Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Conspiracy Theories

It bugged me to read an op-ed in the New York Times yesterday, titled: The Captive Arab Mind and written by a Roger Cohen. The premise of the article is based on condescending the Arab minds in general as being helpless, and resorting to conspiracy theories to justify their inability to understand the real nature of the events that are happening in their midst. I have so often heard and read so-called political analysts in the Arab World and elsewhere denouncing conspiracy theories, even if they themselves resort to them when explaining/analyzing a certain phenomenon!

The issue, in my opinion, is not whether or not the Arabs resort to conspiracy theories because they are helpless and unable to set free from their captive minds, but more in the analogy that some ignorant Westerners, Arab "liberal" thinkers, and Neo-Orientalists use in describing the Arab psyche as being backward and short of calling them outright "stupid". Conspiracies do in fact exist, and for those who say they don't are themselves part of this ploy! The role of some of the so-called Think Tanks in the West is to cook-up conspiracies and sell them to their administrations/regimes in order to change a certain status-quo. From regime toppling to political assassinations, and what's in between of course, are built on hidden agendas and are surely conducted covertly. Does the writer of the NYT piece find in these acts a logical and clear explanation that does not capture the Arab minds? I am sure he and others like him will find certain "logical" explanations for them, but living in an unstable part of the world, one cannot but resort to such conclusions.

I wonder if the writer thinks/believes that Yasser Arafat died of old age or that Syria/Hizbulla did assassinate Rafiq Hariri, or if the issue of Darfour is based on the Western world's fascination with liberating the Southern part of Sudan, due to their ethnic/religious affiliations. Better yet, maybe he still believes in Colin Powell's WMD speech at the Security Council regarding Iraq or that Gas reserves were not discovered in Afghanistan! Come on!

Distrust has surely become synonymous with how the Arab minds think, but that no one can claim that the mere thought of a conspiracy is unfounded and should be ruled out completely. It used to be in the pre-WikiLeaks era that historians/political analysts had to wait quarter or half a century to review certain classified documents, be it in the US or the UK. However today, the documents that prove of conspiracies are clearly out in the open long before their ink dries on them. Maybe Julian Assange wanted the world and those pseudo-intellectuals to know that conspiracies are a way of life for many of the world powers. Or maybe Assange is part of that conspiracy?? Who knows!!

Signed by a Captive Arab Mind...  
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Is Customer Retention a Necessity or a Luxury?

Renno Communications Group taps into Customer Retention Program

As part of its continuous efforts to raise the bar of the communications industry and introduce innovative solutions across the region, Renno Communications Group (Renno CG), a communications consulting agency in the Middle East, announced today the launch of its Customer Retention Program (CRP).

Commenting on the launch of CRP, Samer M. Renno, Chief Executive Officer, Renno Communications Group, said:

'Providing an optimal customer experience is not a luxury but a necessity. The current global financial downturn has uncovered significant flaws among the major sectors, from hospitality to retail and banking, when it comes to customer service, as many companies have become more focused on gaining new customers and neglected the retention of their existing ones.'


Renno added, 'Recent studies of customer experiences indicate that 43% of all customers who defect do so because of service issues, while three quarters of these defectors cite employee attitude as their core frustration. Most serious aspect of these studies showed that 83% of those who have a negative service experience tell at least one other person. With so much riding on employee-to-customer interactions, companies must find new ways to ensure that employees strive to over-serve customers at every opportunity.'


According to Renno, to retain a customer there needs to be proper understanding of how they are being served. 'Our 'Undercover Shopping Program' offers clients the benefit of measuring the abilities of their staff and quality of the customer service they are providing. This provides the clients with the information to analyze the gap in their sales force's performance in order to enable them to make the necessary changes required for the benefit of their customers.'

Renno CG has over the past decade since its inception worked relentlessly to provide its clients with cutting edge communications solutions that are based on 360 degrees (Full Circle) tactics, which are designed to strengthen not only brand positioning but also ensure that the client's image is protected against any internal or external factors.

Renno CG's Customer Retention Program has been implemented in all the Agency's network offices and has already received a positive response from its clients throughout all sectors in the region.