a straight shot of Mount Gay rum (no chaser), a brown liquor for which Barbados is famed.
Others might say that rather than that brown rum, I am more like Caribbean Nobel-prize winning poet Derek Walcott’s Malcochon - a throat and belly burning, bootlegged Caribbean white rum, with properties mimicking those of sulphuric acid.
And I may have opportunity to expound in future correspondence with you on the notion of acid rain, in so far as this phenomenon might be referenced in a discussion of Walcott’s play “Malcochon or The Six In the Rain”.
This is one of ten plays Dr. Viola Davis analyses in her book Derek Walcott: dramatist, a study of the poet’s lesser known playwright work, which I had the pleasure of publishing last year.
This brings me to my work in the notoriously difficult field of publishing and how you and I, Mr. Bezos, are “interrelated”, as Dr Martin Luther King Jr might say.
I am also a user of the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service. And I am hoping that among other things, this open letter will convince you to direct your personal attention to problems I am having with my Amazon KDP account, which is apparently malfunctioning.
That’s right: I am one of your customers. So, Mr. Bezos, my capitalism reforming demonstration of the principle of human interdependence here at least has that degree of legitimacy and immediacy.
Indeed, given my current financial predicament, apparent cyber attacks on my Amazon and wider internet presence, the apparent hacking of my mobile phone (again) and problems I am having getting the local Norfolk Constabulary to investigate these and other attempts to sabotage my business, you could say my message to you is urgent.
You could say that the anomaly that has resulted in the Amazon page of my most recent book, Woman-I-Zen: Studies In Soft Power, appearing without vital, browser-to-buyer converting pricing information has been a pancreatic cancer of sorts; a Barbadian Borgia bidded slow-working poison, killing my business prospects softly - secretly and slowly.
And while I'm dealing wth that book specifically, an explanation from Amazon about the error in the subtitle listing (the earlier"Olympian Oracles" was replaced by "Studies In Soft Power" ages ago) would be greatly appreciated.
I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I really would like your urgent attention to this.
Some people, like my compatriots and fellow poets Margaret Gill and Edward Kamau Brathwaite might say that I am like a strong drink: a bit hard to take.
It might therefore help to think of me as a straight shot of Mount Gay rum (no chaser), a brown liquor for which Barbados is famed.
Others might say that rather than that brown rum, I am more like Caribbean Nobel-prize winning poet Derek Walcott’s Malcochon - a throat and belly burning, bootlegged Caribbean white rum, with properties mimicking those of sulphuric acid.
And I may have opportunity to expound in future correspondence with you on the notion of acid rain, in so far as this phenomenon might be referenced in a discussion of Walcott’s play “Malcochon or The Six In the Rain”.
This is one of ten plays Dr. Viola Davis analyses in her book Derek Walcott: dramatist, a study of the poet’s lesser known playwright work, which I had the pleasure of publishing last year.
This brings me to my work in the notoriously difficult field of publishing and how you and I, Mr. Bezos, are “interrelated”, as Dr Martin Luther King Jr might say.
I am also a user of the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service. And I am hoping that among other things, this open letter will convince you to direct your personal attention to problems I am having with my Amazon KDP account, which is apparently malfunctioning.
That’s right: I am one of your customers. So, Mr. Bezos, my capitalism reforming demonstration of the principle of human interdependence here at least has that degree of legitimacy and immediacy.
Indeed, given my current financial predicament, apparent cyber attacks on my Amazon and wider internet presence, the apparent hacking of my mobile phone (again) and problems I am having getting the local Norfolk Constabulary to investigate these and other attempts to sabotage my business, you could say my message to you is urgent.
You could say that the anomaly that has resulted in the Amazon page of my most recent book, Woman-I-Zen: Studies In Soft Power, appearing without vital, browser-to-buyer converting pricing information has been a pancreatic cancer of sorts; a Barbadian Borgia bidded slow-working poison, killing my business prospects softly - secretly and slowly.
And while I'm dealing wth that book specifically, an explanation from Amazon about the error in the subtitle listing (the earlier"Olympian Oracles" was replaced by "Studies In Soft Power" ages ago) would be greatly appreciated.
I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I really would like your urgent attention to this.
Priming my pitch
According to Tim Carmody writing for The Verge, in your annual letter to investors last year you focused on consumer courting ideas, “arguing that Amazon's continued investment lets the company anticipate customer needs and meet them, sometimes even before customers can articulate them.”
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the tone of Mr Carmody’s article is skeptical, questioning the selflessness of your letter’s customer charm offensive.
He thinks it’s a) all about keeping your investors onside because of Amazon’s $39 million net lost (or 9pence a share) last year and b) about countering what we may call the ”vacuum of victory”: the loss of customer sympathy that can follow a business’ triumph over adversity.
Citing a perception of Amazon as “the unstoppable monster of the tech industry”, Carmody writes “A year ago, Amazon was emerging from a fierce fight for the future of book publishing as the undisputed winner. Now, like many other tech companies, it's seen as the Evil Empire.”
He likens the antipathy that some people feel toward Amazon to that which Apple, Facebook, Google andMicrosoft are obliged to deal with, as victors in their respective industries.
My capitalism reforming campaign, based on what I have previously called an Organic Growth Vision, emphasizes the human capacity for self-renewal, regeneration and rehabilitation, which I believe is the best way to manage the more or less natural, cycle of corporate favour and disfavour that visits all enterprises.
It’s about retaining the “innocence”, enthusiasm and optimism of entrepreneurialism at those times when self-satisfaction, complacency and a degree of Romneyesque 47% cynicism begin to set in.
Fundamentally, it is about being honest with oneself and those one interacts with: about the authentic humility that is the greatest check to arrogance.
Mr. Bezos, as things stand now, with my KDP account, I don’t get the impression that Amazon either understands or embraces the principle of humility.
I have signed up for the Amazon partner program, but I don’t get the impression that Amazon either knows or wants to know me.
How else can I account for the fact that the conversation between Amazon and I has
so far been mostly lop-sided?
How else might others account for the arguably unchristian, uncharitable, Pope Pius XII-like and ultimately creativity crushing, debilitating centralization of power that Apple, Amazon and other global corporate organisms seem to propagate or secrete, like hormonal pathogens, perpetually?
I will close this letter shortly, Mr. Bezos, hoping that I hear from yourself or a representative at your earliest convenience. I really would like some assurance that you value my business and that Amazon has not been co-opted by those who through misunderstanding or malice have committed themselves to preventing my prosperity. (The latter, less charitable kind of idea does harass my mind occasionally.)
I only want to add that I have noted both the fact that you and I were born the same year and that you share my father’s name, Jeffrey.
I see these two details as hints or pointers to possible amicable exchanges and mutual benefit.
Mr. Carmody says some people see Amazon as “the enemy”.
Let me assure you here that while that may be true for others it is not for me.
As I believe the crowdsource IDEAs project funding initiative that I recently started on the Indiegogo website indicates, I tend to see crises as opportunities.
References
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-ideas-project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335536/Apple-Steve-Jobs-conspired-publishers-inflate-price-ebooks-trial-told.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11291320-was-steve-jobs-jinxed-part-1-like-barbados-david-thompson-talking-in-his-sleep
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/12/4217794/jeff-bezos-letter-amazon-investors-2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Borgia
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the tone of Mr Carmody’s article is skeptical, questioning the selflessness of your letter’s customer charm offensive.
He thinks it’s a) all about keeping your investors onside because of Amazon’s $39 million net lost (or 9pence a share) last year and b) about countering what we may call the ”vacuum of victory”: the loss of customer sympathy that can follow a business’ triumph over adversity.
Citing a perception of Amazon as “the unstoppable monster of the tech industry”, Carmody writes “A year ago, Amazon was emerging from a fierce fight for the future of book publishing as the undisputed winner. Now, like many other tech companies, it's seen as the Evil Empire.”
He likens the antipathy that some people feel toward Amazon to that which Apple, Facebook, Google andMicrosoft are obliged to deal with, as victors in their respective industries.
My capitalism reforming campaign, based on what I have previously called an Organic Growth Vision, emphasizes the human capacity for self-renewal, regeneration and rehabilitation, which I believe is the best way to manage the more or less natural, cycle of corporate favour and disfavour that visits all enterprises.
It’s about retaining the “innocence”, enthusiasm and optimism of entrepreneurialism at those times when self-satisfaction, complacency and a degree of Romneyesque 47% cynicism begin to set in.
Fundamentally, it is about being honest with oneself and those one interacts with: about the authentic humility that is the greatest check to arrogance.
Mr. Bezos, as things stand now, with my KDP account, I don’t get the impression that Amazon either understands or embraces the principle of humility.
I have signed up for the Amazon partner program, but I don’t get the impression that Amazon either knows or wants to know me.
How else can I account for the fact that the conversation between Amazon and I has
so far been mostly lop-sided?
How else might others account for the arguably unchristian, uncharitable, Pope Pius XII-like and ultimately creativity crushing, debilitating centralization of power that Apple, Amazon and other global corporate organisms seem to propagate or secrete, like hormonal pathogens, perpetually?
I will close this letter shortly, Mr. Bezos, hoping that I hear from yourself or a representative at your earliest convenience. I really would like some assurance that you value my business and that Amazon has not been co-opted by those who through misunderstanding or malice have committed themselves to preventing my prosperity. (The latter, less charitable kind of idea does harass my mind occasionally.)
I only want to add that I have noted both the fact that you and I were born the same year and that you share my father’s name, Jeffrey.
I see these two details as hints or pointers to possible amicable exchanges and mutual benefit.
Mr. Carmody says some people see Amazon as “the enemy”.
Let me assure you here that while that may be true for others it is not for me.
As I believe the crowdsource IDEAs project funding initiative that I recently started on the Indiegogo website indicates, I tend to see crises as opportunities.
References
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-ideas-project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335536/Apple-Steve-Jobs-conspired-publishers-inflate-price-ebooks-trial-told.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11291320-was-steve-jobs-jinxed-part-1-like-barbados-david-thompson-talking-in-his-sleep
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/12/4217794/jeff-bezos-letter-amazon-investors-2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Borgia
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