text: Those looking to take the measure of China's attitude toward Hong Kong's outspoken press may not need to wait for macroeconomic changes. Beijing has already expressed its distaste for Hong Kong's independent journalism in the case of media magnate Jimmy Lai. The flamboyant millionaire has built a media empire in a very short time by combining investigative reporting with the flash of tabloid journalism and a reputation for no-holds-barred criticism of China. Lai is the sole owner of both the Chinese-language Apple Daily, the No. 2 daily newspaper in Hong Kong, and Next, the territory's leading weekly magazine. His publications have a combined claimed readership of just more than 3.5 million out of a potential literate audience of some 5.6 million. Since its founding in June 1995, Apple Daily has revolutionized the newspaper business in Hong Kong. Drawing on feisty politics, sex, crime, and tabloid tactics, Apple Daily became profitable within a year of its launch. Jimmy Lai's current troubles with Beijing began in 1994 when, in a Next editorial, he referred to Chinese premier Li Peng as "a turtle egg"‹a stinging Chinese insult that questions an individual's parentage. Soon afterward, Lai's profitable Giordano clothing chain began to experience financial and regulatory setbacks in China, which many observers trace to Beijing's official displeasure with Lai. Last February, Lai's Next Media Group (which includes a number of general-interest magazines and a book publishing division) apparently paid a steep financial price for the boss's brashness. Needing to raise capital to fuel the company's growth, Lai was poised to list Next Media Group on Hong Kong's stock market. The much-anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO) should have gone smoothly for a company that had surged to a leadership position among Hong Kong's media businesses. Instead, Lai suddenly found himself without an underwriter for his offering when his sponsor, Sun Hung Kai International, a leading Hong Kong investment bank, withdrew from the deal on the eve of the listing without explanation. No other sponsor could be found, and it was widely believed that Beijing had put political pressure on bankers to torpedo Next's stock offering. The collapse of Lai's IPO was a major story in Hong Kong, where business has traditionally been immune to pressure from China. Yet, with the handover just months away, the subject of China's apparent strong-arm tactics was so sensitive that reporters had trouble finding bankers willing to comment. In a chilling coincidence, the Sun Hung Kai pullout came to light on the same day Tung Chee-hwa told CNN that it might be unlawful for Hong Kong people to make "slanderous, derogative remarks and attacks" against Chinese leaders after the handover. Tung's comment echoed a similar threat made by Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in 1996. The Chinese government proscribes many subjects considered legitimate grist for news and commentary in the Western press‹including the personal lives, financial dealings, and behind-the-scenes political maneuverings of national leaders‹and some press freedom advocates fear that this constricted view could eventually prevail in Hong Kong, as least in regard to coverage of the Beijing government. By Beijing's standards, many of the major news stories of the last two decades‹such as Kurt Waldheim's Nazi past, Watergate, or the scandals that have tarred the ruling elite in Japan‹would have been inappropriate subjects for media scrutiny. Jimmy Lai is infuriating to China's authoritarian leaders precisely because he refuses to take their cues and yet prospers by printing what his readers want. Was Jimmy Lai paying the price for insulting Li Peng and covering China with an aggressiveness that had largely disappeared from the Hong Kong press by this time? "I was left scratching my head," said Next publisher Yeung Wai-hong, who said the underwriter had originally approached Lai enthusiastically, seeking the business. "They never told us the real reason for pulling out. The pressure that was applied must have been tremendous." After a Next editorial criticizing Beijing's role in the deal's collapse, Yeung noted, China's official Xinhua news agency, which during the colonial period functioned as a de facto Beijing embassy in Hong Kong and represented China's interests, countered that it played no role in influencing the bankers. "We never even named Xinhua," said Yeung. "So why are they denying?" Some analysts believe that Lai is being punished indirectly‹not by Beijing but by one of Hong Kong's most powerful capitalists, Li Ka-shing. According to this theory, Li, who has vast holdings in Hong Kong and China, exacted revenge on Lai for publishing exposés about the tycoon's personal life and examining some of his business dealings in China. Publisher Yeung would only note of Li Ka-shing that none of his many companies would advertise with Jimmy Lai's publications. Despite Lai's failure to launch the IPO‹and China's refusal to accredit reporters from Next or Apple Daily‹there has been no sign that his publications will mute their voices. The companies continue to expand, getting ready to move into a vast new $100-million corporate headquarters. On June 4, Apple Daily ran a striking full-page photo of the estimated 55,000 people who showed up in Victoria Park for the annual protest against the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Last May, the paper ran a front-page story trumpeting Chinese President Jiang Zemin's inclusion among CPJ's 1997 Top Ten Enemies of the Press. "We don't expect anything and we don't try to second-guess what the incoming government will do to us," said Yeung shortly before the handover. "In the greater scheme of things we are low down the totem pole. If they try to jam us up it would be such a violation that they would have to pay a high price. Press freedom is guaranteed in the Basic Law, and we take that as a given. That is the only way we can do business." Other papers have apparently been more willing than Next and Apple Daily to acquiesce to Beijing's wishes. The appointment of Feng Xiliang as a "consultant" to the South China Morning Post in April sounded alarm bells among those looking for press freedom danger signs. Feng, the founding editor of Beijing's official China Daily, has set up shop in an office adjacent to the chief editor of the immensely profitable paper owned by Robert Kuok, a major investor in China and another of the world's wealthiest men. The Post's editor, Jonathan Fenby, challenged critics at the time to find any change in the paper's coverage, while others denounced the new "commissar" as a sign of things to come. Fenby may be right, at least in the short term‹the Post, never noted as a crusading newspaper even in the best of times, has continued to carry coverage that is critical of Tung and aspects of the transition. Still more disturbing are the changes at Ming Pao. (See "A Hong Kong Newspaper Softens Its Voice," by Joseph Kahn of The Asian Wall Street Journal, page 11.) Founded in 1959 and long a favorite of Hong Kong intellectuals, Ming Pao once broke stories on China's notorious Gang of Four and Beijing's secret military maneuvers. Reporting on Chinese dissidents frequently led the paper, and the official Xinhua news agency often singled out Ming Pao's reporters for criticism. Then, in 1993, Xi Yang, Ming Pao's Beijing correspondent, reported on a plan by the Chinese government to sell a portion of its vast gold reserve on the world market. The story scuttled the deal by shedding light on the transaction and alerting the markets. Beijing authorities charged Xi with reporting on state secrets; he was tried and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 1995, Malaysian-Chinese timber magnate Tiong Hew King bought the paper, and the tone of Ming Pao shifted. Stories about China began to emphasize fires, crime, and celebrities; photos got bigger; and the paper began referring to Taiwan as a "province" of China, following the style of mainland papers. An opinion writer from Shanghai who once worked for the Chinese government propaganda department joined the staff. When Xi Yang was released from prison last February, after serving three years, Ming Pao thanked China for showing "leniency." Nothing that has happened at Ming Pao could be called direct censorship, but the hand of China‹or at least the perceived need to please China‹is manifest in these cases. "Xi Yang broke the law," said Edgar Yuen of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Journalists, which was formed in 1996 with China's apparent blessing. "Of course he was punished." Law-abiding Hong Kong journalists do not need to fear China, said Yuen, whose group was established one year before the handover. "It is a matter of getting to know one another," he said, and of learning about China. "We are not puppets of anyone," Yuen bristled, "and to practice self-censorship would be an insult to the profession." Yuen and other pro-Beijing commentators argue that China would be foolish to interfere with Hong Kong's formula for success, which generates hard currency and national pride for the mainland. Tsang Tak-sing, a member of the mainland's People's Congress, is editor in chief of Ta Kung Pao, one of two pro-China newspapers in Hong Kong. He told the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong last February that protecting free speech is vital. "We need the free flow of information for Hong Kong to consolidate its position as a regional and international center of financial and economic activities, so as to be useful to the modernization of China." Even so staunch a defender of democratic values as Martin Lee has expressed a sense of cautious optimism a few weeks into the new regime. One month after the handover, in an interview with the South China Morning Post, he said, "I hope this is the beginning of building up trust. It takes a bit of time to cultivate. But when they [China] saw a smooth transition, they could say: ŒLeave it to Hong Kong'. And the more they do not interfere in Hong Kong, the more we can trust them. So far the climate is right for this trust to grow. If this first month becomes a year, then I'm sure people will feel more comfortable." If the comfort level for Hong Kong's democrats continues to rise, the Jimmy Lai case may eventually be seen merely as an aberration rather than as the canary in the coal mine, measuring the danger ahead for Hong Kong's press under Chinese rule. But as Martin Lee has often emphasized in advocating for the preservation of democratic institutions in Hong Kong, much more can be gleaned about Hong Kong's future from China's approach to the territory's rule of law. The Basic Law If Hong Kong is to remain free, its legal lifeline is the Basic Law, the mini-constitution governing the Special Administration Region. Yet to be fully defined by the courts and open to contradictory interpretations, the Basic Law is the sole guarantor of press freedom and the rule of law for Chinese Hong Kong. Much of what happens to Hong Kong also may be determined by the attitudes that emerged from the 15th Communist Party Congress held in Beijing in September, the occasion for President Jiang Zemin to formally solidify his hold on power. And as the Congress neared, tantalizing hints of possible political reform in China began to emerge. Early in September, Liu Ji, a senior aide to Jiang, broke with a nearly decade-long moratorium on discussion of reform and called for more political liberalization to satisfy rising popular demand. "The continued rapid development of China's economy is safeguarded by reform of the political structure," Liu Ji said in an interview with the official China news service. "Otherwise the consequences are unimaginable." Expressing sentiments that have not been heard in official China since the People's Liberation Army violently crushed the democracy movement in June 1989, Liu, who is vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "When the people have enough food to eat and enough clothes to keep warm and as cultural standards increase, they will then want to express their opinions. The people wanting to take part in political thinking is a good thing, it is a sign of the prosperity and strength of the nation and is also a tide of the age that cannot be turned back." Jiang himself hinted at political reform during his speech before the Congress. "As a ruling party, the Communist Party leads and supports the people in exercising the power of running the state, holding democratic elections, making policy decisions in a democratic manner," Jiang said. While hardly a manifesto for free expression, Jiang's remarks were bold by recent Chinese standards. Since 1989, Chinese officials have avoided public discussion of reform because of the assumption that official calls for easing restrictions on expression in the late 1980s contributed to the student uprising in Tiananmen Square. It is too soon to assess whether such talk of reform will lead to action. And the recent rhetoric of democracy is not likely to erase the cumulative weight of Chinese officials' more typical public pronouncements about the press. For example, Lu Ping, Beijing's Director of China and Macao Affairs, evoked Hong Kong journalists' worst fears about Chinese rule last June in his warning to the press against "advocating" independence for Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Tibet. That, he said, would be a violation of national security restrictions in China. "It is all right if reporters objectively report. But if they advocate, it is action. That has nothing to do with freedom of the press." Lu's statements reflect a view of the relationship between speech and action whose ultimate extension is the massacre of demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. It is a position incompatible with the freedoms that Hong Kong people have enjoyed under the territory's rule of law. Yet because the Basic Law, hammered out in often-contentious negotiations between Beijing and London after the 1984 Joint Declaration agreeing to the handover, gave half a loaf to each side in the debate over press freedom, there is uncertainty about how the two views will be reconciled in the post-handover period. Chapter Three, Article 27, of the Basic Law, titled "The Fundamental Rights and Duties of the Residents," provides for "freedom of speech, of the press and of publication." The same article guarantees freedom of association, assembly, procession, demonstration, and the right to strike and form unions; there is also the right of academic freedom, and of literary and artistic creation. Framing these freedoms is Article 39, which promises to comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also prohibits the introduction in Hong Kong of any restrictions incompatible with the covenant. But Article 23 seems potentially to contradict Articles 27 and 39. It instructs Hong Kong to pass laws prohibiting "treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets," and prohibits political organizations from establishing ties with foreign political organizations. The relationship of these three potentially contradictory clauses has never been clarified. This "is the great fascination for me as a constitutional lawyer," Hong Kong legal scholar Yash Ghai said in a wide-ranging analysis published by Dateline: Hong Kong, a Web site devoted to the handover. "It is also the great challenge of the Basic Law." The Basic Law will be adjudicated both in the Hong Kong courts and by a committee of the Chinese People's Congress, notes Ghai. "You have this one document which is subject to two different regimes of interpretation." Questions about freedom of expression in Hong Kong would ostensibly be handled by the Hong Kong courts, which are to remain independent of Beijing. But Article 23 broadly dictates that certain questions of freedom of expression fall under China's jurisdiction. So, for example, criticism of Chinese authorities might be deemed as within the purview of Article 23. Hong Kong courts might take the line, consistent with common law, that the Basic Law is binding and creates rights and obligations. But the two bodies could have different approaches to those rights. Ghai said, "I suppose that ultimately the standing committee of the national People's Congress will prevail because it also has a general power of interpretation of all the laws passed in the People's Republic of China." While such thorny interpretive and jurisdictional issues arising out of the Basic Law may take years to be fully adjudicated, Beijing's decision to dismiss all opposition members of the elected legislature as of July 1 and to appoint a provisional legislature seemed a clear enough sign that civil liberties would suffer. "National security can be anything [Chinese government officials] say it is," noted Robin Munro, the director of the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch-Asia, "and that is absolutely worrying." Will China Rein in Hong Kong's Press? Will China be able to tolerate an irreverent, independent Hong Kong press climate, in which reporters, writers, commentators, and editors seek to push the boundaries? With 16 major daily newspapers, two commercial television stations, and two commercial radio stations, in addition to the seven English and Chinese-language outlets of government-owned but independently run Radio Television Hong Kong, the territory's media have flourished under an open system. The city is home to dozens of foreign news bureaus that cover Asia out of Hong Kong because of its ease of transport and climate of freedom. The regional press is also based in Hong Kong, and news magazines such as the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asia Week, and Yazhou Zhoukan can freely publish objective reports on virtually any topic with little fear of interference. Hong Kong is one of the few places in Asia where journalists operate with almost no government control. Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia require licenses and special visas for journalists. In Hong Kong, anyone can be a journalist. There are no government-issued press cards or journalists' visas. When press rights are threatened elsewhere in the region, Hong Kong is the place of refuge, where regional activists can meet journalists with little fear of apprehension or sanction from local authorities. Hong Kong's role as a media center and a press freedom haven has continued with little change under the new dispensation. Human rights observer Michael Davis of Chinese University of Hong Kong has said that one important measure of press freedom will be Chinese treatment of dissident publications. "Hong Kong is the one Chinese-language press that regularly confronts Beijing," Davis said. "Watch China Rights Forum and other such publications to see how they fare. That will be a test." China Rights Forum, a small independent magazine published by the group Human Rights in China, has had no trouble, according to director Sophia Woodman. "As far as how things are going here, nothing seems very different," she said in late August. In addition, according to Woodman, Beijing Spring, a Chinese dissident magazine produced in the United States, is still on Hong Kong newsstands. Writing in the International Herald Tribune in late August, Philip Bowring, the former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, said he saw Hong Kong's media little changed after the transition. "Although there was an evident increase in media self-censorship in the months leading up to the handover," Bowring wrote, "the situation has not become worse. Indeed, there are signs of greater determination now to exercise old freedoms and test the new limits. Commentators may be wary of being too rude about leaders in Beijing, but they are familiar enough with many of Mr. Tung's acolytes to feel free to display their views, and sometimes their contempt." While Hong Kong's journalists may continue to tread lightly on stories about Beijing's power elite, they already regard Tung and the provisional legislature as fair game. Many of the legislators, and certainly Tung himself, have long been subjects of scrutiny by the local media, and they may quickly establish a rhythm in their relationship quite different from that between Beijing and the mainland press. During the party congress, Apple Daily gave front-page play to the full text of a letter signed by former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who has been persona non grata in China since his ouster just before the Tiananmen Square massacre. Zhao's letter, which called on Politburo leaders to reassess the government's violent suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrators, provoked only stony silence from party officials. But Jimmy Lai's newspaper once again displayed its penchant for airing Beijing's dirty linen in public. Still, China's record of inflexibility toward the press on the mainland raises the question of how long it will be before China acts to rein in Hong Kong's feisty journalistic culture. With Hong Kong's media often seeping into Southern China, will pledges to leave the broadcast news alone be honored in the longer term? In the event of social or political unrest in China, or other occurrences that could cast Beijing in a less than positive light, how will China's leaders react if Hong Kong reporters cover the story? Beijing traditionally has been sensitive to the point of paranoia about the reporting of economic information. In 1994, Chinese reporter Gao Yu was sentenced to six years in prison for her reporting on China's economic reforms for the generally pro-Beijing Hong Kong magazine Mirror Monthly. Last May, when UNESCO honored Gao in absentia on World Press Freedom Day, Beijing called her a "criminal" and threatened to close the UNESCO office in China. It is not hard to imagine a scenario in which powerful economic interests in Beijing bridle at critical reporting about so-called "red-chip" stocks, issued by Hong Kong-based China-owned companies. These red-chip companies, currently the darlings of the market, have defied the tumble in Hong Kong share prices that has accompanied the economic downturn in Thailand and the rest of southeast Asia. Yet some financial analysts say that many of these companies are wildly overvalued, and the lack of transparent reporting about the nature of their ownership in China make them inherently unreliable. Eventually even bullish business writers in Hong Kong could uncover potential scandals in the red-chip market. Would China regard an exposé of a scandal in a Hong Kong-traded, Beijing-owned company as a threat to "national security"? Covering the new Tung government has caused some journalists to complain about lack of access and lapse into nostalgia for the public-relations-conscious British administration. "The level of access and the culture of secrecy is already worse," said Stephen Vines, a veteran Hong Kong reporter and editor who has worked in both the local and foreign media. "Something happens when you phone Tung's office and you get no answer. [Former Hong Kong governor] Chris Patten was very media-savvy and media-friendly. Now there is no one you can phone up for a straight answer." Tung's inaccessibility is symptomatic of an executive-led government that tolerates the press as a necessary evil, Vines said. Patten lobbied long and hard to get the Hong Kong media to believe in his efforts to democratize the territory. Tung doesn't see the press as a partner in the public discourse. "But," cautioned Vines, "it's not as bad as China. Not yet anyway." Vines' attitude seems to prevail in Hong Kong, where journalists often take to heart the old adage: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. It is no coincidence that Hong Kong's amazing economic growth‹it is the world's eighth-largest trading economy, with a per-capita income that rivals many European countries‹has been accompanied by great freedom. It is that freedom to report and challenge and exchange information that has brought the world to Hong Kong as Asia's financial and business hub. If China and Tung Chee-hwa confound the critics and allow the one-country, two-systems philosophy to flourish in Hong Kong, it may open the way toward greater press freedom for all of China. At the 15th Party Congress, Jiang set in motion the further privatization and modernization of the Chinese economy by calling for the sale of state-owned companies to private shareholders. As the Chinese government proceeds with privatization, the last vestiges of a socialist economy will likely whither away, further erasing the barriers between China and the rest of the world. The next aspect of the Chinese system to go should be the apparatus of one-party control over information and the press. No country has built a successful, dynamic modern economy on the scale of China without allowing its people democracy and free access to information. Hong Kong knows how to be free; it can point the way for China. Success in Hong Kong will be measured in large part by freedom of information and the rule of law. At stake in Hong Kong is the health and vigor of one of the world's great trading economies, a vital cog in the great wheel of Asian commerce and development. In that sense, the whole world will be watching‹and living with‹the outcome of Hong Kong's drama.


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Your attention to the Life with MS Blog has made us a visible part of the multiple sclerosis community and because of that, people will take our calls.
I had a long and in-depth conversation the other day with Dr. Carmen Bozic the Senior VP of Drug Safety and Risk Management for Biogen/Idec. She was very open in proffering information and answering all of my questions so that I could relate them to the community.
As I look to my pages of notes from this conversation, I know that we'll have much to talk about in the coming weeks. In return for the time and attention I was afforded, I wanted to give something back to the people who are trying to make our lives better: feedback from our readers.
In reading through the comments on our other Tysabri blogs (and for my own purposes) it's obvious to me that we all want more information when it comes to Tysabri and the instances of PML.
My mention of this lack of information was met with an empathy which bordered on sympathy. Seems that Biogen/Idec has been trying to figure a way to better get that same information for which we clamor to us. The thing is, they don't know how best to do that.
Currently, the pipeline of information flows from manufacture to doctor. The expectation was that if we wanted to know something about our own treatment or the status of PML around the world, we would simply ask the neurologist prescribing Tysabri to us. From the comments I relayed, it's pretty apparent that isn't happening!
So, and I am taking their concern at face value here, I'm asking you how you would like to get your information about Tysabri and PML.
The current thought is to provide patient organizations, such as MS societies, associations and the like, with updated info which can be disseminated from there. I suggested that more of a pull vs. push method (as in a repository of information from which we can draw as we require) may be an option.
Our Tysabri blogs have been a place where people come to leave and read comments and questions. The MS community is an active bunch of patients and my feeling is that having a place where we can go to get information, rather than having it "fed" to us, would be preferable.
We've known for quite a while that members of the pharma community read our postings and your comments here. Now, you have a (more or less) direct forum to tell them how they can best serve us. Let's take advantage of that!
So, please let us know what frustrates you about the current information flow, how you might see it "fixed" and what kind of info you'd like available.
We have a bully pulpit, friends, let's put it to some good!
Wishing you and your family the best of health.

subset: commoncrawl


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About this Stack
This stack combines Transition Nature, Transition Key Lime, Transition Creme, Rio Lagoon, and Euphoria Silver.
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About this Stack This stack combines Glow Toffee, Frankie Linen, Translation Linen, and Casablanca Creme.
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced the next phase of its "Know Before You Owe" student loan project by releasing a beta version of the "Financial Aid Comparison Shopper," an interactive, online tool designed to help students and families compare the costs of post-secondary education at various institutions.
The CFPB calls this beta version a "thought starter" and says it is just the first step in developing a tool to help students and families make informed higher education decisions.
"Your feedback is an important part of this process, and we know that we have a ways to go in order to come up with a great product," CFPB states on its website.
Initial testing by NASFAA staff has uncovered several opportunities to improve this tool and we plan to submit comments, questions and concerns to CFPB once we have tested the tool sufficiently. In addition, NASFAA's Award Notification and Consumer Information Task Force is finalizing recommendations for improving financial aid award letters and consumer information. These recommendations will help shape our advocacy efforts on this issue.
In a press release, CFPB said that financial aid information is often jargon-filled and unique to specific institutions making it difficult for families to understand costs, evaluate loan options, and figure out how much debt to incur.
"Our Financial Aid Comparison Shopper helps students make apples to apples comparisons of their offers and pick the one that works best for their financial future," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in the press release.
The beta version of the Financial Aid Comparison Shopper has more than 7,500 schools and institutions in its database, including vocational schools and community, state, and private colleges. It uses information from publicly available data provided by government statistical agencies. The tool is designed to allow students and their families to compare:
The tool also includes a "Military Benefit Calculator" that can estimate education benefits for servicemembers, veterans, and their families. The calculator includes military tuition assistance and Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.


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LIMA, Peru — Peru President Martin Vizcarra wants state authorities to help Paolo Guerrero try to overturn a doping ban which forces the national team captain to miss the country's first World Cup in 36 years.
Vizcarra asked the government and Peru's ambassador to Switzerland on Wednesday to be ready to help Guerrero challenge his ban at the Swiss supreme court.
Guerrero can ask federal judges to study a ruling announced on Monday by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport which banned him until January for a positive test for cocaine metabolites.
The sports court extended FIFA's six-month ban which expired this month to 14 months, ruling the 34-year-old forward out of the tournament in Russia.
The CAS said its panel accepted that Guerrero did not intend to drink contaminated tea, and that it was not performance enhancing at a World Cup qualifying game last October. The judges' full verdict explaining the decision has yet to be published.
The Swiss Federal Tribunal can intervene if legal process was abused. It could give an interim order before Peru's World Cup program starts on June 16.
Peru is drawn in a group with Denmark, France and Australia.


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BAGHDAD (American Forces Press Service, July 24, 2007) - The slow pace of legislation and political compromise at Iraq's national level should not belie the potential for economic and political progress in the country's provinces, a coalition commander said.
With security surge operations in and around Baghdad gradually clearing a path for business development and the growth of governance capacity, a window is open to transform progress in those areas into longer-term stability, Army Brig. Gen. Edward Cardon, deputy commander of Task Force Marne, said July 20.
"The importance of the economic and political progress in Iraq, if we do this right, generates a stability such that we won't need as much military power," Brig. Gen. Cardon explained.
Efforts toward that end frequently are eclipsed in the public's awareness by details of Iraq's security situation; however, movement on all fronts is inextricably linked, the general said.
In his area of responsibility — Najaf, Karbala, Babil and Wasit provinces — Brig. Gen. Cardon said his forces and representatives of the State Department-led provincial reconstruction teams are working to draft and implement 100-day plans. These plans, he explained, "provide a focus and some benchmarks to improve both security and local governance."
Toward those ends, he described himself as an enabler, forging relationships among Iraqi leaders to address common problems and solutions.
"What we really do is try and link the provincial government to the national government, the local government to the provincial government, working on plans for security and cooperation and coordination," Brig. Gen. Cardon explained. "That is the hard work of personal engagement."
Success at the local level is in relative contrast to the national government's progress, the general pointed out. "Right now I'm somewhat disappointed with the political progress, in that it hasn't been as rapid as the security progress we've made just over the last few weeks," he said.
"If you go back to the purpose of the surge, it was to get the security situation to a point where you could have political growth," Brig. Gen. Cardon continued. "I think we're doing that pretty well. But the political progress right now is moving much slower than expected, although it is moving, especially at the lower levels."
Contributing to stability in the provinces, he explained, is the expansion of tribal opposition to terrorist and insurgent presence, a phenomenon similar to what is occurring in Anbar province, Brig. Gen. Cardon said.
While the Iraqi army continues to grow in capabilities and effectiveness, the performance of the national and local police has been a "mixed bag" over the past two years, the general noted. Now though, Brig. Gen. Cardon said, shortcomings in the security forces are increasingly being filled by locally mustered vigilante groups, organized along tribal lines.
"Some of these areas that we're clearing out, we have cleared just to a point that we can hold," Brig. Gen. Cardon said. "And what's starting to fill the gap with the Iraqi security units are these concerned citizens that are … tired of al Qaeda, of these extremist groups, and have … (decided to) protect their own neighborhoods."
These groups are neither armed nor paid by coalition forces, Brig. Gen. Cardon clarified. "But we do acknowledge that they can secure their own areas, and in some areas that's having a real impact on the enemy," he said.
The success of Anbar has continued to spread across belts of southern Baghdad and is even starting to swing all the way around to the east side, Brig. Gen. Cardon said. "That's buying some time for some political development if we can get the political development to move a little bit quicker," he added.
At the provincial level, such development entails generation of program-management capabilities and movement away from a state-run economic mindset, Brig. Gen. Cardon explained.
Regarding the economy, stimulating enterprise growth and diversification is already a challenge, further complicated by a flood of Iranian imports into the areas south and east of Baghdad, the general said.
"The bigger problem now is the Iranian economic influence in Iraq, … because there's no tariffs, and the borders basically are wide open," Brig. Gen. Cardon said. "They're importing … low-cost goods into Iraq, which then compete against Iraqi business, and it's hard for Iraqi business to compete against mass production."
One avenue being pursued to boost the economy is the resumption of certain state-owned enterprises to push Iraqi-made niche products to in-country consumers and foreign markets, Brig. Gen. Cardon said. That task is being taken on by the Defense Department's Task Force for Business and Stabilization Operations, he said. Other expertise comes from the State Department's provincial reconstruction teams.
Despite progress, the sectarian radicalization of some areas is an obstacle to freedom of movement and prevents goods from getting to market, Brig. Gen. Cardon said. And while the number of "spectacular attacks" that exacerbate sectarianism has been reduced by the surge, they do still take place, he said.
Business and security issues will be discussed in an upcoming provincial governors' conference facilitated by his office, Brig. Gen. Cardon said. The appropriate ministers from Baghdad are expected to attend to hash out disconnects between the regional and national governments.
"One of the complaints of the governors is that they're disconnected from the national government," Brig. Gen. Cardon said. "So, you know, this is a great opportunity to … develop government capacity by just getting them together."


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In this issue:The Best Self-Improvement Program I've Ever Had | Israeli-based Company Helps Believers Invest in Israel | Maoz Israel Media Department 2008
The Best Self-Improvement Program I've Ever Had
Monthly Report: July 2008Sivan - Tamuz 5768
By Shira Sorko-Ram
I have never had an especially good memory. Once I was playing a short piece of one of the classics - say Bach - at my piano teacher's recital. I was near the end of the piece, but couldn't remember how to finish the concluding notes. Finally after making a few circles, I added a couple of jazz chords and finished it. My dad said the composer must have died and rose from the grave a couple of hundred years later when he wrote the closing.
Yes, I do have a memory for certain things, but I don't remember names very well, and lots of details slip by me. I have to dial my cell phone often so I can find which room I left it in.
Ari has a phenomenal memory for telephone numbers. In fact, the reason we met was because he felt impressed to call the number of a new acquaintance that he had met only once a couple of weeks before. Ari wasn't able to find the phone number but he remembered what he had written down and called. It just so happens I was in that home...
I don't remember phone numbers. Studying for my bachelor's in history, I loved reading about thelives of human beings who had lived before me, and I could understand the overall picture of what was happening as world history moved across the planet's stage, but I wasn't much on remembering when the Battle of Waterloo took place, or exactly when Charles Martel and the Franks changed history by defeating the Muslim push into France in the battle of Tours in 759. So you get the picture.
When I became an adult, every once in a while I would see a small child repeating long portions of Scripture - to the amazement of everyone. I always had a tinge of jealousy - wishing I had learned all those Scriptures when I was a child. I know by heart many individual Scriptures which I did learn early in life - like John 3:16 and Genesis 1:1 and a bunch more like that - I can quote them without hesitation.
As you might imagine, study of the Bible has been a central part of my life and ministry. I studied Spanish and French and could read the Bible in those languages fairly fluently at one time. (Not any more.) However, when I moved to Israel, I spent many years learning the Hebrew language.
I have been speaking Hebrew now for forty years and during this time I have often read the Bible in Hebrew, although I still prefer to read it in English simply because I can do it so much faster.
But over the last year, I began to spend more and more time reading my Bible in Hebrew. And then a thought came to me: Why don't I begin memorizing some Scriptures now - and in Hebrew?
Before going further, I must add that the Old Testament is written in an archaic Hebrew that even native-born Israelis struggle to read and understand. We face this problem continually as new Israelis come to faith. They usually tell you that they will never be able to read the Old Testament because it is just too difficult to decipher. It is even harder than reading Shakespeare more like reading Chaucer, if you have ever tried. However, if these same Israeli believers take the Bible seriously, they can and do learn to read and comprehend.
(The New Testament, on the other hand, is written in modern - though quite formal - Hebrew. It is not difficult to understand because it is simply a modern translation from the original Greek.)
My Hebrew-English Bible
Returning to my story. I began memorizing promises in Hebrew like Mark 11: 22-24. It took me two weeks of saying it over and over - one line at a time - but then I had it memorized. I began to memorize other Scriptures like "Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find…" And then more and more. I didn't pressure myself to a time table, but simply kept saying the verses over and over again - as I was getting dressed, or driving to work, until I could say them without a mistake.
Then I thought, why don't I try to memorize a whole chapter - in the Old Testament? Some of the words are so archaic that they don't appear in a modern dictionary - or today's meaning has changed. But I could more or less figure out the three-letter consonants that create the root - and from which modern words have often evolved. (There are, of course, Bible dictionaries and lexicons, but that takes an extensive time investment.)
I picked the 91st Psalm. Interestingly, in Biblical Hebrew, the same word appearing may be spelled in different ways, pronounced in different ways, with different beginnings and endings. It was quite a challenge. It took me three months to memorize the chapter, learning one line at a time. Some weeks I had more time to work on my memorization and sometimes less. But when I finally got it down, I had great satisfaction in being able to quote the 91st Psalm. I have said it over and over hundreds of times, and because it is the power of God, I never get tired of repeating it.
Especially at night. Before I lie down I quote this Psalm over and over with my eyes closed. I don't go to sleep very easily, but memorizing Scriptures seems to settle my mind where I relax and fall asleep much faster. I still can not "rattle off" these Scriptures in Hebrew at top speed. But I have memorized them in order to put this Word deep in my Spirit, so it doesn't matter if I can say it fast or slow. I have found that I am naturally using these promises in my prayer time - and when I am talking to others.
In fact, I think, for the first time, I understand what Joshua 1:8 really means when it says "youshall meditate in [the Word] day and night, that you may observe to do it…for then you will make your way prosperous."
How could I meditate on the Word of God day and night unless I have memorized portions? So at night, I often quote the chapter by heart over a number of times before going to sleep.
A few weeks ago, I began memorizing Isaiah 53 - one of the most amazing chapters in the whole Bible - it can bring powerful revelation to a Jewish person as to who is Israel's promised Messiah. I learn one or two lines in the morning. I go over it when I am dressing or driving and my mind is otherwise unoccupied. And then at night I go over the verses again. Right now, I am on verse 9.
This week I heard a very interesting report on Fox News. (Yes, we do get Fox News live in Israel!) A new study shows that people who know another language have less chance of getting Alzheimer or dementia! Wow, that's interesting! Actually I did notice when memorizing these Scriptures that I seemed to be consciously creating new connections in my brain, giving me added ability to remember other things.
Also, ABC News ran a special on a scientific study which found how best to keep one's mind active and working. Dr. Andrew Weil names three things that he believes actually does make a difference. He says that by learning a foreign language we can reduce the risks of getting some of the most common age-related symptoms and diseases such as memory loss and Alzheimer's.
"You don't have to master it," he said. "Just the attempt to learn a language is like running different software through the brain. You're exercising more communication channels in the brain."
Keeping the body active is another key to successful aging, said Weil. But you don't have to go crazy working out. Walking is a great exercise that's often overlooked.
Weil's third health tip is what we all know: This doctor is a huge proponent of nutritional supplements and minerals. He recommends a daily intake of multivitamins, and a low dose of ibuprofen to retard inflammation. And of course eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, fish and grains.
Back to my Bible memorization: I am convinced no matter how slow you might memorize, and no matter if it is in your language or a foreign one, memorizing Scripture is healthy for the spirit, the soul and the body. It doesn't matter what your age!
In fact, you might just find that you love memorizing the Word of God. If you have to say a verse over 200 times before you have memorized it - like I had to - no problem! You will end up memorizing the Scriptures. And then you can truly meditate on the Everlasting Word of God day and night.
Why not try it?
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Israeli-based Company Helps Believers Invest in Israel
Isratrade acts as real estate agency and investment fund manager for foreign investors
Isratrade Investments and Management Ltd started in 2007 with the vision to serve foreigninvestors in the Israeli real estate, private equity, and capital markets. Joseph Mitchell, founder of Isratrade, first received this vision in 2000. Since then, he moved to Israel in 2001, completed a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance from Bar Ilan University, and worked for Evergreen Venture Partners, a top-tier venture capital firm in Israel. Isratrade is specifically aimed at reaching Christian and Messianic Jewish believers world-wide who already stand with Israel politically and ideologically and want to bless Israel economically by investing in Israeli real estate and Israeli companies, including believer-owned businesses.
"The Israeli economy is highly dependent on foreign investment," said Joseph Mitchell. Manyanti-Israel campaigns around the world have called for Divestment from Israel. Isratrade feels it is time for the pro-Israel Christian Zionist community world-wide to express its support for Israel in a tangible way and to Invest in Israel.
"Israel is a smart investment based on economic fundamentals alone." Look at recent headlines.
Israel is the world's most up-and-coming real estate market. (Forbes, April 2008)
The Israeli shekel is the strongest currency in the world since the beginning of 2008. (Haaretz, June 2008)
But Joseph says that the incentive for believers is not just financial, but also biblical.
Investment in Israel goes beyond a for-profit investment transaction. For believers in the Wordof God, it is a tangible expression and declaration of faith that Israel will continue to exist and thrive in its own Land. Israel will not be destroyed by her enemies. The blessings of God are upon Israel. "The LORD will make you (Israel) the head and not the tail; you (Israel) shall be above only, and not be beneath." Deuteronomy 28:13
Isratrade is focusing its initial efforts on helping foreign investors purchase property in Israel. Thecompany currently has a staff of 6 licensed agents to serve foreign investors in Israel. "Many foreigners don't even know that non-Israelis can own property in Israel," said Gil Paz, director of the Tel Aviv branch.
While the real estate market has taken a plunge in many developed nations, the Israeli real estate market continues to rise. Joseph sees the upward growth in Israeli real estate continuing. "Israel was built on immigration and if we believe in prophecy, we know that the return of the Jewish people will continue." This means the demand for housing will increase, and when the demand is greater than the supply, housing prices will increase. This translates into profits for investors in the Israeli real estate market.
In order to facilitate investment in Israel, Isratrade is sponsoring a pro-Israel investor tour of Israel from September 10-21, 2008. This unique gathering will take you off the standard tour pathway to where people in Israel live and work. You'll visit believer-owned companies, talk with local leaders and business owners, view timely real estate opportunities, as well as see the array of Biblical and historical sites so meaningful to people of faith.
If you are interested in investing in property in Israel, Isratrade will be happy to serve you andlocate potential opportunities that meet your investment criteria. Foreign investors may alsoobtain mortgages from Israeli banks either in shekels or foreign currencies.
In addition to the real estate market, Isratrade also serves Accredited Investors in the private equity market, including believer-owned businesses, and in the future, the company plans to serve foreign investors in the Israeli capital market. (Tel Aviv Stock Exchange).
If you are already an investor and pro-Israel, then connect with Isratrade and become part oftheir network of pro-Israel investors.You will receive exclusive access to investment opportunities, Israeli news updates, and relevant information about investing in Israel. To register for the Isratrade Investor Network (IIN), you may go to their website http://www.isratrade.co.il/.
Contact Information:
Joseph MitchellIsratrade Investments43 Frishman St.Tel Aviv 64395, IsraelTel: 972-3-633-9340Fax: 972-3-522-8674Email: email@example.com
*Although Maoz Israel Ministries encourages businesses of Messianic Jewish believers in Israel, Maoz is not connected to and does not receive benefits from Isratrade and is not responsible for any financial investment activities.cost.
IsraTradeInvestor Tour to IsraelSeptember 10-21, 2008 * $2950 All Inclusive
Join a unique tour of Pro-Israel investors to see the Israel where people live and work.
Did you know that Israel encourages foreign investment?Did you know that you can own part of the Land of Israel?
Yes, non-Israelis can purchase real estate in Israel!!!
Come and see how investors and business people from the Nations can stand with the Land of Israel economically.
Investor Tour Highlights
To register or request more information for the Isratrade Investor Tour 2008, pleasewrite to email@example.com or call Isratrade Office (Israel): 011-972-3-633-9340 Deanna Bye (North America): 1-519-228-7918 (Limited Space Available)
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Maoz Israel Media Department 2008
Shani (Sorko-Ram) Ferguson and the Tiferet Yeshua Congregation Worship Team record a new album in the Tel Aviv Maoz studio.
Advance recording and mixing will be done by a world-class recording engineer and producer in Dallas, TX.
This recording of Hebrew worship and revival songs is being created for Israel's youth.
DISCIPLESHIP AND TRAINING CDs AND DVDs
We have prepared 200 messages on CD and 6 DVD courses of foundational teachings for Israeli believers and non-believers - all in Hebrews by some of Israel's best teachers and preachers.
Our goal is to distribute these basic discipleship materials throughout Israel. Nearly all new Israeli believers must start from the very beginning with their new-found faith - having no previous knowledge of God's love and desire to redeem them from sin and the kingdom of darkness. And there are many Israeli believers who live in towns and villages far from any congregation but who wish to continue to grow in their faith.
These messages will help ground them in a Bible-based faith and a growing relationship with Yeshua the Messiah. They will point the way for Israeli believers to develop a victorious and Godly way of life.
We are on the home stretch of recording and producing the New Testament in Hebrew with anoriginal music track composed by Messianic Jewish composer Allen Garfield.
This Hebrew New Testament recording will be an incredible life-giving gift to our Israeli people. It will be available free of charge online on our Hebrew Tiferet Yeshua website and for Ipodand MP3 downloads. The cost for the New Testament on CD will be minimal.
To listen to a sample check out this link: http://web.mac.com/maozisrael/Site/Maoz_Media_Israel.html
July 2008
Dear Maoz Partners,
We are in the Austrian Alps, in the middle of nowhere, looking out on fog-covered mountains, and a lake with swans and their little cygnets who follow their mom or jump up for a ride under her wings. On a sunny day, the mountains glisten with patches of snow here and there.
Our time-sharing apartment in Israel allows us to exchange it for different places each summer. Our son, Ayal, is with us, after being nine years in the United States working in the hi-tech industry. God has done great things for Ayal and for our family. We are full of thanksgiving.
So while we are enjoying some of God's creativity in the mountains and the streams, the meadows and the forests, we are... well guess what? We are talking about what creative things we can do through God's Holy Spirit... to reach out to our Israeli people with the message that can lead them to Eternal Life.
How do we reach a nation Israel which is considered the number two nation in the world for hi-tech? How can we use these God-given tools (Internet, iPods, MP3s, CDs, DVDs, on-line social networks, websites, top-quality music) to reach the young people of Israel whose only hope is the True Messiah of Israel?
We were able to take our first step a few years ago in media production when one generous ministry blessed Maoz by contributing the entire salary of our first media employee, while another ministry purchased three video cameras and a editing suite for us. Today we have four full-time employees.
And we have plans! Do we ever have plans! Ideas that can be incredibly impacting!
What is clear to everyone in ministry is that music is a phenomenal key to reach anybody with any message. Music belongs to God and was stolen from Him by the devil. But we are here as part of the Body of Messiah in Israel to take back what has been stolen.
As of today, there are only a few Gospel worship and music CDs in Hebrew. We are determined to help change that. We are more than thrilled that our daughter, Shani, and the Tiferet Yeshua worship team is at this moment producing a contemporary worship and revival music CD in Hebrew.
And we are more than thankful that Randy Adams, one of the finest recording producers anywhere, will be mixing the music at bare-bones costs. On top of that, Randy has agreed to take on two of our media/musicians personnel from Israel as apprentices for the time he is recording and mixing the CD. Thus we will have a first class youth worship CD and our Maoz' media team will gain invaluable instruction and experience for the future.
The entire production will cost only about $10,000 plus the two airline tickets for our media team members. If that sounds like a lot, it isn't! Compared to what music recording and mixing in studio costs, this price is a miracle.
Furthermore, we are in the last stages of putting music to our Hebrew New Testament recording. Soon, the Hebrew New Testament will be available on our Hebrew website for free downloading on iPod and MP3 devices that this generation uses on a daily basis. And of course it will be available on CD.
With our series of CD and DVD teachings and messages in Hebrew, some of which are already available on Internet, we are building up a treasury of valuable resource materials for Israeli believers and non-believers alike.
We close with these two thoughts: Media creations today are incredibly impactive in bringing the Gospel to everyone, but especially the youth. Secondly, media does cost money. Computers, software programs, microphones, mixing equipment and employees all cost. But oh, how worthwhile!
For our part, we refuse to simply let Satan use all of the dynamic tools available today to further his kingdom in Israel. Together with you, we can produce high-quality Hebrew worship and revival music, the Hebrew New Testament on MP3 and CD, and many different messages proclaiming the Gospel to the Israeli people.
We say, "Come along on this journey with us to bring the Gospel to Israel in every venue and genre possible!"
For Zion's sake we will not keep silent!
Ari & Shira Sorko-Ram
Give your special gift for our Media Projects or Hebrew New Testament
Or donate to one of our projects:
Maoz Israel Ministries | istandwithisrael | Hebrew Book of the MonthCongregation Tiferet Yeshua | Coffee House Outreach | Burkina Faso Arab Congregations | Persecuted Believers


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What I'm Learning From My New Book
This may seem like an odd title for a post from me (e.g., Wait – what? Don't you already know the stuff in your own book?), but I'm talking about all the things I'm learning from the experience of publishing it.
Over the last six years, as I've lived through 5 pub dates (hardcover and paperback of my first two books, and the hardcover of the new one), the main thing I learned is that an author has to be the CEO of his or her own books. Nobody else will be. You are the person with the most to gain or lose, and you need to be the keeper of the flame; to be the primary person responsible for assuring success (of course, that also implies that you have to know what success looks like for you – but that's a whole other post). I feel as though I've gotten better and better at this, though I believe I still have lots to learn.
I had a big new ah-ha with this book, though. I experienced much more than in my previous book-CEO incarnations that – just as for the CEO of any company – the team around that person is critical to the success of the endeavor.
I've been incredibly fortunate to have a truly talented and dedicated team on this book. Now that the initial push for the book has calmed down, I have the bandwidth to reflect on how supported I've felt throughout the process – and how well the team has created a foundation for the continued success of the book.
Here's what I mean. At the beginning of the project, as soon as the deal with Jossey-Bass was finalized, the core team – me, my agent Jim Levine, my editor Susan Williams, publicists Barbara Cave Henricks and Kaila Nickel (traditional media) and Rusty Shelton (social media), my business partner Jeff Mitchell, and my assistant and social media wingman Dan Camins – got together to do a 'mini-vision and strategy session' for the book. From that we created a six-month project calendar that included every key deliverable, who was responsible, and when it was due. (Just to give you a sense of the complexity of the endeavor – there were about 120 items on the project calendar.)
But that was just the core team. There was a whole separate subteam working on creating and validating the Accepted Leader Assessment, based on the six attributes at the core of Leading So People Will Follow. That team included Sue Gebelein, a great resource who gave us good counsel and connected us with DSI, our assessment partner (they built and manage the assessment online), and their point person/project manager Carol Brekke, and with Marcia Sysma, our validator. The assessment team also included Cindy Franklin, my lovely Proteus colleague who gave of her time to support the validation effort, and Kishauna DeCarmo in our New York office, who is now the administrative queen of the finished ALA assessment.
And that's still not all! My savvy, smart and supportive editor at Jossey-Bass, Susan Williams, has brought along her excellent publishing team, as well – Rob Brandt, Amy Packard, Brian Grimm, Alina Poniewaz-Bolton, Bernadette Walter, Adrian Morgan, Carol Hartland and Sophia Ho: marketing, publicity, sales, art, editorial…all so competent, easy to work with and supportive.
And then there's my own team: this time, there was a lot more collaboration internal to Proteus, as well. Jeff and I stayed connected throughout, to focus on how best to support the book's launch with products and services. We worked with our consultants to update our half-day Leading So People Will Follow training module (which has been a part of larger Proteus training programs for a number of years), and to create and begin testing our full 1.5 day Leading leadership development program. We also refined our Leadership Coaching offer, a version of our executive coaching program targeted to very senior leaders and including the Accepted Leader Assessment, and will be making that available through all our executive coaches.
Yet another effort in support of leaders – we started a LinkedIn group, Leading So People Will Follow, to offer a community online for experienced and aspiring leaders to ask questions, offer insights, and share learning – and my team mates on that part of the project are my daughter Rachel Van Carpels, who manages and moderates the site, and Cindy Franklin, who (once again out of the goodness of her heart) offers discussion topics and supports conversations.
And the whole Proteus team came together to create and staff our great book launch and awards ceremony party on October 1st – definitely a community effort!
And finally, there's my darling husband Patrick. He is core to the success of this book and any other success I might have, in more ways than I can possibly express. His unequivocal and continual support, joy and love, and his daily efforts on my behalf, make all of this possible.
As you can see, it really has been a team effort. And, back to the title of the post, I've learned a tremendous amount about the power of team throughout this process. And I also like to think that I've followed my own advice: I'm doing my very best to be a fully followable CEO — to be far-sighted, passionate, courageous, wise, generous and trustworthy. It's a lesson well worth learning, and I'm making the effort every day.


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SRM software evaluation: 10 things you should consider
This tip presents 10 things you need to consider when choosing storage resource management software.
What you will learn from this tip: Ten questions you should ask yourself about your needs and your environment when choosing storage resource management software.
Storage resource management (SRM) software remains in a state of flux.
Some vendors like Creekpath Systems Inc. and TeraCloud Corp. are scaling back management functions and refocusing their products to provide enhanced levels of reporting and analytics. Others like CA and EMC Corp., are throwing in every feature but the kitchen sink, while still keeping the SRM label on their product.
To help you sort through the SRM products available today, here are 10 ways to evaluate SRM software products and a bit of insight into what some products deliver.
- How quickly can it produce reports? This is the first deliverable that everyone expects, so the product needs to produce reports from day one. Give priority to SRM tools that can produce reports on infrastructure storage devices and advise users that they will likely need to wait longer for host-level reports.
- Do you need to do centralized reporting across multiple sites? If so, be careful which product you choose. While a number of products offer it, I am only aware of Sun Microsystems Corp./StorageTek's Operations Manager Software being able to deliver on this functionality.
- Can you deploy server agents? If not, limit the scope of your evaluation to those products that can gather the necessary information without the deployment of agents. However, be aware that the depth of reports may not be as extensive as they are when agents are used, and that agentless approaches introduce certain security risks and management overhead.
- Are you a database- or file server-centric shop? If database-centric, identify the databases that you support and choose the products that provide deep levels of integration with both the databases and the storage arrays behind them, in order to provide a complete end-to-end picture. Hardware vendor-specific SRM tools like EMC's ControlCenter are generally best. If managing files is what you need, look for products such as Softek Storage Solution Corp.'s Storage Manager that reports on and manages files on different network file servers.
- What type of management, if any, do you want the SRM tool to perform? If storage device management is in the cards, stick with the SRM tools provided by hardware providers such as EMC, McData Corp., or HDS. If you want a central console to manage files on different server operating systems, hardware neutral vendor products like CA's BrightStor SRM are probably best.
- Do you want the tool to analyze and interpret your data? Administrators often spend so much time deploying and managing the tool, that no one has the time to analyze and interpret the data the SRM tool collects. CA's BrightStor SRM, Creekpath's Acuity Suite and TeraCloud's Storage Analytics help to prioritize which storage pain points should be addressed first from a dollar perspective.
- Does the product integrate with Active Directory or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol? SRM products cut across many levels of an organization, so it is likely you will need different people logging into the SRM tool since different individuals manage different components of the infrastructure.
- Is the SRM software part of a suite of products? With issues like data classification, information lifecycle management, email archiving and encryption rising in importance each day, the need for the SRM component to integrate with software that performs these functions may be imperative, especially for enterprises.
- Is the product to be used enterprise-wide or just for one department? If it is to be used enterprise-wide, stay with major vendors. While they do not necessarily work any better than products from lesser-known vendors, they are generally easier sells at the executive level. If you just need a department level tool, companies like Tek-Tools Inc. provide great functionality at a reasonable price.
- How often are updates of the product being released? If the last major product release was more than 12 months ago, it may be a tip-off that the product is no longer strategic to the company selling it. With so many changes still occurring in the SRM market, users should only evaluate products that have had new product releases in the last 12 to 18 months.
Do you know…
Whether leasing vs. buying storage is right for you?
Next Steps
Management guide: Comparing SRM packages


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PIM Team at Chemnitzer Linux-Tag 2004
Chemnitzer Linux-Tag 2004, Germany's second largest Linux community event takes place March 6 and 7 on the campus of the University of Technology in Chemnitz, Germany. Other than offering an exhibition, workshops and talks, it will also be the hosting platform for a meeting of members of the KDE PIM team as well as members from the groupware projects eGroupware, Exchange4Linux, Kolab, and OpenGroupware. KDE will also have a booth in the exhibition area.
The PIM meeting will be used to discuss integration of groupware servers into the KDE PIM Framework and working on other features listed on the
Hope to see you in Chemnitz!
Great !
I welcome the efforts of the KDE PIM team and really want to "egg on them":
What I like most is the history of this project. Watching once separated apps evolve into one mature component-based PIM suite is simply amazing. What the KDE developers have done here is to actually reuse existing code by taking advantage of kparts in best unix fashion. This gives the impression of KDE and its technology being a solid foundation for scalable development. nice...
By thomas at Tue, 2004/03/02 - 6:00am
Re: Great !
Yay! For a first real release I was impressed with Kontact and all the PIM tools in KDE 3.2. It's a pretty good advertisement for KDE programming.
By David at Tue, 2004/03/02 - 6:00am
There is a parallel event in Wihelmshafen (Niedersachsen), close to the dutch border,
Die LUG WHV e.V. veranstaltet am 6./7. März 2004 in der Fachhochschule in Wilhelmshaven die 2ten GNU/Linux Informationstage 2004, kurz LIT 2004.
Was wird den Besuchern alles geboten?
Here the program of saturday, there willl be as many event s the next day, too.
Großer Hörsaal
Uhrzeit Thema Redner Firma/Projekt
Kleiner Hörsaal
Uhrzeit Thema Redner Firma/Projekt
Workshop 1
Uhrzeit Thema Betreuer Firma/Projekt
Workshop 2
Uhrzeit Thema Betreuer Firma/Projekt
KMU Spezial
Uhrzeit Thema Betreuer Firma/Projekt
By Bert at Tue, 2004/03/02 - 6:00am
Re: Plone
I think that it should be. I think that xmlrpc is being used so why not ask for help on the [email protected] mailing lists ?
By CPH at Wed, 2004/03/03 - 6:00am
reading through the kde-pim mailing lists and projects on sourceforge, there seem to be many projects dedicated to getting devices to sync with linux/kde/kontact.
There are at least kitchensync, kpilot, synce, multisync, kandy, synce-KDE. Did I miss any?
Could someone knowledgeable please tell me which projects are doing what? Which have just been renamed, which are plugins to others, who is cooperating? What is gnome doing, something completely different, anything at all? Which one is supporting what devices?
By Anonymous at Wed, 2004/03/03 - 6:00am


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Creamy scoopable salads are SO GOOD, especially when they're packed with fruit. Add in delicious pecans, and they're even better. Put some in a sandwich? HOLY COW, you've got a handheld masterpiece. Just make sure you eat our version and not the one from Arby's. This recipe serves two, so call a friend or save some for another day! Ingredients: 1/2 cup fat-free mayonnaise 1/8 tsp. garlic powder 1/8 tsp. salt 4 oz. cooked and chopped skinless lean chicken breast 1/4 cup halved red seedless grapes 1/4 cup chopped apple 2 tbsp. chopped celery 1 1/2 tbsp. chopped pecans 4 slices light bread, honey-wheat flavor if available2 large lettuce leaves Directions: Place mayo, garlic powder, and salt in a large bowl; mix well. Add chicken and stir to coat. Add grapes, apple, celery, and pecans; stir well and set aside. To make each sandwich, lightly toast bread slices (if you like). Lay out 1 bread slice and top with a lettuce leaf. Evenly place half of the chicken salad (about 3/4 cup) over the lettuce. Top with the other bread slice. Repeat with remaining bread, lettuce, and chicken salad to make the second sandwich. (Or cover and refrigerate the remaining chicken salad, and assemble that sandwich another day.) Enjoy! MAKES 2 SERVINGS
Serving Size: 1 sandwich (half of recipe) Calories: 254 Fat: 7g Sodium: 923mg Carbs: 34g Fiber: 6.5g Sugars: 11g Protein: 20g PointsPlus® value 7* HG Alternative! Not much of a sandwich lover? No worries! A serving of the chicken salad itself (half the total amount; about 3/4 cup) has 166 calories, 6g fat, 733mg sodium, 15g carbs, 1g fiber, 9g sugars, and 15g protein (PointsPlus® value 4*). Who loves you?
No matter how many times we've encountered this problem, we still can't understand it. It just doesn't make sense -- WHAT is the point of loading up chicken salad with full-fat mayo? With so many flavorful ingredients, who needs that fatty goo? Of course, mayo's not the only culprit in the case of the Market Fresh Grilled Chicken and Pecan Salad Sandwich at Arby's. There are the oversized bread slices -- almost 400 calories come from that bread alone, along with 6 grams of fat! (And no, the wrap version of this menu item isn't much better.) The chicken salad itself has 450 calories and 38 grams of fat... which, by the way, is NUTS. Speaking of nuts, we love pecans (delicious and nutritious), but they do cause the fat and calorie amounts to rise quickly. That's why we say NO to heavy mayo but YES to pecans... in moderation. Add a seasoned blend of creamy fat-free mayo, plenty of fruits and veggies, and chunks of lean chicken, and spoon it over light bread. So easy, it doesn't make sense to have it any other way.
Serving Size: 1 sandwich Calories: 840 Fat: 44g Sodium: 1,220mg Carbs: 82g Fiber: 6g Sugars: 20g Protein: 34g PointsPlus® value 23*
Save your buddies from fatty imposters at the drive-thru -- click "Send to a Friend" NOW!
Today, July 5th, is National Apple Turnover Day. Turn over a new leaf and swap those too-heavy pastries for our Awesome Apple Pie-lets! Mmmm...
SmartPoints® value not what you expected? Click here for more info on how the values are calculated, plus more FAQs about PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® values on our website.


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Gamasutra has an interesting — if dry — analysis of a variety of sales figures from Nintendo's investor presentation. While targeted towards a particular audience, the variety of graphs and pie charts illustrate what's going on in the global marketplace: handheld and console sales, as well as first- and third-party software sales, shed light on how Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are doing across the board. Of particular interest are the figures on the European market, which tends to be difficult to get a grasp on:
... the Wii's dominance in the United States is equally true in Europe. In both regions, Wii sales are significantly higher than the combined sales of both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Microsoft and Sony have gone back and forth in public statements over which company's HD console is ahead in Europe. While recent price breaks on the Xbox 360 have probably changed the dynamic significantly, it is worth taking stock of the data reflected in the graph above. For the 9 months of sales shown in each year, the Xbox 360 appears to have had sales of around 2.1 million systems since 2006 and the PlayStation 3 has garnered sales of over 2.2 million systems since 2007. However, these figures are just for the U.K., Germany, France, and Spain, so they do not cover all of Europe.
Worth a read, especially if you're a statistics geek. The Mushroom Growth Plan: Inside Nintendo's Numbers [Gamasutra]


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Four Beach Teams Advance in The Hague
Kristina Harter, Communications Intern, Phone: (719) 228-6800, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
USAV Facebook - @USA_Volleyball - @USAV Beach
Four Beach Teams Advance in The Hague
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 13, 2013) – Four U.S. beach volleyball teams advanced to playoffs after the second day of the main draw at the FIVB Transavia The Hague Grand Slam event that started Tuesday and continues through June 16 in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Casey Patterson (Newbury Park, Calif.), seeded No. 5, won Pool E breezing past Latvia's No. 21 Martins Plavins and Janis Peda (21-14, 21-11 in 31 minutes). They later battled with Italy's No. 12 Nicolai Paolo and Daniele Lupo for a three-set win (19-21, 21-13, 15-8 in 47 minutes).
On Wednesday, Gibb and Patterson also defeated Canada's No. 28 Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk (31-29, 21-15 in 44 minutes) to go undefeated in pool play.
The No. 3 seeded Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) also moved on to playoffs after going 1-1 in Pool C on the second day of pool play. The pair defeated Australia's No. 19 Isaac Kapa and Christopher McHugh in two sets (26-24, 21-9 in 40 minutes) before losing to Kazakhstan's No. 14 Alexey Sidorenko and Alexandr Dyachenko (22-20, 21-16 in 34 minutes).
On Wednesday, Dalhausser and Rosenthal defeated Netherlands' No. 30 Michiel van Dorsten and Steven van de Velde.
In the women's bracket, Jennifer Kessy (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) also have not dropped a match and won Pool B topping Germany's No. 15 Karla Borger and Britta Büthe (17-21, 21-18, 15-10) on the second day of pool play.
On Wednesday, Kessy and Ross defeated the Dutch No. 31 seeded Laura Bloem and Rimke Braakman (14-21, 21-17, 15-10 in 43 minutes) along with Switzerland's No. 18 seeded Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré (21-17, 21-16 in 33 minutes) .
Lauren Fendrick (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Brittany Hochevar (Fowler, Colo.), seeded No. 17, grabbed their second Pool A win over Greece's No. 32 seeded Vasiliki Arvaniti and Panagiota Karagkouni (21-19, 21-14) to advance to playoffs.
On Wednesday, Fendrick and Hochevar defeated Australia's No. 16 Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy (21-12, 21-15 in 37 minutes) and lost a heart-breaking three-set match to No. 1 seeded Netherlands team of Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel (21-18, 20-22, 15-13 in 53 minutes).
After falling to the Netherlands' No. 28 Jolien Sinnema and Michelle Stiekema in two sets (21-17, 25-23, Jennifer Fopma (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) and Brooke Sweat (Fort Myers, Fla.) failed to advance out of pool play. On Wednesday, the team defeated Russia's No. 28 Evgenia Ukolova and Ekaterina Khomyakova (15-21, 21-18, 15-12 in 48 minutes) and lost to Germany's No. 12 seeded Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst (25-23, 30-28 in 49 minutes) in a tightly contested match.
Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Ryan Doherty (Toms River, N.J.), seeded No. 16, were also sent home after going 0-3 in Pool A. The pair fell to Poland's No. 32 Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak (21-13, 21-16, 15-8 in 49 minutes) and Netherlands' No. 1 Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil (21-12, 21-14 in 29 minutes). On Wednesday, Rogers and Doherty lost to Germany's No. 17 Sebastian Fuchs and Thomas Kaczmarek (21-9, 17- 21, 18-16 in 50 minutes).
For playoffs on Friday, Fendrick and Hochevar match up with Netherland's No. 26 seeded JatineVan der Vlist and Marloes Wesselink, while Kessy and Ross play the winner of the match between Brazil's Agatha Antonelli (No. 7) and Germany's Köhler Schumacher (No. 24).
For the men's playoffs, Dalhausser and Rosenthal will play No. 26 seeded Philip Gabathuler and Jonas Weingart of Switzerland, while Gibb and Patterson face the winner of the match between Netherland's No. 15 Daan Spijkers and Christiaan Varenhorst and Brazil's No. 9 seeded Ricardo Alex Costa Santos and Alvaro Morais Filho.
The Hague is hosting a FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam for the first time after Open events in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and the European Championships in 2012.


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Featured in Nike Sportswear's Holiday 2011 Collection are two LeBron James footwear styles. The black leather Air Force 1 Premium Low QS is the first AF1 low to feature the rugged traction characteristic of a duck boot, with a winterized feel fit for the harsh weather.
The Nike Air Max Conquer QS is a versatile boot made for the winter with a high cut, rugged traction pattern, waterproof overlays and a heel viz 180 Nike Air unit. A new NSW LeBron logo on the tongue top and sockliner finish the boot off and tie directly to a matching range of Nike Sportswear apparel. Both styles debut at select global retailers this November.


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The Best Male, Verified Vascular Surgeons / Phlebologists in Boca Raton, FLWhat is a Vascular Surgeon / Phlebologist?
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Carrier and EOS Climate Offer Sustainable End-of-Life Refrigerant Management Program
Carrier, the world's leader in high technology heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions, and EOS Climate, a San Francisco-based company dedicated to protecting the environment via collection and destruction of ozone depleting substances (ODS), announce an innovative program to ensure responsible end-of-life management of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) -based used refrigerants. The program brings sustainable technology and cost savings to commercial and industrial organizations. Carrier is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX).
Typically, when CFC-based chillers are upgraded or replaced, the refrigerant inside is extracted, reclaimed and resold. This new program provides a sustainable alternative to this process enabling refrigerants, such as CFC-11, 12, 113, 114, 115 and 500, to be destroyed in a controlled, effective and accountable manner. The program ensures that refrigerants will not leak with continued reuse.
"Carrier is a natural leader in providing sustainable technology and developing responsible processes that preserve the world we live in tomorrow," said John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer, UTC Climate, Controls & Security. "Proper refrigerant destruction is another way for companies to lead the world to a sustainable future." Mandyck noted that the change-out of older CFC chillers to newer, more energy efficient technologies can also save building operating costs while lowering the environmental impact of energy demand. Carrier's partnership with EOS provides incentives that can help acquire more energy efficient solutions.
Through the program, destroyed CFC refrigerants are verified by a third party and are registered under the California Air Resources Board, the agency overseeing California's groundbreaking carbon reduction program. All completed projects receive full refrigerant destruction and carbon credit documentation.
"EOS Climate is proud to partner with Carrier to offer commercial and industrial organizations an innovative and sustainable solution to end-of-life refrigerant management," said Matt Jones, CEO, EOS Climate.
The program is part of EOS Climate's Refrigerant Revolution™, a multi-industry stewardship system revolutionizing refrigerant management at end-of-life. Under this system, organizations have the opportunity to generate economic value from used refrigerants and equipment upgrades while moving beyond compliance requirements towards complete lifecycle management.
For more information visit www.eosclimate.com.
About Carrier
Carrier is the world's leader in high technology heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions. Carrier experts provide sustainable solutions, integrating energy efficient products, building controls, and energy services for residential, commercial, retail, transport and foodservice customers. Founded by the inventor of modern air conditioning, Carrier improves the world around us through engineered innovation and environmental stewardship. Carrier is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp., a leading provider to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide. Visit www.carrier.com for more information.
About EOS Climate
EOS Climate is a San Francisco-based company, dedicated to protecting the environment via collection and destruction of ozone depleting substances (ODS). The company's pioneering work is supporting a new global effort to create market-based incentives to prevent emissions and accelerate transition to more advanced, efficient technologies. EOS Climate offers businesses multiple solutions including: rapid project execution, permanent emissions reductions, and transparent and readily monitored verifiable carbon credits. www.eosclimate.com.


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After some heated exchanges on the Internet last week, including on Valentine's Day, no less, it appears the two sides in the Fitness SF website fiasco may be calming down and coming to an agreement.
That's the impression I got from Frank Jonen, the website developer hired by Fitness SF, which rebranded from Gold's Gym in the San Francisco Bay Area last year. Up until now, the four clubs and their owners, Sebastyen and Zsolt Jackovics were better known for their stance against the Gold's Gym corporate office, and in particular, parent company TRT Holdings CEO Robert Rowling for his contribution to a political group that holds anti-gay positions.
Last week's flare-up began when Jonen allegedly took over the Fitness SF website and replaced the home page with a letter to members, claiming the company did not pay him for his services.
"I am also writing this on the behalf of the tens of thousands of freelancers and small businesses out there facing larger corporations who can afford to starve them out," Jonen, who lives and works in Germany, wrote on the website.
Fitness SF countered with its own statement, claiming it hired Jonen in May 2012 and paid him $5,000 upon his hiring. Jonen, according to the company, missed deadlines and said the domain was "hacked and stolen" by Jonen as a form of blackmail.
"In his proposal, [Jonen] stated that the website would take 10 weeks to complete," Fitness SF wrote. "He missed numerous deadlines, including our brand launch in September. In December, he voluntarily passed the incomplete and nonfunctioning website to our new design firm. Now, Frank is attempting to portray himself as the victim when truly the victim is Fitness SF as he attempts to get paid for work he did not complete and has decided that blackmail is the way to accomplish that."
On Tuesday, Jonen told me via email that the cited allegations made by Fitness SF "do not represent facts." Jonen added, however, that "a dialog with Fitness SF is currently in progress," as evidenced by the website working again.
"Upon resolution, a full statement will be released by both parties," Jonen wrote me. When asked why he went public with his original statement using the Fitness SF website (and if he had any regrets doing so), Jonen said no public statements will be made by either side in the current state of negotiations. Don Dickerson, director of operations at Fitness SF, confirmed to me in an email today that there will be no further statements.
When and if there is an agreement, and both sides want to comment, we hope to let you know right here at clubindustry.com. Unless we get hacked first.


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Bruschetta (which, by the way, should be pronounced [bru'sket:ta] ( listen) and not [bru'shet:ta], please!!!) is a snack that Italians have been enjoying for centuries. It's a simple slice of roasted bread, rubbed with fresh garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, fresh tomato and basil. Tuscans, always the chic minimalists of Italy, skip the tomato and stick to olive oil and garlic; they call it Fettunta, "greased slice". Of course they use the very first and very best oil of the season, which makes everything else seem redundant!
Just like bread soups or bread puddings, bruschetta was born as a way to salvage bread that was going stale (note to Americans: real bread does get stale!), at a time when it was considered precious and nobody was watching their carbs and worrying about Atkins. Some Italian peasant, who never reached the fame of the Earl of Sandwich but remained nameless, had a culinary epiphany that would revolutionize the concept of snacking.
Who doesn't like giving their fork a rest and eating with their hands at picnics and cocktails? Although most of us tend to think of bruschetta in terms of tomato and basil, it's actually a great base for most Mediterranean appetizers and salads, which it turns into finger foods. Just pick your favorite summer ingredient and build your own! Here is mine:
- 1/2 ripe cantaloupe, diced
- 1/4 small ripe watermelon, diced
- 3/4 cup goat cheese, or crumbled feta
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and whole
- fresh mint or basil
- 2-3 tbsps of the best extra-virgin olive oil you can find (not too strong or acidic)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 loaf Italian or French style bread, sliced and toasted, broiled, or grilled
- Rub the toasted or grilled bread slices with the garlic cloves while they are still hot. Discard the garlic. Brush with very little oil.
- Spread a little cheese on the slices.
- Dress the two melons (separately) with the rest of the oil, and little salt and pepper. If using feta, which is saltier, you can skip the salt.
- Top some slices with the cantaloupe and others with watermelon. Decorate with fresh mint.


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