The togetherness that volunteers experience can tie their community together more closely, and naturally it will help those who can’t support themselves. The obvious problem is that freeing up the time to volunteer can consume time that could really be put to so much better use. And don’t you agree that with your colleagues volunteering alongside you you’d all have a better time? By way of tackling this issue, a number of companies are making themselves into initiatives encouraging their employees to give back to the community. One of the more significant examples is Adaptive Marketing LLC of Connecticut who developed programs like BusinessMax (MVQ*BIZMAX). Fortunately, company-supported volunteer activity has developed beyond blood drives and once-a-year charitable giving. To go back to our earlier example, Adaptive Marketing has provided its staff members with a chance to help with anything from athletic shoe recycling campaigns to tree replanting weekends. Once all the relevant information — date, location, time, details, etc. — had been announced in advance it is a simple matter for employees to set aside the time for volunteering and how they’d be using it. It’s essential to let volunteers select programs that fit their hobbies. Businesses providing this kind of service like Adaptive Marketing, (who offer to the public programs like BusinessMax (MVQ*BIZMAX)) offer their staff a wide variety of activities in their area. Once you start looking for things to do you see so many; working with children, lending a hand to green programs, or supporting local artists to list a few that have already been tried. A volunteer who takes pleasure in his task is an effective volunteer, and as a result by offering such a variety of activities Adaptive Marketing guarantee that their staffers will make progress on as many as possible.

If firms encourage their staff help at homeless shelters, it tends to be during a single event or a regularly scheduled, perhaps weekly or monthly task. Even those who claim they haven’t time to spare may be able to arrange for a Saturday morning spent litter picking in the park.

Commercial history is full of examples of firms giving back to the citizens of their home town. The activities of the employees at firms like Adaptive Marketing create important good feeling in their home community. Helping others leaves you feeling like a better person — just the sort of thing to leave stafrf motivated both in their regular work and their volunteer activities. By now, we think, the benefits for everyone involved of a company-sponsored volunteer program are ought to be perfectly clear for everyone.

Volunteering; a path to a closer community, and helping your local needy. The obvious problem is that arranging to be free to volunteer often actually squanders time that could be put to better use elsewhere. Keep in mind that volunteering is more fun when your co-workers are pitching in right along with you! Thus, some companies are making themselves into initiatives encouraging their employees to work for the community through volunteer activities. One of the more significant examples is Adaptive Marketing LLC of Connecticut who also offer financial benefits programs such as Passport to Fun to consumers. If you were asked for examples of company-backed volunteer work, you’d most likely talk in terms of blood drives, maybe a Christmas donation drive, but this is simply no longer true. The employees of Adaptive Marketing are frequently provided with opportunities to get involved in a wide variety of community initiatives. For these events, the locations, dates and times of the events were made clear well in advance, making sure that staff members knew what to expect, and how much time it might take precisely. Of course, it’s important to let volunteers find programs that fit their interests. Staffers from Adaptive Marketing, the company who offers the shopping program Passport to Fun, select from among an assortment of initiatives. Earlier projects have ranged between areas as diverse as education for children and young adults, environmental awareness activities, and events related to arts and culture. Adaptive Marketing’s employees are presented with such a choice that they’re certain to have something they enjoy, making their time enjoyable as well as fulfilling. A one-off event or a regular addition to their schedule - these are the most likely ways for a business to arrange volunteer initiatives like these, often at a nearby homeless shelter or one of the local schools. Staff members may well submit that they have no time to give, though one would be surprised if they honestly cannot find enough resources to help at one instalment of a longer project.

We’re sure you’ve heard a number of examples of companies finding ways to help the citizens of their home town. Adaptive Marketing like many other companies maintains volunteer programs in part to spread goodwill through its home community as a result of the charity work performed by its staff members. One thing volunteer activities are certain to do is leave your staff feeling good about themselves, generating a motivated corporate culture. By now, we think, the positives for everyone involved of a company supported volunteer program are are fairly obvious.

The sense of friendship that develops among volunteers can strengthen the local community spirit, and naturally it will aid their local needy. But where do you find the time to donate your time? It’s a great deal simpler to get involved when another party has organized the event. Keep in mind that volunteering is more fun when your colleagues are pitching in right along with you. This is a call for other companies to take a cue from far-sighted firms like Connecticut’s Adaptive Marketing LLC. In addition to shopping and financial benefits programs including Shopping Essentials Plus intended for the benefit of consumers, Adaptive Marketing organizes local volunteer activity so that its employees have more time to give back to the local community.

Luckily, company sponsored volunteer work is more than blood drives and annual collections. Looking at just one company, Adaptive Marketing has provided its staff members with the chance to help with anything from tennis shoe recycling campaigns to local tree replanting weekends. For these events, the times, locations and dates that had been arranged were posted, making sure that staff members knew what to expect, and how much time a given event might actually require.

There should always be a choice between projects. Employees of Adaptive Marketing, the company who developed the financial benefits program Shopping Essentials Plus, can choose from many programs. You’ll soon see your civic-minded staffers helping out children and young adults, community projects in culture, promoting green initiatives and more. In many cases, the more they enjoy it, the more productive they are, so by offering such a variety of activities Adaptive Marketing guarantee that their staffers will make progress on as many as possible.

As a rule when companies urge staff volunteer at schools, it is typically to help with a specific event or a regularly scheduled job. Staff may well submit - and truly be convinced- that they have no time to give, though it would be fairly surprising if they honestly can’t free up enough hours to help at one instalment of a longer project. Extending a helping hand is a practice with a storied history at many companies. The activities of the staffers at Adaptive Marketing and other companies spread important good feeling in their hometown. Volunteering to help others leaves you feeling like a better person - exactly what you need to get employees motivated in both their volunteer activities and back behind their desks. By now, we think, the rewards of a company-sponsored volunteer drive for everyone involved are ought to be self-evident.

Apologize for What…

Terry Dashner………………………Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013

Why should we apologize for being America?

Capitol Reader Political Book Summaries writes in review of T.R. Reid’s book entitled, The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy. “The rise of a united Europe is one of the great geopolitical events of our time. The nations of this diverse and once fractious continent are pulling together to create a common economic system, currency and social identity. The European Union now eclipses the United States in terms of population, economic output and it is the largest consumer market in the world. In short, the European Union is fast becoming a superpower capable of rivaling the United States on every measure, except militarily.

“The emergence of the European Union as a major global force has gone largely unnoticed by the American public. Most Americans do not realize, for instance, the sheer number of products and services they purchase which are made or controlled by European concerns. With America’s huge account and trade deficits, Europe is essentially lending America money to buy European products. This arrangement offers something for both sides, but America’s lack of fiscal responsibility is reflected in the rise of the euro versus the dollar. The euro is poised to replace the dollar as the world’s currency of choice. A unified Europe is becoming an economic powerhouse that is increasingly setting the rules of global commerce. The sooner America wakes us to this fact, the better for all concerned.”

America isn’t sleeping, she’s at war with the extremists that the European Union, save Britain, has refused to act against militarily. America could set back and count her money too if somebody else fought her battles and funded militaries, comparable to hers, which are capable of policing the whole world against terrorists. Pardon me for being pro Americaof course that’s what Europeans detest about me to begin withbut I must demur. America is not the bad guy, nor the school-yard bully. America is ordained and carrying out her world calling. Let me explain.

America was founded on the principle of freedom. Her early settlers were religious refugees seeking freedom from religious tyranny. They were willing to die for the liberties they were denied in Europe. Many of the brave and bold men, women and children died from exposure, disease, starvation, and even the hostile actions by the indigenous peoples. This desire for liberty, freedom, and non-governmental sponsorship of one religion over another is still in our blood. And America, as she has proven in the past and demonstrates today, will go to war anywhere in the world to uphold these precious principles. Without apologies I might add.

If the European Union thinks she can lecture America for being jingoistic or gun totting cowboys then she is guilty of the very patronizing she is using to shame us. The European Union can not denounce America for being war dogs and then itself refuse to acknowledge the immorality in her camp. The European Union has failed to denounce terrorist’s organizations in Lebanon. The European Union has refused to acknowledge that the United StatesBush administration particularlyhas had some good successes in Afghanistan and Iraq (free elections). The European Union has failed to act jointly against Iran’s nuclear threat. The European Union might have its euro and trade power, but it isn’t perfect either.

As a matter of fact let me predict where this is going. The European Union wants nothing more than what China or Russia wantto be the leading world power. To do that, she must eclipse the United States in the world spot light. Will this happen? Eventually the European Union will eclipse all nations. There is coming a restoration, a revival of the Roman Empire. In the last days in which we live currently, the nations of the world will move into positions to dominate the world in trade, prestige, religious and military might. The only missing link for this to happen in the European Union is a human leader that consolidates its power and leads it forward to world domination.
There is coming soon a world leader who will fill this tall order for the European Union. He will capitalize on Europe’s secular platformno semblances of God. He will unify trade, secularism, and militaries. He is called the Anti-Christ in the book of Revelation.

You might keep this in mind as the world continues to throw mind in the eyes of America. But America is not going away, nor will she cower under the pressures of her oppressors. Currently America is experiencing spiritual revival. God is revisiting His covenant which He made with her early fore-fathers of faith. He is blessing America one more time because she is humbling herself before God and calling out to Him. God said, “If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray…” (II Chron. 7:14). America wants more than what money and prestige alone can give. America wants God’s blessing on her. As long as she wants this and cries out for it, she will have it.

The European Union is playing into the hands of God whether she cares to admit this or not. She will serve God’s purpose either willingly or by His Sovereignty. And for that matter, every nation in the world belongs to Him and is created for His glory (Isa. 43:7). God watches over His footstool which according to the Psalmist is the world. If the nations of this world humble themselves before God, they will prosper. If the nations defy Himwell stick around and watch what happens. God will have the last word!

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus rules over all. He is coming again one day soon. Get ready and stay ready.

Pastor Tdash

About the Author

Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK. He is a retired police officer and veteran of the United States Navy. He currently serves his community as a minister of a church that his father founded 23 years ago.

Mass tort status is being considered in the lawsuits that have been filed against the makers of the birth control pills Yasmin or Yaz and its generic form Ocella. This is largely due to the increasing number of cases being filed across the country where victims claim stroke and other serious health problems caused by taking Yasmin or Ocella. Yaz side effects range from ischemic stroke or heart attack, to pulmonary embolism and other blood clot related injuries.

There are already multiple lawsuits charged in various counties across the U.S. against the contraceptive producer. This number is expected to reach 1,000. Typically, those effected by Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella can submit a case evaluation at TheLegalAdvocate.com to have an attorney review their information in order to be provided with answers and eventually representation.

Any women that have been injured as a result of taking Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella may be eligible to an award. Many attorneys and legal advocate agencies such as thelegaladvocate.com now extend assistance to anyone experiencing side effects and health issues as a direct result of using Yaz contraception. Now that more adult females across the country are coming forward and filing lawsuits, the legal system is moving closer to providing justice for those who were misinformed by the birth control manufacturers and possibly their doctors.

Malignant mesothelioma is a unusual and fast moving growth where no successful treatment has been discovered even with the discovery of many possible molecular and genetic targets. The final stages of Malignant pleural mesothelioma diagnosis and the long latency that between exposures and diagnosis have made it difficult to comprehensively evaluate the role of risk factors and the insuing molecular effects.

A lot of medical centers are beginning to see increasing numbers of people with malignant mesothelioma. This presents pathologists involved in making the diagnosis with a number of problems, that are separated into those encountered in making the distinction between cancer of the mesothelium and benign changes and those experienced in setting apart cancer of the mesothelium from other types of epithelial and tissue tumors that connect. Immunohistochemistry is a major factor in making the diagnosis, however, it should be understood with regards to the medical setting and radiological characteristics, and with an understanding of the extensive morphological variations existing in mesothelioma.

Malignant mesothelioma is a primary cancer of the serosal cavities, an anatomic area that is often affected by metastatic disease, mostly from primary carcinomas of the ovary, lung and breast. Developments in immunohistochemistry have resulted in improvement in diagnostic sensitivity and cancer of the mesothelium in regards to histological and cytological material. As of late, the authors group applied increased levels of throughput technology to the classification of new markers that might assist in differentiating mesothelioma from ovarian and peritoneal serous carcinoma, tumors with closely related histogenesis and antigenic profile. Together with the improved medical devices obtainable for serosal carcinoma diagnosis, realizing the biology of malignant mesothelioma has been accruing as of late.

The Guggenheim has issued an open invitation to voyeuristic barbarism - with Marina Abramovic as the eager victim. Next month, New York will be treated to seven consecutive days of the exhibitionism of Marina Abramovic, a performance artist, who plans to mutilate herself in the museum. Her performance art consists of several seven-hour-long stints of self mutilation, where she plans to cut herself on the stomach, nails, and lips in various set pieces.

Why is this barbarism? Why can’t this too be art? Two centuries ago, Edmund Burke wrote, “I am convinced we have a degree of delight, and no small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.”1 To unlock this urge - this delight in the pain of others in the context of an exhibition, is to unleash mob instincts. “The violence of the feelings of crowds is also increased, especially in heterogeneous crowds, by the absence of all sense of responsibility.”2 (Gustave Le Bon) The mob mentality occurs precisely because the individual feels no personal sense of responsibility for the events unfolding before him. Indeed, this freedom from accountability allows for the indulgence in the “pleasures” of watching the suffering of others. Is this the goal of art? To transform us into a shameful mob?

Ms. Abramovic has transformed museum-goers into bloodthirsty mobs in the past. Take for example, one of her renowned pieces performed in Naples. In 1974, Marina Abramovic now 60 years old, performed a piece called, “Rhythm 0″. In it, she stood passively in a museum for six hours with 72 items around her, including knives, a needle and a loaded gun. She invited the crowd to use any of the tools on her that they wanted to, in whatever way they wished. According to the New York Times, here was the result: “The participants became involved slowly at first, but after a while Ms. Abramovic’s clothes were cut off, and her body marked, burned and cut. Finally, a man took the gun and made her put it up to her head, trying to force her to squeeze the trigger. She didn’t resist, but a fight ensued as other spectators intervened.” (NYT, Sunday 11/6/05).

To cultivate this base and sad aspect of our selves is immoral. It is immoral to invoke humanity’s base and murderous urges for the sake of spectacle. This is the same murderous urge that shouts to a depressive on a window ledge, “Jump!” No, this lowest aspect of being is not to be nurtured, toyed with, cultivated or titillated.

It is immoral because of the violation to her own body. But perhaps more immoral is the insidious violation of our psyches. Putting aside Ms. Abramovic’s welfare, what does this grisly indulgence do to us? It horrifies us, or worse titillates us, but ultimately serves to harden us against emotional warmth. “Citizens of modernity, consumers of violence as spectacle, adepts of proximity without risk, are schooled to be cynical about the possibility of sincerity.”3 (Susan Sontag) This is one of the high costs to society for this sort of indulgence.

Further, it is the responsibility of the keepers of art to draw the line. And as a matter of fact, they did draw the line - at crucifixion. Yes, Ms. Abramovic wanted to nail her hands to a Volkswagen and drive it around the museum. Apparently, museum officials balked at this. Well, at least some sanity prevailed, even if it was perhaps ultimately prompted by insurance and liability issues.

For many, the answer to the question, “Barbarism Anyone?” will always be “Yes.”

Notes:
1. Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful
2. Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd 1895 (Dover publications, New York) p.22

3. Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, (Farrar Strauss and Giroux, NY 2003), p.111.

Elizabeth Crawford

Adjunct Professor, Emory University

Over the last few weeks I’ve tried to get an interview with a high White House official. I was not successful in this, but I did catch Jose Caliente when he got off work. When he came out onto Pennsylvania Avenue, I said, “Ho! Jose!”

He stopped and looked at me and said, “Do you know me?”

I said, “Why, of course. You are the White House gardener. Everybody working in the White House is famous.”

He smiled with those beautiful white teeth like most immigrants have. He said, “I wish I was the gardener. I just do what the gardener says. He says to go plant a flower, I plant the flower. If he says to trim the bush, I trim the bush. If he says to shovel the”

I raised my hand. “You are too modest, Jose. I did a little checking on you, Jose. (You must do a bit of checking of those engaging in high governmental interviews.) You were born in Tijuana, right?”

“San Juan!”

“I was wondering, Jose. If a guy from Mexico wanted to get a Puerto Rico birth certificate, how much would it cost?”

“Three hundred and seventy-five dollars. That’s what I heard anyway.”

“Hmmnn,” I said. “Jose, do you ever talk to the president.”

Jose shook his head. He said, “I got to be going now.”

I said, “Is there a good Puerto Rican restaurant around here?”

“No,” he said, “but there is a humdinger of a Mexican restaurant just up the street.”

I took the opportunity: “Well, maybe we can talk over dinner, have a few cervezas, just shoot the bull.”

At dinner, Jose told me he was born in Tucson, Arizona and that his name was Tony Rodriquez. I said, “You are an American citizen then! I thought you talked funny.”

He wiped a drop of cerveza off his lip with his napkin and said, “I had to lie to get my job at the White House.”

“It does seem to be an avant-garde job quality,” I said.

“You don’t understand. They want minorities in government so they hire minorities to clean the toilets and other important stuff like that. That’s how I got on the White House yard gang.”

It was time to get to the meat of things. I said, “Jose, what do you think of Bush War II?”

“It’s okay with me as long as I’m not over there choking on the dust and wondering if the next car that goes by will explode and blow me bit by bit to Hermosillo.”

I asked Jose about the cars.

“Jose, why can anyone in Iraq load up a car with explosive and blow the hell out of everybody? Can’t they control who gets a car? Can’t they have secured parking lots so that not just anybody can get to them?”

“Cars are part of the new freedom.”

I said, “They had cars before the war. Jose. Why do you think it is that we have never been able to secure the Iraq borders?

“Can we secure our own borders?” Jose stuffed a bite of tamale into his mouth.

I shifted to armaments. “Jose, why do you think we never got control of the weapons in Iraq?”

“Do we have control of weapons here?”

Well, Jose had me there. I said, “We decided to get Saddam because he tried to kill the president’s parents in Kuwait, right?”

“Oil!”

“Hmmnn,” I said.

I decided to ask the one obvious question before I left Jose. I said, “I felt sorry for Powell at the U.N.”

“Why? He is a big boy.”

“Yeah but having to look like an uninformed”

Jose pulled a big Cuban out of his pocket and lit up. “Powell practiced on the White House lawn.”

Now, I had what I was after. A big story that surly would be syndicated all over the world! I was ELATED!

Jose blew smoke in my face and said,”Gotcha!”

by John T. Jones, Ph.D.

The End

copyright©John T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com)is a retired R&D engineer and VP of a Fortune 500 company. He is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering), poetry, etc. Former editor of international trade magazine. More info: http://www.tjbooks.com Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (wealth-success books / flagpoles)

This week I was watching a TV program about Wal-Mart and its spectacular operations world wide. One part was about the stores they opening in China and there was one particular sentence by a young local Chinese “associate” (employee) that caught me and opened a whole new way of thinking about the possible change that might occur in US/Chinese relationship.

Each Wal-Mart store could be a center for the dissemination of better understanding by the Chinese about the USA. Though not intended each stores “associates ” would be U.S. diplomats.

In the USA Wal-Mart has been misnamed as the Chinese outlet. Look again at many hundreds of products in any of your favorite stores. Products are not only made in China, but in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and a host of other Asian countries. The quality is fine. The reason they are made there is because the cost of production is so low that products can be shipped 12,000 miles to your backyard at a price you find irresistible.

Fingernail clippers or lawn mowers - it doesn’t make any difference. The workers in those Asian countries are producing and BUYING those products from American companies IN their own country. Every yen or yuan sold to them is profit for an American company. Wal-Mart is planning 2,000 stores in China by a company Sam Walton started in Arkansas - and they still have their headquarters there.

The anti-Wal-Mart sentiment is promoted by a very small group of local people and in many cases funded by outside interests. As a kid I can remember the opposition to the A&P food stores similar to what we are seeing against Wal-Mart today. They said it would cause the local grocery stores to close. They were right. Now answer this. Do you want to shut down your Albertson’s, Piggly Wiggly, Win-Dixie, A&P, etc. and go back to the corner grocery store? I don’t think so.

Who has benefited most from these huge changing marketing operations? YOU, the consumer.

What was that one sentence that young Chinese said to the head of Asian Wal-Mart? Approximately: “Working here gives you a better understanding of other people”. This is very profound as it indicates a new thought pattern about “other people”, namely the U.S.

Here is a way that might change the thinking of the Chinese about America. Imagine what 2,000 Wal-Mart stores could do for international understanding and world peace. Am I too bold in this extrapolation? Maybe, but it can give the USA a chance to reach down into the basic fabric of Chinese culture to the people.

Let the diplomats deal with the higher Chinese officials and hope that some of the change of heart of the “associates” will seep out to their customers and then upward to the leaders.

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Copyright 2005

This brings to our consciousness, issues concerning the ever rising level of inequality prevalent in our times with its attendant fallout and imbalance within our global system.

This has had its roots within the basic units of human co-existence experienced at our different localities and as such has naturally extended beyond, to a multi-level of inter-relationships across national boundaries.
We have the two sides of the border with a far yawning gap or better still, should we call it the two sides of the socio-economic divide: which balance is daily nurtured towards the deprivation experienced amongst a group of people within a state and across poor countries of the world-the African continent being prominent in this instance.

The struggle for supremacy in all spheres has become so heated up in recent times. While one may acknowledge that this is as an innate attribute of Man to ensure self survival, are recent actions in this pursuit of self preservation not going beyond the balance?

The less inspirational ones are daily being stampeded to the dust and ultimate death by the more privileged in the race for a nebulous ‘reward’ dreamt up by the ‘conqueror’.

The fallout is the self-inflicted tension which yet persists. Even the delicate eco-balance is not spared either.

In simple words, the reality today is the nurturing of a system which is lopsided towards a situation of grinding poverty and disrespect for human dignity.

Therefore, it may be inferred that it is possible that the human race has not actually maximized the benefits of the essence of its existence on this planet.

Therefore, the natural flow of thought is to question the role of our decision makers to stem the tide of this imbalance.

Across all levels of decision making one may ask: what has engaged the minds of our policy makers where issues such as the equitable share of the common good (wealth), rule of law coupled with unbiased dispensation of justice and respect for the dignity of Man are concerned? These and many questions demand our attention.

What is Man’s mission?
What is the mission of the privileged?
What is the reaction of the oppressed?
How did these attitudes originate?
Has it been as a result of retaliation or provocation? etc

However, despite these multifarious conflicting tendencies, a symbiotic relationship of sorts still prevails. Or do we call it a forced relationship- predatory in nature?

For something in return, the have-nots still serve the privileged ones within and across the socio-economic divide. A similar experience is also noted across nations where raw materials and cheaper labour force are exchanged for finished goods and services.

Yet a state of mutual suspicion, fear and tension still exist. Why? And can we do better than this?

Today, to advocate for a utopia is neither practicable nor humanly possible but our lopsided socio-economic equilibrium (being the two sides of the same coin of the human entity) ought to be steered towards a harmonious status as much as we can and not a departure from it as it were.

The oppressed nations, the weak in the slums, in the favelas, in the ghettos we know are”the dust of the earth” but let the powerful reflect on the phenomenon of our common creation and extinction to deliberately do more by allowing some spill of the needed ‘little drops of water”(at the least) touch the quaking and dried lips of these less-inspired ones.. This is what they simply ask for! To ensure a recovery, sustenance of life and restore human dignity to our other self and not mere existence as it were.

In all, life goes on albeit the uncertainties and the mutual suspicion at both ends of the fulcrum of our interactions and existence. Let us see what happens..

Muyiwa Osifuye is an African (Nigeria) based photographer. This article accompanied my photographic work at the 5th Gwangju Arts Biennale in South Korea summer 2004. A few of my works can be seen at http://www.pictures-of-nigeria.com