DEMOCRACY NOW! DIGEST

DEMOCRACY NOW! DAILY EMAIL DIGEST
November 5, 2007

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Calling all San Francisco-Bay Area volunteers:

We could use your enthusiasm to assist us in spreading the word about
Democracy Now! at the San Francisco Green Festival. Volunteers will sell
DN! merchandise, talk to people about the importance of independent
media, and generally be the DN! presence at the event. Let me know if
you're available for a shift (or two). If you don't already have one,
you'll get a free t-shirt.

*Show Hours *
Friday ­ 2pm ­ 8pm
Saturday ­ 10am ­ 8pm
Sunday ­ 11am ­ 6pm

*Venue Name and Address*
San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center
635 8th St (at Brannan St)
San Francisco, CA 94103

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* Read Amy Goodman's latest column *

"For Whom the Bell's Palsy Tolls"

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071030_for_whom_the_bells_palsy_tolls/

Consider writing your local newspaper and asking for them to carry the
column, distributed by King Features.  Many papers across the US have done
so already.

If you see the column in your paper, please mail us a copy of the full page,
to:

Democracy Now!
100 Lafayette St
New York, NY 10013

Thank you!

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* DN! is hiring *

Full-Time Broadcast Engineer
http://www.democracynow.org/jobs.shtml

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TODAY'S DEMOCRACY NOW!:

* Pakistan¹s Musharraf Gets U.S. Backing for Crackdown Just Days Before
Court Decision on Case Challenging His Rule *

In a countrywide crackdown, Musharraf has declared a state of emergency,
removed Pakistan¹s chief justice and arrested thousands of people. We go to
Lahore for reaction from American lawyer Devin Theriot-Orr and speak to
Pakistan historian Manan Ahmed.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/1538209


* French Journalist Henri Alleg Describes His Torture Being Waterboarded by
French Forces During Algerian War *

Three crucial members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said this weekend
they would back the nomination of Attorney General hopeful Michael Mukasey
despite his refusal to condemn waterboarding as a form of torture. Henri
Alleg, an 86-year-old journalist subjected to waterboarding by French troops
during the war for Algerian independence, says no civilized country should
allow it.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/1538212
 

* Assassination of Tamil Leader Prompts Fears of Escalated Sri Lankan Civil
War *

The decades-long civil war between the predominantly Sinhalese government
and Tamil rebels has taken a sharp turn for the worse. A Tamil leader was
killed Friday with five of his associates in an air strike by the Sri Lankan
military. Analysts suggest this could be the beginning of a return to a
full-scale war. We speak to Sri Lankan Tamil democracy activist Ahilan
Kadirgamar.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/1538219


* Headlines for November 5, 2007 *

- U.S. Appears to Support Musharraf Crackdown in Pakistan
- 2007 on Pace for Record U.S. Death Toll in Iraq
- Key Senators Back Mukasey Nomination
- Report: Admin Forced Out Waterboarding Critic
- Colom Wins Guatemala Presidential Race
- 80,000 Trapped by Mexico Floods
- Chavez Proposals Spark Rallies From Backers, Opponents
- Thompson Fundraiser Has Drug-Dealing Past

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/1534226

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

Soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías a nivel internacional y están disponibles para OTEC Y OTIC en Chile

CHILE Our Country

CHILE  Our Country    The Flag  The Coat of Arms  The Anthem

We are pleased to welcome you on your visit to view  our country both as friends and in a professional capacity. We say as friends because you accepted our invitation to look at us closely, to become acquainted with the variety offered by our geography and to seek the eye-catching points that make us attractive to the rest of the world. And in a professional capacity because you come to Chile backed by your experience and a profound knowledge of an industry that has turned into an engine of  devolpment in today's economy. Nowadays people want to travel, they want to visit different places and they want to learn about other cultures. Tourism is no longer a privilege enjoyed by a few but rather the wish of many who want to  discover by themselves how others live and what they are like. When people know each other better, distrust among them decreases. We are building a global world in which tourism faces major challenges. Chile wishes to grow by enhancing its presence in the international arena. Having our tourism industry grow is also part of this project and your visit will help us make headway toward this aim. We welcome you warmly and wish you a happy and fruitful sojourn in Chile. A Snapshot of Chile   The Territory   The Indigenous People   A Cultural Explosion   Territorial organization

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

Soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías a nivel internacional  INVERSION EXTRANJERA Y LOBBY EN CHILE y están disponibles para OTEC Y OTIC en Chile

SAGE is active in assessing environmental impacts of energy use, and exploring new opportunities to meet global energy demand.

CHILE TAMBIEN TIENE UN TREMENDO POTENCIAL EN BIOCOMBUSTIBLES

Biodiesel and Ethanol

 

SAGE is active in assessing environmental impacts of energy use, and exploring new opportunities to meet global energy demand. These activities build on ongoing research in air quality, climate change, land use, agriculture, and public health to help inform energy decision-making at the state, national, and international level.

For more information on energy research at UW-Madison, please visit the Energy Institute's web site.

Biodiesel and Ethanol

Liquid biofuels, renewable fuels derived from biomass, are one of the best positioned fuels to transition away from petroleum in the near-term and have made a recent resurgence in response to rising oil prices. However, while the technical details of biofuels have been thoroughly studied, there has been less focus on what constitutes a strategic deployment. Further, with an increasing number of countries and regions declaring support for rapid biofuel development, it is crucial to understand the full affects of these petroleum reduction policies.

soybean agriculture

At SAGE, we are working to determine how much biofuel can be produced today, which countries are most likely to achieve their potential, and to detail the likely impacts from increasing production to achieve the gap between existing potential and policy goals.

Absolute Biodiesel Production Potential

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A Global Comparison of National Biodiesel Production Potentials

Matt Johnston and Tracey Holloway
Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment
Submitted to Environmental Science & Technology, October 2006; Revised, June 2007, in press Oct 2007

Supplemental Materials for this article
Supporting Information

Complete Country Results
Absolute Biodiesel Potential
Profitable Biodiesel Potential
Biodiesel Potential from Increased Agricultural Yields

Absolute Biodiesel Production Potential

Biodiesel Production Cost Potential

Reference Document
Matt Johnston Master's Thesis "Evaluating the Potential for Large-Scale Biodiesel Deployments in a Global Context"

nota: Chile tiene un enorme potencial  en materia de biocombustibles  y esperamos la venida de inversionistas . Ya se ha instalado en Chile Green Fuel.Chile que construirán plantas de Biocombustibles  de ultima generación www.greenfuel.es y que pronto generará  encuentros con los Agricultores Chilenos , tambien con empresarios visionarios e inversionistas.

 

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU

www. biocombustibles.blogspot.com
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

Soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías a nivel internacional  BIOCOMBUSTIBLES Y LA AGRICULTURA DEL FUTURO y están disponibles para OTEC Y OTIC en Chile

FROM LEGAL BLOG WATCH

A New Tier of Law Firm Jobs?

Staff attorneys -- lawyers who handle discovery matters or supervise contract attorneys -- aren't a new phenomenon at large firms; as far as I can recall, they've been around for at least a decade.  However, as this post from Above the Law suggests, staff attorney positions have ordinarily been reserved for those attorneys who don't have the credentials demanded by a top job at Biglaw.  (For the record, I'm not saying that staff attorneys are less intelligent or capable, it's just that they don't have the kinds of stats required to play on the Biglaw A Team.)  What seems to be different about staff attorney positions now, if I'm understanding this story (11/2/07) correctly is that firms are now touting the positions not as a consolation prize for the less qualified, but rather, as a desirable slot for lawyers who want to achieve work/life balance.

As the article reports, McDermott, Will & Emory recently decided to create a new tier of attorneys -- analogous to permanent contract associates -- who will handle lower-end tasks like discovery at lower billing rates.  The new class of full-timers is intended to allow the firm to keep costs low for litigation clients, without resorting to transient measures such as offshoring or continued use of contract attorneys where firms may have difficulty in ensuring quality control.

But what's most interesting is that the firm isn't interested in new grads to fill the staff attorney positions.  Instead, MWE's ideal candidates are:

lawyers "with good pedigrees" who have practiced for a few years but don't want to deal with big-firm hours...Instead, they'll put in more like 30-40 hours, and be paid something like 25 percent less, though an exact pay range hasn't been decided.

With so many lawyers, particularly women, avid for reentry, MWE's re-packaging of these once maligned staff attorney positions into something desirable is utterly ingenious. 

But will the MWE model work better than the traditional outsourcing or offshoring approach that other firms are examining? According to this post at the Legal Pad, at companies like New York-based Global Solutions, the Indian attorneys who are employed for document review are "hand picked, cream of the crop," often with LLMs and MBAs.  However, Susan Cartier Liebel wonders if it's necessary to go overseas for qualified lawyers to handle outsourcing or document review, when many new solos in the U.S. are not only highly capable, but also willing to take on this work to generate cash as they get their practices off the ground.

Which business model do you think works best?

Posted by Carolyn Elefant

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

Soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías a nivel internacional  lobby  & rse y están disponibles para OTEC Y OTIC en Chile

Los empresarios de la historia estadounidense

Los empresarios de la historia estadounidense

Posted: 29 Oct 2007 11:44 AM CDT

Business Week nos da una lista interesante de los empresarios de la historia aunque, viendo la lista, han tomado la historia empresarial vista desde el punto de vista estadounidense.

Una lista que incluye a Martha Stewart, Ralph Loren y algún otro, con todos mis respetos, y que excluye Ferdinand Porsche, Axel Springer, Dr. Reinhard Mohn, y Li Ka-shing, entre muchos otros, demuestra que los no anglo-sajones no tienen mucho hueco para ellos.

No obstante, es interesante ver los nombres en su lista, especialmente los muy antiguos.

Vía | Business Week (en inglés)

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

Soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías a nivel internacional  EN RESPONSABILIDAD SOCIAL EMPRESARIAL y están disponibles para OTEC Y OTIC en Chile

TOM PETERS ; ANIVERSARIO

Tom Peters Times for October 2007

Happy Anniversary, In Search of Excellence!   Tom called from the road to tell us this story. He's celebrating an anniversary. On the 15th of October, 1982, he received a small package from New York at his Palo Alto office. When he returned from a meeting in mid-afternoon and opened the package - there it was - two copies of his first book, from an initial print run of 5,000. Beside himself with delight, Tom fondled the book - and headed off to Cupertino with the second copy to give it to a senior executive at Apple, a little computer company with about 200 employees. And now, exactly 25 years later, Tom is still out on the road, "spreading the word" about "MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around," "A Bias for Action," and other more or less eternal truths. On this 25th anniversary to the day, Tom is making the 10,000-plus-mile trip to Seoul, where he will present, along with General Powell and the President of Korea, among others, at a major event aimed at vaulting Korea's innovation skills to another level. Happy Anniversary! to Tom and In Search of Excellence. - Posted at our blog on October 15, 2007, by Cathy Mosca

Brand You Road Trip FYI - The Brand You public workshop that was scheduled for October 9, 2007, at SMU in Dallas was postponed until the spring. The new date is TBD. We will keep you posted. Additionally, the next installment of the Brand You tour will be on November 1, 2007, in Burlington, MA, presented in partnership with Northeastern University. For registration information, click here. For more information on bringing Brand You to your area, contact Shannon Sullivan at 617-242-5522 or shannonsullivan@tompeters.com.

Succession Planning in a YouTube World On this 25th anniversary of In Search of Excellence, I'd like to pose this question: What do YOU believe is the most dramatic change in the business world since its publication? We believe, as Tom Peters charged back in 1982, that the most successful companies are those that have made long-term investments in their employees. By investing time and money in developing talent, when critical talent retires, organizations are able to seamlessly transition the new talent to take the reins. In today's highly competitive war for talent, attracting talent is the first step. The talent pool has matured in a virtually socialized YouTube kind of world. Talented people today require a different business model and play by different rules. If success cannot be found within traditional businesses, they will not sign on. One bright young woman reported, "If I don't fit into GE or Ford or IBM, that's not my problem ... that's their problem." This is 50% of the workforce. Who can afford that? Rather than fight corporate professional development systems, the next generations of talent are simply going to dismiss the system. And they are very open about the fact that if they cannot find what they want in an organization, they will simply build their own companies. This younger talent is liberated - not intimidated by precedent and not constrained by covention. This talent must feel the freedom to create the career they want. The strategic challenge facing leaders today is not only developing and retaining this talent, but also developing and implementing an effective succession planning process. Take a step back. For the first time in modern history, today's businesses are suffering from a dramatic loss of their most experienced and high powered intellectual capital members, while at the same time facing a huge deficit in hiring skilled employees. WOW! Is this the new "downsizing"? How will leaders keep the business engines whirling? We shout crisis!! Get a P&L leader's attention and give them these BOLD facts: 1. The convergence of various trends - changing workforce demographics, retiring baby boomers, and lack of skilled workers - will produce a job surplus in the next two years. 2. 168 million jobs will be created by the year 2010, but the labor force will reach only 158 million, resulting in 10 million unfilled positions. 3. Demand for quality workers is far outpacing supply, fueling a "talent crisis" that will directly affect organizations across a wide range of industries. Manufacturing, health care, and technical fields are already grappling with a scarcity of skilled, educated workers. High demand fields, including IT and engineering, as well as specialized industries such as utilities, energy, and transportation, are right behind them. When executed as part of an overall strategic initiative, succession planning enables organizations to identify their needs and align their talent accordingly. Here are some solutions that should be considered: Create career options within the organization. Provide planning tools to allow individuals to achieve their own professional goals. Encourage job mobility to engage talent. Focus on critical positions. Life Sciences: research and development staff; Utilities: field service workers who are critical to service delivery; Health Care: nursing care professionals. Integrate succession planning with strategic objectives by linking an employee's career development plans with the organization's overall strategic plans. Define only actionable development plans. Ask the talent what they want. What do they need to do next? Provide opportunities that increase their readiness for future positions. By letting the talent discover how they can take ownership for their own development, leaders can create a distinctive culture that will have a positive impact on the availability of talent to meet future requirements. Do not waste time with a new web-based package. Leaders must take the time to talk to their employees, showing them that they do care about them. When the leader's corporate agenda is attending to talent development today, organizations are laying a solid foundation for smooth talent transitions in the future. For succession planning to truly succeed, however, leaders must empower their talent to own their career development. It is urgent! Move quickly or face a talent crisis. Juli Ann Reynolds President and CEO Tom Peters Company

The Future Shape of the Winner We're in the midst of what Tom Peters calls a White Collar Revolution, and there's every sign that organizations are struggling to handle the resulting sophistication and complexity. Customers are becoming increasingly demanding, and more resistant to being "processed" by a system. We are well and truly in the age of the never satified customer! Competition is fierce, with ferocious, fast moving, and energetic entrants into traditional markets who are no respecters of tradition or geography. Technology is enabling a completely different way of approaching work and reaching customers, forcing us to completely re-think things such as working hours, opening hours, work places, time off, and many other universal truths of the past. This hyper-connectivity has thrown organizations into confusion when it comes to how they manage data - no longer can the internal thought police determine what gets around the grapevine network. Word can, and does, travel like wildfire! And finally, the folks we need to do the work are getting choosier and choosier about where and how they spend their time. No longer do we live with a generation of employees that "musn't complain" as their parents did. They have a point of view and want it accommodated! These are the very people we need contributing their energy, creativity, and free will to our enterprises. Tom Peters shorthands the solution to the crisis as PSF - the Professional Service Firm approach. Doubtless you'll have read about this, if you've ever picked up one of his recent books. In working with our clients to use the PSF thinking in their organizations, we've been able, in Tom Peters Company, to create a model that helps our clients to focus on what must be different for the future, and to create clarity around the various elements that will influence that change. We call it the Future Shape of the Winner, and you can read more about it on our NEW website: www.tompeters.co.uk. We are convinced that organizations in years to come will look very different form those that are showcased in Business Schools today. There is a new world of work being invented out there, and those who want to be players can have a field day. Take a look at our new website, and see what you think. What kind of shape is your organization in? Are you up for (even more) change? Madeleine McGrath Managing Director, International Tom Peters Company

5 Questions ... for Tom Peters On September 30, USA Today posted a short 5 question interview with Tom. It's a quick read. You can find it here.

Cool Friend Alex Kjerulf According to our new Cool Friend Alex Kjerulf, the Scandinavian languages have a word, arbejdsglæde, that means "work happiness" whereas the Japanese have the word karoshi, meaning "death by overwork" (We're hoping you feel particularly Scandinavian today). Alex is the author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life, and Kick Butt at Work and he spoke with Erik Hansen about why happy workers are better for a company's bottom line. He mentioned strategies for leaders who want to create a happier workplace as well as things we can all do to make ourselves happier. Read the Cool Friends interview or visit Alex's blog, PositiveSharing.com.

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

Soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías  EN LIDERAZGO Y RESPONSABILIDADA SOCIAL EMPRESARIAL

 a nivel internacional y están disponibles para OTEC Y OTIC en Chile

Al Gore, UN Climate Change Panel Share Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore, UN Climate Change Panel Share Nobel Peace Prize

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Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to raise awareness on global warning. We get reaction from Guardian columnist and leading environmental campaigner George Monbiot. [includes rush transcript]

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We begin our show with this morning's announcement of the 2007 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. This is Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The UN's climate panel groups 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations and issued reports this year blaming human activities for climate changes ranging from more heat waves to floods.

Since Al Gore's failed bid for the presidency in 2000, he has emerged as a leading climate campaigner. He won an Academy Award for his 2006 film "An Inconvenient Truth." George Monbiot joins us on the line from England.

• George Monbiot. Widely read columnist for the Guardian of London and a leading British campaigner for the environment. His latest book is called "Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning."

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RUSH TRANSCRIPT

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AMY GOODMAN: We begin with this morning's announcement of the 2007 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

JAN EGELAND: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared in two equal parts between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, and Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr., for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

AMY GOODMAN: The UN's climate panel groups 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations and issued reports this year blaming human activities for climate changes ranging from more heat waves to floods. Since Al Gore's failed bid for the presidency in 2000, he's emerged as a leading climate campaigner. He won an Academy Award for his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth.

George Monbiot is a widely read columnist for the Guardian of London, a leading British campaigner for the environment. His latest book is called Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning. He joins us now from Britain.

George Monbiot, your response to the Nobel Peace Prize winners this year today?

GEORGE MONBIOT: Well, I am delighted, particularly for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This must be the most maligned institution on earth, in that it's a very conservative scientific panel which chooses only the science which is rock-solid, and yet it's often portrayed as an insane radical organization trying to overthrow civilization as we know it. And it's fought a long, hard battle for the science to be heard, and that battle is now being rewarded.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, George Monbiot, in announcing the award, the Nobel Prize committee indicated that it was seeking to actively make clear the importance and the dangers of continued global warming. Your response to their message?

GEORGE MONBIOT: Well, they have done so, but they have done so by drawing only on the science which can be absolutely trusted. In other words, the science which ends up in their reports is the science of consensus, and they exclude things even which have a very widespread scientific backing; but where there's some legitimate dispute, they will exclude that from their reports. So this is an organization which has been as rigorous as you possibly can be in documenting what is happening to the world's climate. And yet they are constantly pilloried and attacked by rightwing climate change deniers as if they're doing the opposite. And I am very, very glad that they have been recognized in this way.

AMY GOODMAN: And, George Monbiot, the significance of Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, his record after he was vice president and his record as part of the Clinton administration?

GEORGE MONBIOT: Well, I have to say that I feel slightly more equivocal about this, because while I think he's done some very good work indeed in publicizing climate change, his record on peace has not been quite so good. And this is, after all, the Nobel Peace Prize. And in common, unfortunately, with most of the Democratic Party, he has been quick to endorse and slow to condemn unwarranted attacks on other nations, and therefore I do feel uneasy about his receipt of the prize.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for your quick response. Today's news, again, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize: Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States, and the UN organization on climate change, the Panel on Climate Change.

To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for our new online ordering or call 1 (888) 999-3877.

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

Soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías EN BIOCOMBUSTIBLES Y CALENTAMIENTO GLOBAL  a nivel internacional y están disponibles para OTEC Y OTIC en Chile

Doris Lessing Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press

Doris Lessing, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature, outside her home in London today.

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By MOTOKO RICH and SARAH LYALL

Published: October 11, 2007

Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her engagement with the social and political issues of her time, won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

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Martin Cleaver/Associated Press

Doris Lessing at her home in London in 2006.

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Jonathan Player for The New York Times

Doris Lessing at her home in London in 2002.

Announcing the award in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy described her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny." The award comes with a 10 million Swedish crown honorarium, about $1.6 million.

Ms. Lessing, who turns 88 later this month, never finished high school and largely educated herself through voracious reading. She has written dozens of books of fiction, as well as plays, nonfiction and two volumes of autobiography. She is the 11th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ms. Lessing learned of the news from a group of reporters camped on her doorstep as she returned from a visit to the hospital with her son. "I was a bit surprised because I had forgotten about it actually," she said. "My name has been on the short list for such a long time."

As the persistent sound of her phone ringing came from inside the house, Ms. Lessing said that on second thought, she was not as surprised "because this has been going on for something like 40 years," referring to the number of times she has been mentioned as a likely honoree. "Either they were going to give it to me sometime before I popped off or not at all."

After a few moments, Ms. Lessing, who is stout, sharp and a bit hard of hearing, excused herself to go inside. "Now I'm going to go in to answer my telephone," she said. "I swear I'm going upstairs to find some suitable sentences, which I will be using from now on."

Although Ms. Lessing is passionate about social and political issues, she is unlikely to be as controversial as the previous two winners, Orhan Pamuk of Turkey or Harold Pinter of Britain, whose views on current political situations led commentators to suspect that the Swedish Academy was choosing its winners in part for nonliterary reasons.

Ms. Lessing's strongest legacy may be that she inspired a generation of feminists with her breakthrough novel, "The Golden Notebook." In its citation, the Swedish Academy said: "The burgeoning feminist movement saw it as a pioneering work, and it belongs to the handful of books that informed the 20th-century view of the male-female relationship."

Ms. Lessing wrote candidly about the inner lives of women and rejected the notion that they should abandon their lives to marriage and children. "The Golden Notebook," published in 1962, tracked the story of Anna Wulf, a woman who wanted to live freely and was, in some ways, Ms. Lessing's alter ego.

Because she frankly described anger and aggression in women, she was attacked as "unfeminine." In response, Ms. Lessing wrote, "Apparently what many women were thinking, feeling, experiencing came as a great surprise."

Although she has been held up as an early heroine of feminism, Ms. Lessing later disavowed that she herself was a feminist, for which she received the ire of some British critics and academics.

Ms. Lessing was born Doris May Tayler in 1919 in what is now Iran. Her father was a bank clerk, and her mother was trained as a nurse. Lured by the promise of farming riches, the family moved to what is now Zimbabwe, where Ms. Lessing had what she has called a painful childhood.

She left home when she was 15, and in 1937 she moved to Salisbury (now Harare) in Southern Rhodesia, where she took jobs as a telephone operator and nursemaid. She married at 19 and had two children. A few years later, feeling imprisoned, she abandoned her family. She later married Gottfried Lessing, a central member of the Left Book Club, a left-wing organization, and they had a son.

Ms. Lessing, who joined the Communist Party in Africa, repudiated Marxist theory during the Hungarian crisis of 1956, a view for which she was criticized by some British academics.

When she divorced Mr. Lessing, she and her young son, Peter, moved to London, where she began her literary career. Her debut novel, published in Britain in 1949, was "The Grass Is Singing," which chronicled the relationship between a white farmer's wife and her black servant. In her earliest work Ms. Lessing drew upon her childhood experiences in colonial Rhodesia to write about the collision of white and black cultures and racial injustice.

Because of her outspoken views, the governments of Southern Rhodesia and South Africa declared her a "prohibited alien" in 1956.

When "The Golden Notebook" was first published in the United States, Ms. Lessing was still unknown. Robert Gottlieb, then her editor at Simon & Schuster and later at Alfred A. Knopf, said it sold only 6,000 copies. "But they were the right 6,000 copies," Mr. Gottlieb said by telephone from his home in New York. "The people who read it were galvanized by it, and it made her a famous writer in America."

Speaking from Frankfurt during its annual international book fair, Jane Friedman, president and chief executive of HarperCollins, which has published Ms. Lessing in the United States and Britain for the last 20 years, said that "for women and for literature, Doris Lessing is a mother to us all."

Ms. Lessing's other novels include "The Good Terrorist" and "Martha Quest." Her latest novel is "The Cleft," published by HarperCollins in July. She has dabbled in science fiction, and some of her later works bear the imprint of her interest in Sufi mysticism, which she has interpreted as stressing a link between the fates of individuals and society.

Lynn Bryan, a friend of Ms. Lessing, spent some time at the author's home on Thursday as flowers arrived, Champagne was served and the phone rang off the hook. Ms. Bryan said she asked Ms. Lessing why she thinks she won the prize this year.

"'I don't know,'" Ms. Bryan said the author replied. "'I am genuinely surprised because they rejected me all those years ago.'"

The phone rang again, Ms. Bryan said. It was another friend, whom Ms. Lessing was to meet that evening at a Chinese restaurant. She apologized and told him she couldn't. She had just won the Nobel Prize.

Motoko Rich reported from Frankfurt and Sarah Lyall from London.

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Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
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e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

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Legal Blog Watch

Legal Blog Watch

Thomas' 'Jurisprudence of Extremism' If nothing else in recent weeks, we know where Justice Clarence Thomas stands on Anita Hill and the value of a Yale law degree. But given his day job, we might ask, "Where does he stand on constitutional issues such as, say, free speech?" As it so happens, a First Amendment Center symposium published this week, Justice Thomas & the First Amendment, explores that question in depth, with contributions from a who's who of First Amendment scholars. In a forward, Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Irvine law school dean-to-be, sums up what he sees as the symposium's stark conclusion: "Justice Thomas is the most radical member of the current Supreme Court and likely one of the most radical justices in history in his desire to overrule precedent and dramatically change the law. Virtually every essay describes an area where Justice Thomas, in concurring or dissenting opinions, has urged major departures from prior decisions and doctrines." In his contribution to the symposium, an essay on the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case (notably, one that never mentions that phrase),  Loyola Law professor William D. Araiza calls Thomas' body of work the "jurisprudence of extremism." Chemerinsky agrees and adds the observation that Thomas' First Amendment rulings add up to be neither consistently pro- or anti-speech. Three qualities they do share: disregard for stare decisis, a preference for bright-line rules and adherence to originalism. Read more in this broad-ranging collection of essays that also includes a bibliography, an analysis of his voting record on key topics and his answers to First Amendment questions from his confirmation hearings. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) The Four Laws of Lawyer Marketing We are a profession bound to uphold the law, but do you know the laws of lawyer marketing that will help ensure your success? Fear not, for legal-marketing consultant Tom Kane has compiled the four laws of successful lawyer marketing in a series of posts at The Legal Marketing Blog. Kane draws on an article written by another legal marketer, Trey Ryder, in which Ryder, in turn, draws on lessons from the book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. As Kane sums them up, the four laws of legal marketing are: The Law of Perception. Create visibility and credibility for yourself. The Law of Leadership. It is better to be first than to be better. The Law of the Category. Be first in your category; if you can't, then create a new category. The Law of the Mind. Being first gets you nowhere if nobody perceives you as first. It all seems to boil down to establishing yourself as a leader in your field and then making sure that potential clients know you as a leader in your field. Given that, I am surprised that Kane never mentions blogs. For any lawyer striving to uphold the laws of lawyer marketing, is there a better tool than blogging? Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Law Profs Dissent on Tutu Speech A decision by the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., to bar Archbishop Desmond Tutu from speaking on campus has drawn criticism from many corners of the globe -- including the university's own law school. As reported at Minnesota Lawyer Blog, 18 members of the law school's faculty, led by professor Thomas C. Berg, co-director of the Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy, sent a letter to university President Fr. Dennis Dease asking him to reconsider his decision. Reportedly, Dease believed that an on-campus appearance by the noted South African cleric and human rights activist would be hurtful to some Jewish students and faculty members because of controversy over remarks Tutu is alleged to have made about Israel in a 2002 speech (remarks that, according to this piece, he never said). Berg's letter says: "To reject a distinguished speaker based on worries that his words may cause hurt or offense to some is entirely at odds with the search for truth that should characterize a Catholic university. Speech taking positions on controversial subjects will often be offensive or hurtful to some people. Nevertheless, a Catholic university should be willing to open itself to such speech -- and criticisms of that speech -- in order to learn the truth." The law school is seeking permission to host Tutu on its own if the university does not change its mind, the blog reports. Meanwhile, in another post at the same blog, Mark Cohen, the editor of Minnesota Lawyer newspaper, calls on the university to reconsider its decision. While the decision may have been driven by good intentions, he says, the university is "doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons." A commentary in the Star-Tribune offers a similar critique, acknowledging that Dease's decision was "motivated by a genuine desire to avoid hurting Minnesota's Jewish community," but calling it wrong and unethical nonetheless. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Careers Number Crunching: Money v. Happiness The conventional wisdom is that Biglaw associates make piles of money but are miserable, while their smaller-firm counterparts earn much less but enjoy a better quality of life. At the blog Empirical Legal Studies, Indiana University School of Law professor William D. Henderson stood that conventional wisdom against available data from NALP, the ABA's Young Lawyers Division and other sources, and, guess what -- the conventional wisdom is pretty much right. The data show that over the eight-year spread of the typical associate track, Biglaw associates will earn $631,000 more in salaries than associates at firms of two to 25 lawyers and $524,000 more than those at firms of 51 to 100 lawyers -- and that does not include bonuses. But nearly half those Biglaw associates will spend much of those eight years working at least 60 hours a week, while roughly 40 percent of those in firms of one to four lawyers work 40 or fewer hours a week. Henderson sums it up this way: "[T]he bottom-line is this: 60 hours is a long workweek. For many people, eight years of this pace may not be worth the $631,000 (2-25 lawyer shop) or $524,000 (50-100 lawyer firm) pay differential. After all, these years are the prime of many lawyers' lives.  Solving this work-life balance issue is the holy grail for this up-and-coming generation of young lawyers. On the one hand, this effort seems quixotic. On the other hand, as Wayne Gretzky used to say, you miss 100% of the shots you never take. On one level, we can all admire the temerity of youth." But Henderson is quick to suggest that not all large firms are necessarily harsh places to work. As it turns out, the more elite the firm, the longer the working hours and the less desirable the working conditions. Ironically, he adds, it is the students who leave law school with the broadest array of options who choose these harshest firms, opting for prestige and money over quality of life. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12:23 PM

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías en LOBBY  a nivel internacional

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Legal Blog Watch Thomas' 'Jurisprudence of Extremism' If nothing else in recent weeks, we know where Justice Clarence Thomas stands on Anita Hill and the value of a Yale law degree. But given his day job, we might ask, "Where does he stand on constitutional issues such as, say, free speech?" As it so happens, a First Amendment Center symposium published this week, Justice Thomas & the First Amendment, explores that question in depth, with contributions from a who's who of First Amendment scholars. In a forward, Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Irvine law school dean-to-be, sums up what he sees as the symposium's stark conclusion: "Justice Thomas is the most radical member of the current Supreme Court and likely one of the most radical justices in history in his desire to overrule precedent and dramatically change the law. Virtually every essay describes an area where Justice Thomas, in concurring or dissenting opinions, has urged major departures from prior decisions and doctrines." In his contribution to the symposium, an essay on the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case (notably, one that never mentions that phrase),  Loyola Law professor William D. Araiza calls Thomas' body of work the "jurisprudence of extremism." Chemerinsky agrees and adds the observation that Thomas' First Amendment rulings add up to be neither consistently pro- or anti-speech. Three qualities they do share: disregard for stare decisis, a preference for bright-line rules and adherence to originalism. Read more in this broad-ranging collection of essays that also includes a bibliography, an analysis of his voting record on key topics and his answers to First Amendment questions from his confirmation hearings. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) The Four Laws of Lawyer Marketing We are a profession bound to uphold the law, but do you know the laws of lawyer marketing that will help ensure your success? Fear not, for legal-marketing consultant Tom Kane has compiled the four laws of successful lawyer marketing in a series of posts at The Legal Marketing Blog. Kane draws on an article written by another legal marketer, Trey Ryder, in which Ryder, in turn, draws on lessons from the book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. As Kane sums them up, the four laws of legal marketing are: The Law of Perception. Create visibility and credibility for yourself. The Law of Leadership. It is better to be first than to be better. The Law of the Category. Be first in your category; if you can't, then create a new category. The Law of the Mind. Being first gets you nowhere if nobody perceives you as first. It all seems to boil down to establishing yourself as a leader in your field and then making sure that potential clients know you as a leader in your field. Given that, I am surprised that Kane never mentions blogs. For any lawyer striving to uphold the laws of lawyer marketing, is there a better tool than blogging? Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Law Profs Dissent on Tutu Speech A decision by the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., to bar Archbishop Desmond Tutu from speaking on campus has drawn criticism from many corners of the globe -- including the university's own law school. As reported at Minnesota Lawyer Blog, 18 members of the law school's faculty, led by professor Thomas C. Berg, co-director of the Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy, sent a letter to university President Fr. Dennis Dease asking him to reconsider his decision. Reportedly, Dease believed that an on-campus appearance by the noted South African cleric and human rights activist would be hurtful to some Jewish students and faculty members because of controversy over remarks Tutu is alleged to have made about Israel in a 2002 speech (remarks that, according to this piece, he never said). Berg's letter says: "To reject a distinguished speaker based on worries that his words may cause hurt or offense to some is entirely at odds with the search for truth that should characterize a Catholic university. Speech taking positions on controversial subjects will often be offensive or hurtful to some people. Nevertheless, a Catholic university should be willing to open itself to such speech -- and criticisms of that speech -- in order to learn the truth." The law school is seeking permission to host Tutu on its own if the university does not change its mind, the blog reports. Meanwhile, in another post at the same blog, Mark Cohen, the editor of Minnesota Lawyer newspaper, calls on the university to reconsider its decision. While the decision may have been driven by good intentions, he says, the university is "doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons." A commentary in the Star-Tribune offers a similar critique, acknowledging that Dease's decision was "motivated by a genuine desire to avoid hurting Minnesota's Jewish community," but calling it wrong and unethical nonetheless. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Careers Number Crunching: Money v. Happiness The conventional wisdom is that Biglaw associates make piles of money but are miserable, while their smaller-firm counterparts earn much less but enjoy a better quality of life. At the blog Empirical Legal Studies, Indiana University School of Law professor William D. Henderson stood that conventional wisdom against available data from NALP, the ABA's Young Lawyers Division and other sources, and, guess what -- the conventional wisdom is pretty much right. The data show that over the eight-year spread of the typical associate track, Biglaw associates will earn $631,000 more in salaries than associates at firms of two to 25 lawyers and $524,000 more than those at firms of 51 to 100 lawyers -- and that does not include bonuses. But nearly half those Biglaw associates will spend much of those eight years working at least 60 hours a week, while roughly 40 percent of those in firms of one to four lawyers work 40 or fewer hours a week. Henderson sums it up this way: "[T]he bottom-line is this: 60 hours is a long workweek. For many people, eight years of this pace may not be worth the $631,000 (2-25 lawyer shop) or $524,000 (50-100 lawyer firm) pay differential. After all, these years are the prime of many lawyers' lives.  Solving this work-life balance issue is the holy grail for this up-and-coming generation of young lawyers. On the one hand, this effort seems quixotic. On the other hand, as Wayne Gretzky used to say, you miss 100% of the shots you never take. On one level, we can all admire the temerity of youth." But Henderson is quick to suggest that not all large firms are necessarily harsh places to work. As it turns out, the more elite the firm, the longer the working hours and the less desirable the working conditions. Ironically, he adds, it is the students who leave law school with the broadest array of options who choose these harshest firms, opting for prestige and money over quality of life. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 10, 2007 at 12

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
DIPLOMADO EN RSE DE LA ONU
www.Consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.el-observatorio-politico.blogspot.com
Renato Sánchez 3586
teléfono: 5839786
e-mail rogofe47@mi.cl
Santiago-Chile

 

soliciten nuestros cursos de capacitación   y asesorías a nivel internacional