Amid dark times, a brighter side of US-Pakistan ties

The largest US cultural and educational exchange program of any US embassy in the world is run from Pakistan. Proponents tout its success.

Tensions between Pakistan and the United States spiked when Adm. Mike Mullen accused Pakistan's spy agency of aiding insurgents who attacked the US Embassy in Kabul last month.

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All eyes, it seemed, were on the back and forth. What would become of the relationship, analysts and headlines asked. But there's a quiet diplomatic drive that has been working since 9/11 to build positive ties between the US and Pakistan: exchange programs.

Every year, more than 2,000 Pakistanis participate in a range of initiatives, from English-language scholarships to fully funded academic or professional-development programs in the US. Taken together, these initiatives ? run by the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital ? make up the largest cultural and educational exchange program of any US embassy in the world, according to US officials here. And despite misunderstandings and some rough edges, it seems to be working.

For Haider Mirza, the year of high school he spent at Nature Coast Technical High School in Brooksville, Fla., in 2005 taught him that the American foreign policies that are so unpopular with citizens back home are beyond the American public's control.

"The Iraq war was at its peak, and [even Americans] were asking 'Why are we there?' " he says. "Six years on, I still defend America if people make unjustified comments."

That kind of result makes these exchanges worth it, say officials. The Youth Exchange and Study Program that Mr. Mirza participated in was an exchange program authorized by Congress in the aftermath of Sept. 11 to increase understanding between the US and Muslim nations.

"These programs are instrumental in expanding the positive view people will have of the US," says Mosharraf Zaidi, a political columnist. Reciprocal exchanges from the US are few, given safety concerns, but the State Department says it is working to increase the number of American participants. In April, 15 American academics came to work in Pakistani universities and research institutions, but that's up from only two last year.

"The more exposure there is, the better.... [It's] beneficial in the long run for both countries to engage with each other more," says Mr. Zaidi.

US officials agree: "The vast majority come back with a much improved view of the US. It brings out the core values of each other's countries," says Brent Beemer, a US State Department official involved in the program in Islamabad.

Despite pouring in more than $20.7 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2002 (roughly two-thirds was military aid, the rest civilian), US lawmakers often complain that Pakistan does not cooperate as much as hoped. Pakistan's military establishment at times deliberately stokes anti-Americanism to create an environment where it can claim its hands are tied in taking more effective action against insurgents, according to foreign-policy experts.

But for Afnan Khan, the Lahore bureau chief of the Daily Times, his month-long visit to US government departments and newsrooms helped dispel some of his concerns.

"These mullahs [in Pakistan] have convinced the people [that] America is our No. 1 enemy," he says. "But I think our governments are a bit dishonest about the fact they are consuming American money. They only say Americans are bombing our cities and killing our people."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/AjL_CQLACa4/Amid-dark-times-a-brighter-side-of-US-Pakistan-ties

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Popgadget Personal Technology for Women: Remembering Steve ...

Steve Jobs, the well-known entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple has passed away aged 56.

Instead of analysing his life or discussing the future of Apple, we'd rather just leave you with the moving tribute from the Apple website this morning along with one of Steve's most inspirational talks at the 2005 Stanford commencement address.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

- From the Apple website this morning.

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Source: http://www.popgadget.net/2011/10/remembering_ste.php

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Steps to choosing the right HR Software for your business. - Small ...

Steps to choosing the right HR Software for your business.

Finding the right software package and the right company to help you through the conversion process is a critical step toward easing into automation. Laying out a systematic game plan that leads you through the process is a good idea. The ideal plan would contain the following steps:

Determine what your company needs

The rule here is "know your company." Because you are looking for a solution to specific issues, you need to clarify those issues at the start. The more you understand about the company?s current needs, growth rate and strategic plan, the better able you will be to match a software program to those needs.

Research the kinds of software that are available

This is a time when you should weed out any products that do not meet your nonnegotiable requirements for price, function or compatibility.

Take the software on a test drive

Testing the various products is probably the most important part of the process. Generally, you should test for six things: actual ability to integrate with current software, ease of learning, simplicity of data entry, function performance, flexibility and reporting capabilities. If you have a critical need, such as providing on-the-fly custom reports to management, be sure to test that section of the software most thoroughly. In addition, you should spend some time trying to create custom reports and personalize the system to make sure it will conform easily to your real-world needs.

Ask questions

Verify your findings by talking with each of the references supplied by the companies and with your own network of HR professionals. When possible, ask the references if you can speak with the person responsible for actually implementing the program. That will quickly reveal a depth of information about the program that you might otherwise find out the hard way. This process may also give you some good ideas of preparatory steps to take and pitfalls to avoid.

Make a decision
After going through each of the above steps, the decision may actually be the easiest step. Because each preceding step narrows the field, it often comes down to no more than one or two software packages that provide what you need.

Source: http://forums.smallbusinesscomputing.com/showthread.php?t=8457&goto=newpost

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New doc explores New Orleans' drag past :: EDGE New York City

New doc explores New Orleans? drag past

by Robert?Israel

EDGE Contributor

Wednesday Oct 5, 2011

Filmmaker Tim Wolff, 47, found himself, like many of his neighbors in New Orleans, dazed, confused and homeless after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city. An Indiana native, Wolff migrated to New Orleans in 1994 after graduating with a filmmaking degree from at Cal Arts in Los Angeles and living for a spell in Massachusetts.

In those pre-Katrina days, Wolff found plenty of lucrative work as a carpenter. His relaxed and bohemian lifestyle led him to believe that he had plenty of time to make the films he had always dreamed he?d make - eventually.

"That all changed after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans," Wolff said. "My home was ruined, my car had been towed away, and all I had left for belongings could fit into two orange crates. I was in shock. I was incapable, really, of creating a new life for myself."

His boyfriend convinced Wolff to pull himself together. While living in temporary housing, Wolff wrote a treatment for a film that had been in gestation for fifteen years, a story about the lives of pioneering gay men in New Orleans who, in the early 1960s - seven years before the Stonewall riots in New York - defied laws against same-sex cross-dressing and dancing by creating a "drag ball" during Mardi Gras.

Albert Carey in 1972 in a still from "The Sons of Tennessee Williams"??

A story about pioneering gays

The result became The Sons of Tennessee Williams, Wolff?s documentary about the evolution of drag and politics in the gay Mardi Gras "krewe" scene. ("Krewes" are organizations that throw a ball during carnival season.) The film opens in New York on October 7 and in Los Angeles on October 14.

After writing his treatment Wolff sent it and an application to the John Burton Harter charitable trust in New Orleans. Harter, a gay artist and photographer who had been murdered in New Orleans, left an endowment to promote the work of emerging artists. Wolff was awarded a $30,000 grant from the Harter trust and set forth to begin working on the film.

"But a lot had changed in filmmaking since I was at Cal Arts," Wolff said. "For one thing, the digital cameras had revolutionized how films are made, and film editing is an entirely new skill, too, thanks to new computer software. I had to immerse myself into learning how to make films all over again."

The original members of the Krewe of Yuga, circa 1961 in a still from "The Sons of Tennessee Williams"??

Drag legal one day a year

In November 2008 he began interviewing many of men, most of them elderly, who discussed their early lives living as closeted gays in New Orleans, so as to avoid getting bashed or beaten by police or imprisoned. The New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper published a daily column during the 1950s-1960s about men who had been arrested the night before in downtown bars and bistros for "crimes against nature," as homosexuality was then publicly referred to. "It was must reading for anyone living in New Orleans," recounts a man in the film.

Wolff insisted that the film be seen in context to the history of gay rights in America.

"I was fortunate to discover a scholar at Tulane who was writing a book on gay life in New Orleans in the 20th century," Wolff said. "And he let me have free access to his research. That was an invaluable gift; it saved me several years of research, and allowed me to incorporate historical facts into the fabric of the film itself."

With the men as the storytellers of the film, Wolff weaves the history the unique tradition of Mardi Gras into the film. We are shown archival photographs of families who annually dressed their children in costumes for carnival. And we are taken into the French Quarter which had a tradition of gay cross-dressing dating from the turn of the last century.

"The law, at the time, stated that you could only dress in drag one day a year," says Mike Moreau, one of the men interviewed in the film. "That day was Mardi Gras. And you had to be out of drag by the end of the night. You had to have at least one item of men?s clothing with you. Don?t ask me why, but that was the law."

But gays were closeted for another reason: self-preservation. Gays were frequently bashed by marauding gangs of thugs. In one incident, in 1958, a young gay man, Fernardo Rios, was brutally beaten and murdered by a gang of three Tulane University students, who, we learn in the film, were later exonerated for their crime in a highly publicized court trial.

It was in this atmosphere of persecution and murder that a group of men formed a krewe, an organization that sponsors a ball during carnival season. By working within the Mardi Gras tradition, they seized upon an opportunity to broadcast - and celebrate - their gay identities.

"The film shows how successful they became, that by 1969, how even the mayor of New Orleans wanted to purchase a ticket to their ball," Wolff said. "They were pioneers, forcing a change in discriminating laws against gays and promoting a more wide-spread acceptance of gay life."

"The Sons of Tennessee Williams," so titled as a twist on other groups like the Daughters of the American Revolution, pays homage to the late playwright, a longtime resident of New Orleans, who served as a role model for the gay men depicted in the film.

The Sons of Tennessee Williams opens on October 7, 2011 in New York and October 14, 2011 in Los Angeles. For more on the film visit the film?s website

Watch the trailer to "The Sons of Tennessee Williams":

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Robert Israel writes about theater, arts, culture and travel. He can be reached at risrael_97@yahoo.com.

Source: http://www.edgenewyork.com/?125435

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Samsung moves to block iPhone 4S sales in France and Italy

Just a day after Apple announced the iPhone 4S, Samsung has filed two separate motions for preliminary injunctions to block sales of the iPhone 4S in Paris, France and Milan, Italy.

Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free ride

...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/bJhd4MQQw7o/

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Probe: Drug abusers exploiting Medicare benefit

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Drug abusers are exploiting Medicare prescription's benefit to score large quantities of painkillers, and taxpayers have to foot most of the bill, congressional investigators say in a report.

About 170,000 Medicare recipients received prescriptions from multiple doctors for 14 frequently abused medications in 2008, the Government Accountability Office found in an investigation for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A Medicare recipient in Georgia got prescriptions for 3,655 oxycodone pills ? more than a four-year supply of the painkiller ? from 58 different prescribers. Another, in California, got prescriptions for a nearly five-year supply of fentanyl patches and pills from 21 different prescribers. Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic used to treat relentless cancer pain.

The cost of the questionable prescriptions amounted to $148 million in 2008. Overall, taxpayers pay three-fourths of the cost of the Medicare prescription drug program, which covers some 28 million seniors and disabled people for about $55 billion a year.

Prescription drug abuse is a growing problem for all types of insurance plans. Narcotics obtained with a prescription from unwitting doctors can feed a personal addiction, or be resold in a lucrative underground market.

Medicare, however, may be hobbled in its ability to confront the situation. Program officials told investigators that federal law does not allow Medicare to limit the access of beneficiaries who appear to be abusing drugs. Many private insurance plans and state Medicaid programs restrict patients who appear to be abusing drugs so they can only get narcotics from specific doctors and pharmacies.

Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Scott Brown, R-Mass., are seeking ways to tighten Medicare rules. Carper chairs a subcommittee scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on the problem.

It's known as "doctor shopping." By visiting different practitioners, an addict can get multiple prescriptions for powerful drugs. Often, the doctors are unaware their patient is going to other physicians as well. To avoid suspicion, drug abusers often get their prescriptions filled at different pharmacies.

Using claim records, investigators illustrated how the strategy works: One unnamed Medicare beneficiary visited four doctors over 10 days to obtain a 150-day stock of oxycodone. The first doctor wrote a prescription for a 15-day supply, the second doctor for 20 days, and so on.

The investigation, first reported by The New York Times, found the worst abuse among 600 Medicare beneficiaries, each getting prescriptions from more than 20 doctors. Painkillers hydrocodone and oxycodone were involved in more than 8 out of 10 cases of doctor shopping identified by investigators.

In the context of the program as a whole, the number of drug abusers is small. The 170,000 whose prescription-use patterns aroused suspicion accounted for less than 2 percent of all the Medicare recipients who received prescriptions for the 14 frequently abused drugs.

Investigators attributed most of the cases of questionable behavior to younger beneficiaries, eligible for Medicare because of a disability and not their age. Nearly three-fourths of them also had low incomes.

In its response to the investigators' findings, Medicare said it recognizes the need to prevent abuse of the prescription program and is looking for ways to best accomplish that.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-03-Medicare%20Drug%20Abuse/id-0e3c82697aba46f8b401b2a27d350e7d

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Email Marketing Can Help Custom Publishers

It's a good, busy and profitable period for custom publishers, but how do they tap into that seemingly endless pool of potential clientele? Email marketing?for custom publishers is the answer! This method of marketing will provide excellent return on a minimal investment while landing plenty of new business and laying the groundwork for a custom publisher to find even more customers.

One of the best features of the marriage of custom publishers and email marketing is the ability of the custom publisher to, well, customize the message and make a thorough, impressive yet quick pitch as to why his or her services are the best available. In addition to the obvious customization options such as placing a company logo in the email and personalizing the message so that the recipient feels as if he or she is being spoken to directly, the email can also contain links to the custom publisher's work.

This comes in especially handy, as the potential needs of a client are just about limitless. Include links that open PDFs in a new window displaying a variety of work and the customer will be able to see the scope of a custom publisher's talents.

Advances in email marketing software also make it possible for a custom publisher's email marketing campaign to generate plenty of "word of mouth" business. If a client is satisfied with the work of a custom publisher, he or she can forward these messages on to other people looking for a custom publisher, which will in turn provide the custom publisher a wider audience.

Generating a custom publisher's email marketing program strategy is a simple and efficient process. Since most custom publishers communicate with clients exclusively via email, there's no need to spend time collecting these addresses.

Inputting email addresses requires little time as well, and anyone with a minimal amount of computer experience can handle the management and implementation of the email marketing strategy for custom publishers. There's no need to hire anyone to oversee a custom publisher's email marketing initiatives, which is particularly vital since most custom publishers are smaller "Mom and Pop" operations in which every dollar must be monitored.

Most custom publishers do an excellent job of meeting their clients' needs. There's no better way to spread the word, publicize efforts and works and find the new business vital to the lifeblood of any company than email marketing for custom publishers. The busiest time of the year has already begun, so custom publishers shouldn't wait any longer?formulate an email marketing strategy as soon as possible!

Source: http://business.ezinemark.com/email-marketing-can-help-custom-publishers-18673ff605c.html

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