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7 Signs you May Have a (hic) Holiday Rinking Roblem

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 4:06 pm

Your nose and eyes match the color of Santa’s hat.

You decide to invent a new drink at a holiday party and name it after yourself by mixing all the rum, vodka, whiskey, scotch and gin with ice cream and putting in an actual umbrella. You cannot understand why no one sees the brilliance of your humor.

In order to get into the holiday spirit you sing every Christmas carol you know – into the microphone at Burger King at 2 a.m. and get booed.

You go shopping for a Christmas tree and hug each tree saying “I loooove you, man.”

You make YouTube’s all time hit list by sending in a video of yourself dressed in a Santa suit, drunk, shirtless and trying to eat a burger off the floor.

In a moment of alcohol-induced guilt you try to make up for not being a better mother by breastfeeding your 12- year- old.

At the mall you sit on Santa’s lap and soil his nice, new, red suit and the little kiddies chase you out of the department store.

During grace at Grandpa’s house you accidentally let one rip and try to blame the dog, grandpa’s dog that died two months ago.

You decide to go sleep it off on the couch. In the morning you awake on someone else’s couch – on the wrong side of town.

At the boss’s home Christmas party you decide to give the boss’s elderly mother a lap dance.

At the boss’s home Christmas party you think it would be funny to photocopy your naked butt and clip it to the front of the fridge.

You decide to phone Alec Baldwin’s daughter to tell her she’s a rude, thoughtless, little pig but you end up pressing the speed-dial button to your daughter who’s home with the flu.

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Freemason secret and today’s new finance den

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 3:07 pm

Three-part series initiated Sept. 4th, 2005 by the ‘Sunday Observer,’ Colombo

 

Freemason secret
and today’s new finance den

By Wendell W. Solomons

 

In Moscow, officials who served President Boris Yeltsin were falling under the spotlight. During this process, a parliamentarian claimed that a key Yeltsin had aide served “the capital of the world’s freemasonry – London.”

The weekly ‘Moscow News’ of August 10-16, 2005 front-paged the claim. It came in the Russian parliament from deputy Alexander Khinshtein (‘Khin-’ isn’t just an ordinary root word for Hebrew scholars but associates directly with a measure for liquids.)

About ‘freemasonry;’ in the historical Middle Ages, members of merchant guilds were often bound to secrecy for economic security.

The Freemasons, a widespread, secret society, originated as a guild of craftsmen in the 14th century. An Encarta encyclopaedia entry on Freemasonry suggests that global authority meandered to Britain during the succeeding three centuries. So the encyclopaedia supports Khinshtein’s claim of London as the centre of Freemasonry.

Taking the administration of President Boris Yeltsin, a Western cabal of monetarists carried out ‘reforms’ that precipitated the devaluation of Russia’s currency more than 250 times. In the wake of monetarist sabotage, home budgets shrank and pensioners were reduced to living on bread and milk.

During the USAid-contracted monetarist reforms, 3 metric tons of gold, a reserve of the Central Bank meant to support the currency, were trucked out into the night. The reserves represented some part of seven decades of the labour of Soviet citizens.

Item 1 -The rise of these fortunes was prefaced by the release upon Moscow of a New York crime syndicate, the Brighton Beach mafia, nominally Jewish-led. The American VIP delegated Russian affairs in those years was Vice President Al Gore (or more fully – Albert Armand Gore; he was named for Armand Hammer, an operator in gold and diamonds born in Odessa.) Gore’s connection to New York and its Brighton Beach was illustrated to the world when his daughter married into the New York family of financier Jacob Schiff (a City of London mover-and-shaker with mention in the Encyclopaedia Judaica.)

Item 2 – In Vice President Al Gore’s time again, Henry Kissinger introduced the American beauty Lynn Forester to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, head of the famous London banking dynasty. Later, the US President himself did his bit for the beauty by providing for her wedding night with the 71-year-old Rothschild on the silken sheets of the White House. 
 

Silk Road

 We can study the build up of power in the hands of global movers-and-shakers by looking at a few images in history.

The formal opening of the transcontinental Silk Road is associated in the Far East with the name of Zhang Qian who opened up trade and diplomacy with areas that include India, Iran and Syria. Zhang also made contact with the Greek world. His travels began in 138 BC and upon his return, China’s emperor made him Marquis of Bowang. Zhang next led another expedition with 300 men and gifts of gold and silk to dazzle rulers with China’s riches

The fabric that moved across the Silk Road wasn’t only silk. We know that the caravans of Nabataean tribes (pre-Islamic Arabs hailing from the desert city of Petra,) carried Indian cotton textiles westwards circa 25 AD.

As traders moved these products along caravan routes, the rise of moneylenders extended. 
 

 Market Niche

 At a particular stage, Buddhism (represented in the Bamien statues of Afghanistan) and Christianity became the predominant faiths on the Silk Road. These two faiths contained biddings such as that expressed in a text of the Old Testament –
 

DEU 4:19 When you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars – all the heavenly array – do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
 

The text above spurns the idolatry of the tribe itself as ‘Chosen’ by a sky symbolism. Like Christianity, Buddhism was a cosmopolitan faith that differed from that of the tribe or clan.

Later, starting in the 7th Century, Islam had fanned out from the Middle East at a pace then unusual for history. Taking Spain on the one hand (in the West,) by 712 AD an Arab army crossed the Indus River and conquered the kingdom of Sind (in southern Pakistan).

In their early and respective phases of development, adherents of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam spurned money lending. The logic was: who would turn a quick penny on a neighbour? The spurning of usury contributed to the negative meaning attached to the English words ‘usurious interest’.

The spurning of usury left a window of opportunity for those ethnic and social groups that allowed money lending. The spurning created a position of privilege for the latter. Ready money being Aladdin’s lamp, traditional money lending clans gained the opportunity to finance the business of Tom while squeezing out a less pliant Dick or Harry.

Through selection of obedient traders, over years and centuries the money lending clans evolved a mercantile class in trading cities. This explains how in the 19th Century radical thinkers came to despise burghers (townsmen) and began to use ‘bourgeois’ as a negative word. Webster’s dictionary helps says something about this transition-

Etymology
[Fr < OFr burgeis < ML burgensis < burgus, borgus, town < OFr borc or Frank *burg, bourg]

Adjective
of or characteristic of a bourgeois or the bourgeoisie; middle-class; also used variously to mean conventional, smug, materialistic, etc.
 

To restate, the change along trade routes expanded the arena of moneylenders who came dominantly from clans that professed Hinduism and Judaism. A change in the ethical situation allowed them to grow into major financial entities. During the course of picking and choosing pliant merchants, the financial houses made goods trading a ‘step-and-fetch-it’ department. The goods merchants fell into this subservient department because they were kept from accumulating finance capital independently by their faiths of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.

Clash of moneylenders

 After the 5th Century AD , the overland Silk Road that relied on bullocks, camels and horses for haulage, encountered trouble. Merchants began to find that using the Silk Road required overcoming difficult ethno-religious obstacles that included the sudden arrival of Islam.

As a result, the weight of merchandise trade gradually shifted to sea traffic where the Indian Ocean segment gained great importance. By then, technology development too had made ships (using trade winds) the more efficient means of hauling goods over long distances.

For contrasting the more southerly route that transited the Indian Ocean, we can call it the ‘Spice Route’.

If marked from China and Japan, the voyage under sail to Europe passed either-
 

A. Through the Red Sea and Egypt/Levant;

B. Through the Persian Gulf and inland into Mesopotamia via ports on the river Euphrates.
 

Both West Asian routes could carry tea, spices, silks and cottons to the Mediterranean and thus to Europe.

At this stage, moneylenders of West Asia, who professed Judaism mainly, had to face off a thrust of competition. Their competition in the Indian subcontinent included the forebears of Marathis, Marwaris and Chettiars.

Traditionally, fairs and markets had come to arise for safety close to temples. Particularly with the use of gold, silver and other metals for exchange, money dealers sought safe turf inside the temple to store their stock-in-trade that included noble metals in customers’ pawned belongings. As a service in return, money dealers would maintain the account books of the temple.

With a room allotted to them for meetings, we can in modern times still spot moneylenders such as the Chettiars controlling the revenue of Hindu temples and thereby controlling the income of Brahmin priests.

While taking on the appearance of philanthropy or cooperation, the influence of the Chettiars climbed upwards to South Indian rulers through the Brahmins who performed devotions for princes too. We must note in this connection that moneylending musn’t be associated purely with men of piety such as Brahmins; it would be difficult for pawnbrokers to avoid contact with thieves and bandits wanting to sell stolen valuables.

Finally, men such as the Chettiars sometimes occupied a more important position in the royal Court than would be expected of money lenders: they led rites of coronation. They could aspire to be the real power behind the throne by adding intelligence on neighbouring kingdoms gained through inter-Chettiar ties. If a prince became balky or independent, the moneylenders could, utilising the same intelligence assets, oust the prince by embroiling him in wars.

As traffic on the northern, overland Silk Road dwindled, Hindu money lending clans were left crying over revenue lost in Central and North Asia. They could hardly have overlooked the shift to the Spice Route that used ports in southern India, Lanka and Malaya for instance.

It is in this structure of power that we can better understand what the record openly tell us: that the monarchs of India’s south-east coast began to fight for control of seaports in the Indian Ocean area.

One part of this struggle for revenue from trade led to a succession of South Indian Chola and Pandyan monarchs invading the island of Lanka. Taking the island’s geography, the port of Hambantota gained its name because it received sampans (from the Cantonese for ‘boat’) that were simply wafted in by winds. The island’s own market place and hub status for goods, once led Chinese forces to occupy parts of the island in 1408 for 30 years.

Economic historian W I Siriweera writes, “the Cholas were aware of Arab competitors in the South-East Asian trade and tried to strike at the root of this competition by bringing the Malabar coast [south-west India] and Sri Lanka under their control. Rajaraja (985-1014), a Chola king, conquered Kerala and the Maldive islands, which got him involved in the lucrative trade with the Arabs on India’s Western Malabar coast.”

King Rajaraja was among monarchs whose invasions in Sri Lanka destroyed the Anuradhapura kingdom. The ruin of reservoirs and canals (a strategic target of military sappers everywhere,) was one of the causes of the breakdown of the irrigated, rice-growing civilisation of Anuradhapura.

Merchants of the locality of Sri Vijaya in Malaya conducted an extensive trade with China and India. The Cholas led a great raid on them in 1025 and left the Sri Vijayan kingdom crippled.

Looked at through the perspective of power behind the throne, you might say that the attacks and devastation were caused by a clash over the Silk Route between Brahmin-allied Indian clans and West Asian finance capital clans.

With their hold on Europe’s trade as described in the next section, West Asian finance clans ended up controlling Arab merchants and Silk Route trade. Yet, here is a baseline quote brought up by history professor Lorna Dewaraja, (‘History of Ceylon’ , Vol. I, Part I, page 706,) where Al-Idrisi, a famed 12th Century Arab geographer, deals with a royal court in the island of Lanka:

“?Idrisi mentions a council of sixteen at the royal court, consisting of four Buddhists, four Muslims, four Christians and four Jews.”

The Hindu Brahmins are the four priests missing from the above royal council. Their having gone missing suggests that Jewish clans could grasp the levers of trade finance to control Buddhist, Christian and Muslim traders in the Indian Ocean area

Finance Capital in the West

Due to the taboo of early Christianity on money lending, the West had entirely become the province of Jewish financial clans. In Europe, their money houses had coalesced and organised by the 13th Century.

No account of financial clan consolidation is complete without mentioning Venice. By 700 AD the city-state of Venice had developed into one of the world’s great trading centres. In a move that reflected the increasing importance and growing independence of the population from its ostensible rulers in Christian Constantinople, Venetians elected in 696 AD their own head.

A unique city, set among coastal lagoons, Venice benefited from its links by sea to the Orient and by land and the river to northern Italy and beyond. Venice traded in exotic goods, notably spices and silks, imported from the East.

Our account can take note of what William Shakespeare associated with ‘The Merchant of Venice.’ Yet, the financial cables of cities such as Venice extended deeper through ‘court factors’ (loan agents) who could (a) muster exotic gifts to enter royal courts and (b) provide intelligence gained from local and foreign commercial networks.

These court factors could (c) provide war mobilisation loans. Such loans represented an advantage to moneylenders because the general citizenry repaid them whether or not the monarch himself survived intrigue. So moneylenders such as those of Venice (or similar city-states such as Genoa) had made their way into a tempting insider position as court factors.

If they triggered discontent in neighbouring kingdoms in Europe, the two kingdoms would be forced into taking war loans from the court factors for mobilising their respective armies.

Collecting interest on state-guaranteed loans, finance capital grew richer by leaps and bounds. Popes were forced to think of doing something about the intrigue that was setting up fractions and seeding discord that hit European kingdoms and the Vatican itself.
 
 

Glove Changes of Colonialism

You would scarcely have heard about Pope Alexander VI. A search for information on this Pope of 1492-1503 reveals his suppression by a bad press. Here’s a quote from the Encarta Encyclopaedia -

“?the positive aspects of his reign remain overshadowed by corruption and ambition.”

Alexander VI was a Pope who aroused wrath among the moneylenders. He decided to reduce their influence by cordoning them off from the pliant Muslim, Christian and other merchants they hand-grew in the field.

Pope Alexander VII chose the method of dividing the market into Portuguese and Spanish Catholic zones of influence as soon as he could. Just after a year after assuming office he issued an edict called the Bull[etin] of Demarcation.

In this edict, a line of demarcation ran due north and south about 483 km west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. Alexander VI placed all lands lying east of this line, including India, in the zone of influence of Catholic Portugal. Catholic Spain received all those to the west.

In consequence in Asia, following in the wake of Lorenzo de Almeida, Alfonso de Albuquerque could practice an ambitious scheme for the 16th Century. Aiming at complete control of all Indian Ocean traffic, he organised a chain of forts along coasts, the central ones being Goa in India (the viceroy capital), in Hormuz (at the entrance to the Persian Gulf), and in Malacca in Southeast Asia.

Between Indonesia and Africa, ships now carried silks, cottons and spices with Portuguese permission — or faced peril. In time, Portugal went on to establish formal colonies and thereby wall off the influence of Venetian and kindred finance capital.

That story led to the colonisation, for example, of the sea-coast provinces of Sri Lanka, begun in 1505. In sequestering the island, Portuguese conquistadores spared Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim places of worship. They selected for attack Jewish leaders and ‘heretical’ Orthodox Christian leaders. As a result, the Portuguese erased these congregations in Sri Lanka but they remain in South India in Kerala. In the port city of Cochin, the Mattancheri synagogue sits next to the spice market (described on the Internet) and the South Indian Orthodox church is alive.

Counterattack

After money lending for East-West trade was dented by Pope Alexander VI, Mediterranean finance houses drifted outwards and reached northern and eastern Europe.

In the Netherlands, then a Spanish colony, Protestants had attacked hundreds of Catholic monasteries and churches during revolts. Circa 1590 Amsterdam began to figure as the refugee capital of Europe and in return for its generosity the city gained unrivalled access to the globe’s most profitable trading networks.

The wealth and the wide-ranging contacts of the Sephardic Jews from the Mediterranean made them welcome settlers. Their clans consolidated through the founding of the Bank of Amsterdam and then proceeded with plans to float a merchant company to hire sea navigators, sailors and troops to challenge the Portuguese in the Orient.

The year 1602 founded Dutch East India Company relieved Portugal of all its East Indian possessions. In most of present-day Indonesia and in the Malay Peninsula, Sri Lanka, the Malabar Coast of India and Japan, it eliminated the Portuguese.

The hands of the financiers remained hidden. In these far-reaching events of the 17th century the world at large was not privy to a return of finance houses into Oriental trade but just saw Dutch gloves replacing Portuguese ones in the colonies.

At the peak of its power in 1669, the Dutch East India Company had 150 merchant ships, 40 warships and 10,000 soldiers and its Batavia that resembled an individual republic was headquarted in Jakarta. However, increasing corruption and near bankruptcy led to the dissolution of the company in 1799. Its possessions and debts were taken over by the Dutch state.

The next horse deal for Oriental trade soon followed. The detachment of the finance houses based in Britain was to take over Oriental trade using the British East India Company. This company of dealers was originally provided with a charter for monopoly in trade in the East in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII.

Jewish clans had been banished from England in 1292 by Edward I but we found dislodged Mediterranean finance clans settling in Britain through their using the wastrel Henry VIII as a conduit for their entry. Later we see the power of the British royal family shrunk by Oliver Cromwell who gained finance enough to hire troops and drive the monarchy into a corner.

In our times the UK ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper came out in October 2003 with a series of assertions by Paul Burrell who had served as Princess Diana’s butler. The newspaper claimed that Diana wrote a letter 10 months before she died saying there was a plot to kill her by tampering with the brakes of her car.

Paul Burrell mentioned another singularity. When he went public with what he had observed with Princess Diana at first hand, the Queen stepped forward to caution him about forces that he did not dream of.

After the British East India Company received Oriental trade, the finance clans went from strength to strength. They reinforced their position as the force (a) behind the British throne and (b) behind the commerce of the new and extensive British colonial system.

With that, at long last Pope Alexander VI’s edict of 1493 had been overturned and cosy times were assured for the clans behind the motto “Britannia rules the waves.” On January 13th, 1909 Winston Churchill, son of Rothschild-clan asset Randolph Churchill, could confidently boast of England as ‘the best country in the world for rich men.’

The man chosen for Africa’s gold and diamonds, Openheimer clan asset Cecil Rhodes, would also boast, “To be born British was to have drawn the winning ticket in the lottery of life.”

An ad copywriter was later found in Chicago, USA. Edgar Rice Burroughs was to puff up genetic or natural British overlordship through writings on Tarzan.

 

President Roosevelt and decolonisation

 

After Alexander VI, the dissenter who arrived on the scene was U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He might not have been a political successor to Alexander VI had he and wife Eleanor not noticed the inside story as members of the elite.

When elite British bragging was challenged by World War II and British PM Churchill appealed for US supplies and assistance, Roosevelt asked him in return for decolonisation.

The Rothschild’s dynastial Churchill did not relish signing away colonies in front of his constituency. So when Britain’s merry new battleship ‘Prince of Wales’ set sail it was a well-kept secret that Churchill was on board. When this leaked into the news, the purpose of Churchill’s voyage was cited as a fishing trip with Franklin D. Roosevelt who arrived aboard US cruiser `Augusta’.

The outcome of the meeting at sea was the Atlantic Charter of August 14, 1941, which respected the rights of all peoples to self-determination.

World media was placated with the story that the two ships met in mid-Atlantic for wartime bravado but as soon as the war was over we know Britain was forced to adhere to the Charter and grant Independence to its colonies.

Anglo-American Neo-Commonwealth

Roosevelt’s elite dissidence confused finance capital no end. These consequences ensued.

(1) A post-Colonial strategy of protectionism attempted to block industrialisation in newly emergent nations. The strategy was applied through blinds such as the World Bank and IMF. The approach suffered obsolescence when manufacturing industry took off with a bang in several nations of Asia. Japan was followed by newly industrialised nations that were to include giant China and India.

(2) From 1976 finance capital embarked on another course to impoverish emergent nations by making them weak, dependent interest-payers. Monetarists economists were used to set in place a vanity trap through the World Bank and IMF that would cause a ‘war of each against the other.’ The social tension would block cooperation to-wards developing national resources.

Yet, that had the blowback effect of hitting synergy in the USA and UK. Key financier George Soros recorded his alarm on the drastic change in everyday US business ethics when news headlines exposed a spate of corporate crime. Corporate nihilism and sociopathy are also experienced in the UK, where the nation’s once proud auto-industry is being sold off, factory by factory, to foreign buyers. MG-Rover went in 2005, bought by Nanking Automobile, which flew in not only Chinese engineers but cooks too because it considered scrap meals unsuitable for the workforce.

Protectionist strategies (1) and (2) proved counterproductive and Anglo-American leaders rush from crisis to crisis today. A proto-fascism projected into the world, especially in the Asian theatre, has harmed whatever credibility that Anglo-American elites enjoyed in the world.

Left now to pursue Democrat Roosevelt’s 1941 classic dissent from the money aristocracy is a coalition being formed by Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and Russia. Russia expands the dissent through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation formed with China and four Central Asian nations with India, Iran and Pakistan as observers. A defence pact of record, historic size with three million plus servicemen, it forced the US to dismantle its airforce bases in Central Asia’s Uzbekhistan.

China is in the process of converting its foreign currency reserves from US dollars into gold, which will form the base of account for petroleum and natural gas supplies from Russia. In year 2000 the European Union shifted to the euro as a currency to bypass the US dollar.

These events help reflect a picture of a coalition that could in time, check and bankrupt finance capital and its proto-fascism.

 

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Does Modern Society Drive People Insane?

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:24 am

Stress and anxiety are things anyone and everyone has to deal with. The mental stresses and pressures placed upon the typical human being by modern civilization is a price that must be paid to live within the social strata we have now. It is understandable for people to have to bear with stress and pressure, to need to develop the mental tools to adapt to their culture and working environment, but for some, the burden is too great to bear. The human mind is a sensitive instrument, a computer program that has algorithms and protocols that can be stretched to a breaking point. The average person either has the capacity to deal with the stress and anxiety inherent to the modern world, but others are not so lucky. It has been suggested that, more than any era on record, the world we live in today has a sizable percentage of the population that is incurably mad.

Indeed, the stress and anxiety being pressed upon people can stretch less adapted minds to the breaking point. Apart from conforming to social norms, one also has to deal with the culture of work, the demands placed upon one’s gender, the social duties one has, and the conflicting need to fit in while retaining one’s individuality at the same time. This incredible amount of stress and anxiety, when combined with some personalities or mentalities, can result in someone that has embraced madness. In many ways, being utterly insane is a way to escape the stress and anxiety that society, work, and culture press upon a person. It is an unusual sight, but it is not impossible to see someone who has become so stressed out by events in his life that he can find himself having a complex philosophical debate with a stop sign.

As was once said by the comic book character The Joker, all it really takes for someone to go crazy was one “really bad day.” Unfortunately, when one takes everything into context and considers the thousands of layers that one has to navigate on a daily basis, the possibility of at least one person in the world having that “really bad day” is relatively high. There is no specific combination that can lead to this, nor is there any specific personality profile that is more prone to just snapping. The fact is, this is all based heavily on circumstance and luck. For some, it will only take a single event in that person’s life to make a difference, to cause a significant enough change that his mind can no longer handle the strain. For others, it would take him being served divorce papers, losing his job, learning he has cancer, being robbed blind in the middle of the street, and learning his youngest daughter just died for him to “lose it.”

The modern era, according to some analysts, is structured with so many complications and duties for a single individual that going completely insane is not that far-fetched. However, it is distinctly possible that insanity is a long-term development. People in the workplace or within some social circles may be slowly developing insanity in some form or another, but lack that single, defining moment to trigger the nervous breakdown. The emergence of insanity does not always have to be instantaneous, as the degradation of one’s “sanity” can be a slow process that can last a lifetime, requiring only a single event to open the proverbial door to the psychological point of no return.

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Do We Need Equine Insurance?

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:20 am

Yes as we said top show horses, race horses and other horses are have equine insurance, but should we insure ourbackyard pony or our daughter horse? Does equine insurance make sense for horses who aren’t or may never be worth large sums of money?

You’d be amazed at the number of $2,500 horses that are insured nowadays. A horse is a major financial investment, regardless of purchase price. The ongoing upkeep and maintenance is costly too, and people want to protect their investments.

The number of equine insurance policies available to horse owners can seem overwhelming, including but not limited to:

Major medical and surgical mortality loss of use tack and equipment For those who operate equine businesses,

liability for trainers property portection liability coverage for farm owners care, custody and control reproduction (stallion and mare fertility) and even international transit. Basic types of coverage purchased by most horse owners are mortality and major medical policies.

Equine Mortality insurance by petplan co uk reimburses a horse owner if the horse dies. Depending on the policy, the owner may receive payment for the full or partial value of the horse. Medical and surgical policies cover the costs associated with treatment of an injury or illness. An owner can purchase mortality coverage alone, but medical and surgical policies are generally available only in combination with mortality.

That’s where an insurance agent can help, they will be able answer your questions and help clarify the policy language for you. Some insurance agents work for a single insurance company; others operate as independent brokers representing a large pool of carriers.

Whether you’re working with an agent or doing your own legwork, it’s wise to educate yourself on the basics of equine insurance. There is plenty for basic information searchable online look for “equine insurance online”

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A Trading Psychology Lesson From a Nine Year Old

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:08 am

I was driving in my car the other night with my twin daughters when the conversation somehow turned to what they wanted to do when they grow up.

Naturally, being only nine years old, they had many ideas. There were those that I was very happy with – an astronomer, a veterinarian, a professional soccer player, or a guitarist in a rock band. And there were some suggestions that I just didn’t like at all. Not that it’s my decision! I’ll naturally support them in whichever path they chose for their life; however let’s just say a nine year old should not know what a Forensic Scientist does.

I asked if either were interested in trading, to which Caitlin replied, “But isn’t trading just guessing?”

That was unexpected! I was a little taken aback and frankly quite annoyed that she thought that all I did was ‘guessing’. I replied by explaining that there was a lot more to trading than just guessing which way the market went. But the conversation quickly moved on to other areas, as appears normal when speaking with nine year olds.

That night I put a little more thought to our discussion, not so much out of concern about my daughter’s perception of my career, but rather my emotional reaction to her statement. Why should I allow myself to feel a little insulted by claims that all I do is ‘guess’ market direction?

What do I actually do in the markets?

I assume risk in the markets, with an expectation of profits. But surely it’s not just guessing, or gambling, or taking a punt. I take positions on my terms only. It’s a calculated business decision. Through skillful analysis of past and current price action and an assessment of likely future price action I am able to identify opportunities to profit from market trends. And I combine this with action designed to reduce or eliminate any risk while seeking to maximize that profit. This is no different to any other business.

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in a number of other ‘cool’ careers, but nothing has satisfied that need within my soul for a meaningful existence like being a trader does.

And I certainly believe that the career of a trader does provide significant benefits for society (a subject for another future article perhaps).

But when you really get down to the nuts and bolts, is what I do any different from guessing?

The definition of guessing according to the American Heritage Dictionary is:

a)To predict (a result or an event) without sufficient information.

b)To assume, presume, or assert (a fact) without sufficient information.

The common point here is ‘without sufficient information’, a phrase which certainly applies to the world of market analysis.

A novice trader expects that certainty can be found through better analysis or better indicators or indicator parameters. And so they get stuck for several years on this search for the Holy Grail solution. It’s only when all attempts at this have failed and they’re willing to accept it as a misguided attempt to hide from their fear of uncertainty, and are willing to embrace that uncertainty, can they take the next step on the path towards professional trading.

The fact is that market analysis cannot predict the future. All future events cannot be known. And even if they could be known, then we still don’t know how these events will be perceived by the market participants and will therefore influence price.

A trader operates in an uncertain world. And all trading decisions are made without sufficient information, based on an assessment of the probabilities and a minimization of risk to protect your capital when you get it wrong.

Essentially, my daughter was correct – I ‘guess’ market direction.

The difference is that some traders guess market direction without any real plan or guidelines for formulating that decision, with an inadequate appreciation of both risk and opportunity and with an undisciplined, unprofessional and emotionally influenced execution of their trade. And their losses feed the account of those who guess market direction based on a documented, tested and proven plan which is designed to contain risk when they’re wrong and maximize opportunity when they’re right, combined with consistency in execution of their plan.

I guess market direction, but I do so within a framework provided by my business plan and an understanding of the probabilistic nature of the markets.

I had assumed I was at a stage where I was comfortable with who I was and what I did. It appears now that this assumption was false and I have more work to do on myself. It makes sense – personal growth shouldn’t be expected to ever end.

Why was my ego bruised at claims that I’m just a ‘guesser’? There are many possible reasons that I need to address in more detail:

• At a deep level I really want my daughters to be proud of me. Perhaps for a moment I suspected they weren’t?

• Maybe my own self-importance was inflating at too rapid a rate (finally reaching an overhead resistance for a great shorting opportunity)

• Maybe at some level I still have concerns that being a trader is a Way of life that adds limited value to society?

• Maybe I still have some doubts about my long-term survivability in this industry, and so feel that by ‘guessing’ I am gambling my family’s future?

Who knows? I’ve got more work to do in understanding this.

Your beliefs about what trading is and why you do it are fundamental to the success of your trading business. You cannot expect to operate in a consistently profitable manner if you have conflicting beliefs about the value of yourself, of your chosen career or of your ability to succeed at it.

So when your ego takes a little hit from someone’s comments about trading, take the time out to examine your own beliefs. It doesn’t matter what the comment is:

• Suggestions that it’s impossible to profit from the market.

• Claims that you’ll never be able to make it.

• Cutting comments about how those losses could really have been better used elsewhere.

If it produces an emotional response in you, take some time out to ask why? What does your emotional response mean in terms of your beliefs about yourself and your chosen career as a trader?

That self-examination may reveal the breakthrough you were seeking, to take you to the next stage of your career or personal development.

Happy guessing,

Lance Beggs

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Tourism in Nigeria (National Association of Omo Egbe Yoruba Descendants in North America(

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:08 am

Who are the Yoruba?

The first obvious answer to this question is the Yoruba are a nationality, numbering about 40 million, the majority of whom live in the South Western part of the state of Nigeria in West Africa. Obvious as this answer is, it is not wholly explanatory, and certainly, it is not without its own controversy. First, regarding its explanatory status. One has to add, that the Yoruba are people, that speak a common language, Yoruba, which belongs to the Kwa group of the Niger-Congo linguistic family, and it has about 12 dialects; that they are a well urbanized group with genius in arts as symbolized in the famous “Ife Bronzes”; that Yoruba people are also found in Togo, Benin Republic and in other parts of the world, including Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad, and the United States. Second, regarding its controversial status, one has to confront the question what makes the Yoruba a nationality, or a nation, not a tribe or clan, and how does one then mark a distinction between Yorubaland and Nigeria. To this last question, there is no better answer than the one provided by Obafemi Awolowo in 1947, to which a later section of this presentation will return. For now, it is necessary to answer the question: “Who are the Yoruba?” by focusing on some critical moments in Yoruba history and thought.

Address these and other issues by focusing on some critical moments in Yoruba
History.

1. The Oduduwa Dynasty and the Founding of the Nation.
Oduduwa is the legendary progenitor of the Yoruba. There are two variants of the story of how he achieved this feat. The first is cosmogonic, the second, political. The cosmogonic version also has two variants. According to the first variant of the cosmogonic myth, Orisanla (Obatala) was the arch-divinity who was chosen by Olodumare, the supreme deity to create a solid land out of the primordial water that constituted the earth and of populating the land with human beings. He descended from heaven on a chain, carrying a small snail shell full of earth, palm kernels and a five-toed chicken. He was to empty the content of the snail shell on the water after placing some pieces of iron on it, and then to place the chicken on the earth to spread it over the primordial water. According to the first version of the story, Obatala completed this task to the satisfaction of Olodumare. He was then given the task of making the physical body of human beings after which Olodumare would give them the breath of life. He also completed this task and this is why he has the title of “obarisa” the king of orisas. The other variant of the cosmogonic myth does not credit Obatala with the completion of the task. While it concedes that Obatala was given the task, it avers that Obatala got drunk even before he got to the earth and he was unable to do the job. Olodumare got worried when he did not return on time, and he had to send Oduduwa to find out what was going on. When Oduduwa found Obatala drunk, he simply took over the task and completed it. He created land. The spot on which he landed from heaven and which he redeemed from water to become land is called Ile-Ife and is now considered the sacred and spiritual home of the Yoruba. Obatala was embarrassed when he woke up and, due to this experience, he made it a taboo for any of his devotees to drink palm wine. Olodumare forgave him and gave him the responsibility of molding the physical bodies of human beings. The making of land is a symbolic reference to the founding of the Yoruba kingdoms, and this is why Oduduwa is credited with that achievement (Idowu, 1962).

According to the second version of the myth, there was a pre-existing civilization at Ile-Ife prior to its invasion by a group led by Oduduwa. This group came from the east, where Oduduwa and his group had been persecuted on the basis of religious differences. They came to Ile-Ife and fought and conquered the pre-existing Igbo (unrelated to the present Igbo) inhabitants led by Oreluere (Obatala). Obviously, there is a connection between the two versions of the story. The political one may be the authentic story of the founding of Ife kingdom through conquest. However, the myth of creation lends it a legitimacy that is denied by the conquest story; just as it appears that it is lent some credence by the fact that, as a result of the embarrassment it caused their deity, the followers of Obatala are forbidden from taking palm wine. Indeed the second version of the cosmogonic myth also appears to foreshadow the political variant. The claim that Obatala got drunk and the task of creation had to be performed by Oduduwa already has some political coloration which is now explicit in the political version of the tradition. What is crucial in both variants of the story is the role of Oduduwa as the founder of the Yoruba nation which is why the name cannot be forgotten. Oduduwa is the symbol of the nation, the rallying point for al those who subscribe to the Yoruba identity. The name Yoruba itself, according to historians Smith, Atanda and others, was fixed on us by our northern neighbors and later popularized by colonial publications. Before then, the “Anago” to which some Yoruba in the present Benin Republic and others in the new world still use to refer to themselves, was used to refer to most of the people called Yoruba today. A common origin and language, as well as common political and religious cultures made the Yoruba a nation long before any contact with Europeans and the advent of colonialism.

2. Moremi ‘s Patriotism and the Survival of the Nation Upon the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from Ife to found other kingdoms. These original founders of the Yoruba nation included Olowu of Owu (son of Oduduwa’s daughter), Alaketu of Ketu (son of a princess), Oba of Benin, Oragun of Ila, Onisabe of Sabe, Olupopo of Popo, and Oranyan of Oyo. Each of them made a mark in the subsequent urbanization and consolidation of Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its origin to Ile-Ife.

After the dispersal, the aborigines, the Igbo, became difficult, and constituted a serious threat to the survival of Ife. Thought to be survivors of the old occupants of the land before the arrival of Oduduwa, these people now turned themselves into marauders. They would come to town in costumes made of raffia with terrible and fearsome appearances, and the Ife people would flee. Then the Igbo would burn down houses and loot the markets. Then came Moremi on the scene-like Deborah of the Old Testament. When no man could dare the Igbos, Moremi asked the Esinminrin river for help and promised to give offerings if she could save her people. The orisa told her to allow herself to be captured and to understudy the Igbo people. She did, and discovered that these were not spirits; only people with raffia for dress. She escaped, and taught her people the trick. The next time that Igbo people came, they were roundly defeated. Moremi then had to go back to Esinminrin to thank the gods. Every offering she offered was refused. On divination, she was told she had to give Oluorogbo, her only son. She did. The lesson of Moremi is the lesson of patriotism and selflessness. The reward may not be reaped in one’s life time. Moremi passed on and became a member of the Yoruba pantheon . The Edi festival celebrates the defeat of the Igbo and the sacrifice of Oluorogbo till today.

3. The Oranmiyan Adventures, Afonja Treachery, Internal Division, Enslavement and the Fall of the Nation. Oranmiyan was the last of the Oduduwa offsprings. But he was the most adventurous and the founder of Oyo Kingdom. On some accounts, he was the third ruler of Ife as successor to Oduduwa. But he later decided to avenge the expulsion of his father from the East, and so, he led an expedition. After many years on the road, and as a result of disagreement between him and his people, he could not go further. Feeling too ashamed to go back, he appealed to the King of Nupe for a land to found his kingdom. He was obliged, and that land became the nucleus of Old Oyo Kingdom. Oranmiyan, taking the title of Alafin, succeeded in raising a very strong military and effectively expanded his kingdom. His successors, including Sango, the mythical god of thunder, Aganju and Oluasho were also as strong. Peace and tranquility prevailed during the reign of Abiodun, though it also experienced the decline of the army. (SONG). Awole Arogangan was Abiodun’ s successor and it was during his reign that trouble started for the kingdom. He was forced to commit suicide; but before his death he was said to have pronounced a curse on all Yoruba, that they will not unite and that they will be taken captives.

Afonja was the Kakanfo, the generalsimo of the Army, in the northern Yoruba town of Ilorin, during the reign of Awole and his successor. Afonja refused to recognize the new king, and invited the Fulani who were then leading a jihad to the south, to assist him against the king. They did, but he did not survive himself, because the Fulani, after helping him defeat the Alafin also turned against him. They fired numerous arrows at him and his dead body was stood erect on those arrows as they stuck into his body. The treachery of Afonja marked the beginning of the end of the Oyo empire and with it the decline of the Yoruba nation. Civil war erupted among the various Yoruba kingdoms: Oyo, Ijesa, Ekiti, Ijaiye, Abeokuta and Ibadan. As this was going on, Dahomey on the west and the Borgu on the north were also posing trouble for the Yoruba kingdoms until the intervention of the British and the imposition of colonial rule.

Those who argue that there was no consciousness of a common Yoruba identity until the 19th century may be referring to these civil war episodes in the life of the nation. But they forget that these people, in spite of the civil war, share a sense of common origin and common language. And it is to be noted that the so-called peace that was imposed by the British could not have lasted had there not been a sense of consciousness of coming from a common origin.

THE GROUP OF YORUBA INDIGENE CALLS FOR TRULY INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION

 

EGBÉ OMO YORÙBÁ

N

ATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF YORÙBÁ DESCENDANTS IN NORTH AMERICA

USA AND CANADA

3840 BLADENSBURG ROAD

COTTAGE CITY, MD 20722

Internet:

www.Yorùbánation.org e- mail: info@Yorùbánation.org

EGBÉ OMO YORÙBÁ CALLS FOR A TRULY INDEPENDENT

NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION

For Immediate Release

Contacts: Adeola Òdúsànyà (813) 309.4850

Bólájí Oláríbigbé (904) 612.8222

COTTAGE CITY, MD, August 18, 2006.

“dire state” of the health of Honorable Alhaji Rauf Arégbésolá, the Egbé Omo Yorùbá, National Association of Yorùbá Descendants in

North America (Egbé) has decided to restate and expand its Communiqué issued on August 14, 2006. We once again use this opportunity

to call on all Nigerians, Yoruba, Obas’, Yoruba Leaders, political aspirants and law enforcement to do whatever they can to prevent a state

of emergency being declared anywhere in Nigeria. We do not want a reoccurrence of the “wetie” era, but we are concerned that history

may already be repeating itself.

…Due to current and recent developments at home, including but not limited to the news of the

TAMPA, Florida, August 14, 2006.

(Egbé) held its 14

America. In attendance were delegates from 18 member-chapters from all geopolitical regions of North America.

At the general assembly, the opening address on the convention theme “

for Development

Oládàpò Odúnlámì gave the State of the Egbé Address. Other speakers included Òtúnba Olú Awótésù former Minister for

Agriculture, Chief Bísí Àkàndé, former Governor of Òsun State, Professor Mobólájí Àlùkò of Egbé Ìsòkan Yorùbá

Washington DC, President Nigerian Democratic Movement and the foremost political commentator in the Diaspora, Chief

Àlàó Adédayò, Publisher Aláròyé Yorùbá Newspapers, Mr. Yínká Òdúmákin, Publicity Secretary of the Afénifére and Mr.

Tóyìn Olánrewájú, President Midland Financial Services.

His Royal Highness, Oba Adéjuyìgbé Adéfúnmi of Òyótúnjí chaired the 11th Excellence Awards banquet which was held on

Saturday night and the Keynote Speaker for that event was Senator Olálékè Mámora, representing the Lagos East Senatorial

District and who is also the former speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. Other speakers and attendees included

Honorable Adé Adégbénjó, Member of the National House of Assembly, Dr. Osadebe Anam who represented Dr. Orji Uzor

Kalu, Governor of Abia State, Nigeria, Dr. Mohammed Ladan, President of Zumunta, USA and Dr. Olú Òtúbùsìn, power

attorney and former President of the Egbé.

After deliberations from the three-day event, the Egbé made the following Observations and Resolutions:

The Egbé observes with great consternation:

1. The federal government’s continued over bearing influence on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

through the use of the executive power over funding for INEC amongst other things.

2. The developing purported plan by the President Olúségun Obásanjó led administration to hand over power to

an interim government following its failure to secure a third term mandate. President Obásanjó and the Nigerian Legislators

should be mindful that their terms expires in 2007, and therefore should as a matter of urgency resist any undemocratic and

slick attempt to manipulate and extend this deadline.

3. Statements made by President Obásanjó and the PDP to the effect that the 2007 presidential elections would in some

fashion seek to exclude Yorùbá aspirants and candidates due to Obásanjó “occupation” of the Yorùbá presidential slot from

1999-2007.

4. The lack of an electoral timetable and guidelines from INEC with less than a year to the general elections. Also,

based on the 2003 history and performance by five of the six Electoral Commissioners appointed last June to the Yorùbá

States, the Egbé is gravely concerned by the appointments.

5. The rampant and sporadic political assassinations and lack of tolerance over political differences amongst our

people. This continues to lead to wanton arrests, intimidation and barbaric killings of such political opponents. To that effect,

…Egbé Omo Yorùbá, National Association of Yorùbá Descendants in North Americath Annual Yorùbá National Convention last weekend in the City of Tampa, Florida, United States ofYorùbá Homeland and Diasporas: Joining Hands” was given by its National President, Adéolá Òdúsànyà, after which the National General Secretary,

Communiqué of the 2006 Yoruba National Convention

August 14, 2006

Restated on August 18, 2006

Page 2 of 2

the Egbé cites the recent killing of Chief Fúnsó Williams in Lagos State, Dr. Báyò Dáramólá in Èkìtì State and the detention

of Lagos State Commissioner for Public Works and Infrastructure, Alhaji Rauf Arégbésolá in Òsun State and notes that such

acts of blood-letting are uncivil, undemocratic, disgraceful and unacceptable within Yorùbáland.

6. The continued systematic destruction of the Yorùbá agricultural economy and infrastructure. With great interest, the

Egbé notes that prior to the petroleum era, the main stay of Nigerian economy was centered on agriculture, with most of the

production coming from the Western States, but the structure that carried the country in the pas t, continues to undergo a

deliberate and intentional destruction in order to undermine and reduce the influence of the Yorùbá on the Nigeria economy.

7. The continued detention of Òtúnba Gàní Adams and Dr. Frederic Fáseùn leaders of the Yorùbá stabilization group.

The Egbé believes this is a deliberate attempt by the Administration to dampen the fighting spirits of well meaning Nigerians

that are bold enough to stand up and challenge the dictatorial tendencies of the Government; that this as an attempt by those

who do not wish Yorùbá well to disorganize this Yorùbá stabilization group prior to the upcoming national elections; and the

Egbé views the charges of “treasonable felony” against these two Yorùbá leaders as frivolous, baseless and unfounded.

Therefore, the Egbé:

RESOLVED THAT

INEC and allow it to do its job of conducting free and fair elections in the short time it has left in order to preserve the

Nigerian fledging democracy and the idea of an interim government is unacceptable and should be terminated immediately.

We encourage all citizens and lover of democratic ideals everywhere, to pressure the Nigerian legislature and other leaders,

to stay the current path to succession through free and fair democratic elections; and be it further

, President Olúségun Obásanjó and other powers that be, release the shackles and stranglehold over

RESOLVED THAT

be true to its principles and ensure that the electoral process is not compromised in any way or fashion. We put INEC on

notice that the resident electoral commissioners currently assigned to the Yorùbá States are unacceptable because, being all

holdovers from the ignominious 2003 elections, they have proven to be biased, without integrity or credibility and the Egbé if

necessary will use all means available to it to challenge any electoral pronouncements made by these commissioners. The

Egbé also puts all Police Commissioners assigned to Yorùbá States on notice that any acts to harass the masses during the

elections or to unduly influence the elections in anyway will not be tolerated; and be it further

, INEC, whose guiding principles are, Transparency, Integrity, Credibility, Impartiality and Dedication,

RESOLVED THAT,

parties in Nigeria, including the Presidency, irrespective of President Obásanjó presidency from 1999-2007; and be it further

all credible and worthy aspirants from Yorubaland should vie for all political positions in all political

RESOLVED THAT

cause there to be havoc and unrest in our motherland. We also ask for a cessation on all political killings and riots in

Yorùbáland and in Nigeria. We again remind our legislators that there is dire need for the decentralization of the Nigerian

Police and the creation of States’ or regional police to ensure that the basic constitutional right of every Nigerian to live in

peace and safety is assured; and be it further

, all Yorùbá including our elders be vigilant and not allow forces that do not wish the Yorùbá well, to

RESOLVED THAT

adjudicated expeditiously. Particularly, we ask that the Chief Báyò Òjó, Ministry of Justice ensure that the case against

Òtúnba Gàní Adams, Dr. Frederic Fáseùn and others detained with them be adjudicated or dismissed without further delay.

We also specifically urge that the health and safety of Alhaji Rauf Arégbésolá, a seasoned and well-tested friend of our Egbe,

be ensured in his current travails with the political machinery of Òsun State government. We also use this opportunity to

plead with all political intimidators, murderers and or harassers to desist from such actions immediately and be it further

, all political prisoners detained unjustly and under false pretenses are released or have their cases

RESOLVED THAT,

over the loss of their worthy fathers, sons and benefactors, and pray that such days of blood and tears no longer re-occur. We

continue to express our disappointment that the killers in our political midst, starting from those of Chief Bólá Ìgè, have not

been found, and urge that they be hunted down and brought to justice.

The Egbé calls on all Yorùbá, to work together to rebuild Yorùbáland and reform our processes including the process for

selecting our political representatives and making them accountable to us. We further advocate for the harnessing of all

Yorùbá resources, be it natural or human any where in the world, for the actualization of a self-sufficient Yorùbá nation.

More than ever, we ask all Nigerians to join us in advocating for smooth transition and a new administration next in 2007.

we express our deepest condolences to the families of Chief Fúnsó Williams and Dr. Báyò Dáramólá

//Signed,

Adéolá Òdúsànyà, National President

Bólájí Oláríbigbé, National Secretary Public Affairs

 

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Sex, Lies and Video Tapes – Identify Bad Attitude Before You Hire it

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:07 am

This week’s read is not so much about the famous 1989 movie, “Sex, Lies and Videotapes,” as much as it’s about the behaviours of employees within the workplace.

As this is the political season on many fronts, it’s only appropriate to draw analogies of what may cause headaches for HR professionals and managers alike – behaviour that can get a company in hot water. 

I won’t speak so much of NZ politics as I would violate the basic premise that in business, one should never talk about politics and religion. However, when it comes to BEHAVIOUR in politics, everything is fair game…

As managers, our fundamental principle is to ensure a profit (or least of which, ensure break-even for non-profit organisations) and protect the assets – plain and simple.  Everything we do should be centred on this core mantra.

It amazes me how many times in business (and political) processes; this fundamental charge is ignored or even wilfully violated.

In most Western business practices, the antics of leaders, and employees, has a direct impact on the health of an organisation.  Example: I remember clearly how President Bill Clinton wagged his finger at the American people on TV – “I never had sexual relations with that woman…”  Clinton’s folly had a profound affect on the Democratic Party and contributed to the loss of Senator Kerry – the legacy was too distasteful in some American’s minds.

As managers in charge, we have to be very, very clear about the ego states of our employees.  We don’t have the luxury of politics.  In fact, it seems that politicians are somewhat immune to the laws that we as managers must hold true, or face the devastating judgment of the Employment Relations Authority or – worse of all – Fair Go.

Employee attitudes (ego states) are learned behaviour.  These attitudes are measurable and can be a good predictor of future behaviour.  As a management consultant in North America, I was shocked at the number of transgressions I witnessed:

* I actually happened upon a client’s daughter, caught in a sexual encounter with the sales manager (found in the company supplies closet).  The daughter was the general manager; the man was HER subordinate!

* Husband-wife owners (my client) of a successful garden supply centre in the States eventually divorced.  The husband paid the wife $1.2 million tax free!!  Auditors have just discovered that she had been embezzling over $100,000 each year for the past 5 years.

* The president of a very successful grocery chain in Los Angeles told me that on the application form for all front-line staff, the following was asked, “If a package fell from a delivery truck, would you put it on the delivery dock or would you put it in your car?”  Over 60% answered that they would put it in THEIR CAR!!  He said that he was so grateful that 60% of the workforce in LA admitting to being thieves!!

* And finally – one of the most shocking to me – the CEO of a drug testing centre in Sacramento, CA detailed how she tests almost all construction workers, commercial delivery drivers and other front-line staff in the area.  The percentage of positive results to drug use?  85% !!!!!  I mean, 85% of the truck drivers in the mid-San Joaquin Valley are on marijuana DURING THE DAY, if not on more debilitating drugs.  They “counselled” the pot users.  The heaver drug users were biffed out.  Oh, that’s a relief…NOT!!

So, the moral of the story is, if you hear someone say that they smoked marijuana, but never inhaled (Clinton); or if they question the verb “is” with regard to what “is” sexual relations (Clinton again), then we have a serious breach of reality.  And a former First Lady will never make it to the seat of the White House partially as a result of those types of indiscretions (among other things).

As managers, you have to ask yourself, “At what level of risk am I prepared to take with regard to protection of assets and the continuity of this business?”  In essence, what part does “sex, lies and videotapes” affect your organisation?

I’m not one to pass moral judgment on anyone.  Heaven knows I haven’t been an angel all my life.  However, in the work place, I have to be a saint.  As do all my reports.  The laws are clear and ultimately I have a responsibility to the shareholders.  Improprieties need to go out the door.

If attitudes is currently a problem within your organisation, then you must CAREFULLY follow due diligence to either rectify the situation NOW, or move that risk-point out the door – legally.  Or least of which, you may have to legally install the use of surveillance cameras within your workplace – it can have a detrimental impact on morale, but it also let’s everyone know that they are “on deck” with regard to improper behaviour.

If bad or unlawful attitudes are potential risk-points within your organisation, then get some testing done as a condition of pre-employment.  There are several quick, affordable and effective tools for pre-screening on sexual harassment, computer misuse, hostility, drugs, alcohol abuse and theft.  Would an investment of around $45 be well worth saving the potential loss down the road?

If you want to protect yourself with future employee appointments, consider applying a validated pre-employment psychometric test. An ounce of prevention (attitudes testing) may be worth more than the pound of cure (lengthy and possibly expensive termination proceedings).

Brent Lawrence contributed to this article – he holds an MBA in International Marketing and Finance from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management.  He is currently Operations Manager at AssessSystems Ltd.

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Shop Assistants: Our New Conscience

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:07 am

Are you tired from work today? Are you putting your feet up and having a drink?

Before you take another sip, let me ask you: who gave you permission to have that drink?

If you are saying it is none of my business, you are right. However, if I was a shop assistant in the UK, it could easily have been my business.

Of course you are an adult and you can decide when, where and how much you want to drink. And chances are that you are a generation older than the average shop assistant.

How would you feel if you go to your local friendly supermarket to buy your favourite tipple, and the shop assistant refuses to serve you? Would you go back to that shop?

Before you answer: what if the shop assistant is acting on instructions? Would you really want to shoot the messenger?

The UK is well known in Europe for having the highest level of alcoholism. For every one person who is addicted to a class A drug, there are six people who are addicted to alcohol.

A BBc web page states “There is an urgent need for the government to give as high a priority to tackling alcohol dependency as it does to addressing drug misuse.”

How does the government do this? Since 2002 drinkers no longer need to finish their drinks so that the pubs can close at 11pm. The pubs can now stay open later because when the law was changed, “Ministers also hope[d] the changes would help “encourage a more civilised culture in pubs, bars and restaurants”.

No that makes complete sense to me. Take one drunk, aggressive person who knows of no other way to entertain themselves than to get blind drunk night after night. Add lots more alcohol and a very tired publican. Stir in some equally drunk buddies, and voila – problem solved. The result? A “more civilised culture”.

But at the same time the law was changed to ensure that this drunken behaviour is limited to people over 18. Apparently it is OK to turn 18 and have no experience with alcohol. Not that I am encouraging excessive drinking at any age, but there is nothing wrong with anything in moderation. I just wonder how many 18-year-olds learn moderation from an older generation who is encouraged to spend longer hours in the pub so that they can achieve a “more civilised culture”.

Of course the same government is hell-bent on ensuring that nobody under the age of 18 gets access to alcohol. Hence the law which ensures that a shop assistant who sells alcohol to anyone under 18 will be severely punished.

But it does not stop there. A shop assistant is by law also obliged to refuse selling alcohol to anyone who may provide that alcohol to a person under 18.

What is the result of this? A woman and her 20-year-old son cannot buy a bottle of wine for Sunday lunch, because the son, who is with the mother in the shop, cannot at that moment prove that he is over the age of 18. His mother’s word is not acceptable to the shop assistant. And what will happen if the son is by any chance 17 years and 364 days old? The shop assistant will get a hefty fine and lose their job.

Can the same shop assistant sell the same bottle of wine to the next customer who has her 11-year-old son with her? Of course. In the judgement of the shop assistant, the 11-year-old is too young to drink, and the mother would not give the alcohol to the boy. And we all know that no child would ever steal alcohol and experiment with it at any age. And the moon is definitely made of cheese.

Next in the row is the lady with arthritis in both hands. She brought her 15-year-old daughter and 14-year-old niece with her to carry the groceries. Can she buy wine? Of course not. In the opinion of the shop assistant, there is the risk that the lady will force-feed the wine to the two girls, or even offer them each half a glass of wine with their meal, under her supervision. Sorry, madam, no sale.

What kind of society allows – no, forces – teenagers to police parents? What kind of government resolves alcoholism problems with longer pub hours? What kind of nation allows a government to put barely-out-of-school shop assistants in a position to be the moral judges of the nation?

We created this government. We can create a different government. Do we know what we want from the government we create? Or do we just want to sit back and see what farcical legislation they come up with?

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But Why is My Diet not Working

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 9:07 am

Jennifer, a middle-aged single mother with one six-year-old daughter, has been skipping sweets for a few weeks now. She’s also become a stickler for portion control. She feels as if she’s eating less than ever, and she’s been diligently exercising for an hour at a time at least four days a week. Yet, she hasn’t lost a single pound. The question is, “Why?”

This is a dilemma which affects dieters the world over. They think they are taking the steps necessary to lose weight, but nothing seems to be happening. In essence, they are trapped in a dieting rut and they don’t know how to free themselves. As a result, they become frustrated and depressed and may then engage in binge eating.

One of the problems with diets is that they are often standardized. As a result, they don’t take into consideration your individual physiology and metabolism. They provide a cookie-cutter approach to weight loss—an approach which may not work in your individual case. As a result, an increasing number of people are turning to dieticians to formulate a person weight loss strategy for them. This process has been made easier through the Internet, where you can correspond with a dietician any time of the day or night via e-mail. The dietician can also act as your personal coach, helping you through your dieting dilemmas.

Another reason that you may be failing at your diet is because of a lack of support. You may have family members who can eat whatever they want and seemingly not gain a pound. As a result, they may fill your refrigerator with junk food, leading you into temptation. Also, you may feel as if you have no one to turn to in order to discuss your weight problems. In order to solve this problem, many individuals look to psychotherapists to help them with their food-related issues. This can be particularly important if an individual has turned to purging in an effort to combat their weight problems. Bulimia is a serious disease which must be treated in order to ensure the good health of the patient. Thankfully, there are a number of treatment programs throughout the U.S. specifically focusing on bulimia.

Yet another reason for diet failure is hidden calories. You may literally be consuming calories and not even realize it. For instance, the frappucinos that are so popular today are loaded with calories—as many as 600 in a single serving! You may also be indulging in sugary sodas—another source of extra calories. By taking a few simple steps, such as eliminating the exotic coffee drinks from your diet and substituting skim milk for whole milk, you may be able to eliminate the hidden calories that are denying you dieting success.

Lack of consistency can also be a diet-killer. You might go on a diet for a while, then quit before you’ve made any measurable progress. It’s only natural to want to see quick results. The problem is that healthy weight lose involves loseing only a couple of pounds a week. That means you’ll have to stay on your diet for months before you see appreciable weight loss. Discouraging? It can be, but if you keep a positive attitude you can achieve your ideal weight.

You may also be more successful in your dieting if you consider it to be a lifestyle change. Therefore, your diet becomes a meal plan for life. This means that you must change the way you look at food. It is designed to be fuel for your body, and nothing more. As a result, you should not turn to food to make you feel better or to provide you with a sense of comfort. A lifestyle change implies commitment; it means that you are prepared to follow the plan for the long haul. If you feel as if you cannot be on your diet for any appreciable length of time, perhaps it’s time to consider a different diet. Your aim ultimately should be not simply to lose weight, but to become healthier. A fad diet will not allow you to reach that milestone. Therefore, you must choose your diet carefully.

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MOVIE REVIEW – ORPHAN

  • Posted on January 10, 2010 at 8:07 am

ORPHAN – REVIEW

4 out of 10

The new horror thriller, Orphan can be summed up in one word… ridiculous.  In all fairness to the film, I have to be honest and say that the horror genre is my least favorite, especially those featuring murderous children.  I did go to the theatre with an open mind, but Orphan is an over long, tedious film with a twist that I saw coming from a mile away.  That’s not to say everyone will see the twist coming, but a large portion of the audience will.  The only saving grace of the film comes in the form of terrific acting by all the leads.

The movie starts off alright, but as Esther becomes more and more calculated and evil, I found myself giggling and I’m sure that was not the intent of the filmmakers.  At a certain point, all believability flies out the window and I found myself frequently checking my watch to see how much time was left.  There were even a few times I asked myself why the hell I was watching this retarded movie (the simple answer is to review it).  Horror movies are usually pretty stupid and I get that you are supposed to watch them for what they are, but it helps when they are actually scary.  There are so many staged moments by director, Jaume Collet-Serra, that are meant to make you jump out of your seat, but not one of them delivers.  I wasn’t the least bit startled or creeped out by one single moment of Orphan.  In fact, the first half of Orphan plays more like a little domestic drama than a horror flick.  Couple loses baby, wife turns to alcohol, she loses her job and her daughter is hurt in an accident that was caused by her drunken state.  Oh yeah, and at some point John also cheated on Kate.  All of this is piled on so that we understand why John wouldn’t believe anything Kate has to say about Esther, but really, when nuns go missing and your son is almost killed in a freak fire, even the biggest moron would have to think that maybe your wife might be telling the truth.  I also find it hard to believe that John and Kate’s 6 year old daughter, who becomes an unwitting accomplice to Esther’s dastardly deeds, would be able to keep her adopted sister’s secrets, no matter how scared she is.  My kids tattle on each other about every indiscretion, real and imaginary.

As I said earlier, the only saving grace to the film is the extraordinary acting of the main leads.  Vera Farmiga as the mother desperately trying to save her family is brilliant.  Even as the film becomes more and more ridiculous, Farmiga’s performance is believable.  Peter Sarsgaard as husband, John, also does a fine job as the clueless dad but the real star of the film is young Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther.  This kid has chops!  Whether she is called on to be angelic sweet or demonically evil, Fuhrman delivers in spades.  She flawlessly changes her little miss innocent look to that of pure malevolence in the blink of an eye and may very well be the next Dakota Fanning. 

To sum it up, Orphan is a tediously long, ludicrous, want to be clever horror film that is only worth watching for the strong performances of the lead actors.  I shudder to think how scary Orphan would’ve been with a lesser cast.

 

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