by Christopher Hessman
Unarguably, the most famous picture in the world, bar none, is the famed Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Generations of art fanciers and scholars of repute (and otherwise) have looked long and hard at this masterwork... all wondering, and then pontificating, about who "she" was... and what that provoking, enigmatic half smile could mean.
Now in the latest news from Rome, researcher Silvano Vinceti has his say. After prolonged research, Vinceti says, with the ringing assurance of every da Vinci investigator, that the Mona Lisa is not in fact the wife of Francesco di Bartolommeo di Zanobi del Giocondo (whew!) but his male lover Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salai.
Salai, who was a bit of a dish, worked for da Vinci for more than two decades, starting in 1490 when da Vinci was 38. During this time the master no doubt relied on his helper for many things; being a male model masquerading as a lady of quality was no doubt just one.
Salai also appears in such da Vinci masterpieces as "St. John the Baptist" (painted 1514) and a lesser-known drawing called "Angel Incarnate."
It's easy to see why da Vinci, with his predilections and trained connoisseur's eye, dallied with Salai. In the drawing of St. John the Baptist, Salai's youthful charms appear to full advantage. The flesh is radiant. Salai's body is young, firm, ripe; the muscles (which the master must have known so well) swell. The image pulsates with sensuality. Here was a most desirable hunk indeed. And the picture? Was it perhaps a souvenir, designed to remind? Or did it torment da Vinci after his young lover was gone? If so, it could have been called "Mi Ricordo", "I remember." Old men so recall the lovers of their lives, often painfully, especially when those lovers are young, slender, alluring... once at hand, now gone.
"The Angel Incarnate" (dated by experts between 1513-1515) is even more revealing, bluntly sexual (not merely sensual as the St. John) with engorged, thrusting member. Salai was proud, preening, sure of his power over the aging da Vinci. Perhaps the master liked it so. Others found it less enthralling; some outraged Puritan along the way tried vigorously to efface the bulging genitalia. No doubt da Vinci would, as a lover, have found the attempt amusing; as an artist he would have been outraged, and rightly so. Genius has its privileges.
Was this Salai? Was Salai da Vinci's lover? Or was he just a favorite, oggled and desired? Only the principal parties know for sure... just as only they know about the true identity of the Mona Lisa.
Researcher Vinceti is sure he has the answer... but then generations of devoted da Vinci admirers and researchers have been equally confident. Still...
Vicenti points to the similarities between Salai's nose and mouth in the three pictures; they are "striking" he asserts. No doubt in real life there were also worthy of note. One wonders whether da Vinci lingered over that mouth... and what he thought as he shaped this most enigmatic feature on his signature work.
Commenced in 1503, scrutinized and debated ever since.
Everything about the Mona Lisa has fascinated the cognoscenti since da Vinci first put brush to surface in Florence. For instance, it took the master 4 years to paint. It's painted on poplar wood, 77 x 53 cm. This wood now shows evidence of warping and was stabilized in 1951 with the addition of an oak frame and in 1970 with four vertical braces. Dovetails also were added, to prevent the widening of a small visible crack. These facts are not in dispute.
What is also indisputable are these facts:
Item: Mona Lisa has neither price nor insurance. It belongs to the French state and, priceless, has no assigned worth.
Item: It has hung in the private quarters of kings and emperors. Specifically, Mona Lisa was sold to French King Francis I (reigned 1515-1547) and was kept in the Louvre until Napoleon moved it to his state bedroom in the Tuileries. Hitler wanted to move it to Berlin... but was persuaded that that act of pillage would rouse the French like nothing else. They liked to pillage, too, but thought that capturing artistic trophies and moving them to Paris increased their value and eclat. How very French.
Item: It has been stolen. August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian carpenter, made the classic error of confusing fame with salability. He seized the painting from the Salon Carrre of the Louvre, only to be arrested when he put this icon up for sale 2 years later to a Florence antiques dealer. If "Antiques Road Show" had existed then, he no doubt would have claimed to have found it at a yard sale.
Item: It has been defaced. On December 30, 1956, a Bolivian named Ugo Ungaza Villegas, stared at the picture for a time; then, having seen enough, threw a rock at it, damaging a speck of pigment near her left elbow, and thereby entering history.
Item: It has been damaged by chemicals. In 1956, an acid attempt damaged the lower half of the picture. The restoration took several, very expensive years.
These are the facts... all the rest is the stuff of pleasurable speculation and debates, for drawing rooms and international conferences.
The grand thing about the Mona Lisa, perhaps the very grandest, is that everything else except the price of her habitation in the Louvre ($7.5 million) cannot be known for sure. Even the attribution to da Vinci (while unchallenged) might be questioned since there is no signature. This is why your guess about such matters might be as good as the experts, and makes it inevitable you will go to Paris to see it, no doubt having to elbow your way through a legion of Japanese school children to get the best possible view.
Next time you go, while considering that the Mona Lisa may well be a lady of the early 16th century, also ponder the likelihood that the image may be of the master himself (some experts do say so).... or that it a fanciful, deliberately perplexing image of his young lover, the kind of boy who beguiled, entranced, disappointed and broke your heart... but who knew (at last) that that lover had given him the gift of eternity, a fact which no doubt delighted him... and which cheered his lonely old age, when he was neither young nor beautiful, but merely immortal.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also a historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out Auto Coupon Cash -> http://www.ProvenAutomatedBiz.com/?rd=vu4WQplG
Friday, February 4, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
'Do not go gentle into that good night.' Hosni Mubarak toughs it out as Barrak Obama pleads with him to get out!
by Christopher Hessman
Could it be that Egyptian president Hosni Mobarak has been spending his leisure time these days reading Welsh poet Dylan Thomas? It certainly looks that way. After all what Thomas wrote in 1951 must speak to the soul of 82- year old Mubarak today:
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right.
For the last week or so Mubarak was like an aging champ, past his prime, being beaten down and down again. The world saw, but could not quite believe, that this octogenarian tyrant, with more power than the pharaohs before him, would go without a fight.
The revolutionaries, the children of Egypt who had grabbed the attention of the world and were about to evict the dictator, could not believe their good luck. As they gained momentum every day, it seemed that changing regimes was child's play indeed.
But, it was all rope-a-dope, with Muhammad Ali the model. Rope-a-dope is performed by a boxer assuming a protected stance, in Ali's classic pose, lying against the ropes; allowing his opponent to hit him and hit him and hit him again. The opponent thinks he's winning.... but he's actually tiring himself, while his opponent "rests". The attacker, hoodwinked, is being readied for the counter attack.
In due course, predictably, the attacker flags, thereby creating an opening which can be exploited by the old fox, the real champ... and so to victory, again.
Mr. Mubarak knows this trick, and several others, and he now means to show us each and every one of them. The world has written him off... but that, he knows, is not the end of the story.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Do not go gentle into that good night.
Mr. Mubarak has now let it be known, especially to one time friends who have fast deserted, so many rats, that he will not go, gentle or otherwise; that he will stay until September, 2011 when his term ends.
And so the next phase of the Egyptian revolution begins.
For the last week or so, the initiative was entirely, completely with the revolutionaries. These youngsters, for they are, most of them, still wet behind the ears, seized the world's attention and admiration from the unlikely platform of Facebook. There they called upon all the disaffected of Egypt to rally in Cairo, to rally for change... for an end to Mubarak's increasingly ramshackle administration, contemptible but still lethal.
The response was immediate, electric, overwhelming, as Facebook showed Mubarak and every other unsavory despot on earth that you can challenge regimes the electronic way, that Facebook was good for far more than picking up chicks. Now it could uplift an entire population and topple imperial thrones.
It was crazy, man. The stuff of legend and made-for- television movies.
Mubarak, his back against the ropes, his back against the wall, Mubarak bided his time... and worked furiously behind the scenes, the most active and focused octogenarian on earth.
He had not accepted the "inevitable." He did not mean to go. He would not make it easy, would not gratify fair weather friends and waxing revolutionaries.
They did not know Mubarak and, come what may, he was fully determined that they should.
Mubarak, born May 4, 1928, came from the Egyptian lower middle class. Amenities were few; evidence of scrimping was everywhere. There was too little at hand, too long to wait to get it. And Mubarak, even in his early days, was nothing if not determined, ambitious, never content to make do with less.
Such a man gravitated naturally into the military... for, as always in the history of Egypt... military men knew the better life, the secret to a good life with little work. And if that comfy, privileged life began to pall, they had, one way and another, the means to improve it. Bit by bit, Mubarak mastered these ways, in approved Dale Carnegie fashion making friends, influencing people, especially powerful people, like Anwar Sadat (in power 1970-1981).
Mubarak let it be known to such people that he would do anything, anything at all, to ascend. Powerful people know the value of such limitless assistance, for such people need clean hands and deniability. Helpful people like Mubarak provide both.
And so he moved up, from merely valuable to indispensable, a man of action... a man of destiny.
Of course along the way, he coarsened, as Lord Acton admonished so many years ago. Power did corrupt and absolute power did corrupt absolutely. But Mubarak, having made his deals with the devil, was content... most of the time, at least.
"It is a very tough job," he once told a television interviewer. "All you seem to do is wake up to trouble and sleep to trouble."
Whatever troubles he has had in the past, he well and surely has troubles now and to spare. However, he who made a fetish of unprincipled advancement is yet the Mubarak of old. He has resources, the resources of Egypt, at his disposal. What, then, matter the jeremiads, exhortations and self-serving advice from Washington if that advice does not keep Egypt in his pocket? Make no mistake, Egypt, so hard to possess, having possessed he means to keep.
That is why in these early February days, Mubarak is hard at work. He has discarded members of his government who cannot help him maintain his ascendency. He has summoned his thousands to march in his favor in Cairo and so demonstrate how vibrant and alive his regime remains. And he has informed President Obama and his emissaries, no doubt politely, to pipe down and get out of the way. He is not, after all, dead meat yet.
Mubarak knows, of course, that the odds are against him. After all, the army he once thought was his to command, has now made clear that they will not fire on Egyptians peacefully seeking change. That was a signal indeed about what they thought of Mubarak's chances to remain in power.
Mubarak says he simply wants to serve out his term. But, we all know and Mubarak knows we know, that he is angling for time... time to make a new deal with the devil, a deal that will enable him to keep the power he has given up everything to grasp.
Thus, while other men his age and even younger putter around the golf course today chasing a little white ball, Mubarak is convening all the resources of his diminished but still potent hegemony.
And, at night, he reads his Dylan Thomas and girds his loins, in Biblical fashion, for the last, great fight. For he is Mubarak still and will not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage against the dying of the light.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also an American historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://www.ProvenAutomatedBiz.com/?rd=fa7Gi84q
Could it be that Egyptian president Hosni Mobarak has been spending his leisure time these days reading Welsh poet Dylan Thomas? It certainly looks that way. After all what Thomas wrote in 1951 must speak to the soul of 82- year old Mubarak today:
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right.
For the last week or so Mubarak was like an aging champ, past his prime, being beaten down and down again. The world saw, but could not quite believe, that this octogenarian tyrant, with more power than the pharaohs before him, would go without a fight.
The revolutionaries, the children of Egypt who had grabbed the attention of the world and were about to evict the dictator, could not believe their good luck. As they gained momentum every day, it seemed that changing regimes was child's play indeed.
But, it was all rope-a-dope, with Muhammad Ali the model. Rope-a-dope is performed by a boxer assuming a protected stance, in Ali's classic pose, lying against the ropes; allowing his opponent to hit him and hit him and hit him again. The opponent thinks he's winning.... but he's actually tiring himself, while his opponent "rests". The attacker, hoodwinked, is being readied for the counter attack.
In due course, predictably, the attacker flags, thereby creating an opening which can be exploited by the old fox, the real champ... and so to victory, again.
Mr. Mubarak knows this trick, and several others, and he now means to show us each and every one of them. The world has written him off... but that, he knows, is not the end of the story.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Do not go gentle into that good night.
Mr. Mubarak has now let it be known, especially to one time friends who have fast deserted, so many rats, that he will not go, gentle or otherwise; that he will stay until September, 2011 when his term ends.
And so the next phase of the Egyptian revolution begins.
For the last week or so, the initiative was entirely, completely with the revolutionaries. These youngsters, for they are, most of them, still wet behind the ears, seized the world's attention and admiration from the unlikely platform of Facebook. There they called upon all the disaffected of Egypt to rally in Cairo, to rally for change... for an end to Mubarak's increasingly ramshackle administration, contemptible but still lethal.
The response was immediate, electric, overwhelming, as Facebook showed Mubarak and every other unsavory despot on earth that you can challenge regimes the electronic way, that Facebook was good for far more than picking up chicks. Now it could uplift an entire population and topple imperial thrones.
It was crazy, man. The stuff of legend and made-for- television movies.
Mubarak, his back against the ropes, his back against the wall, Mubarak bided his time... and worked furiously behind the scenes, the most active and focused octogenarian on earth.
He had not accepted the "inevitable." He did not mean to go. He would not make it easy, would not gratify fair weather friends and waxing revolutionaries.
They did not know Mubarak and, come what may, he was fully determined that they should.
Mubarak, born May 4, 1928, came from the Egyptian lower middle class. Amenities were few; evidence of scrimping was everywhere. There was too little at hand, too long to wait to get it. And Mubarak, even in his early days, was nothing if not determined, ambitious, never content to make do with less.
Such a man gravitated naturally into the military... for, as always in the history of Egypt... military men knew the better life, the secret to a good life with little work. And if that comfy, privileged life began to pall, they had, one way and another, the means to improve it. Bit by bit, Mubarak mastered these ways, in approved Dale Carnegie fashion making friends, influencing people, especially powerful people, like Anwar Sadat (in power 1970-1981).
Mubarak let it be known to such people that he would do anything, anything at all, to ascend. Powerful people know the value of such limitless assistance, for such people need clean hands and deniability. Helpful people like Mubarak provide both.
And so he moved up, from merely valuable to indispensable, a man of action... a man of destiny.
Of course along the way, he coarsened, as Lord Acton admonished so many years ago. Power did corrupt and absolute power did corrupt absolutely. But Mubarak, having made his deals with the devil, was content... most of the time, at least.
"It is a very tough job," he once told a television interviewer. "All you seem to do is wake up to trouble and sleep to trouble."
Whatever troubles he has had in the past, he well and surely has troubles now and to spare. However, he who made a fetish of unprincipled advancement is yet the Mubarak of old. He has resources, the resources of Egypt, at his disposal. What, then, matter the jeremiads, exhortations and self-serving advice from Washington if that advice does not keep Egypt in his pocket? Make no mistake, Egypt, so hard to possess, having possessed he means to keep.
That is why in these early February days, Mubarak is hard at work. He has discarded members of his government who cannot help him maintain his ascendency. He has summoned his thousands to march in his favor in Cairo and so demonstrate how vibrant and alive his regime remains. And he has informed President Obama and his emissaries, no doubt politely, to pipe down and get out of the way. He is not, after all, dead meat yet.
Mubarak knows, of course, that the odds are against him. After all, the army he once thought was his to command, has now made clear that they will not fire on Egyptians peacefully seeking change. That was a signal indeed about what they thought of Mubarak's chances to remain in power.
Mubarak says he simply wants to serve out his term. But, we all know and Mubarak knows we know, that he is angling for time... time to make a new deal with the devil, a deal that will enable him to keep the power he has given up everything to grasp.
Thus, while other men his age and even younger putter around the golf course today chasing a little white ball, Mubarak is convening all the resources of his diminished but still potent hegemony.
And, at night, he reads his Dylan Thomas and girds his loins, in Biblical fashion, for the last, great fight. For he is Mubarak still and will not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage against the dying of the light.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also an American historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://www.ProvenAutomatedBiz.com/?rd=fa7Gi84q
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The SEO Business Box: An Expert Review of the Course
Daniel Tan’s SEO Business Box is creating waves right now. This is an online SEO course that contains text-based information and various other resources that people can use to implement and enhance the search engine optimization of their business website and increase its prospects. Due to his previous bestsellers like Backlink Syndication and Rank Mover, Daniel Tan has created a good name for himself already. And judging by the reception of the SEO Business Box, this product is poised to be a bestseller as well.
The SEO Business Box has been designed for one express purpose; to enable people to earn an online income. If you have an online business and want to bring it to the presence of the Internet buying cognoscenti, then this product can help in great measure. It tells you exactly where you must popularize your website so that it reaches the people who matter. By using simple and sophisticated devices, it tells users how they can enhance the visibility of the website on the search engines.
The major bulk of the SEO Business Box is text-based information. It tells webmasters about various search engine optimization techniques that include article marketing, blogging, link building strategies, using autoresponders and the like.
The course is dispatched over the Internet in a friendly PDF format. There are links available to other information resources on the Internet, including video resources. Though the SEO Business Box itself has almost everything that a user would need, these additional resources prove to be of valuable help. A highlight is some legal documents that are included in the package which tell people what they must do to keep their online businesses completely legitimate.
The SEO course takes people all the way. They learn how to brand their product suitably so that the name proves catchy for the market as well as for the search engines. It covers topics right from registering domain names and web hosting to using applications such as autoresponders. If someone wants to set up an online company using SEO as its backbone, then this is the one product that gives it all.
Another feather in the cap of this superlative product is that it teaches people how to build links for their business websites in a very high volume. More links mean more traffic from interested people, which easily translates into more business. Daniel Tan speaks about two of his self-developed concepts, Link Acceleration and Link Velocity, both of which can build an amazing number of backlinks to a business website, thus giving it the online visibility it needs to become a topnotch business.
We recommend the SEO Business Box to anyone who has an Internet business and want to use the power of the search engines to add an important leverage to their online presence. The instructions are clear and there is no beating around the bush, but what’s most important is that the course directly takes you where the big money lies. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://buy2412.seobox.hop.clickbank.net
The SEO Business Box has been designed for one express purpose; to enable people to earn an online income. If you have an online business and want to bring it to the presence of the Internet buying cognoscenti, then this product can help in great measure. It tells you exactly where you must popularize your website so that it reaches the people who matter. By using simple and sophisticated devices, it tells users how they can enhance the visibility of the website on the search engines.
The major bulk of the SEO Business Box is text-based information. It tells webmasters about various search engine optimization techniques that include article marketing, blogging, link building strategies, using autoresponders and the like.
The course is dispatched over the Internet in a friendly PDF format. There are links available to other information resources on the Internet, including video resources. Though the SEO Business Box itself has almost everything that a user would need, these additional resources prove to be of valuable help. A highlight is some legal documents that are included in the package which tell people what they must do to keep their online businesses completely legitimate.
The SEO course takes people all the way. They learn how to brand their product suitably so that the name proves catchy for the market as well as for the search engines. It covers topics right from registering domain names and web hosting to using applications such as autoresponders. If someone wants to set up an online company using SEO as its backbone, then this is the one product that gives it all.
Another feather in the cap of this superlative product is that it teaches people how to build links for their business websites in a very high volume. More links mean more traffic from interested people, which easily translates into more business. Daniel Tan speaks about two of his self-developed concepts, Link Acceleration and Link Velocity, both of which can build an amazing number of backlinks to a business website, thus giving it the online visibility it needs to become a topnotch business.
We recommend the SEO Business Box to anyone who has an Internet business and want to use the power of the search engines to add an important leverage to their online presence. The instructions are clear and there is no beating around the bush, but what’s most important is that the course directly takes you where the big money lies. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://buy2412.seobox.hop.clickbank.net
The SEO Business Box: What Are the Early User Reviews?
The SEO Business Box has one thing going for it right from the start… its developer is Daniel Tan. Daniel Tan has made his presence felt in the online world quite strongly with his previous products such as the very popular Rank Mover, which was read by more than 2,000 SEO experts worldwide.
So, does the SEO Business Box fit the bill? We took a look at some of the initial user reviews to find out how it scores.
This is an SEO course which doesn’t just think about providing education, but it really delves into the strategies one must use to earn money off the Internet. The set contains instruction guides in a PDF format, screenshots of the processes that are explained, links to various other resources on the Internet most of which are in the form of videos, some legal documents that SEO proponents can use so that they are not caught on the wrong side of the law with their businesses and a lot of bonuses to the readers. People are commenting about the clarity of instructions and the conciseness of the matter. Everything is written in a very no-nonsense manner and in a way that even a rookie web entrepreneur can follow.
The product is based on the blueprint that made Daniel earn a lucrative income of at least $24,800 a month. This is the catchy initial draw for the product, but it doesn’t fall short of its claim once one begins reading the pages. People who have read the product have spoken about how easy the method is and at the same time how it is a genuine way to earn income.
The various inclusions in the SEO course have made things easier for the online marketers of the world. People have commented favorably about the handholding approach of the course, where Daniel Tan even spends time discussing how people should name their products and register their domains in such a way that the search engines lap them up. Apart from a considerable amount of information on how to build and share links, the course also tells people how to use autoresponders to create a better rapport with their online clientele.
The product comes from a veteran Internet marketer with a good track record. People are finding it quite easy to understand and implement the teachings in SEO Course and get all the support from the maker himself when they need it.
So, in all respects, Daniel Tan’s SEO Business Box is finding the best reviews from the online marketing clientele. It is being given out for perhaps the lowest ever price for such a product, at under $100. This is one product that you cannot afford to give a miss. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://buy2412.seobox.hop.clickbank.net
So, does the SEO Business Box fit the bill? We took a look at some of the initial user reviews to find out how it scores.
This is an SEO course which doesn’t just think about providing education, but it really delves into the strategies one must use to earn money off the Internet. The set contains instruction guides in a PDF format, screenshots of the processes that are explained, links to various other resources on the Internet most of which are in the form of videos, some legal documents that SEO proponents can use so that they are not caught on the wrong side of the law with their businesses and a lot of bonuses to the readers. People are commenting about the clarity of instructions and the conciseness of the matter. Everything is written in a very no-nonsense manner and in a way that even a rookie web entrepreneur can follow.
The product is based on the blueprint that made Daniel earn a lucrative income of at least $24,800 a month. This is the catchy initial draw for the product, but it doesn’t fall short of its claim once one begins reading the pages. People who have read the product have spoken about how easy the method is and at the same time how it is a genuine way to earn income.
The various inclusions in the SEO course have made things easier for the online marketers of the world. People have commented favorably about the handholding approach of the course, where Daniel Tan even spends time discussing how people should name their products and register their domains in such a way that the search engines lap them up. Apart from a considerable amount of information on how to build and share links, the course also tells people how to use autoresponders to create a better rapport with their online clientele.
The product comes from a veteran Internet marketer with a good track record. People are finding it quite easy to understand and implement the teachings in SEO Course and get all the support from the maker himself when they need it.
So, in all respects, Daniel Tan’s SEO Business Box is finding the best reviews from the online marketing clientele. It is being given out for perhaps the lowest ever price for such a product, at under $100. This is one product that you cannot afford to give a miss. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://buy2412.seobox.hop.clickbank.net
'How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm...' An appreciation for the life of Milton Levine, inventor of the ant farm, dead at 97... and the denizens therein.
by Christopher Hessman
Like over 20,000,000 kids nationwide and not a few adults, I had an ant farm. My brother Kevin had one, too; being intensely competitive we couldn't share just one. In the next generation, my discerning nephew Kyle also got one. Being so bright, he managed to get his at age 4 or so. He used the simple expedient of grabbing one in a variety store and refused to put it back on the shelf, threatening total mayhem and general ear-piercing shrieks if denied. He loved it even more than we did.
The fellow all of us had to thank for countless hours of absorbing fun, hands-on instruction, and unabashed admiration was Milton Levine, a man who turned an incident at a 1946 California picnic into a multi-million dollar enterprise.
The incident in question was one we have all had. Levine was at his sister's, pool side, when he noticed a conga-line of ants moving inexorably from their hill to Levine's 4th of July spread. Industrious to a fault, these critters were doing what they do best, engineering a take-over of supplies.
Levine had seen ants before, but he had never perceived ants before, never much thought of them except as pests; (that's the feeling that comes first). But, eureka, he had that "aha!" moment that all ant lovers have... and all entrepreneurs, too.
He remembered how as a boy on his uncle's farm in Pennsylvania he had collected ants in a jar. He thought that other children would find them as supremely fascinating as he did. He confided this insight to his brother-in-law E.J. Cossman and, as things developed, proposed a partnership.
It was a shrewd choice. Cossman was an incipient mail order wizard...
Uncle Milton's Ant Farm was the result.
It caught on at once which admittedly was a surprise to Uncle Milton and his brother-in-law, but not to the ants themselves. They knew just how fascinating and irresistible they are.
Although never surveyed on the matter, the ants recruited by Uncle Milton definitely liked the homey environment he created for them: a bucolic panorama of a farmhouse (the kind of place where Levine had grown up). The farmhouse sat beside a winding path to a barn and windmill above a warren of ant tunnels, all encased in plastic. The whole package was just 6-by-9 inches. It was enough to showcase an entire civilization, a whole world. Boys worldwide (for it was overwhelmingly a "boy thing") had it in their bedrooms... and stopping by to check it out would stay for hours, engrossed.
And the whole kit and caboodle set you back just $1.98.
Soon, very soon, the partners were selling thousands of farms a week. Clever, if folksy, television ads drove the sales as children just home from school discovered the ant's world was even more interesting than their previously favorite shows.
The star of this show was the California red ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus. This is an iconic ant of deserts and other arid habitats in North and South America. These conspicuous insects are normally granivorous, playing ecologically important roles as scavengers and seed dispersers. Pogonomyrmex is also known for having a uniquely painful sting. I wonder how many youths discovered this notable fact on their own... Most members of the genus Pogonomyrmex have a basket-like structure on the underside of their head made from long hairs. Called the psammophore, it helps the ants carry loose sand in low-humidity climates where sand grains do not stick together easily.
But, as in all businesses, there were quite distinctive problems to overcome. Setting up was cumbersome. You purchased the farm, then sent a coupon to the company which got you a vial containing 25 worker ants. This took several weeks, and the ants occasionally arrived -- dead.
What about the all-important queen? Here was the real problem. Federal law prohibited shipments of queen ants across state lines, no mating ensued on the farms, so another vial of ants had to be ordered within a few months... unless the owner captured some in the backyard.
And what did the ants eat and drink? More work for you! Here's what the company's website says:
Western Harvester ants enjoy small pieces of fruits and vegetables, the fresher the better. So, apples, lettuce, carrot, granola and celery will really please your ants. Don't overfeed the ants. They only need 1 or 2 small pieces every three days. Remove any uneaten food with tweezers to keep mold from growing in the ant farm that could harm your ants.
Now, just as important as the question, “What do ants eat?” is the question, “What do ants drink?” Just like pretty much every other creature – mammal, insect, reptile, amphibian, etc – on earth, ants need water to survive. However, they do not need very much. To give your ants water, you simply need to give them a few drops each day. The sand in the ant farm should not be saturated. In fact, you need to make sure that the water does not pool on top of the surface, otherwise your ants may drown. If you mix in a little sugar with their water once a week, your ants will love you. It will make them busy little beavers, so to speak – you have not seen energy until you have seen some ants with a sugar buzz!
But, in the end, despite its onerous aspects, the ants carried the day and made the ant farm a huge success. Said Milton Levine, "Most novelties, if they last one season, it's a lot. If they last two years, it's a phenomenon. To last this long is unheard of." In 2010, Uncle Milton Industries, based in Westlake Village, California was sold to the Transom Capital Group for over $20,000,000.
Levine summed up his relationship to Pogonomyrmex californicus thus: "I found out their most amazing feat yet. They put three kids through college"... and gave the rest of us countless hours of congenial visiting and learning. They are, after all, highly attractive and entrancing creatures.
For lovers of ants, and they are legion, the books of Harvard professor E.O. Wilson are key. Check out "Lord of the Ants" and (with Bert Holldobler) "The Ants." Years ago Prof. Wilson took time from his busy schedule to draw an ant for my 4 year old nephew Kyle and inserted it into an autographed copy of his book. He's a true gentleman and scholar.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also an American historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://buy2412.seobox.hop.clickbank.net
Like over 20,000,000 kids nationwide and not a few adults, I had an ant farm. My brother Kevin had one, too; being intensely competitive we couldn't share just one. In the next generation, my discerning nephew Kyle also got one. Being so bright, he managed to get his at age 4 or so. He used the simple expedient of grabbing one in a variety store and refused to put it back on the shelf, threatening total mayhem and general ear-piercing shrieks if denied. He loved it even more than we did.
The fellow all of us had to thank for countless hours of absorbing fun, hands-on instruction, and unabashed admiration was Milton Levine, a man who turned an incident at a 1946 California picnic into a multi-million dollar enterprise.
The incident in question was one we have all had. Levine was at his sister's, pool side, when he noticed a conga-line of ants moving inexorably from their hill to Levine's 4th of July spread. Industrious to a fault, these critters were doing what they do best, engineering a take-over of supplies.
Levine had seen ants before, but he had never perceived ants before, never much thought of them except as pests; (that's the feeling that comes first). But, eureka, he had that "aha!" moment that all ant lovers have... and all entrepreneurs, too.
He remembered how as a boy on his uncle's farm in Pennsylvania he had collected ants in a jar. He thought that other children would find them as supremely fascinating as he did. He confided this insight to his brother-in-law E.J. Cossman and, as things developed, proposed a partnership.
It was a shrewd choice. Cossman was an incipient mail order wizard...
Uncle Milton's Ant Farm was the result.
It caught on at once which admittedly was a surprise to Uncle Milton and his brother-in-law, but not to the ants themselves. They knew just how fascinating and irresistible they are.
Although never surveyed on the matter, the ants recruited by Uncle Milton definitely liked the homey environment he created for them: a bucolic panorama of a farmhouse (the kind of place where Levine had grown up). The farmhouse sat beside a winding path to a barn and windmill above a warren of ant tunnels, all encased in plastic. The whole package was just 6-by-9 inches. It was enough to showcase an entire civilization, a whole world. Boys worldwide (for it was overwhelmingly a "boy thing") had it in their bedrooms... and stopping by to check it out would stay for hours, engrossed.
And the whole kit and caboodle set you back just $1.98.
Soon, very soon, the partners were selling thousands of farms a week. Clever, if folksy, television ads drove the sales as children just home from school discovered the ant's world was even more interesting than their previously favorite shows.
The star of this show was the California red ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus. This is an iconic ant of deserts and other arid habitats in North and South America. These conspicuous insects are normally granivorous, playing ecologically important roles as scavengers and seed dispersers. Pogonomyrmex is also known for having a uniquely painful sting. I wonder how many youths discovered this notable fact on their own... Most members of the genus Pogonomyrmex have a basket-like structure on the underside of their head made from long hairs. Called the psammophore, it helps the ants carry loose sand in low-humidity climates where sand grains do not stick together easily.
But, as in all businesses, there were quite distinctive problems to overcome. Setting up was cumbersome. You purchased the farm, then sent a coupon to the company which got you a vial containing 25 worker ants. This took several weeks, and the ants occasionally arrived -- dead.
What about the all-important queen? Here was the real problem. Federal law prohibited shipments of queen ants across state lines, no mating ensued on the farms, so another vial of ants had to be ordered within a few months... unless the owner captured some in the backyard.
And what did the ants eat and drink? More work for you! Here's what the company's website says:
Western Harvester ants enjoy small pieces of fruits and vegetables, the fresher the better. So, apples, lettuce, carrot, granola and celery will really please your ants. Don't overfeed the ants. They only need 1 or 2 small pieces every three days. Remove any uneaten food with tweezers to keep mold from growing in the ant farm that could harm your ants.
Now, just as important as the question, “What do ants eat?” is the question, “What do ants drink?” Just like pretty much every other creature – mammal, insect, reptile, amphibian, etc – on earth, ants need water to survive. However, they do not need very much. To give your ants water, you simply need to give them a few drops each day. The sand in the ant farm should not be saturated. In fact, you need to make sure that the water does not pool on top of the surface, otherwise your ants may drown. If you mix in a little sugar with their water once a week, your ants will love you. It will make them busy little beavers, so to speak – you have not seen energy until you have seen some ants with a sugar buzz!
But, in the end, despite its onerous aspects, the ants carried the day and made the ant farm a huge success. Said Milton Levine, "Most novelties, if they last one season, it's a lot. If they last two years, it's a phenomenon. To last this long is unheard of." In 2010, Uncle Milton Industries, based in Westlake Village, California was sold to the Transom Capital Group for over $20,000,000.
Levine summed up his relationship to Pogonomyrmex californicus thus: "I found out their most amazing feat yet. They put three kids through college"... and gave the rest of us countless hours of congenial visiting and learning. They are, after all, highly attractive and entrancing creatures.
For lovers of ants, and they are legion, the books of Harvard professor E.O. Wilson are key. Check out "Lord of the Ants" and (with Bert Holldobler) "The Ants." Years ago Prof. Wilson took time from his busy schedule to draw an ant for my 4 year old nephew Kyle and inserted it into an autographed copy of his book. He's a true gentleman and scholar.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also an American historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out SEO Business Box -> http://buy2412.seobox.hop.clickbank.net
Monday, January 31, 2011
Is this Camelot? Get me re-write! The Kennedys, the History Channel, never ending entitlement and blatant censorship.
by Christopher Hessman
The Kennedys, our ex-imperial dynasty, are going through a bad patch. First, the commencement of the new 112th Congress took place in January, 2011 without a Kennedy amongst its members House or Senate, to lend credibility to the national circus. Such a lapse had not occurred since 1947... and the Kennedys didn't like this one little bit.
Then Victoria Reggie Kennedy uttered her umpteenth pronouncement on whether she would seek her deceased husband Ted's Senate seat in 2112. This time she really meant it (so she said) . She wouldn't be challenging naked pin up boy Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts). Too bad. That would have been a gourmet food fight.
Next, Sargent Shriver, one of the royal brothers-in-law, checked out at 95 on January 18, 2011. He had always been a fringe character; nice, but a light weight. Still, every Court needs affable second-raters, and Sarge filled that bill all right. This was a loss, to be sure, but not much.
Meanwhile down the road a piece in Dorchester, Massachusetts at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library a much more important battle was taking place; this time it was Sister Ethel (Bobby Kennedy's tough-as- nails widow) who was pulling the wires from backstage. She picked her last (9th) child Max, a trained lawyer, to play Cerberus and bite on cue every time anyone wanted to see a ton of never-before-seen documents, a true treasure trove -- with its own curse.
These dealt with such subjects as.... how the Jack and Bobby White House planned to snuff Cuba's Fidel Castro in Operation Mongoose... how to plan a Cuban invasion without getting caught... what really happened at the bumbling, bloody Bay of Pigs, and the "next one who blinks gets a holocaust" confrontation with Russia's bear-hugging head of state, Nikita Khrushchev, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961.
These papers, it was widely predicted by historians and other reputable sources, held one smoking gun after another. The dynasts made it clear, very, very clear , these embarrassing documents (the private property of the Kennedy family) would see the light of day when hell freezes over, or some such long-delayed, Kennedy- controlled moment in time.
Add to this the caught-with-their-pants-down story of the Kennedys ham fisted efforts to control content about them on the History Channel, and you have One Big Headache, irritating lese majeste.
This article is about the last of these matters, a set of inconvenient facts which make it clear the Kennedys are different from you and me. Not only are they the stuff of legend and questions on "Jeopardy"; they get to have tantrums that work when something, anything doesn't go their way. Kool. Let's see how they do it.
"The Kennedys" mini-series was supposed to showcase great content... thereby raising the visibility and status of the History Channel.
At the History Channel things were not all well. Widely derided as the "World War II Channel" because every other program showed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's famous "V" for victory finger movements... and, of course, a million interminable hours about Field Marshal Rommel, the masterful organizer of the North Africa campaign. It was limited, dull, often excruciating... in need of what the Kennedys have to burn: glamor. It seemed a match made in heaven. And the History Channel plunked down some serious coin (over 30 million bucks) to bring this story to you and me.
Unfortunately, right from the start there was a serious mismatch between what the History Channel wanted for its considerable stake and what the Kennedys, the object of our affection, would allow. The History Channel wanted the soap opera: great pots of money illegally made, sex, illicit sex, jaw-dropping sex, sex in odd places, even presidential sex with an always-available cutie while discussing How To Build a Better World with his (supposedly oblivious) Secretary of State. Neat. Oh, and don't forget sex with Marilyn Monroe... with one brother, both brothers. Whatever... it would sell like hot cakes.
Then there were the Kennedys... determined to get what every defunct dynasty wants: controlled facts; white-washed facts; never the whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth facts. They wanted the laundry room version of the truth, sanitized, clean, not a speck of dirt. If it was dull, too bad. It needed to be majestic, larger-than-life, controlled.
As the project advanced and a release date was set for the 50th anniversary of JFK's new presidency, January 20, 1961, members of the ex-dynasty got more and more nervous. Their ertwhile representative on the project, famed Kennedy speech writer and adviser Theodore Sorensen, made it clear just how lurid this series would be... and just how inimical to the family. Sorensen's crisply stated opinion was taken very seriously by the Kennedys. They knew that Sorensen was the ultimate loyalist, a man who knew all and told nothing... and wouldn't let anyone else tell much either, if he had anything to say about it.
Sorensen told about scripts he found flagrantly inaccurate. Hey, the History Channel knew with Voltaire that history was a pack of lies the living play on the dead. What facts matter... so long as the History Channel made money?
Then there were tales about the role of Kennedy-baiting, conservative Joel Surnow in the project. His media production qualities were impeccable (an Emmmy-award winnng creator and former executive producer of the Fox series "24".) He didn't much like the dynasty... and had no trouble saying so.
The dynasty should be worried, said Sorensen, and so did liberal Robert Greenwald, who slipped them all copies of the script... which well and truly set the cat amongst the pigeons. It wouldn't do... it wouldn't do at all.
And so the Kennnedys started to act... like Kennedys, summoning up their massive firepower to hugely alter or even kill the project. It was reported by the Boston Globe, the Kennedys' hometown read, that Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, and Eunice Kennedy Smith had all contacted network executives with their concerns. Meanwhile, Theodore Sorensen, who had so deprecated this project, labeling portions "vindictive" and "malicious" died in October, 2010, supremely loyal to the end.
The History Channel caved.
In response to this juggernaut, the History Channel pulled the 8-part mini series from the U.S. market, the only one the Kennedys cared about. It was finished... it was as lurid as desired by the network... it was exiled to Canada, which didn't count.
At the last, even the Boston Globe, the newspaper of record for the Kennedys, couldn't abide or approve what the dynasts did. In an editorial of January 17, 2011 it made clear its opposition to all the shenanigans, admonishing the Kennedys for going "too far".
And what of the many Kennedy supporters worldwide? What did they do? What did they say?
The silence was awesome.
Lord Melbourne (1779-1848), Queen Victoria's first prime minister knew why.
"That is no use at all," he said of men who would support him when he was right.
" What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong."
But no one, on these terms, stepped forward to aid and support the Kennedys in their determined, wrongful assault on free speech and their insistence on shaping and controlling the content and message. Their "friends" were nowhere to be found... and they are silent still.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books and a noted US Historian. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com.
The Kennedys, our ex-imperial dynasty, are going through a bad patch. First, the commencement of the new 112th Congress took place in January, 2011 without a Kennedy amongst its members House or Senate, to lend credibility to the national circus. Such a lapse had not occurred since 1947... and the Kennedys didn't like this one little bit.
Then Victoria Reggie Kennedy uttered her umpteenth pronouncement on whether she would seek her deceased husband Ted's Senate seat in 2112. This time she really meant it (so she said) . She wouldn't be challenging naked pin up boy Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts). Too bad. That would have been a gourmet food fight.
Next, Sargent Shriver, one of the royal brothers-in-law, checked out at 95 on January 18, 2011. He had always been a fringe character; nice, but a light weight. Still, every Court needs affable second-raters, and Sarge filled that bill all right. This was a loss, to be sure, but not much.
Meanwhile down the road a piece in Dorchester, Massachusetts at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library a much more important battle was taking place; this time it was Sister Ethel (Bobby Kennedy's tough-as- nails widow) who was pulling the wires from backstage. She picked her last (9th) child Max, a trained lawyer, to play Cerberus and bite on cue every time anyone wanted to see a ton of never-before-seen documents, a true treasure trove -- with its own curse.
These dealt with such subjects as.... how the Jack and Bobby White House planned to snuff Cuba's Fidel Castro in Operation Mongoose... how to plan a Cuban invasion without getting caught... what really happened at the bumbling, bloody Bay of Pigs, and the "next one who blinks gets a holocaust" confrontation with Russia's bear-hugging head of state, Nikita Khrushchev, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961.
These papers, it was widely predicted by historians and other reputable sources, held one smoking gun after another. The dynasts made it clear, very, very clear , these embarrassing documents (the private property of the Kennedy family) would see the light of day when hell freezes over, or some such long-delayed, Kennedy- controlled moment in time.
Add to this the caught-with-their-pants-down story of the Kennedys ham fisted efforts to control content about them on the History Channel, and you have One Big Headache, irritating lese majeste.
This article is about the last of these matters, a set of inconvenient facts which make it clear the Kennedys are different from you and me. Not only are they the stuff of legend and questions on "Jeopardy"; they get to have tantrums that work when something, anything doesn't go their way. Kool. Let's see how they do it.
"The Kennedys" mini-series was supposed to showcase great content... thereby raising the visibility and status of the History Channel.
At the History Channel things were not all well. Widely derided as the "World War II Channel" because every other program showed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's famous "V" for victory finger movements... and, of course, a million interminable hours about Field Marshal Rommel, the masterful organizer of the North Africa campaign. It was limited, dull, often excruciating... in need of what the Kennedys have to burn: glamor. It seemed a match made in heaven. And the History Channel plunked down some serious coin (over 30 million bucks) to bring this story to you and me.
Unfortunately, right from the start there was a serious mismatch between what the History Channel wanted for its considerable stake and what the Kennedys, the object of our affection, would allow. The History Channel wanted the soap opera: great pots of money illegally made, sex, illicit sex, jaw-dropping sex, sex in odd places, even presidential sex with an always-available cutie while discussing How To Build a Better World with his (supposedly oblivious) Secretary of State. Neat. Oh, and don't forget sex with Marilyn Monroe... with one brother, both brothers. Whatever... it would sell like hot cakes.
Then there were the Kennedys... determined to get what every defunct dynasty wants: controlled facts; white-washed facts; never the whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth facts. They wanted the laundry room version of the truth, sanitized, clean, not a speck of dirt. If it was dull, too bad. It needed to be majestic, larger-than-life, controlled.
As the project advanced and a release date was set for the 50th anniversary of JFK's new presidency, January 20, 1961, members of the ex-dynasty got more and more nervous. Their ertwhile representative on the project, famed Kennedy speech writer and adviser Theodore Sorensen, made it clear just how lurid this series would be... and just how inimical to the family. Sorensen's crisply stated opinion was taken very seriously by the Kennedys. They knew that Sorensen was the ultimate loyalist, a man who knew all and told nothing... and wouldn't let anyone else tell much either, if he had anything to say about it.
Sorensen told about scripts he found flagrantly inaccurate. Hey, the History Channel knew with Voltaire that history was a pack of lies the living play on the dead. What facts matter... so long as the History Channel made money?
Then there were tales about the role of Kennedy-baiting, conservative Joel Surnow in the project. His media production qualities were impeccable (an Emmmy-award winnng creator and former executive producer of the Fox series "24".) He didn't much like the dynasty... and had no trouble saying so.
The dynasty should be worried, said Sorensen, and so did liberal Robert Greenwald, who slipped them all copies of the script... which well and truly set the cat amongst the pigeons. It wouldn't do... it wouldn't do at all.
And so the Kennnedys started to act... like Kennedys, summoning up their massive firepower to hugely alter or even kill the project. It was reported by the Boston Globe, the Kennedys' hometown read, that Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, and Eunice Kennedy Smith had all contacted network executives with their concerns. Meanwhile, Theodore Sorensen, who had so deprecated this project, labeling portions "vindictive" and "malicious" died in October, 2010, supremely loyal to the end.
The History Channel caved.
In response to this juggernaut, the History Channel pulled the 8-part mini series from the U.S. market, the only one the Kennedys cared about. It was finished... it was as lurid as desired by the network... it was exiled to Canada, which didn't count.
At the last, even the Boston Globe, the newspaper of record for the Kennedys, couldn't abide or approve what the dynasts did. In an editorial of January 17, 2011 it made clear its opposition to all the shenanigans, admonishing the Kennedys for going "too far".
And what of the many Kennedy supporters worldwide? What did they do? What did they say?
The silence was awesome.
Lord Melbourne (1779-1848), Queen Victoria's first prime minister knew why.
"That is no use at all," he said of men who would support him when he was right.
" What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong."
But no one, on these terms, stepped forward to aid and support the Kennedys in their determined, wrongful assault on free speech and their insistence on shaping and controlling the content and message. Their "friends" were nowhere to be found... and they are silent still.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is the author of 18 best-selling business books and a noted US Historian. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com.
Let freedom ring! A great nation struggles in the streets to be born. Egypt, January, 2011.
by Christopher Hessman
An event of world significance is playing out right this minute in Cairo and throughout the country. A great nation with a legendary, larger-than-life past is fighting to be born, fighting for the rights of oppressed millions, no longer content merely to yearn to be free. They want the real thing... and they want it now.
Feckless adolescents, young men and women without even a prayer for the future, businessmen tired of being shaken down by a voracious regime, women enraged at permanent second-class status, the children of ignorance and irredeemable poverty and political servitude. These are the people who are carrying the revolution on their backs. They have been patient, gullible, long suffering. And now they want revenge... and a better life.
It is dangerous! It is perilous! It is magnificent... and the heart of every freedom loving being on this planet goes out to them. We are watching and applauding, transfixed, as the little people, the common people, so wanting liberty that they risk even the little they have, are carried away by a thrill those accustomed to freedom can only imagine.
Luckily we have William Wordsworth's celebrated sentiments on the French Revolution to guide us. (The Prelude, published 1798).
Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!... Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!
And so these young must feel, for it is primarily the young leading the day, exultantly so, in days of animal courage, boldness, high sentiments and -- so far -- every possibility of hitherto unimaginable success.
These are the heroes of the day... for they have, after some 30 years of ascending tyranny, screamed "basta!" and poured into the streets to demand long delayed personhood and the respect and well-being every person everywhere is entitled to.
These are the days of their lives... and we are proud, so deeply proud, of such a people and of their valiant struggle that rivets our attention and compels our respect.
The facts
Egypt, a name that conjures the greatness of an ancient imperium, is in fact one of the newest nations of our planet. It acquired full sovereignty from the British in only 1952 when the republic was proclaimed.
The current regime of Hosni Mubarak dates from 1981 and the assassination of his Nobel Peace Prize winning predecessor, Anwar Sadat. His is a garden variety tyranny, redeemed from the pedestrian by geography and a long-standing deal with the United States. Mubarak and his regime, for certain gain (and for lack of the resources to wage war again), gave up their losing fight against Israel. Relieved, gratified the United States backed Mubarak for its Mideast strategy. Egypt was the golden lynch pin.
Unfortunately, Mubarak had severe built-in liabilities. Despite being egregious, such liabilities (for the highest reasons of state) had to be winked at. Mubakak knew his worth and exacted far more than his pound of flesh. We might have held our nose... but we remunerated this necessary excrescence, constantly, lavishly.
Instead of getting the reforms Washington wanted, successive presidents merely slapped him on the wrist now and again. This was laughably inadequate and totally ineffectual. His blatant human rights violations knew no end; neither did his abiding contempt for his own people, an affliction to which dictators are prone. Sadly, these violations could, in time, not be argued away.
So long as his complacent American partner and our unceasing bribes were in place Mubarak was fearless and unconcerned. In such a way did he become a standing insult to an aggrieved people from whom he demanded all... while giving them, the heart of the nation... as little as he could. He became a master of bloated exhortation, high-blown rhetoric. Controlling complainers (often in barbarous ways) became the policy of his regime. What did he care? He was Mubarak... and that was gift enough to the people.
But an important thing, a thing that could not be denied was occurring in the homes of Egyptians: more and more of them were being born, faster and faster. All with nothing to lose... and so perfect candidates for a revolution. The revolution truly began in the bedrooms of Egypt and spilled over into the streets, an army of the dispossessed, patient no longer, their future in their own hands. And so they came to challenge the ramshackle regime and to bring it down with their own bare hands and a spirit that Mubarak had neglected to remember of his people. It was there... and it was no longer at his beck and call.
The police, of course, and above all, the army could have, at the start of these insurrectionary days, crushed even the most ardent and dedicated of these young nation makers, but so far -- and it is the crucial factor -- so far these pets of the regime have failed to fire on the people. For privileged though these supports of the regime are, they, too, can see the writing on the wall and the clear direction of events and History.
So far, the police and army have not fired... rather, they have begun the process that proved key in the signature revolutions of France and Russia: they have begun to fraternize with the revolutionaries. This means everything... and Mubarak is nothing if not a (lazy) student of history. His options? He can now call his army to kill legions of his countrymen, thereby bringing down the universal execration of the world and even of regimes less tolerated than his. Anyway, it may be too late for this.
Or, he can accept the fact that he must go... at which time a shout of joy will punctuate the day. Luckily for Mubarak the days of guillotines and assassination squads for governors as despised and hated as he is are gone. He will fly out of Egypt in style, his ill-got millions stashed away and intact, instead of exiting in a lonely tumbrel ride into eternity through the unbridled hatred of the people he treated so. In short, even in his inevitable end, Mubarak will be a lucky man. The United States will see to that., for he is and has long been our creature, and we will no doubt cherish this expensive souvenir as fitting reminder of our days on the Nile.
As for our brand-new revolutionaries? Today, the y command our full and unqualified admiration. However they need to know that toppling a regime, no matter how entrenched, is the easiest activity of a revolution. Day I after the fall of the Mubarak regime, History will begin evaluating them on what they do next and how they do it and at what costs. It is good to remember this, even as the goal of your life is achieved by your inexperienced hands. Sadly, with the ultimate prize about to be yours, some hubris may enter with the glitter and bliss and the worldwide enthusiasm your deeds engender. Remember Mubarak had his days like this, too.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out Push Button Cash Site -> http://www.ProvenAutomatedBiz.com/?rd=gk7RVbiW
An event of world significance is playing out right this minute in Cairo and throughout the country. A great nation with a legendary, larger-than-life past is fighting to be born, fighting for the rights of oppressed millions, no longer content merely to yearn to be free. They want the real thing... and they want it now.
Feckless adolescents, young men and women without even a prayer for the future, businessmen tired of being shaken down by a voracious regime, women enraged at permanent second-class status, the children of ignorance and irredeemable poverty and political servitude. These are the people who are carrying the revolution on their backs. They have been patient, gullible, long suffering. And now they want revenge... and a better life.
It is dangerous! It is perilous! It is magnificent... and the heart of every freedom loving being on this planet goes out to them. We are watching and applauding, transfixed, as the little people, the common people, so wanting liberty that they risk even the little they have, are carried away by a thrill those accustomed to freedom can only imagine.
Luckily we have William Wordsworth's celebrated sentiments on the French Revolution to guide us. (The Prelude, published 1798).
Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!... Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!
And so these young must feel, for it is primarily the young leading the day, exultantly so, in days of animal courage, boldness, high sentiments and -- so far -- every possibility of hitherto unimaginable success.
These are the heroes of the day... for they have, after some 30 years of ascending tyranny, screamed "basta!" and poured into the streets to demand long delayed personhood and the respect and well-being every person everywhere is entitled to.
These are the days of their lives... and we are proud, so deeply proud, of such a people and of their valiant struggle that rivets our attention and compels our respect.
The facts
Egypt, a name that conjures the greatness of an ancient imperium, is in fact one of the newest nations of our planet. It acquired full sovereignty from the British in only 1952 when the republic was proclaimed.
The current regime of Hosni Mubarak dates from 1981 and the assassination of his Nobel Peace Prize winning predecessor, Anwar Sadat. His is a garden variety tyranny, redeemed from the pedestrian by geography and a long-standing deal with the United States. Mubarak and his regime, for certain gain (and for lack of the resources to wage war again), gave up their losing fight against Israel. Relieved, gratified the United States backed Mubarak for its Mideast strategy. Egypt was the golden lynch pin.
Unfortunately, Mubarak had severe built-in liabilities. Despite being egregious, such liabilities (for the highest reasons of state) had to be winked at. Mubakak knew his worth and exacted far more than his pound of flesh. We might have held our nose... but we remunerated this necessary excrescence, constantly, lavishly.
Instead of getting the reforms Washington wanted, successive presidents merely slapped him on the wrist now and again. This was laughably inadequate and totally ineffectual. His blatant human rights violations knew no end; neither did his abiding contempt for his own people, an affliction to which dictators are prone. Sadly, these violations could, in time, not be argued away.
So long as his complacent American partner and our unceasing bribes were in place Mubarak was fearless and unconcerned. In such a way did he become a standing insult to an aggrieved people from whom he demanded all... while giving them, the heart of the nation... as little as he could. He became a master of bloated exhortation, high-blown rhetoric. Controlling complainers (often in barbarous ways) became the policy of his regime. What did he care? He was Mubarak... and that was gift enough to the people.
But an important thing, a thing that could not be denied was occurring in the homes of Egyptians: more and more of them were being born, faster and faster. All with nothing to lose... and so perfect candidates for a revolution. The revolution truly began in the bedrooms of Egypt and spilled over into the streets, an army of the dispossessed, patient no longer, their future in their own hands. And so they came to challenge the ramshackle regime and to bring it down with their own bare hands and a spirit that Mubarak had neglected to remember of his people. It was there... and it was no longer at his beck and call.
The police, of course, and above all, the army could have, at the start of these insurrectionary days, crushed even the most ardent and dedicated of these young nation makers, but so far -- and it is the crucial factor -- so far these pets of the regime have failed to fire on the people. For privileged though these supports of the regime are, they, too, can see the writing on the wall and the clear direction of events and History.
So far, the police and army have not fired... rather, they have begun the process that proved key in the signature revolutions of France and Russia: they have begun to fraternize with the revolutionaries. This means everything... and Mubarak is nothing if not a (lazy) student of history. His options? He can now call his army to kill legions of his countrymen, thereby bringing down the universal execration of the world and even of regimes less tolerated than his. Anyway, it may be too late for this.
Or, he can accept the fact that he must go... at which time a shout of joy will punctuate the day. Luckily for Mubarak the days of guillotines and assassination squads for governors as despised and hated as he is are gone. He will fly out of Egypt in style, his ill-got millions stashed away and intact, instead of exiting in a lonely tumbrel ride into eternity through the unbridled hatred of the people he treated so. In short, even in his inevitable end, Mubarak will be a lucky man. The United States will see to that., for he is and has long been our creature, and we will no doubt cherish this expensive souvenir as fitting reminder of our days on the Nile.
As for our brand-new revolutionaries? Today, the y command our full and unqualified admiration. However they need to know that toppling a regime, no matter how entrenched, is the easiest activity of a revolution. Day I after the fall of the Mubarak regime, History will begin evaluating them on what they do next and how they do it and at what costs. It is good to remember this, even as the goal of your life is achieved by your inexperienced hands. Sadly, with the ultimate prize about to be yours, some hubris may enter with the glitter and bliss and the worldwide enthusiasm your deeds engender. Remember Mubarak had his days like this, too.
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Christopher Hessman http://ProvenAutomatedBiz.com. Check out Push Button Cash Site -> http://www.ProvenAutomatedBiz.com/?rd=gk7RVbiW
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