Insights

On Steve

2011-10-05T23:43:00.001-04:00

In 1984 a business executive asked me to help him with his new computer, an Apple Macintosh. I took it out of the box with him right there and a few minutes later told him, "You won't need my help. This computer is the easiest computer to use that I have ever seen." I had been using computers and teaching others to use them since 1975 at that point in my life.

In 2004 my very old mother asked me for help with the new Macbook I just gave her. A few minutes later she told me she did not need my help any more.

In June, 2010 I handed my little nephew a new iPad. He had never seen one before. He took it and never asked me once how to use it. An hour later he knew more about how it worked than I did, and I had it for a month before I gave it to him.

Steve made technology fun and easy to use for people of all nationalities and ages, that legacy will never stop being true.

Buddha said, "What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind." Steve understood this.

Earth Provides Sorely Needed Economic Stimulus

2011-08-26T11:04:00.003-04:00

Earthquakes and hurricanes, along with the other expensive disasters of 2011, are going to put many people back to work.

A major storm is bearing down on the Atlantic Coast of the United States. A drought is raging in the Southwest. Floods, blizzards, earthquakes and tornadoes have ripped apart large swaths of the landscape in the world's wealthiest country.

An economic storm was already upon us before all these natural emergencies. Wealthy business owners and investors have mostly stood by enjoying some of the lowest tax rates in decades. They will not hire people until somebody else go first. They will not invest in their own land, preferring instead to send any profits to China, to build new factories overseas.

Against this backdrop U.S. politicians, mostly of the GOP species, have decided the most prudent thing for the government to do is also stop investing in America. Their strategy this summer was to undermine world trust in the U.S. by promising, not just threatening but promising. to allow the U.S. to default on the national debt. Their technique almost worked as the markets crashed in response.

Then came the earthquake and Irene.

It is not fun to ride out a major tropical depression. I rode out Hurricane David, the eye of the storm passed over my home in Caribbean in 1979. But I learned that even these terrible storms have a purpose. They cleanse the earth, prune the weak limbs and cause people to spend money rebuilding. Hurricanes, floods and earthquakes reveal weak spots in public infrastructure.

The lines at grocery and building stores near my current home outside Washington, DC were hours long yesterday. Yes, people waited hours to check-out. Stores were not ready and staffed for such crowds. Millions were spent on items deemed necessities, including power generators, bottled water and toilet paper.

Soon the storm will pass over and billions will need to be spent on bridges, building repairs, and other storm damage. Much of this will come out of the accounts of insurance companies but also the rich and the poor will be forced to spend any savings. It is an unpleasant experience all the same but it will amount to a needed stimulus. A stimulus the politicians can do nothing to avoid.

How To Get People Back To Work, and Keep Them Employed

2011-01-20T15:08:00.007-05:00

(Another work-in-progress article that I just felt like posting anyway.)

The newspapers are again filled with White House statements about efforts to create jobs. The politicians echo themselves but seem to offer few concrete plans. In the meantime business leaders wait almost silently for the inevitable tax breaks they will be offered in exchange for hiring certain categories of people. For example:

Hire somebody that has been unemployed for more than 52 weeks and you get $1,000 in tax breaks.
Hire somebody and keep them employed for 6 months and your business can deduct the first $1,000 in new hire costs.
Hire some one just released from prison, just off welfare, just out of drug rehab. and your business gets...

I'm sure you get my drift. These incentives are so predictable there must be hundreds of employers holding off on hiring just in anticipation that the tax breaks will soon arrive.

At the same time there are other advisors no doubt touting job training efforts, something along the lines of "Teach a man to fish..." Hundreds of vocational education centers are already salivating at the thought of such programs they can use and abuse to defray the costs of training more bricklayers or network admins.

What we really need, however, is for consumers to start spending more money on the few American-made products left on the markets. Beyond vegetables, microchips, and esoteric parts for things like aircraft, the idea of American-made products is almost becoming an oxymoron. Most new jobs in the U.S. seem to involve services like health care, sales, and mortgage refinance. I often see offers for pizza delivery men, grocery clerks, and wait staff in shop windows or local paper classified sections.

I get to sit down and talk with young and old people on a regular basis. Some are waiting for customers to come in and take a table at a local (often empty) establishment I frequent. Others sit with me on their lunch breaks at the huge call centers I support. I listen to their hopes and dreams and offer suggestions from my long and storied job history. A single trend seeps through all the small talk.

America is in dire need of qualified career counselors.

That's right. There is no shortage of people willing to learn new skills. There is no lack of initiative when it comes to taking classes at the local community college. People will stick with new hire training programs if they are allowed in the front door. It's what happens next that is the basic problem.

People who did far more interesting work just a few years ago seem to have great difficulty translating those efforts into some new industry. Employers are reluctant to put an unknown person into a position beyond entry-level drudgery. Many applicants fail to see the benefits of taking an entry-level job just to get a foot in the door. I've taken entry-level jobs on so many occasions that I now relish the opportunity. It's like sampling the entire menu at a restaurant while getting paid a little something to do so.

Applicants fail to do their part to describe their true talents. A small but consistent group of applicants overstate their skills thereby instilling a sense of doubt about all applicants in all hiring agents. Human resources people these days seem to start off with the opinion that the applicant sitting before them is not telling the truth about anything. Thorough background checks are too time-consuming and expensive. In addition, many employers are reluctant to say much about a former employee for fear of lawsuits.

One solution to the problem of job creation is to train people precisely how to honestly sell themselves to a potential employer. It is an age-old challenge that demands patience and understanding but the fruit of the effort could be thousands or even millions of people placed in jobs that are right for them.

Big Business Controls Immigration Law

2010-12-10T15:58:00.006-05:00

(19th century immigrants to the United States)
Anonymous Comment to New York Times series on Immigration Laws:

North Carolina
December 9th, 2010 4:25 pm

While some may wish to lay the blame on this issue at the feet, or rather the backs, of these workers and their families, there is no doubt that these people were invited to come here and to work on our behalf. America's Agribusiness could not function without and it is this industry that recruits these workers, transported them to states like North Carolina for cheap disposable labor.

You cannot have the abundance of food and services as you do in America without this exploited system of labor. The American Consumer is on the hook as well. Many Americans blithely purchase items without knowing or wanting to know who brings them.

It is Christmas time. Do you know who cut and trimmed those Christmas trees? In North Carolina, the 2nd leading state in trees, we know it is mostly Mexican workers.

Nativists like to use their talking about a house broken into, but this metaphor doesn't hold true. It is more akin to the owner of the house putting up a sign for work and then letting in the worker into his back door and then eventually kicking the worker out when it comes convenient.

That is the system we have today. It is simply unjust and should not be balanced on the backs of the most poor, the least educated, and least powerful but rather be squared at the boardrooms of companies like Tyson Foods, in the halls of Congress and at the tables of the American Consumer who benefits and profits from cheap goods and services that are in essence ill gotten.

Rovers at Oshkosh Irish Festival 0114311

2010-06-24T21:23:00.001-04:00

Rovers at Oshkosh Irish Festival 0114311
Originally uploaded by thw05.

These folks are Rovers out of Annapolis, Maryland. They put on a fantastic Celtic rock performance every time they take the stage.

Haiti

2010-01-14T17:43:00.002-05:00

My friends requested an update from me regarding Haiti. I lived in Carrefour in the area known as Mariani for two years. I worked all over the island but mostly in the Port au Prince area. I helped establish a medical clinic, schools, an orphanage, and, most of all, introduced soybean cultivation in villages all over the island nation.

The clinic was flattened in the recent earthquake, many died inside the structure. Many of my friends and associates are now missing and presumed dead, about 50 people that I can clearly remember. The village schools still exist and the soybeans will continue to be planted and harvested but all the rest is gone. The earthquake epicenter was approximately right where I lived and worked

With all the disaster management training I received I am considering a return to Haiti, once the island is capable of supporting any additional people.

While the medical and mortuary tasks are going on now there is little scope for the tasks of rebuilding and creating a new society. Those major efforts must wait a few weeks, months or perhaps even years. I know I am not the only one who can help but I know the ropes and can hit the ground running in a place with little scope for neophyte aid workers. For now I will prepare my personal life for a stint overseas and do what I have always done. Build awareness of the need for positive change in Haiti.

Au revoir mes amis.

Thomas

Taking Pictures In Public

2009-11-07T11:29:00.002-05:00

In the United States it is quite legal to take pictures out in public, of anything you see. The only exception I can think of are on certain government and military installations. However if you take a photo of people and their faces are recognizable, you typically must obtain a model release in order to sell those images.

These statements are not true in many other countries, including some European nations. Taking pictures of storefronts is illegal in many other countries, for example.

That said, I was rarely confronted or stopped while taking pictures of any subject, anywhere in the world for my first 30 years as a commercial photographer. I compose a lot of photographs, typically more than a thousand every week, sometimes many more. Since 2001 I have been regularly confronted in the U.S. and overseas while taking pictures in public.

The people that confront me are typically concerned, if somewhat zealous citizens, determined to protect their public buildings, airports and bridges. Those just happen to be common subjects my clients hire me to photograph. Occasionally, police or security guards do confront me. I sometimes even offer to call the police myself to have them uphold my rights to photograph in public against aggressive people. When other police do arrive, I usually receive sincere apologies for any trouble I might have experienced.

In regards to requests to delete pictures from your digital camera you do have an alternative. There are several free or inexpensive Undelete software tools that quickly recover images that were deleted using the camera's delete buttons. When someone burly insists that I delete a particular photo and I do not have the time or energy to object, I sometimes do so. Once the individual is satisfied that I deleted the image and leaves I then switch to different memory card and continue to shoot. I quickly recover the deleted images later back in my studio.

Barak Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-09T06:49:00.003-04:00

The world would be a far better place without nuclear weapons. Only one powerful leader understands this clearly and has stood up from his first day in office to make it happen.

The world would be a far better place if people would talk to each other rather than hurl steel, lead, chemicals and explosives at their neighbors. Only one major world leader has ignored advice to the contrary and stood up from his first day in office to make negotiations happen.

The world would be a far better place if people could see a doctor when they need to, or even consult a physician long before they absolutely need medical attention. Only one U.S. President has ignored advice to the contrary and stood up from his first day in office to make universal health care happen.

Though I may die before I get the proper medical treatment I need, though hundreds will still die this month in combat around the world, though nuclear bombs still roll out of many secret manufacturing sites we now have hope. Barack Obama is in office as U.S. President.

Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, October 9th, 2009.

Finally there is hope that the human race may continue and our families will be allowed to live in peace one day soon.

$380 Million Spent To Hoodwink American People

2009-10-02T06:52:00.003-04:00

$380 million dollars has been spent recently by rich drug companies and hospitals to trick Congress and the rest of the U.S. population. The money is being lavished on Senators and members of the House of Representatives to protect the huge salaries of pharmaceutical and healthcare executives. Instead of trying to improve the quality of care or the safety of prescription drugs, huge sums of money are going towards fake protests and fancy lunches. Armies of lobbyists are telling people that the current system of health insurance has no problems and every U.S. citizen already gets the health treatment they need.

In the meantime most people are paying way too much for lousy treatment, risky drugs and fat cat's salaries of $100 million dollars a year or more. No wonder they have so much money to spend on lies and dirty tricks. At the same time 45 million people in the country are denied proper health care while many rich do not see anything wrong with that dire situation.

Call or write the people that represent you in the U.S. House of Representatives or U.S. Senate before it is too late, too late for you or your family to get the proper treatment you deserve.

VA Officials Stole Your Tax Money

2009-08-22T13:33:00.002-04:00

While I appreciate and value the Veteran's Administration medical care I do not like it when government employees steal my tax payments. I must admit, several members of my family gave decades of their lives in service to the military and some still serve in the armed forces. They get excellent health care at military hospitals, VA clinics, and even occasionally from medics in battle zones. Today The New York Times reports that officials at the VA stole millions of tax dollars. An organization called VA Watchdog provided the Times with the specifics.

Over the past three years when many of us were either laid-off or suffered bonus or pay cuts, the VA officials doled out cash and jobs to friends, family, and lovers. As long as you went along with the scheme, VA officials all the way to the top positions received unearned largess, unusual transfers to sunny beaches, and bonus amounts completely out of line with government requirements. I realize our elected leaders will probably do nothing about the $24 million stolen by current or former VA staff. I would prefer to see them required to pay back all the money, with fines, lose their jobs and go directly to jail, without stopping at GO. That will likely never happen but at least you and other readers now know that you cannot trust some government employees to do the right thing.

Rich Officially Permitted to Evade Taxes

2009-08-13T06:56:00.003-04:00

Switzerland won a major victory in efforts to keep laundering money for the world's wealthiest criminals.

The U.S. government basically agreed to overlook the money laundering operations of major Swiss banks. This agreement was made in order to keep the uber-wealthy from paying their fair share of taxes owed on multi-million dollar incomes. The U.S. and Swiss governments essentially agreed to allow the world's richest people to get away without paying the taxes they owe. The leaders determined it would be easier to just rely on the payroll taxes of the less fortunate than to risk the wrath of oil sheiks, investment bankers, and corrupt politicians. The settlement came as no surprise to those same political leaders that benefited from the agreement.

New York Time article

A black president and a Puerto Rican judge

2009-08-06T23:07:00.006-04:00

Hi Friend,

You could not have reached me this afternoon even if my phone had been working. I was too busy punching the air celebrating the appointment of Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. 2009 will be forever noted in U.S. history for the 1st black president and the first Latina Supreme Court judge. Que bueno. Muy bueno. May many more follow in their footsteps.

The racist Republicans that voted blindly against Judge Sotomayor's appointment let everyone know exactly who in the Senate are meaningless old bigots. 91 year-old Bob Byrd, dying and feeble, even crawled into the Senate chamber to cast a vote for Sonya. It is in fact possible to be a truly reformed racist, Byrd's vote proved that without a doubt. Fox News, the only news channel in the weird company lunchroom where I sometimes work, failed to cover this historic moment altogether. They were too busy questioning Obama's birth certificate at the time. I'm actually glad the birthers are lost in their own private sauce. This moment must feel like torture to them. How ironic. This gives everyone else more time to revel in reality. You may not grasp this just yet but when you add a Puerto Rican to any gathering the event changes drastically. They do make their points eloquently when actually given the opportunity to be heard.

I'm still in awe of this incredible turn of events. Today I am truly shocked, pleased, and proud to be a resident of America; north, south or middle. Even the Brazilians must be feeling the moment. It has taken 8 years for me to feel so damn good to be a U.S. citizen again. I've loved Puerto Ricans dearly since the day I moved there in '79. Now our nation has given incredible amounts of hope to two massive groups of citizens that have been trampled down for centuries. I can only hope that all little Hispanic and African American children will now be taught by their parents that they can accomplish anything if they try hard enough. Anything. Anything at all.

What a day in history. I'm in tears over it, it offers so much hope after the devastation caused by those old backward, southern SOBs soon to be forgotten. So much hope.

Do You Drive Too Fast?

2009-07-20T13:29:00.003-04:00

Young people racing down Route 100 in expensive new BMW European sports cars. Weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds, the foolhardy driver fails to realize the others drivers are already exhausted. Almost to a person they have just finished 9 or more hours at some job that just wears them down every day. Now this caffeine-blasted kid comes sailing through like he's just left the pit at Daytona. A terrible accident just waiting to happen.

It turns out the person aching for the vehicular homicide conviction was only going two exits on Route 100. He put all the drivers he wildly passed at risk to go three miles.

He has no idea of the extreme risks of the habit he has formed. Driving fast is a very dangerous habit. One day soon he may slam into a mini-van broken down in the road. A more certain outcome is that he will be clearly observed by a police officer in an unmarked car. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but as he cultivates a habit of speeding and driving recklessly the likelihood of one of those outcomes grows with each passing day.

The cost of an accident in terms of damage to the car(s) is nothing compared with physical costs to the humans involved. Death by car accident is quite common in America, it is the leading cause of death for teenagers. A small wreck can often lead to lifelong back problems for accident victims. Standing there beside terrible wrecks I so often see the police and ambulance workers contemplating yet another horrific scene.

The young person speeding along in the BMW gives nary a thought to any of this.

He certainly cannot begin to imagine the nightmare of scenarios that grow out of reckless driving conviction or extra-fast speeding ticket. The new insurance company he will need to find will want many times more premium money than that insurance company that cancelled his last policy.

Since speeding is an addictive habit just like cigarettes drivers that get caught speeding must now spend time and money learning to overcome their addiction. States also revoke the driving privileges of seriously rotten drivers.

I am frequently noticing young men on Ninja motorcycles riding over 100 miles per hour, at rush hour. Groups of them seem appear to assume they hold special immunity to law enforcement officers. By their actions it is obvious they feel immortal. A tiny mistake on a motorcycle going over a hundred will certainly lead to extended hospitalization if not the mortuary. These fellows don't give a thought to how efficiently death brings an end to the party.

The people that speed could care less how they are pouring cash into an Arab sheik's pocket. There is never a thought given to waste of mental energy as well. Doctors have tested drivers and estimate the stress of driving fast to be many times that of driving normally. Ask a race car driver, I'm sure they'll agree. But remember, race car drivers are extensively-trained professionals. Remember also, race car drivers also die in horrible accidents and they are among the best drivers in the world.

Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island Home

2009-03-16T14:35:00.010-04:00

This historic treasure of a home just went on the market in the historic town of Fernandina Beach, on Amelia Island on the coast of Florida. Originally a church, the entire structure was remodeled between 2004 and 2007. It is essentially your own brick cathedral with a new roof, windows, ultra-modern kitchen and beautifully landscaped grounds. The entire structure, inside and out, still retains a circa 1888 ambiance.

It is an easy walk to the downtown shopping district and the public docks of Fernandina Beach.

For more information contact Paul Barnes by phone at (904)261-0347 or e-mail: 464.barnes@gmail.com

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

2009-03-16T13:00:00.001-04:00

Here's what the March 15th, 2009, Space Shuttle Discovery launch looked like to observers near Jacksonville, Florida:

Debt Brought US Down, Only We Can Rescue Ourselves

2009-02-18T18:12:00.004-05:00

If your not life is not being impacted in any way by the current economic disaster you must be a subsistence farmer working your fields on the side of a mountain somewhere. Even those farmers have almost no access to modern health care, education or future opportunities for their children.

I do not advocate buying nothing of foreign origin whatsoever. Rising nationalism and trade embargoes were among the primary causes of World War Two. However, it is important to understand the true reasons your daughter or son or you yourself cannot find a job. Do not rush to blame the Bernie Madoffs and Lehman Brothers in New York just yet. It is true those people are having an impact on our economy but they are not the primary reasons our nation may soon default on all debts and collapse in an economic heap What they did hurt mostly the very wealthiest people, although we are all being forced to pay for their huge crimes.

We spent more than we will earn for too many years. This major fault line runs though our nation and our individual lives. It is the primary cause of what is happening in the U.S. and around the world.

We borrowed more than we could ever repay to build our mighty Navy and Army. We borrowed to buy a house in the suburbs and the car to get us back and forth to our distant jobs. We borrowed from the value of our homes, using home equity loans, to take vacations, pay for extra rooms, or buy digital television sets. We borrowed to go to college and we borrowed to take our wives to that fancy restaurant down the street.

We failed to save for a rainy day and now that rainy day is upon us.

Our government has no choice but to borrow more money from the wise Chinese. China decided to save up much of the money Americans spent on Chinese goods; at discount stores or electronics outlets.

Enough about the problems, what solutions must we consider?

Right now many Americans are staying home more nights, saving what little they can after the credit cards, bills and home mortgage are paid. For some families, this is probably a very good thing for them to be doing. Personally, I have worked out my budget for the next few years and set aside some money every week to spend at locally-operated establishments where I socialize or buy essentials. If I do not spend some money in those places they will close up. Many neighboring businesses already have gone out of business. If I soon fail altogether, there are places in the Third World that will welcome a talented computer and language instructor. Been there, done that.

If you can afford it, you must continue to spend some of the money left over after the bills are paid. Consumer spending makes up 70% or more than two thirds of the U.S. economy. If you stop spending in your local community, the businesses will close and crime and property taxes will go up. If you stop spending money on American-made products, American private-sector jobs will nearly all vanish. Finally, the value of your home will continue to fall well below the value of the mortgage you are trying to pay off. In most places in our country 90% of our fellow citizens are still employed.

If you work for the government or a place that exists primarily to fulfill government contracts, do not fool yourself into thinking this problem is not your problem. You may soon need a second job or even another job. My dear friend just returned from a trip to California, she told me she saw more homeless people in the streets than she has ever seen in her life, anywhere in the world. Of course, she has never lived in Kolkatta or Port au Prince like I have. Many of those homeless people my friend saw were formerly working on government building contracts. California may not have the money to make the state payroll as soon as next month.

I do not want to sound like former President Bush after the events of September 11, 2001, telling everyone to go out and spend. I do suggest that those who can afford to support local establishments do so, within their means. Buy American products if the choice is there before you, unless you somehow expect Japanese or Chinese firms to give you a job. I realize there are Americans working for Honda, Toyota and other foreign-owned firms. For them it may well be a good thing to send part of their earnings to Tokyo or Beijing. For most Americans that is not a wise choice, unless you plan to start living on incomes equivalent to poor laborers in China, India or Japan.

These are difficult times that require tough choices. China and India are still growing, albeit at a slower pace. The governments and people in those places will adjust to life with fewer exports to Western nations. Many people are already returning to family farms to ride out this recession. In the United States most of us simply don't have the luxury of returning to subsistence farming.

Links

New York Times article
Washington Post article
Second New York Times article

Cleaning Up Our Act: Ethically and Environmentally

2009-02-17T14:35:00.002-05:00

Strange Bedfellows: Pollution and Greed

Lately there is a growing amount of public attention in being paid to moral standards and hazards to our environment. These two concerns have rarely shared the limelight at the same time in history.

In the past collapsing markets have turned scam artists like Bernie Madoff into floaters, rising to the surface of financial cesspools. Certain types of fraud, like Ponzi schemes, only function as long as the general public attitude remains optimistic. In rapidly growing economies corruption is perhaps viewed by some leaders as just one more cost of doing business. It was rare to hear government leaders complaining about CEO's annual million-dollar salaries and private jets while campaign contributions and quarterly dividends kept arriving on schedule.

In contrast, real environmental threats have often been overlooked when there was no money to support such causes. The original Kyoto Protocol exempted the pollution of poor China and India. In developed nations some coal-burning power plants were granted exceptions to the requirements for expensive smokestack scrubbers. Ships and airplanes have been allowed to continue spewing waste for the sake of global commerce. This is all changing now for a good reason: total cost in terms of health to human society. China, for example, is slowly recognizing that chronic air pollution is sapping productivity.

Now that money is tight and unemployment is rising it is easy to see why attention is being paid to corporate thieves. Most people find it unthinkable that one man is paid a bonus of $25 million dollars for a year's work, no matter how skilled that person may be. When that same corporate executive comes crawling to government leaders for an emergency loan it takes no genius to cry "Foul!" Like pollution, corporate greed is also sucking the life out of economies all around the world.

Mismanagement in Exchange for Millions

The system of executive compensation has grown into quagmire. The only solution the top dogs can come with is to fire all the people making $50,000 a year. Five hundred people get shown the exit door to the save the cost of employing one CEO. Finally, the bosses decide to issue more stock and the existing stockholders lose all hope of returns and head for the exit themselves.

These supposedly genius leaders never stop to listen to the solutions offered by the little people. Proposals made by ordinary employees or stockholders are too quickly rejected by the MBAs upstairs. It is time someone in-charge started to listen to the people that invest all their time or money in the enterprises they are running into the ground.

Public Health as a Shared Cost

You need to think outside the banks to discover the reasons leaders are paying attention to the small voices crying out over the environment and public health.

Air pollution, food contamination, and the declining health of the world's oceans are all signs of a greater immorality. Almost everyone is implicated when it comes to the hydrocarbons spewing from our tailpipes. Food producers thought they were saving money by using a cheaper supplier of peanut butter. Baby formula allowed new mothers to quickly return to work, albeit at a cost to their children's immune systems. Now many new mothers are learning they can feed their babies naturally and still go back to work. The chemicals and waste pouring into our bodies, the seas, and skies are the results of our daily decisions, along with a measure of corruption, to be sure.

The convenience of private cars, cheap labor, and Similac sometimes comes at a steep price in terms of public health. Health care is a public expense in many parts of the world and moving quickly in that direction in places like the United States, India, and China. When people get sick and everyone must pay for it the issue draws more public scrutiny.

People will need to be hired if we are to solve the problems associated with health care and food quality. We can reduce the cost of healthcare paperwork and mistakes by using computers. The jobs of some claims processors may be lost while computer programmers, accountants, and trainers find more work. More food safety inspectors will need to be hired and trained.

Forward-thinking leaders are even starting to envision the job of cleaning up our planet as a stimulus for economic growth. There are new industries to be created in the fight against global warming. Developing new solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars, and other sources of clean energy will require new technologies as well as re-tooling factories. President Obama seems to understand this equation even as most Republican leaders refuse to. India is another place where the leaders have already started listening to the little people.

Leaders must do more than say they are willing to take $1 salary for a year. The bosses need to learn to listen more carefully to the people far down the ladder that support, serve, or invest in them. There are voices and minds out there offering real, workable solutions. It is not just a matter of forsaking pride now, it is a matter of survival.

Links

New Yorker Magazine on Breast Feeding
New York Times column on India's environmental ideas

Could Ice have brought down Flight 3407?

2009-02-15T14:05:00.001-05:00

UPDATE 02/15/09: It is rather disturbing to learn that the pilots decided to continue flying on auto-pilot even as they discussed the icing issues they were having. That model of Bombardier aircraft had a very sophisticated de-icing system installed.

The exact cause of last night's tragic crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J.will not be known for some time. The National Transportation Safety Board is always very thorough with investigations. It is important, however, to review a widely known hazard to flight safety: ice.

The facts that are known at this time hint at several possible scenarios. The plane was flying at a low altitude of perhaps 2,500 feet above the ground level (AGL). It was flying in a snowstorm. The pilots of other aircraft flying in the same region at approximately the same time reported ice accumulation on their wings.

The Bombardier Q400 aircraft involved in the accident was a turbo-prop or propeller-driven aircraft. It is a very advanced model but, like all aircraft, still very susceptible to weather and pilot error, the two major causes of most accidents.

A recent (January, 2009) article on a website called "America's Flyways" provides significant details about the impact ice has on an aircraft in flight. I remember my flight school instructors telling me in no uncertain terms how accumulating ice reduces the ability of an aircraft's wings to provide lift. The ice actually changes the shape of the wing, in addition to adding considerable weight. Ice has long been proven to have a very great impact on aircraft propellers. Even though planes are equipped with various types of de-icing systems, there is always the threat of the ice striking the various surfaces of the plane as it is removed by these systems during flight.

Here are two outlines of the de-icing systems installed on the Q-400:

The Ice Detection System (IDS) assists in determining ice build-up and sends this information to the pilots in the flight compartment so that they can take the appropriate action.

The Pneumatic De-ice System (used in this airplane) removes ice accumulated on the leading edges of the wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, and the inlet lip of the engine nacelles.

The leading edges of the propeller blades are electrically de-iced.

The Anti-icing Systems are thermal, using electrical heating elements to prevent ice formation.

The Ice and Rain Protection System (IRPS) have these sub-systems:

Air Intake De-icing
Pitot and Static Anti-Icing System
Windshield and Windows Ice and Rain Protection
Propellers Ice Protection
Ice Detection System
Airframe De-icing Systems

As I stated in my opening paragraph, it is important to let the NTSB investigators do their job. But it never hurts to remind pilots to be more cautious when flying into winter storms.

Links:

America's Flyways article
New York Times article
Washington Post article #1
Washington Post article #2

Fixing America's Job Application, Training, and Job Placement Monster

2009-02-05T11:10:00.001-05:00

Today U.S. firms announced they are eliminating at least another 43,000 jobs. Each month nearly 500,000 jobs seem to vanish from the U.S. economy. Yet, many politicians and news outlets seem to be trying to direct our attention to all kinds of other problems like health care, terrorism, and Wall Street. Sure they all mention the job losses but after the numbers and company names are given the story seems to abruptly end.

President Obama has clearly stated that job creation, or at least stopping job losses will be a priority for his administration. The amount of money Washington is talking about spending in attempts to jump-start the economy is huge. That latest figures put that number at the better part of one trillion dollars!

One major issue no leader or news source seems to want to address in detail is the fractured employment application, training, and placement process.

Ask anyone who has been hunting for a job about the problems with the process. Talk to anyone who has been unemployed for more than a few weeks and they will tell you all about this huge problem. It all relates to three major areas of serious national concern, except there seems to be little concern for any of these three areas.

Job Location and Application Process
Career Training and Re-training
Job Placement or Hiring

Before going into the details and associated problems with each of these important job-related areas, I want to state one undeniable fact.

There absolutely needs be a better way to get millions of people back working again.

Our country has created some of the best computers and computer software ever invented. While there may be a shortage of scientists there is no shortage of human resources professionals. There is probably more than one computer for every man, woman, and child in this nation. Surely we can put all these important pieces of the puzzle together to create a better, more efficient way for people to find a job, perhaps receive some additional training, and ultimately get hired.

That is the goal of this research project. In the days ahead there will be an examination of each step in the current job application process. There will be solutions offered to many important questions about getting hired. Finally, there will be an outline and description of what a vastly improved job application and hiring process should look like.

NOTE: Most of this project stands completed on my desktop right now, but it exists on multiple pieces of paper and computer documents. If you are currently unemployed, please continue to apply for jobs the old way. There may be little chance that any organization, public or private, actually wants to improve the job application process. I am doing this project with the slight hope that perhaps some group will become interested in the actual process of getting millions of people back working again. Thank you for your patience.

I. Job Location and Application Process

There are private job search sites out there like Careerbuilder, Monster, and SimplyHired. Most newspapers have some sort of employment section. There's Craiglist, Snagajob, and many other aggregators of potential work opportunities. At the government level, each state along with the federal government and many individual agencies have thousands of web pages dedicated to job listings and the job application process. Most private corporations have a "Careers" section hidden somewhere on their home page. On top of all this most employment counselors will tell you the majority of open jobs are not listed anywhere, you have to know somebody to find out about the vacancy.

No matter how you find about a job opening you might possibly qualify for, your uphill struggle is only just about to begin.

To begin each on-line job application you will usually find it necessary to create a new account with a different web site. Applicants then must begin to learn how to use each employment web site, because no two job application web sites are exactly alike, not nearly. Some companies require the applicant to use Microsoft Internet Explorer, but only a few actually tell you this important fact. Many job sites are really just a back door to another web site. That other web site requires you to create a different account. Sometimes there is almost no clue provided to the name of the company you are actually applying to work for. Quite a few job applications will never even be seen by a human, computers read them, look for a few important terms and toss the rest of the applications in the Recycle Bin.

If and when you wade through all the web pages required to complete one job application don't expect to ever hear about that application or job again. Most web sites seem to eat up your job application and provide very little or even no details about what might happen next. If you are lucky you will get a confirmation e-mail saying that you application was successfully completed. If you are unlucky you will start to receive SPAM messages about fake jobs or jobs that have nothing to do with the one you thought you were applying for.

Now you are all ready to begin this mind-numbing process all over again with the next possible job.

Cover Letters

There are still many employers that want you to write a cover letter and mail or e-mail that letter along with your completed application or résumé. This is an important step you will want to be extremely careful about. One small error anywhere in that cover letter will get result in your application being tossed into the garbage.

II. Career Training and Re-training

There are still some jobs available in most communities, no matter how dire the situation may seem. One big issue is that the remaining jobs require a very specific set of skills and experience, with no exceptions indicated by most employers

III. Job Placement or Hiring

Would you consent to being interviewed for a job through the Internet? Would you be willing to talk with an actual human resources person at an actual company, using your computer? What about doing this face-to-face, with a webcam? What if almost the entire hiring process could be done through a voice-activated or even visual interface, with very little typing required?

That is how many people will be hired for jobs in the years ahead. Despite any fears you might have about doing things that way it is going to happen soon or later.

In this next section there will be small and large improvement to all the different steps involved in the job placement, interview, and hiring process.

Creating New Jobs

It is also very important for us to identify significant areas and ways to create new and useful jobs for the unemployed. In this section we will examine many different places in private and public organizations where new positions would make the most sense.

Public and Private Education Initiatives

There seems to be widespread consensus that America lacks skilled employees in certain key fields. Computer scientists, math or science teachers, nurses, and general practioners are just a few occupations that immediately come to mind. Many business managers can also point out the need for new skills among existing employees. Local community colleges report a deluge of people applying for software training and computer courses. Rebuilding America's roads, bridges, and other public works will require armies of skilled tradesmen. If there really are shortages of people with these skills then these shortages need to be viewed as opportunities to create new, long-term positions for courseware developers, educators, trainers, administrators and all the other people required to operate productive schools.

It is obvious that some skilled positions require years of training. To achieve the goal of filling these and many other critical-need positions we need to begin the education process soon. Now is the perfect time.

What about Food Inspectors and other empty Government positions?

Military bases, intelligence agencies, and their contractors have thousands of jobs available. They cannot find the people they need to hire for these jobs. They just don't have enough American applicants they can trust. It is all a matter of who has the top-secret security clearances required for these jobs. So all those jobs related to national security remain unfilled, year after year.

There is also a backlog of people waiting for their security clearance to come through.

Many other people that started working at intelligence agencies after 2001 have quit. They got tired of the bureaucracy that kept them from doing their jobs properly.

Unemployment offices across the nation are understaffed. They are falling critically behind with the task of processing new claims for unemployment benefits. Job placement counselors are in short supply. Yet, they also are continuing to lay off staff at unemployment offices in many states.

There is a salmonella outbreak spreading across the nation. The FDA admits they do not inspect every food plant. In fact, they do not require plants that discover contamination to even report this issue. It is obvious there simply are not enough food inspectors working at the FDA.

The U.S. Army does not have enough people to check the hearing of soldiers.

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not have enough examiners or training to detect scandals like the Madoff Ponzi scheme or Lehman Brothers failure.

The U.S. State Department needs more people in the foreign service.

The Peace Corps has fallen short on their goals for recruitment.

Many school districts across the nation do not have the teachers they need to teach the students enrolled. They are still continuing to lay off teachers due to budget problems.

All of these issues are real and they are preventing people from getting back to work at important jobs that really need to be done. These are government jobs, not auto factory or retail or airline jobs. They are all empty and yet they need to be filled, in many cases public safety is compromised by keeping these jobs vacant.

Many U.S. citizens are in need of jobs. At the same time it is apparent we need thousands of additional workers like the food inspectors or unemployement office workers, at the state and federal level. How about hiring and training the unemployed to fill these jobs? That sounds like a very wise use of a small part of the $1 trillion financial stimulus package. Or shall we keep giving the money to bankers so they can spend millions redecorating their offices and buying private jets?

Realistic Retirement, For the Good of the Nation

As a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, I do appreciate the contributions of head football coach Joe Paterno. I really do. I am also very grateful for the contributions of many U.S. Senators including Massachusett's senator Ted Kennedy and West Virginia's Robert Byrd. There are very elderly college professors that provide us with some of the best educational experiences possible, but there are some that need to consider retirement. These workers and thousands of others in their late 70s and 80s need to seriously consider letting other people take over their roles.

I love and respect senior citizens. I spend more time with them than most people I know. I certainly am not speaking to the 70-year old man or woman that needs that job at Wal-Mart or McDonalds in order to supplement a meager Social Security income. I am suggesting that seniors that have made a significant amount of money and could easily afford to retire do just that.

Certainly they should stay around long enough to train the person or persons that will fill their shoes, if necessary. Maybe the next best place for their unique services is in the expanded education programs mentioned above. But now is an opportune time for them to contribute their jobs to the rapidly shrinking pool of positions available. Obviously someone already employed will likely get the positions held by such respected elders in any organization. Another person will get the vacancy that the new coach or senator leaves behind. Finally, perhaps even far down the organization chart, new jobs will open up. This is the way viable firms operate.

It should not be left up to governments to mandate new retirement ages or enact any new laws to require people to leave their jobs at any particular age. The individuals themselves should consider the positive or negative benefits and proceed with the best course of action for them, their employers, and their society.

References and Links

Washington Post Article

Federal government jobs

Careerbuilder
Monster
SimplyHired
Craiglist
Snagajob

First Coca-Cola, now Wal-Mart is using Diesel-Electric Hybrids

2009-02-03T08:51:00.009-05:00

A few months ago I spotted a new trend on the streets of Maryland's state capital. Coca-Cola had suddenly started using diesel electric hybrid delivery trucks. This hardly seemed surprising with the cost of diesel fuel edging up to $5/gallon at the time.

Now Wal-Mart is considering the use of these diesel electric hybrid trucks.
Reuters article:Wal-Mart testing new hybrid trucks.

London Financial Times article:Wal-Mart tests diesel-electric

Although this truck is a Kenworth, they are looking at the Peterbilt models that use the Eaton hybrid drive system. Medium Duty Hybrids, from Peterbilt site

The leader in this medium-duty hybrid field seems to be Paccar. They are supplying the engines used by Kenworth and Peterbilt.

Link to Paccar

Mind of Mike

Earlier Alternative Energy Posts

Oil and Power Resist Alternatives
What's New?

Apple Inc. is a Village, not One Man

2009-01-15T11:41:00.006-05:00

Business writers once again turn to Apple, Inc., focusing their attention only on Steve Job's health. Famous analysts and popular columnists seem to enjoy looking through murky tunnels and guessing what might happen to Apple in the CEO's absence. They appear blind to accomplishments achieved by all the other people that make up Apple's greater community. The actual performance of Apple Inc. seems to hold no value for pundits and many investors alike.

Here is a quick overview of Apple facts for the last 12 months. Keep in mind that the U.S. economy has been in a recession for this entire period:

Sales Growth of more than 35%
Income Growth of more than 25%
Nearly $5 billion dollars in income earned on $32.5 billion dollars in sales.
A Net Profit Margin of nearly 15%
Return on Equity of 27%
$25 billion in cash on-hand.
67% of nearly 900 million shares owned by institutions.

These are facts, not idle speculation. It is true that these numbers are constantly changing. It is also true that Apple products are gaining market share even as the overall market appears to be shrinking.

Yesterday a network engineer showed me how he can keep track of his network traffic using his iPhone and a very secure application. My friend opened an iPhone application and quickly entered a few Unix commands.

The person serving the table beside us saw this demonstration and pulled out her iPhone. She wanted to prove to me how easy it was to keep in-touch with other college students by text message. She told me that phone service with unlimited text messaging on other phone services cost only $10 a month a less. She told me that she can easily do Internet job searches (she will not be waiting tables after graduation) with the iPhone Safari browser. "Using the Internet with other phones is not that easy."

The owner of the restaurant came over to briefly join our discussion. He was not there to get his employees back to work. He wanted to demonstrate how easily he could view the images on his restaurant's security cameras using his iPhone. He said this ability has thwarted multiple theft attempts in just the past few months. His insurance rates have been reduced as a result.

A man that invests in the Foreign Exchange markets recently pulled out his iPhone to show how easily he could buy and sell currency. An artist showed me how she landed two commissions by using her iPhone to promptly choose and send samples of her art to buyers.

I do not own an iPhone, yet. I have operated my photography and technical writing businesses for the past 4 years using an Apple G5 tower. More recently, I replaced an older Sony laptop with a far more reliable MacBook Pro.

Apple Inc. hardware and software make sense to me and my friends. We trust the work of all Apple employees to help us manage our businesses and even parts of our personal lives.

Every single one of us knows that we are living beings subject to all the forces that act on organisms. We also know that we are part of societies and communities that only succeed through the efforts of everyone involved. One person can make a big difference but it takes entire villages to make a society. Apple Inc. is one such village.

Tim Cook is once again going to be the new village chief. We all wish Mr. Jobs a speedy recovery as well.

Previous Articles on Apple, Inc.:

Apple's Future

Using Your iPhone To Avoid Traffic

Sources:

Washington Post Article
Fortune Magazine: When Tim Cook Ran Apple
Financial Times Article

Will America Split, Again?

2009-01-10T12:32:00.003-05:00

A Russian professor, Igor Panarin, has been predicting for more than 10 years that the U.S. will soon break-up into smaller parts.

When I first heard about Professor Panarin's theory, like most U.S. citizens, I found the notion of a national break-up absurd. The United States is so tied together by our families, our highways, our corporations and even our debts that the thought of a split along any lines defies the imagination.
Then again the U.S. intelligence agencies and Soviet people found the concept of the dissolution of the Soviet Union unimaginable until it happened almost overnight.

In the past the unity of the U.S. has been threatened by events large and small. Sarah Palin and some friends in Alaska breached the subject not too many years ago. People in Puerto Rico and New York City also pondered the notion of more autonomy at one point. Our nation did fracture along distinct lines during the Civil War. 600,000 lives were lost in the effort to stitch us back together. Igor Panarin's theory is hardly without historical precedents.

Everyone who studies history is aware of how the British or Roman Empires crumbled under the twin weights of failed internal bureaucracy and assault from outsiders. There is no shortage of cracks in the current system we live under. Our rapidly rising debt to other nations including China and Japan has weakened the U.S. position considerably. I know we have the mightiest military and most commonly used money in the world but guns and dollars alone will not be enough to keep us together.

It is not out of the question that 49 states may balk at the idea of bailing out deeply indebted California, for example. The Rust Belt, running from Milwaukee to Pittsburgh, is crying out for bailout money that simply is not in the U.S. Treasury. If China says "no" to our next loan request (treasury certificates) what do we do next?

On another note, Florida is looking and sounding like a foreign country already. Utah has marched to the beat of a different drummer for way more than a century. We really are just a motley collection of minor nations sharing a common currency, flag, and army in many respects. That individuality possessed by each state actually brings strength to the union. Minnesota's farmers and miners balance out Massachusetts' bankers and Lousiana's oil fields and so on.

On other levels you can already see huge cracks developing. Businesses that have been open for ten or twenty years are closing their doors. Some of the biggest firms including General Motors, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Sears appear to be navigating some very choppy waters these days. At parties I sometimes get invited to I notice the wealthier guests looking more and more like they are not getting enough sleep. Bankers, lawyers, and real estate agents usually did not worry this much when I was just a boy. (If you want to know how someone like me gets these invites perhaps this earlier post offers a clue.)

My neighbor was a bank branch manager last year. He greeted me as a server in the restaurant where my lady-friend and I shared a salad last week. Another neighbor has taken to baking cookies at 3AM. Still other people living near me argue about money at all hours.

I counsel people in my community. It is something I learned to do at a young age. People in grief, people in trouble with the law, guys AWOL from the Army, locals just out of prison, and even people in rocky marriages somehow end up on my doorstep or park bench. Other people come to me with computer problems but end up needing help coming to grips with social issues. One such young acquaintance that has been in and out of prison has finally decided to change his ways. His choice of time to become optimistic about the future could not have been worse. The only jobs offered to him so far are in dish washing and crime.

The people who have recently lost children are the most heart-rending cases for me. Those and the servicemen in-between tours of duty. Each has seen too many lifeless faces on people that were once so close to them. Our participation in foreign wars weakens this nation, though it appears to make our soldiers more experienced, better prepared for the next civil war.

I sometimes dig back to my years in Haiti and India and relate how I learned to understand my neighbor's grief on a daily basis. Revolution and death are not something most Americans of this generation are used to seeing on a large scale. As we age we watch our parents go and maybe a relative or friend passes away but infrequently. In places without good health care life is less certain. America could start to break-up faster if we cannot fix our system of providing health services, both mental and physical.

In conclusion, I do not seriously think the U.S. will shatter all at once. I also do not think that Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Toyota, Safeway, or even our military will be the glue that keeps all 50 pieces sticking together. If we work closely with our neighbors and friends, on a local and international level, we will get past these difficult times. We need to counsel and comfort our friends and family members. I look more towards the farmers, auto repairmen, nurses, hairdressers, schoolteachers and, yes, even the bankers, lawyers, doctors, and real estate agents to keep stitching up the torn edges of America. President Obama does not have the toughest job to do in this country, we the people do.

If Obama Decides To Build Will They Come?

2009-01-08T10:24:00.013-05:00

Recent comments made to a Washington Post article about new infrastructure spending raise a very large issue related to digging ditches. For years now many construction projects, involving hard physical labor out in the extreme hot and cold, have employed recent immigrants. However recent right-wing political voices as well as the recession have discouraged the immigration of laborers from poor nations. Will the current U.S. workforce be physically ready to put down their iPhones and laptops and pickup a shovel when the time comes?

Construction work actually requires great stamina and specific skills.

These are talents many U.S. citizens do not possess. Construction labor positions require physical strength, a strong work ethic, extreme caution, and the ability to tolerate harsh weather conditions. In addition to manual laborers, there will be huge requirements for civil engineers, foremen, welders, carpenters, heavy equipment operators, truck drivers, electricians, pipefitters, and other tradesmen commonly found at all large construction sites. A quick check of these occupations finds many job openings unfilled in several of those fields.

It is true that the collapse of construction industry, residential and commercial, has put many skilled laborers out of work. However there remains a shortage of truck drivers, welders, and civil engineers, not to mention people holding valid work papers, willing to lift a shovel all day long.

The supply of unemployed U.S. citizens willing to put down their pride and pick up a shovel is critical to a major part of President Obama's economic recovery plan. In the 1930's many of the people that took jobs at the highway, bridge, and dam construction sites were in far better physical shape. They arrived at WPA sites after long hikes on the road, often coming from failed dustbowl farms. They were so poor that the possibility of 8 or 10 hours of hard work really appealed to them. They left families behind to work for months in National Parks and sleep in old bunkhouses.

Americans are among the most overweight people in the world. Fat people have a tough time working outside all day in the hot sun. Our work ethic has devolved to meet the requirements of service jobs done behind counters, over telephones, and at computer workstations. The people that arrive to work the late shift at food processing plants, shipment processing facilities, and other remaining factories are often recent immigrants and people from urban neighborhoods.

Almost every time I visited a major construction job in the past five years I also heard Spanish being spoken. This new boom in infrastructure spending may bring a tremendous boost in employment to a group that has suffered the largest job losses in the past few months. Hispanic voters turned out in huge numbers in the last election to support President Obama. Election day could turn out to be their lucky day.

The Secret Lives of My Plants and Life in Old Puerto Rico

2009-01-06T17:06:00.011-05:00

It's funny how much I feel like a parent to my very old house plants. I care deeply about my 4 avocado trees, palm tree, and two cactus. One of the avocado trees is actually 22 years old. Should I make it move out and find a place of it's own?

These plants feel like children to me for many reasons. They entirely depend on me. I make sure they get enough water, sunlight, and food. If I were to die, they would too and they know that. The oldest avocado truly relates to me and has literally grown over the place where I usually sleep, and the spot where I work. Yes, it is that big.

The two cactus are each 15 years old. They sometimes fight, over little things like water and sunlight. They are strong-willed and think they can live without me. Really they do need me for at least a few days each month.

The younger avocado plants are very scared of their much older brother. They like each other but not the cactus, oh no.

The palm is a loner and really has no friends except me. It probably thrives, with such large leaves, off the carbon dioxide I exhale.

These plants have all managed to survive for weeks without water when I have to travel on business. They are naturally drought-resistant species but more-so because I have unwittingly trained them. All except for the cactus would really prefer a little water every day. Each of my plants has a very distinct personality, like all living creatures.

Avocado trees seldom live longer than 14 years so my oldest is quite a miracle at 22. All the avocados are rare in that they were started from pits of avocados I bought at the market. That probably means they are all hybrids and cannot reproduce. No farmer in his right mind would ever have raised trees that cannot bear fruit for this many years. For me they represent children I will probably never get to raise, human lives that did not happen.

No matter, these plants are alive. As living things they have brought joy and purpose to my otherwise quiet life. There is a mystery to the ways that all living things are intertwined, the way lives get started, and the way they end. We cannot expect to solve all those mysteries and that is perfectly fine with me. For now it is good just to be needed.

There is a deeper history to this small crop I am now responsible for. When I was young man I moved to the tropics to assume responsibility for a very obscure USDA research farm.

My Life in Puerto Rico

While working in Santa Clara, California in 1978, I received a strange letter forwarded by an old friend. The letter was handed to him by a total stranger while my friend was vacationing on a beach in Puerto Rico. It was clearly written to me and contained a line, "The farm is yours, these people need you. Don't worry about the Spanish. Good luck. An old friend." There were some other personal details in the letter that only my friends could have known.

Included with the letter was a hand-drawn map to a small farm located on the western end of the island of Puerto Rico. Naive young man that I was, I quit my job in a circuit board factory and bought a one-way ticket from San Francisco to San Juan. The decision would forever change my outlook on the world.

I took an L1011 aircraft that turned out to be the final time that particular flight from SFO to SJU would be flown. We stopped over in Los Angeles and then flew all night to San Juan. In San Juan I transferred to a small twin-engined plane that took me to an airport called Ramey Base. We hit some very bad weather on the inter-island flight and it seemed likely that we might crash. The funny young Dutch pilot never lost his cool and landed us safely on a massive old U.S. Air Force base runway.

I had to show my little map to several taxi drivers before one understood the directions and agreed to drive me all the way to my new home.

On A Mountain Farm

From early in 1979 until early 1981 I lived in the hills far above the city of Aguadilla, in western Borinquen. Borinquen is the real name for Puerto Rico. My farm was an almost forgotten USDA project intended to re-introduce local crops into a region heavily dependent on the U.S. food stamp (couponés) program.

When I arrived, the farm was mostly planted in varieties of avocados, bananas, and a kind of potato known locally as the yamé. I taught the people about organic gardening and they taught me people skills and how to use certain medicinal plants. Some of this information dated back to the days of the original Taino native population. It is those social skills that I really treasure and have attempted to use every day of my life since.

To this day, people are still amazed to learn that I was once a poor country mountain farmer in the Caribbean. The Puerto Ricans I met often told me that I was living the life of a hibaro. You see, the USDA checks intended for my maintenance costs there on the project site never reached me. The previous project manager never resigned and apparently continued to receive those checks. I actually did not know for a very long time that I was supposed to receive a project manager's stipend. I lived each day in the mindset of subsistence farmer who happened to do some teaching on the side.

The USDA officials took over a year to realize the error and another year to get the checks redirected. By that time I had to move back to Pennsylvania, to avoid being caught up between Los Macheteros and various law enforcement agencies. I never received a penny for my services and yet I lived a very special existence in the community.

I was only twenty years old at this time and spoke no Spanish whatsoever when I first arrived in San Juan. Looking back on those days in Barrio Voladoras I now realize that I lived much like a priest or an ascetic monk. My farm was located on a very steep hillside in a poor region. At first my neighbors did not know what to make of the young Americano farmer that suddenly appeared in their close community. As they learned my work ethic they gradually grew to enjoy having me contribute to their daily lives.

Few of the locals spoke any English where I lived, except the children. They were taught English in school but rarely used it at home. When I first arrived I did not speak Spanish. Nobody cared. We spoke in smiles until my vocabulary expanded from single words like "ola, senor, pan y agua, por favor, gracias." Communication progressed this way until a crafty visiting minister from South Carolina briefly taught me a form of Biblical Spanish, using an old Spanish bible. To this day I do not know what my initial voice sounded like to Puerto Rican ears but they eventually understood my Spanish, once they stopped laughing. I eventually picked up the local Latino.

I lived far up in the steep mountains near the small town of Moca, almost equally distant from the major cities of Aguadilla and Mayaguez. My concrete USDA house had a deep foundation, it was a former pillbox built during the Great Depression as a civil defense measure. It was situated at the intersection of two foot trails that crisscrossed the island in those days. These foot trails had been used for hundreds of years actually and were hard as concrete.

The Importance of a Sharp Machete

My farm or finca was located about a quarter mile off the nearest paved road. It ran along steep hillsides leading down to huge fields of sugar cane. I awoke at sunrise every day, the rooster outside my window always made sure of that. After morning bath and meditation I would eat some fruit, finish yesterday's milk or homemade goat cheese, strap on my always sharp machete and go out to work the farm.

It was weeks before I learned how it was that my machete stayed so sharp day after day. In the early evenings my neighbor's son, Arcenio, quietly walked down to my tool shed and removed the nearly three-foot long sword. This was the time of day his father sharpened all the tools on a foot-powered grinding wheel. He would sharpen my machete along with all his others because, "The most dangerous cutting tool is one that is not kept sharp."

It was very hard work from almost sunrise until noon siesta. When the sun became too unbearable I went back to my house, ate a small lunch, and rested in a hammock hung in the shade until early afternoon. A light rain shower often reminded me that it was time to go back to tending the goat, planting, picking fruit, and teaching my many neighbors. After all, this was Puerto Rico, one of the most crowded places on the planet.

The neighbors were the reason I stayed for two years despite getting no pay and hearing almost no spoken English, plus having few friends my age. Other people from the States did come to live on the project farm from time to time but most of them never seemed to adjust to the tropical life or to warm to the neighbors. They wanted a cheap vacation from the snow and cold up north, but no part of the very hard daily work and sweat that tropical farming represents. Besides, we had bee hives out on the farm and more than a few wasp nests so most visitors considered the terraced plots rather uninviting.

Local growers, on the other hand, constantly stopped by to learn about the way I was farming. They loved to watch me remove a panel from the beehive, from a distance of course. They thought it was funny how I used a wheelbarrow to go collect cow manure when chemical fertilizer was only 3 dollars for a big sack.

They laughed when I tried to grow peanuts in small circular mounds, insisting the rats would eat them all. But I was taught to plant by the moon's cycles and my peanut harvest was huge. I was informed that the insects would eat all my lettuce, spinach, and cabbage if the tropical sun did not burn the leaves first. I sprayed the leafy vegetables with a special hot pepper sauce and then draped the plots with pieces of an army surplus parachute.

Over the months people carefully taught me how to keep tropical bees, cultivate avocado, banana, yamé and many traditional uses for native plants. I raised goats for milk and cheese, just like those around me. Spices actually grow wild all over the island, or they did then. They even called these places the "Spice Islands." I learned to harvest spices fresh and use them in dishes immediately, old dried spices from a supermarket lost all value to me from that point forward in my life.

An Island Shared

They all shared their island back then, fences were only for cow pastures or schoolyards. One of my neighbors had an agreement with the previous project manager that allowed him to graze his cow on a small field of grass below my fresh water spring. In exchange I received several quarts of still warm raw milk every day. People taught me to heat the milk slightly before drinking it. I made cheese from any spare milk that remained at the end of the day.

The farm came with a irascible goat. That creature also gave milk sometimes. The extra goat's milk made a wonderful cheese too.

There was a big problem with alcoholism in my community. Rum was cheap and some people even brewed their own in secret stills. I drank some of this rum cana once and never drank any more liquor of any kind the rest of the time I lived there. Occasionally friends bought me a Corona beer or two but that was not very often.

I did not welcome drunks or drug addicts to my farm though they sometimes appeared. My neighbors were always looking out for my welfare and had a way of convincing ruffians to leave as soon as their habits were made evident. Men, women, and teenage boys in the country all carried some form of long, curved sword or "machete" like I did in those days. It was the most important tool on any farm. Everyone knew exactly how to use them.

Habitual criminals and violent alcoholics were sometimes locked up in tiny one-room prisons built outside the rural communities. Village ladies, probably their mothers, brought prisoners a plate of rice and beans once a day. Once I saw a police truck pick up one of these people and take him to a bigger prison. It was not long before someone else was placed in that cell.

Such wonderful people they were, the old rural farming Puerto Ricans. On holidays the men pulled out brass instruments and guitars and played salsa music that sounded like Tito Puenté. Women of all ages put on colorful dresses and people danced in the streets.

San Juan was considered a great distance away since the major highways were not finished at this time. The cities were feared for the crime they represented. Eventually most young people went down to the coast to find work in the new prescription drug factories or tourist hotels. Tourists in their big rental cars seldom made it up the steep narrow roads to my barrio.

How To Gain Trust

There is often one question people ask over and over again about my years in Puerto Rico: "How did I gain the trust and confidence of the Puerto Ricans?" The answer, as you might imagine, related to my daily behavior. For example, they appreciated the great efforts I took to quickly learn the Puerto Rican Latino spanish they spoke. It is not Castilian Spanish, not by any means. Actually my neighbors were mostly descendants of Corsican immigrants. Since I learned some French as a boy, my personal vocabulary ended up being a creole of Latino, French and local slang words. This suited and rather amused the locals of Corsican descent. They told me I talked like their grandparents.

One or two other small but important acts cemented my position into the community. Only a few months after I arrived found a wallet by the side of a local road. There was over one hundred dollars in cash, credit cards, pictures, and even a few winning lottery tickets for small sums, like ten or twenty dollars each. I knew they were winners because the owner had written notes on the tickets to that effect. A few neighbors sometimes did the same thing as it was a long drive to the lottery redemption office in Mayaguez.

I went to my local Cash and Carry store and showed the owner the driver's license from the wallet. He immediately recognized the man. He also knew very well who I was. Because Puerto Ricans love to gossip everyone in the region seemed to know who I was in those days. He said this man stopped in his store about once a week. This was not surprising since the store also sold lottery tickets.

I handed him the wallet and asked if he could return it to the owner. He agreed to but quickly looked in the wallet. He reminded me that there was money in the wallet. He seemed very surprised that a poor country farmer would return the wallet with the money. I told him that I knew the exact contents of that wallet and expected it to be returned to the owner as I had found it. I also told him my mother once taught me that no good would come from stolen money.

The owner of the wallet turned out to be the brother of the local chief of police. My honest act was actually written up in a story in the local newspaper. A few days later a very rotund Chief of Police walked up to me, put his huge arm around me in the local town square, and told me that I was now his good friend. "Any time you need any assistance, any time anyone tries to bother you, you will have my immediate help." Those were his words, as translated by my friend who understood spoken Spanish better than I did in those early days.

Tropical Beekeeping is Hard Work

Another important thing I did was spend a few hours every week helping a local coffee farmer named Sebbio Mendez. To grow coffee commercially you also need to keep bees, lots of bees. Senor Mendez was in his eighties and all his sons had gone to the city long ago. Although he was still a very strong old man, he needed some help harvesting all that honey and picking coffee beans on his finca. I worked there in exchange for honey, sweet peas, plantains, and eventually even entire bee colonies. Those very full hives eventually changed the face of my small farm entirely. Fruit tree production literally doubled the season after we moved two hives onto my farm.

There were a few tough things about working bees in the tropics. First, you need to harvest honey at the hottest parts of the day, using a centrifuge. Sebbio's centrifuge was an old hand-cranked type. Instead of taking siesta I would walk more than three kilometers to the coffee plantationjust before noon. About halfway there this extremely old woman always made me stop at her farm to drink some cool water. Her name was Senora Mendez.

Senora Mendez was one of the most friendly people I ever met the whole time in Puerto Rico. She had few remaining teeth and disliked wearing dentures. She would put them in only to talk. Her features were more like those of American Indian woman than those of my neighbors. She was quite thin too. There were more wrinkles on wrinkles on her face than you could ever imagine. When she smiled, which she often did, her whole head seemed to be a part of the smile. She rather beamed energy, instead of simply sharing her smile.

The first time we met she asked me where I was going at the hottest time of the day. She smiled and almost laughed when she learned I was going to work as a beekeeper up the road. She asked me about the coffee farmer but she was more eager to hear about the children that lived all around my farm, and the children that I saw during my walk up the steep hill to her house. She wanted to know how many little boys and girls I saw at different houses, and how old I thought they were. I found this odd but over the months I gradually learned to take a mental census of the mountainside families as I walked along. I knew Senora Mendez would quiz me about the children so I tried to remember as much as I could.

She was older than 110

I later learned that Senora Mendez was more than 110 years old. She was Sebbio's mother. She was also the matriarch of most of the families living on the mountain. The old lady wanted to know so much about the children because they were at least her great grandchildren.

Most of the books in the local library were written in Spanish, though the public library had a some English copies of Hardy & Dickens I had already read. Oh, I also had four years worth of Organic Gardening magazine the former project manager left behind, an absolute treasure trove! Los Testigos (Jehovah' Witness) and Hare Krishnas walked through the nearby village every few months. They left behind their materials which were usually promptly destroyed by the devout Roman Catholics living all around me.

It was almost a year before I learned the USDA wanted a model farm there to serve as an example to the local people that families could live well just eating and selling the food from about 1/2 acre of land. Every day hundreds of people came mostly silently walking down through the middle of my farm or right across the center, on trails so hardened you would have thought mud had turned to concrete. USDA managers showed up in new Jeeps on the farm twice the entire time I lived there. They dropped off paper forms, some poorly written guides recommending chemical fertilizer and told me I was doing a great job. They left after about an hour, showing little concern for the details of my hard work.

After my first year as a rural farmer Ronald Reagan was elected and promptly turned off the food couponés the Puerto Ricans all lived on in those days. I just kept working my farm with the sharp machete and now thickly calloused hands. At first I gave away extra food but quickly learned I had to sell or barter my extra produce in the marketplaces alongside the other farmers. Any farmer seen giving away food was seen as upsetting the system. It was unnatural and it hurt the other farmers. People bartered more and more as the tax people started showing up at more farm markets.

Hunting for Space Aliens

One afternoon a German scientist saw me walking along a road near my farm. He was an astronomer. He offered to drive me to see "the largest telescope in the world." It was actually near Arecibo, not too far a drive from my farm at all. When we got there I was surprised to see that the telescope was not an ordinary telescope but a huge valley in the mountains. The valley had been smoothed out and covered with mirrors and all kinds of cables.

We walked on a trail around the edge of this "radio telescope" not far from a funny little motel built up there in the mountains. The weirdest thing of all was when this astronomer told me the telescope was built not only to search for new stars but also to look for space aliens. I did not believe him and figured he was giving me a cover story so I did not think it was some secret military project. However, there was only one security guard at the gate and he waved the astronomer's car right past without stopping us at all.

Disaster Strikes, Twice

Two hurricanes struck the island while I was a Puerto Rican. Hurricane David destroyed the first six months of work on my farm and years of work on every other farm for miles. I remember the howling winds went on for hours. The coconut trees all whipped back and forth, occasionally sending their nuts flying like bombs.

My neighbors that lived in wooden houses all came to stay in my concrete house. Each family occupied a corner of the small house or a spot on the floor until the house was full of very wet, smelly people and even whimpering dogs and shaking goats. We finally put the goats and dogs out in the cooking room next to the house.

Another storm, Hurricane Frederic, passed right over my farm not long after David. I recall going outside in the middle of the storm when the winds completely stopped. A friend and I walked up to a hilltop to see if the storm was over. The refugees staying my house insisted that we stay put but we were young and foolish.

From the top of the hill we climbed we could see a wall, like a huge black, curved curtain, extending for a mile or more. At first it was not easy to see that that this curtain was slowly moving towards us. I started running back to the house and urged my friend to run with me. He insisted we had more time to watch. As I ran down the hillside I looked back and saw the curtain swiftly pass over the peak where my friend was. I barely made it back to the farm house. The winds kept grabbing at me like strange hands extending out of the curtain. I was trying to walk by leaning so far forward it seemed comical. The refugees literally had to pull me though the door as the winds swept me right off my feet.

The ladies cooked all the rice and beans and vegetables I had in the house until the propane tank ran out of fuel. Strangely enough we ran out of fresh water. It was too dangerous to go outside and get more from the cistern or spring. I managed to start a wood fire out in the cooking room, standing there with the goats and dogs. We boiled rain water collected from a leak and cooked up some corn meal that remained. The little children were fed that.

My friend did not make it back to the farm for hours. We finally saw him through a crack in the front door. He was naked and clinging fast to a swaying fruit tree in the yard. He entire body was covered in cuts and bruises. The next day we managed to get him to a hospital where they were able to save his life. Later he told us he remembered holding onto trees until the wind pulled him away. He said he got near the house several times only to be thrown hundreds of feet away and had to start crawling back all over again.

When the storms ended we went outside to a completely changed world. Many wooden houses were completely gone. The trees had no leaves and no fruit. At the bottom of the hill we found a massive pile made up of tree limbs, fruit, dead animals, and parts of the neighbor's homes. A few people living near us had even been killed.

We all worked together as a community to clean and rebuild the region. In a strange way, the storms had scrubbed the land of all the garbage and pruned all the trees. This was actually a good thing for the land in Puerto Rico, though I dared not mention it to anyone.

The old beekeeper, some friends, and I started moving any beehives that survived the hurricanes to locations all over the region. He kept telling me in Spanish that the bees would heal the wounds from the hurricane, it is ancient knowledge. It is true the surviving trees were heavy with fruit many months later.

Walk Across The Island

In my last weeks there I hiked almost the entire length of the island on foot. It was during dry season that I packed a small pack and decided to walk all the way across Puerto Rico, through the mountains. It took about two weeks but so many people learned about what I was doing that I had to leave the roads and hike in the forests and fields just to be left alone.

At one point a man picked me up and showed me a small story from a local newspaper that he said was about the "loco Americano" hiking across the entire island on foot. Since I did not read Spanish I had no idea if he was telling me the truth but I suspect he may have been.

Although I started out from the village with a friend he quickly gave up with sore feet and took a publico car back. So I walked alone most of the way, even climbing the highest peak, Cerro De Punta. The army soldiers based there aimed their guns at me. They thought I was a militant perhaps because I wore army surplus khakis. Foolishly, I kept walking towards them since I wanted to be able to tell others I had climbed the highest mountain on the island.

Their nervous leader saved my life and ordered them to lower their guns, but only after I explained to him that I was just a "tourista from Philadelphia." He talked to me for several hours after that while two soldiers spread the entire contents of my backpack out on a big table. It turns out some other people were recently shot dead doing exactly what I was doing. The top of the highest mountain in Puerto Rico is the location of a very important military communications tower.

I spent most of the night up talking with those lonely army officers. They insisted that I sleep on a cot in a small concrete room rather than camp on the mountain peak that night. The next morning I was allowed to continue my island hike, it was mostly downhill from there to the city of Poncé.

Not longer after that incident on the mountain top I was picked up by none other than the Commander of Police, of all Puerto Rico. He insisted I take up his offer of a ride in his large police truck. We talked for hours while his assistant on the back seat searched every inch of my backpack. He invited me into his home to meet his wife and stay the night. We sat up late talking about his Borinquen, true name of Puerto Rico. I recall the brilliant galaxies crowding the evening skies and the tiny but loud frogs called "coquis."

The next day the Commander drove me to a trailhead leading into a giant forest. He gave me a very detailed map and assured me that this trail was safer place to hike.

From there I did my best to follow the trail until I reached Luquillo Beach, by hiking through El Yunque Rainforest. El Yunque was one the most dense rainforests in the world, at least in those days. The ranger that threw me a rope and saved my life when I got trapped down in a huge washout told me that it rained more than 300 inches a year that place. He also told me that if it had rained when I was down in that giant ravine my body would have been swept all the way to the coast.

The island of Borinquen is a much larger place and wilder place than it looks on a map.

Independista Movement, Los Macheteros, and Much More

There is so much more for me to tell about my days in Puerto Rico. There was my relationship to the leaders and members of the Independista Movement and Los Macheteros, and please note, they are not the same group, not at all. Activists in the latter group were the reason I had to leave Puerto Rico in 1981. They destroyed all the fighter jets at the Air National Guard base in San Juan. Apparently some of my neighbors were involved in that incident. The Comptroller of Puerto Rico, who had become a friend over the years, came and picked me up late one night in late January or February. I have never returned to that island since those days.

The Puertoricanos I sometimes encounter in New York marvel at my experiences. They tell me that simple rural lifestyle is all gone now. Few if any people farm for a living, except on some commercial farms or some old people. Names like Linissa, Sebbio, and Arsenio are seldom given to babies any more. If you walk to the towns with a machete hanging from your belt they will arrest you. I imagine they are telling me the truth but my memories remain sharp from the days of my life in the West Indies.

If anyone is interested in learning more about my life as a farmer in Puerto Rico please let me know and I will take the time to write more of it down. These are far more pleasant adventures than my years in Haiti or India. I can assure you they will not give you the nightmares that my experiences near Calcutta or Port au Prince gave some of my listeners.

Enjoy!

T.H. Williams

Missing in Action and other Missing Persons

2009-01-04T11:26:00.007-05:00

Today's Washington Post mentions the case of Navy Lieutenant Michael Speicher. Lieutenant Speicher was shot down over Iraq in the first Gulf War. There are so many different possibilities in the Speicher case. Here are just a few:

1. The long silence from Iraqi sources, who could possibly reap a reward, makes it almost certain that this man died from injuries or in prison not long after being shot down.
2. Iraq has been turned upside down looking for WMDs and U.S., British or other foreign captives with no sign of Speicher. Three letters on a prison wall does not make a case.
3. In Islamic society deceased people are buried quickly, usually the next day, no matter who you are.
4. It is likely that only a very few people knew anything about the fate of this pilot. Many Iraqis have died in the violence and from natural causes in the meantime.
5. The massive shock and awe bombings destroyed hundreds of government structures, burying many of the occupants, including prisoners and their guards in some cases.
6. There are many cases of prisoners being held for decades, like the Japanese citizens kidnapped by Korea. But there has been no change of government in North Korea during that time. Secrets often are only revealed when those who torture are finally removed from power.
7. Prisoners sometimes "go native" and adopt their new culture. This happened to a few people captured during the Korean War and even World War II. After many years they really do not want to be discovered, perhaps due to shame or simply because they are now content where they are. While I seriously doubt this is the case with Speicher it remains a slim possibility.
8. Years ago a relative of mine in the service disappeared from a beach in Saudi Arabia while preparing to go scuba diving. Evidence seemed to indicate murder but the Saudi government, like most, do not like bad publicity. The Saudis suggested that my relative went scuba diving alone instead of waiting a few more minutes for his diving buddies to arrive. Anyone experienced with scuba diving knows how absurd that story sounds. My point is, the real story often gets buried with the body so that some bureaucrat can save face.

American servicemen go missing and get killed during overseas non-combat assignments more often than the general public is aware of. A significant percentage of those cases, like missing persons cases in every city, never get solved. Our government also does not like to parade statistics related to missing servicemen or citizens. Unlike many places however, this data is available for research in our country. News sources are more likely to publicize these details than civil servants.

Links:
The Washington Post on Navy Lieutenant Michael Scott Speicher.

Why Bother Marketing in Virtual Worlds?

2009-01-03T16:35:00.003-05:00

After reading the press and public reaction to SecondLife you probably think, hmm someday all this will pay off for somebody but certainly not now and perhaps not for ten years. Why should my company bother with this virtual reality community thing when it may be years from becoming a real, significant marketplace? Your business needs to reach a customer base that may not become active in an online community like SecondLife for 5 years, if they ever enter the medium at all.

Decisions exactly like this made the rounds of corporate conference rooms throughout the 1990's. What are we doing about this Internet thing? Should we even try to sell our products on the Internet? Exactly how many people are using the Internet today? What are they using it for? Are people actually buying things on the Internet? Will they ever trust the Internet enough to use their credit cards on it? Maybe some people are using it in the U.S. but what about the rest of the world? Most internet connections are so slow it will never be very useful for more than text and small pictures of our products. Does this sound familiar to you?

Belonging To A Community

Similar comments were tossed around by corporations discussing eBay, Google, iTunes, and then YouTube. It seems that innovations related to the Internet are becoming adopted by larger and larger audiences at an ever-increasing pace. Most of the successful new ideas depend on greater bandwidth and larger amounts of creative input. A key formula to each of these sites is that they allow many people and organizations to actively participate with few limitations. Finally, the users of a site must quickly begin to feel that they belong to a community.

The early Internet was a collection of community bulletin boards. America OnLine and Mr. Case built a business on this idea of community. The Internet has changed since those days but people still seek out sites that give them that feeling that they belong to something larger. MySpace is a perfect example of this long-standing web trend. Even little Wikipedia lets most everyone get involved.

Content Is King

For a web site to succeed it absolutely must keep users returning for more. To do this consistently, web sites must constantly provide new content. The demand for new content is so critical that most major web businesses do not depend solely on large teams of artists and developers. Sites like eBay, Flickr, YouTube, and SecondLife provide the space and leave the creative work to the user community.

eBay lets the whole world display the contents of their closets and their showrooms. A Google search will turn up the good, the bad, and the ugly, organized by the folks at Google, of course. iTunes may be tightly controlled by Apple Computer but any company that wants to sell their music on iTunes seems welcome. Nearly anything goes on YouTube but copyright restrictions are rapidly being implemented by their new owner.

SecondLife meets all these criteria. It draws the user back for more interaction. It is constantly changing. It allows users to create new content. It definitely gives the participants a sense that they belong to a community.

Will SecondLife Endure?

The bulletin boards of the early internet are almost gone now. The AOL Search concept evolved into a Yahoo search tool which became a Google advertising machine. E-mail is slowly being supplanted by Instant Messaging. SIM City, Entropia, Warcraft, ActiveWorlds, There, and others preceded SecondLife in the virtual space. Virtual worlds are rapidly evolving and maturing away from their massively multiplayer on-line game (MMOG) origins. Something will definitely come after SecondLife. That is the nature of the web.

Any business that is unsure about making an investment in virtual reality should rest assured that their efforts will not be in vain. Your marketing, sales, and perhaps even your new product development teams will be taking a step ahead of the competition simply by learning to move around in this new space. When competition to SecondLife appears, and be sure it will, it is likely that connections will be engineered. Instant Message (IM) services are a great example of this. At first you could only send an IM to friends on the same service like Yahoo or AOL Instant Messaging. Eventually market forces prevailed and IMs now traverse multiple platforms.

There are many reasons Jeffrey Bezos, Mitch Kapor, and Pierre Omidyar have invested in Linden Lab's brave new world. Return to this space to learn more ways your business can benefit from these new developments.

NOTE: This column is part of a series on new developments in virtual reality. The first article was Why Do Business In Second Life?

Other posts on SecondLife and the online games business:

Suicide, Murder, and Virtual Worlds

Why Bother Marketing in Virtual Worlds?
Why Do Business in SecondLife?
Virtual Reality in Second Life
India, Google, God, and Technology

Links:

The Washington Post on government use of avatars

Gawker post on SecondLife as a pyramid scheme

Why I like To Tell Stories

2009-01-03T14:38:00.005-05:00

I may never figure out the real reasons why events happen in my life but it will not be for lack of trying. It is the ultimate puzzle; our own existence. Besides, I rather enjoy solving puzzles.

The people that really know us, along with those who think they do, are usually mum about the subject. People do watch other people and attempt to figure them out. That is a very common sport. In fact, for many folks, watching other people is about the only thing they do outside of normal routines.

Television certainly contributes to this society of watchers instead of doers. So many people are lulled into the easy prospect of passively watching actors and other famous people streaming past as they act out preposterous scripts. Some even swoon over certain actors, dancers, or musicians. Other people love to cheer on their favorite sports celebrities or teams. Still others might shout at politicians while they deliver speeches on television, but most simply watch quietly. The majority of people leave it up to other people to make public displays of any kind. The sum total of people who actually do something, anything, in public, is rather limited.

Certainly there is no shortage of kids performing with their skateboards and young lovers on park benches. With the proliferation of digital cameras, it may seem as though everyone is attempting to become the next Steven Spielberg. In reality it is mostly young people uploading videos to YouTube or placing personal images on their FaceBook pages. As they grow older, most people learn not to make a spectacle of themselves.

It may be for a lack of creativity or perhaps stage fright but the majority of people seldom choose to do anything that might cause them to stand out from the crowd. You risk failure or ridicule or maybe even the loss of your job in these days when everyone carries a recording device inside their telephone. Most of us seem to like the narrow confines of our comfort zone.

If you speak out any subject you take the risk that other people might talk about you. People may discover a weakness or a prejudice you otherwise secretly harbor. There are even individuals that might try to use these uncovered personal details to exploit you in some way.

Somewhere along my path in life I learned that it is important to go out once in a while and have fun. I take that risk of being ridiculed. I express my gut feelings. I even create and embellish my various expressions, and possibly, just possibly, entertain a few people. I do this mainly for one important reason, so many people appear to me to be very stressed out by life's problems.

Telling a good story well is a great way to relieve stress. This is one reason why story-telling is such an ancient art. Shakespeare and Plato certainly did not invent the practice of spinning a good yarn. The telling of epics was once the only way the history of civilizations was handed down from one generation to the next.

It actually still is.

Historians may wish to believe their realm is almost an exact science but that is far from the truth. So is much of so called "recorded history." In truth the history we learn is really one version of the story told more often than all the rest.

The people with multiple college degrees that record the events known as "official history" find themselves picking and choosing certain parts to include. Historians and other writers select the events and the people that are most often remembered. They also like to select good accomplishments over the bad, in many cases.

For example the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, also owned slaves. From all we have been told President Lincoln was truly a great leader and certainly deserves his place in history. However, like most successful people in his day, for years Lincoln kept black servants working for his family to which he paid very little or nothing at all. So did Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and many other people.

Slavery and various similar practices were extremely common more than 100 years ago. People that considered themselves "free" including many Northern laborers were actually paid very small sums in exchange for very hard work. It is true that those people, unlike slaves, were usually free to walk away from their jobs. Slaves, on the other hand, were required by law to be returned to their owners upon capture.

Many business owners did keep and exchange detailed records of troublesome workers. They would not hesitate to advise others not to re-hire those that had proven unreliable in the past. Today we call these "credit reports" or "work histories."

There was also a system of debts. People that were paid small wages often accumulated relatively large debts. It was not unusual for their employers to be the ones that extended the loans that became these debts. Debts were and still are enforced by courts. If you quit a job and refused to repay your debt to an employer you could be sent to jail. This also still happens today.

Getting back to history and story-telling and Lincoln's place in both, it appears that good story-tellers are also often very successful people. If you can rattle off an exciting tale of adventure and intrigue you can often acquire a captive audience. Remember that most people prefer to watch and listen rather than stand up and be the show themselves.

Many people are bored with the lives they lead, they want to be entertained. People are quite willing to pay for entertainment like cable TV, books, and movies. Tickets to theater productions that are very good often sell out. Entertainers that draw people into business establishments, like pubs or nightclubs, are paid for that service.

So it pays to learn to spin a great web that becomes a tapestry of human experience, even if it only pays a little. And still you might end up with some debts which require you to create more tapestries. People you know may even repeatedly invite you to events based on how much they enjoyed the last time you visited. After all, people still enjoy having a good story teller around to break up the monotony. History certainly has proven that to be a true statement, hasn't it?

Sowing the Seeds of a Potential Future

2008-12-30T12:00:00.007-05:00

I'm moving carefully these days. There's every reason for me to believe that I will have an extremely difficult time earning a living in 2009. 2008 was no picnic and the local, national, and world economic situation has deteriorated further. I want to believe that I have a future but all signs tell me that what lies ahead is bleak and very limited.

Pushing back against this dire scenario are several key factors. I am tied into a greater world filled with people that still have desires and needs. No matter what the news announcers and newspaper writers prophesies contain, I still participate in a relatively vibrant community, in the wealthiest nation on earth. I suppose that should add more promise to my future than if I were squatting on a section of sidewalk in Port au Prince.

People around me are certainly having their share of difficulties. Most are still employed but many are unhappy with the jobs they have. Others are out of work but still remain a part of support systems that keep them afloat. I am not a part of any of that yet I have some work, at least as of today, and something else. I have my fields.

I am not talking about fields in the sense of acreage like you would find on a farm. I own no land whatsoever. What I do have are what I consider to be fields of contacts, knowledge, and acquaintances. Month after month, year after year, my whole life I have been working with people, helping people, and leaving behind an impression of me in places far and wide. I do not count these accomplishments and relationships as laurels that I can sit back and rely on. In reality they are only dormant seeds, seeds that may never even sprout.

But like seeds, each contact I have made, every business card I have given out, and every person I leave an impression with helps me cultivate a sense of who I am and what I am capable of achieving. Each conversation that people have with me has left them with a distinct impression of who I am as well as their importance to me. This is all I can do. It is what I have always done and it has brought unique results in far darker times and places than the present.

In the same way that a smart farmer will often grow different types of crops in her fields, I also plant seeds of many varieties. Over the past few years I have planted various types of seeds in the form of investments. Some of my investments are like orchards that yield fruit in the form of dividends every season. While the trees themselves are not necessarily as stout as they were a year ago the dividend fruit continues to ripen and fall into my hands.

In the next few weeks I will even take full ownership of my tractor, actually a relatively new car. This is one of the most important tools on my farm because it allows me to plant seeds over greater distances and provides a means for me to bring home the harvests. I sometimes even use my car like a farmer might use a tractor, to fertilize the crops planted earlier in the season.

My computers, business website, online and physical photo galleries, and even this column all serve a similar function. It is this complete farm and the ways I have intertwined them that make my work an organic, growing being.

I am completely aware of the possibility that not a single person may act on their knowledge of my existence and abilities. Times are hard, people are mostly concerned with their immediate survival, the continued existence of their small businesses, and their personal plans, hopes, and dreams. My business card in the pile on their desk, my phone number in their directory, or just the slightest memory of their interactions with me is nothing greater, or less, than a seed planted out in a field waiting for a drop of rain and a ray of sunshine.

All this is why I continue to go out and meet more people, search my community and the Internet for more opportunities, and prepare for multiple eventualities. I may not succeed at this life after all but I certainly do not plan to give up without one hell of a struggle during every day I have left available to me. If for no other reason I owe it to all those seeds I planted out there and especially to the one or two that will certainly sprout one day soon.

The Future of Energy, Now Playing In Japan

2008-12-29T13:23:00.007-05:00

Although the power companies may not want you to understand this, you will soon be able to go off-grid. This would mean doing without monthly bills from the electric or gas company. More importantly, it would change the entire appearance of our landscape, oceans, and atmosphere.

Currently thousands of Japanese homes obtain their electricity from fuel cells that use hydrogen. These fuel cell units are already installed right outside homes all over Japan. The excess heat from each fuel cell is used provide the home with hot water.

Panasonic, Toshiba, and Toyota are about to start mass-producing these fuel cells.

The Japanese government is even subsidizing the purchase of fuel cells, for very good reasons.

One of the concerns often expressed about the expanded use of hydrogen is the safe transportation of this highly explosive gas. Scientists and ordinary citizens were equally concerned about having large truckloads of hydrogen on their roads. The latest Japanese hydrogen-powered fuel cells eliminate this concern. They actually create the hydrogen they consume.

A unique part of the fuel cells used in some Japanese homes is called a "reformer." This device creates hydrogen from natural gas. Since gas lines are already running through most major developed cities there is no need to create additional infrastructure to support hydrogen fuel cells in the home.

Furthermore, Japanese scientists are refining the fuel cells to allow them to extract hydrogen directly from water. This even eliminates the need for natural gas lines.

This same source of hydrogen can also be used to re-fuel hydrogen-powered vehicles.

In fact the same fuel cell that powers your car could be used to power your home. While we are away at work each day, most electrical appliances do not require any more electricity than a small battery can provide, with the exception of refrigerators. More efficient refrigerators could be powered by solar panels or wind energy during that time. When we arrive home we could connect the fuel cells in our cars to our homes.

In another scenario you might even consider staying connected to the power grid, but selling any excess electricity generated by your home back to the power company.

Larger fuel cells could be combined to provide power for commercial and industrial applications.

What are some of the future benefits to a society that adopts the fuel cell model?

#1 A reduced need to build and maintain huge power-generating grids and infrastructure. These are made up of power lines, substations, power stations, fuel transport ships, trucks, trains, mines, and oil wells. Societies would no longer have to worry about major blackouts, oil spills, leaks from nuclear power stations, or the problem of where to put radioactive waste.

#2 Reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Fuel cells do create some carbon dioxide. However studies in Japan are finding that widespread adoption of fuel cells will eliminate the need to build new power plants. This will result in far less air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions from those major sources.

#3 Greatly reduced amounts of wasted energy. Many of the ships, trains, or trucks now carrying loads of fuel would no longer be necessary. All the energy that escapes from electrical power lines and substations would no longer need to be generated in the first place.

#4 Reduced dependency on brutal military dictatorships supported by oil revenues.

This revolution in energy will take place faster than the leaders of most industrialized countries now realize. In the same way that cell phones are able to bring the benefits of telecommunications to poor nations, without the need to build massive infrastructure, fuel cells will soon bring electrical power to rural villages without the need to build huge power plants and giant electrical towers. Fuel cells are the way of the future, now visible live in Japan.

China Finally Admits Shoddy "Tofu" School Construction

2008-12-26T11:49:00.003-05:00

The Chinese government finally gets around to admitting that thousands of schools were poorly built.

After a campaign of intimidation and payola designed to keep this story away from the Olympic Games limelight, the brutal Communist Chinese dictatorship finally admits their corruption policies resulted in the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren.

Here are my original posts on this topic:

Chinese Government Corruption

Chinese Architects Question School Construction

One Man Chooses Suicide over Crisis

2008-12-23T20:19:00.005-05:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A French executive who invested with accused swindler Bernard Madoff was found dead in an apparent suicide on Tuesday, reportedly distraught over losing up to $1.4 billion (950 million pounds) in client money.

It is unlikely that Thierry de la Villehuchet is the first person to end his life as a result of Madoff's massive theft of funds. After all, suicide rarely makes the front page news. In trying to understand Monsieur Villehuchet's final act you can be sure some specialist will cite a prior mental weakness or some other failure in the man's life. The fact is, we probably will never know what his last thoughts consisted of, he apparently left no final words behind.

In the meantime Mr. Madoff walks around New York relatively freely. Like the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist, Dr. A. Q. Khan, Bernard Madoff faces only house arrest at the present time. Madoff simply must be home by 9PM in the evening.

Some crimes are more monstrous than others, our society usually recognizes this. In this country we also believe that people are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury of their peers. However Mr. Madoff has already admitted his crime to his brothers. Despite the confusing paper trail, most reasonable people can assume that most of the money invested in Mr. Madoff's fund is truly gone.

By some measures 70% of the world's wealth has vanished in the past year.

What then are the rest of us left with?

We have a trade system based primarily on trust but major institutions no longer trust anyone. Our impotent government leaders seem to have decided that printing more worthless money is an acceptable solution. That and offering zero percent interest rates. Wow.

The only short-term response our grossly overpaid executives can come up with is sending their employees home without pay. To add misery to the punch many of these workers know there will be no jobs to return to in the new year. What a wonderful holiday season that makes.

We have a leader from a badly defeated party apparently doing everything possible to make his successor more likely to fail. In his almost non-existent response to the eminent collapse of many U.S. businesses, Mr. Bush is behaving like a snickering schoolyard bully.

Two very populous nations in South Asia, India and Pakistan, look increasingly ready to engage in another major war, possibly with nuclear weapons this time. Oh, great.

A band of pirates from a crumbling Third World cesspool has nearly shut down a major shipping channel.

This trend seems destined to worsen. It seems as if civilisation is pitching itself over a cliff, soon to follow Monsieur Villihuchet into the final abyss of no return.

It the words of a young person I know, that really sucks.

Speaking of young people, what are we leaving for them to inherit? Financial disaster, mass unemployment, a nuclear war, and seas ruled by pirates. All we need now is a plague, pestilence, or perhaps a meteorite slamming into earth.

Life has become a real, live major disaster movie of the genre Irwin Allen made popular. Both frightening to consider and maybe a little fascinating to watch, if the disaster wasn't happening to us personally. Which, unfortunately, it is.

Oh, well, at least there is sure to be something interesting to write about tomorrow, heh?

Adieu, Monsieur Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet. Dormez en paix.

Links
Washington Post article
Le Monde article

Some People Knew About the Madoff Scam in 2001

2008-12-23T13:17:00.007-05:00

My parties have all the big names and I greet them with the widest smile
Tell them how my life is one big adventure
and always they're amazed when I show them 'round my house to my bed
I had it made like a mountain rage with a snow white pillow for my big fat head
And my heaven will be a big heaven, and I will walk through the front door

- Big Time by Peter Gabriel

This is an article about Bernie Madoff, published in 2001:

BARRONS
Monday, May 7, 2001
FEATURES MAIN

Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Bernie Madoff is so secretive, he even asks investors to keep mum

By ERIN E. ARVEDLUND

Bernie Madoff might as well hang that sign on his secretive hedge-fund
empire. Even adoring investors can't explain his enviably steady
gains.

Editor's Note: If knowledgeable investors cannot explain an investing strategy, make a note of that fact.

Two years ago, at a hedge-fund conference in New York, attendees were
asked to name some of their favorite and most-respected hedge-fund
managers. Neither George Soros nor Julian Robertson merited a single
mention. But one manager received lavish praise: Bernard Madoff.

Editor's Note: Beware of those receiving lavish praise.

Folks on Wall Street know Bernie Madoff well. His brokerage firm,
Madoff Securities, helped kick-start the Nasdaq Stock Market in the
early 1970s and is now one of the top three market makers in Nasdaq
stocks. Madoff Securities is also the third-largest firm matching
buyers and sellers of New York Stock Exchange-listed securities.
Charles Schwab, Fidelity Investments and a slew of discount brokerages
all send trades through Madoff.

Some folks on Wall Street think there's more to how Madoff (above)
generates his enviable stream of investment returns than meets the
eye. Madoff calls these claims "ridiculous."
But what few on the Street know is that Bernie Madoff also manages $6
billion-to-$7 billion for wealthy individuals. That's enough to rank
Madoff's operation among the world's three largest hedge funds,
according to a May 2001 report in MAR Hedge, a trade publication.

Editor's Note: "More than meets the eye" is a euphemism for lying.

What's more, these private accounts, have produced compound average
annual returns of 15% for more than a decade. Remarkably, some of the
larger, billion-dollar Madoff-run funds have never had a down year.

When Barron's asked Madoff Friday how he accomplishes this, he said,
"It's a proprietary strategy. I can't go into it in great detail."

Editor's Note: Every legitimate investment has up and down cycles and those who manage actual investments must tell you more than "I can't go into it in great detail."

Nor were the firms that market Madoff's funds forthcoming when
contacted earlier. "It's a private fund. And so our inclination has
been not to discuss its returns," says Jeffrey Tucker, partner and co-
founder of Fairfield Greenwich, a New York City-based hedge-fund
marketer. "Why Barron's would have any interest in this fund I don't
know." One of Fairfield Greenwich's most sought-after funds is
Fairfield Sentry Limited. Managed by Bernie Madoff, Fairfield Sentry
has assets of $3.3 billion.

A Madoff hedge-fund offering memorandums describes his strategy this
way: "Typically, a position will consist of the ownership of 30-35 S&P
100 stocks, most correlated to that index, the sale of out-of-the-
money calls on the index and the purchase of out-of-the-money puts on
the index. The sale of the calls is designed to increase the rate of
return, while allowing upward movement of the stock portfolio to the
strike price of the calls. The puts, funded in large part by the sale
of the calls, limit the portfolio's downside."

Editor's Note: This strategy only works when new investment money keeps coming in.

Among options traders, that's known as the "split-strike conversion"
strategy. In layman's terms, it means Madoff invests primarily in the
largest stocks in the S&P 100 index -- names like General Electric ,
Intel and Coca-Cola . At the same time, he buys and sells options
against those stocks. For example, Madoff might purchase shares of GE
and sell a call option on a comparable number of shares -- that is, an
option to buy the shares at a fixed price at a future date. At the
same time, he would buy a put option on the stock, which gives him the
right to sell shares at a fixed price at a future date.

The strategy, in effect, creates a boundary on a stock, limiting its
upside while at the same time protecting against a sharp decline in
the share price. When done correctly, this so-called market-neutral
strategy produces positive returns no matter which way the market
goes.

Using this split-strike conversion strategy, Fairfield Sentry Limited
has had only four down months since inception in 1989. In 1990,
Fairfield Sentry was up 27%. In the ensuing decade, it returned no
less than 11% in any year, and sometimes as high as 18%. Last year,
Fairfield Sentry returned 11.55% and so far in 2001, the fund is up
3.52%.

Editor's Note: 2001 was a very inconsistent time for almost all investments.

Those returns have been so consistent that some on the Street have
begun speculating that Madoff's market-making operation subsidizes and
smooths his hedge-fund returns.

How might Madoff Securities do this? Access to such a huge capital
base could allow Madoff to make much larger bets -- with very little
risk -- than it could otherwise. It would work like this: Madoff
Securities stands in the middle of a tremendous river of orders, which
means that its traders have advance knowledge, if only by a few
seconds, of what big customers are buying and selling. By hopping on
the bandwagon, the market maker could effectively lock in profits. In
such a case, throwing a little cash back to the hedge funds would be
no big deal.

When Barron's ran that scenario by Madoff, he dismissed it as
"ridiculous."

Still, some on Wall Street remain skeptical about how Madoff achieves
such stunning double-digit returns using options alone. The recent MAR
Hedge report, for example, cited more than a dozen hedge fund
professionals, including current and former Madoff traders, who
questioned why no one had been able to duplicate Madoff's returns
using this strategy. Likewise, three option strategists at major
investment banks told Barron's they couldn't understand how Madoff
churns out such numbers. Adds a former Madoff investor: "Anybody who's
a seasoned hedge- fund investor knows the split-strike conversion is
not the whole story. To take it at face value is a bit naïve."

Madoff dismisses such skepticism. "Whoever tried to reverse-engineer, he didn't do a good job. If he did, these numbers would not be
unusual." Curiously, he charges no fees for his money-management
services. Nor does he take a cut of the 1.5% fees marketers like
Fairfield Greenwich charge investors each year. Why not? "We're
perfectly happy to just earn commissions on the trades," he says.

Perhaps so. But consider the sheer scope of the money Madoff would
appear to be leaving on the table. A typical hedge fund charges 1% of
assets annually, plus 20% of profits. On a $6 billion fund generating
15% annual returns, that adds up to $240 million a year.

The lessons of Long-Term Capital Management's collapse are that
investors need, or should want, transparency in their money manager's
investment strategy. But Madoff's investors rave about his performance
-- even though they don't understand how he does it. "Even
knowledgeable people can't really tell you what he's doing," one very
satisfied investor told Barron's. "People who have all the trade
confirmations and statements still can't define it very well. The only
thing I know is that he's often in cash" when volatility levels get
extreme. This investor declined to be quoted by name. Why? Because
Madoff politely requests that his investors not reveal that he runs
their money.

Editor's Note: Too much secrecy is not a good thing. Transparency is better.

"What Madoff told us was, 'If you invest with me, you must never tell
anyone that you're invested with me. It's no one's business what goes
on here,'" says an investment manager who took over a pool of assets
that included an investment in a Madoff fund. "When he couldn't
explain how they were up or down in a particular month," he added,
"I pulled the money out."

For investors who aren't put off by such secrecy, it should be noted
that Fairfield and Kingate Management both market funds managed by
Madoff, as does Tremont Advisers , a publicly traded hedge-fund
advisory firm.

Editor's Note: This kind of scam will be repeated many more time in the future. In fact there are several similar hedge funds operating under the exact same principles right now.

Lakshmi on my Shoulder

2008-12-20T10:47:00.010-05:00

I have written about these strange circumstances before so I extend my apologies to those experiencing a sense of deja vu. Around 20 years ago I met with some Jain businessmen in a very old part of Madras (now Chennai), India. These men hired me to advise them about ways to use a new telephone service available in their district. This is the story of what happened during that meeting.

I was working in India as a computer consultant in the late 1980s because there was little demand for Internet consultants in the U.S at that time. A group of Indian businessmen interviewed me in Washington, DC and asked me how soon I could be ready to fly to New Delhi. Two weeks later I was in Calcutta.

It was during my second trip to India that I visited Bangalore and Madras. It required a long train journey south from New Delhi. I traveled Third Class, as I recall, and ended up on the top bunk of the 3-tier system for most of the journey. The bunk immediately across from mine was occupied by a popular Islamic Imam. Several hundred people were there to see him off in Delhi and at one station more than a thousand people waited to greet him during the short train stop.

By the time we arrived in Bangalore I had seen much of central India in great detail. There were also those long conversations with the Imam, which I will never forget. I stayed with friends for a few days and then journeyed on to Madras, again by train. Servants of the Jain businessmen greeted me in Madras and took me first to a large computer convention downtown.

I did not have an assigned booth but instead went around to all the vendor's stalls. It was my job to explain a new phone service being offered by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL). Most computer people were doubtful that anyone would want to spend that much money for high-speed phone services (ISDN) to North America and Europe. Nevertheless I attracted a following of nearly 100 interested students and young computer technicians. They tailed behind me as I went from booth to booth trying to sell VSNL services. When I spoke everyone would go suddenly silent and listen carefully to the services I proposed. It was like an old Smith Barney television commercial.

At first I tried to sell people on the idea of creating video-conferencing services for businesses and families. My second suggestion was for computer programmers in India to begin collaborating with the people that write software code in the United States. Finally, I suggested they could use this new phone line to provide telephone support for U.S. firms that needed English-speaking call center staff. These ideas were a combination of suggestions that I first proposed in my original interview in Washington, D.C..

After I made all the rounds to every vendor in the large hall, the convention operator eagerly offered to allow me to address a large group in a very small meeting room. I gave a short talk in that very hot and stuffy room. Since it was around lunchtime, many in the back of the room were eating. If you know anything about food from India, and the effects of heat on young men, you can just imagine the atmosphere in that small space. At just about the time I was about to pass out, during a long question and answer session, the Jain's driver came and whispered in my ear. "It is now time for your meeting, sir." he whispered. I thanked the assembled group, gave out a few more business cards, and quickly left the room.

An funny black British car whisked us into an old section of Madras. We ended up on a street full of small, private computer schools. Keyboarding and computer software classes were the primary services offered in this district. Most of the schools were owned by Jain businessmen. (Briefly, Jainism is one of the oldest known religions in India. Jains are known for encouraging people to learn and perhaps become scholars)

These businessmen had already received good reports of my talks at the convention that morning and my earlier talks in other Indian cities. They were ready to invest in all the proposals I was suggesting. As soon as the phone lines could be installed they wanted to start opening call centers in every major city in India. They needed my help to determine the curriculum they would need in order to teach the right skills to all the workers in these call centers.

During this meeting one of the oldest Jain businessmen in the room said something very curious to me. He said, "You have Lakshmi sitting there upon your shoulder. I can see that clearly. You will always bring success to the people that listen carefully to you. The places where you work will be very successful, at least while you are working there."

It took me many years and many different jobs to understand what it meant to have "Lakshmi on my shoulder." Today I clearly understand what that means but back then I only knew that this old man had spotted something about me that I did not know.

India, especially southern India, has since grown to become one of the largest call center locations in the world. There is a massive amount of collaboration between the software developers in other parts of the world and those in India. The sons of those Jain business school owners continue to operate huge networks of business schools all over India. Some of the people that stood in that stuffy meeting room taking notes during my talk have gone on to build firms known today as Wipro, Infosys, and Tata Communications.

Despite how some in western nations feel about outsourcing, I do not regret a single thing about the lessons I taught in India two decades ago. In fact, if I could help start something that big, something that created so many jobs for so many people, I would do it all again, if asked.

From all I can tell, Lakshmi is still sitting there on my shoulder.

Death of an Industry and perhaps a Nation

2008-12-19T10:04:00.008-05:00

It's a miserable day outside here where I am working this morning. Dark skies and rain make it difficult to feel positive about the day. The weather should not determine how I feel but I am human and weather impacts the mood of humans.

The largest employers around here are in real trouble. Many businesses are closing and empty store fronts are common on Main St. The restaurants are empty at dinner hour. The idle clerks of the stores that remain open look desperately out their windows. This region is in a time of crisis, like so many other places in the world today.

Unlike most of my neighbors I still receive and read a daily newspaper. The few remaining newspaper writers tell me the auto industry is about to fail in the big continent north of where my new home is. I remember going to college near an auto factory. Those assembly-line workers made incredible hourly wages when the only jobs I could find paid $3.50 an hour. The cars they built devoured gas at the rate of 10 miles per gallon way back then.

These modern chariots required large amounts of steel so there was a smelly steel mill down in the valley near my school. Those steel workers were paid excellent wages too. I remember a man who shoveled coal dust all night telling me he made $15.00 an hour.

That was in the 1960s and 70s.

Way back then we knew that cars could get better gas mileage. Buick had begun importing something called an Opel Izuzu and there were new Volkswagens and Renaults for sale. Most people I knew did not drive them but their children often bought such cars used. The auto executives in Detroit were only planning to build larger vehicles after the failure of such models as the Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega. People did not feel safe in small cars and gasoline was cheap.

In the late 1970s the Arabs pulled a fast one and stopped selling oil to America. Suddenly people could not fill those big cars at the neighborhood service centers. The oil embargo was quickly ended but some people remembered how vulnerable the shortage of gas made them feel. About this time young Americans started to buy more Toyotas, Datsuns, and Hondas. People did not realize that this was the beginning of the end for the old U.S. auto firms of General Motors, Ford, American Motors, and Chrysler.

As a little boy I was raised on income my father received from a job at General Motors. Many people in my little town earned a living selling GM, Ford, or Chrysler cars and trucks. Neighbors worked at steel mills that sold to the car companies. Bankers lived off interest from car loans and home mortgages. Many of these homes were bought by auto workers like my father.

Other people in town lived by selling groceries, hardware, and services to people like my father. Even the doctors in town made a significant amount of income from the auto worker's health insurance payments. The largest source of income for local newspapers was auto advertising.

It may sound odd to people today but this small town was located in eastern Pennsylvania, not Michigan or Ohio. The auto industry once supported many areas of the United States, not just the upper midwest.

Much of this story is about to end next year. The remaining Detroit-based auto manufacturers are going to close their U.S. operations in 2009. My college degree is worth nothing in a failing nation. All the people in the North that still depend on their business will be thrown out of work at once. Some will move south to the increasingly crowded cities in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. The people that remain in the North will encounter more crime and poverty as this nation slides into a 2nd Great Depression. It is inevitable and almost a natural thing but that does not make it any more pleasant to crawl through on your hands and knees.

Apple's future vs Bernard Madoff's past

2008-12-17T11:36:00.013-05:00

Two men seem to be dominating the current news cycle. One of them, Bernard Madoff, has allegedly been taking new investor's money and using it to pay departing investors for years. The other fella, Apple's Steve Jobs, has been using profits to build a solid business based on reliable consumer products and the software that runs those tools. Mr. Jobs has also been at this effort for decades.

Both men are now moving out of the picture, one likely to jail and the other possibly to a well-deserved retirement. It makes perfect sense for the investors in Madoff's firm to panic and run to their lawyer's offices. It is completely absurd for investors in Apple Inc. to suddenly sell their stock. In both cases I suspect the reason investors are panicking has more to do with a failure to closely examine the books.

Madoff apparently operated in secret, that lack of openness should have raised a red flag among shrewd investors. Fund managers that gave Madoff a billion dollars or more without knowing how the money was being invested should be prosecuted along with him. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation notes that Mr. Madoff kept falsified and unreliable records. The argument "Well, everyone else trusted him with their money, why was it wrong for me to trust Mr. Madoff?" simply does not hold water.

I am a small investor yet I can and do look at the detailed records of the funds and equities I own. I examine the public statements. I personally look at how effectively the products and services are delivered to market. In many cases, I actually use the products and services of the firms where I invest my money. My clients literally send me to work in the largest markets where consumer products and services are sold.

This brings us to Apple Inc.. This consumer products firm has been gaining market share year after year. It is by far the dominant producer of very popular portable music players. In 18 months Apple has gone from no position to #3 in the lucrative smartphone market.

Additional services, such as the Apple's AppStore for iPhone applications, are growing at a very healthy pace. In the field of personal computers, it appears to be gaining an additional one percent market share at least every 12 months. That last effort is even being accomplished without a significant corporate marketing operation. Finally, Apple's books clearly show that it had nearly 25 billion dollars cash in the bank at the end of September, 2008.

Investors running away from Apple Inc. based on a rumor about the health of any single employee, even if that employee is the CEO, have clearly failed to study the details of their investment. It is easy to understand Apple's wise decision to walk away from IDG's increasingly greedy convention business. They can surely get more value for their marketing dollars in other venues. Apple's success is hard won on the shoulders of thousands of dedicated employees and millions of loyal customers. There is no sign they are abandoning the business and every sign that quite the opposite is happening.

All the evidence presented so far by parties large and small can lead to only these conclusions. Investing in Bernard Madoff's firm was foolhardy and clearly a risk not worth taking by any experienced fund manager. Investing in Apple Inc. is an intelligent choice that any fund manager can clearly see will lead to future growth.

Note: After many years, the author confidently continues to hold shares in Apple Inc. and other solid investments.

Mortgage Assistance Program Failing

2008-12-17T08:33:00.004-05:00

The Washington Post informs us this morning that the Federal government's program designed to prevent rising foreclosures has received only 312 applications since it was created in October. In other words, more and more people continue to lose their homes despite (or because of) the best efforts of the Bush Administration and Congress.

"...the problem is that the program's success hinges on the lenders' willingness to participate. "

Therein lies the fault with the program and the source of the problem in the first place. Banks, mortgage firms, and credit card firms have been flashing easy money signs before nearly every single consumer for years. They are now up to their ears in bad loans. Every consumer cannot be expected to be a skilled loan issuer, they must rely on the advice of bank officers.

Those who seek to pin this problem on the borrowers themselves have never attempted to read the full terms of any mortgage or credit card agreement. Experienced tax lawyers tell this author they can barely decipher the wording in the documents that accompany a mortgage or credit card. The borrower is at the mercy of the lender in every case.

Now the bankers and other lenders do not want to participate in the only recent proposals that might save their skins. Unlike rats, it seems they are willing to remain stubbornly on the ship until it slips beneath the waves. They also seem not to care if they drag the entire nation down into the whirlpool with them.

Links

The Washington Post article

What Does Zero Percent Interest Mean to You?

2008-12-16T16:23:00.007-05:00

The U.S. Federal Reserve set their key interest rate to "a range between 0 and .25%" today. What will that mean for the average person in the U.S.?

It may mean the interest you might be paying on any credit card balances will go down. There is a small chance your mortgage payment will drop slightly. If you own or work for a business that requires loans at certain times, that cost of borrowing money may be reduced.

Do not count on any of that happening soon, if ever.

Remember, after the U.S. government bailed out many major banks this past fall those banks still refused to loan money to all but those that really do not need loans. Banks and credit card firms do not have to do anything they are afraid to do, even if the U.S. taxpayer is giving some of them the money required to stay in business. There may be a slight improvement in that situation when the Federal Reserve decides on new rules for credit card issuers on Thursday.

Credit card firms recently rolled out rather large interest rate increases on credit card balances. They are unlikely to reduce those rates anytime soon. You can also expect them to keep reducing credit limits.

If you really need a car and try to get a loan to buy that car, new or used, you still probably will not qualify for that loan. Banks simply do not want any more loans on their already cooked books. They are still afraid that many loans will not be paid back.

Businesses that need loans to expand will still not be able to get those loans. Therefore you can expect layoffs and job losses to continue where you work.

What you can expect is that prices at the gas stations, grocery stores, and many other places will stay low or even go lower. Zero interest-rate policy or Zirp usually puts the brakes on price inflation. However, low, low prices is not necessarily a good thing. It means that the U.S. economy will take longer to recover. That would mean you or someone you know that really needs to get a job will have to wait longer for that important phone call.

U.S. firms and wealthy investors have no incentive to make new investments or hire people if those actions will not result in greater profits. Foreign firms and other countries, whether you like them or not, may decide to invest elsewhere if the return on their investments in the U.S. is 0%. Foreign investment may be our only hope if so many U.S. financial firms remain on the brink of collapse.

The Federal Reserve's move did stimulate the stock market today. Investors may think they are seeing a glimmer of hope that their stock portfolios will rebound. In all liklihood the hedge funds will just wait for this brief rally to sputter out and then return to selling in order to pay off their investors that want out. After all, it will be the common citizen that pays for Bernard Madoff's 50 billion dollar theft just like we were made to pay $4 per gallon for the oil speculator's profits this summer.

The only thing set to go up next year is the pay of all federal government workers, by an average of 3.9%.

Links

Washington Post story
Government Central
Reuters article

What Could Mr. Bush Do Now?

2008-12-06T10:50:00.003-05:00

So what could Mr. Bush possibly do that would give unemployed Americans hope between now and January 20th?

Here are ten bold ideas:

Ask the firms that recorded the greatest profits in 2008 to voluntarily donate 10% of those profits towards job-creation and training efforts.
Declare that he and VP Cheney will forgo their 2008 pay and invite the wealthiest CEOs (oil, pharmaceutical) and U.S. Senators in the U.S. to do likewise. The money saved should go directly to efforts to reduce the growing number of layoffs and re-train the unemployed.
Order the U.S. Dept of Labor to publicly admit the actual rate of unemployment is 15%, not the fudged numbers of almost 8%.
Order the managers of all Federal agencies to double their efforts to fill all non political-appointee posts between now and January 20.
Ask his Executive Office staff to man an employment hotline to interview new job candidates revealed by #4. Use Executive office funds to sponsor additional job fairs in every major city.
Ask the credit card firms to voluntarily reduce interest charges by 5% on all debt for three to six months.
Ask the presidents of all U.S. colleges and universities to make additional efforts to open their doors to the unemployed seeking to learn new skills.
Demand that major offshore companies and ex-pats either pay their fair share of taxes on money earned in the U.S. or face sanctions.
Order the Department of Justice to begin a major investigation into the causes of the current crisis.
Pardon no white-collar criminals that committed acts of political corruption, financial crimes, and gross corporate theft.

Those are my ideas but I am sure that more intelligent people can quickly identify one hundred other holiday gifts that would go a long way towards lifting this nation out of the quagmire caused by all the rich people's efforts to hoodwink the common, hardworking U.S. citizen.

Using Your iPhone (or other Smartphone) To Avoid Traffic

2008-12-03T10:11:00.012-05:00

Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success. - Thomas Edison, inventor

UPDATE 22/12/08: Avego offers iPhone users a tool, Avego Shared Transport, that allows commuters to grow carpools. Avego web site

Locate the Avego Shared Transport at Apple AppStore

In my last article on this topic I described a new tool that allows people to save time on their daily drive to and from work. Essentially this tool is a software application that helps people find a better way to get to work each day. In addition, there are advanced features that reward frequent users for avoiding major traffic jams and saving fuel. These rewards include cash credits towards debit or credit card accounts or coupons to use towards your next gas purchase.

The application can be used to save driving time by anyone anywhere through a web browser on the Internet.

However, to qualify for credits users run a form of the application on a GPS-equipped smartphone like Apple's iPhone, the RIMM Blackberry, Google's G1 or other similar GPS-equipped phone models. People who have any type of mobile telephone and a GPS navigation unit in their vehicle also may participate. The incentive program is open to any business, government agency, non-profit organization, and individuals.

If you have a smartphone all you need to do is download the application and use it to learn more about your daily drive to work. After a few days the application will start to offer you suggestions for how to save time or fuel by using a different route or perhaps leaving for work at a slightly different time. Because the application uses real-time traffic information, you can benefit from different suggestions on different days of the week, all year-long.

Besides the immediate time-saving benefits available to each user, entire metropolitan areas benefit from reduced traffic congestion. Whole nations will benefit two major ways:

From the combined fuel-savings earned by many users.
Through the reduced need to build more roads.

Each week users can generate a report that shows them how much time they saved by using the application. The report will also include relevant time-saving suggestions such as using public transportation, car pools, or van pools.

Car pools and van pools that want to attract more members can register even with the application to reach out to people in their local communities. Contact information will appear in the weekly reports generated by the application. People who belong to a member organizations will also be reminded of programs available to members of that organization. For example, government employees will be made aware of certain programs they may qualify for.

(to be continued...)

Links to other Traffic Software Applications and Related Web Sites

Avego web site

Smarter (and Healthier) Planet Blog

Navteq

IBM

itraffix

Circul.mobi/

Atasco.org

Use Smart Grids for Traffic, Energy and Money Saving

2008-12-02T10:11:00.001-05:00

In the same way that researchers at energy producers are seeking to create "smart grids" researchers trying to solve traffic problems need to develop smarter solutions. For example, global positioning systems (GPS), traffic cameras, satellite observation, and traffic flow detectors must be used to advise fuel and logistics firms of the best times to efficiently move large trucks. Besides saving fuel this would decrease the chances of accidents involving hazardous materials or large trucks.

Public and private partnerships must encourage the use of smart traffic grids to help any business that operates 24 hours a day. Government and private workers must be given financial incentives to use these smart grids. Dial an 800 number and learn the best times and route to make your commute to work. Get a small bonus if you do this and actually use the knowledge gained. We could program GPS navigation systems to calculate the fuel and time costs of driving to work at 6AM versus 9AM. People willing to participate would get gas cards or credits for driving to work during the most efficient commuting hours.

Urban planners need to be provided with the best information so they can locate any new offices or government buildings where the traffic flows more freely. Urban renewal projects need to be completed where the roads and public transport systems will best serve the residents. It may make sense to offer tax incentives to encourage businesses to relocate, rather than building more roads.

London, Hong Kong and other cities already use tolls and wireless systems to financially coerce commuters to use public transportation. A more interesting way to accomplish the same goals is to provide economic incentives to cooperative employers and employees. Change workers hours or provide metrocards, like agencies in Washington, DC already do. Encourage at least some or even more telecommuting among those employees that prove they will responsibly work from home. Reward commuters for avoiding traffic jams.

When van pools or other park and ride systems are given the technology to avoid traffic jams more people might see the value in using them. Feedback through this same technology would allow urban planners to determine the best places to create HOV lanes. While it may sound complicated logistics providers and airlines already employ skilled professionals that accomplish much of the same in their heads. Hold a conference for airline and trucking traffic managers and use the knowledge gained to develop software and hardware solutions commuters can easily use.

The latest smartphones including Blackberries, iPhones, and Google's G1 permit relatively easy development of software that use electronic maps and GPS. The next logical step is to initiate development of applications that not only encourage the use of smart traffic grid information but provide financial incentives for doing so. Download and use a new application that helps you get to work faster and receive a discount the next time you go to fuel up. It is likely that computer, telecommunications, and energy firms would be more than willing to go along with such programs if only to be a part of the publicity they would receive in return.

Follow-up article about Smartphone applications designed to relieve traffic congestion

The Real Terrorist Threats

2008-12-01T11:56:00.000-05:00

Over the past few years the U.S. and many other nations have already been struck repeatedly by terrorist groups wielding terrible weapons of mass destruction. These weapons include structured investment vehicles (SIV), hedge fund short sales, variable rate mortgages, and usurious interest rates. Corporations, corrupt politicians, and immensely wealthy individuals appear hell-bent on fleecing the U.S. Treasury out of every last taxpayer or borrowed dollar.

In return, Wall Street and Congress suggest that we simply print more money, pawn more debt off on China, and give executives more money to pay outrageous billion-dollar bonuses to the criminal managers that cooked up these massive debts. Men in black suits want more money to make payments on their private jets and tax havens while laborers are sent home to watch TV and drink.

Ordinary citizens are being laid-off by the hundreds of thousands, losing homes to foreclosure, and being asked to pay more and more interest on any debt they may have incurred.

The corporate-owned news media tells us to go after Lashkar-e-Taiba (aka LeT, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jama'at-ud-Da'wah), al Qaeda, Iran, and Hizbollah while U.S. and Europe's bankers and business leaders plunder government treasuries. Insurance giants like AIG demand bailouts but refuse to stop awarding huge bonuses to inept executives. Investors that did buy shares in once legitimate corporations wake up to find all their money has vanished in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

There seems to be almost no way out of these circles of financial hell that make those in Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy look like paradise.

It will be next to impossible for the incoming U.S. leadership team to fix these problems during the 4 years they have in office. Hoovervilles, that is tent cities of unemployed and hungry people, grow larger every day in downtown Los Angeles and private campgrounds across the land. Older and older children are forced to move back in with elderly parents living on fixed incomes. Those fixed incomes are based on a rapidly disappearing Social Security program and vanishing pension funds. The elderly who planned to live on investments are now working at gas stations, discount stores, and fast food restaurants.

How can families work their way out of debt when blatant age discrimination and a failing health care system conspire to physically destroy them?

Educated older people with real skills are denied work in their specialties because firms cannot afford to pay for their mandated group health insurance policies. The few inexperienced younger workers that remain can no longer turn for advice to the trained people that built the businesses.

Now that the U.S. consumer has all but stopped spending the downward economic spiral will do nothing but accelerate. What people do not understand is that cash stuffed into a mattress or held in savings accounts paying almost no interest shrinks rapidly. Saving some money is a wise thing to do but 70% of the U.S. economy is based on consumer spending. If no money is going around no new jobs will come around. People who can afford to do so must be encouraged to invest somewhere or there will be no future economy.

Shortsighted corporate leaders blindly look to laid-off or debt-swamped consumers to increase spending. Japan's Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy, Kaoru Yosano, put it quite bluntly in an interview with the Financial Times, "...if someone asks me, 'What do you want to buy?'...it would take me a week to think..I have a car, two refrigerators, three TVs..." Furthermore, these same corporate leaders are freezing salaries, lowering credit limits, and closing plants near and far.

Trickle down economics is no answer but the future of the planet does demand more immediate investment in renewable sources of energy, education, and public works infrastructure.

The real weapons of mass destruction are not nuclear or biological weapons, they are unemployment, high interest rates, lack of health insurance, corporate greed, and corruption. These WMDs will wipe out the hard work and lives of generations of people faster than any terrorist attack. Supposedly very intelligent people, including business executives, government officials, and university professors all worked together to develop and implement the policies that landed the world economy in this deadly trap. A socially responsible new generation of educated professionals must now step up to the plate to hit policy home runs to bring the world back to a winning streak.

Where Does Love End and Hate Begin?

2008-12-01T09:51:00.006-05:00

Almost 200 people were killed in the recent atrocities in Mumbai, India (Bharat)

Hindu Nationalists such as the BJP are now crying out for action against Muslims in Pakistan. Almost certainly someone is going to get killed in act of retribution for what happened in Mumbai. In fact, war between Pakistan and India could erupt and killing hundreds of thousands or people.

And yet in the past there have been terrible acts committed by all sorts of nationalists, Hindu extremists (The Partition, Orissa), Christian extremists (The Crusades, WWII, et al), Jewish extremists (Zionists in the West Bank) and even Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (Polygamous Mormons). All religions except perhaps Buddhism, when taken to the extreme by a small subset of followers, appear to lead to shameful acts. Should we not examine the general role of all nations and religions before we single out any one?

I do agree wholeheartedly that Islamic Fundamentalists are certainly taking the lead in current murderous events but cigarette manufacturers led to the killing of at least 10 million last year alone. We must work to stop pogroms or genocide wherever they occur.

It is usually not correct to single out any one nation as the perpetrator of a crime perhaps caused by a few citizens. The chaos that allows certain groups to thrive in certain regions of the world does need to addressed.

You will seldom find a religious leader or even a college professor willing to take up this topic before students. And yet the topic of why people kill each other or themselves is perhaps one of the most relevant subjects related to human society.

What Causes Us Not To Kill Each Other?

Certainly the ideas of compassion and kindness appear to be nurtured in loving homes with two parents and perhaps several brothers or sisters. A young man or woman is far less likely to lash out violently against neighbors or strangers if all they have learned is caring and consideration for others.

As long as families continue to communicate they appear to build strong communities. Family ties also allow people to spot those who run into trouble.

Individuals that are treated poorly at home are far more likely to treat others harshly. We know that for certain at this point in our understanding of sociology.

Where Does Terrorism Begin To Grow?

After leaving home many people face economic or physical hardship, for a wide number of reasons. Years of struggle and suffering can certainly turn a good person into a sociopath, but even then the chance that one disturbed person will harm others, or many others, is quite slim. They are more likely to harm themselves.

However, when many disaffected people are gathered together by one or more leaders with malevolent intent serious damage to society is very likely.

Right now, in some part of the world, a leader is teaching his followers to hate another group of people that hold different beliefs. Some of the more ardent followers may choose to follow-up on these teachings by purchasing weapons or bomb-making materials. More deaths and misery will soon follow.

How can we prevent these people from inciting and carrying out such violent acts?

We can begin by taking more care in raising our children. In addition, families can and should maintain closer contact and lines of support with those who have left the home to go live in the world. Finally, we can speak out against religious or other organization leaders that encourage hatred and incite violence in our societies.

These may seem like small acts that individually amount to very little. However they will work to counter the small but repeated negative lessons that build groups of murderous criminals like those that attacked Mumbai.

What Other Forms of Mass Murder Threaten Human Society?

There is also the subject of subtle murder and mayhem to consider. The executives in-charge of the world's cigarette manufacturing plants hardly appear to be the leaders of a genocidal movement. Yet the World Health Organization has clearly determined that many millions of humans die each year as a result of cigarette smoking.

Humans also die from car accidents, auto exhaust, and gunshot wounds. But unlike cigarettes, motor vehicles and guns can be proven to have at least a few redeeming qualities. The tobacco found in cigarettes and all other tobacco products appear to bring about a soothing, slight form of relaxing intoxication, all while slowly killing the smoker and those around or inside her.

The murderous effects of tobacco are absolutely proven. Any perceived benefits from tobacco are far outweighed by the physical, medical, and even fire destruction.

Very recently a young man haphazardly tossed a cigarette into a pile of leaves near a home he was visiting. The home burned to the ground, killing three of the young man's friends. The young man did not intend to kill his friends. The cigarette manufacturer did not intend to kill those three people. Nevertheless the habit of smoking led to the fire that killed three very promising young lives and negatively impacted many others.

Deadly fires caused by cigarettes and cigarette lighters are still very common all around the world.

Deaths from lung disease and cancers caused by cigarette smoking are a major cause of all premature deaths.

Many of these needless deaths can be prevented in the future simply by encouraging young people not to start smoking.

Letter To The Pakistani People

2008-11-29T17:15:00.003-05:00

Dear Pakistan,

The rest of the world is sick and tired of dealing with your dirty laundry. While we do not directly blame you for the recent attacks in Mumbai and we understand how tough it is for you to control your Western tribal areas and perhaps A.Q. Khan's dispersal of nuclear weapon technology was just an oversight, enough is enough. The security situation in your country must change soon.

Pakistanis must admit to themselves that cleaning up the problems within Pakistan's borders is going to require outside help. It is not enough that you are willing to overlook U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and their Hellfire missiles.

Radio-controlled model airplanes alone are not enough. You need more boots on the ground and you need them fast. You need to allow NATO, UN or perhaps even Indian forces to help you clean up the mess within your borders. Now is not the time to resort to nationalist slogans. You need to stop heeding the shouts of the gun merchants in Peshawar and start listening to the international community.

We understand your nation suffers as much from terror attacks as your neighbors. We have not forgotten the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. We know that your mosques, schools, and army convoys have also been subject to many bombings. That activity all must be brought to a halt now.

Ask for help, the world will not think any less of your great nation if you do so. Invite assistance from your friends and neighbors, that's what good neighbors are for.

If you do nothing, solutions may be forced upon you. If you do nothing the dry rot will continue until one day you may find that you no longer have a functional government or any security whatsoever. If you do nothing there will be more grave consequences for the world community and for Pakistan. If you do nothing, Pakistan will start to resemble Somalia.

Look abroad for new solutions. Look now. Invite assistance. Get professional help now, before it is too late.

Sincerely,

The Rest of the World

How Do We Stop Attacks Like Mumbai?

2008-11-28T11:05:00.006-05:00

The attackers terrorizing the city of Mumbai for the past few days appear strangely familiar to many Americans. We have seen angry young men toting automatic rifles and backpacks full of weapons before. The similarities between the U.S. kids that occasionally wreak havoc on our public schools and the Mumbai terrorists may seem slight but there are insights to be gained from a careful comparison of the two situations. It will be especially important for civil authorities in India to look at the way other nations have responded to similar asynchronous attacks.

The government crackdown on all forms of protest, such as occurred in the United States after 2001, was not appropriate. Anti-war protesters were met with billy clubs and tasers in many cities. Federal, state, and local authorities were directed to spy on all organized groups, even environmentalists and anti-war groups that opposed any agendas of the Bush Administration. This suspension of Constitutional rights did not result in greater security for U.S. citizens. Suspending or restricting civil liberties for the masses is no way to address the existence of extremely violent fringe groups.

The British responded to violence from IRA or Protestant militants and even common criminals by increasing the use of sophisticated closed-circuit television systems. This may not prevent attacks from happening but it does allow the authorities to respond much more quickly. Police departments can only afford to put so many eyes and ears on every street at all hours but TV cameras come at a much lower cost. The loss of personal privacy is one counter argument but once you leave your home the expectation of privacy is naturally diminished.

Computer-controlled television systems in use in London and other major UK cities allow the police to track individual faces. However if you are out to do no harm the fact that the police may be looking at you should cause little worry. Yes, there is the Big Brother implication bequeathed to us by George Orwell but young people seem to enjoy recording and sharing their activities these days anyway. Millions of videos and photographs are placed up on the Internet every day with little concern for what they reveal about the subjects.

As long as the increased surveillance is used only to thwart serious crime and violence it must be tolerated. In any event, the video cameras are unlikely to go away.

There is a more effective way to counter the attacks such as those that just occurred in Mumbai or even the jihadist attacks more frequently seen since 2001. The strategy involves studying and resolving the root causes of deep social unrest. The attackers themselves do seem to offer clues as to their driving motivations. In the same way that we hate to give in to ransom demands from pirates or kidnappers, leaders are often reluctant to admit public policy faults as a cause of violent attacks.

The unresolved problems in Kashmir were well-known for years before they were mentioned by at least one of the Mumbai terrorists. Problems in the Middle East are often cited by Islamic militants. Teenage perpetrators of extreme violence in U.S. schools often display similar signs of anti-social behaviors and even violent tendencies prior to many attacks. As a society we need to get better at spotting these signals of unrest and, as much as we hate to admit it, doing something concrete to solve the underlying problems. While every demand for religious freedom or solutions to economic inequality cannot be met, we need to understand that they do lead some people to take drastic actions. Solving the root problems may take time but very public work still needs to be done, no matter what the time frame. Otherwise fringe groups will see no other alternative except to draw public attention to their causes through mass casualties and disruption of society. These actions typically cause more disruption and cost more to a society than addressing the root problems behind them.

Words Weaving Through My World

2008-11-20T11:49:00.007-05:00

Last night I was reading a section of Team of Rivals, a book about Lincoln's presidency. A book I started reading almost a year ago.

In Team of Rivals, author Doris Kearns Goodwin mentions how Major Robert Anderson abandoned Fort Moultrie in South Carolina on December 26th, 1860. South Carolina had just voted to secede from the Union and Major Anderson deemed Fort Moultrie too difficult to defend against the angry southerners.

This morning I awoke to read the headlines on the Washington Post's web site. There was a triple homicide on Moultrie Road in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Link)

In the great scheme of things this means nothing. William Moultrie was a general in the American Revolution. His name is plastered all over the U.S.. There's a county with that name in Illinois. A town in Georgia is named after the old general and a large lake in South Carolina. However I had never come across the name until last night, at least not consciously.

Words and ideas weave their way through our lives for reasons we cannot begin to fathom. I started reading Team of Rivals after receiving the book as a Christmas present last year. In an unusual pattern for me, I jumped around the book rather than reading it consecutively as I do most books. Last night was just one more session of continuous reading, an attempt to put all the events of Lincoln's presidency in the correct order.

Only just recently have I learned that another person is reading Team of Rivals and trying to learn from Abraham Lincoln's choice of cabinet officials, President-elect Barak Obama. This only further demonstrates to me the mystery of how ideas and words weave their way through our lives.

This could all be attributable to my keen ability to associate disparate ideas. I have always been a puzzle-solver. I treasured those 1,500 piece puzzles of the 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Course as a young boy. I loved the way my mind would start to work automatically as I came closer to completing the puzzle.

Various employers have benefited from my ability to solve complex problems, especially those involving computers and humans. I can sit down and study the software along with the intended end-user audience, and solve the problem of getting everyone trained in many locations. It is every bit a puzzle as those jigsaw puzzles I put together years ago.

There is no visible relationship between the mention of Fort Moultrie in Goodwin's Team of Rivals and the triple homicide on Moultrie Road in Fairfax. I usually let those oddities slip into the past easily, though I may use them to spur me into examining other relationships in my world. This brief essay would not have been written if not for the appearance of General Moultrie's name twice in my life in less than 12 hours. This is where a life examined intersects with events taking place elsewhere. It all stimulates the brain to create other new associations and isn't that really where life takes on meaning?

Preventing the spread of radical islam is not the sole responsibility of the United States

2008-11-12T12:37:00.009-05:00

13/11/08 UPDATE: Ten members of the European Union have joined together to send naval forces to the region to counter the rapid growth of piracy in the region.

Original article:

A recent article in the New York Times describes the dire situation in Somalia. In brief, the entire nation is about to be taken over by Islamic extremists. In the words of Somalia's ambassador, Abdi Awaleh Jama, “These Islamists are terrorists. The American Congress and administration have to wake up. We have a common interest in defeating them.”

Besides the imminent fall of Mogadishu to Islamic radicals, there are several other important issues raised by Ambassador Jama's words. First, he implies that the United States, as a result of the U.S. military support of Ethiopian troops, represents the main source of relief in his country's war against Islamic extremists. While this may well be true, it should not be the case.

The effort to stop terror attacks such as car bombs, suicide bombers, piracy, and even the use of hijacked aircraft to destroy buildings, is not the sole responsibility of the United States. The people of all nations are threatened by the continuation of these violent acts intended to disrupt the normal lives of humans. The list of nations already attacked by individuals and groups allied to various Islamic extremist organizations is a long one. It includes Yemen, the U.K., Spain, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan, India, the U.S., Tanzania, Kenya, and many others. Few experts will dispute the fact that other nations will experience such violent attacks in the near future.

A primary task of the new Obama Administration must be to redefine the fight against violent extremists in such a way that all nations clearly understand the threat these continued bombings and other attacks pose. The United States may be the wealthiest nation on Earth but it cannot be expected to always act as the world's policeman. The governments and citizens of all nations are impacted when the people of any one nation are subject to asymmetric attacks. Radical extremists do posses the ability to impact the global economy despite the relatively low numbers of deaths their violence causes in any one nation*.

Human society is already nearly paralyzed in large regions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Pakistan. International travel and trade is severely disrupted. Besides the human and financial costs of the attacks themselves, more and more tax dollars must be directed to security efforts, military build-up, and anti-terrorist training efforts. In addition, the psychological toll this violence places on human society cannot be underestimated.

The Obama Administration, the European Union, the United Nations, Asean, the G20, and the African Union, along with the leaders of all nations, must unite to thoroughly understand the root causes of terror attacks as well as implement co-ordinated counter-measures. Until they face the combined effort of the people of the entire world, the extremists will not stop at the borders of Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia. In any event, their acts have already disrupted global trade, humanitarian aid efforts, and therefore human life in all regions of the planet. It is now time for all nations to stand up and respond to this violent activity so that we can build a peaceful society in which to live, raise our children, and prosper.

*For example, 41,000 people were killed in U.S. automobile accidents in 2007 alone.

Harvard and other schools need to do more, not less

2008-11-11T09:09:00.006-05:00

Harvard University President Drew Faust recently hinted that cutbacks will soon begin in Harvard's workforce. Faust is worried that investments made with Harvard's nearly 40 billion dollar endowment may shrink by a few billion. President Faust needs to take a step back from her spreadsheets and white boards to consider the community living beyond her ivory towers.

It should not be entirely up to governments to re-build a nation's economy. While it is understandable that a failing industrial giant like GM might need to layoff employees it makes no sense for Harvard to follow suit. Universities are all about preparing society for the future. At a time like this colleges and universities should not be acting like profit-seeking firms owned by shareholders, The issues of how some schools handle patents resulting from student inventions and the size of their financial investments already makes the "nonprofit status" of some higher-education institutions suspect.

Schools of all sizes need to be looking hard and deep for more ways to reach out to the stricken communities they inhabit. In tough times educators should be expanding extension services, helping to re-train workers, and opening their doors to more people seeking advancement. This is the primary purpose of educational institutions. It is also the main reason governments exempt schools from most taxes imposed on corporations.

This author is not suggesting that Harvard start competing with private trade schools but rather partner with those firms to expand the menu of courses they offer. Schools should not be in business to make profits but they surely have the knowledge and expertise to help struggling enterprises. The last thing they need to be doing is adding to the burgeoning rolls of the unemployed and under-employed.

Granted there should be careful thought given to the ways that schools use their money and other vital resources to help communities. A few years back Pennsylvania State University got so aggressive buying land, building retirement communities and expanding their dairy operation that they negatively impacted several local businesses. The university catering operation alone drove many smaller catering firms out of business. The region known as Happy Valley saw numerous larger firms close up shop while the University blindly grew into the dominant employer. It took a wiser President and board of trustees to change some Penn State business practices.

Harvard is located in a larger community and should look for more effective ways to reach out to the people of Massachusetts and beyond. Job retraining programs, business incubators, and sending those smart professors out into the community makes more sense than layoffs. Expanding enrollment, offering practical courses to the community, and taking more steps to share the precious knowledge that Harvard helps create should be the primary responsibility. Encourage your alumni, arguably a major source of wealth in the U.S. and beyond, to give back to their communities instead of to Harvard's endowment.

Why not help graduates and other community members that are unable to find work in their fields?
Why not offer space to potential new employers to try out their new business ideas?
Why not create a committee of experts to help our leaders tackle the huge economic problems they face?

All of these ideas may sound absurd to President Faust but they follow in the footsteps of one Harvard graduate who has chosen to take on the nation's most difficult job instead of a lucrative law practice. President-elect Obama needs all the help he can get, from friends and former foes alike. Harvard surely counts itself as a friend of Barack Obama's and needs to behave like one in actions large and small.

T.H. Williams

Links:

New York Times
Cable News Network
Washington Post

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

2008-11-09T14:16:00.005-05:00

It does seem as though the pace of change is quickening in all aspects of human life. Unfortunately this rapid change is taking a huge toll on many individuals. The world's existing financial systems are failing on an almost daily basis. Who would have thought UBS, the largest private Swiss bank, would fail along with ING, the largest Dutch bank, and most of the largest banks in the U.S.?

These major events are not merely the stuff of wealthy person's conversations in tall buildings. Millions of people all over the world are losing their primary source of income and any savings they may have accrued, almost overnight. Those who still have jobs are being asked to take more unpaid time-off, and can expect no significant raises in pay, while everyone's basic living costs go up and up.

Crime and likely even warfare, will increase as some people get just that desperate. Europe and Asia descended into warfare the last time the world's economy soured this much. There are regional wars even now but those too will escalate outside current boundaries.

People want solutions but they also just want things. In fact if most people stopped desiring so many things the economic situation would get even worse. We have built much of our world on acts of almost pointless consumption. Now this crisis forces us to stop consuming everything except the basic necessities.

It becomes difficult to sit in quiet contemplation when you are not certain about how much longer you will have a roof over your head. This mental turbulence is shared by people in all strata of society, though the deprivations each person suffers may differ.

I offer no solutions but I do know that everything seeks balance, a return to the mean, if you will. Giant societies, small villages, fields and forests share many aspects though you may need to slow down to learn the similarities.

I am sometimes drawn to prose and lyrical answers when my head stops working properly. Here is one song that offers a little insight into the present human condition:

Trees by Rush

There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples,
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade.

There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream "Oppression!"
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

World Ends, Official Unemployment is 100%. Everyone Just Goes Home

2008-10-22T20:58:00.003-04:00

The world ended today. The last person just fired themselves from the last failing business. That person worked at the last remaining blog. They had no more money to pay the electric bill anyway but the power company had gone out of business two hours earlier. Their computer's battery was about to run out anyway.

The official unemployment is estimated to be 100% but nobody really knows. The governments all shut down weeks ago. The government workers took their office furniture home with them to burn for heat.

Stock markets all around the world went to zero. The last shares of Apple Inc., the computer company, sold for ten dollars each but that person could not find a buyer to sell those shares to.

All the farms are now closed because the farmers had no money left to buy genetically modified seeds or fuel. There are hardly any regular, organic seeds left to plant. There are some peasant farmers that will plant some non-GMO seeds in the spring.

Most people just expect to starve to death in a few days or weeks. Many folks living in Northern countries will freeze before they actually starve. Quite a few people have started walking South but they are not expected to make it. The South is too crowded for any more people to go there anyway.

Some people are trying hunting but since they have no money for bullets they are forced to use bow and arrows or traps. So many people have taken up hunting most of the wild game have been caught and eaten anyway.

I have to go now because my neighbors have noticed that I have a solar panel on my roof and that my computer is still working. They are banging on my front door, they want to send e-mails. I do not have the heart to tell them the Internet already closed down this morning.

Oh, well.

Blind Leaders Ruining Societies They Serve

2008-10-19T13:35:00.004-04:00

It seems this tiny planet has been placed in the grip of some schizophrenic hell-bent on sending everyone home from work. Corporations cry out about the consumer's refusal to spend money on their products, all while sending million of their employees home with their final paycheck.

If you fire your employees how can you possibly expect them to be willing to spend any money?

State and national governments are cutting spending on all programs, except those efforts designed to bail out billionaire bankers. Many states are dismissing employees or planning multi-week unpaid furloughs for staff.

Giving people less pay to spend is a sure-fire way to shut down an economy.

The bankers have decided to stop giving people new loans for cars and houses. They are afraid that people will not be able to pay these loans back in the months ahead as consumer spending drops even more.

IF YOU STOP PEOPLE FROM BUYING CARS AND HOUSES OF COURSE THEY WILL STOP SPENDING!

How can Sarah spend any money if she cannot buy a car to cart her purchases home? Where is Joe going to put his new purchases if he cannot buy a bigger home?

The death spiral of layoffs, cutbacks, and reductions threatens to send everyone home to do nothing except watch TV and eat. That is certain to lead to more cases of obesity along with associated heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. Those sick people will then need to see a doctor, just about the time their Cobra health insurance benefits cease.

Governments will be straddled with millions of sick people collecting welfare or state health benefits. The sick contribute only to the health care industry and not much there if they are too poor to pay their doctor's bills.

At just about the time bureaucrats and business managers realize their policies have created landscapes filled with cripples they will announce back-to-work schemes modeled after FDR's Works Progress Administration (WPA). Everyone will be offered jobs building roads, bridges, dams, and new opera houses. A few artists may even get jobs painting or photographing the unemployed.

All this seems like a mad rush to make everyone so sick they cannot work, even if there are jobs available. This schizophrenia runs wild in the boardrooms and in the halls of legislature while the common man sits smoking his last cigarette and drinking one final beer before going home. There is no sense to public or private policies today and everyone knows it.

The Pending Financial Crisis: A Loss of Confidence

2008-10-12T17:16:00.010-04:00

"You are the story of mankind" - J. Krishnamurti

The sun has calmed down drastically in recent months. While the surface of the Earth may benefit from this absence of sunspots, the creatures living on Earth's surface seem more agitated than ever.

All sorts of conflicts scar the landscape in Africa and Asia. There are battles in Afghanistan, struggles over water in China, killings in Sudan. Russia cannot seem to decide if it wants to return to Soviet-style domination of Eastern Europe. In Assam a war is taking place. In Sri Lanka there are regular battles between government forces and Tamil Tigers. Iraq appears to have finished the recent Civil War. Pakistan is at war with itself. Some people living in Pakistan find the war in Afghanistan to be an acceptable battle to fight. There are wars ready to break out at any moment in many places.

From Insights

Most of the world is at peace, this is also a common state of affairs. From the point of view of large scale violence most people could walk down their streets without fear. However that is not the case at all. Fear appears to be the most common sensation in most nations, even in the absence of the immediate threat of war.

People are afraid that all wealth in the world will soon be gone. A gripping fear has taken hold of workers in most large countries. This fear is coming from the depth of the minds of millions of people.

Banks are afraid to loan money, even to other banks. People are afraid to loan money to their neighbors. Businesses are afraid that they will soon run out of money. Everyone seems to be afraid to spend any money on anything other than a little food and the fuel necessary to take them to work.

On the one hand this fear seems quite irrational. We are afraid that our wealth will soon be gone? Does this mean that we are afraid of being unable to pay our bills, that we may lose our homes and our possessions? If this is the case then we need to find more work or better work or stop buying things we do not absolutely need to live. However our fear is so all-consuming that we cannot see that far down the road.

Could you live without your cable TV?

Could you live while driving a smaller, perhaps used, car?

Could you still live without jewelry or fancy clothes?

There are people who need to be afraid. These people already do not have enough money to pay their bills at the end of this month. These people may soon need to move out of their homes to some other place. These people should have been looking for more work months ago. Yet, these people, the most desperate or poor, can be seen walking with a spring in their step and seem to be the least afraid of anything.

The people I see showing the most fear are actually the ones with the most to lose. The people that have many investments, fine homes, and luxury cars are quaking with fear in the better neighborhoods in my town. They see the value of their investment in the stock markets dropping every day of every week, with no end in sight. Many of these people own a business or manage a business that is making less and less money each month. The collapsing economy means their luxury lifestyle must soon change. Obviously these people are very attached to the fine things that clutter up their homes.

The pending world disaster is not a physical problem. Seeds planted in the soil will still sprout. Couples will still be able to have babies. There is enough air to breathe and just enough clean water. Our problems have nothing to do with the strange absence of sunspots. It is all about a crisis in confidence.

If so many people remain afraid that growing fear alone will continue to feed upon itself. The problems are mostly all inside our own heads. If we do not find a way to help ourselves we might as well all go outside and find someone sensible to talk to or get some exercise. There is no point in trying to accomplish anything until we can calm ourselves down and get back to the business of living normally.

The Great Depression: Your 401(k), Your Vote

2008-10-12T07:33:00.009-04:00

At just about the same time that millions of people in the United States are deciding who they want to lead their country for the next four years, many of those people will get a 401(k) account statement in the mail. Many other people know how to check the status of their 401(k) account over the Internet. What they are seeing is not very good.

These 401(k) accounts are the only retirement plan, besides Social Security, for millions of people. They are also the only source of any savings for many workers.

Because of the recent total collapse of the world economy, the investments most people hold in their 401(k) have dropped incredibly. A typical 401(k) statement is going to tell the account holder that they have 50% less retirement money than they had last year.

For the younger people that are not planning to retire for 10 or 20 years these 401(k) accounts will have time to sit and hopefully recover some value over that time. For people that were planning to retire in the next three to five years, there is a crisis to face. Will they be able to afford to retire? What will they do if their employer forces them to retire at age 60? Working until age 65 or 70 was not in their plans but it might be now.

The Washington Post addresses this issue in today's edition.

Another big problem is that so many people are losing their jobs at the same time right now. If they remain out of work for very long these people will need to sell the investments in their 401(k) accounts. They may be forced to sell their investments when those investments are way, way down in value. That locks in the loss of all that retirement savings and then the government slams you with a huge tax bill at the same time.

The candidates for president, Obama and McCain, are not really addressing the specific issue of 401(k) accounts right now. There is nothing much that they can do for the little people, the citizens that keep this country running. Our politicians are mostly focused on helping the bankers that already get paid millions each year. It costs too much for the government to send any significant help to Mom & Pop.

Oh, they might borrow some money from China and send us another check for $300 or $600 but that's about it. We are on our own as far as our retirement plans are concerned. That's why most big companies closed their pension plans and got rid of other retirement benefits like health care. The government had a better plan. Now we are stuck with that "better plan" and it is not nearly enough.

It seems unfair that most government workers actually still have a pension plan and other excellent retirement benefits. Many government workers still belong to a union. Remember unions? Unions were organizations that were supposed to protect worker's rights in the face of business owners that only wanted more profits for themselves. Now only a very few people belong to unions, mostly government workers. Members of U.S. Congress have a great pension plan and health care benefits for life. The citizens these Senators and Representatives supposedly work for have limited or no health care plan and destroyed 401(k) plans.

Not too long ago Bush wanted us to put our Social Security money into the stock market. Luckily Congress put a stop to that idea. It is about time we asked the candidates for president and people running for Congress if they have any proposals for reform to the 401(k) account crisis. Those accounts now join the world economic crisis as a major source of problems for nearly everyone.

Surviving Another Depression: Lessons Learned

2008-10-11T17:32:00.007-04:00

You are looking at two people who did not just live through the Great Depression on a very small income, they raised a family of 8 children!

I realize there are many other couples that did the same thing, though perhaps not with so many children in one family. Nevertheless, we need to look to these wonderful examples and to consider the values they represent in our current lives.

My Grandpa Drew was a bookkeeper, an accountant, for a small company in Louisiana. He and his wife, May, had 8 children together. They raised all those children in a very small house in Lake Charles, Louisiana. This family lived at 18 Lawrence Street in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940's. People living in the United States now, in the year 2008, could barely imagine the hardships and decisions faced by May and Drew as parents during those years.

Yet all eight children were raised properly to be good children in the home, active citizens in their community, study hard, and work even harder. This all took place on a very small family budget in the small city that Lake Charles was at that time. There was no car in the driveway, no television set in the living room, and certainly not much money in bank.

There was no health insurance for this family. If someone got really sick the money had to found to pay a doctor in those days. It sure helped that May's sister, Nan, was a pediatrician but medicine still had to be purchased. Someone had to take care of the sick child until they got better. The other children had to help out in every possible way.

The older boys in the family went to work at a young age. After school jobs and weekend jobs were absolutely essential for meeting the family budget. The money my uncles earned went into the family jar used for paying all bills. Children were not paid allowances, they worked to keep everyone else alive!

Those children all grew up, went to college, married, and had families. How did they afford to go to college in such a poor family? Some of the boys served in the military first and then went to college. Some of them got good grades in school and earned scholarship money. Others worked hard and paid for some of their college tuition themselves. My great aunt Nan helped to pay for college for some of her sister's children too.

Everyone contributed to the effort of raising a family in those days. Communities were closer in some ways, life was more simple in other ways. Books were mostly checked out of libraries for a few weeks, not purchased at book stores. Clothing was handed down from the older kids to the younger kids, and sewn by hand. Meals were made from vegetables grown in the garden, animals hunted, fish caught, as well as food from the store.

These are some of the ways that people survived the Great Depression. We would do well to begin re-learning how our ancestors made it possible for us to be here today.

I leave you with this image of my Grandpa Drew in later years, with his grandchildren all around him. Look at his face. Can you see the happiness? Can you see evidence of the struggles he faced over the years? It's all there. In fact, our ancestors are right there inside each one of us. Can you feel them?

This Great Depression: One Solution

2008-10-10T09:38:00.004-04:00

Does it really make sense to put more people out of work when unemployment, for many reasons, is one of the big problems impacting consumer spending and business profits? FDR created the WPA (Works Progress Administration) during last Depression primarily to address mass unemployment. If you make more people unemployed, soon more people will need state assistance.

National governments around the world keep focusing on ways to prop up failing big businesses like Fortis or AIG. When banks no longer trust other banks or stop loaning money the global economy quickly comes to a screeching halt.

Business and industry sees no other choice but to put more people out of work. This means fewer people have any money to spend on goods and services. This situation too can spiral out of control.

Instead of racing down the path to mass unemployment and Depression business and government needs to look at fixing the employment situation. Call it "trickle up economics" if you will, but consumer spending is the biggest driver of every major economy around the world.

The existing tools that people use to find work include state and private employment agences plus Internet sites including Monster, Stepstone, SimplyHired, Craigslist, and CareerBuilder. In addition people network with friends, associates, and family members to determine where work needs to be done. All these methods are blunt tools in an age when technology is being put to use for so many important tasks. Firms with deep pockets and a vested interest in exploring solutions that use the latest technologies, businesses like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and HP, need to come up with a better way to quickly match people to available job openings. These new tools should help employers in specific regions find qualified workers, and put them before people that make hiring decisions, more efficiently.

It is not enough to say that existing job boards or agencies already do this, they clearly are not efficient or accurate enough. These old tools depend too much on the skills of people seeking the jobs. Oddly enough, quite a few of the available jobs do not require the skills that people need to effectively use the only tools that are there to land the jobs. Why can't a job seeker explain his or her last job and skills, using spoken language, to a computer that understands the skills of the applicant? Why can't the computer quickly connect people with relevant skills to people ready to interview for open positions? Face-to-face interviews are important, but does an already financially-strapped job seeker really need to drive or ride public transport all over town to find the right job?

I realize technology, including computers, automation, and robots, have already put many people out of work. But it is entirely possible that the same technology can be put to more effective use to place millions of people in the right jobs. It might even mean that some companies need to hire groups of people that can figure out the way to create a new job placement system, new skills assessment tools, new job training programs, and new ways to get qualified people in front of people that can make hiring decisions. This is one way to beat back the looming Depression. We need to try it now.

2008 United States Sailboat Show

2008-10-09T16:23:00.007-04:00

©2008 TH Williams Photography www.thwphotos.com

The 2008 United States Sailboat Show is underway in Annapolis. More details can be found at:

www.usboat.com/us_sailboat_show.php

The Problem with Government Terror Lists

2008-10-08T12:41:00.009-04:00

UPDATE: The ACLU has forced Maryland State Police to allow the people whose names were illegally entered into the Department of Homeland Security database to have a lawyer present when they view their records. They can also have a copy of their records to keep as a souvenir. How nice of the police to allow someone falsely accused of being a terrorist to have legal representation present during a police visit. Article

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Maryland's police superintendent, Terrence B. Sheridan, recently told attendees at a legislative hearing that recent surveillance of protesters resulted in those people being blacklisted for life. Now the superintendent did not choose those exact words. He simply said that the protesters names were entered into Department of Homeland Security databases. He even offered to allow those individuals to look at the database. His suggestion that names once entered into government databases can ever be completely purged is total hogwash.

People who maintain these databases also make backup copies. They also share these lists with other public and private firms tasked with finding the next Osama bin Ladin. Once your name goes on any such "terror list" it will remain on at least some, if not all, of those lists for the rest of your life. In the case of these people they can forget about ever qualifying for any type of government job, bank position, or work with firms that do many types of work for the government. They have been blacklisted for life.

In these United States we have a Constitution which guarantees our rights to peaceably assemble. In fact early leaders, i.e. the framers of the US Constitution, thought this right was so important they included it in the First Amendment.

Here is the basic text:

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the United States Bill of Rights that expressly prohibits the United States Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion" or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, laws that infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to peaceably assemble, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Perhaps ironically, the people added to the Maryland Homeland Security and therefore the U.S. Department of Homeland Security databases were protesting the death penalty and the Iraq war.

This act of the Maryland State Police reeks of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's attempted purge of suspected Communist spies in the 1950s. Senator McCarthy, along with the FBI, printed a book called Red Channels. This author owns an original copy of that list of famous people, writers, reporters, and Hollywood actors. Which all goes to prove that once your name is on these government lists it can never be completely purged off the lists.

Let me repeat, once a person's name is entered into these government databases it can never be completely purged. These lists are shared with many other government agencies and even non-government agencies that work under contract to DHS, FBI, and others. They all find it in their interest to keep every copy of every list, "just in case." The people on these lists are essentially blacklisted for life from a huge number of possible careers, public and private. The results of detailed background checks have no doubt been entered into business intelligence records and a host of other corporate databases. Those supposed "credit record keepers" also never purge any data completely. Data, especially dirt, is money to these firms.

Therefore the Maryland State Police have permanently violated the Constitutional Rights of the people they wrongly placed on these lists. The US Constitution also provides for legal action against those who violated a person's Constitutional Rights.

Links:

Washington Post Article

Lynne Cheney Visits Annapolis

2008-10-05T07:37:00.007-04:00

© 2008 T.H. Williams Photography www.thwphotos.com

Lynne Cheney, wife of U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, arrived on West Street to sign copies of her new book, "We The People," written for children. It is about the U.S. Constitution. The illustrator, Greg Harlin of Annapolis, was holding a reception at an Annapolis art gallery. Mr. Harlin's work is currently on display at The Annapolis Collection, an art gallery located at 45 West Street in Annapolis, Maryland.

© 2008 T.H. Williams Photography www.thwphotos.com

Cyclist Begins Trans-Continental Ride

2008-10-05T06:34:00.001-04:00

Cyclist Charley Machinist began his solo trans-continental bicycle ride at City Dock in downtown Annapolis on Sunday morning. Charley plans to ride 70 miles a day until he reaches Kansas, turn south and ride across the American Southwest.

The Wild Rovers Shake Castlebay Irish Pub

2008-10-04T22:29:00.007-04:00

Céad míle fáilte! (One hundred thousand welcomes!)

The Wild Rovers shook the house at the Castlebay Irish Pub on Main Street in Annapolis Saturday night. They played favorites as patrons danced Irish jigs and enjoyed their traditional pints of Guinness Stout or Magners Cider.

You can learn more about the music and musicians that make the Wild Rovers happen at
Wild Rovers website

Here there are back on St. Patrick's Day, 2008.
Failte!

Irish Rowers Competed on the Chesapeake

2008-10-04T15:19:00.000-04:00

© T.H. Williams Photography 703-587-3249

Irish rowers from Albany, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Annapolis competed in currach races out on the choppy Chesapeake Bay on Saturday. The Annapolis Irish Rowers placed 2nd overall.

Google at 52-week low of $25

2008-10-03T17:26:00.005-04:00

Error of the Week

Look carefully at the above screen capture of the Google Finance web site, showing Google's own stock shares at a 52-week low of $25.80 per share! A trader on the NASDAQ made the error and the markets simply showed the truth. From over $300 per share to $25.80 a share in one day?

Facing Economic Reality: What You Can Do About It

2008-09-29T13:46:00.005-04:00

I share my business offices with another business that primarily depends on government contracts. The employees of that business have few or limited investments and so far the banks where they cash their weekly paychecks are still solvent. In short, the collapse of world financial markets seems like it is taking place in a different world from where they live their daily lives.

The 777 point crash in the NYSE today will impact everyone. Unfortunately the impact of such losses may take weeks or even months for to be noticed by people who have no investments whatsoever. Capitalism tends to spread out the pain of losses far more quickly than the benefits of good times. The millions that own stocks or have a 401k plan will know in days or whenever they dare to look at their devastated accounts. Unfortunately these last few months represent only the beginning of a long period of unemployment for millions.

They know that Washington Mutual failed on Friday, but some other bank bought them so that's OK. This morning Wachovia Bank was sold at a tremendous loss to Citigroup, but none of them bank at that institution so no worries there.

Wachovia Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina

Little people all over my community clearly understand that very rich people are losing money by the millions in places like New York but they cannot understand how the banking crisis will impact them or if it ever will.

This entire disaster hovers over every person in the world but only those who take the time to consider it can even begin to fathom the consequences.

#1 When a big business fails thousands of little Mom & Pop shops are also forced to close. Small restaurants are particularly feeling the pinch right now.

#2 The loss of many big firms, even banks and investment houses, means the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. People without jobs spend less but they also pay less taxes.

#3 The loss of tax revenue from corporate taxes and individual taxes is already destroying the national, state, and local budgets of many countries. In Maryland some local governments are already planning to furlough workers for several weeks. The state government is planning large cuts in most services.

#4 Normally, people, governments, and businesses would borrow money to get by until the economy recovers. In this disaster nobody wants to loan any money to any group. Those banks that loaned money in the past want the loans paid back quickly.

#5 If the above 4 problems continue to get worse, real unemployment in developed countries, including the United States and European nations, will possibly reach 50%. In the urban areas of underdeveloped nations the unemployment rates could reach 75%. Government unemployment figures will not be accurate, they seldom are, even in good times. Look at the history of the Great Depression era if you want to confirm these percentages.

The people left working are farmers and essential services like hospitals, grocery stores, police, and military. Employees that any remaining businesses cannot possibly function without will keep their jobs, many will face pay cuts. Even some of the latter groups might find their paychecks getting delayed for lack of funds. Businesses wait longer and longer to pay each other. In later stages they only pay suppliers which would prevent them from remaining open.

The consequences of 50% unemployment also include massive homelessness, rampant increases in crime rates, widespread hunger, and even huge increases in mental illness. Essentially a breakdown of society into anarchy. Most developed countries will only see these consequences in certain regions.

While all of us would prefer to see some positive news that paints a more rosy picture of the future of mankind, we must confront the real possibilities now. In that way we might all be able to take some steps to forestall what seems now to be an inevitable decline into really nasty living conditions.

WHAT STEPS CAN PEOPLE TAKE NOW?

If you or your partner work in a private business or government agency and notice that activity has slowed considerably in your department, prepare for the possibility of a furlough or even being laid-off. Keep doing your work but think about how your family activities and expenses may need to change if someone loses a job.

Work on your resume now. Do it before you lose your job. Develop several versions of your resume that present your skills in different ways to reach the greatest potential number of employers. Talk to people you know about any openings, but be careful not to jeopardize the job you have now. A second job is not necessarily out of the question for many people, though they may dread the notion. When you interview, think about what your potential new employer sells and how it might be impacted by an ongoing business slump.

I suggest that people find ways to form tighter, closer communities. Teams, groups, and families are usually much better at confronting economic, physical, and mental challenges than lone individuals. Try to overlook small differences and resolve conflicts in the light of a more severe crisis.

Go to community meetings. There are always needs in every city or town, even in the most extreme economic conditions. See if you can find a niche where your abilities, skills, or positive thoughts can be of assistance to others.

Learn a new skill. Look around and see if there is an opportunity to learn something new. That new skill could turn out to be the most important talent you acquire in only a few months time.

Consider the possibility that you or someone close to you may lose their primary residence. If people cannot make mortgage payments or rent that is what happens. Try to be understanding if a member of your family asks for a place to live, consider the alternative if you turn them away.

I want to suggest that people reduce their spending to essential items only, however I also know that consumer spending is a critical part of a healthy economy. Look carefully at your budget, you certainly should have a detailed one by now. It certainly would not be a bad idea to stock up on canned goods and essential household items soon since prices go up rapidly if inflation spikes. I am not talking about hoarding but rather keeping more than one or two week's supply of essential items, perhaps a month's worth.

I want to suggest that people plant vegetables in their yards but winter is coming to the northern Hemisphere. Those living south of the equator already do a fairly good job of planting land that can grow crops. Consider planning to grow a vegetable garden next spring.

People that know me casually sometimes ask how I know about surviving in truly hard times. I am a citizen of the United States and certainly not old enough to have lived through World War Two or the Great Depression.

Other than in my writing, I rarely mention my experiences in rural Puerto Rico, India, and Haiti. Lately, people who know me well have begun to ask me what happens when times get really rough.

While few people like a pessimist, many people value what a realist has to say.

I had a choice to go to those places or not, and live under those extreme conditions. I also remained when times got rough, really rough. As much as possible, I lived like my very poor neighbors, with very limited assistance from overseas. It was years ago, but I remember the details like yesterday. I remember the electricity getting cut off. I remember the empty pantry. I remember neighbors wondering about how they were going to feed their children. I remember working harder and longer in my gardens in Puerto Rico.

You never forget living though a severe extended drought or a massive hurricane.

I also remember myself doing all the things I suggested at the beginning of this section. I learned to keep bees. I often met with the other farmers or my neighbors. Most of all, I recall how good it felt when things started to get better in those places. I remember how people shared what little they had with each other. Finally, I remember clearly that local communities solved many of the major issues facing their members. That is likely how we will all get through this current global economic crisis.