Part 2 - Coco Juku

It has been a while since my last update.  There were issues logging in to my account with password issues, etc.

The latest news is that I am back, living in Australia.  Coco Juku, even after I left the company made life hell for me.  This is the same company that I used to defend.  A cruel lesson.

At the time that I left Coco Juku, I had 9 days of paid holidays outstanding that I was trying to claim.  There was also roughly 3 months remaining on my contract which I was trying to claim.  Coco Juku refused to pay me my paid holidays.  They also refused to pay me out my contract because they claimed that I voluntarily resigned, even though they bullied me out of a job and forced me to resign.

Either way, I needed paperwork from the company in order to take to HELLO WORK.  They would not even give me the paperwork until 4 months after I had left the company.  Their reason?  They wanted me to sign the following document which can be found here.  The document (which is really a bribe appears below:

合　意　書

Agreement

ニチイ学館労働組合（以下「組合」という）及びペラ・バニパル（以下「ペラ氏」という）と株式会社ニチイ学館（以下「会社」という）は、ペラ氏と会社の雇用契約に係る諸問題の件（以下「本件」という）に関して、下記のとおり合意したので本合意書を締結する。

　Nichii Gakkan Union (hereinafter called “the Union”), Banipal Pera (hereinafter called “Mr. Pera”), and Nichii Gakkan Company (hereinafter called “the Company”) made and enter into this agreement as a result of various problems concerning Mr. Pera’s employment contract (hereinafter called “the matter”). The description is as follows:

記

第１条　組合及びペラ氏と会社は、平成２６年９月２４日付でペラ氏が会社との雇用契約を終了したことを確認する。

Article 1  The Union, Mr. Pera, and the Company confirm that Mr. Pera’s current employment contract terminated on September 24, 2014.

第２条　会社は、ペラ氏に対し、本件の解決金として金180,000円を支払う。

Article 2  The company shall pay Mr. Pera 180,000yen, and the matter will be considered solved.

第３条　会社は、本合意書をペラ氏から受領後、１４日以内に前条の解決金をペラ氏の以下の口座に振り込む方法で支払う。なお、振込手数料は会社の負担とする。

　　　　　　　 　　銀行　　　　支店　普通預金　口座番号：

口座名義：ペラ・バニパル

Article 3  The company shall pay the sum of money stated above into the following bank account belonging to Mr. Pera, within 14 days after they make and enter into this agreement. Furthermore, the company shall be liable for the cost of the bank transfer.

            Bank,              Branch Office, saving account 

Account No.:        

Account holder’s name:                 

第４条　組合及びペラ氏と会社は、各当事者間（会社に所属する、あるいは過去に所属していた従業員を含む）において相手方を誹謗中傷する行為を今後一切行わないことを確認する。また、ペラ氏は、現在ペラ氏が管理・掲載する会社についてのオンライン記事を削除することに合意する。

Article 4　The Union, Mr. Pera, and The Company shall affirm that they will not slander or defame each other

in any way presently or in the future. This includes past and/or present employees belonging to the

Company. Also, Mr. Pera shall agree to remove his current online content about the Company or its

past/present employees.

第５条  組合及びペラ氏と会社は、本合意書に定める他、事由名目の如何にかかわらず、一切の債権債務が存在せず、今後一切争わないことを確認する。

Article 5  The Union, Mr. Pera, and the Company shall affirm that there are no debts or credits among them

regardless of any name or reason, and that they will not claim or take any action against the Company by trial or otherwise.

第６条  組合及びペラ氏と会社は、本件ならびに本合意書の内容について、第三者に公表しないことを確認する。

Article 6  The Union, Mr. Pera, and the Company shall affirm that they will not make public the contents of

this agreement after they make and enter into this agreement.

以上

平成　　　年　　　月　　　日

(Month)       (Day),       (Year)

（組合）ニチイ学館労働組合

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　委員長　山本千恵子　　㊞

                                                            (Union) Nichii Gakkan Union

Chieko Yamamoto

Chairperson

（ペラ氏）　　　　　　　　

 (Mr. Pera)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　㊞

（会社）株式会社ニチイ学館　

事業統轄本部　教育事業本部

本部長代理　遠藤みち子　　　㊞

(Company) Nichii Gakkan Company

Education Business Headquarters

Michiko Endo

Acting General Manager                                          

You have read this right.  they wanted to bribe me a mere 180,000 yen.  All the pain and suffering, not to mention 3 months salary denied to me as well as 9 days paid holidays and they wanted to bribe me a small amount of 180,000.  How shameful is this company?  

Just for the record, I did not accept this money.  180,000 to keep my mouth shut?  You have to be kidding me!

So off to HELLO WORK I went when they finally gave me the paperwork and there were yet more dramas.

The rules for making claims at HELLO WORK are that if you resigned, you must wait 3 month and if you were sacked or found yourself unemployed due to a bankruptcy, you wait for 1 week.

According to the paperwork that Coco Juku sent me (4 months after I had stopped working for them), I had voluntarily resigned, even though that was utter nonsense.  HELLO WORK then  asked me for proof that I was in fact bullied and harrassed.  Despite all the emails and other paperwork between myself and the company, the only "proof" they accepted was the document above.  It was clear that Coco Juku wanted to bribe me into not saying anything and that was enough proof for them to start paying my allowance.

A mini victory for me against Nichii Gakkan where they wanted to wait 4 months till they gave me paperwork that I was entitled to, and then wait an extra 3 months before I can receive an allowance.  

To anyone reading this who is considering working for this company.  DON'T!  They will promise you the earth and yet put you through hell.  

I have been back in Australia for 3 months now and although I was sad to leave Japan, I am happy to be back.  I work in a company where people are accountable for their actions and bullying is not tolerated.

I look forward to threatening messages from Nichii Gakkan.  They could have paid me a lot more to keep my mouth shut (like the money they owe me) but they chose not to.  Keep bleeding money Coco Juku.  Nobody will defend you.  You had one loyal staff member and you put him through hell!

Working For Coco Juku

My late father always taught me one thing.  He always said that, "if a man can't admit when he is wrong, then he is not a man". 

I had previously had another blog post, praising the company and giving a positive spin on working for Coco Juku, amid all the negative publicity and all the negative blogs around cyberspace.  With recent events, and remembering what my father said to me all those years ago, I have deleted the previous post and replaced with this new one.  There will be those who read the original one from last year who will enjoy telling me, "I told you so".  Well, here I am admitting how wrong I was.

So where did it all go wrong?

They say there is one idiot in every crowd and I guess our office in Tokushima is no different.  We had a great manager, we had 2 great native instructors, had great counselors and have 3 great Japanese instructors.  The reason for the "success" of our branch is because of the good staff.  The ICC section of Nichii Gakkan  has nothing to do with the running of Coco Juku but in Tokushima, the head of ICC, not only interferes to the extent the people can't do their jobs, but she also gets credit for the success of the branch.  This person's indiscretions include but are not limited to, taking overseas vacations with students, gossiping about staff to students/customers including gossiping about our manager, placing students in levels where the student themselves don't feel comfortable in such a difficult level (behind the teacher's and counselor's back), creating a lob-sided schedule where some instructors are run off their feet while other instructors struggle to stay awake due to them not having classes, blocking all lines of communication among the staff and between the counselors and students, lying to and misleading the students, forcing and bullying visitors to join against their will, forcing students to sign contracts 2 months before necessary.  The list goes on but you can get my drift.

Anyway, this tyrant requested me to do a group class during Obon which was against the rules.  I said that it was against the rules and that I would not be bullied into doing it.  The reason this love-child of Josef Stalin wanted me to do this class was because I was going away for training next week and then I would be on vacation the week after, so this student would miss 2 weeks of lessons.  I reminded Ms Stalin that a teacher was available while I was away but the student refuses to take his lessons due to Ms Stalin's gossiping about my co-worker.  There is no reason for this student to refuse his lessons other than she has been misled about him.  Ms Stalin still booked this lesson and I was forced to teach it but I took action by taking it up with the union.  The union was made aware of all her indiscretions and the fact that 6 members of staff have already resigned because of her bullying and intimidation and collated a list of her indiscretions with many examples of how she has stopped us from doing our jobs properly.

Finally the day of the meeting between myself and union reps against the Shitencho (who is loyal to Ms Stalin, whose loyalty has created the problems in the first place) and the Head of Education at Coco Juku.  After 3 hours, the Shitencho and Head of Education made it clear that they are aware of all the indiscretions, and that Ms Stalin is in fact a bad person who is difficult to work with (which I wanted them to say impossible to work with) but due to her sales record, will not have any restrictions placed upon her, nor will there be any sanctions against her due to her indiscretions.

You read that right.  They accept she is a bully who intimidates the staff to such an extent that 6 people including the manager have quit their jobs, they accept that she has made it impossible for the office to function properly, but due to her sales record, will not do anything about it.

There is nothing flash about her sales record.  If she has worked there for 2 years,, it is understandable her sales record will look better than those who lasted 3 months until they were bullied out of a job by Ms Stalin herself.  Plus, the reason we have customers is because the students like the lessons given by the teachers, not to see the head of ICC in the Coco Juku office.  Shitencho has been brainwashed by Ms Stalin, even though she admits that all the points against Ms Stalin are true.

They gave me an ultimatum.  That I accept that Ms Stalin is there to stay and that I must go back to work.  I told them that I will not go to work and be bullied and harassed just for doing my job.  I suggested to them that Ms Stalin could be based in the branch office, rather than the Coco Juku office where she can cause problems and the Shitencho refused this request, knowing full well there will be more resignations if this simple remedy would be ignored.

I had no choice but to resign from the company who I had last year felt compelled to write a positive blog post about.  A company who made it clear that if a person breaks all the rules, and bullies the staff and students, but has a good sales record, will never have any sanctions made against them. 

Therefore, any person offended by my blog post last year, praising Coco Juku, I apologise to you.  You were right and I was wrong.  "Bullying is okay" was the key message from the meeting.  They said it several times because I did not believe they said it and was convinced that I was misunderstanding them.  There was no misunderstanding.  They made it clear they are aware of all previous staff's complaints but refuse to sanction her, not even warn her.

Apologies/gomen to all previous contributors to my previous blog.

Sanctions Against Israel

It has been an extremely long time since I updated this particular blog.  However, I have been mesmerised by the recent events in Israel and the occupied territories, and the lack of compassion for the Palestinians who continue to be humiliated by the Israelis and Americans.  In fact, I am disgusted by it.

Israel was formed (or re-formed if you take history into account) in 1948.  With waves of post war Jewish immigrants to Palestine, the Jewish population grew to such an extent that they were able to gain independence and form this own country.  Unfortunately, nothing was done to deal with the Palestinians who had lived on that same land for several hundred years and since 1948, have been refuges in their own country.  After the 1967 war, rather than Israel being demolished, it actually grew stronger and seized land belonging to the Arabs.  That land is referred to as the "occupied territories" because they do not officially belong to Israel.  The Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are illegally being occupied by Israel.

Despite the United Nations, the very group that helped form the Jewish nation of Israel, pleading with Israel for some humanitarian co-operation, and renouncing their violence, they have been allowed to get away with it by the USA who is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.  And the American people claim that they do not understand why so many people around the world despise their foreign policy.  If ever there was a case for ignorance, this is it.  Sticking up for a schoolyard bully would never make you popular in any place, even in the USA, so why the ignorance?  It was both Israel and the USA who boycotted the UN Conference on Racism back on September 8th 2001.  What did they have to lose by attending?  Unfortunately, the media having such a short attention span, forgot about this disgrace because 3 days later, terrorists armed with box cutters, supposedly flew planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon (though no trace of a plane has ever been found there), taking the media's attention with them.  Once again, Israel and the USA had gotten away with another disgrace. 

In recent months, Israel and the USA could not stop anyone for voting for Palestinian recognition in the UN.  Apart from tiny Pacific island nations who rely on US Foreign Aid, and the Czech Republic, everyone else either voted in favour of the Palestinians or abstained (due to political pressure from the Americans and Israelis).  It was a vote for common sense and finally, some common sense prevailed.

But what does it all mean?  The Israelis are still building settlements on Palestinian land that they are ILLEGALLY occupying.  How much more is the world going to tolerate from the Israelis?  They keep breaking law after law, treaty after treaty, they have more war criminals in the country than any other country and they constantly get away with their crimes against humanity.  They get away with it because they pull the strings of the USA who is a permanent member of the UN security council and that is all Israel needs to get away with any crime it sees fit. 

Israel became a Jewish form of Apartheid South Africa years ago but it is only recently that the world is waking up to the injustices.  A lot depends on the USA.  Will there be sanctions on Israel as there were on South Africa during the Apartheid years?  Will the USA break all agreements to help their little brother Israel?  Would that make sanctions irrelevant if the USA does not co-operate?  Will the USA be held accountable or will they also get away with more crimes against humanity?

The world needs to rise and take a stand against these injustices. 

Assyrian Massacre 31-10-10

As an Assyrian living in Diaspora, I was shocked and horrified to hear about my blood brothers in Iraq being murdered by cowards with my regard for human life. I have never been especially patriotic but this was not about patriotism, it was about decency and respect.

Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for this but I ask why? Why these people? What political gain is there killing these people? What did you Sons of Bitches achieve? How have the people you have killed stood in the way of your cause in the past? Pathetic cowards!

In the aftermath, I have been pondering about the Assyrian "politicians". Has anyone spoken up? Has anyone actually made any noise? In the days of Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian only needed to break a finger nail and Yasser Arafat would be on the news. Journalists from all over the world knew him and wanted his comment. His name was synonymous with the Palestinian cause. Like him or hate him, agree or disagree with his methods, he was the figurehead of the Palestinian people. Where is the Assyrian Yasser Arafat? Nelson Mandela was the figurehead of the black African struggle in South Africa. The world knew him and his cause.

We have many politicians but no leaders. They bicker about whether we are Assyrians, ChaldoAssyrians, Iraqi Christians, etc etc. Do they include left handed, vegetarian and gay Assyrians? While we bicker about nonsense like that, Assyrians (or ChaldoAssyrians, Mesopotamians, including left handed vegetarians) are being killed left right and centre.

Where are our leaders and politicians? Why don't you have a voice? A united voice? We can blame the media for not highlighting our plight and our cause, but in all honesty, why would they when our own leaders are silent statues? Who would the media interview?

Lets not make those deaths on 31st October 2010 just another statistic. Let this be the trigger for Assyrians around the world to begin mass action.

Khaya Atour!

Idolising Sports Stars and other Celebrities

From Bani Pera's Thoughts

Last Wednesday evening, I was at Richardson Park in Darwin, to watch a game of Rugby League between a team of Aboriginal All-Stars and an Army team. The All-Stars were led by former Norths, Manly, NSW and Australia international five-eighth, Cliff Lyons. A legend of rugby league who in his late 40s showed he still had the magic touch. David Peachy who only retired recently was also part of this team.

After the game was over, there was Cliff Lyons in the club house and I was so awestruck that I didn't even know what to say to him. "It was Cliff Lyons afterall".

It then caused me to think. There would be several people reading this who would not know who Cliff Lyons (or David Peachy) is and there will also be those who wouldn't care either. Yet I didn't even know how to start a conversation with him, because he is "Cliff Lyons". He's a human being like me but a lot more famous. Does that make him, or other former great players, better than me? Does being awestruck, imply that I am conceding that somebody is better than me or is it a reaction to the high esteem I hold somebody?

This was not my only incident with "famous" people.

I was at a bar with a Brazilian lady friend of mine in Rio De Janeiro back in 2000, when Andre Cegati walked into the bar. Andre who? Exactly my point at the time. He looked like another person to me but my lady friend was speechless. She had to explain to me that he was a famous model in Brazil. He seemed like a humble person and upon being introduced to him, he seemed like a normal person. That was probably because HE WAS a normal person. To me anyway, but not to somebody who knows who "Andre Cegati" is. There are countless incidents with countless "celebrities", but I will not go into all of them.

The broad question I would like to ask is why anyone puts a person of fame on such a high pedestal? Whether it be a sports star, or a Hollywood actress, or a famous rock star, or anyone of any fame and/or fortune.

Is it purely because of fame? Those who don't know Cliff Lyons or Andre Cegati would probably disagree.

Perhaps it is because they have reached the pinnacle in their chosen career. Anyone who has never asked a doctor for their autograph may disagree with that point as well.

Maybe they just live a life of passion (find out how I do it on http://www.lifestyleofmydreams.com/) and it is envy on the part of their fans. Then again, there are loads of people who live a life of passion and are not famous.

So what is it? As a sports fan, I guess I am thankful for the hours of entertainment that these stars have provided. I also appreciate the sacrifices and dedication to get them to where they are at. However, even though an actor or singer or other celebrities have made sacrifices of their own and have dedicated time and effort into getting to where they are, I would not feel awestruck if I saw Nicole Kidman or Celine Dion walk past.

So what is it about Cliff Lyons, or Diego Maradona or Steve Waugh, or Lance Armstrong or Michael Schumacher, etc? I guess to their fans, their feats are so great that they sound unreal. They feel unreal. And although I may not be able to relate to a famous actor (as I myself am not into movies), their fans see them as unreal too.

However everyone knows the truth. They are mere mortals like you and I.

Spending a Year Abroad

Quite fitting that on the week which I am preparing for my trip to Japan, that my first blog post is about living abroad.

For a 3.5 year period between between 2003-2006, I was fortunate enough to be living in working in Japan. I had also spent 2 years in Vanuatu at the turn of the millenium. Therefore I have lived 5.5 years outside of Australia (not including overseas vacations).

Living overseas helped me greatly in developing my independence, expanding my comfort zone, broadening my mind, learning and understanding another culture, as well as creating some great friendships. I am definitely a better person for the experience.

What I would like to suggest is that young Australians (or young Westerners), spend a year abroad. No education at highschool or university will give the same life lessons that a person will learn by living abroad. It should be encouraged from a young age that after highschool or university, that they spend a year in a foreign country, preferably a non-English speaking country, to further help a young person's independence, mindset, social skills, confidence and a lifestime of wonderful memories.

What are your thoughts?