Thursday, April 30, 2009
Put to the Test All Things
The way is so simple and obvious - yet so many overlook it. They research, analyze, confer and argue - but the best way to prove the relevancy of the Bible today is to do what it says. "A good understanding have all those who do His commandments," advises Psalm 111:10. If you want to understand God's Word, put it into action. The Bible is God's instruction manual for living. It's not unlike the intimidatingly thick instruction book that came with the word processing program I use. As I use this program, more and more of the instruction book makes sense. Similarly, I will be able to do what the Bible says if I follow the instructions. If I decide not to follow the instructions, life isn't going to work out as I might expect. So the key to undestanding the Word of God is to put it into practice. But that is easier said than done. It demands a commitment beyond what most people are prepared to make in this permissive age. It involves changing - your habits, your routine, your priorities, the way you handle your finances, your family and your relationships with friends and neighbors. The are changes for the better, and some of them do hurt at first. But they can be made. I know hundreds of people in dozens of countries who are doing so. As they put the Bible teachings into action in their lives, they understand the intent of them more and more.
Changing The Rules
Is it really any different today? About one quarter of the world's population claims allegiance to Jesus Christ. But as the bishop of Newark pointed out, Jesus' teachings, and those of the rest of the Bible, are only acceptable to us if they agree with our own preconceived ideas. The way of life he taught, with its uncompromising emphasis on meeting God's standards, is no easier to accept in the 20th century than it was in the first. We no longer have the opportunity to physically do away with Jesus Christ, but does not standing in judgment of his teachings represent a similar attitude? It is, of course, very human to want to alter a standard we find hard to meet. Here the Bible is particularly vulnerable. It lays down the law on some very personal aspects of life-like marriage, sex and personal morality-rather differently from some modern standards. And frankly, don't even some of the easy-to-understand teachings seem a bit impractical for the real world? "Love your enemy," "turn the other cheek," "do good to those who despitefully use you" and "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Nice principles, but do you know anyone who really practices them? So come on, let's be reasonable, many no doubt say. Why not give the Bible a good going over? Throw out what is not acceptable, bring the rest into line with modern values, and pretty soon, everyone will be saying what a useful book the Bible really is after all. The fifth-century theologian Augustine rightly observed: If you believe what you want to in the Gospels, and reject what you want to, it is not the Gospels you believe, but yourself. Does this mean then, that we should embrace every word of Scripture without question, accept everything at face value just because it is there in translation? No-such a faith would be blind and simplistic, and the Bible itself does not require that. "Test all things," wrote the apostle Paul; "hold fast what is good" (I Thess.5:21, New King James Version). But how do you test?
Venerable Beads
One of the more controversial examinations of the Bible is coordinated by a group of scholars known as The Jesus Seminar. They are systematically scrutinizing the gospels to decide if Jesus really did say what the gospels claim he said.
After examining from many points of view a verse quoting Jesus, they vote on its authenticity with a system of colored beads. Black means Jesus said it, red implies he did not, while pink and gray signify varying degrees of probability. The aim is to produce a version of the Bible printed in black, red and varying shades of pink and gray.
To be fair, a red bead does not mean that the seminar believes the verse should be removed. The latest announcement from the seminar is that they don't think Jesus ever said he was going to return. This has Christians from many different persuasions concerned. We sympathize - for we believe very firmly that Jesus said he would return. When properly understood, not only the gospels but the entire message of the Bible attest to this.
However, The Jesus Seminar would seem to be a particularly difficult group to argue with. If they have decided Jesus never said he was coming back, how do you convince them that he meant it? This I fear is an argument that won't be solved unless or until Jesus does return - maybe not even then for some. Jesus Christ often found himself confronting learned and scholarly men who had painted themselves into an intellectual corner. So sure were they in their interpretation of God's Word that they could not - or would not - accept the evidence of the messiahship of Jesus.
Jesus Christ was a popular and well-accepted figure-until his teachings began to correct and undermine the personal standard of righteousness of the religious leadership. They couldn't change him, so they rejected him. "We know that you are a teacher sent from God," admitted Nicodemus, but that did not stop certain of the people he represented plotting to destroy Jesus.
After examining from many points of view a verse quoting Jesus, they vote on its authenticity with a system of colored beads. Black means Jesus said it, red implies he did not, while pink and gray signify varying degrees of probability. The aim is to produce a version of the Bible printed in black, red and varying shades of pink and gray.
To be fair, a red bead does not mean that the seminar believes the verse should be removed. The latest announcement from the seminar is that they don't think Jesus ever said he was going to return. This has Christians from many different persuasions concerned. We sympathize - for we believe very firmly that Jesus said he would return. When properly understood, not only the gospels but the entire message of the Bible attest to this.
However, The Jesus Seminar would seem to be a particularly difficult group to argue with. If they have decided Jesus never said he was coming back, how do you convince them that he meant it? This I fear is an argument that won't be solved unless or until Jesus does return - maybe not even then for some. Jesus Christ often found himself confronting learned and scholarly men who had painted themselves into an intellectual corner. So sure were they in their interpretation of God's Word that they could not - or would not - accept the evidence of the messiahship of Jesus.
Jesus Christ was a popular and well-accepted figure-until his teachings began to correct and undermine the personal standard of righteousness of the religious leadership. They couldn't change him, so they rejected him. "We know that you are a teacher sent from God," admitted Nicodemus, but that did not stop certain of the people he represented plotting to destroy Jesus.
Are We Sharpening Our Understanding? Or Missing The Point?
It was titled "Would God Re-Write the Bible?" by John Shelby Spong, Bishop of Newark, a few weeks ago, I read an item from a U.S. East Coast newspaper.
A new look at the book. Bishop Spong challenged the clergy of his diocese to undertake a thorough reexamination of the Bible. He appointed a task force to "engage scholars, scientists, evangelicals, Catholics, fundamentalists, and atheists who might have anything to tell the church about the Bible and its authority for our day."
The bishop's point is that although mainstream churches say they believe the Scriptures are the Word of God, they often don't treat them so. He writes: "Have we not come to treat the Bible dishonestly by quoting it where it buttresses our arguments and ignoring it everywhere else?" And he challenges: "Have we clergy thought about these things? Are we concerned? Do we care?"
These are good questions and the bishop must be congratulated for honestly confronting them. He told the clergy of his diocese that if done well, this study could be the most significant and controversial matter they have ever addressed.
Now, I am not sure how the bishop regards this magazine. So, if the Newark task force wants to hear from anyone who has something to say about the authority and relevancy of the Bible for our day, they might find this interesting, and perhaps even helpful.
A new look at the book. Bishop Spong challenged the clergy of his diocese to undertake a thorough reexamination of the Bible. He appointed a task force to "engage scholars, scientists, evangelicals, Catholics, fundamentalists, and atheists who might have anything to tell the church about the Bible and its authority for our day."
The bishop's point is that although mainstream churches say they believe the Scriptures are the Word of God, they often don't treat them so. He writes: "Have we not come to treat the Bible dishonestly by quoting it where it buttresses our arguments and ignoring it everywhere else?" And he challenges: "Have we clergy thought about these things? Are we concerned? Do we care?"
These are good questions and the bishop must be congratulated for honestly confronting them. He told the clergy of his diocese that if done well, this study could be the most significant and controversial matter they have ever addressed.
Now, I am not sure how the bishop regards this magazine. So, if the Newark task force wants to hear from anyone who has something to say about the authority and relevancy of the Bible for our day, they might find this interesting, and perhaps even helpful.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
U.S. - Soviet Relations
Critics among America's allies had already judged the President as one who saw the world in terms of the American Wild West. They did not see the cool realism in his policy. Mr. Reagan put pressure on the Soviet Union, while extending the hand of cooperation the solve tensions. The U.S.S.R. faced up to the fact that its Achilles' hell was economic. It could not keep up an arms race with a superpower that seemed to have almost unlimited borrowing power.
It was March 8, 1983, in Orlando, Florida, that U.S. President Ronald Reagan bluntly defined the world that then existed. The Free World, he announced, was in mortal battle with an evil empire - the U.S.S.R. "They preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples of the earth - they are the focus of evil in the modern world," declared Mr. Reagan.
There followed four Reagan - Gorbachev summits: Geneva, November 1985; Reykjavik, October 1986; Washington, D.C., December 1987; and Moscow, May - June 1988. The unthinkable had happened; glasnost within the Soviet Union expanded to relationships outside the U.S.S.R. And the consequent economic realisties within the Soviet Union demanded a major restructuring of the communist system if the ultimate goal of a new communist world were to be achieved.
The result is an astoundingly different world. Whereas once the leaders of the two superpowers flew to neutral nations or, occasionally, to each other's capitals, they now journey into each other's spheres of influence.
The Iron Curtain has been not just literally but politically sundered between Hungary and the West. European Community leaders have opened the door to Hungarian participation in EC affairs. All this just three short years before Europe becomes the world's largest agricultural and economic market without frontiers.
It was March 8, 1983, in Orlando, Florida, that U.S. President Ronald Reagan bluntly defined the world that then existed. The Free World, he announced, was in mortal battle with an evil empire - the U.S.S.R. "They preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples of the earth - they are the focus of evil in the modern world," declared Mr. Reagan.
There followed four Reagan - Gorbachev summits: Geneva, November 1985; Reykjavik, October 1986; Washington, D.C., December 1987; and Moscow, May - June 1988. The unthinkable had happened; glasnost within the Soviet Union expanded to relationships outside the U.S.S.R. And the consequent economic realisties within the Soviet Union demanded a major restructuring of the communist system if the ultimate goal of a new communist world were to be achieved.
The result is an astoundingly different world. Whereas once the leaders of the two superpowers flew to neutral nations or, occasionally, to each other's capitals, they now journey into each other's spheres of influence.
The Iron Curtain has been not just literally but politically sundered between Hungary and the West. European Community leaders have opened the door to Hungarian participation in EC affairs. All this just three short years before Europe becomes the world's largest agricultural and economic market without frontiers.
Surge of Religion
We ought all be familiar with the major influence Islam has on the politics of the Middle East. And the influence of Jewish spokesmen of the orthodox far right in Israeli politics. And of the evangelicals in U.S. politics. But there is another area where religion is being heard in the moral and political arena. Europe is now center stage on the political scene.
There are three major views of the future of Europe. One is of the single market of the European Community, essentially a secular economic view with vague political goals. Another is of Mr. Gorbachev who speaks of the "common European home" in which he sees the Soviet Union also residing.
Then there is a third view, unnoticed before late 1982, and unnoticed still by many who think of religion in European politics as only a historical curiosity. This third view is that of Pope John Paul II, who sees a Europe with-out spiritual frontiers. A Europe in which morals rule from Atlantic shores to the Urals. An entire continent that has rediscovered its spiritual roots, that has healed the religious disunity of centuries.
In the Pontiff's view faith in Marxism is dead in Eastern Europe, as well as faith in Christianity in much of the West. He intends to reawaken that faith in the Continent's historic Christian heritage - its roots - and build a bridge between East and West Europe. Parliamentarians, meanwhile, may concern themselves with the question of restricting the activities of sects and other religions that have come into Europe.
There are three major views of the future of Europe. One is of the single market of the European Community, essentially a secular economic view with vague political goals. Another is of Mr. Gorbachev who speaks of the "common European home" in which he sees the Soviet Union also residing.
Then there is a third view, unnoticed before late 1982, and unnoticed still by many who think of religion in European politics as only a historical curiosity. This third view is that of Pope John Paul II, who sees a Europe with-out spiritual frontiers. A Europe in which morals rule from Atlantic shores to the Urals. An entire continent that has rediscovered its spiritual roots, that has healed the religious disunity of centuries.
In the Pontiff's view faith in Marxism is dead in Eastern Europe, as well as faith in Christianity in much of the West. He intends to reawaken that faith in the Continent's historic Christian heritage - its roots - and build a bridge between East and West Europe. Parliamentarians, meanwhile, may concern themselves with the question of restricting the activities of sects and other religions that have come into Europe.
Management of World Debt
Western economists, as the decade wore on, were fearful of a collapse of the debt market. Would developing countries make their interest payments? As it turned out, some have been able to. Others, such as Argentina, have not. The nations of Western Europe have consequently decided to take the lead in the economic field. France in particular has declared there is no alternative but to forgive 1/3 of the debt of each relevant developing country.
Oil doubled in price 1979-80. The shock was too great for fragile economies. The silver market crashed in 1980. A general deflationary trend set in worldwide. By late 1982 the United States economy began a recovery. European economies only later followed suit. East Asia weathered the economic storm. But Latin America and Africa as a whole became disaster areas, with great disparities between rich and poor.
In simplest terms, much of the developing world for nearly a decade has been drowning in debt not entirely of their own making. Only a few bright spots exist. One such nation, Bhutan, in the eastern Himalayas, has managed its natural resources with great economic wisdom. A contrasting example of a nation with no debt, Romania paid off its international debt at great speed-but at the cost of reducing its people to poverty.
This European lead in proposing specific debt forgiveness policies and the decision to have Europe manage the economic rescue (an initiative launched by President Bush) of Poland and Hungary is evidence the United States has lost significant superpower status. This brings us to the last drastic change in events of the 1980s.
Oil doubled in price 1979-80. The shock was too great for fragile economies. The silver market crashed in 1980. A general deflationary trend set in worldwide. By late 1982 the United States economy began a recovery. European economies only later followed suit. East Asia weathered the economic storm. But Latin America and Africa as a whole became disaster areas, with great disparities between rich and poor.
In simplest terms, much of the developing world for nearly a decade has been drowning in debt not entirely of their own making. Only a few bright spots exist. One such nation, Bhutan, in the eastern Himalayas, has managed its natural resources with great economic wisdom. A contrasting example of a nation with no debt, Romania paid off its international debt at great speed-but at the cost of reducing its people to poverty.
This European lead in proposing specific debt forgiveness policies and the decision to have Europe manage the economic rescue (an initiative launched by President Bush) of Poland and Hungary is evidence the United States has lost significant superpower status. This brings us to the last drastic change in events of the 1980s.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Environment at Risk
Problems with the environment certainly have been around for more than 10 years. But they were not taken seriously, especially in Europe, even as late as the beginning of the 1980s. Today Green parties are in every country in Western Europe.
Green parties, unforeseen as power-brokers by most politicians, grew because of the Soviet nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 and the Rhine industrial pollution of 1987.
Earlier, the European Community tried to resolve the dumping of raw sewage at sea, in particular by Britain. The target date for enforcing water purity requirements throughout Europe is 1993. The standards were supposed to have been implemented in 1985, but Britain had at the time only five inspectors. (Japan, by contrast, has had thousands of inspectors to fight pollution in their heavily industrialized islands.)
The list of environmental issues confronting us now, at the end of the 1980s, includes the greenhouse effect, the ozone crisis, deforestation, acid rain, the extinction of plants and animals, toxic waste, pesticides and water pollution, air pollution and the death of forests. Not to mention trash and indoor air pollution.
Solving these problems will not come easy. It demands willpower, time and money - large sums of money, to undo past mistakes. And that brings us to the next drastic change in the '80s.
Green parties, unforeseen as power-brokers by most politicians, grew because of the Soviet nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 and the Rhine industrial pollution of 1987.
Earlier, the European Community tried to resolve the dumping of raw sewage at sea, in particular by Britain. The target date for enforcing water purity requirements throughout Europe is 1993. The standards were supposed to have been implemented in 1985, but Britain had at the time only five inspectors. (Japan, by contrast, has had thousands of inspectors to fight pollution in their heavily industrialized islands.)
The list of environmental issues confronting us now, at the end of the 1980s, includes the greenhouse effect, the ozone crisis, deforestation, acid rain, the extinction of plants and animals, toxic waste, pesticides and water pollution, air pollution and the death of forests. Not to mention trash and indoor air pollution.
Solving these problems will not come easy. It demands willpower, time and money - large sums of money, to undo past mistakes. And that brings us to the next drastic change in the '80s.
AIDS and Illegal Drugs
Paralleling the spread of the virus inducing AIDS is the sudden explosion in the use of crack cocain. Crack, a smokable form of cocaine, was first noted in three U.S. cities in 1981-two of them in Southern California. But it was not until 1986 that crack became the "fast food" of the illegal drug market.
It may now be hard to believe, but in 1980 no one had heard of AIDS. It was first recognized and defined in 1981. Yet today few countries are free from AIDS. World Health Organization officials warn that the officially reported cases probably number fewer than half the true total.
But there are other forms of drugs on the market, some requiring a needle to convey a drug directly into the bloodstream. Who would have thought, in 1980, that the long-known use of the needle to administer drugs would become a political issue because of AIDS?
The HIV virus that causes AIDS can be transmitted from one person to another through contaminated blood on needles. Should, therefore, drug addicts be provided clean needles to prevent the spread of AIDS?
And what about the parallel political issue unforeseen in 1980: Should government funds be used to distribute literature on "safe sex" or to distribute condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS among homosexuals and bisexuals and at-risk heterosexuals?
Questions such as these were never dreamed of in 1980. Yet today they have become major social and political and moral issues. Herpes deflated the sexual revolution among heterosexuals, but are we willing to use the moral vaccine of chastity against AIDS?
It may now be hard to believe, but in 1980 no one had heard of AIDS. It was first recognized and defined in 1981. Yet today few countries are free from AIDS. World Health Organization officials warn that the officially reported cases probably number fewer than half the true total.
But there are other forms of drugs on the market, some requiring a needle to convey a drug directly into the bloodstream. Who would have thought, in 1980, that the long-known use of the needle to administer drugs would become a political issue because of AIDS?
The HIV virus that causes AIDS can be transmitted from one person to another through contaminated blood on needles. Should, therefore, drug addicts be provided clean needles to prevent the spread of AIDS?
And what about the parallel political issue unforeseen in 1980: Should government funds be used to distribute literature on "safe sex" or to distribute condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS among homosexuals and bisexuals and at-risk heterosexuals?
Questions such as these were never dreamed of in 1980. Yet today they have become major social and political and moral issues. Herpes deflated the sexual revolution among heterosexuals, but are we willing to use the moral vaccine of chastity against AIDS?
Union of Europe
Other objectives of the Act-economic and monetary union, social cohesion, major improvement of the environment-all will come after the end of 1992. It has been a slow pace through the '80s, but with each step, the pace increases.
How fast do matters move in Europe? In 1980 the Common Market was still the Nine. It is now the Twelve, with the door not only ajar to Austria but to Hungary. The Single European Act was drafted in November 1981, signed in February 1986, and will reach its first milestone at the end of 1992. That's when the first objective of the Single European Act will be completed: an internal European market without frontiers.
This was not the decade for political union of the European Community. Indeed it could not be. Agricultural and economic matters had to come first. But beginning January 1, 1993, political issues will begin to take center stage in discussions.
In early 1980 the European Parliament, only seven months old, was virtually an unknown entity. Ten years later it is beginning to be taken seriously. In the early years of the decade a European passport was debated. Such a passport is now a reality despite some opposition within the European Community, especially in Britain.
How fast do matters move in Europe? In 1980 the Common Market was still the Nine. It is now the Twelve, with the door not only ajar to Austria but to Hungary. The Single European Act was drafted in November 1981, signed in February 1986, and will reach its first milestone at the end of 1992. That's when the first objective of the Single European Act will be completed: an internal European market without frontiers.
This was not the decade for political union of the European Community. Indeed it could not be. Agricultural and economic matters had to come first. But beginning January 1, 1993, political issues will begin to take center stage in discussions.
In early 1980 the European Parliament, only seven months old, was virtually an unknown entity. Ten years later it is beginning to be taken seriously. In the early years of the decade a European passport was debated. Such a passport is now a reality despite some opposition within the European Community, especially in Britain.
Japan: Economic Superpower
In 1980 Japan's real stock market capitalization, as a percent of gross national product, ranked fourth, behind the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. By 1989 the United Kingdom had superseded the United States in capitalization and Japan leaped to a new first place height!
By the early '50s the Japanese were beginning their long climb back from the depths of economic collapse as a result of World War II. By 1980 their savings rate was 17.9 percent of disposable income compared with 7.1 percent for the usually considered savings-conscious Americans.
Japan did this without exporting military wares to other nations. In 1986 Japan produced approximately 10 percent of the world's gross national product-at the very time the United States had become the world's largest debtor nation.
In 1989, Japan with half the population of the United States, for the first time donated more funds to international aid ($ 11 billion) than did the United States ($8.9 billion), and much of that without strings attached.
For the first time (from 1988) a Japanese, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, heads a major international organization, the World Health Organization. Japan has become a world-class aircraft builder, having had access to U.S. technology. An island empire without natural resources, expect for its gifted people, Japan must protect sea lanes around Southeast Asia, which extend well more than a thousand miles.
The Japanese have finally become comfortable with their world economic superpower status, but it has taken most of the '80s to assert themselves. Were the Japanese to translate economic power into diplomatic power-no easy task for a nation inexperienced in international power-brokering-the nation would be an awesome force by century's end.
By the early '50s the Japanese were beginning their long climb back from the depths of economic collapse as a result of World War II. By 1980 their savings rate was 17.9 percent of disposable income compared with 7.1 percent for the usually considered savings-conscious Americans.
Japan did this without exporting military wares to other nations. In 1986 Japan produced approximately 10 percent of the world's gross national product-at the very time the United States had become the world's largest debtor nation.
In 1989, Japan with half the population of the United States, for the first time donated more funds to international aid ($ 11 billion) than did the United States ($8.9 billion), and much of that without strings attached.
For the first time (from 1988) a Japanese, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, heads a major international organization, the World Health Organization. Japan has become a world-class aircraft builder, having had access to U.S. technology. An island empire without natural resources, expect for its gifted people, Japan must protect sea lanes around Southeast Asia, which extend well more than a thousand miles.
The Japanese have finally become comfortable with their world economic superpower status, but it has taken most of the '80s to assert themselves. Were the Japanese to translate economic power into diplomatic power-no easy task for a nation inexperienced in international power-brokering-the nation would be an awesome force by century's end.
The 80s A Decade of Drastic Change
Suddenly in the '80s that world was shattered by men and women of power and vision. We are back again to an age of leaders with personality, daring and vision, leaders willing to sit down with one another and talk over major problems in a spirit of comparative open-mindedness.
No decade since the 1940s compares with these last 10 years. Do we realize how far we have come in 10 short years? How different 1989 has turned out to be compared with expectations as we entered the 1980s? Fifty years ago dictators and statesmen strode across the stage of human events. They were followed by statesmen often of kindlier face, and by relatively unknown bureaucrats and politicians. Events of the last half of the '40s shaped a world that for 40 years seemed to become set in concrete.
The men who shaped the mid-century are all gone. Those who took the helm after them are mostly gone from seats of power. Fresh thinking, new ideas and outlooks have overwhelmed the comparative stability that for so long characterized much of international relationships. Individually, we face a very different world in 1990 from that of 1980. A new world, alive with new hopes, but fraught with nagging doubts and new fears.
As we approach the end of a century, it is important we look back a decade to better view the new directions the world has taken. How else to better know the final decade of this century and this (in Western thinking) millennium?
No decade since the 1940s compares with these last 10 years. Do we realize how far we have come in 10 short years? How different 1989 has turned out to be compared with expectations as we entered the 1980s? Fifty years ago dictators and statesmen strode across the stage of human events. They were followed by statesmen often of kindlier face, and by relatively unknown bureaucrats and politicians. Events of the last half of the '40s shaped a world that for 40 years seemed to become set in concrete.
The men who shaped the mid-century are all gone. Those who took the helm after them are mostly gone from seats of power. Fresh thinking, new ideas and outlooks have overwhelmed the comparative stability that for so long characterized much of international relationships. Individually, we face a very different world in 1990 from that of 1980. A new world, alive with new hopes, but fraught with nagging doubts and new fears.
As we approach the end of a century, it is important we look back a decade to better view the new directions the world has taken. How else to better know the final decade of this century and this (in Western thinking) millennium?
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Best Way to Build Wealth
It's not wrong to have money if you are willing to give something in return - your time and labor, for example. It is wrong to want something for nothing, to take it from others. There is a world that describes a desire to get money - coveting. The Bible clearly tells us coveting is wrong. It is harmful, both to the person who covets and to the entire society.
Many think lotteries are harmless, that they don't hurt anybody. Lotteries have social acceptance. But that doesn't make lotteries helpful or good. They are based primarily on motivating greed and coveting, which are inherently wrong. Social acceptance doesn't make coveting OK - but such acceptance does say that there is something wrong with society's attitudes.
Your best chance for winning in life is not through the lottery. If you have a little extra money that you won't miss, put it to work in savings or investments. While lottery players on average are losing half their lottery money, you can be increasing yours. Inflation will eat away the value of some of it, but you'll still have more on average than if you had bought lottery tickets.
Another investment is learning how to develop a good attitude about work and money. Job training is such a wise investment. Any society, to have a future, needs people willing to make such investments. These methods aren't flashy. They won't create instant riches. But they are reliable. They will help you have more in the long run.
The Bible encourages honest work as a key to success: "He who gathers by labor will increase".(Prov. 13:11). "He who tills his land will have plenty of bread"(Prov. 28:19). "There is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his heritage" (Eccl. 3:22, New King James Version). Honest work produces a satisfaction that lucky winnings cannot.
And as Philips paraphrases the problem: "Now we hear that you have some among you living quite undisciplined lives,never doing a stroke of work, and busy only in other people's affairs. Our order to such men, indeed our appeal by the Lord Jesus Christ, is to settle down to work and eat the food they have earned themselves" (II Thess. 3:11-12).
God would like all to prosper (III John 2). He gives principles to help toward that, even if not toward being rich. They can help you build a solid base for both you and your family. They also carry extra psychological and spiritual benefits that money cannot buy, such as peace of mind. Success comes from wise choices, not wild chances.
Many think lotteries are harmless, that they don't hurt anybody. Lotteries have social acceptance. But that doesn't make lotteries helpful or good. They are based primarily on motivating greed and coveting, which are inherently wrong. Social acceptance doesn't make coveting OK - but such acceptance does say that there is something wrong with society's attitudes.
Your best chance for winning in life is not through the lottery. If you have a little extra money that you won't miss, put it to work in savings or investments. While lottery players on average are losing half their lottery money, you can be increasing yours. Inflation will eat away the value of some of it, but you'll still have more on average than if you had bought lottery tickets.
Another investment is learning how to develop a good attitude about work and money. Job training is such a wise investment. Any society, to have a future, needs people willing to make such investments. These methods aren't flashy. They won't create instant riches. But they are reliable. They will help you have more in the long run.
The Bible encourages honest work as a key to success: "He who gathers by labor will increase".(Prov. 13:11). "He who tills his land will have plenty of bread"(Prov. 28:19). "There is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his heritage" (Eccl. 3:22, New King James Version). Honest work produces a satisfaction that lucky winnings cannot.
And as Philips paraphrases the problem: "Now we hear that you have some among you living quite undisciplined lives,never doing a stroke of work, and busy only in other people's affairs. Our order to such men, indeed our appeal by the Lord Jesus Christ, is to settle down to work and eat the food they have earned themselves" (II Thess. 3:11-12).
God would like all to prosper (III John 2). He gives principles to help toward that, even if not toward being rich. They can help you build a solid base for both you and your family. They also carry extra psychological and spiritual benefits that money cannot buy, such as peace of mind. Success comes from wise choices, not wild chances.
The Luck Ethic and Quick Rich?
The Luck Ethic
Lottery advertising encourages people to dream, to hope for success through luck, to take risks. Law-enforcement, drug-education and safety officials try to convince people to avoid such potentially harmful risks as the lottery habit. Educators teach people to make rational choices; lottery ads encourage spending on fantasy and illusion, on wishes for wealth without work. Lotteries imply that the path to success is luck. So Business Week ask a good question: "Is gambling....fostering a cultural bias away from skill and hard work toward luck and fate as the best road to success?"
Similar questions are raised by Charles Clotfelter and Philip Cook, Duke University economists, who write that "lotteries may have the ironic effect of reducing government revenues over the long run....if the lottery promotion erodes the propensities to work, save, and self-invest in education and training." There are good risks, such as farming and business ventures. In these, success depends more on work, skill and wisdom than on chance. Unlike lotteries, they are potentially productive, offering goods and services. Business investments benefit the government - and hence education - through providing jobs and taxes.
Society benefits if the state encourages wise choices, not foolish chances. Governments benefit more in the long run by encouraging the principles of honest labor, learning skills, saving for the future and productive ventures. They would pay less for welfare and crime prevention if they put a greater emphasis on useful work.
"Social systems...need to motivate and sustain individual effort through rewards and sanctions. But winnings from gambling, rewards for 'luck,' will not encourage people to learn skills or to be productive". Lotteries, by promoting luck, are cheating all of us, depriving society of the benefits of useful work.
Quick Riches?
Why do people play the lotteries? Most say they play for fun. But it wouldn't be fun if they didn't also hope to strike it rich. The Bible tells us the motive behind lotteries. For example, Proverbs 28:22: greed is a wrong desire and has bad results. Again, "He who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished" by life's adverse circumstances.
The other problem is that quickly won wealth is often quickly wasted. The person, not having worked for the money, doesn't always value it enough. Dishonest salesmen are anxious for a share. The owner of the wealth may begin to doubt the subsequent motives of friends and family. And wealth can create a new set of management problems-problems with which the person has little experience.
Winnings don't automatically improve personalities or give financial wisdom or character. They Quickly won - or otherwise attained - wealth doesn't bring a fantasy world.
Link
Lottery advertising encourages people to dream, to hope for success through luck, to take risks. Law-enforcement, drug-education and safety officials try to convince people to avoid such potentially harmful risks as the lottery habit. Educators teach people to make rational choices; lottery ads encourage spending on fantasy and illusion, on wishes for wealth without work. Lotteries imply that the path to success is luck. So Business Week ask a good question: "Is gambling....fostering a cultural bias away from skill and hard work toward luck and fate as the best road to success?"
Similar questions are raised by Charles Clotfelter and Philip Cook, Duke University economists, who write that "lotteries may have the ironic effect of reducing government revenues over the long run....if the lottery promotion erodes the propensities to work, save, and self-invest in education and training." There are good risks, such as farming and business ventures. In these, success depends more on work, skill and wisdom than on chance. Unlike lotteries, they are potentially productive, offering goods and services. Business investments benefit the government - and hence education - through providing jobs and taxes.
Society benefits if the state encourages wise choices, not foolish chances. Governments benefit more in the long run by encouraging the principles of honest labor, learning skills, saving for the future and productive ventures. They would pay less for welfare and crime prevention if they put a greater emphasis on useful work.
"Social systems...need to motivate and sustain individual effort through rewards and sanctions. But winnings from gambling, rewards for 'luck,' will not encourage people to learn skills or to be productive". Lotteries, by promoting luck, are cheating all of us, depriving society of the benefits of useful work.
Quick Riches?
Why do people play the lotteries? Most say they play for fun. But it wouldn't be fun if they didn't also hope to strike it rich. The Bible tells us the motive behind lotteries. For example, Proverbs 28:22: greed is a wrong desire and has bad results. Again, "He who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished" by life's adverse circumstances.
The other problem is that quickly won wealth is often quickly wasted. The person, not having worked for the money, doesn't always value it enough. Dishonest salesmen are anxious for a share. The owner of the wealth may begin to doubt the subsequent motives of friends and family. And wealth can create a new set of management problems-problems with which the person has little experience.
Winnings don't automatically improve personalities or give financial wisdom or character. They Quickly won - or otherwise attained - wealth doesn't bring a fantasy world.
Link
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Advertising a Fantasy and The Poor Bet
Advertising a Fantasy
State lotteries, to be successful, must advertise heavily to encourage participation. The British policy, in contrast, is to allow gambling, but not permit it to be "stimulated." Lottery advertising promotes a fantasy of wealth, luxury and an instantly problem-free life. The millions of dollars lost, and the tiny odds of winning, are rarely mentioned.
New games are continually being developed to keep people interested. Media give the lotteries free advertising by announcing the prizes offered, the winning numbers and the multimillion-dollar winners. Is the lottery habit-forming? Lottery administrators hope it is; they want the repeat business. Many people buy tickets each time they go to a store or news-stand.
"The games most closely associated with habitual gambling are State lotteries and....numbers. Habitual players of these games may not even define themselves as 'gamblers,' so completely integrated into everyday work and living are these activities". Most people risk and lose small amounts. But a sizable minority lose more than they can afford. Some become compulsive gamblers.
The ads "never show the person who loses his home to gambling, people who have attempted suicide. The common notion is that gambling isn't dangerous to your health or well-being. But it can be" (Richard Richardson, executive director of the Maryland State Council on Compulsive Gambling). Heavy promotion and advertising "is developing a new generation of gamblers," he said. Some people hoped that lotteries would reduce illegal gambling. But they haven't. Once people start playing the lottery, they often begin other forms of gambling, including illegal gambling. State sponsored games have reduced the stigma against gambling.
The Poor Bet
One of the most troubling aspects of the lotteries is they encourage poor people to become even poorer. Lottery tickets are cheap, require no skill to play and are easily available, making them attractive, especially to the poor. Though the poor may spend about the same amount of money as the rich, it's a much higher percentage of their income. A California study found that the poor spend 2.1 percent of their income on lotteries, while the rich spend only 0.3 percent.
"College-educated people spend considerably less on lottery tickets on average than do those whose education is limited to high school or less". The lottery acts like a tax (voluntary but heavily promoted) that takes a bigger percent from the poor than from others. A grocery store in California observed food sales dropped by the amount that lottery sales increased. The store stopped selling tickets, saying, "We feel that it is wrong to offer our customers the opportunity to gamble with their food dollars."
State lotteries, to be successful, must advertise heavily to encourage participation. The British policy, in contrast, is to allow gambling, but not permit it to be "stimulated." Lottery advertising promotes a fantasy of wealth, luxury and an instantly problem-free life. The millions of dollars lost, and the tiny odds of winning, are rarely mentioned.
New games are continually being developed to keep people interested. Media give the lotteries free advertising by announcing the prizes offered, the winning numbers and the multimillion-dollar winners. Is the lottery habit-forming? Lottery administrators hope it is; they want the repeat business. Many people buy tickets each time they go to a store or news-stand.
"The games most closely associated with habitual gambling are State lotteries and....numbers. Habitual players of these games may not even define themselves as 'gamblers,' so completely integrated into everyday work and living are these activities". Most people risk and lose small amounts. But a sizable minority lose more than they can afford. Some become compulsive gamblers.
The ads "never show the person who loses his home to gambling, people who have attempted suicide. The common notion is that gambling isn't dangerous to your health or well-being. But it can be" (Richard Richardson, executive director of the Maryland State Council on Compulsive Gambling). Heavy promotion and advertising "is developing a new generation of gamblers," he said. Some people hoped that lotteries would reduce illegal gambling. But they haven't. Once people start playing the lottery, they often begin other forms of gambling, including illegal gambling. State sponsored games have reduced the stigma against gambling.
The Poor Bet
One of the most troubling aspects of the lotteries is they encourage poor people to become even poorer. Lottery tickets are cheap, require no skill to play and are easily available, making them attractive, especially to the poor. Though the poor may spend about the same amount of money as the rich, it's a much higher percentage of their income. A California study found that the poor spend 2.1 percent of their income on lotteries, while the rich spend only 0.3 percent.
"College-educated people spend considerably less on lottery tickets on average than do those whose education is limited to high school or less". The lottery acts like a tax (voluntary but heavily promoted) that takes a bigger percent from the poor than from others. A grocery store in California observed food sales dropped by the amount that lottery sales increased. The store stopped selling tickets, saying, "We feel that it is wrong to offer our customers the opportunity to gamble with their food dollars."
Lotteries : Are You Being Cheated ?
Lotteries have thrived worldwide for centuries. The kings of England allowed the American colonies to use lotteries to raise money in the 1600s.In the 1700s, lotteries helped finance the American Revolution. State-run lotteries continued well into the 1800s. Then, party because of fraud and corruption, they ended, not to be resumed until the 1960s.
Are lotteries harmless? Let's take a look at U.S. lotteries as indicative of what lotteries do to society. In 1963, the state of New Hampshire approved a lottery to raise money for education. New York state approved a lottery in 1966. The New Hampshire lottery had only two drawings a year; New York's only 12. But there was a very low chance of winning, and little excitement in playing. The lotteries didn't make as much profit as the states had hoped for.
Rapid Growth
Then in the 1970s some states introduced more appealing elements. New Jersey in 1970 authorized cheaper tickets and weekly drawings. Public participation increased more than 500 percent. The New Jersey lottery continued to modify its games to increase participation. The first million-dollar prize was in 1971. Daily drawings began in Massachusetts in 1974. The instant prizes encouraged winners to buy more tickets. From 1975 players could pick their own numbers. These changes gave the lotteries major publicity. Interest rose. In the '80s, multimillion-dollar awards "have stimulated unprecedented ticket sales and made State lotteries tremendously appealing to persons willing to gamble against astronomical odds in the hope of winning a fortune".
In 1988, a total of 29 states' lotteries took in more than $ 15 billion. Fifteen percent of this was used in administration and advertising; 37 percent was given to the government. Less than half was given back as prize money. Lotteries have become a source of government money, creating a possible conflict of interest: Should the government help the people, or encourage them to lose a portion of their money?
Some have claimed that lotteries profit from people who would gamble anyway. This may have been true of the low-key, low-frequency, low-interest lotteries of the 1960s, but not of the heavily advertised lotteries today. Profits are often earmarked for a worthy cause, such as education. But not everyone agrees. Bill Honig, California's superintendent of public schools, says the schools would be better off without the lottery. Though lottery profits are only a small percentage of the school budgets, the schools are becoming more dependent on this unstable source of money.
Related post :
Are lotteries harmless? Let's take a look at U.S. lotteries as indicative of what lotteries do to society. In 1963, the state of New Hampshire approved a lottery to raise money for education. New York state approved a lottery in 1966. The New Hampshire lottery had only two drawings a year; New York's only 12. But there was a very low chance of winning, and little excitement in playing. The lotteries didn't make as much profit as the states had hoped for.
Rapid Growth
Then in the 1970s some states introduced more appealing elements. New Jersey in 1970 authorized cheaper tickets and weekly drawings. Public participation increased more than 500 percent. The New Jersey lottery continued to modify its games to increase participation. The first million-dollar prize was in 1971. Daily drawings began in Massachusetts in 1974. The instant prizes encouraged winners to buy more tickets. From 1975 players could pick their own numbers. These changes gave the lotteries major publicity. Interest rose. In the '80s, multimillion-dollar awards "have stimulated unprecedented ticket sales and made State lotteries tremendously appealing to persons willing to gamble against astronomical odds in the hope of winning a fortune".
In 1988, a total of 29 states' lotteries took in more than $ 15 billion. Fifteen percent of this was used in administration and advertising; 37 percent was given to the government. Less than half was given back as prize money. Lotteries have become a source of government money, creating a possible conflict of interest: Should the government help the people, or encourage them to lose a portion of their money?
Some have claimed that lotteries profit from people who would gamble anyway. This may have been true of the low-key, low-frequency, low-interest lotteries of the 1960s, but not of the heavily advertised lotteries today. Profits are often earmarked for a worthy cause, such as education. But not everyone agrees. Bill Honig, California's superintendent of public schools, says the schools would be better off without the lottery. Though lottery profits are only a small percentage of the school budgets, the schools are becoming more dependent on this unstable source of money.
Related post :
Monday, April 13, 2009
Beautiful Photos of Models Cewek Seksi Asia in Sexy Long Hair and Sheer Dress Girls
A Negative Impact Airline Mergers on Passengers
Despite its general pro-merger stance, the report recognizes that mergers can have a negative impact on passengers, particularly during the transition period when the merged airlines are trying to blend their operations. 'This is the sensitive time,' says Geoffrey Lipman. 'It's when more bags tend to get lost or mislaid, services are disrupted and there's a general sense of confusion.' Some airlines never get over the transition period. The free-wheeling, nonunion style of People Express never quite jelled with the highly structured and unionized framework of Frontier. And the Texas Air acquisition of Eastern has tied to endless problems with unions, particularly the machinist's union, which has tied down the carrier in a series of legal actions.
There can be other merger-related problems for passengers. When a merged airline dominates a hub, it can be difficult for new entrants to break into the market; this, in turn, can cause prices to rise on certain routes. The hub-and-spoke system itself can aggravate problems of airport congestion, as flights gravitate toward already crowded terminals. However, the report concludes that 'Security is definitely not a merger issue and safety only to a very limited extent.'
In its findings, the report avoids blanket judgments. 'We concluded that it's difficult to make the generalization that mergers are always good or bad for passengers,' says Jan Ernst de Groot, a researcher at the International Institute of Air and Space Law. 'It all depends on the circumstances of the case.'
To protect the passenger's interest, however, the report makes an innovative suggestion: when applying for approval of a merger or a take-over, it urges the airlines involved to file a 'passenger impact statement', containing the changes they anticipate on ten passenger-related features; including safety, security, infrastructure issues, competition, pricing and product choice. Many of these issues are directly related to the anti-competitive threat posed by mergers. If, by acquiring another airline, the merged carrier achieves a monopoly or dominant position at certain hubs, the report urges strong government action to assure that new entrants can enter the market. This can include requiring the merged carriers to give up airport slots, interline facilities and fifth-freedom rights.
Among its final recommendations the report urges airlines to take special measures to ensure that passengers are protected during the transition period of any merger. And, recognizing that not all negative impacts can be foreseen, it suggests an open-ended government role: if the impact statement is not sufficient, the appropriate authorities 'should attach conditions to the merger or take certain measures to protect passenger interests'. These could presumably include government action, for example, to disapprove fare changes which they consider excessively high or predatory.
The IFAPA study represents a serious effort to strike a balance. 'We know more mergers will take place, particularly in Europe,' says Lipman. 'We can't be ostrich-like and ignore that development.' But IFAPA's executive director quickly adds, 'When mergers do occur, we want to be sure that passengers are consulted in the process and that there are built-in safeguards to protect them.'
There can be other merger-related problems for passengers. When a merged airline dominates a hub, it can be difficult for new entrants to break into the market; this, in turn, can cause prices to rise on certain routes. The hub-and-spoke system itself can aggravate problems of airport congestion, as flights gravitate toward already crowded terminals. However, the report concludes that 'Security is definitely not a merger issue and safety only to a very limited extent.'
In its findings, the report avoids blanket judgments. 'We concluded that it's difficult to make the generalization that mergers are always good or bad for passengers,' says Jan Ernst de Groot, a researcher at the International Institute of Air and Space Law. 'It all depends on the circumstances of the case.'
To protect the passenger's interest, however, the report makes an innovative suggestion: when applying for approval of a merger or a take-over, it urges the airlines involved to file a 'passenger impact statement', containing the changes they anticipate on ten passenger-related features; including safety, security, infrastructure issues, competition, pricing and product choice. Many of these issues are directly related to the anti-competitive threat posed by mergers. If, by acquiring another airline, the merged carrier achieves a monopoly or dominant position at certain hubs, the report urges strong government action to assure that new entrants can enter the market. This can include requiring the merged carriers to give up airport slots, interline facilities and fifth-freedom rights.
Among its final recommendations the report urges airlines to take special measures to ensure that passengers are protected during the transition period of any merger. And, recognizing that not all negative impacts can be foreseen, it suggests an open-ended government role: if the impact statement is not sufficient, the appropriate authorities 'should attach conditions to the merger or take certain measures to protect passenger interests'. These could presumably include government action, for example, to disapprove fare changes which they consider excessively high or predatory.
The IFAPA study represents a serious effort to strike a balance. 'We know more mergers will take place, particularly in Europe,' says Lipman. 'We can't be ostrich-like and ignore that development.' But IFAPA's executive director quickly adds, 'When mergers do occur, we want to be sure that passengers are consulted in the process and that there are built-in safeguards to protect them.'
Privatization of Airlines
Yet the idea of EC airline ownership is gaining currency in Europe. Privatization is weakening government as France, Belgium, West Germany, and perhaps even Spain. Frederick Sorensen, director of Air Transport at the European Commission, has already submitted a draft plan to allow the Commission to conduct international negotiations for all European carriers. Furthermore, he claims to have the support of West Germany and France.
However, the report does not stop there. Recognizing that a country could cancel an airline's traffic rights if it passes into foreign hands, the report recommends placing a nondiscriminatory clause in national laws, assuring that EC member states would not reduce an airline's traffic rights simply because it is taken over by another Community state. The point is well taken: when the SAS bid for ACal looked promising, British Airways threatened to ask the UK Secretary of State to cancel traffic rights granted BCal by the British Government, if the sale to SAS succeeded. If the report's recommendations are adopted, such threats would no longer have force.
Perhaps the most important recommendation to ease the merger process is the report's call authority to be given the European Commission to clear mergers in advance. Up to now, the Commission could only act under Article 86 of the Treaty of Rome, the EC's constitution. While Article 86 can be a potent weapon to outlaw 'abuse of dominant position', it can only be invoked after a merger has already taken place. The report recommends that the Commission be empowered to enter the process at an early stage, before the harmful effects of a merger can be felt.
There is a precedent for these recommendations: before the European Commission approved the merger of British Airways and BCal, it required that BA drop services between Gatwick Airport and four major European cities. It also required that the airline not use more that 25 percent of the slots at Gatwick, removing the possibility that BA would dominate both Heathrow and Gatwick simply by virtue of its picking off another airline.
However, the report does not stop there. Recognizing that a country could cancel an airline's traffic rights if it passes into foreign hands, the report recommends placing a nondiscriminatory clause in national laws, assuring that EC member states would not reduce an airline's traffic rights simply because it is taken over by another Community state. The point is well taken: when the SAS bid for ACal looked promising, British Airways threatened to ask the UK Secretary of State to cancel traffic rights granted BCal by the British Government, if the sale to SAS succeeded. If the report's recommendations are adopted, such threats would no longer have force.
Perhaps the most important recommendation to ease the merger process is the report's call authority to be given the European Commission to clear mergers in advance. Up to now, the Commission could only act under Article 86 of the Treaty of Rome, the EC's constitution. While Article 86 can be a potent weapon to outlaw 'abuse of dominant position', it can only be invoked after a merger has already taken place. The report recommends that the Commission be empowered to enter the process at an early stage, before the harmful effects of a merger can be felt.
There is a precedent for these recommendations: before the European Commission approved the merger of British Airways and BCal, it required that BA drop services between Gatwick Airport and four major European cities. It also required that the airline not use more that 25 percent of the slots at Gatwick, removing the possibility that BA would dominate both Heathrow and Gatwick simply by virtue of its picking off another airline.
Liberalization on The Horizon :The Effect of Airline Mergers on Passengers
Although the advantages of mergers for airlines have been thoroughly analyzed, one fundamental question has been neglected : What is the impact of airline mergers on passengers? Do the admitted virtues of economies of scale and scope translate into better passenger service? Or, does service deteriorate and, more seriously, are passengers put at risk through safety problems inherent in the merger process itself?
Last September, Neelie Smit Kroes, the Dutch Minister of Transport, set out to find answers to those questions, particularly as they applied to Europe. To conduct the study, the Minister turned to IFAPA, as an organization representing passenger interests, and IFAPA, in turn, called upon McGill University in Canada and the International Institute of Air and Space Law in Leiden, the Netherlands, to provide back up research. The report, published in June, contained some intriguing findings.
Overall, the report gives high marks to mergers : 'Mergers can have a positive effect on passengers if certain safeguards are applied,' it maintains. Geoffrey Lipman, IFAPA's executive director, explains: 'We saw some good points flowing from mergers : improved connections, better choice of flights, more attractive frequent flyer programs.' And he sees a political imperative as well: 'You cannot argue, as IFAPA has, that airlines should adapt to a more competitive environment and at the same time deny them the tools to do the job.' In Europe, that means allowing airlines to get together so they can better compete internationally, particularly against the American mega-carriers, which can use their huge domestic feed and sophisticated CRS systems to channel heavy traffic flow onto North Atlantic routes and perhaps onto intra-European routes as well.
Having taken a positive view of mergers, the report set out to advise Europe on how to make them work. To do that, it suggests attacking one of the fundamental conundrums in European air transport: national ownership of airlines. Specifically, it calls for EC rather than individual country ownership of European carriers.
That could prove a tough nut to crack. Europeans have been fiercely nationalistic about their airlines, which have been seen as symbols of national virility and prestige. Even the UK government, supposedly the most market-oriented in Europe, threw up repeated obstacles to the SAS takeover of British Caledonian, largely on grounds that the Scandinavian carrier wasn't British enough.
Last September, Neelie Smit Kroes, the Dutch Minister of Transport, set out to find answers to those questions, particularly as they applied to Europe. To conduct the study, the Minister turned to IFAPA, as an organization representing passenger interests, and IFAPA, in turn, called upon McGill University in Canada and the International Institute of Air and Space Law in Leiden, the Netherlands, to provide back up research. The report, published in June, contained some intriguing findings.
Overall, the report gives high marks to mergers : 'Mergers can have a positive effect on passengers if certain safeguards are applied,' it maintains. Geoffrey Lipman, IFAPA's executive director, explains: 'We saw some good points flowing from mergers : improved connections, better choice of flights, more attractive frequent flyer programs.' And he sees a political imperative as well: 'You cannot argue, as IFAPA has, that airlines should adapt to a more competitive environment and at the same time deny them the tools to do the job.' In Europe, that means allowing airlines to get together so they can better compete internationally, particularly against the American mega-carriers, which can use their huge domestic feed and sophisticated CRS systems to channel heavy traffic flow onto North Atlantic routes and perhaps onto intra-European routes as well.
Having taken a positive view of mergers, the report set out to advise Europe on how to make them work. To do that, it suggests attacking one of the fundamental conundrums in European air transport: national ownership of airlines. Specifically, it calls for EC rather than individual country ownership of European carriers.
That could prove a tough nut to crack. Europeans have been fiercely nationalistic about their airlines, which have been seen as symbols of national virility and prestige. Even the UK government, supposedly the most market-oriented in Europe, threw up repeated obstacles to the SAS takeover of British Caledonian, largely on grounds that the Scandinavian carrier wasn't British enough.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Airline Mergers, Marriages of Inconvenience?
America's experience of airline unions has not been entirely from the passengers' viewpoint.
It all started when People Express, an aggressive, low-fare American airline, bought out a faltering Frontier Airlines to bolster, its presence in the western US. People, in turn, was taken over by Texas Air. Northwest Airlines picked off Republic; Texas Air, already the owner of Continental and New York Air, moved in on Eastern; Piedmont linked up with USAir and Pacific Southwest Airlines; TWA bought out Ozark and Delta acquired Western. When the dust had settled - and within the space of four years - the American airline industry had been completely transformed by the merger wave.
In December 1987, the wave spilled over into Europe. British Airways, already Europe's largest carrier, won a bidding war with SAS and acquired Britain's main second force airline, British Caledonian. (SAS had previously been in unsuccessful merger talks with Sabena). Then Alitalia's Chairman Umberto Nordio let drop that he was also talking to several European airlines about possible linkups. To some observers, it seemed that Europe was about to go the same route as the US.
There are plenty of good reasons why airlines are forming partnerships these days. Foremost among these are the competitive forces unleashed by deregulation in the US and the liberalization of Europe's air transport market. In a competitive environment, the keys to success are critical mass and hub strength. If an airline can control a hub, with dozens of feeder flights flowing into a central location, it can fill its larger aircraft with enough passengers to increase yields on flights to other hub cities. This creates economies of scale and scope and helps the airline flight off raids by other carriers seeking footholds at the same hub, particulary since the acquisition of slots - takeoff and landing rights - can be one of the byproducts of a merger. When Northwest took over Republic, for example, it took control of the Minneapolis hub it had been sharing with Republic and also acquired Republic's strong hubs in Memphis and Detroit.
There are other compelling reasons for airline linkages: acquisition of the aircraft fleets of the merged carrier - usually at a discount and, in some instances, the takeover of a computer reservation system (CRS), a vital marketing tool and money spinner now used by more than 90 percent of US travel agents to book their flights. When Texas Air's Franj Lorenzo acquired Eastern, he made the half-humorous remark that he was really after Eastern's CRS, but unfortunately had to buy the airline as well.
It all started when People Express, an aggressive, low-fare American airline, bought out a faltering Frontier Airlines to bolster, its presence in the western US. People, in turn, was taken over by Texas Air. Northwest Airlines picked off Republic; Texas Air, already the owner of Continental and New York Air, moved in on Eastern; Piedmont linked up with USAir and Pacific Southwest Airlines; TWA bought out Ozark and Delta acquired Western. When the dust had settled - and within the space of four years - the American airline industry had been completely transformed by the merger wave.
In December 1987, the wave spilled over into Europe. British Airways, already Europe's largest carrier, won a bidding war with SAS and acquired Britain's main second force airline, British Caledonian. (SAS had previously been in unsuccessful merger talks with Sabena). Then Alitalia's Chairman Umberto Nordio let drop that he was also talking to several European airlines about possible linkups. To some observers, it seemed that Europe was about to go the same route as the US.
There are plenty of good reasons why airlines are forming partnerships these days. Foremost among these are the competitive forces unleashed by deregulation in the US and the liberalization of Europe's air transport market. In a competitive environment, the keys to success are critical mass and hub strength. If an airline can control a hub, with dozens of feeder flights flowing into a central location, it can fill its larger aircraft with enough passengers to increase yields on flights to other hub cities. This creates economies of scale and scope and helps the airline flight off raids by other carriers seeking footholds at the same hub, particulary since the acquisition of slots - takeoff and landing rights - can be one of the byproducts of a merger. When Northwest took over Republic, for example, it took control of the Minneapolis hub it had been sharing with Republic and also acquired Republic's strong hubs in Memphis and Detroit.
There are other compelling reasons for airline linkages: acquisition of the aircraft fleets of the merged carrier - usually at a discount and, in some instances, the takeover of a computer reservation system (CRS), a vital marketing tool and money spinner now used by more than 90 percent of US travel agents to book their flights. When Texas Air's Franj Lorenzo acquired Eastern, he made the half-humorous remark that he was really after Eastern's CRS, but unfortunately had to buy the airline as well.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Airlane and Aviation Aircraft Through an Antiquated System
According to Howe, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) statistics indicate that delays at Boston, for example, are due to air traffic delays. In other words, if the ATC system was improved, the existing concrete around the country could handle more aircraft, and there would be no need to penalize general aviation. 'Any attempt by Boston or any other airport authority in a similar situation is clearly more of a limit on access to airspace than pavement or the facilities of that airport. We believe this is not only inappropriate, it is against the law,' says Howe.
Reform of the FAA seems to find favor with both user and provider: everybody wants reform but nobody has yet decided as tn what - and how much it will cost. Since the early 1970s, the government has been collecting a sales tax on airline tickets and air cargo waybills to finance the air transport system. Unfortunately, the money has been going into the general budget and disappearing. Couple this with the inevitable bureaucracy of a government department and it is not hard to see that FAA reform has been slow in coming.
Speaking recently before the House of Representative on behalf of the airline and aviation coalition, former FAA administrator Najeeb Halaby said: 'The FAA debate has been underway for three years but with more talk than action. We can no longer afford to say that the FAA reform is a nice idea that warrants study.' Instead, says Halaby, the US has to alter its approach to the FAA if it wants to continue to lead the world in aviation and safety.
In his testimony before the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation, Halaby said the most important issue was FAA funding and called for special budgetary treatment including permanent or multi year authorizations and appropriations for the Agency as well as a fixed term for the FAA Administrator.
But this is a presidential election year and despite the fact that Reagen has still some time to go, his administration is looking more and more like a group of individuals who are making arrangements for their future employment. A possible exception which might prove reassuring to the aviation community is Secretary of Transportation James Burnley.
Yet neither the user nor provider of air transport services can afford to wait much longer. But as deregulation tries to shovel more commercial and general aviation aircraft through an antiquated system, it is inevitable that airports will squeeze out the 'little guy' as American Airlines' President Robert Crandall describes the private flyer. 'We should have room for both,' adds Crandall who is a strong advocate for FAA change.
Reform of the FAA seems to find favor with both user and provider: everybody wants reform but nobody has yet decided as tn what - and how much it will cost. Since the early 1970s, the government has been collecting a sales tax on airline tickets and air cargo waybills to finance the air transport system. Unfortunately, the money has been going into the general budget and disappearing. Couple this with the inevitable bureaucracy of a government department and it is not hard to see that FAA reform has been slow in coming.
Speaking recently before the House of Representative on behalf of the airline and aviation coalition, former FAA administrator Najeeb Halaby said: 'The FAA debate has been underway for three years but with more talk than action. We can no longer afford to say that the FAA reform is a nice idea that warrants study.' Instead, says Halaby, the US has to alter its approach to the FAA if it wants to continue to lead the world in aviation and safety.
In his testimony before the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation, Halaby said the most important issue was FAA funding and called for special budgetary treatment including permanent or multi year authorizations and appropriations for the Agency as well as a fixed term for the FAA Administrator.
But this is a presidential election year and despite the fact that Reagen has still some time to go, his administration is looking more and more like a group of individuals who are making arrangements for their future employment. A possible exception which might prove reassuring to the aviation community is Secretary of Transportation James Burnley.
Yet neither the user nor provider of air transport services can afford to wait much longer. But as deregulation tries to shovel more commercial and general aviation aircraft through an antiquated system, it is inevitable that airports will squeeze out the 'little guy' as American Airlines' President Robert Crandall describes the private flyer. 'We should have room for both,' adds Crandall who is a strong advocate for FAA change.
Commercial Aircraft Transport System
It's not surprising, therefore, to see a trend away from private flying - despite the fact that there are 16,582 active airports in the US. 'There's growing demand from commercial operators and until the government does something to fix the system it is inevitable that private flyers will be squeezed,' adds Friedman.
According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), general aviation outnumbered commercial aircraft 220,000 to 4,900 in 1986. However the production of such types has dropped a dramatic 90.3 percent from a 1976 high of 15,451 units to 1,495 in 1986.
Friedman admits that there will always be a demand for luxury executive jets, whether new or converted from commercial aircraft. But the argument used by manufacturers that the CEO of a major corporation is too valuable to be left to the vagaries of the commercial transport system is fast diminishing. Buying new is expensive for corporate America and, with changes in the US tax laws, no longer so attractive. Gone are the days when companies could write off the expense of both acquiring and operating their private aircraft. Aircraft Owner and Pilots Association (AOPA) data suggests the average price of a new jet is excess of $6 million while a turboprop is nearly $2 million.
Even Richard Nadeau, president of aircraft interior designers Frunzi Nadeau, admits the business is not what it used to be: 'The one drawback to having a private jet is that take off and landing permission is given after commercial airlines have been cleared.'
Boston's Logan Airport is so capacity constrained that it is now considering the idea of peak-hour pricing: between 0800 and 1800, prices would reflect demand. National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA)'s Jonathan Howe feels general aviation will suffer most: 'While we recognize that there may be some validity to a form of pricing for this scare commodity, we do feel it should have some resemblance to the cost of providing it.'
Howe says his organization isn't opposed to paying its 'fair share' for a 'notion whose time has come'. What he does object to is his claim that general aviation will subsidize commercial operators. According to an NBAA study, the proposed Boston charges will increase user fees to general aviation by 380 percent and to commuter aircraft 550 percent. Air carriers, on the other hand, will see charges rising by a mere 70 percent.
'The notion of pricing out general aviation seems to be the objective at many locations, not least of which is Boston. It is an objective, ironically,that has been adopted by the Federal Trade Commission...which seems to say: "Let's go ahead in the name of the free market and price people out of (it)",' says Howe. In a bid to strenghten their position, the NBAA has joined a broad based coalition of airline and aviation related organizations to lobby Congress to fix the country's air transport infrastructure - and in particular to reorganize the Federal Aviation Administration.
According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), general aviation outnumbered commercial aircraft 220,000 to 4,900 in 1986. However the production of such types has dropped a dramatic 90.3 percent from a 1976 high of 15,451 units to 1,495 in 1986.
Friedman admits that there will always be a demand for luxury executive jets, whether new or converted from commercial aircraft. But the argument used by manufacturers that the CEO of a major corporation is too valuable to be left to the vagaries of the commercial transport system is fast diminishing. Buying new is expensive for corporate America and, with changes in the US tax laws, no longer so attractive. Gone are the days when companies could write off the expense of both acquiring and operating their private aircraft. Aircraft Owner and Pilots Association (AOPA) data suggests the average price of a new jet is excess of $6 million while a turboprop is nearly $2 million.
Even Richard Nadeau, president of aircraft interior designers Frunzi Nadeau, admits the business is not what it used to be: 'The one drawback to having a private jet is that take off and landing permission is given after commercial airlines have been cleared.'
Boston's Logan Airport is so capacity constrained that it is now considering the idea of peak-hour pricing: between 0800 and 1800, prices would reflect demand. National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA)'s Jonathan Howe feels general aviation will suffer most: 'While we recognize that there may be some validity to a form of pricing for this scare commodity, we do feel it should have some resemblance to the cost of providing it.'
Howe says his organization isn't opposed to paying its 'fair share' for a 'notion whose time has come'. What he does object to is his claim that general aviation will subsidize commercial operators. According to an NBAA study, the proposed Boston charges will increase user fees to general aviation by 380 percent and to commuter aircraft 550 percent. Air carriers, on the other hand, will see charges rising by a mere 70 percent.
'The notion of pricing out general aviation seems to be the objective at many locations, not least of which is Boston. It is an objective, ironically,that has been adopted by the Federal Trade Commission...which seems to say: "Let's go ahead in the name of the free market and price people out of (it)",' says Howe. In a bid to strenghten their position, the NBAA has joined a broad based coalition of airline and aviation related organizations to lobby Congress to fix the country's air transport infrastructure - and in particular to reorganize the Federal Aviation Administration.
List of contents 'BUSINESS'
- Business Aircraft in the US
- Commercial Aircraft Transport System
- Airlane and Aviation Aircraft Through an Antiquated System
- Airline Mergers, Marriages of Inconvenience?
- Liberalization on The Horizon :The Effect of Airline Mergers on Passengers
- Privatization of Airlines
- A Negative Impact Airline Mergers on Passengers
- Lotteries : Are You Being Cheated ?
- Advertising a Fantasy and The Poor Bet
- The Luck Ethic and Quick Rich?
- Best Way to Build Wealth
Business Aircraft in the US
Threatened by taxation and congested airports, sales of business planes in the United States have taken a nose dive.
Tired of overcrowded airports, inconvenient flight schedules, airborne 'snacks' and a pilot who apologizes for air traffic delays? If so, Canadair, Marcel-Dassault, Learjet, Beech and British Aerospace (to name just a few), would like to hear from you. They all sell business aircraft, whether jet or prop, and sales could do with a boost.
'Business flying in the US traditionally has come in three flavors,'says airline economist Michael Friedman of consultants SH&E: "There's the owner-operator who's either in sales or consulting and needs the flexibility, there's the fat cat flying of senior corporate executives and finally there's what I call the plant-shuttle operation of a medium or large company which has regular flights between various locations."
But at least for the 'fat cats' times are changing. According to SH&E, the corporate fleets of USA Inc., have shrunk 20 percent since 1980, coincident with the rise in scheduled airline flying. Last year, 450 million passengers traversed the country, and according to James Burnley, US Secretary of Transportation, the number is expected to nearly double by the next year.
The strain on the current domestic infrastructure is already having an impact on private flying. Boston's Logan Airport, one of the busiest in the country, is planning to increase landing fees for smaller aircraft, much to the annoyance of the commuter airline and the corporate jet operator.
'If you picked up a Sunday newspaper and read a headline that said "Massachusetts says no more money for Boston roads, prohibitive tolls will eliminate most private autos and taxis", that would sound pretty implausable,' says Jonathan Howe, president of the US National (NBAA). 'Yet that is exactly the type of situation that we are presently facing with some of the proposals to limit access to the nation's busiest airports.'
Quite simply, America is running out of space for its growing air transport industry. But unlike Europe, which is beginning to demonstrate similar constraints, the US has run its passenger rail network into nearoblivion. For many, air travel is the only way of doing business.
'We need more airports,' says SH&E's Friedman, who's not particularly impressed with plans to build a new airport in Denver: 'So what do we do about New York and Los Angeles?' he inquires. 'It's not difficult to build a new airport if the space is available, but there's little left on the East and West Coast.'
Tired of overcrowded airports, inconvenient flight schedules, airborne 'snacks' and a pilot who apologizes for air traffic delays? If so, Canadair, Marcel-Dassault, Learjet, Beech and British Aerospace (to name just a few), would like to hear from you. They all sell business aircraft, whether jet or prop, and sales could do with a boost.
'Business flying in the US traditionally has come in three flavors,'says airline economist Michael Friedman of consultants SH&E: "There's the owner-operator who's either in sales or consulting and needs the flexibility, there's the fat cat flying of senior corporate executives and finally there's what I call the plant-shuttle operation of a medium or large company which has regular flights between various locations."
But at least for the 'fat cats' times are changing. According to SH&E, the corporate fleets of USA Inc., have shrunk 20 percent since 1980, coincident with the rise in scheduled airline flying. Last year, 450 million passengers traversed the country, and according to James Burnley, US Secretary of Transportation, the number is expected to nearly double by the next year.
The strain on the current domestic infrastructure is already having an impact on private flying. Boston's Logan Airport, one of the busiest in the country, is planning to increase landing fees for smaller aircraft, much to the annoyance of the commuter airline and the corporate jet operator.
'If you picked up a Sunday newspaper and read a headline that said "Massachusetts says no more money for Boston roads, prohibitive tolls will eliminate most private autos and taxis", that would sound pretty implausable,' says Jonathan Howe, president of the US National (NBAA). 'Yet that is exactly the type of situation that we are presently facing with some of the proposals to limit access to the nation's busiest airports.'
Quite simply, America is running out of space for its growing air transport industry. But unlike Europe, which is beginning to demonstrate similar constraints, the US has run its passenger rail network into nearoblivion. For many, air travel is the only way of doing business.
'We need more airports,' says SH&E's Friedman, who's not particularly impressed with plans to build a new airport in Denver: 'So what do we do about New York and Los Angeles?' he inquires. 'It's not difficult to build a new airport if the space is available, but there's little left on the East and West Coast.'
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Roma's Backstreet Barbers, Kindest Cuts
When in Rome, we are always told, do as the Romans do. But what is it that they do? I put the question one evening over dinner at George's to a professorial friend from Padua who lives and works in the city. He thought about it for a minute while he glanced through the wine list. Then, closing it with finality and removing his glasses, he answered: "Absolutely nothing".
Male visitors who wish to do absolutely nothing - dolce fare niente, they call it - will find the best place is the barber's chair. Going to the barber's in Rome has little to do with having one's hair cut. Muffled under the lather (if one is being shaved), one can hear a steady stream of visitors calling to discuss topics close to the heart of Roman men: politics and football. This involves the frequent laying aside of razor or scissors as Romans, like most Italians, find the hands as necessary to conversation as the tongue.
But as time should not be a problem, lean back and relax completely, for attemps to assist the razor with posturings of the jaw can lead to you looking like an uncooked steak: il barbiere di Roma knows exactly when, where and how to stretch your skin between thumb and forefinger, and the well-honed edge of his 'cut-throat' can reach levels of growth that remain subterranean to most modern razors.
The second stage of the ritual (the first is the soaping, done with all the flair of an Italian cook preparing a pizza) draws to a close with the delicate pinching of the nose from above to expose the upper lip (particularly necessary with Romans). Finally comes the steaming, hot towel - so hot that one's hair stands momentarily on end - and the cold scented shock of the aftershave, cupped in the palms and applied simultaneously to both sides of the face.
The most remarkable thing about Roman barbers, notably those in the backstreets who lounge in nylon overalls in their doorways, smoking and looking for customers but disdaining to solicit, is that they are all able to trim my hair and (nowadays) my beard exactly as I wish without ever asking or being told. (They can also shampoo me without getting water in my ears.) But if you have no beard to be trimmed, do not miss the opportunity of being shaved properly, for it is a dying art outside Italy and the experience is the nearest you will get to being born again.
Male visitors who wish to do absolutely nothing - dolce fare niente, they call it - will find the best place is the barber's chair. Going to the barber's in Rome has little to do with having one's hair cut. Muffled under the lather (if one is being shaved), one can hear a steady stream of visitors calling to discuss topics close to the heart of Roman men: politics and football. This involves the frequent laying aside of razor or scissors as Romans, like most Italians, find the hands as necessary to conversation as the tongue.
But as time should not be a problem, lean back and relax completely, for attemps to assist the razor with posturings of the jaw can lead to you looking like an uncooked steak: il barbiere di Roma knows exactly when, where and how to stretch your skin between thumb and forefinger, and the well-honed edge of his 'cut-throat' can reach levels of growth that remain subterranean to most modern razors.
The second stage of the ritual (the first is the soaping, done with all the flair of an Italian cook preparing a pizza) draws to a close with the delicate pinching of the nose from above to expose the upper lip (particularly necessary with Romans). Finally comes the steaming, hot towel - so hot that one's hair stands momentarily on end - and the cold scented shock of the aftershave, cupped in the palms and applied simultaneously to both sides of the face.
The most remarkable thing about Roman barbers, notably those in the backstreets who lounge in nylon overalls in their doorways, smoking and looking for customers but disdaining to solicit, is that they are all able to trim my hair and (nowadays) my beard exactly as I wish without ever asking or being told. (They can also shampoo me without getting water in my ears.) But if you have no beard to be trimmed, do not miss the opportunity of being shaved properly, for it is a dying art outside Italy and the experience is the nearest you will get to being born again.
Sinai's Holy Site in Spiritual Summit
A Bedouin girl and her noisy flock of sheep living in the remains of a Turkish police compound, an old man enjoying the shade of a lonely acacia tree and Egyptian truckers sitting on blankets in the middle of the empty highway, listening intently to the Arabic news service of Radio Monte Carlo.
A visitor to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is likely to meet all these types and more on the way to St. Catherine's Monastery, the Sinai's chief archaeological site and one of the most spiritually intense places in the world.
Here, at the foot of the 2,285-meter Mount Sinai, or Jabal Musa as it is known in Arabic, is where monks built the fortress-like monastery nearly 1,500 years ago. Christians and Muslims hold that this is the same mountain where Moses received the tablets containing the Ten Commandments, though Jews do not consider it a holy site, since nowhere here in the Bible is the exact location of the event described.
Because of its isolation and location in such a dry climate, the monastery's artifacts are unusually well preserved: icons from the Byzantine era; rare manuscripts in Persian, Greek and Latin; and a collection of handwriten Christian books rivaled only by the British Museum in London.
A few tourists can usually be found trying to engage the pious monks in convesation, or crowding around the monastery's two main attractions: the Burning Bush and the Skull Room. The chapel built around this bush is dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, and according to a guidebook prepared by the monks themselves, "It is the only bush of its kind growing in the entire Sinai Peninsula, and every attempt to transplant a branch of it to another place has been unsuccessful." The Skull Room, where photography is forbidden, is a macabre collection of the skulls of hundreds of monks who have inhatited the monastery throughout the senturies - a not-so-subtle reminder that no one is immortal.
St.Catherine's Monastery also boasts a library, second in importance only to the Vatican in the number and value of Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Georgian manuscripts it contains.
On the way from the monastery to the Red Sea port of Sharm-el-Sheikh is the famed Rock of Inscriptions - a limestone rock in the middle of the dry riverbed of Ein Hudra - so named because it contains important writings in Greek and Hebrew. The huge rock lies along a 2,000-year-old caravan route first crossed by Nabatean warriors from the Nile River to the Biblical Etzion-geber and east to Saudi Arabia and Persia.
A visitor to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is likely to meet all these types and more on the way to St. Catherine's Monastery, the Sinai's chief archaeological site and one of the most spiritually intense places in the world.
Here, at the foot of the 2,285-meter Mount Sinai, or Jabal Musa as it is known in Arabic, is where monks built the fortress-like monastery nearly 1,500 years ago. Christians and Muslims hold that this is the same mountain where Moses received the tablets containing the Ten Commandments, though Jews do not consider it a holy site, since nowhere here in the Bible is the exact location of the event described.
Because of its isolation and location in such a dry climate, the monastery's artifacts are unusually well preserved: icons from the Byzantine era; rare manuscripts in Persian, Greek and Latin; and a collection of handwriten Christian books rivaled only by the British Museum in London.
A few tourists can usually be found trying to engage the pious monks in convesation, or crowding around the monastery's two main attractions: the Burning Bush and the Skull Room. The chapel built around this bush is dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, and according to a guidebook prepared by the monks themselves, "It is the only bush of its kind growing in the entire Sinai Peninsula, and every attempt to transplant a branch of it to another place has been unsuccessful." The Skull Room, where photography is forbidden, is a macabre collection of the skulls of hundreds of monks who have inhatited the monastery throughout the senturies - a not-so-subtle reminder that no one is immortal.
St.Catherine's Monastery also boasts a library, second in importance only to the Vatican in the number and value of Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Georgian manuscripts it contains.
On the way from the monastery to the Red Sea port of Sharm-el-Sheikh is the famed Rock of Inscriptions - a limestone rock in the middle of the dry riverbed of Ein Hudra - so named because it contains important writings in Greek and Hebrew. The huge rock lies along a 2,000-year-old caravan route first crossed by Nabatean warriors from the Nile River to the Biblical Etzion-geber and east to Saudi Arabia and Persia.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Island Spa, Macau's Sporting Chances
In an age of aerobics and nouvelle cuisine the health and fitness craze is here to stay. At least that is what the Macau tourist authorities have decided as they busily develop and promote the Portuguese colony as a spa center.
Macau has long been the place for Hong Kong people to unwind and recharge their batteries, but today's breed of sports fans are much more demanding in their recreation requirements than their forebears. Hence the opening of the Hyatt Taipa Island resort, which functions as a health club for Macau residents as well as visitors.
With its eau-de-nil washed walls, coral rooftiles and lush greenery the resort has eye appeal. The gardens have been carefully landscaped to provide a garden lake and a number of quiet nooks, enhanced by the presence of songbirds. A free-form pool, a jogging track, playground, putting green and driving range are among the resort's outdoor facilities along with floodlit tennis courts and a multipurpose court for volleyball, badminton, basketball and football.
Two squash courts with the latest panel-well system are found indoors along with a sports shop and health food store. The spa also boasts a sauna, massage room, jacuzzi and steam room along with a beauty clinic which offers packages for narcissists with facials, body massage, body wrap, manicure and pedicure. But the pride and joy of the resorts is the Sports Medicine Centre where serious exercise buffs can have their individual exercise needs and capabilities determined by a resident sports doctor who also carries out stress and fitness consultations, computerized body-composition analysis and cardiac stress testing.
But the authorities have more than the Taipa Island resort in mind for promoting non-casino tourism in Macau. Recently completed were Coloane Park, featuring nature trails, a walk through aviary, lakes and Chinese gardens together with an Olympic-size swimming pool, and a leisure complex at Ha Sac beach. Macau has also set its sights on opening an international airport, introducing flat racing and staging an annual music festival. New beach facilites are also on the drawing board, most significantly a picturesque Algarve-style resort to be developed on the south side of Coloane Island. "We have a little paradise here," boasts Hyatt Taipa Island resort manager Don Bozarth, 'there's nothing like it in Hong Kong'.
Macau has long been the place for Hong Kong people to unwind and recharge their batteries, but today's breed of sports fans are much more demanding in their recreation requirements than their forebears. Hence the opening of the Hyatt Taipa Island resort, which functions as a health club for Macau residents as well as visitors.
With its eau-de-nil washed walls, coral rooftiles and lush greenery the resort has eye appeal. The gardens have been carefully landscaped to provide a garden lake and a number of quiet nooks, enhanced by the presence of songbirds. A free-form pool, a jogging track, playground, putting green and driving range are among the resort's outdoor facilities along with floodlit tennis courts and a multipurpose court for volleyball, badminton, basketball and football.
Two squash courts with the latest panel-well system are found indoors along with a sports shop and health food store. The spa also boasts a sauna, massage room, jacuzzi and steam room along with a beauty clinic which offers packages for narcissists with facials, body massage, body wrap, manicure and pedicure. But the pride and joy of the resorts is the Sports Medicine Centre where serious exercise buffs can have their individual exercise needs and capabilities determined by a resident sports doctor who also carries out stress and fitness consultations, computerized body-composition analysis and cardiac stress testing.
But the authorities have more than the Taipa Island resort in mind for promoting non-casino tourism in Macau. Recently completed were Coloane Park, featuring nature trails, a walk through aviary, lakes and Chinese gardens together with an Olympic-size swimming pool, and a leisure complex at Ha Sac beach. Macau has also set its sights on opening an international airport, introducing flat racing and staging an annual music festival. New beach facilites are also on the drawing board, most significantly a picturesque Algarve-style resort to be developed on the south side of Coloane Island. "We have a little paradise here," boasts Hyatt Taipa Island resort manager Don Bozarth, 'there's nothing like it in Hong Kong'.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Rustic Retreat, New York Mountain Museum
"The best of its kind in the world." So writes a New York Times art critic, describing the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. Crowning a hilltop in the heart of the state's six million acre Adirondack Park, this 31-year-old regional museum looks west over Blue Mountain Lake far below, and east over Blue Mountain, which is 75 miles from Albany, 180 from New York City.
A long vista of the lake - a sapphire embedded deep amidst the forested hills - greets visitors as they enter and leave the 22 exhibit buildings. These include the 1876 Log Hotel, a painting gallery, a typical early Adirondack cottage, a Road and Rail Transportation building which houses horsedrawn vehicles, sleds, wheeled buggies, and the symbol of wealth of early millionaire tourists - a luxuriously appointed private railroad car.
There is also a locomotive which operated from 1900 to 1929 on the three-quarter-mile carry on Raquette Lake, a mining building, a blacksmith's shop, the steamboat Osprey, the excursion launch Mountaineer and the elegant sloop Water Witch, floating on an outdoor, plexiglass-domed pool of its own. Rustic Bull Cottage is filled with early Adirondack twig furniture. In the large auditorium a film, The Adirondacks, runs continuously. In the boat building are displayed the famous 19th-century Adirondack guide boats, those light, graceful vessels that float like an autumn leaf on the water and can be carried overland by one man, yet are sturdy enough to navigate the roughest passages. Called "the best handiwork of the region", such boats are designed to carry two people and their gear and are used to this day by Adirondackers for hunting, fishing, transporting tourists and, in an emergency, to sleep under.
Built and operated almost entirely through private contributions, the museum is the result of the desire of William Wessels, owner of The Blue Mountain Lake House, and Harold Hochschild, who had been coming to the lake since 1904, to preserve the history of this unique area. They formed the Adirondack Historical Association and, in 1953, purchased the Blue Mountain Lake House as a site. (The museum compound consists of 30 acres, with another 150 of forest as a protective buffer.) The library, "the most important collection of Adirondackana anywhere", holds paintings, manuscripts, old maps, historic photographs and 7,000 books. It is used internationally by writers, researchers and historians.
A long vista of the lake - a sapphire embedded deep amidst the forested hills - greets visitors as they enter and leave the 22 exhibit buildings. These include the 1876 Log Hotel, a painting gallery, a typical early Adirondack cottage, a Road and Rail Transportation building which houses horsedrawn vehicles, sleds, wheeled buggies, and the symbol of wealth of early millionaire tourists - a luxuriously appointed private railroad car.
There is also a locomotive which operated from 1900 to 1929 on the three-quarter-mile carry on Raquette Lake, a mining building, a blacksmith's shop, the steamboat Osprey, the excursion launch Mountaineer and the elegant sloop Water Witch, floating on an outdoor, plexiglass-domed pool of its own. Rustic Bull Cottage is filled with early Adirondack twig furniture. In the large auditorium a film, The Adirondacks, runs continuously. In the boat building are displayed the famous 19th-century Adirondack guide boats, those light, graceful vessels that float like an autumn leaf on the water and can be carried overland by one man, yet are sturdy enough to navigate the roughest passages. Called "the best handiwork of the region", such boats are designed to carry two people and their gear and are used to this day by Adirondackers for hunting, fishing, transporting tourists and, in an emergency, to sleep under.
Built and operated almost entirely through private contributions, the museum is the result of the desire of William Wessels, owner of The Blue Mountain Lake House, and Harold Hochschild, who had been coming to the lake since 1904, to preserve the history of this unique area. They formed the Adirondack Historical Association and, in 1953, purchased the Blue Mountain Lake House as a site. (The museum compound consists of 30 acres, with another 150 of forest as a protective buffer.) The library, "the most important collection of Adirondackana anywhere", holds paintings, manuscripts, old maps, historic photographs and 7,000 books. It is used internationally by writers, researchers and historians.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Beautiful Places in Singapore
Tell about Singapore has beautiful places,we can find in there.
Christmas is also a good time to come to Singapore. The weather remains tropically warm but Orchard Road, with its numerous shopping centers, is transformed into a fairyland of lights and displays.There are so many shopping centers along Orchard Road and the adjoining Scotts Road that this area has been nicknamed "the golden shopping strip of Singapore". It is in shopping - still considered to be one of Singapore's major tourist attractions - that Singapore is making its hardest efforts to regain a good (=cheap) reputation. That is possibly why "Pasar Malam" or night markets have made a comeback of late. The Handicraft Center at Tudor Court on Tangling Road is one such venue.
For all its concrete, Singapore still has tropical trimmings. The botanic gardens near Orchard Road, where the air is redolent with flowery fragrances, is a perfect place for an early evening stroll. The famous Tiger Balm Gardens, though interesting as such, are distinctly less relaxing, especially now that the Tourist Board is attempting to turn the Chinese mythological theme park into a kind of Disneyland. Nature lovers may prefer beautifully landscaped Jurong Bird Park or Macritchie Reservoir along Thomson Road.
After dark, Singapore turns into a swinging town. Most hotels have cocktail lounges with live entertainment. Chinese maidens in traditional flowing robes, Malay court dancers and Indian girls in shimmering, saris present their ethnic dances at the Cultural Show in the Ballroom of the Raffles Hotel. The latter is to be restored to its colonial splendor and made into the crown jewel of Singapore's tourist trade.
Singapore's discos pulsate with the latest disco and video hits. Several clubs, including Top Ten and Celebrities, are located in Orchard Top Towers, while two pre-war warehouses by the Singapore River have been converted into Singapore's largest discotheque, The Warehouse. There is also a burgeoning jazz scene. Singapore's own Jermanzee Trio is usually in residence at the Saxophone Bar in Cuppage Terrace off Orchard Road. In the plush Chinese nightclub, The Grand Palace, sultry songbirds fill the air with tunes of love, lament and longing. For the visitor in search of more serious entertainment, there are Victoria Theatre, where a symphony, a ballet or a classical Chinese opera can be enjoyed.
Singaporeans are passionate pursuers of fine food and the performance of eating should preferably be conducted out of the house. Their pleasure is further heightened if a newly discovered place is as difficult as possible to locate and has an unpronouncable name. Visitors won't have to go to such extremes as the city has a vast number of easy-to-find restaurants, bistros and sidewalk cafes. Chinese, Malay and Indian culinary treats, as well as every imagineable international cuisine can be enjoyed at anya hour. Food hawkers have left their own mark on the city. Once they trundled their food carts through the streets of Singapore. These days they are located in big food centers, which are worth a visit just to observe the "fast food" chefs whip up delicious, inexpensive dishes in minutes. You can't claim to have had the true Singapore experience until you have eaten at a hawker center.
Christmas is also a good time to come to Singapore. The weather remains tropically warm but Orchard Road, with its numerous shopping centers, is transformed into a fairyland of lights and displays.There are so many shopping centers along Orchard Road and the adjoining Scotts Road that this area has been nicknamed "the golden shopping strip of Singapore". It is in shopping - still considered to be one of Singapore's major tourist attractions - that Singapore is making its hardest efforts to regain a good (=cheap) reputation. That is possibly why "Pasar Malam" or night markets have made a comeback of late. The Handicraft Center at Tudor Court on Tangling Road is one such venue.
For all its concrete, Singapore still has tropical trimmings. The botanic gardens near Orchard Road, where the air is redolent with flowery fragrances, is a perfect place for an early evening stroll. The famous Tiger Balm Gardens, though interesting as such, are distinctly less relaxing, especially now that the Tourist Board is attempting to turn the Chinese mythological theme park into a kind of Disneyland. Nature lovers may prefer beautifully landscaped Jurong Bird Park or Macritchie Reservoir along Thomson Road.
After dark, Singapore turns into a swinging town. Most hotels have cocktail lounges with live entertainment. Chinese maidens in traditional flowing robes, Malay court dancers and Indian girls in shimmering, saris present their ethnic dances at the Cultural Show in the Ballroom of the Raffles Hotel. The latter is to be restored to its colonial splendor and made into the crown jewel of Singapore's tourist trade.
Singapore's discos pulsate with the latest disco and video hits. Several clubs, including Top Ten and Celebrities, are located in Orchard Top Towers, while two pre-war warehouses by the Singapore River have been converted into Singapore's largest discotheque, The Warehouse. There is also a burgeoning jazz scene. Singapore's own Jermanzee Trio is usually in residence at the Saxophone Bar in Cuppage Terrace off Orchard Road. In the plush Chinese nightclub, The Grand Palace, sultry songbirds fill the air with tunes of love, lament and longing. For the visitor in search of more serious entertainment, there are Victoria Theatre, where a symphony, a ballet or a classical Chinese opera can be enjoyed.
Singaporeans are passionate pursuers of fine food and the performance of eating should preferably be conducted out of the house. Their pleasure is further heightened if a newly discovered place is as difficult as possible to locate and has an unpronouncable name. Visitors won't have to go to such extremes as the city has a vast number of easy-to-find restaurants, bistros and sidewalk cafes. Chinese, Malay and Indian culinary treats, as well as every imagineable international cuisine can be enjoyed at anya hour. Food hawkers have left their own mark on the city. Once they trundled their food carts through the streets of Singapore. These days they are located in big food centers, which are worth a visit just to observe the "fast food" chefs whip up delicious, inexpensive dishes in minutes. You can't claim to have had the true Singapore experience until you have eaten at a hawker center.
Singapore is Wonderful Lion City
Singapore is a society with a penchant for remaking itself in its own singular image.
Driving in from the airport the first thing you notice is how incredibly manicured and clean Singapore is. Rather unlike the chaotic image attached to most Asian cities. Next you are struck by row upon row of high-rise buildings streching in all directions.
The tiny tropical island nation of Singapore, lying just one degree north of the equator, has often been held up as an economic marvel, where the quality of life ranks among the best in the world. Indeed no poor people can be seen begging or living in the streets of Singapore, giving the false impression that none exist.
Until the 1960s, most of the population lived in so-called kampungs, villages or slums, paying paltry rents. Houses didn't have running water. Instead each village had a public standpipe where men and women bathed, modestly covered by sarongs and towels. Village community life was a close-knit one.
Today there are few such kampungs left. Most have been razed by bulldozers, their three-, even four-generation families broken up. In the name of progress and urban development, Singapore opted for a massive public housing program, whereby nearly 85 percent of Singapore's population has been resettled in government-built high-rise flats equipped with all the latest modern conveniences.
In fact, on this just 41 kilometers long and 22 kilometers wide island, apartment dwelling has become a status symbol. As property is not only hard to come by but steep in price, Singaporeans would rather put their money in an imported luxury car. Life is for a large part live outside the home. Entertainment is sought in cocktail lounges, restaurants and the many big hotels. Singaporeans also lead an active sports and club life, possibly a custom left-over from their colonial days.
Singapore's origins go back well beyond its existence as a British colony, though written accounts on ancient Singapore are sketchy. A third century Chinese account aptly described it as Pu-luo-chung or "island at the end of a peninsula", while in the seventh century Singapore was known as Temasek or "Sea Town", a trading center of Sumatra's Srivijaya Empire. Legend has it that Sang Nila Utama, a prince from Sumatra, was shipwrecked and washed ashore. Not long after, he came across a strange and fierce looking creature, possibly a native tiger, which he mistook for a lion. The prince decided to settle on the island, giving it the Sanskrit name Singapura, or Lion City.
In 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founded a trading post on the island which rapidly became one of Britain's most lucrative colonies. Attracting workers and entrepreneurs from India and Malaysia as well as China, Singapore became the ultimate gateway to the Orient.
Much of Singapore was destroyed during World War II when Japanese aircraft bombed the sleeping city. For three-and-a-half years, Singapore, renamed Syonan, Light of the South, suffered unprecedented hardships under Japanese occupation. Though British rule was briefly restored, post-war Singapore saw a new generation of Singaporeans demanding self-determination. Especially the merchant class clamored for a say in the government. By 1959 Singaporeans had voted in their first legislative assemby, though full independence wasn't reached until 1965. The election also marked the ascendancy of Lee Kuan Yew and his People's Action Party (PAP).
Driving in from the airport the first thing you notice is how incredibly manicured and clean Singapore is. Rather unlike the chaotic image attached to most Asian cities. Next you are struck by row upon row of high-rise buildings streching in all directions.
The tiny tropical island nation of Singapore, lying just one degree north of the equator, has often been held up as an economic marvel, where the quality of life ranks among the best in the world. Indeed no poor people can be seen begging or living in the streets of Singapore, giving the false impression that none exist.
Until the 1960s, most of the population lived in so-called kampungs, villages or slums, paying paltry rents. Houses didn't have running water. Instead each village had a public standpipe where men and women bathed, modestly covered by sarongs and towels. Village community life was a close-knit one.
Today there are few such kampungs left. Most have been razed by bulldozers, their three-, even four-generation families broken up. In the name of progress and urban development, Singapore opted for a massive public housing program, whereby nearly 85 percent of Singapore's population has been resettled in government-built high-rise flats equipped with all the latest modern conveniences.
In fact, on this just 41 kilometers long and 22 kilometers wide island, apartment dwelling has become a status symbol. As property is not only hard to come by but steep in price, Singaporeans would rather put their money in an imported luxury car. Life is for a large part live outside the home. Entertainment is sought in cocktail lounges, restaurants and the many big hotels. Singaporeans also lead an active sports and club life, possibly a custom left-over from their colonial days.
Singapore's origins go back well beyond its existence as a British colony, though written accounts on ancient Singapore are sketchy. A third century Chinese account aptly described it as Pu-luo-chung or "island at the end of a peninsula", while in the seventh century Singapore was known as Temasek or "Sea Town", a trading center of Sumatra's Srivijaya Empire. Legend has it that Sang Nila Utama, a prince from Sumatra, was shipwrecked and washed ashore. Not long after, he came across a strange and fierce looking creature, possibly a native tiger, which he mistook for a lion. The prince decided to settle on the island, giving it the Sanskrit name Singapura, or Lion City.
In 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founded a trading post on the island which rapidly became one of Britain's most lucrative colonies. Attracting workers and entrepreneurs from India and Malaysia as well as China, Singapore became the ultimate gateway to the Orient.
Much of Singapore was destroyed during World War II when Japanese aircraft bombed the sleeping city. For three-and-a-half years, Singapore, renamed Syonan, Light of the South, suffered unprecedented hardships under Japanese occupation. Though British rule was briefly restored, post-war Singapore saw a new generation of Singaporeans demanding self-determination. Especially the merchant class clamored for a say in the government. By 1959 Singaporeans had voted in their first legislative assemby, though full independence wasn't reached until 1965. The election also marked the ascendancy of Lee Kuan Yew and his People's Action Party (PAP).
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