Clearly, strategic planning is no panacea. Strategic planning is simply a set of concepts, procedures, and tools designed to help leaders, managers, and planners think and act strategically. Used in wise and skillful ways by a “coalition of the willing,” strategic planning can help organizations focus on producing effective decisions and actions that further the organization’s mission, meet in mandates, and satisfy key stakeholders. But strategic planning is not a substitute for strategic thinking and acting. Only caring and committed people can do that. And when used thoughtlessly, strategic planning can actually drive out precisely the kind of strategic thought and action it is supposed to promote.

Furthermore, strategic planning is not a substitute for leadership. There is simply no substitute for leadership when it comes to using strategic planning to enhance organizational performance. At least some key decision makers and process champions must be committed to the strategic planning process, or any attempts to use it are bound to fail.

In addition, strategic planning is not synonymous with creating an organizational strategy. Organizational strategies have numerous sources, both planned and unplanned. Strategic planning is likely to result in statement of organizational intentions, but what is realized in practice will be some combination of what is intended and what emerges along the way. Strategic planning can help organizations develop and implement effective strategies, but they should also remain open to unforeseen opportunities. Too much attention to strategic planning and excessive reverence for strategic plans can build organizations to other unplanned and unexpected—yet incredibly useful—sources of information, insight, and action.

The discipline necessary for strategic planning can be of two sorts. The first harkens back to Latin root of the word “discipline,” emphasizing instruction, training, education, and learning. The second embodies later interpretations of the word, emphasizing order, control, and punishment. Emphasis should be placed on education and learning, although there clearly are occasions when imposing order, taking control, and enforcing appropriate sanctions are appropriate. Certainly, key leaders, managers, and planners can best use strategic planning as an educational and learning tool, to help them figure out what is really important and what should be done about it. Sometimes this means following a particular sequence of steps and preparing formal strategic plans, but not necessarily. The ultimate goal of strategic planning should not be a rigid adherence to a particular process or an instance on the production of plans. Instead, strategic planning should promote wise strategic thought and action on behalf of an organization and its key stakeholders. What steps to follow, in what sequence, and whether or not to prepare formal plans are subsidiary concerns.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Rumors that trees known as Chinese Swamp Cypress can treat all diseases, including cancer, have led local residents in the Central Highlands province of Dac Lac rushing to chop down forests in search of the alleged cure-all.

All Chinese Swamp Cypress trees in Dac Lac Province’s Trap K’Sor forest are numbered. Illegal loggers seek out the endangered trees believing them to be a cure-all for diseases. (Photo: SGGP)

In addition to its rumored disease-curing properties, Chinese Swamp Cypress (Glyptostrobus pensilis) is also sought after for its sturdy wood and beautiful red-brown color.

The trees, however, are no longer reproducing and are listed in the Vietnam Red Book of endangered species.

Chinese Swamp Cypress are located in Ea Ral and Trap K’Sor forests of Ea H’Leo and Krong Nang Districts respectively. They are the two last known areas where the species grows in the world, with only around 280 trees left in total. 

Nguyen Van Kiem, head of the Krong Nang District forest management station, said that the rumor started after a TV game show aired on June 5, 2009, which featured a question about a type of tree able to treat all diseases. The answer provided by the host was the Chinese Swamp Cypress.

A day after the program aired, hundreds of residents in Krong Nang District rushed to Trap K’Sor forest searching out the precious trees.

The forest management station was forced to ask police to intervene and the residents were ordered not to cut down the wood. 

However, the station has since reported 16 cases where trees were found chopped down, totaling 43 cubic meters of wood.

Twelve more cases involving 15 people illegally exploiting and trading the precious wood at Ea Ral, have also been reported.

Dac Lac Province has now set up two stations to protect the trees at Trap K’Sor and Ea Ral, however, the work has met with many difficulties due to a lack of financial and human resources.

Trap K’Sor station has just three staff to protect 29 trees, which are scattered over 51.6 hectares of thick forest and swamps.

The Ea H’Leo District forest management station has asked the Dac Lac Province Forest Management Sub-Department to establish a Chinese Swamp Cypress biological area, but it has yet to be approved.

Bookmark & Share

Llevo varios días con una crisis existencial.

Todo empezó cuando mi amiga Kika (iba a poner compañera, pero amiga la define mejor ) me habló del método Post para social media marketing.

Fue como abrir la caja de Pandora. De  repente me pareció que, leyera lo que leyera, hablaba sobre el mismo tema. Quizá no con ese nombre, pero si con la misma idea de fondo: ¿Estar en la Red es garantía de éxito? ¿Estamos equivocados al recetar la web 2.0 como si fuera una aspirina que vale para todo? (bueno, la aspirina está demodé, digamos paracetamol)

En el fondo, la realidad “analógica” y la “online” no son tan distintas, aunque muchas veces actuamos como si lo fueran:

A (casi) nadie se le ocurriría abrir un negocio sin analizar antes los recursos con los que cuenta, el mercado al que va a dirigirse, la competencia que tendrá, los productos/servicios que ofrecerá….

A (casi) nadie se le ocurriría aconsejar a una empresa que se instalara en una zona en la que no va a tener clientela: si tienes una tienda de golosinas, ponla cerca de un colegio.

Sin embargo, parece que tener una web, abrir un blog, montar un perfil en una red social, crear una cuenta en twitter… es algo que no necesita pensarse. Cualquiera puede hacerlo, pero… ¿Todos van a tener el éxito que esperan? ¿No será como abrir una tienda en un centro comercial de millones de kilómetros cuadrados, llenos de tiendas iguales que la nuestra?

Una de las tesis del manifiesto Cluetrain (la 23) dice “Las compañías que intentan “posicionarse”, necesitan adoptar una posición. Idealmente relacionada con algo que realmente le importe a su mercado.”

En estos nuevos tiempos, en los que el marketing se ha “democratizado” y ya no hay que tener mucho dinero para llegar  a mucha gente, hemos olvidado la primera regla: “Pensar antes de actuar”.

Después de mucho darle vueltas, empiezo a ver la luz al final del túnel. No estamos equivocados cuando afirmamos que hay que tener presencia en la Red. Pero (volviendo a la metáfora de la aspirina/paracetamol) siempre recordando que no existe la panacea universal: hay una medicina para cada cosa.

Originally Written by: Victor Marcial-Vega, MD

SCALAR WAVE TECHNOLOGY: THE METAMATRIX HEALING CHAMBER Dr. Victor Marcial-Vega, M.D., at the Bradgate Arms, Toronto Dr. Victor Marcial-Vega, recognized as being in the top one percent of medical doctors in the U.S., trained at Johns Hopkins University, and was formerly staff radiation oncologist at both the University of Miami and Washington University Schools of Medicine. Dr. Marcial-Vega has done research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He has testified before US Congress and presented this technology to numerous medical and professional organizations nationally and internationally including the Radiation Oncology Committee meeting, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and neurological, nutritional and integrative medicine conferences. He has spearheaded clinical studies and research into the MetaMatrix technology. See www.sandramichael.com

THE HEALING CHAMBER

Sandra Michael developed the MetaMatrix technology. She is a world renowned Hawaiian Kahuna who has worked in Hawaii for 20 years. She does energy healing. She touches you very lightly but it has a dramatic effect. She hits the areas which have negative blockages, and the blockages are released while she is doing her work. She wanted to emulate the type of energy increase and energy release that she produced in her healing sessions without having to be physically present. Over the past 10 years, she has been doing research with a computer programmer with a system of computers, and this resulted in the MetaMatrix healing chamber which has four computers running programs that create scalar waves.

SCALAR WAVE TECHNOLOGY

The MetaMatrix healing chamber is based on scalar wave technology. Electromagnetic waves are linear – the more energy you put in, the more waves you produce, and the more impact it will make in a biological model. A scalar wave is non-linear, not electromagnetic, and exists in five-dimensional space/time, a dimension where there is no time or space. That means they do not decay with time or distance from their source. The scalar waves are associated with electro-magnetism but since they are non-linear, they cannot be measured with a linear device. They must be measure indirectly.

Scalar waves were documented by Nicola Tesla many years ago (later research demonstrated that scalar waves from Teslar watches increase the production of lymphocytes). Albert Einstein discovered the practical application of the scalar wave. Einstein proposed the theory and proved mathematically that time and space are relative. They are absolute only in this dimension we are living in, paying taxes, working from nine to five, all that is limited reality. But he also knew that there is another reality which has no time and no space and that it is real. We know that the clocks in rocket ships run at a different rate than those on planet earth because the speed changes time. Einstein said that if we travelled at the speed of light for 30 years, when we returned we would be the same age as when we left. This has been proven mathematically, although we still have no technology that can actually stop time and space. If we have a technology that can produce a timeless reality, we can reverse disease and prevent aging. The computer programs run the formulas that Einstein developed, but remember the chamber is not 100% scalar. We are still not at the optimum level by any means, because otherwise everybody would be totally healed when they go into the chamber and this is not the case yet.

Scalar waves have a potential for increasing energy and reversing aging. They increase the connection between that universal energy (or God) which is limitless, without time and space, and your awareness of it, to use it in order to manifest whatever you want to manifest, whether it’s health, wealth, happiness or whatever.

NEUTRALIZATION OF HARMFUL ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AROUND US

I checked with an electrician because I wanted to make sure this chamber was safe. Four computers pointing to the center where someone is sitting could bombard one with radiation which we know is present in computers, emissions like 200 to 500 Hertz, or any higher frequency than 60 Hertz. We know that it is harmful to your health. He measured the wires, but could not find any electricity along the wires, which is very unusual. So he measured the wires outside the treatment room and again found zero in all the wires. He found the usual 60 Hertz only in front of the TV and in front of the computers running the programs; otherwise he couldn’t find it anywhere in the office. The next week I measured the office wires again. I measured zero, then 20, then 10 minutes later it would be 15. Right now it is fluctuating between 0 and 30 Hertz. It was a very unstable field but it was less than normal. Somehow the program was neutralizing what we know as detrimental electromagnetic waves around these electrical fields.

INTENTION

Your intent is very important in anything that you do. We ask everyone to make an intent when they are in the chamber. We see that the answers to prayers are manifesting very rapidly and very consciously. Many of us pray or ask God for assistance or ask the Energy of the Universe to send you something, but not many are listening to that energy talking back to us. The most limiting factor in the healing process has been the lack of listening and getting the message of exactly what we need to do at all times. The universe is always telling us exactly what we need to do, but we are not always listening because we are so distracted by all the stuff around us. In the instructions all I say is Close your eyes, go as deep as you can and listen.

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF THE TREATMENT

This is only a preliminary report. I saw 105 patients in my clinic. We put each of them into the chamber for a half-hour. We didn’t include supplements or dietary advice in the study. They didn’t do the ozone chamber or chelation or anything else. My patients reported that they had stress reduction, easier meditation, increased learning capacity, better sleep and increased intelligence. A third of the people had visions. Some people reported a complete healing of chronic conditions after being in the chamber only half an hour. About 85 to 90% of people experience a deep sense of love, relaxation and out-of-body experiences, expanded awareness experiences, tingling sensations, increased libido, removal of negative blocks, clarity of thought and improvement of energy. My patients were coming out of the chamber feeling very happy. Some were crying because they were so happy. Fifteen percent of patients cancelled follow-up treatments because they said they didn’t need any more; they were healed.

IMPROVED HEALTH CONDITIONS

A number of conditions have responded very quickly to the healing chamber:

DIABETES
Every diabetic will have a drop in their blood sugar immediately, so they have to be tested and start tapering down their insulin or oral medicine immediately after one session in the chamber.

VISION
I noticed that the healing chamber would improve vision and it started improving my vision so much that my contact lens prescription has gone down. A doctor friend of mine had bilateral retinal detachments and he went blind. He had cataracts in both eyes and he had the regular look of someone who is blind, one eye one way, and the other one in the opposite direction – white. When I shined a light in the eye, there was no papillary reflex, which meant that no light was reaching the optic nerve. No connection between the eye and the brain, really a bad case and permanent. He went into the chamber and immediately after two hours, he could see light and then after a few more sessions he could see shapes. Then I started giving him an eye-drop preparation with herbs and aromatherapy, and he started recovering. Three months later he saw my face for the first time, and to make a long story short, he’s driving a car right now.

KIDNEY STONES
People who went in with kidney stones passed the stones painlessly right after being in the chamber. So it helps pass the stones.

CHRONIC PERMANENT INJURIES
People with chronic permanent injuries, nerve damage, muscle damage, bone damage, cartilage damage in different parts of the body due to accidents, were able to start moving normally. And that is very unusual because I haven’t seen this improvement with any alternative medicine or conventional medicine procedures.
Three of my patients expelled stitches from old scars from surgeries 20 to 40 years ago. This is very unusual. But the chamber creates a beneficial electromagnetic frequency and that gives the cells more electricity and more energy to expel anything they want to get rid of.

CHRONIC DISORDERS

I noticed that people who had chronic disorders like osteoporosis benefited more than acute problems like colds or flu.

PAIN CONTROL
The more chronic the pain, the better the chance of improvement. All my patients who were in pain experienced control of their pain right after the treatment. Pain control has a 100% result so far. It is useful for pain control of all kinds including pain that requires narcotic medication.

PARKINSON’S AND TREMOURS
One of my patients with Parkinson’s went into the chamber and has stopped shaking. This heals very quickly.

STROKES
I’ve seen people with strokes being healed in one session.

ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
We have 100% results for people who suffer from anxiety and depression. I think depression is due to anxiety, it’s all related.

SINUS PROBLEMS, FIBROMYALGIA, FATIGUE
have improved.

ARTHRITIS
We’re finding out that many of these conditions are caused by infections: arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, stomach ulcers – who would have thought that that was caused by bacteria. Because of imbalance in the body, we are allowing bacteria and viruses to overgrow in the body, resulting in chronic disease. So arthritis is very easy to heal. One of the quickest ways to decrease arthritic pain is with enzymes. Enzymes decrease the pain, and then you start working with the infection with ozone or other things like that. My patients have told me that their arthritis has been relieved very quickly in the chamber.

CANCER
I have put some cancer patients in the chamber but I have not seen any healing of cancer in the chamber yet. However, half of the patients experienced a temporary complete absence of pain for a few days. Perhaps this means that a cancer patient needs to be in the chamber 24 hours a day, or eight hours a day, not just two hours. I always wanted to try that, but because of logistics problems was not able to. But I would recommend that someone with cancer stay in 24 hours a day for seven days and see what happens.

RELAXATION AND HEALING AND THE POWER OF LOVE

There is one common denominator that I have found. The level of tranquillity and peace and love that you feel during the session is the main factor that correlates with these healings. If you can go into a state of deep relaxation for a long enough period, there is nothing that the body cannot heal.
One hundred percent of the people who allowed themselves to reach the point of ultimate deep relaxation from which all healing can occur were seeing visions of many things, or light, or they were hearing things. They were not fidgeting, not looking at the clock, they were not getting up or down or opening the eyes or wondering how long this will take. They were just going with it. I personally have heard rainforests every time I go into the chamber environment. I was just listening to another dimension that I am still in the process of understanding.

OPTIMAL LENGTH OF TIME IN THE CHAMBER

If you have not experienced this yet, I would encourage you to experience the chamber for two hours and also alone, preferably, because if you are with someone and you’re going deep and they fidget, then they wake you up and you have to get started again. It’s a very intimate experience and whatever happens is between you and your maker, God or the Universe, or whatever you want to call it. I noticed that two hours gave the best effects, 100% effect; the effect will vary, but it will be something major. So far 100% of people have had a major life changing experience when they are in the environment for two hours, not a half-hour or an hour. Why is this? During the first half-hour, there is a struggle between the mind and the spirit to listen. Sometimes we don’t want to listen. We want to be in charge. (“No I have to be out of here in one hour, I have to pick up the kids, I have to pay this bill, I have to call Mary because she asked me.) All that chattering inside the mind is keeping you from just listening. The secret of this universe is just sitting down to listen. When we take the time to listen, the energy will come and it is almost like the energy of the universe or God. All that love coming forward can be very uncomfortable. When pure love comes it shakes whatever is inside of us that is not love because it is not compatible. But love is what we are asking for, so it’s a paradox and it is like a game until we learn to walk into it
After an hour almost invariably the struggle is over. The next hour is pure healing and pure communication with other dimensions and other expanded levels of awareness. We only use about five to ten percent of our brains. We have seen that the chamber increases the brain capacity. We have done brain scans before and after someone goes into the chamber. Initially there are areas of the brain that are totally shut-off. There is no electricity going through and we can measure this. After being in the chamber those areas start lighting up.

FREQUENCY OF THE TREATMENT

It could be once a week, three times a week, every day, twice a day, once a month. It depends on the patient.

KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY AND ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAMS (EEG)

Both Kirlian photography and EEGs demonstrate that the chamber increases the energetic blueprint of anything that is put in, whether a human being or a dietary supplement. It seems to be permanent, because when we measure it three months, six months or nine months later, the energy is still there. It’s amazing. If you are taking the supplements, you’re taking scalar wave reality in you. Kirlian photography measures the aura; it measures energy. We can measure energy waves anywhere from heat waves to electromagnetic waves. We can measure the electrons that are emitted from every living being and every inanimate object, and those electrons can form a pathway that looks like a spark. The more energy we have, the healthier we are. The less energy we have, the more lifeless we are. An inanimate object will have less energy of course than a living organism. Kirlian photography showed that this healing technology permanently increased the energy of the supplements and people that went into the chamber. In other words six months later, the energy was still at an increased level. The chamber makes the cells more energized. Kirlian photographic studies before and after treatment in the chamber show significant changes around the electromagnetic aura.

EEGs demonstrated that the chamber increased the brainwaves related to meditation, relaxation, peace and love; and it also increased the number of locations in the brain where those waves are being produced. I have actual brain wave measurements of patients before and after they go into the chamber which are very impressive. Electroencephalograms show that after the patient has been in the chamber a half-hour, there is more symmetry between the energy emissions on the right and left sides of the brain.

DETOXIFICATION

I measured the blood composition of my patients by red cell analysis before and after they went into the chamber. I found that every single person showed an increase in the toxins in the blood immediately after treatment, but the blood was more fluid. So somehow the healing chamber was stimulating the tissues to dump the toxins into the blood and the blood became more fluid in order to get the toxins out of the body. The toxins disappeared after a few days. So the chamber was cleaning the system, because of course disease cannot flourish in a scalar wave environment which has no time and no space. The blood of people who got a headache right after they were in the chamber was full of toxicity: parasites, fungi and viruses which were not there before they went into the chamber.

Detoxification is something we want because it gets rid of the toxins that are in the body. In my case, it was a sore throat, headache and a stomach pain. I see similar detoxification symptoms in everyone: sore throat, headaches and abdominal distension in about 3/4 of my patients. I recommend moving the bowels and plenty of water after the treatment. For people who have toxic blood and headache I would recommend a glass of water and optimally move their bowels two or three times a day before they go in the chamber. Afterwards, just continue drinking water and moving their bowels and detoxifying. You can use a salt bath or eat less red meat, no coffee, more organic fruits and vegetables, etc.

The theory is that the chamber creates a higher state of molecular activity in the body, which changes the electrical charge of the cells so that they are repelling toxins that otherwise stay in the tissues. Detoxification invariably led to an increased rejuvenation. My patients were sleeping better, had better skin and felt more energized. They felt like life was wonderful and not only that, they began to make changes in their lives. They had better relations with the people around them and better health.

Of all the technologies that I have recently researched, this is one of the most powerful detoxifiers that I have encountered.

VICTOR’S VISION

When I went into the chamber I felt a very very deep relaxation. I felt energy and warmth. I went in about an hour a day, and my sleep decreased from eight hours a day to six hours, to four hours to three hours, and I began to wonder what was going on here. But I was becoming more clear and more joyful, and this has lasted to the present time. Since using the healing chamber, I have had better memory, better sleep, less need for sleep, more energy, more focus than before. My body is becoming stronger. My pockets are full of money all the time.

Back in February I went to Maui. Two weeks in a tent with just a beautiful view doing nothing. I was not a visionary at the time, though I will get visions every once in a while. I would see some things here while I was in the chamber. It wasn’t a regular thing. The last night I was in Maui, something very interesting happened. I had an explosion of light in my head. I felt like I was traveling across the galaxy faster than I could even describe. All of a sudden I feel like I am part of everybody and everything is part of me, I am connected with all of you with everything that existed. I can pinpoint everyone and everything that I have ever encountered in my life. Two minutes later I forgot that I had ever lived in physical form. I didn’t leave my body. I felt like I was more in my body than I have ever been but I did not feel physicality. To me the physical world had disappeared at that moment. I felt like we had all agreed to really see what is happening and at that moment all of a sudden, we were not physical any more. We had transcended that state. I felt like we were one with God. Everything was part of God, even though I saw that we were not there yet (yet we are). We were trying to control all this energy with the mind, and I saw that we were destroying the planet. If we wanted we could destroy everything, and the mind was making everything go into oblivion, total destruction, total obliteration, not just the planet, but of everything, the whole universe. The mind is a limiting way of looking at things. This was seven minutes into this vision. So I just became very still and stopped trying to do something about things, and the oblivion just reversed. Our mission is to protect nature. If we don’t take care of nature, we’re not going to make it.

MUSIC IN THE CHAMBER

There’s a lot of music being infused into that chamber if we listen. If we listen, first we hear that fans of the computers, then we hear the circuits going on and off and then you start hearing behind those two sounds. You start hearing these waves going around the room. And then you keep going behind that. The quieter and deeper we go and the more we become still and the more we listen, we start getting layers upon layers of more subtle, more powerful sound. That’s one of the reasons I don’t put on any music because I want people to listen to everything that is coming in for them.

INFORMATION FOR THERAPISTS – COST OF THE CHAMBER

The cost of the chamber is $14,000 US for the whole program including maintenance. They have to come and align the programs every few months. They cannot just leave it as is. They upgrade it and provide new programs. It includes four computers, four pedestals, all the required electrical wiring. The cost includes complete set-up and maintenance.

What I recommend most to my patients is meditation and relaxation.

Dr. Vega’s CD, Feeling Meditation, contains music which is very relaxing and directed meditation. Please inquire for the CD. Call 416-924-9800.

Experience the Ultimate Technology! MetaMatrix Chamber!

This new technology developed by Sandra Michael is now available in six locations in Toronto including:
* Holistic psychotherapist Catherine Allon (Queen E./Woodbine area). 416-694-0232
* Dr. Sabina DeVita and Geoff Riley at the DeVita Wellness Institute in Brampton. Dr. DeVita incorporates the healing chamber and the GDV Kirlian camera which shows your psychological, emotional and physical profile. 905-451-4475
For other locations or more information, please contact us at 416-924-9800.

This is OFFICIALLY the first post on here so I had to make sure I bless your ears with just a taste of some dopenesss! Damu The Fudgemunk,  Producer/Dj/MC, also half of hip-hop group Y Society & Panacea, hails from the District of Columbia bringing that classic hip-hop sound back to the forefront. Just a quick listen to his music and you will notice soul and jazz loops with heavy drum breaks. All a good formula for the eardrum. Be sure to check out the new instrumental version of Travel At Your Own Pace  which will be available in Late November ‘09 on CD/Limited Edition Vinyl via Redefinition Records (digital version available via Tres Records)

Check the BIO

FREE Damu Fudgemunk Music

http://www.wonkabeats.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/damuthefudgemunk

MUCH MORE TO COME SOON, PEACE!!!

Curt Eysink is an unpopular man.

Less than three months after assuming his post as executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, he told a panel charged with overhauling the state’s higher education system: “We’re producing a workforce that we cannot employ in Louisiana.”

The problem? Too many four-year college grads and not enough low-skill and vocational trade workers.

Where is the job growth?

The service industry.

“[O]ccupational forecasts that show the state will produce 10,312 more four-year graduates than there are jobs to fill between 2008 and 2016, while at the same time there are 3,892 more jobs available requiring associates’ or technical degrees than there are people to fill them, ” reports Jan Moller of the Times Picayune.

Fairly or not, such news equates in Americans’ minds with sub par wages. And low-wage prospects make Americans see red.

“If I saw the strongest growth area was ushers, lobby attendants and ticket-takers, I’d leave Louisiana too,” said Belle Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Outside of Louisiana this story has not gained much traction. But it is far from a Louisiana fluke.

“According to the Forgotten MiddleSkill Jobs reports by The Workforce Alliance, middle-skill occupations, which require more than a high school education but less than a four-year degree, make up roughly half of all employment in the nation, compared with only 1/3 of high-skill occupations that require at least a four-year education,” writes Ann Pace in “The Forgotten Middle Worker“, published in September.

Louisiana was not among the states studied but it very well could have been: The Workforce Alliance analysis of middle-skill job demands include Washington, Oregon, California, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Rhode Island — all of which have proven consistent with the national outlook, survey reports show.

Welcome to the future, America.

The mainstream media is either entirely oblivious to real job trends, or chooses to keep Americans in the dark because a future filled with ticket-takers, cashiers, healthcare aides, auto mechanics and electricians isn’t the kind of news we want to hear. To the contrary, syndicated New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in October, argued that “our schools are failing” to promote American competitiveness, in part, because we allegedly have a shortage of science, engineering, mathematics and other such high-tech grads. The “new untouchables“, by Friedman’s definition, are those who maintain an innovative and stable career in an increasingly cutthroat economy.

Message: Make schools more competitive. This will cure America’s globalized bellyache.

Improving student literacy, of course, is never a waste of time. What Friedman and others fail to take under consideration, however, is that few Americans work in the field they studied in college. That includes so-called STEM grads (science, technology, engineering and math majors).

But wait, it gets better!

Susan Hockfield, MIT’s president, takes the argument to a whole new level of absurdity in an October opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal in which she pleas for immigration reform to allow more foreign-born STEM grads to stay in the U.S. for permanent work as “jobs creators” and “Nobel winners”.

Who hires those foreign grads on H-1B visas? Microsoft, Google and other heavy hitters. This is the last thing most Americans call job creation. Hockfield’s suggestion reeks, instead, of domestic job displacement. Why? Because fewer U.S. citizens are likely to pursue challenging Ph.D.-level curriculum when their post-graduation economic stability is undercut by inexpensive foreign talent (insourcing/outsourcing). American-born students aren’t stupid, they’re pragmatic: What incentive is there to incur massive student loan debts if at best “employment insecurity” is the reward for the effort? And finally, to add insult to injury, independent studies from The Urban Institute, RAND Corp., Duke and Rutgers University, among others, say the so-called demand for high-tech and high-skill foreign workers doesn’t even exist — and that was true before the Great Recession cut loose thousands of qualified workers, dumping them back into the open market:

Is Anybody Safe?

Here’s how Eysink gets it right and the corporate and academic sources often quoted on this subject slant it wrong: Highly skilled foreign students aren’t coming to American universities to pursue jobs as lobby attendants or cashiers on the one hand, or the better paying “skilled trades”, such as auto mechanics, electricians and machinists, on the other. They are pursuing cream-of-the-crop professional skills whereas non-manufacturing jobs that require hands-on skills are relatively unscathed. After all, if your pipes burst you aren’t calling a plumber in China; your hairdresser will not be replaced anytime soon with a computerized robot; and your auto body repairperson is unlikely to be supplanted by a foreign grad student.

Nobody is arguing that these are ideal aspirations for Americans — only that middle-skill jobs are relatively safe from the insource/outsource phenomena. But when lettuce pickers and high-tech whiz kids are both here on work visas — if legally at all — watch out.

That should scare us.

When Eysink says that vocational and low-skill jobs are where much of the growth projections are, he’s only saying what everyone working on behalf of community and state employment agencies already knows.

What is telling is that Eysink’s neck has been slashed for sticking it out too far.

Eysink’s blunt outlook flies in the face of the education-as-a-panacea argument that has been the politically correct solution to all that ails the U.S. economy for at least 30 years now. Might tax incentives drive U.S. corporations to seek greener pastures offshore? Naw. Might looser environmental and human rights standards make foreign labor attractive? Naw. Might this be a predictable outgrowth of border-free trade? Naw. Let’s just dismiss all those larger-than-life realities and jump on the little guy at a state agency for saying what we already knew but are too afraid to admit.

The School of Hard Knocks

Following the conventional go-back-to-school advice, unemployed Americans are enrolling in schools of all stripe. Those educational pursuits often involve taking out student loans. If obtaining anything short of high-demand professional or trade skills isn’t going to cut it in this Brave New Economy — and the national jobless rates hover above 10 percent as many economists project — it suggests that many freshly minted grads and their return-to-school adult counterparts will not secure stable employment by which to repay educational debts.

The next consumer debt “bubble” to burst the American economy before the effects of the Great Recession are entirely behind us may well be a student lending bubble. Louisiana state Governor Bobby Jindal isn’t the only one reading the writing on the wall. Other states are following suit, attempting to prevent a tsunami of student loan defaults at a time when more prospective students are clamoring for a university education and the academic loans to fund them.

What makes misguided career advisement particularly unforgivable, in the end, is that we Americans are only doing what we’ve been told to do by media, educators and the President himself: Earn new or improved academic credentials in hopes of securing a better future even if it means a prohibitive amount of debt.

Higher education is never a waste in the aim of creating an informed, well-rounded citizen. Economic betterment is also a useful reason to invest in education — assuming one’s skills aren’t so easily ravaged by globalization. As for the rest of the American public?

A rude awakening. And another swipe at an already ailing economy to boot.

Ah, but thankfully there is a silver lining: All hope is not lost for children who fail to become the academic superstars this Brave New Economy demands. Friedman and his pontificating friends may not appreciate it now, but America’s new untouchable may be Joe the Plumber.

Judging from the state of America’s aged and crumbling infrastructure, we’re going to need more Joes than we know.

###

Resources

State Labor Department Says LA Has Too Many 4-Year College Grads/AP

The Workforce Alliance

Skills2Compete

America’s High-Tech Sweatshops/BusinessWeek

The H-1B Visa Lull Is Only Temporary/BusinessWeek

Is This Why I Went to College?/BusinessWeek

Congress’ H-1B Program Displaces Daughter of Programmers Guild President Out of Job Market

There is No High-Tech Shortage/The Social Contract

The Science Education Myth/BusinessWeek

The Myth of the Math and Science Shortage/Mises Institute

Another Scientist Shortage?/Science Careers

Nine Myths About Public Schools/Gerald Bracey of the Huffington Post

A Look Back: The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools/The Atlantic

DOWNLOAD

For tracklist >>> The Panacea feat. AC Slater – Ravemusic Ressurected [Freak]
01. Moby – Thousand [little Idiot]
02. The Panacea – Creatch [Position Chrome]
03. Counterstrike – Burst [Alghorythm]
04. Mumblz & Switch Technique – Killer Headache (The Dying Punks RMX) [Dark Asylum]
05. ?? – ?? [??]
06. The Sect – Everything Is Waves [Position Chrome]
07. ?? – ?? [??]
08. Lethal – Substixentialism [Position Chrome]
09. Raiden – Peloton [Position Chrome]
10. Audio – Planet Fall [Virus]
11. The Panacea / Limewax?? – ?? [Position Chrome]
12. Donny – Crawler [Barcode]
13. Eye-D & Squzee – Circuitry [PRSPCT]
14. Current Value – Higher [Subsistenz]
15. ?? – ?? [??]
16. Current Value – Bruja / Propaganda – The Real VIP/ Propaganda – The Said The Hardcore Would Die /Donny – Dark Planet Remix (The Panacea Mashup) [Never To Be Released]
17. The Panacea & Limewax – OMG Klonk [Position Chrome]
18. Audio – Error (RMX??) [??]
19. The Panacea – ?? [Position Chrome]
20. Counterstrike – Meltdown [PRSPCT]
21. The Panacea – ?? [Position Chrome]
22. Donny – Ten Tonne Hammer [Barcode]
23. Cooh – Smush [Position Chrome]
24. Current Value – Warship [Barcode]
25. Raiden – Sputnik (The Sect RMX) [NTBR]
26. ?? – ?? [??]
27. Temper D – Techno Prisoners (Cooh RMX) [Temper D]
28. Audio – Vigilante VIP [N/A]
29. Donny & The Panacea – Rage [Position Chrome]
30. Limewax – Kristall Weizen / Vince & Zany – More Bazz (The Panacea Mashup) [Never To Be Released]
31. Dune – Hardcore Vibes Bootleg / Cooh – Alarmax (The Panacea Mashup) [Never To Be Released]
32. DvK & Cooh – Off The Leash [Subsistenz]
33. Apex – Hench / ?? – ?? (The Panacea Mashup) [Never To Be Released]
34. Audio – Sector 9 [Position Chrome]
35. unknown
36. Jon Doe – D.1 (RMX) / Gancher – Virus (The Panacea Mashup) [Never To Be Released]
37. Audio – Error / Proket – Norilsk (Raiden & The Panacea Mashup) [Never To Be Released]
38. ?? – ?? [??]
39. Current Value – New Life [LB]
40. The Panacea feat. AC Slater – Ravemusic Ressurected / Cooh – To / Technical Itch feat. Kemal – The Calling (The Panacea Mashup) [Never To Be Released]
41. ?? – ?? [??]
42. CLSM feat. Leah Symons – Move On [CLSM]
43. Current Value – The Good [Tech Freak]

Originally Written by: Moss, Ralph, Ph.D.

Ralph Moss is the former assistant director of Public Affairs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Presently, he is advisor to the Office of Alternative Medicine, and co-chair of the panel on Pharmacological and Biological Treatments at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Md. He is the founding editor of The Cancer Chronicles newsletter, and author of seven books, including The Cancer Industry, Free Radical, A Real Choice, and the award-winning PBS documentary The Cancer War.

THE CANCER INDUSTRY

In 1974, I was hired by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the world’s largest private cancer center. Shortly after I was hired, I visited one of their scientists, Kanematsu Sugiura who was researching amygdalin, which is another name for laetrile. Although he had been getting positive results using laetrile in the treatment of cancer, we in public affairs were handing out a brochure to the public saying that laetrile was a quack remedy, and that we had no evidence that it was effective even though Dr. Sugiura had found that laetrile stopped or slowed the growth of small tumours and dramatically decreased the spread of cancer from the breast to the lungs in laboratory mice. So I was really amazed by this and continued to investigate it. To make a long story short, after 3 1/2 years, the more positive Dr. Sugiura’s results, the more negative were the statements we were being asked to give out in public affairs, until in 1976, we were instructed to give out a statement saying that we had found laetrile negative in all animal systems that we had tested. It was an outright lie and I refused to do this and eventually in 1977, stood up at a press conference, made these charges, and was fired on the next day. The reason for this is economic. There are powerful vested interests in chemotherapy and other cancer treatments that would be tremendously disturbed by the introduction of non-toxic treatments for cancer into the market. The drug industry dominates the board of directors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The scientists and doctors are employees of this pharmaceutically dominated board, take orders from them, and have to keep in line with what is happening in the mainstream of medicine.

Since then, I have investigated the entire field of non-toxic alternative treatments for cancer and have extended my investigation from laetrile to the eight methods which I wrote about in some detail in my book The Cancer Industry. This year I brought out another book, A Cancer Therapy: An Independent Consumer’s Guide to Non-toxic Treatment and Prevention. The Cancer Industry explains to the public, to our medical and scientific profession and especially our legislators, why this is happening, what the problem is, and suggests some ways of dealing with it. A Cancer Therapy describes a useful program for the prevention and treatment of cancer. It also illustrates that non-toxic treatments for cancer and preventatives for cancer are actually well documented in the scientific literature. There are 102 methods of treating cancer in this book. 96 of them are fully documented with reference to the peer reviewed medical literature. So when the charge is made that this is quackery, and that these treatments are undocumented, unproven, and questionable, all I can say is that these methods seem to me to be the documented methods. The so-called proven methods of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy more often than not, seem to me to be the unproven methods, the undocumented methods, methods that are really put across to the public in many cases by deception and slight of hand in their evaluation. Many of the conventional treatments are not documented or proven treatments, whereas there is some documentation for most of the alternative methods, although of course, we would like to have a lot more evidence for all of them, and that’s in the process of happening.

THE OFFICE OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

In the last three years, amazing things have happened in the United States in the evaluation of alternative treatments for disease, and in looking at disease in terms of health and prevention. Through a labourious but very exciting process, we have now managed to get the National Institute of Health, which is the paymaster for our 10 billion dollar medical enterprise and the guardian of the high standards of rigorous research, to institute an Office of Alternative Medicine at our NIH in Bethesda, Md. It is still a very small project, only two million dollars out of eight billion dollars given to the overall NIH. However, as advisor, I have some say about which therapies will be evaluated by our government to determine their efficacy against cancer and other diseases. The first four treatments we will be testing are the anti-neoplaston treatment of Stanislaw Burzynski, shark cartilage, the Emmanuel Revici method using lipids and selenium, and bee pollen and its effects on allergies.

OVERVIEW OF SOME ALTERNATIVE NON-TOXIC TREATMENTS FOR CANCER

VITAMINS AND MINERALS:

Many of the alternative treatments and preventatives for cancer are things that you’ve heard about. These are vitamins and minerals, and the most important ones are vitamins A, C and E, and the mineral selenium. These are anti-oxidants. They are free-radical scavengers, and demonstrate a power against the formation of cancer and probably in the treatment of cancer as well. They are non-toxic. Vitamin A is non-toxic in the beta-carotene form. Vitamin C has been proposed by Linus Pauling in megadoses ranging up to 20, 30 or even 40 grams of C in the treatment of cancer. Of course, there has been a lot of criticism of his work with vitamin C such as the studies done at the Mayo Clinic, but there are flaws in those studies. There are reasons to doubt the validity or even the honesty of the Mayo Clinic studies, but we won’t go into that here.

HERBS:

There are herbs used in the treatment of cancer that seem to show particular efficacy in both prevention and treatment, and these are referred to in my book, as well as resources for obtaining them. For instance, there is aloe, astragalus, ayurveda, chaparral, Chinese herbs, Essiac, garlic, ginseng, green tea, Hoxsey treatment, Kampo, Pau d’Arco, and spices like turmeric. Astragalus is a very exciting herb. It is a relative of the pea plant and has shown to be effective in treating cancer.

Here in Canada, of course, there is a world famous treatment for cancer, Essiac. When I come to Canada, there are always two or three people who come to me with very convincing stories about how they were cured of cancer with Essiac. Essiac is very interesting. It was first advocated by a nurse here in Ontario named Rene Caisse. Essiac is Caisse spelled backwards. She got it from a woman who claimed she had been cured of breast cancer with this mixture by a native American Indian healer. So Rene Caisse then began using this treatment in Bracebridge, Ontario. It was a secret remedy, and it’s only been in fairly recent time that the formula has come out publicly and there are now a number of competing products on the market, each of them claiming to be the real Essiac. One of the herbs in this formula was burdock. Burdock is a very interesting herb. It’s available in most health food stores and it’s a root. It’s that nasty plant in the fields that has cockleburs which stick to your clothing. Burdock for a common weed has some remarkable medical properties. It’s eaten in Japan where it’s called gobo and it’s quite tasty. It has a sort of turnip-like flavour. It is favoured in the macrobiotic diet which I also speak about in the Cancer Therapy book, and in Japan they did research on this and found that it had very significant biological activity in terms of stopping the mutations that are caused by different substances. Substances that stop mutations, generally speaking, stop cancer. It also has immune stimulating properties. Things which stimulate the white blood cells of the body generally are anti-cancer substances as well, so we have good reason to believe that this is an anti-cancer agent as well as an anti-mutations agent. This is very important because after all, we start with the supposition that a secret remedy by a non-physician, derived from an American Indian witch doctor would be a worthless substance. This is how most people think, and it’s certainly how the medical community thinks. Yet, when doctors in Japan who had no knowledge of Essiac had found this substance to be effective, it makes you think that maybe there was empirically some value to this substance. We have another herbal remedy in the U.S. (actually today it’s available in Mexico) called the Hoxsey treatment, and it’s a similar story. Hoxsey got his formula from his father, who got it by watching a horse cure itself of cancer by eating different plants in the fields, which is not as absurd an idea as it sounds. In 1950, the Food and Drug Administration forced Harry Hoxsey to divulge his formula, and lo and behold, one of the ten items in his formula was burdock.

IMMUNOLOGICAL TREATMENTS:

There are a great many immunological treatments for cancer that are generally not publicized because a lot of them rely on individualizing either a vaccine or a treatment for the person’s own body, and medicine, like everything else in our society, is a mass produced product. Some of these treatments are in my book. Let me give you a couple of astounding stories about immunological treatments. The first one is my favourite and that is Coley’s toxins. Coley was the chief of bone surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in the 1890s. He had a patient who recovered from cancer after he had come down from a high fever which had been caused by a toxin. Coley started to treat people with the toxin which was a by-product of a bacteria and not infectious. He received tremendous results with this. There would be mass hysteria if people really understood the scope of this treatment and the fact that it is not available in North America at this time. There are people who claim to be doing it but I can’t vouch for the accuracy of their product. I do know that a thousand people were treated with this at Sloan-Kettering, or under their leadership in the early years of this century and successfully treated people were being cured of cancer 100 years ago, people with the same disease who are not being cured today. It’s a long story which I have described in The Cancer Industry. If you understand that case you really understand just about all there is that you need to know about the politics and the biology of cancer. Another immunological treatment is the New Castle Disease virus. This is available, as far as I know, only in Hungary. It’s developer lives in the United States but he is not able to give this treatment because of FDA requirements. It’s non-pathogenic, and it will interfere with a cancer virus, or other cancer causing agents.

714X:

714X is a treatment that was developed by Gaston Naessens, who lives in Sherbrooke, Quebec. It is a mixture of camphor and nitrogen which is injected directly into the lymph system. Naessens claims that cancer cells are nitrogen starved and that camphor helps deliver this nitrogen to them through the lymph system. It is purported to be a treatment for cancer, AIDS and other diseases. That treatment is found in the less documented section of my book because there really is no proof offered of either the effectiveness of this treatment or the truth of his theory about cancer. He proposes that cancer arises from a kind of organism called the somatid which normally has a short life-cycle, but in cancer and other diseases goes into a very long complicated life cycle. In Christopher Bird’s book, The Life and Trials of Gaston Naessens, there are some very compelling anecdotal stories about people who seem to have been cured or benefitted from this treatment.

HYDRAZINE SULFATE:

Hydrazine sulfate is a common industrial chemical which was first proposed as a cancer treatment in the early 1970s by Joseph Gold, M.D. of the Syracuse Cancer Research Institute. He suggested that by cutting off a tumour’s supply of new glucose in the liver, the drug could help starve the tumour. This in turn would stop cancer from preferentially depleting the body’s energy and put an end to cachexia, the terrible wasting process that appears in the final stages of the disease. It is not necessarily a cure for advanced cancer, but it’s extremely important for cachexia which is a very big cause of death in cancer patients.

SHARK CARTILAGE:

Scientists have discovered that shark’s cartilage fights cancer by interfering with the tumour’s ability to create a network of new blood vessels. Tumours, like normal tissue, need blood to provide nutrients and oxygen and to get rid of toxic wastes. Cut off a tumour’s blood supply and you can cut off its growth. I have heard amazing anecdotal stories about shark cartilage including its use in the treatment of arthritis. A lot of people are undermedicating with it. They are taking the dosage that is recommended on some of the bottles and this will not give an anti-cancer effect.

ANTINEOPLASTONS:

Stanislaw Burzynski discovered antineoplastons in 1967 while a graduate student in Poland. Antineoplastons are found in normal blood and urine, but appear to be deficient in cancer patients. This is an anti-tumour agent that is non-toxic and seems to make malignant cancer cells revert to normal. I’m not a medical doctor, and I don’t give medical advice, but from my examination of the field as a whole, the best therapy that I know of and number 1 on our list for evaluation is the antineoplaston therapy of Stanislaw Berzynski in Houston, Texas. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to work in all cases. You will have to call the Berzynski clinic and ask them if they have had any results with a particular type of cancer. Berzynski’s treatment is very effective for brain cancer and has had astounding successes in cases of lymphoma.

In addition to using any of these treatments, you have to change your lifestyle which has allowed the cancer to develop in the first place. That means the water, the food, the work place, the lighting, anything that you can think of that should be purified and made as natural and organic as possible, because then you will be removing all the burdens from the body. Psychological factors are also very important.

PEOPLE AGAINST CANCER: There’s a wonderful international organization for the protection of consumers’ rights called People Against Cancer, which gives out information about alternative cancer treatments. Their number is 515-972-4444. Try Ralph Moss on the web at www.ralphmoss.com

Originally Written by: De Vai, Christine, B.H.Sc., CH.H., M.H. C.I.

Christine de Vai is a master herbalist, iridologist and nutritionist, and she is president of the Ontario Herbalists Association.

There is a balance in nature, a delicate equilibrium of opposing forces that combine to form a harmonious whole, a benevolent environment that supports man and beast, herb, tree and flower with ease. It has always been so. Plants are the center of our ecosystem, and countless generations of humans used herbs to sustain and enrich their existence on the earth.

The 70’s saw a herbal revival with the use of herbs for cooking, healing, dyeing, household cleaners, and pleasing the senses with aromatherapy. The 80’s promise to be even more enlightening in our return to the source and our quest of well-being and harmony. There is a natural balance, and I hope that this feature will provide you with the incentive to come closer to your health through this natural way to be well.

I will start off with remedies for transforming the common cold. Fortunately there are plenty of herbal teas available to combat a cold and its big brother the flu. Prepare teas by infusing fresh or dried herbs in hot water for no more than 5 to 10 minutes. The usual amounts are three to five teaspoons of fresh or one teaspoon of dried herb to each cup of hot water.

PENNYROYAL, BLESSED THISTLE, AND LEMONBALM teas are reputed to help break a fever and overcome the chills especially if sipped while soaking your feet in warm water with a little grated ginger root in it.

YARROW tea with honey and a little CAYENNE PEPPER will promote perspiration and BORAGE is considered to be one of the best fever fighters to stimulate the body back to health.

GOLDENSEAL, HYSSOP, RED CLOVER, COLTSFOOT AND SAGE are known as remedies for head colds and catarrh. A refreshing blend of PEPPERMINT, YARROW AND ELDERFLOWERS can alleviate excessive mucus in sinuses and nasal passages.

MULLEIN, a very common plant in Ontario, an expectorant and bronchitis remedy, can be liberally drunk for such symptoms as asthma, congested lungs and bronchitis. Sweeten with honey and serve warm.

Equal portions of HOREHOUND, SAGE, ROSEMARY, HONEYSUCKLE and PLANTAIN boiled together will ease a sore throat as a gargle. Use honey to smooth horehound’s strong taste.

If feeling stiff and sore while awakening the body to spring, sun and more activity, try this: a decoction of AGRIMONY, MUGWORT AND CHAMOMILE. Bring equal parts to a boil for ten minutes and strain, add this to a hot bath and it will beautifully relax tired muscles. A straight CHAMOMILE compress is also considered beneficial.

WILD WILLOW BARK: Before aspirin was invented at the turn of the century, this natural product was the major headache reliever in the U.S.A. and Canada. The bark contains Salix alba, the same active ingredient that is contained in aspirin but in natural form. It produces the exact same results as aspirin. These remedies do not produce the internal bleeding and other negative effects associated with aspirin. Clyde St. Clair of Nature’s Herb Company in the U.S., the company that rediscovered the herb, tells us: “Because Willowbark is a herb, it works with the body, while drugs like aspirin tend to work against the body and produce side effects.”

In the late 1800’s Joseph Bayer isolated white willow bark’s active ingredient and produced it synthetically, calling it aspirin. It became very popular, and white willow bark was completely forgotten until six years ago when a biochemist, herbal pharmacist rediscovered and decided to market the herb. The demand for the herb in my practice has just skyrocketed. Aspirin is the world’s most popular drug, but it poisons the system, as nowadays it is made from crude coal-tar. Why would you take it when you can take something natural that does the same job?

CHAMOMILE: This common weed has more self-help uses than I can tell you about. It is also an extraordinary pain reliever and works well with headaches and cramps, especially menstrual irregularities connected with cramping. It is a mild sedative, very gentle and healing on the system and eases nervousness. A mixture of catnip, chamomile and rosehip create a lovely relaxing house-blend. Chamomile is also highly effective as a vapour steam with head-colds and sinus congestion, excellent as a sitzbath, with vaginal or rectal irritation, and soothing when placed on eyes in little poultices or teabags.

PEPPERMINT: The mints grow easily and prolifically. They can be made into tea, oil or simply chewed. There are quite a few varieties, and cuttings are easily obtained and transplanted to start your own mint patch. When I go on long drives, I use a little mint bouquet to snuff as an inhalant for a quick pick-up as the mint family is highly aromatic. Peppermint is excellent for the digestive system, strengthens the nerves and acts as a general stimulant and toner.

BASIL: Sweet basil leaves are a potent tonic for pain. Take as a tea or chew fresh.

CATNIP also from the mint family, with the distinguished square stem is an old and proven household remedy. Catnip tea is very soothing to the nervous system, safe for children as a relaxant, and also works well as a poultice applied locally where there is congestion and cramping.

CAYENNE: Jethro Kloss can’t say enough about this hot red spice in “Back to Eden”. It is also Dr. Christopher’s favorite cure all. It is one of the most wonderful herbal medicines. Although it is very hot, it is very soothing to the muscles and the head. It aids circulation and acts as a stimulant. Try a mixture of cayenne, cloves, bayberry bark and white pine bark.

FENNEL: This licorice-flavored spice is great for relieving gas and upset stomachs that may be causing headaches. It can also be used to relieve burning eyes and as an eyewash. Fennel leaves or seeds can be mixed with hops and peppermint to make a delicious, potent headache reliever.

GINGER has a distinct hot taste and can be chewed raw as well as mixed into food and tea. It has a very pleasant smell and is excellent for expelling gas. Especially soothes headaches caused by gastric upsets, as well as being helpful with colds.

ROSEMARY, a common herb, is excellent for aiding digestion, relaxing tight, tired muscles and soothing nerves. It is an old-fashioned remedy for soothing nerves and a very good remedy for headaches. It works well when combined with comfrey and chamomile.

SAGE: The Chinese are happy to send us their caffeinated tea which they consider bad for your health, and import American sage, which we grow by the ton. Sage leaves are not pleasant to the taste, but do wonders for the body and head. They are very soothing and quieting to the nerves. Try putting a teaspoon into boiling water with honey and lemon.

Originally Written by: Bird, Christopher

Christopher Bird, a scientific author and researcher, is co-author of the international best-selling The Secret Life of Plants and Secrets of the Soil. His latest book, The Persecution and Trial of Gaston Naessens is the true story of the discovery of 714X, an alternative treatment for cancer, AIDS and other immunologically-based diseases by Gaston Naessens, a Canadian biologist. 714X is currently available as an experimental drug to terminal cancer and AIDS patients through the federal government, Department of Health and Welfare.

WILHELM REICH’S PLEOMORPHIC FORMS

I would like to describe some of the background events which led to my meeting with Gaston Naessens, discoverer of the 714X treatment for cancer. In 1969, my co-author and I were invited to write the story of the late Dr. Wilhelm Reich, psychiatrist and biophysicist. In addition to his other talents, Reich was adept at examining the blood with an unusual set of lenses. He had found certain extraordinary microbial forms in the blood which were pleomorphic or ‘form changing’. They were present in the blood of healthy people; however, in the blood of people who had degenerative diseases, including cancer, they turned into a completely different form. The person who probably knows as much as anyone about Reichian biology is one of your compatriots, a doctor living in Montreal by the name of Bernhard Grad and he can be contacted by phone.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS

We were going to write a whole biography on Reich, but we got sidetracked and wrote a book called “The Secret Life of Plants”. The book began with an extraordinary man called Cleve Backster who is celebrated now because he is a lie detector expert. He hooked up a lie detector to a plant and from the read-out, he could see that plants can respond to human thought and intent. Another man described in the book, Jagadis Chandra Bose, found during a lifetime of research, that plants can respond in many of the same ways as higher animals and humans, indicating that they have (as the botanists deny) a nervous system. He also discovered that metals, inert substances, behaved very much as if they had some kind of consciousness. Both of these men wrote ten books that you can get in the library, and they are some of the most amazing reading that you will ever do. The Encyclopaedia Britannica states that Bose’s concepts were so far ahead of his time that nobody understood him. Another scientist in our book was C. Louis Kervran. He believed that the bodies of animals, humans and other organisms were capable of transmuting elements. Another scientist, by the name of Kaznatcheiv, a Russian, did incredible work proving that bodily cells can communicate with each other. In other words, they have an intelligence and a means of communication which takes place on the ultra-violet band of the spectrum. These experiments which were performed way back in the 1970’s and reported in our book for the first time have not yet been repeated because standard science has shown no interest in addressing this subject. There are many other exciting books related to this subject, and one is called The Body Electric by Robert Becker, M.D. This contains some of the most revolutionary findings of the last quarter century, that the body has not one, but two nervous systems. One behaves like a digital computer, and the other behaves like an analogue computer. The Secret Life of Plants came out in 1973 and we recently wrote a sequel to it called Secrets of the Soil which contains solutions to the current problems of the earth. Secrets of the Soil is founded on the idea that the soils of the earth are becoming nearly irrevocably poisoned. The soil is the base of the pyramid of life upon which plants, animals, and finally humans, who consume both, are built layer by layer.

ROYAL RIFE’S UNIVERSAL MICROSCOPE

While writing these two books, we discovered an extraordinary American microscopist named Royal Raymond Rife. Rife had invented a microscope way back in the 1920’s that could show many of the pleomorphic forms. The main point is, when I started looking for the Rife microscope, it was nowhere to be found. It had been written up in an article called The New Microscopes, in both the Smithsonian Institution Journal, Washington D.C., and in the Journal of the famous Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, in 1944. Two thirds of that article was devoted to Rife’s Universal Microscope which was capable of looking at living things, and one third was devoted to the electron microscope capable of looking only at dead material. The first one disappeared. The latter is in every laboratory in the world. What does that say philosophically about how science is approaching life? I wrote an article called What Has Become of the Rife Microscope? and a young friend of mine, Barry Lynes, went on to write a book about Rife called The Cancer Cure That Worked

.

GASTON NAESSENS – THE SOMATID CYCLE & 714X

By chance, I met Eva Reich, M.D., Reich’s daughter, in 1979, and she told me to investigate another microscopist in a small village, Mount Forest, in Quebec. So I went there and met Gaston Naessens. When he was only in his twenties, Gaston built a microscope by himself that was equal to the one developed and lost by Royal Rife. From the point of view of magnification and resolution it’s still the leader in the world in its field forty years after its invention. With his microscope, Gaston discovered a particle he called a somatid (tiny body), present in all biological liquids, and particularly in the blood. It also exists in the sap of plants. That somatid that exists in us all in the millions, perhaps billions, has been proved to be indestructible. Subjected to temperatures of 200oC and more it survives. It has been put inside atomic reactors and subjected to 50,000 rems of radiation, enough to kill any living thing, and still it survives.

Gaston was able to trace the polymorphic cycle of this somatid. Many scientists over the last 70 years have documented parts of the chain in that cycle. Naessens showed that there were three forms that exist in the body of every healthy person. The first is the ultra-microscopic subcellular living and reproducing entity he called the somatid. The second is a tiny spore that comes from this somatid. And the third is the double spore. In the course of this cycle, a trephone is produced, a hormone necessary for cellular division. Without it life does not exist. In healthy individuals, the evolution of this cycle ceases at the level of the double spore because of the presence of trephone inhibitors (mineral substances like copper, mercury and lead, etc.) in the blood. When these inhibitors are reduced by stress or because of any other humoural disorder, the somatid cycle continues through thirteen more successive growth stages to make up a total of sixteen separate forms, each evolving into the next. Bacterial forms will appear in the plasma. These forms have been studied extensively, especially by German researchers. We then observe the appearance of the myco-bacterial forms, then the yeast-like forms which evolve, proliferate, and ultimately burst and release a whole new batch of somatids. With the completion of this cycle, we see the liberation of an enormous quantity of new particles each capable of reinitiating a complete cycle. All of these forms have been revealed clearly and in detail by motion pictures and by stop-frame still photography. All degenerative diseases are a consequence of these disorders and all these forms are usually found in the blood of patients with cancer and other degenerative diseases. Therefore observations of the blood allow us to establish an early diagnosis because they can be obtained before the disease has actually localized.

If your immune system is deficient, these cells may accumulate and develop until they form a critical mass. In the first phase, the initiation phase, we have a decrease of inhibitors, an increase of trephones, the first malignant cells appear, and they implant themselves and finally form a new entity. When a tumour develops to a certain size, it will produce a substance we call cocarciogenic factor (CKF), and this substance paralyzes the immune system while the mass withdraws the nitrogen that it needs to develop. Your immune system will not be able to attack the tumour, and that is the major problem with cancer. From this moment the new entity can progressively invade its host.

A CANCER THERAPY

The understanding of this process makes it possible to propose a therapy leading to the suppression of CKF, the substance which paralyzes the immune system. Naessens developed a camphor derivative, a natural product, which he called 714X. It inhibits the formation of the CKF substance because it carries to the tumour all the nitrogen which it needs, suppressing the secretion which would paralyze the immune system. It does not by itself destroy malignant cells. It permits the immune system to do its work.

Q: How can you get this treatment and is the cost very expensive?

A: The treatment in Canada is available for advanced cases of cancer and AIDS only through doctors. They can apply to Ottawa, Department of Health and Welfare for permission to use it. Otherwise, you have to leave the country and go either to Europe or to Mexico for treatment. If you go to Mexico, you are taught how to do it yourself and you can bring the medication back with you and treat yourself. This is the most economical way of doing it. It is of course important to correct the dietary problems and change the life-style in order to avoid future problems.

714-X treatment can be obtained at the Bio-Med Center (The Hoxsey Clinic) in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It is being used experimentally on patients at the Atkins Clinic for Complementary Medicine in New York City, and some doctors are using 714X in private practice. Any doctor wishing to use 714X can send a prescription by fax to the Center for Experimental Biological Research, 5260 Rue Fontaine, Rock Forest, Quebec, Canada J1N3B6. 714X is presently being made available in pharmacies and to doctors in several European countries.

* * *

The story of Gaston Naessens and the somatid cycle is described in Christopher Bird’s new book, The Persecution and Trial of Gaston Naessens. A scientific description of 714X and the somatide cycle by Gaston Naessens is included as Appendix B in Christopher Bird’s book and it is also available in a separate eight page booklet. He also wrote a charming book called The Secret Life of Plants.

Originally Written by: Stelling, Keith, M.A., M.N.I.M.H.

Keith Stelling is a medical herbalist trained in England at the National Institute of Medical Herbalists of Great Britain. He practices herbal medicine in Hamilton, Ontario and is editor of the Canadian Journal of Herbalism published by the Ontario Herbalist Association. He serves as an advisor on the Complementary Medicine Committee on herbs and therapeutic preparations for the five Hamilton Civic Hospitals in their plan to integrate complementary therapies into their services. He is founder of the Canadian School of Phytotherapy which is affiliated with the Institute of Medical Herbalists in Great Britain.

Herbal medicine has come a long way since pioneer days, and we now have institutes of phytotherapy (phyto means plant) or herbal medicine. In Europe, a great deal of research is being done every day and there are many institutes of phytotherapy. The institute which I belong to, the National Institute of Medical Herbalists of Great Britain, was established in 1864, and it is the oldest association of practicing herbalists in existence today. It operates the School of Herbal Medicine in Sussex which conducts a four year course and includes the study of the traditional medical subjects such as pathology, physiology, anatomy and biochemistry. In addition to that, plant remedies are studied in great detail including the pharmacalogical properties of the plants. Some plants contain over 170 different chemicals. These chemicals work together, and that is really the essence of the difference between allopathy and herbal medicine in its holistic approach. When pharmaceutical interests began to synthesize plant drugs, they eliminated the complete package that nature had presented us with. Among those 170 different constituents, you have buffers, tannins and mucilages. These things slow down or cushion the effect of the essential or active ingredients of the plants. But when we throw away nature’s package, we are left with something that is very brutal and harsh on our systems. This results in the side effects we experience with pharmaceutical drugs.

Many of us are under stress and stress affects the body in many ways. We live in sealed buildings with no fresh air and we need to find ways of relieving the nervous system from the effects of this stress. Many of us suffer from lung problems. We suffer from problems caused by drinking water which has been polluted by steel mills and other industries. We get all sorts of pollution in our food as well. Chemicals enter our body which did not even exist before the 1940’s. We put fungicides and pesticides on our soil and have very little control over what we are eating unless we are very careful and grow our own produce organically. What happens when our liver has to deal with these man made chemicals? Our liver is the same organ we had as primitive man and there is no evidence that the liver is able to handle man-made molecules. As a result, we have invented new diseases. Let’s think about what we can actually do to help the liver. The first thing we must do is clean up our environment or we really won’t survive this part of our history. In the meantime, to help us along, the herbs and the natural medicinal plants are still proving very faithful.

DANDELION

Dandelions are the first victims of our industrialized society. We now have organizations who go around and spray carcinogenic chemicals on our lawns to get rid of the dandelions. And yet, the dandelion is capable of extracting heavy metals from the tissues of the human body. That is a pretty remarkable thing. It would certainly make a lot more sense to dig up the dandelion roots and use them as a coffee or tea or simply chew them in a salad than to spray the lawn with toxic chemicals. The dandelion is an old standby in herbal medicine. It might be given to almost every patient. It is a perfectly safe plant. It is an ideal restorative for the liver. It is a choleretic, that is it increases the production and flow of bile through the liver. When you have bile flowing through the liver, cleansing is taking place. That’s why it’s such a wonderful plant. Dandelion then gives us an additional gift. We can also use the leaves of the dandelion and they are an excellent remedy for many kidney problems. Dandelion leaves are diuretic. Pharmaceutical diuretics will drain many minerals out of your body, many essential trace ingredients and leave you with a potassium deficiency, one of the most important minerals in your body; however the dandelion in the course of its diuretic action actually adds potassium to the body. The dandelion plant contains more potassium than any other plant.

ARTICHOKE

Artichoke is one of the most important plants. We use the leaves of the globe artichoke medicinally. They are very bitter and we use them as a fresh juice. It is available in Canada, imported from Germany. This is again a very safe plant for anyone to use. It actually helps to restore hepatocytes. If there has been some liver damage, this plant will help you tremendously. It is a choleretic and increases the flow of bile through the liver. When someone is suffering from terminal cancer and the liver has been affected, artichoke will eliminate the pain in the liver. It won’t eliminate the cancer at that point, but it will certainly eliminate a lot of the suffering. It is also very effective in treating skin problems. Many people who come to me have been to see many different dermatologists. They all told them they had psoriasis or acne or eczema and gave them something to suppress it, usually a steroid cream. The skin problem usually comes back again and they are not very happy. When they go to see a herbalist, the herbalist immediately thinks of the liver. The liver and the skin are both organs of elimination. If the pressure is taken off the skin by helping the liver to function properly, the skin is definitely going to improve. The results of using herbs for skin problems are pretty spectacular on the whole.

MILK THISTLE

Tests in Europe have demonstrated that the milk thistle is able to protect the liver against gases which are toxic to hepatocytes such as carbon tetrachloride, the cleaning solvent. In a double blind study, they found no hepatocyte damage whatsoever in animals who had been protected by a tincture of the milk thistle. They concluded that milk thistle is a protection against pollution and it probably is. Of course if we are going to improve our health we have got to stop dumping chemicals and toxins into our environment and we have to do it soon. Milk thistle has other bonuses. It lowers cholesterol. Many of us are given not very pleasant diets to lower our cholesterol, and then we are very disappointed when we stick to the diet and still the cholesterol remains high. Often high cholesterol is a metabolic problem and when you think about metabolic problems, right away you think of the liver because the liver is probably not doing its job.

CLEAVERS

Cleavers is very effective in helping people with cancer because it is an ideal tonic for the lymphatic system. It can remove toxins from the lymph nodes and tone up the whole lymphatic circulation throughout the body. By backing up the liver and improving the body’s natural defences, it improves the general state of health. We have used it on people suffering from cancer and their white blood count has gone from 85 to 55 in three or four weeks. If you improve your diet as well, you are well on the way.

ECHINACEA

This plant boosts the immune system and that is why it is in short supply. It is very expensive to buy commercially because it is being used to treat AIDS patients fairly successfully. Again, it is an antibiotic plant and found to be effective against certain types of human carcinoma, including the Walker Sarcoma #256 for example and many other lymphadenopathies.

CALENDULA

Calendula looks pretty in your flower bed and can be bought in the hardware store or wherever you buy your plants. It’s a wonderful anti-inflammatory plant and it works on the whole body. Both the roots and the plant itself are found to be anti-viral, but the petals in particular have been found to be effective against the metastases of cancer cells. Regular infusions of this herbal tea and the tincture over a fairly long period of time will actually slow down the growth of things like cancer.

STINGING NETTLES

We had patients in the clinic in London who were able to get out of wheelchairs by using the plant juice of nettle as well as some of the teas, the fresh juices and the dried plant. People with rheumatoid and osteoarthritis eventually were able to go out to collect their own nettles in the countryside. That was kind of a miracle. The exciting thing about nettle is that in addition to being an excellent cleansing or detoxifying plant, it also adds minerals to the body. There are many minerals contained in the humble nettle. It is a tenuous weed and pulls up whatever is in the ground. It is very very rich in iron and silica and contains many others, vitamin A, E, D, K and even lecithin and all sorts of things. So it is a good spring tonic. Nettle tea is very pleasant to drink. It is perfectly safe for anyone to use because it removes a lot of uric acid from the body. Nettles is a specific remedy for skin problems.

Herbs useful for circulation and the nervous system will be discussed in Part II.

Începând cu data de 4 noiembrie, Club Bubbles găzduieste în fiecare miercuri o petrecere săptămânală DNB sub denumirea NEW MEDICINE. Vă vor vindeca de monotonie trackurile preferate de la Chase&Status, Infected Mushroom, Evol Intent, Concord Dawn, Noisia, ShyFX, Andy C, Pendulum, Dj Hype, Dj Fresh, The Quemists, Panacea & more.  Sick of bad Music? We’ve found a cure! New Medicine @ Bubbles Club.

Petrecerea incepe la ora 22:00 | Eveniment recomandat de DNBlog.

Pentru rezervări, sunaţi la numărul de telefon 0735.658.795.

I realize that Governor Jindal may never see this. If you do sir I apologize for the content saturated with opinion, but they are steeped in thought.

I am not for GOP health care reform. I am for anyone who is for small government, that does not dabble in private sectors except providing options that are revenue funded. None of these tax funded options that create more tax and more big government, that no one can compete with because they have income no matter their actual worth. Medicare and Welfare have gone on long enough. The government needs to provide options not assistance. One might say this is not very nice. I do not beleive a government should exude so much emotion to have people live off of them. The national government is so far away they just throw money at problems. Local government should be where all social programs run, that is if they are even needed. Government is not a philanthropy, that is why I beleive that the GOP is closer to clean government, but still not perfect.

Government health care should be just like private health care, so much so that it competes in the private sector. Again, I restate it should be a revenue funded program. I know it is not all as simple as saying, and that theoreticals are just that, but I ask you to find the true meaning of this nation and how it was founded. I beleive all the programs that are state-run (federal) could be boosting the economy, rather than taxing the civilians it is supposed to help. Welfare should be a job program, providing workers for state-run programs. They could earn the money they receive. Would it not be cheaper to have someone council these people, helping them balance books, and brainstorm ways to increase income than constantly having to pay out? Would it not help initiative, and decrease taxes? I beleive initiative in homes would be “trickle-down.”

Buying stock in a failing companies is obviously not a wise investment, otherwise they would not be failing. Buying capital, such as manufacturing plants is a good investment. You know this and I do not mean to insult your intelligence in any way. I beleive Washington is operating under mob mentality, and the buddy system. I would like to know how many of these so-called “representatives” and senators invested their own money in failing companies recently. I would like to know why if they serve the public, they have the right to have a health care plan better than ours, and they would not participate in our level of health care they plan to administer. I beleive people in the capital think they are far superior to the common man. If you think you are above someone, how much do you know that person? How can you represent someone you do not know? I do not mean every person in your districts, I mean have a general idea of your populous and know them enough that you could meet them all and they not think you a snob. I am not implying you, or any other specific politician, I am speaking in generalities.

Laws are not for one specific people. There is a diverse populous in this nation. Why not govern with this in mind? The federal government makes laws of who can marry and who gets tax breaks. Marriage should not be recognized legally. If you want to be fair, you do not judge someone by their lifestyle. I am a regularly attending member of Red Bluff Baptist Church in Folsom, La and I do not even think being gay is legitimate. What I do think is legitimate is government not judging lifestyles. So instead of legislating lifestyles from Washington, how about we actually write laws. If they wanted to be judges they should have put their name in for the Supreme Court. Roommates, married couples, and gay couples all should be taxed as they choose to be, jointly or not. I know a lot of the tax initiatives are to stimulate what the government sees to be healthy and happy families. What really is going on is Washington is out of touch with life on the local level. So again, small national government would help us out, and we could have the sin taxes on sugar and cigarettes locally, and adjust them on that level to add more balance to consumerism. I was a supporter of fair tax, but what should be kept in mind is that the federal government is no longer pertinent on the local level. It was never intended to be.

I do not know when D.C. decided it was time to define who is an American, but it needs to stop. It is what is wrecking this country. This is not everything wrong with the government, and I would really rather not be called a revolutionary. All the government is, has been, and seems to be planning to do is throw money at problems. I just urge that the essence of my ideas hold true in the minds of our nation’s leaders. The republicans have become supremacist, and the democrats are handing out taxes to those who do not deserve them. Someone needs to step up and reshape government back into the essence that was penned by Jefferson. I registered republican because I believed they wanted smaller government, but the way things have been going I have not seen that.

Sorry for the horrible content, writing, and grammar;

Ronald Richard Denenea II

P.s. This was directed towards you because I beleive you are a person who can shake up the GOP, and be considered a leader of it, as well as maybe being our next president. I do not know your feelings about these positions, but I hope somehow ideals like these will soon prevail in the minds of the nation’s leaders.

Buy Cheap PANACEA PRODUCTS CORP 15361 50CT Fireplace Matches

Buy Low Price From Here Now

Great for fireplace and bar-b-que safety. 50 count……..

Readmore

Technical Details

- Perfect companion for BBQ
- Durable
- Economical
See more technical details

Images Product

Buy PANACEA PRODUCTS CORP 15361 50CT Fireplace Matches Now

There is some really cool saints names If I time before the book goes back I will do some postings on individual ones

Genevieve, Elizabeth Ann, Raphaela, Genovea, Zdislava, Leonie, Marguerite, Ita, Roseline, Margaret, Eustochia, Agnes, Dwynwen, Verdiana, Eusebia, Bathildis, Hyacintha, Marcella, Brigid, Anna, Claudine, Maria, Agatha, Dorothy, Colette, Josephine, Apollonia, Scholastica, Jeanne, Catherine, Gertrude, Walburga, Paula, Anne, Katharine, Teresa, Felicity, Perpetua, Cunegunda, Frances, Fina, Matilda, Louise, Benedetta, Rafqa, Lucy, Gladys, Catalina, Crescentia, Julie, Mary, Gemma, Lydwina, Bernadette, Casilda, Fara, Zita, Gianna, Panacea, Wiborada, Maura, Rosa, Magdalene, Dymphna, Rita, Mariana, Ursula, Ubaldesca, Bona, Joan, Blandina, Clotilda, Melania, Florida, Germaine, Aleydis. (more to come)

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

— Henry David Thoreau

In “The New Untouchables “, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman argues that in this downwardly mobile economy there is no room for average. Extraordinary is what it takes to survive and thrive in the modern workplace.

I get that.

Yet for all my appreciation for education — I hold two degrees so I do, in fact, lean in favor of Friedman’s premise that education is key to American competitiveness — his education-as-a-panacea argument oversteps its reach.

Most strikingly, Friedman’s description of a successful “untouchable” American worker isn’t a portrait of educational endowment at all. Friedman’s favorite descriptors, instead, refer to personality attributes: entrepreneur (risk taker), creative (visionary), analytical (critical thinker), and persuasive (charismatic). The obvious problem with Friedman’s pin-the-tail-on-the-wrong-donkey premise is that temperament is inborn — teachers, let alone parents, cannot instill personality characteristics that are not there to begin with.

Friedman’s eagerness to finger the usual suspects — schools — also ignores six reasons why Americans are at a competitive disadvantage in the global era. Here we examine those realities, and the future these changing times have in store.

First, there are more of us occupying this country — and this planet at large — than ever before. At some point, the mathematics of population growth have to matter. The sheer number of people in today’s workforce suggests more and more people are competing for the same jobs even as we adopt more and more technology to displace human hands. That’s not a sign of a lack of education; it’s a sign that business owners comprehend that productivity gadgets and gizmos don’t require breaks, a salary or workers’ compensation.

It comes down to the numbers.

Second, I would argue the inverse in response to Friedman’s suggestion that there just isn’t enough talent to be had here in the States. Over the past 50-some years there are more colleges turning out more graduates on an annual basis than employers of the past had access to. Many foreign nationals, in fact, come to the US for higher education opportunities. On the flip side, there are only so many engineers, M.B.A.s, lawyers, scientists and the like universities can churn out before higher-end fields become saturated in much the same way low-end jobs are chalk full of contenders.

It’s no longer merely a question of whether there are clear winners and losers on the academic front.

Job scarcity is a threat, in part, because of the decades-long trend of mergers, acquisitions and a globalized labor pool. Consider: There are generally fewer than a dozen heavyweights in a given industry — everything from mainstream media to appliance manufacturing. This trend does not bode well for domestic job expansion. And if jobs aren’t available to begin with, it is tough to gain a competitive advantage even with above-average potential. So what we are seeing, in this author’s opinion, is an over-supply of talent.

But that doesn’t mean the proponents of Friedman’s dire self-fulfilling prophecy won’t get their wish.

With less competition in a given industry there is less demand for the eager young grads institutions of higher learning infuse into the job market each year. With shrinking demand and a greater supply of contenders, salaries may also take a nosedive. America at large may become competitively disadvantaged in the years ahead precisely because the “good jobs” of today are no longer perceived as a source of steady employment or adequate pay thereby diminishing American college students’ willingness to pursue them.

Already, the very cure that causes the “employment insecurity” disease is well underway: Calls for immigration reform permitting more foreign grads to take up permanent residence in the U.S. as a form of “insourced talent” are originating from Google, Microsoft and Susan Hockfield, MIT president and author of an October 19, 2009 Wall Street Journal opinion piece ironically titled “Immigrants Create Jobs and Win Nobels“.

Sure there are a lot of average people who aren’t cut out for the highest levels of business, government and academia. Just the same, there is also an ample supply of bright, talented American citizens who, for all their desirable qualifications and qualities, will nevertheless find themselves competing toe-to-toe against peers who are just as capable and “deserving” of a career break as they are.

Somebody has to lose.

Third, failure to thrive in this Brave New Economy isn’t always linked to failing schools, as Friedman argues. Good health is arguably the number one prerequisite to productivity. Healthcare is such a hot topic precisely because we cannot remain competitive if, as a country, businesses and individuals are increasingly diverting money out of the real economy just to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of healthcare.

Beyond that, few esoteric explanations matter when perfectly down-to-earth explanations suffice. When an individual charged with hiring decisions has too many promising applicants to choose from among, what assets wins out on the last round of interviews? That extra year or two of experience? Those additional GPA points? Or would it be more honest to conclude that it comes down to how well an applicant clicks with his or her interviewers? Hands-on experience, even a social or physical attribute — whatever it may be that fits a manager’s self-styled view of the proper candidate — is just as likely to make the deciding difference.

On the flip side of the coin, there is a perverse disincentive to hire the best qualified candidates. For one, they tend to be more experienced and/or highly educated, thereby commanding greater salaries. For another, few people in the position to do so hire individuals with the obvious capacity to perform so impressively that it will ultimately threaten their own job security. Friedman is right in the sense that education and talent ought to insulate Americans from the pitfalls of a failing global experiment.

Unfortunately, it does not.

Fourth, where one lives also figures largely into one’s ability to compete. Like the tough-luck stories that abound on the streets of Hollywood, those who flock to saturated markets — Los Angeles, New York, etc. — may, ironically, find fewer opportunities to leave a lasting, positive impression due to the sheer number of people in the area who are equally worthy of consideration. An over-supply of applicants for a given position, in turn, may make it more challenging for employers to select optimal talent vs. expedient talent. Translation? Being a big fish in a vast ocean still makes you a little fish. To argue, therefore, that education can somehow imbue success and that lack of it underlies a failure is a misnomer.

It’s impossible to underestimate the economics of supply and demand.

Fifth, it’s a mistake to assume that a Third World factory worker is more “competitive” as Todd Martin, former PepsiCo and Kraft Europe executive, suggests to Friedman. Third World workers come inexpensively, and that’s one competitive disadvantage that will only heighten the more educated the American workforce becomes. Why? Because talent doesn’t come cheaply — nor do the salaries of increasingly educated job seekers struggling to repay oppressive student loan debts as a direct result of their herculean efforts to rise head-and-shoulders above the crowd.

Getting noticed in an increasingly competitive job market only ups the ante — and the price tag of success.

Sixth, the assumption that Third World products are better made by virtue of their “efficiency” is also flawed. When frequent replacements and upgrades are factored into the cost of ownership, inexpensively manufactured Third World goods are, ironically, quite pricey. Case-in-point: In 2005 I replaced a 30-some-year-old GE refrigerator made in the US as well as an old but functioning washer and dryer. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t trade anything old and working for something new, sleek and modern. Why? Because the major appliances I purchased new in 2005 — all have had repeated major breakdowns requiring multiple service calls, dozens of hours on the phone, weeks waiting for parts.

Even when consumers spend top dollar, the manufacturing source and quality of today’s big-ticket items are often quite similar — with merely a change of window dressing to imply otherwise. That’s what happens when there are so many market consolidations that an appearance of choice is just that: little more than a dozen or so name badges owned, in truth, by the same handful of Big Players. It is almost laughable the degree to which consumers on complaint websites proclaim that they will never buy brand “X” again, only to unwittingly state that they intend to replace such-and-such item with brand “Y” — yet another brand or subsidiary of the very same company who manufactures brand X!

Market concentration doesn’t grow jobs any more reliably than it promotes healthy competition.

Sparing one another the hassle and headaches of poor quality goods isn’t the only reason to care, however. The build-it-to-last ethic of decades past was, perhaps, the ultimate expression of “Green“. Why? Because durable goods were seemingly less likely to break down, destined for a landfill in an absurdly short timeframe. By contrast, “planned obsolescence” is the new norm, with a trend of shrinking manufacturer warranties to attest to the low vote of confidence manufacturers assign to their own products. Longevity isn’t a valued trait in a disposable society, but if we really want to go Green perhaps we should rethink the “dept-trap consumerism” cheaply designed and manufactured products facilitate. Sadly, modern rhetoric would have us believe that pride in one’s workmanship — a refusal to sell junk to unsuspecting consumers — is “uncompetitive”.

All talk of going Green aside, standardized manufacturing processes have made it difficult to make the case that company “A” is making a better product than “B” or “C”. Consequently, the maxim “You get what you pay for” has never been more suspect. True, you may get more for your money, but that does not necessarily translate into significantly better quality. What differs most dramatically is the amount of money corporations throw into slick ad campaigns, and the perception consumers have of branding and value.

It would be one thing if high-end boutiques were selling products made by First World craftspeople with higher price tags thanks to First World production costs. But when both low-end retailers and high-end retailers are selling inexpensively made foreign goods, who, exactly, are they fooling? Fairly or not, Third World origination suggests that income and human rights disparities favor corporate bottom lines. In the Third World, after all, it is not uncommon for workers to be denied bathroom breaks, sick days, maternity leave and most of the other benefits and protections Americans consider “civilized”. It is not surprising, then, that workers are more productive when they spend most of their lives in the confines of a factory, fearful that their only other option is a life of abject poverty and/or prostitution.

In short, the Third World is the modern-day economic equivalent of the pre-Civil War Old South: a place for slave-like child and adult labor, often conducted under sweatshop conditions. As if that weren’t questionable enough, outsourcing trends pose an unacceptable risk to national security as well.

So how does all of this tie in?

Unless Americans are willing to stoop to similar lows to compete with workers abroad, it’s not possible to rationally conclude that education, talent or entrepreneurship on the part of American workers will level the economic playing field anytime soon. America’s competitive disadvantage, rather, speaks to corporate opportunism — and to the politicians in recent decades who have crafted immigration, economic, trade and taxation policies that have enabled such heavily skewed commerce to become the norm.

Moreover, if being properly educated, creative or analytical adequately described, as Friedman suggests, the entirety of American competitiveness, I suspect we would see fewer reckless gambles on Wall Street and more evidence of long-range thinkers putting the brakes on short-term gain (scams) in the lead up to the Great Recession. In the real world, however, the “right reasons” are not always the cause for getting ahead — or, conversely, for falling behind.

THE WAKE UP CALL

So why care whether or not a newspaper columnists gets it so wrong? Because generalizations and simplifications aren’t a starting point for progress. Economists are projecting a ~10 percent national unemployment rate that’s here to stay for the foreseeable future. That can only mean more bankruptcies, more foreclosures and a greater amount of “dead weight” on America’s ability to compete. Only by taking a long, hard look at the unvarnished truth do we have any hope of fingering the right culprits, crafting the right solutions and ultimately reviving Main Street before the American Dream becomes a distant memory of a bygone era.

Doing nothing is not an option.

If Middle Class wages continue to decline as we move further into the 21st Century, who will consume the products and services entrepreneurs on both sides of the oceanic divide offer? Will young Americans, contemplating the grimness of their economic future and/or the need for ever-more costly and impressive academic résumés opt for traditional marriage and family life — the nation’s greatest driver of new purchases, everything from strollers and diapers to single family homes and minivans? Should Main Street’s economic House of Cards continue to crumble, will Third World workers have their own Friedmans urging them to blame themselves when factory orders dwindle and the newly affluent in Asia and India begin to see their own hopes and dreams falter? Or will they see it — we see it — for what it is: globalized economic forces beyond any single individual’s immediate control?

As kind-hearted as sweatshop proponents paint it — that throwing out more life preservers will rescue Third World residents from a life of “primitive agriculture” — building more life preservers than boats is a plausible scenario. Economic growth, after all, relies on expansion. For much of the world’s history markets were local, national, then regional. Globalization isn’t a sure-fire path to success: It’s an experiment that presupposes that natural resources will support endless growth. And it begs a simple but profound question: What happens when all markets are tapped out?

Working and Middle Class people — the majority of us — may not be the most educated, creative or adequately prepared lot, to hear Friedman and his corporate pal, Todd Martin, hash it out. But that doesn’t change the reality that the American Middle Class must earn a living wage in order for the economy — ours and theirs — to thrive. Yet it is telling that in Louisiana, a state with fewer college grads to begin with, Curt Eysink, director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, indicates that there is an oversupply of degreed residents “we cannot employ” because job growth projections favor vocational trades and the service sector — primarily low-wage occupations such as ticket-takers, cashiers and customer service representatives that are not so prone to the insourcing/outsourcing phenomena.

Is this a sign of things to come?

Without the discretionary income Middle Class Joes and Janes inject into the marketplace, globalized economies may become relegated to a small percentage of elite income earners pitching their products and services to other elite individuals. This may be a recipe for modern-day feudalism, but it’s no way to protect and preserve the merits of free-market capitalism, let alone a profitable market share.

As dire as it all sounds, this isn’t about being pessimistic. Opening our collective eyes is the first step in defending what matters most: family, community, culture — the United States itself. If that means rethinking our definition of progress in the 21st Century sans the usual set of partisan blinders, so be it.

This is no time for subterfuge.

If Friedman wishes to talk about education, he ought to contemplate the wisdom no book learning apparently can impart in America’s best and brightest CEOs and newspaper columnists: The foresight to realize one’s employees/coworkers are also one’s customers/consumers. That means that success at the top of the economic pyramid is only as long-lived as the Middle Class foundation upon which it rests. Excuse it, deny it, defend it, ignore it: the race to the bottom is a very real risk when good intentions go too far.

It’s foolhardy — and a threat to democracy itself — for a transnational conglomerate, an economy, a nation, to conduct business using the lowest common denominator as a competitive yardstick. And yet, globalization promises to outsource gain even as it insources pain. At best, this implies that if and when international economic and trade equilibrium is achieved Third World laborers will nevertheless be unable to sustain the lifestyle Americans have taken for granted — if only by virtue of how thin finite natural resources are stretched — whereas Americans should anticipate “economic insecurity” as a way of life. That’s why Friedman and friends argue so passionately that being wildly successful — untouchable thanks to one’s creativity, innovativeness and education — is the only position of safety (familiarity). The rest of us, apparently, are destined for a mediocre economic melting pot in a neocapitalist New World Order.

Cliché though it may sound, the proactive response to an uncertain future is civic engagement: voting wisely with one’s ballot and one’s pocketbook in support the kind of economy one wishes to see. For if there’s any silver lining to this Great Recession, it’s in bringing an abstract global issue close enough to home that we can reach out, touch it — and change it.

It’s not too late.

###

Resources:

America Out of Work: Is Double-Digit Unemployment Here to Stay?/TIME

Obama Adviser Summers Rejects ‘New Normal’ of Slow U.S. Growth/Bloomberg

U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio/NYT

Are You Prepared for a Jobs Depression?/ere.net

How Long will America Lead the World?/Newsweek

Cap and Trade Dementia/The American Spectator

Schools As Scapegoats/The American Prospect

Is it Time to Retrain Business Schools?/NYT

Go Global, Young Manager!/Financial Post

Is a College Degree Worthless?/MSN Money

Don’t Get That College Degree!/NY Post

Cat Gets GED: Why GPAs, Degrees and Job Titles May Be Worthless/ITBusinessEdge

Too Many Doctorates Chase Too Few Jobs/San Francisco Chronical

The Three-Year Solution/Newsweek

Asking for Student Loan Forgiveness/Businessweek

Middle Class Facing Decline in Expectations, Economic Power/Retail Traffic

21st Century Skills, Education & Competitiveness/PDF

Jay Mathews: Why I don’t Like 21st Century Reports/Washington Post

Friedman: U.S. Education System Endangering Global Competitiveness/Education Futures

A New Look at American Competitiveness/Entrepreneurship

The World’s New Superpower/Salon

The Almighty Renminbi?/NYT

The End of the Dollar Spells the Rise of a New Order/The Independent (UK)

China will Overtake America, the Only Question is When/The Independent (UK)

China’s Economy/Brookings Institution

Lax Oversight, Globalization Erode Product Safety/CNN

Technology Made to be Broken/CSMonitor

Appliance Anxiety — Replace It or Fix It?/NYT

On the eve of 350 Dreamers’ night of communal dreaming for global healing, I attended a lecture at Smith College sponsored by the Western Massachusetts Association of Jungian Psychology. Ethne J. Gray was presenting a lecture on “Archetypal Patterns in Dream Incubation.” Ms. Gray, a South African born Jungian analyst who is on the faculty of the CG Jung Institute in Boston, and who is a professor of Jungian Art Therapy, talked about the Aesclepian dream temples of ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. People would come to these temples, set in a sacred grove with a running stream or river nearby, to incubate healing dreams.

These dream temples were places of mystery, and sanctuaries of holistic healing. Music, poetry and beauty were incorporated to create a quiet, relaxing atmosphere. Tame snakes, representing the god Aesclepius, would slither about the temple and visitors would make offerings of oats, honey and cakes. Those in search of healing would would then rest on couches arranged in a circle in a portico, intending to sleep and be visited by Aesclepius, or a member of the feminine trinity, Hygea (his daughter), Panacea or Epione (his wife).

Aesclepius, it is interesting to note, became a divine healer after he himself had been mortally wounded. The poison that wounded him became the medicine that healed him. Thus was born the concept of the wounded healer, and the notion that that which wounds, heals.

Jung, apparently, embraced this concept, teaching that poison is the thing that cures and what hurts, is the very thing that heals — if we take it in consciously and in the right way.

Autumn, the season when leaves wither and die, a time of letting go, is also the season of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, Gray noted, a myth of death and renewal. This, it seems is an ideal time for incubating dreams of healing for our planet. Within the poisonous greed and unconsciousness that threaten our planet must be the seeds for renewal and healing.

All of these thoughts and images are swirling through my mind, like the colorful falling leaves that landed against my windshield as I drove home in the drizzling night.

And now I imagine us heading toward our sleeping chambers, as the ancient Greeks might have entered their dream temples, ready to welcome Aesclepius, or any other healing spirit to guide us toward global transformation.

Check out the new EP by Panacea (Damu the Fudgemunk and Raw Poetic).

Peas, illa

Although many business schools and consultancies have a public commitment to learning from, and sharing, best practice, this has not stopped some of them, and those who use their services, from jumping of  techniques such as reengineering as if they represent a revelation.

Mindless copying can result in the spread of panaceas, hype and misunderstanding, and gives added momentum to the latest craze. While it may be good news, for those who ride bandwagon, it is not so hot for those whose toes get in the way.

When external suppliers, such as consultants, do get hold of a best practice ‘gem,’ their motivation is often to spread it around their client base as soon as possible. Thus the corporation’s competitive edge can quickly become industry commonplace.

Some consultants receive as good as they give. Companies invite various experts to pitch for business and then ‘do it themselves’ using ther best of the various ideas they have picked up. The learning organization is a voracious and insatiable plunderer and consumer of intellectual capital. The wary choose their network partners with care.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

we are very happy to announce the imminent release of Propaganda’s 2nd
PC-release “Hardcore will never die” / “The Happening”. both tunes are
total bangers we have come to expect from props……PC076 will also
be made available as digital download.
also coming out this autumn is Audio’s first 12″ for our label and The
Panacea’s as yet untitled 6th studio-album!
Listen to some clips