tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65127793361681698812024-02-18T23:24:33.585-08:00Expat Issues-Aasra.This blog is about expats and the issues they grapple with living and working away from their home country.
Feel at home away from home. Call Aasra Helpline for the depressed and suicidal- 91-22-27546669(24x7) for caring and confidential emotional support.Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-5778094286052013032023-12-31T03:00:00.000-08:002023-12-31T03:00:06.856-08:00Happy New Year 2024<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKupt5RreJQ6N_JocujOY8VTMLWslFuBWhxFilWFtl5BhhU774bg93jg7kQkumN6jp-SP3VZ2bQcVxTKYCGMGLNVa1F1ff9vp8Qy0rJRYqS4FWdtR0MUXnI8nsauhn-dKsFEg39fx-bfWElr-sYhgkKgvpjl8QqEGP8FlUELZf0hyphenhyphenSofhPz91czouDZ1uW/s300/happynewyear2024.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKupt5RreJQ6N_JocujOY8VTMLWslFuBWhxFilWFtl5BhhU774bg93jg7kQkumN6jp-SP3VZ2bQcVxTKYCGMGLNVa1F1ff9vp8Qy0rJRYqS4FWdtR0MUXnI8nsauhn-dKsFEg39fx-bfWElr-sYhgkKgvpjl8QqEGP8FlUELZf0hyphenhyphenSofhPz91czouDZ1uW/s400/happynewyear2024.jpeg"/></a></div>Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-18748907241051508442020-09-14T03:38:00.000-07:002020-09-14T03:38:00.602-07:00Happy 22nd Foundation Day Aasra<p> </p><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/happy22ndfoundationdayaasra?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#Happy22ndFoundationDayAasra</a></span> (13thSept1998-2020 and many more to come )Helping the depressed and suicidal cope with LIFE </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">#WORLDSUICIDEPREVENTIONDAY <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/wspd2020?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#WSPD2020</a></span> #WorldSuicidePreventionWeek</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">10THSEPTEMBER2020 "Working together to prevent suicide"</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/worldsuicidepreventionday?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#WorldSuicidePreventionDay</a></span> #aasradotinfo</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/aasra24x7helplinefordepressedsuicidal919820466726?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#AASRA24X7HELPLINEFORDEPRESSEDSUICIDAL919820466726</a></span> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/worldsuicidepreventionweek?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#WorldSuicidePreventionWeek</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/aasrasuicideprevention24x7helpline?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#aasraSuicidePrevention24x7Helpline</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/befriendersworldwide?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#BefriendersWorldwide</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/samaritansuk?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#SamaritansUK</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/iasp?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#IASP</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/un?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#UN</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/who?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#WHO</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/afsp?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#AFSP</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/infotes?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#INFOTES</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/lifelineinternational?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#LifelineInternational</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/google?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#Google</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/facebook?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#Facebook</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/worldmentalhealthandwellnessawarenessweek?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#WorldMentalHealthAndWellnessAwarenessWeek</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/worldmentalhealthandwellnessawarenessmonth?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#WorldMentalHealthAndWellnessAwarenessMonth</a></span> <span><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl q66pz984 gpro0wi8 b1v8xokw" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/aasradotinfo?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZWWW-vWSymFKS1m8TiCORCJFSamIT7x76JiiBtxvGqoB5LkC0-l_xLYAfL_jxBf-hNTpuA4nkYTTTbl37azF7tSR_X20DddTZ6_dovDzMnbNBEqOT6_XXcKlemWAAaoBPSUaGkT61TJmTzBXPrU6sqLaEXofrEHE6_k1cktSDU7tA&__tn__=*NK-R" role="link" tabindex="0">#aasradotinfo</a></span> "Problems cannot be solved with the mindset that created them" Albert Einstein</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2FPC0MG6UZM5OJ64w6GW9g3bfxTQd5EhexgVtSpslPtH8e0GN_lRWITDPmdpdHwoLzwfrUOfUBwVrkBQroGo9Doi3EXkrC73TBzan3f4GctS-DUrWXtuQOFwMNbT9b0GNDeGX7_w/s354/happy22anniversaryAasra.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="236" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2FPC0MG6UZM5OJ64w6GW9g3bfxTQd5EhexgVtSpslPtH8e0GN_lRWITDPmdpdHwoLzwfrUOfUBwVrkBQroGo9Doi3EXkrC73TBzan3f4GctS-DUrWXtuQOFwMNbT9b0GNDeGX7_w/s320/happy22anniversaryAasra.jpg" /></a></div></div>Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-66730854553274745062020-03-30T02:14:00.000-07:002020-03-30T02:14:30.617-07:00#AasraSuicidePreventionWorkshop@#RedHatPune Oct2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Aasra Director & Chief Trainer conducted a Workshop for Red Hat employees on the topic of #SuicidePrevention on the occasion of #WorldMntalHealthMonth
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFaTT6sInfBxVJGqJSFgIp0hd33jayq1gi8m4GLWpRdZymfBX_7NVDOGo92zx8ApiNMg2mRe1Ksm65Hb9onE78soF-HYe6Ya_NvtOQZZkVXT8mlq_DYsOarcvHBXZOS73bUhR9q6spxgeZ/s1600/IMG_20191014_160916.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFaTT6sInfBxVJGqJSFgIp0hd33jayq1gi8m4GLWpRdZymfBX_7NVDOGo92zx8ApiNMg2mRe1Ksm65Hb9onE78soF-HYe6Ya_NvtOQZZkVXT8mlq_DYsOarcvHBXZOS73bUhR9q6spxgeZ/s320/IMG_20191014_160916.jpg" width="320" height="180" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="900" /></a>Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-7553603429744660802020-03-30T01:35:00.000-07:002020-03-30T01:35:44.250-07:00#Aasra@#30Stades.com <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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https://30stades.com/2020/03/30/coronavirus-lockdown-suicide-helplines-jammed-as-mental-health-of-migrant-workers-takes-a-toll-during-janta-curfew/
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#Aasradotinfo #RashmiPratap
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#AasraDotInfo #WorldSuicidePreventionWeekSept2019 #aasraSuicidePrevention24x7Helpline912227546669 #BefriendersWorldwide #SamaritansUK #IASP #UN #WHO #AFSP #INFOTES #LifelineInternational #Google #Facebook #WorldMentalHealthAndWellnessAwarenessWeek #WorldMentalHealthAndWellnessAwarenessMonth #aasradotinfo
"Problems cannot be solved with the mindset that created them" Albert Einstein
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Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-27305004886345094762017-05-22T01:46:00.003-07:002017-05-22T01:46:57.626-07:00#Aasra's #JohnsonThomas was an invited speaker at a #TEDxTalk organised by #UWCMC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Monday, May 22, 2017
#Aasra's #JohnsonThomas was an invited speaker at a #TEDxTalk organised by #UWCMC
#aasradotinfo #aasraSuicidePrevention24x7Helpline912227546669 #BefriendersWorldwide #SamaritansUK #IASP #UN #WHO #AFSP #INFOTES #LifelineInternational #Google #Facebook Aasra's #JohnsonThomas was an invited speaker at a TEDxTalk organised by UWCMC
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TvzqaeJ8V2zlpPSXrPPJZTGFlCh7zsEEQVExLsViqMVFJ6gdF60GtthRYwheVuR57x1uzvpi7wZtnj80VPntMOuzXaJpwWzxw4BIdD12qka0_-ivYoi-yF7SADtbxolBvjSGmqvCQqmJ/s1600/TEDxUWCMCBordersAvertedJohnsonTHomas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TvzqaeJ8V2zlpPSXrPPJZTGFlCh7zsEEQVExLsViqMVFJ6gdF60GtthRYwheVuR57x1uzvpi7wZtnj80VPntMOuzXaJpwWzxw4BIdD12qka0_-ivYoi-yF7SADtbxolBvjSGmqvCQqmJ/s400/TEDxUWCMCBordersAvertedJohnsonTHomas.jpg" width="400" height="400" /></a></div>Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-55916958657268932572015-01-01T02:34:00.001-08:002015-01-01T02:34:23.315-08:00#HappyNewYear2015maketheMostofYourGoodTimesToCome!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Random House launches its new fiction title, <b><i>Becoming Mrs Gupta</i></b> by <b>Heather Saville Gupta</b>. The book is the first novel to address the increasing common reality of expats looking for love in the new India.<br />
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Heather
Saville arrived in Mumbai in 2003, just before Diwali. She’d been to
India
before, on backpacking and business trips, but this time she decided
she was here to
stay. She had garnered an expat job with one of India’s largest
advertising
agencies, a comfortable salary, and a company owned apartment to live
in. Once in India her life took a total 360 degree turnaround. It was a
whole new experience for her and that is what she has tried to capture
in her debut novel brought out by Random House titled 'Becoming Mrs
Kumar.' She speaks to Johnson Thomas about her life in Mumbai and her
varied experiences in the vibrant, lively and intriguing India that she
has come to love and call her own.<br />
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From being
single and fancy free to hitching up with an Indian , getting married
and then having two babies it's obviously been a whirlwind for Heather
Saville Gupta. She was single when she arrived, ready to explore and
make the most of the city. When she first came to Mumbai , the scene
was totally different from what it is now.
Then the tony neighborhood was south of Breach Candy, Worli was too far
away from the 'Life' while Bandra was a suburb. Andheri, Versova,
Malad, Goregaon were all just words on the map. <br />
Offices were in Nariman
Point, Fort or Churchgate. Most Expats hung out at the Breach Candy
club which provided a lifeline of sanity for Expats in the chaotic
environment of a bustling alien city teeming with people. <br />
<img height="200" id="irc_mi" src="http://www.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/HeatherSanvile.jpg" style="margin-top: 97px;" width="200" /><br />The
expat scene was small at first. Things started changing in early 2000.
Globalisation was well entrenched by then . In 2009, The Sealink, and
the Global recession changed everything. Heather moved from Breach Candy
to Bandra sometime in 2007 and got herself acclimatised to the more
cosmopolitan social scene there.
The Global recession which started at the end of 2008 also re-engineered
the expat presence in Mumbai .The number of Expats in Mumbai has
increased tremendously. But Heather is no longer in that strictly
'Expat' zone anymore. Her marriage to Vivek has changed her total
outlook on life. Today she is working as Production Head and Taking care
of the HR at Bang Bang Films as well being mother to Jake and Noah. She
isn't involved as much in the party whirl as once she was. There have
been so many changes in her life and she has managed to embrace them all
successfully. Mumbai itself has changed tremendously. The skyline today
is totally different from what it was 10 years ago. According to her ,
Mumbai’s famous spirit hasn’t altered one bit through all the change,
though.<br />
<img height="170" id="irc_mi" src="http://media2.intoday.in/btmt/images/stories/food/166a_1066.jpg" style="margin-top: 112px;" width="120" /><img height="393" id="irc_mi" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQm1BNwDby8KtqCzQ1CO6Z-RDWVHpvhDybllBX7rp-lZDtNnXw6" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="294" /><br />
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Heather's
travels around India has improved her adaptability to differing
environs. She now finds it difficult to spend more time in England
because in her own words 'the first week back at home is fun but
thereafter it's terribly boring!' India is her home now and her first
attempt at fiction best exemplifies that! <br />
<br />
Synopsis(Becoming Mrs Kumar): Julia Robinson is bored. Her job at a top London ad agency is becoming a bit sameish. Her London rent is killing her and she has been rained ononce too often to find British weather amusing.Julia wants to shake things up and so jumps at a chance of a job in Mumbai. She now finds herselic cities f in the centre of one of the most chaotic and energetic cities in the world. Will she find Mr Right in all this hullabaloo?<br />
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Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-90248305944609299162012-05-10T01:07:00.000-07:002012-05-10T01:07:02.800-07:00A grateful Poland recalls the ruler of Nawanagar’s kindness towards its WWII refugee children<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Little Warsaw Of Kathiawar
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A grateful Poland recalls the ruler of Nawanagar’s kindness towards its WWII refugee children
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“When others were killing our children, you were able to save them.” Emotional statements are not the stuff of formal interactions between high dignitaries, but this is precisely what Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said to President Pratibha Patil during his visit to India in September this year. It was a clear indication that nearly 70 years on, the heartwarming story of hundreds of Polish children who found sanctuary in the princely state of Nawanagar in the Kathiawar region of present-day Gujarat during World War II is still remembered with gratitude in their homeland.
The celebrated ‘Kindertransport’ project, in which the UK rescued thousands of children from Nazi Germany and occupied Europe in 1938, finds an echo in the noble decision by Digvijaysinhji, the maharaja, or ‘Jam Saheb’, of Nawanagar to take in Polish children from war-torn, occupied Poland and Soviet prison camps. The Jam Saheb took personal risks to make the arrangements at a time when the world was at war, and when the exhausted refugees were denied entry at all ports. Digvijaysinhji, son of the legendary cricketer-prince Ranjitsinhji, built a camp for them in a place called Balachadi beside his summer palace, 25 km from his capital, Jamnagar, and made them feel at home. The Jam Saheb’s gesture is said to have paved the way for thousands of Polish refugees to be received in other parts of the world, including some other places in India.
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Roman Gutowski, a Balachadi boy, in front of the Maharaja Jam Saheb School, Warsaw, in 2004. (Photograph by Anuradha Bhattacharya)
Nearly 68 years after the children arrived in Jamnagar and 64 years after their repatriation, there is renewed interest in the story in Poland, possibly triggered by a desire to ensure that this valued slice of memory passes on to a younger generation of Poles. As part of this commemorative effort, a square or an important street in Warsaw is likely to be named after the Jam Saheb. (A prestigious higher secondary school in the Polish capital has been named after him.)
Plans are afoot to honour this “Indian Schindler” with a posthumous award, and make a feature film on the subject. Meanwhile, Indian historian Anuradha Bhattacharya’s book on this humane encounter will be released in 2011.
Prof Piotr Klodkowski, Poland’s ambassador to India, told Outlook that distant though the historical event is, it still stirs emotions in Poland. “This is a true and captivating story for the ‘aam admi’ in both India and Poland. It is a story hidden like a precious stone in history. We are not satisfied with the common man’s knowledge of this story and intend to popularise it and retell it in various forms,” he said.
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Commenting on the significance of retelling the story, M. Krzysztof Byrski, Indologist and former Polish ambassador to India, said: “Each event in the history of our relations that exemplifies disinterested generosity should be remembered. After the nightmare of their morbid experience in the limitless, frosty wastes of Siberia, these children found a safe haven in India, which for them appeared like heaven.”
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Polish children at Balachadi celebrate the St Nicholas day festival with a traditional dance. (Photo Courtesy: Sainik School, Jamnagar)
So, what is the story? A warning before we dive into it: there is more than one version. Due to the loss or destruction of archival material in Jamnagar, it has largely been corroborated from material available in London and through the narratives of aged survivors. Inevitably, these contain discrepancies about how the decision was taken to allow the children on Indian soil; how the project was funded and what route (land or sea) the kids took to reach the shores of Nawanagar. The reconstruction one hears in Jamnagar has the benign flavour of mythology. It is a heroic tale, lacking in complications, and resting on one man’s generosity, courage and ‘word of honour’; by contrast, the historian’s version is far more intricately woven. However, in both versions, the Jam Saheb comes through as the moving spirit behind the mission.
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When Delhi objected to him sheltering the Poles, Jam Saheb produced an adoption certificate, saying they were family.
The Jam Saheb’s children Harshad Kumari and Shatrushalyasinhji say, on the basis of conversations with their father, that there were nearly 600 children and 40 women at the camp; and that all of them came directly from Poland, after the Wehrmacht attacked it. Hiding from the invaders, they were rescued and put on small ships that travelled from port to port—in Scotland, Ireland, Africa—but were barred from entering. Finally, they arrived in Bombay, where the British governor also refused entry (saying he did not have permission from the home office in London, and that they came from enemy territory). Enter the Jam Saheb, then an Indian representative on the imperial war cabinet in London chaired by Winston Churchill. Hearing of the children’s plight from the Polish prime minister-in-exile, he flew immediately to Bombay. He first went to the ships, saw the dreadful condition of the kids, spoke to the captains and went to meet the governor. “Our father tried to convince him, but when he failed, he was so frustrated, he went back to the ships and asked them to move to Nawanagar’s Rosi port. He took them all off and put them in tented accommodation for a few months before the Balachadi camp came up,” the siblings recall.
Another extraordinary detail recounted by the siblings is that when the viceregal office in Delhi objected to him taking in foreigners, he said they were part of his family, and even produced an adoption certificate. “Our father politically adopted them,” says Harshad Kumari, adding that he bankrolled the project from his personal funds.
Harshad Kumari, now in her 70s, but aged six when the children arrived, remembers being at parties with them: “They came to our Christmas parties and mingled with 45 of us cousins. A huge shamiana was put up in an open area. Once they came for my Bapu’s birthday and once for my brother’s birthday.” She also remembers attending a festival at the camp, with the kids dancing and singing in full skirts and dark velveteen shorts: “They made a costume each for my brother and myself. Mine is still lying somewhere in my trunks.”
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Harshad Kumari, daughter of the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar. (Photographer by Apoorva Salkade)
The narrative of events pieced together by Bhattacharya, and the more-or-less matching version provided by Wieslaw Stypula, a ‘Balachadian’ who wrote about his stay in a commemorative volume, Poles in India 1942-1948, differs in significant ways from the siblings’ account. While corroborating the fact that the princely state of Nawanagar was the first to offer sanctuary to the children, the historian says they were evacuated out of the Soviet Union (they were Polish refugees deported to the USSR and interned in camps after their country was invaded by the Red Army in 1939)—first by road—in 1942 and, according to archival documents, maintained out of charitable funds raised in India (Rs 6,00,000 between 1942-48), subscribed to by several Indian princes.
Stypula, in his account, says: “After the Maharaja’s offer...a Polish Children’s Fund was opened with a Rs 50,000 grant from the viceroy of India, and Rs 8,500 collected by the Polish Red Cross.” He narrates a moving tale about the condition of the children who reached Ashkabad, Turkmenistan, the assembly point for them in the then Soviet Union: “A seven-year-old boy, after the death of his parents from typhus, was left with his 18-year-old sister—alone on the Uzbek farm. When news reached him that evacuations were being organised somewhere in town, the boy set out on a dozen-kilometre journey to Samarkand, with his sister on his back....”
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The family’s account differs from that of historians. But they agree on one point: the Jam Saheb’s generosity.
Discrepancies in the narratives, Bhattacharya says, may be explained by the fact that many batches of children and refugees arrived in India, including a batch of 200 Polish children who arrived by ship and a Jewish group that came to Bombay after being denied permission to land at various ports. The historian suggests there might be a “memory overlap” between the stories of the various batches landing up in Balachadi, and regrets the lack of conclusive palace documents. “However,” she says, “there is no denying that the Jam Saheb’s generosity is unparalleled. It was the cornerstone for other Polish people to get sanctuary in India.” That they found refuge here also, Bhattacharya says, “speaks volumes about the national movement, which was not xenophobic, and about the Indian people who showed no antagonism to the presence of the Polish children in a year of severe drought and famine.”
In an interview in the November 25, 1942, issue of Polska, a weekly Polish magazine, the Jam Saheb spoke of his decision to welcome the Polish kids: “Maybe there, in the beautiful hills beside the seashore, the children will be able to recover their health and to forget the ordeal they went through.... I sympathise with the Polish nation and its relentless struggle against oppression.”
The Jam Saheb’s extraordinary dedication to the cause of the Polish children is evident from Stypula’s account of their departure, after a United Nations-assisted repatriation began in 1946: “Farewell—good man from the good land. ‘Polish’ Maharajah Jam Saheb. Your tears and your voice trembling with deep emotion, when you spoke to us for the last time at the station in Jamnagar, said it all.” It is only right that Poland today wants posterity to remember him.Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-86816649381232815942012-04-06T01:43:00.001-07:002012-04-06T01:43:14.553-07:00Expat living in India?April 6th 2012! Important changes to UK Pensions & QROPS Legislation! We strongly recommend you speak to or request contact from one of our expert Advisers straight away. To find out how these changes affect you simply complete the form on the left!
Did you know that as an Expatriate in India you can receive your UK pension income with no Tax deducted and ensure that your family inherit any unspent pension funds.
How We Can Help You Understand QROPS and UK Pension Transfers.
Read on to understand the benefits of QROPS and UK Pension Transfers abroad.
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Find A Better Retirement Income Abroad
It’s a fact that increasing numbers of Britons are choosing to retire abroad, and since the introduction of QROPS in 2006, many Britons have the opportunity to free up their UK pension from the restrictions of the British taxation and pension systems.
However, with this uniquely beneficial pension transfer opportunity comes the burden of understanding whether a QROPS is the right choice for you personally. We have arranged to provide a free pension analysis for you, compiled by industry experts, to show you how you can Save Large Amounts of Tax, protect from IHT and improve the growth of your Pension!
Many factors come into play when assessing whether an individual is best advised to transfer their pension or not, which is why it is critical that you receive qualified advice before making any decision or taking any action.
As Britons living abroad who have already been through the battle to find best advice about our personal pension options, we are acutely aware of how difficult it can be to get answers to some of the most common questions, such as: -
Do I have to pay UK tax on my pension when I receive it?
Will the British taxman grab any unspent pension when I die?
Do I have to buy an annuity with my pension now that I live abroad?
If I transfer my pension to a QROPS, which is the best jurisdiction?
Which financial services provider has the best QROPS for me?
This is precisely why we worked together to establish QROPS Choices. You can read more about us and more QROPS elsewhere on this website, but here’s how our service works, and how we can help you…
The Free Service We Offer You
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At QROPS Choices we provide every single reader who contacts us with a free and comprehensive pension analysis report. This report is produced by one of our handpicked, qualified, regulated, experienced, recommended and independent financial advisers, and it is individually tailored to your own personal circumstances.
This analysis report examines your current pension position and your transfer options; and if a transfer path is deemed applicable and advisable, your QROPS options are also explored in depth.
To Receive Your Free Pension Analysis & Guide To QROPS Simply Complete The Form On The Left
With your free and comprehensive report you will be able to see whether you will be better off transferring your pension to a QROPS.
Your analysis will be written in plain English and it will endeavour to answer all the questions you may have, such as: -
What benefits could I enjoy if I move my British pension abroad now that I’m living overseas?
Will I be able to save tax by transferring my pension?
Is a pension transfer right for me?
What are the risks of transferring to a QROPS?
What are the costs associated with transferring my pension abroad?
How much inheritance tax could I potentially save by transferring my pension?
How can I pass unspent pension to my beneficiaries upon death with a QROPS?
How can I avoid having to buy an annuity with a QROPS?
Can I take my pension income in a currency of my choice and avoid exchange rate and transfer costs?
Can I transfer SIPPs, final salary schemes and occupational pensions?
What’s more, if a QROPS transfer is not the right decision for you based on your personal circumstances, your analysis report will make this fact clear, and potentially save you from making a grave financial error.
Testimonials
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I thoroughly recommend that anyone planning to retire abroad gets a pensions analysis before making any decisions about QROPS.
Joan Williams – Spain
Your pension analysis certainly does cast a lot of light on the subject of QROPS.
Tom Watkins – UAE
Thank you, your pensions analysis is worth it’s weight in gold, glad I found you.
Sue Price – Florida
Perfect, just what I was looking for, thank you very much.
Martin Busler – France
QROPS Choices provide a first rate service, don’t hesitate to get your pensions analysis.
Helen Robins – New Zealand
Thanks ever so much, I was really concerned about sorting my pension out, you’ve been incredibly helpful from start to finish
Barry Davies – Cyprus
To Receive Your Free Pension Analysis & Guide To QROPS Simply Complete The Form On The Left
How Your Free Analysis Report Informs and Enables Your Choices
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By taking the short amount of time required to speak to one of our handpicked financial advisers, so that they can glean essential information about your current pension position and retirement ambitions in confidence, you will enable them to take the information and draw up your tailor made report.
This report will lay out your projected returns currently, and compare them directly with your pension transfer and QROPS options and future potential benefits.
With the information you receive written in plain English, and written to answer any specific questions you may have about QROPS and transferring a pension abroad, you will be armed with all the facts, figures, data and analysis required to enable you to make the right choice about whether transferring your pension is the best approach or not.
Your personal adviser will remain on hand to answer any additional questions you may have, and to directly assist you should you decide that you would like to go ahead and move your pension to a QROPS.
A QROPS is not the right choice for everyone, and not all QROPS offer the same benefits to each individual.
Whilst the benefits available from these qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes can be broad and high returning, you need to ensure that you make the right choices – and to do that you need the right advice.
How To Get The Right Advice
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To receive your personalised and free UK pension vs. QROPS analysis and comparison report, produced by a fully qualified pensions expert, complete the form on the left hand side. You can specify exactly how you would like to be contacted. You have nothing to lose and a potentially much wealthier and secure retirement to gain!
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QROPS Choices
+44 20 8123 2488
enquiry@qropschoices.com
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Welcome to QROPS Choices, an information service established by a group of British expatriates for British expatriates.
Since QROPS (qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes) were first introduced in 2006, there has been an awful lot of confusing information disseminated about these exceptionally flexible and potentially high returning pension schemes. The worst offenders for causing confusion are often the QROPS providers themselves!
We Create Clarity From Confusion
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When we, as a group of interested expats who are living, working or already retired abroad started researching our own pension transfer options, we found it hard to know whose information we could trust.
There didn’t seem to be a clear path to follow in order to determine whether we were better off leaving our pensions in the UK, or transferring them to a QROPS. And if a QROPS was supposedly the best way forward, we all received conflicting advice about the best jurisdictions for investment for example.
When we got together to discuss the advice we were receiving from websites, forums, financial advisers, accountants and bank managers we discovered that there were those who clearly understood QROPS and pension transfers and whose advice we felt comfortable trusting, and then there were those who were clearly just attempting to hard sell us a solution.
As Britons we were all acutely aware of the UK pension mis-selling debacle that affected many people in the late 80s and early 90s, and we felt determined that expatriates should not fall victim to bad advice when it came to their own retirement income options. Unfortunately however, there was seemingly no service available to expats where they could get free, independent and personally tailored advice.
This fact led us to take matters into our own hands, and it resulted in the establishment of QROPS Choices.
How We Pick The Advisers We Work With
We invited only the expatriate financial advisories that we felt had offered the best advice to submit client testimonials to us. These needed to be from satisfied individuals who had received QROPS advice from the advisory in question. We followed up on these to ensure that best advice and ongoing financial guidance was offered by the company to the client, before we invited each company to submit to us their regulatory information, details of the qualifications held by their QROPS advisers, and details about the terms of business they have in place with financial services companies they may recommend.
In other words, we conducted careful due diligence before we hand picked a group of advisers we were comfortable recommending. It is these qualified, regulated and experienced independent financial advisers who complete each individual pension analysis for QROPS Choices’ readers like you.
If you’re interested in determining whether a QROPS could be the right way forward for your pension savings and retirement income, or you just want to know how best to invest or manage your British pension now that you’re living abroad, with QROPS Choices you receive a free, personalised and individual review and assessment of your options.
How We Can Help You
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At this point you may be wondering why we and our hand picked financial advisers offer this service, and how we can offer it for free…
It’s quite simple. If your adviser determines that you can benefit from a QROPS by transferring your British pension abroad, and you then act on the free advice given and work with the adviser to establish your QROPS and move your pension, they will receive a commission payment from the financial services company with which you establish your QROPS – just like any other expatriate independent financial adviser. In turn we receive a small percentage of the commission.
QROPS are specifically designed to benefit British expatriates; therefore it is quite often the case that a transfer is deemed to be the best option. This means that whilst our advisers do sometimes have to explain to interested readers that a pension transfer is not the right approach for them, more often than not they show clear reasons why a reader should transfer.
The testimonials we receive week in week out show us that our group of hand picked advisers consistently deliver a high grade service to our readers, therefore a consistently strong number of qualifying individuals choose to use the service on offer from the advisers we recommend. This makes this approach sufficiently profitable for everyone involved to continue to offer their advice and support for free.
Please note: we at QROPS Choices are British expatriates just like you. We are not qualified to give you financial advice. This is why your specific requests for advice are handled by one of our hand picked independent financial advisers, and why all pension analysis documents are produced by these qualified and regulated third parties.
Your Next Steps
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Any Briton living abroad or planning to retire abroad can contact us with their questions about UK pension transfers and QROPS. If we can answer a question then we will – but if we feel that a question falls into the territory of financial advice we will ask one of our hand picked advisers to help – as always this is without charge or obligation.
To ask a question or to receive your personalised and free UK pension vs. QROPS analysis and comparison report, produced by a fully qualified pensions expert, complete the form on the left hand side. You can specify exactly how you would like to be contacted. You have nothing to lose and a potentially much wealthier and secure retirement to gain!Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-85239277166549045862012-03-02T10:18:00.002-08:002012-03-02T10:18:30.088-08:0054 lakh foreigners work in India54 lakh foreigners work in India
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Fri Mar 2, 2012 4:58 am (PST)
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India in top 10 global immigration hubs....Rukmini Shrinivasan
New Delhi: The number of foreign immigrants living in India is steadily declining, but India continues to be among the 10 countries with the highest in-migration in the world. At the same time, India sends the fourth largest number of emigrants to other countries.
In 2010, there were 5.4 million foreign-born persons living in India, according to new estimates released by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. These numbers make India home to the ninth largest number of foreign-born persons in the world.
But this number has been on decline since post-Partition migration and an influx of refugees from Bangladesh following the 1971 war. In 1990, there were 7.5 million foreignborn persons in India, and by 2000 this number was down to 6.4 million due to the death of the older immigrants.
In the 2001 census, 97% of all immigrants were from south Asian countries. Three million were from Bangladesh, followed by a million from Pakistan and 600,000 from Nepal.
US home to most immigrants
New Delhi: India is among the top countries when it comes to attracting immigrants. While a source country-wise break-up is not available for immigrants in 2010, past trends indicate that the likes of French diplomats in Delhi, American investment bankers in Mumbai and British techies in Bangalore form a tiny part of this diaspora.
These numbers are de facto and should cover both legal and illegal immigration, a UN Migration Team spokesperson said. However, unnaturally high growth rates for some border districts indicate that undocumented immigration does exist.
"There is a difference between historical migration, such as that from Bangladesh, and new migration flows which we in India need to acknowledge," says Binod Kharia, chairperson of the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and director of the International Migration and Diaspora Studies Project, co-sponsored by the government of India.
The US remains by far the world's biggest destination for immigrants, and this number continues to grow. Pakistan is at number13.
India is also the world's fourth biggest exporter of people-in 2010, India sent out over 5.6 million people as emigrants. Mexico, China and Pakistan form the top three. Though not the largest group, Indian emigrants sent home more money in remittances-$39 billion-than any other country's emigrants.
URL: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2012/03/02&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00105&ViewMode=HTMLJohnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-53412034164288955202012-02-23T10:54:00.004-08:002012-02-23T10:54:54.290-08:00An Expat experienceWatch out! An expat speaks out....Ranjini Manian
The expat co-worker is often taken aback by the Indian twist to business communication
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The other day I happened to meet a young American sent by a multinational on an assignment to India. Let's call him James.
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James is the first Westerner to work in the Indian arm of the company. He manages a team of 10 Indians aged 25 to 40, and reports to the Managing Director of the India operations. James had heard good things about India and the MD. He had come expecting to find his new assignment interesting and challenging.
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Well, he found it challenging all right, James told me ruefully. But not in the way he had hoped. Curious, I asked him what his concerns were, and got an exhaustive laundry list of problems, most of them 'small' in the sense of being not directly business-related, but 'big' for someone raised in a totally different work culture.
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I divided James' concerns into various categories. Let's deal with them, one by one.
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Talking the talk
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James had been assured that Indians were well versed in English and communication would not be a problem. This was true for the most part. Yet, there were some hurdles which he found very difficult to cross - telephones, for instance. What about telephones? I asked. "Well", replied James, "when I call someone on his phone, he picks it up and says 'Tell me' instead of the 'Hello' that I'm expecting to hear. That throws me off track completely! When I finally get going, and ask him for information, he gives it to me, but keeps interrupting himself to say 'Hello' every now and then, or else repeats what he has said. I find that terribly distracting."
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"While your team member is talking, what do you do?" I asked James. "I listen in polite silence of course," he replied, puzzled that I needed to ask.
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"That's why he keeps saying 'hello' or repeating himself," I explained with a smile. "During conversations, telephonic or face-to-face, we Indians expect our listeners to acknowledge that they have heard and understood by making typical sounds such as 'hmmm', 'ah' and so on. When we don't hear those sounds, we wonder whether the other person is still there, or if she has grasped what we are saying."
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"Oh, now I get it," said James. "And I also have this problem that people keep breaking into the local language when they're talking to me in English." "Yes, that can be quite distracting," I agreed. "But we Indians are at least bi-lingual if not tri-lingual, and we're used to interspersing our conversation in one language with words from another."
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Following the trail
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James found communication via e-mail quite a problem too. He kept getting long e-mail chains from his team, with terse messages in the latest mail asking him to read through the trail and respond to some point or the other. He had to go through reams of material and pick out the point that needed his attention.
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And then there was the issue of copying people on e-mails. James' mailbox was clogged with e-mails from one team member to another which had no relevance to him, but which he had been copied on. He found this quite annoying.
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After listening to James, I wished that I had the power to ensure that basic telephone and e-mail etiquette is made a compulsory subject at the school and college level!
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Who's the boss?
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Protocol was another issue which James found difficult to understand in India. For one, his team addressed him as Mr James, which he found odd. They called him by his first name, but prefixed Mr to it. "Why do Indians do that?" James asked. I explained that we use Mr as a term of respect, and we don't give the same importance to the first and last names as the West. But I understood his irritation, and thought it was a Watch Out! point to share with readers.
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Though there seemed to be a fixed pecking order, James found that people often jumped the line. When someone felt that a matter needed quick attention, they would simply contact a senior person, even in another country, by-passing direct superiors. He found this habit hard to tolerate.
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"In India, decision-making is hierarchical, we are conditioned to think that if we go to the top, we'll get the job done, and fast," I told James.
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Clock work
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Finally, the problem of time management: James found his colleagues an intelligent, hard-working lot. Perhaps too hard working! They worked long at the office, much beyond office hours. When he asked for reports of work done, he got it in minute detail - down to the last nano-second. While he expected brevity and quality, they gave him quantity, eager to please him or prove to him that they were working hard.
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"Why don't they realise I don't want a minute-by-minute account, I just want to know how they're progressing in their task? By giving me such reports, they're wasting their own time and mine," said James. "Put it down to our education system which focuses on writing copious pages rather than distilling knowledge in bullets," I said, flagging it as another Watch Out! point.
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James' laundry list made me realise that although our people have come a long way on the road to doing business in a globally acceptable style, there are still many kinks we need to be aware of and iron out. So, new Indian managers, let's get our act together.
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PS: James was smart enough to realise he couldn't change the work ethics much, because the problem started at the higher levels. He figured out that the best way of handling the situation was to get himself some training in Indian work culture!
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The writer is Founder CEO of Global Adjustments, a relocation and cross-cultural services company, and can be contacted at globalindian@globaladjustments.com
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URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/newmanager/article2860612.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_homeJohnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-57782089373713915692012-01-26T01:08:00.001-08:002012-01-26T01:08:14.635-08:00Job seekers need to be more creative and flexiblen 2012, creativity and adaptability will be key to landing and keeping a job for many workers, as staff levels remain lean and employees are expected to respond to a wide variety of demands, experts say.
Economists don't expect loads of job growth, but there could be opportunities in areas such as health care, professional services, retail and some manufacturing, says Harry Holzer, a public-policy professor at Georgetown University. Also, continuing churn in the labor market means that even in areas with few new jobs, there will still be openings when workers move around.
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Thomas Kuhlenbeck
Technical knowledge and experience will be required for certain spots. "For professional services you usually need a professional degree. In health you usually need some training," Mr. Holzer says. "Manufacturing needs some occupational training. Retail is different. It doesn't require specific occupational training, but it does often require some interpersonal skills."
In addition to the standard prerequisites, employers will be looking for workers who are able to quickly adapt to new responsibilities as companies respond to changing economic and industry trends. So workers should highlight their creative skills to differentiate themselves, says Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard University.
"Firms have so many job seekers per opening. They are going to want candidates with clear credentials, but also a little extra shine in interactive skills and creativity," Mr. Katz says. "They are less willing in a weak labor market to take chances."
Here are other skills experts recommend workers should pick up and enhance.
Technical literacy. It's important for workers at a variety of levels to be familiar with some of the technical, if mundane, processes that keep organizations running smoothly.
Take the health-care industry. Providers are bringing on more technology when it comes to record keeping and billing.
"A knowledge of electronic data handling is just a really big plus. That goes for receptionists to the doctors who are becoming employees of larger hospital systems," says Warren Bobrow, president of All About Performance, a Los Angeles-based skills-assessment consultancy.
Workers also need to be good users of social media. There's a fine line between letting interested parties know about the latest news and bombarding them with too much information. Still, individuals shouldn't be afraid to use networking sites such as LinkedIn to make employment connections.
Business acumen. As companies remain concerned about demand for their products and services, a wide variety of employees need to think about sales, experts say. Even those outside of marketing should care about revenue, and making sure customers are happy.
Mr. Bobrow has clients in Colorado, an orthopedic practice with more than a dozen doctors, and those doctors don't become partners until client-satisfaction surveys are reviewed and good results are found.
"They are in a competitive marketplace because so much of their work is based on referrals," Mr. Bobrow says. "The doctors realize that their revenue depends on all of them bringing in more patients and having patients come back."
Being savvy about pleasing customers isn't about spin, says Ben Dattner, a New York-based organizational psychologist and author. Rather, workers need to illustrate the advantages of their products and services to please employers dealing with an ultra-competitive environment.
"Try to get to know your customer, the market and figure out how you can put things together in a package that adds value," Mr. Dattner says. "Law firms are increasingly recruiting professionals who [bring clients with them]. The actual practice of law is becoming commoditized to some extent, but the ability to bring in customer relationships and be flexible is what companies are increasingly looking for."
General proficiency. Companies are looking for workers who are flexible and can take on functions in various jobs as market demands change, says Greg Barnett, director of product development at Hogan Assessment Systems, a Tulsa, Okla.-based personality-assessment and consulting firm. That is, companies want workers who are "solid organizational citizens"—quick learners who are compliant, Mr. Barnett says.
"People are being asked to do more," he says. "There are concerns when applicants are good workers, but not people who are able to learn and change direction and change their performance."
Dan Ryan, principal at a Nashville, Tenn.-based executive search firm, stresses the importance of project management and communication skills, which also happen to be transferrable. "The ability of people at all levels to clearly communicate is not what it used to be," he says. People "who can do that very well can differentiate themselves."
Write to Ruth Mantell at ruth.mantell@dowjones.com
—Ruth Mantell is a reporter for MarketWatch. Read more at marketwatch.com.Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-23791758006351605702011-12-16T10:12:00.000-08:002011-12-16T10:12:40.335-08:00Nymgo - International Voice Over IP<a href="http://nymgonews.com/#.TuuJogNxcdM.blogger">Nymgo - International Voice Over IP</a>Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-84015973752485965742011-09-12T03:17:00.000-07:002011-09-12T03:17:31.235-07:00Nearly 40 % Europeans suffer from mental disordersStudy: Many Europeans have mental disorder
LONDON – Some 38 percent of Europeans, or 165 million people, suffer from mental illness or neurological disorders on a broad spectrum ranging from anxiety to dementia, a new study published Tuesday says. Most are not being treated, though some experts said many may not need psychiatric help.
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Researchers at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology drew on previous surveys of mental health and applied specific criteria to determine how many people had a disorder. The data covered more than 500 million people in the 27 European Union countries plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway.
More than 90 different mental and neurological problems were considered, including those often found in children, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, to those often found in the elderly, such as the dementia in Alzheimer's patients, according to the study by the non-profit group.
Using such a broad definition of mental health and neurological disorders might artificially inflate the problem, some experts said.
"Not all of these people require psychiatric interventions," said Matt Muijen, a mental health expert at the World Health Organization's European office in Copenhagen who was not linked to the research. "The 38 percent is indicative of stress in society, not necessarily psychiatric disorders."
Because researchers in other areas use varying definitions of what constitutes a mental health problem, it is hard to compare European rates to those elsewhere, he said. In the U.S., for example, the National Institute of Mental Health estimates about 26 percent of adults have some type of mental disorder.
The rates of mental disorders didn't appear to be rising, compared to a similar study in 2005. The most common problems include anxiety disorders, insomnia, depression, alcohol and drug dependence and dementia. Experts estimated only one-third of people receive treatment.
Other experts said the numbers of people with mental health problems appeared higher than what is commonly believed because most patients don't report their illness and because this study includes disorders in children and the elderly.
"Although the figure seems shockingly high, this is the most rigorous study done in Europe," said Graham Thornicroft, a professor of community psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. He was not linked to the study.
"The real tragedy is that so few people with mental health problems receive treatment," Thornicroft said.
Hans-Ulrich Wittchen, one of the study's authors, said many patients still face discrimination and limited services when seeking treatment.
"Mental health disorders are Europe's largest health care challenge in the 21st century," he said.
The study was published in the group's journal, "European Neuropsychopharmacology," and presented at its annual meeting in Paris on Tuesday. None of the study's authors reported a conflict of interest.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.
Posted 5d 18h ago | Updated 5d 18h ago
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Amy Winehouse died after detox seizure, dad says (USATODAY.com in LifeLine Live)Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-83875004982456182742009-07-16T04:17:00.000-07:002009-07-16T04:20:30.417-07:00Potential Expats have little knowledge of the country they aim to make their own for a little whilePotential Expats are clueless about India, read the following and understand why...the humorous way<br /><br />The answers are the actual responses to the questions on the website posed by firangis who are planning a visit to India.<br /><br />I personally liked the last one<br /><br />Q: Does it ever get windy in India ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? ( UK ).<br /><br />A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.<br /><br />Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? ( USA )<br /><br />A: Depends how much you've been drinking.<br /><br />Q: I want to walk from Delhi to Goa - can I follow the railroad tracks (Sweden)<br /><br />A: Sure, it's only three thousand kms, take lots of water.<br /><br />Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in India ? (Sweden)<br /><br />A: So it's true what they say about Swedes.<br /><br />Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in India ? Can you send me a list of them in Delhi , Chennai, Calcutta and Bangalore ? ( UK )<br /><br />A: What did your last slave die of?<br /><br />Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in India ? (USA)<br /><br />A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe . In-di-a is that big triangle in the middle of the Pacific & Indian Ocean which does not.. oh forget it. ...... Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Goa . Come naked.<br /><br />Q: Which direction is North in India ? ( USA )<br /><br />A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.<br /><br />Q: Can I bring cutlery into India ? ( UK )<br /><br />A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.<br /><br />Q: Can you send me the Indiana Pacers matches schedule? ( France )<br /><br />A: Indiana is a state in the Unites States of...oh forget it. Sure, the Indiana Pacers matches are played every Tuesday night in Goa , straight after the hippo races. Come naked.<br /><br />Q: Can I wear high heels in India ? ( UK )<br /><br />A: You're a British politician, right?<br /><br />Q: Are there supermarkets in Bangalore , and is milk available all year round? ( Germany )<br /><br />A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.<br /><br />Q: Please send a list of all doctors in India who can dispense rattlesnake serum. ( USA )<br /><br />A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Indian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.<br /><br />Q: Do you have perfume in India ? ( France )<br /><br />A: No, WE don't stink.<br /><br />Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in India ? ( USA )<br /><br />A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.<br /><br />Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in India ? ( France )<br /><br />A: Only at Christmas.<br /><br />Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )<br /><br />A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first<br /><br />Q: Can I see Taj Mahal anytime? ( Italy )<br /><br />A: As long as you are not blind, you can see it anytime.<br /><br />Q: Do you have Toilet paper? ( USA )<br /><br />A: No, we use sand paper. (we have different grades)Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-41970659343546813042009-07-11T04:46:00.000-07:002009-07-11T05:01:05.517-07:00Expat ExperiencesRivan Sanzilay, has been in Mumbai,India for more than a year yet she finds herself being stared at to the point where she feels a faint twinge of fear. It wasn;t that way when she first landed in Mumbai. The crowds were enormous( at least to her), the throng of people overwhelming and the smells assailing! It was an experience that the faint hearted might have found difficult to cope with.but cope she did. A year down the line, she still feels disoriented by the throng of humanity but she's learnt to deal with it. It no longer affects her as intensely as it used to before. But the fear remains.Stories of foreigners being raped in Goa and Delhi have made her wary. Though she doesn't seek out the protection of the expat crowd, she does have some friends among them nevertheless. But most of her friends are true-blue Indians and she has learnt to mingle freely among them. Of course, Language in India is not much of a problem. English is universally used unlike China where it's even difficult to find someone to converse with in the international toungue. rivan is beginning to get the hang of life in Mumbai. She enjoys herself over the weekends with her husband and friends while during the week she is busy tending to her upcoming tourism business. She has to survive here, it's an expensive city afterall especially for foreigners. She gets incensed easily at the prices quoted when she goes to buy stuff from the market so now she's decided to let her bai(maid) do the purchasing. At least she wont get fleeced that way! The only places she finds foreigners getting reverential treatment are restaurants, pubs and other entertainment joints. t disheartens her to see people being treated unequal, and she realises that even market driven societies have class barriers. Something that might not have come to light in a non-asian country!<br /><br />As told to Johnson ThomasJohnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-81608099161615632112009-04-18T10:09:00.001-07:002009-04-18T10:39:59.957-07:00Expat Expert Robin Pascoe in conversation with Johnson Thomas<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmE1sAxyk0MoHL0xSXBOgO37lXL1Vc9uDxkqAQIwFGoWjqfn3QxsqS_fjIYFwB1oFQQWcXxVtcsOygUz8DvJkWipfANA8JON5X6nCSi5BlK1Y3lOITwdO2SB6WFRZCUfVX7UNI1nSYHloX/s1600-h/robin_pascoe.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmE1sAxyk0MoHL0xSXBOgO37lXL1Vc9uDxkqAQIwFGoWjqfn3QxsqS_fjIYFwB1oFQQWcXxVtcsOygUz8DvJkWipfANA8JON5X6nCSi5BlK1Y3lOITwdO2SB6WFRZCUfVX7UNI1nSYHloX/s320/robin_pascoe.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dWpY5QCcs1QYRmyhBR2yygvrQnWjWUaRDqsarWNXLYEWeQZyPdBh8Uh0afVPlBFmS2S8eNjBkqvANqpxBZoq5MwW8SWtWsOXobicBKKVSgfrgY10Zv1ug4i-cFnoTuEiaieOJNmAhSVY/s1600-h/RobinPascoe.asp"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dWpY5QCcs1QYRmyhBR2yygvrQnWjWUaRDqsarWNXLYEWeQZyPdBh8Uh0afVPlBFmS2S8eNjBkqvANqpxBZoq5MwW8SWtWsOXobicBKKVSgfrgY10Zv1ug4i-cFnoTuEiaieOJNmAhSVY/s320/RobinPascoe.asp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" /></a><br />A writer, journalist and publisher who has authored three widely read books on Expat issues, Robin Pascoe shares her unique gyaan on problems of relocation with Johnson Thomas.<br /><br />Why Expats? Don't human beings all over the world suffer from similar problems? <br />As an expat myself, I had inside knowledge of what went on in the minds of expats. Their problems are no different from others but the feeling of being an alien, the fear, the trepidation and the vulnerability of being in a new place and almost having to start from scratch are unique to Expats.<br />What do you talk about?<br />I talk to them about the challenges of being an Expat. The women want to feel validated that their challenges are real because they may have a husband who tells them that they are making it all up. The children need to understand that if Dad's traveling a lot, he's not traveling on purpose. <br /> What difficulties do Expat kids face...?<br />Kids have identity issues about where they are from, especially when their families move around a lot. If you ask these third culture nomads where they are from, they havn't a clue. <br />But aren't Expat communities too small in number?<br />For the past ten years Expat communities have been growing at a faster pace and increasing hugely in numbers. India has a huge base of 50,000 Expats living in the country on work, while there are larger communities of Expats of Indian origin living and working all over the world. The numbers are increasing. <br /> How do you plan to reach out to Expat communities in India?<br />Well, primarily my task here is to speak to the staff of multinational corporations and their families. I also have a few company lectures lined-up and then I'll be visiting the International schools and the women's clubs in the city. <br /> <br />Don’t Expat communities come from different cultures and communities?<br /> Everywhere I have gone I have expected things to be different but they are not. Cases vary. One Expat spoke about moving to Europe a few months ago for a once-in-a-lifetime job, her partner agreed...yet once they got there, there were problems aplenty. A third culture kid who spent his life in Papua New Guinea, China, the US and the Middle East, had spent the least time in the country of his birth, New Zealand. Then he had to go to New Zealand on work and it turned out to be his most difficult posting. I get asked the same questions wherever I go. I generally focus on the internals- things that no one wants to think about. It's all about providing emotional support to those distressed by relocation.<br /> <br />Are they receptive to you?<br />Oh Yeah! When I talk about parenting everybody's ears are wide open because it's easier to talk about your kids. But when I talk about marriage , it's a tad more difficult to break the ice. They want to talk about their marriage but because the Expat communities are small, they can't be seen talking openly about marriage …<br /> <br />Don't Expat communities lead a very nomadic exixtence?<br />There is a 25% turnover in Expat communities at any given time. The community is constantly changing. I talk to the Expats trying to prepare them to go home(wherever that may be)-'They all have to go home one day,' I say…<br /> <br />Is that such a major problem?<br />In fact repatriation is one of the biggest problems faced by Expat communities. It is the most overlooked dimension of culture shock. People do not like to think about it. They think it will be fine but it's not. They become strangers in their own country and that causes a great deal of distress.<br /><br /><br />Traveling spouses, international Human Resource practitioners, relocation specialists, and international school communities worldwide applaud Robin Pascoe’s pragmatic but sensitive approach to the joys and challenges of families and global relocation. Robin , an Expat herself, is a writer, journalist and publisher who has authored five widely read books on Expat issues and is today reckoned as ‘The Expat Expert’. She has also been interviewed in numerous international publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Working Mother Magazine, Utne Reader, CNN, and others.<br /> In this interview she shares her unique gyaan on problems of relocation. In conversation with Johnson Thomas.<br /><br /><br /><br />Why specialize in Expats alone? Don’t human beings all over the world suffer from similar problems? <br />As a writer, journalist and publisher, an expat myself, I had inside knowledge of what went on in the minds of expats. Their problems are no different from others but the feeling of being an alien, the fear, the trepidation and the vulnerability of being in a new place and almost having to start from scratch is what Expats and their families experience when they have to leave their own familiar set-ups and go abroad for work. <br />My website went up about ten years ago. It was something new, nobody had that kind of help available online so that’s how I became the expat expert. I had also written two books previous to that. It all just seemed to happen overnight. The books kept coming, My website got a lot of response and companies like Santa Fe did well to promote the whole concept. My speaking tours around the world have been a great success. I go speak to International schools, women’s clubs, human resource people and Expat families all over the world.<br /><br />What do you talk about?<br />I try to talk to them about the challenges of being an Expat. Specific challenges that Expat communities face when relocating to a new country or place. The women want to feel validated that their challenges are real because they may have a husband who tells them that they are making it all up. The children need to understand that if Dad’s traveling a lot, he’s not traveling on purpose. This is business. <br /><br />What difficulties do Expat kids face...?<br />Kids have identity issues about where they are from, especially when their families move around a lot. If you ask these third culture nomads where they are from, they havn’t a clue. So I talk to the kids about their identity issues and to the parents about the challenges of dealing with these issues. The families are what I call silent partners in the relocation. They usually do not have any choice in the relocation. I also speak to corporations and urge them to pay more attention to the family side. If the families don’t go then the corporations will find it difficult to retain talent and this would in turn affect their business. I also speak to the Embassy staff in different Foreign Ministries. Any corporation or organization sending people to a foreign country on assignment, I go in there and speak to them about what needs to be done to strengthen family relationships, helping them cater to their specific needs in order that the assignment may be successful.<br /><br />Who is a third culture kid?<br />The research for third culture kids began in India about ten years ago initiated by the US embassy. Third culture kid is defined as someone who has spent a significant amount of their developmental years in a culture outside their parent/passport culture. A global nomad is someone who has moved because of a Parent’s occupational choice. So Expatriates have problems that are magnified because they have lost everything that is familiar to them.<br /><br />But aren’t Expat communities too small in number?<br />For the past ten years Expat communities have been growing at a faster pace and increasing hugely in numbers. India has a huge base of 50,000 Expats living in the country on work, while there are large communities of Expats of Indian origin living and working all over the world. The numbers are increasing as economies blend into one another and opportunities increase. Globalisation has made it much easier for people from one country to find work in another and vice versa.<br /><br />So are you going to be speaking to the Expat communities living in India? How do you plan to reach out to them?<br />Well, primarily my task here is to speak to the staff of multinational corporations and their families. The Expat’s more or less have affiliations to multinational corporations. I also have a few company lectures lined-up and then I’ll be visiting the International schools and the women’s clubs in the city to talk to the Expat families. Over the years I have received many feelers from these communities for such interactions through my website and this visit fulfills that obligation.<br /><br />Expat communities come from different cultures and communities? How do you tackle this anomaly while addressing their issues?<br /><br />Everywhere I have gone I have expected things to be different but they are not. Cases vary. One Expat spoke about moving to Europe a few months ago for a once-in-a-lifetime job, her partner agreed that it was just too good an opportunity to refuse, so he happily supported the move. And went along. They talked long and hard about what options there might be...yet once they got there, there were problems aplenty. A third culture kid who spent his life in Papua New Guinea, China, the US and the Middle East, had spent the least time in the country of his birth, New Zealand. Then he had to go to New Zealand on work and it turned out to be his most difficult posting. Another Expat, an accompanying spouse who moved to Sri Lanka with her husband three months ago had to relocate again because of company restructuring. It was the most trying period of her young life. The problems are universal no matter which country I visit, the climates may be different and the solutions for each situation may differ but by and large the problems are generally the same. I get asked the same questions wherever I go. I generally focus on the internals- things that no one wants to think about. It’s all about providing emotional support to those distressed by relocation.<br /><br />Are they receptive to you?<br />Oh Yeah! Depending on the communities. When I talk about parenting everybody’s ears are wide open. They want to know everything they can get because it’s easier to talk about your kids. But when I talk about marriage , it’s a tad more difficult to break the ice. They want to talk about their marriage but because the Expat communities are small, they can’t be seen talking openly about marriage …It would seem like their marriage was in trouble and everybody would know about it.<br /><br />Don’t Expat communities lead a very nomadic exixtence?<br />There is a 25% turnover in Expat communities at any given time. The community is constantly changing. New faces come in while the old move to new destinations. I talk to the Expats trying to prepare them to go home(wherever that may be)-‘They all have to go home one day,’ I say…<br /><br />Is that such a major problem?<br />In fact repatriation is one of the biggest problems faced by Expat communities. It is the most overlooked dimension of culture shock. Re-enter shock happens when going back into your own culture. People do not like to think about it. They think it will be fine but it’s not. They become strangers in their own country and that causes a great deal of distress.<br /><br />Isn’t this a more recent problem?<br />No . it’s always been that way. In the earlier times people went home by boat which took anywhere from a month to three or even six months of travel. They had enough time to process the changes and so the shock at re-entering their formerly familiar culture zones were not as much as it is today in the jet age-where everything happens in a matter of hours. Of course the problem is even greater today. Expats who left their countries years ago find the changes on return too overwhelming to deal with and therefore flounder emotionally. I sometimes think of myself as a validator and facilitator giving them an opportunity to express their distress and come to terms with the changes.<br /><br />Johnson Thomas<br /><br />Books authored by Robin Pascoe<br /><br />Raising Global Nomads: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World<br />A Movable Marriage: Relocate Your Relationship without Breaking It<br />Homeward Bound:A Spouse’s Guide to RepatriationJohnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512779336168169881.post-76705743761896061652008-08-02T03:25:00.000-07:002008-08-02T03:29:39.410-07:00Issues that affect ExpatriatesHandling "Expatriates"...Issues and Challenges...ARE WE READY?<br />Background<br /><br />India plays an increasingly critical role on the world economic stage. Western companies have been hiring Indian professionals in large numbers for work in their own country or abroad; many people from other parts of the world now work regularly with Indian counterparts. At the same time, a growing cadre of expatriate managers and project leaders is being assigned to India in order to assist in building up operations there.<br /><br />Understanding the term and its Origin<br /><br />An expatriate (in abbreviated form expat) is someone temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of their upbringing and/or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country), and is sometimes misspelled as ex-patriot or short x-pat, due to its pronunciation.<br /><br />The term is often used in the context of Westerners living in non-Western countries, although there are many instances of Westerners living in other Western countries, such as Australians living in the United Kingdom, or Britons living in Spain.<br /><br />The difference between an expatriate and an immigrant is that immigrants (for the most part) commit themselves to becoming a part of their country of residence, whereas expatriates are usually only temporarily placed in the host country and most of the time plan on returning to their home country, so they never adopt the culture in the host country. While Europeans or North Americans living in the Middle East and Asia may marry local people and have children, most see no advantage in adopting citizenship of their host countries, usually because they consider their stay only temporary. In countries like Saudi Arabia, expatriates are required to live in segregated compounds, meaning that integration into their host country's society is not an option.<br /><br />Challenges...and Concerns<br /><br />When you hire an expatriate the challenges are multi-fold. Assigning employees to posts outside their home countries raises both strategic and tactical issues for global firms.<br /><br />At the strategic level, global firms need to ask:<br />Are overseas assignments right for our business?<br />How can we contain or reduce the related costs?<br />Would an expatriate be a better choice than a local hire?<br />If assignments are critical to meeting global business demands, how can we facilitate mobility and ensure equitable treatment among similarly situated employees?<br />Currency and mode of payment for these people.<br />How to charge income-tax?<br />How to protect their interests in case of exploitations?<br /><br />At the tactical level, firms must consider how to select the right people for the assignment, manage performance and communication issues, and ensure that expatriates are successfully repatriated or reassigned when their assignments are done.<br /><br />More then that, when you hire someone, you are not only hiring his knowledge and expertise but also his culture, social beliefs and values.<br /><br />Just an example : In my previous two companies we had two and five expatriates respectively. They never use to mingle with others and generally tries to be on their own. Some were also of the opinion as if this is a "punishment" for them.<br /><br />Learning from Others...Global Trend...with Reference to Western Countries It is all about Global Experience<br /><br />As per one of the survey done in 2005 it is found that the number of expatriates is increasing. This is despite the move towards using local hires, particularly in key markets such as Asia. The growth of expatriate numbers can be explained by the need for global leadership development within multinationals, which encourages key talent to gain international experience. In addition, there is an increase in the use of globally nomadic employees (i.e. employees with no home country)<br /><br />Expatriate benefit trends<br /><br />Companies tend to keep expatriates in the home country retirement plan throughout the assignment. However, global nomad employees who move from country to country on varying assignments will more commonly be in an international retirement plans. The majority of multinationals now provide attractive international medical plans for their expatriates. US employers expect employees to pay towards the cost, whereas other multinationals will typically pay the full cost. Overall, US employers tend to provide lower levels of benefits than European (and other) employers, however US employers provide a wider range. Most companies, (US, European and other), do not provide special treatment for loss of benefits when they localize an employee from one country to another.<br /><br />Benefits Policy for Expatriates<br /><br />In another survey, 1 in 10 companies surveyed reported that their expatriates have explicitly expressed dissatisfaction with their benefits. Not surprisingly then, almost all companies agreed that addressing benefit arrangements for expatriates is a medium to top priority. Arriving at a globally consistent approach for expatriate benefits has proved challenging, and almost ¼ of companies still do not have a specific benefit policy for their expatriates. A further 30% do not have formal expatriate governance procedures in place and 60% have no process to measure the success of an assignment. 10% of respondents admitted that they have never reviewed their policies on benefits for expatriate employees.<br /><br />"One-size fits all" approach is no longer realistic<br /><br />Companies who have relied on expatriate policies in the past are finding that a "one-size fits all" approach is no longer realistic. The demographic and nature of international assignments has changed, and companies have to adapt policy to reflect this new diversity among expats. For companies who have expatriate benefit programs, there is increased pressure to differentiate by region ( e.g. Asia Pacific, Europe, etc) or by category of employee (junior, senior exec, business need for transfer etc)<br /><br />Conclusion<br /><br />Handling expatriates is still a challenge both at strategical and cultural front. "Cross Cultural" adaption is the key and there should be some legal protection for expatriates both from host as well as parent company.<br /><br />These are my views and thoughts, you can have different opinion. However, it would be nice to receive your feedback and comments.<br /><br /><br />Composed by: Sanjeev Sharma<br />(Chandigarh - India)<br />(Mobile: +91-9876328841)<br />Blog: http://sanjeevhimachali.blogspot.com/)Johnson Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05249207683198967458noreply@blogger.com0