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LAUGH AND BE VERY HEALTHY

MANAGEMENT COACHING FOR EXECUTIVES & OTHERS

Dr. Robert G. A. Boland MD; MPH (Johns Hopkins); DBA; ITP (Harvard); ex UN (Geneva)

Dr. Robert G. Vambery BS; MS; MPH; PhD. (Columbia)

From an interview with the CEO of a major multi-national company: “In business I never lie ... unless I have to ... but … I don’t always tell the whole truth”

AN AMUSING DISCUSSION OF ILLUSIONS AND REALITY, WITH HOPE FOR CHANGE, WHEN WE CAN LAUGH, AS WE MANAGE OUR STRESS, OBESITY, PAIN AND ETHICS, AND ACHIEVE A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE. Copyright: RGAB/RGV/2019/5

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section Page 1. Introduction 3 2. Pressures 4 3. Politics 10 4. Age & Morals 17 5. Computers 27 6. Business 31 7. Health 37 8. Conclusions & Laughter 39

9. Essays on Americana 42

10. Poems – To Inspire You 49

11. Further study:

A. Cognition & Self Hypnosis for Calm 60

B. Personal ethics test 64

C. Relaxation-plus for obesity 67

D. IRT- self-control of acute and chronic pain 77

E. ECR – Emotional Control Technique 79

F. Laugh and be healthy 82

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1. INTRODUCTION It is not enough to be successful in business and make lots of money. We must recognize that “success” is a journey not a destination, for the meaning of life. Life can be so full of problems. We must distinguish the “coconuts” (really important things) from the peanuts (trivia with high emotional investment) and leave the peanuts to the monkeys. Sections 2-7 is full of cases to amuse you and help you to laugh and change. Section 8 gives some Conclusions. Section 9 offers Lectures on Americana and Section 10 offers poems to inspire you. Section11 offers further study for personal and organizational achievement. This is all management coaching, and includes self- hypnosis for calm in only five minutes (A), recognizing cognitive distortions (B), a Personal Ethics Test (C), Relaxation-plus for Obesity (D) with some more cases, IRT for Self-control of Acute and Chronic Pain (E), ECR (Emotional Control Technique) (F), and finally how to Laugh and be Healthy (G). Who we are, determines the way we see everything. We cannot separate our identity from our perspective. All that we are and every experience we have, and colours us, on how we see things, with our lenses. So here are so many cases and stories to help us to laugh at our problems: pressures, politics, business, sex, age and morals, computers, etc. etc. But how to resolve our problems? Assess ourselves, care for others and then plan for our future. When we can laugh at our problems, and can resolve them.

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2. PRESSURES

Case: Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask where I have gone wrong ethically … in my life … and a voice replies …this is going to take much longer than one night … Case: Coconuts are the really important things, peanuts don’t matter. We have to be so careful not to confuse them. We must avoid getting highly emotionally invested and widely upset, with peanut issues. Let’s leave them to the monkeys. Case: Bank executives, who received 20 billion dollars in the 2008/9 financial crisis relief program to prevent bankruptcy, declared themselves one billion dollars of bonuses for Xmas 2008. Were these rewards for a job well done? Case: Never ask anyone, not even your best friend, what they really think of you in terms of peanuts and coconuts. They may make a terrible mistake and tell you the whole coconut truth, destroy your illusions, and put you into cardiac arrest. On we go. Case: Crime – research in the USA indicated that two percent of business persons have a criminal mind. The problem in recruitment is … how to know? Case: It is nice to be optimistic about solutions we propose. Yet, every solution seems to generate its own problems. Case: Keynes may have said that in the long run, we will all be dead. The problem is that we all continue to live in the short run. Case: The film director, Alexander Korda is supposed to have offered caviar as his elixir for momentary happiness: Eat a lot of caviar and often, because it is possible to be unhappy before you eat caviar and it is possible

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to be unhappy after you eat caviar, but it is impossible to be unhappy while you eat caviar. Case: Women need very much attention. But when they get it, they complain about the harassment. --- When my pretty secretary read this, she immediately said: “It depends on who is giving the attention.” Case: Why are people always looking for love when love is so painful? Case: Childless people are always telling me how to raise my children. Case: Yemen – a group of 12 men, women and children stopped at the port. Two members from the group drive 50 km to the capital city to get visas. They pass a small stream on the way. They find the visa official at home, get visas and start to drive back. The stream has grown into a raging torrent. Two cars are stranded in the river. They decide to cross the stream anyway. The motor fails in mid-stream then starts again. They cross safely, and then drive on in the night to the port. A tire gets punctured in the desert; a wheel is jammed; the tire eventually is changed. The two arrive back to port in triumph with tales of their adventures. With visas OK now, the whole party drives to the capital city. With warning about the torrent the 12 arrive at the stream but now there is almost no water at all! Oh dear, what is reality? Case: Before his death, Keynes was asked what he would have changed in his life. He elegantly replied: “I should have drunk more champagne.” Case: I was walking by Lake Geneva in Switzerland, often cited as the safest country in the world. I was stopped by a young man who asked me for the time. I showed him my watch. He could not see well, so he took my arm with his left hand and raised it to his eyes. “Thank you Sir” and off he went. Wait a moment … where is my wallet … gone with him, 100 meters away at great speed! A very professional job!!!

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Case: Madrid airport. To taxi driver: Best Western Hotel please? Which one Sir? We have three Best Western Hotels in Madrid, all far apart. Case: The train was speeding toward Toronto when a passenger, walking through the rail cars looked down at a sitting lady with a bundle in her arms. The passenger exclaimed: “My God! What an ugly baby! This is the ugliest baby I ever saw! Ugly! Ugly! Ugly!” Of course, the mother was very offended and reported the incident to the train’s conductor who replied: “Madam, we have a procedure for such events. Please fill out this complaint form and in the meanwhile I will hold the monkey!” Case: Irish pub. Customer comes in with dog who misbehaves on the floor. Customer leaves rapidly. Second customer comes in and falls on the floor swearing. Then he sits quietly with a pint of beer observing the scene. A third customer comes in and falls. Remark by second customer to the third: “I did that!” Third customer leaves with strange thoughts about Irish customs. Case: Irish pub. Customer leaves his pint of beer to go to the toilet with a notice: “I spat in my beer” to avoid possible theft. Customer returns to find that someone has added to his note: “And so have I”. (Similar events occurred in England and in Austria except in both of those Cases the misdeeds were actually committed.) Case: Africa--Namibia – Police acquired a new electronic speed detector. First speeding customer was stopped and told to attend court next month in Namibia. Alas, the customer was a French student who had to leave for Paris the following week. Such disappointment for policemen with their new electronics! Case: For fun, take the “Personal Ethics Test” you can find in Appendix C of this volume. Now, evaluate yourself under pressure to survive in a very impossible environment. Score your own really PERSONAL view.

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Case: Illusions and reality. Anyway who needs reality when our illusions about ourselves and about others can be so much less painful and so much more satisfying and so much easier to live with day by day? Case: In the early years of the twenty first century there are many, many famous people; some for only fifteen minutes, some longer; the infamous almost forever. But the now famous should remember that fame is a form of recognition that is not admiration. In fact, many of the famous are beneath contempt as are most of their alleged admirers. Case: In sports as well as in politics, some specially selected groups are called “dream teams”. Unfortunately, many of these dreams turn out to be nightmares. Case: There is much corruption without construction but there is little construction without corruption. Case: It is said about medical doctors that the general practitioner knows nothing about everything while the pathologist knows everything about everything, but it is too late. Case: On Christmas Day the teacher asked himself: “Do I love the children I teach?” Interesting question, he thought. Why have I not asked this question before? This question may be too big to address. Perhaps, to be alive is to love people? Perhaps, to love people is to be alive? Is love the path to eternal life? Must I decide all by myself? Life is so confusing. Case: “Why do I respond to answers with a new question and why do I question each answer?” That dilemma has been faced by people for thousands of years. Case: Are you living your life or is life just happening to you?

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Case: What is love? Love is money Love of money Money’s love Love is money How much money How much money Is true love Case: In a recent financial crisis, in New York, “Mr. W.”, who admitted stealing 50 billion dollars, remained out on bail in his seven-million-dollar luxury apartment in New York for a long long time, until convicted. He had such good friends in the right places, which always helps to reframe a trauma. CASE: In my early twenties I dated a pretty girl who lived in a house across the street from my father’s house. She decided that I would make a desirable husband and said so. My parents were a bit concerned that I would succumb to her charms and say yes. But the parental concerns were quite unnecessary. Still a student and with no likely source of income until finishing college and then completing graduate school, marriage was an irrelevant concept for me. Still, since he brought up the subject, one day I asked my father: How would you react if I rang your doorbell and you would find me standing at the door with a lovely young lady and I would say: “Dad, this is my wife.” My father replied, I would say: “She is your wife? That is nice. But who are you?” Management Coaching: Four little research techniques, designed to really help the manager: Parental Influence, Shadow Personality, Civil Conflict and Funeral Ovation. Are these painful realities or illusions? Management Coaching: List the bad personal qualities in those people that you really cannot stand! Then think again. Is this your hidden personality? Is this a painful reality or an illusion?

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Self-hypnosis: Some managers may be nervous, stressed or lacking in confidence to laugh at their problems. Self-hypnosis builds confidence from within.

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3. POLITICS Management Coaching: The management coach will never advise you, but he or better she, will listen to your problem and with your permission, gently ask all around you (boss, colleagues, staff etc. for their reactions. And then gently feed it back to you. Is this another painful reality or illusion? Self-hypnosis A simple relaxation exercise will improve the quality of your learning. Case: World Bank – Director rewarded his lover with a $60,000 salary increase leading to a press scandal of protest by international senior executives and government officials. How many of those protesting have an ethical record that could bear rigorous historical research analysis? Is this international hypocrisy? Of course it is. Case: Political funding – In the USA we must raise five million dollars from loans or gifts to stand for election to major political office. In return for future favors? Case: We often heard that “behind every great man there is a little woman”. But in practice are we more likely to find that behind many a great man, there is a powerful woman? (Sometimes two?) Case: We hear the story about the President who shortly after having been elected went on a “reminiscing” drive with his wife. The first place they visited was the town where the Mrs. went to school. Before leaving the town, the Commander in Chief stopped at a garage to refill his gas tank with fuel. The attendant looked through the car window and exclaimed: “Michelle?” The pretty lady jumped out of the car, embraced the attendant and engaged in a brief, friendly conversation with him. Her husband was a bit annoyed and as they drove out of the garage observed: “You see, if you would have

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married him, you would now be the wife of a garage attendant”. To which she replied: “If I would have married him, now HE would be the President of the United States”. Case: We again read that the “Declaration of Independence” identifies our inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. But the unending pursuit of happiness seems to condemn Americans to perpetual depression. Case: Why do people create cities and countries at or under sea level and then complain about being flooded? Case: Why are so many cities located in places with awful climates and with bug and rodent infested buildings? Case: Can democracy turn into mob rule? Zimbabwe? Russia? Venezuela? Ecuador? Are we next? (Which country is “we”.) Case: Why does my grandma always vote for the wrong candidate? Case: Oppressed people often become people who oppress others. Case: Advice given to the Prince of Wales in the early 1900’s: “Go out while you are in … so you don’t have to come in … when you are out.” Case: From the cultural welfare programs of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930’s to the welfare culture in the USA since the 1960’s. Case: Both the first and the second President Bush have been referred to by Europeans as “cowboys”. Isn’t that wonderful? The US is the land of opportunity where even a cowboy can become President. (Of course it helps if the previous cowboy President’s name was Daddy.) But then why did so many Americans resent that a moose hunting woman was nominated for the vice-presidency of the United States. Could it be that many Americans are elitists, even the ones who are high school drop outs?

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Case: France - The president of France (2005) would have been in court charged with Paris City funding corruption, if he were not exempt from criminal prosecution by reason of being president. Is this ethics? Years later, when he was at last out of office, it seemed to be too much bother to address the past corruption issues. Case: The lesson seems to be: Crime pays. Big crime pays big. Huge crime goes unpunished and even uninvestigated. Case: Sales of major aircraft to many countries may involve payments to government staff, sometime even to royals and to presidents. Is this sales commission or corruption? Case: Norway - Major Norwegian international paper supplier REFUSES to give bribes to government staff to get major sales contracts. So the supplier sells mainly to major national distributors, who do all of those things for the Norwegian supplier. Case: France - Major global company managers given amnesty by the President related to charges of price fixing cooperation. Case: After leaving office, presidents, congressmen and regulators are making large sums of money giving speeches, consulting and lobbying, thereby turning honorable public service into dubious cash machines. Case: Three cheers and good wishes to Mrs. Sarkozy: her -singing career was aided by her political name, but she donated her musical royalties to charity. Case: Did Hugo Chavez plan to be asking for political asylum in the United States? Will Nicolas Maduro end up in Miami? Stranger things have happened.

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Case: Can money buy love? The successful middle aged investor in search of affection contributed his recent experience to the discussion: During a visit to one of my banks, a pretty young banker kept me company while I needed to wait for my advisor. She complained to me that these days to find happiness a young woman needed to marry a rich man. “I AM RICH!” I exclaimed.There was absolutely no interest expressed on her part. The truth is that I had little interest in marrying her. But I would have liked to have had her as a girlfriend for a while until she decided to move on to better or bigger things. So we are still left with the unanswered questions: Can only much money buy love? And if yes, does love bring happiness? Case: Why are many Americans always dissatisfied with something? Answer: because we have the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. But the constant pursuit of happiness can assure us Americans of a life of perpetual misery! Case: A “well-informed” American professor of international business addressed a large gathering of executives and professors at the American University in Cairo. When during his presentation, he uttered the phrase “…here in Africa…” many in the audience seemed to be shifting uncomfortably in their chairs. An executive explained: “Professor, here in Egypt, we prefer to think of ourselves as being in the Middle East, not in Africa.” Talk about not wanting to be associated with their neighbors to the south! Case: An African Union? It exists mainly on paper only. But may be at some point, financial interests will bring the countries of the Continent closer together. For now, they amaze the world by their willingness to

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commit atrocities against each other, by their failure to stop the horrors or even just to condemn the misdeeds. Case: Even democracies seem to be business and money oriented. Money gives power to influence the business environment – political, economic, business, social and even spiritual. Autocracy favors power. Democracy favors the wealthy. Higher number of votes comes from the poor, but the elected and winners may work for the well-to-do. Spiritual values are legalized with equity, but are seldom rigorously enforced. Income tax is a major cause of unethical behavior. But let’s be careful: majority rule can lead to mob rule. Case: The Trans-Siberian railroad train was crossing the steppes of Russia when the conductor opened a window of one of the passenger rail cars and from a large paper bag dispersed a substantial amount of white powder onto the steppes of Russia. Three hours later the conductor repeated the procedure. Another two hours later, he repeated the exercise again. A bewildered passenger asked him: “What is that white powder you are throwing onto the steppes of Russia?” He replied: “Lion killer powder.” “But there are no lions on the steppes of Russia”, said the passenger. “True, but this is not REAL lion killer powder.” Case series: continuously #1, #2, #3 and #4 Case: #1 After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Russian republic went through a period of economic hardships and shortages. Wanting to learn about new international business opportunities, an American businessman attended a trade show in Moscow. On the way from the airport into the City, his Russian host asked him: What would you like to do besides work while you are in Moscow. The businessman specified three things. I would like to see a performance of the Bolshoi Ballet, I would like to buy a sable coat for my wife, and I would like to see Lenin in his Mausoleum. The host was apologetic: If you would have come a few years ago when I was still a powerful official of the

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communist party then I would have had the needed connections to arrange all this. But with President Yeltsin, I am simply out of power. Case: #2 Four days later the Russian host was accompanying the American back to the airport. How was your visit to Moscow, the host asked: A total success! On the first day I went to the hotel concierge, handed him two hundred dollars and asked for a ticket to the Bolshoi. Three hours later a ticket to an excellent seat was delivered to my room. Case: #3 Next morning I went to the fur department of the famous Gum department store. There were no fur coats on display. So I approached the lady manager of the department, handed to her my American Express credit card and said: I want two sable coats; one for you and one for my wife. Twenty minutes later she came back, wearing her new coat and handed to me a lovely sable coat for my wife. Case: #4 On the third day I asked a taxi driver to take me to Lenin’s Tomb. The Mausoleum was closed but a contingent of impressive looking honor guards were marching up and down in formation in front of the entrance. I approached the chief of the guards, handed him twenty thousand dollars in cash and said: I am here to see Lenin. He politely replied: Would you like to come in or shall we roll him out for you? Case: President Bush wanted to show some of New York City to his friend, President Putin. As their limousine came from New Jersey into Manhattan, Bush pointed out that they were passing through a tunnel that was built in just two years. “That’s nothing” said Putin. “In Russia we have a tunnel twice this long that we built in one year!” Feeling a little outdone, Bush directed the chauffeur to drive by the Empire State Building and said: “This skyscraper was completed in one year.” “That’s nothing. In Moscow we have a skyscraper almost this tall and we completed it in just six months!” After lunch the two Presidents traveled north and came to the George Washington Bridge. “What’s that,” asked Putin. Bush replied: ” I don’t know. It wasn’t here in the morning!”

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Case: In Canada and the USA you may need to have access to a lot of money to secure great political power. In Africa you may need great political power to gain access to a lot of money. In Russia the two may go together but at times, if you lose your power you may lose both your money and your head. Case: Politicians and appointed officials like to refer to themselves as” public servants” or men and women who “service” the American people. Case: "Public service" reminds us of Will Rogers, the entertainer from the 1920’s, who never met a man he didn't like: On a sunny day he saw a bull being led to a nearby ranch to "service" the neighbor's cows. Rogers commented that this was just like what is done by politicians, executives of not for profit institutions, officials of governments and international agencies and of religious and charitable organizations who serve or “service” the public. Case: The continuing population explosion places colossal economic burdens on the thirty to thirty-five per cent of the American adult population who actually pay nearly all income taxes: "They (the parents of the many children) screw and we (the actual taxpayers) get screwed.”

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4. AGE & MORALS Management Coaching: How would you like to be remembered when you pass on at 95 years of age? Write it down in two short paragraphs, print out a large copy and keep it very safely for weekly reference: painful reality or illusion? Self-hypnosis With self-hypnosis you are in complete control all the time. Case: When Mozart was in his early 30s, he visited aspiring, young composers at the Vienna Conservatory. A nineteen year old youngster respectfully asked: “Maestro, please tell me how to write symphonies?” Mozart replied “why don’t you start with a few pieces for the piano and then move on to composing chamber music.” But you wrote symphonies when you were only twelve years old, protested the youngster. “Yes”, said Mozart, “but I didn’t ask how.” Case: Who said money can’t buy happiness? Someone replied: only much money can buy happiness. What is your opinion? Case: The musical child prodigy, Roberto Benzi, was reminded by his mentor, “Do not forget that applause is just noise that is pleasing to the ears.” Case: Truth offends. Do not look into the mirror, because ugly is in the eye of the beholder. Case: Do not be irritatingly helpful. Remember what many children say: “Mother, I’d rather do it myself!” Case: Some people are offensively obsequious. Case: At graduation ceremonies we receive good advice and hear words of wisdom, many of which are direct quotes from Chinese fortune cookies.

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Case: In the Catholic countries of Europe, there are numerous fables and stories about the romantic involvements of village priests with pretty young women. Someone asked: “Why were country girls interested in relationships with priest?” “Because”, said one of the locals, “if a country girl wanted to have a relationship with an intellectual, the priest was the only one available in the vicinity.” Case: Yemen – a 12-year-old girl was forced by her parents to marry a 50-year-old man. She ran away to court and filed for divorce. And got it! Hooray!! Case: Old business school professor decides to become medical doctor. Refused as too old (50 years) by all medical schools. Finds a special PhD-MD two-year program in Juarez, Mexico. He arrives to find 40 professors from US medical schools in the program. They have only PhD’s and need MD degrees to do human research projects. Most participants are very suspicious, doubtful about the Mexican Medical School. The Director of the School is assassinated in a Mexican Mafia dispute. His successor arrives with bodyguards and two dogs. The course is intensive, taught in English and Spanish for the first year. Exams are given every two weeks. Everyone needs to find a US hospital for the second year of hospital practice. They also need to pass the US EFMG exam to practice medicine in the USA and need to find an internal medicine residency program. The few non-US citizens also need to get a green card. Is all this impossible? All tasks were achieved! The old business professor qualified as a Mexican MD. He was then admitted as an internal medicine resident in a US hospital and began to practice medicine. Is this impossible? He did it. Case: Same medical PhD-MD program. Younger PhD (24 years old) applies for admission. Refused as too young (average age 35 years). Reaction? Impossible! How to achieve admission? Another participant took up her case and provided freely a donation of $2000 to set up a library for the MD program at the school. Delays follow. More delay. New application is submitted. A place for admission becomes vacant. Youngest participant

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is admitted. She became the best student of the year! But no library was created. Case: At birth a girl needs “good” parents; from age 18 to 35 she needs “good” looks; from age 35 to 55 a “good” personality and after the age 55 she needs to have lots of “good” cash. My “goodness”! Case: Perhaps love is the delusion that one man is different from another. Case: The reason husbands and wives do not understand each other is that they belong to different sexes. Case: More marriages are broken up by honesty than infidelity! Case: English lady: When I finally decide to look for a kindly, wealthy older gentleman who no longer has any interest in sex, then perhaps I shall put an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal. Case: Men have their standards. They may be low, but men have them. Case: If your love boat doesn’t come in, swim out and grab him/her. Case: There may be moral code problems to resolve in relations with women, but the code seems to change all the time … and men already seem to have more than enough troubles with conforming to the Highway Code. Case: In Germany they say: “In love, as one door closes another door falls on top of you!”

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Case: A great old poem from 1588 AD I loved thee once I’ll love thee no more There will be grief But who is to blame? Thou art not What thou were before What reason should I be the same? True in 1588 and still true in 2019, about 430 years later. Case: Except for the occasional heart attack, I feel as young as ever. As Mother Teresa said: “The best is yet to come!” but then of course she died, right away. Is this another hopeful illusion? Case: Talking of graveyards. Sign at the cemetery in a French country village: “Cette cimetière est réservée seulement pour les gens qui habitent dans notre village”. “This cemetery is reserved only for people living in our village”. French culture: snobbish: all due to English humor. They just can’t stand English humor even when they are dead! Case: I didn’t feel as old as I am, until last week. I was just bending down to put on my socks (my feet seem to get farther away each week), when a sudden thought came to me: Now what else can I do while I’m down here? Case: Oscar Wilde once said “To love one-self is the beginning of a lifelong romance”. Perhaps he was right. Case: You know what they say about Santa Clause? First, man believes in Santa Claus and then he doesn’t. Finally, he becomes Santa Clause. Case: I had to laugh as I said to her: “I never knew what real happiness was … until I got married to you, and then it was too late”. Only a joke, or was it?

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Case: As my old uncle Sydney in his 99th year birthday speech suggested: “I am 99 and I don’t have a single enemy in the world. They’re all dead. But my advice is: if you want to do something, with or without cash, just do it and don’t waste time making excuses!” He then quickly passed on, without excuses and without wasting time! Case: There was a Dutch farmer, Jan van der Merwe, who was a good boy, respectful of his parents, teachers and elders. He grew into an exemplary, citizen, doing good deeds and always honoring the Lord, his almighty God. Jan lived in a valley that occasionally suffered from floods. But Jan had faith. He would pray to his savior and the rising waters would never reach above the ceiling of the ground floor of his two story house. Yet, when Jan was forty-two years old a great flood arrived and he had to go up to the second floor to stay dry. As he looked out the window, surveying the swelling waters, two of his neighbors rowed by in a seven-foot-long boat and called to him: “Get in the boat Jan, the waters are rising!” But Jan shouted back: “No need. My Lord and God will save me.” To stay dry, he climbed out onto the roof of his house as a motor boat from the local ambulance corps came by, with the ambulance men urging him to get in the boat. But Jan put his trust in God and again declined the invitation. A little later Jan found himself obliged to scamper to the very top of the roof as a Dutch Coast Guard helicopter hovered above his house. The pilot called down to him using a loudspeaker: “Grab the rope Jan and we’ll pull you up. We still have one empty seat.” But Jan shouted back: “No thanks: my Lord and God will save me.” About fifteen minutes later Jan drowned. As a good man, Jan of course was admitted to heaven. Two days later God came by to greet Jan. Almost impolitely, Jan started to complain: “I am disappointed in You, God! As my Lord and Savior, I expected you to rescue me.”

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Surprised, God exclaimed: “But I sent you two boats and a helicopter!” Case: Moral of the above story: Even good men are hard to save from themselves. Case: Am I the “Last Helicopter”? Probably not; but most likely, I am MY last helicopter. Therefore, it is best that I not count on the coming of any more helicopters. Case: Are you YOUR last helicopter? Case: Could it be that God gave us children so death will not be such a disappointment? Case: Are you looking forward to death because you expect it to be a relief? Are you so good that your optimism is justified? Case: Marriages seem to be full of illusions and not much reality. What am I to expect in the future? I suppose some married people still live together and speak to each other. But after 30 years they are both different people. How to guess who we are going to be in 30 years’ time? Perhaps most women are not as pretty and charming as they are painted. But why do women live so much longer than men, especially when they become widows or divorced? Perhaps nowadays, we should all live mostly with our lovers and just die with husbands and wives as we fade away. Personally I would prefer to wear out and not simply rust away. But I’m confused. What am I to expect in the future? Advice to someone about to get married - don’t! Oh dear, perhaps I shall need three husbands, for a really happy life. (Did she imply: one at a time?) Case: Nowadays, marriage of a young woman to a very rich old man is highly risky. Thanks to advances in the medical profession, he might last to 99, with multiple transplantations of heart, kidneys, lungs, pancreas, liver etc. etc. and seven good medications three times a day, which would be such a disappointment for her.

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Case: Money and sex appeal: There are quite many beautiful young women who marry ugly rich old men but there are few beautiful young women who give themselves to ugly poor old men; not even when the poverty stricken oldsters are not especially repulsive. Case: In 2019, medicine advances so rapidly that doctors can seldom be sure that what they thought they knew is still true. This may be especially so when the patients are reading magazines that report the latest impossible, often unproven discoveries. Case: The richly dressed lady faced her attorney and demanded: I want a divorce! He asked: On what grounds? She replied: I was deeply offended by my husband. In his recently published autobiography he wrote that the happiest years of his adult life were the four years he spent in the army. The lawyer tried to calm her, saying that many men recall fondly their days as young students or soldiers. Yes, replied the lady, but my husband spent his four army years as a captive in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp! Case: Did you hear the story about that lady friend of mine who had been a widow for 12 years? I asked her: Do you miss your husband? She replied: Well, not yet dear, but I may later. Case: The other night we tried to make love with my husband and nothing happened. So eventually I said to him: “What’s the matter. Can’t you think of anyone else either?” Case: Women worry too much about what to do with their old men. My suggestion: put them into a lovely rest home to eat, drink, sleep, watch TV, worry and play with computers, while the women look after the money. Case: Learning point. Never ask anyone, not even your best friends, what they really think of you in terms of peanuts and coconuts. They may make a terrible mistake and tell you the whole coconut truth, destroy your illusions, and put you into cardiac arrest. On we go with our illusions.

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Case: There is no point in telling someone, such as your boss, what you really think of him. He will not believe you anyway! Case: That reminds me of an experience in a church in Zermatt on a ski holiday. The minister was giving his sermon and said: “You probably won’t remember me or this sermon, so I want to give you something to remember, because we only remember unusual things.” There was a long pause, and then he got out his electric shaver, shaved for 30 seconds and then gave his sermon. He was right. Ten years later I don’t remember his sermon but I do remember him.

Case: I took my dad to the mall the other day to buy some new shoes. We decided to grab a bite at the food court. I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him. The teenager had spiked hair in all different colors: green, red, orange, and blue. My dad kept staring at him. The teenager would look and find him staring every time. When the teenager had had enough, he sarcastically asked, 'What's the matter old man, never done anything wild in your life?' Knowing my Dad, I quickly swallowed my food so that I would not choke on his response, knowing he would have a good one, and in classic style he did not bat an eye in his response. 'Got drunk once, and had sex with a peacock. I was just wondering if you were my son.' Case: The optimist and the pessimist were each given seven cigars of varying qualities to smoke, one for each day of the coming week. The pessimist started with the least good cigar so that he could anticipate an improvement with the arrival of each new day. The optimist smoked the best cigar still available each morning. Observation: the optimist always had the best the world had to offer, while the pessimist settled for the worst that was available at any given time.

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Case: Contemplate this: Clothes make the man—versus—Clothes do not make the man. Could it be each of these assertions is valid sometime? Case: It is difficult to enjoy being idle, unless you have too much work to do and need cash! Case: On Sundays, in church, we are told that money is the root of all evil. But during the week we find that evil is the root of most money. Case: Who made God the best excuse for killing? Who made God the most inspiring reason to hate? Case: Religion is supposed to be about the love of God, not about the hate of men. Case: But then the forgiving God said: “Everybody messes up. It is what you do afterward that really counts. “… Case: I lived long enough and travelled far enough that everything reminds me of something. Case: Given that since the end of WWII life expectancies increased by ten to twenty years in most countries, subject to reasonable states of health, it should be normal that peoples’ working lives should henceforth be longer than in earlier decades. Case: Good news. In America, fifty percent of teenage smokers quit smoking. Bad news: In America ninety percent of lawyers quit smoking. (Dear reader: feel free to substitute here your un-favored group. Then smile, because it is better to laugh than to cry.) Case: May be as they continue working into their more advanced years, many individuals should work less per year, such as three days a week or four hours a day.

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Case: Working is a useful activity, a noble activity, not just an economic necessity. Case: All work is respectable. All work can be done well. Case: Increased life spans have created more poverty in the primitive and in the underdeveloped countries, because primitiveness and underdevelopment are associated with very little output per person, sometimes less than what is needed for subsistence per person. Case: Each person is potentially a negative economic unit whose survival is made possible by drawing resources from the environment. Are you a: 1) Hunter-gatherer, as opposed to producer? 2) Dependent supported by families or tribe members? 3) Short to intermediate term welfare recipient in a developed country? 4) Long term parasite, including a dysfunctional addict, who will remain for years a dependent in his host country? Case: Parasite-----three dictionary definitions It is an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment. A person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others. (In ancient Greece) A person who received free meals in return for amusing or impudent conversation, flattering remarks, etc. Is this latter definition a description of many recently elected officials?

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Case: Perhaps, lawyers, parliamentarians, congressmen and participants in the financial services industry and others are involved in the financial problems faced by the elderly. What is bad is the misallocation, disappearance or embezzlement of trillions of dollars’ worth of assets from social security and Medicare funds, just when people live longer, and need more economic resources to support beyond what used to be the normal retirement age. Case: We are, for quite some time, in an age of medical miracles rather than an age of adequate health care. Good health care is costly, but medical miracles are super expensive, partially due to the limited supplies of medical services, partially due to pricing collusion, partially due to price leadership. Medical care in the US is very expensive. Case: Most people do not pay directly for their healthcare. Thus it is easy to say: "when it comes to my healthcare, money is no object." It is no object, because it is other peoples' money. This contributes to the high cost of Medicare and Medicaid. Case: Many people do not want early retirement but want to continue to lead productive lives into their more advanced years. Wives obviously have a huge role in this. They don’t want the old men at home all day! Case: Money trauma. When you win a lot of money, you feel great for a short time. But it does not last. And when you lose a lot of cash, the suffering can last a lifetime, unless in your mind you reframe the event. Case: Warning: Stay out of bed. That is where most people die!

Case: God bless America. Too few others do. It is a sunny morning. Let us be happy today.

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5. COMPUTERS Management Coaching: I wonder what you remember as the positive and negative attitudes and personal habits, that you acquired instinctively from your father: painful realities or illusions? Self-hypnosis: At first it takes about three minutes, but as you become more expert at it, you can do it in much less time Case: India – Desktop publishing and other computerized copying and printing methods help to give India questionable competitiveness in publishing. You can shop on the web, an identical copy of a 400 pages long US Marketing Text Book from India for 20% of the US publisher price. Indians do not pay any royalties and do not even inform the author that they published and are selling his book. Case: London- City’s financial district imposes fees on cars entering the business zone. Computer connected cameras and recording systems make possible the tracing of cars and the collection of fees and fines. A Frenchman came to London by car. He got lost. He did not understand the new city car charge of five pounds. He was not detected. What to do eight months later when he is detected by computer check? Case: France – Family car detected by computer as exceeding speed limit. Owner was fined by notice six months later. Who can remember the driver? Owner of the car loses one point (eleven left) against possible loss of permit. Case: The professor of computer science and information systems gave a large homework assignment to his students in a required freshman course. The many somewhat lazy students expressed their dissatisfaction by mumbling under their noses and making comments to one another. The professor restored order to the class when he stated: “Ladies and gentlemen, despite your assumption to the contrary, my parents WERE married at the time of my conception!”

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Case: A veteran computer programmer said: “Writing programs is like beating your head against a concrete wall. It feels so good when you stop.” Perhaps not only programmers but scientists and engineers in the United States in general should be afforded much more respect and paid substantially higher salaries. May be then you would get more young Americans to want to study science and work in engineering. The lack of interest in the study of sciences among the youth of America is NOT closely related to the weakness of kindergarten through high school education. On the contrary; it is a demonstration of the intelligence and rationality of the youth of America. They are too smart to be trapped into very difficult, much work requiring, suffering intensive, unrewarded and disrespected occupations. Until we make major upward adjustments in the incentives and reward systems, the future potentials for the US leadership in the technology areas are likely to remain limited. Case: A man just arrived from Boston for a winter vacation in Florida. His working wife was due to meet him there the next day. From the hotel, he sent his wife a welcoming email but miss-typed one letter of the address. The email was misdirected to a preacher’s wife whose husband had just died the day before. She checked her email, took one look, and fell to the floor. The family rushed in to find this note on the computer screen: "Dearest Wife: I just got checked in. Everything is prepared for your arrival tomorrow. P.S. It sure is terribly hot down here." Case: Competition - When an electronics store across the street sells computers at lower prices by evading taxes, should you follow the competitor, or go out of business? Or complain to the tax office? Case: Cost - manager required staff to re-negotiate computer purchase contracts to achieve 20% reduction in costs. When the renegotiation was done, the manager rewarded the staff he liked but not the others.

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Case; Computer selling - Practice of fixing the lowest product selling recovery price, and then paying the salesman commission of 30% of any excess he persuades the naïve customer to pay; e.g. houses, carpets, jewelry, etc. Through this practice, salesmen who lie to customers to make sales manage to earn better livelihoods. Case: The search engine companies want to inventory all ideas and all knowledge to make them universally accessible to people through the use of computers. Yet humans should remember that if “you keep a sufficiently open mind, people will throw a lot of garbage into it” and also be aware that they….may find it hard to learn anything if their heads are already so full of ideas.

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6. BUSINESS Management Coaching: I wonder what you remember as the positive and negative attitudes and personal habits, that you acquired instinctively from your mother? Are these more painful realities or illusions? Management Coaching: Four little management coaching research techniques, designed to really help the managers: Shadow Personality, Civil Conflict, Funeral Ovation, Parental Influence. Are these more painful realities or illusions? Self-hypnosis: Some learners may be nervous, stressed or lacking in confidence to laugh at their problems. A simple relaxation exercise will improve the quality of learning. With self-hypnosis you are in complete control all the time. At first it takes about three minutes, but as you become more expert at it, you can do it in much less time. Case: Why do anything unethical in business, when you can pay someone else to do it for you? Case: ENRON – CEO was a highly moral person with a Baptist upbringing, but when it came to business accounting, there was a disconnect in his behavior. Case: Company founder wanted to retire and appoint a new CEO. He interviewed four candidates (engineering, law, marketing and accounting) and asked each one the following practical question: “What is one plus one?” The engineer consulted his slide rule, the lawyer quoted legal precedents and the marketing man asked: “Are you buying or selling, Sir? Finally, the Accountant looking very embarrassed moved to close the door and the curtains and then sitting quietly … he said: “What would you like it to be, Sir?” Case: A regular customer rushes into our shop to buy something for 10 dollars, gives me 100 dollars by mistake, and rushes out. Business ethics

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issue: Do I share the 90 dollars with my business partner or just keep it for myself? Case: Two successful brokers meet on Wall Street. “Congratulations”, says the first, “I heard you won twenty million dollars.” “Not quite”, says the second, “it was only ten million dollars and it wasn’t I but my brother-in-law and he didn’t win it but lost it.” Case: When someone rides free, others have to pay. Case: Orders - If your boss tells you to act improperly, what do you do, if you are over 50 years old? Case: Your job was outsourced but your supervisor got a raise. Case: Encouraging or saddening? If you are not the best, then you are just one of the rest? Case: Trade is like the tide that lifts all boats. But many tides are riptides that take you under and drown you. Other tides are tsunamis that sweep you and your cities away. (Are Detroit and Cleveland largely gone thanks to trade? Can trade help to revive them?) Case: Why did my boss receive a promotion when my job was eliminated? Is the purpose of outsourcing the elimination of employment? Case: MBA student’s reaction to the typical ethics course is a polite “nice to know … but … not very helpful for my career in business”. Those who teach ethics to MBAs, claim that most students would rather spend their time in an additional finance or marketing course. In published research, 56% of the students admitted to cheating during MBA programs. (And chances are another 20 per cent just lied to the researchers or to themselves.)

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Case: ENRON - web site presented the ethical business code, specially prepared by a member of the Harvard Business School Faculty. Case: Developing countries - In transitional and emerging economies, 75% of managers say that they have to cope with unexpected political changes in rules, laws, or regulations which critically affect their businesses. Payments must be made to poorly-paid enterprising governmental officials, just to remain in business, without harassment, for pseudo-breach of local regulations. Case: Financial accounting: The audited reports of a major African electricity company are always two years late in order to avoid reporting losses. But payroll records are always up to date. Case: Morocco – Paying an electricity bill at the company office could provide two alternatives: “Pay the full amount and get a receipt or … pay only half and the cashier will tear up the bill.” What hope for audited financial reports in this environment? Case: China – selling at higher prices in the domestic market than in international markets to acquire more exports; may sell lower quality products intentionally in fighting with low-cost competition. Case: Istanbul – carpet shops have no fixed prices. Every sale is negotiated at the time. Case: Holland - Major International Oil Company quietly dumped waste oil into the sea for 50 years until new environmental laws made it illegal and the dumping was publicized. Case: Outsourcing is a way to create unemployment at home. Case: Whistle blowers who reveal fraud and unethical practices should be fired! Yes? No … they should be rewarded!!! (with a percentage).

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Case: Re-structuring - The dilemma for individuals in business is keeping their jobs. “Rank and yank” creates tremendous pressure for employees to look the other way on ethics, in their quest to excel in the company and to ensure the individual’s survival in the company. Case: Expenses - manager finds that his favorite salesman cheats on expenses. Manager does nothing, because the salesman gets the best sales orders. Case: US SEC - Today, there is much more accountability. SEC statistics revealed that in 1999, there were some 10,000 whistle blowing complaint filings for the year. In 2018, there were over 45,000 complaints, MONTHLY. Case: CEO - Company quoted on the stock exchange experiences difficult marketing pressures, leading to lowering of reported profit and a heavy drop in the share price. This could lead to the CEO being fired. Hence there may be some very high motivation to be “creative” with financial forecasting and reporting. Case: Tax - small business owner cheats on income tax for 20 years and puts all cash in the name of his wife. She runs off with the chief salesman and all the money. Case: China – Chinese tailor becomes a business entrepreneur and sells industrial glycerin to Spanish pharmaceutical companies that, without checking, load it into several varieties of cough syrup in South America, killing hundreds of people. Ethics issue: Who is responsible? Case: Perhaps the 2008/2010 financial crisis brought some special benefit to ethics and business practice.

Case: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could now begin to include

longer term Sustainability, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the UN

Compact.

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Case: Starting in 2008 the Swedish Government required that state owned

companies publish an externally audited sustainability report in accordance

with GRI standards.

Case: This may be an opportunity for every public accounting firm, every

global company and every business school to meet a new standard in

2019.

Case: Developing countries - in transitional and emerging economies, 75% of managers say that they have to cope with unexpected political changes in rules, laws, or regulations which critically affect their businesses. Payments must be made to poorly-paid enterprising governmental officials, just to remain in business, without harassment, for pseudo-breach of local regulations. Case: Crime – research in the USA has indicated that two percent of business persons have a criminal mind. The problem in recruitment is … how to know? Case: Political funding – in the USA we must raise five million dollars from loans or gifts, to stand for election to major political office: in return for future favors? Case: France – The president of France (2005) would be in court charged with Paris City funding corruption, if he were not exempt from criminal prosecution by reason of being president. Is this ethics? Case: Sales contracts involving major aircraft to many countries may involve payments to government staff as well as to Royals and Presidents. Is this sales commission or corruption?

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Case: A famous delicatessen restaurant in New York prided itself on having on hand anything and everything diners might want to order. The restaurant offered to pay any customer 100 dollars if his order could not be filled. A wise guy customer from Chicago decided to embarrass the over confident New York establishment: He visited the restaurant and ordered: grilled lion’s tail on roll! He waited and waited and after 45 minutes the maître d’ approached him, waving a one-hundred-dollar bill. “Ah”, exclaimed the man from Chicago, “you are out of lion’s tail!” “No sir”, replied the maître d’ “we are out of rolls!”

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6. HEALTH

AGAINST EATING: ALL IN JEST … OF COURSE

Case: The wonderful and potentially effective advice came from a tall and

thin man. Let’s call him “Mr. Tall and Thin”.

You may wish to consider the following observations, advice and questions

that are lifestyle and quality of life, rather than weight control oriented:

1) Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow your doctor may put you on a salt free

diet. (If you have to adhere to this restriction faithfully, then it becomes

almost impossible to eat in restaurants where even the sugar seems to

have some salt content and the salt seems to contain some sugar.)

2) If you have to be a vegetarian, then what’s the point of being alive?

3) If you choose to be a vegetarian, you may pretend that you are not missing

much—only one third of life.

4) Chocolate is a source of happiness but happiness is not a source of

chocolate. Just observe a child to whom you just gave a large Hershey

chocolate bar with almonds. (The almonds help to multiply the happiness

that can be generated with the chocolate. Of course, if you substitute a new

bicycle for the almonds, the multiplier effect may be even greater.)

5) But when it comes to girls, diamonds, big diamonds are still a girl’s best

friend.

6) Never use chocolates as a substitute for diamonds.

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The above listed observations were provided by a tall man who is

handsome and can afford to eat in fine restaurants, buy chocolates and

give diamonds to ladies he favors. He is popular. We can call him “Mr. Tall,

Handsome and Popular”.

The words provided our by “Mr. Tall, Handsome and Popular” do not

contradict the weight management advice and program proposed by “Mr.

Tall and Thin”.

Was it Gandhi-ji who said: “Dieting is its own punishment”.

Of course not!

He did not have to say it. Any photograph of Gandhi-ji will confirm it.

Or was it Sir Churchill who may have implied even if he did not say in his

Nobel prize- winning tome: “Virtue is its own punishment”?

Of course not!

But what can we conclude from looking at a photograph of Sir Winston?

We may remain with the unresolved dilemma of so should we follow the

good-life advice of Mr. Tall and Handsome or the good-health advice of Mr.

Tall and Thin?

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7. CONCLUSIONS & LAUGHTER When we really want something in this tough world, we should laugh and just open our eyes and we may find it was there, right in front of us all the time and we just could not see it. Do laugh and find it. The most important time is now. Not the past or the future! The most important people are the ones we are with. The most important thing to do is to make them happy. Learn to laugh and love your partner. Divide him/her into every single component part, physical and mental. Each day concentrate on one fragment and become wholly familiar until the findings become affection and finally love. There are a million different things to love about every person. (Midnight Children - Rushdie page 88.) Final Case from John C. Maxwell on the next page.

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8. Laugh & Be Healthy – MAXWELL - FINAL CASE A traveler nearing a great city asked an old man seated by the road, "What are the people like in this city?" "What were they like where you came from?" the man asked. "Horrible," the traveler reported. "Mean, untrustworthy, detestable in all respects." "Ah," said the old man, "you will find them the same in the city ahead." Scarcely had the first traveler gone on his way when another stopped to inquire about the people in the city before him. Again the old man asked about the people in the place the traveler had just left. "They were fine people: honest, industrious, and generous to a fault," declared the second traveler. "I was sorry to leave." The old man responded, "That’s exactly how you'll find the people here." The way people see others is a reflection about them. If I am a trusting person, I will see others as trustworthy. If I am a critical person, I will see others as critical. If I am a caring person, I will see others as compassionate. If you change yourself and become the kind of person you desire to be, you will begin to view others in a whole new light. And that will change the way you interact in all of your relationships. So laugh and be healthy in so many ways … and be sure to you tell yourself: “Yes, I can” do it!

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Again we observe that life can be so full of problems. We must distinguish the “coconuts” (really important things) from the peanuts (trivia with high emotional investment) and leave the peanuts to the monkeys.

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9. ESSAYS ON AMERICANA – DR ROBERT VAMBERY

A. How Rich is America?

November 20, 2018

International business professors and economists give much attention to U.S. balance of trade statistics such as those involving Japan and China as well as to statistics about the total international trade performance of the US, because all three are perpetually in significant deficit.

The United States has been and continues to be referred to commonly as the richest country in the world. Yet, how rich is the country is open to a variety of interpretations. Though the US has the biggest economy measured in terms of the dollar value of its GDP, it is far from and has not had for many years top ranking by the criterion of per capital income.

How rich is America? It seems that when measuring America’s wealth, there is a tendency to use “single entry book keeping”: the dollar values of the nation’s assets are summed up but then there is a reluctance or failure to subtract from that sum the dollar value of the nation’s debts and liabilities.

One relevant indicator of America’s changing wealth position in the world looks at the net investment position of the country over time. Namely, what is the dollar value of the assets US interests owned outside of the country minus the dollar value of the assets owned by foreign entities inside the United States?

The study by this author uses large data sets involving the international trade of the United States with 12 of its leading trading partners over a 10-year period. Then the study and the associated analyses are repeated for a subsequent 10-year period. The mathematical formula used for the analyses is called “coefficient of trading partner exploitation”. Attempt is made to quantify whether persistent trade imbalances are the results of deliberate and selfish if not mal-intentioned trade policies.

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Specifically, this evaluation examines the extent and degree to which the US benefited from reciprocal globalization or suffered from being subjected to one-way globalization.

The resulting evidences obtained in the study indicate that in a globalized trading environment in which countries are supposed to have opened up to foreign suppliers, in practice, what is observed is much one way rather than reciprocal globalization.

The simultaneous practice of globalization and mercantilism may not be desirable for the growth of international trade or for the welfare of the world as a whole. Yet in contrasting theories of mercantilism with the free trade concepts of globalization and by conducting quantitative analyses of US trade with its leading trading partners over twenty years, the paper leads toward a conclusion that the simultaneous practice of globalization and mercantilism is a winning formula in international business for countries that are able to implement it, whether with the approval by or over the opposition of their trading partners?

Were some significant trade wars being launched in 2018 or are we just witnessing the beginnings of some self-defending actions by countries hurt by less than fair trade practices?

B. America Is Not Always About the Wretched Refuse

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me”

These eloquent words came to entrap the United States into conditions of being so exploited as to approach part time enslavement.

For well over a century, the USA has been a receptacle for much “wrenched refuse” from the rest of the world. In the more recent decades, since 1965, the US Government spent more than $24 trillion on anti-

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poverty programs, trying to lift up America’s economically wretched and those of other regions’ who came to or were brought to the USA. This amount is as great as the national debt of the US Government incurred over more than 240 years.

There has been some success in the efforts to uplift, but the country also produced many new “wretched” of its own. Furthermore, the US continues to collect many such people from many places and has seen the formation of political coalitions in which the “wretched refuse” are effective and powerful participants.

Neo-slavery is now a reality in the United States, with the economically productive and substantial taxes-paying portions of the population having become part time economic slaves of the many who are NOT economically very productive or who are NOT substantial contributors to the government’s tax revenues.

Nearly half of the working/income earning population in the US pay no federal income taxes. Significant additional numbers of people pay only very small amounts of taxes under currently existing tax laws, regulations and programs.

May be the well to do and the very rich should pay even more taxes than they pay now since they do have money. You cannot collect taxes from people who do not have money. However, the fact is that the well to do and the rich are already paying more than their fair share of taxes.

It is often mentioned that large portions of previous federal tax cuts mostly benefited the wealthy and the high-income earners. That claim is correct almost by definition, as the not-well-off and low-income people are already exempted from contributing substantially to the costs of having and operating government and to the costs that their existences impose on others.

How is it fair that the majority of the population do not pay taxes or do so in miniature quantities? Nor are they required to perform national service,

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military or civilian. However, they are entitled to and do receive vast amounts of services and benefits throughout their lives for themselves, for their children and even for their parents. Those who do not pay are enjoying representation without taxation.

Since the abolishment of mandatory military service, they have little to no obligations to contribute to the well-being of the nation. Often they procreate in great numbers, impose huge educational, health care and in-retirement support costs on the nation and are entitled to vote.

By voting for substantial and increasing benefits for themselves and for the politicians and government officials who give them other peoples’ money, they appear to have converted and they continue to convert democracy into a combination of thugocracy and debtocracy.

Is this the fundamental restructuring of the United States of America?

P.S.

This author first used the term thugocracy in a speech during the spring of 2009. More recently the term was seen in an issue of The Economist in 2017, but NOT in a US context. On the Internet the term is defined as “Government by a group of thugs.”

C. Brexit and an Internationalist America

While the first reaction to BREXIT was panic in financial markets followed by expressions of concerns about the possible disintegration of the European Union and of other international cooperative arrangements, there are also renewed discussions about America’s predisposition toward the rest of the world. Terms such as isolationist, unilateralist, empire, and super power are bandied about freely and inaccurately. In actuality there is no American empire, no Pax Americana and the US is only the superior rather than the super power of the world. Nonetheless, both the people of the US and the peoples of other countries may

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continue to examine the question of the degree to which the US is isolationist or unilateralist. The answer is that over the previous century as well as now America is neither. America is internationalist.

Isolationist would imply an America withdrawn into itself, contributing little to the rest of the world and taking a posture of self-defense, while staying out of the affairs of others, providing neither support nor protection. Unilateralist would imply that actions and policy implementations across national borders take place without the approval of or even significant consultations with the affected countries or other interested nations.

However, for nearly a century American internationalist intervention was necessary, because no one or no group of nations could do or would do what needed to be done. America has been and remains internationalist on the military, economic and humanitarian fronts.

On the military front, the “U.S. to the rescue” of Europe cases illustrate the point. Though not by itself alone, Europe needed to be saved by the US in WW I and WW II. Then for the next forty-five years the US had to counter-balance Soviet and communist expansionary threats.

Meritorious or not, recently the US did and continues to receive far reaching cooperation from its allies and friends in the Afghan and Iraqi undertakings but is carrying far more than its share of the requirements in both resources and lives.

US contributions to the world economy are also omnipresent. American imports to a degree support the economic wellbeing of high-income nations such as many of the countries of the European Union and of Japan. Similarly, China’s high yearly economic growth has been and continues to be to a great extent financed by the revenues from its sales of products to the U.S.

The humanitarian contributions of the US to the world are enormous also with well over a million foreigners choosing to stay in the US in some

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years after entering the country legally and well far more than ten million illegal immigrants being gainfully employed in the economy.

In conclusion, it is not realistic for Americans to hope to be loved by other peoples. But it is reasonable to expect acknowledgement of the Nation’s past and present contributions and sacrifices. Perhaps the world should not be expected to weep for the rich, but the world should not dislike the American people, because some of them are less handsome or just dusty cowboys or dying soldiers.

But as BREXIT wobbles Europe and other parts of the world, Internationalist America stands committed and is here to stay.

P. S. Dr Boland - BREXIT should be postponed for five years

and then gently be forgotten! Need to read: Yuval Noah Harari –

Lessons for the 21st Century!! On www.crelearning.com.

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A PAGE FOR YOU TO WRITE YOUR NOTES …

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10. POEMS TO INSPIRE YOU

Robert G. Vambery

From Sunrise to Sunset, From Beginning to the End

BEFORE SUNRISE

At four AM, on bed, missing you What can I be thinking of Certainly not your intellect Not even your smile

My belly longs for the weight of your body Pressing down on me in the pre-dawn hours … while you sleep causing me discomfort The weight of your body simply there for me … for the mattress pressing against my dinner pressing against the springs The weight so warm I touch it and squeeze it and perhaps wake youb And the weight of our body feels annoyed and thoughtlessly wraps around me tighter naked and sleeps on securely because it is held up by my touch and my love

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THE CIRCLE AND THE SQUARE

The circle is so proud today! Made of an infinite number of points, All equidistant from the center! He, with his very own radius Measurable to any point on his glorious circumference!

Happy is the circle! This miraculous geometric creature, Reaching complete perfection so early in life! He is universally worshipped as the God of the two dimensional experience. Consisting of immeasurable points, he is like all true gods: Built of blocks of imagination His endless power to embrace His ever present reality Are totally above doubt. Jealous is the mundane square. His four sides are as equal as the infinite radii of the circle He thought in his younger days. Yes, the square too used to dream of Growing up to rule the world of two dimensions. But by the time he was fourteen He realized that the irrational Fate Chose to curse him with undisguisable corners!

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ICARUS

Icarus flew

Wings on his fingertips Wings on his feet

On land with wings he walked

He walked as if on wings

But his wings were real

And Icarus rose Icarus flew

Icarus fell

Fingers on his wings

Feet on his wings

In air with feet he flew

He flew as if with feet

But his feet were real

And Icarus came down Icarus fell

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MONEY

What is money

Love is money

Love of money

Money’s love

Love is money

How much money

How much money

Is true love

Why do we love money

We love money

For the things it is for us

Unit of account

Medium of exchange

Store of value

Fountain of happiness

Energy is the life blood of production

Money is the life blood of the economy

Do not let foolish people or evil socialists

Tell you otherwise

Get your money soon and quickly

Get your MBA diploma now

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DOES GOD EVER TALK BACK?

I know there is no God

Yet I pray almost every day

But God does not listen

Or God does not hear

Or God does not care

Or God has more important things

To attend to than my requests

But I do not ask God for anything

I just pray for my own death almost every day

Perhaps that is, in fact, too much to ask

And because occasionally I miss a day

On the other days I say or think my short prayer

Five or more times and in several ways:

“Kill me God”

“Kill me God today”

“Kill me God not tomorrow but right now”

“Please God kill me”

“Please God take me away”

This last prayer is the most likely one to be answered

And because overall I am and have been a good person

I am likely to be taken to heaven

But who knows, fathoms, or can foresee the

Will and judgment of God?

What if God is laughing at me

And will put me in front of the cannon of a tank

Then blow me to smithereens, because at that moment

For me the Kingdom has come

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But since or if there is no God

Then all this is irrelevant

And I will have to live until I die:

Years from now or today

If it will be today, then will that happen

Because God heard or listened to my prayer?

Would my death today prove the existence of God?

Or would it only show a trivial coincidence:

Correlation but not causality

Life is hard

Is it worth living?

Let God answer that big question

But God does not listen

Or God does not hear

Or God does not care

Or God has more important things to do

Than to respond to my question

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HUNGER

I am eating the memory of a slice of rye bread. It is a little stale but I am hungry and the memory tastes good. The bread has too many caraway seeds. I spit them out one by one. A sparrow is hopping around my feet and he is picking up the caraway seeds one by one just as I spit them out. I hate the caraway seeds but the sparrow likes them. Now I wash down the bread with a glass of milk that my grandmother poured out to me from a large jug more than thirty years ago. The milk is sweet. It is goat milk. From our own goat. From our own grass. From our own garden. Sparrow, you don't get any milk. Milk is for people! Or for goats. I feel hungry again. That's all right. Hunger is only a state of mind. I must think positively. I try to remember another slice of rye bread. But I can’t. I am getting weaker. The sparrow looks at me desperately. I must think of another slice of rye bread! The sparrow needs some caraway seeds to live! It's too late. The little bird is beginning to disappear in the mouth of the vulture. A slice of rye bread! Where did I see a slice of rye bread? I take a last breath, and the vulture takes a bit

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On the Way Out

Man without dreams

Man without friends

Man without a wife

Man without a dog

Man without a home

Man with a grave site

Man waiting to die

Who Is that?

A beacon of darkness

A fountain of hate

An engine of degradation

The destroyer of a noble America

It is not the Donald

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NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND

After lunch everyone walked out to the garden to play croquet.

I stayed behind in the salon and died.

By eleven A.M. next morning all the arrangements were made. At four P.M. I was resting six feet below.

The padding around me is quite adequate.

It is made of foam rubber and is covered with blue velvet. Blue.

Medium blue.

My favorite colour. Six feet below.

I am surrounded by Mediterranean skies.

The depth here is amusing. Six-foot-long fellow exactly six feet below.

The strong fragrance of the roses growing overhead can be enjoyed even down here.

I was always rather sensitive about these matters.

A considerate family.

My family. Most considerate!

I wish these grave diggers would turn off the radio! Or at least change stations.

Listening to that noise!

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And those awful commercials!

I thought they would have a little more respect!

But after all, what can we expect. The unions, you know.

You order them around a bit and the bastards go on strike, leaving the stiffs in gloomy vaults.

Leaving them blue. Medium blue.

My favourite colour. Six feet below.

The blue.

Surrounding me with Mediterranean skies. Here I shall complete my rest.

And after lunch everyone can walk out to the garden to play

croquet.

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REQUIEM: I Lived for Art

"Vissi d'arte," (Tosca), Angela Gheorghiu, Washington, D.C. [2009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEx2LpSp_ao

Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore,

non feci mai male ad anima viva!

Con man furtiva

quante miserie conobbi aiutai.

Sempre con fe' sincera

la mia preghiera

ai santi tabernacoli salì.

Sempre con fe' sincera

diedi fiori agli altar.

Nell'ora del dolore

perché, perché, Signore,

perché me ne rimuneri così?

Diedi gioielli della Madonna al

manto,

e diedi il canto agli astri, al ciel,

che ne ridean più belli.

Nell'ora del dolore,

perché, perché, Signor,

ah, perché me ne rimuneri così?

I lived for art, I lived for love,

I never harmed a living soul!

With a discreet hand

I relieved all misfortunes I encountered.

Always with sincere faith

my prayer

rose to the holy tabernacles.

Always with sincere faith

I decorated the altars with flowers.

In this hour of grief,

why, why, Lord,

why do you reward me thus?

I donated jewels to the Madonna's mantle,

and offered songs to the stars and to

heaven,

which thus did shine with more beauty.

In this hour of grief,

why, why, Lord,

ah, why do you reward me thus?

Of course it would approach absurdity if I stated this about my life.

Yet when I will encounter God and He will be about to throw me

into the fires of hell,

I will cry out as I will be falling

into the abyss:

I lived for art, I lived for love,

I never harmed a living soul!

With a discreet hand

I relieved all misfortunes I encountered

In this hour of grief

why, why, Lord

ah, why do you reward me thus?

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11. FURTHER STUDY

A – SELF HYPNOSIS AND COGNITION FOR CALM PART 1 – SELF HYPNOSIS Some learners may be nervous, stressed or lacking in confidence to learn to laugh at their problems. A simple relaxation exercise will improve the quality of the learning. With self-hypnosis you are in complete control all the time. At first it takes about three minutes, but as you become more expert at it, you can do it in much less time:

1. Sit down and relax as you count to three. At one, look up toward your eyebrows; at two, close your eyelids and take a deep breath in; and at three, breathe out, and let your eyes relax, and let your body float.

2. As you feel yourself floating, permit one hand to float up just a little. It becomes your signal to enter a state of meditation in which you concentrate on the learning you are achieving and what it means to you.

3. Begin slowly and mentally ... to count down from 10 to 0 … saying …deeper… deeper …

4. Imagine a beautiful white light ... coming from above your head

... cleaning every part of you ... as it passes through your whole mind and body ... and out of your toes.

5. Imagine a beautiful soothing golden fluid ... coming in from your

toes ...soothing and healing every part of your mind and body ... right up to the top of your head...

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6. Then RELAX … as you make one or two … POSITIVE

suggestions to yourself ... which help YOU … feeling better in MIND & BODY ... finding new strengths from within YOURSELF … handling YOUR problems with laughter in YOUR OWN WAY … and feeling very deeply … that this is a wonderful world … with so many joys for YOU.

7. Tell yourself that you are going to learn to prevent and laugh at your worry. Think about it deeply to find strengths within yourself that you did not know were there. Take your time …

8. Then when you are ready, bring yourself back out of this concentration, feeling well and very positive, by counting backwards this way.

9. Three, get ready. Two, with your eyelids closed, roll up your eyes (and do it now). And one let your eyelids open slowly.

10. Then, when your eyes are back in focus, slowly make a fist with the hand that is floating a little, open your fist slowly, and your usual sensation and control returns, with a happy feeling of floating. By doing the exercise every one to two hours, you can, in just one minute … float into this state of buoyant repose, in which you add extra-receptivity to re-imprint the critical learning for control, and give yourself confidence to laugh, deep in your mind. Practice self-hypnosis regularly. You will achieve control which leads to gentle positive reframing of your problems. On we go …

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A. SELF HYPNOSIS & COGNITION FOR CALM

PART 2 – COGNITION (WITH DISTORTIONS)

Emotional reactions are often used to justify unethical behaviour in an effort to survive in an impossible environment. They may be distortions. Do you have any?

1. All or Nothing: Will I be a "black or white" thinker today,

whereby anything that is less than perfect is a total failure? 2. Generalisation: Will I see a single result as a pattern of

inevitable never-ending defeat?

3. Filter: Will I allow only negatives to darken my reality today, as I (very carefully) filter out almost all of the positive things?

4. Positive disqualification: Will I reject positive experiences

today, by telling myself that they "don't really count"? 5. Conclusion jumping: Will I jump to negative assumptions

about the future of a project, without any definite supporting facts, by simply "fortune telling" on the situation and the people?

6. Catastrophizing: Will I perceive disaster in everything today,

by exaggerating the bad things and minimising the good ones?

7. Emotional reasoning: Will I convince myself that if for just a

moment I feel something, then it is almost certainly true?

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8. Obligations: Will I allow myself to feel frustration, anger or even guilt today, by adopting some of those false personal motivators like: "I really must" or "I ought to” etc.?

9. Labelling: Will I indulge myself in extreme over-generalisation

by attaching negative labels like "A real pain!" to things, to others or even to me?

10. Anger: Will I allow myself to become angry at the aggressive

language of someone in front of me, when I know that control and NVC (Non Violent Communication) are always my own personal responsibility? See short videos: http://www.nvc-resolutions.co.uk/nvcmedia.htm

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B. – PERSONAL ETHICS TEST Now, evaluate yourself under pressure to survive in an impossible environment. Score your really PERSONAL view. SCORE each item 1 to 5 as follows: NOT OK (un-ethical) = 5 points ACCEPTABLE = 2 points ABSOLUTELY OK = 1 point

1. Fruit sold was mixed – some fresh today and some two days old.

2. UN incompetent manager retained for ten years because he

was black. 3. Sell possibly worthless shares to an old retired man for

$100,000 taking most of his savings. 4. Profits concealed in a tax shelter overseas to avoid income

tax. 5. Global company manipulates transfer prices to enable profits

to be made in low taxation environments. 6. Expensive raincoat stolen from a departmental store by

mistake. Not returned. 7. Refusal to give to Jewish or Arab charities. 8. Excessive insurance claim for mental damage.

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9. Wife with lover, killed by husband with gun. 10. Robber attacks, killed with gun. 11. Lost wallet found with $2. Kept. 12. Lost wallet found with $25,000. Kept. 13. Sell a jewel of $10 for $500. 14. Win LOTO $5 millions and create a trust to avoid paying

income tax on it. 15. Speeding at 150km per hour denied to police. 16. Lie to wife about a mistress over one year. 17. Hungry and steal bread from a child. 18. Change nationality from UK to USA to qualify for job in the

UN. 19. Pay bribe to purchasing agent to make a sale to his company. 20. Promote competent friends in the organization. 21. Promote incompetent friends in the organization.

(Answers following below – BUT FIRST please check your responses again… and try very hard to be completely honest with yourself … because no one else will know … except you.)

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ANSWERS: COMPUTE your total score from 20 – 100. EVALUATE YOUR SCORE: 0 – 40: Blame your parents 41- 60: Average in business 61- 80: Required standard 81 +: Reward your parents Please record and keep your personal reactions for one month and then read them again … any change?

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C. RELAXATION-PLUS FOR OBESITY - RP 1. RP - MOTIVATION AND BELIEF - IS THE KEY Key problem in laugh and be healthy in 2019, is not smoking but obesity!!! 70 % of the US population is obese and at high risk for: stroke, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis etc. Change? Let us say: “We can do it!” Former President Clinton launched an anti-obesity campaign in the USA with the slogan: “I was a junk food junkie … until my triple bi-pass” We become what we believe – learn to do RP (Relaxation Plus) in just two minutes and be in control of mind and body. The cost of the food that you “waste” by leaving it uneaten on the plate is almost nothing, when compared to the cost of hospital care, for just one, over-weight sickness disaster. Relaxation is great, but RP (“Relaxation Plus Positive Suggestion”) is much more effective for coping with—and resolving—difficult personal problems such as stress, pain and obesity. For RP to work well, we must see it, want it and believe in it. Then it can help us find new ideas and strengths within ourselves that we did not even know were there. This can give us a 50% chance of lifetime obesity control success.

But RP is harmless. It’s like a positive meditation, Thai-chi or yoga, as it helps our conscious and sub-conscious minds to communicate better and to work well together. We are in

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control all the time and—with practice—RP helps us to control what we feel and believe. RP has no drug side effects.

2. RP - BELIEVE AND BECOME WHAT YOU BELIEVE

Now, can we accept that we usually become what we believe? When we believe in business success, we achieve it and it becomes part of us. Similarly, when we believe we are a “happy fat slob with a big belly”, then that is usually what we become. Why do people laugh? And whom shall we blame? We can’t really blame George Bush… or can we? No. not this time! Well, perhaps our Mother is responsible? She taught us so well to “finish up everything on the plate and don’t waste a single bit of my food,” which may have been great advice for us years ago, but not so great for obesity control today. We have to escape from Mother! Professor Cory Hammond (Utah University) suggests that obesity results from food “addiction”, like cocaine, smoking, alcohol etc, but is far more difficult to treat. Research shows that only 5% of people succeed with diets in the long term and that the “cure rate” for many forms of cancer is greater than the success rate for obesity control. The World Health Organization in Geneva reports an “epidemic” of obesity internationally, a critical danger to health. So just look around your office today—but don’t look in the mirror. Malcolm Gladwell suggests that “epidemics” are caused by “the Critical Few” (the 20% opinion leaders), “the Stickiness Factor” (cool remembered ideas) and “the Power of Context” (an overwhelming conforming environment). So we eat too

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much, become obese and then deny it, of course, as we pretend that, “We are really losing weight!” Why bother? We are so happy eating our lives away. Doctors are making a great living telling us that obesity increases our health risks by 100% for diabetes, hypertension, stroke, cardiac problems, arthritis, etc. And Professor Spiegel (Stanford University) suggests: 1. Too much food is damaging and disfiguring for the body. 2. We need the body to live. 3. We owe our body respect and protection. OK?

Doctors report that obesity control can significantly reduce the volume of medications prescribed for hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, etc. But they don’t seem to mind, when we take no notice. They just send us the usual huge bills for medical check-ups and prescriptions for our multiple medications. I wonder why? Do it for your children!!

But perhaps we eat too much because the rest of our world depresses us. Perhaps we are “addicted” to food because of unresolved depression. Oh dear, what to do? Well, we always have at least seven alternatives for any serious problem: 1. Give up and get fat (and go happy!) 2. Go on another diet (give it up later – of course!) 3. Stop the spouse cooking good food (it is really all her/his fault!) 4. See a psychologist for a long chat about problems with your partner! 5. Become a vegetarian (goodbye to lovely juicy steaks!) 6. Train for the half-marathon. This may be a bit dangerous for your heart. 7. RP and laugh! But why laugh at such a serious problem? Because Dr Milton Erickson (world famous psychiatrist) suggests that when we

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learn to laugh with our problems, then we can begin to change ourselves in mind and body, and we can begin to resolve the problems! With laughter we find new strengths within us that we never knew were there!

3. RP – TAKE JUST TWO MINUTES

First buy and wear all day for one month, a PERFOTEK WAISTBAND which will be your inspiring physical and psychological strength, to rapidly resolve your problem. Then practice RP. This article is about RP. Every day we can begin to take just minutes for our own mental and physical health by going gently into RP, in our own very personal way. We can use this new gentle approach for obesity control with confidence so that the problem can gently fade away. We can begin to lose those feelings of over-weight in just one week from now, without any effort or stress at all.

We know obesity is like a poison to the body, with increased health risks of: diabetes, hypertension, stroke, cardiac problems, arthritis, etc. We have no need to insult our body with excess weight. But we have to learn to laugh at it, as we must change both mind and body!

Lose weight? We’ve already tried everything. Nothing works! Is it impossible? OK! Let’s do it! Well, first we must find the right “motivation” for gentle obesity control with confidence. Not just for ourselves, but also for the people and the things that we really care about. This is critical. We cannot resolve obesity just for ourselves. We must find that deeper, very

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personal motivation, related to caring for loved ones, children family, friends and others around us.

Perhaps the inspiration may be the memory that we want to

leave behind when we go. (Not just yet, of course, but then we can do it so easily.) Perhaps we have to start another “WHO Epidemic Group” for obesity control, for happy fat slobs? We must find a “Critical Few” to inspire us, a “Stickiness Factor” to get others to remember, and a “Power of Context” with a positive obesity control environment. This could give us the chance to help others—a very satisfying and powerful personal motivator. So how do you begin to use RP?

1. From NOW on, learn the two-minute RP routine (see box in bold letters). Practice it ten times a day for just one week, so that it becomes an instinct, which requires no effort at all. Give it a “code name” (anchor reminder) of someone you love, to help you whenever needed. Don’t do it while driving the car!

2. From NOW on, before EVERY meal, do RP for just two minutes to change attitudes and feel in complete control. Don’t bother with diets or checking your weight. Just feel your clothes. Relax and feel very proud of yourself.

3. From NOW on, EVERY night for just two minutes look at yourself completely naked in the mirror, examine every part of your body … very, very carefully … and then imagine your body as you WANT it to be … so that your subconscious mind knows what you want it to do. Then it will help you to do so, in such a powerful way.

4. From NOW on, EVERY night do 10 “reach ups” (lie flat on your back with legs held straight out and reach up to touch

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your toes—ten times. Impossible? OK. Let’s do it anyway! Think of the effect on the stomach muscles as an electrifying orgasm! You will never forget it.

5. From NOW on, drink one very large glass of water (not wine, beer or vodka) before and after every meal. For each course, leave ONE QUARTER of your food uneaten on the plate. Throw it away—yes, throw it away with your Mother’s past advice, which is out of date. Times have changed. You have changed!

6. From NOW on, convince yourself that you have your RP RIGHTS, which you EARN by doing the RP with EVERY meal. You have the RIGHT to eat whenever you like, whatever you like, slowly and consciously enjoying the food you love; and the RIGHT to stop whenever feel like it. BUT you must NEVER FORGET to leave ONE QUARTER of the food on the plate UNEATEN!!! . This is very important. You’ve got to EARN your RIGHTS and to escape from your Mother’s advice!! To reinforce your RP learning, you can also listen to an audio version of RP on obesity control at: www.crelearning.com. With this simple RP routine, you will surprise yourself, as you begin to achieve your heart’s desire of obesity control with no stress or effort at all.

4. RP ROUTINE A gentle approach to obesity may seem impossible, but the “impossible” happens every day—so just do it! Tell yourself

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that you are going to learn to do RP very well. Make yourself comfortable. Gently put the left thumb into the left fist (an anchor signal). Begin to relax and breathe deeply as you do these three things:

1. With head steady, roll up the eyes and focus upon a specific spot or object high up on the wall.

2. Breathe very deeply and concentrate until the eyes want to close gently.

3. Relax and let your body float downwards. Let the left hand relax and feel like a buoyant balloon. Allow it to float upwards just a little, without any conscious effort at all. This is signal of a state of gentle deep meditation. Then, just imagine a beautiful white cleansing light, coming from above your head and relaxing and cleaning every part of mind and body, as it passes through your whole body, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Then imagine a beautiful soothing golden fluid, coming in from your toes, to sooth and heal every part of mind and body, right up to the top of your head. Feel deeply relaxed in mind and body as you repeat to yourself the following key SUGGESTIONS, three times, very slowly: “I will see, want and believe in my RP to achieve gentle obesity control. Every night I will study my body before a mirror for two minutes and deeply imagine it as I want it to be. Every night I will do my ten “reach ups” Before each meal I will drink water and do RP. The RP routine gives me RIGHT to eat whenever I like, whatever I like,

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slowly enjoying everything, PROVIDED I ALWAYS leave one quarter of all the food uneaten on the plate … and I achieve control in my own way ….” Then think deeply about these suggestions … feeling POSITIVE about your mind and body and health. Feel yourself to be in control, day by day, caring for mind and body, with the POSITIVE expectation of success. Tell yourself that when you come back from RP, you will feel well, happy and highly motivated to achieve control, with confidence and with laughter. Then come back: 1. Get ready. Release left thumb from the left fist. 2. With the eyes still closed, roll them up to the forehead.

3. Let the eyes open slowly and when back to focus, yawn as you stretch face, neck, shoulders, arms and legs …feeling in control … of mind and body! Now you are back to normal. Relax. Feel calm, confident and pleased with yourself. NB: Practice the two-minute RP, ten times a day, for just the first week. Be sure to do it on awakening in the morning and before sleeping at night, when it will turn into natural sleep, from which you will awaken in your own time in the morning. Suggestions: RP can be used for obesity control, pain, anxiety, habits, smoking and other needs. Determine what you want. Make only those suggestions that are simple and positive. Repeat them several times. Always be clear on how

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you want to think, feel and behave. Never suggest anything you do not want! The sub-conscious does not understand negatives. Final word: To change attitudes for obesity control, you have to laugh. So perhaps occasionally you could check out your Cognitive Distortions.

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5. RP - FINAL WORD OF ADVICE When confronted with a huge social dinner engagement that you cannot possibly refuse, wear your Perfotek Waistband (ONLY $13.00) and:

1. Plan ahead with a commitment to leave early for bed, equipped with a good excuse

2. Never arrive starving - snack beforehand 3. Exercise a habit of healthy choices 9 times a day 4. Order without the menu – avoid temptation 5. Order extra vegetables and fruits 6. Split desert with others

7. Arrange early to wrap up 50% to take home – too good to waste

8. Drink lots and lots of water 9. Relax and don’t talk about food 10. Feel young and normal … you can do it …

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D. IRT FOR SELF-CONTROL OF ACUTE AND CHRONIC PAIN (INSTANT RELAXATION TECHNIQUE)

1. This simple mind-body control technique, takes only about three to five minutes, and gives you the confidence to control pain naturally. To be effective, you must: understand, believe, practice and expect success. 2. IRT with practice becomes more powerful. The only "equipment" you need is an "open mind" and a marble (or similar small object) in your right hand. 3. Get into that comfortable position, in which you know, you really can relax. Be aware that marble gets warm as it absorbs heat from contact with your right hand. Open your hand and allow the warmth to evaporate. Close the hand again, and recognize the marble, as a physical external symbol, of the internal function of your mind and body. Allow it to receive and evaporate not just heat, but emotion, anxiety and stress, leaving you free, relaxed, confident and ready to learn to control your pain. 4. Now, relax with the hands on the lap. Fix your eyes on the marble, and repeat these words deeply, three times, feeling free to change the wording to fit your own very personal style: "I AM, I CAN, I BELIEVE - THAT I WILL RELAX COMPLETELY IN MIND AND BODY AND RE- ACTIVATE MY GENES, TO CONTROL MY PAIN AND DISCOMFORT” 5. With the eyes fixed on the marble or closed if you wish, start to take three slow and very deep breaths. Be sure to pause on each inhalation. Imagine each

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exhalation as evaporating all the anxiety and stress from your mind and body through to the marble in your hand. 6. After the third breath, identify the specific pain in your body right now. Concentrate on it. Concentrate!! Make it worse. Much, much worse, in your mind, as you gently begin to feel control of it, up and down. 7. Then suddenly, switch your mind to another part of your body (say the left calf) where there is absolutely no pain at all. Concentrate intensely on that part only. Concentrate only there. Feel the relief of pain naturally. Concentrate! 8. Then let your whole mind and body relax completely, thinking ONLY of your breathing, nothing else. No self talk. Just concentrate on the BREATHING. Very important. Don’t rush. Everyone has a different pace. 9. Then when YOU feel you are ready, bring yourself back at your own pace, by simply counting up slowly from 1 to 5, feeling well, relaxed and confident, with no pain at all. 10. The marble is now your very personal symbol of confidence to relax and control pain, as a positive self-healing naturally without effort, by re-activating your genes to give you relief. 11. This simple IRT can be used anywhere (eyes open or closed) to achieve a calm mind, without anger, anxiety or stress, ready to control pain or anxiety, you may have to face. Change the wording according to the need.

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E. ECR - EMOTION CONTROL ROUTINE

1. CONCEPT Recognize that your imagination is immensely more powerful than your conscious resolution! Recognize that emotional anxiety can cause pain and physical injury. Use your imagination to heal yourself with your own, very personal TWO MINUTE - ECR! ECR is a exercise of imagination to control your mind and your body. It diverts your mind from negative to a positive attitudes and emotions to achieve healing. ECR is like Chinese acupuncture without the need for needles. You are in control. But you MUST BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT!!! So relax and control your body energy channels using a two minute ECR routine for one specific emotional or physical problem (anxiety, fear, pain, phobia, skin, allergy, phobia etc.) with a specific EFR affirmation repeated many times. First select a smaller problem to be resolved. Develop confidence. Identify three possible causes of the problem. Give the problem a score now from 0/10 (nothing) to 10/10 (terrible). For a moment, imagine yourself without the problem.

2. ECR AFFIRMATION (60 seconds) Relax and say aloud: “Even though I have this … (brief specific problem), I deeply believe in myself and I will activate my genes to resolve the problem”. Memorize and repeat this affirmation three times, while very gently rubbing the painful area or the forehead. Be positive. Be confident. Expect success as you think very deeply about your problem.

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3. TAPPING (30 seconds) Relax completely. Repeat ECR affirmation, as you think deeply about your problem and stimulate mind/body and gene reaction, by tapping five times on each of the following energy points: EB = Eyebrow SE = Side of Eye UE = Under Eye UN = Under Nose TH = Thumb tip IF = Index Finger tip MF = Middle Finger tip LF = Little Finger tip KC = Karate Point (side of left hand).

4. GENE REACTION POINT (30 seconds) Relax completely. Repeat your ECR affirmation once again, Think deeply about your problem as you stimulate left/right brain and gene reaction, by tapping the left hand Gene Reaction Point (see below) during the following actions: 1. Eyes closed and wide open 2. Eyes hard down right and then left 3. Roll eyes in circle both directions 4. Sing 5 seconds of a song 5. Count to 10 Then gently reinforce your affirmation three times and relax deeply.

GENE REACTION POINT

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5. TENSION RELIEF (30 seconds)

Now, take deep breaths and blow out tension very slowly, as you inhale peace and relaxation. Then place the right hand on the left shoulder and start to pull out the tension very slowly down the arm, over the elbow, over the wrist, to the tip of each finger. Slowly draw out the tension, all the while thinking, "“Even though I have this … (brief specific problem), I deeply believe in myself and I will activate my genes to resolve the problem”. Briefly repeat tapping once more, thinking deeply about your problem to stimulate mind/body and gene reaction.

6. EXPECT RESOLUTION OF YOUR PROBLEM Repeat the whole ECR once more now. Then do it one more time in a special way that seems to suit you best. Create your personal TWO MINUTE ECR routine, with tapping and actions which seem to work well for your mind and your body. You are in control! Your imagination is immensely more powerful than your conscious resolution! Emotional anxiety can cause pain and physical injury, so use your Imagination to heal yourself! Your negative emotions and pain may be caused by disruptions in your body energy channels, so with ECR and powerful imagination you re-take control. ECR is a exercise of imagination to control mind and body. It diverts your mind from negative to a positive attitudes and emotions to achieve healing. ECR is like Chinese acupuncture without the need for needles. So relax and control your body energy channels using your own the two minute ECR routine for each specific emotional or physical problem (anxiety, fear, pain, phobia, skin, allergy, etc.) with a specific ECR affirmation.

Practice ten times daily until the problem is adequately resolved (0/10). Develop confidence! Your imagination is immensely powerful! Use it, to heal yourself!!! Finally, provide feedback and ideas to help others. BUT YOU MUST BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT!!!

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E - LAUGH AND BE HEALTHY KEY: Life can be so full of problems. We must distinguish the “coconuts” (really important things) from the peanuts (trivia with high emotional investment) … And leave the peanuts to the monkeys. On we go … together … as we believe … we can do it!!!