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Thread: Contemporary Issues in Economics, Politics and Religion |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 306
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
What was even more refreshing, was what was shown on BBC News 24, was Muslim religious leaders at the front of the protestors attempting to stop the violence, they can be just made out on the vidio clip associated with the above link identifiable by the distinctive white and burgundy headdress and their black and burgundy robes. The report can be seen here For some reason I could get the audio but not the video; which is fine. It appears that I will have sufficient opportunities in the future. Just think, if not for the persistent efforts of just one middle-aged Egyptian government official, this probably would never have happened. What? September's event becomes riot material in February. And that's not spontaneous?  And just announced this lunchtimeControversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masr...er by an Old Bailey jury. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
And just announced this lunchtimeControversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masr...er by an Old Bailey jury. Not to excuse either his actions or his sentence, but the poor chap looks as if life has punished him even prior to his offenses.  "If you are not for yourself, then who will be? "If you are only for yourself, then what are you? "If not now, then when?"  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
"It's beautiful, untouched, unpopulated forest; there's no evidence of human impact or presence up in these mountains," Dr Beehler told the BBC News website.
----------------------------------------Beautiful and tragic.  In the words of an ancient Zen master: "It is not that you can not do it. It is simply that you do not chose to do it." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4688000.stm [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 7, 2006 3:15:44 PM] |
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GEORGE DOMINIC
Senior Cruncher Joined: Nov 21, 2004 Post Count: 227 Status: Offline |
it happened to me i went on a white riot to quote the oppo the result was edifying i just wish everybody could have the same experience our resolve is unextinguished, in sum strange way when all seems lost were all up 4 it seems to help n top it all what do you expect kids to nuckle under to next gets an answeretc etc etc what a great day. what im saying is according to political prescedent theres more than mere verbage to deal with reggards unity n action let me repeat its a white riot howd we do it
so erm you arent alone takes that kind of mentality we really did summit wins so erm apart from a repeat theres alot to say 4 us just 1 point dont get caught yours i really am a saint n im off to a safe address carnt afford to see anybody in court here comes pat mgaret the fbi the cia etc etcs scotlandyard n dont let any body tell you free speech is dead adrenal problems dam i Know what to do |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
From the same enquiring minds that gave us the "Cartoon Riots", we now have the "Cartoon Wars."
----------------------------------------http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461 Click on the story: "Growing Cartoon Outrage," then wait 30 secs for the ad to finish. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 7, 2006 8:14:09 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Neilsham, your absence has not gone unnoticed. It surprises me that given the circumstances you have elected not to post. Of course, you just may have something else competing for your time right now. Perhaps you have decided that to respond to this topic at this time would be imprudent. While of course I respect your decisions, I can not help being concerned that since our last conversation involved "possible misinterpretations of meaning" that you might somehow feel offended in some way. If so, I can only assure you that I never intended to cause any offense. If anything, my intentions were exactly the opposite.
Trusting that you are well and happy in whatever you may be doing, I remain your perplexed friend.  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
From the same enquiring minds that gave us the "Cartoon Riots", we now have the "Cartoon Wars." http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461 Click on the story: "Growing Cartoon Outrage," then wait 30 secs for the ad to finish. It is interesting when you play the Channel 4 clip against the ABC one. One the one hand you have the Channel 4 one which despite its covering the actual violence, is positve in that it includes a significant amount of and exits on condemnation of that violence by Islamic religious leaders. On the other you have the ABC one which is on the whole negative barely mentioning the condemnation right at the start and leaves you feeling scared as it ends on worried people expressing their fears. The question this raises is: Is the ABC report typical of US TV coverage if these events, and is it typical of all US TV coverage in general, particularly of world events? If typical, it potentially verges on incitement, in that it instills paranoia about muslims, leading on to anti-muslim violence. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
On a personal note, I am curious to know if you have observed differences in the effectiveness of TQM in different cultures. My own experiences here in the US have led me to favour more of a strategically empowered high performance team based approach, which tends to result in action rather than discussion (focus group ineffectiveness).  Put succinctly the culture of the business has more impact than the culture of the nation. However given comparable business cultures then my gut feel is the Japanese culture would have the edge over the British or the US. I've not yet tried it in the Philippines, but experience suggets somewhere between Japan and US on ease and effectiveness on implementation. Though I have spent the best part of 20 years working in QA and TQM, one of the biggest issues I have with many of the ideas and concepts that go arround, particularly when consultants get involved, is that they forget why business are in business, namely to make money. Regards your comments about the problems associated with the national health care system, this is a topic that I have some experience with here in the US. Simply stated, as we move from a free market system to a socialized system we increase market inefficiencies. These inefficiencies are exaserbated by political decisions motivated by the enactment of policy decisions and the achievement of goals which are unrelated to both broader economic considerations as well as to the economic exigencies of the health care system itself. The lack of direct accountability at every level of care, especially between the individual health care recipient and the funding agencies, eliminates natural market demand restraints resulting in uncontrollable skyrocketing costs. Furthermore, socialism favours idealism and entitlement. The fundamental principles of economics are indifferent to wish fulfillment. When the State enacts a system with utopian goals (no matter how worthwhile) it had very well better have some very astute managers overseeing the process so that they may correct for the inevitable drain on resources caused by these artificially introduced inefficiencies. Frankly, at this time we are not even close.  It is interesting to note that both New Labour and Conservatives are playing with the structure of the NHS to create internal markets, in an attempt to bring free market economics to a state run system. In both cases they have committed to a health service free at the point of use, so no need for health insurance, but having differing ideas what to do with backend. The conservatives have however dropped their more radical policy of allowing people to go anywhere to have treatment and the State to pay for it. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
It is interesting when you play the Channel 4 clip against the ABC one. One the one hand you have the Channel 4 one which despite its covering the actual violence, is positve in that it includes a significant amount of and exits on condemnation of that violence by Islamic religious leaders. On the other you have the ABC one which is on the whole negative barely mentioning the condemnation right at the start and leaves you feeling scared as it ends on worried people expressing their fears. The question this raises is: Is the ABC report typical of US TV coverage if these events, and is it typical of all US TV coverage in general, particularly of world events? If typical, it potentially verges on incitement, in that it instills paranoia about muslims, leading on to anti-muslim violence. Actually, this coverage was quite unremarkable by US reporting standards - exept that they actually interviewed someone who lived in the country from which they were reporting. Most of our reporters seem to have sacrificed their credibility as independent, responsible journalists in favor of undisguised sensationalism. It is literally embarrassing to watch the reporter phrase his question in just the right way to successfully cajole the interviewee into making that one particular controversial statement the reporter was playing for, just to feed an otherwise dull or dead story. Unfortunately, the interviewee is usually all too willing to play along. If you are looking for objective journalism ... well, keep looking. The other avant garde fad in US journalism is to hammer the viewer to death by the media's endless coverage of some mindless, empty story that was no news months before: that is, until it is at last replaced by the next boring journalistic obsession. Some cable news stations do a fairly good job of covering/discussing national politics and economic/market issues using the talk show, special-interest format; but this is special interest programming and not traditional reporting. These programs cater to viewers who love to be “pundited” to death. Each station maintains a list of “expert commentators” on every conceivable topic from latrine etiquette to extra terrestrial mating habits. It is true that Fox News and CNN have a few one hour segments that use a bullet-point format to hit the high points; but nothing more. The field of journalism appears to have given way to “entertainment commentators” who appear more intent on creating a marketable image/theme then they are with actually reporting on a real story.  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Put succinctly the culture of the business has more impact than the culture of the nation. However given comparable business cultures then my gut feel is the Japanese culture would have the edge over the British or the US. I've not yet tried it in the Philippines, but experience suggets somewhere between Japan and US on ease and effectiveness on implementation. Though I have spent the best part of 20 years working in QA and TQM, one of the biggest issues I have with many of the ideas and concepts that go arround, particularly when consultants get involved, is that they forget why business are in business, namely to make money. This is what I would have anticipated, though there have been continuing negative pressures at work within the Japanese culture that could conceivably begin to erode this advantage. Your observation regarding the consultant disconnect is certainly valid; no more so than in IT consulting. Odd though it may appear at first glance, the best game plan was to take the time to teach the necessary business concepts to the IT guys. They were remarkably adept at getting into step with the business of business. It is interesting to note that both New Labour and Conservatives are playing with the structure of the NHS to create internal markets, in an attempt to bring free market economics to a state run system. In both cases they have committed to a health service free at the point of use, so no need for health insurance, but having differing ideas what to do with backend. The conservatives have however dropped their more radical policy of allowing people to go anywhere to have treatment and the State to pay for it. Ah, yes, managed competition. Thank you for the starting point, bb. The early work by the Rand Corporation provides very compelling evidence that without the incentive not to spend, the healthcare recipient will simply not make prudent healthcare decisions; beyond his actual interaction with the healtcare providers themselves.  |
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