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Fareed Zakaria GPS
Interview With Paul O'Neill, Robert Rubin; Interview With David Brooks
Aired April 24, 2011 - 10:00 ET
FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST: This is GPS, THE GLOBAL PUBLIC SQUARE. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Fareed Zakaria. On today's show, two former Secretaries of the Treasury tackle the nation's debt and economic problems -- Robert Rubin and Paul O'Neill. And "The New York Times" columnist David Brooks on what it takes to make people successful at work, in love, in life. Also, did you know you can rent a country? We'll tell you how. That, and much more. But, first, here's my take. Everyone has been in a panic this week over America's impending fiscal collapse, but I think the reality is that America does not face an immediate debt crisis. Take a look at the simplest indicator, the day that Standard & Poor's raised its now famous warnings about America's debt, markets decided to lower America's borrowing costs and the dollar rose against its principal alternative, the euro. See, the real problem for America may well be that it does not face a short-term crisis. Over the last few years, everyone has been worrying about America's debt, and despite all that public worrying, markets keep lowering the rates at which we can borrow money. Why? Well, around the world, people, countries, companies, are looking for safe, liquid investments, and the market's judgment is that the safest such investment is Uncle Sam's debt. Imagine you're the head of China's central bank. You need to invest tens of billions of dollars every year in something secure and liquid so you can get your money back when you need it. There are few good options. You could invest in European bonds, but you've been spooked by the recent series of euro crises. It's fair to ask, will the euro in its current form even be around in 10 years? Then there are Japanese bonds. You could invest in those, but Japan has the worst balance sheet of the major countries, with debt at 200 percent of GDP, slow growth and a rapidly aging population. Plus you, the Chinese, hate the Japanese, have never forgiven them for World War II, and are not likely to do anything to shore up the yen as a global currency. You could invest in your own bonds, but that would drive up the value of China's currency and make your exports more expensive, which means fewer jobs at China's manufacturing companies. My point is that Beijing buys U.S. Treasury bills not out of any great love for America, but for good practical reasons. It's why others buy them as well. The short-term news about the U.S. economy is also positive. Last week, the IMF issued a report on global growth that confirms that the U.S. is likely to be the fastest-growing of the world's advanced economies. In fact the real problem is that this short-term good news means Washington isn't really acting as if it faces a crisis, no matter the rhetoric. Democrats are still clinging to entitlement programs -- Medicare, social security -- with no talk of real cost cutting, though the current system is clearly unaffordable. Republicans are playing politics with the vote to raise the country's debt ceiling and are still blind to the inevitable need to raise taxes. People are still pushing their ideologies rather than fixing the problem. Once again, it looks like the American economy will outperform expectations and temporarily relieve politicians from having to make hard choices about entitlements and taxes. But this will only postpone the day of reckoning and make the crash more painful. You can read a fuller take in "Time" magazine this week. This issue is the "Time 100", that eagerly awaited list of global influentials. Did you make it? Well, take a look on newsstands or at Time.com. Let's get started. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: So, can we avoid the day of reckoning that I just talked about? To answer that, I am very pleased to welcome back to the show two former Secretaries of the Treasury, one from either side of the aisle. Robert Rubin was the 70th Secretary of the Treasury and served under President Bill Clinton. Paul O'Neill held the post under President George W. Bush and was the nation's 72nd Secretary of the Treasury. Gentlemen, thank you for being here. Paul, you -- you ran -- you did run a big manufacturing company, Alcoa. You -- you're on boards of others. From your perspective, what does the American economy look like today? PAUL O'NEILL, FMR. TREASURY SECRETARY: I think we're doing reasonably well, given the set of problems that we experiences. We're growing at 2.5 or three percent real growth, I think. We need something more than that to make a serious dent in unemployment. But what I'm seeing in the industries that I know a lot about is reasonably good demand growth around the world, including in the U.S. And, you know, one -- one of the things that happened to the private sector, the private sector companies responded with force to the downturn and they've so improved their operations that they're recording many times record levels of profit. So I think in spite of all the shocks we've had and the ongoing three wars and -- and the rest of that, we're doing not bad. ZAKARIA: Bob, there's a -- a poll in "The New York Times" about incredible pessimism, the mood of Americans. You've been through these cycles before. Is this just a time lag? Is it that most Americans aren't aware that the economy is picking up? Is it that the employment problem just isn't picking up fast enough? What -- what explains the really despondent mood of America? ROBERT RUBIN, FMR. TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, you do have high unemployment of 8.9 percent, but if you take into account, Fareed, both the temporary workers, the people who are temporary workers who would like to be full time and also the people who left the workforce, the real number is probably something close to 16 percent. So you have that. But I think there's another factor -- and then higher oil prices and higher food prices. But I think there's another factor that really is very troubling, Fareed, and that is I think the American people are watching our political system, and they watched all of this debate over a continuing resolution. The debate never should have taken place because it was over an irrelevant amount of -- of cutting. And now you have the question of a debt ceiling, and now -- and then you have Standard & Poor's, which is telling people -- we've already known for a long time, which is that we have a terrible fiscal problem. And I think people are worried about our political system and whether or not it can deal with our problems, and I think that's also undermining confidence, and it makes it all the more important that we act, and act effectively on these very large challenges that we face. ZAKARIA: So let's take the next crisis that people are talking about -- the debt ceiling. You had to deal with this when you were Secretary of Treasury. Do you think that it is irresponsible for Congress to -- to try to attach any conditions to the debt ceiling? RUBIN: I think two things, and I -- I thought in 1995, when we managed the last really serious impasse around -- or confrontation around the debt ceiling, and I feel it even more strongly today, which is the debt ceiling should never be part of the budget negotiations, an anachronism. We have a very, very serious fiscal problem. Our fiscal position is unsustainable. It is deeply dangerous. We need to deal with it. We need to deal with it effectively, while at the same time promoting public investment for competitiveness. But that should be a totally separate matter from the debt ceiling, and we should pass the debt ceiling without any conditions and then engage in a -- while, at the same time, engaging in a serious budget negotiation. I think an impasse or serious threats with respect to default are highly irresponsible. I think they can do great confidence -- great damage to confidence in our political system and also potentially to our markets. And the idea of default itself seems to me should be absolutely unthinkable. ZAKARIA: Paul, would you agree on the debt -- debt ceiling? O'NEILL: Absolutely. You know, when I was Secretary, and we were heading into this kind of a crisis about raising the debt ceiling, and I signaled people in the Congress, I was not going to do the tricks that Treasury Secretaries had been doing to give them a little bit more running room. But, you know, I -- this is really kind of ridiculous. Right now, we've got $14.6 trillion worth of acknowledged debt. We actually have $75 trillion worth of unfunded liabilities. But, in order to get by the next election, say beyond November of 2012, they need to raise the debt ceiling by at least $2 trillion. Now, here's another irony, with all this breast beating about the Ryan plan and the Obama plan and Erskine Bowles and Simpson. With the Ryan plan, which people hold out as Draconian, Ryan would have us add $6 trillion worth of additional debt before we start to make a dent. And so -- ZAKARIA: Because he doesn't do anything for 10 years. O'NEILL: Absolutely. And, you know, the plan was viewed by most people as most responsible would not create a balanced budget again until 2037. ZAKARIA: That's the Obama plan, right? O'NEILL: Well, no. That's the Simpson-Bowles. ZAKARIA: That's the -- sorry. That's the Simpson-Bowles. Right. O'NEILL: We don't know when the Obama plan would create another balanced budget. And, I have to tell you, it may be the function of getting old, but the idea that -- that responsible people would say it's OK not to have another balanced budget for 26 years is just unbelievable to me. And I think it's part of a response to your question about why we have this feeling, the population, that things are not good. I think people, even if they don't understand the details of the numbers, have this gnawing concern that our society is headed for a cliff that we're not going to be able to recover from. ZAKARIA: But you would agree with -- with Bob that it's irresponsible for the Republicans to play with the debt ceiling? O'NEILL: Absolutely. If they want -- if they want to pass a debt ceiling that's true to what Ryan has proposed, then they ought to add $6 trillion in this next -- in this next debt ceiling. RUBIN: I think I have a slightly different view, Paul. I totally share your view that our fiscal situation is dangerous. But I think whatever budget we put in place to deal with it -- I actually liked this Simpson-Bowles plan. I liked Obama's plan, for that matter, although somewhat different. But it -- it is going to take us time to get back into a better position, so I think the objective of the Bowles plan with -- and -- and also of Obama's plan -- was to get to a point where the deficit comes down to the level where the debt as a percentage of our economy begins to fall. At the same time, you have public investments to promote competitiveness and so forth. So I think however we do this it's going to take time to get back to balance. I totally agree with Paul. At some point, we've got to get back to balance, but I think it's going to be in two phases. One, we do something along the lines of what Bowles or Obama have laid out, and then somewhere down the road we deal with our health care problems and, that takes us the next step to balance. ZAKARIA: Do you -- do you agree with Bob that you've got to have, in a sense, a kind of a short-term fix and a long-term fix? I think that's what he's saying. O'NEILL: You know, I think our problems are so serious that we should open up the box and think about the fundamentals of how we run our society, all right? So there's all this conversation about levels of taxes and deductions and credits and stimulus and all the rest of that. So one of the things I liked about Simpson-Bowles is they raised the -- they opened up the issue of what we should do about taxes. So I think we should open up more dramatically. I would propose that we get rid of individual income taxes and corporate income taxes and payroll taxes and replace it all with a value-added tax. Right now, according to the most estimate -- ZAKARIA: So -- so that people just understand. So what you're saying is, in effect, you get rid of all those taxes and you put in place kind of a national sales tax. So what you're doing is you're taxing consumption? O'NEILL: Right. ZAKARIA: Which is something Americans do somewhat excessively, and you're not taxing income, right? O'NEILL: And -- and you're not taxing investment so you let -- ZAKARIA: Right. Right. O'NEILL: -- you let things fall where they are. But think about the collateral consequence. It would no longer make any sense for lobbyists to go to Washington to lobby for beneficial things for their interest groups in the tax code. Right now, according to the latest estimates, they have cost our economy $431 billion a year to administer the system, and another $400 billion a year isn't collected because the 15,000 paid tax code is incomprehensible and unenforceable. So if we're going to have an adult conversation, why don't we go back to the fundamentals and ask ourselves the question, how should we distribute the burden of paying for necessary public goods? That would be a useful conversation. ZAKARIA: All right. We are going to have that conversation and more when we come back. I'm going to ask Bob Rubin what he likes about the Obama plan, what he doesn't like about the Ryan plan. (END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUBIN: We can do this substantively, although it's difficult. Do we have the political will? And that, I think, is really going to determine, or may very well determine the future of our country. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: And we are back with two former Secretaries of the Treasury, Robert Rubin and Paul O'Neill. We're talking about the various plans to deal with the budget. You made a comment that you liked Simpson-Bowles, which is a -- a more dramatic plan, in some ways, than the Obama plan, but you also said you liked the Obama plan. I take it that means you didn't like the Ryan plan. Let's start with that. Why do you not like Paul Ryan's plan? RUBIN: Let's start -- I think I can more easily explain why I didn't like the Ryan plan by saying what I liked about -- ZAKARIA: OK. RUBIN: -- if I may, about the deficit reduction -- the Deficit Commission and -- and the Obama plan. Because what they did, and it's a little bit like what Paul said. I think having that kind adult conversation that Paul mentioned, if we could have it in our political system, would be an extraordinarily constructive thing to do. I think within the limits of our political system, I think we are probably going to have to do a lot less. But I think that the -- the Bowles commission, and also the Obama plan, put taxes on the table, because you cannot -- you cannot deal with this, Fareed, and meet the needs of our society that are met through the budget without increased revenues. The other thing that I liked about both of them, or another thing, was they put entitlement reform on the table. And, thirdly, they set out -- and then certainly -- particularly in President Obama's plan, he stressed the importance of public investment for competitiveness, which is absolutely critical. And then they set out a specific target, and I think a very important target, on deficit reduction, which was to get $4 trillion of savings and then get the deficit to the point where the debt -- the debt, relative to the economy, first stabilizes and then starts to decline. If we can do that now, then we buy a long period of time, and during that long period of time we then have to focus on an issue that I know Paul knows an enormous amount about, which is our health care system. The rapid rate of increases in our health care system, and what we're going to do to constrain that rapid rate of increase, even if, even if President Obama's health care reform plan is as effective as its advocates claim. There's going to have to be a great deal done more. ZAKARIA: So, when I look at the Republicans, I think one of the areas that is distressing, as you point out, is that there's a sort of fundamental unseriousness, because ultimately it's impossible to make this work without increased tax revenues. RUBIN: Correct. ZAKARIA: But when I look at the Democrats, you know, the Simpson-Bowles Commission called for raising the retirement age on social security by one year in 2050, and this led the House Democrats to go crazy. If you look at Obama speech, there's not much in terms of -- there's nothing on social security, there's nothing fundamentally about Medicare. You'll still have Medicare, social security, Medicaid taking up a huge part of the federal budget. Neither side seems willing to make the painful choices from their perspectives. RUBIN: Well, I -- I think that we're going to have to address entitlement reform. As I recollect it, at least, on the Medicare area, Fareed, what -- what President Obama said was it should increase at the rate of GDP plus half a percent, which would be a substantial -- a very substantial improvement over where we've been. Now, how we're going to get there, the specifics of getting there are obviously going to be very complicated. And I -- I read -- I guess I read his speech on social security a little bit differently in the sense that he left it open to work with Congress. And he sort of set out a framework. I think the plan itself makes sense, and I think it's imperative that we do something in the neighborhood of Simpson-Bowles or President Obama. And I think it is going to come down to the point you just raised. We can do this substantively, although it's difficult. Do we have the political will? And that, I think, is really going to determine -- or may very well determine the future of our country. ZAKARIA: How do you rate the politics of this? Do you think Obama was too harsh on -- on Ryan's plan? O'NEILL: You know when, he was a -- a candidate back in July of 2008, I had an opportunity to attend a meeting with the -- with the presidential candidate and a -- and a number of other people, and I said something to him I believe even more strongly now. At the top of my 20 minutes or so of remarks, I said to him I believe presidential politics needs to be about truth telling and educating the people, not about pandering. And if there were -- if there was one basing idea that would help us to do what we need to do, it would be for the president to tell us the bitter truth. No politics, no worrying about the next election, but a truthful telling of where we are and the things we need to do in order to be in a place where we're a sustainable America. ZAKARIA: And did he do that? O'NEILL: No. You know? So here, let me -- Simpson-Bowles numbers, again, which are more favorable than his. In 2020, under the Simpson-Bowles plan, the national deficit would be $383 billion. Doesn't that strike anybody as unbelievable? And so it would be good if the president would say to people, this is where we really are. Forget about the politics, and then open up the fundamental questions. How should we, as a people, want to distribute the cost of paying for agreed public goods and services? And which public goods and services do we want? You know, I think it -- it's interesting to me how we've kind of gone off a track, and I -- I -- you know, this has long, deep roots and a long time track, but I think the decision to go to Iraq as a preemptive war was a monumentally important concept changer, so that when we decide to go to Libya, there's hardly a whimper that the United States is now going to get engaged in another war from -- from on high, to be sure, but I think that's the thing that's really concerning. Now, people saying what's happened to the fundamentals of our country? RUBIN: Paul, just on your point, if I may. O'NEILL: Sure, sure, sure. RUBIN: I think it's -- I totally agree with you. It is imperative we get on the right track fiscally. I think we're on a very -- and if we do, we have great strengths. I think we can succeed. And this is a question of political will. I don't think we can get there overnight. In 1993, when we put together a deficit reduction program which was really effective, and I think was -- was central to the -- what was the best -- the longest lasting economic expansion in the nation's history, we allowed many, many years to get from where we were to where we were -- where we're aiming. ZAKARIA: You've got the trend line right rather than trying to solve the problem. RUBIN: We got the trend line right. And I think the -- what we've got to do here, but the politics are going to be -- it will be very, very difficult, is act on all fronts, including increasing revenues. As you said, reforming entitlements but maintaining an effective social safety net. What we've got to do is get the deficit to the point where it's low enough so that our debt, our debt, as a relative -- as a percentage of our economy, begins to decline. Then I think we need to take the next step, which is to -- to do exactly what Paul said, which is to focus on our health care system. And -- but this would be many years out. And then, go from there and move towards balance. ZAKARIA: Robert Rubin, Paul O'Neill, we'll have you back in six months to see whether we've solved this problem. I suspect not. RUBIN: Six months, we go to the same (inaudible). ZAKARIA: We will be right back. (END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAKARIA: And now, for our "What in the World?" segment. What got my attention this week was an article written under the pseudonym Mr. Y. The article has a bold thesis, even more surprising given who the mysterious Mr. Y turns out to be. It argues that the United States has embraced an entirely wrong set of priorities, particularly with regard to its federal budget. We have overreacted to terrorism, to Islamic extremism. We have pursued military solutions instead of political ones. Y says we are under investing in the real sources of national power -- our youth, our infrastructure, our economy. The United States sees the world through the lens of threats, while failing to understand that influence, competitiveness and innovation are the key to advancing American interests in the modern world. So, Y says, above all we must invest in our children, that only by educating them properly will we ensure our ability to compete in the future. That we need to move from an emphasis on power and control to an emphasis on strength and influence. Y goes on to say that we shouldn't even talk about national security as we have for the past 60 years, we should be talking about national prosperity and security. Now, I think this is very smart stuff for the new world we're entering in, but it's important and influential in particular, given the source. This article arguing we need to rely less on our military comes from the highest echelons of the Pentagon. Mr. Y is actually two people, both top-ranking members of Admiral Mike Mullen's team, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They are Captain Wayne Porter of the U.S. Navy and Colonel Mark Mykleby of the Marine Corps. It's likely that the essay had some official sanction, which means that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or perhaps even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had seen it and did not stop its publication. So why did the authors call themselves Mr. Y? It's a play on a seminal essay from "Foreign Affairs" magazine more than five decades ago. The title was "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," and it was signed simply X. The author turned out to be the American diplomat George Kennan, and the article turned out to have perhaps the greatest influence on American foreign policy in the second half of the 20th century. It set out the policy of containment, that if we contain the Soviet Union, countering its influence, eventually the internal contradictions of the Soviet system would trigger its collapse, and it worked. But Porter and Mykleby say the basic approach, a massive military to deter the Soviets, a quasi-imperial policy to counter Soviet influence all over the world, is still in place and is outmoded and outdated. They call their policy proposal sustainment, and they hope it just might be the policy that will carry us forward for the next 50 years. Mr. Y is hoping to be the next X, to set the new tone of Washington strategy. Will that happen? Well, the term "sustainment" is silly, but the ideas behind it are not. Washington needs to make sure that the United States does not fall into the imperial trap of every other superpower in history, spending greater and greater time and money and energy stabilizing disorderly parts of the world on the periphery, while at the core its own industrial and economic might is waning. We have to recognize that fixing America's fiscal problems, paring back the budget busters like entitlements and also defense spending, making the economy competitive, dealing with immigration, outlining a serious plan for energy use, all these are the best strategies to stay a superpower, not going around killing a few tribal leaders in the remote valleys and hills of Afghanistan. You can read Mr. Y's essay on our website, CNN.com/GPS. Read it, debate it and write to your congressman if you agree with it. And we'll be right back. (END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID BROOKS, COLUMNIST, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": The things that really account for who succeeds and who does not happen below the level of awareness, so it's things like who can relate to who. Who can look at a situation that's complicated and pick out a gist. Who can combine two gists. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: My next guest is David Brooks, the "New York Times" columnist. Now, if you've come expecting political punditry, this is even better. Brooks has a new book "The Social Animal" that explores a fascinating topic, what makes someone successful -- at work, as a husband, as a parent, in life. He draws an amazing range of scholarship. Do you have what it takes? You'll want to hear what he has to say. Welcome. BROOKS: Great to be with you, Fareed. ZAKARIA: Why do people succeed? We think of success and we think about it as doing well on tests, being very smart, being analytic. You say that there is a deeper meaning to success. BROOKS: Right. So we've got sort of a bias in our culture which encourages us to raise our kid to get into the right schools, to get good SAT scores, to get the good grades, to get some professional skills and that's all perfectly fine. But the things that really account for who succeeds and who does not happen below the level of awareness. So it's things like who can relate to who, who can look at a situation that's complicated and pick out a gist. Who can combine two gists. So, for example, a little child can say I'm a tiger and that seems so simple to us. But -- and no computer could do that, because to take a complicated thing I and a complicated thing tiger and merge them together is phenomenally difficult, but that's actually what creativity and innovation is, merging two things to create a third thing. So there are all these processes that are going on deep inside our minds that really account for what -- who achieves and who doesn't. And if you want to go to a kindergarten class and figuring out who's going to do well in life, you can give them an IQ test and that will tell you something. But ask the kids who is friends with who in this classroom and some kids just are aware of social networks. They're aware of human relationships. Those kids are going to do pretty well. ZAKARIA: If you look at the CEOs of, you know, America's biggest companies, some of the best entrepreneurs, most of them haven't gone through this -- this sort of Harvard, Yale, Princeton - BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: -- they haven't jumped every hoop. They often come from smaller colleges. I've always assumed that part of that is that the people who really make it to the top have this incredible drive - BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: -- and that, you know, part of it is actually having been on the periphery and being on the margins. It is also that you think they are better social animals? BROOKS: Yes. Well, I think that's part of it. Partly they take risks. The average self -- the self-made millionaire in this country had an average collegiate GPA of 2.7, a C plus. The A students can get into law school or something and they have secure roots to decent affluence, but the ones who really take risks are the ones who are sort of down below and they're more risk takers and they don't fit into the cookie cutter model of education. But they have commonly several traits. And there's no one formula for success. But they tend not to be too charismatic often, but they tend to be -- and they have done studies on this. The charismatic types, you get occasion, Jack Welch, somebody like that. But -- but most tend to be ordered, disciplined execution. They tend to do the same thing over and over again in a very reliable, predictable way. And so they're really into detail, execution and order. Those are the sorts of personality that more often than not lead to business success. Not flashiness, but just doing the thing and having a compulsive need to get it right. And then an awareness of how to work in groups, groups are smarter than individuals. Groups that meet face to face are a lot smarter than groups that communicate electronically. And so some people have a compulsive need to soak up information from people around them. I was with Michael Milken recently. And he's one of those guys who just soaks you in. He just wants to learn everything he -- he can from every single person he meets and that actually is a pretty valuable trait. ZAKARIA: But are you saying that the conventional method, the way we try to figure out how people are going to succeed, the way we prepare them for success, is in some sense wrong then? BROOKS: Yes. I think we have human nature wrong. You know, I think we have a tendency to value the things that we can count and measure and we sort of underplay the things that are emotional. We're really good talking about material things and economic incentives, bad at talking about character, bad at talking about emotions. And so there's this vast bias in our culture. And I got into the subject because I covered, say, the decline of the Soviet Union and we sent in all these economists. But what's really lacking in Russia was the lack of social trust. We were not (INAUDIBLE) about that. In Iraq, the U.S. sent in military, but we were oblivious to the social and psychological complications of the place. And so time after time again, in how we raise our kids are in vast policy areas, we emphasize the things we can count and measure. We underemphasize character, morality and emotions. ZAKARIA: But you talk about this morality almost as if -- as if it's a science. So if you -- if you look below the surface, you say there is all this new research coming out of social science, psychology, the neuroscience as well that tells you that human beings are spending a lot of time trying to figure out this world. BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: And the crucial part is what? Is the crucial part relating to one another? BROOKS: Well, say in the case of morality, we have a folk wisdom that we think through principles and come up with right or wrong, but that's not actually how morality works. Morality is more like taste. You instantaneously know whether something is fair. Nobody needs to tell a 2-year-old what's fair or not. And so when someone is not listening to us, so when someone is disrespecting us, it's not a rational thing we think this is wrong, it's a visceral and emotional reaction. And so, you know, even in Egypt and the tides we've seen across the Middle East, people feel emotionally insulted. And when they rise up, they feel emotional pride. And the emphasis is that these are deep emotional responses and our emotions are not stupid. We think from Freud that the unconscious is this tangled zone of sexual urges. It's not. It's trying to help us figuring out the world. It's just doing it in a different way than our conscious processes, and in some way it's a much smarter way. If you have trouble making up your mind about a subject, flip a coin, tell yourself you're going to, OK, I'll settle it by a coin flip. But then don't come up -- don't decide on the basis of what the coin says, go on the basis of your emotional reaction to the coin flip. Are you happy or sad it came up that way and that's your inner mind telling you what it really wants, but it hadn't told you until that point. ZAKARIA: And I never thought about this, but I have a story that completely proves your point. I was applying to colleges from India when I was 18 years old. Eight thousand miles away, I have no idea what the differences between these colleges were. And I was choosing between two roughly similar colleges. BROOKS: Yes. ZAKARIA: And I did a coin toss. It came up for college B. BROOKS: Really? ZAKARIA: I did it. I decided let's make it a best of three. It came out for college A - BROOKS: Yes. ZAKARIA: -- which is where I wanted to go in the first place. BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: I have no idea why, but there was just some gut instinct. BROOKS: Yes. A lot of what goes on, we don't know. It's one of those sources of wisdom is actually knowing what's going on in yourself or knowing how to correct for the failures of yourself. Because we have a tendency -- sometimes the unconscious is very smart, sometimes some problems. So one of the problems it tends to have is overconfidence. So 96 percent of college professors think they're above average teachers. And 94 percent of college students think they have above average leadership skills. We tend to overvalue ourselves, so -- and this is particularly a male trait. Men drown at twice the rate of women because men think they can swim across that lake and women know they can't. And so -- but building boot straps for yourself to prevent yourself from acting on that overconfidence is tremendously important. ZAKARIA: Take us through what would be the David Brooks' path to success. BROOKS: Yes. Well, some of these are traits that we don't think about. So, for example, my newspaper ran a great story a couple of years ago about soldiers in Iraq, and they could look down a street and they could tell whether that street had IEDs, mines on the street. And they couldn't tell you exactly how they knew, they just got a coldness inside. And so some people have this ability to describe -- to just perceive and feel. ZAKARIA: Is this a sort of pattern recognition? BROOKS: It's pattern recognition. And they know when something is slightly wrong. ZAKARIA: But, now, am I thinking of this the wrong way if I say can you train for pattern recognition? BROOKS: Yes, by experience. And so what you do is if you learn to see closely by experience, and then not only see, you have to see, but then you have to consciously focus on what you're seeing, maybe write it down afterwards and then let it stew and then re-remind yourself and see closely and then go through this process where you're consciously writing down, unconsciously processing back and forth like a valley. And then you'll begin to see the world in a much more subtle way, because you're seeing the grand patterns. And that just takes hard work, repetition and rigor. ZAKARIA: When we come back, we are going to soak in some more from David Brooks. I'm going to ask him how all this relates to politics, international affairs, cultures, when we come back. (END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: You have a famously complex relationship with President Obama. You admire him at some level, but in - BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: -- many ways you're right off center and disagree with him politically. BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: Is he a social animal? BROOKS: Yes. He's multiple animals. (END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Time for a check of today's top stories. An Israeli man was killed and four worshipers were wounded early Sunday morning near Joseph's tomb, a Jewish holy site in the West Bank. An Israeli spokesman says a Palestinian policeman open fire on the group. By failing to coordinate their visit with Israeli or Palestinian officials, the men did not follow protocol. Flights at the St. Louis Airport have resumed this morning and are running on schedule according to an airport spokesman. Friday's tornadoes knocked out power, shattered windows, sent passengers scrambling for cover. No deaths or life-threatening injuries were reported and crews are working to clean up the damage. In his Easter Sunday message, Pope Benedict urged an end to fighting in Libya, calling for diplomacy and peace across the region. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter's Square to mark the Easter celebration. Those are your top stories. Up next, much more FAREED ZAKARIA GPS and then "RELIABLE SOURCES" at the top of the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: And we are back with David Brooks talking about human nature and a few other small things. So when -- when you look at the kind of thing you're talking about, that human nature is more complex, it's softer, don't stress as much achievement as stress interrelationship, it all sounds very soft. And I'm thinking to myself that some -- you know, the Chinese and the Indians are sitting there, whipping their kids into shape, making them succeed. BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: And that at the end of the day, they will win the race because we'll be sitting here contemplating the good life - BROOKS: Yes. ZAKARIA: -- and they'll be sitting there out competing us. BROOKS: Yes. Well, first of all, I would say in the case of the Chinese, this has been subject -- subject of much study. They're not only whipping their kids into shape, they have different cultural attitudes. And one of the differences between Chinese and American culture is in how we see the world. And so, if you take the average American, these are averages across many wide diverse groups, and you look at the way they look at the Mona Lisa, the American will look into the eyes of the painting and the mouth of the character. The Chinese eyes will move all over. And as a famous experiment, which is a bit of a cultural stereotype but with some basis, which is the fish tank, you probably know. ZAKARIA: You probably tell (ph). BROOKS: So if you look -- if you ask a Chinese or an Asian person to look in a fish tank, they'll describe the context of the fish, how they interrelate. If you ask an American, they'll just describe the biggest fish in there. And so we tend to think -- see in individual terms. ZAKARIA: And so, how is it that American culture with all its, you know, reckless individualism has dominated the world - BROOKS: Right, right. ZAKARIA: -- for the last 300 years and China with all its contextual has been one of the poorest countries? BROOKS: Well, as I say, there's no one formula. But I would say it's first individualism does encourage the sense I can rise ferocious -- a sense -- if you tell people these two things, the future can be better than the present and I have control over my future, those are two powerful ideas that not all cultures are born with and those are powerful ideas that motivate people to change. ZAKARIA: But ultimately, you're talking about living a good life. Can't you see some -- you know, some -- again, Chinese tiger mom saying, yes, but I want them to score 102 on a 100. I want them to, you know, to make $5 million a year. Your book is more about - BROOKS: Yes. ZAKARIA: -- living a good life rather than kind of high-powered (INAUDIBLE). BROOKS: Now, this is where I -- hey, I think it's always a mistake to divide the hard and the soft and to think if you work on the hard you'll get good, if you work on the soft you'll just lead a happy, satisfied life. My argument is the soft leads to the hard. So if you want to really do well in business, say, make a lot of money, you really have to understand people and it's through the emotions you do that. The emotions are contributed to the building up of human capital and are not divorced from it. And we have an attitude where we think if we test, if we force homework, we're going to produce these high achievers. I would say that's part of it, you've got to do that stuff. But you also have people who have wisdom who can read the patterns of the world. ZAKARIA: When you look at certain politicians in Washington, how do you -- how do you map this -- this research, these ideas you have? You have a famously complex relationship with President Obama. BROOKS: Yes. ZAKARIA: You admire him at some level - BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: -- but in many ways you're right off center and disagree with him - BROOKS: Right. ZAKARIA: -- politically. Is he a social animal? BROOKS: Yes. He's multiple animals. You know, I would say we're all -- we all have multiple personalities. My psychobabble description of him is he's a very complicated person who has many different selves, all of them authentic, but they come out in different contexts. And he is -- has always has the ability to look at other parts of himself from a distance, and so it means he has great power to self correct and I think it gives him power to see himself. It means that he rarely is all in. You know, President Bush didn't have as much -- many multiple selves, so when he made a decision he was all in, he was just going to be there. But as I think President Obama is much more cautious, because he's a man of many pieces and many parts and not all of which I understand or I think anybody understands. But it may -- it leads to that caution that we see time and time again and almost a self distancing I see. In general, though, the politicians I cover are tremendously attuned social animals on the campaign trail. The problem is that when they go into government, they start talking in the language of CBO reports and they become very dehumanized when they're doing government, where they sort of take away in many ways the strength that they have. ZAKARIA: David Brooks, pleasure to have you on. BROOKS: Oh, great. Thank you. ZAKARIA: And we will be back. (END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAKARIA: Our question this week from the "GPS Challenge" is what did Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin say would rise by 25 percent in four years? Is it, A) World sea levels; B) Russia's GDP; C) Putin's personal wealth; or, D) Russia's birth rate? Stay tuned. We'll tell you the correct answer. Make sure you go to CNN.com/GPS for 10 more questions. While you're there, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast if you haven't already. That way you'll never miss a show and it's free. This week's book is "The Best Advice I Ever Got." It's Katie Couric's new book that features life lessons from everyone to Mike Bloomberg, to Donald Trump. Yes, I wonder what that one is. From Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton, from Melinda Gates to Martha Stewart and there is a chapter by yours truly. The best part is the proceeds from this book help send worthy kids to college. Now, for "The Last Look." You've heard of renting a palace, renting a mega yacht, even renting an island. How about renting a country? For $70,000 a night with a two-night minimum and a very strict cancellation policy, you can rent Liechtenstein. Yes, the entire country, for a conference, a party, whatever you drum up for you and your 900 closest friends. Now, if you're forgetting your high school geography, Liechtenstein is a tiny Alpine country, population 35,000, tucked between Austria and Switzerland. So what to do with your own nation? Well, how about starting with a wine tasting at the prince's estate while watching your own fireworks show. You want to make this a very personal experience? You can rename the city streets and town squares as you wish and even print your own temporary currency with your face on it. Now, if you do decide Liechtenstein is the perfect place for your party, please don't cause too much of a ruckus. The nation has only a handful of police officers and no military. This week's "GPS Challenge" question was what did Putin promise would go up by 25 percent in four years? The answer was D, the nation's birth rate. Russia is trying to reverse its terrible demographics. Thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. I will see you next week when the show will be 100 percent royal wedding-free. Stay tuned for "RELIABLE SOURCES".


text:
Thursday, 21 April 2016
Dainty jewellery perfection with jewellerybox.co.uk*
70 comments
love the ring! SO cute :)ReplyDelete
i got a few bits and bobs from them too, too cute :D
Pam xo/ Pam Scalfi♥Replies
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Totally agree Ellie! XxDelete
- Anonymous22 April 2016 at 02:58
very pretty pieces!ReplyDelete
xo, claudia
These pieces are so beautiful! I love the simplicity and charm of each one!ReplyDelete
xx Dany
I love them too! XxDelete
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Kathy x
Me too! I think they make your wrists look skinnier too haha! XxDelete
Those pieces are gorgeous!!ReplyDelete
Miss Olivia Says
Everything is so dainty and beautiful. That ring is so simple yet pretty!ReplyDelete
Charlotte // www.charlottespicks.comReplies
Isn't it! Such simple but gorgeous pieces! XxDelete
These are beautiful! I love layering jewellery just now and these are stunning for that. In all honesty most of my jewellery comes from primark lol, should maybe invest in some pieces like this, and they are so well priced too!ReplyDelete
They are so affordable! I can't get over the quality for the price! XxDelete
This is right up my street, dainty necklaces and cute packaging? Count me in haha!ReplyDelete
The packaging is everything haha! XxDelete
They are all so pretty! I love small cute things like this! I love the arrows, so nice!ReplyDelete
Fix Me In Forty Five - A Beauty & Lifestyle Blog
Blog Lovin' // Instagram
Aren't they! I love the arrow too, I think it's my favourite! XxDelete
I love JewelleryBox. Their pieces are so dainty and beautiful! I got a couple bits from them at an event once and I'd definitely like to get more in future. xReplyDelete
Renata | Speaking Beauty UKReplies
They have such a great range! XxDelete
The necklace is so beautiful!!! I can't resist dainty jewellery xxxReplyDelete
Sal | UmmBaby Beauty
Such cute little pieces of jewellery - so dainty! XxReplyDelete
♡ itsjessiejane ♡
These pieces look so incredibly pretty! I love finer jewellery which looks simple and elegant and this is totally it :)ReplyDelete
- Ambar | Her Little LovesReplies
Me too! I'm not a fan of chunky jewellery on myself at all so these are perfect for me! XxDelete
All of these pieces look stunning!ReplyDelete
This online site is very popular with UK bloggers and with good reasons too. The designs are really pretty!ReplyDelete
Shireen | Reflection of SanityReplies
Really pretty! And so well presented! XxDelete
I LOVE dainty jewelry...all of these pieces are fabulous!ReplyDelete
xo, Lily
Beauty With LilyReplies
Glad you like them! XxDelete
I love those dainty pieces, especially the bracelets, so pretty! xReplyDelete
Mummy's Beauty Corner
dainty jewelry is the best! my fave is the tree branch one~ReplyDelete
Passion Blog | BCfactor.blogspot.com
Omg! So cute jewelry *.*ReplyDelete
I'm glad you like it! XxDelete
I love that arrow bracelet and the ring! Would definitely purchase it myself! Thank you for sharing :*ReplyDelete
Thanks for reading! XxDelete
These are adorable! I'm surprised how affordable they are for being sterling silver- love it!ReplyDelete
Macarons and MischiefReplies
I know right? Such good quality! XxDelete
These are so cute, I love really little subtle jewellery!ReplyDelete
Lauren Ashleigh xx
These are so cute :-) I really need to check these out!ReplyDelete
These are all so lovely!!ReplyDelete
Georgia | The Weekend Attic - Personal Style, Beauty and LifestyleReplies
Thanks Georgia! XxDelete
I love them all. Especially the necklace! They are so cheap.. I'll definitely be checking them out :) xxReplyDelete
LPage BeautyReplies
I know! And the quality is amazing! XxDelete
Beautiful, totally love them all.Simple but very chic. :)ReplyDelete
Totally agree :) xxDelete
yeah that is indeed cute packaging. the jewelries are pretty!ReplyDelete
xo, Carla
Loving the ring xReplyDelete
The packaging is so cute, isn't it?ReplyDelete
I have that little arrow, but on a necklace. It's so charming :))
Lu | www.balgarka.co.ukReplies
Such a lovely design! XxDelete
I love their packaging more than anything! I love the little tree branch bracelet, it's so cute! xReplyDelete
Tamz | http://www.throughneweyesx.comReplies
Their packaging is unbelievable! XxDelete
The sterling silver necklace is my favourite, it's so elegant! I buy my jewellery from all sorts of places really, it was mainly New Look before but now it's pretty much all the high street stores :)ReplyDelete
Velvet BlushReplies
The high street has such a good collection! I can't wait to see what else Jewellery Box come up with! XxDelete
These dainty pieces are gorgeous!ReplyDelete
Jodie @ Jodetopia xReplies
I think so too! XxDelete
You were sent such cute pieces! xReplyDelete
Louise | helloteddy.co.ukReplies
I was so lucky! I love them! XxDelete
So beautiful pieces!ReplyDelete
Obsessed Fashion Blog

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Blizzard has released a new teaser showing off some of the skins, mounts, and abilities that will be included in the Eternal Conflict content update to Heroes of the Storm.
The video isn't a comprehensive breakdown of what's coming—Blizzard calls it "a sneak peek at a ton of new content" that's coming to the game—but it does provide a look at The Butcher and King Leoric in various guises, along with the Archangel Diablo and Novazon Nova skins and abilities, Tyrael's Charger Mount, and The Butcher's Battle Beast. I honestly had no idea The Butcher had his own custom ride.
We (which is to say, Sean "Day9" Plott) took a closer look at what's coming in the Eternal Conflict update during his conversation with Blizzard's Chris Sigaty and Dustin Browder during the PC Gaming Show at E3. Catch it here.


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For more than 75 years, the Union for Reform Judaism has provided young people with immersive Jewish experiences that transform and enrich lives. Based in Reform Jewish values, these programs provide nurturing, educational, and fun experiences that promote community, enhance spiritual growth, cultivate Jewish identity, and foster lifelong friendships.
See the URJ's commitment to health and safety – URJ Youth Policies and Procedures.
Bernard and Audre Rapoport L'Taken Social Justice Seminars
The RAC's Social Justice Seminars give thousands of Jewish teens the opportunity to impact our political process by speaking with policy makers on Capitol Hill. These weekend-long seminars are designed to expose participants to a variety of public policy issues and to explore the Jewish values that inform the Reform Movement's advocacy.
RAC Teen Justice Fellowship
RAC teen fellowship programs are learning intensives in community organizing, designed to equip youth leaders with the skills to create change in their home communities. Through our fellowships, high schoolers connect with other social justice leaders from across the country and learn lifelong skills applicable to any issue they are passionate about.
URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy, MA
At 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy, located just outside of Boston's science and technology corridor on the campus of the beautiful Governor's Academy boarding school, scientific inquiry meets fun! Campers spend two weeks exploring robotics, video game design, environmental science, digital media, and a host of other fun activities in a friendly setting with campers who share similar interests.
URJ 6 Points Sports Academy, NC
URJ 6 Points Sports Academy provides a unique camping experience that combines professional sports coaching and the beloved traditions of Reform Jewish camping. Campers feed their passion for sport while strengthening their identity as Jewish athletes, building self-confidence and strong connections to their peers and their Judaism.
URJ Heller High
URJ Heller High is the Union for Reform Judaism's accredited semester-long program for Reform Jewish high school students in grades 10 to 12, offering an unparalleled opportunity to be immersed in the richness of the land, culture, people, and history of Israel, all while earning high school and college credit.
Yallah! Israel
Yallah! Israel is the Union for Reform Judaism's network of Israel travel programs for teens. High school students hike, climb, discover, and explore with new friends from across the continent, returning home with endless personal accomplishments, meaningful memories, and a lifelong connection to Israel.


text:
Joshua Meador (1911-1965) had two careers: he is best known for his special animation effects work at The Walt Disney Studios for nearly 30 years and, away from Disney, he established himself as a major California landscape painter.
In the midst of the Great Depression, Josh graduated cum laude from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1935. One of his fellow students at the Art Institute was Disney Legend, Herb Ryman. On the dare of a friend, Josh submitted his portfolio to "that animator in California." He and his young wife Libby packed up and headed west. When Josh arrived at The Walt Disney Studios in 1936, Walt liked what he saw in Josh and hired him on the spot. His first key (though uncredited) assignment was as an animator on The Old Mill, after which he moved on to Walt's greatest challenge to date, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Josh proved to be an imaginative filmmaker, helping raise animation from cartoons to high art. Josh contributed to Pinocchio (1940), and in the 1958 "Disneyland" television episode "Tricks of Our Trade," he recreated his role as animation supervisor for the "Rite of Spring" segment of Fantasia (1940), developing the technique of using bubbling mud to simulate the lava. He animated on most Disney features and numerous shorts of the 1940s and 1950s, including Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), Saludos Amigos (1943), and created animation effects for Song of the South (1946).
Josh's son Philip explained his father's two careers, saying, "In the early days at the Studios, Josh gave it all his energies, but when there was a long weekend or a hiatus, Josh, Libby and I would load the wood-paneled station wagon and teardrop trailer, and off we would go to the Northern California Coast or the Eastern Sierra or the Desert Southwest. Once there, Josh would paint all the time while Libby and I busied ourselves on long walks and such."
As Josh was coming up to his twentieth anniversary with The Walt Disney Studios, he wanted to dedicate more of his energies to his fine art painting. Walt prized Josh's services, and did not want to lose him. In 1955, Walt called Josh into his office and negotiated a compromise. Josh would be free to paint full-time, but when Walt needed him, Josh would remain under contract on an "on-call' basis. Both men grew to like the arrangement. Under it, Josh did some of his most memorable work.
Throughout the 1950s, Josh worked on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and Son of Flubber (1963) with Fred MacMurray, who collected a number of Meador's paintings. Josh did the animation effects for Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), and was one of the sequence directors for Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959). He also worked on "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" and assisted with plans for Disneyland. At one point in the mid-1950s, Walt loaned Josh's animation services to MGM for whom Josh created the famous "Monster of the Id" for that studio's 1950's legendary sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet (1956).
In 1958, Josh was one of the four artists featured in the "Disneyland" television episode, "An Adventure in Art." Walt himself introduced them: "Here at the studio we have many artists who achieved national reputation as painters in addition to their accomplishments in the field of animation." The show featured Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle, Walt Peregoy, and Joshua Meador discussing their individual contributions to the animation of Sleeping Beauty, and then explaining their thought process as they demonstrate their personal approach to painting the same tree, which Walt described as "a fine old live oak."
With Josh's "on-call" contract in effect, Josh and Libby moved to Carmel Highlands in 1955 and later near Mendocino in 1960. His paintings were featured in major galleries in Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He participated in juried art shows and had many one-man exhibitions. He received favorable reviews by art critics, including Arthur Millier of the Los Angeles Times and Alfred Frankenstein of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1958, he was guest speaker for the prestigious California Art Club, and often gave art talks and painting demonstrations.
Recently, my wife Linda and I traveled to Disneyland to meet with Joe Cosgrove, Meador's good friend from the early 1960s. Today, Joe is in his 80s, an active member of Disneyland's Club 33 and a true enthusiast. Joe met us at the park's gate and ushered us onto Walt's private railroad car, the "Lilly Belle." As we rolled around the park, Joe told us story after story of Josh's career.
New to us was Joe's story of Josh's uncredited participation in Mary Poppins. With great energy, Joe related, "Walt called Josh to the studio to assist with the Dick Van Dyke dance scene with the penguin waiters." He explained, "Walt needed to have live actors interacting with animated figures. Josh told me that the studio put up a blank screen, what they call a 'sync screen" and an empty stage with marks. Josh had to be there for the shoot, making certain Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews hit their marks, because the animation was already in the can."
Joe said that Josh's official credits at the Studio are legendary, but lamented that Josh did many things which remain uncredited. He added, "Josh didn't mind; he was part of a creative team. He loved working with them." He then added, "When Walt needed him, Josh was there." Walt appreciated Meador's personal art, and purchased paintings to hang in his homes. One of these paintings is currently being exhibited in the lobby of The Walt Disney Family Museum. Josh Meador worked for Walt from 1936 until his passing in 1965.
Daniel Rohlfing, Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery
Dan Rohlfing and Linda Sorensen own Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery, a locale frequented by Joshua Meador during the early 1950s.


text:
Statue was part of Colorado's story Meet my great-grandfather, John Dare Howland, designer of the Civil War statue that stood near Colorado's Capitol. "Jack" Howland, was born in Zanesville, …
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Meet my great-grandfather, John Dare Howland, designer of the Civil War statue that stood near Colorado's Capitol.
"Jack" Howland, was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1843, son of an Ohio riverboat captain, descendant of ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower. Tiring of the river, he left home at age 14, with 87 cents in his pocket. He worked his way west on riverboats to Fort Laramie, where he began living with the Sioux Indians, adopting their way of life.
His childhood love of drawing and painting allowed him to capture animals and hunting scenes, as well as the faces of American Indians, sketched from memory as they would never pose for a portrait.
At age 18, having failed at gold mining, Jack enlisted in Company B, 1st Regiment Calvary of Colorado Volunteers, serving in the Civil War. Discharged in 1864, he went to Washington, D.C., to continue his artistic career, and on to Paris, returning to be part of the Indian Peace Commission.
"Captain Jack" Howland became a respected artist in Denver, known for his many services to Colorado and for designing "On Guard," the Civil War statue. He was described as "honorable, fearless yet considerate, one of the oldest pioneers, a scout over the plains before Colorado was known, a grand Army man, a good citizen, a celebrated artist, a family man, respected by all and loved by many."
Now part of his story, part of Colorado's story, is gone — and I am sad.
Linda R. Hindley
Editor's note: The statue was pulled down June 25.
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QQI Level 5 Certificate in Business Administration – 5M2468.
You're ready to work in general clerical and office administration with a business administration award from Mallow Campus. Achieve excellent general employment and office skills, a proficiency in the complete range of Microsoft Office applications, and specialise in frontline reception skills, business, bookkeeping and payroll.
Whether you are just moving on from school or are returning to work as a mature student you're getting instantly employable essential office administration skills.
With a business administration award you can also continue on your progression route to study commerce and other qualifications at CIT and UCC. At Mallow Campus we've put together a unique choice of courses including the opportunity to recover a problem Leaving Certificate maths grade with an optional Level 5 maths within your timetable.
You're going to be ready and confident for that job interview.
|QQI Level 5 Certificate in Business Administration – 5M2468.
|Full-time. September 2023 to May 2024.
|Onsite at Mallow Campus.
|Hours between Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 15:30.
|No CAO required (Leaving Cert./LCA/equivalent for under 23s). Application review discussion.
|Classes start the week of Monday the 11th of September 2023.
|€300 (SUSI/BTEA €300, Medical Card €250, VTOS €0).
|Applications open. Places available. No deposit required to start your application.
Career Prospects
- Administration in banking, insurance, medical, solicitors and travel industries. +
- Clerical work in health services and local authorities. +
- General secretarial and office administration in local offices. +
- Receptionist. +
Course Contents
- Text Production (5N1422) Level 5 QQI.
- Produce a range of documents to a mailable standard, within a minimum speed of 35 words per minute.
- Word Processing (5N1358) Level 5 QQI.
- Use a word processing application to produce documents in a variety of contexts to a mailable and publishable standard whilst working autonomously and under general direction.
- Database Methods (5N0783) Level 5 QQI.
- Create and modify databases under limited supervision.
- Spreadsheet Methods (5N1977) Level 5 QQI.
- Knowledge, skill and competence to create and modify spreadsheets. The subject gives students an in-depth knowledge of the Microsoft Excel application and its structure. It provides students with an excellent working knowledge of a number of features, such as graphs, macros, sorting and filtering data as well as in-built financial, statistical and mathematical functions.
- Digital Presentations (5N0563) Level 5 QQI.
- Business Administration Skills (5N1610) Level 5 QQI.
- The administration requirements of a range of organisations to enable the learner to operate effectively under supervision in a variety of administration contexts.
- Bookkeeping – Manual and Computerised (5N1354) Level 5 QQI.
- Produce and maintain accurate bookkeeping records for a range of organisations, using manual and computerised systems.
- Payroll – Manual and Computerised (5N1546) Level 5 QQI.
- Operate and maintain accurate payroll records using manual and computerised systems, for an organisation, working under general direction and supervision.
- Reception and Frontline Office Skills (5N1407) Level 5 QQI.
- Carry out reception related tasks and operations as a front line representative in a range of organisations.
- Communications (5N0690) Level 5 QQI.
- Communicate verbally and non-verbally in standard everyday tasks and in work-related tasks, operating independently while under general direction.
- Work Experience (5N1356) Level 5 QQI.
- Participate in the workplace for a limited time, carrying out work-related tasks independently while under general direction. Prepare yourself for industry, prepare your CV (and online LinkedIn profile), practice interview skills, and gain invaluable experience on your own work placement.
- Optional: Mathematics (5N1833) Level 5 QQI.
- Apply a broad range of mathematical skills and tools to a wide variety of contexts, with some theoretical understanding.
Courses are continually developed – content and specific award components are subject to change. See disclaimer.
One year. Full-time. Class timetables to follow in September, and subject to change. See calendar for term holidays.
50 full-time day students will travel, fully-funded, with Erasmus+ to another European country for 2 weeks. Find out more and apply.
Entry Requirements
- CAO points not required.
- All applicants will be required to attend an application review discussion. An offer of a place on this course is contingent on the applicant meeting the minimum entry requirements set out here, and satisfactory presentation at interview.
- Leaving Certificate or equivalent. For mature applicants appropriate experience will be considered in lieu of formal qualifications.
- QQI Certificate in Business Administration, Level 5 – 5M2468.
- QQI Minor Award in Mathematics, Level 5 – 5N1833 (optional, offered for learners who may not meet progression requirements to higher education).
Work Experience
Work experience is an integral part of this course. The dates and duration will be specified by the College in September.
Advance to QQI level 6 at Mallow Campus. Use your full QQI award to progress to degrees in Business Administration, Business, Business Information Systems, Information Systems Management, Tourism & Marketing. For more links and detailed information on how to use your Mallow College qualification go to mallowcampus.ie/progressions.
A full QQI award achieves a maximum of 390 points for CAO.
- Full Fees (EU/EEA Citizens): €300
- €50 Deposit + €50 QQI Fees + €200 Registration per year.
- Medical Card Holders: €250
- €50 Deposit + €200 Registration per year.
- Student Grant Recipients (SUSI): €300
- €50 Deposit + €50 QQI Fees + €200 Registration per year.
- Additional means-tested student grants are available from SUSI.ie.
- Back to Education Allowance (BTEA): €300
- €50 Deposit + €50 QQI Fees + €200 Registration per year.
- Retain Social Welfare benefits.
- Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS): €0
- €50 Deposit (refundable) per year.
- Retain Social Welfare benefits. Additional weekly allowances for meals, travel and childcare are also available.
Contact Us
Email us at email@example.com.


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Roasted Chicken with Rosemary
1/2 cup butter, cubed
4 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary or 2 tablespoons dried rosemary, crushed
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 whole roasting chicken (5 to 6 pounds)
6 small red potatoes, halved
6 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 medium onions, quartered
In a small saucepan, melt butter; stir in the seasonings. Place chicken breast side up on a rack in a shallow roasting pan; tie drumsticks together with kitchen string. Spoon half of the butter mixture over chicken. Place the potatoes, carrots and onions around chicken. Drizzle remaining butter mixture over vegetables.
Cover and bake at 350° for 1-1/2 hours, basting every 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 30-60 minutes longer or until a thermometer inserted in thickest part of thigh reads 170°-175°, basting occasionally. Cover with foil and let stand 10-15 minutes before carving. Serve with vegetables. Makes 8 servings.


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Impacted by the Coronavirus Pandemic? We're here to help.
In light of the significant impact and ongoing uncertainty around the Coronavirus pandemic, please know that your well-being and financial needs are our top priorities. With that in mind, in regard to your student loan account we have taken steps to ensure that you have access to the services and personalized support that you may need.
Personalized Support
If you have additional questions regarding your student loan account, or are experiencing difficulties at this time and need to discuss repayment options to keep your account in good standing, please call 800-723-2210 to speak with a servicing agent.
Anytime Access
University Accounting Service (UAS) is the loan servicer for your account and provides 24/7 access to view your student loan information and make payments at www.uasecho.com. (Payments by mail should be sent to University Accounting Service, PO Box 5865, Carol Stream, IL 60197-5865.)
With college costs on the rise, it's more important than ever for students and families to plan carefully and fully understand all financial aid options. By maximizing no- and low-cost financial aid, choosing student loans carefully, and developing proper money management skills, it's still possible for students to leave college with a bright financial future . . . and not just a mountain of debt.
With low rates and fewer fees, you could save hundreds of dollars a year by choosing MSDFCU's loan over other "alternative lenders."
Our Student Choice private loan solution was designed to fill the funding gaps that may exist after all lower-cost sources of aid (including scholarships, grants, and federal Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans) have been exhausted.
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Going to graduate school is an exciting step in your education, so choose a loan solution that helps you focus on what's really important - your classes!
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Take control of your student loans. You'll be able to refinance and consolidate your private and federal student loans into one manageable loan, setting up one convenient payment, and potentially lowering your rate. Featuring a competitive interest rate and zero origination fees, our refinance loan can help you simplify your life while amplifying your funds.
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We're not just here to provide a student loan. We want to be your financial partner for life. Merck Sharp & Dohme Federal Credit Union is proud to offer modern financial education tools and resources so you can make an informed decision about your college financing options.
* Subject to credit qualification and additional criteria, including graduating from an approved school. Loans subject to approval. Rates, terms and conditions subject to change without notice.
MPORTANT NOTICE: By refinancing federal student loans, you may lose certain borrower benefits from your original loans, including interest rate discounts, principal rebates, or some cancellation benefits that can significantly reduce the cost of repaying your loans.


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Setting up the web development environmentimprove this page | report issue
Developing and testing web applications is as easy as previewing a local HTML file in your web browser of choice.
Developers can use their IDE of choice, and any framework(s) that suits their needs.
However one thing may stand in the way of developing web applications. Web applications might encounter errors due to same-origin policy violation. Same-origin policy is a restriction imposed on web browsers. For example, if an application is hosted on the domain example.com, it is not allowed for the same application to also access content that is available on another server, or for that matter, from the MobileFirst Server.
Web apps that are to use the Mobile Foundation web SDK should be handled in a supporting topology, for example by using a Reverse Proxy to internally redirect requests to the appropriate server while maintaining the same single origin.
The policy requirements can be satisfied by using either of the following methods:
- Serving the web application resources' from the same WebSphere Full/Liberty profile application server that also hosts the MobileFirst Server.
- Using Node.js as a proxy to redirect application requests to the MobileFirst Server.
Jump to
- Prerequisites
- Using WebSphere Liberty profile to serve the web application resources
- Using Node.js
- Next Steps
Web applications are supported for the following browser versions. The version numbers indicate the earliest fully supported version of the respective browser.
Browser Chrome Safari* Internet Explorer Firefox Android Browser Supported Version 43+ 8+ 10+ 38+ Android 4.3+
* In Safari, private browsing mode is supported only for single-page applications (SPAs). Other applications might exhibit unexpected behavior.
The following setup instructions require either Apache Maven or Node.js installed on the developer's workstation. For further instructions, see the installation guide.
Using WebSphere Liberty profile to serve the web application resources
In order to serve the web application's resources, these need to be stored in a Maven webapp (a .war file).
Creating a Maven webapp archetype
- From a command-line window, navigate to a location of your choosing.
Run the command:
mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=MyCompany -DartifactId=MyWebApp -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp -DinteractiveMode=false
- Replace MyCompany and MyWebApp with your own values.
- To enter the values one-by-one, remove the
Building the Maven webapp with the web application's resources
Place the web application's resources (such as the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and image files) inside the generated [MyWebApp] → src → Main → webapp folder.
From here on, consider the webapp folder as the development location for the web application.
Run the command:
mvn clean installto generate a .war file containing the application's web resources.
The generated .war file is available in the [MyWebApp] → target folder.
mvn clean installmust be run each time you update a web resource.
Adding the Maven webapp to the application server
Edit the server.xml file of your WebSphere application server.
If using the MobileFirst Developer Kit, the file is located in: [MobileFirst Developer Kit] → mfp-server → user → servers → mfp folder. Add the following entry:
<application name="MyWebApp" location="path-to/MyWebApp.war" type="war"></application>
- Replace name and path-to/MyWebApp.war with your own values.
- The application server is automatically restarted after saving the changes to the server.xml file.
Testing the web application
Once you are ready to test your web application, visit the URL: localhost:9080/MyWebApp. - Replace MyWebApp with your own value.
Using Node.js
Node.js can be used as a reverse proxy to tunnel requests from the web application to the MobileFirst Server.
From a command-line window, navigate to your web application's folder and run the following set of commands:
npm init npm install --save express npm install --save request
- Create a new file in the node_modules folder, for example proxy.js.
Add the following code to the file:
var express = require('express'); var http = require('http'); var request = require('request'); var app = express(); var server = http.createServer(app); var mfpServer = "http://localhost:9080"; var port = 9081; server.listen(port); app.use('/myapp', express.static(__dirname + '/')); console.log('::: server.js ::: Listening on port ' + port); // Web server - serves the web application app.get('/home', function(req, res) { // Website you wish to allow to connect res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html'); }); // Reverse proxy, pipes the requests to/from MobileFirst Server app.use('/mfp/*', function(req, res) { var url = mfpServer + req.originalUrl; console.log('::: server.js ::: Passing request to URL: ' + url); req.pipe(request[req.method.toLowerCase()](url)).pipe(res); });
- replace the port value with your preferred one.
- replace
/myappwith your preferred path name for your web application.
- replace
/index.htmlwith the name of your main HTML file.
- if needed, update
/mfp/*with the context root of your Mobile Foundation runtime.
- To start the proxy, run the command:
node proxy.js.
- Once you are ready to test your web application, visit the URL: server-hostname:port/app-name, for example: http://localhost:9081/myapp
- Replace server-hostname with your own value.
- Replace port with your own value.
- Replace app-name with your own value.
Next steps
To continue with Mobile Foundation development in Web applications, the Mobile Foundation web SDK need to be added to the Web application.
- Learn how to add the Mobile Foundation SDK to web applications.
- For applications development, refer to the Using the Mobile Foundation SDK tutorials.
- For adapters develpment, refer to the Adapters category.
Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the documentation to reflect those changes.


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Do you spend sleepless nights tossing and turning in bed, staring at your phone for a solution? Well, unfortunately, you are not alone. We lead such a fast-paced lifestyle that almost everyone, including children, are prone to sleep deprivation and its consequences.
While it may not be advisable to have kids use sleep apps, when they are already spending most of their time hooked on their phones or tablets, adults might benefit from some of the tested and approved apps that can help you fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up refreshed.
Top 10 Sleep Apps to Help You Sleep Better
From finding the perfect recipe to cook for a vegan friend to recruiting a dog walker when you're away on a trip, we have apps for almost everything. So, why not use an app to help us sleep better?
Here's a list of the top 10 sleep apps that have been thoughtfully designed, tested and reviewed to provide optimum results.
With its wearable sleep tracker and accompanying app, Beddr is the latest U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved sleep app to hit the market. It is designed to track an individual's sleep pattern and quality and provide suggestions to improve sleep. The sleep tracker, which is placed on the forehead, can provide reports on blood oxygen levels, breathing troubles and your sleeping positions too.
2Sleep Score
This specialized sleep app has the ability to monitor breathing patterns and the body's movements and is said to provide better insight into your sleep habits. It offers stats that can help you understand your sleep schedule and make the required changes. Reviewers say that Sleep Score may be one of the more intuitive apps out there that could provide better analyses and solutions.
Dreams are an integral part of most of our nights, but very rarely do we wake up remembering their content. This app specializes in training its users to become adept at lucid dreaming, where the individual is aware that they are experiencing a dream as it happens. The app also offers a journal to note experiences.
4Relax Melodies
Many sleep experts recommend playing calming music to induce sleep and this app does just that. It allows users to mix soothing melodies with simple guided meditation to relax and eventually drift into deep sleep.
5White Noise
White noise is defined as a "combination of various frequencies that our ear can actually recognize and hear," and this app provides soothing white noise to help you sleep better. It also has mild alarm tones to help you wake up refreshed.
6Relax & Sleep Well Hypnosis
Hypnosis has been used as a remedy for issues like alcoholism and chronic pain, but did you know it could help you sleep too? Instead of putting you in a trance, this app combines voice-led hypnosis and soothing sounds to induce deep slumber.
7Sleep Cycle
A sleep app and an alarm clock in one, this app tracks your sleep and knows when to wake you up to avoid being sluggish in the morning.
Designed to support guided meditation and sleep patterns, this app provides short meditation segments that can help your mind and body relax into deep sleep.
This app tracks sleep and provides a report every morning to show the phases of sleep, amount of sleep each person is clocking and the sleep debt being accumulated. It can also prompt you when you consistently lose sleep.
10Sleep Cycle Power Nap
Power naps have gained a lot of popularity in recent times and this app can help you take a 20-minute nap to recuperate from a hectic schedule. It offers an alarm clock and soothing sounds to induce sleep.
While sleep apps may be beneficial, try not to become completely dependent on them in the long run. Follow simple lifestyle changes to train your body and create a proper sleep schedule that can help streamline your sleep pattern and benefit overall health.
The content of this Website is for informational purposes only, is general in nature and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and does not constitute professional advice. The information on this Website should not be considered as complete and does not cover all diseases, ailments, physical conditions, or their treatment. You should consult with your physician before beginning any exercise, weight loss, or health care program and/or any of the beauty treatments.
The Best Sleep-Tracking App for 2018. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-sleep-tracking-app/
Baum, I. (2018, October 01). 6 Sleep Apps to Help You Get Some Shuteye. Retrieved from https://www.menshealth.com/health/g23515714/best-sleep-apps/
Sleep Apps. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sleepassociation.org/sleep-treatments/sleep-apps/


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A FSMA Update for our Stakeholders in India
By: Howard Sklamberg
In an effort to complement our conversations about the FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) in the United States, FDA is reaching out to our international partners and stakeholders to discuss implementation of this historic food safety law.
I recently visited India, accompanied by Andrew Stephens from the Office of Food and Veterinary Medicine, and Ritu Nalubola, Ph.D., with the Commissioner's Office of Policy. We had extensive discussions with our regulatory counterparts in the Indian government and with key food industry officials.
India is the seventh largest supplier of food to the United States. The Indian food products that end up on the dinner tables of Americans every night — including shrimp, spices, and rice — reflect the increasing globalization of our country's food supply.
Many of these goods come from any of India's 29 states, produced by thousands of different companies. Such dispersion and volume makes FDA's close engagement with our Indian counterparts necessary, especially on the export-related parts of FSMA.
Our most recent trip to India follows a similar trip in March 2015 when Mike Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, joined me to introduce FSMA to a wide variety of Indian stakeholders.
On that trip, we explained that FSMA mandates a food safety system that is preventive, rather than reactive. FSMA requires that foreign food producers meet U.S. safety standards.
At that time, we also signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with the government of India to engage in regulatory, scientific, and public health protection matters related to food products.
Building upon our 2015 trip, and upon the great work of FDA's India office, our recent meetings focused on three FSMA rules of vital significance to India stakeholders: Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food; Foreign Supplier Verification Programs for Importers of Food for Humans and Animals; and Accreditation of Third-Party Certification Bodies To Conduct Food Safety Audits and To Issue Certifications. The overview my FDA team provided was very useful to our Indian counterparts, many of whom have been engaged with FDA's India Office in learning the details of the new mandates for exporters.
I finished my trip with remarks to the World Spice Congress. As I noted there, the food system grows more global and trade-driven every year, which means we grow more dependent every year on collaboration and real partnership between government and industry across national boundaries.
We all have three goals: We want food to be safe. We want consumers to have confidence. And we want food safety and consumer confidence to enhance trade between nations. FSMA will help us achieve all three.
Howard Sklamberg is FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Global Regulatory Operations and Policy


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Justin Seeds – 2011 WORCS Pro 2 Champion
by Joe Colombero Ivan Ramirez took the trophy in the Pro 2 class with Luke Reynolds finishing second and Ian Blythe rounding out the podium. Justin Seeds extended his points lead by finishing fourth and taking his first WORCS Pro 2 Championship. "I've worked really hard this year to win the Championship," said Seeds. "I used to come to theRead more


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Monday, July 1, 2013
Fun Monday: Dorothy vs Alice
35 comments:
Definitely Alice. I talk to scarecrows all the time. :)ReplyDeleteReplies
LOL, don't tell anyone, but I talk to my barrel cactus. His name is Joe aka Cactus Joe.Delete
I hadn't thought about this, but you're right. These stories do have similarities but are so different. I guess that says how good they are.ReplyDeleteReplies
And it reminds me that I need to actively think about creating conflict! And yes, they are so good!Delete
Strange stuff makes for an interesting story. Just listen to the news.ReplyDelete
Hugs and chocolate,
I know, LOL! Lots of strange stuff can be found on the news!Delete
Alice. Actually, Carroll, since he was on drugs when he wrote that story.ReplyDeleteReplies
Yeah, he was totally trippin', Alex!Delete
I had never thought that way. There are similarities between the 2 books.ReplyDeleteReplies
So very different stories, though!Delete
Alice. Or maybe I've read/seen Dorothy's story so many times it doesn't feel strange any more.ReplyDeleteReplies
Alice seems to be the consensus. LOL, how funny that the Wizard of Oz sort of seems normal in comparison!Delete
I think Alice did with the stuff she consumed. :DReplyDelete
That cartoon is great.Replies
LOL, her and Carroll, both!Delete
You got to love that it didn't matter if it was a trip high in the sky or a ridiculous fall down, down, down a stupid long hole...both went through some weird crap.ReplyDeleteReplies
That's right - one was sky-bound and the other underground! Some pretty weird stuff, for sure.Delete
I have to go with Alice. Love this cartoon. :DReplyDeleteReplies
It's official - everyone agrees that it's Alice who saw the weirdest stuff :DDelete
Like LD, maybe it's because I've seen The Wizard of Oz many more times than Alice in Wonderland, but I'm going with Alice.ReplyDeleteReplies
Another vote for Alice!Delete
That's crazy cool! Never thought of them together like that. My vote still goes to Alice though.ReplyDeleteReplies
HaHa! They're even sort of dressed alike, aren't they?Delete
Alice. That book always scared the daylights out of me.ReplyDeleteReplies
That's funny, because when I was a kid, The Wizard of Oz kind of scared me, LOL!Delete
Ha! You know when you lay it out that way, that is a lot of messed up stuff. Maybe sometimes it does work when you go way over the top! And Alice had it the worst.ReplyDeleteReplies
LOL, it's kind of funny when you write it all down and realize how messed up it really is!Delete
These writers might have been documenting their own personal LSD trips. No other explanation works.ReplyDeleteReplies
LOL, I know Carroll was on drugs, but you do have to wonder about Baum, too!Delete
Maria's comment was hilarious. Alice by far. Dorothy got to meet some awesome people despite her trials. Alice was just physically (threat of head chop, all those potions...)and emotionally tortured for the most part. That pic was made so hilarious by the quote. Without it would just be a nice picture of Alice and Dorothy.ReplyDeleteReplies
LOL, the caption said it all, didn't it?Delete
Definitely Alice had the weirder story. I mean, smoking Caterpillar. That's next to weird in the dictionary. She must have won that game.ReplyDeleteReplies
That smoking caterpillar was pretty off the wall, LOL!Delete
I'd say Alice's story is a bit more trippy, and Dorothy is more dream-like. Interesting comparison. (:ReplyDelete
I can definitely see the similarities between the stories. Now I wonder if the Queen of Hearts is really quite so wicked (thinking of WICKED).ReplyDelete
And they're both classics.ReplyDelete


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Nov 3, 2017
European chains profit on back of Syrian refugees in Turkish factories: watchdog
Nov 3, 2017
Some of Europe's biggest stores are failing to stem the abuse of Syrian refugees who work in the Turkish factories that supply their clothes, a business pressure group said on Friday.
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) called on the worst offenders - from fashion icon Topshop to discounter Aldi - to better protect refugee workers who have fled war only to suffer workplace exploitation in their new home.
Low wages, discrimination and poor conditions are common for Syrian refugees working in Turkey's multi-billion dollar garment industry, where child labor is also a problem, said the BHRRC.
"Some high street fashion brands ... have made progress in protecting workers, but too many, like Aldi, Asda and Topshop, are lagging way behind," Phil Bloomer, executive director of the BHRRC, said in a statement.
"They should learn from the leaders, and quickly."
The Britain-based charity surveyed 37 major European brands with Turkish factories in their supply chains on the policies and practices undertaken to tackle the abuse of workers.
Companies including supermarket chains Aldi and Asda and fashion retailer Arcadia - which owns the Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge brands - are not doing enough to stop the exploitation, the BHRRC survey found.
ASOS, New Look, Next, SuperDry and Zara were the top ranking brands in the survey; Asda and Arcadia came bottom. Six companies, including Mexx and River Island, failed to respond.
The charity said more brands had boosted efforts to clean up their supply chains compared to last year, with the top performers establishing plans to protect refugees, mechanisms to handle complaints, and initiating dialogue with workers' groups.
More than 3 million Syrian refugees - about half aged under 18 - have fled to Turkey to escape a war that erupted in 2011.
About 650,000 are estimated to be working in Turkey, many in the garment industry, yet most lack work permits, leaving them at greater risk of abuse, the BHRRC said.
A Reuters investigation last year found evidence of Syrian refugee children in Turkey working in clothes factories in illegal conditions. Turkey bans children under 15 from working.
"The Syrian refugee crisis poses a complex challenge for retailers sourcing garments from Turkey," said Peter McAllister, head of the Ethical Trading Initiative, an alliance of trade unions, firms and charities promoting workers' rights.
"Refugees are particularly vulnerable to exploitation," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "More needs to be done, but we are confident our member companies are taking it seriously."
A spokesman for Walmart, which owns Asda, said the company was exploring how to address the risks to vulnerable workers in its global supply chain, with a focus on ethical recruitment.
Topshop declined to comment on the BHRRC survey, Aldi did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Mexx and River Island could not be reached.
© Thomson Reuters 2023 All rights reserved.


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Fire Temple (Theme)
Fire Temple is a musical track from Ocarina of Time.
The track plays when Link is inside the Forest Temple, the second dungeon in the game when Link becomes an adult. The song appears as Track 61 of the Ocarina of Time Original Soundtrack, with a duration of 0:43.
There are two distinctive versions of the Fire Temple theme. In the original versions (NTSC 1.0 and 1.1) of Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, the theme featured Islamic prayer chants within the song. Due to controversy regarding the track, Koji Kondo re-recorded the Fire Temple theme to remove the religious chants. This version appears from version 1.0 of the PAL cartridge and version 1.2 of the NTSC cartridge as well as all subsequent re-releases of the game, including Ocarina of Time 3D. Those religious chants were taken from a sampling CD known as "Voice Spectral, Volume 1" and on track 76, these chants can be heard as well as some that didn't happen to make it in the Fire Temple's music and has duration of at least 30 seconds.