Then a valiha’s strings sang,
Women dance, move their shoulders,
Shake their dresses’ bright colors,
They stop. They open umbrellas…
Turn round, parading their lambas
With that drum’s beats’ clang.

Suddenly all fall silent !
Deep voices come, singing loud.
And men in blue malabary come out,
Women drop out umbrellas
And dance stretching out lambas.
Oh, how wonderful is hiragasy !

I wish it would never, never stop.
But I have no more words to drop.
Too amazing to be told precise.
See by yourself, rest is surprise!

This is the marvelous hiragasy.

By Suki

If you are one of those executive types unhappy at your present post and embarking on a New Year’s resolution to find a new one, here’s a helping hand. The job interview is considered to be the most critical aspect of every expedition that brings you face-to- face with the future boss. One must prepare for it with the same tenacity and quickness as one does for a fencing tournament or a chess match.

This article has been excerpted from “PARTING COMPANY: How to Survive the Loss of a Job and Find Another Successfully” by William J. Morin and James C. Cabrera. Copyright by Drake Beam Morin, inc. Published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Morin is chairman and Cabrera is president of New York-based Drake Beam Morin, nation’s major outplacement firm, which has opened offices in Philadelphia.

1. Tell me about yourself.

Since this is often the opening question in an interview, be extra careful that you don’t run off at the mouth. Keep your answer to a minute or two at most. Cover four topics: early years, education, work history, and recent career experience. Emphasize this last subject. Remember that this is likely to be a warm-up question. Don’t waste your best points on it.

2. What do you know about our organization?

You should be able to discuss products or services, revenues, reputation, image, goals, problems, management style, people, history and philosophy. But don’t act as if you know everything about the place. Let your answer show that you have taken the time to do some research, but don’t overwhelm the interviewer, and make it clear that you wish to learn more.

You might start your answer in this manner: “In my job search, I’ve investigated a number of companies.

Yours is one of the few that interests me, for these reasons…”

Give your answer a positive tone. Don’t say, "Well, everyone tells me that you’re in all sorts of trouble, and that’s why I’m here", even if that is why you’re there.

3. Why do you want to work for us?

The deadliest answer you can give is “Because I like people.” What else would you like-animals?

Here, and throughout the interview, a good answer comes from having done your homework so that you can speak in terms of the company’s needs. You might say that your research has shown that the company is doing things you would like to be involved with, and that it’s doing them in ways that greatly interest you. For example, if the organization is known for strong management, your answer should mention that fact and show that you would like to be a part of that team. If the company places a great deal of emphasis on research and development, emphasize the fact that you want to create new things and that you know this is a place in which such activity is encouraged. If the organization stresses financial controls, your answer should mention a reverence for numbers.

If you feel that you have to concoct an answer to this question – if, for example, the company stresses research, and you feel that you should mention it even though it really doesn’t interest you- then you probably should not be taking that interview, because you probably shouldn’t be considering a job with that organization.

Your homework should include learning enough about the company to avoid approaching places where you wouldn’t be able -or wouldn’t want- to function. Since most of us are poor liars, it’s difficult to con anyone in an interview. But even if you should succeed at it, your prize is a job you don’t really want.

4. What can you do for us that someone else can’t?

Here you have every right, and perhaps an obligation, to toot your own horn and be a bit egotistical. Talk about your record of getting things done, and mention specifics from your resume or list of career accomplishments. Say that your skills and interests, combined with this history of getting results, make you valuable. Mention your ability to set priorities, identify problems, and use your experience and energy to solve them.

5. What do you find most attractive about this position? What seems least attractive about it?

List three or four attractive factors of the job, and mention a single, minor, unattractive item.

6. Why should we hire you?

Create your answer by thinking in terms of your ability, your experience, and your energy. (See question 4.)

7. What do you look for in a job?

Keep your answer oriented to opportunities at this organization. Talk about your desire to perform and be recognized for your contributions. Make your answer oriented toward opportunity rather than personal security.

8. Please give me your definition of [the position for which you are being interviewed].

Keep your answer brief and task oriented. Think in in terms of responsibilities and accountability. Make sure that you really do understand what the position involves before you attempt an answer. If you are not certain. ask the interviewer; he or she may answer the question for you.

9. How long would it take you to make a meaningful contribution to our firm?

Be realistic. Say that, while you would expect to meet pressing demands and pull your own weight from the first day, it might take six months to a year before you could expect to know the organization and its needs well enough to make a major contribution.

10. How long would you stay with us?

Say that you are interested in a career with the organization, but admit that you would have to continue to feel challenged to remain with any organization. Think in terms of, "As long as we both feel achievement-oriented."

11. Your resume suggests that you may be over-qualified or too experienced for this position. What’s Your opinion?

Emphasize your interest in establishing a long-term association with the organization, and say that you assume that if you perform well in his job, new opportunities will open up for you. Mention that a strong company needs a strong staff. Observe that experienced executives are always at a premium. Suggest that since you are so well qualified, the employer will get a fast return on his investment. Say that a growing, energetic company can never have too much talent.

12. What is your management style?

You should know enough about the company’s style to know that your management style will complement it. Possible styles include: task oriented (I’ll enjoy problem-solving identifying what’s wrong, choosing a solution and implementing it"), results-oriented ("Every management decision I make is determined by how it will affect the bottom line"), or even paternalistic ("I’m committed to taking care of my subordinates and pointing them in the right direction").

A participative style is currently quite popular: an open-door method of managing in which you get things done by motivating people and delegating responsibility.

As you consider this question, think about whether your style will let you work happily and effectively within the organization.

13. Are you a good manager? Can you give me some examples? Do you feel that you have top managerial potential?

Keep your answer achievement and ask-oriented. Rely on examples from your career to buttress your argument. Stress your experience and your energy.

14. What do you look for when You hire people?

Think in terms of skills. initiative, and the adaptability to be able to work comfortably and effectively with others. Mention that you like to hire people who appear capable of moving up in the organization.

15. Have you ever had to fire people? What were the reasons, and how did you handle the situation?

Admit that the situation was not easy, but say that it worked out well, both for the company and, you think, for the individual. Show that, like anyone else, you don’t enjoy unpleasant tasks but that you can resolve them efficiently and -in the case of firing someone- humanely.

16. What do you think is the most difficult thing about being a manager or executive?

Mention planning, execution, and cost-control. The most difficult task is to motivate and manage employees to get something planned and completed on time and within the budget.

17. What important trends do you see in our industry?

Be prepared with two or three trends that illustrate how well you understand your industry. You might consider technological challenges or opportunities, economic conditions, or even regulatory demands as you collect your thoughts about the direction in which your business is heading.

18. Why are you leaving (did you leave) your present (last) job?

Be brief, to the point, and as honest as you can without hurting yourself. Refer back to the planning phase of your job search. where you considered this topic as you set your reference statements. If you were laid off in an across-the-board cutback, say so; otherwise, indicate that the move was your decision, the result of your action. Do not mention personality conflicts.

The interviewer may spend some time probing you on this issue, particularly if it is clear that you were terminated. The "We agreed to disagree" approach may be useful. Remember hat your references are likely to be checked, so don’t concoct a story for an interview.

19. How do you feel about leaving all your benefits to find a new job?

Mention that you are concerned, naturally, but not panicked. You are willing to accept some risk to find the right job for yourself. Don’t suggest that security might interest you more than getting the job done successfully.

20. In your current (last) position, what features do (did) you like the most? The least?

Be careful and be positive. Describe more features that you liked than disliked. Don’t cite personality problems. If you make your last job sound terrible, an interviewer may wonder why you remained there until now.

21. What do you think of your boss?

Be as positive as you can. A potential boss is likely to wonder if you might talk about him in similar terms at some point in the future.

22. Why aren’t you earning more at your age?

Say that this is one reason that you are conducting this job search. Don’t be defensive.

23. What do you feel this position should pay?

Salary is a delicate topic. We suggest that you defer tying yourself to a precise figure for as long as you can do so politely. You might say, “I understand that the range for this job is between $______ and $______. That seems appropriate for the job as I understand it.” You might answer the question with a question: “Perhaps you can help me on this one. Can you tell me if there is a range for similar jobs in the organization?”

If you are asked the question during an initial screening interview, you might say that you feel you need to know more about the position’s responsibilities before you could give a meaningful answer to that question. Here, too, either by asking the interviewer or search executive (if one is involved), or in research done as part of your homework, you can try to find out whether there is a salary grade attached to the job. If there is, and if you can live with it, say that the range seems right to you.

If the interviewer continues to probe, you might say, "You know that I’m making $______ now. Like everyone else, I’d like to improve on that figure, but my major interest is with the job itself." Remember that the act of taking a new job does not, in and of itself, make you worth more money.

If a search firm is involved, your contact there may be able to help with the salary question. He or she may even be able to run interference for you. If, for instance, he tells you what the position pays, and you tell him that you are earning that amount now and would Like to do a bit better, he might go back to the employer and propose that you be offered an additional 10%.

If no price range is attached to the job, and the interviewer continues to press the subject, then you will have to respond with a number. You cannot leave the impression that it does not really matter, that you’ll accept whatever is offered. If you’ve been making $80,000 a year, you can’t say that a $35,000 figure would be fine without sounding as if you’ve given up on yourself. (If you are making a radical career change, however, this kind of disparity may be more reasonable and understandable.)

Don’t sell yourself short, but continue to stress the fact that the job itself is the most important thing in your mind. The interviewer may be trying to determine just how much you want the job. Don’t leave the impression that money is the only thing that is important to you. Link questions of salary to the work itself.

But whenever possible, say as little as you can about salary until you reach the "final" stage of the interview process. At that point, you know that the company is genuinely interested in you and that it is likely to be flexible in salary negotiations.

24. What are your long-range goals?

Refer back to the planning phase of your job search. Don’t answer, “I want the job you’ve advertised.”Relate your goals to the company you are interviewing: “in a firm like yours, I would like to…”;

25. How successful do you you’ve been so far?

Say that, all-in-all, you’re happy with the way your career has progressed so far. Given the normal ups and downs of life, you feel that you’ve done quite well and have no complaints.

Present a positive and confident picture of yourself, but don’t overstate your case. An answer like, “Everything’s wonderful! I can’t think of a time when things were going better! I’m overjoyed!” is likely to make an interviewer wonder whether you’re trying to fool him . . . or yourself. The most convincing confidence is usually quiet confidence.

Now that we’ve run the ICE Poetry Slam for 3 months (and more) it might be interesting to open this section of website again and encourage you to submit you works. We have around 50 poems submitted in our database and we’ll presently publish them. Maybe two or three per week depending on our availability.

Brain and learning process – Presentation Transcript

1. Our brain & Learning process Shaman Saturday, 23 rd of January 2010 I ’m C razy about E nglish

2.

• BRAIN
• LEARNING PROCESS
• BARRIERS TO BE TORN DOWN
• SUGGESTIONS

3. BRAIN Composed by brain cells Brain cell gets connected to its neighbors to form a network Brain is divided into a lot of networks Each network though connected to other networks has its own specific task(s) to accomplish Only around 10% of our capacity are exploited Information is transmitted from one neuron to another via chemical reaction Shaman I ’ m C razy about E nglish

4. What is happening when we treat information in the learning process? LEARNING PROCESS Connections between a group of neurons are getting strong What about learning foreign language? Center of language located in the third left circonvolution I ’m C razy about E nglish Shaman

5. BARRIERS TO BE TORN DOWN I ’ m C razy about E nglish Shaman

6. HOW DO WE PROCEED WHEN ASKED TO SPEAK ENGLISH WITH FELLAS AROUND? IDEAS FRENCH OR MALAGASY ENGLISH Translation Translation BYPASS I ’ m C razy about E nglish Shaman

7. Mistakes are a part of us Care a lot about what people might think of us I ’ m C razy about E nglish Shaman

8. SUGGESTIONS Brain is selective Bypass Iron will,do or die determination Motivation

It was during the IEW Faire that slammers Lan and Kya proposed us the interesting idea of having Poetry Slam at the club. They exposed us how they’d proceed to explain and show the members what Poetry Slam is. “The goal is to show them that everybody can be a slammer” Lova said.

A week later, we had our first ICE Slam Session with a presentation about Poetry Slam followed by a workshop. We can say everybody had fun writing something of their own and then performing it in front of the others. The board decided to have a monthly session, more precisely every third Saturday of the month. It will start at 9am and will finish before the general meeting at 10am.

This video, produced by Lalah, shows the third ICE Poetry Slam Session and the ambiance during it. The guys were given 10mn to write something out from the words “Love”, “leaf”, “life” , “rain”and “laugh”.

From this coming Saturday then, a team, from the members will lead the whole meeting. Its mission is to find games, lead the discussion upon a topic that they normaly have chosen. We believe that belonging to a team will help a lot those who are still shy to face a whole bunch of crazy people lol. The team will have a leader and they will manage to share the works to do between them, like grown ups

The discussions will be divided into two parts. The members will be splited into small groups of 6 or 7 people. This is done to make the shy members more confident and talk. They will discuss a topic between them for 15mn and one of the leaders will make sure everybody in the group spoke. This is in the first part. In the second one, we will go back the general talk where everybody is invited to take part in.

The “presentations” already started in 2009 but we’ll have more this year. We’re scheduling three this month. Haingo, Lalah and Sambatra will respectively talk about “Travel”, “Video editing” and “How our brain works”. We will encourage all the members to make up their mind and present something they like to their peers.

The “English Saturday” will comeback and will be held every three months. We thought this frequency will give us much more time to have a better organization. And as usual we will invite other English clubs to join us during this event.

We hope will have more outings this year – something that cruelly lacked us in 2009 – but it will mainly depend on the (political) situation in Madagascar. We won’t take any risk when safety of the members is not sure.

That’s all we can say about news in the club. Other projects and proposals from the members are still on the we-are-thinking-of-it state, they need more reflexion.

More than three years ago, we were sitting in a couch at Ambodivona chosing between YES or ICE and brainstorming on a master plan to set up and English Club. I remember well the excitment that gained all of us enumerating all the different steps we’d be going through and all the things we wanted to do with the club. Ideas, we had plenty of but more over we had a lot of love and passion for the English language.

It was with the same passion and love that we’ve run the club for more than three years now. Three years of sharing through ups and downs. At this point, we’re happy with all the things we’ve done with club and most importantly we’re proud of our members. WE ARE PROUD OF YOU GUYS! Last Saturday, on our way to a APC-FOKO-ICE party, I had a talk with Hary, an active member who hosted the last MS of this year, and he said that the first meeting for a new member is important because he/she will draw an image of the club upon this one. I do agree, I said, though we can’t always have a perfect meeting for each individual each Saturday, that’s just impossible. It is hard to fulfil people’s excpectations if you don’t know them. If we counted our members from the day we started they would be around 400 but only few of them has remained faithful dispite work, studies and other duties.

When I come across former members in the streets they always ask “How is the club doing?” and then “How are the members?/Are there new members?”. My usual answer is “Some come and others go”. On one side, I don’t blame those who could not make it anymore on Saturdays. We all have our priorities. Some of them requested another meeting on a different day but it was hard to plan. But on the other side, I’m grateful to the ones who made efforts to stay, those who helped better the club by getting involved, giving time and energy. Getting involved doesn’t always mean doing huge things for the club. It could be a piece of advice, a home-made cake during a MS, a place to meet during times of crisis and so on. You know these little details that can make the difference.

Andry and I often have this discussion on how to see how involved a member is. He is used to saying that “Now, we can see who is motivated and who’s not.” when he feels that the activity is not likely to attract members. I most of the time disagree with him saying “We don’t have the same time and priorities man”. I must admit that somewhere along the line he’s right though. An activity like the ES we had in Ivato tends to prove that.

The question “What makes a club what it is?” has been in my head since we started. Is it its leaders or its members. I don’t know if we’ve been efficient as leaders. What I’m sure of is we have the best members in town. And that says to me “The members make a club what it is”. A “club” is not the leaders and what they do but rather the ambiance and mood the members create within it. They way they interact and treat one another. The bonds that are built between them. That is a what club is and I would be lying if I say that this is less important than the “English practice” itself.

Usually, towards the end of the year we ask the members for feedbacks in order to better the club. And that’s what we did with the help of HL who kindly made up a form for that purpose. We also took this occasion to reward the winners of the quizz we had during our last Movie Session of the year.

The ICE Club and all its members wish you happy holidays filled with LOVE, PEACE and JOY.