text:
The future of the Left: do we need a new agenda.
The Left needs to set aside soundbites and triangulation and instead rise to the challenge of creating a more equitable and sustainable world order.
thomas_admin on 18th May 2006
Speech delivered at Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust Annual Lecture | 18-May-2006
These are disappointing and troubling times. The mood in Britain now, contrasts starkly with the optimism of 1997. And the gloom of the international situation belies the dream of, reductions in defence spending and a new world order, that swept the world in 1989/90 when the Berlin Wall collapsed and Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The disillusionment with the Blair government is deeper than the normal disappointment that comes with the swing of the political pendulum. Large numbers of life long Labour Party members have left the party and much of the moral and intellectual core of Labour's support has been withdrawn. Obviously Iraq has played a major part in this but the causes of the disillusionment go much wider.
Since the beginning of New Labour's second term in office in 2001, there has been a cumulating stream of policies that contradict traditional Labour values and are the cause of growing disenchantment. Following Iraq came the imposition of top-up fees for university students in breach of a manifesto commitment and without a discussion of alternatives such as a graduate tax. In addition, the benefits of the welcome increase in public expenditure in health, education and elsewhere has been undermined by centralised and highly bureaucratic target setting, the constant stream of new initiatives, endless re-organisation and now privatisation. There has also been a raft of criminal justice and asylum Bills which increasingly expand the prison population, display a growing cruelty to asylum seekers but fail to grapple with the underlying problems of crime or asylum. The continuing erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law and the imposition of compulsory identity cards, show a deep disrespect for the best of our traditions and institutions. And the scaremongering approach to the so-called "war on terror" is increasing rather than reducing the threat of terrorism. Beyond the errors of policy there is a problem with the style of the Government, the addiction to spin and sound bites has led to a widespread view that they do not tell the truth. And there is an arrogance that surrounds the cult of the leader that leaves people feeling that the Government listens to no one. The headline grabbing, tabloid teasing, ill thought out and unprincipled way in which policy is bounced out of No 10, through the media, without proper consultation or thinking through of the consequences of each new initiative, displays an incompetence in public administration that is causing growing frustration.
This does not mean of course that some good things have not been achieved by the Government – most notable from policy commitments put in place in opposition – such as devolution to Scotland and Wales, the minimum wage and the tax credits that have improved the incomes of some of our poorest families and poorest pensioners. (Though even here there is a problem because tax credits create immediate benefits but stoke up long term problems particularly in relation to pensions.) There have also been historic improvements in equality for gay people. The establishment of the Department for International Development has led to a fuller consideration of developmental issues. And increased public expenditure for our investment starved public services has been welcome although its benefits undermined by the constant re- organisation. The commitment to eliminate child poverty is highly ambitious and deeply welcome but, the commitments that have been made to reduce poverty mask an abandonment of Labour's long standing commitment to the reduction of inequality. This was spelt out during the 2001 election campaign when Tony Blair refused to answer Jeremy Paxman's question about whether it was acceptable for the gap between the rich and the poor to get wider. His response was, in essence, that what mattered was the situation of the poorest, not the rising income of those at the top. The issue for Blair was poverty, not inequality. This is a significant departure. A deeply unequal society with some special help for the poor, is a very different aspiration from a commitment to the reduction of inequality and has strong societal consequences as I will show.
Clearly some of the forces at work which are making our society unhappy and degraded are bigger than the sway of the current government. But after nine years of New Labour, the UK is an increasingly unequal and highly indebted society, infected with a culture of rudeness and criminality and a growing problem of alcohol and drug abuse, obesity and mental illness with many people working in stressful and unsatisfying jobs and having little time for friends and family. And in the face of the increased problems arising from alcohol abuse, it remains extraordinary that the government committed itself so strongly to liberalising licensing laws and what is more, encouraging the development of mega casinos as a means of promoting development in deprived areas!
The reality is that the opportunity created by the size of the majority and the level of expectation of change in 1997 was as great as that of 1945, and has been largely squandered. And given the constant New Labour claims that no previous Labour government has achieved as much as they, it is worth reminding ourselves that in six short years the 1945 government brought the country to full employment and a welfare state that cared for all from the cradle to the grave, including the establishment of a National Health Service that was the envy of the world. It nationalised coal and the railways in order to promote investment in decaying industries that were crucial to the public interest. It also carried forward the independence of India and thus began the dismantling of the British Empire and helped to build the United Nations and the new post war order. No government is perfect and it ended tired and divided but when it lost power in 1951, it won more votes than had brought it to power in 1945. And Tory governments from 1951 to 1983 did not dare to dismantle the post war settlement that Labour had put in place. The voting figures are notable. Labour came to power with almost 12 million votes (11.97) and 48% (47.7) of the electorate in 1945 and lost in 1951 with almost 14 million (13.95) votes and 49% (48.8) of the total, famously losing to a Tory government with a smaller vote.
In fact, New Labour and Tony Blair's claim that he has reached parts of the electorate that Labour has never reached before is simply false. New Labour won 13.5 (13.52) million votes or 43% of the electorate in 1997; less than 11 million (10.73) or 41% (40.7) in 2001 and 9.5 (9.54) million or just over 35% (35.2) in 2005 (this compares interestingly with Labour's massive failure in 1983 when it received 8.46 million votes). The explanation of Blair's electoral success is the rise of the third party vote and the way in which this produces distorted representation in the House of Commons. New Labour has not won significantly more votes than previous Labour governments.
Thus the conclusion has to be that New Labour is a major disappointment. Despite the benign economic inheritance that contrasts very strongly with the difficulties with which the Wilson and Callaghan governments had to grapple, we have to conclude that there is a nastiness of style, a centralisation of control, a lack of concern for inequality and a support for extremist US foreign policy that makes New Labour more the creature of the hegemony of the Thatcher era than the creators of a new settlement.
It is also notable that when people seek to resist privatisation of their schools, cruelty to asylum seekers, the undermining of civil liberties or an immoral foreign policy, the left's capacity to organise and resist is weakened because it is a supposedly Labour government that is bringing forward these policies. And thus the Labour Party which is the creation of 100 years of struggle by British people to create a more just society and more equitable international order has been weakened and undermined at the hands of the New Labour project.
However, deep as the failings are we need to be clear that it is not just in the UK that there is a growing disenchantment with politics. Right across the OECD countries, the turnout in elections is falling; there is a growing disbelief in politics and a sense that there is little difference between parties of the right and left. There is also a growth of inequality worldwide. One part of the explanation is the impact of globalisation and realisation that old left wing nostrums do not work in the face of the intensification of global competition. Thus we need new thinking and renewal of political debate. But this is almost impossible in the face of a deep dumbing down of politics, as the 24 hours media leads to agenda setting through media management. It is notable that increasingly figures with media appeal rather than strong moral or intellectual ability rise to the fore. And thus we get leaders like Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi and George Bush. And it is remarkable that the concentration of power in the White House and overweening influence of Karl Rove mirrors the concentration in No 10 and the influence of Alistair Campbell, yet the underlying political systems are very different. A Clement Atlee or Winston Churchill would almost certainly fail to rise to the top in modern politics, dominated as it is by a voracious media. It is also significant that just as the country is increasingly anxious to rid itself of Tony Blair, the leader of the Conservative Party is reinventing himself as a Blair mark 2 with lots of attractive spin, slick presentation, talk of social justice and care for the environment. Clearly these are the values the polling indicates that British people hold dear and thus, as with Blair, we get warm words, but in practice strong support for US foreign policy, economic growth at any price and Thatcherite reform in public services. As the noise and tribal clashes in the House of Commons get ever louder, the difference between the parties continues to narrow. Blair wants to be seen to be tough on law and order and asylum. Cameron wants to be seen to care for the poor and ethnic minorities, but in practice there is increasingly little to choose between them.
It could be argued that this narrowing of political difference arises from a genuine reduction of ideological alternatives as argued by Francis Fukuyama in his "End of History" thesis. The fall of the Soviet Union had he suggested led to victory for liberal democracy and capitalism. If this was correct, then it would be logical that the future would be a contest for slicker presentation and more effective management.
But it is simply impossible to accept that history has ended in a world beset by terrible poverty and inequality, with 1 in 5 of the world's 6 billion people living with constant hunger, lack of clean water, health care or education and 2.4 billion living in deep poverty. In addition another 2-3 billion people will be born over the next 20-30 years, 90 per cent of them in the poorest countries. And humanity is urbanising fast, 50 per cent of people are now urban dwellers and this will rise to 65 per cent in 15 years' time, most of them living in the massive slums of the new mega cities of the south. This I believe will lead to significant political change. The new urban poor with access to modern communications and knowledge of how people live in the OECD countries are unlikely to be content to continue to live in poverty as did their rural grandparents.
Beyond this we face the escalating turmoil, conflict and anger of the Middle East made worse by the declaration of a new war without end that surely justifies President Eisenhower's warning, in his final address to the American people, of the malevolent influence of the military, industrial complex on American political life. It is clear that a just settlement is available in the Middle East involving a two state solution on the basis of international law for Israel and Palestine, a negotiated withdrawal from Iraq and the withdrawal of all WMD from the region. But again, despite warm words, there is no prospect of the President of the US, our own Prime Minister or, I fear, his likely successor, supporting such a policy and therefore the bitterness and bloodshed will continue for some time to come.
Beyond the quagmire in the Middle East, we face a terrible threat to the future arising from the consequences of global warming. There is no doubt that the poorest of the world will suffer most with Africa being hit by drought and desertification, and countries like Bangladesh, the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean losing much of their territory to the sea. In addition, the drying out in the tropics will lead to a reduction in food production which is likely to seriously affect China and India. But it would be wrong to conclude that the wealthy countries will be immune from the devastation resulting from global warming or can buy their way out with a technological fix. Even the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA) identifies climate change as a threat that vastly eclipses that of terrorism. A report commissioned by the head of the ONA, Andrew Marshall, and published in late 2003 concluded that climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters. The report's authors argue that the risk of abrupt climate change should be "elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern."
Among the many consequences of this rise in sea levels are the effects on metropolitan areas. As most of the world's large cities are positioned on coasts it could mean a large proportion of them would be lost to the sea. The gradual displacement of peoples from coastline and river delta areas could be in the hundreds of millions and the economic and social consequences would be enormous.
Thus we are forced to conclude that we live at a time of an enormous political challenge. And it is increasingly clear that the highly materialistic, competitive and unequal societies that are being created as a result of the intensifications of global competitiveness do not create contented or stable societies. In addition, the world faces great challenges in grappling with massive poverty and inequality, the turmoil in the Middle East and the existential threat posed by global warming. This is the challenge to the left. The global political elite are leading the world into a growing nightmare. People everywhere are aware of the risks and troubled by the situation. But there are as yet few movements, leaders and most importantly political ideas that can draw people together, and advocate a new settlement that will enable humanity to surmount the current challenge.
One of the most important issues to be addressed is the reduction of global poverty and the creation of a more equitable world order capable of reaching agreement to halt nuclear proliferation; to resolve the conflicts that have cost 10 million lives in the last 10 years; and to share the environmental resources of the world so that human civilisation is able to continue on this planet. The current model of development is that the poor countries should reshape themselves to be more like us, so that economic growth will enable them to live like us. And one of the great historical changes taking place in the world is that China and increasingly India are harnessing the forces of globalisation to do just that and in the process achieving the fastest reduction of poverty for the largest number of people that the world has ever seen. But they also show the limits to the economic growth the planet can bear. According to Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington DC, who is one of the leading US environmental analysts, if growth in China continues at 8 per cent a year, by 2031 China's income per head for its 1.45 billion people will be equal to that of the US today. He said:
China's grain consumption will then be two thirds of the current grain consumption of the entire world. If it consumes oil at the same rate as the US today, the Chinese will be consuming 99 billion barrels a day – and the whole world is currently producing 84 billion barrels a day, and will probably not produce much more. If it consumes paper at the same rate that we do, it will consume twice as much paper as the world is now producing. There go the world's forests. If the Chinese then have three cars for every four people – as the US does today – they would have a fleet of 1.1 billion cars compared to the current world fleet of 800 million. They would have to pave over an area equivalent to the area they have planted with rice today, just to drive and park them.
Mr Brown, who has been tracking and documenting the world's major environmental trends for 30 years then said:
The point of these conclusions is simply to demonstrate that the western economic model is not going to work for China. All they're doing is what we've already done, so you can't criticise them for that. But what you can say is, it's not going to work. And if it does not work for China, by 2031 it won't work for India, which by then will have an even larger population, or for the other three billion people in the developing countries. And in some way it will not work for the industrialised countries either, because in the incredibly integrated world economy, we all depend on the same oil and the same grain. The bottom line of this analysis is that we're going to have to develop a new economic model. Instead of a fossil-fuel based, automobile centred, throwaway economy, we will have to have a renewable-energy based, diversified transport system, and comprehensive reuse and recycle economies.If we want civilisation to survive, we will have to do that. Otherwise civilisation will collapse.
Richard Layard's March 2003 Lionel Robbins Memorial Lectures on Happiness point to complementary conclusions. His analysis in a cross section of countries, of those who are happy and satisfied with their life shows that once a country has over $15,000 per head, its level of happiness appears to be independent of its income per head. For poorer countries, however, there is a clear impact of income on happiness. When you are near the bread-line, income really does matter. But for countries above $15,000 per head, the relationship breaks down.
His analysis also points out that politics matters. As he says:
The most striking finding is the misery of Russia and South Africa, where oppression as well as poverty has degraded the human condition. At the height of Communism Russians were among the most miserable people on earth.
Layard also draws attention to the evidence of increased depression, alcoholism and crime in the richer countries and concludes that:
All the evidence suggests that clinical depression has increased since the Second World War.
He does not dwell on the growth of drug abuse, because this may be partly propelled by easier access to the countries which supply drugs. But he argues that alcohol addiction is a very meaningful indicator of unhappiness.
In the first quarter of the twentieth century alcohol consumption fell in many countries, despite economic growth, and it stayed roughly constant in the second quarter. Since then it has soared in every country except France, which still consumes more alcohol than anywhere else. Much of this drinking is unhealthy. In the US over a quarter of young white men say they have already experienced problems with alcohol. This compares with under 15% of older men (over 65) who say they have ever experienced such problems. The hardest evidence however is medical – deaths from cirrhosis of the liver are up since 1950 in every country except France.
And then there is crime – a similar story. In most advanced countries, crime fell in the years before the First World War, again despite economic growth. It was then stable between the Wars and most people thought that, if full employment could be achieved, crime would fall still lower. The opposite happened. In most countries except Japan, crime increased by a factor of around five between 1950 and 1980 – a truly astonishing increase. In Britain, a third of all young men have been convicted of a crime by the time they are 30. If there is this degree of alienation, it is not surprising that the overall happiness figures have failed to rise.
Thus Layard's conclusion is that:
People in the West have got no happier in the last 50 years. They have become much richer, they work much less, they have longer holidays, they travel more, they live longer, and they are healthier. But they are no happier.
If we move on to examine Richard Wilkinson's extremely important summary of the comparable measures of the scale of inequality on different societies, they demonstrate, he says, why, despite their extraordinary material success, modern societies are social failures. I will quote some of his important findings as summarised in his article in Renewal, Vol 14 No 1, 2006:
In societies where income differences between rich and poor are smaller, the statistics show not only that community life is stronger and people are much more likely to trust each other; but also there is less violence – including substantially lower homicide rates – health is better and life expectancy several years longer, prison populations are smaller; birth rates among teenagers are lower, levels of educational attainment among school children tend to be higher; and there is more social mobility. In all cases, where income differences are narrower, outcomes are better.
That's a lot to lay at the door of inequality, but all these relationships are statistically highly significant and cannot be dismissed as chance findings. Some have already been shown in large numbers of studies – there are over 170 looking at the tendency for health to be better in more equal societies and something like forty looking at the relationship between violence and inequality.
He goes on to argue:
The first thing to recognise is that we are dealing with the effects of relative, not absolute deprivation and poverty. Violence, poor health or school failure are not problems that can be solved by economic growth alone – by everyone getting richer without redistribution. Across the richest 25 or 30 countries there is no tendency whatsoever for health to be better among the most affluent rather than the least affluent countries. The same is also true of levels of violence, teenage pregnancy rates, literacy and maths scores among school children, and even obesity rates. We have reached a level of development beyond which further rises in absolute living standards no longer reduce social problems or add to wellbeing. However, within each country, these problems remain closely associated with income and any other indicator of socio-economic status. The implication is that what really matters about income is where you are in relation to others in your society – it is a matter of relative income or social status, not whether the population in one rich country is on average twice as rich as that of another. So, for example, the USA has the highest homicide rates, the highest teenage pregnancy rates, the highest rates of imprisonment and comes about twenty- sixth in the international league table of life expectancy because it also has the biggest income differences. In contrast, countries like Japan, Sweden and Norway, although not as rich as the USA, all have smaller income differences and do well on all these measures. Even among the fifty states of the USA, those with smaller income differences perform as well as more egalitarian countries on most of these measures.
Wilkinson goes on to show that inequality also breaks down trust and social co-operation:
The growing awareness of the importance of the social environment to health raised the question of whether the quality of social relations differed between more, and less, equal societies. When analysed, data from a number of different sources left no room for doubt: people in more unequal societies trust each other less, they are less likely to be involved in community life, and rates of violence are higher. All suggest that inequality damages the quality of social relations. Indeed, this must be one of the most important ways inequality affects the quality of life for all of us. In the most unequal of the fifty states of the USA, 35 or 40 per cent of the population feel that they cannot trust other people, compared with perhaps only 10 per cent in the more equal states. The international differences are at least as large. Measures of social capital and the extent to which people are involved in local community life also confirm the socially corrosive effects of inequality. Given the dysfunctional response to hurricane Katrina, it is interesting to note that New Orleans is among the most unequal cities in the USA.
So, there it is, this is the new challenge for the left. Modern post-industrial societies are increasingly unhappy and dysfunctional. Inequality is a major part of the explanation and increasing material wealth beyond $15,000 per head does not increase human happiness. The levels of inequality and poverty in the world are unjust and unstable, but the current model of development showing such spectacular success in China will lead to a completely unsustainable demand for natural resources that the planet is simply incapable of providing. On top of this, we have the consequences of global warming which are not being adequately addressed. Serious scholars tell us that if we fail to make major changes before 2030, human civilisation on this planet will be in danger within a period of 100 years. Some human beings may survive, but the civilisation in which we currently live could not.
This is an enormous challenge. At the present time, any cursory reading of the speeches of leading politicians or the Financial Times or any other quality newspaper, makes clear that the encouragement of economic growth is the purpose of politics. But this has to change. The left has always insisted that every single human being is of equal value and importance and that moral standards apply equally to all. Parts of the left have got distracted by models of economic organisation that were dysfunctional or a commitment to the spread of revolution for its own sake. But the purpose of the left is to create just societies and a just world order in which all can flourish, be respected and fulfilled.
The world now has sufficient knowledge, technological capacity and capital to eliminate poverty and provide for the needs of every single human being. My analysis of the present world situation is gloomy but my exasperation with the present cul-de-sac into which world leaders have put us is that, despite the enormity of the challenge, there is a new era waiting to be born where we at last face up to the fact that humanity is one people. We can then go on to share our knowledge, capital and technology. We are the first generation of human beings who are in a position to eliminate extreme poverty. This means large scale conflict must be ended and our forces used to prevent disorder and help people to achieve security so that they can build the structures of competent states capable of promoting human development.
And such states will be in a position to negotiate international agreements that could ensure that our environmental resources are used in a way that ensures that human life on our planet is sustainable. This will mean we will have to move to a higher level of civilisation where all people have the basics that they need and then we must develop a new way of living which gets beyond an obsession with the ownership of more and more material goods and economic growth for its own sake and we must learn to enjoy caring for each other, nature, literature, the arts, philosophy and the spirituality for which western people in particular are yearning as they find that material plenty does not provide meaning to their lives.
All of this may sound fanciful, but as Mrs Thatcher once said about less significant matters "there is no alternative". We either look forward to mounting catastrophes that threaten our survival or we create a more equitable and sustainable world order. It is the left that has the values that can carry us through this monumental challenge. But to rise to the occasion we need to set aside soundbites, triangulation and celebrity politics and get back to a search for ideas and a moral way of working and organising that can help inspire people to come together to face the challenge that lies ahead.
Posted in: Speeches
Tagged in: constitution, Labour Party
The World Bank: the alternative is worse.
Blair's house of cards.


text:
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Naija A-Z
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The 64-year-old man also told detectives his wife was ill and he was afraid she'd test positive for cancer, so he decided to terminate her life.
Court documents indicate Maraventano attacked his wife with a kitchen knife as she was sleeping. He confessed to having considered buying a gun to kill her, but decided not to because "[he's'] not a violent person."
After stabbing his wife the suspect allegedly tried to commit suicide, but instead decided to kill his 27-year-old son Bryan. Maraventano told detectives he thought his son was handicapped because he spent too much time playing video games and had no job, friends or a girlfriend. So he went into his son's room and stabbed him twice.
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The National Hospital, Abuja, on Tuesday confirmed the death of the conjoined twins, saying they did not die during separation.
The newsmen reports that the twins were born to a 17-year-old woman, Safiya Sani on Thursday, Jan. 3 at Mararaba Medical Centre, Mararaba Gurku in Nasarawa State.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mark TuckerEquips The ARC Studio With ADAM Audio
From Martin Barre to Jethro Tull – they all know how much attention to detail Mark Tucker brings to the studio.
Working as an assistant of Brad Davis for many years, Mark Tucker now works as a producer, sound engineer and independent musician. As a highly acclaimed guitarist his current project "The Band of Love" will play alongside Kylie Minogue, Lenny Kravitz and The Manic Street Preachers at the 2018 Hyde Park Concert. Besides, he's been working with Beth Gibbons from Portishead, the classic rock band Jethro Tull and the folk rock band Fairport Convention. However, his musical work is far from being exhausted.
After planning and setting up studios for various heavyweights in his industry, Mark Tucker has now completed his own recording studio. Built in a former woodworking shop, the ARC studio consists of a control room, two recording rooms and a vocal booth. Within these rooms all musical desires can be fulfilled – no matter whether it concerns analog, digital or hybrid recording and mixing processes. Equipped with a completely overhauled SSL 16x Channel G+ and 16x Channel C, a wide range of microphones and AMPs as well as a large collection of various instruments, ADAM Audio can also be found in the studio's exquisite range. More precisely, the ADAM S5H is located in the control room, while the ADAM A8X is located in one of the two recording rooms.
"I have more confidence in the ADAM speaker system than any other monitor I have used before."
"I use the S3H at Green Room Studio in Devon and the S5H at ARC Studio in Eynsham. Mixing between the studios is not a problem. I have more confidence in the ADAM speaker system than any other monitor I have used before." What Mark likes most about his ADAM Audio monitors is their transparency. He has worked with the A8X before. There were no problems when switching to the new S Series. Although, according to his statement, this happens very often with new monitoring systems. For all genres – from folk/acoustic to electronic – he considers monitors to be the right choice. Mark Tucker is particularly enthusiastic about setting reverb and detailed three-dimensional effects on the new system.


On May 12, 2016 Governor McAuliffe of Virginia visited one of Arlington's public high schools, Wakefield High School, where he signed three education bills into law. It was impressive watching the Governor arrive in his helicopter and land next to Wakefield.
I even had the opportunity to shake the Governor's hand. After being introduced by Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Patrick Murphy, Governor McAuliffe explained that the traditional method of education hasn't changed much since the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century. The purpose of the three bills was to redesign Virginia's public school system by changing the typical classroom environment currently in existence. The idea behind these bills is the realization that not all students want, need, or should go to college. By 2018, construction of career and technical education centers will be completed where high school students will have the opportunity to receive a technical certificate in high demand occupations such as cyber security or other STEM fields, or if they choose a college track will have the opportunity to take courses to prepare them for post-secondary education. Students will be exposed to all post-graduation opportunities whether they decide to enter the workforce after high school or attend a post-secondary institution. These opportunities such as career and technical education and dual enrollment courses are designed to prepare students to tackle whichever track they pursue after high school. Having a strong education system and a talented workforce makes the Commonwealth a more desireable place to do business and to live. Meeting the Governor was an opportunity of a lifetime, and a great supplement to the government class I'm currently taking.


2019 Season. The Gateshead Quayside is home to an estimated 700 pairs of breeding Kittiwakes. Their colony on the quayside is recognised as being the furthest inland Kittiwake nesting site in the world. Kittiwakes have used the area as a breeding site since the 1960′s and have truly become a well-established part of the local natural heritage.
For those within traveling distance of The Baltic, there are regular Kittiwake tours. For more information, visit the Durham Wildlife Trust events page. Visitors can also watch the two live cameras in the Baltic's Quay Gallery.
Aka Black-legged Kittiwake. Female lays 1 to 3 eggs. Incubation is 24 to 28 days. The chicks fledge after 34 days.
(1) To fit one PTZ and one fixed camera to monitor the Kittiwake nesting ledges.
(3) To show live on the screens at the Baltic Centre.


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Sarsina este o comună din provincia Forlì-Cesena, Italia. În 2011 avea o populație de 3603 de locuitori.

Demografie

Note

Vezi și
 Lista comunelor din Provincia Forlì-Cesena

Comune din provincia Forlì-Cesena

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Tullow Oil is gearing up for a seismic campaign off Comoros in the Indian Ocean after farming in to a trio of blocks and taking operatorship.
The Anglo-Irish independent has taken a 35% stake in blocks 35, 36 and 37 from private equity-backed fellow Anglo-Irish player Discover Exploration, it said on Thursday.
The deal still needs governmental approval, but once this is attained, London-listed Tullow will become operator of the tracts north of the Mozambique Channel, which together cover 16,063 square kilometres.
A 3D seismic campaign is planned for next year, although the size of the shoot is not known.
The blocks have gross unrisked resource potential of up to 7 billion barrels of oil, Tullow said.
Until recently, Discover held a 60% non-operating stake alongside the original licence holder, Kenya-based Bahari Resources, on a 40% operating interest. Bahari is owned by Australian player Calima Energy.
However, Discover recently took over the block's 100% before farming down to Tullow.
Upstream reported in April that Discover and Bahari were aiming to drill on the three-block licence as early as next year after entering the second exploration period in late March.
Discover's co-founder and chief operating officer Alexander Mollinger said earlier this year the original aim was to drill later this year, but there is no rush because only one commitment well is required for all three blocks combined and this does not have to be drilled until 2021.
The drilling targets are in the shallower Eocene and the deeper Cenomanian layers.
Mollinger said earlier this year the two objectives are "partially overlapping, so we can test both with one vertical well, most likely in the centrally located Block 36".
The pre-drill upside is calculated at between 60 trillion and 70 trillion cubic feet.
He added that he believes Discover's acreage has wet-gas potential compared to the dry gas found off northern Mozambique.
Ahead of the company's Capital Markets Day in London on Thursday, Tullow also reinstated its dividend from next year, while it will also make a call after the year end on a one-off ordinary dividend for this year.
"It is expected that the ordinary dividend in any year will be no less than $100 million and will be payable semi-annually, split between the interim and final dividend (1/3:2/3)," Tullow saod.
"In periods of particularly strong free cash flow generation, the board will also look to supplement the ordinary dividend with additional returns to shareholders."
Tullow has also cancelled its undrawn $350 million revolving credit facility six months ahead of maturity "to realise cost savings and reduced commitment fees".


Live your glamorous life surrounded by the sounds of nature in the heart of Bangkok. The Glamor private residence is reserved for only 18 families. Our housing project is located on Pradit Manutham Road which is surrounded by a myriad of destinations and is just a short drive away from Bangkok's CBD. Each home is uniquely designed to help you achieve luxurious balance between your work life and peaceful living.


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Sium suave Walt.
Common names: Hemlock Waterparsnip
Species details (USDA): USDA SISU2
Algonquin, Quebec Food, Unspecified detail... (Black, Meredith Jean, 1980, Algonquin Ethnobotany: An Interpretation of Aboriginal Adaptation in South Western Quebec, Ottawa. National Museums of Canada. Mercury Series Number 65, pages 101)
Bella Coola Food, Unspecified detail... (Turner, Nancy J., 1973, The Ethnobotany of the Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia, Syesis 6:193-220, pages 200)
Carrier Food, Unspecified detail... (Turner, Nancy J., 1973, The Ethnobotany of the Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia, Syesis 6:193-220, pages 200)
Cree, Woodlands Food, Unspecified detail... (Leighton, Anna L., 1985, Wild Plant Use by the Woods Cree (Nihithawak) of East-Central Saskatchewan, Ottawa. National Museums of Canada. Mercury Series, pages 61)
Iroquois Drug, Analgesic detail... (Herrick, James William, 1977, Iroquois Medical Botany, State University of New York, Albany, PhD Thesis, pages 399)
Iroquois Drug, Anticonvulsive detail... (Herrick, James William, 1977, Iroquois Medical Botany, State University of New York, Albany, PhD Thesis, pages 399)
Klamath Food, Sauce & Relish detail... (Coville, Frederick V., 1897, Notes On The Plants Used By The Klamath Indians Of Oregon., Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium 5(2):87-110, pages 102)
Lakota Drug, Gastrointestinal Aid detail... (Rogers, Dilwyn J, 1980, Lakota Names and Traditional Uses of Native Plants by Sicangu (Brule) People in the Rosebud Area, South Dakota, St. Francis, SD. Rosebud Educational Scoiety, pages 33)
Lakota Other, Toys & Games detail... (Rogers, Dilwyn J, 1980, Lakota Names and Traditional Uses of Native Plants by Sicangu (Brule) People in the Rosebud Area, South Dakota, St. Francis, SD. Rosebud Educational Scoiety, pages 33)
Montana Indian Food, Sauce & Relish detail... (Blankinship, J. W., 1905, Native Economic Plants of Montana, Bozeman. Montana Agricultural College Experimental Station, Bulletin 56, pages 24)
Ojibwa Drug, Hunting Medicine detail... (Smith, Huron H., 1932, Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians, Bulletin of the Public Museum of Milwaukee 4:327-525, pages 432)
Okanagan-Colville Food, Unspecified detail... (Turner, Nancy J., R. Bouchard and Dorothy I.D. Kennedy, 1980, Ethnobotany of the Okanagan-Colville Indians of British Columbia and Washington, Victoria. British Columbia Provincial Museum, pages 71)
Okanagon Food, Staple detail... (Teit, James A., 1928, The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus, SI-BAE Annual Report #45, pages 238)
Shuswap Drug, Poison detail... (Palmer, Gary, 1975, Shuswap Indian Ethnobotany, Syesis 8:29-51, pages 57)
Shuswap Food, Unspecified detail... (Palmer, Gary, 1975, Shuswap Indian Ethnobotany, Syesis 8:29-51, pages 57)
Thompson Food, Dried Food detail... (Turner, Nancy J., Laurence C. Thompson and M. Terry Thompson et al., 1990, Thompson Ethnobotany: Knowledge and Usage of Plants by the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, Victoria. Royal British Columbia Museum, pages 159)
Thompson Food, Forage detail... (Steedman, E.V., 1928, The Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, SI-BAE Annual Report #45:441-522, pages 482)
Thompson Food, Unspecified detail... (Turner, Nancy J., Laurence C. Thompson and M. Terry Thompson et al., 1990, Thompson Ethnobotany: Knowledge and Usage of Plants by the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, Victoria. Royal British Columbia Museum, pages 159)
Thompson Food, Unspecified detail... (Steedman, E.V., 1928, The Ethnobotany of the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, SI-BAE Annual Report #45:441-522, pages 482)


text:
Reliable God – Chinyelu
Ayodele Joshua May 21, 2021 1 min read
Nigeria based gospel artiste and songwriter, Chinyelu shares new single titled "Reliable God"
Chinyelu is a singer songwriter and a gospel-recording artist. She believes that just as we have preachers who preach the word through sayings, true gospel recording artist preach through music. She has been in the music ministry fir over 20 years
She released her first single "You Are Worthy" in 2016, followed by the launching of her 10 track album "I surrender " in 2018.
"Reliable God" is the 3rd single release off her next album release project. She is a wife, mother and an entrepreneur.
Previous: Beautiful – Licha
Next: In Your Name – Dare David


text:
Airbnb Announces New Brand Name, Expansion in China
Daniel Meesak
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announcing Airbnb's new Chinese brand name. (Courtesy Photo)
After being a relatively passive player in China's tourism market over the last few years, Airbnb is now doubling down on its plan to expand in China with a series of announcements, including a new brand name that will be used in China. Starting this week, Airbnb China is now known as 爱彼迎 ("Aibiying") and marks the start of a renewed focus on the Chinese market. In addition to the new Chinese brand name, Airbnb also intensified marketing efforts, new investments in China, Chinese localization, as well as partnerships with Chinese cities.
Last week, Jing Travel reported on how Airbnb is becoming more Chinese to compete in the increasingly contested Chinese home rental market. The report drew on the recent investment in Airbnb by state-owned sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, which added to the ranks of major Chinese and Hong Kong investments in the company, as well as the incorporation of Airbnb China in late 2016. With a growing list of Chinese partners, investors, and an ambitious plan to expand its Chinese operations, the stage was set for a more aggressive push by Airbnb into China.
Just a week later, Airbnb did not only announce a more focused push into the Chinese market but also a fully-Chinese brand name that it will use to lure Chinese travelers to its products and services.
In a press release announcing the company's new brand name in China, Airbnb also emphasized the importance of Chinese millennials, which it identified as a core market segment for Airbnb. According to a study conducted by Gfk and commissioned by Airbnb, 93 percent of Chinese millennials consider traveling an important part of their self-identity, with 94 percent of millennial respondents saying that they want unique travel experiences. The aspirations of Chinese millennial travelers and Airbnb's recent push into travel experiences with "Airbnb Experiences" makes it a suitable market for Airbnb to target in China. According to Airbnb, 80 percent of their Chinese user base consist of people under the age of 35—the highest proportion across all the markets it operates in.
"There's a whole new generation of Chinese travelers who want to see the world in a different way. We hope that Aibiying and our Trips product strikes a chord with them and inspires them to want to travel in a way that opens doors to new people, communities and neighborhoods across the world. I'm really excited about our future here," Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb said in a press statement.
In addition to its new branding and active courtship of Chinese millennial travelers, Airbnb also announced that it would grow the staff at its Chinese offices by 300 percent in 2017, as well as double its current investment in the Chinese market. The company also emphasized that China is the only place outside the United States where it has an engineering center, and that it intends to grow the number of Chinese engineers it employs by 2018.
As a next step in its Chinese localization efforts—which have included the integration of Chinese mobile payments as well as in-app reservations on WeChat—Airbnb says that it will focus on "rethinking the core booking experience" in order to better cater to its Chinese users.
Much like its Chinese competitors, Airbnb also announced that it is partnering with Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Guangzhou "to help them maximize the benefits of home sharing." At present, the company has shared no details on what the partnership with Chinese cities would entail, but it goes hand-in-hand with the idea that Airbnb must cozy up to local authorities to avoid suffering the same fate as Uber China, which was acquired by its local rival last year after an expensive and ultimately unsuccessful stint in the market.
While Airbnb's new focus on the Chinese market addresses some of the concerns about its future in the market, other aspects where it is trailing its domestic rivals remain. Tujia, the biggest of Airbnb's Chinese competitors, puts a lot of emphasis on how it helps property owners rent out their houses and apartments without any direct involvement—which it accomplishes through partnering with Chinese property management companies. Even if Airbnb is successful in capturing the lust for unique travel experiences among Chinese millennials, it also needs to prove to Chinese property owners that it can provide an easy way to manage and monetize underutilized real estate.
Hotels & Accommodation, Travel
aibiying, airbnb, airbnb china, alipay, brian chesky, chinese millennial travelers, chinese millennials, home rental, home sharing, sharing economy, tujia, wechat
To Compete in China, Airbnb is Becoming More Chinese
Jing Travel Newsletter
Travel Events Calendar


text:
Five talent-management practices can help steer organisations through new ways of working and into the post-COVID-19 era.
To say that chief HR officers (CHROs) are busy in the COVID-19 era would be an understatement. Now, more than ever, they are central to how companies are reimagining their personnel practices to build organizational resilience and drive value.
In the earliest days of the crisis, CHROs kept people safe while fostering connectivity and caring in an intensely stressful time. In planning for and implementing the restart, they have been working to maintain morale and productivity for remote workforces while trying to figure out how and when to get folks back into office settings.
Those responses were to circumstances that no one had ever faced before. Now, though, the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating preexisting trends in five areas of talent management that are part of the CHRO playbook: finding and hiring the right people, learning and growing, managing and rewarding performance, tailoring the employee experience, and optimizing workforce planning and strategy. In this article, we look at how CHROs can take action in those areas to craft a strong and durable talent strategy for the postpandemic world.
Finding and hiring the right people
During the COVID-19 crisis, changes in customer demand have caused a temporary spike in hiring in areas such as grocery while leading to massive layoffs in sectors such as hospitality. Even with those shifts and an overall rise in unemployment, efficient and effective hiring will continue to be important—especially for the scarce skills required for the next normal in areas such as IT.
In May 2020, we surveyed more than 190 chief officers and functional leaders across industries to find out how they were thinking about spending allocation in the months ahead. Of those leaders, 67 percent say they anticipate spending less on permanent hiring in the next 12 months.
While some of that decline is related to a reduction in labor demand, organizations are also rethinking their hiring processes more broadly. For example, given successful experiments in remote hiring during the COVID-19 crisis, companies are reconsidering the need to go on campus for interviews (which would admittedly be more difficult now, with many colleges and universities planning to use remote learning in the fall). That is an acceleration of a preexisting trend: companies such as Goldman Sachs were using remote interviewing for on-campus hiring before the pandemic. We expect that trend to continue in the postpandemic era.
In addition, temporary labor, which shrank faster than overall jobs did (a 29 percent reduction from February to May, compared with a 13 percent employment drop overall, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics), is poised for a faster recovery. Organizations should be ready to use that flexible labor in additional ways.
Of surveyed leaders, 63 percent expect to spend the same amount or more on IT-staff augmentation in the coming months. The number of online freelancers in software and tech jobs has actually increased significantly during the pandemic, according to the Online Labour Index.
Digital skills are still in short supply, and remote working for all employees places remote and online freelancers on a more equal footing with full-time employees. Even in other talent categories, temporary labor usually responds more quickly in a crisis recovery, as employers value flexibility during its early (and uncertain) stages.
Across both permanent and contingent hiring, CHROs should take a fresh look at the range of tools, including assessments and platforms, that are making it easier to connect people to work. There are a large number of up-and-coming organizations in the prehire ecosystem, and innovation is making it easier to connect people to employment based on a deeper understanding of their skills and how those match with available jobs.
Learning organizations face a tension between continuing cost pressures in a downturn and the need to deliver training to help workers adapt to a changing organization and business environment. That tension was reflected in our survey, which shows that 29 percent of learning and development organizations plan to invest more in the next 12 months and that 38 percent plan to invest less.
Our research on reskilling shows that CHROs need to think about the effects of large workforce transitions being accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis and how reskilling plays a key role in helping close talent gaps while keeping employees connected to jobs. The agenda for postpandemic learning and development extends beyond reskilling, however, to three categories of cost-effective training:
Broad-based digital training in essential skills. Many organizations are expanding remote training to address challenges, such as effective leadership of remote teams (a new skill set for most managers) and building personal resilience in difficult circumstances. McKinsey Academy, for instance, has updated its Ability to Execute platform with a COVID-19-related edition that provides a series of training modules on remote working, leadership during a crisis, and executional capabilities that matter.
Focused upskilling rooted in changing work. Such forms of upskilling are function and work-group specific and tied to different ways of working. For example, a sales force that is moving from a largely in-person to a hybrid remote model will need to be upskilled in the practices that drive remote success. The right data-driven approach can bolster sales-force performance—and help HR departments draw a direct line from talent to revenue.According to recent McKinsey research, 77 percent of leaders indicate that retraining salespeople is very or moderately important. To do that, some companies are retraining field sales reps for inside sales roles, including those that require an increased use of data and analytics and those that provide customers with technical expertise via a website's chat function. In our survey of leaders, IT, marketing, and supply chain were among the most cited areas for specific upskilling. That holds true for HR: 61 percent of respondents believe that upskilling will be very or moderately important in the area (Exhibit 2).
Leadership development. In response to the current crisis, the slow pace of corporate bureaucracy has been replaced by clear goals, focused teams, and rapid decision making. CHROs have a key role to play in making sure that the change sticks. Leadership-development programs can provide support for faster, more agile organizations. In particular, organizations can identify the three to five shifts in leadership behavior that would be required to keep them moving in a more focused way. Leaders who are working on these skills can spend a small amount of their learning time in formal settings (in classroom, online, or with a coach) and the majority of it working on real project-based business problems (which the COVID-19 crisis naturally provided).
Managing and rewarding performance
The COVID-19 crisis is speeding up needed shifts in how organizations manage and reward performance. As our previous research has shown, the majority of business leaders don't believe that their performance-management system accurately identifies top performers—and the majority of employees don't feel that the performance-management process accurately reflects their contributions.
The current crisis has dramatically affected goals and performance plans, with the added wrinkle of making the people who are working remotely even more reliant on performance management to tell them how they are doing. That makes three CHRO actions more relevant now:
Transparently link employee goals to business priorities and maintain a strong element of flexibility. Managers should have regular conversations with their employees to set priorities jointly in a changing environment. Annual "set it and forget it" goal setting was already seeing declining relevance among knowledge workers before the pandemic, given the pace of change and need to adapt. And the radical shifting of priorities during the COVID-19 crisis highlights how challenging the annual system has become.
Invest in managers' coaching skills. Coaching is the heart of managing performance, which is even more critical when workers are remote. Organizations need to invest in managerial skills—and mindsets—around coaching and feedback as a continuing process.
Keep ratings for the very highest—and lowest—performers but also celebrate the broad range of good performance. Instead of investing time and energy in making small differentiations in ratings (and pay) for those in the broad range of good performers, organizations should be focused more on having robust development conversations.The COVID-19 crisis has amplified how hard it is to make distinctions "in the middle," but those distinctions have always been hard to make for knowledge workers. As a result, a movement toward recognizing the broad range of good performance is welcome. At the same time, it is important for CHROs to craft a talent strategy that calls out and recognizes the truly distinctive (to motivate and retain them) and the truly lagging (to boost morale and organizational performance).
Tailoring the employee experience
Employee experience and connectivity have taken on whole new meanings as extended work-from-home policies have required organizations to be intentional about building each. In blunt terms, work can't be another source of anxiety or uncertainty for employees right now. They have more than enough going on.
The blurring of the line between work and life while working remotely means that employee experience is even more critical. For virtual workers, there's no commute to the office, no coffee- or snack-room chat, and no in-person gathering after work. Tethered video (or phone) interactions during the course of the work day are going to make it or break it for most people.
One way to handle employee experience in a remote environment is to tailor the approach to individuals or segments of people. Our research shows that experiences vary widely. That is also true for the hybrid work environment, with some employees back in the office and others remaining at home.
CHROs will need to help establish norms of working that foster engagement and inclusion for all employees. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The answer, different for every organization, will be based on what talent is needed, which roles are most important, how much collaboration is necessary for excellence, and where offices are located today, among other factors.
HR departments should also consider the range of analytics tools they can use to understand and promote connectivity and engagement. From using social-network analyses to map interactions and prompt needed connectivity to using listening tools (such as mobile text platforms) to gather and analyze employee sentiment, organizations must be thoughtful about how they track and comprehend employee well-being—beyond an annual engagement survey.
Optimizing workforce planning and strategy
Given the shifts in how value is being created in the post-COVID-19 world (for instance, the shift to contactless experience in grocery, retail, and restaurants and the change from in-person sales meetings to remote sales calls), the talent base required to deliver that value may need to shift as well. As such, it is natural that workforce planning, strategy, and change is the category of HR spending that survey respondents cite as the most likely to increase over the next 12 months, with 76 percent reporting that they will spend the same or more. There are three important components of workforce planning and strategy:
Critical roles. Our research suggests that a small subset of roles (less than 50) is disproportionately important to delivering a business-value agenda. For each of those roles, it is critical to identify the core jobs to be done, the qualities needed of the leaders, and whether the role is set up for success. Given the shifts in the value agenda during the pandemic, it is important that organizations reassess the roles that are most critical in the current stage of the crisis (for example, new product development and innovation) and in the recovery.
Skill pools. In addition to individual roles, organizations should look at their major skill pools (for instance, digital coders) to understand the skills required for the future and whether they are long or short on the required talent. That means embracing a more expansive and dynamic view of their talent supplies—one that tosses out the usual preoccupation with titles and traditional roles, looking instead at the underlying skills that people have. Indeed, we find that when companies start with skills (the ones they need, the ones they have, and how the mix may change over time), they can free up their thinking and find more creative ways to handle the mismatches.
Talent systems. CHROs now have more workforce-planning tools to help them match people to jobs. Artificial-intelligence-enabled tools can help assess an individual's skills, and performance-management systems can be realigned to track skills alongside performance. Longer term, interoperable learning records can serve as skills transcripts that track the skills employees develop across educational institutions and employers.In an example of matching talent to jobs, Talent Exchange, an online job marketplace powered by Eightfold AI, was launched in April 2020 to help people who are out of work during the COVID-19 crisis find the right employment. Based on an understanding of skills across an organization (and beyond), "smart slates" can be developed for critical roles, agile teams can be staffed dynamically based on matching skills, and redeployment opportunities can meet talent gaps while preventing layoffs. Such tools, in the early stages of deployment now, will become increasingly critical for CHROs and other leaders as they meet the challenges ahead.
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a tremendous cost on people's lives and livelihoods, and it has forced businesses to adjust rapidly to survive. We have seen "HR's finest hour" in managing the radical shifts facing workforces during the pandemic, and we are excited to see how CHROs reimagine core talent practices during the recovery—and beyond.
Bryan Hancock is a partner in McKinsey's Washington, DC, office, and Bill Schaninger is a senior partner in the Philadelphia office.
The authors wish to thank Andrea Alexander, Raffaele Breschi, Alexander DiLeonardo, Bonnie Dowling, Neel Gandhi, Talha Khan, Kate Lloyd George, Miriam Owens, and Tom Welchman for their contributions to this article.


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Michael R. Davidson's THE DOVE
1987, the Cold War. Reagan is president, Gorbachev is General Secretary. The Russians are mired in Afghanistan, ground down by attrition, death by inches. What if there's a way to bleed them out faster?
CIA's chief of operations at the Paris station is approached by French security, We have a potential KGB defector, in Moscow, they tell him. But for us it's a Denied Area. We don't have the resources to operate there. You do. Harry Connolly, CIA operations, knows Rule One: There are friendly countries, but no such thing as friendly intelligence services. What do the French want in return?
It turns out the French want the product. They've just been beat out of the biggest arms deal in history by the British, a total of 20 billion pounds sterling, to the Saudis, and the French smell a rat. The defector in Moscow has inside information on the arms sale.
The defector has access to the material because his skill set is technology theft. KGB has a compromised asset inside the Saudi deal, but more to the point, CIA could use the defector's knowledge to map Soviet weaknesses. Where are the gaps, what's on their shopping list, which specific technology problems are they targeting?
And we're off. Paris to Moscow, Paris to DC. London to Riyadh, London to Geneva. Harry has good tradecraft, and he begins to pull the threads together. Everybody's got a piece, from the fixer for a Saudi Prince, Mohammed Attar, to the British procurement minister James Abbott, to banker and bagman Wafiq al Salah, to the Novosti correspondent Nikolay Kozlov, a KGB spook under journalistic cover, and the hapless defector-in-place Stepan Barsikov, giving classified information to the West because he's defeated at love. The journey crosses personal landscapes as much as physical distance. And interestingly, not everybody learns everything. There are things left hidden, or unspoken.
And the last question, the historical one, about the end of the Soviet Union, did they fall or were they pushed? It's perfectly plausible, as The Dove suggests, that the Russians could be goaded into overreach and overspending. Imperial ambition, with an economy on the edge of collapse, and political hardening of the arteries, the Old Guard unable and unwilling to accept reform, meant the system was on life-support, and ready to collapse of its own weight. They were perched on a narrow ledge. Gravity did the rest. Oh, and maybe just a small thumb on the scale.
https://www.amazon.com/Dove-Michael-R-Davidson/dp/0692877142/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497302186&sr=1-1&keywords=michael+r+davidson
This is a review I posted on Amazon for The Dove, with the tagline "authentic and thought-provoking." I've got a couple of things to add. They're in the nature of personal observations, what you might call editorial asides.
First off, it's probably obvious I have a weak spot for Cold War spy stories, having written a few myself, and Michael Davidson knows the territory. This is probably the place to note that Davidson is former career CIA.
Second, although I wouldn't presume to call us close friends, Michael and I are Facebook pals, and we've had the occasional private e-mail conversation. Fair disclosure.
Third, it should be said that Michael and I aren't entirely on the same page, politically. I think he's somewhere to the Right of Attila the Hun, he thinks I'm somewhere to the Left of W.E.B. Du Bois. (I'm exaggerating. A little.) The point here, specifically referencing The Dove, is that it's an article of faith among Reagan's admirers that he brought the USSR to its knees by forcing them to spend money they couldn't afford on advanced weapons systems, to keep pace with American technological developments. This isn't unfounded. I'd be likely to give some credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Polish pope, or Lech Walesa, and fissures in the empire - the Causasus, the rise of radical Islam, falling oil prices - but let's be fair.
It's interesting to me that two guys with an intelligence background, Michael's far more extensive than mine, can agree to disagree on a fair number of things, yet not lose sight of certain homely truths. Neither one of us trusts the Russians worth a rat's ass, which is the inner unreconstructed Cold Warrior for you, in full plumage, and we both have an old-fashioned regard for keeping faith, for honorable service, for duty. There are worse things.
Posted by David Edgerley Gates at 00:00
Labels: Cold War, collapse, David Edgerley Gates, Michael R. Davidson, Soviet Union, spy fiction
Unknown 14 June, 2017 09:44
Interesting review, David. Thanks for giving us a sense of the book and its perspective.
Leigh Lundin 15 June, 2017 00:01
An excellent review, David. I can only admire cold war venture tales from afar, having neither the expertise nor patience to map out such sweeping novels. I tend to give Gorbachev equal credit, the right men in the right place at the right time.
I do have a tiny bit of economics background and I'd make the argument that the collapse of the USSR was not only good for the West, it was the best possible thing to happen to the Soviets– the Russians, Ukrainians, and East Germans. It's a case of everyone losing the battles but winning the war, winning the peace.
Michael Parnell 09 February, 2019 05:03
Excellent post, as always, David.
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Wet Work
A Day in the Life of a Writer – The Writing Life
Where'd We Bury That Guy?
How I Became an Overnight Success in 26 years
A Bond By Any Other Name?
Bullying 101
The Darkest Crime
Hiding the Ball
The Wickedest Woman in the World
Talk/Don't Talk
The Purple Side of Blue
When Is A Novella Not a Novella?
It's Academic!
Suspension of Belief, too
True Crime? Maybe Not
Of Safes and Smoke
The Mudie Blues
Shirley, Birly, Mo Mirly
Zoning Out
The 60s, man. The 60s.


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Interviews > History > Home
Interview with Just Blaze
[ Conducted in August 2004 ]
We called up our roving reporter, Monsieur Decuts, from the minors when we learned we had the chance to interview music industry heavyweight Just Blaze. Below is their phone interview transcribed for your pleasure.
I'm really not going to waste your time and just jump into it. How did you hook up with the Beastie Boys?
They reached out to me on this. I got a call one day and it was like "the Beastie Boys want you to remix their new single. They use some of your tracks in their shows." They used to rhyme on Flipside, which I did for Freeway, and Eric Sermon's React during their shows. I was like "for real, are you serious?" For me it was an honor, you know what I mean?
Yeah definitely.
I remember stealing my cousins License to Ill tape back in 86 and never giving it back. That's still one of my favorite albums of all time. So I didn't have to think twice I was like "man lets just go ahead and do it!"
Photograph © atibaphoto.com
So when you were talking did your folks come up with any guidelines on the remix?
It was like basically go ahead and do whatever you want. I'm asking them questions and they're like "just do whatever you want."
So they gave you full control?
They asked me what I wanted them to do. Once I listened to the original, the tempo was so fast, like 116 bpm or something like that. I wanted to slow it down to like 107. For the original version of the remix I just time-stretched their vocals. But after listening to it more, I was like man they should really do it over. And they were completely cool about doing it. There were like "man come on." So we went down to the studio one day and they went in and smacked it out no problem.
Was this the new studio they set up for the album?
Yep, their studio. It was cool; the remix is really old school sounding. My favorite incarnation of the Beastie Boys is the License to Ill era. I really just wanted to do something that sounded like it could have been on that album or at least in that era.
I think that their new album has that concept in mind as well. It's stripped down. That's why your remix fit so well.
Exactly, don't get me wrong. I like their other albums too, but the stuff you grow up with as a kid is your favorite. You know what I mean?
Yeah it's what you've been built off of.
JB: Exactly. You know I just wanted to go back to that. I hadn't even heard the whole album yet but I kind of felt that I personally knew a lot of people who would have loved to hear something like that from them because they haven't done it in 20 years. I kind of just made the record you know, I didn't do it according to what I'm known for, or like the sound people usually know me for. I was like you know what, I'm just going to do what I want to do and you know people love them because that's pretty much what they're known for. They don't stick to guidelines. They don't conform. They do whatever they feel like doing. I figure that's what people love about them and you know in the end I was just honored to be a part of it. They let me do what I wanted, which was even better.
What was your involvement in the video they shot?
Basically, Yauch called me and asked me to come down and shoot a little bit of extra footage with them at their studio. So I went down and I just knocked it out. They already had footage from the original video they never included. So they took their footage and cut it up with the new footage of me in the studio. You know it worked and it was hot. In the end I was just happy to be there like "I can't believe I'm in a video with you dudes right now."
So you still have love for the old school?
I mean I'm young, but I come from a somewhat musical family. I was just telling someone that the first record I ever bought with my own money was RUN DMC's first album, which was like 83. I think I was 6 years old spending my money at the record store.
I was the same way. I had that tape first then traded it for License to Ill with a friend. That's why the laid back 80's sound of that remix was so appealing to me and I think a lot of Beastie Boys fans. Especially those who've been around since the get go.
Yeah, I've noticed that. I look at the forums and the fan sites and it's funny because I've even read some fans say they like the new version better than the original. And most of them say it reminds them of something from those days, especially the older people.
Right. You say you grew up in a musical family. Did you have any professional training or are you self-taught?
My father was a keyboard player and my mother was a singer. He was self-taught so I picked some stuff up from watching him. I'm not great cause I've never gotten heavily into the technical side. I usually play by ear.
So about your new label, what are you guys doing?
It's going to be interesting. We have two artists: Dave Young, who is an R&B singer from Chicago and Saigon who's one of the hottest underground MC's in New York. He's been on the mix tape scene for two or three years now and it was funny because I almost gave up on finding a rapper. I mean I could find one easily, but I didn't want one that sounded like everyone else. So many rappers don't have their own identity they sound like Jay or Biggie or like Nas or Snoop.
I heard you had an open call for people to submit work. How does someone shine to person such as yourself?
That was actually an internet rumor which killed me. The phone lines in my studio were lit up for a week. It wasn't true and my phone lines went crazy because someone actually posted the phone numbers to my studio, but it's cool. Basically I'm looking for something that's different but its got to ride the fine line it has to be different but it has to be accessible. Not saying it has to be corny or sellout but you know as artistically free as you can be, the label still has to sell records.
It's a business right?
Right it's not the music business; it's the business of music. You know what I mean? It's two different things. I've come across certain artists that I love, but I was like I just couldn't sign them. Maybe I'll use them down the line but I needed someone right now who already had a buzz who I could do something with. I need someone with presence and respect on the street. You know he was a natural addition and I've been working with Dave the R&B artist for the past year on his album, which is fun. It's a different direction. I didn't want to do the typical R&B thing where people get whatever hip-hop beat was hot last year and sing on it. I didn't want to do that. I wanted something totally fresh and different. And you know we finally came up with it so right now we're about seven or eight songs deep into his album. I don't want to spread myself too thin though. I'm trying to do those two for right now and I just want to do those two. Once those albums are done we'll concentrate on putting them right where they need to be.
Do you find you can only move forward as fast as you can be creative?
Exactly! Yes I don't want to be a factory. If you can sit down and recycle stuff all day like a regular formula then you start becoming predictable, which I don't want to be.
There are some nice cuts on that Ch-Check it out remix. Do you spend a lot of time practicing scratching?
Nah, not as much as I'd like to anymore. I started out DJing as a kid.
Do you follow the turntablism scene these days?
I keep up, but I can't say I follow. Whenever I come across a DVD of a competition or an exhibition or battling and I happen to be around it, then I try to take it in. I can't say I follow it. I don't know all the new hot ones, you know what I mean?
So then you definitely still enjoy it?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean I have turntables set up in my house and in my studio. I still DJ out and do parties now and then.
I guess there's a flow. Start out Djing, and then eventually work with your own beats.
Yeah, it's crazy like one of the biggest payoffs for me on a personal level. I mean I used to DJ parties all the time and I haven't done it in a long time, and now I'm playing my own records you know? It's one of the biggest rushes you can really get.
For sure, it's a dream for a lot of bedroom DJs, or even scratching your own voice for that matter.
I think it's almost like in mainstream hip-hop you don't hear a lot of scratches anymore. It used to be like every rap group had a DJ and those days are done for the most part. I like doing my part to keep the DJ alive in hip-hop.
It fell in nice with the old school mix of the song. The Beastie Boys try to preach peace and unity, is this soft rap or smart rap?
To be honest, I just look at it as hip-hop. I try to not make categories. I think what they're doing though is definitely not soft and is smart rap. I was telling someone I work with just the other day that you have to realize it takes more of a man to be angry about something and not have to resort to violence rather than take the easy way out. To me it's more of a manly thing to do. Think about it. In situations like that, once there's some kind of a war or a feud going on and they resort to violence, it doesn't stop till someone is dead. It has gotten to the point that, like back in the day you may have a fight and someone looses a tooth or gets a scar and that's it. Nowadays it doesn't stop until someone is dead. We're at the point now where they don't fight anymore and they just shoot each other. So much of their life is reflected in hip-hop that the lines have become so blurred. You know I really respect Jay and Nas for that. They just kept it all on wax. There are a few others that kept it on wax and a few others that turned real and have had some real problems. Once you take it to that level where it doesn't stay on wax more than likely it's not going to stop until someone gets seriously hurt or dead. It's stupid that we already lost Biggie and Tupac over some senseless acts of violence. So I'm really not one to prolong or even lead into that. So yeah man, I definitely don't consider that soft rap…that's smart.
I'm not going to press you on gear questions but I can't get away with not asking you your favorite piece of equipment.
Gear questions are cool. It depends on what I'm doing really. I do most main sequencing and sampling on an MPC 4000. In my main MIDI room I also have a MPC 4000, XV-5080, 2080, 3080, I love Roland, anything Roland I love. I have the whole 1080 through 5080 series. I have a Korg Ms2000. I have an SE 1x, studio electronics 1x, and the analog box. I got pro tools with every plug in. I've got logic, but I haven't really gotten that into Logic, I got Logic with pretty much every VST ever made but I haven't gotten too heavily into that yet.
It takes some time to get into all that.
Yeah, all the stuff I did on Jay-Z's Dynasty album I did on Logic. That was back in 2000 so there's been like two to three major editions since then. I dabble with it. It's definitely the way of the future. It's the way to go as far as ease and portability but something about just sitting down at an MP and knocking it out. I can't really explain, but it just feels better.
I can relate. There's more feel to me tapping it out rather then coloring in squares on a computer screen.
Yeah and also AKAI makes those pads, but they're not the same. I had those pads, and I went out and bought Logic again for the fifth time. Those pads are functional but they just don't feel the same.
I read that you used to listen to your productions on boomboxes at the ROC.
Yeah. Basically the truth is when you listen to a beat loud it kind of tricks you. Just because it has a lot of bass you know all of a sudden you're like this beat is retarded it's crazy. Then you go home and you listen to it. You might put it in your car or put it in your radio and you're just like "man, well it's okay but you know it's just okay." So whenever producers would come in to play beats for Jay or other artists over there we started making them play it in boomboxes. That way if it's hot in the boombox it's going to be hot.
Do you have a personal favorite piece of equipment to listen to a track on to know it's mixed correctly?
There's this one little stereo system, one of my engineers brought it ands it's funny because we usually don't use regular stereo systems to monitor mixes on, but the first time we did it was for the Ch-Check It Out remix. We've been using it as a reference ever since because it's so good. It was a little home system with a 3 CD changer, that type of deal, I can't remember the model number of it though. I will say this, it's better to do what you got to do as far as, you know, mastering in the studio or mixing in the studio, but also go back and listen to your mixes on regular speakers because you got to realize 99% of the world is not listening to your records in the studio they're listening to it on some kind of a boombox or a car stereo. Just because your record sounds good in the studio doesn't mean it's going to sound good everywhere, so you have to go back and test it in a couple different places.
Hip-hip has been a young man game, especially the MC world. How do you feel about artists such as the Beastie Boys extending their careers into their 40s?
I was actually discussing this with someone not long ago and it's funny because hip-hop really hasn't had a career artist because it's a young form of music. With rock and roll artists start out and 30 years later people like the Grateful Dead and Ozzy Osbourne, who are in their 60s are still performing and still sound young. It's kind of like why can't we do that with hip-hop. But it's also so youthful and so competitive. Not that many forms of music are competitive, but hip hop is almost built on competition and it gets hard to be competitive with the young guys when you're old.
I guess it helps when you have the same fans for 20 years like KRS One and the Beastie Boys.
Exactly. There are very few artists who are capable of that. Most artists aren't capable of changing with the times and transforming themselves and still staying relevant to their fan base. You will not always stay relevant to the masses but you can certainly stay true to your fan base. You know there's those who come out of the gates and sell ten million records and then what happens as time goes on they're not the hot new kids anymore. As long as you can maintain your relevance and keep putting out good music, out of those ten million fans you had after your first couple albums, you'll still have maybe two million or so. Jay always has a solid two million that come out for us every time. DMX has his solid one and a half to two million that come out for him every time. As long as you can maintain that, you're good. The thing with Jay and the Beastie Boys is they're not running around like they're eighteen. They've grown and their audience has grown with them. One cool thing about the Beastie Boys that is hard to say about any other rap group is that even though their fan base grows with them, they always have a solid fan base of eighteen to nineteen year old kids as well.
Do you think it's because they have their fingers on the pulse?
I think its partly they're also a little bit ahead of what's going on. They always try to do something different and they always cross the genres. They don't just do hip-hop, they just don't do rock, they've done punk, and they do everything.
Even country. All right thanks for taking the time to speak with me and communicate with your fans through Beastiemania.com. I hope that working with the Beastie Boys will expand your fan base a little bit.
Yeah it already has. Like I said, I read the forums and there are some kids who listen to the Beastie Boys, but don't listen to hip-hop. They're asking, "Who is this guy, who is Just Blaze?" They're inquiring about what other records I've done. They go out and download some records and it's technically not legal but I'm not mad at them because they're doing their research. I'm not mad at all. I'm happy.
Thanks to Just Blaze, Monsieur Decuts, and atibaphoto.com!
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GHOST HEART
By: Cecilia Samartin
It is 1955 and two cousins, Nora and Alicia, are growing up in Cuba, where the sea is a beguiling turquoise and at night the lights glitter like stars along Havana's shoreline. But revolutionary storm clouds are gathering, and as Castro comes to power, banks are closed, religion outlawed, and food shortages begin. Nora and her family emigrate to California; Alicia and hers stay behind But Nora has left her heart in Cuba with her cousin. As the years pass and she becomes a woman, Alicia writes of her marriage to Tony, the birth of her daughter, and the terrible privations ordinary Cubans are suffering When Tony is arrested for anti-revolutionary behaviour, and Alicia and her daughter's survival becomes increasingly hand-to-mouth, Nora knows she must leave her privileged life in America, and return to help them. But Cuba, and Alicia's life as a single parent, is like nothing she has ever imagined...


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An Enthusiasm For The Word: The Life And Work of Fr. Simeon Daly, O.S.B.
Melody Layton McMahon
DOI: https://0-doi-org.librarycatalog.vts.edu/10.31046/atlapress.8
Fr. Simeon Daly, O.S.B., served the St. Meinrad Archabbey Library from 1949 to 2000, forty-nine of those years as the head librarian. He was the first Roman Catholic president of the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) and the first Executive Secretary of ATLA. He was a seminal figure in the history of ecumenism in theological librarianship. During the life of Fr. Simeon many changes took place in librarianship, especially technology, and in religious and theological education. Fr. Simeon was not only a participant in these changes, he was a leader. In addition to his life as a librarian, Fr. Simeon had a very compelling life as part of the Benedictine community of St. Meinrad Archabbey, encompassing the period before and after Vatican II. He also had an active writing practice and in the later part of his life was persuaded to make much of his writing public. An Enthusiasm for the Word also contains an appendix of Fr. Simeon's stories and essays that did not appear in his book Finding Grace in the Moment: Stories and Other Musings of an Aged Monk (iUniverse, 2005).
About the Author: Melody Layton McMahon
Melody has been the director of the Paul Bechtold Library at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago since 2008. Though she has pursued her vocation in music libraries (Juilliard, Cleveland Institute of Music) and in a liberal arts setting (John Carroll University), theological librarianship has been a constant interest throughout her career. She has been an active participant in the Ohio Theological Library Association and the American Theological Library Association. Melody is involved in the Association of Chicago Theological Schools' Library Council and the Chicago Area Theological Library Association. In 2012, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Theological Library Association and in 2013, to the position of Vice-President.
Her own work as a librarian is strongly influenced by her belief that she has a vocation, is called by God to be a theological librarian. This call includes her love of Martha and the ideals of hospitality, some ideas from theosis, and the feeling that one way to mirror the image of God is to continue to grow in knowledge and to facilitate this in others.
In recent years, Melody's vocational interests have extended into writing, including numerous reviews and articles in Theological Education, Theological Librarianship, In Trust, and Catholic Library World. She co-edited an anthology of writings on theological librarianship (A Broadening Conversation: Classic Readings in Theological Librarianship, 2006) and edited Never Enough Singing: Essays in Honor of Seth Kasten, 2011. She is co-editor of CTU's online journal, New Theology Review and served as the Critical Reviews Editor for the online journal Theological Librarianship: An Online Journal of the American Theological Library Association. Melody has been a participant in a Lilly grant, Christians' Callings in the World, which involved over thirty faculty members from five institutions studying ways to educate ministers to equip parish members to carry out their own vocations. For this project, she began a website on vocation resources for lay people.
Melody is an evangelist for open access scholarship and is a regular presenter on the topic. She teaches a course on writing and research at CTU.
Copyright (c) 2015 Melody Layton McMahon
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