With the “pacification” of the I.R.A. apparently comes the scrapping for power by remaining groups once overshadowed by the organization (see As I.R.A. Backs Off, Loyalist Gangs Battle One Another). I wonder how all of this will play out. I half expect the I.R.A. to fall back into its old ways, but if not, it seems that there plenty of groups willing to take the reins and wage violence in the I.R.A.’s wake.

TAGS: IRA | Ireland | Loyalist | power | peace

Things just may be looking up in Great Britain… Today the I.R.A. announced an end to its use of violence as a mechanism of change. From today’s New York Times (I.R.A. Renounces Violence in Potentially Profound Shift):

“The Irish Republican Army today declared an end to its campaign of violence against Britain that claimed more than 3,500 lives over 36 years in an effort to unify Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic.

“…The statement [released on DVD to reporters] by the IRA said that its leadership had ‘formally ordered an end to the armed campaign,’ as the organization calls its military activities, which are described by supporters as armed struggle and by adversaries as terrorism.”

I think all eyes will be honed on the group to see if they live up to their new paradigm. I couldn’t help but focus on the use of “Potentially” in the article’s title. Either way, making a commitment such as this is a huge step forward.

I’d like to put my own skepticism aside and trust that the I.R.A.’s intentions and efforts will hold true. If so, let this serve as an example of a step forward for democracy and peaceful resolution of differences. For now, I’ll take Gerry Adams at his word:

“There is a time for peace. There is a time for justice. There is a time for rebuilding. This is that time. This is the era of the nation-builders.”

TAGS: IRA | democracy | peace | terrorism | Ireland | Great Britain

My wife and I recently moved to San Luis Obispo and have been diligently looking for a new church to attend. One lazy afternoon, she stumbled across the blog of Tim Theule, Pastor of Grace Church, SLO. While this was my first experience reading a Pastor’s blog, the experience was more pronounced by a specific post regarding the church’s 4th of July picnic.

There are two things of note that make this post well worth reading:

1. The ensuing discussion regarding whether or not the 4th of July is truly a holiday to “celebrate,” and
2. The candor, humility and openness with which each of the participants approach the discussion.

So often I find that people move through life in a desperate attempt to keep their bubbles sealed, or alternatively, they seek every opportunity to burst it, yet lack the sensitivity or simple politeness to make themselves receptive to others. Progress in one’s life and in society at large, depends just as greatly on how we relate, not just what we relate to. The synergy of both have the power to truly create a wonderful world.

I’m sure you’ve seen at least one or two articles about the sex-scene furor in the popular game, Grand Theft Auto. News continues to circulate as the game developers recently fessed up and admitted that the scenes were, in fact, already in the source code of the game, and the “Hot Coffee Mod” merely gave people access. Here are a number of interesting articles regarding the subject:

• NYT Editorial
• There’s Sex In My Violence!
• The Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas Debacle
• Stop Blaming Your Problems On Grand Theft Auto
• Parental Priorities

So is anyone else confused as to what the appeal of such a game is? Or any game where the main goal is to kill as many opponents as possible? Is killing really entertainment?

I don’t really know what to do with this one. On one hand, I put all of the responsibility of whether or not it is “right” to play such a game in the hands of parents…and if adults are playing it, I would hope they would be able to recognize the realities of playing such a game. On the other? Well, I can’t think of a single reason why such a game would be appealing.

But why make the game in the first place? It certainly can’t contribute anything positive to society (I haven’t played it, nor do I intend to, but I can’t say with 100% honesty that it’s completely worthless without doing so) so why bother developing and selling it in the first place. Because people will buy it. Gobs and gobs of people. What the market demands, companies will supply.

So what the heck is going on with our society? Why do we demand, and subsequently devour, such things?

TAGS: Grand Theft Auto |Sex |Violence |Video Games | Business Ethics

If you’re up at this late hour and notice that something is amiss, thank you for being such a dedicated visitor to my blog! I’m changing things around again and hope to have everything back to normal. Due to the success of our implementation of WordPress for the blog at our photography company website, I’ve decided to overhaul everything and make the conversion here as well! Give me a few hours — I’ll have everything back to normal!

[UPDATE]: The transfer and recoding is complete! Unfortunately I messed up all of the article dates when I moved all of the posts over, so they are pretty much educated guesses. At any rate, anything after today’s date should be correct.

This is a great quote that speaks to the heart of making important decisions. Even small decisions should be well thought out as they have the potential to create very large waves somewhere down the line.

TAGS: Business Ethics | Quotations | Decision Making

Catch a sneak peek at the August 2005 editor’s letter of Inc Magazine (one of my favorite magazines!). I posted this not because it offers an early glimpse at the editor’s letter, but because the letter contains some very important points. Here’s a glimpse:

Great entrepreneurs succeed where others fail because they are nimble and because they stick to a core set of values. Nimbleness is a prized weapon of the entrepreneur because it is the means through which opportunity can be snatched from the entrenched.

Quick action, however, is useless without the steering mechanism of clear and principled values.

TAGS: Business Ethics | Values | Entrepreneur

Could HP’s new CEO, Mark Hurd, have timed things a little better? Sprawled across the news this morning is the announcement that HP will be trimming 10% of its workforce (14,500) jobs. Funny, yesterday I read a number of articles about Hurd snagging Randy Mott from Dell as HP’s new CIO…for about $15,000,000 in overall compensation (yes, the number of zeros is correct!).

Quite frankly, I’m not sure which is more disturbing, the fact that one individual could possibly command such a high compensation package, or that a company with such a wonderful history and sense of values as HP would lack the sensitivity to spread the two events out a little. I’m sure Mr. Mott is worth every penny of his compensation package (well, I certainly hope that he is), but seriously folks, what kind of a message does it send to the remaining 135,500 employees? You’re more expendable then you think…

And all of this raises another issue: If the new CIO is netting $15,000,000 in compensation, how much money is being leeched from the company when you add up the entire executive suite’s pay packages? Certainly we all remember the ridiculous amount of money Fiorina left with (hmmm, what exactly did she accomplish during her tenure? An HP iPod.). I’m wondering if HP’s problems could be better solved by axing everyone at the top, and taking the leftover hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the company to it’s former glory.

Just a thought.

Here are a few articles to check out:

• Hewlett-Packard to Cut 14,500 Jobs
• Hewlett Plans to Announce Revamping
• Randy Mott’s Pot of Gold
• HP Exchanges 15K Jobs for New $15.3M CIO

TAGS: Business Ethics | Executive Compensation | HP | Dell | CIO

I stumbled across a very interesting concept this morning while reading b2day (Business 2.0’s blog). They posted a link to a very interesting business experiment, aptly titled, “The Business Experiment“.

Basically an open source business, The Business Experiment aims to have, “the registered users of collectively start and run a real business.” I find this concept fascinating and will keep close tabs on how the project proceeds. It will be interesting to see if the decision by committee proves efficient and effective. My initial inclination is to expect too much debate and little execution. Keep an eye on this one…

All major strategic decisions will be voted on by the registered users, and must be implemented by the employees. This will test to see if “the crowd” is really wise or not. Who do we hire? The crowd will vote on the candidates. What is our marketing strategy? Vote on it. How do we price our product or service? Vote again. It could be cool, or it could be foolish. But either way, it’s definitely different.

(Added: Just found a blog post from the founder of The Business Experiment).

TAGS: Social Enterprise | Open Source | Entrepreneur | Business

I woke up this morning to find a very disturbing article on pollution waiting for me. I’ve always been sensitive to the quality of the air I breathe, the water I drink, and the general environment around me. Now, however, as I wait eagerly for my son to be born in the next few weeks, I have more serious concerns to think about.

Please review the following article on reuters.com: Unborn Babies Carry Pollutants, Study Finds

What is most disturbing to me is the toxicity of the pollutants they identified, such as mercury:

“Of the 287 chemicals we detected in umbilical-cord blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests,” the report said.

…Among the chemicals found in the cord blood were methylmercury, produced by coal-fired power plants and certain industrial processes. People can breathe it in or eat it in seafood and it causes brain and nerve damage. Also found were polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are produced by burning gasoline and garbage and which may cause cancer; flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans; and pesticides including DDT and chlordane.

And even more disturbing is the following comment:

“Today, chemicals are being used to make baby bottles, food packaging and other products that have never been fully evaluated for their health effects on children — and some of these chemicals are turning up in our blood,” said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who plans to co-sponsor a bill to require chemical manufacturers to provide data to the EPA on the health affects of their products.

So what have we done on an individual level to contribute to this? How do we move forward? What steps can we take to cease (or dramatically reduce) the level of chemicals we are taking in?

TAGS: Social Enterprise | Pollution | Environment | Pregnancy