Paul F. Davis's Blog, page 66
March 4, 2011
Cruise Ship Workers Complaints - Cruise Ship Workers Abuse at Sea, Tell Your Story and Be Heard
Consumer advocate and world cruiser Paul Davis invites cruise ship workers to share their stories working for cruise lines. Stop cruise ship workers abuse! If you or cruise ship workers you know have suffered abuse, mistreatment, been underpaid, not allowed to log hours worked, had their passports taken, been provided poor living standards, or suffered any other type of abuse at sea while working for cruise lines...
Please email your story to:
info @ PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
Paul F Davis is a consumer advocate, author of several books, world cruiser, and international speaker who has touched 62 countries building bridges cross-culturally by joyfully disarming and empowering people throughout the earth to transcend their limitations and live their dreams.
Paul has traveled to and lived in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Latin America, Eastern Europe and many parts of the world where cruise ship workers are recruited by cruise lines.
Paul loves the people of the world and wants to assist cruise ship workers to ensure they:
1. Get paid fairly and are able to log all hours worked at sea.
2. Receive adequate living conditions and are not overly cramped in cabins.
3. Have sufficient time to sleep, rest, recover, and recreate.
4. Are well fed to ensure their bodily strength can be sustained.
5. Can access their passports and travel documents without being questioned or troubled.
6. Can freely speak to their supervisor without being reprimanded or demoted.
7. Are giving adequate access (without excessive fees) to contact their family via email.
If you or cruise ship workers you know have suffered abuse, mistreatment, been underpaid, not allowed to log hours worked, had their passports taken, been provided poor living standards, or suffered any other type of abuse at sea while working for cruise lines...
Please email your story to:
info @ PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
If you would like to email your story, along with your full name and head shot photo, that will add credibility to your story and further enable Paul to keep cruise lines accountable worldwide. Therefore if you want to make the greatest impact with your story, please send:
1. Your testimony about any abuse, neglect, or mistreatment experienced.
2. Your full name, city, and country.
3. Your photo - preferrably a clear photo of your face.
4. Your email to contact you back if necessary for clarification and more details if necessary.
5. Any pictures and videos you have of the abuse or negligence occurring at sea by your cruise line is also welcomed.
Sincere thanks for sharing your story and helping other cruise ship workers throughout the world.
Paul
Keeping cruise lines honest and cruise ship workers safe.
Cruise Ship Workers Association - a safe place for cruise ship workers sinking at sea.
info @ PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
Please email your story to:
info @ PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
Paul F Davis is a consumer advocate, author of several books, world cruiser, and international speaker who has touched 62 countries building bridges cross-culturally by joyfully disarming and empowering people throughout the earth to transcend their limitations and live their dreams.
Paul has traveled to and lived in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Latin America, Eastern Europe and many parts of the world where cruise ship workers are recruited by cruise lines.
Paul loves the people of the world and wants to assist cruise ship workers to ensure they:
1. Get paid fairly and are able to log all hours worked at sea.
2. Receive adequate living conditions and are not overly cramped in cabins.
3. Have sufficient time to sleep, rest, recover, and recreate.
4. Are well fed to ensure their bodily strength can be sustained.
5. Can access their passports and travel documents without being questioned or troubled.
6. Can freely speak to their supervisor without being reprimanded or demoted.
7. Are giving adequate access (without excessive fees) to contact their family via email.
If you or cruise ship workers you know have suffered abuse, mistreatment, been underpaid, not allowed to log hours worked, had their passports taken, been provided poor living standards, or suffered any other type of abuse at sea while working for cruise lines...
Please email your story to:
info @ PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
If you would like to email your story, along with your full name and head shot photo, that will add credibility to your story and further enable Paul to keep cruise lines accountable worldwide. Therefore if you want to make the greatest impact with your story, please send:
1. Your testimony about any abuse, neglect, or mistreatment experienced.
2. Your full name, city, and country.
3. Your photo - preferrably a clear photo of your face.
4. Your email to contact you back if necessary for clarification and more details if necessary.
5. Any pictures and videos you have of the abuse or negligence occurring at sea by your cruise line is also welcomed.
Sincere thanks for sharing your story and helping other cruise ship workers throughout the world.
Paul
Keeping cruise lines honest and cruise ship workers safe.
Cruise Ship Workers Association - a safe place for cruise ship workers sinking at sea.
info @ PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
February 28, 2011
Liberia Witchcraft, Liberia Politicians Seek Supernatural Power - Deadly Spiritual Rituals and Superstition Kills Children
Liberia politicians seek supernatural power for elections to win office. Deadly spiritual rituals and superstition are destroying Liberia.
Liberia witchcraft killing innocent people and children.
According to The Economist magazine
- Economist.com/node/18073315?story_id=... -
Feb. 3, 2011, ritual killings are destroying civil society in Liberia.
When 'body parts such as the heart, blood, tongue, lips, genitals and fingertips, all used in sorcery to bring wealth and power, are being removed' and considered 'part of political life' in a country as Liberia (as reported by The Economist) something is terribly wrong.
As Liberia parliamentary and presidential polls approach, Liberia politicians are turning to supernatural power to get an edge over their opponents and position them for victory.
'Vials of blood were reportedly found in the house of a senior official in Maryland, a south-eastern county where superstitious beliefs are strong.' Reports such as these killings are coming from all over Liberia. To make matters worse, criminals are now engaging in trading 'body parts for cash'.
As if Liberia’s long civil war wasn't bad enough for the country, 'in 2008 Milton Blahyi, a former warlord, admitted to eating children’s hearts before going into battle' - a 'practice was believed to bring victory'.
Whereas in the west we'd think witchcraft is creepy and run from such a politician, in Liberia they think witchcraft works and 'mere rumors of a candidate’s special powers can raise his standing'.
Beyond the outrage caused by ritual killings, such superstitious practices worry citizens causing them to stay in after sunset. 'Some parents have stopped their children going to school' in order to ensure their safety and preserve their lives.
Worldwide minister Paul F Davis who moves in the supernatural to liberate people and nations from spiritual ignorance and demonic influences says: "Liberia witchcraft needs to be overthrown with the power of Almighty God to settle the issue in Liberia regarding supernatural power. Deadly spiritual rituals having no spirituality at all, rather ignorance and demonic activity are deceiving Liberia politicians and disrupting orderly society."
Davis, the author of 'God vs. Religion' and 'Supernatural Fire' is happy to go to Liberia and challenge those in politics, government, and the spiritual community to re-evaluate their religious rituals and consider whether they are imparting life or death; love or hatred; prosperity or poverty.
http://www.PaulFDavis.com/supernatura...
Paul F Davis is the Author of several books and a Worldwide Minister who has touched 62 countries building bridges cross-culturally by joyfully disarming and empowering people throughout the earth to transcend their limitations and live their dreams. Paul has set the captives free breaking chains of demonic activity throughout the world and hopes to impact Liberia with the supernatural power of Jesus Christ.
Financial contributions and support to enable Paul to minister in Liberia are needed and can be made to his 501 C 3 IRS registered nonprofit organization:
Dream-Maker Ministries
PO Box 684
Goldenrod, FL 32733
paypal.com contributions by credit card to account/username -
'revivingnations@yahoo.com'
Liberia politicians seek supernatural power for elections to win office. Deadly spiritual rituals and superstition are destroying Liberia. Let's come together and do something about it!
Liberia witchcraft killing innocent people and children must stop!
Liberia witchcraft killing innocent people and children.
According to The Economist magazine
- Economist.com/node/18073315?story_id=... -
Feb. 3, 2011, ritual killings are destroying civil society in Liberia.
When 'body parts such as the heart, blood, tongue, lips, genitals and fingertips, all used in sorcery to bring wealth and power, are being removed' and considered 'part of political life' in a country as Liberia (as reported by The Economist) something is terribly wrong.
As Liberia parliamentary and presidential polls approach, Liberia politicians are turning to supernatural power to get an edge over their opponents and position them for victory.
'Vials of blood were reportedly found in the house of a senior official in Maryland, a south-eastern county where superstitious beliefs are strong.' Reports such as these killings are coming from all over Liberia. To make matters worse, criminals are now engaging in trading 'body parts for cash'.
As if Liberia’s long civil war wasn't bad enough for the country, 'in 2008 Milton Blahyi, a former warlord, admitted to eating children’s hearts before going into battle' - a 'practice was believed to bring victory'.
Whereas in the west we'd think witchcraft is creepy and run from such a politician, in Liberia they think witchcraft works and 'mere rumors of a candidate’s special powers can raise his standing'.
Beyond the outrage caused by ritual killings, such superstitious practices worry citizens causing them to stay in after sunset. 'Some parents have stopped their children going to school' in order to ensure their safety and preserve their lives.
Worldwide minister Paul F Davis who moves in the supernatural to liberate people and nations from spiritual ignorance and demonic influences says: "Liberia witchcraft needs to be overthrown with the power of Almighty God to settle the issue in Liberia regarding supernatural power. Deadly spiritual rituals having no spirituality at all, rather ignorance and demonic activity are deceiving Liberia politicians and disrupting orderly society."
Davis, the author of 'God vs. Religion' and 'Supernatural Fire' is happy to go to Liberia and challenge those in politics, government, and the spiritual community to re-evaluate their religious rituals and consider whether they are imparting life or death; love or hatred; prosperity or poverty.
http://www.PaulFDavis.com/supernatura...
Paul F Davis is the Author of several books and a Worldwide Minister who has touched 62 countries building bridges cross-culturally by joyfully disarming and empowering people throughout the earth to transcend their limitations and live their dreams. Paul has set the captives free breaking chains of demonic activity throughout the world and hopes to impact Liberia with the supernatural power of Jesus Christ.
Financial contributions and support to enable Paul to minister in Liberia are needed and can be made to his 501 C 3 IRS registered nonprofit organization:
Dream-Maker Ministries
PO Box 684
Goldenrod, FL 32733
paypal.com contributions by credit card to account/username -
'revivingnations@yahoo.com'
Liberia politicians seek supernatural power for elections to win office. Deadly spiritual rituals and superstition are destroying Liberia. Let's come together and do something about it!
Liberia witchcraft killing innocent people and children must stop!
February 19, 2011
Institute for Peace Budget Cut by Congress: Zero Funding for U.S. Institute of Peace
The House of Representatives recently voted to "zero out" the budget for the United States Institute of Peace for the fiscal year 2011.
'We're a think-and do-tank that works to put words into action; teach and train others to manage violent conflicts; and to promote sustainable peace worldwide.'
http://www.usip.org
The United States Institute of Peace — the only Congressionally mandated and funded institution to develop civilian capacity to perform international conflict management and peace-building.
Richard Solomon for Politico wrote: ‘The Institute of Peace was set up by Congress as a non-partisan effort, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Its origins began earlier — through a legislated commission chaired by Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D-Hawaii), a World War II veteran of the Army’s famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who believed passionately in the importance of the U.S. as international peacemaker.
The Institute has been federally funded for 27 years as an independent organization to support the military, the State Department, successive administrations and the international community in preventing deadly violence and manage unfolding conflicts overseas, as well as to help societies move from war to peace.
How ironic, even as our nation is at war in Afghanistan and shifting from war to peace in Iraq, that anyone in Congress could decide that now is the right time to undermine a proven, innovative congressional institution on the frontlines — helping U.S. men and women in uniform, and on the civilian side, to save lives.’
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/...
Washington D.C. (Feb. 17, 2011) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement after the House of Representatives voted 268-163 to eliminate all funding for the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).
“It is a sad day when the House votes to eliminate one of the few programs in the budget which is dedicated to conflict prevention and non-violence, while at the same time, enabling another $158 billion in the same budget for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have spent $1.1 trillion for war in the past decade, and in striking funding for USIP, Congress has demonstrated that it is on the war path. Everything in the path of war had better take careful notice,” said Kucinich.
“This is a wake up call for all Americans who believe in the cause of peace. We must not permit the forces of war to annihilate any hope for peace in our society. This is a time when all Americans who work for peace to come together, to stand as one, to finally unify our efforts and to demand that our government stand for peace,” added Kucinich. “The USIP funding must be restored.”
The senate remains the next line of defense.
Paul F. Davis in his essay, [b]‘Military Intervention and Foreign Aid: Lessons for the United States’[/b] writes:
…As U.S. failures in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq have proven (and U.S. General Petraeus has said), wars cannot be fought, nor won ‘through military means alone’ (Sachs 217). President Bush himself recognized: “I don’t think you can win it [the war on terrorism]…” (Sachs 215). Roosevelt rightly sought to defend the ‘four freedoms’ -- from fear and want, of speech and belief (Sachs 216).
The military-industrial-complex and U.S. war machine that exploits the ‘vagueness of war’ (De Waal 254) to pursue its aims, must recognize militaristic ‘confrontation will only nurture intolerance’ (De Waal 257).
Tony Blair said ‘poverty and frustration could breed terrorism’ (De Waal 232). The U.S. therefore must learn how to uphold the dignity of individuals and nations, before endeavoring to liberate them from oppressors and uplift them with benefits of aid. Benefits of U.S. aid have often been ‘purchased at an excessive political and psychological cost to both lenders and borrowers. The critical question is whether the transfer of wealth between nations can be made compatible with human dignity…’ (Fulbright 225).
‘The way in which the gift, or loan, is provided’ (227) can disrupt or preserve human dignity. Exhorting fellow Americans, Senator Fulbright warned: ‘Extended in the wrong way, generosity can be perceived by its intended beneficiary as insulting and contemptuous’ (227).
Internal ‘turf battles’ (Cooper) at U.S. Aid disrupting the flow of charitable contributions to the needy abroad must not be permitted to hinder aid. Internal rivalries, partisan bickering, differing philosophies of diplomacy, ideological interests, and corporate constituents should neither get in the way, nor slow the distribution of strategic aid and peacemakers to assist to the poor and battle weary in developing countries.
Aiding developing countries requires knowledge of their struggles, willingness to listen and study the issues, humility to put our agenda aside, and patience to act wisely and gain credibility. “Certainty is not in itself an asset; that depends on whether what one is certain about is actually true” (Albright 283). The Rwandan army fooled the world for months, while it imprisoned ‘intellectuals, priests, teachers, businessmen, and opponents to the regime’ (Uvin 64).
Effective leaders recognize a mixed development strategy that combines all of our strengths gains more than overly simplistic and narrow minded strict power-and-security thinking. U.S. Army General Abizaid warned that “unless the State Department devoted more people and money to developing Iraq’s government and economy, the surge wouldn’t work.” (Cloud & Jaffe 247)
Governance and economics were the State Department’s turf, but no matter how hard they tried without sufficient funding their proposed reconstruction and development projects in each of the eighteen Iraq provinces would not be fulfilled. While the Pentagon had a half-trillion-dollar-a-year budget to work with, the Bush administration’s ‘minimalist approach’ limited funding for the State Department and thereby what they could do (Cloud & Jaffe 203-205).
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld controlled the flow of information, keeping the State Department in the dark to prevent them from meddling with his plans. An ‘expert bureaucratic infighter’ Rumsfeld isolated (191) and essentially crippled the State Department. When former CIA director Robert Gates replaced Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, he called for a bigger budget for the State Department (238,272).
When General Casey asked for advisors from the State Department to help the new Maliki government in Iraq, six days after the Maliki government was already formed Secretary of State Condi Rice offered a paltry sum of forty-eight advisors. ‘Colonel Hix, who had done a major strategy assessment for Casey months earlier, had estimated that it would take as many as 10,000 people to mount a reconstruction effort’ (Cloud & Jaffe 228-229). General Casey became perturbed and frustrated with the State Department’s inability to produce when needed.
Hence an opportunity to reshape Iraq was missed by the U.S. because of an inadequate supply of supervisors and peacemakers ready to provide technical assistance when called upon.
The Defense Department’s failure to have a clear postwar plan prior to invading and occupying Iraq, the State Department’s ‘sabotaging democracy’ by playing favorites preferring secular over religious parties when disbursing material assistance, and attempting to ‘arrange outcomes’ were tragic errors that destroyed U.S. credibility, raised suspicions, and thwarted security (Albright 170,176-178).
Colonel Lee Donne Olvey’s confession: “We followed a policy of unabashed elitism” (Cloud & Jaffe 52) is an indictment against the failed U.S. military intervention and aid operation in Iraq during the second Bush administration. These painful lessons learned must be remembered and never repeated.
Full essay and references:
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
'We're a think-and do-tank that works to put words into action; teach and train others to manage violent conflicts; and to promote sustainable peace worldwide.'
http://www.usip.org
The United States Institute of Peace — the only Congressionally mandated and funded institution to develop civilian capacity to perform international conflict management and peace-building.
Richard Solomon for Politico wrote: ‘The Institute of Peace was set up by Congress as a non-partisan effort, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Its origins began earlier — through a legislated commission chaired by Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D-Hawaii), a World War II veteran of the Army’s famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who believed passionately in the importance of the U.S. as international peacemaker.
The Institute has been federally funded for 27 years as an independent organization to support the military, the State Department, successive administrations and the international community in preventing deadly violence and manage unfolding conflicts overseas, as well as to help societies move from war to peace.
How ironic, even as our nation is at war in Afghanistan and shifting from war to peace in Iraq, that anyone in Congress could decide that now is the right time to undermine a proven, innovative congressional institution on the frontlines — helping U.S. men and women in uniform, and on the civilian side, to save lives.’
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/...
Washington D.C. (Feb. 17, 2011) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement after the House of Representatives voted 268-163 to eliminate all funding for the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).
“It is a sad day when the House votes to eliminate one of the few programs in the budget which is dedicated to conflict prevention and non-violence, while at the same time, enabling another $158 billion in the same budget for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have spent $1.1 trillion for war in the past decade, and in striking funding for USIP, Congress has demonstrated that it is on the war path. Everything in the path of war had better take careful notice,” said Kucinich.
“This is a wake up call for all Americans who believe in the cause of peace. We must not permit the forces of war to annihilate any hope for peace in our society. This is a time when all Americans who work for peace to come together, to stand as one, to finally unify our efforts and to demand that our government stand for peace,” added Kucinich. “The USIP funding must be restored.”
The senate remains the next line of defense.
Paul F. Davis in his essay, [b]‘Military Intervention and Foreign Aid: Lessons for the United States’[/b] writes:
…As U.S. failures in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq have proven (and U.S. General Petraeus has said), wars cannot be fought, nor won ‘through military means alone’ (Sachs 217). President Bush himself recognized: “I don’t think you can win it [the war on terrorism]…” (Sachs 215). Roosevelt rightly sought to defend the ‘four freedoms’ -- from fear and want, of speech and belief (Sachs 216).
The military-industrial-complex and U.S. war machine that exploits the ‘vagueness of war’ (De Waal 254) to pursue its aims, must recognize militaristic ‘confrontation will only nurture intolerance’ (De Waal 257).
Tony Blair said ‘poverty and frustration could breed terrorism’ (De Waal 232). The U.S. therefore must learn how to uphold the dignity of individuals and nations, before endeavoring to liberate them from oppressors and uplift them with benefits of aid. Benefits of U.S. aid have often been ‘purchased at an excessive political and psychological cost to both lenders and borrowers. The critical question is whether the transfer of wealth between nations can be made compatible with human dignity…’ (Fulbright 225).
‘The way in which the gift, or loan, is provided’ (227) can disrupt or preserve human dignity. Exhorting fellow Americans, Senator Fulbright warned: ‘Extended in the wrong way, generosity can be perceived by its intended beneficiary as insulting and contemptuous’ (227).
Internal ‘turf battles’ (Cooper) at U.S. Aid disrupting the flow of charitable contributions to the needy abroad must not be permitted to hinder aid. Internal rivalries, partisan bickering, differing philosophies of diplomacy, ideological interests, and corporate constituents should neither get in the way, nor slow the distribution of strategic aid and peacemakers to assist to the poor and battle weary in developing countries.
Aiding developing countries requires knowledge of their struggles, willingness to listen and study the issues, humility to put our agenda aside, and patience to act wisely and gain credibility. “Certainty is not in itself an asset; that depends on whether what one is certain about is actually true” (Albright 283). The Rwandan army fooled the world for months, while it imprisoned ‘intellectuals, priests, teachers, businessmen, and opponents to the regime’ (Uvin 64).
Effective leaders recognize a mixed development strategy that combines all of our strengths gains more than overly simplistic and narrow minded strict power-and-security thinking. U.S. Army General Abizaid warned that “unless the State Department devoted more people and money to developing Iraq’s government and economy, the surge wouldn’t work.” (Cloud & Jaffe 247)
Governance and economics were the State Department’s turf, but no matter how hard they tried without sufficient funding their proposed reconstruction and development projects in each of the eighteen Iraq provinces would not be fulfilled. While the Pentagon had a half-trillion-dollar-a-year budget to work with, the Bush administration’s ‘minimalist approach’ limited funding for the State Department and thereby what they could do (Cloud & Jaffe 203-205).
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld controlled the flow of information, keeping the State Department in the dark to prevent them from meddling with his plans. An ‘expert bureaucratic infighter’ Rumsfeld isolated (191) and essentially crippled the State Department. When former CIA director Robert Gates replaced Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, he called for a bigger budget for the State Department (238,272).
When General Casey asked for advisors from the State Department to help the new Maliki government in Iraq, six days after the Maliki government was already formed Secretary of State Condi Rice offered a paltry sum of forty-eight advisors. ‘Colonel Hix, who had done a major strategy assessment for Casey months earlier, had estimated that it would take as many as 10,000 people to mount a reconstruction effort’ (Cloud & Jaffe 228-229). General Casey became perturbed and frustrated with the State Department’s inability to produce when needed.
Hence an opportunity to reshape Iraq was missed by the U.S. because of an inadequate supply of supervisors and peacemakers ready to provide technical assistance when called upon.
The Defense Department’s failure to have a clear postwar plan prior to invading and occupying Iraq, the State Department’s ‘sabotaging democracy’ by playing favorites preferring secular over religious parties when disbursing material assistance, and attempting to ‘arrange outcomes’ were tragic errors that destroyed U.S. credibility, raised suspicions, and thwarted security (Albright 170,176-178).
Colonel Lee Donne Olvey’s confession: “We followed a policy of unabashed elitism” (Cloud & Jaffe 52) is an indictment against the failed U.S. military intervention and aid operation in Iraq during the second Bush administration. These painful lessons learned must be remembered and never repeated.
Full essay and references:
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
February 16, 2011
International Relations Theory on Romance, Relationships and Love
I was recently asked by a former professor to relate international relations theory to romance, relationships, and love.
A great question indeed! It took me three replies to get to the totality of my answer as I paled back the layers of my own heart and soul to dig deeper for self-awareness and truth as I see it.
My responses are below:
I miss my IR family! It's not the same without you guys!
Time fails me to adequately and fully respond to the Valentine's Day / IR / social science question.
Therefore I urge those desirous to read two of my books on the matter:
- Healthy Relationships (assessing relational compatibility and responsibility)
- Breakthrough For A Broken Heart
...or if you are like me and burnt out on books and reading material, here are some fun (or at least funny) videos of my ramblings on the topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUy20n... (Paris, France)
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?pi=0...
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?pi=0...
Enjoy the journey of lust, love, and life entirely!
Paul :o)
...The following day:
Love, a pleasant sentiment, but at the moment I'd just like some help paying the bills. LOL
Romance is more fun, hormonally driven, carefree, pleasurable, unpredictable, which adds some adventure, but along with is found instability and rarely productivity.
Relationships are a sign of maturity, as you begin to look beyond the outward, build upon characteristics within, stop comparing and competing, graciously accept imperfections and peculiarities within a person... while at the same time assessing compatibility and the extent of longevity you can endure with them.
Love is about self-denial, giving of oneself, honoring, and preferring others, and mutual personal growth as you journey together in life.
Ironically, love is the term most commonly used for all three. The Greeks understand it best and therefore use three words:
eros - for sensual love, which we might call romance
phileo - brotherly love, which is more relational
agape - unconditional love, which has lifelong enduring power
To read more about agape, the God kind of love, refer to 1Corinthians 13 in the manual for love and life (a.k.a. the Bible).
Paul
...The following day:
IR family,
It took me a while to sort myself out relationally in this context, but upon some further contemplation I've resolved:
1. When dating I'm a liberal, hopeful and optimistic.
2. When married I'm a realist knowing love doesn't pay the bills, nor maintain the house and car.
Paul
http://www.facebook.com/speakers4insp...
http://www.twitter.com/paulfdavis
http://www.linkedin.com/in/worldprope...
http://www.YouTube.com/greatawakening
A great question indeed! It took me three replies to get to the totality of my answer as I paled back the layers of my own heart and soul to dig deeper for self-awareness and truth as I see it.
My responses are below:
I miss my IR family! It's not the same without you guys!
Time fails me to adequately and fully respond to the Valentine's Day / IR / social science question.
Therefore I urge those desirous to read two of my books on the matter:
- Healthy Relationships (assessing relational compatibility and responsibility)
- Breakthrough For A Broken Heart
...or if you are like me and burnt out on books and reading material, here are some fun (or at least funny) videos of my ramblings on the topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUy20n... (Paris, France)
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?pi=0...
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?pi=0...
Enjoy the journey of lust, love, and life entirely!
Paul :o)
...The following day:
Love, a pleasant sentiment, but at the moment I'd just like some help paying the bills. LOL
Romance is more fun, hormonally driven, carefree, pleasurable, unpredictable, which adds some adventure, but along with is found instability and rarely productivity.
Relationships are a sign of maturity, as you begin to look beyond the outward, build upon characteristics within, stop comparing and competing, graciously accept imperfections and peculiarities within a person... while at the same time assessing compatibility and the extent of longevity you can endure with them.
Love is about self-denial, giving of oneself, honoring, and preferring others, and mutual personal growth as you journey together in life.
Ironically, love is the term most commonly used for all three. The Greeks understand it best and therefore use three words:
eros - for sensual love, which we might call romance
phileo - brotherly love, which is more relational
agape - unconditional love, which has lifelong enduring power
To read more about agape, the God kind of love, refer to 1Corinthians 13 in the manual for love and life (a.k.a. the Bible).
Paul
...The following day:
IR family,
It took me a while to sort myself out relationally in this context, but upon some further contemplation I've resolved:
1. When dating I'm a liberal, hopeful and optimistic.
2. When married I'm a realist knowing love doesn't pay the bills, nor maintain the house and car.
Paul
http://www.facebook.com/speakers4insp...
http://www.twitter.com/paulfdavis
http://www.linkedin.com/in/worldprope...
http://www.YouTube.com/greatawakening
February 15, 2011
Military Intervention and Development Aid - Lessons for the Department of Defense, USAID and World Bank
Development Aid and Military Intervention
- by Paul F Davis -
info @PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
The ‘close affinity between recipients of aid and the security concerns of donors’ (Rudbeck) ensures the success of neither. Arms ‘shipped from France to Rwanda, in contravention of a UN arms embargo’ (Uvin 97), led to the genocide that claimed 1.2 million lives. ‘Around 40 percent of Africa’s military spending is inadvertently financed by aid’ (Collier 103) which has often proven to be dysfunctional and susceptible to revert to conflict (Collier 132).
‘External military guarantees’ against coups and the formation of internal protection rackets have proven successful and far less costly (Collier 133-134), assuming UN peacekeepers, Dutch, and French military troops when called upon by developing countries to intervene are willing to fight and show themselves able soldiers (Collier 127,129 and Power 333).
As U.S. failures in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq have proven (and U.S. General Petraeus has said), wars cannot be fought, nor won ‘through military means alone’ (Sachs 217). President Bush himself recognized: “I don’t think you can win it [the war on terrorism]…” (Sachs 215). Roosevelt rightly sought to defend the ‘four freedoms’ -- from fear and want, of speech and belief (Sachs 216).
The military-industrial-complex and U.S. war machine that exploits the ‘vagueness of war’ (De Waal 254) to pursue its aims, must recognize militaristic ‘confrontation will only nurture intolerance’ (De Waal 257).
Throughout the Islamic world intellectual leadership, creativity, and courage is needed to nonviolently confront jihadist Islamists and intellectual derelicts that misinterpret and use religion as a tool to control, kill, and thwart the freedom of expression and societal progress.
Tony Blair said ‘poverty and frustration could breed terrorism’ (De Waal 232). The U.S. therefore must learn how to uphold the dignity of individuals and nations, before endeavoring to liberate them from oppressors and uplift them with benefits of aid. Benefits of U.S. aid have often been ‘purchased at an excessive political and psychological cost to both lenders and borrowers. The critical question is whether the transfer of wealth between nations can be made compatible with human dignity…’ (Fulbright 225).
‘The way in which the gift, or loan, is provided’ (227) can disrupt or preserve human dignity. The Americans lectured and humiliated the Cambodians, whereas the Chinese upheld their esteem despite their weaknesses. Exhorting fellow Americans, Senator Fulbright warned: ‘Extended in the wrong way, generosity can be perceived by its intended beneficiary as insulting and contemptuous’ (227).
Internal ‘turf battles’ (Cooper) at U.S. Aid disrupting the flow of charitable contributions to the needy abroad must not be permitted to hinder aid. Internal rivalries, partisan bickering, differing philosophies of diplomacy, ideological interests, and corporate constituents should neither get in the way, nor slow the distribution of strategic aid to the poor in developing countries.
Douglas B. Wilson, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, confirmed these internal "turf battles" occurring at the U.S. State Dept. and desires to bring in a new generation to connect on a deeper cross-cultural level with those abroad we seek to serve. Yet it will take "a long time until politics will permit" (Wilson) a change, since nepotism in Washington appears to remain an obstacle.
Perhaps this explains why President Obama chose former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk for the job of U.S. trade representative, despite the fact Mr. Kirk ‘doesn't have a background as a trade negotiator’ according to the Wall Street Journal (Davis and Meckler).
Aiding developing countries requires knowledge of their struggles, willingness to listen and study the issues, humility to put our agenda aside, and patience to act wisely and gain credibility. “Certainty is not in itself an asset; that depends on whether what one is certain about is actually true” (Albright 283). The Rwandan army fooled the world for months, while it imprisoned ‘intellectuals, priests, teachers, businessmen, and opponents to the regime’ (Uvin 64).
‘Predicting human behavior is an uncertain art even after the most thorough preparation’ (Odell 109-110). ‘Real diplomats’ achieve development abroad by expanding the pie (14-15). ‘In international economic bargaining, a mixed strategy will gain more than a strict distributive strategy under some conditions. …Strict power-and-security thinking alone is too simple. …Sticking rigidly to a preconceived plan and failing to learn during the process could cost a negotiator missed opportunities’ (155,202,206).
Effective leaders recognize a mixed development strategy that combines all of our strengths gains more than overly simplistic and narrow minded strict power-and-security thinking. U.S. Army General Abizaid warned that “unless the State Department devoted more people and money to developing Iraq’s government and economy, the surge wouldn’t work.” (Cloud & Jaffe 247)
Governance and economics were the State Department’s turf, but no matter how hard they tried without sufficient funding their proposed reconstruction and development projects in each of the eighteen Iraq provinces would not be fulfilled. While the Pentagon had a half-trillion-dollar-a-year budget to work with, the Bush administration’s ‘minimalist approach’ limited funding for the State Department and thereby what they could do (Cloud & Jaffe 203-205).
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld controlled the flow of information, keeping the State Department in the dark to prevent them from meddling with his plans. An ‘expert bureaucratic infighter’ Rumsfeld isolated (191) and essentially crippled the State Department. When former CIA director Robert Gates replaced Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, he called for a bigger budget for the State Department (238,272).
The effectiveness of aid prior to reform ‘depends on how it is given’ (Collier 117). Among the key variables proven to help failing states succeed is ‘governance conditionality’ (110) with accountability to citizens and ‘money spent’ wisely on ‘technical assistance’ (115) for ‘project supervision’ (118). ‘Supervision costs money’ (118), without which agency budgets tend to get misdirected, bureaucracy mismanaged, and efficiency misplaced.
When General Casey asked for advisors from the State Department to help the new Maliki government in Iraq, six days after the Maliki government was already formed Secretary of State Condi Rice offered a paltry sum of forty-eight advisors. ‘Colonel Hix, who had done a major strategy assessment for Casey months earlier, had estimated that it would take as many as 10,000 people to mount a reconstruction effort’ (Cloud & Jaffe 228-229). General Casey became perturbed and frustrated with the State Department’s inability to produce when needed.
The above scenario confirms ‘in the parlance of the agencies, technical assistance is supply-driven rather than demand-driven…without much regard to political opportunities’ (Collier 115). Hence an opportunity to reshape Iraq was missed by the U.S. because of an inadequate supply of supervisors ready to provide technical assistance when called upon.
The Defense Department’s failure to have a clear postwar plan prior to invading and occupying Iraq, the State Department’s ‘sabotaging democracy’ by playing favorites preferring secular over religious parties when disbursing material assistance, and attempting to ‘arrange outcomes’ were tragic errors that destroyed U.S. credibility, raised suspicions, and thwarted security (Albright 170,176-178).
Colonel Lee Donne Olvey’s confession: “We followed a policy of unabashed elitism” (Cloud & Jaffe 52) is an indictment against the failed U.S. military intervention and aid operation in Iraq during the second Bush administration. These painful lessons learned must be remembered and never repeated.
Bibliographic References
Albright, Madeleine. The Mighty & The Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. Print.
Cloud and Jaffe, David and Greg. The Fourth Star: Four Generals And Their Epic Struggle For The Future of The United States Army. New York: The Rivers Press, 2009. Print.
Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.
Cooper, Helene. "Economic Crisis Sidelines Fate of the World’s Poorest." New York Times. NY Times, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. .
Davis, Bob, and Laura Meckler. "Obama's Picks Show Split on Trade - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. 9 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. .
De Waal, Alex. Islamism and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. Print.
Fulbright, J. William. The Arrogance of Power. New York: Random House, 1966. Print.
Odell, John. Negotiating the World Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
"Petraeus Sees No Solution from Military Alone - Washington Times." Washington Times - Politics, Breaking News, US and World News. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. .
Power, Samantha. A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. Print.
Rudbeck, Jens. Developing Countries in the Global Economy. Syllabus: NYU, Spring 2011.
Uvin, Peter. Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1998. Print.
Wilson, Doug. "Public Diplomacy Can Help Restore Lost U.S. Credibility." Center for American Progress Action Fund. 2008. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. .
Wilson, Douglas B. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, speaking at NYU's School of Continuing Professional Studies on November 15, 2011 to Professor Judy Siegal's class confirmed the existence of internal "turf battles" at the U.S. State Department.
info @PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
Military and foreign aid adviser Paul F Davis serving governments worldwide.
- by Paul F Davis -
info @PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
The ‘close affinity between recipients of aid and the security concerns of donors’ (Rudbeck) ensures the success of neither. Arms ‘shipped from France to Rwanda, in contravention of a UN arms embargo’ (Uvin 97), led to the genocide that claimed 1.2 million lives. ‘Around 40 percent of Africa’s military spending is inadvertently financed by aid’ (Collier 103) which has often proven to be dysfunctional and susceptible to revert to conflict (Collier 132).
‘External military guarantees’ against coups and the formation of internal protection rackets have proven successful and far less costly (Collier 133-134), assuming UN peacekeepers, Dutch, and French military troops when called upon by developing countries to intervene are willing to fight and show themselves able soldiers (Collier 127,129 and Power 333).
As U.S. failures in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq have proven (and U.S. General Petraeus has said), wars cannot be fought, nor won ‘through military means alone’ (Sachs 217). President Bush himself recognized: “I don’t think you can win it [the war on terrorism]…” (Sachs 215). Roosevelt rightly sought to defend the ‘four freedoms’ -- from fear and want, of speech and belief (Sachs 216).
The military-industrial-complex and U.S. war machine that exploits the ‘vagueness of war’ (De Waal 254) to pursue its aims, must recognize militaristic ‘confrontation will only nurture intolerance’ (De Waal 257).
Throughout the Islamic world intellectual leadership, creativity, and courage is needed to nonviolently confront jihadist Islamists and intellectual derelicts that misinterpret and use religion as a tool to control, kill, and thwart the freedom of expression and societal progress.
Tony Blair said ‘poverty and frustration could breed terrorism’ (De Waal 232). The U.S. therefore must learn how to uphold the dignity of individuals and nations, before endeavoring to liberate them from oppressors and uplift them with benefits of aid. Benefits of U.S. aid have often been ‘purchased at an excessive political and psychological cost to both lenders and borrowers. The critical question is whether the transfer of wealth between nations can be made compatible with human dignity…’ (Fulbright 225).
‘The way in which the gift, or loan, is provided’ (227) can disrupt or preserve human dignity. The Americans lectured and humiliated the Cambodians, whereas the Chinese upheld their esteem despite their weaknesses. Exhorting fellow Americans, Senator Fulbright warned: ‘Extended in the wrong way, generosity can be perceived by its intended beneficiary as insulting and contemptuous’ (227).
Internal ‘turf battles’ (Cooper) at U.S. Aid disrupting the flow of charitable contributions to the needy abroad must not be permitted to hinder aid. Internal rivalries, partisan bickering, differing philosophies of diplomacy, ideological interests, and corporate constituents should neither get in the way, nor slow the distribution of strategic aid to the poor in developing countries.
Douglas B. Wilson, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, confirmed these internal "turf battles" occurring at the U.S. State Dept. and desires to bring in a new generation to connect on a deeper cross-cultural level with those abroad we seek to serve. Yet it will take "a long time until politics will permit" (Wilson) a change, since nepotism in Washington appears to remain an obstacle.
Perhaps this explains why President Obama chose former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk for the job of U.S. trade representative, despite the fact Mr. Kirk ‘doesn't have a background as a trade negotiator’ according to the Wall Street Journal (Davis and Meckler).
Aiding developing countries requires knowledge of their struggles, willingness to listen and study the issues, humility to put our agenda aside, and patience to act wisely and gain credibility. “Certainty is not in itself an asset; that depends on whether what one is certain about is actually true” (Albright 283). The Rwandan army fooled the world for months, while it imprisoned ‘intellectuals, priests, teachers, businessmen, and opponents to the regime’ (Uvin 64).
‘Predicting human behavior is an uncertain art even after the most thorough preparation’ (Odell 109-110). ‘Real diplomats’ achieve development abroad by expanding the pie (14-15). ‘In international economic bargaining, a mixed strategy will gain more than a strict distributive strategy under some conditions. …Strict power-and-security thinking alone is too simple. …Sticking rigidly to a preconceived plan and failing to learn during the process could cost a negotiator missed opportunities’ (155,202,206).
Effective leaders recognize a mixed development strategy that combines all of our strengths gains more than overly simplistic and narrow minded strict power-and-security thinking. U.S. Army General Abizaid warned that “unless the State Department devoted more people and money to developing Iraq’s government and economy, the surge wouldn’t work.” (Cloud & Jaffe 247)
Governance and economics were the State Department’s turf, but no matter how hard they tried without sufficient funding their proposed reconstruction and development projects in each of the eighteen Iraq provinces would not be fulfilled. While the Pentagon had a half-trillion-dollar-a-year budget to work with, the Bush administration’s ‘minimalist approach’ limited funding for the State Department and thereby what they could do (Cloud & Jaffe 203-205).
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld controlled the flow of information, keeping the State Department in the dark to prevent them from meddling with his plans. An ‘expert bureaucratic infighter’ Rumsfeld isolated (191) and essentially crippled the State Department. When former CIA director Robert Gates replaced Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, he called for a bigger budget for the State Department (238,272).
The effectiveness of aid prior to reform ‘depends on how it is given’ (Collier 117). Among the key variables proven to help failing states succeed is ‘governance conditionality’ (110) with accountability to citizens and ‘money spent’ wisely on ‘technical assistance’ (115) for ‘project supervision’ (118). ‘Supervision costs money’ (118), without which agency budgets tend to get misdirected, bureaucracy mismanaged, and efficiency misplaced.
When General Casey asked for advisors from the State Department to help the new Maliki government in Iraq, six days after the Maliki government was already formed Secretary of State Condi Rice offered a paltry sum of forty-eight advisors. ‘Colonel Hix, who had done a major strategy assessment for Casey months earlier, had estimated that it would take as many as 10,000 people to mount a reconstruction effort’ (Cloud & Jaffe 228-229). General Casey became perturbed and frustrated with the State Department’s inability to produce when needed.
The above scenario confirms ‘in the parlance of the agencies, technical assistance is supply-driven rather than demand-driven…without much regard to political opportunities’ (Collier 115). Hence an opportunity to reshape Iraq was missed by the U.S. because of an inadequate supply of supervisors ready to provide technical assistance when called upon.
The Defense Department’s failure to have a clear postwar plan prior to invading and occupying Iraq, the State Department’s ‘sabotaging democracy’ by playing favorites preferring secular over religious parties when disbursing material assistance, and attempting to ‘arrange outcomes’ were tragic errors that destroyed U.S. credibility, raised suspicions, and thwarted security (Albright 170,176-178).
Colonel Lee Donne Olvey’s confession: “We followed a policy of unabashed elitism” (Cloud & Jaffe 52) is an indictment against the failed U.S. military intervention and aid operation in Iraq during the second Bush administration. These painful lessons learned must be remembered and never repeated.
Bibliographic References
Albright, Madeleine. The Mighty & The Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. Print.
Cloud and Jaffe, David and Greg. The Fourth Star: Four Generals And Their Epic Struggle For The Future of The United States Army. New York: The Rivers Press, 2009. Print.
Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.
Cooper, Helene. "Economic Crisis Sidelines Fate of the World’s Poorest." New York Times. NY Times, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. .
Davis, Bob, and Laura Meckler. "Obama's Picks Show Split on Trade - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. 9 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. .
De Waal, Alex. Islamism and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. Print.
Fulbright, J. William. The Arrogance of Power. New York: Random House, 1966. Print.
Odell, John. Negotiating the World Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
"Petraeus Sees No Solution from Military Alone - Washington Times." Washington Times - Politics, Breaking News, US and World News. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. .
Power, Samantha. A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. Print.
Rudbeck, Jens. Developing Countries in the Global Economy. Syllabus: NYU, Spring 2011.
Uvin, Peter. Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1998. Print.
Wilson, Doug. "Public Diplomacy Can Help Restore Lost U.S. Credibility." Center for American Progress Action Fund. 2008. Web. 14 Feb. 2011. .
Wilson, Douglas B. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, speaking at NYU's School of Continuing Professional Studies on November 15, 2011 to Professor Judy Siegal's class confirmed the existence of internal "turf battles" at the U.S. State Department.
info @PaulFDavis.com
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
Military and foreign aid adviser Paul F Davis serving governments worldwide.
February 14, 2011
Romance, Relationships and Love
Ha ha!
Love, a pleasant sentiment, but at the moment I'd just like some help paying the bills. LOL
Romance is more fun, hormonally driven, carefree, pleasurable, unpredictable, which adds some adventure, but along with is found instability and rarely productivity.
Relationships are a sign of maturity, as you begin to look beyond the outward, build upon characteristics within, stop comparing and competing, graciously accept imperfections and peculiarities within a person... while at the same time assessing compatibility and the extent of longevity you can endure with them.
Love is about self-denial, giving of oneself, honoring, and preferring others, and mutual personal growth as you journey together in life.
Ironically, love is the term most commonly used for all three. The Greeks understand it best and therefore use three words:
eros - for sensual love, which we might call romance
phileo - brotherly love, which is more relational
agape - unconditional love, which has lifelong enduring power
To read more about agape, the God kind of love, refer to 1Corinthians 13 in the manual for love and life (a.k.a. the Bible).
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
info @ PaulFDavis.com
author of "Healthy Relationships" and several other books
Love, a pleasant sentiment, but at the moment I'd just like some help paying the bills. LOL
Romance is more fun, hormonally driven, carefree, pleasurable, unpredictable, which adds some adventure, but along with is found instability and rarely productivity.
Relationships are a sign of maturity, as you begin to look beyond the outward, build upon characteristics within, stop comparing and competing, graciously accept imperfections and peculiarities within a person... while at the same time assessing compatibility and the extent of longevity you can endure with them.
Love is about self-denial, giving of oneself, honoring, and preferring others, and mutual personal growth as you journey together in life.
Ironically, love is the term most commonly used for all three. The Greeks understand it best and therefore use three words:
eros - for sensual love, which we might call romance
phileo - brotherly love, which is more relational
agape - unconditional love, which has lifelong enduring power
To read more about agape, the God kind of love, refer to 1Corinthians 13 in the manual for love and life (a.k.a. the Bible).
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
info @ PaulFDavis.com
author of "Healthy Relationships" and several other books
February 9, 2011
Poverty, Pain, Pride, Prestige, and Personal Power
Ironically, during the first five minutes of my Developing Countries course in grad school, I was greeted by a classmate who said: "You're the guy who is too cheap to buy the new Microsoft!"
In preparation for class, I had just spent three days reading nearly 500 pages about social inclusion, forms of poverty (including psychological), and how to empower the poor to overcome such barriers. Yet within minutes I myself was experiencing the same stereotypes, attitudes, and barriers in my class and homeland that the poor face throughout the world daily.
The fact I'd rather give my money to poor, homeless ladies on the New York subway rather than Bill Gates did not matter. I need to be able to access files online to pass my class (which costs $4,500 by the way) and many student files being uploaded online are in 'docx' format. The Professor however is a super kind man, who went the extra-mile to upload his documents in both formats 'docx' and 'doc' for me.
I, the poor, ostracized outcast have no such software on my computer at the moment to access and view 'docx' files, only 'doc' files. Thankfully however some friends on Facebook told me about an 'openoffice' website / program, which hopefully I can figure out.
Nevertheless lacking a bit of emotional motivation going into this semester, I suddenly found fresh fire to fuel my passion onward - anger and righteous indignation! If I in 'the home of the free and brave' could be spoken to and excluded in a graduate level academic setting for which I am paying to be enriched professionally and personally to help the poor throughout the planet alleviate poverty, God knows the harsh treatment everyday people in the real world face daily in society.
One example below provided in one of my assigned class readings mentions a situation in India, a country I have both lived in and traveled throughout on five tours.
What you will find by the excerpt from the article below is personal self-esteem inwardly and being accepted socially means more to the children of India than the quality of food they put in their body.
Thankfully I have a good dose of self-esteem to be able to endure the harsh criticism and cruel remarks of my classmates, but academically 'the system' seems to be set up at the moment to exclude people like me who don't want to further enrich Bill Gates.
And we wonder why the 'experts' have a difficult time alleviating poverty. Often it is the 'experts' going abroad to help poor countries that drive up the cost of real estate for the poor in the very countries they seek to serve. Afghanistan is just one case in point.
It is experiences like these that enable me to experience a degree of the pain, rejection, social exclusion, human disdain and disregard that the poor (and poor children) battle with worldwide on a daily basis.
Deepa Narayan and Patti Petesch speak of individual assets and capabilities, among which are mentioned social belonging, a sense of identity, self-esteem, self-confidence, and ability to imagine and aspire to a better future.
Narayan and Petesch have proven through studies with Indian school children related to caste labeling, stereotypes and associations "the importance of social, political, and psychological influences on agency."
Know this, the poorest person in the world is NOT the person without dollars, euros, yuan, or rupies (or the new Microsoft Office software, Apple I-phone, or I-pad - none of which I currently posses, but would happily receive if gifted to me). The poorest person in the world is he or she with no dream and no dogged determination to push through the negativity, prejudice, and cruelty of others dished out to them daily in society.
As for me, maybe I am too cheap, or fiscally unwilling to keep dishing out my money to Bill Gates. Who knows maybe I can continue to avoid having to buy the new software program. For now I'm trying, but as for the rest of the 'bottom billion' (Collier) living on less than $1.25, they might never be able to purchase any Microsoft gear for their computer.
Yet that should not hold them back if they have the desire, dream, and discipline to break the economic barriers that hold them back. And as for us who create such barriers, God help us have a heart to see where we are erecting such and excluding people around us. Surely I and many of us have been guilty of this at some measure, somewhere in our lives. Therefore some added sensitivity is useful to help us empower people to break the barriers that hold them and the societal trappings that quickly grab hold of we ourselves.
For this reason I continue to lift up my voice throughout the world to empower the hopeless, emotionally bankrupt, discouraged, and downcast who feel and experience psychological poverty which traps and contains them economically.
Dare to Live Your Dreams!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0zS3q...
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
Poverty, Caste, and Migration in South India
T. Scarlett Epstein
Policies intended to reduce poverty often fail to do so because they reflect the perspectives of policy makers and not the realities of the poor. I illustrate this by looking first at India’s food distribution program, the largest in the world, and at misplaced attempts to improve efficiency by moving from a universal to a targeted program. This experience points to the need to understand the complex social hierarchies and status distinctions that operate within communities that analysts broadly characterize as “poor.”
Poverty as Perceived from Above and Below
Experts who deal with poverty reduction at the macro level often seem to make assumptions about the poor that are far removed from realities on the ground. For instance, they tend to assume that the poor constitute a homogeneous
entity. In real life, of course, poor people are a heterogeneous lot composed of individuals and groups whose struggle for survival often forces them to compete with each other for access to limited opportunities and resources.
They come from different cultural backgrounds and have different needs and aspirations. Administrators seldom attempt to discover how poor people themselves perceive their poverty, how they cope with it, what their aspirations are, and what they would consider as an improvement in their standard of living. Unless these views from below are taken into account, poverty reduction policies have little chance of succeeding.
A case in point is the recent change in India’s system of food distribution to the poor. The first U.N. Millennium Development Goal calls for halving the proportion of very poor people in the world by the year 2025. There is a
general consensus among aid agencies and governments that to achieve this, scarce resources must be targeted toward the poor, and these agencies and government have in many cases switched from universal entitlement to targeted
programs (World Bank 2000).
In line with this trend, the Indian government decided in 1997 to change its nondiscriminatory Public Distribution System (PDS) of food into a Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
The TPDS substantially increased the value of benefits to poor households, from approximately Rs 7 per household per month in 1993 to as much as Rs 48 in 1999. Policy makers expected that these higher benefits would significantly improve poor people’s nutritional levels. But the data reveal that the effect on caloric intake was marginal. The primary reason, it turned out, was that a very small proportion of the poor availed themselves of the TPDS, so that the quantities of subsidized food grains actually purchased fell far short of the entitlements.
A study conducted a few years earlier may indirectly shed some light on the failure of the TPDS. Dr. P. Pushpamma, who monitored the health of some of the poorest children in rural Andhra Pradesh, was puzzled when she found that these children’s nutritional levels had declined during a period when incomes of the rural poor had been rising at least slightly. Her inquiry into the reasons for this pointed to the central importance of prestige.
These villagers resented the fact that their sorghum-based diet marked them as the poorest, while the better-off villagers ate rice. When these poorest households got a bit more income, the first thing they did was aim for a higher social status by changing to rice as their staple food. But rice is more costly than sorghum, so they could afford to buy less. Moreover, rice is also less nutritious than sorghum. Smaller quantities of a lower-quality food eventually led to declining health levels among the children of households aspiring to climb the social ladder (Pushpamma 1994).
Tilly, Charles (2007) Poverty and the Politics of Exclusion, in Narayan, Deepa and Patti Petesch (eds.) Moving Out of Poverty: Vol.1: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Washington: Palgrave MacMillan/World Bank.
Download from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/IN...
In preparation for class, I had just spent three days reading nearly 500 pages about social inclusion, forms of poverty (including psychological), and how to empower the poor to overcome such barriers. Yet within minutes I myself was experiencing the same stereotypes, attitudes, and barriers in my class and homeland that the poor face throughout the world daily.
The fact I'd rather give my money to poor, homeless ladies on the New York subway rather than Bill Gates did not matter. I need to be able to access files online to pass my class (which costs $4,500 by the way) and many student files being uploaded online are in 'docx' format. The Professor however is a super kind man, who went the extra-mile to upload his documents in both formats 'docx' and 'doc' for me.
I, the poor, ostracized outcast have no such software on my computer at the moment to access and view 'docx' files, only 'doc' files. Thankfully however some friends on Facebook told me about an 'openoffice' website / program, which hopefully I can figure out.
Nevertheless lacking a bit of emotional motivation going into this semester, I suddenly found fresh fire to fuel my passion onward - anger and righteous indignation! If I in 'the home of the free and brave' could be spoken to and excluded in a graduate level academic setting for which I am paying to be enriched professionally and personally to help the poor throughout the planet alleviate poverty, God knows the harsh treatment everyday people in the real world face daily in society.
One example below provided in one of my assigned class readings mentions a situation in India, a country I have both lived in and traveled throughout on five tours.
What you will find by the excerpt from the article below is personal self-esteem inwardly and being accepted socially means more to the children of India than the quality of food they put in their body.
Thankfully I have a good dose of self-esteem to be able to endure the harsh criticism and cruel remarks of my classmates, but academically 'the system' seems to be set up at the moment to exclude people like me who don't want to further enrich Bill Gates.
And we wonder why the 'experts' have a difficult time alleviating poverty. Often it is the 'experts' going abroad to help poor countries that drive up the cost of real estate for the poor in the very countries they seek to serve. Afghanistan is just one case in point.
It is experiences like these that enable me to experience a degree of the pain, rejection, social exclusion, human disdain and disregard that the poor (and poor children) battle with worldwide on a daily basis.
Deepa Narayan and Patti Petesch speak of individual assets and capabilities, among which are mentioned social belonging, a sense of identity, self-esteem, self-confidence, and ability to imagine and aspire to a better future.
Narayan and Petesch have proven through studies with Indian school children related to caste labeling, stereotypes and associations "the importance of social, political, and psychological influences on agency."
Know this, the poorest person in the world is NOT the person without dollars, euros, yuan, or rupies (or the new Microsoft Office software, Apple I-phone, or I-pad - none of which I currently posses, but would happily receive if gifted to me). The poorest person in the world is he or she with no dream and no dogged determination to push through the negativity, prejudice, and cruelty of others dished out to them daily in society.
As for me, maybe I am too cheap, or fiscally unwilling to keep dishing out my money to Bill Gates. Who knows maybe I can continue to avoid having to buy the new software program. For now I'm trying, but as for the rest of the 'bottom billion' (Collier) living on less than $1.25, they might never be able to purchase any Microsoft gear for their computer.
Yet that should not hold them back if they have the desire, dream, and discipline to break the economic barriers that hold them back. And as for us who create such barriers, God help us have a heart to see where we are erecting such and excluding people around us. Surely I and many of us have been guilty of this at some measure, somewhere in our lives. Therefore some added sensitivity is useful to help us empower people to break the barriers that hold them and the societal trappings that quickly grab hold of we ourselves.
For this reason I continue to lift up my voice throughout the world to empower the hopeless, emotionally bankrupt, discouraged, and downcast who feel and experience psychological poverty which traps and contains them economically.
Dare to Live Your Dreams!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0zS3q...
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
Poverty, Caste, and Migration in South India
T. Scarlett Epstein
Policies intended to reduce poverty often fail to do so because they reflect the perspectives of policy makers and not the realities of the poor. I illustrate this by looking first at India’s food distribution program, the largest in the world, and at misplaced attempts to improve efficiency by moving from a universal to a targeted program. This experience points to the need to understand the complex social hierarchies and status distinctions that operate within communities that analysts broadly characterize as “poor.”
Poverty as Perceived from Above and Below
Experts who deal with poverty reduction at the macro level often seem to make assumptions about the poor that are far removed from realities on the ground. For instance, they tend to assume that the poor constitute a homogeneous
entity. In real life, of course, poor people are a heterogeneous lot composed of individuals and groups whose struggle for survival often forces them to compete with each other for access to limited opportunities and resources.
They come from different cultural backgrounds and have different needs and aspirations. Administrators seldom attempt to discover how poor people themselves perceive their poverty, how they cope with it, what their aspirations are, and what they would consider as an improvement in their standard of living. Unless these views from below are taken into account, poverty reduction policies have little chance of succeeding.
A case in point is the recent change in India’s system of food distribution to the poor. The first U.N. Millennium Development Goal calls for halving the proportion of very poor people in the world by the year 2025. There is a
general consensus among aid agencies and governments that to achieve this, scarce resources must be targeted toward the poor, and these agencies and government have in many cases switched from universal entitlement to targeted
programs (World Bank 2000).
In line with this trend, the Indian government decided in 1997 to change its nondiscriminatory Public Distribution System (PDS) of food into a Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
The TPDS substantially increased the value of benefits to poor households, from approximately Rs 7 per household per month in 1993 to as much as Rs 48 in 1999. Policy makers expected that these higher benefits would significantly improve poor people’s nutritional levels. But the data reveal that the effect on caloric intake was marginal. The primary reason, it turned out, was that a very small proportion of the poor availed themselves of the TPDS, so that the quantities of subsidized food grains actually purchased fell far short of the entitlements.
A study conducted a few years earlier may indirectly shed some light on the failure of the TPDS. Dr. P. Pushpamma, who monitored the health of some of the poorest children in rural Andhra Pradesh, was puzzled when she found that these children’s nutritional levels had declined during a period when incomes of the rural poor had been rising at least slightly. Her inquiry into the reasons for this pointed to the central importance of prestige.
These villagers resented the fact that their sorghum-based diet marked them as the poorest, while the better-off villagers ate rice. When these poorest households got a bit more income, the first thing they did was aim for a higher social status by changing to rice as their staple food. But rice is more costly than sorghum, so they could afford to buy less. Moreover, rice is also less nutritious than sorghum. Smaller quantities of a lower-quality food eventually led to declining health levels among the children of households aspiring to climb the social ladder (Pushpamma 1994).
Tilly, Charles (2007) Poverty and the Politics of Exclusion, in Narayan, Deepa and Patti Petesch (eds.) Moving Out of Poverty: Vol.1: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Washington: Palgrave MacMillan/World Bank.
Download from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/IN...
February 4, 2011
Clear Wireless Internet - World's Worst Wireless Internet Company Says Consumer Advocate
Clear Wireless Internet was an absolute disaster for consumer advocate Paul F Davis who urges consumers to find another company. Davis in New York City had numerous problems with the clear wireless internet company, tech support, and billing dept.
7 Reasons NOT to use Clear Wireless Internet
1. Clear wireless internet was inconsistent in the charges they quoted me over the phone versus what they billed me monthly.
2. Clear wireless internet did NOT work consistently for the first two months and was off and on.
3. Clear wireless internet tech support tier 1 calls get routed first to the Philippines where the tech support for clear wireless internet ask you shallow and insulting questions, much more like an interrogation session than tech support.
4. Clear wireless internet wasted hours of my time and caused me much hassles and aggravation hindering my work productivity.
5. Clear wireless internet refused to freeze my account when I went overseas during the holidays on vacation from Dec.17, 2010 - Feb. 2nd, 2011.
6. Clear wireless internet runs their company from a managerial philosophy that considers the customer as a means to be monetized and exploited, rather than a client to be honored, esteemed and served.
When I phoned Clear wireless internet upon returning home in Feb., 2011 (after having several reps tell me that I could not freeze my account as that "was not possible"), I then to my surprise got a tech support from Clear in the Philippines who referred to such a freeze / hold on the account as "hybridization" and told me it was possible.
However when I phoned billing (a specific prompt when you call Clear) and got an American based tech guy named Chris Owens (of course because they want to take credit cards and your money, far more important than tech support matters which can be routed to the Philippines).... The American tech guy said "There is no documentation about you trying to freeze the account."
So Mr. Owens didn't refund the $49.95 I was billed in January, 2011 while overseas and not using Clear Wireless Internet.
To further prove Clear Wireless Internet does not value its customers, when I first had hardware sent to me the first two months of service, I was sent the "junk" (to quote a tech rep in Pensacola, FL) from previous years, lower level / lower grade equipment.
After two months of drama, Clear Wireless Internet finally got it right and sent me the appropriate landline equipment since their wireless device was flawed and incapable of performing.
Yet to add insult to injury Clear Wireless Internet sent me return labels expecting me to return their junk equipment, walk in the snow, find a UPS location in NY, and burn my precious time to find a box and ship them the faulty equipment they burdened me with in the first place.
7. When speaking to Mr. Owens on Feb. 4th from Clear Wireless Internet, I asked for the corporate address and was given
Clear Dept CH14365 (a suite apparently)
Palatine, IL 60055-4365
Mr. Owens said Clear Wireless Internet had no email for me their customer to use to contact them with my complaint.
How laughable and ironic that a company providing wireless internet like Clear Wireless Internet cannot even provide its customers an email by which to contact them.
Need I say anymore? Clear Wireless Internet is not a reputable, nor reliable company.
http://www.PaulFDavis.com - consumer advocate, author, worldwide professional speaker
info @ PaulFDavis.com
Paul F. Davis is a Global Properties Consultant, Author of several books and a Worldwide Speaker who has touched 62 countries building bridges cross-culturally by joyfully disarming and empowering people throughout the earth to transcend their limitations and live their dreams.
Earn 20% commissions on all paid speaking engagements and life-coaching Paul obtains through your referral and recommendation.
7 Reasons NOT to use Clear Wireless Internet
1. Clear wireless internet was inconsistent in the charges they quoted me over the phone versus what they billed me monthly.
2. Clear wireless internet did NOT work consistently for the first two months and was off and on.
3. Clear wireless internet tech support tier 1 calls get routed first to the Philippines where the tech support for clear wireless internet ask you shallow and insulting questions, much more like an interrogation session than tech support.
4. Clear wireless internet wasted hours of my time and caused me much hassles and aggravation hindering my work productivity.
5. Clear wireless internet refused to freeze my account when I went overseas during the holidays on vacation from Dec.17, 2010 - Feb. 2nd, 2011.
6. Clear wireless internet runs their company from a managerial philosophy that considers the customer as a means to be monetized and exploited, rather than a client to be honored, esteemed and served.
When I phoned Clear wireless internet upon returning home in Feb., 2011 (after having several reps tell me that I could not freeze my account as that "was not possible"), I then to my surprise got a tech support from Clear in the Philippines who referred to such a freeze / hold on the account as "hybridization" and told me it was possible.
However when I phoned billing (a specific prompt when you call Clear) and got an American based tech guy named Chris Owens (of course because they want to take credit cards and your money, far more important than tech support matters which can be routed to the Philippines).... The American tech guy said "There is no documentation about you trying to freeze the account."
So Mr. Owens didn't refund the $49.95 I was billed in January, 2011 while overseas and not using Clear Wireless Internet.
To further prove Clear Wireless Internet does not value its customers, when I first had hardware sent to me the first two months of service, I was sent the "junk" (to quote a tech rep in Pensacola, FL) from previous years, lower level / lower grade equipment.
After two months of drama, Clear Wireless Internet finally got it right and sent me the appropriate landline equipment since their wireless device was flawed and incapable of performing.
Yet to add insult to injury Clear Wireless Internet sent me return labels expecting me to return their junk equipment, walk in the snow, find a UPS location in NY, and burn my precious time to find a box and ship them the faulty equipment they burdened me with in the first place.
7. When speaking to Mr. Owens on Feb. 4th from Clear Wireless Internet, I asked for the corporate address and was given
Clear Dept CH14365 (a suite apparently)
Palatine, IL 60055-4365
Mr. Owens said Clear Wireless Internet had no email for me their customer to use to contact them with my complaint.
How laughable and ironic that a company providing wireless internet like Clear Wireless Internet cannot even provide its customers an email by which to contact them.
Need I say anymore? Clear Wireless Internet is not a reputable, nor reliable company.
http://www.PaulFDavis.com - consumer advocate, author, worldwide professional speaker
info @ PaulFDavis.com
Paul F. Davis is a Global Properties Consultant, Author of several books and a Worldwide Speaker who has touched 62 countries building bridges cross-culturally by joyfully disarming and empowering people throughout the earth to transcend their limitations and live their dreams.
Earn 20% commissions on all paid speaking engagements and life-coaching Paul obtains through your referral and recommendation.
Punta del Este, Uruguay Beach Homes and Condos - Where Europeans and Celebrities Across the Americas Live and Vacation
If anybody likes what they see in this image, Punta del Este, Uruguay is a hideaway for many celebrities across the Americas and Europeans seeking a quiet and relaxing place in the sun.
Gorgeous beaches, lovely architecture, beautiful flowers, friendly people, and a safe living environment with all the modern necessities!
If you would like to visit and take a look for yourself, I have a broker there who I work with who can show you around.
The condos and beach homes are very reasonably priced.
Punta del Este, Uruguay - one of my favorite discoveries and a best kept secret among many tucked away in South America.
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
info @ PaulFDavis.com
Global Properties Consultant
Gorgeous beaches, lovely architecture, beautiful flowers, friendly people, and a safe living environment with all the modern necessities!
If you would like to visit and take a look for yourself, I have a broker there who I work with who can show you around.
The condos and beach homes are very reasonably priced.
Punta del Este, Uruguay - one of my favorite discoveries and a best kept secret among many tucked away in South America.
http://www.PaulFDavis.com
info @ PaulFDavis.com
Global Properties Consultant
September 6, 2010
Winning Souls, Planting Churches, Saving Lost Nations and Fathering the Next Generation
Embrace evangelism and sending forth disciples to do the work of the ministry!
Most Pastors don't train leaders among them and they who do rarely send (as they prefer to keep them in captivity to serve their name and fame). Nothing would rejoice the heart of God more than you sending forth the young lions among you to plant new churches in the most unreached parts of the earth (Acts 1:8; Luke 19:10) The 10/40 window is wide open and waiting for us! As you know many young ministers are ready to go, but few established ministers are willing to father and finance them to go forth!
http://www.PaulFDavis.com - author of Supernatural Fire and God vs. Religion
info @ PaulFDavis.com
407-967-7553
Most Pastors don't train leaders among them and they who do rarely send (as they prefer to keep them in captivity to serve their name and fame). Nothing would rejoice the heart of God more than you sending forth the young lions among you to plant new churches in the most unreached parts of the earth (Acts 1:8; Luke 19:10) The 10/40 window is wide open and waiting for us! As you know many young ministers are ready to go, but few established ministers are willing to father and finance them to go forth!
http://www.PaulFDavis.com - author of Supernatural Fire and God vs. Religion
info @ PaulFDavis.com
407-967-7553
