Your View: Letters to the editor (May 15)

Posted on 15th May 2012 in The monuments of world
Syrian atrocity

The world dances, excuse me, slides, around the Syrian atrocity. The Security Council failed, the General Assembly said “the world is with you.” Lots of diplomatic nothing and Annan’s questionable UN Plan. Assad has no reason to change – just pretend to observe some “international” forms…

Syria is a geopolitical centerpoint. China wants Syrian oil on its own terms and fears an intervention model because of its own restless peripheral minorities. Russia gets billions from arms sales and mid-east access. Iran gets Mediterranean access, but warns against outside involvement. Their interests should prevail? No…

I talked to some NSMU Arab students not that long ago who were protesting the bloodbath. They are frustrated and angry. The Syrian people want international help. I understand from mid-east news reports that their cry is growing. So far, help is minimal. The world wants a murderous dictator to “compromise?” Assad says the rebels disarm first. He hides his war machine from inspectors, who leave. All we’ve done is give Assad cover, above and beyond his suppliers.

Where are Turkey and the Gulf states? Regardless of diplomatic puffery, the Syrian people need arms, food and medical supplies. Turkey should protect any safe zones. Let’s stop pretending Assad will implement any peace plan other than his complete victory. The west’s political balancing non-act in apparent deference to China and Russia must end.

Europe has closed its eyes;

the East smiles. American’s don’t want another war. But, are Europeans changing their tune? America’s current response to a political, military and moral thicket seems limited… and many more will die. The case for intervention is stronger than in Libya’s, but more complicated. American apparent “do-little” moment, now in an election year, will not work. It’s too easy.

JERRY NACHISON

Las Cruces


Monument scare tactics

I found the Jerry Schilderkranz column specious at best and downright disingenuous at worst. Eight of our 12 national monuments protect archaeological or historical sites, seven of these cover a small number of acres and can’t be seen as a significant land withdrawal by hunters, horsemen, or ranchers. The main purpose of monuments like Fort Union, Gran Salinas, El Morro etc. is to protect cultural and historical resources and their mission is more educational rather than to provide outdoor recreation opportunities (although they may have camping, and even fishing as at Bandelier), and since they can sometimes have intense visitation within a very limited geographical area, the rules guiding these places cannot reasonably compared to those that would guide a large area with diverse resources like the proposed Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.

A better example for comparison would be the large BLM managed Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. There is very little going on that would upset most horse riders, dog owners, hunters, fishermen, campers, OHV /ORV users, cheapskates, and those who want to push a stroller around the desert. Doesn’t it seem more likely that there will be only small changes to the current management? The BLM has already demonstrated a very light-handed approach, and a tolerance for multiple uses in their management of the Trackways N.M., and we all know the BLM doesn’t have the kind of budget or manpower for fee collecting, leash law enforcement or fence building in places like the West Potrillo Mountains. I would respect those that oppose this proposal more if they would sincerely argue their real reasons for their opposition instead of resorting to the same half-baked scare tactics over and over again.

DEVON FLETCHER

Las Cruces


Vets Fair thanks

We would like to express our appreciation to everyone involved in our recent Veteran’s Informational Fair. We thank Ralph Vigil, DVR acting director, for his welcome and opening remarks. We also thank Melanie Goodman of Sen. Bingaman’s office and Sen. Udall for their supportive words. The event was made special by the Mayfield JRROTC who presented the colors. A big thank you goes to our emcee Jimmy Jaramillo. We thank Henry Perez and Paul Gonzales for their donations of flags. We thank all three Albertsons for their generous donations, as well as La Feria.

We also wish to extend our appreciation to DVR staff for all their hard work. A big thank you goes out to the employers, vendors and service providers, social service agencies who contributed their time, information as well as many door prizes. A special thank you goes to Debbie Loera of DACC for all her help and generous contributions and Rosa De La Torre Burmeister for her contribution of certificates. Thanks also to Maria Bagwell for her invaluable assistance.

Also thanks to Pat Gomez of the city and his crew for assisting us with the setup and planning and for providing the location. Also, a big thank you goes to Brook Stockberger of the Las Cruces Sun-News for featuring our event in the business section that led veterans to our event. Also the White Sands Missile Ranger published an article on our event. Thanks to our mayor, Ken Miyagishima and Rep. Andy Nunez for attending and visiting with everyone. Also, thanks goes to Adrian Guzman of the CLC TV station, Adrian Medina and Tom Scott of KVIA. Lastly, a big thank you is extended to all veterans currently serving and of prior service. Our country and world are forever indebted to your service and honor.

MINNIE MONTOYA,

Disability Rights New Mexico

MICHAEL BANEGAS,

NM Division of Vocational Rehabilitation

SHIRLEY GONZALES,

NM Division of Vocational Rehabilitation

Las Cruces

Copyright 2012 Las Cruces Sun-News. All rights reserved.

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World Heritage Exhibition built with LEGO®

Posted on 11th May 2012 in The monuments of world

The World Heritage Exhibition is now celebrating its 40th anniversary with a unique charity art exhibition, “The PIECE of PEACE – World Heritage that is made by LEGO® blocks part 2”.

The exhibition runs through June 3rd at a specially set-up venue on the first floor of Tomiton Toyozaki Lifestyle Center at Toyozaki, Tomigusuku City. This is the first time a world heritage exhibition made entirely by LEGO® blocks is staged in Okinawa. The PIECE of PEACE exhibition began in Shibuya in Tokyo, and will run through the main cities of Japan. Already, more than 10,000 people have visited the exhibition to learn more about world heritage.

The main exhibition section, “Love Earth, Love Asia” features well-known world heritage sites, all built with LEGO® blocks. Some structures use over 10,000 pieces, while one single exhibit is made of over 20,000 pieces. The height and precision of each structure overwhelms visitors, and even the structures’ interiors are precise, and many visitors peeki into the interiors using penlights.

Shuri-Castle is exhibited representing Okinawa. The Lego® Shuri Castle is built using red and white LEGO® blocks that capture Shuri Castle perfectly.

The exhibition includes sites of the Ryukyu Kingdom/ Shuri-Castle, Greece/ the Acropolis of Athens, France/Mont-Saint-Michel and the ocean, Italy/ Piazza del Duomo, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Vatican City and Colosseum, Egypt/ Nubian monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae, USA/ the Statue of Liberty, The Republic of Chile/Rapa Nui National Park (The Moai Statues), China/ the Great Wall of China, Cambodia/ Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, India/ Taj Mahal, Japan/ cultural property of Kyoto (the Temple of the Golden Pavilion), Buddhism structures in the surroundings of the temple of Horyu, Shirakawago, Itsukushima Shinto Shrine, Denmark/ Roskilde Cathedral, Germany/ Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen, Spain/ Works of Antoni Gaudi, Brazil/ Brasilia (cathedral), Nepal/ the valley of Kathmandu (Swayambhunath temple), Turkey/ Historic Areas of Istanbul (Sultanahmet Camii), and Korea/ Hwaseong Fortress.
A part of admission fee and proceeds of product sales will be contributed to activities towards world heritage by the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan.

In another venue, there are sections including a message from well-known people, an image of a TV program, called “The World Heritage” by TBS-TV, the picture of world heritage sites seen from space, and a LEGO® mini-shop, so not only children but also adults can enjoy the event.

The exhibition is open weekdays noon ~ 7 p.m., with entry until 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through June 3rd the exhibition is open 10:30 a.m. ~ 8 p.m., with final entry at 7:30 p.m. Admission is 500 for everyone over 16, 300 for 7-15 year olds, and 200 for children 3-6.

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True story behind Huangyan Island dispute in South China Sea

Posted on 10th May 2012 in The monuments of world

The controversy over a tiny island in the South China Sea has intensified, making it the most serious standoff between China and the Philippines in the sea in recent years.

In early April, the Philippines sent a warship to harass 12 Chinese fishing vessels which sailed into the waters of Huangyan Island to shelter from bad weather.

According to media reports, the Philippines has also notified China on its readiness to raise the issue of the sovereignty of Huangyan Island to international arbitration. In addition, it tried to rename the island and remove the signs and monuments related to China.

WHO IS THE TROUBLEMAKER

Huangyan Island, a group of reefs and islets about 550 sea miles away from the Hainan Island in south China, has long provided a perfect shelter for fishing ships from nearby islands and the mainland of China.

“For many generations we have fished in this water,” said Ke Weixiu, a fisherman and native from the port of Tanmen in Hainan.

However, since the 1990s, Chinese fishermen have repeatedly been harassed by Philippine warships.

According to the fishery department under the Ministry of Agriculture, four Chinese fishing boats were intercepted by the Philippine navy in the waters around the island from January to March in 1998 and 51 fishermen on board were detained for about six months.

In May 1999, a Chinese fishing boat was rammed by a Philippine warship and sunk, according to the ministry.

From 2000 to 2011, at least 32 fishing ships, with 439 fishermen on board, were chased, robbed or detained by the Philippine navy.

The latest event occurred in April. Xu Detan, captain of one of the 12 fishing ships harassed, has not recovered from the shocking encounter with the Philippine navy even three weeks after returning home.

“A Philippine warship blocked our entry to the lagoon where we docked our ships,” Xu recalled. “We had no choice but to wait inside as they were armed.”

On April 10, nine Philippine soldiers, on a inflatable, boarded Xu’s ship with seven of them carrying rifles.

“They turned off the radio and satellite positioning system on my ship, searched the whole ship and took pictures while the 16 members of the crew, including me, were standing on the deck under the hot sun for four hours.”

Two Chinese Marine Surveillance ships conducting routine patrols in the area later came to the fishermen’s rescue and helped Xu and his colleagues return home safely.

“Usually a fishing trip will take 50 days but this time we were forced to cut it short to 25 days,” he said.

PHILIPPINES’ TERRITORIAL CLAIM IS UNTENABLE

Until 1997, the Philippines never disputed China’s jurisdiction and development of the island. But recently the Philippines has played tricks and triggered disturbances, as well as claiming the island as theirs.

The Philippines says it is the nearest country to Huangyan Island, so it claims the island belongs to it on this premise.

“This theory based on geographic distance for territorial sovereignty has absolutely no basis in international law and judicial practice,” according to Zhang Haiwen, deputy director of China Institute for Marine Affairs under State Oceanic Administration.

“There is no such principle in international law that determines territorial ownership by geographic distance,” Zhang said, noting that many countries around the world have territories which are far away from their mainland and much closer to other countries.

“For example, the British Channel Islands are less than 12 nautical miles off the French coastline at their closest proximity. Some French territorial islands stretch across the Atlantic, lie close to the Canadian coastline in north America and even in the Pacific. But none of these islands have territorial disputes due to geographic distance,” said Zhang.

“The world map would be totally redrawn if the Philippines’ theory was upheld,” Zhang said.

The Philippines claims that Huangyan Island is in the country’s 200-nautical miles-wide Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and says its claim is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Law Of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Liu Feng, a researcher with National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said that the UNCLOS has neither the articles to change a country’s land territory, nor does it have the authority to allow a country to take another country’s territory by the right of the EEZ and the continental shelf.

The Philippines claims that the United States controlled Huangyan Island, thus it has inherited the island’s sovereignty and jurisdiction from the U.S. military.

“U.S. forces in the Philippines used Huangyan Island as a shooting range, but the U.S. has never claimed sovereignty over the island. How could the Philippines inherit it? It’s ridiculous,” said Zhang Haiwen.

“All the Philippine rhetoric is untenable in terms of international law,” said Liu Feng. “So the Philippines wants to take the initiative to stir things up by sending warships to harass Chinese fishermen in Huangyan Island waters and escalate tensions.”

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Review: Bio details revolution in approach to food

Posted on 7th May 2012 in The monuments of world

“The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance” (Free Press), by Thomas McNamee: Many of us can no longer remember what life was like before arugula and balsamic vinegar became part of the larder, celebrity chefs strutted their stuff on TV and the term “foodie” made its way into common parlance.

But that was the state of the culinary scene little more than a half-century ago when the writer who was to become arguably the most influential restaurant critic of our time landed his dream job by being named food editor of The New York Times.

“What Craig Claiborne saw when he looked out across the vast expanse of the United States was a gastronomic landscape blighted by ignorance and apathy, a drearily insular domain of overdone roast beef and canned green beans,” Thomas McNamee writes in “The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance,” his comprehensive biography of this towering figure whose public success masked a troubled life.

Claiborne reshaped the world of food criticism, taking it from advertiser-friendly puff pieces displayed on what were then known as the newspaper’s women’s page to a respected genre whose work reflected the same rigor and gravity as that of the Times’ drama, music and art critics. He guided a generation of readers from TV dinners, Reddi-wip and Cheez Whiz to classic French cuisine, Szechwan cooking from China and Mexican dishes that went beyond tacos and tortillas.

“Julia Child was beloved, but Craig Claiborne was the authority,” says McNamee.

The author recounts Claiborne’s unhappy childhood in the Mississippi Delta, where he grew up in genteel poverty, was bullied by schoolmates and found refuge in the kitchen of his mother’s boarding house. After studying journalism in college, he joined the Navy during World War II and was introduced to exotic cuisine and gay sex during a stint in Casablanca.

Claiborne joined the Times after training in classic French cuisine and service at a prestigious hotel school in Switzerland and writing for Gourmet magazine. His prodigious output went beyond his newspaper columns and reviews, encompassing a string of best-selling cookbooks, many co-authored by longtime friend Pierre Franey.

Despite his success and many honors, Claiborne’s life appears to have brought only superficial joy. Forced by the strictures of the times to hide his homosexuality, he was often depressed and nagged by self-doubt. His alcohol consumption was mind-boggling, as he routinely downed a half-dozen margaritas or scotches, a bottle or two of wine and a few stingers or cognacs before, during and after dinner. It was a rare morning that didn’t include a hangover.

This first comprehensive account of Claiborne’s life transports readers to renowned restaurants, profiles innovative chefs and traces the revolution in dining that his writings did much to inspire.

The book is replete with anecdotes and memorable incidents, some of them monuments to breathtaking excess. There is the lavish party on the liner SS France to celebrate Claiborne’s 50th birthday, where guests included Salvador Dali and his pet ocelot; the closing of the legendary restaurant Le Pavillon in 1960 after the staff walked out amid a feud with its tyrannical boss, Henri Soule; and, of course, Claiborne’s $4,000 dinner for two in Paris, an outgrowth of a public television auction.

Students of social history and readers with an abiding interest in food will find much to savor in this book. But those whose palates aren’t attuned to the likes of foie gras and truffles may get their fill early on. De gustibus.

___

Online:

http://www.thomasmcnamee.com/index.htm

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Bio traces achievements, troubled life of food writer who revolutionized US approach to food

Posted on 7th May 2012 in The monuments of world

“The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance” (Free Press), by Thomas McNamee: Many of us can no longer remember what life was like before arugula and balsamic vinegar became part of the larder, celebrity chefs strutted their stuff on TV and the term “foodie” made its way into common parlance.

But that was the state of the culinary scene little more than a half-century ago when the writer who was to become arguably the most influential restaurant critic of our time landed his dream job by being named food editor of The New York Times.

“What Craig Claiborne saw when he looked out across the vast expanse of the United States was a gastronomic landscape blighted by ignorance and apathy, a drearily insular domain of overdone roast beef and canned green beans,” Thomas McNamee writes in “The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance,” his comprehensive biography of this towering figure whose public success masked a troubled life.

Claiborne reshaped the world of food criticism, taking it from advertiser-friendly puff pieces displayed on what were then known as the newspaper’s women’s page to a respected genre whose work reflected the same rigour and gravity as that of the Times’ drama, music and art critics. He guided a generation of readers from TV dinners, Reddi-wip and Cheez Whiz to classic French cuisine, Szechwan cooking from China and Mexican dishes that went beyond tacos and tortillas.

“Julia Child was beloved, but Craig Claiborne was the authority,” says McNamee.

The author recounts Claiborne’s unhappy childhood in the Mississippi Delta, where he grew up in genteel poverty, was bullied by schoolmates and found refuge in the kitchen of his mother’s boarding house. After studying journalism in college, he joined the Navy during World War II and was introduced to exotic cuisine and gay sex during a stint in Casablanca.

Claiborne joined the Times after training in classic French cuisine and service at a prestigious hotel school in Switzerland and writing for Gourmet magazine. His prodigious output went beyond his newspaper columns and reviews, encompassing a string of bestselling cookbooks, many co-authored by longtime friend Pierre Franey.

Despite his success and many honours, Claiborne’s life appears to have brought only superficial joy. Forced by the strictures of the times to hide his homosexuality, he was often depressed and nagged by self-doubt. His alcohol consumption was mind-boggling, as he routinely downed a half-dozen margaritas or scotches, a bottle or two of wine and a few stingers or cognacs before, during and after dinner. It was a rare morning that didn’t include a hangover.

This first comprehensive account of Claiborne’s life transports readers to renowned restaurants, profiles innovative chefs and traces the revolution in dining that his writings did much to inspire.

The book is replete with anecdotes and memorable incidents, some of them monuments to breathtaking excess. There is the lavish party on the liner SS France to celebrate Claiborne’s 50th birthday, where guests included Salvador Dali and his pet ocelot; the closing of the legendary restaurant Le Pavillon in 1960 after the staff walked out amid a feud with its tyrannical boss, Henri Soule; and, of course, Claiborne’s $4,000 dinner for two in Paris, an outgrowth of a public television auction.

Students of social history and readers with an abiding interest in food will find much to savour in this book. But those whose palates aren’t attuned to the likes of foie gras and truffles may get their fill early on. De gustibus.

___

Online:

http://www.thomasmcnamee.com/index.htm

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Clinton heads to India to breathe life into ties

Posted on 6th May 2012 in The monuments of world

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to India on Sunday with hopes of reinvigorating a relationship seen as losing steam despite years of efforts to bring the world’s two largest democracies closer.

Clinton will be wading into a row over Iran, which is sending a large trade delegation this week to New Delhi despite US threats to slap sanctions in a matter of weeks on countries that buy the Islamic republic’s oil.

Yet Clinton may find her final stop on a three-nation tour the most easy-going, after a tense visit to China defusing a crisis over a dissident and a stop to urge reconciliation in polarised Bangladesh.

The veteran politician will fly Sunday from Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka to the Indian metropolis Kolkata, where she will tour monuments and meet ordinary citizens in her latest bid to use her personal popularity as a diplomatic tool.

Clinton said that she saw ample progress in relations with India, pointing to rising trade and cooperation in areas from education to clean energy.

“I think it’s like any relationship — there is progress in some areas that we are very heartened by, and there is more work to be done,” Clinton told reporters.

“But that’s the commitment that we make when we say to another country, we want to be your partner,” she said.

The United States and India, which had uneasy relations during the Cold War, started to reconcile in the late 1990s under former president Bill Clinton and reached a symbolic milestone when his successor George W. Bush championed a deal that ended India’s decades of isolation over its nuclear programme.

But longtime champions of the relationship have begun to voice disappointment, with US businesses upset that India’s parliament has not passed legislation they seek to enter in the nuclear and retail sectors.

India has bristled at a US law that would impose sanctions on banks from countries that buy oil from Iran due to concerns over its contested nuclear programme. Only EU nations and Japan have so far been given exemptions to the law which starts on June 28.

India has been reducing oil imports from Iran, but is highly dependent on foreign energy and has historically enjoyed friendly relations with Tehran.

T.P. Sreenivasan, a former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, said that expectations for the US-India relationship had not been met but that Clinton had the advantage of being considered a friend of New Delhi.

The visit “comes at a useful time as there is a certain amount of strain in relations that needs to be rectified,” he said.

“The relationship has lost momentum partly because there is nothing new that either side can think of and also both are preoccupied with their own internal problems,” he said.

But C. Raja Mohan, a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, said that India and the United States had the same objectives in Iran and would likely want to “keep their differences to manageable limits.”

“Contrary to what one might think, the relations are reasonably on track in terms of their engagement. The US is in election mode; India has its own problems,” Mohan said.

Experts noted that the United States made little fuss last month when India tested its nuclear-capable Agni V missile, which can reach far into China, a far cry from fierce US condemnation of New Delhi’s nuclear efforts in the 1990s.

“Now the US views India as a strategic partner with growing economic and political clout that will contribute to promoting security and stability in Asia,” said a paper by Lisa Curtis and Baker Spring, fellows at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative US think tank.

India has recently worked to repair relations with historic enemy Pakistan, removing one potential headache for the United States whose own relations with Islamabad have been in crisis since last year’s killing of Osama bin Laden.

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Is Automation the Handmaiden of Inequality?

Posted on 3rd May 2012 in The monuments of world

We’ve all heard it before: Americans are more productive than ever, but hourly compensation has stagnated for decades.

The facile explanation for this trend is that we outsourced all our manufacturing jobs. Except that our manufacturing output is higher than ever, and we’re in a dead heat with China for the title of world’s leading manufacturer of stuff.

I’m not arguing that outsourcing isn’t a big factor in this trend — clearly it is — but I’m more interested in another measure of American workers’ changing productivity. Check out what happens when we look at growth in US “Total Factor” productivity since WWII. You’ll notice that it has an inflection point in the early 1970′s, just like the wage growth graph up top.

Total factor productivity “measures any advancement that has been made in how to use existing resources to increase overall output and incomes,” but explicitly does not record changes in productivity due to net increases in the amount of machines or labor in an economy. (There’s more on this measure and its disconnect from IT deployment an earlier post.)

In other words, wage stagnation roughly tracks with stagnation in worker total factor productivity, or productivity minus all those machines and automation we’ve brought on board to make our megacorporations more profitable than ever.

Here’s how I would interpret the odd coincidence of these two trends: in a perfectly capitalist system, increased profit produced by automation flows to the owners of the business. Worker compensation stagnates because, while automation makes each worker more productive, it doesn’t make them any more valuable. While all these machines and IT infrastructure do require a quasi-elite caste of Mandarins to keep them running, on the whole, the skill required of individual laborers has actually gone down.

(Caveat emptor: I’m not an economist. Hit the comments if you have a different interpretation.)

The stagnation of total factor productivity, which is essentially the ability of workers to become more productive independent of machines, shows that US workers are maxed out. In this economy, working harder isn’t going to get you any further along. Education might, if it allows you to climb the value chain and acquire skills for which there is actually a shortage.

What’s interesting is that there are countries in which the productivity / wage disconnect hasn’t occurred, or is less severe. Unlike the UK, Canada and US, France and Italy have seen wages track more closely with productivity. What these countries have in common are strong labor protections and active labor unions. Which suggests that if workers want to claw back part of the value they’ve created, there is no mechanism in a laissez faire economy that will grant it to them.

@mims or email

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Is Automation the Handmaiden of Inequality?

Posted on 3rd May 2012 in The monuments of world

We’ve all heard it before: Americans are more productive than ever, but hourly compensation has stagnated for decades.

The facile explanation for this trend is that we outsourced all our manufacturing jobs. Except that our manufacturing output is higher than ever, and we’re in a dead heat with China for the title of world’s leading manufacturer of stuff.

I’m not arguing that outsourcing isn’t a big factor in this trend — clearly it is — but I’m more interested in another measure of American workers’ changing productivity. Check out what happens when we look at growth in US “Total Factor” productivity since WWII. You’ll notice that it has an inflection point in the early 1970′s, just like the wage growth graph up top.

Total factor productivity “measures any advancement that has been made in how to use existing resources to increase overall output and incomes,” but explicitly does not record changes in productivity due to net increases in the amount of machines or labor in an economy. (There’s more on this measure and its disconnect from IT deployment an earlier post.)

In other words, wage stagnation roughly tracks with stagnation in worker total factor productivity, or productivity minus all those machines and automation we’ve brought on board to make our megacorporations more profitable than ever.

Here’s how I would interpret the odd coincidence of these two trends: in a perfectly capitalist system, increased profit produced by automation flows to the owners of the business. Worker compensation stagnates because, while automation makes each worker more productive, it doesn’t make them any more valuable. While all these machines and IT infrastructure do require a quasi-elite caste of Mandarins to keep them running, on the whole, the skill required of individual laborers has actually gone down.

(Caveat emptor: I’m not an economist. Hit the comments if you have a different interpretation.)

The stagnation of total factor productivity, which is essentially the ability of workers to become more productive independent of machines, shows that US workers are maxed out. In this economy, working harder isn’t going to get you any further along. Education might, if it allows you to climb the value chain and acquire skills for which there is actually a shortage.

What’s interesting is that there are countries in which the productivity / wage disconnect hasn’t occurred, or is less severe. Unlike the UK, Canada and US, France and Italy have seen wages track more closely with productivity. What these countries have in common are strong labor protections and active labor unions. Which suggests that if workers want to claw back part of the value they’ve created, there is no mechanism in a laissez faire economy that will grant it to them.

@mims or email

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Friendly Planet Travel Kicks Off Phase II of Its “Win the World” Facebook Sweepstakes, Giving Away 3 Additional Exotic …

Posted on 1st May 2012 in The monuments of world

JENKINTOWN, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Surfing on Facebook has become much more profitable ever since Friendly Planet Travel launched its “Win the World” Sweepstakes. In the kick off of Phase II of the amazing, six-destination giveaway on Facebook, just one click enters fans to win a trip of a lifetime for two to three incredible destinations.

In the first phase of the sweepstakes, three exotic trips for two—to South Africa, Peru, and China—were awarded to Facebook fans during the period of January 1 to March 31. After the excitement of Phase I, and a one-month hiatus to catch its breath, Friendly Planet Travel is ready to launch Phase II.

The first drawing, scheduled for June 1, will award a free trip for two to Turkey on Friendly Planet Travel’s popular Best of Turkey program, valued at more than $5,000. A second drawing, scheduled for July 1,will award a free trip for two to Ireland on Friendly Planet Travel’s A Taste of Ireland tour; and a final drawing, scheduled for August 1, will award a free trip for two to India on Friendly Planet’s Taj Mahal Express tour.

Like Phase I, Phase II will give travel aficionados a chance to escape to an exotic destination with included flights, great hotels, some meals, and plenty of escorted touring.

The “Win the World” Sweepstakes is open to all legal U.S. residents over the age of 21, beginning May 1, 2012 at 12 p.m. EDT and ending July 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. To enter to win, visit Facebook.com/FriendlyPlanetTravel, become a fan of the page, and enter the required information. There is no purchase necessary to enter the sweepstakes, and the winner will be announced on Friendly Planet Travel’s Facebook page, the Friendly Planet Travel website, and the Friendly Planet Travel blog.

The first of the three prizes in the sweepstakes is a getaway for two to the crossroads of Europe and Asia—Turkey. All of the inclusions travelers expect from Friendly Planet Travel are included: round-trip airfare from New York’s JFK airport on Turkish Airlines (including fuel surcharges); ground transportation and transfers within Turkey; and 12 nights in superior, first-class hotels. The package also includes 12 buffet breakfasts and 10 dinners; a professional, English-speaking tour director; a comprehensive touring program; and more.

The tour visits Istanbul, where travelers will see unique and iconic sites, including the Blue Mosque , the Hagia Sophia, and the Grand Bazaar. Travelers will also visit Ankara, Turkey’s capital city, and Cappadocia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with famous rock formations and underground cities.

The trip also includes a visit to the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, a bustling city and resort town; Pamukkale, an area filled with many hot springs and stunning white terraces; and Kusadasi. Travelers will also take in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and famous for the Temple of Artemis, Temple of Hadrian, and the Great Theater. The ruins of Pergamon; the famed ancient medical center in Asklepion; and the ancient city of Troy, best known as the focus of the Trojan War, are also visited.

The Best of Turkey tour concludes with a ferry across the Dardanelles; a visit to Gallipoli, where one of the fiercest battles of World War I took place; and a farewell group dinner.

The other two tours that will be awarded in Phase II of the “Win the World” Sweepstakes are:

For more information about Friendly Planet Travel, please visit the company’s website at www.FriendlyPlanet.com; the blog at blog.FriendlyPlanet.com; or contact Jackie Zima-Evans at 610-228-2138 (office), 215-534-2973 (mobile), or write to Jackie@GregoryFCA.com. To enter to win and for continual updates about the giveaways, check out Friendly Planet Travel’s Facebook page.

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Pompidou plans to go global: focus is Brazil, India, China

Posted on 30th April 2012 in The monuments of world

Museums France

President looks to extend the brand through a network of rotating galleries

By Gareth Harris. News, Issue 235, May 2012
Published online: 30 April 2012

The Centre Pompidou is looking to expand abroad with a chain of galleries that will carry the flagship French institution’s brand. Alain Seban, the president of the Centre Pompidou, says that museums, universities and even shopping malls could host exhibitions of items drawn from the Paris-based institution’s 72,000-strong collection of modern and contemporary art. Seban plans to establish a network of sites, each measuring around 2,000 sq. m to 3,000 sq. m, for periods of between three and five years.

The ambitious move will draw comparisons with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which has established a global network of museums in New York, Venice, Bilbao and Berlin, with another outpost due to open in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat cultural district in 2017 (see below), and another proposed in Helsinki. “The Guggenheim model of expansion was based on replicating the New York original: flagship architecture, cutting-edge temporary exhibitions, a modest display of the permanent collection and the fantastic appeal of the brand,” Seban says. “We are taking a more modest approach, with temporary projects in existing venues like museums [and] universities, but why not historical monuments, former industrial facilities or shopping malls? We will draw on the scope of our collection, [which is] the best in Europe, and the strength of our own brand.”

He would not be drawn on exact locations abroad but indicates that he is targeting Bric (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries with growing economies—and art scenes. “This is a strategy for expanding internationally into territories that can aim to create their own contemporary art brands. Countries such as China, India and Brazil, for instance, can develop such brands in the future.” Such ventures abroad would require a “fee” to facilitate funding, Seban says.

This is not the first time the Pompidou has tried to branch out overseas. In 2007, the then president Bruno Racine said he expected a museum carrying the Pompidou’s name to open in Shanghai before 2010. The programming was to be determined by the Pompidou. The location chosen for the new museum was a former fire station in the Luwan district’s Huaihai Park. But the scheme never materialised because of difficult negotiations with the Chinese authorities: the main obstacle was the lack of a legal framework for a non-profit foreign institution to operate in China (The Art Newspaper, October 2007, p15). A joint attempt by the Guggenheim and the Centre Pompidou, in conjunction with the developer Dynamic Star International, to operate the planned cultural facilities in the West Kowloon cultural district in Hong Kong by 2018 was also thwarted.

The Pompidou’s partnership with the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, an arts complex incorporating a museum to be built in the Saudi Arabian city of Dhahran by 2013, also seems to have stalled. “Saudi Aramco [the state-owned oil company behind the project] is reviewing the proposition; this process is currently slowed down by a general budget review,” Seban says. The Centre Pompidou originally agreed to assist in two areas: temporary exhibition programmes and training.

At home, though, the Pompidou’s profile has never been higher. In 2011, the Beaubourg gallery drew a record 3.6 million visitors, an increase of 40% in five years. The Centre Pompidou-Metz, the northern French satellite which opened in May 2010, had 555,000 visitors last year.

Seban is talking to local authorities across France about creating an equivalent chain of Pompidou-branded galleries, which, he says, would be part of “le service publique” and therefore mainly state-funded. He is buoyed by the success of the mobile Centre Pompidou, which began touring the French provinces last year. The travelling exhibition, drawn from the collection, of 15 works by artists including Picasso, Léger and Calder, attracted more than 35,000 visitors over three months during its first stop in Chaumont (Haute-Marne), northern France. The mobile museum moves on to Boulogne-sur-Mer in June with plans to visit Le Havre and Nantes in 2013.

Rolling out the Pompidou brand at home and abroad is key to Seban’s strategy, especially as, he says, there are restrictions on enlarging the Paris mothership. “We cannot build permanent satellites because of the economy and we cannot expand the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Our aim is to focus on the main building, which needs renovation.”

Arguably the real revolution is taking place online, with Seban saying that the Virtual Centre Pompidou, due to go live later this year, will differ from other museum websites in that it adopts “a content-driven approach. Any content produced by the Centre Pompidou, from catalogues to interviews with artists and curators, will be transferred automatically onto our new web platform, which will act as a digital mirror to the Centre Pompidou.”

This strategy also includes re-evaluating how shows of works from the collection dovetail with big temporary exhibitions. “We need to rethink the model of blockbuster shows and focus more on the idea of the permanent collection. We could, for instance, rotate the collection more quickly to create a series of ‘mini-shows’ that will blur the boundaries between temporary exhibitions and the permanent collection,” Seban says. Talk of dividing the collection is also premature, he stresses. “In 2013, we will focus on globalisation on the modern and contemporary art floors of the Centre Pompidou. It would be a huge mistake to split the collection into two now since our collection of non-Western modern art is among the best in the world.” Meanwhile, a Jeff Koons retrospective organised with New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is due to open at the Centre Pompidou in 2014.

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