Book Description
The world's most exciting, fastest-growing new market? It's where you least expect it: at the bottom of the pyramid. Collectively, the world's billions of poor people have immense entrepreneurial capabilities and buying power. You can learn how to serve them and help millions of the world's poorest people escape poverty.
It is being done-profitably. Whether you're a business leader or an anti-poverty activist, business guru Prahalad shows why you can't afford to ignore "Bottom of the Pyramid" (BOP) markets.
In the book and accompanying CD videos, Prahalad presents...
Why what you know about BOP markets is wrong A world of surprises-from spending patterns to distribution and marketing
Unlocking the "poverty penalty"
The most enduring contributions your company can make Delivering dignity, empowerment, and choice-not just products
Corporations and BOP entrepreneurs Profiting together from an inclusive new capitalism
"C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they dobusiness in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation areto prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new bookoffers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability." Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect,Microsoft
"The Bottom of the Pyramid belongs at the top of the reading list forbusiness people, academics, and experts pursuing the elusive goal ofsustainable growth in the developing world. C. K. Prahalad writes withuncommon insight about consumer needs in poor societies andopportunities for the private sector to serve important public purposes whileenhancing its own bottom line. If you are looking for fresh thinking aboutemerging markets, your search is ended. This is the book for you." Madeleine K. Albright, Former U.S. Secretary of State
"Prahalad challenges readers to re-evaluate their pre-conceived notionsabout the commercial opportunities in serving the relatively poor nations ofthe world. The Bottom of the Pyramid highlights the way to commercialsuccess and societal improvement--but only if the developed worldreconceives the way it delivers products and services to the developingworld." Christopher Rodrigues, CEO, Visa International
"An important and insightful work showing persuasively how the privatesector can be put at the center of development, not just as a rhetoricalflourish but as a real engine of jobs and services for the poor." Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
Customer Reviews:
Saving the World.......2007-10-02
The author loves his TLA's (3 letter acronyms)! I wish someone had told me how technical this book was; those with an MBA will get the most out of it. But I love Prahalad's outlook and creativity. Perhaps with a little advice I can take my ideas and come up with a formal business plan.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and anecdotal evidence is not proof.......2007-06-24
Last year this book became a best seller hit among the developmental community at Washington, D.C., to the point that all bookstores at Metro DC run out of it. With notorious and well publicized praising comments from Madeleine Albright, Bill Gates and the like, I bought it too, but just to discover all the frenzy was undeserved from the viewpoint of poverty eradication.
Undoubtedly Mr. Pralhad's research demonstrates there are plenty of opportunities to do good business among the poor at the BOP (bottom of the pyramid), for them to benefit from the products and services not available now, and for some of them to go out of poverty by becoming entrepreneurs (market penetration is always limited). I agree on these conclusions, as commented extensively by the previous reviewers, and without a doubt this book will become a reference in many Business Schools. But to assert that this strategy will eradicate poverty and bring development is plain sophistry. As Carl Sagan said "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".
Why sophistry? Regarding the poverty eradication claimed by Mr. Prahalad I will try to highlight some of the main flaws in his rationale and lack of sufficient evidence:
1. Despite the consideration of several cases from around the Third-World, most of the discussion and arguments to build the framework are related to India, excessively. The conditions of the poor in Latin America are quite different, and often, they have better public services available to them. On the other hand, many African countries have worst conditions. So you can not reach valid conclusions based solely on a country with such unique cultural and ethnical conditions. For doing business the cases are fine, especially for India or China because they are such huge markets at the BOP.
2. Wealth creation is hugely overestimated. Poor entrepreneurs and their immediate family will undoubtedly benefit from these new economic activities, but the framework lacks an explanation about how these oases of welcomed capitalism will trickle-down to the rest of their neighbors and poor villages. The implicit assumption is that everybody at the BOP has to become an entrepreneur for this strategy to work, because by just having access to affordable consumer products it seems very unlikely that poverty will be eradicated. The proposed framework is just good for doing business and for the poor to have access to new services and products, but where is the sustainable "fishing industry" for the rest of the poor population? The cases are very unique, islands of excellence, and with limited potential for a population the huge size of the BOT to bail out of poverty in significant numbers.
3. The analysis lacks the historical, cultural, legal and socio-economical background for a given country or region, and this consideration is fundamental for a proper analysis on sustainable development. Even when Mr. Pralhalad correctly identifies lack of education, corruption and the size of the informal sector as barriers for development and doing business, he then oversimplifies a lot on how to overcome these key issues, and again, an isolated Indian case is used as the magic formula to solve the problem through information technology. In fact, at the end of Chapter 6, within the conclusions, he recognizes that the illustrations he provides "are but islands of excellence in a sea of deprivation and helplessness". As the development community knows well, these successful stories are very hard to replicate. In Latin America we have the outstanding cases of Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica. In Brazil, we have the cases of the Southern states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. All of them very developed as compared to their neighbors (in terms of income, education, health, etc.), but despite all efforts, no one has successfully reproduced these islands of excellence at a scale that makes a difference.
4. An example will help to understand how superficial the cases are from a point of view of development and poverty eradication. The Brazilian case of "Casas Bahia" lacks the consideration of the socio-economic environment of the country, especially the case omits to mention key characteristics of the financial and credit markets (for those interested in this particular case from the point of view of business, I recommend you read "Samuel Klein e Casas Bahia: Uma trajetoria de Sucesso", Novo Seculo, 2005, this is a real and really impressive business success story). Mr. Klein successfully, by trusting the poor, built an empire that today is still one of the few option many mid- and low-income families have to buy the first computer for their children going to college in Brazil. But, let's see why the market share for credit cards is only 4%, and why it is not a real threat for Casas Bahia own financial system as stated in the book, as well as why there is not much in here to help eradicat poverty in Brazil. Annual inflation today in Brazil is in the order of 3-4%, and the Brazilian currency, the "Real" have been steadily revaluating against the dollar for the last 3 years. However, interest rates in Brazil are sky-high, a legacy of the hyper-inflation times of twenty years ago. Interest rates for well-known international credit cards are 9-11% per month, which compounded translates to an annual rate close to 180%, regardless of whether you're poor or rich. Today retail chain stores of this type charge around 3% per month, embedded in the price of the consumer products, so the consumer doesn't know up-front the real price. This translates to a compounded rate of 43% per year. Often if you try to pay upfront, there is no discount. So where is the real benefit for the poor? Or are they just getting every day more indebted, and spending money on fat interests that they could have used to buy more or better food or better health services for their kids. I do not see where poverty eradication fits in this case. Obviously Brazil has a problem of lack of real competition in the capitalist sense; even the branches of American Banks doing business in Brazil charge these exorbitant rates. As a reference for the readers, you can buy a 30Gb iPod in Brazil for the "reasonable" amount of US$1,000, payable in 12 installments, and for the high price we also have to thank the federal government high taxes on almost everything. Coming back to the case, as an additional "benefit", you only can make the payments in person at stores of the retail chain, just to make sure the poor are tempted every month and come back for more when they are close to payback that debt. That's why there is a 77% of clients who make reapeat purchases as the book reports. Not surprisingly the case description mentions the criticism "that Casas Bahia simply exploits the poor and charges them exorbitant interest rates", but neglects to present a due explanation of why this is not truth, and simply disregards the cristicism.
5. Finally, Mr. Prahalad is extremely optimistic. At he end of Chapter 6 and in his own words: "I have no doubt that the elimination of poverty and deprivation is possible by 2020". This prophecy speaks by itself about the reliability of the analysis. And again, let's remember that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. All the book presents is anecdotal evidence, which is not proof as any scientist knows, and the framework presented has no predictive power, much less to assert that poverty will end by 2020.
Unquestionably an excellent business book, and a very innovative one, but just for that, business. That's why to me it only deserves 3 stars. On the other hand, not much value-added in there for doing real sustainable development across the board, as the author insinuates and some of the readers think, and certainly not much for real poverty eradication. For that outrageous addition to the book's title I took the other 2 stars. The "Erradicating poverty through profits" part of the book's title should be erased, so the book really deserves the 5 stars most reviewers gave to it (and as the previous reviewer rightly complained, the cases were really awfully edited for the paperback edition, even with repeated sentences). Definitely this book is not recommended if you are serious about new ideas for sustainable development. For a real book on that subject, read the recently publicated "The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It" by Paul Collier, though its scope refers mainly to very poor African countries, it is an example of a serious and proper approach to the problem of eradicating poverty. To understand the complexities of promoting development, you may also read "Making Globalization Work" by Joseph Stiglitz. These two books will clearly ilustrate why "The Fortune at the BOP" is not a book on development, and absolutely, no Nobel Prize is deserved.
Hardcover and tradepaperback are different!!!.......2007-04-13
Here is a note I sent to the editor after buying the tradepaperback version.
Your editorial staff has done something so dumb I am astounded! (Also really $%^& mad.) The hardcover and trade paperback versions of CK Prahalad - The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, are NOT the same. I assigned readings from this book to my class of 100 students. They went and bought the book and found that the case studies aren't there. On closer investigation I see that you shortened the case studies and renamed the chapters. Unfortunately the editing on the shortening is terrible and I simply can't ask my students to read such badly written material.
You did several things wrong
1) You sell two books with identical titles and covers, which have different content
2) You edited very very badly
3) You did this on an award winning book with high visibility
As far as I can tell there is no way for anyone to figure out that the content is different except in the very rare case that they own both versions.
This is a black mark on the Wharton name. What were you thinking?
-james
at last a pragmatic approach to develpment.......2007-01-09
Prahalad'book "the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid" demonstrates the importance to get the people we are "supposed" to help to get involved. The bottom up approach is in line with William Shaffeerly and David Bornstein books where the people are key to any lasting development. The top down approach a la Jeffrey Sacks are fine for the politicians but did not bring much results after all these years. It is time for a change in approach and the Nobel Price to Dr. M.Yunus is very encouraging.
Magical .......2006-08-29
FBP is an intriguing concept and the model can be scaled up or down in size in all parts of the world. The book serves as a wake up call to businessmen across the world.
Book Description
How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself with the master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.
Download Description
Manufacturers around the world have learned much from Japanese manufacturing techniques. However, any company that wants to compete on knowledge must also learn from Japanese techniques of knowledge-creation. Managers at Japan's most successful companies recognize that creating knowledge is not simply a matter of processing objective information. Rather, it depends on tapping the tacit and often highly subjective insights, intuitions, and ideals of employees.
Customer Reviews:
Not even worth one star.......2005-11-21
I was very disappointed by this book. Not only was it painful to read, because it dragged on and was full of academic nonsense, the authors views were also unconvincing and based on old research.
This book is outdated and not relevant to the way Japan is today. The authors use a lot of research and examples from the 80s and even the 70s. They make the claim that Japanese firms experienced a lot of success in the late 70s and 80s because of their superior ability to "create knowledge." They seem to be in complete denial that Japan's economic bubble had anything to do with this "success" that they are talking about. Also, the book was written over 10 years ago, before the financial crisis and before people realized that a lot of this so-called success was just cooked in the books by accountants.
They do give some reasonable examples of knowledge creating firms that are successful, but that's all they are, just a few examples and not an accurate representation of the whole picture of Japanese Management. Also, most of the examples are of Japanese manufacturing firms. What about the service sector? Suspiciously they did not use examples of companies from Japan's service sector, which are extremely inefficient and not the text book perfect examples of successful "knowledge creating" firms.
The theories and models in this book are a bunch of overly abstract vague pretentious academic nonsense. The real life examples are so nebulously related to the theories and models that most successful (or unsuccessful) companies can be used as examples.
If you want to read a bunch of nonsense based on old research with the names of Harvard professors and some philosophy thrown in to make the nonsense seem legit and intelligent, then by all means, read this book. But if you are like me and want to learn about Japanese management, don't waste your time or money on this book.
BEWARE! Digital version is only a 10 page summary!.......2004-03-16
Don't get caught like I did.
From information-processing machine to knowledge-creating co.......2002-08-28
This book is the classic in the organizational learning approach. But it¡¯s more than that. This book is not about lean production or Japanese kaizen system, but about how to enhance a firm¡¯s adaptability to turbulent environment through knowledge creation. with suggesting new concept of knowledge-creation as the tangible base of organizational capabilities or innovation, this book serves as the bridge between organizational learning school and resource-capabilities view.
As the being to survive in environment, the firm processes signals or information from environment. Knowledge is the framework to process info to interpret the state of environment. Up to 1980s, the company was viewed as information-processing machine. Indeed, firm is the flow of information. That kind of view has been justified against the business reality. Actually, it¡¯s the very picture of bureaucratic organization which culminated in GM¡¯s M-form model. Here, CEO like Jack Welch is the hero. Such an organization is effective when the environment is stable and predictable. But since 1970s, things have changed. Uncertainties have been amplified with the hypercompetition on global scale. Now the framework to interpret the signal from environment, itself should incessantly and systemically be adapted to turbulent reality. Knowledge and innovation have come the words of the day. Not surprisingly, there has been growing dissatisfaction with traditional organizational structure. Kao¡¯s CEO, Maruta put it in this way: ¡®The intelligence of a firm does not come from the president nor top management. That must come from the gathering of all knowledge of all members.¡¯ This book is about to how to build organization as the effective innovation site. To do so, all the available knowledge in and out of company should be able to be mobilized and freely flow throughout the firm. For instance, front line employees are constantly in direct touch with the outside world. They can obtain access to the up-to-date info on the market, technology, or competitors. But their knowledge is, in most cases, not able to be expressed in explicit way. Generally, it¡¯s the tacit knowledge. But to survive more and more intensified competition, the firm should be apt to mobilizing their tacit knowledge. To achieve such a goal, task force or bottom-up organizational model emerged. In those model, the creative knowledge worker, in Peter Drucker¡¯s term, is the hero. But in those models, knowledge tends to be confined to narrow front line, and comes and goes with creative employees. And worse, the firm can¡¯t react as an efficient unit to threats from environment. As a result, innovation is the haphazard event. So there should be some integrating mechanism like hierarchy. To be efficient unit, knowledge should flow all over the company. Here, authors rediscover the significance of middle managers. They play the role of midwife and amplifier of knowledge from front line employees and between various divisions in the firm. They coordinate the flow of knowledge and maintain the firm as a coherent knowledge-creating unit. In short, the firm should be organized as the melting pot of member¡¯s knowledge. Authors take examples from Japanese firms to illustrate what¡¯s like such a site.
A look at knowledge creation.......2001-11-26
I came to this book through a reference in Novak & Gowin. What caught my eye was that someone was willing to talk about an epistemological stance other than the analytic, reductionist view held in science. For the most part, I found this book's understanding of Western epistemology to be reasonable; I can't speak for the Japanese epsitemology cited. What interested me, and for which I recommend the book, is their view of knowledge creation. The case studies lend weight to their view, but they do explicate a possible model for turning subjective knowledge into explicit knowledge. They suggest a management model for making it happen. The book is very well written and edited.
I believe the book needs a very careful read *outside* the business community. I would put this book down as the business version of Feynman's *The Character of Natural Law*.
An essential book on knowledge management.......2001-09-28
This is perhaps one of the most important books presently available on knowledge management. The authors demonstrate how 'knowledge' is vital to innovation within Japanese firms, with clear distinction made between 'tacit' and explicit' knowledge. An effort is made to distinguish the differences between Japanese and Western firms through an emphasis on the importance of 'tacit' knowledge and a 'middle-up-down' management process. Other than Chapter 2 (a review of philosophical background relating to epistemology which might put some readers off), this book has minimal jargons and complexities and would be an easy and enjoyable read even for non-academics. The arguments presented by the authors are well-illustrated with relevant industrial examples. Overall, this is a book that not only brings a new perspective to knowledge management but also raises questions for the ardent researchers who might ponder over its relevance to non-Japanese firms.
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful framework for thinking about cultural differences
- A must have resource for highly effective multicultural / multinational leadership...
- Excellent insights while entertaining to read
- Monumental Book Well Worth the Read
- Pioneering work
|
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
Geert Hofstede , and
Gert Jan Hofstede
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
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Similar Items:
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Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business
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Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations
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Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories, and Synthetic Cultures
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Beyond Culture
ASIN: 0071439595 |
Book Description
The landmark study of cultural differences across 70 nations, Cultures and Organizations helps readers look at how they think—and how they fail to think—as members of groups. Based on decades of painstaking field research, this new edition features the latest scientific results published in Geert Hofstede’s scholarly work Culture’s Consequences, Second Edition. Original in thought and profoundly important, Cultures and Organizations offers vital knowledge and insight on issues that will shape the future of cultures and nations in a globalized world.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful framework for thinking about cultural differences.......2007-09-20
A must-read for anyone interested in the subject area.
The new and revised content also relate Hofstede's original groundbreaking research to the more recent work of other renowned scholars in the field (such as Ronald Inglehart of the Univ of Michigan and the World Values Survery). These links make his work even more compelling and make you start to think that we may be inching closer to a more universally agreed upon framework for thinking about cultural differences.
A must have resource for highly effective multicultural / multinational leadership..........2007-05-29
As a combat tested USAF E3 AWACS command pilot (over 1900+ hours of total flight experience), this book is a potent resource for anyone seeking to gain insights on how best to manage a multicultural / multinational workspace.
Excellent insights while entertaining to read.......2007-05-24
Having just survived a merger of two companies, I was searching to find the right words to explain the differences in cultures I was experiencing. Although this book focuses on national cultures, I found the explanations of the dimensions of culture and how they manifest themselves in different behaviors appropriate for corporate situations. The last few chapters deal explicitly with corporate culture, but I found these chapters less insightful than the others. The book is very well written and organized, with tables summarizing key concepts and entertaining anecdotes to illustrate the points. Because I've traveled internationally for business, I was familiar with other works on culture, but none were as helpful as this book. I now have the vocabulary to articulate the differences I see.
Monumental Book Well Worth the Read.......2007-03-06
The father and son team of Geert and Geert Jan Hofstede have done a remarkable job breaking down the (measurable) elements of the world's cultures, usingt the somewhat antiquated IBM studies combined with more recent (less comprehensive) studies. The end result is that nations can be evaulauted on the basis of criteria such as "uncertainty avoidance," "individualism" and "power distance from superiors."
The work is enlightening and helpful to anyone who works internationally. It is also useful to break down one's own nation (for example, some Americans lean toward the British way of thinking while others are more German-like). The same criteria that divide nations also divide families within a society.
Businessmen, missionaries, pastors, counselors, journalists, and social scientists should devour these materials!
This should be required reading for anyone planning to live overseas or anyone who deals with internationals. In short, this book is relevant to our modern "shrinking" world and quite well done.
Like most significant works, this volume has its weak points.
Although the authors claim to espouse a "values neutral" position (which I have always argued is an impossible and illogical position), their Dutch/Swedish preferences ring out loudly and clearly (humanistic, environmnetalist, etc.). Although the authors do make a serious attempt to look at things from other perspectives, they simply cannot divorce themselves from their own cultural preferances. This is not bad -- they simply need to be above board and stop pretending to take the role of the neutral outsider (at least to better influence those of us who are American conservatives; we are big into distinguishing between fact and evaluation of fact; these evaluations are always done through a person's own personal gridwork).
The authors also have occasional trouble connecting a few dots. For example, on the bottom of p. 355, the Hofstedes are tactfully scolding the U.S. for its lack of foreign aid (again, showing their own bias), but on the top of p. 356 they add, "Looking back to half a century of development assistance, most observers agree that the effectiveness of much of the spending has been dismal." They then say those countries which did improve did so because of their cultural values, not foreign aid. But they seem incapable of concluding that good intentions (and even money) is not the most effective way to solve these problems. They just don't get it.
The same is true with contributions through governments to Tsunami relief. It should be expected that individualistic countries would be more prone to give as individuals, not as collective societies. Rather than look at total giving (or perecentage) OF A SOCIETY, they authors confuse a society with its government. Lots of missed "dot connections" in this work.
Despite the books weakspots, it is overwhelming strong and rich with fascinating content. It is a "mind opening" work -- well worth the read. You simply must read this one!
Pioneering work.......2006-04-24
This is a pioneering book, which provides a generalist approach to dealing with cross-cultural issues with many excellent examples. Hofstede was one of the first to bring the study of how culture affects human interaction in the field of business. The quantifying approach is very similar to what cultural anthropologists use. As with all pioneering works there is some criticism about conflict resolution as other reviewers have pointed out. Another central criticisms of this model has been that nation state and culture are always presumed to be the same. Local culture does not follow political boundaries. Globalization has also changed some of the observations initially made by Hofstede.
Some readers might be tempted to think of people in simple categories or stereotypes, which is precisely what Hofstede counsels that we should attempt to avoid. Cultures and organizations gives good insights on how "Groupthink" controls our lives and how we could improve interaction.
Hofstede's tools for understanding different national cultures are widely used by cross-cultural trainers all over the world and taught in many fields.
This is a good book for international managers and students of culture. HR-practitioners working in multicultural organizations might find this a bit theoretical but nonetheless useful for understanding underlying causes for human behaviour.
Average customer rating:
- Has history been tampered with?
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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Similar Items:
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
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Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
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Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory
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They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Has history been tampered with?.......2007-10-23
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!
The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.
Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but
there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.
Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.
You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!
The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!
New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.
The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.
The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.
Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.
We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.
Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.
The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.
When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.
There are no answers to simple questions:
When were these primary sources written?
Where and by whom were these sources found?
It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.
As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,
innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.
The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.
Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.
This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.
Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.
`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as
there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.
Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.
They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.
All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:
Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!
The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!
The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.
All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.
Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.
Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!
This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
Average customer rating:
- Great book, (0 stars to Amazon.co.uk)
- Good Starter of I.O, comprehensive, self-satisfactory
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Advanced Industrial Economics
Stephen Martin
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
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Similar Items:
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The Theory of Industrial Organization
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Oligopoly Pricing: Old Ideas and New Tools
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The Theory of Incentives: The Principal-Agent Model
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The Practice of Econometrics: Classic and Contemporary
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Industrial Organization: Theory and Applications
ASIN: 0631217568 |
Book Description
This updated and substantially revised second edition, like its predecessor, integrates a discussion of the latest theoretical developments with a comprehensive review of empirical work. Designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduates in industrial economics, there are complete treatments of the basic oligopoly models that are the bread and butter of theoretical industrial economics (Cournot, Bertrand, and extensions; horizontal and vertical product differentiation), of models of strategic behavior as well as of the determination of market and firm structure, and of the literatures on collusion, advertising, and the economics of innovation. Stephen Martin also provides a complete review of empirical tests of market performance, from Bain to the 'empirical renaissance' and beyond.
contains expanded treatments of: hotelling's spatial model oligopoly with quality differentiation empirical evidence on entry and exit the analysis of firm structure presents new discussions of: the classical view of the Cournot model strategic substitutability and complementarity representative consumer models of product differentiation the Kreps and Scheinkman model with product differentiation the New Empirical Industrial Organization, Solow residual, and event study approaches to the analysis of market power deterministic and stochastic models of research and development With a more cohesive writing style, reduced size, additional invaluable information, and new problems to solve, the second edition of Advanced Industrial Economics is a key text in industrial economics.
The paperback edition of this book is not available from Blackwell in the US or Canda
Customer Reviews:
Great book, (0 stars to Amazon.co.uk).......2005-02-18
I bought this book 4 weeks ago and I am still waiting. I just keep receiving emails saying that they are having some delay so in 1-2 week they will dispatche the book.
If you really need this book go and buy it someplace else.
Good Starter of I.O, comprehensive, self-satisfactory.......2000-02-16
No doubt, one of the best for those interested in graduate level of industrial organization. Readers can learn about major business strategies in industrial markets and its welfare implications. Leading theories, major empirical analyses, and added author's view against too influential Chicago ideas will giveĀ@excellent perspective of the progress in the field. The appendix of game theory is written to make the book self-satisfactory.
Book Description
This is the revised and expanded edition of the most sought-after guide for everyone seeking grants: nonprofits, state and local governments, universities, school administrators, teachers, artists, and those seeking funds for scholarly and cultural enterprises. Written by two authors who have won millions of dollars in grants — and updated to include vital information and advice accumulated since The Only Grant-Writing Book You’ll Ever Need first appeared — this new edition provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for grant writers, demystifying the process while offering indispensable advice from funders and grant recipients. It includes the following.
• Guidance on developing a realistic, cost-effective, collaborative program
• Concrete suggestions (with practice exercises and examples) for approaching each section of a grant so that the proposal is absolutely clear to the funder
• A glossary of terms with any word, phrase, or concept a grant writer may need, plus fifty tips for writing a winning proposal
• Funders roundtables put you inside the minds of the people who award grants
Customer Reviews:
Grant-Writing book recommendation.......2007-09-11
This book is very well-organized, presenting the information in a step-by-step manner that makes it manageable for neophyte would-be grant-writers. I have no doubt that it will serve me well as a continuing resource even as I gain skills and experience.
Helped me through my class!.......2007-05-14
I used this book for a grant writing class I've taken and found it to be a great guide. It's written well and very user friendly. This is definately a book that I'll keep and use through the years when it comes to writing future grants! The resources in the back are helpful and it's fun taking the quizzes and realizing how much I know. Good book...worth buying.
More for organizations than individuals.......2007-04-05
It more geared towards someone writing for grants for a non-profit as opposed to artist/business grants.
Outstanding Guideline.......2007-01-10
Outstanding guideline for anyone needing advice and direction
in regards to writing proposals. Also shows how to present your
group or organization in the best light.
I enjoyed this book.............2006-11-14
This was the first grant-writing book I ever purchased. It has been some time indeed. This is a quality book, but it doesn't provide alot of sources for funding. I would suggest Government Funding and You for a more complete view. But I would very strongly suggest this book.
Book Description
This primers tells the "have-nots" how they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of true democracy.
Customer Reviews:
Farting as social protest..........2007-06-23
They don't make 'em like Saul Alinsky anymore. (The only left-wing public intellectuals alive today that could even be mentioned in the same breath are Zinn and Chomsky...and they ain't gonna be around much longer.) Saul was one of those hyper-literate, socially-conscious Hebrews, coming straight out of the Jewish liberal tradition that made a unique impact on the political/class struggle of the 20th century. (Now the Jews have joined the establishment, and the historical accident of an intellectually capable oppressed minority will, in a generation or two, no longer exist.)
His treatise on pragmatic social change is a delight to read (even for a reactionary right-winger like myself), though it is somewhat dated, and the predictions oftentimes wrong. Despite his errors, and predictive ineptitude, this book is the work of a keen intellect, a man committed to what he thought was right, and an invaluable insight into the mind of a thinking leftist.
Alinsky has read his Marx, and the Hegelian/Marxist dialectic is a continuing theme in the book, as is the middle class's supposed alienation, but he is no commie. He criticizes Soviet Russia, and extols democracy as the only means by which revolution is to be achieved. He believes in probability, not causality, and is fiercely opposed to individualism. ("We are our brother's keeper," "Individuality is primitive stupidity.") I find the latter quote ironic, since, recalling Anthropology 101, the more primitive tribes display the most communitarian spirit...but Alinsky never says he is infallible.
His rules on means and ends are brilliant, as is his dissection of how protest is to be effective. He is particularly scornful of protest tactics (still used today by the anti-war movement...ineffectually) that achieve no concrete results, and only alienate the middle-class power base.
He considers that right actions are always done for wrong reasons, and adduces Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, disobeying a directive from the Supreme Court, and illegal use of military commissions to try civilians (sound familiar?), in order to win the Civil War.
He analyzes Gandhi as a pragmatist, not as some living moral saint, and provides a revisionist account of his tactics of non-violence. (He neglects to mention that Gandhi was a klismaphiliac.)
Alinsky stresses change, and dynamism, the stagnation of consistency, and how your friends today can be your enemies tomorrow. (The Left has forgotten this lesson, to their rhetorical disadvantage.)
The one place where Alinsky seriously goes off the rails is the chapter on using stock proxies to combat corporate practices. I've been to shareholders' meetings, and seen the "progressive" proposals by church groups, PETA, the Sierra Club, etc., voted on...and routinely defeated by margins of 99.7%. Alinsky lets his idealism trump his pragmatic common sense when he claims that people--middle-class people--will sacrifice dividends for "social justice."
Notwithstanding that, however, this book is still very worthwhile for all to study...partly as an historical artifact, partly for the Man to understand how to effectively stymie the lumpen-proletariat, and partly for the Left to understand why not to replicate the mistakes that Alinsky identified and warned against. (Although the Left would be advised to devise completely new tactics altogether...marching, picketing, and chanting are, as Alinsky would say, "trite.")
Rules For Radicals.......2007-03-12
I liked the book and wanted to compare some of the ideas to those that I have used to fight for Motorcycle Rights.
I have not finished it yet but would suggest those interested in rights movements do Read It.
ROGUE
Motorcycle Hall Of Fame Member
A useful tool for change.......2006-11-03
Although reading this book was a class assignment, I am certain that I will use it throughout my life as a professional and as a community member, desiring to make change in my own community. It is a very useful tool or guide that can be applied to a variety of situations -- from national political policies to PTA organizing. Don't let the title of the book scare you away, you do not need to consider yourself a radical to make change.
There are things I don't like, but some things I liked very much!.......2005-09-13
"RULES FOR RADICALS" by Saul Alinsky.
As some readers observe, it was Alinsky's "rules" as adopted by political conservatives which turned tables on the political left. I review "Rules" from a philosophical standpoint and a rational approach to truth criteria.
One of the more telling passages comes early, in the PROLOGUE:
*In a world where everything is so interrelated that one feels helpless to know where or how to grab hold and act, defeat sets in; for years there have been people who've found society too overwhelming and have withdrawn, concentrated on 'doing-their-own-thing'. Generally we have put them into mental hopitals and diagnosed them as schizophrenics.* -Saul Alinsky, PROLOGUE, p. xix
I am much in agreement with Alinsky's description of the schizoid split that takes place in the minds and hearts of many. Alinsky does not make the complete and logical connection between political activism and sanity and mental health. Alinsky can only imply it. Political activists, as we may observe them day to day, seldom display such an evolved commitment to principle or reason, nor do they demonstrate PEACE, but likely as not, rage and discontentment. At their worst, they exhibit the flawed chararacter who prefers to change the world, never him or herself.
The very problem that Alinsky identifies is the off-spring of a very popular epidemic of moral relativism, rooted in a psychological SCRIPT based upon pain-avoidance and selfish attitudes and a turning away from all-things-uncomfortable-in-life, and all responsibility for wrongs in the world. i.e. the schizoid split, which simply says, "I'm accountable only for credit for saving the world; I'm not accountable if its only a big, dirty clean-up job! It is directly related to the same SITUATIONAL ETHICS embodied in humanist and liberal views of society, an attitude of spiting authority and refusing to be held to any identifiable moral standard, whatsoever.
Alinsky does acquaint us with some fundamental moral dilemmas, especially regarding the definition of POWER. He leaves the reader with a sense of clarity. I do not believe activists generally reflect the rationalist tendency with which Alinsky confronts elements of our political life.
Moreover, the striking issue which Alinsky seems to avoid is the realm in which individuals become personally responsible for their lives; that precise point in which the individual acknowledges that life itself is larger than a part, and that all problems are not the government's making, nor is government action necessarily the solution.
I keep in mind that Alinsky was an agnostic. (He has passed on). Unfortunately, when someone adopts moral and ethical positions, far removed from notions of a higher power, he is simply 'playing God'; and that is where the MORAL RELATIVISM issue enters the scene. Philosophically, when any of us identifies RIGHT & WRONG, there ought to be both ACCOUNTABILITY & CONSISTENCY; social activists frequently fail to identify on a permanent basis, what constitutes everyday standards of RIGHT & WRONG, and Alinsky essentially advocates endless and on-going situational ethics and moral relativism; but his ideas, as TOOLS, are free for everyone to employ. There's the rub!
Alinsky does raise some fundamental philosophical issues, but certainly not all. His greatest fault in my opinion, is that he leaves these issues incomplete. It was fair for him to hold his materialistic view of property, society, activism etc. even if those are a limited view; but was it fair for him to avoid fundamental philosophical conflicts between science & religion & philosophy? Alinsky is TUNNEL-VISIONED in this regard, because solutions to human problems are not inherently, POLITICAL solutions. That's where the RULES ends in an incomplete viewing of human problems. Many human problems have spiritual solutions; but RULES is good as a starting outline of human ethical problems between opposing forces, so far as Alinsky is willing to examine public life. I give Alinsky his due.
Was Alinsky willing to define MAN, except as a physical animal, devoid of soul, destined to be in eternal conflict with public institutions of power? Alinsky fails, and leaves us a model of life as individuals in perpetual battle with the Nation, the Corporation, or the City Fathers (or Mothers!). He cannot prove that simply because we are fighting a fight, that our discontentment shall turn to contentment.
Who will benefit from reading Alinsky's Rules for HOW-TO-FIGHT-THE-GOOD-FIGHT? There are groups from all parts of the social spectrum that fight foolishly. I see them sabotage their own efforts all the time. Here's an example:
#1 The RIGHT-TO-LIFE organization opposes abortion; but instead of simply fighting that specific fight, they squander their energies in fighting Right-To-Assisted Suicide. Their focus is too broad to be effective. R.T.L fights in all directions at once, with the result they become depressed and confused. In fact, if they narrowed their focus and pursued the single battle they could win, ABORTION, the rest of the issues they oppose just might topple to their satisfaction.
#2 RIGHT-TO-LIFE Operates arrogantly, and by this I mean that they use an absolutist slogan, "ABORTION IS ALWAYS WRONG!"
I'm sorry, but it is perennially true that exceptions make the rule. Were RTL less absolutist, less inclined to 'play GOD' and more inclined to serve GOD, their cause would appeal to a wider base of reasonable and common sensical people...everyday people. We often say, NEVER SAY NEVER, and we might also say, ALWAYS AVOID SAYING ALWAYS. It makes one appear arrogant, imperious, and unreasonable.
#3 RTL presents the issue, "personally". They present it to the general public at their rallies as a "personal" issue. Their speakers sob and grieve, and so does their audience, to the point that to be motivated on the issue of ABORTION, it would appear that one must first feel misery and spread misery to everyone else. They have failed to present their issue in a POSITIVE manner, as a common human problem that requires thoughtful consideration. Hey! Nobody wants to feel miserable. Who needs it?
#4 RTL employs the "CULTURE-OF-DEATH" slogan to describe the FIFTY-MILLION-PLUS babies murdered by abortion in the U.S. alone since 1967. "Culture-of-Death" is backing the opposition into a corner and insisting on beating him to death where he stands. That's odd, because most religious people would agree that rather than "condemning" the culture, religion would most likely teach men to help "show" their brother the way out of darkness, rather than merely naming the ditch that he dwells in for the sake of "shaming" him. RTL might replace that negative slogan with CULTURE-OF-LIFE celebrations to endorse family and single parents who commit to nurture and protect life.
I believe Alinsky is a wonderful focal point for philosopical questions, but he does not address all the issues in full. He is not afraid of conflict, and was willing to lead where and when he was invited as an organizer; but was Alinsky willing to address fundamental issues which go to the very core of human conflict? Not really, as much as I admire the man, I find he is limited by an incomplete view of MAN, the citizen. Man was not a SOUL by Alinsky's estimation. Therefore, Alinsky sees men accountable to their fellow man, but does not see Man accountable to GOD or spiritual principle. Perhaps Alinsky's shortsightedness was that it limits our very life to an eternal conflict on the basis of HAVES & HAVE NOTS.
The flawed assumption in Alinsky's writing in this philosophical sense, is that his moral, ethical, and philosophical views of individual activism, are based upon an undeclared religious assumption of UNITY amongst people. Alinsky worked toward unification, but without identifying the WHAT it is, that truly unifies all mankind. The same exception is made throughout liberal movements today. There is an inherent affirmation of UNITY throughout liberal philosophy, but denial as to what constitutes UNITY. This gross error becomes equally pronounced in a philosopical scrutiny of Alinsky.
Credit Alinsky with an honest viewing of Mahatma Ghandi, whose ideas are largely misreprented and misunderstood in popular culture. Gandi was hardly a saint, and he certainly was not free of considerations of violence to achieve Indian independence. He was a pragmatist in every sense. Alinsky focuses on this aspect of Ghandi's personality.
'Rules for Radicals' is valuable for its truths, and for its flaws. Alinsky was a brilliant and courageous man, though not a hero by any stretch. Alinsky was a man keenly aware that he was a power broker, and who casually avoided the deeper implications of his ideological foundations. The fire which drove him to an evangelical fervor as a political organizer is worthy of study. There is something in his book for everyone, but I will not fail to point out that some activists (and I have used RIGHT-TO-LIFE as an example here) draw their ideological motivations from such a narrow and restrictive set of paramaters [scripture and religious sentiments in this case] that they are sometimes counterproductive, halting, and doomed to an ineffectiveness. For this, I, for one, am terribly sorry, and very saddened.
If you have never observed "peace" or "justice" activsts engage in spiteful back-stabbing, and gossip in the struggle for a paid, $5.00/per hour activist job, you might blindly believe that such people are often SAINTLY, or PEACEFUL, and above others. I assure you, they are as self-serving as the rest of us. Alinsky is very human, and not the epitome of human virtue; and the difficulty with activism is that activists will cloak themselves in self-righteous virtue, absent the logical and rational justifications that support such a sense of righteousness. Alinsky would have us believe that CHANGE is what we must force upon the world outside of ourselves. Sadly, it is a truth that we cannot have any kind of peace, until we begin to force change inside ourselves first.
I found "Rules for Radicals" to be an excellent jumping-off-point in the process of clarifying what I believe. It is better as an outline of issues to be discussed; but I was deeply moved by the book.
Who really knew Sol Alinsky?.......2005-08-09
Soon I will celebrate my 84th birthday; I'm originally from NYC and lived in the West Bronx where I saw and heard Sol Alinsky speak at building cooperatives and other organizational events on various occasions. Sol Alinsky was NOT a Marxist and those who attribute this to him never saw or heard him when he was a young and very alive human being. He was an honest, sincere American patriot.
He lived in a shameful period of our history when Capitalism was at its worst; not too many years after the tragic, horrific Triangle fire which burned a large number of seamstresses to death in a dress factory. Since the truism that "history repeats itself" is occurring at this very moment, if I believed in reincarnation, I would search for Alinsky's return. Capitalism has returned to the days of old and there are very few companies which are good to their workers.
Alinsky was the workers' knight in shining armor with a tongue that was greater and stronger than that of Sir Lancelot. If Hillary or any one else from that period learned anything from him, they were very fortunate for he was that unique voice of decency which appears all to infrequently.
For all those honest, good Americans who are appallled with the lies and deceptions of our present day leaders, this is a book which should be read to help, guide and invigorate you in the never-ending battle against religious fanaticism and ultra right-wing reactionary views. When a group argues for the teachings of the BIBLE as to Creation, we are in very deep trouble and the cultural switch has slipped into reverse.
No one wants to acknowledge that the so-called Bible was NOT written by God but by men and it does NOT represent the WORD OF GOD. I strongly urge one and all to read Saul Alinsky.
Book Description
Creating civic will by engaging citizens on the toughest public problems helps break legislative and bureaucratic gridlock and restores trust in public institutions. This book shows you how to do it.
--The Honorable Federico Pena, U.S. Secretary of Transportation
The leaders who are most effective in addressing public issues are those who have the credibility to bring together the right people to create visions and solve problems. Drawing on their extensive research, as well as on the advice and guidance of the leading scholars and practitioners in the field, David Chrislip and Carl Larson show how elected officials and other civic leaders can generate the civic will to break through legislative and bureaucratic gridlock, deal with complex issues, and engage frustrated and angry citizens. They also describe how to design, initiate, and sustain a constructive, collaborative process. This groundbreaking book provides insight and answers to the major challenges facing communities today.
Book Description
An informed and excoriating attack on the tragic waste, futility, and hubris of the West's efforts to date to improve the lot of the so-called developing world, with constructive suggestions on how to move forward.
William Easterly's The White Man's Burden is about what its author calls the twin tragedies of global poverty. The first, of course, is that so many are seemingly fated to live horribly stunted, miserable lives and die such early deaths. The second is that after fifty years and more than $2.3 trillion in aid from the West to address the first tragedy, it has shockingly little to show for it. We'll never solve the first tragedy, Easterly argues, unless we figure out the second.
The ironies are many: We preach a gospel of freedom and individual accountability, yet we intrude in the inner workings of other countries through bloated aid bureaucracies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank that are accountable to no one for the effects of their prescriptions. We take credit for the economic success stories of the last fifty years, like South Korea and Taiwan, when in fact we deserve very little. However, we reject all accountability for pouring more than half a trillion dollars into Africa and other regions and trying one "big new idea" after another, to no avail. Most of the places in which we've meddled are in fact no better off or are even worse off than they were before. Could it be that we don't know as much as we think we do about the magic spells that will open the door to the road to wealth?
Absolutely, William Easterly thunders in this angry, irreverent, and important book. He contrasts two approaches: (1) the ineffective planners' approach to development-never able to marshal enough knowledge or motivation to get the overambitious plans implemented to attain the plan's arbitrary targets and (2) a more constructive searchers' approach-always on the lookout for piecemeal improvements to poor peoples' well-being, with a system to get more aid resources to those who find things that work. Once we shift power and money from planners to searchers, there's much we can do that's focused and pragmatic to improve the lot of millions, such as public health, sanitation, education, roads, and nutrition initiatives. We need to face our own history of ineptitude and learn our lessons, especially at a time when the question of our ability to "build democracy," to transplant the institutions of our civil society into foreign soil so that they take root, has become one of the most pressing we face.
Customer Reviews:
Accurate assessment, poor presentation.......2007-10-15
This book makes the very accurate argument that pumping more money into foreign aid is not the answer to the Third World's problems. He correctly notes that:
a. Market-based approaches to aid are more effective than top-down planning.
b. Currently, aid providers often overlap in their efforts, reducing overall effectiveness, and are not held responsible for the success or failure of their efforts.
c. The goals of aid are often so broad that it is difficult to determine what works and what doesn't. Foreign aid is usually more cost-effective with projects that have a single, well-defined goal.
d. No feedback mechanism exists for receivers of aid, receivers have no say in how aid money is distributed or utilized, and not independent analysis of aid providers is ever performed.
e. Aid currently focuses on development, but a lot of development requires money for maintenance and this aspect is frequently not funded.
f. In the case of AIDS, too much money is spent on extending the lives of people that are HIV-positive, while not enough is done to prevent additional cases. This is the least effective way of dealing with the problem.
Unfortunately, Easterly presents his arguments in a somewhat haphazard manner. The book is written in short burst sub-chapters, with macro-level discussions intermixed with individual-level stories that struggle to blend into a single coherent argument. Thus, while the ideas presented suggest a 5-star rating for this book, the presentation and readability pull it down to 4-stars.
This book is best read with Jeffrey Sach's "The End of Poverty", which provides the opposite, big-Planner aspect of foreign aid.
Frustrating and Illuminating.......2007-09-03
I found The White Man's Burden frustrating and illuminating at the same time. I was frustrated by the fact that despite masses of foreign aid little seems to have helped Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the other areas known as "the Rest". It was illuminating in that William Easterly oes such a good job of analyzing the reasons why so much good will and so much money have accomplished so little.
Basically, Westerners who seek to help the rest of the world have largely been Planners, Easterly's term for people and organizations who think the way to help others is to help them become more like themselves. Despite historic, cultural, religious, and a host of other differences, the West tries to improve the Rest by trying to make it into a New West. On the other hand, there are the Searchers, who try to find ways to help and to help the Rest help itself. Unfortunately, too many agencies and too many powerful people are Planners, and far too few are Searchers. Easterly dissects the failures of the Planners and compares them with the successes of Searchers in a scholarly, well researched manner that leaves room for the occasional witticism.
As I read The White Man's Burden I recognized so many of the same problems that I, as a public school teacher, face dealing with bureaucracies full of Planners, who think the way to solve a problem is to come up with a big overall Scheme and throw tons of money around, usually unsuccessfully. Easterly has performed a valuable service by revealing the problem and identifying the solutions. Maybe someday the Searchers will be in charge!
A Wake-up call for the Aid-Industry.......2007-08-07
William Easterly gives, in his book, The White Man's Burden, an important contribution to the debate on foreign aid to developing countries. As a counterpart to economist Jeffrey Sachs and the World Bank's utopist policies, most of all suitable to give the West and their politicians a clean conscience - this book gives more realistic and down-to-earth suggestions to what really could work and what is possible to accomplish. It also calls for greater UN/World Bank/ NGO accountability towards the poor and not only towards donors...A "must-read" for all involved in foreign aid and other citizens alike.
Skip Part 3.......2007-07-26
In this book, William Easterly does an excellent job of critiquing the West's efforts at foreign aid and why they have been so unsuccessful despite constant efforts over the past decades. He draws on his extensive experience with the World Bank and knowledge of the practices of other aid agencies to build a solid foundation for his argument. His claims that the grand plans of agencies simply do not address the real problems that the poverty face and that their efforts are simply not working are well founded.
However he divides the book into 4 parts, the first an introduction and the second a more detailed critique of development agencies. The fourth section presents his conclusions about the future of foreign aid and suggestions about how to make it more effective. But in part 3 he strays from the topic of direct foreign aid to address other ways that he claims that West has tried to aid the Rest. The section consists of 2 chapters. The first chapter addresses a proposed idea that Western powers take over certain sections of the developing world as a sort of economic protectorate. The idea is not clearly outlined but Easterly is immediately opposed to it because it sounds sort of like colonialism. He then analyzes decolonization for examples of why colonialism was bad for the developing world and, by analogy, so will these economic protectorates. His analysis of decolonization hinges on the fact that the colonial powers left behind countries with artificial boundaries that grouped antagonistic ethnic groups together and led to warfare and rivalry that hindered the country's development. However, he gives examples in which he twists historical facts to support his thesis, presenting colonial powers in an exclusively negative light. His treatment of the partition of India at their independence is the best example. As India was achieving independence from Britain, Muhammad Jinnah, the leader of the Muslims of India, pushed for a separate Muslim state, against the wishes of Gandhi and Nehru. He claimed that India will come to be dominated by Hindus and the Muslims would suffer under such a situation. The actual point of independence was overseen by Lord Mountbatten, sent in by Britain to peacefully bring about independence. The creation of Pakistan was the result. Unfortunately Pakistan would encompass a number of ethnic groups, including Sikhs, Baluchis, Pashtuns as well as Muslim Indians, who were uncooperative and led to Pakistan being an underdeveloped state. All of this is presented well by Easterly in the chapter. However his final take is that the problems of Pakistan are Mountbatten's fault for allegedly grouping all the ethnic groups together in that country. But Pakistan was Jinnah's idea who was doing something that Easterly would have advocated, separating 2 mutually antagonistic ethnic groups into separate states so that each could control their own destiny. Easterly twists historical facts in order to put Britain (a.k.a. the West) in a negative light. This attitude and distortion of history characterizes the entire chapter. Moreover his critique of colonialism says nothing the possible success of the proposed economic protectorates. Colonies were focussed on the economic development of the mother country. The economic protectorates would theoretically (and the whole idea was only a theory at the time of writing) focus on the economic development of the Third World.
The second chapter of the section does not fare much better. He addresses military interventions into developing countries, positing them as attempts to bring development to a country by bringing peace. However his detailed critique of them never presents them as economic development measures. Many of them were simply peacekeeping missions just to stop people from killing each other or undertaken as a means of national security. They were nothing more than political moves and should not be used as an example of the West's failure at development.
Overall this section simply reveals Easterly's biases and shows that he has stepped far outside his area of expertise. The section is misplaced and should have been deleted from the book altogether. It only detracts from an otherwise well-written and carefully thought out critique of foreign aid. In all I agree with his critique and his belief that the West needs to abandon its grand plans and listen to the world's poor to find out how we can address their needs more specifically.
Incidentally, I found one point where Easterly does not follow his own advice. At one point he is talking with a South African woman diagnosed with HIV, who will likely die within a few years, who, instead of resigning herself to her fate, is working as hard as she can to ensure a good life for her children. He asks what the biggest problem the country faces is. She answers "No jobs". Easterly then turns back to the reader with a twinkle in his eye and uses her unwillingness to give up as a call for better aid. But she didn't say she wanted aid, did she? She wants jobs. The real problem that all the developing world faces is a lack of economic investment. They need jobs so that they have a better chance of standing on their own in the future. What was that idea about economic protectorates?
Very informative, unfortunately too much detail.......2007-06-22
Prof. Easterly knows what he is writing about as he spent many years with the World Bank. His basic thesis is, that the aid to developping countries does not lack funding, but the funds are applied very inefficiently. The "customers" of the help agencies are not the needy poor, but the "rich" donor countries and their citizens. Hence aid is applied to please these customers, rather than pleasing the poor. In other words, he applies market logic to explain the reasons for failure.
The only draw back to the book is its length. After some time, the book starts repeating itself, and the details become onerous for the interested lay person. (Who, except the specialist really cares about some fine differences between World Bank IMF and the various UN agencies?)
Even though I did not finish the book for that reason, I highly recommend it to anybody, who wants to know, why his aid money does not seem to work.
Book Description
This book attempts to create an integrated model for management and administrative practice in the management of human service organizations. The book presents a theoretical foundation for human services management and identifies the major roles and responsibilities of the manager/administrator. To date, management books have identified problems in organizational functioning and described how systems should work. This book goes beyond description. First, it identifies themes that serve as guidelines to insure internal consistency within the organization. Then it proposes what managers need to do to put their organizations back on track toward excellence. The overall emphasis is on how to get employees to perform at their optimum levels to insure organizational efficiency, effectiveness, quality and productivity. For people in Human Services Management and Social Work Administration/ Management.
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