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December 2000
The Martin County Genealogical Society in Stuart, Florida is working in close partnership with the local Blake Library to help develop its collection of genealogical materials. In fact, they did something particularly smart and helped the librarians create an online wish list of books and CDs they would like so that potential contributors know exactly what to give. Wouldn't it be wonderful if more local genealogical and historical societies worked together so closely with their local libraries for the benefit of all? A donation is being made for the purchase of Georgia Civil War Pension Files, Mexican War Pensions, Texas Confederate Pensions, and U.S. Marshalls, so now Blake Library can cross a few items off its wish list!
November 2000
I am privileged to be part of the U.S. Army's Korean Repatriation project to locate family members of soldiers who were KIA or MIA in Korea. With the normalization of relations, we are getting back more remains, but over the last 50 years, the Army has lost touch with the relatives of many soldiers. Several other genealogists and myself are helping find the families again.
The Korean War Project is an online, non-profit effort to preserve the memories of those who served our country in Korea. Among other content, the site contains a database of all the KIA/MIA, and allows viewers to add "remembrances" for specific individuals. Recently, the remembrance added for a particular soldier led me to his niece and helped me solve his case. This site is both a wonderful tribute and tremendous resource. Please consider visiting it. Better yet, add a remembrance for or make a donation in honor of someone you know who served in Korea.
October 2000
Many small cemeteries across America have been badly neglected and are in danger of being lost forever. These cemeteries contain information about individuals which in many cases is not found in public records. Sally Kading and a cluster of friends from Fairacres, New Mexico are restoring and maintaining several such cemeteries. Their hope is that doing so will not only preserve this important historical information, but also demonstrate how individual efforts can make a major impact. The cemeteries which they currently maintain have gone from weed-ridden and inaccessible to being usable sources for the genealogical community.
Recently, this informal group found another abandoned cemetery, wooded and overgrown to the extent that it is not visible from the road. There is nothing identifying it as a burial site and it is extremely difficult to find. They are currently in the process of clearing the area around the headstones and opening a path from the road. A grant will be used to put up a sign to mark the site so that others will be able to discover or locate it.
September 2000
The San Benito County Historical Society (Hollister, CA), established in 1956, is the recipient of September's Honoring Our Ancestors grant. The society has a large collection of primary records, family histories (including oral recordings), and over 3,000 images in their photographic archives available to genealogists. A grant has been made for archival materials such as photo sleeves and acid-free folders to help protect the society's collections.
August 2000
Deborah Brothers and William ("Bill") Furry of Springfield, Illinois have been awarded a grant for a scanner in support of their research project that began with Bill's own family, but now extends to the descendants of approximately 30 children who were transported from Ft. Smith, Arkansas to Springfield, Illinois during the Civil War. The children were gathered up and sent away by the chaplain of the fort, Rev. Francis Springer, a former Springfieldian and neighbor of Abraham Lincoln's. The journey was arduous and some of the children died enroute. Upon arrival, the survivors were distributed to families via the "Home for the Friendless." One of the orphans, Mattie Tully, wrote "The Hardships of an Orphant Girl" about these experiences. Bill also discovered Rev. Springer's war journals and edited them into a book, which will be published by the University of Arkansas Press next spring. In an attempt to share this forgotten piece of our history, Deborah and Bill began to do lectures on Springer and "Hardships" at the Orphan Train Society, genealogical societies, Civil War Roundtables, and churches. They now intend to write a book and develop a website, and will use the scanner to capture photos and documents for both efforts.
July 2000
OK, this one is an admittedly personal choice. My extended Rusyn/Slovak family just had a weeklong village reunion in Osturna, Slovakia. While there, I met with the priest (Ivan Bojcuk) and learned that the church (St. Michael's Greek Catholic) needed repairs. Specifically, it has a hole in the roof that will cost about $10,000 to fix. So while we were there, we held a raffle and quickly raised $1,000 as a start. A private donation was also made to the church my ancestors had attended for centuries, as its records have tied hundreds of us together and I hope it will remain there for centuries to come. Excuse my personal indulgence on this one. I promise the next one will have nothing to do with my own roots!
June 2000
The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1892, has been selected as the grant recipient for June 2000. They plan to use their grant to address an important issue facing all genealogical societies, which is how to service "distance members." The GSP's "Virtual Lecture" proposal is designed to bridge the programming gap, just as digitization of records is being used for the access gap. In addition, they would like to encourage lectures and discussions that involve the use of "genealogy as the context for human identity." GSP intends to use the technical support of the About.com network to run the "Virtual Lectures", which will feature a lecture summary followed by an upcoming "event chat" hosted by a prominent genealogical guest on a specific topic of PA genealogy.
May 2000
Congratulations to the Marquette County Genealogical Society in Marquette, Michigan. It has been selected as the first recipient of the grant for May 2000. MCGS was organized to share a common interest in genealogy, help preserve and organize resources in the area, promote family research and maintain a collection of genealogical resources. They also provide the community a genealogical library that is available to the public free of charge. The grant will be used to print interview forms for their ambitious project to interview as many of the county's residents who were born prior to 1930 as possible.
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December 2001
Marge Rice has an admirable and unusual hobby. She rescues orphaned photos from antique stores and uses her genealogical skills to reunite them with their families of origin. To date, she has restored 2,284 photos to family members. Grateful recipients have sent her so many thank you notes that she is now on her second scrapbook of them! Marge plans on using her grant to rescue another batch of photos. If you're lucky, maybe they'll include yours!
*** Update 10/2014
Marge has a web site where you can view all of the names in her photo inventory and contact her.
Her web site can be found here:
Faces From the Past
Here are her latest stats:
December 2002
Mattoon Public Library of Mattoon, IL, established in 1903, has a local history room that serves both resident and remote genealogists. The collection includes an extensive obituary file, city directories dating back to 1893, newspaper microfilm for 1861-1947, and a large file of photographs. Because of the advancing age of the city directory collection, the new library director has decided to scan the individual pages into PDF format and make them more accessible to patrons. Barring copyright problems, they will also make them available on the library's website. The library also recently received records from the local VFW with personal data about Mattoon servicemen who died in WWII and will digitize these files as well. The grant will be used to purchase a scanner and Acrobat software to make these records more accessible to all.
November 2002
Orphan photos are one of the saddest aspects of genealogy; those photos that stray from family hands and wind up unidentified in some antiques store or flea market. That's why I'm a big fan of efforts to reunite these wandering treasures with their families of origin. Dead Fred's Genealogy Photo Archive is one of the best mechanisms for doing this. With more than 20,000 records representing more than 7,000 surnames, this free site is searchable and user-friendly for those wishing to post their own photos. I actually found a long-sought branch of my extended family due to a mystery photo I uploaded to there. A grant has been made in support of the Dead Fred gang's ongoing efforts.
October 2002
Organized in 1946 and incorporated in 1967, the Genealogical Forum of Oregon has been serving genealogists for over 56 years. I know firsthand because I had the pleasure of using their facilities during a research trip I piggybacked onto the 2001 NGS conference in Portland, Oregon. This month's grant will be used by the GFO to launch a project to gather, copy and publish funeral cards from African-American funerals in the Portland area. Anyone who has done African-American research knows the value of these documents which were frequently used in lieu of obituaries. Here's hoping others consider following the GFO's lead!
September 2002
Surah Carletha LeNoir-Mfume of Los Angeles, CA instructs students aged 13 to 18 each week after school. The subject? How to reseach their ancestors. The group, African American Genealogy for Youth, includes not only African Americans, but also Mexican and Native Americans. Surah wanted to obtain copies of Tony Burrough's inspiring Black Roots for her students. Tony, being the kind of fellow he is, readily agreed to personalize copies for each of Surah's current students. This month's grant is for Tony's terrific book. Thanks, Tony!
August 2002
The Creative Combustion humanities class at I Can Do Anything Charter High School in Reno, Nevada has launched the Saving Generations Hillside Cemetery Project. According to Joseph Galata, "The cemetery has been ruined, vandalized and left in absolute disrepair since 1973. Buried there are 1,400 children, teens and adults. The city government has declared this cemetery a 'public nuisance' as college students have broken tombstones and used them for blocks to fix their cars, littered the graves with liquor bottles, and even held a barbeque on the grave of a 22 year old named Corrie who died in 1896. The state legislature passed a bill making it legal for the graves to be dug up and the bodies removed so the land can be sold and used to build public college parking or dormitories, so my high risk teens created a project called Saving Generations to save the cemetery. They are leading a public awareness and fund-raising program to restore and preserve the cemetery and have begun by simultaneously cleaning the cemetery up, doing genealogical research, and getting the cemetery made into a public landmark instead of a public nuisance. The students are also filming their project and writing a screenplay. They already took particular interest in a 17 year old boy who died in 1896 and traced the boy's ancestors all the way back to 1750 when his family left Ireland and came to NY, then to Kentucky, then to Indiana, and then to Reno." A grant has been made in support of this extremely worthwhile endeavor.
July 2002
If you watched the PBS Ancestors series, you may recall the story of Suzanne Ballard and how she and some others discovered a set of old diaries written by an Irish tenant farmer, James Harshaw, in the 1800s. These diaries recounted the day to day lives of an entire Irish community as well as political events of the day and were invaluable to Suzanne in her research. Since then, the diaries have been declared a national treasure and its author officially recognized as an important contributor to the history of Ireland. As a result, The Donaghmore (Iveagh) Heritage and Preservation Society was established. One of the society's first activities was to create The Harshaw-Martin Trail which aims to highlight the Donaghmore area as a historical site and bring the Harshaw Diaries and its stories back to life. Many of the locations mentioned in the six volumes remain today, some virtually unchanged since the times described. This grant is being given to help with the purchase of signs to mark this ancestral trail in Northern Ireland.
June 2002
Saint Paul Church and School has been inextricably linked to the history of Leavenworth since its founding in 1861 by German Lutherans who settled in the "First City" of Kansas. The church recently appointed its first congregational historian, who is now conducting a survey, inventory and assessment of historical artifacts, records and materials to determine what has been retained and its state of preservation. Ultimately, everything will be catalogued, artifacts will be displayed, and records will be transcribed for their historical and genealogical value. This grant will provide for an initial supply of archival materials toward this effort. Here's hoping that more churches do what's necessary to protect and preserve their irreplaceable documents, photos and artifacts!
May 2002
Modene Knight Thornton is preparing to publish a new kind of cemetery book that will provide much more than just the details contained on monuments. Antioch Cemetery in Luna, Freestone County, Texas was established around 1871 and has over 800 graves. Modene has researched the genealogy of these people for many years, so her book will include the dates and places of birth, marriage and death of all those buried there, as well as the names of their parents and children (except for those who are still living). She has also gathered photographs of many of the interred and plans to incorporate them as well. Modene hopes that others who are involved in creating cemetery books will use this comprehensive format in the future. This month's grant will be used to support this special publication.
April 2002
Do you have ancestors from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland or Estonia? If so, you might want to attend Scandinavian Fest where you can learn about your heritage first hand! This grant has been awarded in support of a demonstration by a history teacher and re-enactor who travels as a Norwegian immigrant, "Ole Oleson". Ole entertains and educates the crowd - especially youngsters - with his trunk full of personal belongings that he empties while explaining how and why immigrants such as himself brought these particular items to their new country.
March 2002
Steve Smith of the U.K. has created a lost and found website to "help family history researchers locate lost heirlooms and other related family memorabilia of their UK ancestors." Heirloom Search features an alphabetized collection of photos, letters, and other documents to search through, as well as a community board where people can post messages about items found or ones they hope to get into the appropriate hands. The site has a particularly good record of placing items of genealogical and historical value with county records offices, where they can be safely held for public viewing and research. A grant has been given to Steve to further his re-unification efforts!
February 2002
Richard Deuel lost his sister, Cindy Deuel, in the tragedy of 911. Cindy, only 28 years old, was an avid genealogist and Richard was her family history partner. Just about a year ago, Cindy discovered the unmarked grave of their great-great-grandfather, Henry Deuel. Appropriately, Richard had her buried at the same site along with others of her ancestors. Because of her passion for genealogy, he is commissioning a special headstone which will have her family tree on one side and the twin towers on the other. A grant was made to contribute to the cost of this headstone.
January 2002
Well deserved attention and recognition has been brought upon America's fire service as a result of the September 11 attacks. The Fire Museum of Greater Chicago assists families of Chicago area firefighters who have died in the line of duty since 1858 to learn more about their ancestors and the ultimate sacrifice they made in securing the lives and property of others. This grant and matching funds will be used to secure death certificates for members of the Chicago Fire Department. Information from these certificates will then be added to their database of over 20,000 names.
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December 2003
The Southern California Genealogical Society has launched the "1890 Project" to fill in this missing census year by recreating the 1890 population of Los Angeles County through every available record or listing of residents' names between the years 1888-1892. As part of this effort, they are going to create an every-name index of every 1890 issue of the L.A. Times, which just became available in a digitized format. The SCGS will use the grant to help purchase this new resource, which will also be available for their patrons at their facility.
November 2003
The Knight Museum Partners of Alliance, Nebraska is the only genealogical library within 80 miles, aside from a LDS FHC that's only open one day a month. They archive all available information on Box Butte County, NE, are responsible for answering all requests that come into the county, and put all available information on the US GenWeb Box Butte County site. This month's grant will assist with the compilation of a special cemetery database which includes more than 16,000 burials in 25 cemeteries. For each entry, they take a tombstone photo, look up an obituary, and then merge in information from marriage records, class lists, and naturalization records to make a "one-stop-shop" for people to find everything they have about one person in one place. The whole project is being done with volunteers and donations.
*** Update as of November 2005
The grant that we received...enabled us to complete our cemetery project. We did a database of the 18,000+ graves in Box Butte County, NE. Each grave has a page with a copy of the obituary, a photo of any stone and a list of other info that we have about the individual. The back of the page has any info on other family members that are not buried locally. These pages are then done alphabetically in notebooks for each of the 15 cemeteries in the county. They are colored for each cemetery and very easy to use. — Becci Thomas, Director, Knight Museum & Sallows Military Museum
October 2003
The Camrose Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society in Canada is only three years old, but has already hosted speakers from the U.K., compiled and transcribed records, held seminars, and catalogued their genealogical collection. But they're most proud of the fact that they helped discover a native burial ground. Prompted by a story in a local family history book, they conducted research and thought they had located the right spot. A ground penetrating radar company offered to perform a scan of the area and their suspicions were confirmed when the scan identified at least 51 burials in a 14 x 14 meter area. The report estimates that some of the burials are well over 100 years old, and those buried there are believed to be members of the Cree, Blackfoot, and/or Metis tribes. The Society will use the grant to erect a monument on the site of the Amiskoosis Sakahigan Burial Ground, honoring the memory of the indigenous people and their descendants who played such an important role in our Alberta history.
September 2003
Holly Simpson of Quebec, Canada has been researching her family history for the last three years. Her grandparents, mother and aunt were interned by the Japanese in Shanghai from 1942-45 and eventually managed to settle in Montreal in 1950. After a fire in her grandmother's apartment, a secret journal kept her grandfather was discovered and Holly - being the only other journal keeper in her family -- was entrusted with this family heirloom. To ensure that this piece of history is not forgotten, Holly transcribed the journal for her extended clan and is now producing a documentary to inspire others to begin dialogue with their family elders.
August 2003
Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Ontario, Canada, the mastermind behind Olive Tree Genealogy, is working on a project to fill in the 1847-1892 index gap for passenger arrival records in New York. Using two sources -- filmed passenger lists and the lesser known Alms House Records for New York for 1819-1858 (which include the name of the ship that individuals traveled on, the date of their arrival in North America, the ports of departure and arrival and the Ship Captain's name) - Lorine is transcribing and uploading records to her site. Click here to see passenger lists from ships and here to see details of Alms House residents. Lorine is using this month's grant to obtain more Alms House records to transcribe.
July 2003
Last year the National Genealogical Society launched a Bible rescue program for the purpose of collecting family Bibles, digitizing the genealogical contents (to make them available to all), and then locating descendants of the original owners to return the Bibles back to family hands. At the NGS conference in Pittsburgh this year, a rare opportunity for a mass rescue presented itself. One of the vendors was selling an extensive collection of original family pages (removed from Bibles by dealers) which she had purchased over a period of several decades. She was willing to turn over the complete set (over 100) to NGS, provided they pay $3,500 within six months. This month's grant is to jump start the fundraising efforts for this purpose. If you would like to donate for the same cause, please contact Dereka Smith.
June 2003
Anyone who has read any of my series of orphan photo articles knows what a fan I am of websites that help reunite stray photos with their families of origin, make it easier to identify those mystery faces in the sepia-toned photos we all have in our collections, or allow us to simply share old photos with others. AncientFaces is a wonderful site founded by Kathleen Pinna and her son to assist others with these challenges. In the few years that AncientFaces has been online, over 30,000 photos, stories, and recipes have been shared by people worldwide. With more than 2.5 million visitors a year, there's a good chance that some of your distant cousins may be searching the site, so you might want to consider uploading a few photos yourself! June's grant is in support of this terrific, free resource.
May 2003
The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG) is a well-known and invaluable volunteer organization that copies and transcribes passenger manifests of immigrants. Due to the determination and selfless giving of its volunteers, the ISTG website now contains over 5,000 passenger manifests with over a million surnames! Intent on providing free access to all, ISTG volunteers have covered all expenses, ranging from manifest copies to monitors. This month's grant is to help the organization purchase some much needed supplies and continue its activities.
April 2003
This month's grant goes to Joe Beine for his New Orleans Passenger Lists - Filling in the Gaps project. The purpose is to close the gaps in the standard National Archives microfilm series for New Orleans passenger arrival records (M259 - Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New Orleans, 1820-1902) with alternate records such as WPA transcriptions, the Quarterly Abstracts and other sources. Material found is added to the website in a searchable database. Even if you have no German Roots, do yourself a favor and visit Joe's site for some of the best organized and most current lists of genealogical links you'll find anywhere. Chances are, you'll end up bookmarking several of them.
*** Update as of July 2005
My grant was for a project that involved searching for gaps in the New Orleans Customs Passenger Records in the 1820-1850 period. When gaps were found, alternate sources were checked to help find names of the passengers on the otherwise missing lists. Some of these alternate sources were transcribed and put online at: New Orleans Passenger Lists - Filling in the Gaps 1845 - 1847. Presently, more than 150 previously unindexed New Orleans passenger lists have been added to the website. I also wrote an article for the Utah Genealogical Association's Journal about New Orleans passenger lists. Some of what I learned from the gap project was used in the article, and much of the article was based on my online research guide, Finding New Orleans Passenger Lists. - Joe Beine
March 2003
Those of you who believe that orphan heirlooms (photos, Bibles, etc.) should be returned to their families of origin - or who are hoping to find a treasure that has strayed from your own family -- will want to subscribe to Julie Case's wonderful newsletter. Somebody's Links Newsletter: Genealogical Treasures Found lists items that folks have found in flea markets, antiques stores, attics, and on eBay. Better yet, you can search back issues to see if anyone has listed an item from your family's past (be sure to try searching by location as well as name). I've been a subscriber for several years and am delighted to give this month's grant to Julie in support of the tremendous service she is rendering to the genealogical community.
February 2003
Motivated by the lack of genealogical resources for the Pacific region, Christine Liava'a of Auckland, New Zealand is publishing a book on the 1,100 soldiers from Fiji who served in WWI. Having already traveled at her own expense for research in Fiji, she will use her grant to assist with publishing costs. The book will include a chapter of history of the Fijian involvement in the Great War, photos of the military units involved, a list of all the dead, photos of war memorials and graves, extracts from newspapers concerning the soldiers, writings (i.e., letters, poems, songs, etc.) by the soldiers, and maps and illustrations of the areas they fought in.
*** Update as of July 2005
My project -- Soldiers from Fiji in the Great War -- is nearly finished. I am now at the stage of writing an index and working out statistics about the people involved. -- Christine Liava'a of Auckland, New Zealand
January 2003
Established in 1990, the Berlin & Coos County Historical Society in Berlin, NH serves the American and Canadian genealogical community from the Moffett House Museum. The Museum has recently dedicated a second room to genealogical research since receiving over 850 books from the Diocese of Manchester from the estate of the late Father Croteau. Some of the donated volumes were in poor condition, so the Society will use its grant to have a particularly heavily used set of eleven volumes (Recueils de Genealogies de Beauce-Dorchester-Frontenac) hard bound.
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December 2004
The Mount Olive Cemetery, located in Clarksville, Tennessee, is an African American cemetery that has been in existence since the 1860s. More than a thousand people are buried in the cemetery, which has been abandoned for more than 60 years. Students minoring in African American Studies, along with a ground-penetrating radar team from University of Tennessee Knoxville, are trying to restore the cemetery. Students are also going through old death certificates to identify those buried in the cemetery. This grant will be used to help publish a booklet listing the names of all the people buried in the cemetery in the 1914-1920 timeframe, as well as to run ads in local African American newspapers in an attempt to find family members.
November 2004
Peter Roberts has launched the Bahamas DNA Project to "support traditional genealogy in matching up individuals or families who share direct male or direct female ancestry in the Bahamas and to trace their origins in Africa, Europe, and North America." A grant has been made to sponsor a participant in this intriguing, regional genetealogy investigation.
October 2004
Eve Jankowicz has recently completed a much needed index to an 800-page book called Stalin's Ethnic Cleansing in Eastern Poland: Tales of the Deported, 1940-1946. The book was written by survivors who were deported to Siberia during WWII and contains countless name and place references that could be invaluable to those with roots in this area. Eve will to use the grant to help self-publish the book and make it available to others.
September 2004
The Park County Genealogy Society of Montana will use this month's grant to help construct a marker at an old cemetery near the location of the former county "poor farm." The marker will include a plaque containing the names of 109 individuals who were buried there since no other markers were ever erected at the grave sites. The society is also in the process of computerizing all local cemetery records.
*** Update as of July 2005
The Park County Genealogy Society, with the help of others, has combed through old newspapers and Park County death records to identify burials between 1892 and 1924. At least 110 people were interred in unmarked graves. We have completed the first phase of the project which was to have the names of those buried at the cemetery, as well as burial dates, engraved on metal plates. These brass plates are now on display at our local courthouse and they are beautiful. The next phase of the project is to erect a marker at the sight on which to place these brass plates. We have old brick available from the demolition of the original poor house and this will be used for the base of the marker. One of our members is a brick mason and has volunteered his services to construct it for us. I am attaching a picture of the poor house as it looked circa 1900. -- Mardella Whitmore, Vice President, Park County Genealogy Society
December 2005
The Holder DNA Project has aided genealogists researching the Holder surname by identifying eleven specific, unrelated Holder lines and aligning related families properly. The majority of American Holder lines commence with emigrants from England to Virginia between 1650-1730, moving south and west through the Carolinas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and into Oklahoma and Texas, but there are also from the predominant pattern, including Moravian Holders, 19th Century German immigrants, etc. The Project has assisted in untangling these various lines, which often crossed paths geographically and intermarried, creating obstacles to the establishment of solid paper trails.
November 2005
The Friends of the Garden City Historical Museum of Garden City, Michigan bought the Straight Farm House, circa 1866, and are in the midst of an all-volunteer renovation process to open the top floor as a museum and make other spaces available for events, in order to help pay the mortgage and other operating expenses. They're also orchestrating another fund-raising initiative -- a calendar illustrated with photos of old businesses that once existed in Garden City (a similar calendar last year of grand, old homes was a big success!). This grant will be used in support of their 2006 calendar initiative.
October 2005
This month's grant goes to Jean Scarlott and a group of volunteers who have been photographing and logging old headstones in Caroll County, Jefferson County and Harrison County, Ohio cemeteries. The group has recently embarked upon some restoration projects and this grant will be used to help pay for a headstone to commemorate fifteen coal miners who were killed in a mine explosion on April 21, 1910 in Amsterdam, Ohio. These miners are buried in an unmarked grave in the village of Amsterdam, Ohio, and it was due their deaths that the state of Ohio started paying benefits to widows.
***Update as of December 2005
Here's an image of what this headstone is projected to look like.
September 2005
A grant has been given to the Louisiana Library Foundation in a fund designated for the repair of damage caused to state libraries by Katrina. Others interested in contributing can learn more at the link provided.
August 2005
For over 130 years, Aoyama Cemetery, a city-owned cemetery located in central Tokyo, has been the eternal resting place of a group of foreigners. They were the missionaries, teachers, doctors, diplomats, engineers, and their families, who contributed to the development of Japan after the Meiji restoration in 1868. The section is separated from the rest of the cemetery and is quite popular with tourists and city residents.
The city of Tokyo has been seeking to increase the amount of park space, and has their eyes on four city-owned cemeteries, including Aoyama. In 2002, a committee of academics and politicians proposed to transform about 40% of the cemetery into a park. Since then, work has been underway toward that goal. In order to clear space, the city needs to remove the graves of delinquent plots - both Japanese and foreign - and move some others. In October 2004, white signs were placed in front of roughly 60% of the foreign plots stating in Japanese that they were delinquent and subject to removal. City bureaucrats recognize the historical significance of the important people buried there and have expressed their intention to protect their memory, but are at the same time hoping to remove those whom they feel are not important.
The Foreign Section Trust, a group of concerned foreigners who recognize that the entire section is an important historical site, is rallying with the intention of preserving all the graves. Although the group would like to pay the maintenance fees, Japanese law states that only family members are allowed to do so. In addition, due to privacy laws, the government refuses to divulge information about those who are responsible for payment of the graves, frustrating efforts to gather information for locating descendants. This grant will be used for research to track down the families of those buried in this cemetery.
July 2005
The Colorado Freedom Memorial Foundation is working to build a monument dedicated to all Colorado veterans killed in action since statehood. This memorial will be a place for families to mourn and celebrate lost loved ones, for children to learn of the noble deeds of lost family members, and for veterans to pay tribute to fallen comrades. A grant has been provided in support of this initiative.
June 2005
The Carpatho-Rusyn Society is supporting schools in the Zakarpatska oblast of Ukraine to teach Rusyn youth their history, culture and language. A total of 14 schools are supported, and this grant will be used to fund one school for a year.
Since May 2005 was our 5th birthday,
we celebrated by awarding 5 grants!
December 2006
Established in 1967 with 2,000 active members from 46 states, the St. Louis Genealogical Society (StLGS) of St. Louis, Missouri, is an all volunteer organization that offers monthly and quarterly publications; monthly meetings with speakers; Special Interest Groups that hold quarterly meetings for individuals with German, Jewish, French, Irish, African American and/or Scandinavian heritage; preservation of records - naturalization, church, mortuary, and cemetery; annual fair with prominent guest speaker; classes at the Society office, local community college and in the St. Louis public schools; a computer lab at the Society office that offers several genealogy software packages for trial use, as well as access to Ancestry.com and HeritageQuestOnline.com; and annual research trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah as well as to Missouri record depositories. Phew!
StLGS is completing a project to index all burials in the St. Louis area cemeteries - one which will result in approximately 1.5 million burial records. The focus now is on early church registers, so grant money will be used to photocopy and microfilm these fragile records. Resulting films will be given to the local church, StLGS office and the Special Collections at the St. Louis County Library. This project will provide archival back-up copies of this data, thereby insuring preservation of the original records in the advent of a fire or other destruction.
November 2006
Richard D. Longo of Rochester, New Hampshire is the first two-time Honoring Our Ancestors grant recipient. Check out his earlier award in October 2001. His organization is 100% volunteer and includes Richard and three others. They are attempting to find, physically verify, and transcribe everything that is written on a headstone, footstone, monument or obelisk in Rochester, and insert it into a computer program that they have created. They also find missing headstones (e.g., bring them to the surface to transcribe the information) and GPS all burial grounds. Now they have been given authorization to repair any broken or damaged headstones that they deem important. This grant will be used for the very practical purchase of epoxy guns, nozzles, boxes of epoxy/drier cartridges, and bags of Sacrete (a sand and cement mixture).
October 2006
The North Dakota State Genealogical Society, based in Bismarck, North Dakota, coordinates projects to promote the history of the families of North Dakota and preserve records. The society recently placed the North Dakota Death Index online by funding the website setup, and has also worked on indexing the 1885 Dakota Territory census, compiling county cemetery indexes, funeral home records, school records and early marriage records. The purpose of this grant will be to support the setup a website for a pre-1925 marriage index for the state. These records are kept in county courthouses and some have been lost due to negligence, damage or misplacement. It is hoped that this initiative will make people more aware of the value of these and all old documents, as well as encourage indexing and reorganization of these records to make them more accessible to the public.
September 2006
The Buckingham County High School Genealogy and Local History Club, run by Jeanne Stinson of Buckingham, Virginia, was recently launched to help students record the oral history and genealogy of their families. This school is not located in an affluent area, so books and even postage can be beyond the reach of many. Jeanne intends to use this grant to obtain books and engage students in the quest for their roots — and, as she so aptly puts it, "to find themselves in the process."
August 2006
Established in 1996, The Hispanic Genealogical Society of New York is a non-profit organization focused on Hispanic ancestry. Its volunteer staff organizes meetings, plan projects, provides instructional forums and seminars, encourages Hispanics to research their roots, offers assistance in genealogical research, and protects and restores historical documents relating to Hispanics and their history. This grant will be used to pay for printing costs of their newsletter Nuestra Herencia (Our Heritage), which recently won the National Genealogical Society's Newsletter Competition's first prize for the second time (2001 and 2005).
July 2006
The Hartington Public Library of Hartington, Nebraska serves the patrons of Cedar County and genealogists across the country with local history resources and microfilmed newspapers. According to director, Tami Anderson, "It is becoming more apparent that the stories and pictures of our early ancestors are being lost due to deaths of our older generation." Tami was recently contacted by a former county resident who now lives in Arizona, but is willing to travel and help preserve this forgotten history for the library. Fortunately, this former resident is a genealogist and retired librarian! Her first project will be to scan old photos from local families and burn them to disc. She'll also help re-organize, index, and otherwise enhance the library's current local history section. This month's grant will assist with this effort.
June 2006
The Great Falls Genealogy Society of Great Falls, MT runs a library for genealogists in the area. The library is completely staffed by volunteers, open to the public, and contains over 5,000 books and other sources for avid researchers. The society's library will use this grant to acquire copies of tribal records for Montana Indian tribes around Great Falls, a topic of great interest to locals and other with roots there. Great Falls is home to the Little Shell tribe of Chippewa Indians; less than 100 miles from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation; less than 100 miles from the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation (Chippewa-Cree tribe); and less than 150 miles from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation (Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes). Also in Montana are the Fort Peck Indian Reservation (Assiniboine and Sioux tribes), Crow Indian Reservation, Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, and Flathead Indian Reservation.
May 2006
Sylvia Manning of Vermont is a genealogical researcher on a mission. While reading through an old series of newspapers for marriage and death notices, she realized how helpful it would be if they were indexed and made readily available to others. So between 1998 and 2005, she indexed 57 years' worth of weekly papers and posted that index online. Now she's working on a fresh round of projects including one that will be incredibly valuable for anyone with roots in Brandon, Vermont or the surrounding area. The library there has a collection of index cards and information compiled by a local man who passed away. Apparently, the collection includes census records, land information, vital records, civil actions, etc. — and much of it is not available elsewhere. Due to space considerations, the collection is stored in the library's attic, and because some researchers pilfered documents or badly misfiled them, the local librarians have restricted access. Since there are only two librarians, the boxes of index cards and notebooks — that fill shelves that are roughly 6 feet high and 8 feet wide — are mostly untouched these days. Sylvia offered to scan the cards and put them on CDs for accessibility and distribution, and the library has agreed, so Sylvia will use her grant for a scanner to support this project. She's aware that this initiative will take years, but says, "I have the patience to stay with the job until it's completed, even if it turns in to another seven year project like the newspaper project I did." I think the genealogical world could use a few more folks like Sylvia!
April 2006
LaVaun Kraft of Texas recently inventoried and published her second edition of nine Lipscomb County, TX cemeteries. She personally walked each cemetery many times to record names and vital information on the existing tombstones. During the inventory, she discovered that many graves were unmarked or had deteriorating, tin markers. LaVaun will use her grant to purchase small, granite head markers that will record names and birth and death dates. She has already contacted many family members to secure funds to mark their families' graves, and has personally paid for ten markers herself. This donation will help her continue her admirable efforts.
March 2006 (Supplemental Donation)
Keira Murphy, Director of Middle School for Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, South Carolina, has a passion for genealogy research and uses Ancestry.com as her primary online research tool. She is excited to share this passion with her students in an elective genealogy course to be taught this spring, and requested a three-month subscription to Ancestry.com to facilitate this effort. I contacted MyFamily.com about this request and the company kindly agreed to donate an annual subscription to the school for the benefit of the students. A thousand thank you's to MyFamily.com/Ancestry.com for their generosity!
March 2006
Check out this San Francisco Genealogy website, run by Ron Filion and Pamela Storm Wolfskill, to provide free internet access to genealogical and historical information for San Francisco, California and the surrounding area! To commemorate the Centennial of San Francisco's Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, the San Francisco Assessor-Recorder's Office is working with sfgenealogy.com to present an historical exhibit based on their internet project, The San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Marriage Project. The Assessor-Recorder's Office is planning a variety of media coverage for the exhibit, which will be displayed at City Hall during the month of April. This month's grant will help Ron and Pam create and stage the exhibit, in order to bring their internet-based article, database and family stories to a wider audience.
February 2006
The Grande Prairie & District Genealogy Society is a regional branch of a provincial society that provides genealogical services to an area known as the "Peace River Country" in Canada. This area extends across Northwestern Alberta across into Northeastern British Columbia. Among the many services the society provides is its award-winning 'Genie in the Library' program. The 'Genie' is a volunteer who spends two hours in the Resource/Research Library Room every Wednesday evening in addition to being 'on call' all the time. The resources in their genealogy library are quite modest, consisting mostly of donated books, indices, atlases/maps, local histories and a dated computer. This grant will be used to expand the reference materials that the Genie will have access to in furthering genealogical research in the area.
January 2006
The Wayne County Public Library of Kenova, West Virginia is launching an on-going oral history project with a "station" set up at each library where individuals and families can come and be recorded. They will also (upon request) travel to local senior housing or nursing homes to collect interviews. As they explain, "Memories of the elderly are fading, thus the stories...we would like to make an effort to preserve this history available in our area so rich with details from the people who experienced significant events or just have memories of family reunions, coal mining, or harvest season." This grant will be used to purchase digital voice recording systems.
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text:
Buick Regal GNX Specifications:
Base price: $29,290
Type: OHV V-6, cast-iron block and cylinder heads
Displacement: 231 cubic inches
Bore x stroke: 3.80 x 3.40 inches
Compression ratio: 8.0:1
Horsepower @ rpm: 276 @ 4,440
Torque @ rpm: 360-lbs.ft. @ 3,000
Valvetrain: Hydraulic valve lifters
Main bearings: 5
Fuel system: Buick/Bosch Sequential Fuel Injection, Garrett T-3-modified turbocharger, intercooler
Lubrication system: Full pressure
Electrical system: 12-volt
Exhaust system: Single catalytic converter, 2.25-inch dual low-restriction mufflers and dual outlets
Type: GM re-programmed Turbo Hydra-Matic 200-4R automatic with aluminum auxiliary cooler
Ratios 1st: 2.74:1
2nd: 1.57:1
3rd: 1.00:1
4th: 0.67:1
Reverse: 2.07:1
Type: Hypoid, 8.5-inch GM 2TP, Positraction, aluminum cover
Ratio: 3.42:1
Type: Recirculating ball, power assist
Turns, lock-to-lock: 3.64
Turning circle: 34.1 feet
Ratio: 13.97:1
Type: Hydraulic, power assist
Front: 10.5-inch discs
Rear: 9.57-inch aluminum drums
Chassis & Body
Construction: Welded steel panels on full-perimeter frame with additional crossmember and bracing
Body style: Two-door coupe
Layout: Front engine, rear-wheel drive
Front: Independent, upper and lower control arms, 77-N/mm coil springs, Delco Grand National shock absorbers, 32mm anti-roll bar
Rear: Panhard bar, torque bar, 21.9-N/mm coil springs, 19mm anti-roll bar, Delco Grand National shock absorbers
Wheels & Tires
Wheels: JWC two-piece welded aluminum
Front: 16 x 8 inches
Rear: 16 x 8 inches
Tires: Goodyear Eagle GatorbackVR50
Front: 245/50R16
Rear: 255/50R16
Weights & Measures
Wheelbase: 108.1 inches
Overall length: 200.6 inches
Overall width: 71.6 inches
Overall height: 54.6 inches
Front track: 58.5 inches
Rear track: 57.7 inches
Curb weight: 3,545 pounds
Crankcase: 6 quarts (with filter)
Cooling system: 12 quarts
Fuel tank: 18.1 gallons
Transmission: 11 quarts
Rear axle: 3.5 pints
Calculated data:
Bhp per c.i.d.: 1.19
Weight per bhp: 12.84 pounds
Weight per c.i.d.: 15.34 pounds
Buick produced 547 GNX models.
There were nine prototypes built (only 1 still exists, a 1986 model, resides in Ohio).
1 GNX (#000) was used as a test fit quality control car by ASC (resides in MI).
1 1986 T-type was converted into a white GNX by an ASC employee (GNX XRAY)
0-60 mph: 5.5 seconds
0-100 mph: 13.0 seconds
1/4 mile ET: 13.43 seconds @ 100 mph
Top speed: 124 mph (governed)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Cape Town is ranked as one of the best cities for travelers and it is easy to see why. Known affectionately as the "Mother City," it's a city that seems to show off around every corner.
Cloud-draped Table Mountain wends it way down to the ocean. Hilly avenues showcase colorful Victorian, Cape Dutch, art deco, and Georgian houses. The mix is captivating — a perfect harmony of nature and urban life.
Table Mountain
Table Mountain hugs the city of Cape Town before it spreads out across the peninsula and ends in the dramatic cliffs of Cape Point. One of the best ways to visit the summit of Table Mountain and to take in the sweeping vistas is by cable car.
During the summer months (November-February), you can take in the humbling, yet breathtaking sunset views. For the more adventurous, there are hiking trails that lead to the iconic flat summit.
Robben Island
Located just off the coast of Cape Town lies Robben Island, an important symbol of the political struggle against apartheid. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 years, along with other political prisoners. Today, the island is a UNESCO World Heritage site and museum, with tours available of the island and prison. The guides for the prison tours are former political prisoners. You can reach Robben Island by ferry, which operates daily, depending on weather.
Central Business District
You can explore the center of Cape Town – the Central Business District (CBD) – in an afternoon. Although you may find yourself taking several days to wend your way through this captivating area. Historic sites back up to fashionable new restaurants, shops, bars, and galleries.
The gracious mid-seventeenth-century Company's Garden sits a stone's throw from Long Street's quirky mix of Bohemian shops and raucous bars and houses some of Cape Town's best museums.
Take time to visit Greenmarket Square, one of Cape Town's oldest markets. Wander the stalls filled with African folk art, crafts, and hand-painted fabrics, while street performers entertain you.
Cape Winelands
A short hour drive through scenic countryside lands you in the famous Cape Winelands. There are rolling vineyards, towering mountains, and historic wine estates. The Cape Winelands are home to some of South Africa's premier wines. Paarl and Franschhoek are the largest, nearest and most famous towns in the region, but the Winelands offers rustic, rural gems such as Robertson and Montagu as well.
"Just a quick note to say that the Pocket WiFi worked AMAZING in South Africa! I was the envy of my fellow travelers. I am sure you will be hearing from some of them!" – Kelly Millington, Travel Advisor, CT, USA
Staying Connected
Cell phone connectivity is quite robust in Africa. With a Wireless Traveler global SIM card, you can make outgoing calls for as little as 87¢ per minute and incoming calls are 25¢ per minute. With our low cost WiFi Calling App, calls are as little as 2¢ per minute, or free app to app. The app can be downloaded free of charge from iTunes Store or Google Play. You can connect up to 5 devices using our Pocket WiFi Hotspot. Select your data plan and then upload pictures and video to share on your favorite social media.


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Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is the latest international artist to join Splash and Burn, a creative initiative using Art as an alternative platform projecting critical ecological issues, curated by Ernest Zacharevic and coordinated by Charlotte Pyatt.
Vhils is the nineth artist to participate in the environmental campaign, which calls attention to the destruction of rainforests in South east Asia. Addressing the effects of the unsustainable production of palm oil both locally and globally, which we covered here, the latest project confronts an issue adjacent to palm oil but central to the destabilisation capitalist expansion can incite, with the consequences for communities, wildlife and our eco systems considered collateral damage.
Vhils contribution focuses on the discovery of a new species of great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan, in Indonesia and a recently approved hydropower dam set to decimate their habitat.
The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) is a species of orangutan, native to South Tapanuli in the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. It was described as a distinct species in early November 2017, when scientists announced the discovery of this new species, but also the most endangered with only 800 left.
Already under extreme pressure, a new threat is on the horizon for the Tapanuli orangutan: the development of a 510MW hydropower dam, financed with overseas investment. The dam is to be constructedin the last primary lowland forest of the Batang Toru Ecosystem. This area has the highest biodiversity of the entireecosystem, as well as the highest densities of Tapanuli orangutans. Despite this, the project has been approved, government permits have been issued and construction of access roads already underway.
North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE), the projects' investors, and the Indonesian government have a collective opportunity to halt the project in light of this information to troubleshoot alternative sustainable solutions.
"The world is not taking the time to consider how to move forward, there is no effort to reflect on the real impact of decisions. For this project what I really wanted to do, was to give my work in order to bring attention to a situation- to create discussion on an issue. It is the artists who power the the cities we live in – who counterbalance the pressures of different issues by creating Images on walls. You can start a discussion and bring to the public issues that otherwise would not be there." Vhils
Local NGOs have begun the petition to cease construction and are carrying out peaceful protests in the coming weeks; Splash and Burn initiate the first wave of awareness with artist Vhils. Exposing the issue to a global audience aims to encourage the protection of the Tapanuli orangutan's habitat.
"It comes down to activists and artists to raise awareness for the tensions that globalisation creates. That being said I personally think its a new Pandoras box, it's hard to stop. The only thing we can really do now is act on the dark side of globalisation, which is really the reason we are here doing Splash and Burn." Vhils
Through a number of unique art projects Splash and Burn offers a creative platform for Organisations and NGOs fighting for positive long term change. Support the campaign here.
The project is supported by Sumatran Orangutan Society and the Orangutan information Centre.


text:
We are a group of thermal scientists and designers rethinking thermal comfort appliances. High efficiency, low-carbon natural refrigerants on the inside; quiet, low-profile, and easy to install on the outside. If you would like to make products that change the way we heat and cool buildings, you should apply to join our growing team.
Today, building heating and cooling equipment is a $100B/year industry that hasn't changed in nearly a century and emits 20% of global emissions. Treau has a technology breakthrough, making equipment that is more efficient, cost-effective, and 75% lower in emissions. Treau started 1 year ago as part of Otherlab, a group of inventors, engineers, scientists, and business people striving to impact the energy, robotics, manufacturing, and education sectors. We are always looking for talented and passionate people to join our team.


text:
Think of the United States as a latter-day Titanic. Super-modern. Super-rich. And heading for an iceberg of colossal proportions. Unthinkable? So, too, was it unthinkable that the Titanic — at 46,329 tons, the largest, most luxurious, and arguably, most modern passenger ship afloat in 1912 — would ever go down. But go down she did, in 13,200 feet of frigid waters, 600 miles east of Newfoundland, with a loss of 1,500 lives. One looming danger that, by itself, could sink the American Titanic is called Social Security. Everybody knows it is in serious trouble, but virtually no one in public life has the political fortitude to do anything about it.
The U.S. Social Security system is the largest public spending program in the world, hauling in roughly $530 billion in 2006 and paying out $449 billion in that same year, with the difference added to the Social Security Trust Fund. However, the experts predict that by 2017, the Social Security system will be paying out more than it collects in taxes. At that time, the so-called Trust Fund will not even begin to cover the coming shortfall, since the government has already raided the Trust Fund for other programs and replaced the money that's supposed to be there with IOUs. But even if the Trust Fund had not been raided, it would eventually run dry over time anyway, according to government projections. The reason: the retirement of the baby-boomer generation and the additional burden that will place on those still in the workforce.
Must the U.S. Social Security System go broke? No, not any more than the Titanic had to sink — the Titanic could have avoided the iceberg and tragedy altogether if the ship's lookouts had merely been provided with binoculars. Take it from José Piñera.
On the Lookout for a Solution
Who is José Piñera? "If you were asked to name one person who has enabled more people to gain wealth and security than any other person on the globe, who would you name?" asked Richard Rahn, the brilliant economist who is chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth. The answer Rahn gave in a recent column he wrote while in Berlin is José Piñera. We'll come back to him in a moment.
It is significant that Rahn was writing from Berlin because it was in Berlin that, in 1881, Otto von Bismarck — the man who created the modern Germany — invented the social security system now in place in much of the world, including the United States. As Rahn so wryly points out, it is "basically a Ponzi [pyramid] scheme whereby young workers pay taxes to support the retirees. It only works over the long run where the population is growing and where most retirees do not live very long." Clever fellow that he was, Baron von Bismarck had observed that most Germans lived in those days only to age 45, so the pensions he promised at age 65 would be collected by only a relative handful of people. So, the pension funds, all round the developed world (and in much of the underdeveloped world) grew and grew. Except that, in modern times, people are living longer and longer. (In the United States and other industrialized nations, life expectancy at birth has been moving up steadily in recent years, to the mid-seventies for men and high-seventies for women).
As Piñera put it recently, "Bismarck knew why he was doing it. He said he aimed to make the population 'docile' so they would serve the state more easily. Well, the politicians aren't as smart as Bismarck. They've promised greater and greater benefits, and even lowered the age when you can get them. So, the pension systems are going broke. They're all going broke. You can count on it."
Back to Piñera, because he holds the most promising key to save older Americans from being stiffed by their government. He can fix Social Security; he did it in Chile. Chileans, hundreds of thousands of them, were enrolled in one of the continent's first social security systems (inaugurated during the first government of Arturo Alessandri Palma, in 1925 — 10 years before it was established in the United States). In 1975 Piñera, who had earned a master's degree and then a doctorate in economics at Harvard (alongside his brother Sebastian), was a 29-year-old teacher at his alma mater, the Catholic University of Chile. Chile was then in upheaval following the 1973 ouster of the Marxist-Leninist government of Salvador Allende, with Gen. Augusto Pinochet now at the helm of government. The young economist realized that the pension system was not only hopelessly topsy-turvy and corrupt — but broke, bankrupt-broke. He set out to do something about it.
Who was this young upstart? He began his economics studies at the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago in the mid-1960s. The university had then hired Arnold C. Harberger of the University of Chicago to help in creating a modern school of economics. Harberger took full advantage of his years there to recruit a group of his brightest students to study at Chicago, then the most well-known U.S. citadel of free-market economics. While Harberger's protégés were at Chicago, Milton Friedman, later Nobel laureate, was the superstar. The protégés became known as The Chicago Boys.
When the military government came to power, that group would become the brain trust for the most profound economic revolution in the history of Latin America, sweeping aside historic commitment to socialist and populist economics in favor of free-market ideas. Piñera, though he had done his graduate work at pro-socialist Harvard, fit right in (unlike his now-prominent brother Sebastian, forever infected with the Harvard disease).
In May of 1977, Piñera gave a talk at his alma mater on one of his favorite topics: why shouldn't Chile one day be a rich country, a developed country? Part of the answer was businessmen. They were pro-business, but not at all congenial to that new-fangled idea, the free market, or, for that matter, any notion of a private role in such social programs as education, pensions, and the like. In the audience was an admiral named Roberto Kelly, who had emerged as something of a swami for overhaul of the economy and was the principal recruiter of The Chicago Boys for the new government.
Sinking the Old System
He liked what Piñera had to say, and invited him to do the selfsame presentation before President Pinochet. Piñera did, and Pinochet liked what he had to say, and remembered it a year and a half later, when the country was plunged in a two-pronged crisis. When he summoned Piñera to his office on Friday, December 26, 1978, Chile was within hours of being invaded by Argentina in a territorial dispute that had boiled out of control. Years later, the man who had been president of Argentina at that time, Lt. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, told me that his forces actually were "within minutes" of striking when Argentina agreed to accept arbitration by Pope John Paul II.
Pinochet had managed to keep news of the imminent invasion from reaching the public, so as to avoid uncontrollable panic, and so Piñera learned of the crisis only when he went into that meeting. At that point, Pinochet did not yet know it had been averted, but he did know about the other crisis: a threatened boycott of Chilean products in ports all around the Americas, a boycott promoted by the far-leftist International Longshoremen's and Stevedores' Union and powered by the AFL-CIO. Under AFL-CIO prodding, the Interamerican Regional Labor Organization (ORIT), meeting in Lima, had voted to boycott, beginning on January 8, 1979. In large measure, the boycott was fall-out from the unrelenting, Moscow-masterminded propaganda barrage aimed at the anti-socialist Chilean regime from its very first day. But, in part, it also took advantage of the chaotic — and largely anti-union — character of Chile's labor code.
Piñera, in that 45-minute meeting, was appointed minister of labor and ordered to defuse the boycott. He set about doing that — but he also set about, from day one, making a reality of his crusade against the dilapidated pension system. But first, to defuse the boycott time bomb. The day after his appointment with Pinochet, Piñera met with the new finance minister, Chicago Boy Sergio de Castro. Together, the two hammered out a five-point program to create a genuinely free trade-union movement. No sooner finished, they sought an emergency meeting with Pinochet. At the meeting, Pinochet — though skeptical of opening the door to what he saw as a return of the labor union tactics of yesteryear: strikes called to batter and pressure the government — initialed the memorandum.
Next, Piñera enlisted the help of J. Peter Grace, a personal friend of George Meany, the head of the AFL-CIO. Grace agreed to meet with Piñera shortly after his fortuitous arrival in Chile. The fact that both were Ivy Leaguers (Grace, Yale; Piñera, Harvard), and the fact that Piñera had worked as a trainee at the offices of Grace and Company during the time his father was Chilean Ambassador to the United Nations, and the fact that an uncle was a distinguished Roman Catholic Bishop in Chile (Grace was active in a number of Roman Catholic organizations) all helped. There is such a thing as the right man, at the right place, at the right time. Grace's right-hand man, Tony Navarro, said Grace took quickly to Piñera. He listened with interest — and more than a little amazement — to the five-point labor code Piñera and Sergio de Castro had crafted, and was particularly impressed that Piñera said the code would become law no later than June 30 of that year. Within a few days, Meany had agreed to delay the boycott a week, to January 15, and a few days after that, to June 30. The war was far from over, but the battle had been won.
On July 1, 1979, Piñera went on television to announce that the labor reform — pioneering in Latin America, creating unprecedented levels of freedom in labor legislation — was now a fact.
And so it was with this dynamic young man, who at age 30 had already, against staggering odds, created a revolutionary labor code as a cornerstone of a political system of genuine liberty that he and his colleagues of the military government were bent on creating and bequeathing to Chile. Now it was the turn of another formidable hurdle, bringing order out of the chaos of the country's collapsing pension "system."
As in the United States, he wasn't the first to notice the problem. Jorge Prat, arguably the outstanding political analyst in Chile at the middle of the 20th century, referred to the "system" as "this great swindle." And former socialist-adhering Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-1970) in 1968 called it "a monstrosity." But the politicians did nothing to fix it. There, as in the United States, politicians preferred to spend tomorrow's money to buy today's votes.
By 1968, the system was only 43 years old, but already had 2,000 laws and thousands of regulations; in just three years, 1966-1968, 1,300 new regulations were added.
Most, of course, were aimed at rewarding special interest groups — or individuals. In 1966, the pension programs, in all of their grotesque "glory," cost 600 million escudos (the monetary unit in those days). By the time Piñera appeared on the scene in 1978, the cost had ballooned to 1.3 billion escudos, or 18 percent of gross national product.
In Chile, there was no fixed age for retirement. Nor was there any correlation between how much one contributed and the amount of the pension — as, loosely, there is in the United States (for citizens, anyway).
Moreover, fraud flourished in the running of these funds. Shortly after Piñera took office, the leadership of the private employees pension fund paid him a courtesy call. During the meeting, one took him aside and, in a whisper, told him the fund had 20 luxury cabins in Reñaca — then the spiffiest of the beach resorts near Santiago. One was awaiting him and his family — fully furnished, fully equipped. That fund had 300,000 contributors — but only 20 cabins. Obviously, not for the unwashed.
Around that time, he learned about the perks of working for horse race tracks. Chile had eight tracks. Each had two pension funds — one for the jockeys, trainers, grooms, and stable boys, and a second for track employees. All could retire after 10 years of service, so there were any number of 30-year-old pensioners around the tracks. Furthermore, the jockeys and handlers were not hired by the owners of the horses, but by the pension funds. Inevitably, Chile came to have more handlers than anywhere else in the world.
Plotting a New Course
The first major reform was already in place as he arrived: setting ages as pre-conditions to retirement, 65 for men, 60 for women. But from the start, it was clear that the system was beyond salvaging; it had to be replaced with something new. However "replacement" had to await the plebiscite that would decide the fate of the Pinochet government, as well as a new constitution for the country. That plebiscite, on September 11, 1980 — the seventh anniversary of the arrival of the military government — finished with 65.71 percent in favor of the government remaining in power for another eight years. With that outcome, Pinochet became a constitutional president, and the military junta was thereafter headed by Admiral Jose Toribio Merino Castro — the man who actually detonated the September revolution in 1973 (and a man who served in combat with the U.S. Navy in World War II, as a gunnery officer aboard the light cruiser Raleigh, including against repeated kamikaze attacks off Okinawa).
Forever the man of action, Piñera asked for an appointment with Pinochet for the day after the plebiscite. During the meeting, the president agreed to send the reform legislation to the legislature. On November 4, 1980, it was approved, to go into effect on May 4, 1981. When Pinochet told Piñera of its approval, Piñera pushed for more. "What? You've got your bill," Pinochet said. "I think," Piñera replied, "that we should move up the effective date to May 1, because here and in much of the world, that date has belonged to the hard left, and I think we should now rescue it as the date when the workers of this country earned the right to dignity in their old age. One must not underestimate the value of symbols, President." Pinochet quickly agreed. (Coincidentally, on that very day, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States, defeating Jimmy Carter. Carter had been hostile to the military government throughout his administration. Of the advent of the Reagan administration, Piñera wrote, "At last, in Chile, we were going to feel less alone." The first years of Reagan were the only ones of frank cordiality with the United States.)
Back to pensions. Between that November 4 meeting and the May 1 launch of the pension program, Piñera delivered a series of TV talks for which he used his mother's egg-timer so as to limit each to three minutes. In those talks, he explained that the old system was, in fact, broke, but that the good news was that he was offering something better. As it turned out, it was far better.
Those workers who chose could enroll in the new system. The same 10 percent would be deducted from their salary, but instead of being paid into a general fund "pot," it would go into a private investment account that each worker would own, outright. The accounts would be administered by private companies — so as to keep government out of it. And each worker could choose when he wanted to retire, whether at age 50 or 80. Obviously, the longer he stays in — and pays in — the bigger his nest egg will be. If he dies, the proceeds of the account go to his survivors. Along the way, the worker is free to change from one fund to another, and if he gets queasy about the stock market, from stocks to bonds.
The Chilean system was the first in the world that made individual workers owners of their own pensions. No one had to sign on to this revolutionary program. Those who opted for the old plan were free to remain in it.
Piñera and his associates had estimated that perhaps as few as 25 percent of those eligible would join the new scheme, and anything over 51 percent would be a great success. Actually, 95 percent of eligible Chileans signed up for it. Those that did are thankful that they did. In these 29 years, those pension funds have averaged a compounded growth rate of 10 percent per year, above inflation and free of taxes. (Taxes are payable only when a person withdraws his funds.) The people in Chile's public plan are earning far less.
Furthermore, since the government no longer had to pay out more than a pittance to the five percent who remained in the system, the federal treasury was spared a calamity. If the old system had remained in place, estimates then were that by the year 2000, the deficit would have reached four billion dollars — an impossible amount for the Chilean economy to finance.
There was one other major boon to the economy: the monies flooding into the 20 companies administering the pension funds — AFPs, for the Spanish Pension Fund Administrators — pushed Chile's domestic savings rate up to 26 percent of gross national product, a key factor in the strong growth of Chile's economy under the military government and beyond. (Chile's gross domestic product was number one in Latin America for four years of the 10-year period 1990-2000, and never dropped below fifth place. During the past five years, with a Socialist government in power, Chile has been among the Latin economies with the lowest growth rates.) Still, the strong underpinning for the economy is there: the AFPs now have $120 billion in liquid assets, 80 percent of the country's current GDP.
Each of the AFPs offers their clients a choice of five types of funds, ranging from low-risk, low-yield (averaging between 3.03 and 4.31 percent in the five years since that system was installed) to high-risk, high-yield (16.01 to 17.88 percent). There are strict income limits on who can invest in those high-risk funds, but those who can invest often do invest: of the 472,000 account-holders who switched from one fund to another in 2005-2006, 49 percent of them moved into the high-risk fund. The AFPs charge average commissions of 0.7 percent, which is below the fee charged by most mutual funds in the United States.
Chile has been governed for the past 18 years by Socialist governments and their Christian Democrat lap dogs. Inevitably, they snipe at a program that gives private citizens such freedom. Socialists, after all, aspire to control people's lives to a maximum. Indeed, President Michelle Bachelet has proposed a partial return to the old government-run program as part of her overall welfare-state ideas.
All on Board?
In many respects, the funds resemble the Individual Retirement Accounts of the United States, except that in the United States those monies do not accrue to the economy. Were the United States to convert Social Security to fully funded pension plans, complete with individual savings accounts, increased national savings could boost U.S. business entities and equipment by 25 percent by 2020, dramatically increasing the economic growth rate. As a study by Mark Skousen has shown, "The massive flow of funds into the equity markets would substantially reduce the cost of capital and encourage investment." That, in turn, would support rising real wages and offer a long-term solution to the sliding standard of living.
The Chilean model has been copied to varying degrees by 31 countries, providing coverage to close to one billion persons around the world, ranging from Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru to Denmark, Sweden (the original cradle of The Welfare State), Poland, Nigeria, Macedonia, Australia, and India. Russia is still on the fence but may adopt it, as are Italy and one or two others. The other 31 countries are doing well with it, but Socialists still bash this system because of the potential volatility of the stock market. They're correct that there is volatility, but in countries that haven't adopted the system — the United States, for instance — Social Security recipients actually face yearly losses of buying power when inflation is figured in. Piñera helps countries that wish to move to privatized Social Security and donates all of his services pro bono — he is a true humanitarian. In the United States, he has since 1995 served as co-chairman of the CATO Institute's Project on Social Security Privatization.
Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have had positive reactions to his message. Back in 1998, prior to his impeachment, President Clinton invited Piñera to be one of five panelists in his "Summit on Social Security." But whatever Clinton's enthusiasm for Social Security reform, it died with the Lewinsky affair. And Bush, while governor, told Piñera he thought of this as the most important challenge to the American economy in the 21st century. But when President Bush met with fierce — and well-organized — public and congressional resistance to Social Security reform, he used his political capital elsewhere.
Social Security is, and always has been, a sacred cow. But, sacred cows are scarcely any match for a fighter like José Piñera. And he just happens to believe that the private pension fight can be won — even in the United States — under a plan he has drawn up that pays for those who remain in the system even as the system is dismantled.
James R. Whelan lives and works in Chile, where he has served as visiting professor at the University of Chile and authored numerous books and articles, including a landmark history of Chile.


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Although its headwaters are buried under a mountain of debris, its length severed by the Long Island Railroad, its route constrained by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and its banks lined by the remnants of an abandoned shipyard, Gabler's Creek is one of the most successful river conservation projects in New York City.
Running roughly 6,000 feet from its head near Northern Boulevard to its mouth in Udalls Cove, this diminutive stream travels through a bucolic backyard ravine in Little Neck, Queens, which has largely been saved from developers by several generations of local volunteers. Their successful battle to preserve their neighborhood's waterfront, and to restore it to health, continues to be one of the most impressive community organizing efforts in the city. And yet, like Hook Creek and Bridge Creek, Gabler's Creek remains a relatively unknown Queens waterway, flowing out of sight at the very edge of the city.
The fact that Gabler's Creek even exists today is largely due to the work of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee (UCPC), a small neighborhood organization founded in 1969 by the concerned residents of Douglaston and Little Neck. "A golf course had been planned, filling in the wetlands. That was the pivotal moment," says Walter Mugdan, who has been the president of the group since 2002. Their initial efforts helped to create the 30-acre Udalls Park Preserve, a protected area now jointly managed by the NYC Parks Department and the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Gabler's Creek remains a relatively unknown Queens waterway, flowing out of sight at the very edge of the city.
In recent years, the UCPC has continued to protect the preserve from overdevelopment, invasive species, erosion, flooding, and a host of other challenges. "Altogether, our organization has spent between $225,000 and $250,000 over the last 12 years on various large projects," says Mugdan. "For a tiny organization like ours, that's pretty good."
Funded by grants and donations, these projects include planting over 1,000 new trees, removing more than a million pounds of concrete rubble, building and maintaining numerous new trail systems and foot bridges, and helping the city to identify and purchase the final few properties that would make Gabler's Creek into a single, continuous public space. "This is a last little remnant of the natural world here," explains Mugdan, reflecting on the importance of the preserve. "It is hardly a pristine wilderness, but you make the best of what you've got."
Like many who grew up in this tight-knit community near the border of Nassau County, Gabler's Creek was an important part of Mugdan's youth. In spring, he would blaze new trails through its woods; in winter, he would ice skate on its pond; in the summer, he spent every day swimming in the nearby bays. "I grew up having it as my playground. I called myself a swamp rat," says Mugdan. "It was a fabulous place to grow up. A little bit of forest in the suburbs."
Throughout his adulthood, he has continued to engage with the vital role that nature can play in a community, and has worked for the past 41 years at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he is currently helping guide the restoration of the Gowanus Canal and the Newtown Creek, two Superfunded waterways in New York City.
The successful battle to restore Gabler's Creek to health is one of the most impressive community organizing efforts in the city.
Though Mugdan is now nearing retirement age, he still retains his youthful enthusiasm for Gabler's Creek, and a recent three-hour-long exploration of the stream involved scampering along pipelines, leaping onto old pilings, clambering up the sides of a rocky ravine, and pushing through thickets of invasive porcelain berry and kudzu. "This is what will keep me busy in my retirement … I've got all these little projects in mind," says Mugdan, looking out over his childhood stomping grounds. "I've got decades of work ahead of me."
The history of Gabler's Creek extends far beyond the current generations that are working to preserve it. The landscape here, like nearby Alley Creek, was largely shaped by the terminal moraine, the edge of the glacier that covered this area during the last ice age, and humans didn't arrive until about 4,000 years ago. The first written records of modern human habitation date back to at least the 1600s, when the Matinecock, a Native American tribe, settled the area.
A small community of Black oystermen also once lived and worked along the banks of the waterway, much like at Lemon Creek in Staten Island. "They would take their rowboats down Gabler's Creek to do their oystering," says Mugdan. "They lived in the swampland and they had no inside running water. They had the bottomland, the land no one wanted." The last of their historic creekside cottages was torn down earlier this year, after hosting five generations of a single family. Despite the efforts of the UCPC, the land was sold to a private developer, who is planning to build a new multi-story structure in the heart of the preserve.
Although the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee has had a great deal of success in protecting Gabler's Creek and the nearby wetlands, their work will never truly be finished. "There are always threats," says Mugdan. "It's a never ending task to keep these vines from killing the trees ... The existing trails need to be constantly maintained ... We lost a lot of our older forest in the recent storms." As climate change and sea level rise continue to reshape the city's coastline, it is clear that maintaining even this small pocket of nature will require the assistance of many generations still to come. But even today, the rewards from the struggles of past generations are something to behold. "This forest did not even exist 25 years ago," notes Mugdan, standing in a particularly lush section of the Udalls Park Preserve, now filled with birds, insects, flowers, and vines. "It could have been a city street."
At Udalls Cove, near the mouth of Gabler's Creek, a salt marsh provides an important habitat for birds and fish.
Looking out over the marshland from Osprey Landing, a section of the Udalls Park Preserve that has reclaimed a pile of debris dumped into the water. "We are standing on two acres of fill—asphalt, rubble," says Mugdan. A new system of trails was created here in 2012 through a forest that now grows on the landfill.
At the southeast side of Udalls Cove, a pipeline from Nassau County cuts through the marshland, pumping treated wastewater out into Little Neck Bay. "We've lost dozens of acres of wetland since I was a kid," says Mugdan.
At the edge of the salt marsh, Gabler's Creek flows by the remains of an old shipyard. "Up until the mid 1970s this was a commercial boat yard," says Mugdan. "This whole area was two big marinas." Today, the land is part of the Udalls Park Preserve, and laced with trails winding through a restored forest.
Though the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee was founded in 1969, the park did not officially open until 1990. At low tide, the narrow flow of Gabler's Creek runs past the old pilings at Virginia Point, which was named after Virginia Dent, one of the main UCPC organizers who helped the park become reality.
The course of the creek continues to the south, past several homes built at the very edge of the waterway. "During a big storm, their first floor will be under several feet of water," says Mudgan. This entire area suffered serious flooding from Hurricane Sandy's storm surge.
Several of the homes here have docks in their backyards leading out into Gabler's Creek, which is a popular destination for boaters. "I've got a kayak that I take out there," says Mugdan.
Further upstream, the creek narrows as it travels through invasive phragmites. Despite appearances, "it's a healthy marsh," says Mugdan. "We have a lot of spartina."
A city restoration project along the creek helped replant a large section of marsh grasses here, as part of a larger green infrastructure project improving stormwater outflow. "They built a stilling basin, took out a pile of concrete, and did a wetland restoration," says Mugdan.
Further upstream, the creek passes by the backyard haunts of local residents. Benches and small pathways are perched at water's edge.
An abandoned motorboat and a collapsed pier block the creek off from further exploration, deep in the phragmites.
The next appearance of the Gabler's Creek is inland at Sandhill Road, along a new culvert surrounded by an overgrown patch of porcelainberry. Sandhill Road, known to locals as the Back Road, is not an official New York City street. When paved and elevated in the 1930s, it effectively dammed the creek, according to Mugdan.
This culvert was built as part of a city restoration project at Aurora Pond that began in 2004. The pond was named after Aurora Gareiss, the co-founder of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee.
When completed in 2006, the $1.26 million restoration had rerouted Gabler's Creek into the pond, while also dredging its depths and returning wildlife to the area. "The pond had filled in with sediment," says Mugdan. "We have turtles in here now, and killifish."
A system of trails was also expanded and improved around the edges of the pond. "This was where I played as a kid. Most of these trails were made by kids," remembers Mugdan. "The pond has only existed since the 1930s. It used to freeze over, and kids would play hockey or go ice skating on it."
Further upstream, Gabler's Creek flows through an older section of culvert built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
The culvert brings the creek underneath the Long Island Rail Road train tracks, which have been in operation here since the late 1800s. Upon construction, the tracks divided the Black oystermen community into two parts. "The community predated the railroad," says Mugdan.
Little Neck Station opened in 1870, and is one of the last remaining street level train crossings remaining in New York City. The tracks here pass above the ravine containing Gabler's Creek on a 20 foot high embankment.
On the south side of the tracks, Kudzu, an invasive species known as "the vine that ate the South," has completely overgrown the embankment and part of the ravine. "It grows a foot a day," says Mugdan.
Some houses in this area were built at the same level as the creek, and look out onto a new trail system built by the UCPC. "The trail here was built two or three years ago. Prior to that, it was literally impossible to get through here. It was tons of invasive, thorny rose bushes," says Mugdan.
The creek appears again in the overgrowth, as a much-reduced flow. Silt and erosion flowing into the ravine have filled in much of the creekbed here.
One of the new trails following the edge of the creek. This area was where Gabler's Creek found its name, according to Mugdan. "Gabler owned the property and had a field there called Gabler's Field that the creek ran through," he says. "Up into the 1960s, there was a small group of houses here. It was part of the African-American community."
The flow of the creek makes one final appearance nearby, before its course vanishes underground, buried by sand, dirt, and silt.
One of the oldest and largest trees still remaining along the creek. A number of mature trees were knocked down by Sandy, Irene, and other recent storms. "This has got to be hundreds of years old. You can see quite a bit of concrete dumped around it," says Mugdan.
A moist riverbed is the only indication that Gabler's Creek still flows through this area. "When it would rain, it would erode all the dirt," says Mugdan. Several larger UCPC projects have sought to slow rainfall and erosion in the ravine.
The underground course of the creek travels through this green glen. Even when flowing underground the creek provides an important habitat. "A family of foxes lives near here with two cubs," notes Mugdan. "We see blue jays, cardinals, mockingbirds, scarlet tanagers."
Further upstream, a rocky riverbed awaits rainwater at the bottom of the ravine. "In the 1960s and '70s, the city intended to continue filling in this area, all they way up to the railroad, for residential development. This area would have been 246th Street," says Mugdan.
Fallen trees block off the creek's path. "A sewer line was laid, and you can still see manholes along the east side of the ravine," says Mugdan.
Some of the headwaters of Gabler's Creek emerge from this culvert, which is situated under a mountain of construction debris dumped here in the 1960s. "It was a six-acre field. They dumped all the junk on it," says Mugdan. A forest has since grown above the pile of debris.
Inside the culvert, a small trickle of water flows out to the creek bed from the source of Gabler's Creek, which is buried somewhere to the south, underneath city streets and homes. "When it rains, this is a roaring brook," says Mugdan.
The sides of the ravine here are actually a steep pile of rubble. "Up until the '90s, the area was still a moonscape," says Mugdan. "This area was covered with concrete chunks, with nothing but trash growing on it." Removing this enormous pile of rubble would be extremely difficult. "We have to live with it, and allow it to remain here."
Nathan Kensinger is a photographer, filmmaker, and curator who has been documenting New York City's abandoned edges, endangered neighborhoods, and post-industrial waterfront for more than a decade. His Camera Obscura photo essays have appeared on Curbed since 2012. "Industrial Twilight," an exhibit of Nathan Kensinger's photographs of Brooklyn's changing waterfront, opened last week at the Atlantic Avenue subway station in Downtown Brooklyn. Curated by the MTA Arts & Design program, it includes images from Admiral's Row, the Domino Sugar Refinery, the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse and other landmarks lost during the last decade.


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We encourage our children to keep learning, growing and developing, but why is it that when we become adults we slow down the learning process?. We settle for the CliffsNotes of learning, by watching condensed News, skim newspapers for interesting articles, flip through magazines that have more pictures and ads then real content. We listen to radio news that repeats the same summarize news broadcast over and over again yet we want our children to be well-rounded in their education and to grow up creative and educated.
How can we become experts and teach our children, when we are just sliding through life without making the effort to improve and advance. Companies have learned to accept this logic and find it easy to replace people who conform to this thinking. Being creative and in the know, makes it harder for a company to simply plug-in another body and continue as normal.
If expanding your knowledge on a subject makes you expert, than what is stopping you from doing it? Experts are respected and hired more readily then people with basic knowledge. Why not set an example for you kids and become an expert? The company you work for will appropriate your skill and knowledge, your kids will have a role model and along the way you too will become enlighten with the knowledge you've learned.


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HR appears to have escaped the recession relatively unscathed, despite the economic downturn's dramatic impact on recruitment, according to a survey by Personnel Today's paid-for sister service XpertHR.
The survey of 105 employers – covering a combined workforce of almost 580,000 people – showed that three-quarters (74%) now had fewer vacancies, while around six in 10 (56%) had introduced recruitment freezes. However, the fall-out for HR professionals involved in recruitment has been surprisingly minimal, with only 8% losing their jobs.
The biggest impact of the recession on recruitment activity has been the reduced number of vacancies. And this in turn has led to a marked reduction in the use of employment agencies among almost six in 10 (57%) of those surveyed. Four in 10 (40%) have found alternatives to filling vacant posts with permanent recruits, such as temporary staff, outsourcing, and reallocating work internally.
The findings also showed that smaller employers had been more adversely affected by the recession's impact on recruitment. For example, six in 10 (58%) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had imposed workforce-wide recruitment freezes, compared with four in 10 (36%) of the largest organisations surveyed. And freezes linked to redundancy exercises – where the 'natural wastage' of resignations and retirements can mitigate the need for compulsory redundancies – were far more common among SMEs (47%) than larger employers (7%).
This was also the case in terms of vacancy and recruitment expenditure cuts, with one-fifth of SMEs reducing vacancies by more than 90%, while none of the largest employers surveyed had to reduce their vacancy levels by this amount. And 30% of SMEs have had to cut their recruitment expenditure by more than 90%, while none of the largest organisations needed to take such drastic measures.
However, despite the gloomy outlook, an Acas policy discussion paper claims that large numbers of jobs are actually continuing to become available. It stated that an average of 10,000 new jobs are advertised each day by Jobcentre Plus alone, and that many more are available through other channels.


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FIERY First Lady Grace Mugabe on Wednesday confronted under siege Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa at a tense Zanu PF politburo over claims he was recently poisoned at the party's youth interface rally in Gwanda.
By Elias Mambo
This comes as senior ruling party officials said Mnangagwa failed to respond to a series of damaging allegations made against him by Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo, who is also Higher and Tertiary Education minister, at their last meeting on July 19.
On Wednesday, Grace grilled Mnangagwa over why he had kept quiet until last Thursday when his supporters and social media activists claimed he was poisoned by state actors or the Mugabe family through ice-cream from the debt-ridden business Alpha Omega Dairy (Pvt) Ltd.
"Grace confronted Mnangagwa over the poison issue; she demanded to know why the vice-president had kept quiet for a long time when social media activists and his supporters suggested he was poisoned purportedly by the First Family or his colleagues (Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Health minister David Parirenyatwa)," a senior politburo member said.
"She also said Mnangagwa failed to rein in his allies and has also not come out clean up to this day in public on whether he was poisoned or not. Mnangagwa did not answer her directly, but disowned his supporters and basically threw them under the bus, hence the expulsions, demotions and suspensions."
The biggest casualty was Mnangagwa's most vocal supporter — Energy Mutodi — who was expelled for claiming Sekeramayi poisoned the vice-president.
A number of other officials were demoted, suspended or retained in the party.
Grace said Mnangagwa's backers wanted to ruin her Gushungo Dairies brand through the poisoning theory for political reasons. Mnangagwa has distanced himself and denounced those who insinuated he ate ice-cream from the Mugabe dairy business, although he did not say whether or not he was poisoned.
Mugabe last Friday came out at a rally in Gweru to say Mnangagwa was not poisoned, indicating he was told that by his doctor. Government has also said he was not poisoned. However, his supporters insist he was.
As the Zimbabwe Independent first accurately reported on June 23, Mnangagwa was put in the Zanu PF politburo dock and grilled on July 19 by bitter rival Moyo — together with his G40 Zanu PF faction led by Grace and supported by Mugabe himself — who is baying for his blood.
Mnangagwa is battling it out with Sekeramayi, who is backed by G40, to succeed Mugabe.
Moyo confronted Mnangagwa in a fierce battle royale with charges of factionalism and divisive succession manoeuvres at the July 19 explosive meeting using a smart board — an interactive board that uses touch detection for user input like a normal personal computer device — to show a video.
Sources said top of the agenda in the build-up to the politburo meeting this week was Mnangagwa's response to Moyo's allegations, but no one raised the issue.
"Everyone expected Mnangagwa would respond to the issues raised in the previous politburo meeting, but the vice-president did not respond," said the source.
Mnangagwa is still expected to respond to the allegations in future meetings. – ZimInd


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Useful Links
In search of more information? We've collected together some useful contacts and video links to help you on your way.
For great information and contact links on drugs and what constitutes drug abuse, visit the FRANK website.
Find out about help through your local NHS service here
Read this helpful guide with great tips for recovery.
Here's a fantastic article about the late Robin Williams.