Brooklands Museum (Weybridge) is offering couples the opportunity to get married on board the ex-British Aerospace Concorde 100 G-BBDG (msn 202). However it will be safely on the ground.

News link:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1217240/Couples-allowed-marry-supersonic-style-Concorde.html?ITO=1490

i love orange. it’s my favorite color. i even painted my office at boise state university orange a few years ago. but in this region colors always take on new meanings that destroy colors and what they mean. for instance, when i first moved to palestine in the summer of 2005 i discovered that orange was the color that the zionist terrorist colonists in gaza were using to protest their removal from occupied gaza. you still see their orange ribbons on backpacks and and rear view mirrors. these are the same people who are building new colonies and expanding them in naqab, al quds, nasra and everywhere else.

but why am i writing about orange? well, actually it’s not the color i’m speaking of. it’s the corporation. when i lived in jordan (2005-2006) i had a land line in my house from the jordanian national telecom company and i had internet from a company called wanadoo. it seems that in the time since i lived here last, both have been swallowed up by orange (which is why i won’t be having a land line or internet service or cell phone service from orange). for the land lines this is a huge issue: it means that jordan has privatized its telecommunications sector to a foreign company. apparently, this happened two years ago:

The Jordanian mobile operator, MobileCom – a subsidiary of Jordan Telecom Group (JTG) has rebranded under the Orange brand name. Jordan Telecom is 51% controlled by France Telecom which in turn, owns Orange.

“With this move, Orange becomes the sole commercial brand for JTG’s fixed, mobile, and internet services,” said Chairman of the Board of Directors of JTG Dr Shabib Ammari. “Our customers will be enjoying Orange’s competitive range of telecom solutions and top quality services, enjoying the premium offering that will meet their needs to full satisfaction through this single and reputable provider,” added Ammari.

The GSM arm of JTG was first registered on 21st September, 1999 and launched full public service across the Kingdom on 15th September, 2000. The infrastructure was provided by Ericsson.

Orange Jordan has around 1.7 million subscribers according to figures from the Mobile World, which gives the company a market share of 36%.

and orange has fully inserted itself and its brand into jordanian life. billboards are everywhere. there are orange ramadan placemats in restaurants and cafes. and they even have some magazine that i found in my hotel room when i was in amman on my way to the u.s. for a couple of days. it is inescapable. but it is also possible not to participate in this orange branding of jordan, which, according to the jordanian blogger black iris, they aren’t offering such hot service:

Since writing that open letter to Orange Telecom Jordan on their terrible service I’ve noticed the link really flying around the twittersphere. It’s gotten around 1,700 views in the past 48 hours, which, along with the comments and emails people left me, is a real indication that many are simply not happy with the Kingdom’s telecom giant and it’s level of service.

but i think there are other reasons, aside from crappy service, that people in jordan should be up in arms that their national telecom industry was handed over to orange. some of what i am about to say is speculative, but the facts will be backed up with reports. my suspicion about orange was first raised because i know it to be one of the main mobile phone companies in the zionist entity. for many years, it was the only mobile company that palestinians had access too before they created their own network, jawal. orange is not an israeli company, but i have been told it was started by two french jews. i have looked to find out more about the people who started and/or who run orange headquarters, but it has been difficult to find anything out on them. my curiosity is that is suspect they are like howard shultz, ceo of starbucks, who donates a significant amount of his profits to the zionist entity every year. i don’t have any such information yet (though if anyone out there knows the dirt on orange please send it my way! ), but here is what wikipedia has to say about it:

Microtel Communications Ltd. was formed in April 1990 as a consortium comprising Pactel Corporation, British Aerospace, Millicom and French company Matra (British Aerospace soon acquired full control of the company). In 1991 Microtel was awarded a license to develop a mobile network in the UK, and in July 1991 Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd acquired Microtel from BAe. BAe was paid in Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd. shares, giving the company a 30% share. Hutchison Whampoa held 65% and Barclays Bank the remaining 5%. Microtel was renamed Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd. in 1994. The Orange brand was created by an internal team at Microtel headed by Chris Moss (Marketing Director) and supported by Martin Keogh, Rob Furness and Ian Pond. The brand consultancy Wolff Olins was charged with designing the brand values and logo and advertising agency WCRS created the Orange slogan “The Future’s bright, the Future’s Orange” along with the now famous advertising. The logo is square because a round orange logo already existed for the reprographics company, Orange Communications Limited, designed by Neville Brody in 1993.

Orange plc was formed in 1995 as a holding company for the Orange group. France Telecom formed the present company in 2001 after acquiring Orange plc (which had been acquired by Mannesmann AG, itself purchased by Vodafone shortly after, leading Vodafone to divest Orange) and merging its existing mobile operations into the company. The company was initially 100% owned by France Telecom (although there were and still remain minority investors in some of the national operating companies). In 2001 15% was sold in an IPO, but in 2003 the outstanding shares were bought back by France Telecom.

so there is no proof or connection to the zionist entity in any way yet. but that is okay. there is proof that their hands are dirty any way. like all cell phone companies that exist in the zionist entity, they are a part of the colonial infrastructure. here is a report from who profits laying out how orange, along with the other cell phone companies participate in colonialism and occupation:

All Israeli cellular communication companies are commercially involved in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights. These companies build infrastructure, maintain property and equipment in illegal Israeli settlements, much of it on privately owned Palestinian lands. They all provide services to the Israeli military and to all Israeli settlers, and some provide specially designed services. They use the Israeli control of the Palestinian territory to exploit the Palestinian frequencies and to impose their services on the Palestinian captive market.

Currently there are four Israeli cellular communication service providers: Cellcom, Partner (Orange), Pelephone and MIRS. Cellcom is part of the IDB group, a conglomerate of Israeli and international companies, one of the major players in the Israeli market; Partner is a subsidiary of the Chinese Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTIL); Pelephone is fully owned by Bezeq, the Israeli Telecommunication Corporation; MIRS is a subsidiary of Motorola Israel.

All four have dozens of antennas, transmission stations and additional infrastructure erected on occupied Palestinian land: MIRS holds at least 86 antennas and communication facilities on occupied territory, Cellcom at least 191, Pelephone 195 and Partner 165. As a survey by Yesh Din reveals, many of these antennas and communication facilities were erected on confiscated privately owned Palestinian land. Often, these devices are guarded by Israeli guards, and at least in one occasion, they were used as seeds for a new settlement outpost. Using this infrastructure, the companies provide services to Israelis in these areas, both to the settlements and to the Israeli soldiers operating in the occupied West Bank.

All four, Cellcom, Partner, MIRS and Pelephone, operate service stores in West Bank settlements. Additionally, MIRS is the exclusive provider of cellular phone services to the Israeli army (since 2005 and at least until 2011). This company installs communication units in army vehicles and it builds communication facilities in army bases throughout the West Bank and Golan Heights. The company also offers special rates for service personnel and their family members.

Cellcom, Partner and Pelephone are also operating in the Palestinian market. The conditions of the occupation ensure several advantages for these companies over the Palestinian cellular communication providers. The Israeli authorities do not provide permits for Palestinian companies to install antennas and transmission infrastructure in area C, which is under full Israeli control and constitutes 59% of the entire West Bank, making it virtually impossible for Palestinians to provide cellular coverage in many areas of the West Bank. Additionally, the frequency allocation granted by the Israeli authorities to Palestinian providers is very limited, and the Israeli authorities impose significant limitations on the Palestinian providers when it comes to the import of devices or the on ground installation of communication transmission devices. Even when the Israeli authorities do allow equipment into the Palestinian territory – it is often delayed by months or years, and by the time it arrives to the Palestinian providers it is outdated. Together, these limitations restrict the reception ranges and the overall quality of service by Palestinian providers, and the Palestinians turn to services provided by the Israeli companies, especially when traveling outside of the major Palestinian cities.

The Israeli control of frequencies and the implications of this control have been evident in the case of Wataniya Palestine. In 2007 Wataniya Palestine, a joint venture of Palestine Investment Fund and Wataniya Telecom of Kuwait, was licensed to become the second Palestinian cellular communication provider. On July 28, 2008 an agreement was signed by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, allocating frequencies for Wataniya’s use. The frequencies were supposed to be released by April 1 of 2009. As of August of 2009, none were released due to ongoing delays from the Israeli government. Consequently, Wataniya Telecom announced that it would back out of its initiative to operate cellular communication services in the occupied Palestinian territory.

According to a World Bank report issued in January of 2008, 20% to 45% of the Palestinian cellular market at that time was in the hands of Israeli companies. In breach of the Oslo Agreements, the Israeli companies do not pay taxes to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for their commercial activity in the Palestinian market. The World Bank report estimated that the lost annual PA tax revenues due to unauthorized Israeli operations amounted to $60 million. Additionally, the PA claimed that these Israeli companies have been targeting West Bank clients and actively selling to the Palestinians in the West Bank although they were never licensed to do so by the PA.

Surprisingly, even when using Palestinian providers, Palestinian customers have to rely on the Israeli companies because of the restrictions on Palestinian construction of telecommunication infrastructure. The Israeli companies collect a percentage surcharge on all interconnection revenues from calls between Palestinian landlines and cellular phones as well as calls between cellular phones of Palestinian operators and Israeli operators. Similarly, Palestinian operators have to depend on the costly services of Israeli companies for any international call, for calls connecting the West Bank and Gaza and for calls between different areas in the West Bank.

For more information, see the Who Profits website at: www.whoprofits.org.

here is a brief summary on orange in the zionist entity by who profits as well (who i normally don’t link to because they are colonists who don’t see themselves as colonists merely because they don’t live in the west bank):

An Israeli provider of cellular phone services.

The company erected more than 160 antennas and telecommunication infrastructure facilities on occupied land in the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

The company provides cellular communication services to the settlers and Israeli soldiers in the occupied territory. Additionally, the company enjoys the structural advantages of Israeli cellular services providers over Palestinian competitors in the Palestinian market.

Click here to read the full report about the involvement of the Israeli cellular companies in the occupation.

Involved in:

Palestinian Captive Market
Israeli Construction on Occupied Land
Services to the Settlements

51% of company shares are held by Scailex, which is controlled by Ilan Ben-Dov.

so this is why i am boycotting orange. i don’t need a land line. i have a cell phone from a kuwaiti company (zain) and internet (insha’allah soon) from a jordanian company (umniah). but what i see a lot of in jordan is heavy levels of consumption among a population who does not know, does not want to know, or does not want to sacrifice in the ways one must sacrifice in order to resist. part of this may be because i don’t have internet at my house yet and the only place near my house to get it (i.e., within walking distance) is a mall. so i’m being subjected to my least favorite sort of space with people participating in my least favorite activity all around me as i work in an internet cafe around people who eat and drink and smoke all day while i fast (it is ramadan, but there seem to be lots of jordanians who are not fasting). and i’m thinking a lot about sacrifice. not just because it is ramadan and i am fasting and my empty stomach makes me think about it, but also because i don’t understand why it consumption and globalization have turned the world numb and dumb. the divide between want and need is completely gone. and this is something i find so disturbing. i don’t know why people cannot just say no to so many things.

i also wonder why people cannot say no to normalization with the zionist entity. why they cannot say no on a personal or a collective level in places like jordan. for instance, there was a report in ha’aretz a few weeks ago about a sweatshop owned by zionist terrorist colonists in jordan:

If the term “sweatshop” used to be associated with Asian countries and global brands such as Nike, now such methods of production by exploiting workers have made aliyah. Two Israeli entrepreneurs run a sweatshop in Jordan that produces clothes for leading Israeli brands such as Irit, Bonita, Jump and Pashut, Haaretz has learned.

The National Labor Committee, a U.S.-based workers’ rights organization, has released a report accusing the Musa Garments factory in Jordan of employing workers under inhuman conditions, and charges the company with “human trafficking, abuse, forced overtime, primitive dorm conditions, imprisonment and forcible deportations of foreign guest workers.”

The report exposes what is said to be one of the biggest secrets of the Israeli fashion industry, saying the cheap production costs for Israeli labels is a very expensive price for workers’ rights at Musa Garments.

The report says Mr. Musa, the owner, is an Israeli. But the real owners are Jack Braun and Moshe Cohen from Tel Aviv. The factory is located in the Al Hassan industrial area in Irbid, Jordan. The two employ 132 people from Bangladesh, 49 from India and 27 Jordanians. Chinese, Sri Lankans and Nepalese have also worked there in the past. “They all come for one reason only: To earn as much money as they possibly can to pay off the debts they incurred to purchase their three-year work contracts in Jordan, and send money home to their families,” states the report.

The report explains how the “guest workers” face inhuman conditions from their first day. Management takes away their passports, sometimes for the entire three-year period. Workers who asked for their passports back – or at least a copy – were refused, an illegal act and serious human rights violation.

The conditions are close to slavery. Until December 2008, when the economic crisis hit the company, workers averaged shifts of between 12 and a half and 13 and half hours a day, seven days a week – even though their contracts give them Fridays off. They also had to work on Jordanian national holidays. Anyone who missed a shift was fined three days’ wages, the report claims.

After December last year, the pace of production was stepped up and instead of having to sew 30 pieces an hour, workers were made to sew 40 – for the same wages.

“The public must know that products have a heavy human cost too,” said Dr. Roi Wagner of the Kav LaOved (Worker’s Hotline) organization. “The pursuit of lower production [costs] is very often dependent on violating human rights. The price is paid by Israeli workers whose jobs disappear, and also by the ‘cheap’ workers who produce goods in places where it is easier to abuse them. The manufacturer is not the only one responsible, but also the companies [that buy the goods] and the consumers,” said Wagner.

The list of complaints is long, including subhuman living conditions such as 4-8 people in a tiny dormitory room, no showers and water for only an hour or two a night. There is no heat in the rooms in the winter, and the bathrooms are filthy. The roofs leak.

One of the owners, Jack Braun, claims the truth is completely different. “The report is a total lie,” he said. “The workers went on strike for a reason I don’t know. As a result, human rights organizations arrived and the workers lied – though every one of their claims was proved false. They attacked the Bangladeshi consul and police who tried to talk to them. The conditions we provide them, in terms of work and food and housing, are above and beyond. We always paid them as required – they earn tiny salaries, so why shouldn’t we pay them?” said Braun.

Bonita’s management said they do not work with the company.

Kobi Hayat, one of the owners of Pashut, said: “I do not know of the place since we work through a subcontractor who receives the material from us, manufactures in Jordan and returns the clothes. I have never been there, and I do not know who receives the work, so it is hard for me to discuss the claims.”

a few days later another article appeared saying it was not a sweatshop:

Jordan’s Ministry of Labor on Wednesday rejected accusations that a local factory supplying clothing to Israel was abusing its workers, saying there was no evidence of either human trafficking or forced work.

On Sunday The National Labor Committee, a U.S.-based workers’ rights organization, released a report accusing the Musa Garments factory in Jordan of employing workers under inhuman conditions, and charges the company with “human trafficking, abuse, forced overtime, primitive dorm conditions, imprisonment and forcible deportations of foreign guest workers.”

of course, it is great to see that the government in jordan is concerned about having a sweatshop or human trafficking in their midst. but whee is the outrage over having a zionist terrorist colonist business on their land and in their midst? given that official jordanian policy is that they are at “peace” with the enemy, it makes sense that the government isn’t outraged. but where are the people? compare this to how egyptians responded recently when the government was working on a gas deal with the zionist entity as reported by adam morrow and khaled moussa al-omrani in the electronic intifada:

Opposition figures and political activists have slammed a new deal to sell Egyptian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Israel at what they say are vastly reduced prices.

“Egyptian gas is being sold to Israel at prices far below the international average,” Ibrahim Yosri, former head of legal affairs and treaties at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry told IPS. “This agreement is proof that the ruling regime is unconcerned with public opinion and is insistent on depriving the Egyptian public of its rightful national assets.”

On 28 July, Egypt formally agreed to sell between 12.5 billion and 16 billion cubic meters of LNG per year to Israel for a period of between 17 and 22 years. The Cairo-based Egyptian-Israeli energy consortium Egyptian Mediterranean Gas (EMG) will supply the gas to Israeli firm Dorad Energy for a total reported cost of between $2.1 billion and $3.3 billion.

Given longstanding popular condemnation of Israeli policies, particularly those relating to Palestinian populations in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, the deal also stirred political controversy.

“It is absolutely forbidden that we support a country currently at war with Islam and Muslims, and which occupies the land of Palestine,” Nasr Farid Wassil, former Grand Mufti of the republic, was quoted as saying in the independent press. “All economic relations with such a country should be severed.”

Despite its unpopularity, the deal is not the first: under an earlier energy accord, Egypt has been exporting LNG to Israel since May of last year. Extracted from fields in Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula, gas is pumped via submarine pipeline from the coastal town al-Arish to the Israeli port city Ashkelon.

The first accord, signed in 2005, allowed EMG to sell 1.7 billion cubic meters of LNG annually to the Israeli state-run Israel Electric Corporation for a period of 15 years. The sale price was never officially disclosed, fueling speculation by critics that gas was being sold to Israeli buyers at reduced prices.

Egypt is one of the few Arab states, along with Jordan and Mauritania, to have full diplomatic relations with Israel. Nevertheless, bilateral cooperation has remained severely hampered by popular disapproval of Israeli policies.

meanwhile the united states–and hillary clinton in particular–are pushing normalization among african countries with the zionist entity as ips reporters jerrold kessel and pierre klochendler explain:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been busy pursuing one aspect of the Obama Administration’s agenda – carrying to Africa the U.S. message of accountability. With a rather different agenda, Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Liberman also has Africa in his sights.

Whereas the U.S. is pressing a moral message hard – more democracy and less corruption, the Israeli approach is entirely pragmatic.

It’s not the first time Israel has been heavily involved in Africa.

Tanzanian freshmen at the University of Dar es Salaam will be excused for being unaware of the fact that their campus strikingly resembles facilities in Tel Aviv and Beersheba, two of Israel’s leading universities. That’s because the UDSM campus was designed by Israeli architects.

Nearly half a century ago, there was unexpected interaction between sub- Saharan Africa, just emerging from the dark years of colonial rule, and Israel – which had come into existence a decade-and-a-half earlier after ridding itself of a British presence – busily engaged in reaching out to other emerging nations.

Ever since, it’s been a relationship of ups and downs.

The aid to development programmes of Israeli experts, especially in the fields of irrigation, agriculture, communal rural development and medical training, won Israel considerable sympathy, and friends, in many of the newly- independent states. Hundreds of African students and experts underwent specialised training, tailor-made for their societies, in Israel.

But, as was the case in the Cold War era, the Israeli development projects were not entirely altruistic.

There was also the political motive of trying to break the ostracism in which Arab states and their allies in the Third World were encasing the fledgling new Middle Eastern state. This became especially acute following the 1955 conference of the non-aligned world in Bandung in Indonesia, where non- co-operation with Israel was adopted as policy.

There was a strategic dimension too. Israel’s legendary first prime minister David Ben-Gurion and his foreign minister Golda Meir foresaw a policy of encircling the circle of Israel’s regional isolation through alliances with non- Arab states on the periphery of the region – Turkey and Iran and, critically, Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa.

Just back from an extensive tour of South America, Liberman is soon to set out on a five-nation African tour. The Israeli foreign ministry calls it “an out- of-the-ordinary visit”, the most extensive ever by Israel’s top diplomat to the continent. He will criss-cross Africa to take in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Angola and Nigeria.

if you look at the website for the orange company, by the way, or its wikipedia page, you’ll notice that many of the above-listed countries in africa are also being subjected to orange telecom. just say no.

17 de julio de 2009

Global Business Environment

Increasing pressure to cut corporate cost and stay ahead of competition is been the necessity of global businesses for today, tomorrow and ever.

More companies than ever before will use remote programming and business processing resources to support their corporate goals in the coming years. Outsourcing in today’s world is seen as a strategic management option rather than a just a way to cut costs. It helps achieve the companies their business objectives through operational excellence and an edge in the marketplace.

According to IDC, worldwide IT outsourcing and processing services spending was approx $ 116.0 billion in 1999 and is expected to reach S 177.2 billion by 2004, representing an 8.8% CAGR. US outsourcing services are expected to grow at the same CAGR through 2004 to $ 61.6 billion. Dun and Bradstreet estimates that outsourcing will be a $ 1 Trillion market.

Why Outsourcing?

Resources of the companies need to be focused on core business functions so the non-core functions need to be outsourced. Outsourcing gives you the right combination of people, processes and technology to operate effectively in the Global market place without burdening your time and budget.

Companies outsource in order to achieve the following benefits:

• Financial Savings
• Technical Abilities
• Market Agility

The key drivers that is influencing development of global or offshore outsourcing, includes -

• The need for companies to reduce costs and remain competitive.
• The need for companies to improve the quality of their software maintenance and development efforts.
• An increased acceptance and understanding of the value of offshore outsourcing — cost, quality and time-to-market benefits.
• An increased awareness on the part of all Global 1000 firms that some portion of their IT function can be supported in lower cost geographies and that this is the wave of the future.
• Many offshore firms have mitigated the risks associated with offshore outsourcing relationships.
• Offshore IT-enabled services firms are beginning to mature and have legitimate customer references to support their value and safe

The India Factor

• India’s quality and cost benefit edge is one of the major draws for the increase of offshore outsourcing by MNCs to India.
• India has the second largest English speaking scientific manpower pool in the world, second only to the US.
• 82% of US companies  ranked  India  as their first choice for IT/Business Process outsourcing
• IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, AT&T, Fujitsu, Motorola, Digital, HP, Philips, GE, IBM,  Reebok,  Fujitsu,  British Aerospace,  General  Motors… the list is endless.
• Indian graduates cost 50%+ lower than in the US.
• Initial set-up costs are half those in the US.

Today, the India-based Business Process Delivery and Offshore Software Development & Maintenance approach has been used very successfully by several companies like General Electric Company, American Express, EDS, Accenture, Convergvs, Bell Northern Research Limited, Texas Instruments, Digital Equipment Corporation and Citicorp to name a few.

Radiant: Your Strategic Offshore Partner

Radiant’s has a successful delivery model for providing customers an extension arm for their software engineering, maintenance and support facilities, and at the same time extending the flexibility of ramping up and down with skilled and responsive people.

Service Delivery Models

Radiant engages with customers in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of engagement and specific customer needs. To provide 24/7 support services we use the following models:

• Fixed Price Model: This is the preferred approach when scope of the engagement is well defined and customer’s IT department is well skilled

• Time and Material Model: This is the preferred approach when the customer relies on Radiant for specific knowledge and emerging scope

• Dedicated Resource Pool model – Radiant’s shared service capability enables our clients to utilize all or some of the experienced resources allocated, offering flexible access to both commodity and niche skills in either a co-located or remote fashion.This model provides clients cost saving opportunities by offering a choice of a blend of fixed and variable pricing for their specific needs, only paying for what is required in practice and not staffing internally for potential future needs.

  Features:

  • A dedicated team of skilled offshore personnel in place to provide required support services
  • Our client’s Team size can be held to a minimum with resultant lower costs.
  • Resources are shared across multiple clients, thereby providing the client the cost benefits of a shared pool of resources
  • Each client can contract for a blend of fixed and variable components based upon anticipated usage and adjusted in the light of experience over time.
  • Availability of a larger pool of skilled resources than that affordable as an internal support team gives the client added security
  • Incident/issue based billing rates are kept to a bare minimum
  • Required resources can be scaled up or down in line with changing circumstances, offering the client significantly enhanced operational flexibility.

Each engagement can be executed using a combination or one of the following ways:

• On-site: Used when rapid turnaround times are expected with plenty of face-to-face team interaction. Higher budgets are available

• Offshore: Used when engagements are of typically larger size, scope is well defined and cost is an important consideration

• Near-shore: Used when the work can be done on shore but offsite option is chosen when clients want to run a help desk or support center within the same locale but outside their premises

• Right-shore: A combination of the above models, usually adopted when a client wishes to start with one model and transition the other extreme over a period of time

Benefits

• Reduce overheads, free up resources
• Avoid capital expenditure
• Improve efficiency
• Offload non-core functions
• Get access to specialized skills
• Save on manpower and training costs
• Reduce operating costs
• Improve speed and service
• Focus  on  strategic  thinking,  process  reengineering  and   managing trading partner relationships
• Provide the best quality services, products and people
• Focus scarce resources on time-critical projects such as application reengineering
• Obtain  needed  project management and implementation consulting expertise,    along    with    access    to    best    practices    and    proven methodologies
• Reduce the risk of technological obsolescence and increase efficiency by consolidating and centralizing functions
• Keep pace and minimize the impact of rapid changes in applications and standards
• Extend the reach to more trading partners quickly and efficiently

This should have been posted yesterday, but a four hour meeting steamrolled that plan, so here it is a day late.

This week’s Flickr photographer goes by robdigphot, and he just posted a set that includes a bunch of great images. Many of them deserve to be seen, but the one that caught my eye was a picture of the Royal Air Force team the Red Arrows, taken from directly ahead as they all prepare to break from formation. Just stunning.

The Red Arrows fly the British Aerospace Hawk (the last plane with a distinctive Hawker Siddeley tail) and their team home page is here.

If you like this, I encourage you to check out this summary of all of the aviation photography I have featured here.

Corporate responsibility… Isn’t that an oxymoron?

News today (here) that Hiatt, the Birmingham manufacturers who allegedly made the handcuffs used at Camp X-Ray, are to be packed up and shipped to America at short notice (much like the inmates at GB).

I say allegedly of course, to be fair. Hiatt owners BAE haven’t formally admitted that their subsidiary firm equipped one of the most horrific human rights abuses of recent years.

Why haven’t they admitted it, when it seems pretty obvious, considering former inmate Moazzam Begg said he saw the name stamped on his cuffs? Mainly because they say they just don’t know whether it’s true or not.

Said a BAE spokeswoman today:

We can tell you who are customers are and one of our customers in the US Department of Defence.

What they do with the products is really a question for them.

Which makes me think. They don’t know. And do they really care?

Después de que Estados Unidos firmara un contrato de 30.000 millones para vender armas a Arabia Saudí, España no ha querido ser menos y tras agasajar al Príncipe heredero Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, la autodeclarada “pacifista” ministra Chacón ha firmado “un acuerdo de cooperación militar” que no incluye la venta de armas “de momento”.

Sultán bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud

Primero un poco de historia. El príncipe Sultán de 80 años es el actual ministro de defensa de Arabia Saudí y se convertirá en rey cuando Abdula muera. Por mis conversaciones con saudíes tiene mucha peor imagen que el rey actual y es vox populi, su afición a meterse más dinero en el bosillo del que le corresponde, que no es poco. Y todos están deseando que Abdula de 85 años entierre a su hermano Sultán. Por si fuera poco se ha declarado opuesto a las tímidas reformas democráticas que se han llevado a cabo últimamente diciendo que “los analfabetos podrían tomar el poder”.

¿Os acordáis del escándalo en Reino Unido sobre gigantescos sobornos en la venta de armamento militar? Resulta que en 1985 el hijo de Sultán recibió más de 1.000 millones de libras esterlinas a modo de soborno para dar el contrato a los británicos. Ya en la época de Tony Blair, el escándalo salió a la luz y aunque el delito podría haber prescrito, el primer ministro británico bloqueó la inminente comisión de investigación alegando “razones de seguridad nacional”.

Hay muchas cosas irónicas. Que países occidentales vendan armas a un país como Arabia Saudí, mientras bombardean Iraq y Afganistán por ser una fuente de terrorismo y estar gobernados por islamistas radicales, según nos contaron. Que Reino Unido, que se las da de país gentleman y hace gala de su fair play, no tenga reparos en meterse hasta el cuello en el fango por un puñado de libras esterlinas (eso sí, muy grande).

Pero lo más irónico de todo, es que Arabia Saudí, que destina una parte muy importante de su presupuesto al ejército, no quiso (o no pudo) hacer uso de él cuando de verdad lo necesitó. En 1991, en la primera Guerra del Golfo, Arabia Saudí se vio amenazada por Iraq, su rival regional junto con Irán. Entonces no sólo permitió sino que solicitó la instalación de bases americanas en su territorio, para proteger su país. Esto tuvo consecuencias: islamistas radicales dieron la espalda a la familia Saudí y sobre todo la población se dio cuenta de que su glorioso ejército no era capaz de proteger a su país y hubo que pedir ayuda a EEUU. Además luego les pasaron la factura.

Los medios han guardado un prudente silencio que sólo ha sido roto por el diario Público con un artículo titulado “Un polígamo en Palacio“, muy al caso después de que nuestra vicepresidenta se declarase “horrorizada” tras hacerse una foto con un polígamo en Níger.

Parece que cierta dosis de hipocresía es imprescindible en los asuntos de palacio, que nosotros, el populacho no alcanzamos a entender del todo.

I leave the gates of Taji almost every day, multiple times a day, and for hours at a time. Unfortunately every time I go “outside the wire”, I face the uncertainties of war. The Iraqi streets are literally a minefield of IEDs, EFPs, mortars, small-arms fire, and virtually anything the insurgents can get their hands on in order to maim or kill Coalition Forces. We consider ourselves lucky whenever we find any one of these various weapons before they are used in the fashion they were intended. The insurgents of 2008 are much smarter and more versatile than they were in the beginning of the insurgency in late 2003-early 2004. However as they have adapted to our tactics, we have adapted to theirs. We are finding much more of their weapons stockpiles. We have many measures in place to spot IEDs and the more deadly EFPs (explosively-formed projectiles) before they are used against us. We are getting the local townsfolk to cooperate with us and tell us about these factions and where they are hiding with their weapons, when before they would turn the other way. We have CLCs (concerned local citizens) who man checkpoints and conduct patrols 24-7, when a year ago these same men were plotting ambushes and planting IEDs. People are saying “no” to Al Qaeda, and to violence in their towns and villages.

Despite all of the advances and successes in our mission, we still face death day in and day out. The 2^nd Stryker Brigade has already lost 5 heroes since they’ve arrived in Iraq during the Christmas holidays in 2007. Many more have been injured enough to have to go home to rehabilitate. Iraq is most definitely improving, but it is still one of the most dangerous countries in the entire world.

When I first came here in 2003, I landed at Baghdad International Airport as an aircraft mechanic supporting transient aircraft. The Army and Marines were fighting the enemy much in the same way they do today. However they didn’t face the same threat of IEDs the same way we do now. They drove around in lightly-armored Humvees (if armored at all), many without doors, to their targets. With the changes in enemy tactics, Soldiers and Marines began using scrap-metal to “up-armor” their vehicles to face the threat. They would place sandbags on the floor boards, fabricate armor from just about anything they could find, and rivet it to the doors. Eventually, with the arrival of the M1114 up-armored vehicle (basically just an add-on kit installed on a normal humvee), more protection was afforded service members in the event of an IED blast or small arms fire. As time went on, Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups began making their weapons stronger, possibly with the help of Iran, to counter our efforts at protecting our troops in battle. As our casualties rose, so did the enemy’s efforts. As deaths and injuries climbed, AM General released the new up-armor kit in early 2006 to troops fighting in Iraq. The M1151 afforded greater protection to soldiers and Marines in the field with ballistic glass, gapless door protection from mine blasts, and the addition of air conditioning to counter the temperature increase that came with adding additional protection to the vehicles. The 1151 type armor gave the Humvee the ability to withstand most IED blasts, preventing its occupants from severe injury or death. As a result, those casualty statistics dropped.

In late 2005, the EFP began rearing its ugly head in Iraq, and soldiers were being killed or maimed at a new high. The U.S. speculated (with certain evidence) that Iran (namely the Iranian Revolutionary Guard), was providing AQI and other insurgent groups with the materials and knowledge needed to make EFPs. As of today, EFPs are probably the number one killer of soldiers in Iraq. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Army purchased a number of new vehicles called Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP). The original MRAP was built by British Aerospace in South Africa. They were built with up-armored steel and the hull of the truck formed into a “v” shape to deflect any blast the vehicle faced. These new vehicles were given to certain units to test in combat, and they were proven effective against IEDs. The EFP however, was a different story. The EFP works by way of a concave copper or steel disk shaped liner that forms into a shaped “slug” when detonated. When detonated, the explosive forms the liner into a shaped projectile that can reach speeds of over 1 km/second, depending on the design. Since the explosion forms a molten copper penetrator instead a blast or a steel penetrator, the EFP is still dangerous to the new MRAP vehicle as it can penetrate the thick armor that the MRAP is built with.

Whether or not the EFP is effective is not the point of the story. The MRAP is almost like liquid courage to soldiers, especially myself. I absolutely hate going on missions in an up-armored humvee now that we have MRAPs. The MRAP is an amazing step up in the protection of our military forces, and although it isn’t 100% damage-proof, you can be rest-assured I will be more focused on the mission at hand when I am inside one! The vehicle is built tough, and of course it rides tough, but like a truck. I have seen MRAPs that were engaged by small-arms fire, only to have the ballistic glass literally shatter the rounds that impacted it. These things will increase soldier survivability, and thus increase morale. This makes the warfighter much more effective in combat.

I go out nearly every day, multiple times a day. I don’t mind so much anymore!

1 The BAE RG-31 Cat 1 MRAP

1 Navistar MaxxPros Cat 1 MRAP

To the five brave men who have given the ultimate sacrifices for our freedom:

SPC Jon M. Schoolcraft III, 26, Wapakoneta, OH

SPC Michael T. Manibog, 31, Alameda, CA

SGT Timothy P. Martin, 27, Pixley, CA

SSG Jerald A. Whisenhunt, 32, Orrick, MO

SGT Gary D. Willett, 34, Alamogordo, NM

-Cook

This video shows the harrier force during the cold war of the 1980s on exercise in West Germany,you can see the mobile harrier airfields being built by Royal Engineers from 10 field squadron, using thousands of aluminium planks,the guys who laid the planks called it kicking tin,when the exercise was over it all had to be picked up and each plank checked for damage.Building and clearing the sites did get boring at times,but it was all worth it to see the Harriers on exercise in the fields and forests of West Germany.Sometimes if tin kickers got lucky they got to fly in the two seater T-bird Harriers.The RAF guys called this passenger ride in a Harrier a JOLLY.

Historic Jetliners Group, today, posted two models of the BAe146 for download on their site; the -300 and the -300QT. Liveries include Northwest, flybe, Qantas, and British Airways to name a few. Each model has a blank white texture set that can be used as a paintkit.  In addition, a detailed panel and sound pack are available for download. For more information, visit their forum. So, what are you waiting for, go get ‘em!

FSX models will be released separately.