Review by Sandi Hunter
As 2013 winds down we thought it a good time for a review of some of the services that were developed and made available to Worldprofit Members. Most services were included as value added services at no additional cost without any membership rate increases. We made it our ongoing goal to continue to develop services for our members that would help build traffic, generate leads, make promotion easier and more effective. We've worked hard to integrate social media and blogs into the services provided as social media continues to dominate and is important to online marketers.
Understanding that our members are often involved in many business opportunities and affiliate programs, we integrated more ways to build any and ALL your online businesses. Specifically, we developed the Landing Page Builder, the Offer builder, the Membership Plugin, the Traffic Multiplier, and the Lead Funnel for this purpose.
Recognizing the need to help our members build their SEO campaigns naturally, we introduced the SEO Optimizer Pro and also a number of SEO Tools, video training, Blog tools, and learning aids into the Member area.
We also added in more streams of income so that our Worldprofit Members had more products and services to promote from legitimate vendors with commissions payouts in range of 20 - 100%.
Finally, appreciating that product and service delivery is not enough, our members need support, training and assistance. To that end we added more training videos, updated and added to our online lesson plans, and worked hard to maintain a 24 hour window for critical customer support responses.
Due to the sheer number of products and services we offer our Members, we have compiled this list of releases in 2013 in case you missed a few or are new to Worldprofit.
The Landing Page Builder Allows you to EASILY create with ONE click, beautiful eye-popping professional landing pages for ANY and ALL your business opportunities. Included in your Worldprofit Membership at no extra cost.
Reminder System and Task System Got a poor memory? Help is here with the Reminder System. Use it to create reminders that you can email to yourself, checklists and more. Included in your Membership at no extra cost.
Advanced Ad Tracker Members have long enjoyed the Ad Tracker at no extra cost. Some members expressed an interest for more detailed ad tracking, so this past year we introduced the Advanced Ad Tracker. Basic Ad Tracker included in your Membership at no extra cost. Advanced Ad Tracker is an optional service at minimal cost.
SEO Optimizer Pro Submit your site to over 700,000 sites
Lead Funnel The Lead Funnel is a lead generation system and a sales system all in one and EXCLUSIVE to Worldprofit Members.
Link Manager The Link Manager is designed to help you keep important links organized under categories of your choice. These links can be social bookmarketing sites, search sites, tools or anything you like. Included in your Membership at no extra cost.
Offer Builder (give away up to $10,000 in free advertising) You've got something to sell right? Offers are what closes deals! The problem is what to offer. Problem solved with Worldprofit's Offer Builder. You can create enticing offers and take advantage of our TRAFFIC powerhouses to make deals people can't refuse! Included in your Membership at no extra cost.
Traffic Multiplier Allows you to say "Click my link and I will give you 100 Visitor Credits" a sure fire way to get traffic at no cost to you! Access: Included in your Membership at no extra cost.
Blog Platform integrated to Silver and Platinum VIP Membership Allows you to quickly add a blog within your Silver or Platinum website with one click. Included in your Membership at no extra cost.
Easy Deal Builder Create unlimited, high converting deals in just a few moments with zero tech skills. Use this to increase your sales in any business opportunity. Optional service at exclusive Member only pricing.
Membership plugin Some of our Members are very active online entrepreneurs with more advanced marketing and technical skills. As vendors they needed the ability to easily create their own Membership site so we released the Membership Plugin this past year. . Optional service at exclusive Member only pricing.
Money Maker Kit Over the last year we continued to add hand-selected quality products to the Money Makers Kit. Currently there are over 50 products along with promotional materials so you can press send to earn commission in range of 50 - 100%. Included in your Membership at no extra cost.
Prebuilt blogs No time to create a blog? We've got some prebuilt blogs that will save you money, time and get you up and running fast. This is an OPTIONAL service at exclusive Member only pricing.
PLR Store (new products added) Members can download 224 products at NO COST. Helpful, valuable products to help you market and build your online business. All members can download the PLR products for personal use, Platinum VIP Members also get the PLR Store for selling products with 100% commission.
Worldprofit Social and free Member Blog. Members can set up a Social Profile and Member blog at no cost.
Autoresponder Sequences Need follow up messages? We got that covered for you. Sequence Autoresponse Sequences included in your Membership at no extra cost.
New Landing Pages We created new Landing pages for member use as well as the tracking for hits to those landing pages. Included at no cost for Silver and Platinum VIP Members
FastCash Money Maker program We have 18 fully functional turn-key money making sites you can start promoting NOW to earn today. Included at no cost for Silver and Platinum VIP Members.
Worldprofit Marketplace Our members are often promoting many different programs, promote them ALL in our marketplace with potential exposure of over 1 million members. Included at no cost for Silver and Platinum VIP Members.
Promo Bots Know you need to promote but don't have the time? Promo-bots to the rescue. Speeds up your promotion time with imacros. Included at no cost for Silver and Platinum VIP Members.
Graphix Software Members can easily create professional graphics for all your marketing and promotion needs. Included at no cost for Silver and Platinum VIP Members.
Video Blogs Video is like candy to Google. The more videos you can create for your products and services the better for your search engine ranking. Optional service with minimal charge for labour and installation.
Home Business Bootcamp online lessons We have added and updated the online bootcamp lessons, so Members now have 85 lessons to learn at your own pace about online marketing and how to make the best use of all the software, tools and resources included in your membership. We've also made it so you can print out the lessons or save as PDF. SUMMARY. Included at no cost for Silver and Platinum VIP Members
Facebook Group for Worldprofit members Learn tips, tricks, insider information posted by active members in the Worldprofit home business community.
Advertising Recommendations We brought on new trusted advertising partners, and new sites, and exchanges for promotion codes, ad credits are more. No matter what you are promoting we have traffic and promotion for you - come get it!
LIVE interactive Home Business Bootcamp training sessions by marketing expert George Kosch Every Friday for 51 weeks this past year George presented his trademarked, down to earth style of training complete with demonstrations, questions and answer sessions. That's over 100 hours of specialized training exclusive to our Worldprofit Members. Included at no cost for Silver and Platinum VIP Members
As 2013 comes to a close, Dr. Lant, George Kosch and myself, Sandi Hunter would like to thank our Members around the world for your support not just this past year but over the last two decades. Now in our 20th year of business we couldn't have done it without your enthusiasm for the services we offer, your feedback and your ongoing loyalty. We are super-charged by changing technology and our home business community that has grown over the years. We are proud to be part of the changing face of the internet and the potential it offers people who are willing to work from home to improve their financial situation. We have exciting plans and developments in store for 2014 and we are excited abut the coming year.
Reading this and not a Member of Worldprofit? Sign up for a free Worldprofit Associate membership and let us help you build your own successful online business. We have a special offer on now for everyone who signs up as a free Associate member. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Mandela! Dead at 95, December 5, 2013. An Appreciation.
Author's program note. One evening several years ago I was dining in London with two of the nicest (and most charming) people I know, Lord and Lady Mackay of Clashfern. Born the son of a railway signalman, after a lifetime of zealous study and application of the law, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed him Lord Chancellor of the realm, the equivalent of Chief Justice; a position he honored from 1987-1997.
During the course of the kind of delightful evening only the British know how to arrange, everything perfect, nothing ostentatious and the best table talk on Earth, I asked Lady Mackay who was the most impressive person she had met in all their travels. Her answer was swift and sure: "Nelson Mandela".
She talked, as all discerning people talk, of Mandela's megawatt smile, of how he looked her in the eyes, of how she felt his full attention whilst he was speaking with her, and how she felt his serenity and peace. Then the question that the world has always wanted answered: how after 27 years in the bleakest of prisons had he managed not only to preserve his sanity and the best of what makes us human, but to emerge with love, real love, in his heart, not corrosive anger, hatred, and rancor. Mirabile dictu, these were absent, no sign at all of his Via Dolorosa. And this, to her, to me, to all, was as a miracle.
And because he personified the very essence of optimism and hope, I have selected such a song for the music to accompany this article. Go now to any search engine and find "Free Nelson Mandela". It is a song written by Jerry Dammers and released in 1984 as a protest against Mandela's imprisonment. Unlike most protest songs, this track with lead vocals by Stan Campbell is upbeat and celebratory... the perfect sound for a man who knew the power of hope and therewith changed the world, one smile at a time, love his constant guide, staff, policy, and credo.
Born an aristocrat.
Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela was born July 18, 1918 in Mvezo, a village in South Africa's Transkei region, on the southeast coast. His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was village chief and a member of the royal house of the Thembu tribe. He died when Mandela was just 9, when he became a ward of the Paramount Chief Dalinyebo. Nosekeni Fanny Mandela, his mother, was one of his father's four wives.
At age 7 he was given a new first name by his schoolteacher, in honor of Horatio (Lord) Nelson, the most famous British seaman, whose victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets in 1805 at Cape Trafalgar accelerated British colonization of Africa, a matter pertinent to Mandela's future.
Privilege.
Like so many revolutionaries, Mandela's early years were privileged years. He was educated at Methodist schools and attended the University College of Fort Hare. He was an avid sportsman, ran cross-country and boxed. His hero was heavy weight champion Joe Louis.
He was a good student, liked school and was popular. People knew even then that he was special, great things sure to come. Such a paragon needs must be married and so his legal guardian arranged a suitable match; Mandela disagreed and so became the run-away groom, supporting himself as a law clerk, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of South Africa in 1942.
"One thousand slights, a thousand indignities."
Ever since St. Paul entered the revelation business on his celebrated journey to Damascus, people have scrutinized important people for the moment they experienced an epiphany, destiny, fate, kismet. Albert Schweitzer, for instance, had this moment on the Ogooue' river in French Equatorial Africa; (now Gabon.) "Reverence for life."
But Mandela recalled no such epochal, defining experience, the moment he crossed the Rubicon. Instead his politicization was a thing of years, decades, pinpricks subtle, humiliating, and never ending.
It all added up to this, "Kaffir man, you are black. Kaffir man you are God's garbage. Kaffir man look down, look down, for that is where you must stay." And upon this fundamental basis a system for total control was evolved, white against black, forever apart, adamantly divided one from the other, the white minority to rule forever, the black majority to be ruled and submit, without cavil or complaint if possible, with brute force if not.
The name of this system was Apartheid, "separateness" in the Afrikaans language of the ruling elite, and the system, conceived and legally implemented from 1948 in hate, fear, bitterness and woe was as close to hell as mortal man could conceive and develop.
Apartheid touched everyone and everything. It crushed the oppressed... it corrupted the oppressor. No one under Apartheid was free, not oppressed, not oppressor, for the system ruined all. It was a deal with the Devil, and the Devil took his toll, every long minute of every bitter day.
At last the Devil grasped at Nelson Mandela... but the Devil soon knew this man would not submit. And so even the Devil was confounded by the invidious system. No one was immune and untouched but one person refused to accept the intolerable, though that would have been the easy way, the way of least resistance.
That person was Nelson Mandela, and we cherish him not because he recognized a moral evil. Many did, including brave members of the elite who made their aversion clear. It is not merely because he acted against this pernicious system, many did that, too. It is rather that he learned the essential task of embracing the oppressor who condemned them both to a system of despair and destruction yet rose above, to love in response to every calculated insult, every vulgar and demeaning humiliation, every affliction, every action intended to devalue, diminish, and degrade.
To each, to all, in every situation, he returned love... thereby redeeming a great people from the sin they could not free themselves from alone. Members of the elite though they were, responsible for every outrage, they more than ever needed a man of destiny to save them.... and Nelson Mandela was that man, though there was nothing inevitable about his rise to eminence and political importance. Instead, as he was insulted as a black man over and over again he advanced in his determination to right this wrong.
As he was humiliated as a black man over and over, so he vowed to do his part to overturn the egregious apparatus of state-sponsored racism. Instead, as he was demeaned in every aspect of his humanity, so he was adamant that this must be stopped here, now, forever... and he said he would do his part, though death be his portion.
Is it any wonder these great lines from "Julius Caesar" were his favorite? "Cowards die many times before their deaths/The valiant never taste of death but once." And he was the most valiant of men. However as we all know, discretion is the better part of valor... and discretion is a matter of experience and education. The more he knew, the more he observed, the more he considered, the more he moved towards his ultimate goal -- freedom-- something far more important than mere retaliation and revenge.
This all took time, pains, focus, commitment and resilience. It was never overnight, never easy, never the work of a single day, and it took the faith that moves mountains. Thus Mandela, so often in prison from 1956 to1990, created himself, examined himself, crafted himself and moved towards becoming the man he needed to be and all the people of South Africa needed him to be for the great work at hand.
>From Communist to non-violence, essential elements in his "Long Walk to Freedom".
Like so many black men around the world, Mandela was at first determined to use any means to topple a system that systematically devalued him and his kind. If the transition could be peaceful well and good. If not... then let the chips fall where they may. Freedom might well need weapons, and these weapons might have to be used.
This was the Great Fear of the white minority and many blacks. And it was very real, a thing of apprehension and profound anxieties, a Reign of Terror far greater and more bloody than Robespierre's. The possibility of such a bloodbath was always present and who can doubt that if Mandela had continued to advocate violence as he did in his early career the "beloved country" would have cried indeed? "If this man wasn't there, the whole country would have gone up in flames." This is the considered opinion of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the man who won the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993.
Balance.
Here was the problem Mandela faced. Particularly young black men pressed him for action now, armed action if necessary, war a l'outrance .They demanded "results", damn the consequences. Following this bloody course would have activated the full power of a powerful regime with catastrophic consequences for all. This was the policy of Apocalypse, and if it had been implemented South Africa would have drowned in its own blood.
He knew the undeniable attraction of this adamant position. After all, he had once advocated this line himself. But as he matured he knew he had to take a very different course than turning the land he loved into a battlefield. He needed to stay focused on the big picture, the policy that would save the nation, not destroy it; ensure freedom to all, not deny it to anyone.
To ensure this end meant keeping the hotheads in line while using their undeniable power to press for constructive resolution; to use their outrage to bring constructive interaction, to bring forth harmony from rancor. This was difficult, often frustrating, perplexing, baffling. And it demanded statecraft of the highest level; statecraft perfected in a 7 feet square prison cell he occupied at a maximum-security facility, Robben Island, near Cape Town. He spent 18 years there before being transferred to a less isolated prison on the mainland.
"You have no idea of the cruelty of man against man until you have been in a South African prison with white warders and black prisoners." Under these circumstances Mandela could have perfected hatred and bile, becoming the merciless Angel of Retribution. The world would have understood this, but Mandela chose a different course, the harder course, the course of freedom, liberty... and a united South Africa, a destination almost unimaginable in the acrid years after 1948... the years when the regime denied Mandela sun glasses. He suffered permanent eye damage; but it was the ruling authorities who were blind.
Thus, simultaneously he had to let the members of the elite know that they had to make compromises to appease his followers, who could not be expected to be patient forever. A declared Communist at first, this orientation estranged the United States, which continued to support the rigidly anti-Communist regime, that being far more important in Washington, D.C. than civil rights. It was an understandable position, but only exacerbated an already confounding situation.
Through this maze of bewildering possibilities, many contradictory, often repugnant to a nose-holding degree, Mandela had not only to maneuver... but he had to grow. The fate of millions depended on it. And bit by bit the world came to know it, nowhere more than in Boston, Massachusetts, a city which revived its revolutionary heritage by supporting Mandela's.
There on June 23, 1990, I took advantage of the opportunity to see and hear the last of the great racial liberators, Mahatma Gandhi, The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mandela himself. All three were men of privilege and learning who put their comfortable lives on the line for something of worldwide impact and importance; men who had to master themselves before they dared to ask others to follow.
Of course, I had to see the last of these titans and so along with over a quarter million other souls, many radiant, all of good cheer, I trekked to the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade alongside the Charles River. Here Mandela, just released from prison, made his first remarks to America and its iconic City on a Hill. He said little, told us nothing new. He didn't have to.
He was the man who had cleansed a great nation of its debilitating burden, thereby saving that nation and the lives of thousands; thus even the tiniest tot knew something special was happening here and remembered. Then he smiled at the delirious crowd, danced on stage to the delight of all, thence speeding on his way to immortality.
At that moment every person in that undulating sea of humanity felt better, happy, glad to be reassured that a single person could make the world a better place and do it without revenge, retribution, retaliation, or the slaughter of a single person, black or white. That is the legacy of Nelson Mandela, and its relevance will never dim or tarnish. We must all see to that...
About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen books on marketing, several ebooks, and over one thousand online articles on a variety of topics. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.
During the course of the kind of delightful evening only the British know how to arrange, everything perfect, nothing ostentatious and the best table talk on Earth, I asked Lady Mackay who was the most impressive person she had met in all their travels. Her answer was swift and sure: "Nelson Mandela".
She talked, as all discerning people talk, of Mandela's megawatt smile, of how he looked her in the eyes, of how she felt his full attention whilst he was speaking with her, and how she felt his serenity and peace. Then the question that the world has always wanted answered: how after 27 years in the bleakest of prisons had he managed not only to preserve his sanity and the best of what makes us human, but to emerge with love, real love, in his heart, not corrosive anger, hatred, and rancor. Mirabile dictu, these were absent, no sign at all of his Via Dolorosa. And this, to her, to me, to all, was as a miracle.
And because he personified the very essence of optimism and hope, I have selected such a song for the music to accompany this article. Go now to any search engine and find "Free Nelson Mandela". It is a song written by Jerry Dammers and released in 1984 as a protest against Mandela's imprisonment. Unlike most protest songs, this track with lead vocals by Stan Campbell is upbeat and celebratory... the perfect sound for a man who knew the power of hope and therewith changed the world, one smile at a time, love his constant guide, staff, policy, and credo.
Born an aristocrat.
Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela was born July 18, 1918 in Mvezo, a village in South Africa's Transkei region, on the southeast coast. His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was village chief and a member of the royal house of the Thembu tribe. He died when Mandela was just 9, when he became a ward of the Paramount Chief Dalinyebo. Nosekeni Fanny Mandela, his mother, was one of his father's four wives.
At age 7 he was given a new first name by his schoolteacher, in honor of Horatio (Lord) Nelson, the most famous British seaman, whose victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets in 1805 at Cape Trafalgar accelerated British colonization of Africa, a matter pertinent to Mandela's future.
Privilege.
Like so many revolutionaries, Mandela's early years were privileged years. He was educated at Methodist schools and attended the University College of Fort Hare. He was an avid sportsman, ran cross-country and boxed. His hero was heavy weight champion Joe Louis.
He was a good student, liked school and was popular. People knew even then that he was special, great things sure to come. Such a paragon needs must be married and so his legal guardian arranged a suitable match; Mandela disagreed and so became the run-away groom, supporting himself as a law clerk, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of South Africa in 1942.
"One thousand slights, a thousand indignities."
Ever since St. Paul entered the revelation business on his celebrated journey to Damascus, people have scrutinized important people for the moment they experienced an epiphany, destiny, fate, kismet. Albert Schweitzer, for instance, had this moment on the Ogooue' river in French Equatorial Africa; (now Gabon.) "Reverence for life."
But Mandela recalled no such epochal, defining experience, the moment he crossed the Rubicon. Instead his politicization was a thing of years, decades, pinpricks subtle, humiliating, and never ending.
It all added up to this, "Kaffir man, you are black. Kaffir man you are God's garbage. Kaffir man look down, look down, for that is where you must stay." And upon this fundamental basis a system for total control was evolved, white against black, forever apart, adamantly divided one from the other, the white minority to rule forever, the black majority to be ruled and submit, without cavil or complaint if possible, with brute force if not.
The name of this system was Apartheid, "separateness" in the Afrikaans language of the ruling elite, and the system, conceived and legally implemented from 1948 in hate, fear, bitterness and woe was as close to hell as mortal man could conceive and develop.
Apartheid touched everyone and everything. It crushed the oppressed... it corrupted the oppressor. No one under Apartheid was free, not oppressed, not oppressor, for the system ruined all. It was a deal with the Devil, and the Devil took his toll, every long minute of every bitter day.
At last the Devil grasped at Nelson Mandela... but the Devil soon knew this man would not submit. And so even the Devil was confounded by the invidious system. No one was immune and untouched but one person refused to accept the intolerable, though that would have been the easy way, the way of least resistance.
That person was Nelson Mandela, and we cherish him not because he recognized a moral evil. Many did, including brave members of the elite who made their aversion clear. It is not merely because he acted against this pernicious system, many did that, too. It is rather that he learned the essential task of embracing the oppressor who condemned them both to a system of despair and destruction yet rose above, to love in response to every calculated insult, every vulgar and demeaning humiliation, every affliction, every action intended to devalue, diminish, and degrade.
To each, to all, in every situation, he returned love... thereby redeeming a great people from the sin they could not free themselves from alone. Members of the elite though they were, responsible for every outrage, they more than ever needed a man of destiny to save them.... and Nelson Mandela was that man, though there was nothing inevitable about his rise to eminence and political importance. Instead, as he was insulted as a black man over and over again he advanced in his determination to right this wrong.
As he was humiliated as a black man over and over, so he vowed to do his part to overturn the egregious apparatus of state-sponsored racism. Instead, as he was demeaned in every aspect of his humanity, so he was adamant that this must be stopped here, now, forever... and he said he would do his part, though death be his portion.
Is it any wonder these great lines from "Julius Caesar" were his favorite? "Cowards die many times before their deaths/The valiant never taste of death but once." And he was the most valiant of men. However as we all know, discretion is the better part of valor... and discretion is a matter of experience and education. The more he knew, the more he observed, the more he considered, the more he moved towards his ultimate goal -- freedom-- something far more important than mere retaliation and revenge.
This all took time, pains, focus, commitment and resilience. It was never overnight, never easy, never the work of a single day, and it took the faith that moves mountains. Thus Mandela, so often in prison from 1956 to1990, created himself, examined himself, crafted himself and moved towards becoming the man he needed to be and all the people of South Africa needed him to be for the great work at hand.
>From Communist to non-violence, essential elements in his "Long Walk to Freedom".
Like so many black men around the world, Mandela was at first determined to use any means to topple a system that systematically devalued him and his kind. If the transition could be peaceful well and good. If not... then let the chips fall where they may. Freedom might well need weapons, and these weapons might have to be used.
This was the Great Fear of the white minority and many blacks. And it was very real, a thing of apprehension and profound anxieties, a Reign of Terror far greater and more bloody than Robespierre's. The possibility of such a bloodbath was always present and who can doubt that if Mandela had continued to advocate violence as he did in his early career the "beloved country" would have cried indeed? "If this man wasn't there, the whole country would have gone up in flames." This is the considered opinion of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the man who won the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993.
Balance.
Here was the problem Mandela faced. Particularly young black men pressed him for action now, armed action if necessary, war a l'outrance .They demanded "results", damn the consequences. Following this bloody course would have activated the full power of a powerful regime with catastrophic consequences for all. This was the policy of Apocalypse, and if it had been implemented South Africa would have drowned in its own blood.
He knew the undeniable attraction of this adamant position. After all, he had once advocated this line himself. But as he matured he knew he had to take a very different course than turning the land he loved into a battlefield. He needed to stay focused on the big picture, the policy that would save the nation, not destroy it; ensure freedom to all, not deny it to anyone.
To ensure this end meant keeping the hotheads in line while using their undeniable power to press for constructive resolution; to use their outrage to bring constructive interaction, to bring forth harmony from rancor. This was difficult, often frustrating, perplexing, baffling. And it demanded statecraft of the highest level; statecraft perfected in a 7 feet square prison cell he occupied at a maximum-security facility, Robben Island, near Cape Town. He spent 18 years there before being transferred to a less isolated prison on the mainland.
"You have no idea of the cruelty of man against man until you have been in a South African prison with white warders and black prisoners." Under these circumstances Mandela could have perfected hatred and bile, becoming the merciless Angel of Retribution. The world would have understood this, but Mandela chose a different course, the harder course, the course of freedom, liberty... and a united South Africa, a destination almost unimaginable in the acrid years after 1948... the years when the regime denied Mandela sun glasses. He suffered permanent eye damage; but it was the ruling authorities who were blind.
Thus, simultaneously he had to let the members of the elite know that they had to make compromises to appease his followers, who could not be expected to be patient forever. A declared Communist at first, this orientation estranged the United States, which continued to support the rigidly anti-Communist regime, that being far more important in Washington, D.C. than civil rights. It was an understandable position, but only exacerbated an already confounding situation.
Through this maze of bewildering possibilities, many contradictory, often repugnant to a nose-holding degree, Mandela had not only to maneuver... but he had to grow. The fate of millions depended on it. And bit by bit the world came to know it, nowhere more than in Boston, Massachusetts, a city which revived its revolutionary heritage by supporting Mandela's.
There on June 23, 1990, I took advantage of the opportunity to see and hear the last of the great racial liberators, Mahatma Gandhi, The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mandela himself. All three were men of privilege and learning who put their comfortable lives on the line for something of worldwide impact and importance; men who had to master themselves before they dared to ask others to follow.
Of course, I had to see the last of these titans and so along with over a quarter million other souls, many radiant, all of good cheer, I trekked to the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade alongside the Charles River. Here Mandela, just released from prison, made his first remarks to America and its iconic City on a Hill. He said little, told us nothing new. He didn't have to.
He was the man who had cleansed a great nation of its debilitating burden, thereby saving that nation and the lives of thousands; thus even the tiniest tot knew something special was happening here and remembered. Then he smiled at the delirious crowd, danced on stage to the delight of all, thence speeding on his way to immortality.
At that moment every person in that undulating sea of humanity felt better, happy, glad to be reassured that a single person could make the world a better place and do it without revenge, retribution, retaliation, or the slaughter of a single person, black or white. That is the legacy of Nelson Mandela, and its relevance will never dim or tarnish. We must all see to that...
About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen books on marketing, several ebooks, and over one thousand online articles on a variety of topics. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
The Spider of the Kremlin and his cunning webs. The man who would be tsar andthe Ukraine he covets to distraction. Vladimir Putin. The situation in Kiev. Some thoughts on a great people determined to be truly free.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note. In 1866 Tsar Alexander II of All the Russias came to visit the greatest city in his restive province of Ukraine... and there he almost died at the hands of an assassin determined to prove that progressive thinkers are the most tempting targets of all.
Tsar Alexander had liberated the serfs and so gained the opprobrium of the Left for not going far enough and of the Right for going too far. Thus he supplied any number of stealthy killers with grounds for murderous action. And so what came to be called the "Event of April 4, 1866" took place. This time, however, his imperial majesty survived... and he wanted that fact commemorated in the most public and grandiose of ways.
A design competition was decreed. Hundreds of ideas poured in from inspired loyalists sincerely grateful Father Romanov had survived... and from starving artists who would have taken a commission from the Devil himself, whatever strings were attached.
However one design stood out from the rest, artist Victor Hartmann's majestic vision for The Great Gate of Kiev. It was a great structure for the capital city of a great people, and Hartmann poured himself and his artistic distinction into a work designed to amaze the world and thrill Ukrainians everywhere, the supreme manifestation of how they saw themselves despite every vicissitude and how they wanted everyone else to see them.
The sketch for stone gates to replace the wooden gates of Kiev incorporated a cupola in the form of a Slavonic helmet. In the design, the archway rested on granite pillars and its peak was to be decorated with a huge headpiece of Russian carved designs including the Russian state eagle, the very symbol of Ukrainian subservience and despair.
But it wouldn't be an authentic story of Ukraine unless there was heartbreak and woe, for here is lamentation indeed. Upon reconsideration the Tsar decided to cancel the competition. A memorial seemed to be tempting fate, motivating any of the numerous opponents to his reign to try again... and again... until at last in 1881 they succeeded in blowing him and his entourage to bloody fragments, the very steps of the palace smeared with gore and death.
As for Hartmann, he died prematurely, just 39... his friend Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) devastated but determined to commemorate the one gone before. And so he composed a classical piano suite of genius ("The Great Kiev Gate") as part of his magnum opus "Pictures at an Exhibition", memorializing Hartmann's final exhibition of over 400 works demonstrating mastery of line, form, light, and color.
The work commenced in sorrow and profound grief was finished in triumph... then neglected by all, thrust aside, unheard until the great French musician Maurice Ravel in 1922 took the matter in hand, arranging the music so that ignoring it was no longer possible.
It was grandiose, soaring, stately, bombastic, at once as intimate as prayer and as adamant as God's will... a work of insistent hope for each, hope for all, hope for the nation that still was in bondage, patient, biding its time, expectant, sure their day of deliverance would come... the resounding bells, audacious, bold, majestic, surely meant that if they meant anything at all for this land, this charnel house of centuries, a chimera, so rarely a country and never for long. Gloria in excelsis Deo...
Go now to any search engine and play it at once. Listen as the great bells call you to action, for if you believe in freedom then you must heed this tocsin. There cannot be freedom until there is freedom for all. And that is why the actions of the Ukrainian people in recent days are so important to us. No matter where we are, we are all Ukrainians today, hearts beating for a single goal: Freedom here! Freedom now! Freedom forever!
Geography is destiny.
This is the first rule of international politics, and there is no better example on Earth than Ukraine, rich, accessible, disorganized, ineffectual, internally divided. To look at the history of Ukraine is to see God at his most ironic. Pick any time in its checkered history, and you will find the same tragic tale, repeated over and over again; the theme established long ago.
You will see a numerous people (46 million today) of intelligence, ingenuity, hard work and solid habits. A massive territory of some 233,000 square miles, making it the largest in Europe. And you will find above all the good earth, incomparable, fertile, productive, a treasure trove which enables Ukraine to be the third largest grain exporter on Earth.
>From this blessed asset has come every good thing... and every bad, for the good earth promised everything but ensured it would be stolen by others, near at hand, voracious, rapacious, masters of avarice and thievery and every attendant toxin.
Ukraine has had, has now every element necessary for greatness... except the secret to building and sustaining a nation, the coherence of a united people fiercely dedicated to one overriding objective, united to produce one nation under God. This is, of course, just the way their greatest enemy likes it.
That enemy is Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, the Spider of the Kremlin, working day and night to subjugate Ukraine to his will, not to the silly notion of the people's will. Thus every step towards Europe Ukraine takes is automatically perceived by Putin as a thrust against him and the good old days of robust Moscow- driven Communism, the good old days he cannot forget and which he yearns to have again.
He has the drive, the resources, and the resolute determination to make it happen. We must never forget this... for Putin is our most dangerous, most energetic opponent, without moral limits, without scruples, with nothing to lose and an empire to (re)gain. He remembers Moscow is just 450 miles from Kiev; it is a statistic constantly on his mind.
The saddest day of Putin's life: December 26, 1991.
On this day the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the gravest menace to human rights, personal freedom, capitalism and private property collapsed forever; it was the biggest Christmas present the West and its peoples have ever received. There was literally dancing in the streets and near universal joy. "Near" because people like Putin sat in morose darkness nursing cheap liquor, wondering how it all went so very wrong... vowing revenge and restoration, a vow that they made over and over again as they watched all the former Soviet Republics leave like so many rats from the sinking ship; once comrades, now renegades, contemptible, budding antagonists. Nowhere was this more true than with Ukraine, once the jewel in the Red crown, now Putin's chief obsession in whatever office he currently condescends to adorn.
Of course this was known to every notable Ukrainian politician and every such politician played the game of centuries. They were more pro-Russian in eastern Ukraine; more pro-European in western Ukraine. This was the formula for survival, and as every Ukrainian knows survival is the most important thing of all... until now...
Time for history.
For months now the Ukrainian government, headed by President Viktor Yanukovych has been engaged in serious negotiations to integrate the nation into the European Union. It had been expected that these far-reaching policies would be released to the world at an EU summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, just the other day
But the Spider of the Kremlin had other ideas...and so Ukraine President Yanukovych had to make very different arrangements, including being summoned to Putin for his instructions thereby showing the world just how little power he had, how much a puppet he was. Really, it might have been 1956 all over again. I expect Yanukovych demurred on this point or that; tried to argue for a less public humiliation. But that is not the Spider's way and after all the Spider is just 450 miles away... Thus did Yanukovych choose to do the Spider's bidding, the interests of Ukraine and its valiant people be damned.
Riots, a people incensed, determined, provoked. The Events of November 21, 2013.
As news spread of how Yanukovych had betrayed his nation and kow-towed to the Spider in the Kremlin, nefarious webs suddenly starkly apparent, the people of Ukraine exploded with wrath, mighty and long suppressed ire, and a purpose pure and exalted.
It was the majesty of the people... and it was glorious to behold. The Spider no doubt offered his pathetic servant every soothing bromide but both must have soon known that this was no ordinary event... this was the fury of a great people... and it was directed at them. "I want the authorities to know that this is not a protest; this is a revolution!" said former interior minister Yuri V. Lutsenko on December 1, 2013 as he addressed a crowd of over 300,000 people in Kiev's Independent Square; a crowd demanding the fall of Yanukovych and new elections. And so it was...
"Worse than a crime. A blunder."
What did Putin do? He told his minion in no uncertain terms to disperse the people by any and all means. And so the police weighed in with force majeure, truncheons augmented by lethal chemical gas.This is the Spider's way, for he fears just one thing... a determined, united people... no spider, however poisonous can endure against that.
And so he made it clear to his toady of Kiev that the severest methods be applied to disperse the protestors, all of them, wherever they meet, for all that these are a calm and reasonable people seeking nothing more than their right to assemble and to petition their government for redress of so many grievances, including their clear and unmistakable desire for the closest relations with Europe.
However, as Napoleon's foreign minister Prince de Talleyrand once quipped on another matter, "This is worse than a crime. It's a blunder", for now the naked truth has been exposed for all the world to see, and it will continue to be seen so long as the people of Ukraine are determined to prevail, for they too have earned life, liberty, and the pursuit of their too long delayed pursuit of happiness. Now is the moment to seize your future. It is waiting for you in the streets of Kiev...
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen print books, several ebooks and over one thousand online articles on a variety of interesting topics. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)