Oh, no!... Don't do that!... Don't stop buying I.B.M. products!... Would you like to see this Company going bankrupt?!... Without your money... hard for them to survive on the market! So, forgive it, forget it, and change your mind!!!

an even worse problem is that we, the "ordinary" citizens, can hardly see what is happening on a global scale, that governments are effectively being sidelined by trans-national corporate interests...

it's sad, it's wicked and so de-humanising because we're all being put into situations to justify our "cost-effectiveness" and "personal involvement/ethics" in the face of capitalism gone wild... people don't matter any more any more, profits do...

(and i used your word verification tonight, for the very first time, with admirable results :P)

keep well :D

Thank you for your sarcasm, Anonymous! I know I don't count that much...But what do you think would actually happen in a hundred persons or more would do the same? Do you think they would have a say? It seems a bunch of paying customers (the studets) had...

By the way, the press monitoring agency I used to work with did some PR for IBM Romania, so I worked with them quite closely! These guys here did pretty good, they even built a hot shot lab for a local computer university...It's a shame other branches are allowed to ruin this good image!

True, Bart! Speaking of people don't matter anymore, it's our fault as well! Look at our anonymous reader here! Instead of saying great attitude, I'll back it up, he is being sarcastic. If IBM monitors would do a search, I am sure they do that if they're smart, instead of seing disapproval for their action, they'd get just the attitude they need to not care!

I am glad your WV usage was successful! :))

Unfortunately, such protests don't have much effect. That's why Coca Cola, McDo, Microsoft are still there. Another approach would be to convince journalists specialized on IT to stop covering IBM's activities or write editorials. Sometimes I do that (not about IBM) and it's very effective. Even a big company can weaken withour "good press".

Amazing... Mr. GhP can change the World! That's really GREAT! Make it better, bade (buddy)!...

George, that is also a good idea, I know what a tragedy a 5 lines negative article is for IBM! At least for the Romanian branch! For your information, Anonymous, such a small personal act can create panic for the entire top management of a local branch. If there are more, well, it's a disaster for them! Take it from someone who was involved in press monitoring reports for large companies.

I personally remember a large tobacco producing company was to be called imediatelly, in the middle of the night, if we got word of a negative article.

But humor me and explain your theory: I'm to insignificant to matter, so I should just not bother to try?

Yes you're right! * ..."a 5 lines negative article" could be a tragedy for I.B.M. - romanian branch, you said! Who wrote those five lines? Somebody from Microsoft?! or Intel?!... Nope, but Mr. GhP from "Avântul Internetului universitar - Buzãu" Fear his mean...writings!! * Hey, K! I don't really want to hurt your feelings, but you forcibly made me to remind you something : Coca Cola is not Quick Cola... Cico is not Fanta... I.B.M. is not Tehnoton-Iasi... If there will be a huge boycott against the "romanian branch" of McDonald's, for instance - be aware that no other "branch" will be affected. The situation could be of some importance if the boycott will take place in Thailand...or Singapore... McDonald's will replace the cooking oil... Maybe. What you say is nothing more than a still born theory ; the practice is something else, much different and does not work the way you want! But, you can give it a try ; you will improve your life experience... If you want, you can try to blow a plane out of the sky using the air stream of your lungs!... Hypothetically that's possible. So, go ahead and show the world Logan is a car - like a VW (the cheapest one), or a Ford (the smallest...) Hypothetically...

WOW, I must say, I am amazed! You think our country is so nor important...Hell, we all believe that! Probably that is why it actually is not important, there is no one to believe in it. True!

The five line article was written by someone working at a newspaper of the same influece as George's...And it wasn't a tragedy only for the Romanian branch (they had to have a pretty good explanation for the headquarters).

Then, I did not want to protest against the local branch, it was against IBM in general...And if there is a Forbes article saying companies should pay attention to the "attack" of blogs, then my guess it a couple hundreds of blogs from all over the world (and a lot of them from India) would actually matter...But of course, you know better, and unfortunatelly there are a lot of people who think like you: I'm to small to change the world, therefore a group of us small creatures will not do better.

Hey little blogger!... Nobody is too small to change the world! Changing the world has nothing to do with the size, but the brain! Obviously, there are not many people who know that. What a pitty!