1LT Ehren Watada: Mistrial
1LT Watada's trial ended when the judge declared a mistrial. 1LT Watada faced up to four years in prison.
He will likely be retried. His lawyer is attempting to argue that jeopardy has attached, and that the government cannot retry him based on double jeopardy. The military wants to prosecute Lt Watada, and this will probably go to appeals court.
"Military judge Lt. Col. John Head said he did not believe Watada, who is from Honolulu, fully understood a document he signed admitting to elements of the charges against him.
The judge announced his decision after Watada, under questioning with the military jury absent, said he never intended to admit he had a duty to go to Iraq with his fellow soldiers -- one element of the crime of missing troop movement.
Watada told the judge he understood what he had signed but was not admitting guilt since he believed he still had a defense -- that the war was illegal.
"I'm not seeing we have a meeting of the minds here," the judge said. "And if there is not a meeting of the minds, there's not a contract."" - Melanthia Mitchell, Honolulu Star Bulletin (http://starbulletin.com/2007/02/08/news/story01.html)
I will continue to pray for Lt Watada.
Meanwhile, I would like to respond to a comment made on my earlier post (http://weiwentg.blogspot.com/2007/01/prayers-for-1st-lt.html). Sue argues that Lt Watada is being needlessly made into "some sort of poster child" for refusing to deploy.
"If he was wanting to make a stand for his beliefs, he would have done so by filing for his CO status. All I hear in the media is that he is "courageous", FOR WHAT? I will NOT applaud soliders like him, a true CO will not run away, nor refuse they will file thru proper paperwork."
As I replied, CO status is only granted if soldiers declare objection to war in general. Lt Watada thinks that the war in Iraq, specifically, is illegal. In fact, he requested deployment to Afghanistan or another zone, but the Army refused. Only then did he denounce the war and refuse to deploy. Frankly, he has a pretty good chance of going to prison. Sue may be able to make a good argument that he is misguided, but if she thinks Watada is a coward, I would remind her that mental health counselling is available.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Haggard pronounced "completely heterosexual"
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Haggard-Sex-Allegations.html?hp&ex=1170824400&en=e85aa315c9092d7e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
[Editor: Haggard is completely deceiving himself, and the 4 "ministers" who are working with him are either completely insane or complete quacks.]
DENVER (AP) -- One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is ''completely heterosexual.''
Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur told The Denver Post for a story in Tuesday's edition.
''He is completely heterosexual,'' Ralph said. ''That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing.''
Ralph said the board spoke with people close to Haggard while investigating his claim that his only extramarital sexual contact happened with Mike Jones. The board found no evidence to the contrary.
''If we're going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly,'' he said. ''We're into this thing over 90 days and it hasn't happened.''
Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. He was also forced out from the 14,000 New Life Church that he founded years ago in his basement after Jones alleged Haggard paid him for sex and sometimes used methamphetamine when they were together. Haggard, who is married, has publicly admitted to ''sexual immorality.''
Haggard said in an e-mail Sunday, his first communication in three months to church members, that he and his wife, Gayle, plan to pursue master's degrees in psychology. The e-mail said the family hasn't decided where to move but that they were considering Missouri and Iowa.
Another oversight board member, the Rev. Mike Ware of Westminster, said the group recommended the move out of town and the Haggards agreed.
''This is a good place for Ted,'' Ware said. ''It's hard to heal in Colorado Springs right now. It's like an open wound. He needs to get somewhere he can get the wound healed.''
It was also the oversight board that strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work.
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Haggard-Sex-Allegations.html?hp&ex=1170824400&en=e85aa315c9092d7e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
[Editor: Haggard is completely deceiving himself, and the 4 "ministers" who are working with him are either completely insane or complete quacks.]
DENVER (AP) -- One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is ''completely heterosexual.''
Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur told The Denver Post for a story in Tuesday's edition.
''He is completely heterosexual,'' Ralph said. ''That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing.''
Ralph said the board spoke with people close to Haggard while investigating his claim that his only extramarital sexual contact happened with Mike Jones. The board found no evidence to the contrary.
''If we're going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly,'' he said. ''We're into this thing over 90 days and it hasn't happened.''
Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. He was also forced out from the 14,000 New Life Church that he founded years ago in his basement after Jones alleged Haggard paid him for sex and sometimes used methamphetamine when they were together. Haggard, who is married, has publicly admitted to ''sexual immorality.''
Haggard said in an e-mail Sunday, his first communication in three months to church members, that he and his wife, Gayle, plan to pursue master's degrees in psychology. The e-mail said the family hasn't decided where to move but that they were considering Missouri and Iowa.
Another oversight board member, the Rev. Mike Ware of Westminster, said the group recommended the move out of town and the Haggards agreed.
''This is a good place for Ted,'' Ware said. ''It's hard to heal in Colorado Springs right now. It's like an open wound. He needs to get somewhere he can get the wound healed.''
It was also the oversight board that strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Earth-friendly hangars coming to a dry-cleaner near you
Michael Kanellos, CNet News: http://news.com.com/2100-11395_3-6156464.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
HangerNetwork is probably one of the few companies that can trace its roots to a carpet stain.
The idea for the company--which makes a dry cleaner hanger made entirely from recycled paper--came after founder and Chief Operating Officer J.D. Schulman's mother asked him to throw away a bunch of old wire hangers. He put them in the garbage, the hangers poked a hole in the bag, and gravy dripped on her white carpet when Schulman took the garbage out, says HangerNetwork CEO Bob Kantor.
The result was the EcoHanger, a sturdy replacement for wire hangers that can be folded and tossed into the ordinary household recycling bin. Because they biodegrade relatively quickly, the hanger conceivably could displace significant amounts of difficult-to-dispose-of garbage every year.
"3.5 billion wire hangers go into U.S. landfills every year, and they sit in there for over a hundred years," Kantor said.
Perhaps just as important, the company says it can bring these hangers to market in an economical way that makes it attractive for dry cleaners to switch. HangerNetwork doesn't sell its hangers. It gives them free to dry cleaners, who ordinarily have to pay about 8 cents per wire hanger.
So who foots the bill? National advertisers pay HangerNetwork to put ads on the hangers, which then stare consumers in the face when they get dressed in the morning.
"We have Van Heusen shirts, L'Oreal, Dunkin' Donuts, Mitchum antiperspirant," Kantor said. "On average, (the hanger) stays in your closet six to eight weeks."
The company is already pulling in "multimillions" in ad revenue, he said. Ad campaigns can be targeted at men or women and will be available nationwide or aimed at specific markets. The ad campaigns start at 250,000 hangers.
The company this week announced it has landed $8 million in venture dollars from Kodiak Venture Partners and Sigma Partners, and Kantor said the company will use the money on introducing itself to thousands of independent dry cleaners nationwide. So far, the company has mostly sold its hangers in the New York metropolitan area, but now it is expanding nationwide. In about two weeks, the hangers will start popping up in dry cleaners in San Francisco and a few other major metropolitan markets, Kantor said.
Cleaners Supply, the largest distributor of dry cleaning products in the U.S., offers the free hangers from the front page of its Web site. The supply outfit serves approximately 35,000 dry cleaners.
The company reflects how many clean-tech companies are marketing themselves, touting their green attributes but giving equal weight to the idea that they can compete with products made of standard materials. Cereplast of Santa Monica, Calif., for instance, has come up with a way to make forks, knives and other disposable products out of cornstarch, rather than petroleum byproducts. The forks can be safely put into a landfill, and the cornstarch blend is comparable to traditional materials.
Technically speaking, the EcoHanger is made from 34-point paperboard (a relatively thick paper) that is folded onto itself. The hanger is then glued and laminated for extra strength. In the end, the hanger is strong enough to hold clothes, but remains flexible. The company has sought patents on the device.
The benefits the EcoHanger has over wire hangers pave the way for it to become an ad vehicle, asserted Kantor. After all, it gets rid of a device--wire hangers--that many people don't like or don't know how to get rid of. Even many dry cleaners now refuse to take back wire hangers. Thus, any potential resistance to a new form of advertising coming into the home gets outweighed by environmental benefits and easier disposal, he said. To use advertising industry buzzwords, the ads are "invited" into the home.
Advertisers also benefit because the ads can last longer than other forms of collateral advertisements. Those insulating cardboard coffee rings now ubiquitous in coffee shops are kept only until people are done with their coffee. The EcoHanger can be (and often is) reused by the customer, Kantor said. Thus, a given customer will see the siren song for Dunkin' Donuts a few times a month. (Interestingly, the doughnut chain was also one of the first advertisers to sign up with Massive, which inserts ads into video games. Massive subsequently got bought by Microsoft.) The company says its cost per impression comes to around 4.5 cents.
The ads, Kantor added, are also tough to miss.
Has the company thought about adopting the famous wire hanger line from the movie Mommie Dearest as a motto or jingle? Yes, Kantor admitted, but he said there are issues with royalties.
Michael Kanellos, CNet News: http://news.com.com/2100-11395_3-6156464.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
HangerNetwork is probably one of the few companies that can trace its roots to a carpet stain.
The idea for the company--which makes a dry cleaner hanger made entirely from recycled paper--came after founder and Chief Operating Officer J.D. Schulman's mother asked him to throw away a bunch of old wire hangers. He put them in the garbage, the hangers poked a hole in the bag, and gravy dripped on her white carpet when Schulman took the garbage out, says HangerNetwork CEO Bob Kantor.
The result was the EcoHanger, a sturdy replacement for wire hangers that can be folded and tossed into the ordinary household recycling bin. Because they biodegrade relatively quickly, the hanger conceivably could displace significant amounts of difficult-to-dispose-of garbage every year.
"3.5 billion wire hangers go into U.S. landfills every year, and they sit in there for over a hundred years," Kantor said.
Perhaps just as important, the company says it can bring these hangers to market in an economical way that makes it attractive for dry cleaners to switch. HangerNetwork doesn't sell its hangers. It gives them free to dry cleaners, who ordinarily have to pay about 8 cents per wire hanger.
So who foots the bill? National advertisers pay HangerNetwork to put ads on the hangers, which then stare consumers in the face when they get dressed in the morning.
"We have Van Heusen shirts, L'Oreal, Dunkin' Donuts, Mitchum antiperspirant," Kantor said. "On average, (the hanger) stays in your closet six to eight weeks."
The company is already pulling in "multimillions" in ad revenue, he said. Ad campaigns can be targeted at men or women and will be available nationwide or aimed at specific markets. The ad campaigns start at 250,000 hangers.
The company this week announced it has landed $8 million in venture dollars from Kodiak Venture Partners and Sigma Partners, and Kantor said the company will use the money on introducing itself to thousands of independent dry cleaners nationwide. So far, the company has mostly sold its hangers in the New York metropolitan area, but now it is expanding nationwide. In about two weeks, the hangers will start popping up in dry cleaners in San Francisco and a few other major metropolitan markets, Kantor said.
Cleaners Supply, the largest distributor of dry cleaning products in the U.S., offers the free hangers from the front page of its Web site. The supply outfit serves approximately 35,000 dry cleaners.
The company reflects how many clean-tech companies are marketing themselves, touting their green attributes but giving equal weight to the idea that they can compete with products made of standard materials. Cereplast of Santa Monica, Calif., for instance, has come up with a way to make forks, knives and other disposable products out of cornstarch, rather than petroleum byproducts. The forks can be safely put into a landfill, and the cornstarch blend is comparable to traditional materials.
Technically speaking, the EcoHanger is made from 34-point paperboard (a relatively thick paper) that is folded onto itself. The hanger is then glued and laminated for extra strength. In the end, the hanger is strong enough to hold clothes, but remains flexible. The company has sought patents on the device.
The benefits the EcoHanger has over wire hangers pave the way for it to become an ad vehicle, asserted Kantor. After all, it gets rid of a device--wire hangers--that many people don't like or don't know how to get rid of. Even many dry cleaners now refuse to take back wire hangers. Thus, any potential resistance to a new form of advertising coming into the home gets outweighed by environmental benefits and easier disposal, he said. To use advertising industry buzzwords, the ads are "invited" into the home.
Advertisers also benefit because the ads can last longer than other forms of collateral advertisements. Those insulating cardboard coffee rings now ubiquitous in coffee shops are kept only until people are done with their coffee. The EcoHanger can be (and often is) reused by the customer, Kantor said. Thus, a given customer will see the siren song for Dunkin' Donuts a few times a month. (Interestingly, the doughnut chain was also one of the first advertisers to sign up with Massive, which inserts ads into video games. Massive subsequently got bought by Microsoft.) The company says its cost per impression comes to around 4.5 cents.
The ads, Kantor added, are also tough to miss.
Has the company thought about adopting the famous wire hanger line from the movie Mommie Dearest as a motto or jingle? Yes, Kantor admitted, but he said there are issues with royalties.
Monday, February 05, 2007
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and Grace under Fire
From Cathy Lynn Grossman's article for USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-02-04-jefferts-schori-cover_x.htm
"Since her election in June and installation in November, a tiny but influential number of churches from Virginia to California — "one-half of 1% of the 7,200 congregations," she says — have spurned her leadership and the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church to align with Southern Hemisphere traditionalists.
The long-simmering tensions between those who adhere to a strict interpretation of the Bible and those who read it less literally came to a boil in 2003. That's when the church's governing body approved the election of the church's first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Jefferts Schori has been excoriated by conservatives for her theological views. Some primates say they won't sit in the same room with her at her first meeting of the primates in Tanzania next week.
Yet, despite "white-hot animosity thrown at her, she's unflappable," New York Bishop Mark Sisk says.
Confronted with seemingly intractable conflicts, Jefferts Schori smiles like someone well versed in Matthew 6:25's refrain: "Be not anxious." The world is all of God, she says, so go forward.
"I'm no Pollyanna. I just try to look at the world with the expectation that I will find signs of God. The burning bush is an invitation, if we are willing to engage it.""
"Critics say she equivocates on essential doctrine — the necessity for atonement and the exclusivity of salvation through Christ. They cite interviews in which she has said living like Jesus in this world was a more urgent task than worrying about the next world.
"It's not my job to pick" who is saved. "It's God's job," she tells USA TODAY.
Yes, sin "is pervasive, part of human nature," but "it's not the centerpiece of the Christian message. If we spend our time talking about sin and depravity, it is all we see in the world," she says.
Here's where blood rushes into the blogs and critics pounce.
"Her theological statements are not orthodox Christian, not orthodox Anglican. Frankly, they're bizarre," says the Rev. Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council. He has aligned with a group of U.S. churches that now answer to the Archbishop of Nigeria.
Sisk disagrees sharply.
"She's profoundly faithful to the central claims of the church and the Scriptures. People who say she's not are making that up. They just don't agree with her. And the fact that she stays calm in the face of a lot of pumped-up hype, that she just doesn't buy it, irritates them."
Indeed, asked about her critics, Jefferts Schori doesn't blink. She leans in, drops her voice even lower and cuts to the chase.
She sees two strands of faith: One is "most concerned with atonement, that Jesus died for our sins and our most important task is to repent." But the other is "the more gracious strand," says the bishop who dresses like a sunrise.
It "is to talk about life, to claim the joy and the blessings for good that it offers, to look forward.
"God became human in order that we may become divine. That's our task.""
From Cathy Lynn Grossman's article for USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-02-04-jefferts-schori-cover_x.htm
"Since her election in June and installation in November, a tiny but influential number of churches from Virginia to California — "one-half of 1% of the 7,200 congregations," she says — have spurned her leadership and the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church to align with Southern Hemisphere traditionalists.
The long-simmering tensions between those who adhere to a strict interpretation of the Bible and those who read it less literally came to a boil in 2003. That's when the church's governing body approved the election of the church's first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Jefferts Schori has been excoriated by conservatives for her theological views. Some primates say they won't sit in the same room with her at her first meeting of the primates in Tanzania next week.
Yet, despite "white-hot animosity thrown at her, she's unflappable," New York Bishop Mark Sisk says.
Confronted with seemingly intractable conflicts, Jefferts Schori smiles like someone well versed in Matthew 6:25's refrain: "Be not anxious." The world is all of God, she says, so go forward.
"I'm no Pollyanna. I just try to look at the world with the expectation that I will find signs of God. The burning bush is an invitation, if we are willing to engage it.""
"Critics say she equivocates on essential doctrine — the necessity for atonement and the exclusivity of salvation through Christ. They cite interviews in which she has said living like Jesus in this world was a more urgent task than worrying about the next world.
"It's not my job to pick" who is saved. "It's God's job," she tells USA TODAY.
Yes, sin "is pervasive, part of human nature," but "it's not the centerpiece of the Christian message. If we spend our time talking about sin and depravity, it is all we see in the world," she says.
Here's where blood rushes into the blogs and critics pounce.
"Her theological statements are not orthodox Christian, not orthodox Anglican. Frankly, they're bizarre," says the Rev. Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council. He has aligned with a group of U.S. churches that now answer to the Archbishop of Nigeria.
Sisk disagrees sharply.
"She's profoundly faithful to the central claims of the church and the Scriptures. People who say she's not are making that up. They just don't agree with her. And the fact that she stays calm in the face of a lot of pumped-up hype, that she just doesn't buy it, irritates them."
Indeed, asked about her critics, Jefferts Schori doesn't blink. She leans in, drops her voice even lower and cuts to the chase.
She sees two strands of faith: One is "most concerned with atonement, that Jesus died for our sins and our most important task is to repent." But the other is "the more gracious strand," says the bishop who dresses like a sunrise.
It "is to talk about life, to claim the joy and the blessings for good that it offers, to look forward.
"God became human in order that we may become divine. That's our task.""
Friday, February 02, 2007
Prayers for domestic partner benefits in Michigan, and the Millstone Award for February
In the 2004 elections, citizens of Michigan voted for Proposal 2: To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.
The first part of the proposal is already problematic. The second could have been read to ban domestic partner benefits. Right-wing legal groups later sued several public universities, seeking to get them to end DP benefits. The ACLU sued the state, seeking clarification. Ingham county's Circuit Court ruled that the amendment did not bar DP benefits. However, the right-wing people appealed, and our Appeals Court, which is known to lean conservative, ruled that the amendment: “prohibits public employers from recognizing same-sex unions for any purpose,” including the provision of employee health benefits.
Opinion polls generally reveal that Americans are perfectly OK with domestic partner benefits, although a majority want to keep marriage for opposite-sex couples. In other words, the amendment's results are NOT what ordinary Americans generally want. I am pretty sure that the people who worded the amendment did so knowing that this could happen, or intending that it happen.
Therefore, February's Millstone Award goes to the Michigan Family Forum, a primary supporter of Proposal 2. On their FAQ page (http://www.michiganfamily.org/special-protectmarr/documents/faq-prop2.htm), they claim the following:
"Q. Will this take away existing health benefits from children of same-sex partners?
A. No. While opponents claim this will be a significant problem, no child is in danger of losing benefits."
They were either stupid or lying. In fact, if they were lying, they possibly contradict themselves two questions later: "A. Legal experts disagree on how much this may restrict public universities. The Michigan Constitution grants universities significant autonomy to govern themselves through their elected Boards. It is reasonable to assume that state funds will be prohibited from from going to same-sex partner benefits while other funding sources, such as tuition, fees or donations, will be allowed to pay for same-sex partner benefits."
First, the case is going to the MI Supreme Court. Second, if I understand the law correctly, private businesses and organizations will not be prohibited from offering DP benefits; however, it is not certain how many choose to do so, and it's likely that public organizations are leading the way.
Meanwhile, people are likely to be deprived of domestic partner benefits. For reasons dating back to WWII, health insurance in the US is linked to employment. This arrangement is dysfunctional, and exists in no other industrialized country. Medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy, and bankruptcy can happen even to those with insurance.
As a result, this is a human rights issue. And so, whether they intended this or not, the Michigan Family Foundation and their allies receive February's Millstone Award.
Ordinary citizens of Michigan, frankly, are NOT off the hook. I know there is a lot of information out there, and that politics is very hard to keep track of. However, this amendment only got passed because people voted for it, and carelessness is no excuse. Citizens need to educate themselves and stay engaged and aware. If they don't, fiascoes like this one happen.
NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/us/03michigan.html?ex=1171256400&en=50980921eb08869d&ei=5070&emc=eta1
In the 2004 elections, citizens of Michigan voted for Proposal 2: To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.
The first part of the proposal is already problematic. The second could have been read to ban domestic partner benefits. Right-wing legal groups later sued several public universities, seeking to get them to end DP benefits. The ACLU sued the state, seeking clarification. Ingham county's Circuit Court ruled that the amendment did not bar DP benefits. However, the right-wing people appealed, and our Appeals Court, which is known to lean conservative, ruled that the amendment: “prohibits public employers from recognizing same-sex unions for any purpose,” including the provision of employee health benefits.
Opinion polls generally reveal that Americans are perfectly OK with domestic partner benefits, although a majority want to keep marriage for opposite-sex couples. In other words, the amendment's results are NOT what ordinary Americans generally want. I am pretty sure that the people who worded the amendment did so knowing that this could happen, or intending that it happen.
Therefore, February's Millstone Award goes to the Michigan Family Forum, a primary supporter of Proposal 2. On their FAQ page (http://www.michiganfamily.org/special-protectmarr/documents/faq-prop2.htm), they claim the following:
"Q. Will this take away existing health benefits from children of same-sex partners?
A. No. While opponents claim this will be a significant problem, no child is in danger of losing benefits."
They were either stupid or lying. In fact, if they were lying, they possibly contradict themselves two questions later: "A. Legal experts disagree on how much this may restrict public universities. The Michigan Constitution grants universities significant autonomy to govern themselves through their elected Boards. It is reasonable to assume that state funds will be prohibited from from going to same-sex partner benefits while other funding sources, such as tuition, fees or donations, will be allowed to pay for same-sex partner benefits."
First, the case is going to the MI Supreme Court. Second, if I understand the law correctly, private businesses and organizations will not be prohibited from offering DP benefits; however, it is not certain how many choose to do so, and it's likely that public organizations are leading the way.
Meanwhile, people are likely to be deprived of domestic partner benefits. For reasons dating back to WWII, health insurance in the US is linked to employment. This arrangement is dysfunctional, and exists in no other industrialized country. Medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy, and bankruptcy can happen even to those with insurance.
As a result, this is a human rights issue. And so, whether they intended this or not, the Michigan Family Foundation and their allies receive February's Millstone Award.
Ordinary citizens of Michigan, frankly, are NOT off the hook. I know there is a lot of information out there, and that politics is very hard to keep track of. However, this amendment only got passed because people voted for it, and carelessness is no excuse. Citizens need to educate themselves and stay engaged and aware. If they don't, fiascoes like this one happen.
NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/us/03michigan.html?ex=1171256400&en=50980921eb08869d&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Can corporations use their influence for good? Let's find out: ask Coke to advocate for the polar bear
http://www.environmental-action.org/enviroaction.asp?id=2118&id4=ES
I don't watch much TV, but I'm told Coke has some catchy polar bear ads. The problem is, the polar bear may be in danger of extinction. It would be really cool if Coke used its considerable influence to advocate for putting the polar bear on the endangered species list. Yes, this action wouldn't directly help their bottom line. But, it would boost their reputation, which could help sales.
Coke, if you speak out on behalf of the polar bear, I will up my Coke consumption from practically zero to once a week. Deal?
http://www.environmental-action.org/enviroaction.asp?id=2118&id4=ES
I don't watch much TV, but I'm told Coke has some catchy polar bear ads. The problem is, the polar bear may be in danger of extinction. It would be really cool if Coke used its considerable influence to advocate for putting the polar bear on the endangered species list. Yes, this action wouldn't directly help their bottom line. But, it would boost their reputation, which could help sales.
Coke, if you speak out on behalf of the polar bear, I will up my Coke consumption from practically zero to once a week. Deal?
Thursday, February 01, 2007
At Davos, a bunch of comfortable rich people try to save the world in absentia
[Editor: This piece is written by David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine. I commend him and the people who attended Davos. There is much important work to be done by corporations. But the people who head those corporations are very wealthy. Wealth can insulate you from the realities of people on the ground. It can also make you arrogant, and cause you to ignore the knowledge they have of their own situation.
God was in heaven, insulated from humankind by God's power and might. In infinite love, God wanted to know humankind through our own eyes. You see, God's love is infinite, and God did not want to try us in absentia. So, God sent Jesus down.
Messrs Kirkpatrick, Brabeck-Letmathe, Khosla, Krupp, Wales, Barrett, Negroponte, and Richard: will you go down?]
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- I was sitting in a session at Davos idly doing e-mail when I suddenly slapped my laptop closed and listened, amazed. Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, on stage, was asserting that global warming doesn't much matter, that Al Gore deliberately omitted contradictory information from his movie "An Inconvenient Truth," and that the world would be better off using money it is spending to comply with the Kyoto Protocol to improve water supplies.
That evening at a party I ran into venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, now investing in clean-energy start-ups. What did he think of Brabeck-Letmathe's comments, I asked? "He should see his proctologist to find his head," said Khosla, "and you can quote me."
So it goes at the World Economic Forum, where the world's leading expert on any subject may end up sitting next to you at lunch, and everyone's got an opinion on everything. This year's Davos swarmed with energy and climate gurus. Brabeck-Letmathe's ill-considered remarks were especially noteworthy because the 2500 attendees - including corporate chieftains -seemed to have reached near-universal consensus that global warming is real and businesses and governments must thus change their behavior.
The company in Davos is dazzling, even to one of the most worldly and influential environmentalists. I was sitting on a sofa interviewing Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, when Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp stopped by to say hello. Krupp was instrumental in orchestrating the big announcement a couple weeks ago when GE, BP and a number of other corporate giants announced a plan to help combat climate change.
When I introduced Krupp to Wales, he was for a moment dumbfounded. Then he explained that his son reveres Wales and would be blown away to learn his dad had met him. Wales genially agreed to a photograph with Krupp.
Wales wore an orange press badge, which gets you into fewer Davos venues than the precious white badges that companies pay $35,000 to get. Wales explained that orange was the best he could do because he'd come at the last minute, after receiving a call from his friend Bono inviting him to a party with Bill and Melinda Gates and Tony Blair.
Getting a Second Life in Davos
In past years Gates had been interviewed at a private session (invited guests only) by Charlie Rose, but the PBS talk-show host this year moved over to what has become an even hotter ticket - the private after-dinner conversation with Google (Charts) founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Guests included New York Times (Charts) CEO Arthur Sulzberger and Arianna Huffington.
Davos has numerous sub-cultures. In the tech and media precincts I frequented, Brin and Page are the superstars. In past years they've milled around the little cafes in the Forum's Congress Centre just like everybody else. But this year their celebrity went orbital. Every CEO, it seemed, and many a head of state wanted to meet with them. By contrast, Chad Hurley of YouTube, Google's much-celebrated recent acquiree, seemed content to stay in the background. When I sledded down the mountain with friends after the Forum's closing picnic, Hurley happily joined us.
Nicholas Negroponte, longtime director of MIT's Media Lab, was toting around a working version of his so-called "$100 laptop" (which will initially cost about $150). Everyone from Michael Dell to Google's Vint Cerf was seen playing with it. The little green-and-white computer is so sexy that many pronounced it "cooler than the iPhone."
I had to miss the Gates/Friedman breakfast to moderate a special working session for technology companies on bridging the global digital divide. (John Markoff wrote about it in the Times and you can read it without a password at CNET.) Negroponte dutifully toted in his tiny laptop, which he hopes to be producing in tens of millions by next year for the world's poorest children. (A group of eminent techies, divided between skeptics and enthusiasts, entertained themselves at a dinner by taking formal bets on how many Negroponte would actually produce.)
The featured speaker at the digital divide session was Intel (Charts) Chairman Craig Barrett, who has been outspokenly critical of Negroponte's laptop, in part because it is based on a processor chip from arch-rival AMD (Charts). Intel at Davos was trying to strike back by showing its own green-and-white "Classmate PC," which is considerably more expensive and whose clunkiness prompted no iPhone comparisons.
Barrett and Negroponte traded barbs in which each accused the other of caring more about marketing than children. Then AMD President Andre Richard made a proposal - despite their rivalry on other matters, the two chipmakers should cooperate on special software for inexpensive educational computers.
Intel's Barrett responded unenthusiastically. The air turned sour in the room, which included Michael Dell and executives from Cisco (Charts), Sun (Charts), and other companies, along with tech-oriented NGOs. Everyone seemed disappointed at Barrett's rebuff. When the session ended, however, a lower-level Intel executive approached Richard amiably, and the two men chatted with animation.
It was a characteristic moment. The mood in Davos this year was that doing good for the world and being responsive to society is merely the price of entry to corporate success. At a session on how the nature of business power is shifting, Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana said that the biggest challenge facing companies "is to regain and sustain their legitimacy in society." Even a group of mining and minerals executives found themselves talking about how to embrace NGOs that monitor their industry.
CEOs with views like Brabeck-Letmathe, thankfully, were in the minority. I left Davos heartened.
[Editor: This piece is written by David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine. I commend him and the people who attended Davos. There is much important work to be done by corporations. But the people who head those corporations are very wealthy. Wealth can insulate you from the realities of people on the ground. It can also make you arrogant, and cause you to ignore the knowledge they have of their own situation.
God was in heaven, insulated from humankind by God's power and might. In infinite love, God wanted to know humankind through our own eyes. You see, God's love is infinite, and God did not want to try us in absentia. So, God sent Jesus down.
Messrs Kirkpatrick, Brabeck-Letmathe, Khosla, Krupp, Wales, Barrett, Negroponte, and Richard: will you go down?]
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- I was sitting in a session at Davos idly doing e-mail when I suddenly slapped my laptop closed and listened, amazed. Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, on stage, was asserting that global warming doesn't much matter, that Al Gore deliberately omitted contradictory information from his movie "An Inconvenient Truth," and that the world would be better off using money it is spending to comply with the Kyoto Protocol to improve water supplies.
That evening at a party I ran into venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, now investing in clean-energy start-ups. What did he think of Brabeck-Letmathe's comments, I asked? "He should see his proctologist to find his head," said Khosla, "and you can quote me."
So it goes at the World Economic Forum, where the world's leading expert on any subject may end up sitting next to you at lunch, and everyone's got an opinion on everything. This year's Davos swarmed with energy and climate gurus. Brabeck-Letmathe's ill-considered remarks were especially noteworthy because the 2500 attendees - including corporate chieftains -seemed to have reached near-universal consensus that global warming is real and businesses and governments must thus change their behavior.
The company in Davos is dazzling, even to one of the most worldly and influential environmentalists. I was sitting on a sofa interviewing Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, when Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp stopped by to say hello. Krupp was instrumental in orchestrating the big announcement a couple weeks ago when GE, BP and a number of other corporate giants announced a plan to help combat climate change.
When I introduced Krupp to Wales, he was for a moment dumbfounded. Then he explained that his son reveres Wales and would be blown away to learn his dad had met him. Wales genially agreed to a photograph with Krupp.
Wales wore an orange press badge, which gets you into fewer Davos venues than the precious white badges that companies pay $35,000 to get. Wales explained that orange was the best he could do because he'd come at the last minute, after receiving a call from his friend Bono inviting him to a party with Bill and Melinda Gates and Tony Blair.
Getting a Second Life in Davos
In past years Gates had been interviewed at a private session (invited guests only) by Charlie Rose, but the PBS talk-show host this year moved over to what has become an even hotter ticket - the private after-dinner conversation with Google (Charts) founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Guests included New York Times (Charts) CEO Arthur Sulzberger and Arianna Huffington.
Davos has numerous sub-cultures. In the tech and media precincts I frequented, Brin and Page are the superstars. In past years they've milled around the little cafes in the Forum's Congress Centre just like everybody else. But this year their celebrity went orbital. Every CEO, it seemed, and many a head of state wanted to meet with them. By contrast, Chad Hurley of YouTube, Google's much-celebrated recent acquiree, seemed content to stay in the background. When I sledded down the mountain with friends after the Forum's closing picnic, Hurley happily joined us.
Nicholas Negroponte, longtime director of MIT's Media Lab, was toting around a working version of his so-called "$100 laptop" (which will initially cost about $150). Everyone from Michael Dell to Google's Vint Cerf was seen playing with it. The little green-and-white computer is so sexy that many pronounced it "cooler than the iPhone."
I had to miss the Gates/Friedman breakfast to moderate a special working session for technology companies on bridging the global digital divide. (John Markoff wrote about it in the Times and you can read it without a password at CNET.) Negroponte dutifully toted in his tiny laptop, which he hopes to be producing in tens of millions by next year for the world's poorest children. (A group of eminent techies, divided between skeptics and enthusiasts, entertained themselves at a dinner by taking formal bets on how many Negroponte would actually produce.)
The featured speaker at the digital divide session was Intel (Charts) Chairman Craig Barrett, who has been outspokenly critical of Negroponte's laptop, in part because it is based on a processor chip from arch-rival AMD (Charts). Intel at Davos was trying to strike back by showing its own green-and-white "Classmate PC," which is considerably more expensive and whose clunkiness prompted no iPhone comparisons.
Barrett and Negroponte traded barbs in which each accused the other of caring more about marketing than children. Then AMD President Andre Richard made a proposal - despite their rivalry on other matters, the two chipmakers should cooperate on special software for inexpensive educational computers.
Intel's Barrett responded unenthusiastically. The air turned sour in the room, which included Michael Dell and executives from Cisco (Charts), Sun (Charts), and other companies, along with tech-oriented NGOs. Everyone seemed disappointed at Barrett's rebuff. When the session ended, however, a lower-level Intel executive approached Richard amiably, and the two men chatted with animation.
It was a characteristic moment. The mood in Davos this year was that doing good for the world and being responsive to society is merely the price of entry to corporate success. At a session on how the nature of business power is shifting, Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana said that the biggest challenge facing companies "is to regain and sustain their legitimacy in society." Even a group of mining and minerals executives found themselves talking about how to embrace NGOs that monitor their industry.
CEOs with views like Brabeck-Letmathe, thankfully, were in the minority. I left Davos heartened.
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