• Home
• Contact us
• Privacy Policy

Paris University System

A university is an institution that brings together in her womb production ( research ), conservation (publications and libraries) and transmission ( graduate ) of different domains of knowledge . It differs in that the schools and colleges , which focus solely on the transmission of a specific domain of knowledge. The United States , when the universities of this country began to rise which would lead them to the level they currently have, Peirce 1 , an American philosopher, defined in 1891 the university as “a fellowship of men [ ...] endowed and privileged by the state, so that people can be trained (guidance) intellectual and theoretical issues that arise during the development of civilization can be solved. ” The definition of Peirce refers to classical Latin where the expression universitas hominorum (“fellowship of men”) means what we now call a corporation or legal entity 2 . It also recalls the medieval Latin, that of the time when the Western university arose, in which the word universitas means a community or corporation 3 , 4 .
The university entrance is generally restricted to those who have previously graduated from secondary school. The number of students in universities of the world has skyrocketed throughout the xx th century, especially since World War II. Today a proper functioning of universities and more generally of higher education is considered an economic asset. Also, the major European countries, to support the international competition, they have launched over the past ten years in a movement of reflection and reform their universities 5 .

Representation of the Academy of Plato .
Before discussing the history of universities, we must remember that the word “university” comes from the Western civilizations that created from the xi th century to describe an organization of universal college students. The academies Greek as Plato’s Academy and other organizations of higher education in China as the Nanjing University in India with the Nalanda University in Iran with the Academy of Gundishapur , in Japan with the Ashikaga Gakko , in Ifriqiya with the madrasah of Zitouna or the Medical School of Salerno preceded the appearance of Western universities sometimes nearly a millennium. However, these different organizations did not claim the compilation and preparation of all knowledge, but only their teaching, then what distinguished the university.
xi th century: the birth of Western Universities
Main article: Universities in the Middle Ages .

Class at the university to 1350S.
In 1088, teachers grammarians, logic and rhetoric are interested in compiling the study and transmission of knowledge about the legal knowledge of the time. In doing so, they founded the University of Bologna, known as the Alma Mater Studiorum 7 . In 1150 students from all different community (universitas) colleges of the left bank of Paris are grouped in the University of Paris . These colleges represent the various faculties that make up the university. English students expelled from Paris in 1166 founded the University of Oxford . In 1289, the papal bull Quia Sapientia of Pope Nicolas IV established the first medical school in Montpellier, where medical education was already attested in 1150. The xiii th century, the subjects taught are organized around the “four powers” that are the arts, medicine, law and theology. At that time the universities contribute to the renewal of knowledge, which are closely related to the church catholic . In this context, it is not surprising that the theology and canon law carve the lion’s share. Students come from afar to receive university education. The “mechanical arts” and “science-profit” are not addressed, victims of disdain for manual labor and the financial benefit that the nobles and clergy showed at the time. Teaching based on standard texts (“authorities”). The teaching consisted of the lectio (reading) and disputation (“dispute”), so adversarial, largely based on the syllogism . Universities are rapidly acquiring libraries to overcome the scarcity of copies available for reading.
the xv th to xviii th century: state control of universities

The University of Lausanne was founded in 1537
From the xv th century new universities are created at a rapid pace in Europe, but also in Latin America and in North America . The religious particularities that appear in Europe ( Anglican church , Protestantism ) impact the subjects taught and the methods of teaching. More national political structures in France , in Germany or England for example, are gradually taking control of universities, which then lose autonomy (at least compared to the state). These developments mark the end of the peregrinatio academica and reduces “the social spectrum” of students in universities.
Also, it is not surprising that full Renaissance , academic institutions are widely criticized and challenged, both in their operations as their roles. The Enlightenment raises the question of the usefulness of teaching provided. This is whether the university aims to produce skills benefit all or whether it should provide the holders of diplomas delivered a high social rank. It regrets the lack of student attendance as well as teachers, we suspect the quality and value of degrees awarded, there is fraud and complacency …
xix th century under the leadership of universities lights

The Humboldt University in 1850.
The liberal currents that travel in Europe lead to major reforms. During the French Revolution , the abolition of the universities of the Old Regime , will for a time the closure of universities. Domination of Napoleon over a large part of the old continent will have profound consequences on Western universities. “Empire” is receiving renewed interest in science and technology, not well represented in universities. Are created and high schools ( École Polytechnique , or the ENS in France). Meanwhile, the emperor reorganized the university system and explicitly names the Professors . The fragmentation of knowledge, taught in separate schools, will sometimes be seen as a stalemate in France undertook then 8 …
It was also at this time that begins (in Germany) the teaching of new disciplines such as philology, mathematics and physics . Germany through the University of Berlin founded by Wilhelm von Humboldt promotes a new model for the university: a model where it is no longer thought of as the division of philosophy into specialized areas, but as the collection Universal knowledge and research 9 .
United States as the university system reinvents itself and becomes profoundly different from that inherited from the time of the English colonies. The country’s rapid development and support a large influx of mass higher education dynamic and heterogeneous. Although not explicit, it will follow essentially the German model, thinking the university as a place of confrontation of all knowledge.

the University of Tokyo opened in 1877 on the Western model following the teachings of the Iwakura Mission
The Western university model is spreading to East Asia by several means. The state powers are one of these vectors. The Japanese Imperial recovers well this model following the teachings of the Iwakura Mission in 1871 , and opened the Imperial University in 1877 , an institution that serves as a model for other universities opened subsequently by the Japanese Imperial. In China , the Beijing University was established by the Empire after the Hundred Days Reform in 1898 , and Korea , the Korea University was founded in 1905 by a relative of the royal family. The Western model is also broadcast via missionaries, which open in the regions of such institutions as the University of Dawn opened to Shanghai in 1903 by a Catholic priest, the Yonsei University opened by a doctor Presbyterian in Seoul in 1885 , or the Rikkyo University open to Tokyo in 1874 by a missionary of the Episcopal Church USA . Finally, other existing facilities are modernized by adopting the model of the Western university, for example, Keio University opened in Tokyo in 1858 and opened his first degree in 1890 .
The xx th century to today: the modern university
In Europe against social inequalities as much as the content taught continue to shape the university system, which also remains highly concentrated on a few prestigious structures. In France, 43% of students remain concentrated in Paris in 1914. In England Oxford and Cambridge remain dominant until the middle of the xx th century. In Germany, the arrival of authoritarian causes a serious crisis of the “German model”. In “bringing to heel of higher education by the Nazi regime,” one third of teachers is affected by the treatment, which in particular will strengthen American universities, and many who remain lose honor and probity .

Exterior view of the Lassonde, University of Montreal.
It is also the xx th century that the model of higher education in universities is spreading around the world (Asia, Africa). At the end of World War II, university development is seen as one of the main criteria of radiation political, economic and cultural civilized countries (notably during the Cold War). At the dawn of the xxi th century is considered by economists as a benchmark for the economic stability of a country.
Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted in New York December 16, 1966 by the UN General Assembly states that: “Higher education shall be made ​​accessible to all equally, in basis of capacity by every appropriate means, including through the progressive introduction of free education “.
Structures and status of universities

The word comes from the Latin University and Universitas magistrorum scholarium which originally designated the corporation of teachers and students in the same city. Universities are now divided into academic departments, faculties or schools (known in France nowadays Units Training and Research) . In the U.S. some institutions that would be classified in France under the name high school are integrated with universities. For example a business school such as Harvard Business School is the equivalent of a university faculty of Harvard . This leads Jacques Mistral 10 to see Harvard as a federation of colleges ( Harvard Law School , John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Graduate School of Design etc..). A university can be:
be public , ie controlled and financed by a public system, widely practiced in France for example where higher education is mainly the domain of the state, it gives them some autonomy. Paradoxically the State in France does not entrust the training of its staff to universities but since the middle of xviii th century the major administrative schools.
or private . It was this form that the first universities were founded. The system is still widespread in some countries including the United States of America. In this country, many universities are owned by foundations, associations or congregations – are said to be “non profit” in the sense that if they are not the possession of a local or state, their purpose is not yet making a profit. There may also universities seeking to generate profit.
Universities and economic growth

Universities, and more broadly all institutions of higher education , are nowadays regarded by economists as potential drivers of economic growth ( endogenous growth theory ). Recent studies [ref. necessary] insisted on the one hand the fact that depending on whether the country was close to or far from the “technological frontier”, the characteristics of the higher education system should evolve and secondly, the importance of relationships between universities and their geographical environment (concept of cluster ).
Approach the technological frontier and changing universities
Main article: Frontier Technology .
In a 2004 study, entitled “Education and economic growth”, in Philippe Aghion and Elie Cohen shows that depending on whether the country is far or close to the “technological frontier” that is to say, nowadays, the technological level of the United States, the requirements of the education system vary. In the first case, the country is catching up, as was France after the Second World War . What counts here is primarily the secondary . Instead as soon as we approach the technological frontier, tertiary education, including universities, becomes much more important. Indeed, while the country is not in imitation but in the creation, in the invention of products and services of tomorrow. Hence the need for countries such as France, which approach the technological frontier to have more world-class universities focusing on research and creativity. This also sometimes by organizational changes designed to make universities more responsive and closer economic actors. Nowadays the development of new information technologies and communication (NTIC) reinforces this trait.
Universities and skills center
Main articles: Cluster (economics) and Competitiveness Cluster (France) .

Silicon Valley (Valley of silicon )
For Christian White 11 “economy is based on the exchange of two types of knowledge: first knowledge formalized, codified, in writing, that is to say, information and other tacit knowledge, which allows the use of information, to judge the quality of the application to a practical problem, or knowledge. Knowledge is needed to create. ” But if the flow of information globally, knowledge as defined above is more localized. That’s the idea behind the U.S. term “cluster” that Michael Porter 12 has defined as “a group of companies and institutions sharing the same area of expertise, geographic proximity, interconnected and complementary “. Examples of famous cluster , it is possible to cite Silicon Valley around the Stanford University . Universities play in the case of “clusters” in France called cluster a key role because it is on them that is based largely innovation capabilities. White for 13 for a cluster to be effective it is necessary that the levers of competitiveness are the hands of the authorities managing local boundaries, as is the case in Catalonia and Spain for example that universities have they own a strong autonomy that enable them to “assume significant responsibility” 14 . So today in developed countries ( USA , UK , Germany , France , Italy , Spain …), as indeed in others (the India around Bangalore …) the relationship between colleges or universities, centers of research and development , and companies tend to be organized in labor pools territorial , as part of practice areas and projects of territorial economic intelligence .
Universities in the world

Since the end of the xx th century universities are identified as key elements of a growth state. On the spur of the American model, most countries of the world are now investing in the development and enhancement of its universities.
China
Main article: List of Chinese universities .
Prospective students must pass a national competition for university entrance, the gaokao . In June 2009, there were 6.3 million seats in the first year all higher education institutions together 15 . Many young Chinese are studying abroad, including the United States
United States [ change ]
Main article: Universities in the United States and List of American universities .

Harvard Yard in Cambridge , MA , USA

The campus of Dartmouth College
The university system in the United States is today considered a very good level, even as the world’s first, so much so that often serves as reference. The study from the University of Shanghai from 2004 up seventeen universities in the United States in the first twenty, Harvard mentioned first 16 .
The American university system has grown significantly in the late xix th century with the establishment of numerous universities, some of which are now quite familiar: Yale University (1701), Stanford University (1891) ( California ), Johns Hopkins University (1876), Cornell University (1865), University of Chicago (1892), etc.. These universities will adopt the German model, in part, and will combine teaching and research. Moreover, it will be introduced soon curricula that in Europe, “because of prejudices inherited from pre-capitalist society, are not worthy of the university” 17 . Thus the finance and trade will be taught as early as 1881 with the creation of the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania . In France, the leading business schools will also be based at that time ( HEC founded in 1881) but remain outside the fold of universities. The strength of the university executive is a distinctive feature of the U.S. system compared to models Germanic and French 18 .
The U.S. system is very diverse. Next to private non-profit very prestigious as Stanford or Harvard universities found belonging to the States some of which are also known as the University of Berkeley .
In public or private universities, basic studies (undergraduate) last four years and lead to the Bachelor Degree . They may be followed by a Master’s Degree in one year or a PhD in general in three years. Besides the universities there are community colleges that provide training in two years. After which, the student can either kill or enter studies at a university.
If the term ” college “is usually reserved for short courses, institutions like Boston College or Dartmouth College while being entitled for historical reasons college are real universities. The “Basic Carnegie Classification” 19 distinguished universities with doctoral programs ( Doctorate-granting Universities (I) ) of colleges and universities delivering mostly masters ( Master’s Colleagues (IIA) ), colleges up to the license ( Baccalaureate Colleges (IIB) ) and associated colleges ( Associate’s Colleges (III)) .
The university enrollment depends on the results obtained during the last three years of high school and scores on tests: the SAT (Standardized Aptitude Tests) and AP (Advanced Investments) 20 .
The most prestigious American universities are grouped in the ” Ivy League “.
Over three-quarters of American students go to public universities.
Switzerland [ change ]
Main article: Universities in Switzerland .
European Union
In a study in September 2007, the Bruegel Institute 21 sought to analyze why students drop out of the main European institutions of higher education compared to their U.S. counterparts. Two facts have been highlighted: less investment 1.3% of GDP against 3.3% of GDP in the U.S., less autonomy of universities. The authors particularly insist on this point and show that both the U.S. and Europe is a key element that positively affects the financial contributions made ​​to universities 22 .
France
Main articles: France in University and Law on freedoms and responsibilities of universities .

The Sorbonne, Paris, the xvii th century
The universities were abolished by the Revolution. Under the Empire was established in 1808 an imperial university, some characteristics remain: strong centralization and strict disciplinary division into faculties. These features will be mitigated in 1893 by first creating universities by city then by Faure law of 1968. Despite the disciplinary division remains fairly strong and self-limited 23
In 1875, the passage of the law on freedom of higher education allows the creation of five Catholic universities in Paris, Angers, Lille, Lyon and Toulouse. Shortly after, the law of March 18, 1880 restored the monopoly on awarding degrees and exist since public universities in France.
In 1938, universities in France had 60,000 students, this figure rises to 300,000 in 1968 to 1,515,000 in September 2001 to 2002 24 . In the early 2000s, about 500,000 students attended a course of letters and humanities, 350,000 in law and economics, just over 200 000 Science and 140 000 in the health sector 24 . The question of why so many students go to chains with few direct outlets has puzzled researchers. For Fave-Bonnet (1997), this would be a fallback position that suffered most desired, for Alain Renaut on the contrary, it would reflect a demand for general culture. Jacques Mistral 25 to meet this demand calls for Colleges where academics students could “consolidate the fruits of Secondary Education”, “learning the languages ​​and codes of social life,” “satisfy various curiosities” “deepen progressively discipline” and thus begin their specialization.
In their report to the CAE (Council of Economic Analysis), Philippe Aghion and Elie Cohen felt that if the French universities and higher education more generally in France were adapted to an economy catching up, they were much less an economy close to the “technological frontier”. For French universities to play their full role in this situation, it would take to these authors 26 double cut back on the founding of the higher education and research in France as follows: the dissociation of Education and Research on the one hand, and cutting formations between selective and non-selective on the other. Indeed, a knowledge economy requires one hand for greater complementarity between applied research, basic research and doctoral education and secondly that the leaders themselves are trained in research. As part of an economy close to the technological frontier, it is important to invest in higher education. In 2001, the U.S. 27 had invested 2.3% of GDP (1.1% in public investment and 1.2% in private investment) in this area against 1.1% in France (1% public, 0 , 1% private). In their report Philippe Aghion & Elie Cohen argued for an incremental approach that is to say, for a series of small extents but may put the players in motion and ability to take ownership of the reforms. In contrast, economists like Jean-Hervé Lorenzi and Michel Mougeot believe the incremental approach would be to the stakes 28 . Jean Tirole 29 votes in favor of university autonomy and appealed to a share of private funding so that students of French universities receive a quality education and that France has an online search with its potential.
UK [ change ]

Coat of arms of Oxford University
Main article: Universities in the UK .
If the two most famous universities are also the oldest Oxford and Cambridge , at the end of xix th century witnessed the creation of many institutions: University of Manchester (1851), University of Aberystwyth (1874) in Wales , London School of Economics (1895) etc. .. Oxford and Cambridge in 1861 received 2,400 students, this figure rose to 5,881 in 1901 to exceed 10 000 1931 30 . Currently the two universities together serve about 35,000 students. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge each elected a member of the House of Commons until the end of World War II. William Ewart Gladstone has long been elected by the University of Oxford. It was also he who in the early 1850s, carried out a reform of the university at the same time he did much for the positions in the British public are filled by open competition.
In the 1920s, the Balliol College at Oxford in order to better train those who may pursue careers in public giving them an ability to reflect both strong and has established an interdisciplinary program initially called “Modern Great” then Philosophy Politics and Economy .
International rankings of universities and their problems

Main articles: Academic Awards , Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Times Higher Education Supplement .
There are several classifications of colleges including the ranking of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the classification of the Times Higher Education , the CHE University Ranking of Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung , and for business schools , ranking of Financial Times that is beyond the scope of this article.
If these rankings are variously appreciated – those who support it see them as “a key element of recognition and motivation for both teachers and students” 31 – it should be noted that in response to problems very different.
The best known, the Shanghai, is particularly geared towards research that China sees as vital to its future. Therefore emphasis is put it on scientific publications, the number of Nobel laureates, the budget for research and the number of times that university researchers are cited by their peers in the scientific journals 32 .
The ranking of the Times Higher Education takes into account five criteria. Both are also present in the Shanghai rankings: the number of articles in Nature and Science, the frequency of citations. Three are different: the views of employers and academics, the number of teachers and students and the teacher / student ratio 32
The ranking German ( CHE University Ranking ) is more complex. It is not so much to indicate that rank universities by discipline what are the best universities 33 . The CHE is part of the consortium of European institutions ( CHERPA Network ) commissioned by the European Commission to study the feasibility of a “multidimensional ranking of universities in Europe and the world” 34

benefits of resveratrol

There have been a lot of conclusions about the question, what are health benefits of resveratrol? From detailed clinical studies executed at universities like, Harvard, Florida and Nebraska to name a few. They all came to the same conclusions, that there are numerous health benefits of resveratrol when taken on a daily basis.

For years we have known that the french people have dramatically less coronary disease and unbelievably, they have a higher fat intake. High fat diets, as we all know, greatly increase the bad cholesterol which will eventually harm the body. For some reason the French have low cholesterol!

Why this happened lies in the amount of red wine the French intake at meal times, scientists started studying red wine and understanding its components. They soon found an important antioxidant property in red wine which they named Resveratrol, so what are the benefits of resveratrol?

Resveretrol comes from the main ingredient that makes wine wine, the grapes!

The next problem was why red wine had resveretrol in abundance and white wine had none.Well the answer is quite simple, resveratrol is found in the skin and seeds of the grape. When white wine is made the seeds and skin are discarded, but with red wine the skin and seeds are kept.

Intriguing to many scientists is that studies conducted at Harvard university found that resveratrol also has major anti-aging qualities and to make things even more interesting, it also has weight reduction properties.

Although many people may disagree with this type of experimentation, they gave some older mice a high fat diet and a large dose of resveratrol and found that they not only lived longer, but also had a great deal more stamina. Resveratrol also improved the quality of the skin, the skin became much more supple and extremely smoothe.

Before you start drinking large amounts of red wine, Harvard also concluded that Resveratrol must be taken in a concentrated supplement form because red wine simply does not have enough concentration on the ingredient.

At the moment many companies have come on to the market charging high prices for this supplement but we have found a company that gives a free trial so you can try benefits of resveratrol.

The trial offer also includes two bonus tools to help with weight loss: an e-book with over 70 weight loss tips, and a weight loss visualization audio. Check it out and find out what are health benefits of resveratrol for yourself, risk free!

For more information on Resveretrol Select’s free trial offer and bonus materials, visit http://www.resveratrolselect.com

stevie buckland
http://www.articlesbase.com/anti-aging-articles/benefits-of-resveratrol-1045957.html

Is Poverty a Black Thing?

The poor performance of African economies and economies where the people are of colour other than whites have prompted people to ask whether poverty is a black or a colour thing.

This question about poverty being a black thing has gained credence in many circles. This question is also asked about Africa because it is the poorest continent on earth. It is a continent where for 30 years there has not been any concrete economic development compared to the rest of the world. It lags behind all the other continents in terms of economic and social development. Most if not all the countries African continent have similar economic problems namely high unemployment, high inflation, higher deficits, poor state of economic and social infrastructures including roads, harbours, education, airports, telecommunication, health and sanitation and rail system. Africa is a continent where people die for lack of food, water, and against common preventable diseases. It is a continent full of misery, desperation and hopelessness. It is a continent where very few children under the age of five survive the menace of the six killer diseases. It is a continent where people have no access to basic necessities of life. It is a continent where people walk several miles for water and children have no access to education and medical services. It is a continent where rural life is nothing but a condemnation to abject poverty. It is a place where people live in mud/thatched houses with bamboo/raffia leaves as roofing sheets. It is a continent full of wars and armed conflicts. It is a continent of dictators and kleptocrats, a continent where corruption is rewarded and achievement is shunned, a continent where entry into public life/service is seen as a means to acquiring wealth and a means of getting top positions. It is a continent where life expectancy is low and corruption very high.

So is it a colour or race thing? I must say that I do not agree or subscribe to the notion that poverty has any colour inferring in it and that the underdevelopment and impoverishment which is prevalent on the African continent is deeply rooted in centuries of slavery and colonialism, coups, armed conflicts, brain drain, endemic corruption and mismanagement, dictatorial rule, Kleptocracy, foreign interventions and the fight for control of the natural resources.

Slavery and Colonialism

Centuries of slavery and colonialism deprived the continent of her able human and economic resources. The able men and women were carried away to work in the plantations of the Americas (in all about 30 – 40 million people) and they helped to make America and Europe what they are today. Millions of young Africans were forced to abandon the continent of their origin and were transported several thousands of miles away unto a land where they had no historical attachment with. They travelled in very deplorable conditions, without adequate food, water and air. When they reached the so called new worlds they were made to work from morning till sun set the only time they had on their own was Sundays in which they had to everything that they needed on their own such planting their crops, repairing their homes. It was a very nasty experience having to work for ours without pay. Some even worked till they dropped dead. The slave trade deprived the continent of her energetic men and women a vital resource in any development process and sunk the continent into intellectual wilderness.

Looting of Resources

About the same time that slavery was being vigorously pursued, the natural resources including timber, gold, diamond, tin ore, ivory and many more were looted in large quantities by the European countries namely Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy. After slavery was abolished the looting of the natural resources continued. The irony is that virtually all the income from these resources was used to finance the economic and the infrastructural development of the European countries with little or nothing at all being used to develop the various countries where these resources came from. A clear example is the case of Democratic Republic of Congo where King Leopold II of Belgium enslaved the Africans, forced them to work without pay, killed about 10 million and looted the country of her resources and virtually nothing was used to invest in the country except guns which the Belgium army used to terrorise and kill the Africans. When the DRC was transferred from Leopold II to the Belgium state the looting and killing continued till DRC gained her independence in the 1960s. In fact DRC (Congo Free State) was the main supplier of rubber a vital raw material for the tyre industry and all the money from the sale of the rubber went to Belgium. King Leopold II was able to transform Belgium as one of the poorest countries in Europe into one of the wealthiest courtesy the enslavement and looting of Africans and their resources.

Belgium was not alone in what she did to the continent. Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy all looted Africa of her gold, diamond, ivory, timber, cobalt, coltan, tin ore, bauxite, manganese and all the minerals you can think of. The Africans who resisted the illegal activities were killed in their millions as happened in South West Africa (now Namibia) where the Germans in 1904 to 1907 committed the first genocide of the 20th Century by killing the Herero and the Namaqua people. While Europe became richer Africa became poorer and the trend continued till the 1950s when the African countries started to gain their ‘independence’ beginning with Libya in 1951, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia all in 1956 and Ghana in 1957.

With little or no investment in the continent the various post colonial governments inherited countries with practically no infrastructure: roads, rails, harbours, telecommunications, education, health and sanitation and airports. The only areas which saw some few infrastructure investments during the colonial days were those where raw materials were heavily extracted. The attainment of independence did not come on silver Plata. Algeria, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Namibia and to some extent South Africa all attained their independence from their colonial masters through arm struggles and in most cases the few infrastructures that existed were destroyed due to the conflicts.

Foreign Involvement

As if slavery, colonialism and the looting of the continent’s resources were not enough the continent became a battle ground during the Cold War as the two super powers and their allies battled for influence and control on the continent mainly for her resources. As a result many African governments who were deem to be pro-Russia or America were overthrown using the military. A case in point was the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana on February 24th, 1966. Another example is the overthrow and assassination of Patrice Lumumba of Congo on January 17th 1961.Other leaders such as Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for either advocating for independence or improvement of conditions of Africans.  CIA and the western intelligence community have been implicated for engineering the assassinations and overthrow of elected leaders of Africa. For example Larry Devlin, the CIA Station Chief in Congo during Patrice Lumumba’s  days spoke to Washington Post in December 2008 saying he refused an order to assassinate Patrice Lumumba but his refusal did not stop the CIA and the Belgium government from overthrowing and assassinating him. The assassination attempt on Gamal Nasser of Egypt on 24th October 1954 and the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 were alleged to be the work of Britain’s M16 due to their refusal to hand over the administration of the Suez Canal to the British.  

The CIA, KGB and their allies encouraged and financed wars and political instabilities throughout the continent. Angola became the battle ground for the CIA, KGB and the Chinese as each tried to gain control over the country, her people and resources. The civil war that engulfed Angola in 1975 only ended in 1991 after 26 years of conflict. When the war ended the few infrastructures that remained after the war of independence (1961-1974) were gone.

On March 7, 2004 Simon Mann a British citizen, a veteran mercenary and former officer of Britain’s elite Special Forces (SAS), and 69 other mercenaries were arrested at a military airfield outside Harare, Zimbabwe .Their destination was Equatorial Guinea in West Africa. Their mission was to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a nation of 600,000 people. During his defence he mentioned some powerful members of the British establishment as his financiers and backers including Jack Straw UK Justice Minister, Peter Mandelson former European Union Trade Commissioner and now Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise &Regulatory Reform, Sir Mark Thatcher a businessman and son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Jeffrey Archer a key Tory member who was convicted for perjury and Ely Smelly Calil a Lebanese oil trader accused of bankrolling the plot. Mark Thatcher was arrested in South Africa and charged with supplying the aircraft that carried Simon Mann to Harare. Mr. Thatcher pleaded guilty in South Africa and was later made to pay 300,000 pounds in exchange for a prison sentence. The coup plotters were to put Severo Moto, an opposition leader living in Spain in charge of the country. The coup was to give both the plotters and their backers unquestionable free access to the oil resource in the nation.  If the coup had succeeded Mann and his cronies would have turned Equatorial Guinea into one of the usual sad stories in Africa- bloodshed, corruption, mismanagement, poverty and what have you.  The governments of Spain, South Africa and others in the west were seriously implicated for being privy to the plot. Thanks to the vigilance of the Robert Mugabe regime the coup was nip in the bud. Unfortunately, most resource rich countries on the continent have not been all that lucky.

Among those mercenaries who sought to return Africa to their former colonial masters was Bob Denard. In fact, Simon Mann is just a small fish compared to Bob Denard, a French who made a career as a mercenary overthrowing leaders in Africa. When Bob Denard died in 2007, he had more than a dozen of coups to his credit. Four of those coups took place in Comoros Island alone. French author Jean Guisner, who has followed Denard’s career and written extensively about the French government, says Denard did nothing that was contrary to French interests – and he allegedly acted in close cooperation with intelligence services. Denard’s mercenary career took place between the 1950s and the 1980s. During that period, he is reported to have been involved in post independence Nigeria, Benin in 1977, Angola, Zaire – now DRC and the former Rhodesia – which is now Zimbabwe. Registering their frustration and lack of justice for the Comorians, Mr. Abdou Soule Elbak, former president of Grande Comoro said “This man sullied our history”, referring to Denard. “I regret he was not made to answer to all the crimes he committed in our country, the murders and the torture which he was guilty of,” said Moustoifa Said Sheikh, leader of the Democratic Front Party. All these mercenary activities took place on the continent because of the natural resources.

The product of all these were the political instabilities and the wanting destruction of lives and property that have bedevilled Africa till today. As the elected leaders of the continent were assassinated, overthrown and subjected to all forms of cold war tactics including bribery, arm twisting and blackmail the continent degenerated and faulted on all aspects of human endeavour. The new crop of leaders who replaced the post colonial independence leaders and who were largely puppets of the European and American governments became increasingly authoritarian and corrupt. Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko who became the choice of the Americans after they help to assassinate Lumumba ruled Congo for 32 years and in those years the country became poorer as Mobutu and his cronies got richer and the western countries notably USA and her allies had free hand looting the mineral resources most importantly cobalt a very important mineral needed for missile development. Little development activities was carried out by Mobutu. As a result Congo today can only be accessed by boats and canoes mainly through the River Congo.

As tyrants and dictators gained the support of western governments and did whatever they wanted with their economies without questions their people became poorer and hopelessness and desperation were the hallmarks of their lives. As the little money that came into government coffers were taken by corrupt government officials and civil servants there were almost no money to carry out infrastructural development and the poverty deepened. Poverty, desperation and hopelessness visited the people and coupled with their inability to change their leaders democratically, dissents were sowed among the population which serve as breeding grounds for more coups, civil wars and civil disturbances. This was evidence in Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Algeria, Gabon, Togo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sierra Leone all experienced coups in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and even in the early 1990s. These waves of coups were followed by civil wars that hit Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Congo, Chad, CAR, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Angola, Niger and Guinea. These wars apart from it human cost also contributed to the destruction of roads, harbours, airports, rail lines, telecommunications, hospitals, schools and the livelihoods of the people. With the absence of infrastructures the countries have been unable to make any headway in terms of economic development.

World Bank, IMF & the Role of Foreign Corporations

The World Bank and the IMF (Bretton Wood Institutions) and foreign companies have also played their part in making poverty endemic on the continent. Most African countries incurred billions of debt through loans contracted from the Bank and IMF. Most of these conditional loans were used to service debts already owned by these poor countries. The loans were also used to pay foreign expatriates who came to the continent as ‘technical experts’.

Some of these loans were also used to undertake projects and programmes that benefited only the rich. Again part of the loan was also siphoned away by corrupt politicians and civil servants.

The structural adjustment programme (SAP) forced on the poor African countries by the Bank and the IMF forced the various governments to abandon their support for the public sector with serious consequences. The withdrawal of farm subsidies in particular has made it difficult for farmers to compete with their Western counterparts who receive millions of dollars of government subsidies every year. The unrests and disturbances over food shortage and high food prices that occurred in Egypt, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mauritania, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone in 2008 were the direct result of the Bank and IMF bitter pills prescribed to these poor countries.

Due to SAP and other policies of the Bank and IMF investment in education, health, transportation and other sectors of the economy declined considerably. The governments were also forced to privatise state owned companies. The sad aspect of this exercise was that almost all the companies went to foreigners and the proceeds used to settle debts already owned by these poor nations. Unable to pay their debts and more cash trapped these poor countries turned to the bank and IMF for more loans and the Bank response was open up your markets for foreign goods and accept globalisation. As a result the continent has become a dumping ground for foreign goods. Unable to compete with the influx of cheap foreign goods most local firms have no choice but to close down, laying off several millions of workers and devastating many families.  Mr. John Jenkins the author of the ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’ has written extensively about how the Bank, IMF and the various big cartels and corporations conspired to keep Africans and the developing world in the state in which they are today. Please watch John Jenkins on youtube as he tells his extraordinary story on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8

The presence of companies such as Shell, Mobil, Chevron, BP, Total, Rio Tinto, Texaco, BHP Billiton, Anglo-American and others have contributed to the high poverty levels on the continent. These companies who are mostly resource extraction in nature have destroyed the once rich soils of Africa, forcing many farmers to abandon their farms and loosing their livelihoods. Rivers, wells and streams used by the people for their everyday activities such as washing and drinking have been polluted by these profit making companies. Fishing in most mining and oil drilling communities has ceased as pollution has killed fish stocks in these rivers and lagoons rendering the fishermen unemployed. Communities which were once beaming with life are now ghost communities as land, rivers, lagoons and wells have been destroyed. Respiration, nausea and other mining related diseases are on the increase in many communities where mining and oil drilling are taking place but these profit making companies have abandon their corporate social responsibilities which they owe to the people. In August 2006 a Dutch company called Trafigura dumped highly toxic waste in Abidjan, Ivory Coast killing 17 people and sickening thousands. Such inhumane acts byTrafigura is just a tip of the iceberg.

Brain Drain

The poverty on the continent has also come about as result of serious brain drain that has hit the continent in recent times. The flight of doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, judges, bankers, accountants, teachers, nurses, planners, agricultural experts and others have limited our ability to implement development projects and programmes. The flight of these intellectuals has rendered many government agencies very weak. In some communities there are hospitals without doctors and nurses. In others there are universities and colleges without lecturers and teachers. Countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia have lost so much of their professionals to the very rich countries of Europe and America so much so that many of their sectors have resorted to hiring foreign expertise in order to cope. For example there are more Malawi doctors in Manchester City alone than the whole of Malawi combined. The irony is that governments use scarce resources to train these intellectuals only for them to leave the country for greener pastures abroad. Britain and the US are major recipient of these brain drain and even though they are aware of the tremendous negative effect it is having on these poor developing countries, they have done nothing to discourage it, in most cases they have encouraged it.

Corruption and Mismanagement

Corruption is another cancer that has tragically made the continent very poor. From South Africa to Egypt there is no country where corruption is not endemic.  According to the Africa Union (AU) around $148 billion are stolen from the continent by its leaders and civil servants. In 2006 Forbes’ list of most corrupt nations had 9 out of the first 16 countries coming from Africa.  Since oil was first discovered in Nigeria about 50 years ago, several billions of dollars have been realised from its but today the whole population continue to live in abject poverty and the country has nothing to show for it. As a result able men and women are battling dangerous seas just to enter Europe and try their luck. Others have resulted to 419 a popular scam used to trick people into given out their money and valuables. Those who seem to have benefited from the oil are corrupt politicians, civil servants and the big oil corporations such as Shell, Mobil, BP and their American counterparts. In fact Nigeria has consistently featured in the top 1% of the most corrupt nation on the planet. Between 2005 and 2007 several state governors and their immediate families were arrested by Scotlandyard in London on corruption and money laundering charges. Among them are James Ibori of oil rich Delta State and his wife Theresa who had their 35 million dollar asset frozen by the English court. Mr. Ibori earns about a thousand dollars a month but during his eight years as a state governor he managed to acquire wealth to the tune of $35m and was a key financial contributor to the campaign of the current president of Nigeria. He owns a private jet and lavish London home.  Another corrupt governor is Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of oil-rich state of Bayelsa who was also arrested in London for money laundering charges. Mr. Alamieyeseigha broke his bail conditions and evaded capture in Britain by dressing up as a woman. When Police conducted a search in his London home they discovered one million pounds worth of cash in his home.   Another governor who was arrested in England was Joshua Dariye of Plateau State. He was arrested in a London hotel for stealing money meant for development of his state. In South Africa Jacob Zuma is still battling it out with the court for his part in the multi-billion arms deal in 2001 in South Africa. He was forced to resign as Deputy President of South Africa. The late Mobutu in his 32 years as President of Zaire, now DR Congo amassed several billions of dollars belonging to the Congo people. In 2006 former president of Malawi Bakili Muluzi was arrested for pocketing $12m donated to his poor country by foreign governments. Again former Zambia president Frederick Chiluba was arrested together with two business men Aaron Chungu and Faustin Kabwe and charged with 11 counts of stealing money meant for the Zambia’s development. In Equatorial Guinea where oil export has earned the country billions of dollars, the 600,000 people living in the country continue to live in poverty while Teodoro Obiang Nguema and his cronies continue to siphon the oil revenue with no accountability. Gabon and Angola both Oil exporting countries are no different. In fact, the governments in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea can best be described as Kleptocracy that is government by thieves. In countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, The Gambia, Sudan, Uganda, Libya, Tunisia a Kleptocracy class of people have replaced anything democracy. In these countries very few people continue to remain in power and the people have no say in the way their country is govern or run. For example Gaddafi of Libya has been in power for 39 years now. Omar Bongo of Gabon 31 years, Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea 28 years, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe 28 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt 27 years, Paul Biya of Cameroon 26 years, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda 22 years, Omar Al Bashir of Sudan 19 years, Iddriss Derby of Chad 17 years, Yahya Jammeh of Gambia 14 years, and the list is unending. What is clear is that these unelected leaders continue to amass wealth at the expense of their poor countries and continue to mismanage whatever remains of their corrupt acts. Because most of the leaders are former military officers or former rebels with no grasp of economics and management, they are unable to formulate any good economic policies that will make their economies grow hence poverty has become a part of the people but their leaders know not what poverty is. A visit to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria shows that majority of the people are unemployed. Years of oil spills have made the soil unfit for any agricultural activity. Their streams and wells are polluted and the people have no access to basic necessities of life even though billions of dollars is realised from the sale of oil from that region every year. In the 1990s economic hardship, abject poverty,  and destruction of the environment forced the people of Ogoniland to demand a say in which Shell operates but the military regime led by Gen. Sani Abacha arrested the environmentalists led by Ken Sorowiwa and executed them. It is these monies meant for the development of the states that these state governors were caught trying to bank away in Europe. Every effort to get the Nigeria government to develop the oil rich areas fell on death ears until the unemployed youth took up arms against the federal state. They kidnapped foreign oil workers and demanded ransom before their victims were released. They disrupted the oil production forcing the oil companies to move several miles offshore for their own safety but they were not safe either. Eventually, the companies had to reduce their output by 25% in 2007-8. These disruptions affected supply of oil in the world market forcing the price to skyrocket to $140 a barrel in the summer of 2008.

In DR Congo it is estimated that gold and diamond deposits alone could fetch the country 23 trillion dollars not to mention the abundance of timber and other several minerals that are found in large quantities such as columbo-tantalite (coltan) and cassiterite (tin ore) yet years of corruption, mismanagement, conflicts and foreign involvement have made this resource rich nation one of the poorest in the world. Coltan for example is used in every mobile phone and a number of electronic devices in the world. Cassiterite used in electronic circuit boards is the most traded metal on the London Stock Exchange. It is often said that western nations cannot maintain their current level of lifestyle without Congo and most corporations in the west can easily go bust without Congo. The question is if Congo is the blood line of the west and the west is rich because of Congo then why is Congo so poor? And where are the billions of dollars from the sale of these minerals? The answer lies in the history of the nation which is corruption, slavery, colonialism, assassinations, armed conflicts and foreign involvements. Since her independence from Belgium in 1960 there has not been peace in the country. Several millions of Congolese have died about 4 million of them in the last eight years alone and most of the dead are civilians. The conflict in Congo is largely about who controls the vast resources in he country. The huge size of the country has made its administration very difficult. And the problem is exacerbated by weak, ill-trained, undisciplined and very corrupt Congolese army who abduct, terrorise, rape and murder the people instead of protecting them.

The various militia groups operating in the east of the country have made life very difficult and unbearable for the civilian population. These armed groups with backing from Rwanda and Uganda have largely operated in the region with impunity – abducting, raping, massacring and stealing from the poor people. Jean Pierre Bemba who is now facing war crimes in The Hague was a notorious warlord whose activities have not escaped the international criminal court (ICC). Another notorious warlord who is still operating with impunity is Laurent Nkunda. A visit to Walikale town in the east of the country explains in vivid terms why the people are so tragically poor. People have abandoned their farms and moved to the mines but whatever is made from the mining is taken away from them by the Congolese army and the ever present predators i.e. the armed groups. These armed groups force the people to mine the minerals without pay. Unable to farm and not paid for their toil, most of them have to credit food in order to survive. Everyday in Walikale about 16 aircraft fly out of the city with loads of minerals bound for Rwanda. These stolen minerals further find their way in the western mineral market in London and Switzerland. The proceeds are shared by the warlords in Congo, the Generals, politicians and the businessmen in Rwanda and the rest is used to acquire weapons that are used to terrorise the people and prolong the war. Please click the link below to watch a video of Congo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io8c81xHLmw

Recommendations and Conclusion

It is clear that several forces within and outside the continent have contributed to making the continent the poorest on earth. But there is no time to look back but a time to look forward and get our acts together, organise ourselves and start doing something. The progress that has been made by China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia the Gulf countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia and Qatar over the last 30 to 50 years shows that poverty has got nothing to do with colour or race. Nations become poor because their leaders fail to formulate policies and programmes that address their problems.

To reverse the negative impact of centuries of slavery and colonialism on one hand and decades of coups, civil wars, corruption, mismanagement and foreign interventions on the other hand, the governments should focus their attention on reforming their democratic institutions and allow free and fair elections to be organised. They should do more to fight corruption and mismanagement, establish independent corruption watchdogs, strengthen the judiciary, and be accountable to the people.

They should curtail the power of the army and embark on concrete, sound and result driven policies and provide more incentives to discourage brain drain.

The governments should embark on building social and economic infrastructures – schools, hospitals, roads, rail lines, telecommunications, airports, harbours, markets, that will lay the foundation for economic and social development. They should establish research institutions to find out how best to use the various natural resources to benefit the people. As the saying goes ‘resources are not but they become’ that is to say you may have all the natural resources in the world but if you do not have the ability to convert them into useful commodities/ consumables to benefit the people they are nothing.

The AU should be more concerned about fighting poverty than just been a talking shop for corrupt, kleptocrats and dictators. 

Lord Aikins Adusei
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/is-poverty-a-black-thing-728359.html

Whose Money is It?

Whose Money Is It?

Loosen up your girdle, Helen, here comes another potential scam on the American public. We have read all of the reasons and explanations about Wall St. But, read this idea. Now, that we know that most of the mortgage notes were securitized and sold off as investments of an asset based trust.

What does that mean? It means that when you signed that mortgage note, it was already scheduled to make up the assets of a to be formed trust. With the formation of the trust document, your mortgage note disappeared.

The investors into this trust bought investment certificates that they only had to register a number and not their name. So, this book entry allowed for a very loose type of transaction. Who was to say that maybe some of the investors were shady characters that accumulated a lot of US cash for arms smuggling or dope production. Well, now that we have an idea of what happened to your mortgage note, along comes another “pig” at the trough.

Now, I don’t want anyone to think that when a bank, legally loans you money for a mortgage and they keep the note and service it, they should get paid for their loss. But, how about those banks/lenders that never put up a dime, your note was converted into this asset based trust and when it went sour, the insurance company paid off the investors.

In, other words, your bank/mortgage company does NOT own the note. BUT, here comes a government bailout or a short sale and who is being “unjustly enriched”? The, same group of “pigs” that got paid a commission when they serviced your mortgage. Now they have their hands out to get paid again from the government that you will end up paying anyway and they get paid for something that they might not own.

What is the answer? Simple. Before these “cheats” are allowed to get one thin dime, they must PROVE they are the OWNERS of the note and have the ORIGINAL note. No “hocus -pocus” from the Wall St. lawyers or fancy talk.

Who should get that money? If the bank cannot prove they are the owners, then that money should go the local community where that abandoned home is sitting. This money will go a long way to create a local job to make this home livable and just, maybe, someone will buy it. Worst case scenario is that the home is brought up to standard and is livable but the “cheats” on Wall St are not enriched again.

As  long as we have bureaucracy and continual “professional obsolescence” the “fat cats” in Washington and on Wall St will not look into this travesty, but simply treat this as “spoils of war”. Meanwhile, here we are looking for a job at the local Wal-Mart, trying to feed our family and the endless spigot of greed keeps flowing.

I recently read an article about how the French were curious about why this country was not building prisons but the French were consumed with building enough prisons to accommodate their prisoners. This was in the early 1800 hundreds. In fact the man’s name was Alexis Tocqueville and the year was 1832. He reported back to the French Government that he could find no secrets here in America where he could determine why we had far less prisons than the French.

He reported that we had no superior universities, bridges, farms, industrial centers or anything that he could make the determination as to why we had less prisons. But, he did report one thing. He said “The Americans go to church and pray. They are a good people unlike our citizens, they are close to God” That is the reason for the lack of prisons. They are good people. We have more crime because we are not close to God. I didn’t create this, it was written.

There is an old adage that goes like this. “A lie well believed is just as good as the truth”. How long do we have to treat these “thieves” in high government and finance as our leaders and  fortune tellers. When are we going to make them work for their paycheck and answer to their boss. The American People

Regis Sauger

Regis Sauger
http://www.articlesbase.com/credit-articles/whose-money-is-it-701188.html

A Biography of Thomas Meagher

Thomas Francis Meagher was born in 1823 in Waterford, Ireland. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare and Stoneyhurst College, Lancashire, England. In 1844 he moved to Dublin with the intention of studying for the bar but he instead became involved in Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association. With his eloquent oration he became a popular figure in Dublin, his speeches ensured crowded halls wherever he went. Meagher and other members of the Repeal Association who wrote for The Nation became known as the Young Irelanders. In January 1847, Meagher, together with John Mitchel, William Smith O’Brien and Thomas Devin O’Reilly formed a new repeal association called the Irish Confederation. The following year, Meagher and O’Brien went to France to observe revolutionary events there and they returned with the tricolour of green, white and gold which forms the basis of the Irish flag to the present day. Influenced by events in France and the suspension of habeas corpus in Ireland, the Young Irelanders organised a failed rebellion. Meagher, Terence MacManus, O’Brien and Patrick O’Donoghue were arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. However due to public and international pressure the sentences were commuted to transportation to Van Diemens Land, Tasmania, Australia. Meagher escaped to the United States in 1852, settling in New York City where he founded two newspapers the Irish News and the Citizen .At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Meagher joined the Union Army, recruiting a full company of infantrymen to be attached to the 69th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Meagher was appointed Major and led the regiment into their first engagement at the First Battle of Bull Run in which he was wounded. He returned to New York and formed the Irish Brigade which he led with the rank of brigadier general in the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. After the war Meagher was appointed as Governor of the new Territory of Montana. In the summer of 1867, whilst travelling on the Missouri River, Meagher fell overboard, his body was never recovered. There is a fine statue of Meagher on horseback with sword raised in his home city of Waterford, Ireland.

Russell Shortt

Four Ways To Build Up Your Air Miles Faster

Airline credit cards advertise many great destinations that you can visit when you apply for their cards and build up your air miles. For some of you, based on the rules of your card providers rewards program, the thought of spending at least $40,000 to accumulate 50,000 air miles for a free flight to France fills you with dread. But don’t be discouraged, if you choose your airline credit card wisely, then you could be on your way to France or wherever your miles could take you in no time. Here’s is how you can do it.

Application And Use-

Just for applying for your airline credit card and using it for your first purchase, you can earn up to 20,000 bonus miles with the named provider. This is a generous reward and is one of the best on the market. Generally you may not find such high initial payouts but there are pretty good second and third options if you look around for a bit. Even if the initial bonus miles are not as generous, look out for extra bonuses as this could help build up your miles.

Extra Bonuses-

As an example, Alaska Airlines gives its members a round-trip $50 (USD) Companion Ticket upon approval and then another every year you remain with the program. In addition, each year that you renew your frequent flyer membership you receive 2000 bonus miles.

Daily Usage

By using your credit card on your necessary items like, groceries, petrol etc. you earn miles. Most credit card providers give your one air mile per dollar spent, so depending on your monthly spend, this could add up to a large amount.

Partner Firms

In a bid to attract and keep loyal customers, airline companies often partner with various other companies to give you the opportunity to earn substantial amounts of miles on various necessary services.

An example of this is where certain airline credit card providers allow you to earn 4000 miles for opening a checking account with one of its partners. If you were to let one of the credit card company’s partners handle your home relocation and the value of your home is between $200 and $249,000, this can earn you 43,000 miles. Not bad at all.

If a home move is not in your plans but you do have to pay college tuition for your child or even yourself, applying to the credit card partner could earn you up to 40,000 miles per year based on the loan size and category.

Other services include miles when you purchase a cell phone on any plan from the credit card partner.

There are so many benefits from day to day transactions that can get you on your way to that free flight. You just need to assess your needs, see what products and services you are most likely to use. Match these against the rewards offered by the potential airline rewards program and before you know it, you’re sipping margaritas in sunny Spain.

Anthony Samuel
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/four-ways-to-build-up-your-air-miles-faster-101601.html

Sir Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill was one of the most prominent politicians of the 20th century in the United Kingdom. He was surely the most famous Prime Minister of the 20th century. His personality compounded talented author, outstanding speaker, artist, and a great leader that managed to escape Britain’s defeat and even be among the winning nations at the end of World War Two.

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on the 30th of November, 1874 in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire in the family of Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. Winston’s father was a famous Tory politician, descendent of John Churchill (1st duke of Marlborough, the hero of the wars against French Louis XIV). Winston’s mother was the daughter of a prominent American financier Leonard W. Jerome.

Churchill was a very poor student at school that later resulted his father to make young Winston to join the military. Here again he did not show great results and passed the entrance examination to the Royal Military College only from the third try. However, he took studying at college seriously and graduated 20th in class out of 130. After graduating from college Winston Churchill joined the 4th Hussars and ended up in Cuba reporting on Cuban independence war from Spain. A couple of months later Churchill returned back home from Cuba and left for India along with his division. In India he for the first time he experienced being a soldier and a journalist at the same time.

The future prime minister decided to finish his career in the military and go into politics. For the living he wanted to write articles for different newspapers and magazines. The tradition to lose for the first time did not fail for Churchill when he tried to be elected as a Conservative at Oldham. Instead of a Conservative at Oldham Winston found himself in South Africa reporting on the South African War for British newspaper The Morning Post. Not being lucky was sort of a story of Churchill’s life, this time he was captured by Boers as a prisoner in military prison in South Africa. However, he managed to escape from the prison which later made him nearly a hero when he went back home.

After coming back from Africa he decided to run for the Parliament again in 1900. This time he achieved his goal. Being a member of the Parliament Churchill experienced difficulties with public speaking as he had a speech defect (that he actually never lost). It was a big challenge for him but it did not break him up and he never left oratory art.

In 1904 due to some disagreements with his party members over trade tariffs Churchill had to join the Liberals. In the new spot he quickly gained popularity for his brave debates with those who argued with him. In 1908 Churchill became the president of the Board of Trade. That same year Winston Churchill married (the first and the last time) Clementine Hozier.

At the Board of Trade, Churchill became a leader in the movement of Liberalism away from laissez-faire toward social reform. He finished up the law that set an eight hour working day for miners. He also initiated the bill that would set the minimum wages for different types of workers. In 1908 Churchill forced the rejection of the budget of 1909 by the House of Lords (which really was sensational) due to high level of taxation. Very shortly Churchill became a president of the Budget League. Tories were really furious about Churchill’s great progress and his permanent terrific speeches. In 1910 Churchill became a Home Secretary. On this position he faced everlasting strikes of workers. In 1911 he was appointed to the First Lord of the Admiralty. The very same year after German’s provocative sending a gunboat to Morocco, which was France colony, was persuaded by French to help them out if Germany attacks them in the future. Same year, Churchill sort of smelling the gunpowder of the upcoming enormous conflict decided to expand the British navy. As 1914 approached Churchill assured that the Royal Fleet was ready for the war was not a surprise for him at all. In 1915 Churchill failed the Dardanelles campaign that was greatly blamed for. In late 1915 Churchill resigned from the government and went to the Front. Being even a lieutenant colonel in the army he could not use his full capacity in the military. In 1916 he decided to Parliament as a private member. One year later Churchill had the office of Minister of Munitions where developed the use of tanks. In 1919 his next job was to be the Secretary of War. Everyone was greatly surprised when Churchill tremendously decreased the military budget. What was even more surprising is that Churchill as a zealous anti-Bolshevik made allies with Russia. In 1922 Churchill had his appendicitis attacks that greatly damaged his health and due to that failed the elections and eventually was left with nothing. He once said about that period of time “without an office, without a seat, without a party, and even without an appendix.” Even then Winston Churchill was not broken. He returned to painting and writing. That is when The World Crisis was written. In 1923 Churchill got back to what he could not live without – politics. Couple of years later he received a position of Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was not very strong in finance that actually led to a number of incidents during the time at this position. The major trouble was a general strike that took place in 1926. In 1929 the government fell.

The second time for Churchill happened the period when he was out of politics. However, he found it rather relieving. Now it was perfect time to write again what he actually did. This time his work was Marlborough: His Life and Times that was about his ancestor. Main point of the book was to defend his antecedent against the criticism of some historians. Meantime a threat from a fascist Germany was getting greater. His intuition did not fail this time either. However, his warnings were ignored this time as well. In early 1939 Churchill and his group created a truly national coalition and the country had actually accepted him as a main spokesperson.

All Churchill’s experience at his numerous positions seemed to be some kind of rehearsal for something greater. This “greater” was the Second World War. Churchill was the person to be in charge of Britain actions during the largest military campaign in the human history.

Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939. On the same day Churchill was appointed back to his old position First Lord of Admiralty. The President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the office at that time, congratulated Churchill with his position on September 11 to which Winston the head of the British fleet immediately replied. That is when their famous correspondence had started.

As Germany was invading more countries Chamberlain who was the Prime Minister of England at that time resigned from the office. Chamberlain really wanted Lord Halifax to be his successor but Halifax made up some excuses and rejected the proposition. It was obvious that this position was waiting for Churchill. Winston Churchill was ready to direct the nation.

Now Churchill focused on the real handling the war. He used Parliament as the tool to convince the public and comfort it. For the first time Prime Minister Churchill spoke to the House of Commons on May 13. That is when one of his famous quotes “I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat” was recorded. He accomplished what he promised y completely dedicating himself to the nation the war was over. Churchill did not really care who was an ally as long as they helped and shared his goals and ideas. One of the most important allies that Britain gained during the Second World War was the United States. It was Churchill’s principle idea to get the United States to help Britain. One of the most important events for Churchill and probably for Great Britain in the entire 20th century was the Battle of Britain. Now, Churchill was at fighter headquarters having everything that was going on in his personal control and at the same time trying to cheer up the nation. That was the time when the entire nation completely accepted him as a leader.

Another important strategic point for Churchill was when Hitler started to attack the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Churchill did not reject what he previously saying about communism, nevertheless, he promised support to the Soviet people. His plan to create an alliance between Great Britain, United States, and the Soviet Union seemed to work out. However, it only became true in May 1942 when the Anglo-Soviet pact of mutual assistance was negotiated. The day that changed the whole perception of the war by Churchill was December 7, 1941 when Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Then Churchill and Roosevelt totally agreed that it was time to launch the strategic alliance.

After the war was over Churchill had to get back to politics. This time the nation viewed him as a war leader but not the party leader. It resulted a great defeat at the elections. This time seats of Churchill’s party in the Parliament were reduced to 213 out of 640.

Churchill was really shocked by such an outcome; he did not predict it this time. Even in this situation Winston Churchill found his place. He got a role of the leader of parliamentary opposition. Churchill now devoted himself to foreign relations. For the next couple of years Churchill was a peacetime Prime Minister. Meantime he was writing his The Second World War that he finished in 1953. Talking about 1953, it was a very important year for Winston Churchill. It was the year of coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Churchill received two greatest awards: the Order of the Garter and the Nobel Prize for Literature. However, it was a difficult year for Churchill in terms of health. On April 5, 1955 Churchill resigned from the office.

On April 9, 1963 Winston Churchill received the unique honorary U.S. citizenship from the U.S. Congress. He died in London on January 24, 1965 and buried in Bladon churchyard in Oxfordshire.

Churchill is known in the world’s history as one of the greatest politicians and orators. He had so many positions in the governing body of England that not many politicians can even think of. He was a leader that left a significant mark not only in the British history but the also in the world’s. Sir Winston Churchill was a man of so many talents that people can only admire him and read his famous quotes.

Jeff Stats is an expert at Mindrelief.net. Our custom essay writing service is a great chance for you to present an essay of the highest standard to your professor. The assistance of our writers is a priceless input in your professional development. Our college essays and research papers are written only for you.

Jeff Stats
http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/sir-winston-churchill-106440.html

Five Ways to Have a Satisfying College Experience

1. Learn

Learn. Learn as much as you can. For many people, college is the last time in their lives when academics take center stage. This might sound great if you’re in the midst of cramming for the SAT or working on your admissions essay, but paying attention to your academics in college will be rewarding in many ways. If you’re not a “learning is its own reward” person, focus on the fact that the more you learn, and the better you do in school, the better your chances are of securing a great job down the road. In some careers, you may even end up providing a transcript as part of your job application. So think twice before cutting class.

2. Meet people

A lot of people say that they learned more from the students around them than they did from any of their classes. Whether or not this turns out to be true for you, another aspect of college that makes it a once-in-a-lifetime experience is the community of people you’ll be living with. Take the opportunity to get to know about people from different parts of the world.

3. Take risks

Whether it’s going abroad for a semester, or taking skydiving lessons, do something outside your comfort zone during college. You need something for the stories you’ll tell in the future about your days as a crazy college student, right? And beyond the potential for spinning a good yarn, taking the opportunity to do something that seems unlike the you in high school may teach you that there’s more to you than even you knew.

4. Prepare for the future

While you should invest as much as possible of yourself in the present moment of your college experience, you should also give some thought to what you’ll do on the other side of the graduation platform. Visit the career services office. Talk to a favorite professor about how he chose his career at your age. Get a couple of internships during your time at school. You might find something you love during an internship, which could lead to a job down the road. Or, you might find that what you thought you’d love is really not for you. Either way, it’s good information to have.

5, Take care of your health

No, this doesn’t mean sit inside on Friday night and do nothing but eat broccoli, but it’s easy to lose perspective on taking care of your self in the intensity that is undergraduate life. There is so much you need to do, and so much you want to do that sleep and nutrition might not even come up as priorities for you. But you can’t do anything if you get the flu or mono, so balance your flurry of activity with some solid sleep and nutrition.

Chris Stout
http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/five-ways-to-have-a-satisfying-college-experience-84658.html

10 Ways to Excel at College

1. Be Open To New Experiences

Entering college, you are a stranger in a strange new world. You probably don’t know anyone, and you might be far from home and lonely. Who could blame you for clinging to the familiar? Understand, though, that just about every new student is going through the same emotions that you are, so you should not be afraid of getting out there and meeting them. And if you are one of the kids who applied with a group of friends, it’s great that you’ve found a way around the initial anxiety of school’s first days, but your comfort is a double-edged sword. Don’t be so comfortable with the high school crowd that you don’t try some of the new experiences college has to offer.

2. College Is For Students — Be a Great One

With all of the dorm high jinks and parties erupting everywhere, you might not feel that you’ve joined a community of scholars, but you have. Make sure you attend all of your class meetings and sections, and take notes. Not only will your professors and TA’s love you for this, but you will be in a great position when you have to prepare for tests, papers, and exams.

3. Don’t Procrastinate

There’s so much to do, and so much fun to have. Don’t let it overwhelm you. Make a study schedule for yourself and stick to it as best you can. There might be days when no studying gets done, but most days, you should spend a few hours staying on top of your assignments.

4. Join a Campus Organization

If you love to write, join the newspaper or magazine. If you’re an actor, try out for a play. When you get out into the “real world,” people will be interested in your GPA, but much like college admissions staffs, employers and graduate programs also like to see that people engaged in their college experience in some way on a passionate, personal level.

5. Visit the Career Services Office

Speaking of the real world, it’s never too early to drop in at career services. A visit to your school’s career center can help you focus your course of study to prepare you for an exciting career. You might also find out about internships.

6. Befriend A Reference Librarian

With the advent of Google, many students think that libraries are obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth. When you have your first assignment that requires research, drop by the reference desk. Your librarian will show you a world of options for sourcing your papers and projects that will impress your professors.

7. Consider a Term Abroad

Many schools offer the opportunity to study in a foreign country.

8. Move around

We all know about the freshman fifteen. If you’re diligently studying, they can creep up on you before you even realize it. Even if you don’t engage in a hardcore workout program, move around. Go for a walk with a friend for a study break instead of staying in and ordering that pizza.

9. Eat Right

While pizza is okay sometimes, make sure a real vegetable passes your lips now and then. By taking care of yourself, you’ll feel and think better.

10. Sleep

No doubt, you’ll be very busy. To make sure you can keep up the hectic pace college demands, schedule some time to sleep. If you get exhausted, you won’t think as clearly, and you won’t have the energy you need to be excellent.

Elizabeth Saas
http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/10-ways-to-excel-at-college-84916.html

Secrets to the Honor System in College

Talk to the big achievers & that ease zone at times expands to perhaps ten to twelve schools – “elites,” who previous year stunned us college advisors just by edging down in “lower than about 10%” admit rate. With Stanford turning thousands of valedictorians yearly and the big state schools getting tens of hundreds of apps every year, just applying to handful of schools, which everybody else is applying…is not win-win plan.

So here is a big, heartening number – there are over 1500 four year, regionally credited, residentially based, bachelor degree colleges & universities in the country. Wrapped inside lots of of those 1500 plus “traditional” scholar experiences, are stunning gems recognized as “honors experiences, and ” where small, choosy group of students will get to work with the distinguished faculty in specialized surroundings & enjoy all top sources of the college. Thanks to thousands of honors experiences all over the country, even most spirited student can cast net across lots of attractive schools & land an exceptional undergraduate education.

The honors experiences also come in various fantastic set-ups. First up are the honors colleges. Keep in mind that the universities are groups of colleges. At several schools, there is distinct honors college who has its own admissions & financial help process, prospectus, & lots more. Next are honors programs (at times referred as “scholars” courses) that can be series of particular courses, parts or major track, which is division of many academic aids at college. Finally, the honors semesters are focused experiences, frequently associated with the internships and travel. The colleges may as well have their mix-and-match adaptations of honors experience.

If you are academically aggravated student who likes stretching mind & spirit, here are few reasons why one school with honors experience fits on your college list.

Ultimate academic experience. Honors experience on any of the campus generally presents very close contact with the most important faculty members, most challenging routes, and cream of student crop.

Devoted facilities. Several honors colleges got their personal residential housing for the students. At minimum, the honors programs normally present special lounges, personal computer labs and other facilities for the honors students.

Similar price, good education. When you get accept in honors experience, you normally pay similar tuition, fees & residential bills as some other students on the campus – however you get “upgraded seat.” A few programs & colleges charge extra fees for extra sources you may access, however they have unique scholarships that will help to pay for those.

Best of worlds. Love idea of big state school knowledge? Even on largest campus, the honors experience will give you lots of benefits of smaller, and private college. A honors experience is like no other when it comes to going to class.

A hope of self-actualization. Not like some very high school classes, the college honors experiences are not about doubling the workload; they are radically expanding the worldview. You may look forward to the leadership grooming, specialized internships, service learning, field trips, advanced undergraduate research, recreational events, personal advisors, trips abroad and lots more.

Tom Tessin

Is 28 too old to study abroad in europe?

I decided to go back to school and finish up my undergrad college degree but I want to spend a semester abroad.

You are never too old to make your dreams come true.