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The Remote Facilitation Pivot: How Nevada Lane Is Helping Distributed Teams Work Better Together
Shauna Ward
Shauna Ward is a content marketing manager at MURAL. As a former remote work skeptic, she enjoys creating resources that help distributed teams make collaboration fun, easy, and effective.
"Facilitation is the skill of the future if we're going to keep living on this planet."
If you think that sounds dramatic, that's because it is. If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that things change, whether or not we're prepared for it.
This leaves us two choices. We can either let change overwhelm us, or we can adapt and be the change.
Easier said than done, right? After all, positive change — the kind that inspires and transforms — doesn't happen by accident.
That's where facilitation comes in. Recently, we spoke with Nevada Lane of Lane Change Consulting about her experience as a professional facilitator and how she pivoted to digital facilitation when the COVID-19 pandemic made her usual way of working impossible.
The importance of facilitation in the workplace
Let's take a step back for a moment and talk about what facilitation is. In a technical sense, a facilitator is tasked with guiding strategic conversations in a collaborative environment. It's most often associated with design thinking workshops, but the fact is, any meeting, workshop, or collaboration session can benefit from a skilled facilitator.
A good facilitator brings stakeholders together in a structured environment — traditionally, a room with a whiteboard — and uses guided visual methods to empower them to solve problems together. This problem solving can come in many forms, from brainstorming and ideating to strategic visioning and project planning.
A great facilitator takes it a step further. They don't just lead; they co-create. They know how to ignite creativity and tease out a team's best ideas, consistently and methodically. They help to define and creatively solve the right problems by taking advantage of the team's combined skills, knowledge, and perspective.
Anyone can (and should) learn basic facilitation techniques, especially in this new, remote-first world, but being a capital-F Facilitator like Nevada is a full-time job. In this way, it's a lot like project management, or writing, or public speaking. They're all skills every professional should have in their repertoire, but it takes training and experience to make any of them a career.
You've probably heard this nugget of wisdom, which is often (incorrectly) attributed to Einstein: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
For most organizations — global enterprises, NGOs, universities, small businesses, and beyond — the traditional way of working just … isn't really working. COVID aside, most meetings suffer from common problems like a weak agenda, low engagement, power struggles, or tenuous psychological safety that makes people less likely to contribute. A facilitator, especially when they're an impartial third party, can solve all of these problems by fostering collaboration and creative thinking while keeping the meeting on track.
Nevada put it this way:
"Facilitation is the skill that's going to get us to the next level of consciousness. We don't need more power over; we need more co-creation and power with. Facilitation skills are leadership skills that each of us has to have to create the world we want to create … Facilitation is the skill of the future if we're going to keep living on this planet."
The road to becoming a facilitator
Prior to founding her own consultancy in 2008, Nevada Lane forged her own path in the consulting industry. She started her career in marketing before going back to school to get her masters in organization development in 2003. Two years later, she discovered graphic recording and visual facilitation. Inspired by the way visuals can get people energized and aligned in a way that words alone cannot, she started her journey as a visual facilitator.
After consulting for global organizations for several years, Nevada decided it was time to found her own consultancy. That's how Lane Change Consulting was born. For more than a decade, Nevada and her team have used visual methods to facilitate strategic workshops and coach business leaders at companies like Genentech, Target, and Google, as well as nonprofits and universities.
What does it look like to own a consultancy? Prior to March 2020, a typical week in Nevada's life might have gone something like this.
Travel to a client's city to facilitate a two-day leadership offsite
Return to her office to work with her team on a strategy illustration
Manage her team of graphic recorders who have been working with other clients
Prepare for an upcoming visual thinking training session
Attend client meetings and coaching sessions
As we said, facilitation is a full-time job.
Then, the world came screeching to a halt
Things changed for Nevada when COVID-19 struck the U.S. in March 2020. As was the case for many of us, Nevada's work came to a sudden standstill. The in-person facilitation she and her team relied on to do their jobs became impossible.
"I hadn't seen an empty calendar in ten years," Nevada explains. But abruptly and all at once, in-person meetings were canceled for the foreseeable future.
But remember, Nevada is a problem solver by trade. She wasn't going to let a global pandemic stop her from doing her job. So, she quickly jumped into action to find a way to facilitate workshops and meetings online without losing any of the benefits of visual collaboration.
The solution was not to adopt new techniques or methods, but rather new technology. Nevada selected MURAL as her solution of choice for bringing in-person sessions to the digital realm.
Pivoting to remote facilitation with MURAL
MURAL is a digital workspace for visual collaboration. It allows teams to work on a shared canvas in real time, no matter where they are in the world.
Nevada started playing around with MURAL's digital whiteboard, templates, and facilitation tools. "By early April," she said, "it became clear to me that MURAL was going to be my number one tool."
Prior to March, Nevada was facilitating all of Lane Change Consulting's workshops face-to-face. Today, she coaches others on remote facilitation and is a Certified Virtual Facilitator, as designated by the International Institute for Facilitation. Let's take a look at how she adapted so quickly and the lessons you can learn from her experience.
Five tips for better remote meetings
Whether or not you're a professional facilitator, you can use these tips to facilitate more engaging, creative, and productive meetings online.
1. Reframe the challenge as an opportunity
To get in the right mindset, it's important to view remote facilitation as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. True changemakers embrace the unexpected and use it a chance to build a better world.
Nevada explained the key benefits she's observed in her switch to remote facilitation.
Sustainability: Remote workshops eliminate the need to travel, leading to reduced carbon emissions.
Community: We're all in this together, and right now is the perfect time to connect with a community of facilitators and business leaders who are invested in improving the way we work. Do a quick search on LinkedIn or Twitter for #remotecollaboration or #remotefacilitation, and you'll find no shortage of conversations.
New opportunities: For Nevada, the growing need for remote facilitators opens up the opportunity for her to do online training and coaching.
Better asynchronous collaboration: "I'll frequently give a group some work to do in Mural between sessions," said Nevada, "like plotting activities on a prioritization grid, which I would have waited for an in-person workshop to do previously."
Wider client base: Opportunities to work with national/global clients
2. Don't just replicate in-person work; elevate it
At the start of the pandemic, it was most teams' instincts to simply run in-person meetings via Zoom and call it a day. But the most innovative organizations took a different approach. Not only did they adapt the best parts of in-person collaboration for the digital world, they also took the opportunity to fix some of the challenges with in-person meetings.
For example, in-person design thinking workshops can be limiting due to the size of the room and the whiteboard. When you facilitate workshops online, you can have more stakeholders working together at one time. With MURAL, you also have unlimited space to sketch, write, add sticky notes, create diagrams — without the need to take turns crowding around a whiteboard.
3. Take advantage of free educational resources
Even the world's greatest face-to-face facilitator will face a bit of learning curve when it comes to remote facilitation. With practice, though, it can quickly become second nature.
Nevada stressed the importance of self-education and offered up some suggestions for getting started. "Backstage Pass was pivotal for me. It helped me take the foundational stuff and put it into action," she said.
Backstage Pass is our free, weekly webinar series that gives attendees the chance to watch a real collaboration session happen live and even jump in to get hands-on experience with MURAL.
Nevada was a guest herself on a recent Backstage Pass session on visualizing high-performing teams. She joined us to demo how to integrate a hand-drawn template in MURAL and use it to have a dialogue about team performance. Check it out below to learn how she does it, and explore the mural we used in the session.
4. Use frameworks and templates
Staring at a blank canvas can be intimidating at first, but you don't need to start from scratch. Use a prebuilt template to kick off your next meeting or workshop.
"Good facilitation is not about bells and whistles, but when people are experiencing serious Zoom fatigue, adding some visual fun can help," Nevada said.
Take a look at this template she created for a session with 18 team members from three companies to help build empathy for one another's circumstances as they collaborate.
"The idea behind this template and activity is that we often assume we are all sharing the same experience, but often our worlds are actually very different," she explained. "In this exercise, teams get to share what their 'planet' is like — what they're passionate about, what's challenging — and hear from others before they move into collective action planning."
5. Try new things, and don't be afraid to look silly
Don't be afraid to try new things, make mistakes, and make it fun. It's going to feel weird the first few times, and that's okay. Do an icebreaker to kick off a team meeting, or liven up a mural by giving it a theme, like Nevada did in the example above.
To get everyone engaged during a longer meeting, Nevada uses an energizer to get them up and moving. Energizers are great for reloading energy, having fun, and getting people into their bodies. For example, Nevada will ask everyone to stand up and use their body language to express how they're feeling that day.
Facilitators are, by definition, driving change with the work they do every day. Now, in this ever-shifting business and social landscape, they have the opportunity to make a bigger impact than ever.
Facilitation is a skill that will change the world because it fosters creative co-creation, encouraging us all to look at the world from new perspectives and find novel solutions to tough problems. It allows us to envision — and ultimately, create — a better future for business, as well as personally, locally, even globally.
As you build new relationships, processes, and skills, remember that you're not alone in doing it all for the first time. Nevada put it this way:
"For anyone else out there who has hustled to change, tried new things that were awkward, rethought their business, felt silly, learned, had their Wi-Fi crap out at inopportune moments, created beautifully from chaos, and otherwise made their way through, I celebrate your growth! Let's keep learning and making work better."
To prepare for your next remote meeting or workshop, download the Definitive Guide to Facilitating Remote Workshops.
If you're a consultant who would like to use MURAL with your clients, apply for a free consultant workspace.
Remote Design Research at O'Reilly Media: Interview with Stefanie Owens
Stefanie Owens leads the user research practice at O'Reilly Media. Her team of talented designers manage to stay connected and creative despite being distributed across the U.S.
Remote Design Collaboration Survey Results, Part II
In Part I of the Remote Design Collaboration Survey Results, I reported on the quantitative findings of our pilot survey conducted at the Enterprise UX conference. Check out the full results online.
How to Look Before You Leap: A Guide to Mapping Assumptions for Product Development Teams
This much we know: design thinking can help lead to better product development. We've seen it to be true in experience mapping and now we're seeing it in assumption mapping.
Running a Remote Workshop at Microsoft
Running a remote workshop presents unique challenges—that's why Microsoft's Travis Lowdermilk wrote a 3-part series about how he overcame these challenges at Microsoft.
Casey Ward
5 Ideation Techniques Adapted for Remote Teams
Ideation is a creative process' milestone, a turning point, a vital asset of every well-structured innovation project that allows teams to get creative and collaboratively open to generate ideas.
Valentina Salvi
Suddenly Working Remotely? Make Your Teamwork Resilient
Outbreaks of coronavirus and influenza* have forced entire countries to experiment with remote work. This is a new dynamic for many teams. For some, this means meetings and classes are cancelled until further notice.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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U.S. urges Hezbollah, Iran withdrawing fighters from Syria
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World Environment Day celebrated in Argentina
Migrants vital for city growth
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(China Daily)
10:51, June 06, 2013
Cao Wei, 34, feels lucky to have his son's company.
His 7-year-old son always does his homework in the lobby of the building where his father works as a gatekeeper since the 8-sq-m basement is too small for a desk.
High housing prices in Beijing dwarf his and his wife's income, about 3,500 yuan ($563) per month.
"I don't expect to buy an apartment in Beijing, but we don't want to move back either. We plan to live in Zhengzhou (capital city of Central China's Henan province) after my son goes to college. I have two sisters there," Cao said.
His son goes to a public primary school nearby, but Cao wonders if the capital city will relax its education policy to allow his son to attend the university entrance exam.
China has about 200 million migrant workers and most of them, like Cao, were born in the late 1970s or the 1980s. With little or no farming experience, they have no plans to return to rural life.
Urbanization has been highlighted by China's new leadership as a driving force for economic development.
Many believe enabling migrant workers and their families to settle down and live full city lives is the most urgent priority for promoting urbanization.
Premier Li Keqiang once stressed that "people are the core issue of urbanization".
Feng Kui, a researcher at the China Center for Urban Development under the National Development and Reform Commission, said it mainly refers to the urbanization of migrant workers.
The commission and some other ministries are working on mapping out a national plan to promote the country's urbanization.
Media previously touted urbanization will push for about 40 trillion yuan ($6.45 trillion) investment in the coming 10 years.
"Urbanization will promote productive investment, boost consumption and the real estate industry, but it should be market-led investment with guidance from the government," said Feng.
Major investors will be private and foreign enterprises and individuals, instead of the central and local governments, he said.
From an economic perspective, the demand unleashed from the acceleration of urbanization will be enormous and the identity transfer of the migrant workers will boost internal demand.
An urban dweller consumes as much as three times that of a person in a rural area.
But the significance to society, "putting people first", is more important, said Feng.
Migrant workers don't have a hukou (household registration), which also prohibits them and their children from access to social welfare like medical care, pensions and education.
"The unequal and unfair treatment, caused by the household registration system, should no longer be tolerated," Feng said.
A detailed action plan should be put in place as soon as possible, said Feng.
Creating more jobs for migrant workers and helping them merge into city life will be one of the most vital parts of urbanization.
China's rate of urbanization passed 50 percent in 2011. Urban residents accounted for 51.27 percent of the population in 2011, up 1.32 percentage points from 2010.
Experts involved in the drafting said China's first national plan for promoting urbanization may be launched in the middle of the year, with supporting measures to be announced in the second half of the year, and that will help boost domestic demand and infrastructure investment, and form more city clusters.
Apart from the NDRC, about 10 central government departments such as the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security all got involved in the issue, said sources.
Led by Xu Xianping, vice- minister of the NDRC, a research group made up of officials from these ministries conducted a special investigation on how to transfer migrant workers into urban dwellers in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Guangdong.
The Yangtze River Delta attracted about 44.9 million migrant workers and Guangdong province has about 26.7 million migrant workers.
In 2010, about 72 percent of migrant workers in Guangdong were below 30 years of age, and about 74 percent only have an education level of junior high school or below.
The situation in the Yangtze River Delta is almost the same, about 70 percent with an education level of junior high school or below.
Many cities have relaxed their household registration system, but the threshold remains high for most migrant workers. For instance, Yiwu, a city in Zhejiang province, has announced that migrant workers with an education level of senior high school and an average housing of 10 square meters in particular locations could settle down there, but the two standards rule out most migrant workers.
Yiwu has 1.5 million migrant workers, only one-tenth of them graduated from high schools and only a few of them could afford housing in the city, which has reached about 10,000 yuan per square meter.
Turning the migrant workers into city dwellers will take some time, Hou Yongzhi, head of the development of strategy and regional economy of the Development Research Center, the State Council's policy think tank, told China Daily.
"Some think the hukou system has hindered the move of transforming migrant workers into city dwellers. It's part of the reason. But the root of the issue lies in the insufficient capability of the government in providing public services," Hou said.
"The government must guide the flow of population and it can't be completely relaxed. If we allow labor to flow free at this stage, China may encounter the same situation faced by Latin America in their process of development," said Hou.
"China must explore its own way. One day China's urbanization rate may reach 75 percent, but it still has about 25 percent of its people in rural areas, which equals about 400 million people, more than the total population of the United States. So the structure of China's urbanization will be different," he said.
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Launching Spin-Off Radio Stations
Brands growing their footprint
Yesterday, over in my day job at the children's radio station Fun Kids, we launched two new initiatives. The first was eight new spin-off radio stations for Fun Kids and the second was our new lockdown-related feature, Activity Quest Daily.
Launching spin-offs, or brand extensions, for radio stations has been all the rage in the UK for the past few years. It was re-born by Clive Dickens who was running Absolute Radio, when he pushed live Absolute 80s. Like all good (re)inventions it was somewhat driven by a combination of opportunity and necessity.
Of course radio had been doing extra channels since the Radio Authority told stations they would have to split the output on their AM and FM frequencies. What ended up being termed 'use it or lose it'. Capital led the way on the branding front with Capital FM and Capital Gold - with many other ILRs choosing to follow their lead.
Meanwhile. for Clive the re-brand of Virgin Radio had gone relatively well, but audience figures had dropped and were refusing to budge up, somewhat putting a strain on the business model. At the same time, the financial crisis and some Global-wobbling had meant that Digital One (the national DAB multiplex) was pretty much empty, with just a few stations left.
I expect Clive got quite a good carriage deal and he launched Absolute 80s across the UK. I imagine it was quite a gamble, but one that definitely paid off.
In the chart below, the decline in 2008 is after the Virgin to Absolute re-brand, but the 80s launch not only grew hours, the strategy to launch a suite of services, actually helped the main channel grow too.
For RAJAR-listed stations, that hours increase is directly monetisable as the networks often sell all listeners to brands together. By the time Absolute had been sold to Bauer they had more than doubled their listening hours from the Virgin Radio days, and their spin-offs were a huge part of that story.
Spin-off channels can now be seen for Kiss, Capital, Heart, Radio 1, Smooth, (the new) Virgin Radio and many more. All trying to repeat the same trick.
Some of these stations end up being broadcast channels (like Absolute 80s was) and others are web-only spin offs (Kiss Jams, Radio 1 Dance etc).
The eight new Fun Kids channels are of that variety too, so why bother?
Our aims with Fun Kids are to grow the number of people that consume it, increase the amount of time they spend with it, whilst growing (and broadening) the places we generate revenue.
We're very focused on creating habit-forming activities with our listeners - both the parents and the kids.
Radio's always been good at that. Benchmark features like doing the competition at the same time each day really work. It connects stations to the rhythm of their listeners' lives, so they associate one with the other.
I'm also a big fan of the 'tap' theory of modern media. Consumers now are self schedulers, they want media that suits their needs. They want to 'turn on the tap' to get what they want.
Fun Kids is now ten radio stations - Fun Kids and Fun Kids Junior, plus the eight new stations. We want to chime in listeners' minds that we're the music/entertainment button for their families - and that there's always something for them and their mood. Party songs, film soundtracks, naps - it's all there. Plus it's in the digital places where they get our product - our website, the app, but also on smart speakers etc. If we teach them that the content's there, we have to make it easy for them to consume.
It's the same for our other main audio product - the podcasts. We've built a suite of weekly speech shows around topics - science, reading, stories, comedy, news, activities and interviews. The regularity is important, we don't just want people tuning in, we want them coming back too.
Again, these shows appear in our products - the website and app as well as in other places and of course smart speakers too. Our aim is to make it easy to hear about content, sample it, and keep coming back. We're trying to insert ourselves into our listeners' lives.
In a world where there is infinite choice, it's essential that we stake out a position that consumers remember and keep coming back too. There is way too much noise nowadays to assume that just floating on the airwaves will be enough to build a brand.
The radio speaker for our main channel, as well as a product in itself, is also a great place to build awareness of the wider offer - to sell the mothership - and all the things on it, but on it's own it would be a slow trajectory.
Marketing is essential to the growth of any new brand, and using only your own platforms will not necessarily help you expand your reach.
When we were thinking about the new Fun Kids channels we talked a lot about concepts that would enhance the experience for current listeners and ideas that would bring new people into the fold.
Classical music isn't something that Fun Kids does at the moment and launching a channel around it, was always going to attract attention, and a different audience. As we were developing it, we spoke to our friends at Universal Music to talk about repertoire, but also artists. They got in touch with Lang Lang's team about getting involved, who then really gave a lift to that channel's creation and launch. Having a piece on Page 5 of The Times yesterday morning was a great way to communicate to new audiences what we're doing - and looking at the streaming numbers - it had an appreciable affect too. It also gave us the hook to talk more about Fun Kids as a whole and bring the brand to more people.
Like many new media brands, we don't have a big amount of cash to spend on telly ads and billboards, so it's essential to keep coming up with ideas that can earn us media coverage.
Our core aim is to ensure that Fun Kids is the number one place for children's audio in both music and speech. The new channels (alongside the podcasts) helps us make an attractive product that will hopefully keep parents and kids coming back to us again and again.
Enjoyed this? Subscribe for free and get a weekly article on radio, audio and podcasts.
Thanks for this. Really interesting insight from the decision maker at a top station.
A cheeky question here maybe. It seems like one of the advantages of launching the spin offs is to get people talking. Why, then launch so many at once? Could you have spaced them out so you had your page 5 in The Times this week with classical, page 17 in Metro the month after launching Animals and page 32 in The Mirror in April launching party? Is there an advantage to launching everything at once? Just curious..
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The company's global growth, and further R&D-driven ventures into exciting opportunities, are guided under the aegis of its leadership's core values that have been part of Motwane's success story from the start:
To be collaborative, curious, and authentic.
For our clients and with our teams, we are strong because we trust each other, steer in the same direction, and build the future together - one innovation at a time.
We think in unconventional ways, experiment a lot, invest heavily into research & development, and dare to make mistakes.
We pride ourselves on being honest, genuine, down-to-earth, and trustworthy in every task we take on. We don't believe in shortcuts, and we don't pretend to be anything we are not.
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As machine whisperers, we are committed to empowering the next generation of engineers with the knowledge they need to tackle the world's current and future challenges. Our approach is based on a deep understanding of engineering combined with the potential of the internet, thus creating intelligent communication across technologies.
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We believe in giving everyone in our ecosystem – employees, partners, clients, and vendors - a chance to grow with us, and share the path to an exciting future.
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We always give more than expected as it is our commitment to being great engineers and down-to-earth problem solvers, with a "Can do" attitude. We are dedicated to making the ordinary into something extraordinary through perseverance, hard work, and our will to be better every single day.
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The natural extension of Motwane's skillsets from hardware to software lies in the modernization of the firm's traditional skills as 'machine whisperers'. Our ongoing R&D focus has always followed the trail of needs of our customers, and has led us to advance onto the cloud with the digitization of test & measurement processes through the introduction of our software solution MOT-WARE. Learn more about why R&D is an integral part of our company here!
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This coat of arms tapestry "Napolean Dark Blue" shows the crest of Napolean with the famous eagle symbol. When Napolean became emperor in May 1804, he counselled with his Conseil d'Etat to produce a new royal crest for his new empire. His counsel came up with several ideas, of which some were chosen as symbols of his empire. The eagle has been a symbol of victory in battle an was chosen as the central creature. Bees, a symbol of immortality as well as the following of the hive as people to their emperor is in the royal mantle. On the left hand corner, the hand of justice can be seen, and the 5 sided chain of the Légion d'honneur is between the eagle emblem and the dual horns of plenty. This royal crest tapestry "Napolean Dark Blue" is backed with a lining and has a tunnel for easy hanging. Note: tapestry rod and tassels, where pictured, are purchased separately.


text:
module Maintenance
  class CheckPendingCompats < Services::Base
    def call
      check_uniqueness on_error: :return

      pending_compats = Compat.pending
                              .checked_before(2.hours.ago)

      if pending_compats.any?
        raise Error, 'Some compats have been pending for a long time.' \
          rescue Rollbar.error $!, count: pending_compats.size
      end
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
That's discrimination!
Home » Commentary » Opinion » That's discrimination!
Elise Parham
Many a bemused journalistic eye has this week turned to the human rights commissions, who have been busily cracking down on discrimination in all its forms. Although commissioners have the power to grant exemptions to antidiscrimination laws, they've chosen instead to display principle-over-practice reasoning at its best.
First off the rank was the Victorian decision that a women-only travel company was illegal, because it shut out men. The owner wanted to create an alternative to the sleazy Contiki-style bed-hopping adventure and put craft, cooking and shopping on its itinerary. The Tribunal said no; women who felt uncomfortable on a mixed tour should simply report their concerns to the tour guide.
The decision rubs against earlier holdings by the same Tribunal. A women-only lesbian nightclub and women-only swimming lessons with Muslim participants were let off the hook and granted gender discrimination exemptions. In those contexts men could seem highly threatening, argued the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. No such luck for threatened, straight, travelling women.
Maybe the difference has something to do with the Australian Human Rights Commission Strategic Plan, which identifies a key aim as making courts 'develop progressive approaches to human rights'. Craft probably doesn't make the progressive cut.
The Australian Human Rights Commission had its own two cents for the antidiscrimination debate this week. Yesterday it decided to stop cruise ship operator Carnival Australia from banning young passengers during the schoolies period, because that would be age discrimination. Carnival was worried about the prevalence of alcohol-related security incidents, but that wasn't enough for the Commission.
Inconveniently for the government, the decision came down just as Health Minister Nicola Roxon unveiled her latest tool in the campaign against youth binge drinking: Kids and Alcohol Don't Mix. Perhaps no one has told her that's discrimination?
The human rights commissioners can pat themselves on the back this week. They have ensured that all women have the chance to be sleazed on and upheld the right of all young people to over-booze. No one should be excluded just because of their gender or their age. It looks like we really are the country of a fair go.


text:
package aschuma.fw.invocation.remote.clt;

import aschuma.fw.invocation.Interceptor;
import aschuma.fw.invocation.InvocationContext;
import aschuma.fw.invocation.remote.InvocationData;

import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * InvocationChain.
 */
public final class DefaultInvocationContext implements InvocationContext {

   private final Object proxy;

   private final Interceptor[] interceptors;

   private int interceptorIndex = 0;

   private InvocationData invocationData;

   public DefaultInvocationContext(final Object proxy,
         final InvocationData invocationData,
         final Interceptor[] interceptors) {
      this.interceptors = interceptors == null ? new Interceptor[0]
            : interceptors;
      this.proxy = proxy;
      this.invocationData = invocationData;
   }

   public Object getTarget() {
      return proxy;
   }

   /**
    * Sets the invocation data.
    *
    * @param invocationData
    */
   public void setInvocationData(final InvocationData invocationData) {
      this.invocationData = invocationData;
   }

   /**
    * Return the encapsuled invocation data.
    *
    * @return
    */
   public InvocationData getInvocationData() {
      return this.invocationData;
   }

   /* (non-Javadoc)
    * @see InvocationContext#proceed()
    */
   public void proceed() {
      if (interceptorIndex < interceptors.length) {
         final int currentIndex = interceptorIndex++;
         try {
            interceptors[currentIndex].invoke(this);
         } catch (Exception e) {
            invocationData.setException(e);
         } finally {
            interceptorIndex--;
         }
      }
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#getData()
    */
   public Map getData() {
      return invocationData.getData();
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#getException()
    */
   public Exception getException() {
      return invocationData.getException();
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#getMethod()
    */
   public Method getMethod() {
      return invocationData.getMethod();
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#getParameters()
    */
   public Object[] getParameters() {
      return invocationData.getParameters();
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#getResult()
    */
   public Object getResult() {
      return invocationData.getResult();
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#setException(java.lang.Exception)
    */
   public void setException(Exception exception) {
      invocationData.setException(exception);
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#setParameters(java.lang.Object[])
    */
   public void setParameters(Object[] params) {
      invocationData.setParameters(params);
   }

   /*
    * (non-Javadoc)
    *
    * @see avono.fw.invocation.InvocationData#setResult(java.lang.Object)
    */
   public void setResult(Object result) {
      invocationData.setResult(result);
   }
}


20 (30)cm, makes pale lemon to yellow, nodding flowers in dense whorls above oblong-elliptic leaves. It is native to Xizang in the Tsangpo valley, China, where it grows in moist, humus rich soils in alpine meadows atan elevation of up to 4.500m. For any good, humus rich and always slightly moist soil in partial shade. V.
20 (30)cm, makes ure white, nodding flowers in dense whorls above oblong-elliptic leaves. It is native to Xizang in the Tsangpo valley, China, where it grows in moist, humus rich soils in alpine meadows atan elevation of up to 4.500m. For any good, humus rich and always slightly moist soil in partial shade. V.
20 (30)cm, a decorative variety with dark purplish, nodding flowers in dense whorls above oblong-elliptic leaves. It is native of moist, humus rich alpine meadows in Bhutan (Thimpu). For partially shaded spots in a moist, humus rich and well drained soil. V.
30 (45)cm, a showy candelabra primrose with rich maroon-purple, yellow-eyed flowers and pleasantly fragrant leaves and roots. It is native of Szechuan and Yunnan (Chungtien at some 3.700m). For any humus rich, well drained soil in partial shade. V-VI.
20cm, Mountain Cowslip is native of limestone soils in the Alps. It makes a loose leaf rosette of somewhat fleshy, more or less farinose (i.e. powdery), quite large, pale green leaves on strong short stems and suphur yellow, slightly vanilla scented flowers with a white-throat. For any rich, very well drained soil in full sun. Excellent in the rock garden. IV-V.
25 (50)cm, showy candelabra Primrose from China (Lichiang Mountains, NW Yunnan and south-western Szechuan) growing in leafy, moist mountain meadows. Has broad lanceolate, serrated leaves. Medium sized to tall inflorescence (up to 80cm in height) with whorls of pink to deep rose lilac flowers and a yellow center which is typical for this species. For any rich, slightly moist soil in partial shade. Seeds from the pure species, which is quite uncommon in cultivation, where plants are usually hybridized, especially with Primula pulverulenta and Primula bulleyana. VI-VII.
30 (40)cm, makes a dense rosette of large leaves and tall, candelabra like flower stalks with several whorls of deep-orange flowers. A very easy and showy Primrose from Yunnan (Lijang Mountain Range, China). For any humus rich, moist soil in a partially shaded to sunny spot. Seeds offered are from the real species and not from a hybrid. VI-VII.
15 (20)cm, a rarely cultivated primrose which is usually a short-lived perennial. It makes a flat conical inflorescence with deep lilac flowers and white powered stems and buds. A rather difficult species for the connoisseur, which is native to Sikkim, Xizang, Bhutan (China),and northern India, where it grows up to an elevation of some 5.000m. For any humus rich, always slightly moist, yet well drained soil in a partially shaded spot. V-VII.
30 (45)cm, one of the most attractive Primula with lilac-colored flowers in dense, globular heads above basal rosette of large leaves with slightly red margins. Shade to full sun in any moist soil. Easy. From Afghanistan towards Bhutan a W China (Xizang). III-V.
15 (20)cm, from Central Europe growing in damp, grassy places in full sun. Rather rare native and often hybridized with Primula veris and Primula vulgaris, this is the real species with sulfurous yellow flowers in dense umbels on large erect stalks in III-IV.
15 (20)cm, a rare and beautiful subspecies with pale pink to deep purple flowers and a yellowish-orange throat. It is native of the Caucasus, Georgia and north-eastern Turkey where it grows in rock crevices and hillsides in alpine meadows at an elevation of up to 4.000m. For any rich, humus rich, well drained soil in a sunny spot. Excellent for the rock garden. IV-V.
10 (15)cm, Bird's-Eye Primrose is an elegant dwarf primrose from damp, grassy and peaty places in moors of Central Europe, where it has become very rare. It produces delicate, rosy lilac flowers with a yellow throat carried on a very slender stem and heads of five or six per plant. For any humus rich, slightly moist soil in a sunny spot. IV-V.
25 (35)cm, distinct and noble species, suited to growing in a peaty soil by the waterside in full sun. Large heads of drooping, clear yellow, fragrant, bell shaped flowers, white powered outside. Occurring in W China (Xizang) at more than 4.000m above sea level. VI-VII.
10 (15)cm, dwarf primrose from rocky, yet moist places in rock crevices in mountains in north-eastern Bulgaria. A real gem with dense rosettes of white powered leaves and several flower stalks with numerous, miniature rose-colored flowers. For a moist spot in the rock garden, plant either in shade or full sun. III-IV.
10cm, Hairy Primrose is a dwarf species with short stems covered with sticky, mid-green leaves and several pale violet flowers. It is native of mountain meadows and rock crevices in Austria, Switerland, northern Italy, southern France and nort-eastern Spain. For any humus rich, well drained soil in a sunny spot. An excellent plant for the rock garden. III-V.
10 (15)cm, makes dense, short leaf rosettes and rather large dark pink flowers with a white eye. it is native of rocky soils in the eastern Pyrenees to the Swiss Alps. For any well drained, rather rocky soil spot in full sun. Excellent in the rock garden. IV-V.
30 (50)cm, large yellowish green leaves and amazing, huge flower stalks with whorls of purplish to deep-pink flowers. For any rich and moist soil, shade to full sun. Very easy and showy Primrose from Japan and Taiwan. V-VII.
20 (30)cm, Parry's Primrose is a beautiful species from moist mountain meadows in the Rocky Mountains (USA). It has long mid green leaves in a dense basal rosette and showy bright magenta flowers with a yellow eye. For any humus rich and always slightly moist soil in a sunny spot. III-V.
30 (45)cm, Candelabra Primrose is a beautiful species from moist mountain meadows in western Sichuan and central and northern Yunnan (China). It bears a tall flowering stems with bright violet flowers with a small yellow eye, arranged in whorls and long, glossy leaves in a dense basal rosette. For any humus rich and always slightly moist soil in a sunny spot. III-V.
20 (40)cm, Mealy Primrose is a rarely cultivated primrose in its pure, unhybridized natural form. It bears umbels of purplish red flowers which are similar to those in Primula japonica, yet with white powdered stems and leaves (hence its name!). It is native of western Szechuan near Kanding (Tatsienlu, China). For an yhumus rich, always slightly moist soil in a partially shaded spot. V-VI.
25 (40)cm, makes very ornamental, nodding deep purple flower bells in two to three whorls on tall stalks. It is native especially in the Lijiang mountains (Yunnan province, China) where it occurs at an elevation of up to 4.000m. A very rare, but easily grown and long lived primrose species for any humus rich, always slightly moist soil in partial shade. V-VI.
15 (20)cm, Siebold's Primrose is an excellent ground covering plant from Japan (southern Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu islands) with dense, large yellowish green, "crispy" foliage and stalks with most ornamental, quite large rose to pink flowers with a white center. Easily grown in any leafy or humus rich, slightly moist soil in a sunny to partially shaded spot. Will naturalize if happy and makes a stunning flower carpet in spring. III-IV.


text:
Home > > Growth Of U.S. Solar Market Spurred By Tax Incentives
Growth Of U.S. Solar Market Spurred By Tax Incentives 2008-10-15
On April 21, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released its 2007 U.S. Solar Industry Year in Review produced in conjunction with the Prometheus Institute. The report noted that 254 megawatts of photovoltaic and concentrating solar power were installed in 2007. This included 150 MW of grid-tied PV, 40 MW off-grid, and 64 MW of CSP. Another estimated 1,000 megawatts (thermal) were installed as solar hot-water and space heating (100 MW-thermal) and pool heating (900 MW-thermal). (brass fitting) The report highlights growth of the U.S. Solar Energy Market: U.S. Installed grid-tied PV grew 45 percent in 2007 from 2006. U.S. Installed grid-tied PV increased by 12,714 installations in 2007, more than two times the 5,813 installations in 2005. Big-box retail stores led the PV installation boom including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot and others. The U.S. market is fourth in the world (after Germany - 1st, Japan - 2nd, Spain - 3rd); Germany installs eight times as much as the U.S. States that expanded their solar energy incentive programs in 2007 were NJ, FL, MD, NY, NV, NC, WA, NM. Top states for 2007 installed grid-tied PV: CA (87.1 MW); NJ (16.4 MW); NV (14.6); CO (12.4 MW); NY (4.4 MW) 4 GW (4,000 MW) of utility-scale CSP plants are in the pipeline. U.S. PV manufacturing increased 74 percent, led by thin-film production As the country celebrates Earth Day and Congress evaluates different paths to secure and clean energy supplies, it is worth noting that with modest, temporary policy we can see such tremendous growth in such a short time," said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. "In two years, solar energy has proven to be an economic engine for this country, creating thousands of green-collar jobs, unleashing billions in investment dollars, and building manufacturing from Ohio to Michigan to Oregon. Today, Congress has a chance to move our nation to a clean energy future while at the same time expanding our economy." Federal investment tax credits for installing both residential and commercial solar energy systems expire Dec. 31. Several bills in Congress include extensions and, in some cases, improvements to the tax credits: Feb. 27 House-passed bill H.R. 5351, Apr. 10 Senate-passed H.R. 3221 with the Cantwell-Ensign amendment (S.A. 4419), and a Senate proposed 2008 tax extenders bill reported out of the Senate Finance Committee on Apr. 17. (brass fitting)
Tucson Water Adding Meetings On New Conservation Proposals
Electric Power Conference Expo, May 6 8
Summer air-conditioning disease prevention tips
Tips for buying a floor
Brass Product List
double handle basin tap
Basin Zinc Water Tap Acrylic Knob
Brass Tap With Stainless Steel Flange


text:
Facing the World Disarmament Conference
By Viscount Cecil
Courtesy Reuters
"WILL this terrible convulsion when it has subsided bequeath war or peace as its heritage? In any case one would think there must be a generation of exhaustion. But will that generation bestir itself to find some guarantee against the recurrence of the curse, or will it silently pile up armaments for hoarded vengeance? That is the question on which depends the future of the human race."
So with prophetic vision wrote Lord Rosebery in the second year of the Great War. "A generation of exhaustion." That at first sight is a fair definition of our own generation. After twelve years' struggle with the political and economic consequences of the war, which dislocated the finances of every belligerent state, loaded it with debts internal and external and exacerbated the prejudices of nation against nation, western civilization seems to have reached a period of lassitude which has culminated in a crisis of unexampled severity.
Let us realize what has happened. First, there was the long continued economic depression which wrought such havoc in many countries, including yours and mine. Then on the top of that has come the new crisis in Germany connected with the first, no doubt, but yet distinct from it. For whatever may be the cause of our economic difficulties, the reason for the financial crash in Germany is plain enough. It is simply the loss of trust in German solvency. It is just like a run on a bank on an international scale -- one of those phenomena of human panic not uncommon in many of the relations of men, but none the less disastrous. Wellington once said that all troops were subject to panics and that the difference between good and bad troops was that the first recovered from the panic and the second did not. In financial panics experience shows that if destruction can be warded off for a certain time the panic will subside. And I have very little doubt that that is what will happen in the present case.
Nevertheless, the occurrence of the panic is a disquieting symptom. When all allowance has been made for the special circumstances which gave rise to it -- German banking rashness combined with political unwisdom, and the like -- it would not have occurred if the moral and intellectual conditions of the world had been healthy. A sudden loss of confidence on the scale we have recently witnessed is abnormal. The normal thing is for men to trust one another. It is on that assumption that our commercial and financial system has been built up. It depends on credit, and credit is in essence psychological. The German crisis is a crisis of psychology and if we wish to prevent its recurrence we must apply psychological remedies.
There is evidence that that is now being attempted. The generation of exhaustion is beginning, as Lord Rosebery hoped, to bestir itself. The peoples are realizing at last that they are faced with the choice between blessing and cursing, death and life, with the condition of life the curbing of that sinister accumulation of the weapons of mutual destruction. "Hoarded vengeance." Is that too strong a term to describe the object for which a for-midable body of men in Germany, exasperated by unemployment, uncertainty, the prolonged humiliation of their nation and the failure of the Allies to redeem their promises, is beginning to clamor for the right to rearm? It is the outcome characteristic of war. As Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson said recently: "War hurts everybody, benefits nobody but the profiteer, and settles nothing." History has shown that each war is but an incident in an international vendetta.
The present world situation illustrates this truth. There is the incessant demand for the revision of the peace treaties among the defeated Powers, with a corresponding nervousness of the new nations of Europe and those enlarged by the treaties regarding the integrity of their frontiers. There is the deliberate fomenting of a war psychology in Soviet Russia because of the supposed impending onslaught of the capitalist states. Poland and Rumania, divided from Russia by a frontier which has no natural defensive feature, feel driven by the menace of the half-known military machine of the Soviets to maintain strong armies and air forces. National pride militates in the United States and in Britain against the movement to reduce navies, and in Italy dictates the demand for parity with any one other Continental Power. Who will say that any one of these motives is wholly unworthy of respect, that any one of these pretexts for maintaining, developing or restoring national armaments is wholly without some foundation in reason? Yet together they contribute to create a general condition of military danger, political insecurity, industrial depression, and financial instability which is but a sorry caricature of peace. And this will continue until we can cast out the civil demons of nationalistic hatred and jealousy by the establishment of mutual confidence and good will and the definite substitution of right for might, guaranteed by international disarmament.
This is a commonplace. It is none the less true. I recall it here because I believe the armament situation at the present time to be not only the consequence, but the cause of this lack of mutual understanding and trust. The worst aspect of that situation is not so much the vast volume of armaments itself (with two or three exceptions the principal nations are spending about the same as they did in 1913, allowing for the altered cost of living); it is the political and moral significance of those armaments. Two ominous facts stare us in the face. The first is that twelve years after the League of Nations was founded, three years after the signature of the Pact for the Renunciation of War, the nations are spending over $4,500,000,000 a year on preparations to fight one another, and this vast expenditure is still growing. That is a colossal and sinister fact, a proof in the eyes of ordinary men and women of governmental insincerity and inconsistency which saps their faith in all covenants and pacts and obliges the organization of international society to proceed painfully and fitfully in an atmosphere of cynicism and unreality. The second fact which particularly merits the attention of serious students of international politics is the inequality of armaments as between the defeated and the victorious countries. There are few who realize the magnitude of the humiliation inflicted on Germany and her former associates, or the vast amount of their military material that was destroyed. From being the greatest military Power in the world she has become inferior to Poland or Czechoslovakia. The military clauses of the peace treaties completely suppressed the military air forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary and the navy of the latter empire. The greater part of the German fleet was also taken from her; she was forbidden any warship over 10,000 tons, any tank or heavy artillery on land. She was forced to give up conscription. The Austrian, Hungarian and Bulgarian armies were reduced to negligible proportions.
One great mitigation of the severity of these terms was given to the vanquished nations, without which it is doubtful if they could ever have been imposed upon them. A perfectly definite assurance was given to the German plenipotentiaries at Versailles by M. Clemenceau on behalf of the Allied and Associated Powers in May, 1919:
The Allied and Associated Powers wish to make it clear that their requirements in regard to German Armaments were not made solely with the object of rendering it impossible to resume her policy of military aggression. They are also the first step towards the reduction and limitation of armaments which they seek to bring about as one of the most fruitful preventives of war, and which will be one of the first duties of the League of Nations to promote.
This essential condition of the German reductions is reproduced in the opening words of Part V of the Versailles Treaty:
In order to render possible the initiation of a general limitation of the armaments of all nations, Germany undertakes strictly to observe the military, naval and air clauses which follow.
The obligation to join in general disarmament has never been denied by responsible statesmen on the side of the Allies. American Presidents have shown by deeds as well as by words that they acknowledge that moral obligation. Only the other day the Prime Minister of Great Britain and two former Premiers, Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Lloyd George, reasserted it in most vigorous terms from the same platform in London. Yet though some progress has been made, largely through American and British coöperation, and though the League of Nations has doggedly pursued the attempt to prepare a general treaty for the limitation of all armaments, practically nothing has really been done by the Allies to implement their promises to the Germans unless the Washington and London naval treaties can be regarded as steps in that direction.
Nothing poisons and destroys mutual confidence so much in international, as in private life, as the failure to keep troth. Unquestionably, one source of the disquieting symptoms in Central Europe is the Allied failure to disarm. The acute economic distress of Germany, which as in other countries has caused a wave of xenophobia, has served to increase and popularize indignation on this point until the assumption that Germany was perfidiously tricked by the Allies into a position of humiliating inferiority has become the commonplace of German political journalism. This has created a desire among the Germans to rearm, which is by no means confined to Herr Hitler and his extreme nationalist followers. It is a demand which is a cause of embarrassment to any German Government, even though they may know from their international experience that it is a counsel of desperate insanity. This emergence of truculent indignation in Germany has in turn had its consequence in the new fortification of the French and Belgian eastern frontiers and the stiffening of political opposition in those countries to any new military reductions. And so the vicious circle is all but complete.
It must be broken and broken now, if Europe and the world are to be saved from the almost certain dangers of a revival of the competition of armaments in its most pernicious form. If we are to find a remedy both for the immediate German crisis and for the even more serious international menace in the background, two main facts must be borne in mind. There is a general disposition in Germany to trust no one. That is one of them. The other is the answering mistrust of France, Poland and the Little Entente. And both are in great part due to the failure to effect international disarmament up till now.
Necessary as it is to cure immediate evils, it is even more imperative to remove the cause of them. It is because I am convinced that the armament situation is among the primary causes of these present discontents that I accept whole-heartedly President Hoover's repeated pronouncements that the restoration of world confidence depends chiefly on the success of the Disarmament Conference.
But it is not enough to appreciate the cogent moral and political reasons for disarmament and to clamor for the fulfilment of the victors' promises. We are not dealing with virgin ground, but with ground partly but incompletely tilled, partly encumbered with the bindweed of political habits and prejudices. The French security complex is one of those mental habits; the German equality complex another; the obsession of the Russian menace is another; and in all countries the established tradition of a military class and the vested interests of the armaments manufacturers and their press.
In view of these and many other difficult factors in the situation it is encouraging, if not astonishing, that a definite Draft Convention for General Disarmament was produced at the end of last year by the Preparatory Commission for the World Disarmament Conference, and supported by the majority of its members. I find it difficult to believe that anyone who was familiar with the difficulties which we overcame in that Commission would wish to jettison that draft treaty, as I see so lightheartedly suggested in some quarters. It has, doubtless, its imperfections. I should be delighted to see the World Conference go a great deal further than this Convention. But the Conference will be plunged into a welter of confusion unless it avails itself of at least that which is positive and constructive in this outcome of the Preparatory Commission's work. Its main conception is right and many of its provisions are of great value. For example, I regard as indispensable to a general limitation of armaments the setting up of a permanent Disarmament Commission, on the model of the Permanent Mandates Commission, to watch over the execution of the treaty, to receive and examine regular returns on a uniform model from all states, and to guard against evasion. The creation of such a Commission will insure the continuity of disarmament evolution, and will be a buttress of international confidence. The principle that all effectives, whether conscripted or voluntary, must be subject to limitation, is clearly a good one; and the controversy about trained reserves can be reduced to small proportions when it is realized that the limitation of average daily effectives and the other statistics required by the Convention would make it easy to calculate the number of those who, as a result of previous training, would be capable at any given date of serving with the colors. The essential thing is that in estimating the fighting strength of a nation its trained reserves must be taken into account and this can be done under the Convention. The classification of warships, of airships and airplanes for limitation is also useful as far as it goes.
Perhaps most important of all is the proposal for the limitation of military budgets. That is the essential complement of any measure for direct limitation of men or of military material; for it means the limitation of invention, the curtailing of development. Short of an impracticable system of international inspection, it is the only way of insuring the limitation of material. It gives the ordinary taxpayer the whiphand; and when he realizes this and wakes up to the crushing burden of armaments costs, I believe that he will use it. I have never been very much impressed with the contention that budgetary limitation by international agreement violates the rights of the national parliament. All disarmament treaties restrict the right of national parliaments to increase armaments, and it does not seem any worse from a constitutional point of view to limit the funds necessary to buy or make arms than to limit the arms which are the produce of such funds. On the contrary, those who want international disarmament see under this new form of the most venerable parliamentary right -- the right of the purse -- the most effective way of curbing and reducing expenses upon the implements of war. And that after all is the only way in which the political forces of a country can, in the name of the citizens, force down the level of armaments. The actual reductions of war material and personnel must clearly be worked out by experts.
Here then are some of the good points of the Draft Convention. Its weakness -- and this has become a matter of primary political importance in Germany -- is that it contains and indeed could contain no definite provision for ending that inequality of which I have spoken, between victors and vanquished. In particular, the Germans declined to accept the Draft Convention because of its Article 53, which they think maintains in vigor the military clauses of the peace treaties as well as the Washington and London Treaties which regulate naval armaments. I do not think that was what the American and British delegations intended when they supported that article. They merely meant to prevent unforeseen interference with the existing treaties. But verbally the Germans are right. The article goes too far. It may certainly be read as reaffirming the Versailles Treaty, and it is not to be expected that a German Government would now consent to do that. Yet the actual disarmament of Germany is the main moral basis for the general disarmament movement. It would be folly to destroy that basis. The level of disarmament imposed on certain countries must, as the Allies' engagement at Versailles clearly implies, be taken as the goal at which the World Disarmament Conference should aim, however slow and difficult may be the process of winning agreement from France and her associates to a plan which ultimately means decreasing their armed strength.
Can a practical policy be evolved which will meet Germany's legitimate desire for equality in status, and at the same time provide the gradual means of attaining the lower level of armaments which alone is practicable in view of the situation in France and Eastern Europe? I believe that just such a policy has been thrashed out by a body whose importance may not be fully appreciated in the United States but which is coming to occupy more and more a place of respect in the political life of Europe. I refer to the International Federation of League of Nations Societies. It is important and encouraging to see the international organizations of workers adopting, as they have done, a radical disarmament policy. They represent, however, only a single school of thought. The Federation of which I speak brings together delegates of very different political and religious views who, though in most cases not officially connected with their governments, do represent in a certain measure the limits to which responsible opinion in their several countries might be expected to go. When, therefore, as in the case of the disarmament program adopted recently by the Congress of the Federation at Budapest, it is found that agreement upon a perfectly definite policy has been reached between such men as Baron von Rheinbaben, the German delegate at Geneva; M. Hennessy, M. Fontaine, M. René Cassin, and M. Pierre Cot, figures well-known in French political and diplomatic life; Count Apponyi, the Hungarian statesman; M. Henri Rolin, who has frequently represented Belgium in League Committees; and myself, as representative of the British League of Nations Union; together with authoritative Italian, Polish and Dutch delegates, the political importance of the measures advocated cannot be ignored. The Resolution begins by postulating that the first World Conference can and should end in a definite treaty involving considerable reductions, which should be the first of a long series of disarmament treaties. It goes on to declare that it is feasible now to reduce the whole of the amount of money spent on armaments per annum by 25 percent during the period of the treaty. It insists that the same principles of reduction and limitation must apply to "victorious" and "vanquished" nations alike, and that next year's Conference "must begin to effect such equality." It lays down that this equality "must not be attained by increasing armaments already reduced by treaties, but by the proportionate reduction of those of other states." The consequence of applying these principles is a bold proposal -- some will say an impracticable one, but I do not believe it, for "logic will out" -- even among Anglo-Saxons. It is that all states must be on the same footing concerning the type of limitation and disarmament to which they are subject. If, therefore, certain methods of limitation, as for instance that of small arms, are held to be impracticable without a costly, irritating and politically impossible system of inspection, then they must be abandoned for all nations. Equally those which will impose an effective and ascertainable check upon the dangers of competition must be imposed upon all.
The three definite points set forth in the conclusions of the Budapest Resolution are as follows:
Each state should be bound to limit the amount budgeted for its navy, army and air force.
The prohibition of certain material, naval, land or air, enjoined in the treaties, would apply to all states signatory to the Convention.
The observance of the obligations thus contracted by the states should be ensured by a Permanent Disarmament Commission established at the seat of the League of Nations and exercising its control equally over all nations.
I make no apology for descending from the general to the particular, from the moral and political arguments for disarmament to a practical plan for attaining it. I believe that the conclusion at which the Federation of League of Nations Societies arrived would be reached by any international gathering of fair-minded men who have had experience of the main facts of the situation and of the evolution of opinion in the principal countries on this subject. And it is of the utmost importance at this time of vigil -- this eve of a great and decisive event in the world's history -- that all those forces, spiritual, moral, intellectual, political and professional, which have perceived the urgent need of fighting this plague of armaments should equip themselves with practical means to gain this end, and in particular with the means of canalizing and directing towards an intelligible and attainable objective the public opinion which they are able to arouse.
The problem is to give satisfaction to the German demand for eventual equality while recognizing that security for France is essential. Obviously the way to do this is to strike at the aggressive powers of the states which have not been disarmed while leaving their defensive powers untouched. No one, for instance, would wish to interfere with French fortification or even with the numbers of their troops provided they are equipped with weapons useless to attack field defenses. On the other hand, who can say that air bombers are anything but aggressive? What is the use of heavy land artillery or tanks except to overwhelm or traverse trenches? In the absence of air attack what reason is there for the existence of marine monsters of thirty and forty thousand tons, except to attack other ships of similar size? How long are we to submit to the cruel and treacherous attacks of submarines on unarmed vessels? All these weapons and machines have been forbidden to Germany and her old allies. Why? Because the expert advisers of the victorious Powers at Paris decided that they were not necessary for strictly defensive purposes. But if in German hands they would be chiefly valuable for aggression, can their character change in the hands of other nationalities? Let us "scrap the lot," and in doing so we shall reduce the cost of armaments by at least the 25 percent suggested.
I have spoken above of the acute financial and economic crisis through which America, in common with the principal nations of Europe, is passing this year. I have stated my conviction that armaments are in large part the cause of the trouble. But I believe no less strongly that if those at the direction of the political and financial destinies of nations have clear heads and a right intention the shock which the peoples have suffered from this crisis can be used to good account in order to create the psychological conditions of success for the first World Conference for the Reduction of Armaments. If such is the result, good will indeed have come out of evil; and the ordinary citizen who has too long allowed cynicism or mental lethargy to excuse him from an active interest in the defeats and victories of peace, may live to bless the material losses and inconveniences which forced him to face the truth.
VISCOUNT CECIL, former Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Minister of Blockade, and Lord Privy Seal; Member of Parliament, 1906-23; on several occasions British representative at Geneva
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text:
Marsel Çaka (born 31 March 1995) is an Albanian footballer who currently plays as a goalkeeper for Dinamo in the Albanian First Division.

Club career
Çaka is a product of the KF Tirana academy which he joined as a child, before being promoted to the senior team in January 2013 where he featured in 5 league games in the 2012–13 season. He became the club's first choice goalkeeper for the first half of the 2013–14 season at the age of just 18. The return of veteran goalkeeper Ilion Lika meant that Çaka became the second choice goalkeeper.

On 9 September, Çaka signed a long time contract with the club and was immediately loaned to Albanian First Division side Kamza for the rest of the season.

International career

Under-19
Çaka was part of the Albania U19 team selected for the 2013 Mediterranean Games in Mersin, Turkey. He featured in the last game of the tournament against Italy, coming on as a 44th-minute substitute for Aldo Teqja in the 3–1 loss for the seventh place, meaning Albania finished in last place in the tournament.

He made his international debut for Albania U19 in a 5-1 friendly win over Montenegro.

Under-21
He received his first call up to the Albania under-21 national team in November 2013 for a European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Hungary on 14 November. He was an unused substitute in the 2–0 away win, as he was an understudy to first choice goalkeeper Aldo Teqja. He was called up to a friendly tournament held in Dubai in December 2014 where he made his debut, coming off the bench in the final game of the three game tournament against United Arab Emirates U23.

References

External links

1995 births
Living people
Footballers from Tirana
Albanian footballers
Association football goalkeepers
KF Tirana players
FC Kamza players
FK Dinamo Tirana players
Kategoria Superiore players
Kategoria e Parë players

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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