Astounding Words

We all know that volunteering is a great way to help build stronger communities as well as helping the needy. You’ll discover that it’s more straightforward to volunteer when an event has been organized for you. And don’t you agree that with your co-workers volunteering alongside you you’d all have a better time?

Consequently companies like Adaptive Marketing LLC, a firm from Connecticut that developed shopping and financial benefits programs such as Todays Escapes (MVQ*TRAVELMEMBER), have stepped up as the points of organization enabling their employees to find the time to pitch in.

Luckily, company-supported volunteering is more than once-a-year charitable giving. The staff of Adaptive Marketing are frequently provided with the chance to take part in a full range of community initiatives. By centralizing the organization individual initiatives became larger programs, with specific locations, dates and times published ahead of time to help those signing up with their time management. The volunteers will want a opportunity to select projects, of course. Companies who provide this kind of service like Adaptive Marketing, the developers of the membership program Todays Escapes (MVQ*TRAVELMEMBER), allow their employees to choose from a wide range of drives in their area. Earlier projects have seen improvements made in a wide assortment of areas including help and support for children and young adults, green programs, and events supporting arts and culture. Adaptive Marketing’s employees will be sure to find something they enjoy, making their time enjoyable as well as useful. When companies recommend their workforce to think about volunteering at local schools, it is often in support of a specific event or a regularly scheduled, perhaps weekly or monthly undertaking. Even employees who say they haven’t the time to spare may be able to squeeze in a Saturday morning spent litter picking in the park.

Making sure to lend a helping hand has long been a tradition at many businesses. Adaptive Marketing sponsors volunteer programs in part to generate positive feeling within its home community by the activities of its staff members. Another upside is, the benefits of volunteer work include the certainty that you’ve done something good and worthwhile - an upbeat feeling that influences the entire corporate culture. Organizing a drive to help employees to volunteer is its own reward.

Volunteering — a bridge to a better community, and helping the poor in the vicinity. Of course, freeing up the time to volunteer can squander time that could really be put to better use. On the other hand, you’ll have more fun volunteering with your colleagues getting involved by your side.

This is a call, then, for companies to take a cue from far-sighted firms like Connecticut’s Adaptive Marketing LLC. In addition to financial and shopping benefits programs like Shopping Essentials (MVQ*SHOPESSNTLS) intended for the benefit of consumers, Adaptive Marketing handles the organizational duties so that its employees have the time to reach out to the local community. Fortunately, company-supported charitable contribution has grown beyond once-a-year charitable giving. Looking at a specific company, Adaptive Marketing has provided its employees with chances to help with anything from running shoe recycling campaigns to local tree-planting events. For events like these, the times, locations and dates that had been arranged were made clear well in advance, ensuring that staff members knew what to expect, and how much of their time it would actually take.

It’s hardly volunteering if there’s no opportunity to select initiatives, of course. Firms who provide this kind of service like Adaptive Marketing, the developers of the program Shopping Essentials (MVQ*SHOPESSNTLS), offer their staffers a wide variety of activities to get involved with. When looking for possible projects you see so many; working with children and young adults, helping with environmental activities, or improving the area’s aesthetic through artistic projects to list just a few that have already been tried. This provides Adaptive Marketing volunteers with the chance to explore useful avenues in volunteer work and love getting involved. A regular addition to their schedule or a one-off event — this is how a firm usually organizes this kind of volunteer initiative, perhaps at a local school or the homeless shelter in town. Even staff who claim they don’t have the time can usually commit to a Saturday morning park clean-up or the public library’s used book sale. You’ll find plenty of examples of companies giving back to the people who live nearby. Like many other firms, Adaptive Marketing maintains volunteer projects to support the people of its hometown and to generate positive feeling within the local community through its staff members actions. One thing volunteer initiatives are certain to do is provide your workforce with a healthy appreciation for what they can do, the end result of which is a motivated firm.

For millions of people, the recession is a time of belt-tightening and cutbacks.

But what about those who have millions to give?

How are some of Britain’s most prominent philanthropists responding to the recession?

Recent research from Barclays Wealth indicated that one in four wealthy philanthropists had actually increased their giving in the last 18 months.

Half of those replying said that because governments had more debt, giving would become more incumbent on rich individuals.

Radio 4’s The World At One has been hearing from several of the country’s wealthiest benefactors about how the recession has affected them, and about how the charity sector needs to change. In fact, more and more people are willing to donate to charity despite the recession

“There are fewer demands, but they are more urgent,” says Dame Vivien Duffield, looking back on the changes of the past six months.

She chairs The Clore Duffield Foundation, which specialises in donating to the arts in the philanthropic work begun by her father, the millionaire businessman Sir Charles Clore.

It is estimated that she and the foundations she controls have given more than £175m.

But says the difficult economic conditions have led to different kinds of requests. Dame Vivien Duffield says demands are more urgent and for more money

“Those ‘fewer demands’ are often for more money and there’s an awful lot of what I’d call ‘filling up the gap’ demands, behind both other givers and the government,” she says.

“There are also almost no capital appeals coming in - people are frightened to start a new building project in this day and age.”

Water is essential for every human being’s survival. Our body is composed of 70% water; we can survive without food for several days, but not without water. Water is our life.

Over the years, access to safe and clean water has steadily decreased. The number of deaths brought about by waterborne diseases like diarrhea and cholera, have been rising. Over 7 million people fall ill because of contaminated water every year. In 1993, high levels of cryptosporidium were found in Milwaukee’s drinking water supply, and this caused more than 400,000 residents to get sick. Diarrhea-related deaths also continue to grow in numbers. Every year, about 1.5 million children under 5 years old die because of diarrhea. Figures released in 2006 also show that approximately 980 million children do not have access, or the means to have access, to safe drinking water and sanitation. All these can be attributed to one thing: water pollution.

Rampant water pollution has caused our lakes, rivers, aquifers, and other water sources, to become either contaminated or dried up. Pesticides, garbage and debris, non-stop rains all cause our bodies of water to be wasted. In various parts of the world, like China, red tide, or the occurrence of harmful algal bloom that produces toxins, kills and contaminates marine life.

It would take a miracle to entirely stop water pollution in a week or a month’s time. But with continuous efforts, something can be done. Start by practicing good sanitation and proper water management in your home. This first step can go a long way in protecting our water resources and in preventing water pollution.

At CEMEX, air quality is a priority with the cement company’s fusion of environment friendly programs and pro-safety policies

Smart Brief published an article about the Third Annual CEMEX U.S. Building Awards, which also highlights CEMEX air quality initiatives.

The story in the news is that Bush is endorsing a mental health program that will target children in schools for mental health screenings. The commission claims that even though child mental health prescriptions have increased 500% from 1999-2003, they aren’t getting enough “treatment”. The screenings will be mandatory and prescription drug treatment will be too. That’s not all this program does though, under the new plan doctors can only prescribe the most dangerous and expensive drugs on the market. The new plan is ironically named “New Freedom commission”(NFC).

TMAP- Bankrupting Medicaid Before the Baby Boomers Even Use It

Bush endorsed and implemented TMAP in Texas and of the 22 members in the New Freedom Commission, 14 are directly associated with that organization. The New Freedom Act is a fraud. It is modeled after The Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP). An algorithm is like a menu at a restaurant with drugs as the choices, if its not on the menu the doctor cannot order the prescription. TMAP takes advantage of foster children, institutionalized people, veterans and prisoners to further drug company profits as well as robbing the American tax-payers. It forces state and Medicaid doctors to prescribe super-expensive, dangerous new medications to mental health patients.

TMAP has even persuaded officials into giving Medicaid to people who don’t need it so they can afford the overpriced medications and by early 2001 the program bankrupted Texas’s Medicaid system. At the rate TMAP guidelines explode Medicaid expenses we will be paying an outlandish 3.7 billion a year for schizophrenia medications alone, effectively bankrupting Medicaid nationwide.

Here’s an example of a Drug that doctors will be required to prescribe:

Zyprexa
This is a new Medication for bi-polar disorder and it costs $6,000 more per patient than older, safer drugs like Haldal according to Yale researchers, Veterans Medical Hospital researchers and FDA trials. FDA Data also shows Zyprexa to be one of he deadliest drugs ever approved, yet our war veterans and children will be forced to use it while the rest of us pay for it. FDA trials for Zyprexa show that 65% of patients dropped out of the trial due to side effects and during the 6-week trial 20 deaths occurred, 12 of them suicides. The FDA approved Zyprexa ONLY for short-term treatment of bi-polar individuals.

TMAP mandates that Zyprexa be used for many different disorders for long term use.
Hurting our children

TMAP developed a special children’s algorithm (drug menu) called The Texas Children’s Medication Algorithm Project or TCMAP. The same group of bribed experts decided that the same drugs would be used for children as adults; no facts were needed because the recommendations were made based on what the drug companies told them to recommend.

Drugs TCMAP forces doctors to prescribe to children:
(All are brand name)

Zoloft, which is expensive, has a 17% dropout rate in child clinical trials due to intolerable side effects and only has a 10% improvement rate on children with depression and mood disorders. The FDA specifically states that this drug should not be used by persons under the age of 18.
Seroxat, which is expensive and has been shown to increase suicide attempts in minors.
Paxil. This drug is not only expensive but has been directly shown to increase murder, violence, school shootings and debilitating conditions such as brain dysfunction and heart problems in young people. It also increases self-harm and suicide attempts in children. On top of all this British studies show that Paxil didn’t improve children’s mood anymore than a sugar pill. The FDA said in 2003 that Paxil should not to be prescribed to minors.
Serzon. Expensive and has a earned a “black box” warning due to its tendency to cause liver failure and death in adults and children.
Safer, cheaper drugs are available but TCMAP maintains that the drugs they make the most money on are the best choice for children’s mental health issues.
Bribery In Action

TMAP is fully owned and operated by drug companies, mainly Janssen pharmaceuticals, and parades itself as a medically oriented and helpful government program. The organization accomplished this by bribing doctors, university officials and government officials into lying about the superiority of their drugs; then the officials they’ve duped allow them to make laws that use the lies as medical guidelines. Although all Janssen’s activities cannot be known here’s what is known so far:

Janssen pays $2,000 speaking fees to gov. officials and doctors who are in the position to approve TMAP and make laws favoring their algorithms. The “speakers” tell people that Janssen drugs are superior and miraculous and then approve their drugs and guidelines from within government agencies and universities. Multiple speeches result in multiple payments in the sum of $2,000 or more. Here’s an example of a speakers relationship with Janssen:
Boston Globe | November 10 2003
Dr. Douglas Hughs was charged with endangering his patients by the Massachusetts government and had his license taken because, without medical reason, he forced several patients to switch to the new drug Risperdal and nearly killed a patient. Risperdal is an expensive, dangerous new schizophrenia drug made by Janssen. The doctor switched the drugs to experiment on the patients for the drug company, which paid him a grand total of $30,000 in “public speaking fees” to talk about their new drugs. Dr. Hughs has since resigned his position at The Soloman Carter Fuller Mental Health Center.

Janssen paid for luxury trips, expensive meals and entertainment for officials who were in the position to approve TMAP and the drugs they endorse.
To keep state health officials from investigating TMAPS dangerous, expensive drug regimen, Janssen’s government official “speakers” have issued TMAP medication guidelines as administrative orders in many of the states it now operates in. The reason is that administration is the paperwork end of government and cannot be investigated for safety by state medical regulators.
TMAPS drug company founders contributed a total of $384,735 in 2002 in Texas alone. It must be mentioned that these are only the known contributions and that there are probably many more undisclosed contributions.
Fighting Back
Already Colorado and Nevada are suing approximately 17 of the drug companies associated with TMAP for fraud and racketeering. Officials of Pennsylvania’s Office of the Inspector General are suing several other government officials in that state because they lied about drug safety and took bribes from TMAP and their funders: Dwight McKee & Allen Jones v. Henry Hart, Sydni Guido and several other officials.

References & Resources:
-FDA Links Suicide in Children to Antidepressants
-Medicine Merchants-Tracking Dr.’s NY Times November 16, 2000
- US Government Veterans Study
-Dr. David Healy “Testing Psychotrophic Drugs in Children” April 30, 2002
-FDA Warning Letters to Drug Companies
-Money in State Polotics/ Lookup State: Texas, Contributor: Drug Companies
- FDA Mental Health Drug Warnings - Report on Suicides & Antipsychotics
-Studies Show TCMAP Drugs Do Not Work on Children

About the Author

Melissa Gordon is a health writer and researcher at http://www.suppressedhealth.com

A few hours ago, Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the National Director of Security of Mauritania, launched himself into power and shut his boss, President Maaoya Taya, out of Nouakchott.

This action, brought the 21-year rule of Taya to a dramatic and calculated end, in this 3 million peopled desert of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

It must however be early, quickly and clearly pointed out before the euphoria subsides, that Colonel Vall and his 16-member Military Junta for ‘Justice and Democracy’, have arrived a little too late, on the stage of political history.

Much as the people of Mauritania may have been wearied by the lack-lustre regime of Taya, as it was begining to show through an unprecedentedly free and fair elections of 2003, the unconstitutional overthrow of this elected government is nothing but a hijack of due democratic process by an ambitious self-appointed messiahnic group of the specialized paramilitary gendarmerie, known as Presidential Guards, headed by Vall.

Though, Taya’s Democratic Social Republican Party (PRDS) still holds sway with a 79% majority in the legislature, the begining of real opposition by about 15 political parties that contested the last elections with growing sympaties amongst the populace, has dawned on Mauritania. There is no way Taya and his party would have won a fourth straight victory at the next elections using the yardstick of the last polls of 2003.

It this growing popular democracy that the ambitious elements in the Mauritanian Army attempts to abort. It is very probable that colonel Vall and his junta would try to seek popular base of support by anti-western sentiments, but this political line, if towed, would spell untold disaster for the new regime. Ask Sadam, who tried it in 1991 and was humiliated for it.

The questions which this self-styled ‘Justice and Democracy’ Messiahs of the 3 million poverty-sapped people of Muritania could not or ever answer in the days to come are: What happens to the legislative elections due next year, 2006? What happens to the 20 seats- 21%of the National Assembly and the Senate, controlled by the opposition parties? Is the 2-year time-table of restoration of ‘true elections’ by the junta not a ploy to gain a breathing space and legitimise its own rule? After 18 years in the saddle as National security Director, Is Colonel Vall just realising now that Taya is ‘dictatorial and repressive’?

Could it be that the real lure for the junta to take over power is the recently discovered one billion barrels deposit of crude oil? Can we be assured that junta greed for self-enrichment is not traceable to the 30 billion cubit feet of natural gas just discovered? Wont this make the junta to prolong and postpone the promised ‘true elctions’ like in the case of its Nigerian counterpart which plauged and devoured national and peoples resouces for 30 years before being forced to abdicate power? Can Colonel Vall boldly tell the world that this coup was not the climax of his carefully planned ambition of 6 years ago that got a fillip when he travelled to all the 12 regions(Wilaya) of Mauritania in 1999, as the commander of the militarized police force, to inspect and reinforce (prepare) them for this day?

One thing though is certain, our people in Africa are tired of the musical chairs of dictators. We yearn for true development and progress. We are not ready for another experimental adventure in failure in the hands of some opportunistic leaders.

Aderemi Ojikutu (Aderaskeey) is a Motivational Author and Youth Mentor. He is a minister of the Word of God. A political economist and political leader. He is President of the TREASURE WRITERS CLUB in Nigeria (http://ryze.com/go/Aderaskeey). He is also the current President of the National Democratic Forum (N.D.F). He was National Mobilisation Officer of the National Association of Nigerian Students (N.A.N.S) for several years. A revolutionary of over two decades, he was also the political secretary of the defunct Nigerian Labour Party in 1989-1991.

There is no doubt in hindsight that Sarbanes Oxley was a mistake as we watch the blob of bureaucracy move into the private sector. There is no doubt that Sarbanes Oxley’s real costs have been passed onto the consumer and citizen like a giant tax increase of Boston Tea proportions. Many people wonder if Senator Sarbanes and Oxley should be brought up on charges of treason. Absolutely they should. Many people wonder if death by hanging is too harsh? Of course it is not.

Over 7 trillion dollars has been lost from the stock valuations since the introduction of Sarbanes Oxley. Seven trillion dollars is quite significant indeed. The Sarbanes Oxley Act was a politically motivated maneuver to take advantage of the disdain for Corporate Executives accused of fraud in the mass media court of public opinion. Yet all the real courts of law have acquitted most of the corporate executives of any wrongdoing. Except for Martha Stewart in which the Justice Department put up an FBI agent on the stand who perjured himself in order to get the conviction. Martha Stewart was not up on fraud charges; they accused her of lying to an investigator. Whether she did or not is irrelevant because the government lied itself under oath to convict her.

Today we are seeing Elliot Spitzer’s first shoe in cases get thrown out. We are watching executives walk. We are seeing the over turning of the Arthur Anderson case, which the Justice Department was so sure of and which caused 28,000 partners to lose their pensions. Some look at the Sarbanes Oxley Act as political shrewdness on the Senators parts for properly judging the poles and surveys of the people at a time they had been bombarded with anti business sediment by the “Build Them Up and Burn Them Down Media.” After all Elliot Spitzer’s cases are more about his upcoming bid for State Governor of NY than reality.

Ayn Rand warned us about these types of things, yet we are not listening to her sound advice from outside the box looking in. Instead we allowed Senator Sarbanes and Oxley to introduce bogus legislation attempting to regulate morality when some would say they lack any sense of morals themselves. After all how can a Senator or wannabe future governor impede free enterprise and capitalism in a republic to which they belong, when they knew or should have known the obvious consequences of further over regulating the very corporations and businesses which deliver our civilization everything we see, every where we go?

Should Sarbanes, Oxley and Spitzer be shot for treason? Many believe they should. What do you think of such scoundrels of this great nation? Do they really deserve a second chance? Many say no, what say you?

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

When President Bush visits a country, he often evokes many different kinds of reactions and as a result security is a big issue. During last week’s tour of India and Pakistan, security was especially tight, because the trip took him physically close to Osama bin Ladin than he has ever been. To conceal its profile, Air Force One flew without lights through the night and once on the ground, two helicopters and a motorcade rushed him everywhere that he and the first lady needed to go.

During his recent tour in the Middle East, Bush was often met by anti-American protesters, but when he visited the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, it wasn’t the President that caused the stir. It was his dogs, or rather the dogs used by the secret service to sniff out bombs or other threats to the president.

Hindu priests that take care of the memorial conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after the President’s visit. The site where Gandhi was cremated is considered sacred in India and President Bush and the First Lady followed the local customs and respectfully removed their shoes before entering the shrine to pay homage to the pacifist. Caretakers weren’t offended at the Bushs’ behavior, but were outraged at the security dogs that were brought in to scour the area before the President could enter.

Gandhi’s great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, joined in with Hindu politicians in denouncing the presence of the dogs, calling it a national shame. The dogs were flown in from the US in anticipation of the presidents three day visit in the country.

After the President left, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges River, which Hindus consider holy, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Sunday.

Salim Jordan is Editor and Publisher of MoreThanLinks.com. He writes on politics, world affairs, and current events. Visit http://buzz.morethanlinks.com