Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (IPS) - A global energy plan to be released by the World Bank next month risks squandering scarce resources on so-called clean coal technologies and misses bigger investments in renewable energy, but does address gaps in the energy needs of the poor, according to a new analysis by an environmental group.

World Bank officials will discuss the document, called the “Progress Report on the Investment Framework for Clean Energy and Development”, later this month before it is placed on the agenda of the joint annual meetings of the World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), next month in Singapore.

A similar programme focusing on longer term country-level activities and global research will be completed by the Group of Eight most industrialised countries at their summit in Japan in 2008.

Rich nations had asked the World Bank, and other international financial institutions, at a summit last year in Gleneagles, Scotland to draft the plan under discussion to combat global warming and help secure future energy supplies.

The World Bank input comes amid heightened concerns about soaring global energy prices and the connection between high energy consumption and climate change.

When the first draft of the document came out at the spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, many observers said they were shocked by the lack of references to poor people.

But analysts who have seen a leaked version of the latest report say that it now devotes considerable space to the needs of the 1.6 billion poor people, particularly in Africa and South Asia, who presently lack access to modern energy.

The strategy’s advocates inside the Bank say it goes a long way in dealing with environmental problems and climate change concerns.

“This paper addresses the need to produce energy in a manner that reduces local and regional air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,” Robert Watson, chief scientist at the World Bank, told IPS.

While acknowledging the improvements, the California-based watchdog group International Rivers Network (IRN) says that the plan misses “the double dividend of renewable energy” — namely, combating climate change and reducing poverty.

In a brief analysis of the document, IRN argues that clean technologies like wind, solar, modern biomass, geothermal and small hydropower are available locally, create jobs and have very low environmental impacts, and could better achieve this dividend.

The group, which presses for wider adoption of renewable energy and fewer environmentally damaging mega-projects, faulted the Bank for prioritising “large regional hydro and thermal generation plants” as the appropriate way to provide energy access.

“This recommendation mirrors the misguided priorities of the World Bank’s energy sector lending, of which in 2005 only 10 percent was allocated to energy efficiency and new renewable energy projects,” it said.

The World Bank counters that the action plan does take a global perspective, and points out that it committed 871 million dollars to renewable energy and energy efficiency programmes in 2006.

In its most recent figures released this week, the Bank said that investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency were now 20 percent of the Bank’s total energy sector commitments in fiscal year 2006, which totaled 4.4 billion dollars for 62 renewable energy projects in 35 countries.

“Renewable energy and energy efficiency can contribute significantly to achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” said Jamal Saghir, who directs the Energy and Water department at the Bank, referring to a United Nations-led plan to cut global poverty in half by 2015.

“In fact, they offer a ‘double dividend’ — meeting the essential energy needs of countries for sustained growth and poverty reduction, while at the same time preserving or enhancing the environment,” he said.

Yet IRN argues that the Bank still favours “advanced fossil-fuel technologies” in the document, such as coal- and gas-fired plants, and non-fossil fuel technologies such as hydropower, wind and nuclear.

This could prove counterproductive since large hydropower projects, especially in tropical regions, emit substantial greenhouse gases that can surpass the emissions of similarly sized thermal power plants.

The group called on the Bank not to waste money subsidising fossil fuel projects and to use soft loans and other funding to buy down the costs of renewable energy technologies.

The World Bank document, critics note, also does not address the need for Northern polluters from rich nations to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.

Collectively, the G8 nations, which commissioned the action plan and which represent only 13 percent of the world’s population, are responsible for 45 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The group comprises Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan, the United States and Canada.

The G8 are still promoting fossil fuel extraction in developing nations through international financial institutions such as the World Bank and export credit agencies. Environmental groups have often called on the G8 and the international institutions to phase in public finance for sustainable clean energy. (END/2006)

Emad MekayWASHINGTON, Aug 2 (IPS) - The much-touted U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq is floundering under threats from rampant corruption and deteriorating security, a U.S. government watchdog says.

“The first democratically elected government to take office in Iraq now faces the daunting challenges of sustaining its infrastructure, fighting corruption, and enforcing security in an increasingly hostile environment”, says Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Stuart Bowen.

Bowen’s office, tasked by Congress to oversee the reconstruction efforts, released two reports on Tuesday and one on Wednesday that cited figures showing Iraq losing four billion dollars to corruption every year since the U.S. invasion of the Arab country in March 2003.

Bowen, who addressed the Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday, says he found that Iraq now has more than 1,400 criminal corruption cases open, involving about five billion dollars.

One of the reports cites a recent poll conducted in Iraq in which one-third of the Iraqi respondents reported that they have paid bribes for products or services this year. The report uses the poll as evidence of popular mistrust of the U.S.-backed police and army, who are believed to be unable or unwilling to enforce the rule of law.

“Corruption is a virtual pandemic in Iraq,” says the report while urging international support for fighting corruption in Iraq.

“More resources and stronger support will be needed for Iraq’s anticorruption entities to battle corruption effectively,” says the IG office.

The World Bank is lending a helping hand. In late July, the multilateral lender whose current president was a leading architect of the war against Iraq, hosted an anticorruption workshop in neighbouring Dubai that brought Iraqis and donors together to examine how the Bank and others can more effectively assist in the anti-graft fight.

But the main message of the two reports is that corruption in Iraq, along with the deteriorating security situation, has deterred international investment and eroded trust in the government.

In the strategically important oil sector, for example, the inspector general says corruption threatens not only Iraq’s capacity to fund new capital investment, but also its ability to sustain and increase oil production.

Most corruption in this sector is motivated by the high profitability of smuggling oil and refined fuels.

The Ministry of Oil Inspector General reported in April 2006 that smuggling includes transferring imported oil products or stolen local crude to neighbouring countries, channeling products supplied to government facilities to the black market, and taking advantage of lax oversight at loading stations.

At least 10 percent of refined fuels are sold on the black market and about 30 percent of imported fuels are smuggled out of Iraq, it says.

The report also detected many examples of waste, fraud and abuse. It reported that the IG’s criminal investigators are working on 82 cases. Their work has so far resulted in five arrests and two convictions, and another 23 cases are awaiting prosecution.

One example of the corruption cases is that of a U.S. contractor arrested in March. He is charged with offering a bribe to a police official for assistance in facilitating the purchase of armored vests and equipment for about one million dollars along with a separate 28,000-35,000 dollar gift to process the contracts.

In his testimony Wednesday, Bowen faulted some U.S. policies in Iraq, including the no-bid system, initially created by World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz when he was number two at the U.S. Department of Defence, in some contracts in Iraq.

“The use of sole-source and limited competition contracting in Iraq should have virtually ceased after hostilities ended,” said the Inspector General.

He also said the involvement of different U.S. government bodies led to their development of ad hoc operating systems and procedures which hampered efficiency and caused inconsistent contracting documentation.

Bowen also said assigning major corporations to handle small contracts created waste in Iraq and recommended that the U.S. avoid using expensive design-build contracts to execute small-scale projects.

“Most projects in Iraq were smaller and could have been executed through fixed-price direct contracting,” he said.

The findings of the report stoked worry among U.S. lawmakers who said the reports by the IG showed how flailing the Iraq reconstruction efforts are, given the proven cost overruns, accounting irregularities, unfinished work, and evidence of waste and corruption.

“The reports of the Inspector General indicate that while billions have been spent, reconstruction has fallen far short of promised outcomes,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from the north-eastern state of Maine who chairs the committee. “Funds that should have been used to build schools and health clinics, improve electricity access, and repair the oil infrastructure have been squandered.”

One instance of wasted funds and uncompleted projects detailed in the hearing was the case of the Basrah Children’s Hospital. Senator Joseph Lieberman (Democrat from Connecticut) referred to how the IG office found that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) used “accounting tricks” to hide ballooning costs and significant schedule delays in the project.

According to the IG, the hospital’s original completion price tag was set at 50 million dollars with an opening date in January 2006.

But the latest estimates range from 149.5 million to 169.5 million dollars and the projected completion date is now July 31, 2007 — more than a year and a half late.

(END/IPS/NA MM IK/IF IP CU BW DV/EM/LD/06)

Emad MekayWASHINGTON, Aug 1 (IPS) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is moving to give poor nations greater say and representation on its board of directors and to refocus its work to help prevent financial crises in those nations.

In a speech on the IMF’s role in developing countries, the head of the IMF said the planned increase in voice and representation will not only benefit the so-called emerging countries, a term that describes major developing nations that have followed economic prescriptions from the IMF and the World Bank, but will also include poor nations.

IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato said he will make concrete proposals to widen those nations’ representation in the Fund before the IMF holds its high-profile joint annual meeting with the World Bank in Singapore in September.

“Low-income countries as well as clearly under-represented emerging market economies have reason to be concerned about their voice and representation in the Fund,” de Rato told the Washington-based Centre for Global Development, a think-tank, on Monday.

“I will be making specific proposals on how to take these governance issues forward in the run-up to our annual meetings in September in Singapore, and I hope to secure the support of the membership for these,” he said.

De Rato gave a glimpse into his proposal by saying that the increase will be in the number of “basic votes,” which are the minimum and equal number of votes, unrelated to quota size, to which each member in the the 184-member IMF is entitled.

The original proposal for greater representation was widely viewed as one that will only give powers like China and South Korea greater say rather than poorer nations.

During the IMF and the World Bank’s semi-annual meetings in April, rich nations, which dominate the two organisations, approved a sweeping plan by de Rato, the Fund’s Medium-Term Strategy (MTS), to recommend measures to restore the IMF’s role in the international economy and shore up its loans and increase representation.

Critics of the IMF say the organisation is not relevant any more to middle income countries and even sometimes to poor nations as many of them accumulate their own reserves or borrow from the commercial market that lends without the much-despised policy conditions and economic advice that the IMF requires of its borrowers.

Poor nations and many non-governmental development organisations often complained that the IMF policies are so skewed in favour of rich nations that dominate the board and against poor nations who have little or no voice in how the Fund, theoretically an international organisation, makes its decisions.

In his speech, the IMF’s top official also charted another role for the Fund vis-à-vis poor nations. He said his institution will work to make sure that those nations that are receiving debt relief from international donors do not fall quickly back into debt.

He said the Fund’s task for them would be “to ensure that there is not another debt crisis.”

“There is a serious risk that the hard-won gains from debt relief will be lost if the countries concerned borrow to finance expenditures that are not growth-promoting, and thus replace the debt that has been removed with large amounts of new debt, possibly on worse terms,” he said.

The IMF says there are already signs of new lenders — some private, some official like India and China — rushing in now that debt has been reduced.

According to de Rato’s plan, the Fund and its sister institution the World Bank will work to help those nations understand the “risks of a rapid build-up of debt” and will help them design medium-term debt strategies aimed at avoiding unsustainable debt.

De Rato said the Washington-based Fund can also sound the alarm to official creditors when debt or debt service levels are likely to become a problem.

The IMF also urged rich nations to give poor nations more aid as a source of alternative fundng.

He further proposed that donors offer those nations substitute debt sources, however, through grants and highly concessional loans “to enable them to finance development without relying on expensive debt,” a proposal that may find resistance in the U.S Congress, which oversees U.S. funding for the Fund and the World Bank.

But Jim Saxton, chairman of Joint Economic Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives said that budget problems that the IMF faced recently were actually exacerbated by excessive IMF interest rate subsidies.

Saxton, whose country is the main power broker in the fund, has long called for reform of the IMF and an end to IMF loan subsidies.

“The IMF offers loans with below-market interest rates conditioned upon policy changes required of borrowing countries. These conditions are often avoided or resisted by borrowers,” Saxton said.

“If the IMF raised interest rates and relaxed additional conditions that are often problematic, perhaps it could better support itself over time.”

But de Rato’s proposals are not without fans either.

Kemal Dervis, the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), who was in attendance when de Rato made his speech, welcomed de Rato’s support of the IMF’s involvement in low-income countries and the pledge to address governance issues.

“I strongly welcome the managing director’s words… on governance, voice and greater weight for poor countries in the IMF board,” he said.

Liliana Rojas-Suarez, an analyst with the Centre for Global Development, said de Rato’s proposals are met with a mix of “welcome and caution” in the development community and echoed views that doubt there is a culture at the IMF that would actually allow change.

“Welcome to your efforts… and caution because people still question the extent to which the current institutional environment can change as quickly as you would like,” she told de Rato.

(END/IPS/WD/IF DV MD/EM/LD/06)

Emad MekayWASHINGTON, Jul 29 (IPS) - Despite the acrimonious collapse of an agreement on new global trade rules earlier this week, major European and U.S. business lobbies are joining forces to try and revive the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, whose complete failure could spell the loss of major market profits in developing nations.

The talks, dubbed the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) when they were launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, were suspended on Monday after the world’s richest nations failed to agree on a formula to cut their highly contentious farm subsidies and open their own markets.

U.S. and European companies that invested much time and effort in prodding their government officials to conclude a deal that would expand global markets for their products were visibly alarmed. But now these groups are coming together to try to resuscitate the sweeping deal, which covers goods ranging from farm products to textiles and electronics, as well as services like architecture, voice-mail telecommunications and space transport.

“The suspension of the talks could lead to a failure of the Doha Round, which would undermine the promise of economic growth inherent in the DDA, and result in the loss of opportunities for WTO members to gain the tremendous benefits that accrue from trade liberalisation,” said a joint statement by seven of the world’s largest business groups.

“In order to avoid this situation, we strongly hope that the negotiations will resume as early as possible,” it added.

The organisations include the Business Roundtable, the United States Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, all powerful business pressure groups from the United States.

The Confederation of European Business, which represents more than 20 million companies in the European Union, also signed the statement.

The Business Council of Australia, the Australian Services Roundtable and Nippon Keidanren, a key Japanese pressure group, along with the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry and the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), the only two groups from a developing country, all joined in as well.

Earlier, the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) called for a quick resumption of the Doha talks, warning that the breakdown opens the door to a surge in bilateral trade agreements, more trade disputes and a resurgence of protectionism and the possible weakening of the effectiveness and authority of the Geneva-based WTO.

“Historically, it has been the multilateral trading system that has generated global economic growth. We will continue to fight for that system,” said ICC Chairman Marcus Wallenberg, who is also the chairman of Saab and of SEB, the Swedish banking giant.

What these business organisations fear most is a new wave of protectionist measures that could erode their power and access to markets and therefore lower profits.

“ICC firmly believes there is no substitute for a strong rules-based, non-discriminatory multilateral trading system,” the group said.

Norman Sorensen, chairman of the Coalition of Service Industries (CSI) in the U.S., says that because “trade liberalisation is essential for the U.S. and global economies,” the Doha talks must rebound. Otherwise, “The opportunity to obtain new commercial opportunities across the range of service sectors is in danger of being lost.”

With services accounting for about 40 percent of global employment, and 80 percent of the jobs and economy in the United States alone, it is little wonder his group is keen to restart the talks. CSI estimates that liberalising the global trade in services has potential profits of 1.7 trillion dollars.

The Business and Industry Advisory Committee, which advises the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), urged the countries involved to “avoid any new protectionist measures during the period of suspension.”

“OECD business urges governments to keep the present offers on the table and to seek new political initiatives to restart these negotiations as soon as possible,” it said.

Most of these groups urged what they called “fresh approaches” to resume the Doha Round negotiations as soon as possible and on the basis of the progress already achieved.

The United States seemed to be the most responsive to their calls. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab is already in Brazil on the first of several trips that her office says are aimed at sustaining support for the global trade and development goals of the WTO’s agenda.

Washington hopes to win concessions from Brazil, a major player in rallying opposition to the current WTO rules that many critics say favour industrialised countries.

“The spirit of Doha lives even if a formal agreement eludes us at this time,” said Schwab.

In August, Schwab will meet with trade ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations. In September, she and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns will visit members of the Cairns Group of agricultural-exporting nations in Australia.

In November, Schwab will accompany Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to a meeting of trade ministers and other leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group.

U.S. President George W. Bush also lent his support to the failing process. He told the National Association of Manufacturers on Thursday that he remained a big believer in free trade.

“We’ll continue to work on this agreement,” he said. “Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, as well, will continue to reach out to other nations to achieve our objectives.”

On Friday, WTO chief Pascal Lamy appeared to be reading from the business groups’ pages.

“We must now ensure that this progress does not unravel,” he said, pledging to do his best to “permit a resumption of the negotiations”.

*****

+World Trade Organisation (http://www.wto.org/)

+TRADE-INDIA: Rare Unity Against West’s Farm Subsidies (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34116)

+TRADE: Cheers and Fears Follow Doha Collapse (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34091)

+TRADE: Noisy Collapse for Doha Round (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34082)

(END/IPS/WD/NA/IF/DV/EM/KS/06)

Emad MekayWASHINGTON, Jun 2 (IPS) - A leaked document from the World Bank reveals that officials are struggling with how to implement stronger anti-corruption measures in Bank projects without creating hurdles to the institution’s lending and influence.
The paper says the Washington-based lender should be “raising the bar on governance and anti-corruption” and solicits internal advice on how best to proceed in fighting global corruption in order to avoid “reputational risks”.”How do we avoid setting the bar so high that people become too risk averse or procedures become too slow or bureaucratic?” asks the document, titled “Raising the Bar on Anti-Corruption: Improving Governance and Accountability, Fostering Development”.

The document from the institution’s vice president’s office has World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who has recently made headlines with a much-touted anti-corruption crusade, soliciting comment from the Bank’s executive directors and senior management on future action and policy.

It says the responses will be included in another paper detailing the Bank’s efforts to fight graft that will be released this month. The document is part of the Bank’s effort to pen a final anti-corruption strategy for presentation at its annual meeting in Singapore in September.

The brief document offers a glimpse of the challenges facing senior Bank officials since Wolfowitz’s campaign gained wide media attention during the April spring meetings of the Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.

On a recent trip to Indonesia, Wolfowitz announced a “long-term strategy” for using the Bank’s funds and expertise to help developing countries rid their
governments of bribe-taking and other dishonest practices. A key component
will be the deployment of anti-corruption teams in many World Bank country
offices.

Wolfowitz also has plans to restructure the Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity, a watchdog, to make its authority clearer and its operations more effective.

In February, he led efforts to gather heads of other multilateral lenders like the Inter-American Bank and the African Development Bank to commit verbally to further fighting corruption.

According to a 2004 study by a U.S. Senate committee, the World Bank has lost about 100 billion dollars slated for development in the world’s poorest nations to corruption since 1946 — nearly 20 percent of its total lending portfolio. Other experts estimate that between five and 25 percent of the 525 billion dollars the Bank has lent since 1946 has been misused. This amounts to 26 billion to 130 billion dollars.

The leaked document acknowledges that some Bank projects have been marred by bribery, extortion and other unethical practices.

“In countries where corruption is rife, Bank-funded projects are not immune,” the paper says.

“External surveys show that the Bank is often not seen by various stakeholders as adequately addressing the challenge of corruption,” adds the paper obtained by IPS on Friday.

The paper portrays fighting corruption as part of the Bank’s public mission to reduce global poverty.

“Raising the bar on governance and anti-corruption is a priority for the World Bank Group’s poverty alleviation mission,” the document says.

It advises that the lender’s role should be seen as supporting what it calls the champions of good governance, yet its authors sound unsure about what precisely would be the Bank’s anti-corruption role in projects it funds.

“Should governance and anti-corruption become more central for decisions on aid volumes, composition type of engagement across countries?” it asks.

“To what extent are anti-corruption strategies built into project designs? Should those efforts be more systematic? What additional steps could the bank take to improve internal policy and practices?”

In the paper, the Bank tries to strike a balance between applying uniform guidelines to loans and distinguishing between countries according to risk of corruption and whether countries will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The paper ponders how best to deliver development aid in countries with high levels of corruption, and how to address the corruption issue in “projects that nonetheless deliver significant benefits to the poor”.

It also shows the Bank still weighing whether fighting corruption should be integrated into its so-called Country Assistance Strategies, economic prescriptions that adhere to the World Bank principles of liberalisation and open markets, and which borrowing nations must sign before tapping Bank loans.

The Bank says that of its more than 20 billion dollars in annual loans, 2.9 billion dollars, or 13 percent, in 2005 went to governance, public sector reform and rule of law, while almost half of the new Bank projects last year had at least one component addressing those issues.

So far, more than 330 companies and individuals have been barred from doing business with the Bank, and their names and sanctions posted on the Bank’s public website.

But groups that monitor the World Bank say that its anti-corruption drive is still lacking, especially in addressing the responsibility of multinational companies in promoting corrupt practices in poor nations.

“Any thorough approach to corruption must examine corruption by companies and individuals in the North, not just the South,” said Gail Hurley of the Brussels-based group Eurodad in an analysis Thursday.

The group also faults the current discussion at the Bank for ignoring the Bank’s role in controversial loans and projects in the past.

“The story presented so far, however, focuses very much on the ‘corruption of today’ and pays scant attention to the ‘corruption of yesterday’,” Hurley added. “Remarkably absent from the anti-corruption strategy presented by officials so far is any critical examination of the Bank’s lending practices to poor countries in the past.”

Activists say the World Bank has funded some world’s most notorious and despised regimes, including Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire(now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

Eurodad recommends that the Bank follow the lead of Norway, which has been one of the first Northern countries to open a dialogue on “odious and illegitimate debt” and to call for an international focus on this critical issue.
(END/IPS/WD/CU/DV/IF/IP/EM/KS/06)

Emad Mekay WASHINGTON, Jun 5 (IPS) - The United States and South Korea kick- started the first round of talks in Washington early June toward a bilateral free trade agreement amid cheers from business groups and denunciations from labour groups and farmers from both nations.

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler opened the talks with South Korea’s chief negotiator, Ambassador Jong-hoon Kim. She said the deal, which seeks to remove trade barriers to goods and services between the two countries, could be concluded by the end of the year — something the White House is pushing for since its authority to negotiate so-called “fast track” trade agreements that cannot be amended expires in mid-2007.

“I remain optimistic about our ability to conclude a high-quality, comprehensive agreement,” Cutler told reporters in a teleconference Monday. “The political will is clearly there on both sides.”

Cutler acknowledged that the treatment of automobiles, agriculture and investment will be critical to the success of the final deal. Rice will also be a contentious issue, with Korean negotiators resisting U.S. pressure to open up domestic markets to a commodity they consider crucial to the country’s food security.

Trade between Washington and Seoul topped 72 billion dollars last year. However, South Korean tariffs on industrial and consumer goods are about 11.2 percent, compared with 3.7 percent in the United States. For agricultural products, South Korea’s tariffs average 52 percent, more than four times the U.S. level of 12 percent. The pact would reduce tariffs on both sides to zero.

The United States primarily exports agricultural products, aircraft, machinery and organic chemicals, while Korea sells cars, telecommunications equipment and electronics.

South Korea is the world’s 10th largest economy, with an annual Gross Domestic Product rapidly approaching one trillion dollars. It is the United States’ seventh-largest export market and is the fifth-largest international market for U.S. agricultural goods.

The new Korea-U.S. Free Trade Area would be the biggest deal since the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)that binds the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Bu as Cutler briefed reporters, she acknowledge that she could hear the protestors outside the White House.

More than 100 farm, labour and community leaders from South Korea descended on Washington to protest the Korea-U.S. (KORUS) trade negotiations in activities this week.

Popular sentiment in Korea is opposed to the agreement, which many see as threatening to the livelihoods of 15 million South Korean workers and 3.5 million farmers.

The activists in Washington say they have formed an alliance with labour groups and global justice activists in the United States who oppose the deal and other free trade models that do not include enough labour, social or environmental safeguards.

Wearing bright orange “stop the FTA” headbands and marching to the beat of Korean drums and gongs, dozens marched in downtown Washington Sunday and held other protests on Monday as the officials started their first round of talks.

U.S. representatives from the 35,000-member United Electrical Workers Union and the National Family Farm Coalition joined the Korean protestors. “Down, down with the FTA!” chanted activists from the Korean Alliance against the FTA. “KORUS = Economic Colonisation”, said one banner carried by the group who complained that at least 50 Korean peasants and farmers were denied visas to the United States and couldn’t join the protests.

Farmers and free-trade critics say the deal say will devastate workers and farmers in Korea and in the United States.

“Unless the proposed FTA includes significant labour, agriculture, and environmental protections, it is difficult to imagine how the FTA could possibly benefit workers and family farmers in either nation,” said Thomas Kim, executive director of the Korea Policy Institute.

U.S. labour, community and immigrant groups say they want both governments to build strong local economies and avoid the NAFTA model which many studies have shown benefits large corporations at the expense of farmers and workers.

“The proposed FTA will dramatically expand the failed model of NAFTA, wreaking havoc on American and Korean workers, farmers, and their families,” said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute. “We have come together to form a unified front to stop the free trade agenda from moving forward without people’s consent.”

Dozens of other organisations opposed to the talks signed a statement charging that the deal, if approved, will allow the U.S. to dump cheap imports on the Korean people. Unable to compete, 3.5 million peasants stand to lose their livelihoods, the statement added. The deal, which still has to be signed by Congress, is likely to face opposition by U.S. lawmakers as well. The latest major free trade deal the United States signed, the CAFTA pact with Central American nations, narrowly passed the U.S. Congress.

On Feb. 3, the George W. Bush administration notified Congress of its intent to enter into negotiations with the Republic of Korea towards a free trade agreement.

The legislators are worried that trade deals cost jobs at home, depress wages and lower environmental and social regulations aboard.

“Once again, Washington is ready to pass another trade agreement that benefits multinational corporations at the expense of workers and the environment,” said Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who represents the opposition Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Ohio.

“It is urgent that we end this race to the bottom and work for trade agreements that respect workers’ rights, human rights and environmental principles.”

*****

+U.S. Trade Representative Korus info (http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/Republic_of_Korea_FTA/Section_Index.html)

+The Oakland Institute (http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/)

(END/IPS/NA/AP/IF/LB/EN/EM/KS/06)

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Most affiliate sites are inexpensive and bring together great affiliates to one spot to sell your product.  Most affiliate sites charge a start up fee or listing fee and then a small fee each time a sale is made. So if you need help selling your product or service give affiliate web sites a try.

Selling products to Mexico is easier than ever.  Mexico is the #1 importer of US products in the world.  There is a need for all types of products including food, beverages, electronics, cars, tools, candy, toys, clothing, everything.

Mexicans are so eager to buy that they come to the USA looking for products instead of waiting around for someone to call them and sell them something.  They visit US trade shows, organizations and many companies.  I constantly have someone in San Diego visiting from Mexico to speak with me on how they can find products of all kinds to export.

Who’s looking for products?  Mainly wholesale distributors and retailers.  They are looking for products to sell in retail stores or to other distributors in Mexico, most of the time they will buy truckloads of product and export them to Mexico themselves, handling the shipping, imports and tariffs.

Why do they do this?  Why are they so eager to buy US products?  Simple, they don’t have Mexican made products they can sell and they want to be the first to carry a new American product.  They know if they are the first to market with a new product they can make a lot of money very fast.  After that they just restock their customer’s shelves.

The big question I’m asked by my consulting clients is: how do I get started exporting to Mexico?

To export to Mexico you can be passive or active.  You can go after the business or wait until they come looking for you, and believe me, if you have a good product, eventually they will.

—Passive Approach—

The passive approach to getting business is to make sure Mexican businesspeople can find you.  Here are a few tactics on how to reach exporters:

-You have to make sure your products are in US trade shows.
You don’t have to go yourself, maybe a customer sells at trade shows or you hire a broker that goes to trade shows.

-Make sure all your products and sales materials have an international phone number (not just a USA toll free number) as well as an email address.  This includes your website, product labels, business cards and brochures.

-Have the right information ready.  Make sure you already know what your international price will be.  It’s usually much lower than your US price, especially if they will pay the export fees and transportation.  You also need all the product specifications like weight, dimensions, case count or pallet count.

—Active Approach—

If you are serious about selling to Mexico and would like to do it NOW you have to be more active.  You can’t just wait for people to find you because it can take months or even years if you don’t have any promotions in the marketplace.

The first thing you have to do is learn more about your target market.
How much are people paying in Mexico for your product or a similar product?
How much are they paying to import and transport those products?
What are the profit margins for the distributors and retailers?
Where could you sell your products?
How many stores are there in Mexico?

Once you learn more about your target market and you develop your price strategy it’s time to find customers. Visit Mexican trade shows, look for US distributors already selling in Mexico and find brokers.

After you educate yourself a bit more on the Mexican marketplace you also need to determine what kind of support your new found customers will need in Mexico.  Do you have a product that sells itself or do you need store promotion, POS (Point of Sale) material, sales commissions, or some other support.

Many times my customers tell me “I just want to sell my product in the USA and someone can export it, sell it, merchandise it and distribute it”.  Well, this is possible.  I’ve helped companies sell products like mayonnaise, water, margarine and other products that sell themselves in this fashion.  But if your product is not a “first necessity” product or name brand, chances are you’ll either have to do some promotion or give a very good price to distributors and importers.

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Jorge Olson is a Wholesale Distribution Consultant and can help you sell your products in the USA to Distributors and Retail Stores and export them to Mexico by the truckload. You can learn more and contact him at http://www.DistributionBiz.com

Tag and Ping, Google Analytics, Micro-Dissecting Logs, Visual PageRank…

What does all those topics have in common?

No, I haven’t gotten into the happy-pill jar, just in case you’re wondering! What does all those topics have in common? They are all marketing tactics or strategies I am presently using to promote and propel my sites into the ever increasing, all encompassing Internet stratosphere.

Let’s face it, there are countless marketing methods, tricks, tips, strategies you can use to give your site an edge over the competition. And yes, there are many marketing secrets left to be told. More being born each day. Countless secrets most of us will never discover, let alone understand.

But what you have to understand, each webmaster or marketer employs a whole set of techniques to promote and propel
their sites. Each marketing system is different, each one can develop into a complex creature slowly weaving its presence into the fabric of the world wide web. Might sound a bit fantastic, but it is nevertheless true.

Also know each website on the Internet has its own unique linking structure, connections, keywords,… its own unique
genetic link-code. Why should da Vinci have all the fun! Each webmaster, whether they realize it or not, creates this unique linking structure for each site they build. From day one, when the first link is placed on their site - this complex marketing structure is put into motion. What makes some sites succeed, what makes them become successful automatic profit generating machines… while others fail? That is the real question. That is the only real secret you need to know.

Of course, a site’s content plays a major role, but even two sites with more or less the same content will have two totally different dynamic linking structures created. One may succeed, the other fail.

So in this line of thinking, I thought I would tell you some of the marketing strategies I use for my sites and also reveal what I believe to be the underlying factor that is key to the whole shebang. Tactics that will promote and propel your site into the center of the world wide web. Are you Ready? Here goes:

Tag and Ping

A few years back, it was all blog and ping. This technique really worked for a while. You wrote a keyword rich entry into one of your blogs and then pinged this entry with one of the many blogging directories or sites like MyYahoo to get the information spidered and indexed. The search engines wised up quickly and it no longer works as well.

Now, you will hear the magic words ‘Tag and Ping’ till you’re sick of hearing them. This is a method I have been using for some time. It’s basically the same thing, only you’re using the tag or tagging system of such sites as Technorati to draw attention to your tag or keyword.

It has a special application for keyword marketing and is very effective for getting traffic and links to your keywords. One simple way to use tags with Technorati:

http://technorati.com/tag/Computers

Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will be recognized by Technorati as a tag.

Since this is a relatively new way of marketing your site, expect it to work for a little while. Until the spammers
get in and ruin it, like they did to blog comments.

Google Analytics

This is a free program from Google that every webmaster should be using. If you don’t use it - get it! www.google.com/analytics

Google Analytics will give you priceless information about your sites, your links, your visitors and your marketing.
It will show you which pages are working, which pages are not working. It will tell you which pages holds your
visitor’s attention, which pages lead to your marketing goals/sales…in other words it will tell you how effective
your site is at getting the job done.

The more knowledge you have about your site, the more successful it will be. A lot of times, being a success is
finding/tracking the one method or technique that works and repeating it again and again on your other pages or sites.
Google analytics will help you find the successful techniques on your site. Then you have to run with them.

Micro-Dissecting Logs

Another valuable source of information about your site is in your daily logs. If you’re not dissecting or micro
inspecting your daily hosting logs - you’re not realizing the full potential of your site. Your site’s logs holds the keys to your site’s success, it holds the information that will make your site profitable or more profitable.

It will give you information on your site, it will also give you information on your site’s visitors. The real key to Internet marketing is finding out what exactly your visitors are looking for and then giving it to them. Find out the exact keywords your visitors type into search engines, then supply the answer or solution on your site. It is as simple as that - give your visitors what they want.

Make your content relevant.

Buying Links

This marketing technique has mixed reviews, many marketers use it - many discourage it.

You have to be very careful when buying links, know exactly what you’re buying and be wary of the search engines who
may look down upon this practice. Don’t buy any links from link farms, or sites which have been banned from Google.
Stay clear of any black hat tricks or methods, play fair and you will win in the long run.

To me, buying links is just another way of advertising your site. If your site or online business is successful,
naturally you’re going to put some of your profits back into promoting or advertising your site. One way to do this
is through buying links on high ranked pages/sites: PR5 or over.

I recently bought my first text link!

It’s something I rarely do, mainly because my article writing produces many one-way links back to my site. However, there was one site I just wanted to get a link from, and if it means I have to pay $7 a month for the link, so be it.

Currently the page has a PR0! Why would I buy a link on a PR0 page? Because it’s a very new popular page on a very
popular new site. The site is www.iwebtool.com and it has an Alexa ranking under 2000. The site is about a year old!
The page itself holds what I believe will be a very popular webmaster tool that shows you visually all the PR rankings
on any webpage on the net. Visual PageRank.

Other places to purchase links: www.linkhaul.com
www.linkadage.com www.textlinkbrokers.com

One more Marketing Technique

There is one more important marketing method that makes all the above techniques pale in comparison. This simple technique is article marketing. Write simple informative articles on the subject of your site. Submit these keyword rich articles to online article directories like ezinearticles.com and place links back to your site in the resource box at the end of each article.

Article writing is one of the best methods to market your site, you will be surprised at the effectiveness of this simple marketing technique. Done correctly, it can be your most powerful marketing tool.

Information Core

That common thread is Information.

Information runs the web. It is the center. Dispensing this information is a complex system consisting of search engines, directories, websites, blogs… you must entangle and entwine your site as deeply as you can into this information process.

That’s why article writing is such an effective marketing tool, it strikes at the center of this essential process.
It places your content and your site right in the middle of all this exchange of information.  The more relevant your content, the closer you will get to the real action and the more popular your site will become.

Remember, all these marketing techniques are not really secrets, just effective ways you can promote and propel your site or sites closer to the information core that runs the web. The thread that binds everything together. The more you can entangle your site into the whole mix - search engines, directories, links to popular sites…   the more successful your site will become.

All these marketing techniques: tag and ping, article marketing, buying links… will help place your site into this information mix. Likewise, Google Analytics, micro-dissecting your logs, and visual pagerank are all information gathering methods every webmaster should use to make this journey easier and quicker. Knowledge is the only real marketing tool you need.

So go ‘Tag and Ping’ all you like but realize it is just the latest in a long line of marketing techniques you should be using to promote and propel your site closer towards the one common thread that really matters - information.

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Titus Hoskins owns and runs numerous sites on the web. To receive more useful marketing tips and to discover the latest Marketing tools which will help promote and propel your own website into the Stratosphere! Visit his main site: http://www.bizwaremagic.com . Or sign up for his popular List Building ecourse here: http://www.bizwaremagic.com/opt-in.htm
© 2006. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

If you are a small business and looking for supplies that are much more affordable than retail prices, there are many options available to you.  Small businesses can spend lots of money on supplies that can go towards other expenses.  If you would like to save 20% or more on supplies, here are some tips on affordable office supplies.

Many businesses start out buying their supplies from retail or from one distributor, however as time goes by, they quickly realize that they can be saving hundreds or even thousands a month by buying affordable office supplies through different channels.  Many ways to save on office supplies are to find big distributors or manufacturers.  Due to the internet, this is quickly becoming an easy task.

Consider Ebay for lots of affordable office supplies.  There is a whole cottage industry that supports merchants selling on Ebay.  If you need bubble wrap, envelopes, shipping tape, computer supplies or anything else, you can quickly price materials from possibly dozens of vendors.

You can also go on the internet and search for manufacturers that sell affordable office supplies.  Many small companies’ manufacture office supplies from ink, to paper to envelopes.  You can save hundreds of dollars a month just by doing a few hours of work.  If you just started your own business or have been operating a small business for a while and would like to take advantage of affordably priced office supplies, look at the above tips to save hundreds or even thousands per month.

If you will be camping with friends or family this season, one of the best parts of camping is the camp fire.  Camp fires bring people together and are sure to make memories for the years to come.  Here are some great activities to participate in around the camp fire.

Many people love camp fires, they are so much fun and bring us back to the old days before the TV and electric lights.  Many people love to act like cowboys when camping and bring along a guitar or harmonica in order to sing songs.  Camp fires are also great to tell scary stories, especially when you and your friends or family members are spooked by the natural surroundings late at night.  There are plenty of books available that have great camp fire stories and ghost stories to tell and most of them are extremely affordable.

Cooking is also a fun activity for the camp fire. Everyone loves toasted marshmallows, but meat over the open fire is also extremely tasty.  Most campers just need a cooler to store their food items an open fire and some spits or branches to hold the food over the fire.  If you are looking for some great times with your friends and family, enjoy time around the camp fire.

If you love odd and cult films, there are many places that you can go to enjoy them with others that share your interests.  Cult film festivals have cropped up in almost every city.  Whether you love old slasher films or odd comedy and musicals, you can find great cult film festivals very easily.  Here are some tips.

Most people have a different sense of humor and a fascination with far out subjects.  These people usually enjoy cult films.  Cult films for many reasons resonate with a group of people for a variety of reasons. Two of the most famous cult films are the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Carnival of Souls. While these films are well known, they both bombed miserably at the box office and only became popular after many fans brought them back to the theaters.

Cult film festivals usually include a showing of the movie and may also include actors or people associate with the picture for film fans to meet. You can usually find a listing of cult film festivals on line or in cult film forums and blogs.  If you love cult films, follow the above tips and attend a great cult film festival.

Taxes are a necessary part of running your business.  Besides, profit, inventory costs and labor costs, taxes are another expense that can really hurt you in the wallet.  If you are own a small business, you might be eligible for big tax breaks that can save you money at the end of the year.

The tax law does change every year and you should be in touch with your accountant on how you and your business can save big on tax breaks.  Most business can deduct the amount of taxes on their business expenses and buy the items they need to operate their business instead of giving that money to the government in the form of taxes.

For instance, you can get a tax break for a business office, business machines such as computers and phones and even business entertainment for a sales client.  If you own a business, talk to your accountant and keep up to date with the tax laws each year.  There are also tax software and tax handbooks that can alert you to the best ways you can legally deduct taxes for your personal and business income.  These books are very affordable and are a great way to save hundreds or thousands of dollars on tax related expenditures.   If you own your own business talk to an account or look into a tax guide to find out about great tax deductions.

If you are looking to start a small business, there are plenty of ways to make money fast and with little effort.  While most small business owners will tell others that it takes time to grow a business and create a product, you can also sell products that bring in an income while developing a serious product.  Here are some tips on quick money makers.

One of the easiest ways to bring in a profit quickly and easily is to sell on Ebay.  Ebay is great for merchants and small businesses because you do not need to be web savvy, buy special web tools or spend months starting up a business.  You can literally go online today and within a few minutes offer items up for sale.

Ebay is great because it drives millions of people in traffic to the site each week.  Ebay is a giant flea market, where used items or brand new items are being sold.  You can easily find out what is selling, how much it sells for and if others are buying it by checking out the item history.  You can’t find an easier place to sell than Ebay.  Most merchants fail at Ebay because they don’t do that much research on their items, so before you pick out a product, do a little research. If your goal is to get online and create a quick profit, there aren’t that many other ways to be as successful as Ebay.

One of the most common complaints about business meetings is that nothing ever productive comes from them.  Many corporate workers are constantly complaining about taking the time out of their busy schedule to attend a meeting or presentation.   However if you ask the associate a week later what the meeting was on, you probably will get quizzical looks.  The truth of the matter is that most meetings and presentations are not productive.  Here are some tips on making them productive.

It is always important to have a strong agenda for a meeting and to also put together a complete itinerary so that once the meeting starts you have an easy road map to follow in order to get to all your important points across.  These simple tips will help you stay on track and communicate the important points of your meeting or presentation.  If you want the members of the meeting to retain information well after the meeting is over, give them resources such as hand outs and require some kind of task that must be completed in the next week or so in order to keep the information your members have learned in their head fresh.  This task can range from a simple assignment, a small project that must be discussed with you in the next coming weeks or some type of goal that a member must try to achieve.

So if you would like your meetings to be productive and the information to be retained for more than a few hours after a meeting, take a look at the above tips on creating a productive meeting

So one Malaysian journalist asked me some years ago at a conference in Bangkok. She learnt i was from Singapore, and i was a journalist. And that was enough for her to make a very quick judgement of me. Singaporean journalist are a breed much despised by our neighbours.

Journalists are defenders of the truth; Singapore is famous not for freedom of expression. By comparing co-efficients, you come to the conclusion that Singaporean journalists should be treated like shit dirt. (Yes, the censorship is deliberate.)
Before i could finish my name, she turned her nose up and asked: “Have you heard of James Gomez?”

……………………….

Who the living bazookas is James Gomez??? And how the hell i know him??? I only know who is Sir Stamford Raffles, Sang Nila Utama, Wee Kim Wee, Lee Kuan Yew, David Marshall, etc.

Sigh, the sad state of unknowledgeable, ill-informed journalists these days… Really Ku(1) Luo(4) Gua(3) Wen(2)! That’s the only Chinese idiom i know, so don’t play play ah! Anyway, go google James Gomez. It would have been flooded out by election news by now, but dig deep enough, and look beyond the local media, and you learn why we never heard anything about him. It’s like this: Media blackout, media blackout, media blackout. (And this, too, is deliberate.)

It is indeed strange then, that the name James Gomez has come up so much in the past 3 days. Everywhere i turn, i see his name. I see “news” about him. About how he filled up the Minority Candidate Certification Form, did not hand in in, claimed he did, was faced with video evidence he did not, and eventually apologised for the whole chain of events.

First i have some issues about the whole thing:

1. No local newspaper has, to my limited knowledge, bothered to explain what the minority candidate certification form is. The public continues to believe it is an important form and hence it is a important issue that we must keep reading about during this elections.
2. It IS a big issue, accountability. But the form isn’t, and the case has been blown way out of proportion. Incidentally, why does Singapore, who claims to be so big on a multi-cultural, multi-racial society, have such third-world rules that if you are a minority race, you have to fill up a form?
3. How can anyone be so sotong (blur) and “forget” to hand in a form because he was “distracted”? Surely there is more to this?

Of course there is more to this!

From Channel News Asia:

Mr Inderjit Singh, a candidate for Ang Mo Kio GRC, and one of his assentors Mr K. Thiyagarajah, recounted a conversation they had with Mr Gomez on Nomination Day at Pei Chun Public School.

…

Mr Gomez’s reply to both Mr Inderjit and his assentor was that the whole thing was a “wayang” - the Malay word for “putting on a show”.

Mr Gomez added that since there was speculation he was contesting in Ang Mo Kio GRC, he decided to play along to make the PAP think he was contesting there.

Ang Mo Kio GRC is a six-member ward and one of the candidates must be from the Indian or other minorities.

Mr Inderjit said although Mr Gomez laughed when he spoke to him and Mr Thiyagarajah, he got the impression that Mr Gomez was serious, and had deliberately not submitted the application and that it was a ruse to mislead others.

…

Mr Thiyagarajah said it had appeared to him that Mr Gomez had devised a plan to create a false impression.

Wait just a moment. How convenient. Why is it now, when the PAP is trying to discredit one of the opposition members during this election period, one of PAP’s own releases a statement? We are led to the conclusion that the Workers’ Party is not to be believed, and that the PAP’s claims are accurate, based on the word of a member of the PAP? And note he even uses phrases like “got the impression” and “appeared”. Very convincing indeed.

But truth be told, Mr Inderjit might be closer to the truth than some others.

Like this report, also from CNA, tries to illustrate:

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng has accused James Gomez, the Workers’ Party candidate for Aljunied GRC, of stage-managing the entire minority candidate certificate episode from the start.

In his most comprehensive statement on the matter so far, Mr Wong says there had been blatant dishonesty on the part of Mr Gomez when he claimed that he had submitted an application for a minority candidate certification, when in fact he did not.

Mr Wong says the act, which came just before Nomination Day, was no small lie, and was a deliberate attempt to set up the Elections Department.

In a hard-hitting 11-page statement, Mr Wong, who is the People’s Action Party’s first assistant secretary-general, says the facts of the entire episode revolving around Mr Gomez’s minority candidate certificate are out now and have been widely publicised.

These include the statements made by PAP candidate Inderjit Singh and his assentor Mr Thiyagarajah, the transcript of the conversation between Mr Gomez and Florence Tan of the Elections Department, and the video footage from the department’s security camera and a Channel NewsAsia recording.

Mr Wong stressed that facts showed beyond doubt that Mr Gomez had lied.

He charged that it was a deliberate attempt to set up the Elections Department.

And if Mr Gomez had not been caught out by the security camera recording, he would have gone on to accuse the department and public servants of depriving him of a minority certificate by underhand means.

According to Mr Wong, this would have undermined public confidence in the integrity of Singapore’s elections system, and done serious damage to the reputation of the government and of Singapore.

…

According to Mr Wong, all this was a lie.

Mr Wong charged that what Mr Gomez had done was not an unintentional omission or innocent mistake.

According to Mr Wong, Mr Gomez never had any intention to apply for a minority certificate; he had set out to play a dirty trick on the Government.

Mr Gomez would have accused the PAP of depriving him of his right to stand in a constituency of his choice.

He would have questioned the integrity of the whole election process in Singapore.

Other Workers’ Party candidates would have taken up the theme, and the Government and the Elections Department would have been brought into disrepute.

And so it has become. Led by Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, fully and forcefully supportd by MM Lee, SM Goh, PM Lee, BG George Yeo and a long list of other important PAP ministers, we have been masterfully told a story about a plan by James Gomez to try to discredit the ruling party through underhanded means. He lied! He is despicable!

*ahem*

Before i get carried away… This sounds like the case of Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. We know for a fact that Opus Dei is a real organisation. They rest of the book lies in grey. Fact, fiction, or half-truths mixed generously with conspiracy theories? Only God knows.

Now back to James Gomez. We know for fact that, as i mentioned earlier, he filled up the minority candidate certification form, did not hand in in, claimed he did, was faced with video evidence he did not, and eventually apologised for the whole chain of events.

What the hell was he thinking? What was his motive, if any at all? Well, the man has said “no comment”. Only he knows what is the truth. And maybe God, if he follows Singapore politics.

Is it a “deliberate attempt to set up the Elections Department”?

Yes, says DPM Wong.

“He would have questioned the integrity of the whole election process in Singapore.

Other Workers’ Party candidates would have taken up the theme, and the Government and the Elections Department would have been brought into disrepute.”

Wow.

Here are three reasons why the elections are a sure-win for the PAP:

1. They are upright and honest people who have done no wrong in their lives.
2. They have very fertile imaginations, which will give us an edge in our “knowledge-based economy”.
3. They are psychic, and can look into the future to know exactly what would have happened if they were not in full control of the situation.

But, of course, a potential disaster for the Government and the Elections Department has been adverted.

And Singaporeans live happily ever after.

The End.

The amazing paradox of success is that everybody knows the ’secret’ of how to achieve it, but few are willing to apply the principles that virtually guarantee the attainment of almost anything you want. It’s no mystery that if you identify a goal, write down a plan for reaching it, and follow that plan with persistence, determination, and focus, you stand a good chance of realizing your dream or, at the very least, creating an outcome that puts you in a much better place than you were before making the attempt.

Why doesn’t everybody make a plan, take continuous action, and pursue their dreams? Why do so many people settle for a measly paycheck, an unsatisfying life, and a humdrum existence? In our society, there’s a rampant epidemic of undeveloped potential. The solution will continue to elude the masses because it’s not something that can be seen, touched, or measured. If you’re not producing the results you desire in your life, the problem could stem from concentrating too much on the ‘here-and-now’ instead of what could be.

The ticket to a higher standard of living and a more fulfilling lifestyle is available to anyone willing to cultivate the states of mind known as faith, hope, and belief. Focusing on the concrete aspects of life rather than the invisible resources that our five senses can’t perceive is what 90% of the world does on a day-to-day basis. Obviously it’s the other 10% (or less) who have faith in themselves, believe in their dreams, and have hope that their actions will propel them to a more prosperous and joyful future.

On the journey to success or happiness, the biggest obstacles are not in the concrete world, but rather in the inner world of thought and imagination. Having your plans and aspirations obscured by self doubt, fear of failure, and the negativity of those around you is a surefire roadmap for going nowhere fast.

So can we blame our parents and teachers for telling us hot to be dreamers and not to waste our time on what they viewed as unrealistic pipe dreams? Well, we could, but it would be a lot more productive to take responsibility for our own lives and focus on taking deliberate, consistent, daily action toward the realization of our goals.

A woman who cut my hair several months ago said she was tired of working three jobs for low pay, and was interested in starting an Internet business as I had. I emailed her a few step-by-step instructions for getting started, and, although I never heard back from her, I’d be willing to bet she never followed through with the information I gave her. My guess is that she didn’t have the courage to embark on something outside her comfort zone of cutting hair and waiting tables. She sounded intelligent and had even taken some computer classes, but her negative inner dialogue probably talked her out of it. What she may not have realized is that when you start moving forward and taking positive action toward a goal, new doors open up and guidance is provided.

Your life is not set in stone; it’s a continual work in progress. Change begins with a conscious decision, and is implemented one step at a time. ‘Comfort Zone’ is another way of saying ’self-imposed limitations’. Unless you make yourself a little uncomfortable by expanding the boundaries of what currently feels safe and comfortable, your accomplishments will be unremarkable and your personal growth will stagnate.

—————————————————-
Joel N. Sussman, a freelance writer and Internet publisher, has created an online resource called, Marketing Survival Kit.com . The web site, featuring articles, templates, and downloadable books, is intended to help new and established business owners attract and retain customers. Visit http://www.marketingsurvivalkit.com for access to these proven marketing tools.

After having played music with many different musicians on many different skill levels I have noticed something interesting among most of them. Each one will usually play his or her instrument according to his or her respective personality.

When this concept comes to drumming it is really noticeable. I’ve noticed that drummers who are a relaxed type often
play relaxed. A drummer who is a more bold person usually plays the same way… bold. A drummer who lives his or her
life a little sloppy and wreckless will often play the same way. Likewise, a drummer who is a very organized individual
will fairly play rather consistantly.  All this is okay to an extent. But, we just can’t let our drumming be subject to our personality, feelings, or mood at any given moment.

Our instrument, the drums, are our expression in the band. It’s our voice. And, many times, we must drum in a manner
that does not line up with our personality, feelings, or mood.

Being an outstanding drummer requires becomming a bit of an actor. What I mean by that is, sometimes we have to play
drums a certain way despite our true personality, or how we may feel at any given moment. That’s what a good actor does, he temporarliy forgets who he is and becomes someone else for a time so that he can pull off what he needs to
pull off in order to get the job done.

As you know, sometimes we have to drum a little harder than we may feel like drumming. And then at other times we may
have to drum a bit softer when what we really want to do is rock out.

In order to be an outstanding drummer we have to be able to put out what is required of us at any given moment. For
example, sometimes a certain song needs to convey a certain message, feeling, or mood. But, your particular mood at the
time does not jive with it at all. If we want the song do what it’s supposed to do, we can’t expect the song to submit to how we feel right then. We have to submit to the song and forget about ourselves by becoming a part of the song.

The bottom line is this… don’t play your drums according to your personality. Play your drums according to each individual song’s personality. Only then will your songs truly come to life.

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Dan Brown has been drumming since 1976. Sign up for his FREE weekly newsletter and get tips, ideas, articles, and
merchandise! http://www.dbdrumtips.com/

If you sit at the computer for hours at a time, a comfortable computer chair is extremely important and necessary.  Today, you can get plenty of computer chairs that fit your needs and budget, here are some tips on purchasing comfortable computer chairs.

Computer chairs usually come in either leather or fabric coverings.  However the most important part of a computer chair is not the material but ergonomics.  An ergonomically correct computer chair can help you from straining your back, arms or wrists.  Ergonomically correct chairs can help keep you comfortable and in a healthy position for hours at a time.

Most computer chairs have and advantages over regular chairs because they include height adjustment and tilt adjustments.  People sitting at computers vary in height and reach from the computer or desk, it is important that a computer chair is able to adjust to the height of the desk and computer and tilt for maximum comfort and health.  Most computer chairs are very affordable.  You can find many for less than $50 and high end chairs for over $500.  So if you sit at your computer for long periods of time, make sure your computer chair is comfortable.

Details (yuck!) are the bane of a sales professional’s
existence.

None of us wants to crunch puny little numbers throughout
the day. Save that for the accountants who eat that stuff
up.

Let us be free to sell, sell, and sell some more. The only
puny numbers we’re interested in are numbers like ‘ones’
and ‘zeros’, as in the number one followed by lots and lots
of zeros. Give us a nice round number like $1,000,000,
that’ll put a smile on the faces of just about every
professional who sells!

Ah, but here’s the rub, those puny, little numbers hold
captive the secrets to getting to the big round numbers,
sooner rather than later.

Now, read closely and let your mind think about
possibilities as the power of puny, little numbers is
revealed.

A well-known, rarely implemented truth in the world of
sales professionals is this:

What You Can Measure, You Can Manage What You Can Manage
You Can Improve Dramatically!

Let’s start with little numbers like 10 and 1. As you
review your call ratios for the year, you may find that you
smile, you dial, and you make about 10 cold calls a day,
around 50 cold, prospecting calls per week.

And you see that at the end of your time on the phone, you
average about 1 appointment for every 10 cold calls.

You close roughly 1 out of every 2 people you meet with.
When all is said and done at the end of the year, these
puny little numbers of appointments result in sales that
yield a pretty good income for you, around $70,000.

Now, let’s say you want to double your income. Yep, as 2006
rolls around, you decide you want to double your income,
making it $140,000.

The secret to reaching your goal is hidden in the numbers.
Sure, your call ratios and salary may be much higher (or
lower) than the numbers used in this example. No worries,
simply plug your numbers into these equations to determine
your desired outcome.

Being in control of our goals is one of many wonderful
things we like about the profession of sales, isn’t it? We
know the only thing standing between our dreams and us is
our level of skill. We’re glad to gobble up any tips,
tools, and techniques that’ll improve our seemingly magical
talents that are the envy of others, especially those who
think they don’t have the skills to give away ice water in
the Sahara!

OK, as we look at just the numbers, you can reach your goal
of $140,000 of take home pay by doubling one of a couple of
puny numbers.

You can learn how to double the number of appointments
you get from your dials, so you get 2 appointments out of
every 10 dials.

> You can learn how to double the number of sales you
close, and make sure you get business from 2 out of every 2
people you meet with.

Hmm. Makes you pause and think doesn’t it?

Here’s an extra bonus for you:

As we closely scrutinize where these numbers come from, we
might even find that if you changed the level of your
approach call, you could do even better! Imagine what would
happen to your sales if you added a few executive-level
sales calls to the mix and spent your time talkin’ to The
Top Dogs with unlimited ability to sign off on big deals!

Makes the goal of doubling your salary next year seem
possible, doesn’t it?

In brief, you can double your income by learning how to: 1.
Double the appointments you get from your dials 2. Double
the sales you close during appointments 3. Double the size
of your sales as you elevate the level of your point of
entry, and talk to “The Top Dogs” first

So, next time you’re tempted to skim over the puny numbers
in favor of the big round ones, slow yourself down.

As you do this, you will be amazed to find that doubling
your take home pay in 2006 is much, much closer than you
think!

Forward this article to friends, they’ll thank you for it!

—————————————————-
Author/Publisher Leslie Buterin (like butterin’ bread), is
a published author, speaker and founder of Top Dog
Consulting. She coaches sales executives and recruiters
world-wide in techniques for changing the point of entry to
the executive level. For your FREE mini-course “Jealously
Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents” visit
http://www.ColdCallingExecutives.com !

(Stanislaus Jude Chan - IPS TerraViva) KARACHI - First, the good news: the number of people affected by disasters around the world last year dropped to around 146 million, a remarkable improvement from the annual average of 258 million recorded over the past decade. But the bad news: close to 90 percent of victims are in Asia.

Discussing the role of the state, civil society, and international organisations in the management of natural disaster in Asia, the varied audience comprising participants from some 58 countries at the WSF Karachi 2006 were in one accord.

Shaken by issues surrounding disaster management, participants agree that while natural disasters cannot be prevented, predicting and preparing for these catastrophes as well as ready support from various government agencies, NGOs, and the international community working together would dramatically reduce death tolls — and alleviate people’s suffering.

Mazhar Ali is from Pakistan, where tens of thousands of lives were lost as a massive 7.6 earthquake on Oct. 8, 2005 ravaged the North West Frontier Province, flattening some 15,000 under-developed villages in its wake.

“We are very thankful to the individual institutions, countries and volunteers who helped in the relief work. But the country itself must be prepared and must bear the main burden (of the disaster),” he says.

Like many others TerraViva spoke to at the WSF, Mazhar feels that too much of the country’s GDP is spent on military development, while neglecting the people’s needs in areas such as health-care, education and preparation for dealing with occurrences of natural disasters.

“The basic needs of each human being must be met before a country can survive,” Mazhar adds. “With no food, no shelter, and no clothing, no country will be stable. A powerful military does not equate a powerful country. If you forget (the needs of) the people, there will always be problems for the economy.”

While some argue the respective governments need to do more, help from other nations has been pouring in for disaster-plagued countries struggling to get back on its feet.

“Peace should not be hoarded,” says Azrin Zizal, a member of the NGO Peace Malaysia, which has helped in numerous humanitarian relief efforts in the region, including providing aid to disaster victims in Batagram and Balakot. “It should be the duty and obligation of countries that are stable and already well-off to share and help those in countries wrecked by natural disasters.” Yet others feel that more international aid can be available for disaster management.

Sho Kasuga, from earthquake-prone Japan, is convinced that countries like Japan, with its economic and technological strengths, coupled with experience in managing earthquake crises, is able to provide more support for its Asian neighbours.

An ardent believer of the merits of social forums – WSF Karachi 2006 is the fourth such event he is attending – and is assisting in efforts to bring the social forum to Kyoto, Japan.

Such cross-cultural activities, he says, are an excellent space to “express opinion through literature, dancing and music” as well as communication and exchange of ideas.

“Japan has enough knowledge about earthquakes and can do something to help,” Kasuga says. “But there is a very weak civil society movement there. I want to learn from the World Social Forum in Karachi to start something in Japan and help more people.”

Disaster management followers have just received some good news. The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and China Space Administration (CNSA) gifted high- quality satellite data, products, services and applications to seven Asia-Pacific countries including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand.

The meteorological satellites will prove invaluable to meteorological research and disaster mitigation for the region. The system has been used in China since last year for monitoring climate change, weather forecasting, disaster and environmental monitoring.

Mazhar is hopeful that, with large-scale events like the WSF providing an “effective platform” for dialogue between people with “different races and different gods”, any problem can be alleviated, albeit only through a long-term, sustained effort by all parties.

“Definitely it will make a change,” he says. “By listening to each other and understanding each others’ problems, I’m very hopeful of the changes that will come.”

Related Links:

IPS TerraViva

World Social Forum 2006 Karachi

If you are planning a vacation, there is no better way to plan it than with the help of online resources. Today, there are hundreds of great online resources to help you plan your perfect vacation. From choosing a destination, buying airfare and accommodations, to seeing the sites, there is no better resource than the web. If you are planning your vacation, here are some tips on researching your trip online.

Most people like to do research on a destination before they buy there trip. Many people only have two or three weeks a year that they can go away for vacation, so they want to make it as special as possible. Researching your trip online is extremely easy, because there is such as wealth of information online. For instance, you can check out several destinations and weigh which one fits your needs and style best. You can find several hotels and compare prices. You can even pick your airfare from dozens of choices and find the best flight for its price and total flight time.

No matter what kind of trip you are planning, researching a trip online can help you book a great trip that is easy on the budget and offers everything that you want in a vacation.

Joga.com is the latest social networking site on the block. The site was created by Google and Nike, which targets football fans. For now, it is by invite only but it should be expected to go live by this week.

“The two companies have been working on the site for the past eight months and are expected to publicly unveil it this week, BusinessWeek has learned. Nike is supplying the content, and Google is the technical partner. But the site looks similar to other social-networking outlets such as News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace.

ONE GOAL. Joga.com is a free network where members will be able to create Web sites and send e-mail, photos, and video clips, as well as access Nike content related to its sponsored athletes such as Brazilian superstar Ronaldino or U.S. soccer prodigy Freddy Adu, according to Nike officials who confirmed the new initiative. Google officials did not return calls.”

I wonder would this be better then Orkut, hope Nike and a niche footballer market would be able to make this a success.

Link -   Nike, Google Kick Off Social-Networking Site

It’s true.  If you host a party and serve alcohol, you could be held liable for personal injury and/or property damage in many states under the following scenario:

1. You served alcohol to a person.
2. You knew, or should have known, the person was intoxicated.
3. You knew the person would soon be driving from the party.
4. That person caused an accident after leaving the party.

Drunk Driving

More than ever, municipalities are cracking down on drunk drivers. Websites such as http://www.alcoholalert.com keep track of drunk driving statistics in the US, and even with all the new laws and publicity about the problem, the numbers are alarming.

The legal alcohol intake limit in most states is .08 Breath Alcohol Concentration (BAC). Statistics on drunk driving show that 41% of all traffic fatalities related to alcohol usage happen at a mere .15 BAC - so it’s easy to go from legally sober to dangerously drunk - the difference can be about three beers, two “shots,” or three glasses of wine, depending on your tolerance, body weight, or if you are drinking on a full stomach.

There is as much alcohol in one ounce of hard alcohol (whisky, rum, etc.) as there is in a 12 ounce beer or a 6 ounce glass of wine. On average it takes about one hour after ingestion for the alcohol from one drink to work its way through the body.

How to Host a Safe Party

So how do you throw a safe and fun party without adding to the drunk driving statistics? Here are some tips to help you arrive safely in the New Year, have a memorable birthday, or other party such as St. Patrick’s Day. * Obviously the easiest way is to not serve alcohol at all. There are some great tasting pseudo alcoholic beers on the market, and sparkling cider, alcohol-free wine and “mocktails” are other alternatives.

* If you choose to serve alcohol, stop serving it at least two hours prior to the end of the party.

* Always provide snacks to keep guests from drinking on an empty stomach. Not nuts or salty chips! They make people
want to drink more. Try a fruit or veggie tray instead, and finger sandwiches are good as snacks too.

* Hire professional bar tenders who have had server training to prevent over-serving and serving guests under the legal drinking age or serve the alcohol yourself and don’t drink. A drunken person in charge of monitoring other people’s intake is never a good idea.

* Only allow X number of drinks per person and keep track of how much each person is served.

* Don’t rely on physical appearance alone to determine if a guest has had too much to drink. Some people have a higher
tolerance to alcohol and don’t show outward signs of intoxication. One drink can impair a person’s ability to drive safely.

* Confiscate car keys as your guests arrive, and give them only to designated drivers, or make the car owners pass a breathalyzer test if available.  Some alternatives are to call a cab, plan ahead by hiring a shuttle or limousine
service, or offer to drive intoxicated guests home yourself if you haven’t consumed any alcohol. Take it seriously, and
don’t let intoxicated guests talk you into giving them their keys.

And don’t just give them some coffee and hope for the best. It is a myth that coffee or cold showers will help someone sober up.  Only time will do it. If you are in charge of throwing the company party, consider having it at a hotel and reserving some rooms so guests won’t have to drive home.

If you plan ahead, you can have a fun party without making your friends become drunk driving statistics.

It’s easy to think that it only happens to others and not to you, but according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3 out of 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related accident at some point in their lives.

Considering that over 17,000 people in the US were killed in alcohol-related crashes every year for over twenty years, you may already know someone whose life has been devastated by careless alcohol use.

—————————————————-
Authored by L.E. Knowlton. For more great information on drunk driving and other alcohol issues, please visit: http://www.everettanalyzers.com

There are several different types of trusts that people use
for estate planning. While most fall into specific
categories, it is important to understand that trusts are
highly individual creations - one size does not fit all. Be
wary of firms who offer a cookie cutter approach or a “kit”
to create your own. Any trust (indeed all estate planning
activities) should be designed with careful consideration
and thoughtful legal consultation. Be aware that when
establishing some trusts, you may limit your options in the
future.

A “revocable trust” may be established to set aside certain
assets in the event that the individual becomes
incapacitated. These assets never technically leave the
person’s ownership, so the assets are still considered part
of one’s estate when one applies to Medicaid for benefits.
The value of a revocable trust is that you can designate a
professional to manage your finances, receive income from
the trust, and potentially reduce expenses associated with
settling your estate at death. With a revocable trust the
individual can change the terms of the trust at any time.

An “irrevocable trust” is also referred to as a “Medicaid
Trust.” Assets are transferred into a new legal entity that
then owns those assets. These assets are then no longer
considered part of your taxable estate. By shifting assets
into the trust, you may now be eligible for Medicaid
benefits, but subject to the specific “look-back” rules of
your county (see below). When setting up the trust, you
determine who will receive the assets, regular payments,
and income from the assets. Irrevocable trusts may also be
used as an entity to own one’s life insurance policy.

This is a simplification of the process, so keep in mind
that estate planning involves a lot of “moving parts” that
should all be considered. Some types of transfers may
result in tax liabilities and future financial limitations.
Irrevocable trusts require that the individual give up some
degree of flexibility with the assets and may be expensive
to prepare. Once the trust is established, the individual
gives up all rights to the assets that are included in the
trust. You can not change the terms once it is finalized.

Since most people are concerned about spending down all of
their assets to pay for long-term care, they will establish
certain types of entities like trusts, give cash gifts to
children, spend money on exempt assets, or engage in other
legal financial maneuvers. You should make sure that your
financial activities are legal as well as the smartest use
of your assets. Even with perfectly legal activities, you
may compromise or delay some of your potential benefits.

—————————————————-
The author, Ronald E. Hudkins aggressively coordinates with
government agencies and organizations to compile
information to help consumers avoid deceptive business
practices.  A description of his education and experience
can be found at http://www.AssetProtectNow.com .

Google has reported that it has taken BMW.de off its index, as the german site had violated Google’s guidelines, particularly the principle that states: “Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users.”

The violation was due to BMW’s german site displaying certain pages in one way when the search engine visited the page but when a Web user opened the page, a redirect mechanism would display a completely different page.

It is said that this is an industry wide method, for companies trying to get top rankings in the search engines. This exclusion is meant to be an example for Google to let others know that they mean business.

But I wonder, does BMW.de really need to employ such tactics ?

Read More
BMW German Site taken off Google Index for Cheating
Search Tangle

by Robbie Darmona

Xbox 360 is sure to be the most innovative product of nowadays’ gaming technology. With its striking qualities and design, it has become the long desired dose for all game addicts. What tends to be the most magnificent feature in XboX 360, is physics. Technological advances in physics on XboX 360 are significant. The effects are overpowering and the physics simulation is closer to reality than it has ever been with other XboX versions before. What is more, many effects are allowed to happen simultaneously, which adds to the feeling of reality. XboX 360 has another priority over other games: namely, the wireless. The wireless controller has the same speed as the wired one, and the wireless networking connects you with other players no matter where you arе. The XboX 360 Memory Unit now inserts straight into the console itself, not into the controller. Moreover, the headset cable plugs directly into the controller. The controller on its side has innovative and modern design that allows for better grasp.

Here are some other specific aspects of XboX 360.

1) The first one is A.I., which stands for Artificial Intelligence. A.I. allows non-player characters (NPCs) to behave in realistic ways. Your enemies are as evil as real, your friends are open hearted and love you so sincerely that you almost respond them. The sophisticated intelligence offers you an opportunity to command and play with large groups of NPCs.

2) Another specific feature of XboX 360 is the High Definition. Unlike the older versions of XboX, in which game developers could choose whether to support HD graphics, XboX 360 requires that all games have HD options. The resolution settings are in the System Menu on the XboX 360 Dashboard. You can use either the XboX 360 Component HD AV Cable, or the XboX 360 VGA HD AV Cable. The main thing to be put in here, is that XboX 360 offers dynamic high-definition support. If a game is designed with 720p in mind, but the capacity of your TV supports only 480p, XboX 360 complies with the best resolution that your TV offers.

3) The third aspect is Graphics, which XboX 360 is so famous with. All XboX 360 games have been edified to support widescreen formatting and 720 progressive scan. The resolution options are interchangeable. All games are able to run at 480 i -that is the resolution of an ordinary TV. It runs also on 480p, 720p and 1080 i -so no matter what kind of resolution your technology device offers you, XboX 360 can be fitted everywhere.

4) The GPU has a stylish appearance and highly functional design. To serve an example, the texture filtering and MSAA can be done at full rate with no performance penalties. For more information click XboX 360 Graphics

The other thing worth mentioning is that the full graphics potential of XboX 360 can barely be grazed here. There are many amasing innovations that you will come to discover yourself. So far, XboX 360 is the most advanced leap gaming technology has taken in the sphere of graphics. The other aspects of the XboX 360 are also incredibly developed. XboX 360 is the dream of every game connoisseur.

(END)

* * *

Article by Robbie Darmona - an article writer who writes on a wide variety of subjects. For more information click XboX 360 Graphics

* * *

The IBM notebook version ThinkPad T43, one that is particularly targeted at professional buyers, has the speed
and power to run any typical business application. The ThinkPad trade name of IBM notebook computers has garnered the status of being notebooks of significant quality, solidly constructed, with a sleek design and a highly
professional appearance given their typical matte black color.

This IBM notebook model, like some others in the T series, comes with notable and impressive features like a keyboard light, a biometric fingerprint reader, shock absorbers for the hard-drive, an embedded security subsystem, and a speed dial function for multiple network connections.

Furthermore, this particular IBM notebook is both thin and lightweight. Available in either a 15-inch or a 14.1-inch
SXGA screen, it has a TFT monitor and is housed within a strong Titanium composite case. The optical drive comes as either a CD-RW or a DVD-RW drive.

The bay you’ll find in this IBM notebook is called the UltraBay.  It is a fully modular bay which can be used for
an extra battery, an alternative optical drive or even as a tray for  holding a secondary hard drive.

You may find that one of the most attractive feature of this IBM notebook is the keyboard. The keys have been
neatly arranged in 7 rows. Given the inclusion of a pointing stick, a touch-pad and multiple mouse buttons, you have several options for screen cursor movement.

Just above the keyboard, you’ll find the power button, a volume up and down button and a mute button. Similarly. you can find the Access IBM button which will launch an IBM application called Access IBM.  Access IBM serves as a guide to using, protecting, configuring and updating software on your IBM notebook.

Just as with any other IBM notebook in the ThinkPad series, you won’t find a “Windows” key.  Still, the keyboard of this IBM notebook is basically unmatched in both convenience and ergonomics.

Powered by a Pentium M processor, this IBM notebook model comes with an integrated Intel 2915 PRO/Wireless 802.11 a/b/g internal wi-fi card and has an Ultra-Connect Wireless Antenna which is hidden in the upper right-hand area of the monitor. The fingerprint reader eliminates the need for users to remember multiple passwords (now that’s a nice feature!).

It comes with a standard 6-cell Lithium Ion rechargeable battery that should last over 3 hours. The IBM notebook
ThinkPad T43 comes standard with multiple features and utilities.  In addition, you’ll get a 3 year customer
carry-in global hardware warranty.

While an IBM notebook tends to carry a somewhat higher price tag than alternative models from other notebook
manufacturers, this is a very popular notebook since it is a feature rich, reliable notebook, with an excellent
warranty and all the qualities most business notebook users find essential.  And the IBM brand helps convince the accountants that it’s a wise purchase option.

—————————————————-
Richard, a computer professional and writer, has a strong interest in software and computer hardware. Visit
Completely Notebooks at http://Completely-Notebooks.net for more on notebook computers and accessories.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m the “Donna-come-lately” in this game of simultaneously managing a business and a romantic relationship.  When I was married the first time around at age 26, I worked in higher education administration and was completely and totally devoted to my job — not necessarily to the exclusion of my marriage — but for many years my marriage and my relationship took a back seat to my job.  Big mistake.  That issue and a host of other reasons led to the dissolution of my marriage and the finalization of my divorce after almost 10 years of marriage in 1999.

I went for two full years without dating, as I needed to grieve the relationship and heal myself and come to terms
with all of my issues surrounding my marriage and divorce before deciding to put my toe again into the dating pool and foist all of these hangups on some unsuspecting guy. This aspect of my healing went pretty well, although I’ll have to admit it took probably 3 years or so after my initial separation to fully work through all the anger I had about the relationship and the divorce.

I began dating again and vowed that things would be different this time. I discovered, however, that dating had
changed dramatically in the 13 years or so that I’d been absent from the dating scene, and that I still had alot to
learn about being a good partner in a romantic relationship, as well as in figuring out what I wanted in a romantic partner.  I saw the good, bad, and ugly sides of men, kissed alot of frogs, and learned a great deal about myself and what I really wanted during my journey.

Synchronicity occurs when you’re ready and open to receive what you truly want.  For me, that occurred last fall when I met the man I had been looking for all of my life, Eric. For me, it was love almost at first sight, but I knew by our second date that I had never had this degree of compatibility with anyone I had ever dated before — not even my ex-husband, and I had married him!

Our relationship is still in its infancy, although we both feel like we’ve been together and known each other forever. Perhaps we have in another life, if you believe in reincarnation…..

Here are some things I’ve learned through the school of hard knocks that’s helping me maintain this relationship, as well as run a business, without losing either:

1.  Put your partner and the relationship first.  Running a business can be a 24/7 job, but the old adage about “no one ever says on their deathbed that they wished they’d spent more time at the office” is true.   Eric and I make time for each other during the day, despite working different schedules (he works many night and weekend shifts, and I run my business during the weekday business hours).  If he’s at work, we manage to talk at least twice for short periods during his 12-hour shift, and if he’s home during the day when I’m working at home, we try and eat one meal together.  At a minimum we drop into each other’s home offices for several quick smooches or hugs or quick “how are you doing” conversations.

In the past he’s expressed to me his concerns that our relationship is interfering with my business.  I’ve told
him that he’s right — it is — and that because he’s in my life, I’ve had to start thinking about my business
differently and work in it differently than I did as a single person.  I don’t work the long hours that I used to work before he came into my life.  It takes me longer to get things done, but it’s a sacrifice that I’m willing to
make.  Businesses come and go, but finding a soulmate is VERY hard work.

2.  Your partner needs to be your best friend.  Eric is the one with whom I share everything.  I may not always like what he says, but I respect his opinion. When I was married, I somehow got off track with my ex in terms of
sharing my hopes and dreams and what I wanted in life, and shared those exclusively with my best female friend.  My ex was left out of the loop, and I made many decisions about our relationship on my own, after talking about the issue with my best female friend, not my ex-husband. Having 3 people in a relationship (2 spouses and a best friend) is one too many.  Sharing information with a best friend is fine, but don’t do it to the exclusion of your romantic partner, if you want your relationship to survive.

3.  Create a calendar consisting of free days, business development days, and profit-generating days. I have mapped out on my calendar my free days (weekends, days off, holidays, and vacation days), my business development days (when I write, speak, conduct marketing activities or pursue strategic alliances) and profit-generating days (when I’m working directly with clients). This has been an exercise in extreme discipline for me, as the temptation is always there to do some type of work on my free days. However, in the last year, I’ve made myself keep my free days free, as I need that time to get away from my business and have fun and recharge.

Since Eric has come into my life, we’ve set aside some of that time for date nights or weekend vacations when he’s doesn’t have to work on a weekend. His impish side comes out on his days off during the week when he tries to lure me out of my office to go out and goof off with him.  I’ve succumbed to his whims on occasion, but haven’t quite gotten my business to the point of of having it run successfully without me.  That’s my next goal — to have more flexibility in my business so that it’s not so dependent on my presence in my office.

4.  Share your business highs and lows with your partner. Every time I have a big business “win”, Eric is the first
to hear about it.  When something doesn’t go the way I’d hoped, I tell him first. My business is important to me, as is Eric’s job to him, so we both make it a point to ask how the day has gone for the other, and sit and listen
patiently to the good and bad portions of each other’s day. As we’re both problem-solvers, it’s difficult for each of
us to sometimes simply let the other one vent, as we’re already thinking of solutions to whatever situation is at
hand. Sometimes one of us has to say, “Do you just want to vent and have me listen?” when one of us shifts into the unwanted problem-solving mode.

5.  Make time for each other.  When you have opposing work schedules, as Eric and I have, and add mandatory overtime that Eric has to work frequently during the year, we may see little of each other over the course of a week.  We’ve both gotten good at sensing that we’re losing track of each other, and requesting a “date night” so we can talk and play and catch up.

6.  Never go to bed angry. By far, this is the hardest lesson I’ve had to learn.  When I was married, I would get
angry at my ex and give him the silent treatment for days because I knew it drove him crazy.  Usually by day 3 or so he would crack, and we’d make up.  Now that I look back on this, I realize how immature and juvenile this way of fighting is, so the silent treatment is out as a way of fighting in my current relationship.  Eric and I have had our share of spats and disagreements, and I’m almost always the first one to wave the white flag for a truce and an end to the argument, usually within the course of an hour or so.  Life is just too short to continue to fight in stupid ways, and it’s hard to regroup in a relationship if you let something fester overnight.

7.  Forgive each other for being human. It took me a long time to acknowledge that I’m not perfect, and even longer to figure out that no romantic relationship is perfect, either. Give up the notion of perfection and accept each other as you are.  One of my great faults in romantic relationships has always been the need to “fix” my partner. I’d see the potential in a guy and stay in a relationship long after it was dead, under the guise of, “Well, if you’d only do this and this and this, you’d be so great, because you have so much potential.”  Oprah said something along the lines of, “believe what they tell you the first time they tell it.”  We all bring our quirks, our baggage, and our eccentricities into relationships, and do and say things that drive our partners completely nuts.  Remember that forgiveness is divine, and that it’ll only be a matter of time before you need forgiveness.

8.  Say “I love you” every day…and mean it. I feel so lucky and so fortunate to have finally met the man of my
dreams.  I always thought that often-quoted line, “You complete me,” that Renee Zellweger’s character says to Tom Cruise’s character in the movie, Jerry Maguire,  was so hokey.  However, now that I’ve found someone with whom I’m so compatible, I’ve discovered a whole new meaning and nuance to that line.  I tell Eric that I love him at least once each and every day, and then go on to tell him some trait or some action he’s taken that makes me fall in love with him all over again.

Being in love and running a business don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Both endeavors are hard work, and if
you forget that point, you can lose one or the other in a flash. Take time to nourish both your business and your
romantic relationship, and discover how having both in your life will make your life all the richer.

—————————————————-
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed professionals make more profit in less time online.  To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE ebook, TurboCharge Your Productivity:  50 + Tools To Help You Automate Your Business and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!, visit her site at
http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com .

Most of us have many dreams about what relationships will be like or should be like. We’ve lived with these dreams forever, so when the real thing happens, and we find
ourselves in a relationship  reality can be quite a shock.

Some people feel tricked, trapped or like failures. Others do everything under the sun to change their partner, change themselves, or figure out why their marriage is different
from the way they thought it would be.

The first step in truly understanding relationships,
however, is to realize that what we dream about or imagine,
is not necessarily what is going to happen to us. And that
doesn’t mean there is something wrong with ourselves or our
relationship. It just means that we didn’t know what to
truly expect.

Here are six facts that no one ever told you about
relationships that is important for you to understand. When
you do, you’ll find that many of the tangles loosen and as
you relax your relationship can grow naturally.

Number 1) Relationships are not static.

They can, will and must change. No two people stay the same
during the course of a life time. Their needs, wishes, and
interests vary. It is unreasonable to expect that
relationship partners will always grow and change in the
same ways, at the same time. This has to be accepted and
included in the relationship. It is not necessary for the
two of you to always think the same way, like the same
things, or be in the same place at the same time. Just
because you may have different tastes or interests doesn’t
mean that the two of you aren’t in love. For relationships
to remain vital and healthy it is necessary to have a core
of mutual interests, activities and desires, but,  it is
also crucial to make room for differences between you.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you are growing apart. It may
just mean that you are growing, and will have even more
love and understanding to bring to your partner in the long
run.

Number 2)  Romantic feelings of excitement, intoxication
and infatuation necessarily wax and wane.

Many people expect to feel “in love” with their partner on
a daily basis. By this they mean having romantic feelings
of excitement and infatuation, feeling as though they can’t
wait to see the person, and miss them if they’re gone.
These individuals must learn the crucial difference between
loving a partner and being “in love”. Romantic feelings of
excitement, intoxication and infatuation necessarily wax
and wane. There are times they appear and are very
enjoyable -other times they fade into the background. This
does not mean something is wrong or that you do not love
each other.  Love is not based upon fluctuating feelings,
but upon a solid foundation of mutual respect,
consideration and communication. Although it is wonderful
and important to set aside time for romantic time together,
the daily on-goingness of life requires a much deeper
understanding of what it means to truly love. Love is often
tested in the fire, and frequently sacrifice is needed. In
order to truly love, one must grow as a person, and that is
what relationships are for - to help us grow in our ability
to discover what love really is..

Number 3) Love is not dependency.

It’s all right to be who you are, be different from him,
have friends and activities of your own. It’s also all
right, to give him time with his friends and private space.
Love always includes trust of the other, and the knowledge
that the more your partner is able to enjoy others, the
more he will be able to enjoy being with you. The less you
suffocate and possess him, the more he will want to be with
you. The less you let him suffocate you, the more you will
love him and the more he will respect you. It’s fine to be
two, separate, whole people. From that basis, a lot of love
can grow.
{mospagebreak}
Number 4) Being angry doesn’t mean you do not love each
other.

Some feel that as soon as they are angry with their partner
or their partner is angry with them the love has gone out
the window. Of course, if anger goes on for too long, or is
not dealt with properly, it certainly can erode the quality
of a relationship. But being angry is not a sign that he
doesn’t love you, or you him. It is simply a sign that it
is time for good, open, honest, careful communication to
take place. On-going communication is the heart and soul of
every good relationship.

When we bottle up our needs and feelings and pretend to be
who we are not, then all that has been hidden will explode
through anger. But, when we recognize anger, irritation or
resentment as it arises, and freely discuss our needs or
responses with our partner, not only does the anger
diminish, but our relationship grows closer. Take anger as
a sign that you are being an opportunity to communicate
more and know each other better. Let it make you closer,
not further apart.

Number 5) Even though you’re together all the time, you
still must make time for one another.

Actually, you must actually carve out more time for each
other when you live together. Living together it’s easy to
take one another’s presence for granted. But just because
the person is there physically, does not necessarily mean
you’re sharing quality time. Children, errands, pressures
at work and social obligations can create a whir of
activity, but not intimate time between the two of you.
Carve out intimate time when the two of you are alone. Go
some place special. Make time to talk and hug. Make time to
have fun alone. This is a wonderful refresher to every
marriage and should be done at least weekly.

Number 6)  Being together for a long time doesn’t have to
take the magic away.

It’s wonderful to have someone at your side, who you share
experiences with year after year. There is no way to
replace a person who you’ve gone through many years with,
sharing common experiences and memories. The sense of
continuity and trust that can develop between you is a
jewel. It is wonderful to wake up each morning, knowing
this person is at your side. As the years pass you know
each other better and better, whatever happens you both
know there is someone there for you, who understands what
you are going through. As our ability to share grows, the
burdens of life diminish greatly, and the joys intensify as
well.

Cc/author/2005

—————————————————-
Discover the surprising truths about love that will save
your relationship, in Dr. Shoshanna’s new e-book Save Your
Relationship (21 Basic Laws of Successful Relationships).
http://www.truthaboutlove.com . Dr. Shoshanna is a
psychologist, relationship expert on i.village.com,
speaker, and author of many books, including The Anger
Diet, (30 Days To Stress Free Living),
http://www.theangerdiet.com.,Zen And The Art of Falling In
Love, (Simon and Schuster), Why Men Leave (Putnam), and
many others. You can contact her at mailto:
mailto:topspeaker@yahoo.com . Her personal website is:
http://www.brendashoshanna.com/

“Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people’s religious feelings, and besides, they add, the media censor themselves every day. So, please do not teach us a lesson about limitless freedom of speech.” - By FLEMMING ROSE

I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn’t mean you publish
everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages.

So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression.

But the cartoon story is different.

Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. By contrast, I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously — and we certainly didn’t intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter…

Read the article - Why I Published Those Cartoons

I remember cartoons as the one source of happiness, sandwiched between dreary grey pages proclaiming the end of the world and other bad news. Not anymore.Tears flow as freely as blood, as the publication of a cartoon depicting Prophet Mohammed  in Danish newspapers throws the world into violence.

The first — and foremost — lesson in all religion is love. “Love your neighbours as you have loved me,” God said. We seem to have forgotten.

To me, a layman, the concept of “neighbours” is simple: One who does not live in my house, but in adjacent houses, or even in the next estate. Some houses are bigger, some more cosy, some households with stricter parents, some plain apathetic, some resembling a squatter settlement more than a home. But it doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t matter to God, who am i to argue that it matters to me, so i’m going to punch you in the face because you’re ugly/pretty/poor/rich/tall/short?
Who then, in a religious context, are our neighbours?

Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, non-believers, we all live in this big estate we call Earth. We each have our own beliefs, our own house rules, our own practises. “Love your neighbours,” God said. “As you love me”. It’s not as easy as it sounds, of course.In the midst of loving our God, and ourselves, we forget our neighbours. We burn their houses. We try to buy over their land to expand our houses.

Enough of this madness, i pray.

Violence is not a sign of strength; peace is not a symbol of weakness. And when madness reigns in the name of religion, the world is not a pretty place.

What happened to other lessons in religion? Of forgiveness? Of compassion? By waging war, sowing discord and killing for as little as a cartoon drawing, are we following God’s word? Or has our love for ourselves overtaken that for God and our neighbours?

In Malaysia, Muslims will march to the Danish mission after Friday prayers this week, an opposition Islamic party official said — the first planned mass demonstration in the mainly Muslim country since the wave of protests erupted.

“We appeal to all Muslims to participate in the protest. We demand that the government of Denmark and the newspapers offer an apology to Muslims,” Ahmad Sabki Yusof, youth secretary of the hardline Islamic Party, told AFP

Sure the issue has escalated out of hand without “leaders” fanning the fires and inciting more violence?

Where is the good in all of this?

More news links

CNA - Violence escalates, positions hardened in cartoon crisis

BBC - World figures deplore cartoon row

UPI - Bush urges calm, respect in cartoon row

So you think you might just get lucky and land yourself a kiss with your hot date this Valentine’s Day? Think again.

Kissing might just kill you, according to a report released last week.

French kissing with multiple partners almost quadruples a teenager’s risk of spinal meningitis, a potentially life-threatening disease, researchers claim.

In a study involving 114 young men and women aged 15 to 19 who had been admitted to English hospitals with meningococcal disease in 1999 and 2000, it was found that those who had kissed intimately with multiple partners were 3.7 times likelier to catch the disease.

The research, which is published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), was led by Robert Booy of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance in Sydney, Australia.

Meningococcal disease is caused by a bacterial or viral infection of the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds it.

The symptoms are fever, headache and a stiff neck, which can proceed to nausea, vomiting and seizures.

Viral meningitis is generally far less severe than bacterial meningitis, which can lead to brain damage, hearing loss or even death if untreated swiftly with antibiotics.

In short, kiss too many people and you might just fall over and die!

There goes the mistletoe next Christmas. Farewell to my romantic plans on February 14 later this week.

Here’s the lowdown:

• Holding hands can cause Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD)
• Kissing can kill you
• Sex puts you at risk of catching the HIV virus
• Oral sex is still illegal in Singapore

DAMN! And you wonder why we are ranked second from bottom in the Durex sex survey ???

What is JarHead ?

Jarhead, as the definition above explains is a movie about the US Marine Corps. Based on the life of a soldier entering the marines to get a college education, it tells a story of how the marine goes through training to his deployment - in Iraq performing under pressure - to him being a civilian after servicing his tour. It depicts the dilimas or situations that most enlisted soldiers feel or experience in any army. From being yelled at, to tough rigious training, to being actually deployed for war (I can only imagine the feeling). Jarhead, really touches close to heart some aspects of military life.

Read the entire entry …

Australian comoany, TELSTRA, has introduced its BigPond Movies Download service, which lets users on the internet dowloads movies, films, TV series and music videos off its site.But don’t get too excited just yet.

But while Telstra said people would be able to start watching a movie while it was downloading, other media observers warned that Big Pond customers’ standard download speed of 256 kilobytes a second was still “non-commercial” and would create headaches for users.

“The biggest problem that BigPond Movies has got is BigPond,” EL & C Baillieu media analyst Ivor Ries said.

“You’d be waiting a year to download a movie at that speed. It’s a joke.”

The Age Australia

There are a host of people in the world today that are constantly trying to gain access and steal personal and financial information from your computer at all times.  If you store important information on your computer, here are some secure ways to protect yourself from hackers.

Millions of people have had their personal and financial information stolen by hackers.  It is a priority to protect your computer each time you surf the net.  One of the easiest ways to protect your computer is to have a virus and Trojan horse software running on your computer that can alert you to danger.  Virus software not only protects your computer from a malicious virus that can damage your data, but also protects your computer from spyware and Trojan horses.  Trojan horses are small computer code that sneaks into your computer, finds personal and financial information and then sends that data to a hacker database.

Spyware usually is not as dangerous, but can be very annoying.  Spyware is software that is secretly or inadvertently downloaded when you download other software, usually free software. Spyware usually sends you advertisements and keeps track of the sites that you have visited.  Virus software and spyware software can help you delete these annoying files and help protect you from downloading new spyware programs.  So follow the above tips to protect your computer.

“Many have expressed their concern that the cartoons we
published here will be used out of context by real anti-semites
to spread further hate against us.

To this I say:Anti semites will always find excuses for hatred,
with or without our help. We’ve been accused of everything from
9/11 to hurricane Katrina, the killing of Jesus and the
original sin.

In my opinion, the only solution for racism is good education -
education for thought and for doubt - so that people think twice
before they accept everything they watch on TV or read in the
newspaper or hear from their leaders or rabbis as truth from
heaven.

Just think twice!” - http://www.boomka.org/

History writes that people hated the Jews because the Jews
killed Jesus (and a bunch of other pretexts). Later, the issue
was settled simply as religious “misinterpretation.”

It’s not that simple. How in the earth those kinds of religious
interpretation get popular in the first place?

I mean, let’s see. Jesus is a Jew. All 12 apostles were Jewish.
There is nothing in the bible, which is made in Israel by the
way, that says, “hate Jews”. So, it’s kind of far fetch isn’t
it? The reason why Jesus died is the same reason why Copernicus
died, namely being correct when everyone else is wrong. Yet why
the same Europeans wouldn’t hate the Pope?

If Christianity is the factor, then we wouldn’t expect anti
Semitism in non-Christian countries. In communist Rusia, Lenin
(or Stalin) wrote a document that says Jewish doctors conspired
to kill Lenin. Later, Russian government admitted that the
document was a fraud, after Lenin’s death.

Then, ups, misunderstanding. All right, we’ve been tricked. We
know Lenin, Hitler, Mao Tze Tung, or (name your dictators here)
are evil. Still, that doesn’t explain why these dictators
crafted the fraud in the first place. What motivated those
dictators to put more successful people in bad light?
Read the entire entry …

Bluetooth technology is one of the most popular wireless technologies on the market today.  Out for only a few years, Bluetooth is catching on as a practical and affordable way to transmit data from one device to another.  If you are in the market to buy a wireless device, here are some tips.

The most common uses for Bluetooth are wireless head sets, transferring data from digital camera to printer or transferring data from a computer to a PDA.  Bluetooth Wireless technology has completely changed the way we use our devices.

Wireless headsets are the perfect gadget for anyone stuck behind the wheel of their car or for a person that roams his office and doesn’t want to be connected to a cord.  Most Bluetooth wireless headsets have hours of talk time and have a clear range of 30 feet.

If you own a digital camera and want to print photos on your printer without the help of a computer, Bluetooth can help.  Bluetooth enabled cameras and printers can transfer data fast and easily and in only a few minutes.

The same thing goes for data files that can easily be swapped between PDA’s and your computer.  Want to transfer your telephone book to your PDA fast and quickly, use Bluetooth technology.  So for most of your wireless needs, look into Bluetooth technology.

Many people love the freedom and flexibility of working at home.  For many people, working at home is the only available opportunity for them due to their family responsibilities or their health.  You can find many work at home ideas online that can bring you a healthy profit each month.  Here is some great work at home ideas.

Many people make a great living by starting a home business at home.  You can easily sell items on Ebay or other large auction sites.  Ebay is responsible for thousands of work at home businesses.  It is very easy to sell items and you can start out your business by just selling the items around you home or garage until you figure which category of items you would like to get into.

You can also make money at home by doing a trade such as a home based travel agent or other service that only requires a phone and computer.  Many people love the idea of being their own boss and making their own schedule.

Some other great ideas are data entry, writing articles for e-zines and web sites and web development such as web design and web graphics.  So if you are looking for some great work at home ideas, check out the above information.

A National Serviceman lost his M16 rifle during training at about 12.45 early Friday morning

Fortunately, the weapon was found at 8.40 Saturday morning - some 32 hours later.

The incident happened during a night navigation exercise in the Lower Mandai Reserve for section leader trainees.

It is believed the soldier lost the rifle amongst thick undergrowth in Mandai.

Some 400 servicemen were deployed in the search operation.

When contacted, a Mindef spokesperson said, they are conducting investigations. - Channel News Asia

Section leaders training would be SISPEC, no? Goodness, and these are soldiers that would soon lead our army men in battle? Looks like this trainee would be lucky if he only got Suffer In Silence Plus Extra Confinement.