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Welcome back for another guest post 🙂
The following is a guest post, and is written by the lovely Em. After you've read this post, don't forget to check out all her latest posts and social media accounts.
Self-care is important and is something everyone should do. It looks after the mind and keeps your mental health in line. While some may have self-care activities to calm their mind, others may read or listen to podcasts.
Here is a list of my favourite self-care podcasts and books. They are amazing at relaxing your mind and helping you through the difficult times in your life!
'The Little Book Of Self-Care' by Mel Noakes
I loved this book as, not only did it contain a heap of helpful advice, it didn't overwhelm me. The information this book contains was genuine and simple to understand. There are so many tips and activities for you to try no matter what stage of life you're at. You can apply Noakes' methods to your situation.
It has been one of my favourite self-help books as I've managed to read it all without getting bored. I thought it was insightful, and exactly what you need to kickstart your self-care journey!
'The Habit Coach With Ashdin Doctor
If you love podcasts and organisation, this habit-helping podcast is for you! There are lots of
weekly tips and motivation to get you to create new habits and increase your productivity. The episodes are usually around 10 minutes long, so they're perfect for community or when you have a little bit of free time.
There are lots of encouraging bits of advice in this podcast to help you make permanent habit changes!
'Art Of Mindfulness' by Emma Farrarons
Although not your typical self-help book, 'The Art Of Mindfulness' explores how sketching, colouring and letting can help you with your self-care. Despite not having any actual advice in, this book is really calming, especially if you are creative.
I liked the variation between each page; no two were similar, and that meant for more diversity! I loved this adult colouring book as for me, it seemed different the standard colouring books out there.
'The Chasing Joy Podcast With Georgie Morley'
Georgie Morley has suffered from numerous disorders, including an eating disorder and bipolar ll. Morley talks about spirituality and gives you the motivation for personal growth.
This motivational podcast is really enlightening, and having suffered from an eating disorder myself, I can relate to her stories and experiences.
The podcasts are designed to help you, empower you and keep you focused on your journey to a happier life!
'Love For Imperfect Things' by Haemin Sunim
This was a beautiful book to read. It teaches you how to understand that you're worthy in a world that strives for perfection. The book had a calming aspect about it, helped by the gorgeous illustrations and relatable quotes throughout.
I liked that the author shared his own experience, allowing you to connect with him. It's full of positivity and helped me to be a more confident person. A notable quote from the book is "There is nothing selfish about looking after yourself first" which I think is beautiful in itself!
'Courage & Spice With Sad Petherick'
'Courage & Spice' is an amazing podcast which talks about self-doubt. Every week there are new guests that talk about different topics from relationships, to your career.
I love how real this podcast is with lots of real-life stories for you to listen to. It makes the podcast relatable and you connect more with the host and guests. I also think that the approaches to self-doubt are doable and perfect for everyday life.
They're also backed up by research, so you know that you'll be following great advice!
'Ten To Zen' by Owen O'Kane
'Ten to Zen' aims to help you create a calmer, happier lifestyle in just 10 minutes a day. I liked the approachable methods that O'Kane spoke about throughout this book. It was manageable and enabled you to make progress in little steps.
This self-care guide goes through mindfulness and meditation in an understandable way. I liked the activities and breathing exercises that were given, so I'd recommend this book to anyone wanting a little peace and control in their lives.
'The Kindness Method' by Shahroo Izadi
Like many others, I found this book to be revolutionary. If you're looking to kick bad habits and learn new ones, this is the best self-help book for you.
You're guided on how to create your own mapped out plans and make a real change. This book really changed my life. It has been the only self-care book that has helped me to kick bad habits when I felt that there was no chance for change!
You end up falling in love with change and creating a better life for yourself. This is a great book if you're wanting to make a permanent change to your habits. I tried to spread these resources over as many topics as I could so everyone can have a medium to explore.
Everyone needs a different type of self-help. I hope these books and podcasts can help you to find inner peace and happiness. We all need a little pick me up sometimes, and it's about knowing where to look.
Do you have any self-care book recommendations? I'd love to know what books have helped you to grow!
About the Guest Writer
Em is a UK blogger focusing on blogging, business & sustainability on her blog "Love, Em". With 4 years of experience in the blogging world, she is keen to share her knowledge.
Emily is passionate about helping others, and since leaving college, has decided to put her passions in writing. You can find her over on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Happy reading x


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Devon County Council has paid out nearly £70,000 in compensation in the last three years as a result of poor road conditions.
Claims can be made to Devon County Council if it is believed that the actions when maintaining the roads by the county have been negligent and have resulted in vehicle damage, personal injury or property damage.
A request under the Freedom of Information Act had been made to Devon County Council asking how many successful compensation claims (i.e. that resulted in compensation being paid out) had been made for poor road conditions in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18.
The result reveal that there were 252 successful claims in 2015, 2016 and 2017, totalling £68,082.
The results say that the overall total number of successful claims were:
2015: 86
2016: 95
2017: 71
The total amounts paid for the following years were:
2015: £23,770
2016: £24,084
2017: £20,228
For a claim to be successful it would have to be shown that any loss or damage was caused as a result of the council's negligence.
As the Devon Highways Authority, the council has responsibility for roads, cycleways and footways, although they are not automatically liable for every incident which occurs on them.
The courts have long held that it isn't reasonable to expect councils to repair each pothole as soon as it develops, or remove every piece of debris from the road the instant it has been deposited.
As long as the council can show that it has a system of inspection in place that is reasonable, no liability would attach.
If loss or damage occurs due to situations beyond the council's control, such as severe weather conditions, this is not normally something they can be held responsible for.
A statement on the council's website says: "If you proceed with a claim we will undertake a full and thorough investigation for a decision to be made in respect of legal liability in accordance with the relevant highways law.
"This will happen regardless of the value of your claim. These investigations take a substantial amount of staff resources away from delivering highway services, and although we have a Public Liability Insurance Policy, any successful claims under £250,000 have to be met from our own funds which would otherwise go towards providing services.
"Please consider carefully whether to proceed with a claim. It may be more appropriate to approach your insurance company if you have suffered a financial loss. Your insurance company may take the matter up with the local authority if they believe there is a case to answer."

subset: commoncrawl


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Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 18 March 1555
- François, Duke of Alençon and Anjou and brother of as many as three French kings, was called to the Netherlands to be "Prince and Lord" there (Dutch: vorst en heer der Nederlanden).
This day in 1555 marked the birth of François, the youngest son of French king Henry II from the Capet-Valois dynasty.
François's mother was the famous queen Catherine de' Medici, a member of the powerful Florentine Medici family. King Henry II died tragically in a jousting accident. Namely, his opponent's lance pierced his helmet and went right into his head (that event was allegedly foretold by Nostradamus, who at one time worked for Queen Catherine de' Medici.
At the moment of his father's death, little François was only four years old. He had three older brothers – Francis, Charles, and Henry – who were at that time aged 14, 9, and 7, respectively.
Therefore, Queen Catherine de' Medici was left with four underage sons after the king's death. The oldest among them – the 14-year-old Francis – became the new king. His younger brothers bore distinguished ducal titles – Charles was the Duke of Orléans, Henry the Duke of Angoulême, while François was the Duke of Alençon. The well-known Queen Margot was their sister.
All three of François's older brothers became Kings of France, one after the other. This was the result of the fact that all of them died young and without male issue. When the third brother became the king (Henry III), François became the designated heir to the throne because Henry didn't have children.
It is interesting that François was declared the sovereign ruler of the Netherlands. This episode is not well-known in popular history. Namely, at one point François was called to the Netherlands to be "Prince and Lord" there (Dutch: vorst en heer der Nederlanden). He triumphantly entered the cities of Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerpen. However, the local population rose up in rebellion and in the end François barely managed to survive.
François died at the age of only 29. He never inherited the French crown because his older brother, Henry III, outlived him for five years. With Henry III's death, the male line of the Capet-Valois dynasty also died out, and the French crown passed into the hands of the Capet-Bourbon dynasty.


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The Atlantic Ocean Road, named in Norwegian Atlanterhavsveien, unites a number of small islands scattered across the Norwegian Sea and is claimed to be one of the world's most dangerous roads. It took the constructors 6 years to build the road until it was opened in the summer of 1989, and during that time they suffered 12 hurricanes. The good news is that the road is toll-free.
The dreadful road, which was originally meant to be a railway route, consists of eight bridges, a few causeways, four viewpoints, and even contains several cod fishing spots. The longest bridge stretches over 260 m and is called Storseisundet Bridge (Storseisundetbrua), but also referred to as the "road to nowhere", as it was once named by the Daily Mail. When you ride up the bridge, at some point it actually seems to end up with a precipice. It is also named a "drunken bridge" due to its twists, arches and dips. Tourists choose autumn, namely the time between September and October, to ride along the Atlantic Road, since then it looks particularly sinister with abnormal waves crashing into the bridges from time to time and engulfing the driving cars for a few seconds.


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888.757.3066 Sales Department
Move your IT and Communication services and application off of your always obsolete and vulnerable equipment. It is far too costly and risky to support your own environment.
Your business should be a flow of communication and information no matter where in the world you and your staff are. Calls from your home office should show your office presence, not your home number.
All of these have happened many times. Security and disaster prevention comes in many forms. From email spam and virus blocking to full system off-site backups, we have a full set of solutions for your business.
CirrusLine offers a variety of services for all sizes of business, no matter what size of business you have CirrusLine can customize a service package that fits your needs.
Let CirrusLine take the burden of IT and Communications management so that you can fully focus on the things that will make your company truly successful.
CirrusLine delivers professional services for all types and sizes of business.
CirrusLine tailors service packages for all types and sizes of business and industry.
Email threats have become even more aggressive and dangerous over the last few years. Basic spam filtering is no longer enough to protect businesses from the assault of today's email threats. Built on award-winning technology, Intel's McAfee branded Email Protection Suite is the first and most important step in keeping your messaging system clean and working. Intel's Email Protection Suite is a true multi-layered defense platform with built in Global Threat Intelligence.
CirrusLine understands how hard you have worked to find and retain your client base. You will always feel in control and your clients will always receive the best service possible.


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Tag: Herbert Butterfield
Favorite Books of 2018
Four of my favorite reads from 2018
The Discontinuities between the Generations in History
A few gems from Sir Herbert Butterfield's 1971 Rede Lecture at Cambridge University
Favorite Books of 2015
A dozen book recommendations
Life To Come
Sometime within the next three months I shall become a father. So begins the last big adventure, a maelstrom of unequal parts agency and cupidity. On the one hand lies the opportunity to help mold a decent human being, showering him1 with love, and equipping him with the values, traits, tenacity and moral fiber required to…


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In our current project we had to create a menu which was in a multiple level parent child relation. Main menu contains sub menus which contains item menus. On click of item menus a whole new menu gets loaded internally on the right hand side. Another user requirement was that there must be an admin module to update the menus. A pretty common an straight forward requirement.
Catch: The Only catch was user were not sure what will be the structure of the menu number of level, kind of action on each level menu click, menu layout etc.
We were absolutely sure to create a table structure for Menus which handle multilevel menus and relationship with right hand menu. But My Manger asked since our first release is in 2 weeks can we simply keep the menu data in XML and load it.
Reason for delay in database:
- In first release user just wanted to do user side of displaying only few menus.
- The first release was in 2 weeks.
- The links and its functionality was not clear.
- To get access to the development database will take more than a week.
- This will give us more clarity on columns in the Menu table
It worked for us:
- We focused on the GUI functionality which was top priority to client.
- We were not rushing with to many things.
- After 1 release there were other problem areas which came up thus changing the client's priority.
- The code worked in production for 4 months with XML as the data source for the menu.
- Changes in the menu item was easy for Support guys.
I am not advocating that we must always go with XML instead of Database. But my point is we have to take bold decision which will satisfy the customer needs and some times move away from conventional thinking.


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Website Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc.
Job Description:
Our Restaurant General Managers are the heart of our restaurant, creating a great employee experience for team members – leading, developing and inspiring them to give our guests the absolute best service. Bring your passion for food and hospitality to us…we provide the training process so you can become a manager or assistant manager, the first step to a career with a great brand.
Job Responsibilities:
- Take action to solve problems and celebrate positive guest feedback. Research, resolve and prevent future problems.
- Regularly observe the team from the guest perspective and celebrate or coach accordingly. Manage the team to achieve forecast sales goals.
- Maintain daily and weekly food and equipment inventories and keep proper records. Schedule team member hours and assigns duties. Implement and follow up on all required people, operations and financial action plans.
- Create a great environment for the team so they want to serve our guests well.Own the work environment (because the team reflects your attitude). Train and coach your team to achieve superior results.
- Delegate tasks to help the team grow; providing them with opportunities and exposure to demonstrate their capabilities for future roles. Set performance expectation, follow-up for results and hold the team accountable.
Job Requirements:
- Strong analytical skills, and ability to utilize business reports and industry and competitor knowledge to consistently identify opportunities to drive sales. Ability to assess situations, customize solutions and communicate plans to direct reports in order to accomplish objectives.
- Ability to coordinate, communicate and balance multiple projects simultaneously.
- Work on the selling floor, requiring physical activity. Flexible schedule-our stores are open daily, which requires early morning, evening, weekend and holiday availability.
- Minimum three years of experience as a restaurant manager. Valid driver's license. Solid knowledge of retail operations.
Job Details:
Company: Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc.
Vacancy Type: Full Time
Job Location: Houston, TX, US
Application Deadline: N/A


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This story was lifted from the 2020-2021 Social Work Newsletter and was authored by MSW student Pamela Love.
This year the BYU School of Social Work will establish a new scholarship named after Jini Roby, who retired in 2019 after serving as a beloved professor and colleague for 20 years. "She left an incredible legacy," writes Charlene Clark.
Dr. Gene Gibbons, founder of the School of Social Work, tells of watching Jini grow through the BSW and MFT/MSW programs here at BYU. After beginning her practice as a social worker, Dr. Gibbons recounts that Jini came to him one day and said, "Would you write a letter for me to go to law school?" And, he said, "Well, you know I would." Then, after her first year of law school, the Dean of the law school called Dr. Gibbons and said, "If you have any more Jini Robys, would you please send them my way?" Later, when BYU had an opening for a new faculty member, Dr. Gibbons recommended Jini. He told the hiring committee, "I'm telling you, she'll put us on the map. She will make BYU known." He went on to commend her competency and kindness: "She has been a shining star. She as helped all these third world countries protect their children. She had a following [here in the School of Social Work]. Anyone who new Jini wanted to be a part of her project and be around her. She just had such a magnificent influence."
Indeed, after earning her Marriage and Family Therapy/Master of Social Work at BYU, Jini Roby shared that she felt inspired to attend law school and begin her work as an international expert in family policy and law. After being on the BYU faculty for a year, in 1999, Jini was asked to help the Marshall Islands with their adoption laws "because of the difficulties they had with children being spirited away without any processes or procedures…They had no law, and because adoption was an entirely different process, there was no termination of parental rights…Adoptions typically occurred between kin, but when American families started adopting these children, the cultural understanding wasn't there that this was terminating their parental rights; and they would probably never see their children again."
"The country was very alarmed," Jini said, "There was a lot of money being exchanged under the table—buying and selling children. So, I was involved in helping to establish [adoption] laws. After that, I started going to other countries to look at their adoption situations, and my vision was opened up to the rest of the child welfare spectrum…A lot of it was related to poverty, neglect, and the lack of resources."
Jini shared a poignant lesson she learned at the very beginning of her work in international family law that guided her from then on. She had this life-changing conversation with the people of the Marshall Islands as she began to explain how Western adoption works with them:
"What do you mean by termination of parental rights? It sounds like they are being cut off," they said.
Jini told them, "That's what it means. That's what it means legally, it means parents who gave birth are no longer the parents."
"How is that possible?" they asked, "Who has authority to say that?"
"A judge does," Jini replied.
"A man can override what God has done? We don't get it. Why is that?" they asked in response.
"Oh my goodness," she said, "Yes, that's something to think about. You know, you're helping me to understand these problems that you've been having."
"Why do the Western people have to make up these lies?" they asked. "How is that good for the children? In our society, if a child needs to be raised by another family because their original family can't provide for them, then we find another family, but we never cut off the original family. The child has both families. Are you sure you understand this? Because it seems to cruel, too unwise."
Jini admitted, "That was a huge lesson for me in cultural sensitivity and cultural humility. It was such a strong lesson. I will never, ever just march into a country and assume that my perspectives, though I am highly educated, are necessarily correct. It has to be a humble partnership on my part."
Shortly after this incident, Professor Roby remembers visiting the hut of a small village in Mozambique on a cold and rainy day where a mother who had AIDS was huddled on the wet floor surrounded by her children. The translator told Jini, referring to the mother, "She has been sent home to die. She has not been able to talk about what to do with her children when she dies. She has been blamed for her condition even though her husband had brought HIV into the relationship. He has already died, and her husband's family has blamed her for his death. By law and tradition, the children will go to his family. She does not want this to happen." Jini then realized that this mother "had not been counseled. She did not know what her options were. She had nobody to talk to."
In remembering this mother's sad story, Jini said, "That just tore me to the core. I thought, 'There needs to be counseling There needs to be ways that mothers can be empowered to make these decisions.'" Although unable to help the mother in Mozambique before her dearth, a year later, Jini took a group of law and social work students to Uganda to write 450 wills for mothers who were dying of AIDS. "The law students wrote the wills and the social work students helped with the memory books," she said. Incidentally, Dr. Cole Hooley led the memory book project among the social work students. Jini also shared stories of her work with Dr. Stacey Shaw. She truly loved her students, some of whom became her cherished faculty colleagues.
In reminiscing about these experiences, Jini said, "I learned. My heart was pierced, and I was humbled; but I was lucky enough that when I was at BYU that I could then do something about what I learned—not to solve the whole problem, but to do something—and to have the students experience what it's like to be part of healing, just a little hand of support, a little demonstration of kindness."
Professor Roby also told of the love she felt from her grandmother as a child in Korea. She said, "I grew up in abject poverty, yet I was rich. I tend to disagree with a lot of the conceptualization of what's best for children. The first right that a child has is to be raised by their family, including their extended family. To me, the richest type of privilege is to be loved and to be empowered to believe in yourself, which I was."
Jini went on to say, "What I love about social work is that you have the opportunity to learn and to suffer with people who suffer in a way that maybe you can bring some relief, some comfort. To me, it's such a privilege. This is not about me, or if it is about me, it's about what I'm going to learn and how I'm going to grow to help more…This is why I am so honored that there will be scholarship in my name because I so believe in the education process. It's not just empowering for the individual, but it's going to have a rippling effect for the people they will impact."
This story was taken from the 2020-2021 Social Work Newsletter, which can be found and read in full at https://socialwork.byu.edu/newsletters .


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Blockchain group head says Korea needs ICOs
"The government should implement guidelines to nurture the domestic blockchain industry, which will help Korea emerge as a global industry leader," said Chin Dae-je, the chairman of the Korean Blockchain Association, during a seminar co-hosted by the association and other blockchain supporters at the National Assembly Library in Yeouido, western Seoul, last Tuesday.
Chin, who has served as the Minister of Information and Communication as well as the head of Samsung's digital media division, argued that gains from encouraging qualified businesses to engage in blockchain-related activities would far outweigh losses if proper guidelines were implemented.
"Start-ups who comply with guidelines should be allowed to launch ICOs [initial coin offerings]," Chin said. He presented a set of blockchain guidelines proposed by his association at the seminar.
Last September, the Financial Services Commission imposed a blanket ban on all ICOs in Korea, accusing them of being risky and prone to scams.
ICOs are rising as a popular fundraising tool across the globe. For an initial coin offering, a start-up issues its own blockchain-based digital coin to individual investors, who pay for them in existing cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The idea is that investors will be able to use the new coins to purchase products once they're eventually launched by the start-ups doing the fundraising. More commonly, however, investors buy the coins in hopes that they can trade them in and profit on cryptocurrency exchanges as the coins appreciate in value.
"By regulating and allowing ICOs, we can nurture start-ups with high potential, create jobs and reduce youth unemployment," Chin said. "We can designate public or private organizations like the Korean Blockchain Association to look over the ICO white papers and verify the purpose of their fundraising."
Chin also called for the government to make it easier for cryptocurrency exchanges to issue new virtual accounts, which users need to deposit or withdraw Korean won from the exchanges' websites to purchase cryptocurrency and convert it back into normal currency.
Beginning this January, the Financial Services Commission forced cryptocurrency exchanges to strengthen verification of customer identity by making it mandatory for customers to connect accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges with traditional bank accounts.
Most banks are hesitant to get involved in anything related with blockchain without the government's approval, so they are staying as far away as possible from cryptocurrency exchanges. Currently, only Bithumb and Coinone among domestic exchanges can issue new virtual accounts.
"The government should allow currency exchanges that verify customer identity and have appropriate security measures to be allowed to issue new virtual accounts," Chin said. "Korean exchanges that were ranked as the fourth or sixth-largest in the world before are dropping to below 20th place now."
"If domestic currency exchanges disappear, it will be more difficult and financially challenging for Korean start-ups to issue ICOs as they would have to list their coins on non-Korean exchanges," he added.
Chin also took the opportunity to propose the term "digital token" as a replacement for "virtual currency" and "cryptocurrency."
"The term virtual currency is inaccurate because it implies that the coins don't exist, when that's not the case," Chin said. "Cryptocurrency also doesn't work because it implies that the coins are cryptic or mysterious, which is not what we want the government to think. I recommend we use the term 'digital tokens,' which reflects their true nature and practicality."
Other notable figures who attended the seminar include Ha Tae-keung, a National Assembly representative from the Bareunmirae Party, and Democratic Party representative Min Byung-doo, who has been leading other National Assembly members to push the government to accept blockchain.
"We cannot completely close the door on ICOs," said Min. "The government needs to promote the blockchain industry by cooperating with the National Assembly and blockchain associations to curb scams, speculation and money laundering."
"Even though I work at a traditional financial firm, I believe blockchain will become increasingly significant as we enter a new hyper-connected era," said Hanwha Securities analyst Kim Yeol-mae, who also gave a presentation at the seminar. "Soon, companies will fight each other over personal data like countries now fight over oil."
"Blockchain technology is a way to block mega firms like Google from monopolizing data. It is a comprehensive technology that holds not only technological, but economic and social significance as well," Kim added.
BY KIM EUN-JIN [email@example.com]


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At the moment, the project is targeted for the village of Nuwakot, situated at 2790 ft. above sea level and is 75kms North West of Kathmandu, 5 kilometers from Trisuli Bazaar which is the last little town on the way to the Langtang area. Nuwakot used to be the capital of Nepal before 200 years when Kathmandu Valley was not unified into present Nepal.The village is inhabited by the mixed community of Brahmins, Chettries, Newars, Gurungs, Magars, Tamangs, Thakuries and many other scheduled people. The main core forms a population of around 2000 people. It is also surrounded by other villages and settlements in all sides. The place consists of some historical monuments and is rich in cultural heritages.
The guide and drivers were very attentive and looked after us very well.
We work with the motto "Tourism for Development". Explore Himalaya Community Service Project was conceived to empower underprivileged segments of Nepal.


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Thread — silk, clear and light
supporting cradling holding
not restricting
free to release.
Out of the blue of heavenly heights
through quietly beating hearts
wrapping around and around
pulling in tight
straight up
through tomorrow's hidden eyes.
Thread — silk, clear and light
On a cushion of grass, this cradling blanket
easing memories
The scent of blue sky, warm breeze
caresses my drifting thoughts
the memories soak deep.
Thread — silk, clear and light
Your glistening eyes deep in my soul
hold hope behind the tears
I hear the whisper on wings floating by
"Hold on for tomorrow's dreams –
stitched joy blooms again."
Love's Delicate Thread
Thread — silk, clear and light


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Dear Harmony community,
It is an honor for me to connect with you through this platform. By now, Harmony has more than ten years of history of touching the lives of Laredo children and the surrounding community. Harmony has provided the choice Laredo deserves as a high performing public charter school system. Since then, there has been a tremendous interest to Harmony which has resulted us to expend our campus numbers to three and our student body to one thousand six hundred fifty in Laredo.
I worked with HSA Laredo as a Math Coach for the past six years prior to becoming a principal. That helped me adjust easily as I moved from San Antonio to Laredo. I have known the most staff of the school and some of the students. Once I moved, I have found everyone welcoming and hospitable. Our school community was very motivated to changes for better. I am gladly able to say that the entire school staff, parents, PTO and students have been very helpful for our new initiatives. I owe everyone a big THANK YOU!
A little bit more about myself; I graduated from Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey with a Bachelor's Degree in teaching secondary Math followed by a Master's Degree in in the same path. I earned my second Master's Degree from The University of Texas at Arlington on Curriculum and Instruction. I have a total of eleven years of teaching and eight years of district level coaching experience in the field of education. My experience ranges from 5th grade math to AP Calculus and Dual Credit courses. I was involved in many of the Harmony's curriculum development, software implementation, teachers' training and data analysis efforts. I also served as the district testing coordinator for a year prior to becoming a principal. Participating in academic challenges, finding competitions to take my students, school wide incentive programs has been my area of interest. Some of these competitions are Mathcounts, AMC, Sumdog of Texas Lutheran University, UIL, Math Madness, Math League and so on. I live with my family of three little children and my better half, my wife.
Now that I have a much bigger responsibility which is providing the best possible education to our students not only in Math but in all subjects, I feel the load on my shoulders and I am willing and hoping to get any possible support from all of our stakeholders and community partners to achieve our goals of making and sustaining the label of Best Middle School ever in Laredo. To achieve this goal, we are striving to offer more and more academic and athletic programs during and after school. To name some that has been implemented: Deeper RTI process, Aleks, No Red Ink recoveries, Academic Catch Up days, participation in UIL competitions, Invitational science fairs, AMC 8, TI Inspire Rover Initiative and some of which we plan for the near future are a Makerspace, Honor classes in grades 6 through 8 ELA, Math, Science, 7th grade advanced Spanish and 8th grade AP Spanish Language and Culture, Science fair project mentored by college students and professors, and an addition to our current advanced electives program with Media Production.
My hope is that each Harmony student coming in to our school every morning walks in with the joy and excitement of learning, the learning that will open the path to their desired carriers, also walks in to find and improve the leader in him or her that we will entrust with our governance with full confidence.
Abdullah Tatir
Media & Public Relations
For media requests, please send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com with details of the request.
For more information, please visit our Media & Public Relations page.
Website Accessibility
Harmony Public Schools ("Harmony") is committed to making the information on its website accessible to individuals with disabilities in compliance with the requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader, eye tracking device, voice recognition software, etc.) and have difficulty accessing information on the Harmony website, please contact HPS Webmaster by email at email@example.com . Please include the following when communicating with Harmony regarding accessibility issues:
A description of your accessibility concern.
The format in which you prefer to receive the materials.
The web page address of the requested material(s).
The best way to contact you (email address or phone number, or both).
Harmony will make appropriate accommodations to facilitate access to any website content.
Complaints regarding website accessibility may be submitted through the Public Complaint process outlined in Board Policy PG-1.12 (Public Complaints).
Please note that some pages on the Harmony website contain links to third-party sites, which are not within Harmony's control. If you notify Harmony of problems with accessing a third-party site that is necessary to participate in one of Harmony's programs or activities, we will make the material or information available in an accessible format.
Report Bullying
If you are experiencing a problem with bullying at Harmony, or have other discipline-related concerns regarding one of our schools, please fill out the form at the link below for the Dean of Students.
HPS Child Find Policy
Please click here for the HPS Child Find Policy.
Title IX
As required by Title IX, Harmony Public Schools does not (and is required not to) discriminate on the basis of sex in its educational programs or activities. This non-discrimination requirement applies to admission to and employment with Harmony Public Schools. Inquiries into issues related to Title IX may be referred to Harmony's Title IX Coordinator(s) (identified below), to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights of the Department of Education, or both.
Title IX training presentation link
Harmony's Title IX Coordinators:
Students/student matters:
Charles Lambert
Director of Internal Investigations
HPS Central Office
713-343-3333 x1104 Employee and applicant matters
Kelly Ann Hebeler
Director of Employee Relations
HPS Central Office
Non-discrimination Statement as Part of the School's Admission Policy
It is the policy of HPS not to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, age, or disability in its programs, services, or activities as required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. For inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies, please contact Section 504/ADA Coordinator at (713) 343-3333 located at 9321 W. Sam Houston Pkwy S. Houston, TX 77099.
Non-discrimination Statement in Career and Technical Education Programs
HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS offers support to school district for career and technical education programs in Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources; Architecture and Construction; Arts, Audio/Video Technology, and Communications; Business Management and Administration; Education and Training; Finance; Government and Public Administration; Health Science; Hospitality and Tourism; Human Services; Information Technology; Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security; Manufacturing; Marketing; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics. Admission to these programs is based on enrollment in HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS secondary schools.
It is the policy of HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex or handicap in its CTE programs, services or activities as required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
It is the policy of HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, handicap, or age in its employment practices as required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS will take steps to assure that lack of English language skills will not be a barrier to admission and participation in all educational and CTE programs.
For information about your rights or grievance procedures, contact the Title IX Coordinator, CHARLES LAMBERT, and/or the Section 504 Coordinator, IHSAN KARA, at 9321 W. Sam Houston Pkwy S. Houston, TX 77099, Phone: (713) 343-3333.
Aviso de No discriminación en los Programas de Educación Profesional y
Las Escuelas Públicas Harmony ofrecen programas vocacionales en Agricultura, Alimentación y Recursos Naturales; Arquitectura y Construcción; Artes, Tecnología de Audio / Video y Comunicaciones; Administración de Negocios y Administración; Educación y Entrenamiento; Finanzas; Gobierno y Administración Pública; Ciencias de la salud; Hospitalidad y Turismo; Recursos Humanos; Tecnología de la Información; Derecho; Seguridad Pública, Correccionales y Seguridad; Manufactura; Mercadeo; Ciencias, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas; Transporte, Distribución y Logística. La admisión a estos programas se basa en el número de estudiantes de secundaria registrados en las Escuelas Públicas Harmony.
Es norma de las Escuelas Públicas Harmony no discriminar por motivos de raza, color, origen nacional, sexo o impedimento, en sus programas, servicios o actividades de CTE, tal como lo requieren el Título VI de la Ley de Derechos Civiles de 1964, según enmienda; el Título IX de las Enmiendas en la Educación, de 1972, y la Sección 504 de la Ley de Rehabilitación de 1973, según enmienda.
Es norma de las Escuelas Públicas Harmony no discriminar por motivos de raza, color, origen nacional, sexo, impedimento o edad, en sus procedimientos de empleo, tal como lo requieren el Título VI de la Ley de Derechos Civiles de 1964, según enmienda; el Título IX de las Enmiendas en la Educación, de 1972, la ley de Discriminación por Edad, de 1975, según enmienda, y la Sección 504 de la Ley de Rehabilitación de 1973, según enmienda.
Las Escuelas Públicas Harmony tomarán las medidas necesarias para asegurar que la falta de habilidad en el uso del inglés no sea un obstáculo para la admisión y participación en todos los programas educativos y CTE.
Para información sobre sus derechos o procedimientos para quejas, comuníquese con el Coordinador del Título IX, CHARLES LAMBERT, y/o el Coordinador de la Sección 504, IHSAN KARA, a la siguiente dirección: 9321 W. Sam Houston Pkwy S. Houston, TX 77099, Teléfono: (713) 343-3333.
TX Transition and Employment Guide
The Texas Transition and Employment Guide provides youth, young adults, parents and professionals with secondary transition resources to facilitate a young person's progress towards post-secondary goals to education, employment, and community living.
Please choose a version to display the guide:
— English
— Spanish
Harmony Public Schools Admission Policy
Click here to see Harmony Public Schools Admission Policy.


text:
Movement on the shore.
The water laps gently against the edge of the thin, fragile ice occasionally taking back some of its own. The ice edges closer to the shore, encroaching on the water, freezing drops as it goes.
Water to ice? Ice to water? An uncertain exchange of state.
No matter, this is a sign of change.
Categories: change, dramatic, environment, ice, Kootenay Moments, landscape, lardeau valley, Photography challenge, shoreline, water, Weekly Photo Challenge


text:
Superhero Playing CardsMay 5th, 2013
If your poker face isn't quite as effective as you think it is, you might want to pick up a set of these superhero playing cards. Intimidate your opponents with Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the X-Men, or Spider-Man. Personally, we'd probably go with Thor, because then you could really be the "king of clubs." OK, it's a hammer, not a club.


text:
Dear Lovely Parents and Students,
Thank you for a great winter recital! We were a small but enthusiastic group. As I mentioned during the concert, this was my last Winter Recital. I've recently started school and am studying Developmental Psychology and Counselling at Simon Fraser University here in Vancouver. Life has gotten a lot more busy, and while it is my hope that I can maintain my teaching practice during my studies, I will be cutting back to one recital a year, a summer concert in June.
I am now uploading student performance videos, featuring a solo and duet from each student. You can find your videos in the "Most Recent" section of my website, as well as in "Current Students", which is organized by student's name. There are lots of lovely performances to be enjoyed!
Speaking of students, I have one lesson time available for an adult student and one lesson time available for a school age student. If you or someone you love is interested in learning how to play the piano, feel free to pass along my contact information.
Thanks For A Great Recital & Other Things
Dear Lovely Parents and Students,


text:
Fake reviews on Tripadvisor. Yes they exists and we regularly receive job offers
- Details
- Category: Blog
- Published: Thursday, 20 April 2017 07:25
- Written by Davide Vadalà
If you needed yet one more confirmation: Yes! There is a huge market of fake reviews on Tripadvisor and similar websites. Of course this doesn't depend directly on Tripadvisor itself, but they are still responsible for it since they could do much more to stop this unfair promotional behaviour.
We paste below a job offer that we


text:
by Russell H. Kaschula, Rhodes University
A history lecturer teaching a class about the history of the Xhosa people in South Africa's Eastern Cape province stops speaking English for a few minutes. She switches to isiXhosa, the home language of nearly 80% of the Eastern Cape's residents. Although she translates the phrases she is using, students in the class later complain that they felt excluded when she spoke a language they didn't understand.
This is not a hypothetical scenario. It happened earlier this year in a lecture hall at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape – and it proves just how reluctant some students at African higher education institutions are to embrace language as a resource. These students, who are often monolingual, cling stubbornly to the familiar comfort of English and don't realise just how much they are short-changing themselves intellectually.
There are 11 official languages in South Africa. English comes in behind isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans as only the fourth most commonly spoken tongue. An estimated 2000 languages are spoken across the African continent.
Bearing these figures in mind, it is striking that African languages do not have pride of place at the continent's institutions. Why are they sidelined in some many lecture halls and discussion groups? The answer lies in our collective history: colonialism made us look down on everything that is African. This includes our languages, cultures and religions.
But it is time to reclaim this space as part of the African transformation agenda. It's hardly a radical notion – the rest of the so-called first world demands recognition of mother tongues. Germans teach and learn in German. The British learn in English. South Koreans learn in Korean. In Africa we learn largely through languages that are not our own, like English, French and Portuguese.
It is a myth to suggest that one is superior to another. What can be articulated, studied and negotiated in one tongue can be done in any other language. Now we need the political will to teach and boost different languages.
Taking big strides
There are changes happening in some South African universities. The University of KwaZulu-Natal has made isiZulu a compulsory first-year subject. At Rhodes University, journalism students must pass an isiXhosa for journalism course at either mother tongue or second language level.
|VIDEO: A quick lesson in how to pronounce isiXhosa 'click' sounds.
Also at Rhodes, I have this year started teaching a language and society, or Ulwimi noluntu, course. The classes are conducted in English and isiXhosa concurrently. This space brings students back to the centre of the debate about the role universities serve in African society and what sort of graduates should be produced.
Students who are normally quiet in class now ask many more questions because they are allowed to do so in their mother tongue. Students will submit evaluations in the next few months and I am recording all of the lectures. I hope to use the course as a possible model for bilingual teaching.
The University of Limpopo's bilingual course in English and multilingual studies, taught in Sesotho sa Leboa and English, is a shining example of how to bolster the status of African languages.
Elsewhere on the continent, Ethiopia's Adama Science and Technology University uses Afan Oromo bilingually with English in its classrooms.
There is a lot more to be done
African universities need to identify key local languages as the media of instruction and encourage students to speak these at the level of a mother tongue. This is in the interests of better cognition and conceptual understanding, the core business of any university.
These languages should also be taught as second languages to bolster social cohesion between students from different linguistic and cultural groups across Africa.
This is a way to create real understanding and could help diffuse the sort of xenophobic violence that erupted again in South Africa in April.
Breaking down the barriers
History will judge African universities harshly one day when the youth of the time arise and ask: "Who gave someone the right to decide in which language and about which languages I should learn?"
Universities must work hard to undo the disconnect that's been created between African people and intellectual thought. Research shows that you think best in your mother tongue. Negative attitudes towards multilingualism and multiculturalism are stopping us from using Africa's own languages in prestigious domains like education and the sciences.
The discussion around language is actually about the transformation and Africanisation of the continent's universities. We must identify how to use languages to re-establish the African voice in universities. This will require research and curricula that robustly engage with issues of transformation so that universities escape the trap of simply reproducing knowledge that already exists.
Russell H. Kaschula is Professor of African Language Studies at Rhodes University.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.


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Little Nemo and the Umbrella Tree
With an adaptation like Little Nemo in Slumberland, it's nice to see the source material that inspired bits of the animation. Regardless of the amount of time and effort and all the mishaps that went into getting the movie project started, the end result shows that the people behind it were either fans of the original coimc, or took the time to read through the original comic, or at least flipped through the original comic for anything that stood out.
In one scene of the animation, Nemo, Camille, and a servant, Bonbon, are traveling through the skies. A light rain begins, leading to butterflies flying them to a covering where they can keep dry.
There is a 1906 strip which begins with the princess showing Nemo the butterflies. They are in a garden where it rains for five minutes every day, so the princess takes Nemo to an umbrella tree, a tree with a top like a closed umbrella which opens when it rains.
I like the animated take on the umbrella tree, as Winsor McCay's looks more like a concrete pole, whereas the animated counterpart is clearly a tree.
Winsor McCay's style is clearly suited for climbing up leaf-by-leaf. This is impossible in the animated counterpart, but considering the butterflies are trained to transport people around, that isn't an issue.
What really caught my eye was this pavilion in the water:
In the next comic, Nemo and the princess reach the ocean of pure rose water. From the beach, they walk atop the water to this pavilion. There, the princess uses a horn (much like the one Bonbon used in the animation to call the butterflies) to call the mermaids, so Nemo can meet with them.
From now on, whenever I watch "Little Nemo in Slumberland", and that pavilion shows for a few seconds, I'll recall that that's where the mermaids can be seen. And I'll know that that's rose-scented water.


text:
Mango-Man sent us a link about a product called the "Better Marriage Blanket". It supposedly eliminates the problem of passing gas when you're sharing a bed with your spouse. You should watch the video!
Now that you know what it's all about, click play again and listen to the first few seconds. That was not silent but deadly! I don't see how the blanket is gonna do anything about that!
There's actually an official website for this Better Marriage Blanket (but you might not want to go there, because there's pop-ups when you try to close it). There you learn that it "contains the same type of fabric used by the military to protect against chemical weapons". Hmm… And supposedly "the blanket will not smell bad after use".
I don't figure I'll be getting one of these, because I don't have a problem with flatulence. But if any of you reading this have tried it, let us know how it works for you. Was unbridled flatulence destroying your marriage, and this carbon-filter blanket saved the day? Inquiring minds want to know!


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When I was a kid, I only knew mustard as that bitter yellow stuff that people liked on their hot dogs. It took me some years to develop an appreciation for it, but once I understand mustard's versatility, I came to love it!
Mustard is so much more than something to put on your hot dog. I think of it as a magical condiment that improves anything it touches. In this one simple ingredient, there is acid, salt, and spice. Is your dressing, marinade, glaze, cold salad, dip or pan sauce missing a little pizzazz? Add a dollop of mustard and you'll be surprised by how easily it brightens and elevates its flavor.
I firmly believe that everything is better homemade, and that includes mustard. Yes! You can make mustard at home—it's crazy easy and crazy amazing. All you need is mustard seeds, water and sugar, and an acid like wine, beer or vinegar. Combine all the ingredients, soak for two days, and blend. And just like that, you have mustard!
I couldn't decide what acid to use in the mustard so I made mustard two ways. First I used a dry white wine and white sugar, for a Dijon-type of mustard. But I added some turmeric to give the mustard a bright yellow color. This white wine mustard is bright and tart, perfect for dressings or marinades.
For the second mustard , I used a malty brown beer, maple syrup and a little bit of apple cider. This one was my favorite! It's spicy, a little sweet, and has a great intense flavor. It's perfect for dipping pretzels, on sausages, or in a pastrami sandwich.
If you're a mustard lover, you will lose your mind over homemade mustard. If you enjoy your mustard extra spicy, you can add cayenne pepper or horseradish. Feel free to experiment with these mustard recipes by swapping out acids and sweeteners.


text:
Reported by Andreas Ronge | February 8th, 2010 @ 11:32 AM | in 0.4.1
Should be easy to write migrations in order to keep code and
database in sync.
For example, if we refactor a property that property has to be changed in the database as well.
Need to keep an version property on the RefNode.
Neo4j.migration 1, :create_articles do
up do
Neo4j.ref_node.articles << Articles.new :name => 'article name'
down do
Neo4j.ref_node.articles.each {|r| r.del}
Migrations can be used together with BatchInsert, see ticket #111
Lazy Migrations
Would be cool supporting lazy evaluation of migrations. The
migration is only performed when the node is read.
Example let say that we split up the name property in two properties: surname and given_name
class Person
include Neo4j::NodeMixin
property :name
Changed to
class Person
include Neo4j::NodeMixin
property :surname, :given_name
The following migration will be called when a Person node is
read and it does have a version property less then 1
It is evaluated in the context of the node that has been found needing to be upgraded/downgraded
Person.migration 1, :split_name do
up do
surname = self[:name].split[0]
given_name = self[:name].split[1]
down do
name = "self[:given_name] #{self[:surname]}"
Comments and changes to this ticket
Andreas Ronge February 8th, 2010 @ 08:56 PM
- Milestone set to 0.4.1
Andreas Ronge February 9th, 2010 @ 10:19 PM
- State changed from new to open
(from [5626168d16140fad10b88e61f061c587bceefd2c]) Impl. Migrations, look at the RSpecs for detail. [#108 state:open] http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/commit/5626168d16140fad10b88e6...
Andreas Ronge February 12th, 2010 @ 11:50 PM
(from [f62e6f52cb0a989cb5ef42d885c3ddc67c401060]) More RDocs and RSpecs for Migrations [#108 state:open] http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/commit/f62e6f52cb0a989cb5ef42d...
Andreas Ronge February 13th, 2010 @ 10:47 PM
(from [a7cfc094fe01d8060f49cdea50a5b091bf083f37]) Started to write a RSpec on how migrations with the BatchInserter should look like. Not sure about the API. [#108] http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/commit/a7cfc094fe01d8060f49cde...
Andreas Ronge February 19th, 2010 @ 08:10 PM
(from [2d54fb8bae6ac2df97d8af51f8a527194650f815]) BatchInserter can now be used in migrations [#111] [#108] http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/commit/2d54fb8bae6ac2df97d8af5...
Andreas Ronge March 1st, 2010 @ 04:08 PM
(from [3d3e6bbaed4dfa0c557cd891b8c366ff8fc354b5]) Added documentation for Migrations and BatchInserter. Next - use this feature in one of the examples [#111] [#108] http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/commit/3d3e6bbaed4dfa0c557cd89...
Andreas Ronge March 3rd, 2010 @ 12:04 AM
- State changed from open to resolved
(from [e86e250a2d4cb0debb7a3631c16341341b0be11f]) Updated IMDB example to use migrations. Updated som documentation. [#111 state:resolved] [#108 state:resolved] http://github.com/andreasronge/neo4j/commit/e86e250a2d4cb0debb7a363...
Andreas Ronge December 15th, 2011 @ 08:40 AM
- Milestone order changed from 0 to 0
(from [7c0331c0b9f434ce236beaa343d9ed52f476d207]) Merge pull request #108 from vivekprahlad/master
Fix for errors when a Rails model is named 'Property' closes #108
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Neo4j.rb is a graph database framework for JRuby.
It provides:
* Mapping of ruby objects to nodes in networks rather than in tables.
* Storage of ruby object to a file system.
* Fast traversal of relationships between nodes in a hugh node space.
* Transaction with rollbacks support.
* Indexing and quering of ruby objects.
* Integration with Rails
People watching this ticket
Referenced by
- 108 Migrations (from [5626168d16140fad10b88e61f061c587bceefd2c]) Impl. M...
- 108 Migrations (from [f62e6f52cb0a989cb5ef42d885c3ddc67c401060]) More RD...
- 108 Migrations (from [a7cfc094fe01d8060f49cdea50a5b091bf083f37]) Started...
- 111 BatchInserter (from [2d54fb8bae6ac2df97d8af51f8a527194650f815]) BatchIn...
- 108 Migrations (from [2d54fb8bae6ac2df97d8af51f8a527194650f815]) BatchIn...
- 111 BatchInserter (from [3d3e6bbaed4dfa0c557cd891b8c366ff8fc354b5]) Added d...
- 108 Migrations (from [3d3e6bbaed4dfa0c557cd891b8c366ff8fc354b5]) Added d...
- 111 BatchInserter (from [e86e250a2d4cb0debb7a3631c16341341b0be11f]) Updated...
- 108 Migrations (from [e86e250a2d4cb0debb7a3631c16341341b0be11f]) Updated...


text:
Evans Power Center Reverse Dot Drum Head 14"
Evans™ Power Center™ snare heads feature a 10mil film. Extra durability and focus is provided by a centrally located 5mil patch on the bottom of the head. Unique slots in the 5" diameter dot allow it to flex, keeping the head open and resonant.


text:
Day 31: Warm Jacket, Short Pants
Zoe wore a warmer coat today and enjoyed the ride. Daddy was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and he did not enjoy the ride. I got Zoe to put on long pants instead of a dress, but she is growing so fast they don't quite make it to her ankles.


text:
By Susan Stone (Certified Specialist in Mental and Spiritual Well-Being)
Stress Free Holiday…Easier than YOU Think!
Holidays can be overwhelming…presents, parties, family issues, and that's just the start of the holiday stress list!
We know that stress isn't good for our bodies or our emotional state and sadly, it can affect those close to us. When triggered by fear or stress, we may feel out of control, act irrationally and over consume (aka the holiday weight). This is because there is a physical as well as emotional response to stress.
In fact, thousands of tiny chemicals are released into our systems every time we are triggered by fear or stress. This hormonal chemical dump is only a part of the human "Fight/Flight Response." Our subconscious mind, which is much faster than our conscious mind, also tells our liver to stop detoxing, our digestion to shut down and sends energy to the large limb muscles getting the body ready to run, fight or hide. Because our subconscious can't distinguish between a real threat (bear chasing you) or a perceived threat (thought of a bear chasing you), it automatically triggers the "Fight/Flight" reaction every time. Self-preservation is always the subconscious' top priority
The good news is that you can override this reaction and even program in a new response to stress. It's called The Whole Brain Body Posture. It's simple and only takes a few minutes!
So when things get tense…politic talk or unsolicited relationship advice at the big holiday dinner…instead of going for another glass of wine or plate of food, take a five minute "time out" and try The Whole Brain Posture technique
"I met Susan under sad circumstances– I was grieving, needed answers and most importantly, needed to cope and move forward. Susan gave me the tools and the hope I needed to plug through every painful day. I've invited Susan to share her fabulous energy, hope, and expertise with our subscribers and look forward to her monthly Altima blog contribution on mental and spiritual well-being. " Maribel Alvarez
About Susan Stone
Susan Stone is a PSYCH-K Facilitator, Emotional Intelligence Instructor and certified Hypnotherapist. A lifetime student of human and business development, Ms. Stone received her training from the world renowned Omni Hypnosis Training Center, NLP training from National Federation of NeuroLinguistic Programming, and her Advanced, Health & Wellbeing & PRO PSYCH-K training from International PSYCH-K. She has BA in Employment Relations from Michigan State University where she attended graduate school.
Prior to founding S2 Evolution, Susan has held leadership positions in national charities as well as South Florida businesses. She has appeared on several primetime television shows such as Extreme Makeover, The Today Show, The Montel Williams Show, Lifetime Channel, PBS, Inside Edition and has also been featured interviews in several major publications including USA Today, Washington Post and The NY Times. As Executive Director of the International Children's Charity Locks of Love, Susan was instrumental in simultaneously doubling the number of children served, increasing individual contributions over 170%, net income by over 500%, and volunteer participation by 1,000%. She also secured the organization's first Fortune 500 sponsors including L'Oreal/Matrix and Pfizer/Rogaine.
Susan holds certifications in Pain Management from the Nurse Anesthetists Association, Hypno-Oncology from National Hypnosis Guild, HypnoBirthing and Ultra-Height from Omni Hypnosis and she also is a Certified Emotional Intelligence Instructor and PSYCH-K Facilitator on the fast track to becoming a PSYCH-K Instructor. In addition to her private practice, Ms Stone has served as Consulting Hypnotherapist for the Palm Beach Cancer Foundation's Sari Cancer Center.
Before you eat your way through it
Try this 5 minute time-out


text:
The modern paradigm of medical and mental health has a built-in bias for diagnosis, due in large part to its historical interest in isolating and treating pathology of various kinds in the body and mind. A consequence of this bias is that while we can zero in on what's wrong or not working properly, our understanding of what constitutes psychic (mind) and somatic (body) wholeness is less developed.
Individual sufferers go to professionals for help, many of them privately hoping that their psychosomatic health and quality of life will be elevated as a result. Instead they find themselves subjected to 'treatment plans' designed to suppress symptoms of dis-ease rather than actualize genuine wellbeing.
When I was in graduate school for a master's in counseling I was surprised – and increasingly more aggravated – by the requirement put on students to choose our guiding theory from among current orthodox protocols of diagnostic psychotherapy. As professional therapists we would need to work closely with insurance companies, with doctors who could prescribe drugs, and (of course) with the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) which is continually inventing more categories to pigeonhole the symptoms of suffering among the general population.
Even then it was obvious to me that a concept of 'disorder' must presume some deeper grasp on what 'order' (aka health, wholeness, or wellbeing) is, but this was barely discernible in the literature and never explained in the classroom. I began to suspect that some larger conspiracy might be directing our training as students and future professionals in the field. As counselors (and not drug prescribers) we could offer short-term talk therapy for clients, but the real money lay in tying client symptoms to more serious disorders with a basis in neurobiology that could justify pharmaceutical interventions.
Now, I'm not denying that some cases can benefit from a combination of talk and drug therapy – although the trend these days is to get patients through counseling and on open-ended prescription medication plans if their symptoms persist, which in 70% of cases they do. Strong research suggests that this rather abysmal success rate of therapy (of either type or in combination) can be attributed not to the particular protocol used, but to the fact that individual sufferers don't readily take responsibility in the salvation they seek.
And this, in my opinion, swings back around to a diagnostic paradigm that effectively ignores the person and reduces suffering to symptoms seemingly outside the individual's choice or control.
If we are to take responsibility in our suffering as well as creative authority in our pursuit of wellbeing, we need psychotherapeutic models that envision us as actively engaged in the construction of both suffering and wellbeing. In a sense, that's what I am working toward in this blog. So it's in that spirit that I offer another installment on the question of identity and our human journey.
My diagram contains a lot of terminology relative to the construction of identity, but we'll step through it in a way that simplifies things considerably. Let's begin at the middle, where the executive center of identity known as our ego is represented. Ego is how we identify ourselves, as the starring actor in a story we're continually telling ourselves and others – our personal myth. Every myth has a supporting cast of other actors whose importance in the narrative is a function of their proximal influence on matters concerning our need to feel safe, loved, capable, and worthy.
Each of these four feeling-needs (referring not to the fact of our being safe, loved, capable, or worthy, but our need to feel we are such) presents itself at a critical period of our development, in this precise sequence, rising upon earlier ones and setting the stage for those coming later. (As is often the case with my diagrams, information should be read organically from the bottom and flowing or growing upward.)
The four feeling-needs further organize into two broader concerns connecting to ego's need to belong (or fit in) and be recognized (or stand out) – the two polar drives in our construction of identity. Belonging answers our need to feel safe and loved; recognition satisfies our need to feel capable and worthy.
You can appreciate their polarity in the way they pull against each other: the effort to gain approval (a type of social recognition) often involves a willingness to give up some anonymity (a type of social belonging). Conversely, if our first priority is to hold a position of acceptance (another type of belonging), we will try not to draw undo attention to ourselves (another type of recognition).
In dynamical systems, something called an 'attractor' is a recurrent code that draws a system into persistent patterns of organization. In our consideration of the pattern known as personal identity (or the construct of who you are), two polar attractors drive development: at one end is the secure base (an attractor for safety, love, acceptance and belonging), while at the other end is the proving circle (an attractor for personal power, worth, approval and recognition).
Archetypally these correspond to our mother (or mother figure) and father (or father figure), respectively. A number of Freud's most enduring insights can be liberated from his theory of sexuality and better understood archetypally in these terms instead.
The unique admixture of temperamental predispositions, environmental conditions, and personal life events tends to 'lean' our personality more toward one attractor than the other. Even within the range of so-called normal psychology this is the case. A normal well-adjusted personality can value belonging over recognition, or vice versa. The important point is that both attractors and their associated values are critical to our identity and mental health.
What this suggests is that our individual personality can be understood (not diagnosed!) as either security-seeking or esteem-seeking. Identifying more with one doesn't mean that we have no interest in the other; healthy identity is somewhere in the balance of both. If you happen to value safety and love over power and worth, it may simply reveal that close relationships are more important to you than personal achievements, not that accomplishing things and making progress don't matter.
You were probably waiting for me to mention this: It can happen that the balance snaps and we get stuck at one pole or the other. Security becomes everything and we end up giving all our energy to pleasing and placating the people we feel we can't live without. (This is common among children of addicts and victims of abuse.) Or else if we're caught at the other end, we stay busy trying to flatter and impress others so they'll esteem us as somebody important and worthy of praise. (This is frequent among celebrities and performers of various kinds.)
The goal of development is to hold the balance and use our stable center of personal identity to leap (or drop) into a larger (or deeper) experience of wholeness and wellbeing. More about that next time …


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Mosquito, Flea and Tick Barrier Spraying
A trained Aurora Wildlife technician will treat your yard with an effective barrier spray that will eliminate biting mosquitoes, fleas and ticks for weeks. Using a specially designed sprayer for precise application, our technician will target plants, shrubs and foliage with a barrier that kills mosquitoes, fleas and ticks on contact and bonds to the plants to act as a repellent for weeks to come. Learn More


text: So I hope I don't get punished for posting this. I was wanting to sell my XBox One S. I bought it thinking I would use it and I just don't use it like I thought I would. It is pretty much brand new and has a Star Wars game with it and one controller. I would like to get at least $150.00 for it. If anyone is interested let me know.


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Neon Island x Zalora
Neon Island Clothing
Neon island x Zalora Inspired by an Italian summer, the Neon Island x Zalora collection carries an assortment of swimwear and cover ups with our signature hand drawn prints. Built around our abstract fruity print, the collection's color palette is a mix of bright citrusy hues and deep greens. Our silhouettes are reimagined classic cuts with high waists and halter tops, inspired by vintage Italian post cards, perfect for sailing along the coast of Amalfi!
Fullbloom Holiday '19
Presenting to you Fullbloom - our holiday 2019 collection! With vibrant hues of blues, pinks, and greens made a of different sparkly fabrics — this collection gives you festive vibes while looking chic! Photograrpher: Favour Ajah Modeled by: Selina Woo Bhang & Ksenia Mamtseva
Wild Things Lookbook
Luxe satin in bold hues & abstract animal prints make up our latest holiday collection, Wild Things. With pieces made to mix and match, you won't be running out of looks anytime soon. So, join us as we make our way to the New Year like only Neon Island can. Photography by: Andrea BelduaModeled by: Rachel Hemphill & Selina Woo BhangHair & Makeup by: Josephine Roncal
Neon Island Clothing
Our dream collaboration comes to life in this limited edition collection with our favourite flip-flop brand, Havaianas! More than a year in the making, 2 flip-flop designs with some of our best selling hand drawn prints make up our newest collection of easy printed pieces and linen separates. Perfect for city to surf, our collaboration is a match made in tropical heaven. <3
Our biggest collection to date, "Easy Lover" is a love letter to the bold but effortless fashion of the early 90s. See these vivid colors and feminine silhouettes come to life with Neon Island's hand drawn prints. Photography by: Denise San Jose Modeled by: Rose Joy Pinhuela & Wanda Chen & Makeup by: Gabs Gibbs


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BioWES – Project description
Project BioWes is a collaborative project of University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice represented by Institute of Complex Systems and private company dataPartner ltd. that works on delivery and implementation of information and control technologies. The type of the solution of the project is applied research. Institute of Complex Systems is responsible for the research part of the project focused on biology experiments (see more here). DataPartner is going to deliver database and web based solutions for data management and sharing (see more here).
The project BioWes is inspired by several similar projects that try to solve a substantial contemporary problem of sharing big amount of experimental data. There are several projects that offer the solution for data sharing (for different types of data). The problem is that the amount of data produced by experimentalist is constantly increasing and the speed of internet will always be a step behind. The only way how to share experimental data on between researchers is to share the metadata. Metadata means the overall knowledge about the experiment that consist of detailed knowledge of experimental procedure and knowledge that can be mined from the data automatically or manually by post-processing. The data itself is meaningless without any additional knowledge concerning the experiment. There is no project that can offer experimental data sharing based on the sharing of knowledge.
The main reason why to share the experimental data is to save money and time necessary for experimentation and to compare the results between different experimenters. Data sharing and especially metadata sharing can be understood as the advertisement of the experiments of a particular experimenter. Experimental data sharing and comparison can help to improve experimental procedures and definition of standards in this area.
Project BioWes is focused on the area of biology experiments. These experiments produce one of the biggest amounts of data and impose the highest requirements on the preciseness of experimentation to reproduce the experiment.


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95 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Thirty years ago a film dealing with the subject matter of "Beach Rats" would have been labeled a "gay" film and aimed specifically at audiences looking for a satisfying coming out story.
Well, that was then.
Eliza Hittman's second feature (after "It Felt Like Love") is about a young man who is probably gay, but it's less obsessed with his sexuality than with his general cluelessness.
Frankie (Brit actor Harris Dickinson) lives in Brooklyn with his mother, younger sister and soon-to-be-dead cancer-riddled father. He's out of school and jobless, and spends his summer hanging out on the beach with a few of his childhood friends, know-nothings whose world view is limited to vaping and the availability of pot and pussy.
Frankie has a secret. He's been visiting online gay chatrooms, tentatively exploring the possibilities. Every now and then he'll arrange for a tryst with one of these men, who are clearly smitten with Frankie's body and all-American good looks.
Writer/director Hittman takes it for granted that Frankie's gay. But like a lot of young people he's not sure what he is.
Early in the film he's picked up by a local girl, Simone (Madeline Weinstein), who spots him at a Coney Island fireworks display and zooms in. Frankie begs off that he's too tired to have sex, but over several weeks he and Simone will get intimate. It's hard to say whether he enjoys the sex or simply views it as good camouflage, throwing off any friends or family members who suspect he swings another way.
If our protagonist were, say, a middle-class suburbanite, he'd probably find himself in an LGBT teen support group. But Frankie's living in a macho-drenched working-class corner of Brooklyn. About all he knows about being gay is that it's majorly uncool with his vaguely criminal buds.
Your classic coming-out movie usually ends on a positive note. But "Beach Rats" doesn't give its leading man a hopeful, upbeat sendoff. At film's end Frankie is as confused, ashamed and conflicted as he was when we met him.
From a strictly dramatic point of view, this is a hard sell. Happily, Hittman has in Dickinson a charismatic leading man who so effortlessly soaks up our attention that we can overlook — well, almost — his narrow, smothering mindset.
And the film has been shot and edited in such a way that it feels practically documentary. So palpable is the atmosphere captured in Helene Louvart's 16mm cinematography that it compensates for a plot that pretty much ends where it began.
| Robert W. Butler


text: If you are interested in joining our volunteer controlled ecological burn crew, join us for our the training workshop this Saturday, February 20, 9 am – 2 pm at the Paint Creek Cider Mill (4480 Orion Road, Rochester, MI 48306). We will cover reasons for using prescribed fire, preparations for conducting a fire, necessary tools, roles of each burn crew member, and ignition patterns. Weather permitting we will do a small demonstration or mock burn after lunch. Snacks will be provided, but please bring your own lunch. RSVP required to email@example.com or 248-651-7810 ext. 401 by Thursday, February 18 at the latest.


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5 Days Aberdares Nakuru and Masai Mara Safari - arlom safaris x2
Day 1: Nairobi – Nyeri (130 kms)
Upon arrival at the airport, you will meet Arlom Safaris' representative and depart north for Aberdare Country Club for checking in and lunch. After lunch, you will be transferred to The Ark with the lodge's vehicle for your dinner and overnight. All game viewing activities will be at the lodge http://www.marasa.net/properties/the-ark
Day 2: Nyeri – Lake Nakuru National Park (170 kms)
You will have breakfast and thereafter drive to Lake Nakuru National Park with a brief stopover at Nyahururu Thomsons Falls for taking photos. Then you will go further to Lake Nakuru where you will check in and have a game drive en route to Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge for lunch. Afterward, you will have an afternoon game drive.
Lake Nakuru National Park is known as a Ramsar bird site specifically founded for the protection of the black and white rhino. This park is also home for more than 450 species of birds, including the lesser and greater flamingos, pelicans, African fish eagles, and many others. You will have dinner and overnight at Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge http://www.sopalodges.com/lake-nakuru-sopa-lodge/about-lake-nakuru
Day 3: Lake Nakuru National Park – Maasai Mara National Reserve (320 kms)
You will have breakfast and thereafter drive further southwest through the floor of the Great Rift Valley with a stopover at the hometown of Maasai herdsmen. You will arrive at Mara Sopa Lodge for lunch.
Afterward, you will have an afternoon game drive in the vast Maasai Mara National Reserve plains in search for the predators such as the lions with dark manes, cheetahs, leopards, and many herbivores, especially during the yearly migration of wildebeests between July to September. Dinner and overnight will be at Mara Sopa Lodge http://www.sopalodges.com/masai-mara-sopa-lodge/photo-gallery .
Day 4: Maasai Mara National Reserve
You will have an optional balloon flight in the early morning, an optional full day in Maasai Mara National Reserve dedicated to early morning, mid-morning, and afternoon game drives, or full day game viewing depending on one's choice. You will also have an optional visit to Maasai village. All meals and overnight will be at Mara Sopa Lodge http://www.sopalodges.com/masai-mara-sopa-lodge/photo-gallery .
Day 5: Maasai Mara National Reserve – Nairobi ( 280 kms)
You will have breakfast and then depart for Nairobi to arrive at your hotel or airport for your onward travel arrangements.
End of Our Services
Cost Includes
- 4 nights' accommodation
- All game drives (Lake Nakuru National Park and Maasai Mara National Reserve)
- All meals as specified in the itinerary (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
- All park fees
- English-speaking safari guide on a shared basis
- Flying Doctor services (air ambulance insurance)
- Meet and greet services (including arrival and departure transfers)
- Transportation in 4×4 land cruisers with 6 guaranteed window seats
- Unlimited bottled mineral water on game drives
Cost Excludes
- Any items of a personal nature
- Baggage
- Dining room tips (50 to 200 KES per day)
- Drinks and beverages
- Gratuities and tips for safari guides (500 KES or more per day per person)
- International flights
- Laundry
- Medical insurance
- Personal travel
- Porterage (50 to 200 KES per day)
- Telephone bill
- Visas
Additional remarks
- We may have to re-route the itinerary or accommodate in similar lodges in case of non-availability of rooms
Inquire / Make a Reservation


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A crisis of legitimacy
People are fed up with politics. Do not blame globalisation for that
IT WOULD be wrong to say that economic integration neuters democracy or, more specifically, places any real constraints on the welfare state. Yet the view that globalisation is hollowing out politics seems to be almost universal among the economic and political commentariat. The fears expressed go wider than the implications of globalisation for the welfare state. Opinion polls in western democracies show disaffection with the political process. That, the columnists say, is because globalisation has made politics much less important. Fewer people are turning out to vote in elections these days. It hardly seems worth bothering, the argument runs, now that multinational companies rather than elected governments are calling the shots. True or false?
In his best-selling book on globalisation, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree", Thomas Friedman of the New York Times makes much of the "Golden Straitjacket". That is what he calls the policies which, according to the current orthodoxy, are necessary to establish the markets' confidence in any particular economy and its government: balanced budgets, moderate taxes, light regulation, privatisation and so forth. Once a country puts on the Golden Straitjacket, Mr Friedman says:Two things tend to happen: your economy grows and your politics shrinks...The Golden Straitjacket narrows the political and economic choices of those in power to relatively tight parameters. That is why it is increasingly difficult these days to find any real differences between ruling and opposition parties in those countries that have put on the Golden Straitjacket. Once your country puts on the Golden Straitjacket, its political choices get reduced to Pepsi or Coke—to slight nuances of policy, slight alterations in design to account for local traditions, some loosening here or there, but never any major deviation from the core golden rules.
This argument is widely quoted and almost universally accepted. There can be no denying that the world has seen a striking convergence of economic ideology in the past decade or two. That makes Mr Friedman's argument seem plausible. But something else about it ought to arouse suspicion: advocates of globalisation and sceptics alike go along with it. Enthusiasts for globalisation (Mr Friedman among them) by and large think that the policies of the Golden Straitjacket are the right ones, and agree that your economy will indeed grow faster if you adopt them. Many sceptics are willing to concede this second point. The Golden Straitjacket may indeed make your economy grow faster—by the flawed and inequitable measures of free-market economics, at any rate—but in their view this gain cannot outweigh the loss of political sovereignty and democratic legitimacy that the straitjacket also entails.
The policies favoured by current orthodoxy do involve restraint—that much is true, and it makes the straitjacket metaphor apt. Balancing the budget is usually more difficult than letting public spending run ahead of taxes. From the government's point of view, deregulation, privatisation and so forth are also restricting rather than liberating: they mean doing less, whereas day-to-day political pressures usually urge governments to do more. But the crucial question that Mr Friedman's analysis leaves aside is whether or not these constraints are being imposed legitimately.
To talk of the narrowing of choices and the "shrinking of politics" implies that the process is anti-democratic. It need not be so. Voters everywhere may have come to prefer balanced budgets, moderate taxes, privatisation and the rest on their merits. If they have, the shrinking of politics around the current orthodoxy does not represent any weakening of democracy. If the voters decide to choose Pepsi or Coke, you might say, their choice has narrowed to Pepsi or Coke, until they choose next time.
On the other hand, questions of legitimacy certainly do arise if voters would rather not have balanced budgets, moderation in public spending and taxes, privatisation and so on—but are getting those policies anyway. And they also arise, you might argue, even if voters accept the straitjacket policies reluctantly, and only because forces more powerful than their governments have narrowed the range of choices before the electorate even comes to decide.
What about the voters?
Critics of globalisation make both arguments. The first, which says that voters are simply ignored, is unpersuasive. It is difficult to believe that if voters really did want big budget deficits, higher taxes, more public ownership of industry and so on, political parties would not seek to get elected—and succeed in getting elected—by offering those things. The second argument, which says that voters support the policies favoured by current orthodoxy but wish they did not have to, has real weight. The straitjacket policies are supported by most voters, it seems, but not with much enthusiasm. There is a recurring sense of bowing down to forces more powerful than liberal democracy—the markets, the multinationals, the WTO and the IMF. That disenchantment is in itself a kind of democratic failure.
Where does the blame for this lie? For the most part, not with globalisation as such—not with economic integration, not with markets, not with institutions like the Fund and the WTO—but with politicians. In all kinds of ways, again and again, governments and their political opponents have used the supposed demands of globalisation to deny responsibility. If you tell people you are helpless often enough, they will start to believe you.
One of the principal themes in western politics of the past ten or 15 years has been the "modernisation" of the left. Ex-socialist and moderate left-of-centre parties alike have moved to the centre, and in some cases past it. They have renounced outright egalitarianism, no longer advocate public ownership as an end in itself, seek opportunities for "partnership" with the private sector, prefer "conservative" macroeconomic policies, and favour moderation in taxes and public spending. Tony Blair's Labour government in Britain is probably the clearest case, but it is by no means unique in Europe. And something similar happened to America's Democrats under Bill Clinton. It was Mr Clinton, New Democrat, who duly signed the legislation "ending welfare as we know it"—terminating the federal government's commitment of 61 years' standing to provide cash assistance to the poor.
Is the realignment of the left connected to the acceleration of economic integration?
This realignment of the left has coincided over the past decade or so, it is pointed out, with an acceleration of economic integration. It is tempting to see, like Mr Friedman, a connection between the two trends—especially since the modernising left itself insists that there is one. "The world has changed," Tony Blair tells his party's traditional supporters, "but our values have not." In other words, if only we could, we would still like to do all the things leftist parties have traditionally done. We cannot, because the world now follows different rules. Today, governments need the co-operation of the global capital markets. Competition is fiercer than it has ever been before. We have to sound more like our conservative opponents—and the reason is globalisation.
But is it really? It seems unlikely. Globalisation may or may not be accelerating, but no particular turning point, so far as economic integration is concerned, coincides with the rather sudden repositioning of America's Democratic Party and the virtual disappearance, at about the same time, of Europe's classical left.
An embarrassing coincidence
Another event did coincide with these changes: the collapse of communism. However much the left in the West disavowed or even despised Soviet communism, that system had stood as a living, breathing alternative to the capitalist paradigm: a reminder that an alternative did exist. When that standard was torn down, it was a severe embarrassment. When, thanks to glasnost, the West found out exactly how disgusting communism in practice had been, the embarrassment deepened so much that most of the left's political vocabulary was discredited. These world-historical events were especially badly timed for the left: they seemed to seal the success that strident, iconic, right-of-centre governments in America, under Ronald Reagan, and Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, had already achieved.
The left was humiliated by association, found its values rendered deeply suspect, and suffered a monumental crisis of confidence. Also, it went out of fashion. Subtle repositioning in America's case, outright reinvention in Britain's, and something in-between elsewhere in Western Europe, became a domestic political necessity. No doubt many of the reformers welcomed this opportunity to recast their parties along lines closer to their own beliefs. But for most of the party members and long-time supporters it was an extremely reluctant conversion.
How were the leaders to present—to market, as they now might say—their newly realigned parties, both to the members and to voters? Grand empty talk of a new "third way" was a telling sign of desperation. The leaders of the new left could hardly expect to retain the loyalty of traditionalists if they came out and said: "Most of what we used to assert is wrong. Now that we have been found out, we are going over to the other side. From now on we stand for a kinder, gentler, more compassionate sort of conservatism." Instead, to appeal to centrist voters, while at the same time flattering traditionalists into believing that their ideas still prevailed, they put it another way: "The world has changed, our values have not."
Was this nothing but a ruse? Globalisation, as already noted, has left the capacity of governments to gather taxes and pay for public spending essentially undiminished. But there are other kinds of constraint. It is often argued, for instance, that global capital markets nowadays stop governments running big budget deficits. Global capital will no longer tolerate public ownership of utilities or other monopolistic enterprises, it is said. And the need to keep companies internationally competitive leaves governments no choice but to dismantle health and safety regulation, or to ease up on environmental rules.
In reality, the global capital market makes it easier to run big budget deficits, because there is an infinitely larger pool of funds to tap. As for public ownership, on balance global capital doesn't much care. Investors lending to publicly owned enterprises may see advantages, in fact, notably government guarantees of the debt. China has many state-owned enterprises, and seems to have no trouble attracting inward investment.
Race to the bottom?
What about the regulatory race to the bottom? There has lately been a good deal of economic deregulation, it is true, aimed at spurring competition in finance especially. And deregulation of this sort, once you start, has a habit of leading to more deregulation. In this area, governments might be forgiven for feeling sometimes that they have started something they cannot stop or any longer control. But questions such as whether banks should be allowed to sell insurance, or how exactly financial institutions should be supervised, are not deeply ideological. Important as they are, these are technical issues.
Other kinds of regulation—for example, of health and safety in the workplace, terms of employment, product and environmental standards—have far more ideological content. Has globalisation led to a race to the bottom in this kind of regulation? There is little sign of it. The clear trend in rich and poor countries alike is for ever tighter regulation of this sort. If globalisation has started a race in these areas, it is to the top, not the bottom.
Where formerly left-of-centre parties have adopted soft-conservative policies—moderation in taxes and spending, "fiscal responsibility" and the rest—the reason cannot be globalisation. The reason, in fact, is democracy. These policies, for the moment, are popular. Globalisation has been a useful subterfuge for the left—and, it should be noted, for the right as well, albeit to a smaller extent. Conservatives too can compete for support in the centre by prating on about how such and such a tax must be cut for the sake of preserving competitiveness, rather than because low taxes are good in themselves. Just as the left has found, there is advantage in claiming that a policy you propose must be adopted because there is no choice.
If you believe that the realignment of the left was a good thing, you might feel that the globalisation subterfuge is a small price to pay for moving the parties intact to the centre, where they can do more good. But there is a price, and it may be higher than anybody realised. The denial of responsibility, the pretence that policies are dictated by global markets rather than chosen by elected governments, the refusal to consider alternatives—all these are profoundly corrosive of democracy.
The ex-left has repeated countless variations on its new slogan—the world has changed, our values have not—all over the industrialised world. Often, the right has joined in. This was bound to persuade many people that conventional politics is indeed a waste of time. That, in effect, is exactly what political leaders are saying.
When anti-capitalist protesters tried to disrupt a meeting of European Union leaders recently, Tony Blair was especially scathing, calling the rioters mindless thugs. No doubt he was right about many of them, but his contempt was nonetheless ironic. The protesters say that people have been disempowered by global capitalism. They are wrong, but politicians themselves played a large part in devising that specious theory. It seemed an innocent deception at the time, but the protesters' rage, and the support they receive from large parts of the public, suggest that it was a dangerous move for democracy.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline "A crisis of legitimacy"
From the September 29th 2001 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition


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This is a sample Letter of Advice on Vegetarianism:
Mr. Feld is a non-vegetarian. His friend Mr. Bernard is a vegetarian. Mr. Bernard is writing a letter to Mr. Feld advising Mr. Feld to follow the vegetarian food system.
2 Phyla Thai Road,
23rd April 2004.
Dear Feld,
You know it very well 15th May is World Peace Day. Different people in different lands around the world are celebrating the day in their unique style. In western countries special mass is being held in churches to invoke God's blessings for peace on earth. In the USA, the Whites and the Blacks are congregating to perform musicals together.
In the Asia it is celebrated as Vegetarian Day. Lord Mahavira advocated non-violence to all living beings. You must have seen Jain Monks wearing a piece of cloth around the mouth to prevent microbes from entering into their mouth.
I strictly advice you as your brother to give up taking flesh. You can begin by abstaining from meat, fish, eggs and all non-vegetarian food on 15th May. It has been proved by medicinal studies that animal flesh contains toxins which enter our systems and cause diseases. They upset the metabolism. They contain a high level of cholesterol and harm the heart. People in the west are switching over to vegetarianism to check blood pressure, tension and for longevity in life.
Animal food leads to aggressive tendencies. It is a misconception to think that flesh makes us muscular and strong. The elephant is the strongest animals and eats only leaves. Carnivorous animals are very aggressive and live much less. Finally we must learn to protect and love the species nearest to us in evolution.
Yours sincerely,
Signature of Bernard
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