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A traditional firm with a modern approach
The Pandora's Box ...... Prenuptial Agreements and Enforceability
Prenuptial agreements are becoming ever more common with more couples marrying for the second time and wishing to preserve pre acquired wealth for their children and first timers wanting to protect their assets.
More judicial help is now available thanks to Mostyn J in the recent case of BN v MA (2013) reinforcing the view expressed in the leading case of Radmacher v Granatino (2011) that "the Court should give effect to a nuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications unless in the circumstances prevailing it would not be fair to hold the parties to their agreement"
Mostyn J said that in determining fairness the Court must have regard to the following:
- No agreement can be allowed to prejudice the reasonable requirements of a child
- Respect should be afforded to the decision of a married couple as to the manner in which their financial affairs should be regulated
- No agreement can overreach basic need.
He also indicated that in his view the determining factor was not that both parties had legal advice and full disclosure but more importantly there must NOT be a MATERIAL lack of disclosure or a MATERIAL lack of legal advice. The important fact is that both parties should have the financial and other information that is material to their decision.
In conclusion Mostyn J considered that "the law adopts a strict policy of requiring the demonstration of something unfair before it will open the Pandora's Box of litigation where there has been an agreement of this nature"
The Law Commission report on Matrimonial Property Needs and Agreements published in February formally recommends the enforceability of prenuptial agreements.


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Don't call me Dave
Forget about David Cameron. Okay, he's trailing in the polls by eight or nine points, his own MPs are mouthing off about him – Graham Brady, who quit the frontbench over Cameron's stance on grammar schools, for one – and columnist Peter Oborne has raised the possibility that it could be game over for the Tories if Cameron leads them into a fourth consecutive election defeat.
So, the man who was built up by the corporate media now finds himself the subject of ridicule. No ideas, no direction, and no hope. Cameron has an uphill struggle: to convert his party, to beat Brown as a leader. See, Brown has a head start – he's been crowned without an electoral test. As the current PM, he just has to keep his place at Number Ten, Cameron must prove himself – this is the expectation.
Cameron says he won't waver, despite criticism he lacks appeal in Midlands and North of England. He is now compromised. If he does another U-turn and obeys the wishes of his party, he looks weak because he swore against it; yet if he soldiers on, more and more detractors will speak against him, and the perception will be of a party in disarray.
The discourse for Cameron is proving that his party has changed. Will Brown be held to his change of relations with US? No, not likely – here we are in realpolitik mode and the media won't be pressing him on this "change".
Most unwanted!
We know who Gordy is, don't we? He tells us often enough. He is change. Well, he doesn't smile as easily as Blair. He's a bit awkward, a tad scruffy. It is a change of style, but not substance because nothing has really changed.
No change in relations with the US: we should be grateful for the most powerful empire ever to exist, says Brown. No change in government attitudes towards industrial disputes: the posties – and all other workers – must accept a pay cut to hold off inflation, says Brown. (Presumably he doesn't want the bosses to accept lower profits and reduced bonuses…)
Why isn't Brown trailing in the polls? Are they meaningless? How can a man to take over as PM with no election, change only one or two of hundreds of massively unpopular policies, invite generals, coppers, and bosses into government and remain popular?
The answer is, of course, that he is not popular. Remember – these opinion polls are of voters. People who say they will vote in a general election. Not exactly a supermajority of the population; of which, a few thousand are asked to give their opinion. So taking an opinion poll is not the same as taking the pulse of the nation(s).
Severe flooding causing billions of pounds worth of damage to homes and businesses; an ongoing postal strike; deaths and casualties of troops fighting illegal and immoral wars in the Middle East – Brown doesn't want to talk about this.
No, the flag! The Union flag is Brown's priority (he's British, you know!). The butcher's apron is to be flown all year round from government buildings – but not in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
And terror – Brown is set on doubling the 28 day internment to 56 days, insisting it is needed despite the lack of evidence. It's partly party political, it lets him out-tough the Tories, but for the most part it serves the interests of the ruling class, who will need such laws on the books should the tide turn on a mass scale.
Right now, Brown's meeting with George Bush is in the news. What did he mean by "full and frank"? Was he displeased at Bush's lap of honour in the golf cart? My big talking point is this: considering UK service-personnel are dying in immoral, illegal, and unpopular wars of occupation in the Middle East, what impact will Brown's commitment to the "special relationship" have on his own reputation?
Independence thirst?
On Scotland, Brown's abandoned homeland, the head of the Scottish government intends to publish a white paper on an independence referendum within the next two weeks, to mark the SNP's first hundred days in power.
It won't be easy to bring forward a referendum: the Scottish Parliament is packed with members of the Westminster parties, and the unionists are dead against giving the Scottish people a say on the future of their nation. If it is true that over a third of MSPs are in favour of independence and that there is not sufficient public support for an independent Scottish state, then the unionists should call Salmond's bluff and back a referendum wholeheartedly.
Scottish independence is a big deal for socialists in England; we cannot let English national identity become purely defined by feelings of antagonism towards Scotland. The asymmetrical devolution carried out by New Labour is resulting in a resurgence of the English national identity, discrete from that of British "national" identity offered by the ruling class. Socialists should support the Campaign for an English Parliament and socialist bloggers should join the Witanagemot Club.
There is one other factor besides the issue of national self-determination, it must be said. For if it is true that Britain is the most important ally of the US, the world's number one imperialist power, then it is our duty to break the Union into its component parts, thus weakening Anglo-American imperialism and at the same time fighting for change in the interest of the working class.

subset: commoncrawl


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I have read many accounts over the years by people who have moved to Italy in order to live out their dream; a simpler life filled with good food, kind neighbors, good wine, and a more relaxed rhythm. Ah yes, the dream. Some of these accounts give the idea that having olive trees and making your own oil fits snugly into the category of "simple things," but I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. One rather successful writer told of undertaking–and completing– the pruning of her trees over a weekend. Very poetic. Maybe she did her pruning with a chainsaw and cut her trees off at the base, because that would have been the only way she could have completed the task in so little time.
Establishing a tree which will produce fruit for many years is more than an art: it is a long and detailed process which requires a depth of knowledge that most people simply cannot hope to absorb if they come to the study later in life. When we bought our land it already had a number of older trees on it, and we have planted new ones to augment the harvest. Ours have been helped along through their formative years by a couple of older men who, each a maestro of pruning in his own right, have had very different views on correct methodology. Some pruners keep their trees chopped back and tortured into bony shapes, others leave more small branches, both in the search for the vital equilibrium between strength of tree and amount of fruit production. I still don't know which of our crotchety gentlemen can claim superior results. All I can say is that I thought I could learn myself, and I am humbled in my acceptance that, other than cosmetic touch-ups, it simply is not to be.
A healthy olive tree, left to its own devices, will turn into a black hole of foliage, sucking the light out of its own surroundings. Pruning it into shape is for its own good, even if the tree may not be easily convinced. Knowing where to make the master cut, which has to be done every few years, is an art in itself. The sopacavadd*, which establishes the maximum height attainable by a tree, lops off the main branches which strive skyward. If this isn't done, it becomes almost impossible to pick the olives with even the tallest ladder. These shoots will also encourage the rest of the tree to hold back on production. After the cuts are made, the profile of the tree becomes something akin to a giant rheumatic and knuckly spider, crouching over its downward-hanging greenery, but entirely devoid of leaves at the top. It will need a year to recover, but it will bear more fruit. It takes an expert up to an entire long day to do the pruning of one mature tree correctly. The rest of the branches will be carefully thinned to leave only those which hang downward, which makes raking the fruit from the branches much easier. The olives fall into a large piece of netting which is placed around the base of the tree in November for the harvest. The use of the new, and in my opinion horrible, vibrating harvesters still accounts for only about twenty percent of labor. Most are still gathered by friends and family on ladders spending day after day, raking down the fruit and loading it into plastic crates, packing those into cars, ferrying them to the frantoio. Every town has one. It is worth a visit to this large and active pressing mill during harvest season–it is a hopping place, and your crates will be labeled and stacked carefully to avoid any ambiguity. One's oil is a very personal, and jealously guarded, commodity.
I always thought, "How wonderful to harvest my own olives and make my own oil!" until I saw how labor-intensive the process was. Now we offer the pleasure of the actual harvesting to friends and acquaintances who are willing, and we split the oil fifty-fifty with them. It seems like the perfect arrangement: they don't pay for the oil, and I am free to paint. We normally give away at least half of the oil we produce, even after splitting the initial yield.
Most trees have a heavy harvest every two years, and a light to negligible production in off- years. There is a cursory pruning around harvest time, but the main one takes place in early Spring, and results in piles of greenery that is utilized on March 19, for the Festa of San Giuseppe. These cuttings are dragged by the tractorful into town and piled in huge towers to be kindled into raging fires at sunset. It is a delightfully smoky solution to getting rid of the cuttings, and simultaneously placating the pyromaniacal urges in all of us. These falo are accompanied by the traditional dish of pasta e ceci, (pasta with chickpeas) served free to all out of giant cauldrons, and zeppole, which are fried or baked bignet filled with pastry creme and topped with a bitter cherry, or amarena. It is a rite of passage from Winter into Spring. I always hope for wind on March 19, because otherwise a pall of smoke can hang over the town for hours.
Olive trees are resistant to almost every vicissitude of climate, and even fire will not easily kill them. They grit their teeth and stand as all of their growth toward the light of heaven is hacked away and they become skeletal shadows of their former selves. They have a capacity for suckering–sprouting hundreds of small shoots from the base– and it can be incredibly time-consuming to keep these trimmed back if you have a lot of trees. Every pruning cut anywhere on the tree will lead to a number of new shoots which in a year will have grown thick enough to require the big guns: heavy loppers or a hatchet. I can almost hear the trees snickering as I flail away with my tools in the hopes of creating a picture-perfect landscape. They have been here many more years than me, and they will be here long after I am gone. An olive tree has all the time in the world; the ulivo bides.
drawing: "Ulivo 2 (Tree of Souls)" pencil and gold leaf on paper 2009
*(dialect, Italian: sopracavallo)


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TomTom Splash Instructions
You can now customize your TomTom GO with a personal picture that displays on start-up and shutdown! This is easily accomplished using your PC and the included USB cable. To change the TomTom splash screen follow the instructions below:
First of all you need to select the image or photograph you want displayed on your TomTom GO,
The TomTom Splash converter will support the following image formats:-
When choosing your picture, the picture needs to be in the following orientation,
Once you have chossen the picture, upload to the converter (use the drop down box if you have a diferent model to the default TomTom Go series 300/400/700). The converter will then resize, rotate, and convert the image to the correct format. Once the image has been converted, you need to upload the image onto your tomtom. To do this, plug your tomtom into your computer via the USB cable. As you plug your tomtom into your computer, the USB should detect, and you should select "open folder to view files using window explorer."
You will be given a view of the files on your tomtom, as shown below.
The important file highlighted above is splash.bmp (this will be called splashw.bmp on a 710 / 910 series tomtom), we need to make a backup just in case!!!!
Once you have renamed the splash.bmp/splashw.bmp file to ORGINsplash.bmp, you need to copy over the file you saved from the generator (splash.bmp or splashw.bmp) from your computer to the same TomTom GO directory. Once done, unplug the USB cable, turn the tomtom off and on, and you should be presented with your custom tomtom splash page. You can also change your suspend screen, by coping and renaming your splash saved file to suspend.bmp and placing it in the same directory, Enjoy.....
Return to TomTom Splash Generator
Or view the guestbook, or if you have any questions or feedback on the tool.
All finished, why not download the excellent free Picasa software, that helps you instantly share / organise your splash pages.


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HEARST President Cathie Black is close to naming a new editor-in-chief of Redbook, and sources say the two finalists are a top editor at Condé Nast's Glamour and Redbook's current No. 2 editor.
Editor-in-Chief Stacy Morrison, is leaving today for "family reasons."
Morrison recently published a divorce survival guide, "Falling Apart in One Piece: One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce," through Simon & Schuster.
She did not return a call yesterday for comment.
The top candidates are said to be Jill Herzig, Glamour's executive editor and long-time lieutenant to Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive, and Morrison's second-in-command, Alison Brower.
The betting is that it goes to the outsider, in part because the monthly Hearst title was down 10 percent in ad pages last year and is down more than 6 percent through the first quarter, even as most of the other Hearst titles stage rebounds.
On the circulation front, Redbook was flat in overall circulation in the second half of 2009 at slightly more than 2.5 million, but single-copy sales, where editors are most seriously judged, tumbled 30 percent.
Sources say that Herzig has been working harder than ever at Glamour following last year's downsizing and could be looking to land her own gig. Insiders at Condé Nast report she's been involved in a lot of closed-door phone conversations in recent weeks.
Reached yesterday, Herzig said, "I have nothing that I can tell you."
And Eliot Kaplan, Hearst's editorial director, cut us off even before we could make an inquiry by saying, "You know I can't talk to you," and then hung up the phone.
Au revoir
Rumors are swirling that the Paris-based Lagardere Group may be in the midst of appraising its US media holdings for a possible sale.
The chatter is said to be coming out of Paris, where sources said management is divided on what to do with its American operations. It follows speculation over the past year that the company had quietly discussed joint ventures of its US operations with several major US publishers — but nothing ever came of those talks.
Lagardere earlier had said it will sell its 20-percent stake in French media operation Canal Plus.
The company's US operations include Hachette Books, online auto and magazine publisher Jumpstart Automotive Group, Woman's Day and its global flagship, Elle magazine. Hachette's US operations are currently in the process of moving into several vacant floors in the Time & Life Building in Midtown.
The latest round of talks will surely add to what has been a lot of unrest at Hachette Filipacchi Media, the US operation that has shut down a spate of magazines in recent years.
Most recently, Carol Smith, the senior vice president and chief brand officer of the Elle Group, left to join Condé as vice president and publications director of Bon Appé tit and the Gourmet brand.
(Gourmet was shut down last year by Condé, but is resurrected occasionally for special issues and cookbooks.)
But moving the other way, Nick Matarazzo, who was a top executive at Hachette until he was forced out last year in a cost-cutting move, returned recently as the CEO of its Jumpstart unit, which includes digital operations as well as Road & Track and Car and Driver.
A Hachette Filipacchi spokesman declined to comment.
No fantasy
The baseball wonks who invented Rotisserie League baseball — the forerunner of the fantasy sports leagues that have of millions armchair players around the world, are about to be featured in an ESPN documentary next Tuesday.
Entitled "Silly Little Game," the show will focus on the founders, including names that are long familiar in the media world, including Dan Okrent, the former editor of Life and the first public editor of the New York Times; Valerie Salembier, publisher of Harper's Bazaar; Peter Gethers, a Random House editor and author; screenwriter Lee Eisenberg; sports writer Glen Waggoner and Steve Wulf, now executive editor of ESPN The Magazine.
The game got its name from the Upper East Side restaurant where it was hatched, La Rotisserie Française. firstname.lastname@example.com


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Apparently there is some ruckus about a live-action Mulan film being made by Disney and the titular character potentially being played by a White woman. This is the sort of thing, evidently, that fires up the American-born East Asians.
I simply have no preference. If we knew our own value, we would not need it affirmed by Disney (!). Have we sunk so low, have we so fallen in our own estimation, as to wait around for the White media to affirm our dignity, taking umbrage when they fail to do so? Are we not masters of our own fate, not needing the White man to tell us what we are worth? As I see it, demanding that the White masters throw us this bone is a distraction from the actual reins of power. Therefore, I will not play the game.
Will we for once step out of the capitalist framework? The very fact that our families are eating this stuff up already means we are acknowledging such masters. There are higher powers than the Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic (WEIRD) oligarchy. There are ways of greater humanity, and greater dignity, than bringing our complaints before those who need not be our masters. There is a God, and in his natural order the family has real authority, authority that cannot be taken away by big money. I trust that, given power from on high, we can do what God wills, and we need fear no opposition from the oligarchs. Their power is an excuse, and their system a deception, and by the power of God they need not be paid any honour. Gods? They will fall like Dagon before the face of the living God.
So pass down to our children the virtues and the values of our Chinese fathers. Without Disney, how many Chinese Americans are even hearing about 木蘭 (Mulan)? How many know even a single line of the 木蘭辭 (Ballad of Mulan)? I see no reason that we have to depend on the so-called mainstream media to form our children, for whose formation we have a God-given trust. Aye, Disney is popular, but no one has to go with it simply because it sells with other folk. I imagine a day when Chinese children are able to say to other children, 'Let me tell you the original story of Mulan.' This requires no great expenditure of money to rival that of Disney, but it does require effort and learning. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will the control of the international oligarchs be broken in a day. Nevertheless, I trust you can see that there are things ordinary folk can do even with their limited funds. The Black folk began to resist their oppression when at least some of them saw their own value in the eyes of God and needed no White man to tell them what they had heard from God. As weak as our spirits are today, were we in the Blacks' position then, we would never have started.
Trying to harness the propaganda machine for our own interests, in response to its perceived injustice, is a fool's errand. Such effort to 'work within the system' may seem practical, but the propaganda machine is not subject to good uses. No, far better to reject it entirely and take responsibility for our own lives than to accept masters who have no right. Those Asians who do the latter, their vision is too small, and they do not see that too small a vision here is doomed to fail for lack of resistance to the institutions by which the oligarchs maintain themselves. Noise does not make up for timidity; being coöpted into the mainstream achieves nothing of consequence.
Of course, we must not neglect that we have more than a century and a half of shame, shame that we bring with us when we immigrate to America. We feel that we must assimilate. We feel that we must do – and do well – what the White folk do. That this is true to some extent I cannot deny: I myself took pains to master English grammar and become at least passingly familiar with Latin. But there it is. We do not see, or we feign an inability to see, that today's prevailing culture in America is degenerate. Even as we urge our sons and daughters not to fall to the level of matching the Whites in learning and in sexual morals, we acquiesce to the voices of those who would teach our children to do just that. But why should we listen to the voices that have taught America to become decadent? Have we not enough shame in our own condition, that we must also bring upon our names the shame that marks the ungodly?
Virtue is more than conformity. It is like the lotus rising out of a pool of filth, pure in the midst of defilement. In a midst of a decadent people, will we gain any strength worth having by taking up the most debased customs and relying on the most corrupt institutions? To think so is not prudent, nor is it wise to entrust ourselves to those who serve these gods. They have their day today, and then their time will come tomorrow. It does us no favours to join our destinies to that of the wicked. To throw in our lot with them is a gamble that a sense of caution will have us recoil from.
If there be any stigma for the non-White, look at the stigmata of Jesus Christ; behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow; yet by the will of God, and in spite of the will of man, he was raised from the dead on the third day. See how meek he was, how he submitted to the perfect will of God, to suffer and die and be buried and descend to the place of the dead; and yet how strong he was in the face of the ungodly, that he did not stint to say, when asked whether he was the Christ, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Or see how his Church, after this example, and with his Holy Spirit, also bled for his holy Name – how, after his resurrection, all of the Apostles but one gave up his life for the sake of the gospel. It is not a want of power but a want of conviction that makes Chinese Americans fear stigma. The complaints they make to the powers that be are only a game of make-believe that those powers have set up themselves. If Chinese Americans believed their own words, they would join themselves to Christ and fear nothing, and no fear of man would keep them from using critical judgement against the devices of the unjust; for in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
Having eyes to see, we are able to judge what is degenerate and reject what is decadent. We see that the proper centre of the home is not the television but the altar. We see that the proper executive authority of the home is not the state or the corporations but the father. We see that the proper use of the home is not the mere consumption of goods but the training of human persons in industry and, more than that, in righteousness. It is here, and not with the instruments of propaganda, that formation begins. It was with the slaves, and not with the White masters, that beliefs and practices were passed down to affirm the worth and dignity of the Black man. It is through the work of fathers and mothers, not the choices of Disney, that Chinese Americans will find again their humanity from the Most High God.


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Nov. 26, 2002
STANFORD, Calif. - The 13th-ranked Santa Clara University women's volleyball squad dropped its regular-season finale to fourth-ranked Stanford Tuesday night by a score of 3-0. The sweep was only the third time all season that the Broncos have lost in three, all of which have come to teams currently in the top-10 in the country.
Game one went back-and-forth for most of game as both squads played a very clean game as Stanford hit .400 as a team while the Broncos managed a .289 team hitting percentage. Becky Potter posted 10 kills in the first game with only one error on 12 attempts for a .750 percentage. Despite the big numbers, Santa Clara could not keep the Cardinal within reach down the stretch, as Stanford pulled away for the 30-26 win in game one.
The Broncos took an early 7-6 lead in game two but watched as the Cardinal reeled off five straight points to take a 11-7 lead before a Becky Biniek kill stopped the run. From there the two teams traded points until a Ogonna Nnamani kill gave Stanford a 15-11 lead heading into a timeout. Out of the timeout Santa Clara was out-scored by an 11-4 margin, giving the Cardinal a 26-17 lead. After the Broncos took their final timeout of the game the teams exchanged points the rest of the way as Stanford took a two-game lead with their 30-21 win in game two.
Game three started out very similarly to game one as the two teams were very close through the first 30 points, as they were tied at 15. A 6-1 run following that point did the Broncos in as Stanford ended the match with a 30-21 win in game three. Potter finished the game with
Potter ended the match with 19 kills on 36 attempts for a .389 hitting percentage while her 10 digs were a match-high. Kelli Sousa posted 42 assists in the match.
Nnamani's 19 kills were a match-high while Logan Tom posted 16 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Anna Robinson's 46 assists and eight digs were both team highs for the Cardinal.
The Broncos finish the season with a 24-6 overall record and a .800 winning percentage, second only to the 2000 team that finished the regular season with a 26-4 record and advanced to the second-round of the NCAA Tournament.
Santa Clara will now await word on its postseason fate as the brackets for the 2002 NCAA women's volleyball tournament will be announced Sunday evening at 6 p.m. on ESPNEWS.


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31 March 2008
One Castro Giveth….
I guess the drop in tourist visits to Cuba coupled by the more stringent remittances and travel restrictions imposed by the Bush administration are hurting Cuba's cash flow.
The changes keep on coming. These changes are designed to both create good will and legitimacy for Cuba's new tyrant and to siphon in some cash from across the Florida Straights.
This latest reform of letting ordinary Cubans stay in hotels as long as they have CUC's to pay for it, though, is more substantial and actually represents a real change.
Allowing Cubans to stay in formerly "tourist only" hotels, brings to mind the now famous video where University students challenged Cuban Assembly President, Ricardo Alarcon. One of their complaints was exactly this issue of Cubans not being able to stay at "tourist only" hotels even if they had the money. In Alarcon's rambling rationalization of the now gone restrictions, he said something to the effect, if my memory serves me, that before the revolution, he was allowed to go to Tropicana, but couldn't afford it, so what was the point of being "allowed" to go since in effect he couldn't because he couldn't afford it.
Back when I heard Alarcon defend the Cuban apartheid system to the Cuban students by using the affordability rationale, I winced at the intellectual dishonesty of his position. Though it is true that the majority of Cubans will not be able to afford a stay at one of Cuba's resorts, they now can.
I'm not going to sit here today and play Alarcon and use his tired 50 year old dialectic.
This is an admission that Fidel's policies have never worked.
So, here we are, back in 1958. After 50 years of prohibitions and restrictions and we're right back where we started. Inequality
Biweekly Cuba Report
28 March 2008
(Blood) Ties That Bind
One is the Embargo hasn't worked. The other, we trade with China, why not Cuba?
It occurred to me while watching a video of the ghastly results of China's crackdown in Lahsa, Tibet that trading with China, as some people argue, doesn't exert any influence whatsoever in preventing China from brutally crushing the peaceful protests by Buddhist monks and Tibetan citizens. On the contrary, the west is so commercially tied to Beijing, that it's forced to basically look the other way at the abuses and brutality being perpetrated on the peaceful and unarmed Tibetans by a ruthless military lead by a bunch of totalitarian oligarchs.
They way I see it, not having binding economic ties with the current Cuban regime, allows the US the freedom to condemn any brutality without any ecomomic repercussions like those that could potentially occur in the relationships with China and Venezuela, for example.
Take a look at these images-Warning-they are graphic-. Does it seems that having strong commercial ties with China has brought about a more open and tolerant society? Obviously other than giving the Chinese lots more hard currency to continue to invest in implements of oppression, it hasn't.
You have to wonder if the profits that the Chinese Regime made the Christmas lights that you bought in December could have gone to buy the bullets that killed these innocents or the trucks to move their troops into position or the fuel that got them there...
Essentially doing business with tyrants rather than oppose them at every turn, ultimately makes you complicit in the innocent blood that they spill.
So no, the Embargo hasn't gotten rid of Castro. But it has worked in isolating Cuba's totalitarian regime and put the US on the right side of history and humanity. Ironically it is usually those floks that always argue that the US is always on the wrong side and is to blame for everything, that argue the loudest to build ties with the Cuban regime.
When the day comes when Raul unleashes his dogs on the Cuban citizens at least some of us we'll have the piece of mind of knowing that none of the weapons used against our brethren weren't bought with our money.
27 March 2008
26 March 2008
Afraid of Yoani
I keep reading articles about how Raul is doing this and doing that. Treading water , my friends.
For a while there I was in agreement, but discussing the state of affairs over a few cold ones the other day with a friend, we cane to the agreement that things can't be that secure in Castrolandia when they are of afraid of this little lady:
21 March 2008
The Clueless on Cue
But I'm desperate, so I click, cringing. As the page loads…A Big picture of Raúl. And so I figure its one of those folks that has bought the propaganda that lil bro is Mr. Pragmatic, etc, etc. and I brace myself,
As I read on, though, I find that this is not the case. Far from it:
Cuban President Raul Castro's recently revealed economic "reforms" brought to mind two quite unrelated characters: Lewis Carroll's White Queen, and an old Cuban exile acquaintance of mine named Ignacio.President Raul, the sprightly 76-year-old who was "elected" to the presidency of Cuba on Feb. 24, thus replacing his ailing octogenarian brother, Fidel, is reportedly planning to grant his enslaved nation access to more consumer goods. Citing "the improved availability of electricity," the new Maximum Leader will offer for sale computers, DVD players, pressure cookers, and microwave ovens. However, air conditioners are not to be made available until next year, and electric toasters – those ultimate consumer luxuries -- not until 2010. That's what prompted my thoughts of the White Queen, who famously said to Alice "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday -- but never jam to-day." In Cuba, yesterday is 1959.
I like this Foster guy! And his article gets better, tying the failures of socialist command economies to "sustainability"- a word that I'm personally developing as strong a dislike as I have for "reforma agraria":
President Raul will almost certainly wind up as his nation's Mikhail Gorbachev. That is, he will preside cluelessly over its collapse. But the passing of the old Cuban regime will be mourned by neo-socialists not because they see a world without air conditioning as a problem, but as a model.
And, just as if on cue, we have this pathetic piece from, where else?, the New York Times lamenting the economic chaos that will befall our homeland once those eco-friendly commies are recycled.
Through accidents of geography and history, Cuba is a priceless ecological resource. That is why many scientists are so worried about what will become of it after Fidel Castro and his associates leave power and, as is widely anticipated, the American government relaxes or ends its trade embargo.
… Cuba has done "what we should have done -- identify your hot spots of biodiversity and set them aside," said Oliver Houck, a professor of environmental law at Tulane University Law School, who attended the conference.
In the late 1990s, Houck was involved in an effort, financed in part by the MacArthur Foundation, to advise Cuban officials writing new environmental laws. But, he said in an interview, "an invasion of U.S. consumerism, a U.S.-dominated future, could roll over it like a bulldozer" when the embargo ends…
"Hot spots of biodiversity and set them aside" Freedom, happiness and progress-all hotspots- also set aside. But, doesn't bother these eco-fascists. These "collectivists" like my friend Tomas would say, are all about exerting their elitist crackpot ideas on the rest of society. That's really why they are mourning the inevitable demise of Castrolandia form the comfort of their temperature controlled homes with a fully belly and the freedom to write all the inane nonsense that comes to their minds, without ever thinking of the implication that their ideas mean for human beings.
19 March 2008
Parallels and Double Standards
Basically, what I got from it was that blacks in this country have had an existential experience that justifies a righteous rage for their homeland. A white person who has never been subjected to racism cannot possibly understand what its like to suffer the oppression and humiliation of racism. African Americans have earned their right to be militant, belligerent and angry because they have been historically victimized. So we have to understand when people like the Rev. Wright go on anti-American tirades.
…Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
…This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them…
Fair enough.
But, like most things do, this made me think of Cuba.
And I can identify with this unique phenomenological cultural experience.
It's interesting to me that Cuban exiles have also experienced a reality that is unique to us in that our own country victimized us and disowned us, not because of race or gender, but because of a different vision of what the social contract between the state and the individual should be. Because of ideas. Because of Orwellian thought crimes.
And yet, when we express our anger and our militancy against communism and human rights abuses, we are dismissed and discounted as hysterics and kooks. When we refuse to back down from the principles and values that we know are right – those principles that we so famously put forth to forge a " more perfect union" as the eloquent Senator from Illinois reminded us yesterday, all those years ago in Philadelphia- we are called intransigent in the best case and rabid dogs in a worse case.
Even when the media needs to consult a Cuban expert, they usually, flock to the Latells and the Peters and The Sweigs of the world rather than the Valladareses and the Montaners of the world. After all, what do they know about Cuba? They have only experienced the evil and oppression of the Castro regime in the flesh so what would they know?
Imagine if they had asked Bill Clinton, that good 'ol boy from Arkansas and "America's first Black President" to give his expert opinion on reverend Wright's comments and the black experience in African-American churches.
Imagine if a bunch of right wing pro American types went to protest in front of Rev. Wrights church the same way that a left wing anti American type group-Code Pink- came to protest against Castro's victims in la calle ocho.
Of course you can't - there's a double standard.
18 March 2008
It seems whenever someone I know catches something in the news or online regarding Cuba, they like to bounce it off me. Ouch!
I don't know why my non Cuban friends have this obsession to "expose" me to the opposite point of view. It's as if they believe that by always playing the devil's advocate, they're going to evolve my views into an enlightened nuanced fusion of my ideas and Fidel's. Ah, the dialectics of exile.
Maybe they just like to push my buttons. But, I know what oppression, misery and evil are and I don't care which way you look at it, that's all Fidel ever brought to my homeland.
So, anyway, to make a long story longer, a friend sends me a link to a new law being proposed by Florida State Rep. Eddy González–from the Republic of Hialeah-that would prohibit US residents or citizens who received their degrees through the Fidel Castro Scholarship from practicing medicine in Florida.
His added comment was "don't you people have anything better to do?"
It seems that my pal considers it a waste of taxpayer money to spend time on such biased and vengeful triviality.
At first, I was going to let it go and laugh it off. After all, I was having a long, busy day enjoying the freedom of our free market system…
…But maybe that "you people" was just a bit much.
It's funny how it doesn't bother anybody when "those people" who live in the Sunshine State go through the trouble and expense of amending the state constitution to prevent pregnant pigs from being confined in cages.
But when "us people" object to some med-student wannabe going to Cuba to study medicine for "free" because of the inherent immorality inflicted on our captive brethren by this purely propagandist ploy, it's a waste of time and taxpayer money.
As I told my buddy, those "free" medical scholarships are paid with the blood, sweat and tears of the Cuban people who make a ridiculous $14 per month and have lived on rationed food for almost 50 years. And if you want to talk about a waste of taxpayer money, the Cuban people get taxed at about a rate of 96% so that the regime can provide "free" services like the secret police, censorship and free Doctor Degrees to the oblivious.
The Castro regime pays for these "free" scholarships by keeping the Cuban people living in squalor. The scholarships are as un-"free" as the Cuban people. Not only are those people going to study medicine in Cuba "for free"being used for propaganda purposes, they are taking food out of the mouths of the poorest of the poor.
17 March 2008
The Chinese Model
A friend of mine was telling me she went to see "Bodies-The Exhibit", which is being shown in Fort Lauderdale, this weekend.
This is a big deal. Thousands of free and enlightened Americans flocking to see plasticized corpses in various stages of dissection, posed as if they were performing different activities, supposedly for education's sake. For macabre entertainment and making a buck is more like it, if you ask me.
The bodies used for the exhibit all came from somewhere in The People's Republic of China. The "stars" of the show all donated their bodies to science so they could be used in this traveling cadaver circus. Yea, right.
And we all accept as fact, without questions or reservations, that in a country where there is no rule of law, where there are no civil rights and where the corrupt and illegitimate government imposes its will on the citizens with deadly force, that these bodies where "harvested" in an ethical and lawful way, according to our constitutional standards of law.
Leave it the communists to exploit its citizens even after death and to the free world to accept it in the name of entertainment and profits-no questions asked.
That is the Chinese Model that many believe Cuba is heading for. A society where citizens are mere means of production in a huge government conglomerate designed to maximize profits using a pool of captive slaves. By the mere accidental geographical location of their birth, millions are condemned to be wholly owned by the state- a resource to be used and exploited like any other. And everybody else looks the other way.
The looking the other way-"la vista gorda"-also occurs when the living slaves are taken off the reservation to perform and entertain the free men-free by the accidental geographical location of their birth, mind you, not by their deeds or sacrifices. Sometimes, though, the slaves don't behave the way they are supposed to. This annoys the paying customers, the entertained.
For example, last week seven soccer playing Cuban slaves escaped form their communist masters while at an Olympic qualifying CONCACAF organized tournament in Tampa.
By the weekend, two knuckleheads, Andrew Hush and Jeff Rusnak who seem to have more passion for "The World Game" than for humanity were expressing their dismay that the Olympic qualifying tournament was ruined by defection of the seven Cubans. Drats! These two sports fans who were lucky enough to be born free are begrudging the fact that some who weren't, took actions to achieve that freedom at the expense of their precious soccer tournament. Do they have any idea of the scrifice that you make by making the decision to defect? No. And they don't care. They just want to see soccer.
These two guys are representative of an egocentric and self serving society that values its pleasure and entertainment above the freedom, humanity and dignity of their fellow human beings. They would be in favor all Cuban teams playing their matches in a heavily guarded, maximum security concentration camp so that the athletes can only escape by dying….maybe.
Well, they're going to get their wish this summer when the Olympics are held in Beijing, China-the World's largest concentration camp. There, they have perfected the Model. They own you and exploit you even after you die. Then, you are free to travel the world in a cadaver circus.
14 March 2008
It's The Economy, Estupido
According to this uncharacteristically-not so pro-regime AP piece, Granma's director Lazaro Barredo had these "reservations" about the Cuban people's expectations:
'I am worried that some people are waiting for the announcement of specific measures that would immediately resolve household or spiritual needs, or ones that would automatically lead to more consumption,' Barredo wrote.
According to Barredo, who we, of course, know is "freely" expressing his personal opinion, because that's what "journalists" do in Granma, Cubans are suffering for a form "malaise", (maybe he met with ex-pres Carter when the ex-pres paid tribute to Fidel on his vist to the island), and what they need to do is work and sacrifice even more and harder for the revolution. I've heard this one before. A few times. Hay que sacrificarse.
'We can't expect more needs to be resolved if people don't work more, if they don't produce more,' he wrote, adding: 'Unfortunately, there is a not-insignificant part of our society ... that wants to live without working.'
The article also has the mandatory quote from Cuban Expert Phil Peters, who blogs about Cuba over at The Cuban Triangle where he posts lots of pretty pictures and comments against the current US Cuba policy, who offers a retort of sorts to Barredo's comments:
'I don't think the problem is that Cubans want to live better without working for it,' he said. 'The problem is that even by working hard, Cubans cannot live because they are not paid enough to make a decent living.'
With all due respect, and I do respect Peters because he sat across a table from the lovely, talented and hot Maria Elvira Salazar, I think Peters who is described as a working for a "pro-democracy" think tank based outside Washington, needs to dive back in the democracy tank and re-think that answer.
I think we can all agree that the problem in Cuba has nothing to do with whether Cubans work or not or how much they get paid, but who they work for-the regime-which is undemocratic. The problem is lack of democracy and a totalitarian monopoly of all the means of production. Like they say in Miami: No Castro, No Problem.
To be fair, maybe the AP quoted our friend Peters out of context. Or maybe Phil doesn't work for a pro-democracy think tank, but a tank-democracy pro think. They get stuff mixed up at the AP a lot.
13 March 2008
There's a news story going around that Raúl is going to allow the purchase of computers and dvd's.
Let's see, there's only one official importer, seller and price setter on the island: Raúl. And according to the above referenced news article, the markup for a computer would be set by law at 240%-thank God they're communists and not bloodsucking, protalitarian exploiting capitalists becuase Wal-Mart, a bloodsucking, protalitarian exploiting capitalist company, for example, would charge something like $750 for a decent no frills home system. Plus a 240% markup, that would run it up to $1,800. That's 10.71 times the average ANNUAL salary of an ordinary Cuban with no access to hard currency. That means a person would have to work almost 11 years – without spending anything on room and board, clothes or personal hygene , just to buy a computer. Forget having a love interest-that's expensive and impossible if you're not spending anything on hygene and you live in Cuba-Cubanas don't play that.
In the US, it would be the equivalent of a $321,000 machine. I have on a those-a house.
But let's assume that your tia Cuca in Hialeah sends you $1,800 she won in a beauty contest, (She's Hot-looks like your Dad but with curves and hair), and you get a new computer. What are you going to do with it? Run personal finance software? Play Call of Duty III? Play Doom?-wait, that's not a game-that's your reality. There's no internet access because Raúl, (remember him?), is the only ISP on the island and he and his pal Ramiro don't want you surfing the web and being deceived and tempted by the siren song of a bunch of bloodsucking, protalitarian exploiting capitalists who are only interested in tricking you into spending $14 monthly salary on bad porno and assorted hiny things.
And how about software? You can't buy American software, like Windows, down there because of the embargo. Oh, what am I thinking? Raúl, (remember him?), is the law and he's OK with piracy and violating intellectual property laws as long as he can sell it to you for a 240% markup to prevent you from being exploited by the bloodsucking, protalitarian exploiting capitalist, Bill Gates.
Like I said, Whoopee!
Oh and get a surge protector a real good one-a UPS- that's another year of work.
sorry for the "descarga".
Tomorrow is Friday and I will try to post something positive.
12 March 2008
Glo, Say It Ain't So ...
There's a couple of interesting quotes attributed to the Miami diva in this article. I don't know if Gloria was tired or if she was tailoring her answers to an anglo audience or what, but her statements may explain why she doesn't see a problem with inviting the Che loving Carlos Santana as a contributor on a CD dedicated to her former homeland, 90 Miles.
He author describes Gloria as:
the daughter of Cuban exiles - her dad was a political prisoner after Castro's revolution
Gloria, who was born on the Pearl of the Antilles- to which she owes her fame and fortune-doesn't describe herself as an exile, but refers to herself as an immigrant, however:
"They want to hear about my experiences, the difficulties and what I've learned along the way," she said. "Especially being an immigrant - which is discussed so much these days - and having success and living the American dream."
Estefan also has this to say:
For (husband) Emilio and me, the music is the one tie to our homeland
I guess Gloria and Emilio are lucky immigrants. They turn down the volume on the music and the "one tie" is gone. Others, exiles and refugees, are tied to that island in ways that they have to turn up the volume to drown out the sorrow.
She also expresses her opinion on the immediate future of Cuba under (r)aúl here.
11 March 2008
Chavez and his bought and paid for friends in Latin America do not respect the rule of law and act accordingly. Here in the US, however, it's a different story. And we, as such, do not do business with state sponsors of terror, at least when it's blatantly obvious. The laptops and documents recovered in the Ecuadorian pretty much prove that Chavez and Correa are in bed with the "rebels".
Now, the administration, who was content to tolerate Chavez's dalliances and belligerences to keep the oil flowing and our SUV's rolling, is being forced to investigate his involvement with the FARC. Chavez may get his wish after all. No business with the empire. This would be a serious short-term blow for his cash flow-until he finds other buyers that can refine his sour and sludgly crude- and could have serious repercussions in his client states, like Cuba. My guess is Hugo just became very expendable.
Now, I'm reading that not only is Chavez a state sponsor of terrorism, but that Correa's Ecuador, is a state sponsored by terrorism.
Our own Taliban, here in this Hemisphere. Ecuadoristan.
07 March 2008
Loud Words
These prisoners of conscience live in daily torment. And so do hundreds of others. Yet most of the world says nothing. This is a sad and curious pattern. Last fall, dozens of young Cubans who wore bracelets imprinted with one word, "cambio," or change, were arrested by Cuban police because of their political beliefs. Yet in the face of this assault on the freedom of expression, much of the world was silent.
Last December, Cuban authorities stormed into a Catholic church, tear-gassed parishioners, and dragged 18 worshipers out. A Catholic official called the episode, "the worst attack against a church in 45 years." And yet in the face of this assault on religious freedom, much of the world was silent.
And last weekend, Cubans were pushed and shoved and beaten as they distributed copies of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights. That same week, Cuba signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The international community applauded Cuba for signing a piece of paper -- but on the abuses that same week, much of the world was silent.
A small band of brave nations; countries such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia have placed themselves at the forefront for the fight for human freedom in Cuba. They recently lived through communist tyranny. They remember what life is like under the boot of the oppressor. They know the daily hardships that ordinary citizens have to endure just to survive. And they refuse to look away.
Unfortunately, the list of countries supporting the Cuban people is far too short -- and the democracies absent from that list are far too notable. When a new day finally dawns for Cubans, they will remember the few brave nations that stood with them, and the many that did not.
A few weeks ago reports of the supposed retirement of Cuba's dictator initially led many to believe that the time had finally come for the United States to change our policy on Cuba and improve our relations with the regime. That sentiment is exactly backward. To improve relations, what needs to change is not the United States; what needs to change is Cuba. Cuba's government must begin a process as peaceful democratic change. They must release all political prisoners. They must have respect for human rights in word and deed, and pave the way for free and fair elections.
So far, all Cuba has done is replace one dictator with another. And its former ruler is still influencing events from behind the scenes. This is the same system, the same faces, and the same policies that led Cuba to its miseries in the first place.
I know, I know, I' ve said all this before, ad nauseum. But that's what is like when nobody listens. You are forced to give the same speech. Over and Over.
Well, that actually wasn't me or another Cuban, although it could very well have been.
That was the President of the United States. By some strange coincidence I happened to be by a TV set tuned into Fox, who carried the speech live.
When I was listening to it, and mind you, I'm not Dubya's biggest fan, my first impression was that it sounded as if had been written by an exile who has felt the tyranny in the flesh.
Mr. Bush's words were as emotive and heartfelt as any that anyone of us exiles could have written. Loud words.
The biggest difference is that he has the power to put some action behind those loud words. We can't.
You know what they say about actions.
06 March 2008
I was looking for something to post. Looking through the news, there's Cuba, Raul, Obama Chavez, Columbia, Oil. So many things in flux. So many variables. So many changes, I was thinking. And yet the circumstances surrounding my homeland, don't seem to ever change…
Oh yeah
Still dont know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought Id got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But Ive never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
Im much too fast to take that test
(turn and face the strain)
Dont want to be a richer man
(turn and face the strain)
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I cant trace time
I did a post about change, over at Babalu. Everybody wants a change down there. Everybody wants a piece of the change so that they can get some change-in their pockets. Never mind the Cuban people, the Cuban children, three generations of which have grown up to see their dreams sacrificed on the altar of Fidel's tropical Marxist tyranny. And now, others are invited to join in on the humiliation of a people…
I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through
(turn and face the strain)
Dont tell them to grow up and out of it
(turn and face the strain)
Where's your shame
You've left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you cant trace time
I never ever thought that it would last this long as I was looking back at Varadero's fading coastline from my National Airlines Boeing 727 flight's window all those years ago. Every year, I get older and the possibility of seeing freedom return in my lifetime gets smaller…..
Strange fascination, fascinating me
Ah changes are taking the pace I'm going through
(turn and face the strain)
Oh, look out you rock n rollers
(turn and face the strain)
Pretty soon now youre gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I cant trace time
I said that time may change me
But I cant trace time
05 March 2008
Cheesy Deal With The Devil
The "masses" are clamoring for food, to be able to travel, to join the rest of humanity in the 21st century and finally leave the fabulous 50's behind.
But it is not to be. Not in Cuba. Things will not change there, at least not substantially until the tyrant is dead and incinerated.
So what are the Cubans to do? Well for them to forget their many troubles, Fidel is importing some opium as a diversion. The opiate of the "masses"- religion.
Fresh on the heels of Cardinal Bertone's odious visit to the island, we learn that more ecclesiastical reinforcements are on the way.
As the next step in the Church's "investment" in Cuba, the regime is entering into a partnership with 4 German monks who they have granted permission to build a monastery near Havana. Talk about a deal with the Devil:
The four monks will be provided by the Missionary Benedictines, also known as the Ottilien Congregation, an order of monks with its world headquarters at Landsberg am Lech, west of Munich.
I hope the monks took a vow of hunger or brought their own food. I'm sure they'll find that everyday life in Cuba is perhaps more austere and lacking in material comfort than life in the monastery.
So what's in it for the tyrant?
Well, Castro, supposedly agreed to the partnership before he "retired" last month, but with a caveat:
And of course, the church bent over backwards to please the cheese loving despot.
It was understood that Castro had insisted that one of the four monks with farm experience be skilled in cheese-making.
Maybe Hatuey was on to something…
04 March 2008
You Can Always Count on Them ...
I like to think that this is because I broke the mold, but I know better.
What was broken was my parents' heart seeing their country being destroyed piece by piece, province by province, town by town, street by street, home by home, family by family, person by person. They chose not to bring another child into Castro's orgy of destruction.
Their mission became to get me out of Cuba. When I was around five years old, I overheard a scary conversation between my mother and a friend who had asked her why she didn't have any more children. My mother told her friend, sobbing, that she would rather die than bring another life into Cuba to suffer and struggle for no good reason, ("a sufrir y pasar trabajo, por gusto"). She said all she cared about was "getting this kid out of here before they kill him." She was convinced that my mouth and the revolution were on a collision course. I wasn't very fond of the olive drabbed "milicianos" thugs who were put in charge of destroying Cuban society and took their mission very seriously. And I had my own mission - joder.
For example, in first grade I was given a revolutionary "talk" a "charla", at school. One day, probably a Friday, they had us lined up outside in the schoolyard just before the commencement of some revolutionary program and they started counting heads. I took offense to that and said "no me cuentes, que no soy gallina"-"don't count me, I'm not a hen"-under my breath. I didn't exactly know what that meant, but it sounded pretty rebellious. The revolutionary zealot "teacher" overheard me. After the program, I was taken to the office where they very nicely said what they always said. The same infernal speech…kind of like Obam…but that's another post… "Mijito, tu sabes….blah, blah, blah, the revolution, blah, blah, blah, Fidel, blah, blah, blah……"
So I didn't blame my mother for the way she felt and I saw her point, but she could at least have gotten me a puppy!?!
Seriously, as I grew older, I always wondered if I would have had kids myself had I not been rescued from the island prison. I really see no point in consciously doing so – as cold and as nihilistic as that sounds, But hey, I'm not a very warm and fuzzy person. I blame Che. They told me to be like him and in a way, I am.
ANYWAY, the reason I bring this up is because the Cuban regime has announced that for the second straight year, the Cuban population has declined. By 1,889. Yes, in a country of 11.2 million people, they can tell you, with totalitarian precision, that in 2007 there were exactly 1,889 less Cubans in Cuba then there were the year before. Not 1,885 not 1,890. Not 2,000, which, by the way, is an immaterial .0168069425%. No, 1,889. EXACTLY.
I wonder how they counted the 5 who were on a Coast Guard cutter on the way back to the Cuban concentration camp after being "intercepted" at sea on December 31, 2007? Would they have been numbers 1,890 to 1,894 or where they included in the 1,889?
Anyway, thanks to my mom, I'm one of the APPROXIMATELY 2,000,000 Cuban exiles that escaped Castro's animal farm or concentration camp-pick your metaphor-and are not counted like livestock or inmates.
03 March 2008
Cuba And Globalization
Their main goal is to stop progress and prevent people from living comfortable and productive lives.
Once people are relatively happy and gain some financial independence, they quickly lose the need for Marxism's envious ideology. After all, Marxism dogma of no private property is an easier sell to the have-nots than the haves.
The Soviet Union is no longer around to check the power of the free-enterprise system, so we have all these slackers running around warning us about the evils of hard work, success and profits. They preach against Globalization, Global Warming, American Hegemony, etc.,-all ways to stop progress and the spread of wealth to buy some time until they can regroup and make a comeback.
So where do all these disillusioned leftists go to commensurate about their losing streak?
Why the last bastion of Socialism-Cuba.
Havana, Mar 3 (Prensa Latina) Some 1,000 experts from 50 countries are to attend in this capital Monday the International Meeting of Economists on Globalization and Development Problems, amid a panorama of economic uncertainty and high oil prices.
Now, ironically if they want to look at development problems, they're in the right place. But these folks aren't interested in developing anything. Their idea of progress is to stop development because it serves their purposes.
Also on the ironic front is the "high oil prices" since the biggest reason for oil prices jumping in the last couple of weeks has to do with Hugo Chavez's ignorance, belligerence, and saber rattling. Hugo is , of course, the most fervent if not vocal anti American Hegemony and Free Market critic around.
And even more ironic is that they will be discussing:
The US recession's impact on economies of the Latin American and Caribbean countries, and the international situation due to the explosion of the private debt and the real estate sector are among the lectures of the meeting.


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|Maine Hunts in the North Maine Wilderness
We outfit for moose, bear, coyote, upland birds, turkey and goose hunting. Our vast hunting area consisting of state and private land features abundant productive habitat. Bird watching and moose viewing tours are exciting and filled with the sights and sounds of nature. The historic lodge, built for entertaining, provides lasting memories. New in 2014 is a North Maine Woods Safari lodge set to provide a modern "glamping" experience. "Glamping" is going camping, but with glamour. It's defined by some "as satisfying your craving for the outdoors and your penchant for a good meal, nice glass of wine, and a comfortable bed."


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Alba + Toni: a wine cellar-wedding
An intimate gathering with stunning views of the Costa da Morte set the scene for the wedding of Alba and Toni. The catch for the guests was they didn't learn the venue until they day of - it was kept a suprise until the very last moment! When they got there and their faces were a poem, the winery...
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At Salt River Fields
Scottsdale, Ariz. — Rockies left-hander Yohan Flande turned in the best pitching performance of the young spring schedule Saturday, tossing two perfect innings in Colorado's 9-5 victory over San Diego at Salt River Fields.
Flande is on a minor-league deal with the Rockies, and his odds of making the opening-day roster are long. But he's making a decision more difficult after the Rockies designated him for assignment after last season.
"I got taken off the roster, but I didn't let it bother me. I knew I wanted to be here," said Flande, 30, who's pitched two seasons in the majors. "I'm thankful to the organization that's given me an opportunity. Hopefully I can help them win a championship."


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A team of researchers spent four years studying electron microscope pictures to better understand the effects of sleep on brain cells. The team found that when we sleep, the connections between nerve cells shrink to help "renormalize" the synapses for the next day. The details are in a paper that was just published in the journal Science.
Considering all of the recent scientific advances, it's surprising how little we know about sleep. As researchers have studied possible explanations for why our body needs sleep, one theory began to gain traction: the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis. Synapses connect brain cells called neurons, allowing them to communicate and store information. According to the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, these synapses are activated over and over throughout the day—resulting in growth and saturation. Sleep allows the connections to "reset," helping us start the next day refreshed and ready to absorb new information.
To test the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, scientists from the Wisconsin Center for Sleep and Consciousness used a form of 3D electron microscopy to look for size differences in synapses between the conscious brain and the sleeping brain. The research team used a scanning method with extremely high spatial resolution, called serial scanning electron microscopy, to analyze 6,920 synapses in mouse brains. During analysis, the researchers were unaware of which scans were from sleeping mice, removing possible biases.
The team discovered that after a few hours of sleep, about 80% of the synapses shrunk by an average of 18%. The synapses that didn't decrease in size were the largest and likely associated with the most stable memory traces. The research team was surprised that the synapses shrunk so much within hours of sleep. The data seems to confirm the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis; synapses decrease in size during sleep so that they can renormalize for the next morning.
The team's findings finally provide an explanation for why sleep is so important to overall brain health. By scaling down the synapses while we sleep, the brain avoids oversaturation and gets a chance to rest. This process allows us to start fresh the next morning, ready to learn new information and form additional memories.
De Vivo et al. Ultrastructural evidence for synaptic scaling across the wake/sleep cycle. Science (2017).


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They say that what can go wrong, will. Well fortunately that is not quite true, but there does seem to be a correlation with the idea that the more trouble an equipment breakdown would cause, the more likely it will actually break down.
Within hours of arriving on Washington Island WI-001L my Macbook's hard drive again bit the dust. As I had it loaded with the software I intended to use for the CQ WW Contest it is a bit annoying.
So going to my Palm I find that it has somehow ended up discharged. That it was perhaps helped by youngsters playing its feeble games might just have something to do with it.
Seems that one of the two cellphones joined the Palm in going flat.
Calling my Apple Store I learn that certain of the early Macbooks seemed to be jinxed with loosing hard-disks. With my copy of Leopard waiting for my return I sure wish this had happened a week down the road, when the OS-X 10.5 "Time Machine" would make loosing the machine's hard-disk pretty much a non-event.
Oh did I mention that none of the Amp cables I brought along for the FT-950 will work either in the Linear Plug or the Tuner Plug? And that the QRP PSK-31 Setup I brought along depended not only on the computer that is now DOA, but on a cable I left on the bench at home?
On the plus side the Expert SPE 1K Amp is really neat!
The FT-950 has been getting great reports.
With some very welcome help from Hector AD4C the Omni VII is set up really well!
And that the footings and slab are in place for George W9EVT's Shack Expansion?
More soon!
The 'Rock-Mite' was designed by Dave Benson K1SWL, and as he puts the reasons so well, from his website:
The 'Rock-Mite' grew out of my desire to offer a 'one-evening' CW transceiver kit which would be both affordable and easy to construct. It first appeared at 'Lobstercon' – a QRP gathering on the Maine coast- in early July, 2002, where it was provided to all attendees courtesy of Small Wonder Labs and the NorCal QRP club.
The Rock-Mite is a crystal-controlled direct-conversion transceiver available for 80M, 40M, 30M or 20M. It features an on-board 8-pin PIC microcontroller which controls a T-R offset on key-down. A brief tap of a pushbutton control switch reverses the offset to yield a second operating frequency. Pushing and holding on the pushbutton activates the speed adjustment routine for the built-in Iambic keyer. If you'd rather use an external keyer or straight key, there's a 'drop-through' mode which allows use of an external keying source.
You'll note in the image above that the Rock-Mite uses two crystals. The first is used in the local oscillator for transmitter and receiver. The second is used as a receiver front-end filter. This crystal significantly reduces the SWBC energy present at the receiver mixer; as a result, unwanted SWBC reception is dramatically reduced.
The Rock-mite uses one surface-mount part with fairly large spacing. There are no toroids to wind, so assembly should be a snap! The Rock-Mite uses subminiature epoxy-encapsulated RF chokes instead of toroids
Double-sided PCB 2.0″ x 2.5″, plated-thru-holes, solder masked & silkscreened for easy assembly
0.5W power output at 12V supply.
Supply voltage range 8-15V
Automatic T/R offset, reversible
Built-in Iambic keyer, 5-40 WPM
Built in sidetone, 700 Hz
Includes assembly instructions and operating tips
All on-board parts supplied in kit
3560 kHz, 3579 kHz, 7030 kHz (DX QRP calling frequency), 7040 kHz (N. America QRP calling frequency), 7122 kHz (US Novice/Tech+), 10106 kHz or 14060 kHz
Small Wonder Labs
WY3A's "The RockMite Rocks" pages
N0RC's "The RockMite Files" pages
Yahoo Groups RockMite Group
eHam RockMite Reviews
Google Search on RockMite
Mity Box enclosure by American Morse
This kit is a blast to build. Though I took more than one evening to build mine, mostly due not being organized for the build. I put mine in a Mity Box by American Morse and the results are awesome! This is one fun build!
I am afraid I lost my in-process build pictures when the Macbook's aftermarket large hard drive stopped driving, but the RockMite is well documented on the web.
Highly recommended!
My local club, Mancorad W9DK, arranged to have its former backup repeater retuned to an additional 2 meter frequency pair. The club's ARES/RACES efforts would very much benefit from having an additional repeater to run a second net during drills or a a possible call out.
The process of course involved applying for an additional coordinated frequency pair, and then having the existing 146.61 backup unit reworked to the new frequency. Our local Motorola dealer did this work for a very modest cost knowing the community as whole would benefit from their work.
The unit is an old Motorola MICOR family unit, which a series of modifications for Amateur Radio Use.
As this unit require physical intervention for control, I'm one of several club members responsible to deal with any problems with this repeater.
Of course it seem to know that those of use looking after it are not familiar with the nitty-gritty of MICOR troubleshooting or even navigating around a MICOR setup.
There are several on-line resources we've found helpful:
As I write the unit is down waiting for some additional troubleshooting and correction of a discovered safety issue requiring rework to protect anyone inside the unit from a spot of exposed line level wiring connection.
The club may add a third repeater (this one a 440 unit) which of course is a completely difference design. Fortunately where the details may differ the main designs are pretty straight up.
That Apple Computer rolls out of Leopard OS-X 10.5 this Friday is hardly news.
The Media is full of public announcements telling us all about it.
But the reasons why I am extremely eager to put it into use are more personal.
A number of the new features look to have direct applications for my use.
The enhanced iChat will make supporting relatives living around the world so much easier. By being able to "share" their desktops I will be able to have a good look at their questions & needs. Should be slick!
Time Machine backup system is a double edged sword. Recovery of children's lost homework or the file I loose will be helpful. My XYL Alison thinks being able to scroll back and forth through various edits is really trick. But it does bring home that a deleted file may live on in systems with backups on-line. It will be interesting to see what the explicit-delete-file process is.
The improved Desktop will help keep me organized with "stacks." I use project folders currently, but this looks like a nice way to arrive at the same point with a bit more flare.
A better integrated Mail and iCal system appears to have automated or semi-automated a number of task that frustrate under OS-X 10.4 or under Windows. The way it handles email-to-calendar and email-to-Address Book will be a great improvement. The harmonization started in Tiger OS-X 10.4 certainly will move way ahead under Leopard 10.5.
The implimentation of Linux Spaces will be another incorporation of the best of other systems into the Apple OS-X product. I can see having a Blog Space, an Amateur Radio Space, a Correspondence Space and a Fun Space running like I do on a Linux Box.
There is much more, but so far the details look to really support one of my goals with computers, to make the machine & software as transparent to the task as possible.
I have a copy (family pack) arriving on Leopard Day and then have four machines to update with the new OS-X 10.5
More after the this Friday!
Our fellow blogger and friend Scott NE1RD of 100 Pound DXpedition bloging fame is off with his XYL Sandy for a well deserved Island Vacation.
The ARRL Bulletin listed his effort as:
ST. KITTS AND NEVIS, V4. Scott, NE1RD will be QRV as V4/NE1RD
from St. Kitts, IOTA NA-104, from October 24 to 31. He plans
to run QRP power in the upcoming CQ WW SSB contest. QSL to home call.
Though Scott NE1RD assures us that he will be running more than QRP this trip!
Keep an eye on Scott NE1RD's 100 Pound DXpedition blog for the latest information!


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Do you know what your personal core values are? Unless you have done the work, you probably can't rattle them off the top of your head. Values guide our behavior and are the foundation of our personal code of conduct.
I don't remember the first time that I did a values assessment, but it was an eye-opening experience. I remember at the time I was in a job that didn't fulfill me, and when I discovered my values, it was obvious that they did not mesh with those of my boss or employer. Knowing my values helped me figure out what type of job I wanted to have, and go after it.
Let's look at how your values can have a direct impact on your healthy lifestyle habits. Let's say you love relaxation and you experience this by sitting on the couch watching television. You know this is a bad habit but it allows you to experience relaxation consistently, so it becomes a daily habit.
Article continues below...
Sign up for our weekly updates and receive a powerful tool designed to walk you through, step-by-step, how to identify your values.
Imagine you wake up one day and decide that you really want to incorporate regular exercise into your lifestyle (it could happen!). You commit to 30 minutes of walking every afternoon before you make dinner. Guess what happens when it comes time to put on those walking shoes? That's right – you find yourself planted on the couch with the television tuned to your favorite show. Ah, relaxation.
This is common – we do things either out of habit or just because it is the easy way, without paying attention to what we truly value in life.
One positive outcome (out of many) about knowing your values is it will make your decision-making process easier and more efficient. When you make decisions by looking through this lens, you consciously decide that you will take action that supports your values.
I know what you're asking right now – how do I find my values? There are many methods for doing this exercise. A little bit of Googling will help you find some exercises; however, I put together a nifty workbook that you can download to do an assessment and finally identify the values that drive your life.
Once you know what your values are, keep them top of mind as you navigate life. Trust me, choices and decisions will become easy peasy, lemon squeezy, and you will be your authentic self.
Corrie Ann Gray is a writer, researcher, coach, and cookie enthusiast who lives in Los Angeles, CA. She started the Clean Body Project to share all of her knowledge and resources with others who are interested in running their own experiment into clean holistic living. She is also known as The Renaissance Soul Writer at www.corrieanngray.com.


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The pattern is pretty clear. In even-numbered years (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014) Apple releases all-new iPhone form factors: 3G, 4, 5, 6/6 Pl...
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Web development is probably one of the most interesting industries to be in right now. Whether you're thinking about the Silicon Valley, ...
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Blake Shelton is a venture capitalist - so are Gwen Stefani, Adam Levine, and Pharrell Williams. But instead of betting on companies, the...
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According to a study of 300 career sites, carried out by TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications, LLC, the time it takes for candidate...
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By many accounts, local communities are getting greener. And this weekend, Sheridan will be getting more "invisible." Sheridan Media's Betsy Love has the
Local communities are getting greener, but they are also getting getting redder, oranger and purpler. Whether your fancy is tomatoes or snow-peas, local interest in gardening is growing. In fact, in just under a year, around five new community gardens have sprouted. This is after the one which was started at Sheridan College last year became so popular that---well, that more community gardens were needed to fill the demand.
This weekend, you are invited to help make our area more colorful—and in a way more "invisible"--by helping build a community fence for the garden by Sagebrush school in Sheridan. Gardener extraordinaire, Bobbi Legerski, explains:
The building will begin around 8, snow or shine, but Bobby says come when you can. And if you stick around til lunch-time:
In case you didn't catch that:
Will be served, thanks to the superb hunting abilities of Dr. Scott Nickerson, who donated the meat for this project. It is not clear whether salad, which is not quite yet in season, will be part of the meal.
Also, if you would like your own plot in one of the community gardens, you have about a week left to reserve one of the few remaining spaces. We have the contact number posted for you on our website.
461-0337 Bobbi Legerski


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Argyle Pink Diamonds
by Lars Larsen
April 25, 2012 / Coloured Gemstones,Diamond Education,Engagement Rings
Argyle Pink Diamonds are widely argued to be the most sort after and expensive diamonds on the world market. The rarity and their characteristically beautiful deep pink hue is what sets these beautiful diamonds apart from other coloured diamonds on the market.
The Argyle mine is located in the Kimberley Region in northern Western Australia. Exploration of the Argyle region started in the 1970s and it wasn't until the 1980s that the Argyle mine was up and running. Since then the Argyle mine has continued to grow as the world's leading producer of intense pink diamonds. Every year Pink Argyle diamonds are sold on the world market for astoundingly high prices. Differing from white diamonds, pink diamonds are graded on their colour and saturation. The more intense the pink the higher the value – 1P being the darkest and 8P being the lightest.
It is estimated that the Argyle mines supplies 90 per cent of the worlds pink diamonds. However, this number is diminishing. It has been said that there is only 10 years supply of pink diamonds remaining, making now the perfect time to invest.
At Larsen Jewellery we work along with the industry's most reputable suppliers to source some of the world's most beautiful pink diamonds. One of our talented jewellers can work with you to come up with a stunning piece of jewellery to include one of the world's most beautiful natural treasures!


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The Guest Relations and Campus Tours unit within Student Outreach and Recruitment (SOAR) is the first point of contact for many prospective CSUN students, parents and guardians, educational counselors and community members. To get a better feel for campus life at CSUN, we invite you to book a campus tour or request any of our publications. If you're a current student, the University Ambassadors program is a great opportunity to get involved and learn more about CSUN while earning priority class registration.
Student services information desk
The student services information desk is staffed by current students who are ready to answer questions and facilitate directions for guests, students, faculty and staff. The desk is located on the first floor of Bayramian Hall directly in front of the high-traffic counters for Admissions and Records, Student Accounting and the Financial Aid & Scholarship Department. Please feel free to drop by.


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Has blogging been on your to-do list forever?
I've talked to so many moms who are interested in starting a blog, whether as a hobby or because they want to contribute to their family's income, but they just don't know where to get started.
I shared that I made over $10,000 in August blogging. It has been a huge blessing to my family and I'm still in shock that I get to do this for a living.
Getting started blogging can be a little overwhelming. I've been doing this for 9 years and I still have days when I'm not sure what to tackle next.
The good news is, there are some unbelievable resources out there. I blogged for years before seeing any real income. What really took my blog (and my income) to the next level was spending the time (and money) investing in myself.
It was a pricey investment but it was so worth it. Fortunately, there's a more affordable option for you.
If you are serious about wanting to start a blog or take your blog to the next level, The Genius Blogger's Toolkit can help you do it.
This blog bundle is only available through November 1st, and once it's gone, it's gone.
I was able to purchase this bundle a few weeks ago, because I'm an affiliate, and I am shocked at how much information is crammed full of information that has taken me YEARS to learn on my own. Years.
I've been studying the information for weeks and still learning something new every day.
I make a point of prioritizing my growth as a blogger, and one of the best ways I've found is by learning from other experienced bloggers who've mastered a particular aspect of blogging.
Problem is, it can get pretty pricey to buy all the new books or courses that cover the topics I'm looking for.
The Genius Blogger's Toolkit makes it affordable to learn how to blog or improve your blogging skills.
I bought it immediately when I saw that it included these two resources I'd been thinking about buying anyway (but at a much cheaper price):
- Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook Master Package by Abby Lawson
- 17 Strategies I Used to Go from 17K to 350K+ Pageviews in 9 Months by Lena Gott
I'm so glad I purchased it because I'm already seeing positive changes to my blog. I'm easily going to make the money I spent back this month.
What is included in The Genius Blogger's Toolkit?
The Genius Blogger's Toolkit is a digital package crammed full of brilliant tools to help you grow your blog, work smarter & make more money.
(But for way less than you'd normally spend!)
The team at Ultimate Bundles has put together the best resources on ALL the topics that matter to bloggers, like mastering social media, monetization, creating and selling products, time management and productivity, nurturing an email list, and so much more.
Here's what you get:
24 eBooks
33 eCourses & audio files
5 printable packs
In total, the toolkit includes over $3,500 of blogging tips, strategies, tutorials and amazingly practical information and ideas. Plus you get free bonus offers worth $1,447, with 17 tools and services to help you run your blog.
But the truly amazing part? They're selling it for a crazy 98% off of regular price!
I know, it sounds too good to be true, but I promise it's not. Ultimate Bundles has been around a long time and creating these packages is really their thing (they've sold over 180,000 of them on all sorts of topics), so you can trust this is the real deal.
Even better, they're all about making sure you LOVE this toolkit. There's a full 30-day happiness guarantee, so there's really no risk in trying it out.
The most important detail, though, is that this toolkit is available for seven days only.
After Tuesday night, November 1st, the sale ends and you'd have to buy all of these products individually.
I'd hate for you to miss out, so click HERE to learn more or buy the bundle.
It's even backed by a full money-back happiness guarantee, so you can make sure it's right for you. Get what you need to work smarter instead of harder, grow your platform, and earn more. Learn more or get your bundle HERE.
You may also like these posts about blogging:
- Blog Income Report: How I Made Over $10,700 Last Month Working from Home
- How I Made Over $5300 Blogging from Home
- How to Start a Blog When you Have No Free Time
- Blogging Resource: Link Party Master List


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- Home
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Fri, 01/22/2010 - 14:33 | by site_admin
Important Note
To check the status of the grant you have already submitted, please visit www.PharmaEdGrants.com
Please read the Guidelines prior to submitting your request. If a grant application is incomplete, it will automatically be declined.
We are not accepting applications for general support of the following regularly scheduled activities: • Professional Society annual meetings, special interest conferences, sponsored regional series, or other regularly scheduled Society-sponsored meetings • Single- or half-day regional update conferences Disease state-specific educational activities held in conjunction with these regularly scheduled meetings may be considered.
Blank Registration and Applications for Reference
Registration form CE/CME Certified grant application Non-Certified grant application Patient Education grant application Fellowship Travel application Fellowship Support application
Click on the link below to access an Excel workbook that contains the line items required for submission of budgets online. Select the appropriate tab to view budget line items for the grant type that aligns with your application. Please note this worksheet is for your reference only. The actual budget items must be entered into the application form.


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Box Deadlines
Shares & Products / Settings / Box Deadlines
CSA Manager uses two different deadlines to help you process your deliveries for a given date: an ORDER and a FINAL deadline. These deadlines are most critical for farms using recurring (weekly) billing for their subscriptions and/or selling add-ons that are billed weekly.
Note: The official "Delivery Day" is designated as 12:01 AM on the day of delivery. All calculated deadline times are based on this starting point.
ORDER DEADLINE (for the member): The Order Deadline is the last minute in which subscribers can use CSA Manager to modify their boxes (place a new subscription, order add-on items, or put their box on hold). After this point in time designated by the farmer, all boxes for a particular delivery day become closed to any further modification by the buyer. NOTE: Farmers will still be able to make changes on their members' behalf.
FINAL DEADLINE (for the farmer): The Final Deadline is the moment in time after which all CSA boxes and delivery details are "set in stone." No changes are allowed to any deliveries after the Final Deadline. Signup sheets, packing lists, and other production and delivery documents become available for printout right after the Final Deadline.
What happens BETWEEN the Order Deadline and the Final Deadline? Immediately after the Order Deadline, all payments due are automatically debited from the buyers' credit cards. Some people's payments may not get processed because their credit card has expired or reached the credit limit; in those cases you and the member will receive an e-mail alert. These members only have until your Final Deadline to update their payment information to allow a successful payment in order to be placed back on your delivery list for the week.
How to Set Your Deadlines: Use the Box Deadline entry form to assign your deadlines. We suggest you first determine the Final Deadline that will allow you to meet your box preparation and delivery schedule, followed by determining the Order Deadlines that provide a sufficient time to complete all financial transactions before the system locks down for production.
After you've completed the table and SAVED your entry, CSA Manager will calculate and display your customized deadlines based on each delivery day you've entered previously.
Review the calculated deadline information carefully. You can repeatedly adjust and save your rolling deadline criteria until you arrive at an optimal rolling deadline schedule for you and your members.
If you want to adjust any particular day's rolling deadline, use the green arrow in the "ʺExceptions"ʺ column to shift an individual's day'ʹs deadlines by one (or more) days. This adjustment feature is useful for grouping deadlines for different days together to simplify your deadline schedule. When you place your cursor over the upward green arrow, the rollover message "Shift rolling deadlines back by one day" appears. After you select to roll the deadline back, the box displays the message (shifted 1 day) reflecting how your deadlines were changed.
After rolling "back" a deadline, you are presented an equivalent green arrow cursor which allows you to shift your rolling deadline ahead one day at a time. Note: You are ONLY able to shift the rolling deadline ahead up to its original deadline setting, not further in the future.


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I'm writing this Blog on Mother's Day, but that hasn't let me off the hook of watching my oldest son play rugby for the Norwich under 15 team! They won – a great way to start the day!
This is my first Blog as PPMA President and what an honour that is! I am passionate about public services and the difference they can make to people's lives and I am passionate about great people management and the difference that can make too. So to have the opportunity now to be President of PPMA at this time of profound change in the public sector is amazing. I am sure it will be a bumpy ride at times, but I am an optimist and I am determined to use this year to speak up for some of the great work that I know is going on in our organisations. To do this I need you to help me- please send me your stories so that I can shine a light on the best of the public sector.
I know that right now life is tough out there for managers in the public sector and the scale of the challenge for HR in supporting our organisations as the impact of the cuts starts to bite is not for the faint hearted! In my own organisation (Norfolk County Council) we are seeing 1,000 jobs go over the next few months. A lot of this reduction is being achieved through vacancy management and voluntary redundancy, but there is still a high human cost to all this and that is tough for everyone involved.
One of my first jobs on behalf of PPMA last week was to attend a joint CIPD/LSE event on employee engagement in the public sector. David MacLeod was there to talk about the new employee engagement task force launched at Downing Street last week and about the significant additional challenge for employee engagement in the public sector with the scale of reduction we face. He posed a great question: how do we create the conditions in which we look back at this period and our role in it and feel satisfied with what we have done? That's a big question for PPMA as an Association and one I will keep coming back to!
While I'm on the subject of engagement I really want to see more engagement going on within PPMA itself this year. It's important that our members' voice is heard more clearly, and that is one of my big aims for the year. We got off to a good start at the AGM last week, kicking off an important debate about PPMA's future direction. If you are a member, you can read more about this in the paper on the Member's only section of the website. If you're not yet a PPMA member, then do join us!
Till next week,
Anne Gibson – PPMA President 2011/12