At the heart of "Skin of the Snake" is an epic battle launched by two strong and vibrant women, Patricia Chisepo (a passionate young African) and Jackie Petsky (an assertive Canadian activist, ) to punish a large international corporation for its corruption in a huge water diversion project in Lesotho in southern Africa. All of the project's water flows go to South Africa, and none reach drought-ridden Lesotho itself. As Patricia and Jackie carry forward their fight, they find themselves connecting with other allies - and with a group of former friends who knew each other well through a Gourmet Food Club formed over 20 years earlier. That group has scattered, with some now working like Patricia and Jackie on social justice concerns, and several caught up in the corporate world. The different personal connections that were there in the Gourmet Club play out in the story, and ultimately become critical in shaping how the anti-corruption struggle finishes. Especially crucial is the personal choice that must be made by Rosie Ahmed - a feisty woman now working on conservative Bay Street, whose background lies in outsider prairie culture. Which loyalties will she honour when she testifies to the World Bank in its insulated Washington boardroom? This is a colourful story, full of humour and on-the-ground experience from Africa and North America -- driven by the suspense and uncertainty of high-stakes conflict. The novel also mirrors real world dilemmas. The corporate corruption story is a fictionalized version of an actual set of events that shook southern Africa in the 1995-2008 period. Too often, corruption in Africa is painted as a result of the venality of officials there -- the role of foreign companies in promoting and organizing fraud deserves more attention. But can two brave women overcome the wealth and power of a strong company, with tight links to its home government? Will high spirits and wry determination be enough to win -- with the help of friendships from the past? "Skin of the Snake" is a dramatic story about fighting international corruption. The book also provides sharp insights into the politics of change. But above all, this is a novel about personal commitments and passions and how these connect with the real world of Africa and North America. The author has the experience and grassroots knowledge to write this story with wit and understanding that will capture the imagination of readers and keep them immersed. Steven Langdon's background as a journalist for Canada's largest newspaper means this is a novel with sharp-edged writing and gripping characters.
Economics is a discipline fundamentally concerned with effective coordination. In that way, its main concerns are very close to those of governance. Economics, like governance, has evolved considerably over the last half century. This book is a very modest attempt at gauging the relative importance of this tsunami and the way in which it might indicate what will be its future. A Future for Economics proposes the reflections on this general theme by eight senior members of the economics profession who have all taught at some time in the Department of Economics at Carleton University in Ottawa a department that has always been known for its intellectual temerity and for its interest in extending the scope of economics beyond its traditional boundaries. The Carleton sample of economists who share their views here have practiced in different sub-fields of economics, and have chosen to articulate their views and experiences in very different ways. But their collective experience reflects a broad exposure to the ways in which the discipline has evolved both in academic circles and in the various organizations and institutions where they have practiced their profession in Canada and abroad.
The discovery of a body floating in New York City's East River leads to the re-opening of the murder of Lacy Wooden, an aspiring young dancer. As NYPD Lieutenant James Francis Moran and his team follow each clue, they are brought face-to-face with some of the city's most influential powerbrokers. As each layer of the case is peeled away, the secret life of each of these individuals is revealed, as well as their mutually unbeknown connection to the deceased woman. Finding the murderer against this backdrop of characters, while at the same time not ruffling feathers, is a fine line Moran must walk. This, and dealing with a gravely ill wife and his own personal issues, all add up to what seems to be an insurmountable task for the detective. About the Author Joseph Steven, the author of several novels, is a former New York trial defense attorney and listed in the Who's Who of America. He resides in Southern California with his wife and is working on his next novel.
During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century a growing number of ordinary citizens had the feeling that all was not as it should be. Men who were making money made prodigious amounts, but this new wealth somehow passed over the heads of the common people. As this new breed of journalists began to examine their subjects with scrutiny, they soon discovered that those individuals were essentially “simple men of extraordinary boldness.” And it was easy to understand how they were able to accomplish their sinister purposes: “at first abruptly and bluntly, by asking and giving no quarter, and later with the same old determination and ruthlessness but with educated satellites who were glad to explain and idealize their behavior.”[i] “Nothing is lost save honor,” said one infamous buccaneer, and that was an attitude that governed the amoral principles and extralegal actions of many audacious scoundrels. Relying on secondary sources, magazine and newspaper articles, and personal accounts from those involved, this volume captures some of the sensational true stories that took place in the western United States during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. The theme that runs through each of the stories is the general contempt for the law that seemed to pervade the culture at the time and the consuming desire to acquire wealth at any cost—what Geoffrey C. Ward has called “the disposition to be rich.” End Notes Introduction [i]Louis Filler, Crusaders for American Liberalism (Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch Press, 1964), 14.
Steven K. Green explores the historical record that supports the popular belief about the nation's religious origins, seeking to explain how the ideas of America's religious founding and its status as a Christian nation became a leading narrative about the nation's collective identity.
A thick and informative guide to the world of classical music and its stunning recordings, complete with images from CD cases, concert halls, and of the musicians themselves.
Companion document to: Value management: the value management benchmark; research results of an international benchmarking study, which contains details pf the development of the fremework, highlights important issues and draws conclusions.
Cover -- Half title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- ONE. Mount Vernon: Patriot Estate -- TWO. Patriots and the Imperial Crisis of the 1760s -- THREE. Making a Patriot Government -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Y -- Z
Debates over the proper relationship between church and state in America tend to focus either on the founding period or the twentieth century. Left undiscussed is the long period between the ratification of the Constitution and the 1947 Supreme Court ruling in Everson v. Board of Education, which mandated that the Establishment Clause applied to state and local governments. Steven Green illuminates this neglected period, arguing that during the 19th century there was a "second disestablishment." By the early 1800s, formal political disestablishment was the rule at the national level, and almost universal among the states. Yet the United States remained a Christian nation, and Protestant beliefs and values dominated American culture and institutions. Evangelical Protestantism rose to cultural dominance through moral reform societies and behavioral laws that were undergirded by a maxim that Christianity formed part of the law. Simultaneously, law became secularized, religious pluralism increased, and the Protestant-oriented public education system was transformed. This latter impulse set the stage for the constitutional disestablishment of the twentieth century. The Second Disestablishment examines competing ideologies: of evangelical Protestants who sought to create a "Christian nation," and of those who advocated broader notions of separation of church and state. Green shows that the second disestablishment is the missing link between the Establishment Clause and the modern Supreme Court's church-state decisions.
We live in a museum age," writes Steven Conn in Do Museums Still Need Objects? And indeed, at the turn of the twenty-first century, more people are visiting museums than ever before. There are now over 17,500 accredited museums in the United States, averaging approximately 865 million visits a year, more than two million visits a day. New museums have proliferated across the cultural landscape even as older ones have undergone transformational additions: from the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan in New York to the High in Atlanta and the Getty in Los Angeles. If the golden age of museum-building came a century ago, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Field Museum of Natural History, and others were created, then it is fair to say that in the last generation we have witnessed a second golden age. By closely observing the cultural, intellectual, and political roles that museums play in contemporary society, while also delving deeply into their institutional histories, historian Steven Conn demonstrates that museums are no longer seen simply as houses for collections of objects. Conn ranges across a wide variety of museum types—from art and anthropology to science and commercial museums—asking questions about the relationship between museums and knowledge, about the connection between culture and politics, about the role of museums in representing non-Western societies, and about public institutions and the changing nature of their constituencies. Elegantly written and deeply researched, Do Museums Still Need Objects? is essential reading for historians, museum professionals, and those who love to visit museums.
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