text:
Where did humans come from?
frankyg108 (OP)
Where do, or how did Humans come into existence?
« Last Edit: 01/05/2013 08:30:30 by chris »
grizelda
Re: Human Race
Probably the occurrence of neurotransmitters in the brain of an early human like H. Habilis led to an emotional rather than instinctive way of relating to survival. Thus we were supplied with a surplus of neurotransmitter making us feel happy when we did right, and a deficit making us feel guilty when we did wrong. This was more efficient than having a whole chain of brain chemistry to deal with each and all our survival needs.
The Naked Scientist
Re: Where did humans come from?
I'd recommend giving this programme a listen:
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/naked-scientists/show/20130411/
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception - Groucho Marx - https://www.thenakedscientists.com/
confusious says
My thoughts are very contraversial on this, I think we are not from this planet earth originally, and I don't think we came from apes, we can easily prove that one, if we came from apes, how come apes are still apes and chimpanzees are still chimpanzees, if we came from them, they too would have evolved into humans by now. I think we are just one big experiment controlled by aliens, who are still doing things secretly even as we speak. The reason why I have this suggestion is, look around you, we have people of all types of facial features, white caucasion, chinese and mongolian, africa carrobean, aboriginee, but ask yourself why?, why aren't we all basically looking the same?, all I get from people is, well the aboriginee is dark skinned because of the sun, and the mongolian have narrow eye lids because of the harsh winds to protect them, but if you put a white caucasion couple to reproduce generations in Australia, the Aboriginees' native country, they will never change basic skin pigmentation, and similarly if roles and countries were reversed.
dlorde
ex human-biologist & software developer
Quote from: confusious says on 14/05/2013 21:45:19
... I don't think we came from apes, we can easily prove that one, if we came from apes, how come apes are still apes and chimpanzees are still chimpanzees, if we came from them, they too would have evolved into humans by now.
If you apply that argument to every organism on Earth (and why not?), you find that it implies that no organism ever evolved into a different species. Which implies, going by the number of extinctions we know of of over the the last 3.5 billion years, that the Earth must have once have been crammed with every species that ever existed. Even aliens would have difficulty with that. Truth is, contemporary primates have evolved over time from a common ancestor just as we did. They haven't always been like they are today.
When you look at the fossil record, all the indications are that creatures do evolve into new species. If other species evolve from common ancestors of similar species, why not us? If you look at the bones of ancient humans and hominins, you find they fit a pattern of a number of related branches whose features progressively change over time, including a branch that shows increasingly human characteristics, eventually becoming indistinguishable from modern humans. The record isn't complete, there always will be gaps, since not every generation gets fossilized, but if they didn't share common ancestors, where did all those early human prototypes come from? Which is the most plausible explanation - that we evolved like all other species, as the evidence suggests, or - aliens done it? If the latter, how to explain all the evidence pointing the other way?
So, what have you spotted that invalidates over a hundred years of analysis by generations of expert anthropologists and paleontologists ?
... if you put a white caucasion couple to reproduce generations in Australia, the Aboriginees' native country, they will never change basic skin pigmentation, and similarly if roles and countries were reversed.
If you waited a couple of hundred of thousand years their descendants might.
« Last Edit: 14/05/2013 22:28:56 by dlorde »
AntonMaeso
A chimpanzee are our closest living ancestor. We didn't come from a chimpanzee but we do share a common ancestor. From that ancestor chimpanzees and humans are the only living survivors.
This means that chimpanzees are as evolved as we are however they have evolved for a different environment. In this environment chimpanzees needed different adaptions. For example strong climbing arms where as we became hairless and sweaty to keep our bodies cool.
cheryl j
This is not a science based comment. But any time I've gone to the zoo and stood face to face with a gorilla, orangutang or chimpanzee, there is such a striking sense of familiarity. Their mannerisms, their gaze, facial expressions, their hands and fingernails seem so similar to us. I feel it even more in person than watching a video. I mention it not as proof of anything, but it always made me wonder what people thought of other primates before Darwin's theory became widely known. How did they explain their human-like qualities 200 years ago?
« Last Edit: 05/06/2013 15:21:58 by cheryl j »
Quote from: AntonMaeso on 03/06/2013 22:01:00
True enough, but then every living organism is 'as evolved' as every other. We all have a common ancestor and an equal time to evolve, although we've all evolved in different ways.
Quote from: cheryl j on 05/06/2013 15:20:01
I fully agree with you Cheryl. I have much the same feelings when visiting the zoo. What did people make of it 200 years ago? I think that one fairly common reaction in the European tradition was to regard these creatures as creations of the devil, whose major purpose was to mock humans. This was totally inconsistent with the rest of their belief system, laughably inconsistent. But it allowed the immediate problem to be put aside.
Outside the European tradition, it should be mentioned that "orang utan" comes from a Dyak (Borneo native) word meaning "old man of the forest". Orang utans were regarded as fully human, but obviously different, and very reclusive. A variety of superstitions about orang utans emerged.
4 4 9 4 4 a perfect perfect square square
I was just pointing out we didn't evolve from chimpanzees but a common ancestor. They have had different evolutionary pressures which make them chimpanzees not humans.
I also agree that we share some remarkably similar traits to other apes. There is evidence that some form of culture can be transmitted in some primate groups. Chimpanzees can use sound to indicate the the quality and type of food present. Monkeys and chimpanzees recognize when they are being cheated.
However we must also recognize there are differences between other apes and humans. Chimpanzees don't seem to be able to produce language as we do (project Nim). They can learn from each other but it is slower and some people suggest this is a major difference. It is unclear whether other apes can understand someone else's point of view (theory of mind stuff).
It gets even more murky when we consider some tasks considered hard for chimpanzees can be performed better by corvids (crows).
Has anyone checked out the aquatic ape theory?
According to this theory humans went through an aquatic period!!!!
... Chimpanzees can use sound to indicate the the quality and type of food present. Monkeys and chimpanzees recognize when they are being cheated.
Yes, indeed - although we're increasingly discovering unexpected proto-language abilities (complex signalling) in others species; for example, meerkat sentries can signal the type of danger and the urgency, to quite a detailed level, also using size and colour ('here comes that tall human in the yellow top').
I spend some time looking at the AAT, and it did seem plausible at first - the idea being that humans migrated along coastal routes, becoming fishers and spending a lot of time in the water, and so developing appropriate adaptations. But although you can cherry-pick features and traits to support this idea, you can do the same for the non-aquatic savannah hypothesis, and compared side by side in a more integrated approach, the AAT doesn't hold up well. I'm still sympathetic to possibly extended periods of beach life for some of our ancestors, but the evidence that it had a profound phenotypic influence isn't strong.
Caveat: I came to this conclusion by reading other people's assessments of the evidence for and against, so it reflects the balance of opinion I encountered.
Could we engineer humans so that Vitamin C is no longer a Vitamin?
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When and where was the original "adam and eve" of the early humans/apes?
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Minimize sum of distances in point pairs I have a bunch of points on a 2-dimensional Grid. I want to group the Points into pairs, while minimizing the sum of the euclidean distances between the points of the pairs.
Example:
Given the points:

p1: (1,1)
p2: (5,5)
p3: (1,3)
p4: (6,6)

Best solution:
pair1 = (p1,p3), distance = 2
pair2 = (p2,p4), distance = 1
Minimized total distance: 1+2 = 3

I suspect this problem might be solvable with a variant of the Hungarian Algorithm?!
What is the fastest way to solve the problem?
(Little Remark: I always should have less than 12 points.)

A: The problem you are trying to solve is similar to the shortest path through a fully connected (mesh) network, where you are not allowed to visit each vertex/node more than once, and you don't care about connecting the minimal pairs.
This problem is approachable when using techniques from graph theory, metric spaces, and other results from computational geometry.
This problem is similar the wiki article on the Closest pair of points problem, and the article offers some useful insights regarding Voroni diagrams and Delaunay triangulation, as well as using Recursive Divide and Conquer algorithms to solve the problem.
Note that solving the closest pair of points is not the solution, as you could have four points (A,B,C,D) in a line, where d(B,C) is least, but then you would also have d(A,D), and the sum would be larger than d(A,B) and d(C,D).
This stackoverflow question explains how to find the shortest distance between two points, and has a useful hint to skip computing the square root while comparing distances.  Answers suggest using a divide and conquer approach (linear), but observe that splitting both X and Y coordinates might partition more appropriately.
This math stackexchange question addresses a similar problem, and suggests using Prim's algorithm, Kruskal's algorithm, or notes that this is a special case of the Travelling Salesman problem, which is NP-hard.
My approach would be to solve your problem (pairing the closest points) using a greedy algorithm to compute a minimal spanning tree, and then remove from the spanning tree 1/2 the edges (leaving disconnected pairs).  Likely using a second (variant) of a greedy algorithm.

A: There are so few pairings possible for 12 or less points (about 10000 or less as pointed out in a comment), you can check all pairings by brute force and even with this solution you can solve about 10000 problems per second with 12 or less points on a modern personal computer.  If you want a faster solution, you can enumerate nearest neighbors in order for each point and then just check pairings that are minimal with respect to which nearest neighbors are used for each point. In the worst-case I don't think this gives a speed-up, but for example if your 12 points come in 6 pairs of very close points (where unpaired points are far away) then you'd find the solution very quickly because the minimal pairing with respect to nearest neighbors would match together each point with its first nearest neighbor.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home News World News
Kenya's open-air market traders count losses amid pandemic
KENYA2:NAIROBI, March 30, 2021 (Xinhua) -- Margaret Mackenzie, a jewelry trader, goes about her work at the open-air Maasai market in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, March 27, 2021. Traders at the open-air Maasai market located in downtown Nairobi, Kenyan capital, have suffered losses amid COVID-19 disruptions such as the closure of the international markets. (Xinhua/Chrispinus Omar)
By Xinhua
Margaret Mackenzie is one of the traders at the open-air Maasai market located in the downtown section of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, which operates on weekends but has suffered losses amid COVID-19 disruptions.
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The open-air market is renowned for its vibrant products from the nomadic Maasai community that range from wooden sculptures, beaded necklaces, batik wall hangings that often resonate with local and foreign tourists.
Mackenzie, a single mother of one, started selling jewelry at the market six years ago. The business was so good that she had never thought of quitting."I used to generate 16,000 shillings (about 145 U.S. dollars) profit in a week since most of my products do not require a huge capital. I make them," Mackenzie told Xinhua.
However, Mackenzie's business started dwindling due to the pandemic."I used to sell one key holder for about 3 dollars but I had to adjust the price to one dollar so that I can get something to go back with at the end of the day," said Mackenzie. Now she has to do an extra job in order to cater to her household needs.
Paul Mutunga, a veteran trader at Maasai market has been in the business for more than a decade."I am watching my business as it goes down slowly. I don't know when it will resume as it used to," said Mutunga.
The Maasai market which largely relied on foreign tourists to remain vibrant is now forced to sell to local traders who buy the products at a low price due to pandemic related shocks.
"We have to pay a tax fee of 5 dollars, it may look small but if you have not sold anything for that day, where will it come from?" Mutunga expressed his worries. Mutunga is now appealing for well-wishers to offer him a job.
Pius Omari, a veteran trader at Maasai market whose products are tailor-made for the Chinese visitors said that it has been a herculean task to secure new clients since the onset of the pandemic in Kenya.
Omari sells products made from soapstone carvings that range from animal prints, African printed candle holders and carvings welcoming tourists like Jambo Kenya (Hello Kenya).
"The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent closure of international markets has hit my business hard," said Omari. He hoped the business can get through the pandemic and see a recovery this year.
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text:
Press kit: noise footprint and sustainability report for 2019
Geneva Airport presents its 2019 noise footprint as well as its 4th Sustainability report.
A reduction in Genève Aéroport's noise footprint for 2019
The air traffic noise footprint for Genève Aéroport has been published today. Between 2018 and 2019, i.e. before the pandemic, the surface area of sites exposed to noise decreased by 3,4 km2, and the number of residents exposed to noise fell by 11,4%. Today, Genève Aéroport is publishing its 4th Sustainability report, available for the first time in digital form. Covering the 2018-2019 period, the report sets out the airport's economic, social and environmental commitment, as well as its results, objectives and flagship projects.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has a profound impact on air traffic, the results preceding this pandemic are significant, as they derive from a long-term strategy. Genève Aéroport has implemented a proactive, innovative environmental policy for many years, in accordance with the objectives set by the cantonal and federal authorities. To this end, it is increasing its initiatives and large-scale projects. Conscious of its urban surroundings, the airport is working proactively to limit its noise footprint./p>
The noise footprint of air traffic is represented by noise curves on a map. Their surface area changes depending on the magnitude of the noise impact of air traffic for the past year at different times of the day. For the second year in a row, the range of these curves has reduced. The surface area of areas exposed to noise (enveloping surface area at immission limits) fell from 33,3 km2 in 2018 to 29,9 km2 in 2019 (a decrease of 3,4 km2). The number of residents (actual population) exposed to noise above the legal limits has also decreased, from 22'726 in 2018 to 20'135 in 2019 (a decrease of 11,4%).
Fewer movements after 22:00
This improvement is linked in large part to an overall decrease in aircraft movements (-0,6% in 2019), especially after 22:00. The noise emitted by planes beyond this sensitive time for residents greatly increases the airport's noise footprint. In collaboration with Skyguide air traffic control and the airlines, the airport has put in place a set of effective measures to reduce the number of late take-offs, such as having reserve planes and prioritising delayed flights. In October 2019, a common statement aimed at reducing unplanned take-offs after 22:00 was also signed between Genève Aéroport, easyJet and SWISS.
The results are clear: between 2018 and 2019, nocturnal movements after 22:00 decreased by 5,2%, with in particular a reduction in take-offs by 15,5%.
What's more, in 2019, airlines continued to gradually upgrade their fleets with new generation aircraft, which are quieter. Because of this, aircraft movements (both scheduled and charter, passenger only) classified as category 5, or the least noisy, rose from 13,7% in 2018 to 18,7% in 2019.
These encouraging results allow Genève Aéroport to comply with the two-stage objectives set by the sectoral aviation infrastructure plan (SAIP), adopted in 2018 by the Federal Council: its noise footprint respects the ceiling curve imposed from 2019. In addition, the airport is making progress towards the target curve planned for 2030, which should allow an ambitious reduction in the noise footprint of air traffic in Geneva, in accordance with the Objectives Agreement of 22 May 2019 with the State of Geneva.
Sustainable Development Report 2019: improving indicators
Today, Genève Aéroport publishes its 4th Sustainability report, available for the first time in digital form. This document shows the airport's performance in environmental issues, as well as economic and social areas. The airport's indicators show progress in almost all areas.
In 2019, Genève Aéroport's share of renewable energy across all energies combined (heating, cooling, electricity and vehicle fuels) was 57%, compared to 54% in 2017. To go further, the airport has committed to supplying all of its infrastructure with 100% renewable energy by 2025. To achieve this, major projects have been implemented: for example, the installation of autonomous heat pumps on the apron in June 2019. These energy efficient pumps are used to cool and heat planes before take-off. The airport also aims to increase its current surface area of solar panels by almost five times. The target is 55'000 m2 by 2030 (compared to 13'500 m2 in 2019) and to produce 7,8 GWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the annual consumption of 2'500 Geneva households.
With this in mind, in 2019 Genève Aéroport signed an agreement with GeniLac, the ecological thermal network of the Services Industriels de Genève (SIG). From 2023, the airport will increasingly be able to heat and cool its buildings with water from the lake, reducing CO2 emissions by 5'300 tonnes per year.
A responsible economic player
The concept of sustainability relates to more than the environment: Genève Aéroport is committed to improving the quality of its service and visitor experience, particularly by encouraging the use of public transport. In 2019, 50,5% of passengers opted for sustainable modes of transport to get to the airport, compared to 45% in 2017.
Genève Aéroport contributes to the stability of the region's socio-economic fabric by maintaining a quality service and creating many jobs both directly and indirectly.
The airport is working to improve integration into the world of work. Of the 169 positions advertised in 2019, 58 received introductory training and 31 job seekers were hired. The airport also creates working conditions, which are respectful of all, particularly by encouraging diversity within teams. In 2019, the airport employed 29,3% women overall, with 20,8% managerial positions occupied by women. In the same year, the Swiss Charter for Diversity in the Workplace was signed.
The health of employees and safety of operations are essential to the proper functioning of the airport. Between 2017 and 2019, the rate of occupational accidents has fallen from 43 to 35 per 1,000 FTE.
Since 2017, actions have been considered to develop the company's purchasing department. Genève Aéroport has put in place a new tendering process, strengthened legal directives relating to public tenders, and updated its directive on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest. Employees now have a secure IT platform enabling them to report suspicions of fraud or inappropriate behaviour such as sexual harassment. This tool, operational since early 2020, is managed by an independent body, and guarantees whistleblowers confidentiality.
During the 2019 financial year, Genève Aéroport recorded 17,9 million passengers transported by 57 airlines serving 149 destinations. In 2019, airport activity generated a net profit of 84,1 million Swiss francs, half of which was paid to the State of Geneva. Genève Aéroport has also led an active sponsoring policy by supporting regional projects and events with up to 900'000 Swiss francs in 2019.
Flyer sustainability report
Indicators 2017-2019
Video SR 2019 (french) opens in new window
Mesure des nuisances sonores
Territoire exposé au bruit
Courbes enveloppantes DS II
Genève Aéroport est le plus grand « site prioritaire flore » du canton
Optimisation de la gestion des déchets
Des chantiers plus durables
Abris pour les pipistrelles
Abandon des pesticides dans les serres de l'aéroport
Assistance des personnes à mobilité réduite
Mixité des équipes
Direction de l'aéroport
Des chantiers plus durables, ici le P48
Dégivrage au biogaz
Recyclage des déchets à l'aéroport
Balisage lumineux de la piste
Développement des énergies renouvelables
29% des véhicules et engins circulant sur le tarmac étaient électriques ou hybrides.
En novembre 2020 sera inaugurée l'Aile Est
Démarche commune de lutte contre le bruit
Formation des apprentis à Genève Aéroport
Limiter les nuisances sonores pour les riverains
Suivi de la qualité de l'air
Raccordement de Genève Aéroport à Genilac
Bus électriques sur le tarmac
Balisage nocturne du tarmac
Genève Aéroport prepares to resume flights in June
Back on 100 years of bold decisions in commemorative book
Genève Aéroport celebrates its centenary
From 2025, Genève Aéroport will cool and heat its buildings with water from Lake Geneva
Genève Aéroport, easyJet and SWISS, commit to reduce unscheduled take-offs after 22:00
A new Baggage Logistics Centre at Genève Aéroport
The airport in your pocket! Boarding pass scanning, travel assistant, flight sharing, parking availability, interactive map, ...
Copyright © Genève Aéroport. All rights reserved


addresses, among other topics, the requirements of the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act. It also provides a checklist for employees, which has obvious value for human resources staff who are drafting material or preparing for layoff conferences, and model text for an enforceable waiver.
The guidance pertains only to the limited issues presented by discrimination waivers in severance agreements. There are many related issues regarding both general compliance requirements and also problems arising from specific workers or worksites that the guidance does not attempt to address. It is important, therefore, not only to review this recent expression of the E.E.O.C.'s position but also to continue to use more comprehensive checklists, involve in-house expertise, or consult with an employment lawyer.


text:
Ryte pledges to help make 5% of all websites carbon neutral by 2023 with launch of 'Ryte Website Carbon KPI'
Industry-leading in-tool carbon calculator helps measure amount of CO2 websites emit
Ryte, the #1 platform for Website User Experience, today launched its "Website Carbon KPI" measurement feature within its platform and announced its goal of helping make 5% of all websites globally carbon neutral by the end of 2023. Ryte worked with leading data scientists and industry experts to develop the ability to help website owners accurately measure the carbon impact of their websites.
The carbon footprint of our gadgets, the internet and the systems supporting them account for about 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, according to a widely publicized 2019 report by the carbon transition thinktank, the Shift Project. And this trend is rising rapidly. As a result, Ryte set out to measure the consumption of websites as accurately as possible in order to determine its impact on the environment. Assembling a team of data science experts, including Ryte Data Scientist, Katharina Meraner, who has a PhD in climate science and global warming, and input from external experts at Climate Partner, Ryte developed and launched the "Ryte Website Carbon KPI" within its Website User Experience Platform.
"There are currently 189,000,000 active websites. Our goal is to make 5% of all active websites, or 9.5 million websites, climate neutral by the end of 2023 with the help of our platform, strong partners, social media activities, and much more. Time is ticking and making websites carbon neutral is really easy compared to other industries and processes. So let's go for it and all work towards this goal," said Andy Bruckschloegl, CEO of Ryte.
"Teaming up with Ryte will help raise awareness on how information technology contributes to climate change – while at the same time providing tools to make a difference. Ryte's industry-leading carbon calculator enables thousands of website owners to understand their carbon footprint, to offset unavoidable carbon emissions and thus lay a basis for a comprehensive climate action strategy," said Tristan A. Foerster, Co-CEO ClimatePartner.
How is the Ryte Website Carbon KPI calculated?
Using a proprietary algorithm developed by its team of data scientists and developers, Ryte leverages its website user experience platform to understand the multitude of variables that have a potential impact on websites' performance. This includes analyzing the code of the entire website, average page size, as well as monthly traffic by channel. Ryte analyzes the effect of these factors on the entire website to produce a calculation of the amount of CO2 a given website emits: the 'Ryte Website Carbon KPI' metric.
"I am really happy and proud that we were able to build a KPI that is much closer to the consumption of the website than anything else on the market so far," Katharina Meraner said, citing the result of the significant work over the past months.
With the ability to accurately calculate the carbon impact of websites, Ryte's goal is to help clients understand what steps can be taken to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions their websites produce. For example, website owners can run their website on a green server as well as using code and on-site elements to build their website in a more resource-efficient way. In addition to helping the environment, there is a clear business case to optimizing websites to be more sustainable: improvements such as reducing webpage loading times and enhancing user experience are proven to have a positive business impact.
Nevertheless, although it is Ryte's goal to work with clients to make the best possible changes to reduce emissions, websites still require servers and electricity -- so carbon emissions can never fully be reduced to zero. Consequently, Ryte is collaborating with a reforestation project in San Jose, Nicaragua, to allow its customers to offset their remaining emissions through the purchase of climate certificates. Ryte shows clients the calculation of how much CO2 their website uses and what the equivalent monetary value is that they need to invest to attain carbon neutrality.
Once a website has achieved carbon neutrality on the Ryte platform, the website owner receives an official Ryte "Climate Neutral Website" badge to place on their site informing users of their pledge and commitment for helping to reduce carbon emissions and support the environment.
For more information, or to learn how you can start measuring your website's CO2 impact, visit ryte.com/gocarbonneutral.
Amelie Fee Baum
Brand & Communication Lead
a.baum@ryte.com


Learn more about women's health services offered at this clinic.
As part of our emphasis on preventive health care we provide routine gynecologic services. Examples of these services include pelvic examinations, pap smears, breast exams, and testing for sexually transmitted disease. We also evaluate and treat urinary symptoms, urinary incontinence, and manage oral contraception. We refer women for mammograms in accordance with published guidelines. Routine mammograms are performed at the Novant Health Imaging University which is conveniently located on the 1st floor of our building.


Know The Truth – What Should We Pray For?
Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6:11-15. Food, drink, clothing and even life should cause His children to be thankful. Matthew 6:25-32. Here Jesus tells His disciples to pray for their daily food and forgiveness of their sins. See Ephesians 4:32. Our Father will help His children to overcome the temptations of this life. Jesus said, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit [man's spirit] indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41; Cf. Mark 14:38.
The Holy Spirit said, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord….Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:14, 16. Prayer is important for the Christian who is sick and suffering. Here we are told that the one praying is to be "a righteous man." How can one use God's name in vain and common accepted four-letter words and then when sickness and suffering come, call upon God for help? The apostle Paul prayed three times to have a thorn removed from his flesh. It was not removed. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Did God answer Paul's prayer?
The Holy Spirit said, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:1-4. Christians are to pray for ALL men and that includes the leaders of our country. Our Father wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Christians are to pray for open doors to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Colossians 4:2-4. The Bible teaches us that God is "the Father" of His children. Are you a child of God? Only the saved will be in heaven. Examples of those who were saved in the New Testament: Acts 2:14-42; 8:5-13; 8:30-39; 9:17-18, 22:6-16, 26:12-18; 10:34-48; 16:13-15; 16:25-34; 18:8; 19:1-7. One must hear, believe, repent, confess and be immersed according to these examples!


text:
Iranian hip-hop
Filed under: Iran — louisproyect @ 11:05 pm
(Hat tip to Mike Ely)
Guest post on Turkish workers
Filed under: Turkey,workers — louisproyect @ 3:12 pm
TEKEL Workers' Resistance: Re-Awakening of the Proletariat in Turkey – Erinç Yeldan*
30 January 2010 –
"A specter is haunting Turkey, the specter of the proletariat…" these are the words singing from ear to ear in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, since December 15. Since that day, despite the severe cold, poor conditions of the street-life, and brutal assaults of the ruling AKP government and its leader Tayyip Erdogan, the workers' of TEKEL (the recently privatized public enterprise producing cigarettes, tobacco, alcohol and spirits) had taken the streets of the main district of Ankara as the center of resistance. The workers have been taking turns in shifts in their tents of resistance day and night, and receive tremendous support from all over Turkey –ordinary citizens, University students, workers from all other unions… National support for their cause has now spread out over international borders and is assuming non-traditional displays of solidarity such as exhibit of supporting banners in the European football stadiums during the games over the weekend of January 30-31.
What ignited the resistance was the move of the AKP government to veto the workers' existing contracts and force them to accept part-time conditions with significant loss of pay and of social rights. The proposed new contract is known with its identifying code: the 4-C. The 4-C contracts were formulated by the government as an interim solution to offer employment for the displaced workers after privatization of state-owned enterprises. It involves re-defining of the employees' job status as provisional for up to one year and offers salaries tied to legal minimum wages. The new "jobs" would not necessarily be related to the displaced workers' ability or expertise, and in practice have taken various forms of simple public services such as gardening public parks, etc. For the TEKEL workers this move would have meant a reduction of their average monthly wages from 1,200TL (approx. 800$) to 800TL (approx. 550$) and a job contract of 10 months with no further guarantee of re-newel.
Declaring these conditions as unacceptable, the TEKEL workers marched to Ankara and set up a camp of resistance in front of the headquarters of the major workers' unions confederation, Türk-İş, and started literally living on streets, cooking, sleeping and socializing with guests of solidarity in their tents of board, plastic wraps and whatever form of shelter they could obtain from the local merchants.
The real underlying sources of the events leading to the post- December 15 resistance were, no doubt, deeper than what's stated above. A series of Turkish governments had already taken steps for dissolving and privatizing the TEKEL enterprises since 1999. In 9 December 1999 a letter of intent was conditioned by the IMF that involved open directives to dismantle all public support and subsidization schemes for the agricultural economy in general, and privatization of the tobacco, sprits, animal husbandry, and sugar plants, in particular.
The current AKP government had finally succeeded in selling the TEKEL alcohol and spirits plants to a national consortium (MEY) for $292 million in November 2003. Yet, at that date the produced stocks of those plants were already valued at $126 million! What's more, the company was known to have incurred a huge purchase of raw materials totaling $70 million using public funds just before the exchange of ownership. In addition the state had forgiven TEKEL's existing debt to the public banks and the Treasury totaling $200 million, and had further announced that it had assumed the severance payments of the retirement compensations of the existing workers (totaling approximately another $25 million) nine days prior to the privatization.
But the episodes of fraud and corruption behind TEKEL's privatization were not limited to all these instances stated above. The new owners were further granted bank credits with no down payment for a period of two years. The "new owners" in turn had re-sold the alcohol and spirits component of TEKEL to Texas Pacific Group in 2 years time for a total of $900 million! This gift was captured without any actual payment to the state until then.
The private owners of TEKEL dismissed their "promised" obligations for maintaining production activities and since 2003, five of the enterprises were shut down, displacing 12,000 workers. These are the workers now campaigning for their rights for a decent job in the streets of Ankara.
What the TEKEL resistance had already achieved is beyond their fight for jobs and daily income. It had clearly revealed the true face of AKP as the truly favored party of the Turkish bourgeoisie and the main follower of interest of both the national and international capital. Since its inception in 2002, AKP tried to maintain a character beyond the labor-capital conflict, and revealed itself as a party of Islamic brotherhood based on cemaat (believers') solidarity and friendship. Most of the workers, among them definitely those of TEKEL, had been brought under this deity. Yet, the turnover of events since December 15 had all of a sudden revealed what was already known: since the 2001 crisis Turkish wages in manufacturing were slashed by 25% percent in real terms; their social rights were severely constrained; and the open unemployment rate hit 14 percent under conditions of the global crisis (with total unemployment including discouraged workers estimated at 19 percent).
It is a widely circulating quote in Turkey that one of the TEKEL workers stated that before December 15, he was just a person praying five times a day; now he is a worker five times a communist!
TEKEL workers are now waiting for the government's next move to be announced on Monday, February 1st; while the minister of finance, Mehmet Şimşek, stated that his government would seek ways to find extra funds in the budget to meet the workers' demands. The supporters of the TEKEL resistance can only attest to this claim with a dramatic grain of salt, remembering that during peak days of the 2001 financial crisis in Turkey a total of $40 billion (reaching about 40% of the gross domestic product then) was spent for rescuing failing banks and financial businesses in the name of the health of finance and combating inflation. But that, of course, was another matter.
The Turkish labor force is also waiting for Wednesday, February 3rd, on which day a national strike had been called for.
The re-emerging spirit of proletariat and of workers' solidarity has already taken its place in the history of labor movement in Turkey. Above all, it had re-shown to friends and foes alike, that the neoliberal revelations of the so-called modern left to dispense with the ideology of wage labor and capital conflict are a complete farce.
History has once again revealed the true dialectics of capitalism.
Note: For our non-Turkish friends, a good source of information on the Turkish working class movement that is in English is provided at:
http://www.sendika.org/english/
For a wider and in-depth coverage of the TEKEL resistance see also:
http://tekeldirenisi.org/
The photos used in the text are taken from this site, and I gratefully acknowledge their artistry.
Ankara, January 30, 2010
* Erinc Yeldan, Bilkent University,
yeldane@bilkent.edu.tr
All materials of Sendika.Org can be used freely by referring to the source
Obama: I am not a radical or a Bolshevik
Filed under: Obama,parliamentary cretinism — louisproyect @ 9:02 pm
Perhaps nothing encapsulates the essence of the Obama administration better than his encounter with the Republicans in Baltimore yesterday where he tried to paper over his differences with the labor-hating and racist politicians.
Pressed by Mike Spence, the verbose Representative from Indiana who puts Joe Biden to shame, why he failed to adopt Republican-style tax cuts, Obama defended himself by referring to the key role of tax cuts in his stimulus package:
The package that we put together at the beginning of the year, the truth is should have reflected, and I believe reflected what most of you would say are common-sense things. This notion that this was a radical package is just not true. A third of them were tax cuts. And they weren't — when you say they were boutique tax cuts, Mike, 95 percent of working Americans got tax cuts. Small businesses got tax cuts. Large businesses got help in terms of their depreciation schedules.
I mean, it was a pretty conventional list of tax cuts.
Do you see how he denied that there was anything "radical" about his package? This kind of pleading reminds me of nothing more than the ex-Communists testifying before HUAC or Senator McCarthy trying to establish their True American bona fides even though they signed a petition against General Franco in 1938. But that was never good enough for the witch hunters. They would only be assuaged if the hapless former Communist named names. In Obama's case, the only way to save himself is to go the whole hog and adopt the Republican Party's full program, something he apparently has embarked upon.
Even more self-abnegating was his performance before Marsha Blackburn, the Representative from Tennessee who complained about his sorry health plan that looks like it will die on the vine anyhow. He practically got on his hands and knees to beg the filthy right wing politicians to accept him as a True American:
The component parts of this thing are pretty similar to what Howard Baker, Bob Dole and Tom Daschle proposed at the beginning of this debate last year.
Now, you may not agree with Bob Dole and Howard Baker and Tom — and certainly you don't agree with Tom Daschle on much but that's not a radical bunch. But if you were to listen to the debate, and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot.
And so I'm thinking to myself, "Well, how is it that a plan that is pretty centrist . . . "
No, look, I mean, I'm just saying — I know you guys disagree, but if you look at the facts of this bill, most independent observers would say this is actually what many Republicans — it — it's similar to what many Republicans proposed to Bill Clinton when he was doing his debate on health care.
What a pathetic display, trying to disabuse these Republicans of the idea that he is not a "Bolshevik" as if anybody outside of the deranged ideological universe of AM talk radio would believe such a thing. What does Obama expect? That these howling hyenas are going to lie down with sheep? That is the fundamental problem of American politics today after all. The Republicans want blood and the Democrats are all too anxious to bare their neck.
It is also obvious that this Columbia University and Harvard educated president does not have a very good grasp of recent American history. Holding up Robert Dole and Howard Baker to this mob is a complete waste of time since the Republican Party has mutated into an ultraright body that is bent on ridding itself of any vestige of centrism, such as the kind that Dole and Baker represented. It is like asking a serial killer to remember what a nice boy he was in kindergarten.
This Republican Party, with its bible-thumping, xenophobic, market fundamentalist base, is not the party of Richard Nixon. Indeed, we would be lucky if the Democrats were as far to the left as Nixon, whose Keynesian economics and support of affirmative action makes most Democrats look reactionary by comparison. As the Republican Party continues to shift to the right, we end up with Democrats trying to stake out a center that also keeps shifting to the right. It is as if liberal politicians in Weimar Germany tried to maintain the center during the rise of Hitler. Come to think of it, with all proportions guarded, that is what we are up against today.
Filed under: Film,imperialism/globalization — louisproyect @ 4:37 pm
As today's selection at the 2010 Sundance Festival, Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross's "The Shock Doctrine" is a reminder that some of the most hard-hitting political documentaries make their first appearance here despite Utah's reputation as a reactionary sump, a distinction shared by the University of Utah's Marxist-friendly economics department that is the home of Marxmail, a mailing list I moderate. You are also invited to take a look at The Mormon Worker, a website that describes itself as modeled on the radical Catholic Worker, where you will find an article raising the question "Are the Rich Damned". Amen!
"The Shock Doctrine" is a taut 86 minute journey through the wreckage of the free market revolution spawned by the late Milton Friedman, who is featured prominently as an interviewee throughout this documentary based on Naomi Klein's best-seller.
It should be stated that Klein disowned the movie at one time, considering it an oversimplification of her book. She felt that the movie relies too heavily on narration at the expense of interviews with leftwing analysts such as her presumably. Klein does appear throughout the film lecturing a large student audience, but apparently this did not assuage her. The latest development, however, is that Klein has warmed up sufficiently to at least participate in a panel discussion after the movie today. Perhaps she intends to trash it, but I don't think that's her style.
While I have not read "The Shock Doctrine", I am familiar enough with Klein's ideas to state that the movie does not misrepresent them. While she was expecting something closer to "The Take", a movie about the economic collapse of Argentina that she produced, I found "The Shock Doctrine" to be a totally engrossing work similar in spirit to "Hearts and Minds", another movie heavily reliant on stock footage.
Indeed, it is the director's skillful use of stock footage, a gift they share with Michael Moore, that makes this movie so compelling. Starting with the Pinochet coup in Chile, it tracks the implementation of Milton Friedman's "shock therapy" economics in one country after another, from Videla's Argentina to Putin's Russia.
While the events depicted in the movie might not be unfamiliar to veteran radicals, much of the film footage will likely have the same attention-grabbing effect it had on me. For example, it details the murder of Orlando Letelier on Embassy Row in Washington, DC on September 21, 1976. As Allende's ambassador to the United States, Letelier crusaded against Pinochet's coup after he became a citizen-activist rather than an official. For his efforts, he received a death sentence from the CIA. Just as is the case with the Cuban counter-revolutionary who blew up a Cuban airliner, Letelier's assassin never spent a day in jail.
Michael Winterbottom, one of the co-directors, is a left-leaning Briton who has not worked in documentaries before, except for the docudrama "The Road to Guantanamo", about the "Tipton Three", three British Muslims captured by US forces in Afghanistan who spent two years as prisoners at Guantánamo Bay as alleged enemy combatants. He is also—unfortunately—responsible for "Welcome to Sarajevo", a Serb-bashing affair that I reviewed here.
If I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Winterbottom, I would ask him whether he had ever considered NATO's war on Yugoslavia in the same terms as he considered Pinochet's coup. After all, the neo-liberal regime forced upon the poorer regions of the former Yugoslavia has followed the same dismal recipe described in his excellent documentary.
As a kind of experiment, three movies from this year's Sundance Film Festival can be downloaded as video on-demand from your local cable provider such as Time-Warner or Direct TV. I recommend this film for people who are familiar with the sorry narrative of the past nearly 40 years, and especially to others who are first finding out about the unspeakable crimes of American foreign policy to this day, now being promoted by a candidate promising "change".
Shock Doctrine trailer
Smashmouth football
Filed under: sports — louisproyect @ 4:42 pm
As a long-time football fan, I root for the home team—either the Jets or the Giants. The Giants were widely expected to make a run for the Super Bowl this year, but their much vaunted "smashmouth" defense let them down. Meanwhile, the Jets did much better than expected under Rex Ryan, a new coach who had previously been defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. In an article that ironically appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, reporter Mark Sappenfield highlighted the talents that Ryan brought with him:
In the Jets vs. Colts AFC championship game Sunday, the New York Jets and Head Coach Rex Ryan will be trying to prove that smashmouth football can still succeed in today's NFL.
But even amid some good fortune, Ryan has remained unsurprisingly unabashed: His goal is to bring the forgotten gospel of bloody knuckles and splintered teeth back to football, one grind-it-out Jets win at a time.
The most violent, but effective, player on defense for the Baltimore Ravens is Ray Lewis who is near the end of his career. Here he is in action:
Like most fans, including the hapless fictional hero of the interesting but uneven "Big Fan", I got a kick out of such violent attacks on the football field without giving them much thought unless it resulted in the paralysis of somebody like Boston Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley who was left a quadriplegic after a brutal tackle by the Oakland Raiders Jack Tatum in a preseason game in 1978. Stingley eventually succumbed to heart disease aggravated by his paralysis at the age of 55. Here's Tatum assaulting a wide receiver along the same lines as a Ray Lewis performance.
I don't think I'll ever watch another football game, however, after watching a segment about football concussions on Brian Gumbel's HBO Real Sports program. It makes the connection between football concussions and the early onset of Alzheimer's and highlights the role of Harvard graduate Chris Nowinski in putting pressure on the NFL to better protect its players. Nowinski suffered concussions as a football player at Harvard and as a professional wrestler after he graduated Harvard. Despite professional wrestling's obvious fakery, you can get injured in the ring in the same way that a stuntman can get injured or killed during filming.
You can watch the HBO segment in its entirety on Youtube:
Watching someone like Ralph Wenzel, who is only two years older than me, suffering from Alzheimer's is pretty hard to take. My mother, who passed away in a nursing home nearly two years ago, had all sorts of problems toward the end of her life but thankfully Alzheimer's was not one of them. When I used to visit her, it was always hard to get past the sight and sound of Alzheimer patients in the ward who were in various stages of mental disintegration. Although I am of course frightened of the idea of developing Alzheimer's, I accept that as a possible fate as I penetrate deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness that is old age (I turned 65 two days ago.) But if I became an Alzheimer's patient at the age of 67 like Ralph Wenzel who once told people that he couldn't count the number of concussions he had suffered during his career, I would feel like the victim of a crime not the natural process of aging. The corporate bosses who have forced such men to return prematurely to the football field after suffering a concussion belong in prison. In some ways, they are worse than murderers since they are responsible for robbing human beings of their most precious gift, the ability to think.
I also recommend that you take a look at Chris Nowinski's website. With his Harvard degree, he is not the typical jock. As a professional wrestler, he took time to speak out on young people getting involved with politics, particularly through registering to vote. You might also be aware that professional wrestling not only requires immense physical gifts; it also requires the ability to craft a persona for yourself. Initially Nowinski styled himself as a villainous snob from the Ivy League (not that hard to do!) and even used the ring name Chris Harvard. While it is difficult to figure out whether this was meant to shore up his villainous image in professional wrestling, Nowinski also assumed the role of "race traitor" akin to the hero of "Avatar", as his wiki page indicates:
On the May 26, 2003 edition of Raw, Christopher Nowinski helped Rodney Mack defeat Bubba Ray Dudley in a "White Boy Challenge" and joined Theodore Long's group "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group of African Americans who worked a race angle in which they portrayed themselves as being victims of racism and being held down by the "White Man".
A remarkable character, to say the least. Let's hope that his six concussions do not eventually rob the world of his talents as spokesmen for the gladiator victims of the bread and circuses in today's version of the Roman Empire.
Howard Zinn is dead
Filed under: revolutionary organizing — louisproyect @ 11:49 pm
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/howard_zinn_his.htmlHoHo
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87
By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said.He was 87.
"His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide."
For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. Dr. Zinn's best-known book, "A People's History of the United States" (1980), had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers — many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out — but rather the farmers of Shays' Rebellion and the union organizers of the 1930s.
As he wrote in his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."
Certainly, it was a recipe for rancor between Dr. Zinn and Silber. Dr. Zinn twice helped lead faculty votes to oust the BU president, who in turn once accused Dr. Zinn of arson (a charge he quickly retracted) and cited him as a prime example of teachers "who poison the well of academe."
Dr. Zinn was a cochairman of the strike committee when BU professors walked out in 1979. After the strike was settled, he and four colleagues were charged with violating their contract when they refused to cross a picket line of striking secretaries. The charges against "the BU Five" were soon dropped, however.
Dr. Zinn was born in New York City on Aug. 24, 1922, the son of Jewish immigrants, Edward Zinn, a waiter, and Jennie (Rabinowitz) Zinn, a housewife. He attended New York public schools and worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard before joining the Army Air Force during World War II. Serving as a bombardier in the Eighth Air Force, he won the Air Medal and attained the rank of second lieutenant.
After the war, Dr. Zinn worked at a series of menial jobs until entering New York University as a 27-year-old freshman on the GI Bill. Professor Zinn, who had married Roslyn Shechter in 1944, worked nights in a warehouse loading trucks to support his studies. He received his bachelor's degree from NYU, followed by master's and doctoral degrees in history from Columbia University.
Dr. Zinn was an instructor at Upsala College and lecturer at Brooklyn College before joining the faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, in 1956. He served at the historically black women's institution as chairman of the history department. Among his students were the novelist Alice Walker, who called him "the best teacher I ever had,"and Marian Wright Edelman, future head of the Children's Defense Fund.
During this time, Dr. Zinn became active in the civil rights movement. He served on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the most aggressive civil rights organization of the time, and participated in numerous demonstrations.
Dr. Zinn became an associate professor of political science at BU in 1964 and was named full professor in 1966.
The focus of his activism now became the Vietnam War. Dr. Zinn spoke at countless rallies and teach-ins and drew national attention when he and another leading antiwar activist, Rev. Daniel Berrigan, went to Hanoi in 1968 to receive three prisoners released by the North Vietnamese.
Dr. Zinn's involvement in the antiwar movement led to his publishing two books: "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal" (1967) and "Disobedience and Democracy" (1968). He had previously published "LaGuardia in Congress" (1959), which had won the American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Prize; "SNCC: The New Abolitionists" (1964); "The Southern Mystique" (1964); and "New Deal Thought" (1966).
Dr. Zinn was also the author of "The Politics of History" (1970);"Postwar America" (1973); "Justice in Everyday Life" (1974); and"Declarations of Independence" (1990).
In 1988, Dr. Zinn took early retirement so as to concentrate on speaking and writing. The latter activity included writing for the stage. Dr. Zinn had two plays produced: "Emma," about the anarchist leader Emma Goldman, and "Daughter of Venus."
Dr. Zinn, or his writing, made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film''Good Will Hunting.'' The title characters, played by Matt Damon, lauds ''A People's History'' and urges Robin Williams's character to read it. Damon, who co-wrote the script, was a neighbor of the Zinns growing up.
Damon was later involved in a television version of the book, ''The People Speak,'' which ran on the History Channel in 2009. Damon was the narrator of a 2004 biographical documentary, ''Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.''
On his last day at BU, Dr. Zinn ended class 30 minutes early so he could join a picket line and urged the 500 students attending his lecture to come along. A hundred did so.
Dr. Zinn's wife died in 2008. He leaves a daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of Lexington; a son, Jeff of Wellfleet; three granddaugthers; and two grandsons.
Funeral plans were not available.
Norman Finkelstein rejects playing the holocaust card
Filed under: Jewish question,Palestine — louisproyect @ 9:00 pm
I.F. Stone on the long-term struggle
(posted to LBO-Talk by Miles Jackson)
The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing – for the sheer fun and joy of it – to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it.
–I. F. Stone
Review of an ex-Trotskyist's memoir
Filed under: revolutionary organizing,sectarianism,socialism,Trotskyism — louisproyect @ 2:37 pm
Les Evans
Leslie Evans's Outsider's Reveries
by Louis Proyect
(Swans – January 25, 2010) Available as a download from Scribd.com, Les Evans's Outsider's Reveries is the latest memoir revolving around the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) of the United States.
The best known of these is Saïd Sayrafiezadeh's When Skateboards Will be Free, which seeks to draw a contrast between the author's youthful yearnings to be normal — hence the skateboard — and his parent's mad obsessions about overthrowing the capitalist system. For obvious reasons, the memoir was a big hit with The Washington Post and The New York Times. On Facebook, the proud author announced that he has been meeting with HBO. For those who have followed this premium cable station over the years, it is well understood that they find material about dysfunctional families very marketable. It is difficult for me to imagine a fan of "The Sopranos" finding that much of interest in the sad tale of an apolitical youth being forced to boycott grapes, but the HBO executives do have a solid track record making money (the primary ambition of the author they are courting, it should be stressed). Tales about creepy Communists do fit in well, after all, with the American ideological landscape.
In 2005 Barry Sheppard, the number two man in the party for many years until he was expelled, published the first installment of The Party, titled The Sixties: a political memoir. This is a largely self-congratulatory effort that contains page after page of the party's accomplishments in the antiwar movement and other struggles under the author's stewardship. The second volume is obviously much more difficult for the author to produce since it is largely about the party's transformation from a powerful force on the American left into the bizarre cult-sect described in Sayrafiezadeh's work, written from the perspective of a tender youth who was not even a member. For Sheppard, the challenge is to produce a volume two that amounts to an autopsy on the party he spent decades building. Perhaps it will prove insurmountable.
Just before his death in September 2008, Peter Camejo was putting the final touches on an eagerly awaited memoir that will be released posthumously as The North Star in honor of Fredrick Douglass's abolitionist newspaper. Unlike Sheppard, Camejo was dubious about the Socialist Workers Party even when he was part of a troika including Sheppard and Jack Barnes, the cult leader. In the early 1980s, when I was working with Camejo to build the North Star Network, a loose grouping incorporating his new non-sectarian politics, I once asked him if he regretted not having left the SWP much earlier. Expecting him to say that he should have left after around 10 years (about the length of my own tenure) rather than 20, he said he should have left after several months. There was a dogmatic character that disturbed this young Fidelista from the very outset.
Les Evans's memoir is a study in ambivalence. As a top leader of the SWP primarily involved with writing and editing, Evans retains a lot of the "then we did this and then we did that" quality of volume one of Sheppard's book but as another expellee, he cannot help but look askance at the party. Looking back in retrospect, he sees warts that were not obvious at the time. Unlike Camejo, however, these misgivings — as we shall see — flow from an anti-Communist perspective in line with the "god that failed" literature. This ambivalence is what gives the book its dramatic tension, notwithstanding the superfluous details that typically show up in an unedited manuscript published by a vanity press. For example, there is a chapter on the author's stepchildren, an obvious labor of love but of almost no interest to people outside the Evans household.
full: http://www.swans.com/library/art16/lproy59.html
Guest post on Haiti
Filed under: bard college,cruise missile left,Haiti — louisproyect @ 10:36 pm
John Halle
Mark Danner's Choice
By John Halle
(John Halle is a music professor at Bard College and the only leftist teaching there, now that Joel Kovel is gone. Mark Danner is a faculty member there as well, epitomizing the prevailing George Soros/New York Review of Books ideology.)
A long standing staple of Fox News discourse claims that liberalism in the academy holds sway as a kind of semi-official ideology. This view is largely correct, though it should be kept in mind that it is the liberalism targeted in recent denunciations by Adolph Reed and Chris Hedges, not the "radical leftism" of teabaggers and other fantasists of the right.
A more or less paradigmatic example of the former can be found in Mark Danner's recent NY Times Op-Ed "To Heal Haiti, Look to History" which would be quickly picked up at commondreams.org, Democracy Now! and grit.tv among other sites.
That the piece would be promoted by web organs of the authentic-as opposed to liberal- left was, at least superficially reasonable in that Danner's (or for that matter anyone's) minimally accurate thumb nail sketch of Haitian history could not fail but to deliver a stridently anti-imperialist message: Haiti has functioned as "a state built for predation and plunder", starting with the complete eradication of its native population, to its establishment as the most brutal of slave states, to its functioning in the 20th century as a paradigmatic kleptocracy presided over by a string of vicious dictators serving themselves and the interests of foreign capital.
Danner's bill of particulars, many of these laid on our doorstep, is of course regrettable, disturbing, and even damning and as such provides an opportunity for the displays of teeth gnashing and garment rending which liberals can be relied on to engage in. Their doing so requires, however, that one condition is met: that these instances are all safely in the past.
Thus, what is predictably missing in Danner's discussion is anything other than the vaguest allusion to the recent history of Haiti. And it is this history which is largely responsible for the almost inconceivable scale of the devastation caused by what would otherwise be a major, but by no means unprecedented disaster.
The relevant cause, as is described in the works of Robert Fatton, is demographic: for the past three decades the city of Port au Prince has grown from approximately 300,000 to over 2.5 million inhabitants. Lacking the infrastructure required to support this population and the financial wherewithal to develop it, most residents of the capital lived in slums lacking the most basic sanitation facilities, with only sporadic access to safe drinking water and frequently subjected to protracted encounters with what NGO's somewhat euphemistically refer to as "food insecurity". Moreover, it hardly needs to be mentioned, building codes were non existent.
It was eminently predictable from these initial conditions that a 7.0 Richter Scale seismic event would materialize as it did with countless thousands buried under rubble, those able to extract themselves doing so in a weakened condition sometimes literally dying of thirst or through opportunistic infections.
If we want to understand as opposed to merely wring our hands about this epic tragedy, we need to inquire into why these conditions obtained. What accounted for the massive influx into Port au Prince from the rural, agricultural areas? Danner indirectly alludes to the crucial in his proposal to "America (to) throw open its markets to Haitian agricultural produce and manufactured goods, broadening and making permanent the provisions of a promising trade bill negotiated in 2008."
Danner has this exactly backward. As Fatton and others have noted, it is not the failure of the U.S. to open its markets, but rather the converse which is directly implicated in the catastrophe- which is to say two decades of extortionate neo-liberal trade pacts which required Haiti to open its markets to U.S. goods. Chief among these are heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural products, most notably rice. These were dumped on Haiti with similar results to that in much of the third world: Farmers unable to compete with cheap imports were driven off their land, selling out to multinational agribusiness and developers, initiating an exodus to the cities offering the prospect of employment in manufacturing sector albeit at near starvation wages.
This is now an old story applying to much of the third world and told in numerous places, most comprehensively in Mike Davis's Planet of Slums. And so it is reasonable to ask why does Danner fail to mention it?
The answer is necessarily a matter of speculation though it is probably not too cynical to assume that Danner is well aware that his reputation as a "serious" thinker on these and related matters in establishment circles requires that these obvious truths be passed over unacknowledged.
A parade examples of a fall from grace occasioned by failing to respect the boundaries of acceptable discourse is provided by former Times Middle East bureau chief Hedges whose rigorous, informed and brilliant recent works, or "rants"-as they are described when insiders even bother to recognize them, are now relegated to wilds of the internet.
Danner's perches at the Council on Foreign Relation, the Century Foundation and the Pacific Council for World Affairs and his access to mainstream "print" media (not to mention the substantial fees which accompany these) will remain secure so long as he respects the limits which Hedges transgressed-as will his ultimate legacy as one more apologist for imperial plunder, albeit of the kinder and gentler neo-liberal variety.
If it is to be otherwise, he will need to join Hedges on "the dark side" as it were, by developing the capacity to name those individuals as well as the system (namely capitalism) which is responsible for the conditions which made widespread death and destruction, in Haiti and much of the rest of the third world, inevitable.


text:
THE TEXAS TITANS sixth-grade basketball team is on its way to a tournament, so the kids do what they usually do. They board Kenny Troutt's chartered 737 jet (except for the times when they rent the Dallas Mavericks' jet or the San Antonio Spurs'). There's a flight attendant on board, video games and Häagen-Dazs bars. They're going from Dallas all the way to Houston. It will take about 50 minutes.
The D.C. Assault sixth-grade basketball team is on its way to a tournament, so the players do what they usually do. They pile into assistant coach Ed Powell's 2000 Suburban. Coach Donald Campbell and another parent will also take their cars. They're going from Washington, D.C., all the way to Columbia, S.C. It will take about eight hours.
On board the private jet is the man who ponies up for everything, the 59-year-old Troutt, whose son is on the team. Troutt is the founder of Excel Communications and, according to Forbes, is worth $1.1 billion. On a lot of the plane trips there'll also be at least one parent of each player, plus the three full-time salaried coaches and the team's general manager. This is nothing. For a tournament in Washington, D.C., last year, the Titans' traveling party numbered 95. Nobody but Troutt spent a dime.
Crammed into Powell's SUV are just the players. Hopefully, none of them will get carsick and throw up like on the trip to Florida last year. Powell's still trying to get the smell out. "A lot of these kids are from the inner city," he says. "They'd never traveled that far in a car before."
When the Titans arrive in Houston, a luxury bus is waiting for them on the tarmac. They head straight to one of the better hotels in town. Usually it's a Hyatt or an Omni. No hassles at the registration desk—their keys are waiting on a table. It's all been handled by the Titans' advance man.
The Assault players feel lucky if they get to stay in a Holiday Inn Express. One time they checked into a bargain motel, where the clerk handed them their towels through a slot in the protective glass. The rooms were cold and damp and dirty. The boys refused to get under the covers. They slept on top of the bedspreads or on the floor.
The Titans meet for dinner in a banquet room set up by the hotel. The food has been selected by the team's trainer-nutritionist.
The Assault usually gets KFC but occasionally splurges for Chick-fil-A. The coaches pay for the food, the gas and some of the hotel rooms. Powell's a social worker, but he makes more than some of the parents, who sometimes can't afford the $25-a-player tournament fee. Then Powell pays that, too.
The Titans will play about 90 games this year and practice twice a week. They hire private coaches to teach shooting, defense and rebounding. Soon, they'll start practicing at the high-school-sized gym Troutt is adding to his 13,000-square-foot mansion in Dallas.
The Assault tries to practice twice a week, too, but it's not easy to get court time. The team practices at a rec center unless the high school kids refuse to get off the court.
The Titans go to great places. Last year they went to Las Vegas for a tournament and stayed at Caesars Palace. Troutt gave each family cash for a nice meal and a Vegas show. A lot of them saw Céline Dion. This summer the team is planning to play in Germany and Lithuania, and each player can bring a parent.
The Assault goes as far as the parents can drive. They flew one time to a tournament in Oregon. For nearly every kid on the team, it was his first time on a plane.
A lot of rival coaches and parents would like to dismember the Titans. They think Troutt is spoiling this team as well as the fourth-grade Titans. (He has a son on that team too.) They think 10 is too young to be living like an NBA star. They say Troutt unfairly attracts some of the most talented kids in Dallas with his money. But even rivals say that at least Troutt isn't trying to make money off his players' backs—the scourge of AAU ball—and his players are humble and well-behaved. "I'm not spoiling these kids," says Troutt, who co-owns 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide. "Any kid that's willing to practice six hours a week and travel three weekends out of four is working hard for what he gets." To which his critics say, "Sounds brutal. Where do we sign up?"
Powell isn't complaining. His kids are disciplined and well-coached. "Sure, we wish we had some of those things they have, but we believe that if you're not handed things, then you're hungrier and you play a little harder. When you're sharing a car for five or six hours, when you're sleeping in the same bed as your teammate, he's not your teammate any longer. He's your brother."
The Titans played the Assault four times last year. The Assault won all four.
When the sixth-grade Titans' private jet arrives in Houston, a bus is waiting on the tarmac to take them to an upscale hotel, where everything's been arranged by an advance man.


Students with diverse learning needs are the norm rather than the exception in many of today's university classrooms. Integrating the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in university coursework provides a layer of support for students with diverse learning needs to access the university curriculum. A specific example of a low cost technological application of UDL in teacher education to create a flexible learning environment will be demonstrated. The potential of university education, including teacher education, to model the advantages of mobile computing platforms and flexible media will be put forward. Results of a survey, Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students, ASSIST (short version) of the perspectives of a student's perception of how they best learn and study will be shared along with the frequency this novel technological support was accessed.


He's taen a harp into his hand, He's harped them all asleep, Except it was the king's daughter, Who one wink couldna get.
He's luppen on his berry-brown steed, Taen 'er on behind himsell, Then baith rede down to that water That they ca Wearie's Well.
He louted him oer his saddle bow, To kiss her cheek and chin; She's taen him in her arms twa, An thrown him headlong in.
And aye she warsled, and aye she swam, And she swam to dry lan; She thanked God most cheerfully The dangers she oercame.


In the interest of taking "additional new steps" to "[promote] more competition when it comes to biosimilar products," the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued four new guidance documents and a proposed rule. The guidance documents and proposed rule were announced by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, in a statement released on December 11.
Two of the guidance documents provide answers to common questions from prospective applicants and other interested parties regarding the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCI Act). They are companion documents—one draft guidance and one final guidance—intended to offer greater clarity on scientific and regulatory considerations for the development of biosimilar and interchangeable products. The FDA issues each question (e.g., "Can a proposed biosimilar product have a formulation that is different from the reference product?") and associated answer in draft form in the draft guidance document, receives comments on the draft Q&A, and, as appropriate, moves the Q&A to the final guidance document, after reviewing comments and incorporating suggested changes to the Q&A, when appropriate.
The newly issued final guidance document "Questions and Answers on Biosimilar Development and the BPCI Act" is a revision of "Biosimilars: Questions and Answers Regarding Implementation of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009," which was issued in April 2015. The draft guidance document "New and Revised Draft Q&As on Biosimilar Development and the BPCI Act (Revision 2)" is a revision of "Biosimilars: Additional Questions and Answers Regarding Implementation of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009"; the previous version was issued in May 2015.
Electronic or written comments on the draft guidance are being accepted through February 11, 2019.
The proposed rule "Definition of the Term 'Biological Product'" is intended to clarify the statutory framework under which biological products are regulated. The BPCI Act amended the definition of biological product in section 351(i) of the PHS Act to include a "protein (except any chemically synthesized polypeptide)." Under the proposed rule, the term protein would mean any alpha amino acid polymer with a specific, defined sequence that is greater than 40 amino acids in size. A chemically synthesized polypeptide would mean any alpha amino acid polymer that is made entirely by chemical synthesis and is greater than 40 amino acids but less than 100 amino acids in size. Formalizing these interpretations would reduce regulatory uncertainty over whether certain products are regulated as drugs or biological products.
Electronic or written comments on the proposed rule are being accepted through February 25, 2019.


text:
package com.esotericsoftware.kryo.factories;

import com.esotericsoftware.kryo.Kryo;
import com.esotericsoftware.kryo.Serializer;

/** A serializer factory that always returns a given serializer instance. This implementation of {@link SerializerFactory} is not
 * a real factory since it only provides a given instance instead of dynamically creating new serializers. It can be used when all
 * types should be serialized by the same serializer. This also allows serializers to be shared among different {@link Kryo}
 * instances.
 *
 * @author Rafael Winterhalter <rafael.wth@web.de> */
public class PseudoSerializerFactory implements SerializerFactory {

	private final Serializer<?> serializer;

	public PseudoSerializerFactory (Serializer<?> serializer) {
		this.serializer = serializer;
	}

	@Override
	public Serializer makeSerializer (Kryo kryo, Class<?> type) {
		return serializer;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I recently discovered how great and versatile non-fat plain Greek yogurt is! You can mix it with a bit of honey if you want a nice dessert (especially with fruit on top) and use it as sour cream.
I made veggie tacos the other night and put the yogurt on to substitute as sour cream--it tasted better! I highly recommend it.
I like it because it has so much protein and no fat!
A cup of non-fat (Oikos brand) yogurt has 9 grams of carbohydrate. It's not exactly 'low-carb' but it is lower carb than any of the fruity non-fat yogurts. That's because they contain sugar.
I love to eat this because it has no fat.
I am also agree with AmyJEllis. Thanks for sharing.


The Japanese company Tojiro applied advanced manufacturing technics and modern materials, combined with Japanese high quality, to obtain good knives fit for cooks, chefs and field professionals.
Knives are produced with molybdenum-vanadium steel (57 HRC), guaranteeing an excellent cutting-edge and making it easier to sharpen.
Forged in one piece only.
The thinness of the blade provides a knife having strong cutting capacity and perfect balance.


text:
package ca.pgon.freenetknowledge.search.impl;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import ca.pgon.freenetknowledge.repository.entities.UrlEntity;
import ca.pgon.freenetknowledge.search.SearchEngine;
import ca.pgon.freenetknowledge.search.SearchResultEntry;

/**
 * This dummy class will not do anything to save data.
 */
public class DummySearchEngine implements SearchEngine {

    @Override
    public void addDescription(UrlEntity forURL, UrlEntity refererURL, String content) {

    }

    @Override
    public void removeAllDescriptionsFromReferer(UrlEntity refererURL) {

    }

    @Override
    public List<SearchResultEntry> searchTerm(String term) {
        return new ArrayList<SearchResultEntry>();
    }

}


Our Client Security Premium version 11.x clients are not showing any "Show Flyer History". Is there a spot in Policy Manager Console where I need to turn this on? Thanks for any help.
Please, clarify, you can't open "Flyer history" window from F-Secure Icon in tray, or you can open it, but it's empty?
As far as i remember we don't have any policy related to flyer history.
Yes, we can open it but there's no Flyer History activity. Based on your answer, I'm wondering if there's just no activity taking place at all.
We've inherited the system from a network engineer whose left us. We use F-Secure in tandem with our Microsoft WSUS update server. I'm uncertain how/when WSUS supercedes F-Secure where updating is concerned.
Is there a best single spot in Policy Manager you can point me to to determine if updating is actively configured?
Enable Software Updater, Install security updates automatically, Override WSUS updates.
Thank you. Very helpful, but I'm discovering a strange difference in our PMC and your's depicted here.
Ours duplicates the Automatic installation sub-categories exactly but for "Override WSUS updates". It's just not there. Is our PMC too obsolete at version 11.00.xxxx to include this feature?
Yes, it is. I would recommend to upgrade to latest 12 version (both PM and CS).
Thanks again. We'll need to do that soonest. Meantime with our existing, older PMC, can you advise where/how WSUS vs. F-Secure is being handled?
I still can't explain why no Flyer History activity whatsoever when our PMC is set to "Install security updates automatically = Critical" for an entire domain. Our other domain on the same system (using a separate WSUS server) does in fact realize a combination of WSUS and F-Security Flyer History activity.
Do you have the setting "Notify about installation" turned on? If yes, you should receive Software Updater flyers.
"Override WSUS update" setting default value is "Yes". It is taken in use until you change it. And you should do it from PMC, no other way.
That's the setting I needed! Thank you; just didn't notice until you pointed it out.
Lastly you might explain what "Override WSUS Updates" actually accomplishes. In what scenario/duration does it override?
Again, our older PMC lacks this configuration/feature but I assume the same thing is likely happening in the background. Thanks again for all this help.
If "Override WSUS Updates" policy setting is turn on (default value) Software updater installs updates for Microsoft products even if Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) are configured to handle such updates on the target hosts.


TORONTO (December 8, 2016) – Wilfrid Laurier University men's football players Kwaku Boateng and Nakas Onyeka were among the Top 20 Canadian prospects for the 2017 CFL Draft as the league's Scouting Bureau announced its second rankings of the year on Thursday.
Boateng, a defensive lineman from Milton, Ont., dropped four places from the first rankings of the year and finds himself ranked sixth, the fourth-highest rated U Sports prospect on the list while Onyeka, a linebacker from Brampton, Ont., sits 18th on the list, down two spots from the original rankings in September.
Both players are coming off outstanding 2016 campaigns for the Golden Hawks and were key players in leading the purple and gold to a Yates Cup Championship.
Boateng was named a U Sports Second Team All-Canadian for the second consecutive year after posting the best numbers of his career. The 6-2, 250 lbs. defensive end recorded career-highs for tackles (22), sacks (6.5), knockdowns (6) and forced fumbles (4). His 6.5 sacks moved him into first place all-time at Laurier for career sacks with 20.5.
Meanwhile, Onyeka, a U Sports First Team All-Canadian and finalist for the President's Award as top defensive player in the country, also had an outstanding season for the purple and gold. He finished second in the country in solo tackles with 51 and tackles for a loss with 15. He also ranked fifth in Canada in total tackles with 59.5 and 12th in the country in sacks at 5.5. Onyeka's performance left him third on the Hawks' all-time tackles list with 155 for his career.
The Golden Hawks are one of two University teams in Canada to have multiple players on the second CFL draft rankings, joining the Vanier Cup Champion Laval Rouge et Or, who also have two.
* Simonise played for the University of Calgary from 2013-2015 but was not on the Dinos' 2016 roster.


The vast majority of Victorians and indeed Australians who own property in multi-residential settings as part of an owners corporation (OC) would expect their owners corporation manager (OCM) to be competent, diligent, accountable and transparent.
Yet in a significant number of instances, it seems this has not been the case.
Owners within one (unnamed) block of 100 apartments in Victoria were shocked to find out by way of accidental disclosure that their owners corporation manager had secretly been receiving undisclosed commissions paid out from the insurance broker/building insurer on one occasion. The same manager had on a separate occasion received undisclosed payments from a third party in relation to a contract into which the OCM entered with the developer.
According to another owner, his OCM has refused repeated requests to provide access to bank statements in order to substantiate the monthly report on operation of the account. This raised significant levels of suspicion given that the owners say there is prima facie evidence that funds were withdrawn from the account in amounts which are larger than those necessary in order to pay invoices rendered to the OC for the provision of services.
All this highlights what many in Victoria at least see as inadequate regulation of owners corporation managers. As part of a broader review into consumer property law, Consumer Affairs Victoria is now looking into the adequacy or otherwise of OCM regulation under the Owners Corporation Act.
Having come into being only 50 years ago, the concept of strata title as a means to allow individual ownership of part of a property combined with a shared ownership of common parts of the property through an owners corporation has expanded significantly along with the growth in multi-residential apartment living. Nationwide, around 270,000 strata schemes cover more than two million individual lots across Australia, according to Strata Community Australia. In Victoria, about 88,000 OCs affect 1.5 million owners and govern property to the total value of $300 billion.
Yet regulation, at least in Victoria, remains light at best, and some would say it is extremely lax. Despite managing significant amounts of money, OCMs operating within that state are not subject to any form of licensing regime involving minimum requirements in terms of training, financial or personal probity or continuing professional development. Instead, they are merely required to be registered, for which they must demonstrate only that they are over 18 years of age, are solvent and hold professional indemnity insurance.
Whilst being required to act in good faith and with reasonable care as well as to avoid conflicts of interest, meanwhile, they are also not subject to any form of specific disclosure regime with regard to matters such as commissions, benefits, rebates and discounts from service providers when entering into contracts with third parties.
Some of the terms of contracts, too, are questionable. Whilst the Owners Corporation Act allows OCs to revoke a manager's appointment by ordinary resolution (50 per cent agreement) which can be made at a meeting or via ballot, for example, some management contracts require a special resolution (75 per cent agreement) or unanimous resolution (100 per cent), or for resolutions to be passed only at a meeting as opposed to a ballot (which means those unable to attend in person are denied opportunities to vote). Many developers, too, are taking advantage of their effective control of OCs in the early years, whilst lots within the development are being sold to enter into long-term management contracts with associated entities. These contracts, compounded in some cases by a process of automated renewals, mean getting rid of unsatisfactory managers can be difficult.
Financial accountability, too, can be lacking. Currently, the Owners Corporation Act does not require the money from the OC to be kept in separate accounts, only for it to be accounted for separately. Rogue managers, as well, have reportedly billed members for costs associated with utilities they did not use or for more than what was actually spent (in collusion with the contractor).
Owners Corporation Network executive officer Karen Stiles acknowledges that there are a number of good managers operating within the industry but says the industry as a whole evolved from those managing the rent roles within real estate offices who started managing buildings and needed to move beyond cottage industry status toward being a profession. For this to happen in Victoria, she said, a robust licensing regime coupled with strong enforcement measures is needed along with other changes such as three-year maximum contract terms and insurance being arranged by an independent broker under a separate fee for service model as opposed to through commissions.
"Despite all the rhetoric, (owners corporation management is) still a cottage industry and it's important that strata managers come up to speed with modern strata living," Stiles said. "We are not talking about six packs anymore, we are talking about multi-million dollar buildings, multi-million dollar budgets, managing people and increasingly complex legislation.
Others agree that changes need to be made. Gerard Brody, chief executive officer of the Consumer Action Law Centre, said his organisation was aware of cases in which OCs, acting with their managers, have undertaken unduly harsh debt collection measures including legal action in order to recover owners corporation fees, and had often not had effective methods of communication in place with regard to different ways of ensuring those levies could be paid.
In some outer suburban estates, OC models have been set up, but some purchasers who have subsequently brought property within those estates have done so without understanding exactly what they are buying into. These purchasers have found that they are being made to pay large amounts of money into owners corporation fees or being subject to harsh penalties with regard to letterboxes, fences or gardens. Working out how and where to get help in the event of disputes, too, can be difficult and time consuming, Brody says.
He adds there should be a licensing regime with set standards for matters such as professional indemnity insurance requirements and the way in which members are treated in relation to debt collection. A one-stop-shop ombudsman service could help improve standards and remedy issues within the industry which can occur, he said.
Not all, however, are negative about the current situation. Tony Pena, chief executive officer of the Southbank Residents Association, says there are issues surrounding developers using their effective control of owners corporations during the early phase to lock OCs into contracts for matters such as management, electricity and internet. In one case, a contract locked the manager in place with CPI rate increases for several decades. In other cases, developers have stacked the OC whilst they owned large proportions of the properties prior to them all being sold and postponed the establishment of the maintenance plan and fund in order to avoid paying into the plan.
Nevertheless, Pena says, the majority of his members felt the current system was working effectively overall and required tweaking as opposed to radical overhaul.
Stiles, however, believes sensible changes are needed in order to help the industry transform and become a genuine profession.
Thanks for the article Andrew. I am doing some research for the options available to an owners corporation revoke the appointment of an OC management company who were given a 5-year contract by the developer/builder prior to the residents occupying the building (only 1 year expired so far). These long contracts should not be allowed – the contract term should be a maximum of 24 months. Owner corporations / property owners should not be forced to deal with incompetent and rude OC managers/companies for many years when they are simply not up to the job of providing a decent service.
Based upon my experience, the legislation is not keeping pace with the industry's growth, especially considering how many people this legislation affects (whether or not owners are aware of the OC Act is another thing entirely).
Could not agree more. My company audits about 200 OCs a year and I would not be surprised to find that the majority of prescribed OCs which should have a financial audit carried out every year aren't even aware of this requirement! In addition to this, I find it totally ridiculous that some of the larger OCM have employed people with qualifications to carry out such audits and are using these employees to audit the OCs they manage! Hardly seems like an independent review to me! What I would like to know is who is charged with the responsibility of making sure that these requirements are complied with and are complied with correctly?!?! Hardly seems worth having these laws/requirements if no one is there to police or enforce them!
You managed to capture the essence of the most failures within the management industry.
It's a well known fact that the buck stops with the Department of Consumer Affairs and all these issues can be addressed very easily if there is a will and insight.


Camera Gags is a programme of sketches of non-verbal humor based on the popular format of hidden camera pranks.
Camera Gags looks around for unwary people and involves them in funny situations so that they can react spontaneously. The jokes are aimed for a family audience so that everyone in the house can have a good time, from children to grandparents.
Junior Hidden CameraKids' Heaven !