Life and kidnapping Colombia

Posted on December 7, 2011 by admin

We could say that the guerrillas in Colombia has more than half a century, I still remember my years, I thought in the revolution of ideas and in which, the only viable option was the guerrillas, who had ideology, fighting for slogan for the people, their rights, decent social life, a better distribution of wealth, land, the end of landlordism and the right to life and land.

But all this has changed over the course of the years, and only left us one more story of violence, a violence that seems never ending and Colombian society which got used, but if you have to say is that after the abduction of the military for more than 15 years in the jungle rot, waiting for more than a decade, has an agreement or negotiation, or are not expected not too long, I think is the longest sentence for any crime you can know, but the prison would be better, it would have more comfortable and could see your family at each visit, but they only live in the jungle chained to a tree, like animals, living in the worst conditions, without food, health, some will be free to dream and see their families again, but that for many of them it was not possible and many have died in captivity, hoping someday to be released.

But if you have achieved something besides the usual speeches and in Colombia, there are a lot of armed groups to fight the guerrillas as well as hundreds of political parties is no longer see the soldier, or police as the enemy the people, that he had a gun in his possession and the law into their hand and committed atrocities, today there are hundreds of justifying their fight, kill kill whole villages whole families, orphaned children left without until We have not killed his parents in their own eyes, that this war without mercy does not end and continues to have children of war.

We are all children of a conflict that has not improved but worsened the social condition of thousands of Colombians who had to leave their land and leave only with the clothes, to go do some of that new class called displaced, a conflict that if I can expropriate the land, and generate wealth but only those who can pay for your monitor and you can pay to kill others and have more land.

During this time we have seen the news have the best novel, with the respect that many of the hostages they deserve, but it was the best novel in ratings, but selling not only entertainment, but if the pain of others, that feeling that when these outside and free, without the shackles of abduction can not imagine the horrors of war, and why not respect the dignity of people, because the world allows prisoners of war are protected life, and only see Nazi period films, and think as it could be possible, as could happen for so many years, and nobody did anything.

We always hope the story and see them off, hope to see with his family, then change the channel with a sigh, but nothing more. But many still being held hostage until another chapter begins and is the front-page news, without having an end. But how much longer I take it.

Looking at the comments people are always the division of opinion between the government should negotiate and not redeemed, if you were in the jungle with them beyond would think so, or my question why those who have been released, only decided to continue with their lives and do nothing for their classmates who were there, return to freedom. until when? Until when? They live in Colombia with the idea of ​​the government does not act, it does nothing, when the people who one day felt it was his guerrilla army of liberation, act and demand that violence must end that although we have no weapons and hundreds of armed groups, are more and have ideas and want a new country, that that one day get that poverty is not an incurable disease and work together to get something better.

The slain officer notebook to let her daughter

“As a tribute of love I’ll hopefully keep this book as a treasure of love that makes you remember every time you see your father distant and diffuse, confined to a jungle serving a whim that men invented but not yet distance and time can make me forget the little angel of love begotten. “

That first paragraph on page 91 Viviana Duarte helped him to meet his father, who was fired after 2 years and never seen alive again. He had to settle for survival tests in which he always saw a being without libertad.Hoy, the object came in a package with everything that one of the world’s oldest abducted saved as their treasure, through letters of love, portraits and a chess

He was one of the 4 officers who were killed by shots in the head, by the guerrillas to be near the army. They were killed in captivity after waiting many years for his release.

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Stop Violence against women

Posted on November 24, 2011 by admin

Oppression and harassment of women is a consistent and systemic global phenomenon that dates back over millennia. In many countries, men still hold the legal right to beat, torture, imprison or kill the women they “own.” In the U.S., a man beats a woman every 12 seconds and four women die every day as a result of beating by a man. In Canada as in the rest of the industrialized nations, assaults and killings of women and male incest with children are too often treated as individual acts by media and politicians in spite of the fact that statistics clearly tell us that there is a global war going on against women. Slavery is certainly not done away with as the official line goes. It has just changed. Now a majority of the slaves brutally trafficked and sold around the globe as sex slaves, soldiers and unpaid workers have women’s and children’s faces.

Against this background it is outrageous that men’s ongoing violence against women and children is not even mentioned in the prime minister’s “tough on crime” bill.

It’s a month of reflection; a month for all of us to consider the effects of gender-based violence for women in our society, for their children, loved ones, and co-workers, and, indeed, for our community.

Intimate partner abuse is not about love or anger or the result of alcohol or drugs: it is about power and about controlling the other partner.

And unfortunately, it’s tragically common.

Whether we have proof or not, most of us know a woman or child in our circle of family, friends, or co-workers who we suspect is being abused.

No one is immune or protected. Gender-based violence affects women of all ages, socioeconomic status, educational level, cultural background and race.

this story is the same a hundred of the same pattern

This subject hits close to home, lived it, endured it and survived it. Thinking it was all my fault, thought it was the way it was supposed to be. Thought others lived the same.

But years later, the recorder still goes off in my head, when someone rises there arm or hand too quickly, I still react by ducking. Loud noises remind me of gunshots and set me on edge. Yelling and screaming, do amazing things to me. Touching my neck even though you’re playing, remembering getting choked till I couldn’t breathe.

This man damaged my life, mentally and physically abused me, he manipulated me, wanted me to be who he wanted me to be, not allowing me to be me. Not to wear make-up, not to have friends, not to go anywhere, timed when I did, he knew how long it took to go to the store, get his beer and be back, don’t be late he would say, you know what will happen, he didn’t want me to have a life accept him and my children.

It has taken me years to quit looking over my shoulder, and not to look at the time to make sure I was getting home on time.

Pregnant with his son, which claimed at birth not to be his, then he raped me and I was pregnant again with my third child he wanted me to abort the baby I flat out refused, and he had nothing to say about the baby the whole nine months I was pregnant, being pregnant didn’t stop him from being a abuser. When my baby came home she was suddenly his pride and joy, go figure.

This is what really helped me decide to move to another state and taking the children, left in the middle of the night with my mom and dad would came to get us. Thinking the mental abuse was over, he couldn’t haunt me, he would be so far away.

Life took some time to get use too, looking over my shoulder, worrying about the children, at school, worried all the time.

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Here’s How To Move Your Complaint To The Top Of The Pile

Posted on November 14, 2011 by admin

When Spirit Airlines botched my flight home from Montego Bay in July and stuck me with an 8-hour overnight layover in Ft. Lauderdale without bothering to inform me, I saw shades of red I never even knew existed.

Experience has taught me that if you want speedy customer service these days, nothing works better than stirring up a good stink on the company’s Twitter or Facebook page.

Unfortunately, my fantasies of seeing “Spirit Air Is The Worst” shoot to the top spot as a trending topic were killed when I realized the company had neither an official Twitter or Facebook page to speak of.

Given the airline’s track record of abysmal customer service, it’s not hard to imagine why.

Companies basically open themselves up to a world of hurt when they offer customer service on public forums like social media sites.

These sites have rapidly become the new “town halls” for consumers to bash brands for falling short, much like National Bank Transfer Day gained steam on Facebook after banks announced plans to charge consumers $5 debit card fees.

But a new survey released this month by Conversocial revealed social media isn’t always the surest way to have your voice heard. In fact, some companies are straight up ignoring your tweets and wall posts.

Of ten retail brands surveyed, the worst offenders were Costco, Kmart and Kroger, which were found to ignore 100 percent of all consumer complaints on their Facebook page.

Sears and Safeway scored high marks, answering 57 percent and 40 percent of complaints in less than 30 minutes, respectively.

But overall, the study found the majority of complaints voiced on Twitter and Facebook were largely ignored

Here are some ways to give yourself the best shot at having your voice heard:

Be persistent. I set up a reminder for myself a week after I emailed Spirit with my first complaint so I would remember to email them again. After my second message, I received a response from a representative and had a full refund within a month.

Power in numbers. There were a couple dozen other passengers on my flight just as annoyed as I was when we were stuck overnight without any forewarning. As a group, we decided we would send in complaints and that may have helped us in the long run. It’s far more difficult to ignore a slew of identical messages than a single complaint.

Don’t underestimate the hashtag. Even if the company doesn’t have a Twitter account, that doesn’t mean you can’t cause a ruckus anyway. Tag your tweet with a hashtag and the company’s name (ex: #SpiritAIr, #Costco) and anyone who searches for their name on the site will eventually see your tweet. I tweeted a gripe about Spirit and saw my message retweeted by users who had similar experiences, which gave my message more impact.

Skip the phone. Customer service lines are a labyrinth seemingly designed to make you want to hang up. Going to a store in person to speak with a manager makes you harder to ignore. If that’s not an option, check out Gethuman.com, a great source for tracking down phone numbers for real people in companies.

Track your moves. It’s important to keep a record, so you can back yourself if a company tries to tell you they never received your complaint. Email leaves a trail, but if you call, record the date and time of the call and ask for the full name of whoever you speak with.

Take it to the top. A friend called Subway’s corporate office when he had a terrible experience at one of their shops and received a response in record time. The CEO does not want to be bothered by consumer complaints and it’s likely he or she will put pressure on lower level departments to get back to you if you pester their office too much.

Be nice. I’ll be the first to admit I can be hot headed when it comes to poor customer service. But before I call a company to complain, I give myself at least half an hour to gather my thoughts and calm myself down. You’re far more likely to have a positive result if you are kind and polite.

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Chinese girl run over

Posted on October 19, 2011 by admin

China toddler1 300x225 Chinese girl run over

It is a story that has deeply unsettled millions in China, posing troubling questions about whether three decades of headlong economic development has left nothing but a moral vacuum in its wake.

It begins last Thursday when a two-year-old girl totters into a narrow lane in a wholesale market in the thriving industrial city of Foshan in Guangdong Province and is hit by a small, white van. The driver pauses, and then pulls away, crushing the child for a second time under his rear wheels.

It is not the accident itself, but what happens next — or rather doesn’t happen – that has left millions of ordinary Chinese wondering where their country is heading.

One by one, no fewer than 18 passers-by are seen on closed circuit television ignoring the girl as she lies, clearly visible in the road, hemorrhaging into the gutter. Not a single one of them stops to help.
The first is a young man in a white T-shirt and trainers. He walks on past the prone form of girl who is by now bleeding profusely, without a second glance.

Next comes a cyclist who wobbles slightly to avoid the dying child and then pedals on, turning his head back momentarily, as if to check he really did see a child dying in the street.
As the pool of blood spreads, a third pedestrian comes by, clearly sees the bleeding girl, but steps out into the small lane to give her a wide berth.

Many viewers reacted with dismay, citing the incident as further evidence that China had become a “world without morals”.

“Everyone is praising the rubbish-collecting granny for helping, but isn’t it normal to help someone who is wounded or dying?”, asked Johnny Yao on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, “This just shows how abnormal is the moral situation in this society! The sad Chinese, poor China are we even rescuable?”

Others blamed China’s compensation culture for the apparent show of callousness, recalling a famous 2006 judgment when a Good Samaritan who helped a woman get to hospital was wrongly ordered to pay her compensation.
“They didn’t ignore the girl, they just didn’t dare help her,” said one comment among many that said that Chinese law had helped create a fear of intervening.

When do we say we are human or being human? May be it is tough to answer that in one sentence. But if you were to ask when are we being inhuman? people will give answers citing recent examples. That is the tragedy of our world. It is ironic that we remember examples of inhumanity than humanity in a world over populated by humans.

“It has something to do with what we call a diffusion of responsibility. The more people who are available, the less responsibility each individual seems to take for providing help to an individual in distress,” said Gaies.

Such theoretical psychological constructs are of course little consolation to little Wang, or her shattered parents, as she battles for her life. Yet, the two-year-old girl who has caused a country of 1.3 billion people to pause and reset their moral compass has in a larger sense attained immortality.

“Freedom to establish our own behavior in a sphere where the choice is imposed by material circumstances, and the responsibility for building your own life according to conscience, are the only spheres in which moral feelings can develop, and moral values are replicated every day by free will.”

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bullying has to stop

Posted on September 20, 2011 by admin

We have all known someone in our lives who has been bullied. Whether it has been our child, our siblings, ourselves, or even our co-workers. Bullying does not stop on the playground that is only where it starts. Children for centuries have found it easy to target one another and elevate themselves by degrading others. It can start with lunch money, a shove on the playground, or a rumor spread through the school. But it can have disastrous effects. Bullying makes a child feel invisible; it makes them feel unloved, unnecessary, and vulnerable. Bullying can make a good child become sullen, sulky, scared, and stand-offish. It can rip apart friendships, families, and lives. Bullying is not just a child being a child. It is mean, spiteful, and malicious. We need to teach our children that bullying does not need to happen.

Bullying is a widespread and serious problem that can happen anywhere. It is not a phase children have to go through, it is not “just messing around”, and it is not something to grow out of. Bullying can cause serious and lasting harm.

Although definitions of bullying vary, most agree that bullying involves:

•Imbalance of Power: people who bully use their power to control or harm and the people being bullied may have a hard time defending themselves
•Intent to Cause Harm: actions done by accident are not bullying; the person bullying has a goal to cause harm
•Repetition: incidents of bullying happen to the same the person over and over by the same person or group

Everyone can help prevent and stop bullying. Adults have the responsibility to protect and be a role model for kids, teens, and young adults.

No matter who you are or who you represent, you can influence lives and maybe even save a life.

Everyone needs to be aware not only about the warning signs and effects of bullying, but also about the ways to intervene and support both the person being bullied and the one bullying others.

Bullying is often a sign of other serious antisocial violent behavior. Bullies are more likely to be underachievers in school, engage in criminal activities as adults, and become abusive spouses. Putting a stop to this early can prevent the potential violence he or she may partake in down the line.

Parents, educators and other adults should take bullying and social aggression seriously. While some degree of teasing is common among children, bullying often gets out of hand and should not be tolerated. Children that experience bullying might develop anxiety and depression and might skip school to avoid bullies. A child that bullies others might think his behavior is acceptable and as he gets older, engage in more serious aggressive behavior.

Teach children appropriate anger management, stress management and communication skills. Education in these areas should begin at a young age. Some children master these skills easily, while others need extra help.

Teach children how to respond if someone bullies them. Children should attempt to ignore the behavior. If that doesn’t work, they can tell the bully to stop. They should not call the bully names or engage in a physical altercation. They should walk away from a confrontation and seek help from an adult.

Intervene if you see a child bullying another child. Tell the bully it is not acceptable to bully other children. Redirect the bully into more a more appropriate activity. Provide comfort as necessary to the children that were victims of bullying.

Encourage children to develop friendships with other children because children that hang out with a group of friends are less likely to be bullied by others. Some children possess better social skills than others. Some children might need training in social skills so they can make friends more easily.

Encourage schools to develop and implement an anti-bullying program. The program should include training for all school staff on how to address bullying and education for students about how to respond to bullying. Schools should provide plenty of supervision for children during times bullying occurs the most, such as lunchtime, recess, in the bathrooms and on the school bus.

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Americans overworked

Posted on September 16, 2011 by admin

We, as Americans, work too many hours. If you don’t believe so, check out the following data points that compare us to our peers around the world.

American Work-Life Balance
■According to the Center for American Progress on the topic of work and family life balance, “in 1960, only 20 percent of mothers worked. Today, 70 percent of American children live in households where all adults are employed.” I don’t care who stays home and who works in terms of gender (work opportunity equality for all – it’s a family choice). Either way, when all adults are working (single or with a partner), that’s a huge hit to the American family and free-time in the American household.

■The U.S. is the ONLY country in the Americas without a national paid parental leave benefit. The average is over 12 weeks of paid leave anywhere other than Europe and over 20 weeks in Europe.

■Zero industrialized nations are without a mandatory option for new parents to take parental leave. That is, except for the United States.

American Average Work Hours:
■At least 134 countries have laws setting the maximum length of the work week; the U.S. does not.

■In the U.S., 85.8 percent of males and 66.5 percent of females work more than 40 hours per week.

■According to the ILO, “Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.”

■Using data by the U.S. BLS, the average productivity per American worker has increased 400% since 1950. One way to look at that is that it should only take one-quarter the work hours, or 11 hours per week, to afford the same standard of living as a worker in 1950 (or our standard of living should be 4 times higher). Is that the case? Obviously not. Someone is profiting, it’s just not the average American worker.

■There is not a federal law requiring paid sick days in the United States.
■The U.S. remains the only industrialized country in the world that has no legally mandated annual leave.

Not only does less vacation time mean we have less time to develop our most critical and lasting relationships with family members and friends, but our physical health is in jeopardy when we refuse to unchain ourselves from the cubicle. Vacations cut down on stress, which any medical expert will tell you is at the center of so many of America’s most pernicious health crises. Two researchers at the State University of New York at Oswego showed that an annual vacation can cut the risk of death from heart disease in women by 50 percent and in men by 32 percent. Taking time out, exploring new horizons, getting away from your desk and moving around, reconnecting with close friends and family are all safeguards against burnout and depression. But this kind of rejuvenation takes time—two weeks, most studies indicate. The average vacation in the United States is now only a long weekend, which just isn’t long enough.

What we All Need to Remember

What we all need to remind ourselves is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

■It’s OK to ask to move to fewer hours at work.
■It’s OK to take a week-long vacation if we need to.
■It’s OK to ask to work from home.
■It’s OK to take a month of unpaid leave while you raise a child.
■It’s OK… you get the idea.

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Cuban dissidents complain of escalating repression

Posted on September 7, 2011 by admin

The level of police violence against peaceful dissidents was the highest in recent years,” the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said Tuesday in a report focusing on incidents last month.

“In August 2011 we documented at least 243 short-term arrests (some for more than a week) and nine acts of censure organized by the numerous and ubiquitous secret political police,” the commission said in a document released to the foreign press in Havana.

The outlawed but tolerated rights panel said that in the first eight months of this year at least 2,221 arrests were made for political reasons, 1,091 more than in the same period in 2010.

It said that the victims of last month’s repression were mainly women engaged in “non-violent activities,” chiefly in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

The commission added that “it has no doubt that the order for that brutal repression was decreed or approved by the highest ranks of the neo-Stalinist regime that has ruled Cuba for more than half a century.”

The Catholic Church in Cuba said Monday that the government of President Raul Castro told prelates that actions targeting peaceful protesters were not authorized by national officials.

Human rights groups and international organizations believe that these articles subordinate the exercise of freedom of expression to the state. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights assess that: “It is evident that the exercise of the right to freedom of expression under this article of the Constitution is governed by two fundamental determinants: on the one hand, the preservation and strengthening of the communist State; on the other, the need to muzzle any criticism of the group in power.” Human rights group Amnesty International assert that the universal state ownership of the media means that freedom of expression is restricted. Thus the exercise of the right to freedom of expression is restricted by the lack of means of mass communication falling outside state control. Human Rights Watch states: “Refusing to recognize human rights monitoring as a legitimate activity, the government denies legal status to local human rights groups. Individuals who belong to these groups face systematic harassment, with the government putting up obstacles to impede them from documenting human rights conditions. In addition, international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are barred from sending fact-finding missions to Cuba. It remains one of the few countries in the world to deny the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.”

A Reporters Without Borders report finds that Internet use is very restricted and under tight surveillance. Access is only possible with government permission and equipment is rationed. E-mail is monitored.

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How to Complain

Posted on August 24, 2011 by admin

Consumers are often faced with several challenges when they wish to complain about a product or service. A good resource to help you complain effectively is the Complaint Courier, which is featured at www.ComplaintCourier.ca. This powerful online tool provides instant access to the resources and expert advice you will need to navigate your way through the complaint process from start to finish, and explains how to make any type of complaint in a clear, organized and effective way. The following guidelines will also help you to complain more effectively.

First Things First

•Give the merchant the first chance to solve the problem. Contact the salesperson, retailer or business when you have a complaint about any goods or services you bought. When there is a complaints department, use it. When there isn’t, talk to someone in authority, such as a manager. A face-to-face discussion is best. Be firm and businesslike, but polite. Calmly and accurately describe the problem and what you want the company to do to resolve it.

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If the problem is not resolved that way, ask for the telephone number of the company headquarters and contact the customer service department. Request specifics about how and when something will be done, and get the company representative’s name in case you have to refer to the conversation later. Write down any details of your complaint and keep them in a file. Make sure to date your notes.

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If your call doesn’t produce satisfactory results, write a letter to someone higher up, such as the general manager or owner (see sample letter). Provide all the details of the problem and explain your efforts to resolve it. Ask for action. In the case of products, send a copy of your letter to the manufacturer, and be sure to keep a copy of it yourself.

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If none of these steps work to your satisfaction, consult the key consumer contacts of this Handbook for government offices and consumer organizations that apply to your situation. If you don’t know where to start, call the federal-provincial-territorial government consumer affairs office where you live. Someone there will direct you to the right organization. Or, use the Complaint Courier to file your complaint online.

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Taking legal action should be your last choice. If you decide to sue, remember that there are often time limitations on filing lawsuits. You may wish to check with a lawyer about the legal process and any limitations that may apply to your case in your province or territory.

Strategies for Success

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Do not be afraid to complain. Good businesses will be pleased to correct any mistake on their part. They know that customer goodwill is the best form of advertising.

•Always keep a file of important information related to your purchase, include the sales receipts, repair orders, warranties, cancelled cheques, contracts and any letters you have written to or received from the company concerned.
•

Do not procrastinate. When a product is defective or unsatisfactory, it is important that you return it quickly so that you do not lose the right to get your money back or to collect damages in some cases. Always check the return policy before you buy.

What to Do When You Have Complained Without Any Results?

If you feel you have given the company enough time and that your problem has not been resolved, send a copy of your complaint letter and copies of supporting documents (not originals) to, or file a consumer complaint with, your provincial or territorial consumer affairs office or Better Business Bureau. If you use the Complaint Courier it will give you the option to automatically forward your complaint to the appropriate government office.

Small Claims Court

Small claims court can be an informal and relatively inexpensive way to resolve disputes when the amount involved is less than $3,000 or, in some provinces, up to $25,000. However, you will have to pay a fee to file a claim. Once the suit is launched, you may have costs for such things as serving orders, payments to witnesses and travel expenses.

You do not need a lawyer to go to small claims court, although in most provinces and territories the help of a lawyer is allowed. The court staff is experienced in helping consumers prepare the necessary forms, and the judges have the power to settle disputes. This court allows each side to explain its story and does not expect consumers to know legal technicalities.

For information on how to proceed, contact the small claims or provincial or territorial court nearest you (look in the government listings in your phone book). The websites of these courts also often list the procedures to follow and have copies of the forms you will need to complete.

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Blame for usa recession

Posted on July 18, 2011 by admin

It’s no secret that the U.S. economy is in bad shape. The housing bubble burst. The stock market crashed. People lost a lot of their retirement savings. The federal government has been bailing out big industries like banks and auto makers. State governments are feuding over state budgets. People are losing their jobs with some of the highest unemployment rates young professionals have seen in their lifetime.

Who’s to blame for the recession we’re in? It’s a hotly debated topic, and there really is no single right answer. The economic recession didn’t stem from a single group or a lone action. But to help you understand how the current economic situation came about, let’s look at three groups that had a hand in it:

The Federal Reserve – For years, the Fed kept interest rates low. Low interest rates help to grow the economy–they make borrowing (and therefore spending based on that borrowing) more attractive to consumers. Low interest rates also benefit banks making loans, because it’s easier for them to attract new customers as they advertise that low interest. The problem is that low interest leading to growth is good when the economy needs a boost; not so much when it’s already booming. That can lead to rapid inflation like we saw for years with the skyrocketing housing prices around the country.

Banks - You would probably be hard-pressed to find any American who didn’t hold banks at least partly to blame for the credit crunch-turned-recession. The fact that their tax dollars then went to bail out the banks with little oversight certainly didn’t help matters. And they would be right. Banks played a major role in the current crisis–a role stemming from greed.

To explain it as simply as possible, banks knowingly loaned money (through mortgages for over-inflated housing prices) to people who couldn’t afford it. They did it for the sole purpose of earning more money–they can charge much higher interest on sub-prime loans to people at the most risk of not paying them back.

Consumers – Yes, even consumers just like you played a role in the current economic recession. Let’s be honest about it. If people lived within their means without a sense of entitlement to more, they wouldn’t have racked up debt they couldn’t afford.

In their defense, the average consumer is somewhat easily sucked in by promises of low interest and great deals (if the marketing messages and sales pitches didn’t work on many, people wouldn’t use them across most sales-oriented industries). Banks basically promised high-risk consumers something they never thought they’d have–a house of their own. People who otherwise would have stayed in their smaller homes or continued to rent strove for something better, but something they ultimately knew they couldn’t afford.

No single person, or even a single industry, led to the collapse of the housing market or our overall economic recession. While it may be easy to place blame on whoever the media or government is targeting on any given day, when you really think about the situation critically you see that there’s plenty of blame to go around. While you can’t say any one person caused the recession, you can be sure of one thing–the economy will rebound. It may not happen as quickly as we’d like, but it always does. Following every boom there comes a bust. And after every bust we rebuild.

According to a 2010 Bigresearch.com study, home owners are throwing their home improvements plans out the window like burnt toast. Over 20% of those surveyed said they were putting-off all forms of home improvement indefinitely. Interestingly, this percentage ranked second highest among all survey questions, with only “vacation travel” showing a higher figure (25%).

With cash reserves at a premium, many home owners have simply decided to wait on making improvements, and understandably so. Faced with record unemployment, higher costs of living, rising taxes and a dim view of any short term changes for the better, who could blame them?

Worse yet, home improvements have historically yielded very low returns when compared to their actual cost. In fact, Remodeling Magazine’s 2009-10 “cost vs. value” report reveals that home owners, on average, recoup less than of 65% of the money they invest in their home improvement projects.

But before you conclude that your home improvement plans should be scraped, let’s take a step back.

There are very few home owners who wouldn’t admit to needing some measure of improvement to their home. Whether it’s as simple as repairing the leaky faucet gasket that drives you crazy with its relentless dripping, or an unreliable front porch light fixture that leaves you fumbling around in the dark when you return home from a long day at work. Every house has its deficiencies.

But with a recession in full bloom, and statistics showing little to no hope of ever getting your money back, why would anyone bother with a home improvement project?

Though at first it may seem like a lost cause or verging on lunacy, there are simple solutions that many consumers are using to solve this problem.

First, let’s address the big one. The statistics from Remodeling Magazine and other similar resources, assume that a building contractor is being paid to perform all the labor and to supply all the materials. And if you assume, on average, approximately 50% of the total costs of most home improvement projects will be attributable to labor and fees, you can literally transform the investment returns by performing the majority of the work yourself. What was once a 35% loss becomes a 30% gain by simply providing your own labor force. Not a bad return in any economy.

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Casey Anthony case spotlights role of media

Posted on July 7, 2011 by admin

Geraldo Rivera’s television life has been full of strange moments, from on-the-air sex-change surgeries to fistfights with Nazis. But even Rivera was dumbstruck for a moment when, during man-on-the-street interviews about the Casey Anthony verdict, a woman excitedly chirped to his cameras: “This is better than Jersey Shore!”

“How bizarre is that?” the Fox News correspondent exclaimed Wednesday. “Confusing reality with a reality show? But you can’t make it into something cosmic. To inflate it to the decline and fall of the Roman empire, I don’t buy that.”

But the boundaries between illusion and reality, journalism and advocacy, fair trial and free press, all seemed elusive Wednesday as they were battered by conflicting waves of rage in the wake of Anthony’s acquittal on the charge of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

As talk shows, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages erupted with rants against a verdict that many Americans considered shockingly wrong — Twitter comments denouncing the jury outnumbered those praising it by 64 to 1, according to the digital bean-counting company NM Incite — a countervailing wave of complaints that media coverage distorted the trial also took hold.

Anthony is scheduled for sentencing Thursday on four misdemeanor convictions for lying to police, which likely will only feed the growing storm of media criticism.

It came most intensely, and least surprisingly, from Anthony’s defense team.

A Florida Bar complaint has been filed against one of Casey Anthony’s attorneys for making an obscene gesture at reporters and spectators after Anthony’s acquittal on murder charges.

While celebrating the jury’s verdict Tuesday at an Orlando restaurant, attorney Cheney Mason gestured with his middle finger toward people gathered outside. An Associated Press photographer snapped a picture of the gesture.

But Mason’s critique was echoed, in only slightly less pungent terms, through the legal and journalistic communities. Many there complained that some television news shows built their ratings up by taking an openly prosecutorial stance against Anthony, leading to public expectations that a conviction was a slam-dunk certainty

“The way TV has handled this is an embarrassment,” said Howard Kurtz, host of CNN’s media-criticism show Reliable Sources. “The sheer volume of coverage for stories that are basically local tragedies is impossible to defend. Toss in a tone of sensationalism, legal pundits who want to be the next Judge Judy, and a rush to judgment that belies the inevitable nuances of a criminal case, and you have the Casey Anthony story. She was convicted on the air long before the courtroom jury took a vote.”

The most pointed criticism was aimed at HLN’s Nancy Grace, a former prosecutor whose nightly attacks on the woman she scornfully referred to as Tot Mom almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession. Grace made no attempt to hide her rage at Anthony’s acquittal. “Tot Mom’s lies seem to have worked,” she exclaimed moments after the jury announced its verdict. “The devil is dancing tonight.”

Toobin believes that television should cover trials more, not less, as a sort of running civics lesson. So does lead CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin, a New York defense attorney who has also worked as a federal prosecutor. She believes the anger over the Anthony verdict resulted not because TV hosts misinformed viewers but because they got to see the evidence for themselves.

“There were cameras in the courtroom, and they showed a very competent prosecution team, a very competent defense team, and a very competent judge,” she argued. “You can say people were fooled, but I give them more credit than that. I think people watched — we know they watched, because of the ratings — and they made their own decisions.”

In any event, cautioned former Miami federal prosecutor Kendall Coffey, it’s nothing new for Americans to treat murder trials as entertainment.

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