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The Courtship Connection has been on hiatus since the infamous night of the melon-baller. We are back with a vengeance now. We’re doing a last sweep of D.C.’s single lawyers and then moving on to a new town. We’ll let you vote on which lucky city and its lawyers get to be subjected to my questionable matchmaking attempts.
First, we need candidates. Send suggestions for the next Courtship city to [email protected]. We’ll then let you vote. Don’t worry: Miami, L.A., San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas are already on the candidate list.
Now on to news of our latest victims match. I brought a previous candidate off the bench for this one, as I’m short on men (and lesbians — D.C.’s problem is that it has too many single ladies, and not enough of them like the other single ladies). Do you remember the guy who refused to get lost in his date’s brown eyes? Sex-starved but with high standards for chemistry. He agreed to go out on another blind date, but had a request: he wanted his match to be from the T14, even though he is not a grad of the upper echelon of law schools himself. I granted his wish.
Was prestige all that was needed to set his loins afire?
This is what you see in the law firm world. Law firms try to keep up with Cravath, but it might not be financially prudent. You try to keep up with Cravath, and then two or three years later you go bankrupt.
Consider the evidence, from the website of Cravath. We’re guessing this change was made a while ago, perhaps when Cravath overhauled its home page last June, but we didn’t notice it until a Cravath alum pointed it out to us just now.
The U.S. News law school rankings for 2012 are here, y’all. Time to pay tribute to that which is more important to legal educators in this country than anything else.
As is customary here at Above the Law, we will be posting a series of open threads, running through at least the top 100 law schools. These open threads offer you a chance to compare and contrast different schools, praise (or condemn) your alma mater, and talk trash about rival law schools.
We’re not sure what we’ll do with the formerly “tier 3″ schools that have now been graced with numerical rankings by U.S. News. And we have no clue how we’ll handle the formerly “tier 4″ schools, which are now being classified as “tier 2″ schools — but I’ll be a monkey’s uncle before I quietly accept U.S. News’s misleading attempt to recharacterize these schools as “second tier”….
Santa Claus — aka Bob Morse, rankings czar at U.S. News & World Report — is letting us open our presents early (or at least before midnight). The U.S. News law school rankings were supposed to come out on Tuesday, March 15, but Morse and his colleagues at U.S. News kindly posted them sometime around 10 p.m. Eastern time tonight. Yay!
(You’ll recall the same thing happened last year, too. The rankings were supposed to come out on April 15, 2010, but they were made available online by April 14 at 10:30 p.m., when we wrote about them.)
Now, on to the latest rankings — technically the 2012 law school rankings, but “ranked in 2011,” as noted on the U.S. News website.
We’ll start at the top, with a look at the top 14, or so-called “T14,” law schools. For the first time in ages, there’s a newcomer among their ranks. Guess who?
One of my favorite law firm names is Freshfields — Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, to be precise, but I prefer Freshfields. It makes me think of rolling green hills, crisp laundered linens, or a dairy, producing the creamiest milk in all the land.
As it turns out, Freshfields is a law firm — a top international law firm, a member of the elite Magic Circle. And this Freshfields is rolling out the green, doling out crisp bills, and ladling out the cream — to its associates. As reported earlier today by Am Law Daily, yesterday Freshfields announced spring bonuses, on the top-of-the-market Cravath scale.
Freshfields isn’t alone. This afternoon, Cadwalader, which was publicly toying with the idea of spring bonuses, announced that it too would pay them, again on the Cravath scale.
These two moves are significant — far more significant than the earlier spring bonus announcements….
Everybody loves law school rankings, but these are special. These rankings are not based on a formula developed in secret by statisticians or prestige gurus. These rankings are put together by you. By us. By the mass of humanity that makes up the general mob. These rankings are crowdsourced.
The Conglomerate is putting together rankings based on what we think. But they’re not going with a straight popular vote. Instead, they’ve got a brilliant set up where they ask you to make a series of comparisons. Which law school do you think is better: SMU or Maryland? The rankings are based on answers to almost 200 questions like that.
I only answered 20 questions, but I’ll do the rest as soon as I get a free moment. It’s fun. Widener or Arkansas? Connecticut or Hastings? Screw what U.S. News thinks, what do you think?
I don’t know how I missed this last week, but a study reported in the WSJ Law Blog claims that law school prestige is overrated. Significantly overrated. The ABA Journal — which picked up the story this morning — summarizes the work of a professor from UCLA and a professor from Brooklyn Law:
[UCLA law professor Richard Sander and Brooklyn Law School visiting professor Jane Yakowitz] studied data from more than 40 public law schools across the country, and found that applicants tend to go to the most elite law school that will have them. But is that a good idea?
Not according to data collected in the American Bar Foundation’s After the JD study of lawyers who entered the bar in 2000, they write. It indicates that the salary boost for achieving high grades more than makes up for the salary depreciation associated with attending a lower‐ranked school. The study also found that lawyers who left law school with the lowest grades felt the least secure about their jobs.
I’m sorry, did anybody’s worldview just get blown up?
We’re rolling through the Vault 2011 list of the “prestigiest” firms in the land, so that you can comment on what it’s like to actually live, work, and breathe those firms (when you’re not choking on all the prestige in the air).
We’ve covered #1-10 and #11-20. Here’s the next round-up. Now it’s time for the London-based Magic Circle firms to join in the elite fun:
The evolution of relationships between the genders continues. Currently, in law firms, there is an interesting conundrum; balancing the desire for a gender-blind workplace where “the best lawyer gets the work and advances” and the reality of navigating the complicated maze created by the fact that, in general, men and women do possess differences in their work styles. These variations impact who they work with, how they work, how they build professional connections and how organizations ultimately leverage, reward and recognize the talents of all.
Henry Ford sat on his workbench and sighed. A year earlier, he had personally built 13,000 Model Ts with his own hands. Fashioning lugnuts and tie rods by hand, Ford was loath to ask for help. Sure, there were things about the car that he didn’t quite understand. This explains the lack of reliable navigation systems in the Model T. But Ford persevered because he knew that unless he did everything, he could not reliably call these cars his own.
“Unless my own personal toil is responsible for it, it may as well be called a Hyundai,” Ford remarked at the time.
The preceding may sound unfamiliar because it is categorically untrue. And also monumentally stupid. Henry Ford didn’t build all those cars by hand. He had help and plenty of it. Almost exactly one hundred years ago, Henry Ford opened up the most technologically advanced assembly line the world had ever seen. Built on the premise that work can be chopped up into digestible pieces and completed by many men better than one, the line ushered in an age of unparalleled productivity.
Today, an attorney refers business because he can’t do everything the client asks of him.
There are three reasons why this is way dumber than a made-up Henry Ford story…
Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past six years. You can reach them by email: [email protected].
Since late last year, things have been booming in Hong Kong / China in cap markets, especially Hong Kong IPOs. M&A deal flow has recently been getting a bit stronger as well. Although one can’t predict such things with any certainty, all signs are pointing to a banner entire 2014 for the top end US corporate and cap markets practices in Hong Kong / China. This is not really new news, as its been the feeling most in the market have had for a few months now and things continue to look good.
The head of our Asia practice, Evan Jowers, has been in Hong Kong for about 10 days a month (with trips every other month to both Shanghai and Bejing) for the past 7 months, and spending most of his time there meeting with senior US hiring partners at just about all the major US and UK firms there, as well as prospective candidates at all associate levels and partner levels, and when in the US, Evan works Asia hours and is regularly on the phone with such persons, as our the other members of our Asia team. Our Yuliya Vinokurova is in Hong Kong every other month and Robert is there about 5 times a year as well. While we have a solid Asia team of recruiters, Evan Jowers will spend at least some time with all of our candidates for Asia position. We have had long standing relationships, and good friendships in some cases, with hiring partners and other senior US partners in Asia for 8 years now.


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The SU Self-Leadership Profiler is a quick, accurate and easy to use assessment tool that identifies how people lead themselves and their own development.
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domain: psychology


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Luxurious and elegant. This Byzantine-inspired ring is set with a genuine oval blue topaz surrounded by Lafonn's signature Lassaire simulated diamonds in gold plated sterling silver with brushed finish. This beauty is further embellished with a Lassaire simulated diamond accent on the side. Collection: Aria CTTW: 0.35 Stone Count: 34
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domain: design


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Jan 19, 2013, 11:01 AM EDT
We heard two weeks ago that the Dodgers were “50-50” about whether to keep their television broadcasts on Fox Sports or move them to Time Warner Cable starting in 2014, but it appears they are moving closer to a decision.
While FOX Sports was once considered the heavy favorite, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times hears that the Dodgers are now leaning toward accepting a deal with Time Warner Cable. No final decision has been made, as the club hasn’t reached an agreement with MLB on how the structure of a deal will impact their contribution to revenue sharing.
It’s believed that the Dodgers will sign the largest television contract in baseball history, perhaps as much as $7 billion. The team discussed a new deal with Fox in the fall which was rumored to be worth at least $6 billion over 25 years, but Time Warner jumped in after Fox’s exclusive negotiating window expired.
At issue right now is whether the Dodgers will contribute closer to $1 billion or $2 billion to revenue sharing. Dodgers chairman Mark Walter and MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred discussed the situation at the owners’ meetings in Arizona last week, but it’s not clear whether any progress was made.
Aug 27, 2015, 5:34 PM EDT
Fernandez missed much of the season recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery.
Aug 27, 2015, 5:01 PM EDT
No shorts, though. Major bummer.
Aug 27, 2015, 4:22 PM EDT
Its not often we have reason to cheer the decisions ESPN makes but today we do.
Aug 27, 2015, 4:06 PM EDT
Time is still undefeated.
Aug 27, 2015, 3:24 PM EDT
Aug 27, 2015, 3:13 PM EDT
This is a great slice of weird, totally suitable for killing time on a slow afternoon. Bonus: Bon Jovi is tangentially involved.
Aug 27, 2015, 2:16 PM EDT
Los Angeles acquired Callaspo from Atlanta in a late-May trade.
Aug 27, 2015, 1:34 PM EDT
Last week’s rumored trade with the Dodgers apparently fell through.
Aug 27, 2015, 12:00 PM EDT
“Smithers’ I’m beginning to think that Homer Simpson was not the brilliant tactician I thought he was.”
Aug 27, 2015, 11:44 AM EDT
He’s having an incredible season.
Aug 27, 2015, 11:34 AM EDT
Basically, we’re all miserable EXCEPT Cubs fans. What a bizzaro world we live in.
Aug 27, 2015, 10:15 AM EDT
Jennings spent three months on the disabled list following knee surgery.
Aug 27, 2015, 9:57 AM EDT
No wins in over three months despite a 3.24 ERA.
Aug 27, 2015, 9:06 AM EDT
Boycotts thrive on publicity. This one ended as soon as the publicity started.
Aug 27, 2015, 8:38 AM EDT
This is why Starlin Castro does not have the shortstop gig anymore.
Aug 27, 2015, 7:45 AM EDT
Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got something to say, but nothing comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish, And opposing teams act like they forgot about JV.
Aug 26, 2015, 11:20 PM EDT
Crawford is having a breakout season at age 28, with an .806 OPS (123 OPS+), 19 home runs, and 75 RBI in 121 games.
Aug 26, 2015, 10:32 PM EDT
Verlander still managed to go the distance against a good Angels offense for his first shutout since 2012.
Aug 26, 2015, 9:26 PM EDT
It is August 26, 2015 and Justin Verlander has a no-hitter going against the Mike Trout-led Angels.
Aug 26, 2015, 9:05 PM EDT
Good on everybody involved in wanting to get ahead of a potential tragedy.
- Jessica Mendoza to sit in for Curt Schilling on Sunday Night Baseball this week 32
- And That Happened: Wednesday’s scores and highlights 77
- MLB “actively studying” fan safety; Phillies plan to expand netting at Citizens Bank Park 26
- Marlins might move in and lower the fences at Marlins Park 25
- Astros beat the suddenly skidding Yankees, top last year’s win total 30
- Curt Schilling taken off of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast this week 131
- Joe Girardi would like Carlos Gomez to “play the game right” 90
- And That Happened: Tuesday’s scores and highlights 76
- Dan Patrick: When does ESPN cut ties with Curt Schilling? (198)
- Curt Schilling taken off of Little League World Series duty for making a really bad tweet (169)
- Curt Schilling taken off of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast this week (131)
- Phillies announcer calls Mets fans “obnoxious” (122)
- Let’s all argue about team chemistry again (118)

domain: sports


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Liberty Songwriter / Musician / Activist. Mona writes songs in different styles of music to reach different demographics about issues that are important to Ron Paul supporters. Mona’s Ron Paul and also now Rand Paul songs are available for free downloads on her SoundCloud page. Turn It Up!
Why are the contents of the 28 pages of classified information of the “Official 9/11 Commission ( OMISSION ) Report” hidden from the U.S. citizens ? It is OUR borrowed tax dollars that funded the investigation. We pay their salaries! It’s time to Fire Some Liars! We deserve to know the truth about 9/11, and so do the families of the victims.
Rand Paul Calls for the Release of 9/11 Classified Commission’s Report
Those who have seen the documents ( see Ron Paul video below ) said the information poses “no risk to national safety, embarrasses the Bushes and implicates the Saudis”. Why are we more loyal to Bushes and Saudis than to the American People? We are the Saudi’s favorite “Hit-Men”. Do you recall how we were going to bomb Syria for the Saudis even though they are closer in proximity? Certainly you remember how Obama was foaming at the mouth to attack Syria ( for their own protection of course )
“Sin In The Game” is a song about 9/11 , and the possibility that some of the people in our government may have been involved. This was my most difficult song to write, as I wasn’t sure how to approach it. Finally, I decided to make it from the point of view of the perpetrators of the crime. I then saw a video explaining why the American people were willing to accept the fact that two planes brought down three buildings.
Psychiatrists were explaining the shock to our minds from the attack in the beginning – we could never conceive our own government could have been involved, so we were willing to accept whatever lame explaination they gave us. However…we DO know that our government is at least involved in the cover-up of these 28 pages of classified information.
Then I made the 9/11 song all fun, made it danceable and hired the incomparable Dale Bozzio to sing it! Turn It Up!
“Sin In The Game” begins :
“My shock to your brain – Three buildings, Two planes – We brought you the day of betrayal. Our corruption and greed is what led to this deed – The “Death Industry” cannot fail. We make foes of our friends – You can’t comprehend – You think that we’re done – We just started. Our sinister plot gave you what you’ve got – Mourn now your Dearly Departed.”
Along with my song video, I have also included some of my favorite 9/11 proof videos. Let’s not forget that over 2200 Architects & Engineers for 911 Truth ( http://www.ae911truth.org/) put their reputations at stake to testify to their beliefs that the buildings went down under controlled demolition. These 2200 people are experts who you would usually see testifying in a court of law, and their opinions are considered expert, so keep that in mind and do your own research, and as my illustrious editor says….” Question Everything!”
Corporations and Lobbyists control it all – If you want REAL CHANGE, please support Rand Paul!
World Trade Center Building 7 Demolished on 9/11? – Home ae911truth.org

domain: politics


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Beyond Bulletproof drops next Friday.
With Beyond Bulletproof dropping next Friday, Mozzy is in full-on album release mode. Already, the Sacramento rapper has come through with a handful of strong singles, including the Polo G and Lil Poppa-assisted “Pricetag,” engendring high hopes for this drop. Today, he contineus justifying that optimism by dropping “Boyz To Men.”
Listen to the new Mozzy single below:

domain: news


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CW Beggs and Sons is a Montréal-based brand that wanted to share part of its universe through a collaboration developed with the local artist Meka.
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domain: artistic


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Prevalence Of Burnout Syndrome And Factors Associated With University Teachers
This is a systematic review that sought to identify the prevalence and factors associated with Burnout Syndrome in university teachers. The collection of the studies was done through descriptors in databases, which resulted in the selection of 8 articles. The prevalence for burnout had a small variation, but presented worrying values. The most frequent associated factors were: work overload, accumulation of activities beyond teaching, high employment ties, devaluation of the work performed and low remuneration. Burnout is still little recognized and studied in the category of university teachers, and it is difficult to identify an exact prevalence for this category. However, the associated factors are well defined and should be considered as a starting point for the prevention of the syndrome.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
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- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access and Benefits of Publishing Open Access).

domain: library


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First runner-up in last year’s So You Want To Be The President teevee show, Mitt Romney was invited to a small college so obscure that even Sarah Palin didn’t go there (Which colleges did you attend? All of them, Katie) where he told the soon to be unemployed now-adults that they should go out into the world and start fucking like Rush Limbaugh in a Dominican boys orphanage with a pocketful of Viagra.
|By: TBogg Friday May 3, 2013 2:10 pm|
|By: cocktailhag Thursday March 14, 2013 8:00 pm|
Many years ago, my friend Marcus delightedly brought over his latest purchase, along with the usual two six-packs: an early twentieth century etiquette book. As we got drunker, he kept finding ever more hilarious admonitions in its yellowed pages, reading them out loud in his thick German accent. “Don’t ever discuss personal topics in front of children or servants,” he recited, giggling and gesturing with his finger on his lips toward my friend Judy’s boyfriend, who was going through a rough spot in his career and was then cleaning Marcus’ and my apartments each week.
Poor Mitt Romney evidently spent too much time with the Book of Mormon and not enough with Amy Vanderbilt, and somehow missed this important lesson.
|By: Jon Walker Monday March 4, 2013 12:20 pm|
Washington has been so obsessed with austerity for so long that many politicians seem to have actually convince themselves that the country is full of masochists looking for a daddy to inflict that pain which feels so good. Politicians seem to have forget that democracy should be about making people’s lives better.
Candidates should offer plans on how to improve the country. The electorate normally votes for the candidate they think has the best ideas to improve their lives, the lives of their families and their communities.
|By: Jon Walker Monday February 4, 2013 10:25 am|
This story in the Boston Herald perfectly demonstrates why it was so fortuitous for Democrats that Scott Brown decided not to run in the Massachusetts special election to replace John Kerry. According to the Herald some “heavyweight Republicans” are urging Tagg Romney to run.
|By: TBogg Tuesday January 22, 2013 2:01 pm|
While President Uppity McBlahman was drone-raping Lady Liberty and ordering a hit on Nancy Reagan, first runner-up Mitt Romney was kicking back at his La Jolla beach temple, soaking up the rays and trying to ignore the sound of wailing coming from Ann’s dancing horse dojo.
|By: masaccio Sunday January 6, 2013 10:40 am|
Jonathan Haidt continues the long tradition of making a living by providing moral justifications for the actions of the rich. You poor stupid liberals should listen to him.
|By: cocktailhag Thursday January 3, 2013 8:00 pm|
The brief tempest in a teapot over New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s harsh words for the House GOP in the wake of its refusal to provide disaster funding for his state has, thankfully, blown over. This sort of GOP apostasy, while pure catnip to the Village, doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the real world, and is newsworthy only because such behavior is so drearily common.
|By: Pam Spaulding Sunday December 23, 2012 12:30 pm|
Revisionist history coming from the Romney camp was to be expected, but how would you feel if you were, say, Sheldon Adelson, after pouring millions to elect this man — or if you were an average Joe donating hard-earned money that you felt was well-spent — after hearing this load of offensive crap? A Boston Globe campaign post-mortem article portrays a Mittens without any fire in the belly to run for President.
|By: Peterr Friday December 14, 2012 6:35 am|
Scene: the Oval Office
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA and CHIEF OF STAFF JACK LEW are seated on the sofas facing one another, with a single sheet of paper in front of LEW on the coffee table between them. Neither looks happy.
|By: Kevin Gosztola Sunday November 25, 2012 8:30 am|
The Obama administration feared they might lose re-election and in the summer of last year began to develop a set of rules for using drones.


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- 1 3/4 cups plus 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 1-pound bag frozen blueberries, thawed, drained
- 1 1-pound bag frozen raspberries, thawed, drained
- 1 1-pound bag frozen blackberries, thawed, drained
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
PREPARATIONView Step-by-Step Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Blend 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, cinnamon, and salt in processor until just combined. Add butter; using on/off turns, cut in until moist clumps form. Press half of flour mixture onto bottom of pan.
Mix all berries, vanilla, 1/3 cup flour, and 1 1/4 cups sugar in large bowl. Spoon over dough in pan. Sprinkle remaining flour mixture over. Bake until topping is brown and cooked through, about 50 minutes. Cool 15 minutes.
Advice from the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen
Take the Adventure Path
Out of the Kitchen
All Hail the Hot 10!
Iced Maple Cream with Berries
Mixed-Berry Chocolate Toffee Bites
Macerated Berries with Vanilla Cream
Waffle with Cream Cheese and Smashed BerriesUse a frozen whole grain waffle, or freeze leftover homemade waffles between sheets of waxed paper.
Mixed Berry Cobbler
Vanilla Panna Cotta with Mixed Berry Compote
Lime Tart with Blackberries and Blueberries
Mixed Berries with Mascarpone-Limoncello Cream

domain: food


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The principle of “overloading” in property law provides that an easement can only be used for the benefit of land to which it is appurtenant, and not for previously or after acquired property. A handful of courts around the country have taken steps to lessen the harsh effects of this formalistic doctrine, and in early 2015, I wrote an article in this publication about this doctrine and increased flexibility in its application. However, in the recent case of Taylor v. Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission, 475 Mass. 682 (Oct. 11, 2016), the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) (the highest court in Massachusetts) rejected this trend toward flexibility. My office authored an amicus brief filed in Taylor, advocating for a modest exception to overloading—this position did not carry the day in aylor.
As discussed below, the SJC’s reasoning in Taylor appears particularly questionable. From a jurisprudential and doctrinal perspective, if the reasoning to uphold a common-law rule is so thin, then it stands to reason that the rule should be amended. However, setting aside these considerations, the bright-line rule of overloading at common law is clear and can be a practically useful tool for real estate litigators in obtaining the type of results that clients desire (even if those results are sometimes based on a purely abstract harm).
The Facts: A Successful Overloading Claim Resulting in More Use of the Servient Estate
Though the facts of Taylor would initially appear to be highly idiosyncratic, the increased proliferation of conservation land dedicated to walking, hiking, and biking trails suggests that similar facts could easily arise in Massachusetts and throughout the country in significant numbers. The defendant, Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission, was created in 1985 by a special act of the Massachusetts legislature “for the purpose of acquiring and maintaining land for environmental protection, conservation and managed public use.” 475 Mass. at 683 (citation omitted). In connection with and furtherance of its legislative mandate, the commission owns, among others, the Aquinnah Headlands Preserve, which sits “atop the Gay Head Cliffs” on Martha’s Vineyard. Id. “The preserve contains a series of hiking trails, which are open to the public annually during the tourism off-season, from September 15 through June 15.” Id.
In the early 1990s, the commission created a preserve by acquiring a series of parcels. Four of those parcels were at issue in Taylor. None of the four parcels has frontage on or direct access from a public way. For access, three of the four parcels benefit from one easement over the plaintiff’s property; the fourth benefits from a different right of way also over the plaintiff’s property. The plaintiff runs a seasonal bed-and-breakfast at his property during the spring and summer months—the opposite months from when the preserve is open to the public.
In the spring of 2010, the commission obtained approval from multiple governmental agencies to effectuate a “management plan” that would create a single-loop hiking trail over all four parcels. For access, the loop trail would use the full length of one right-of-way over the plaintiff’s property but only a portion of the other.
The plaintiff filed suit in the Massachusetts Land Court to stop the use of his property by the public outright and, at a minimum, to keep the hiking trails and appurtenant easements separate. Perhaps hikers could use both trails, but they should not be able to do so in a single loop, under the doctrine of overloading. Thus the plaintiff sought to force hikers to travel over one right-of-way over his property to get to one trail, hike the trail, then return, walk over the other right-of-way to the other trail, hike that trail, and back again. Stated differently, the plaintiff sued to compel the commission to ensure that his property be used more, not less, to preserve the sanctity of the doctrine of overloading. In this way, the plaintiff sought relief that would turn the doctrine on its head, by requesting relief that would require more, not less, use of the servient estate.
On summary judgment, the trial judge concluded that the current doctrine of overloading in Massachusetts, at present without any doctrinal exceptions, required this segregation of uses on collectively owned land and of easements. At trial, the same judge found that, if the uses of each easement were properly separated and subject to certain conditions, the rights-of-way on the plaintiff’s property would not be overburdened, in terms of type and intensity of use. Only the question of overloading was appealed, and the SJC granted direct appellate review.
The SJC Revisits the Rule
Before argument, the SJC solicited amici to respond to the following question:
Whether Massachusetts should revisit the rule stated in Murphy v. Mart Realty of Brockton, Inc., 348 Mass. 675, 678-679 (1965), and henceforth permit the owner of a dominant estate to use an appurtenant easement also for the benefit of an after-acquired parcel that is contiguous to the dominant estate, where doing so would not increase the burden on the servient estate.
The SJC has not previously shied away from being at the forefront of legal change—jettisoning old, formal bright-line rules, when the practical utility of such rules has not endured the test of time. In 2004, through M.P.M. Builders, LLC v. Dwyer, 442 Mass. 87 (2004), Massachusetts became one of a small minority of states, including Maryland, New York, Colorado, South Dakota, and Nebraska, to allow unilateral relocation of easements by servient estate owners. In 2014, in Martin v. Simmons Properties, LLC, 467 Mass. 1 (2014), the SJC declared that this doctrinal shift also encompassed the unilateral reduction and change in dimensions of easement areas by property owners. While allowing unilateral changes in the identity of easements was palatable to the court in these cases, the notion of allowing unilateral changes to the identity of the dominant estate proved a bridge too far for the SJC in Taylor.
In Taylor, the SJC held that the commission’s “proposed test,” “the functional equivalent” of the standard for any other claim of overburdening, “has the advantage of being more flexible than the current bright-line rule. That flexibility, however, would come with significant costs.” 475 Mass. at 687. The first cost, according to the court, was Tevye’s favorite old saw: tradition—or, in other words, stare decisis. The court did not, however, linger on Massachusetts citizens’ abstract reliance interest in the traditional rule, admitting that it “is not barred from departing from previous pronouncements.” Id. at 688 (citation omitted). Instead, the Taylor court observed that it changes the common law “only where ‘the benefits of [the proposed rule] outweigh the values underlying stare decisis’,” and held that it was “not persuaded that the defendant’s proposed rule would provide such benefits.” Id.
The Economy of Bright-Line Rules versus Balancing Tests
The court was skeptical of the benefits the commission offered in support of its more flexible interpretation of overloading. The court compared the rule proposed by the commission to the existing bright-line rule in terms of judicial economy and litigation costs. Of course, in this regard, bright-line rules are always preferable to functional, balancing tests. Admitting as much, the court observed that “[i]t goes without saying . . . that ‘we do not reject desirable developments in the law [of easements] solely because such developments may result in disputes spurring litigation.’” Id., quoting M.P.M. Bldrs., 442 Mass. at 93. The court reasoned that “[w]e are not so much concerned, however, with the mere fact of litigation, as with the uncertainty that the prospect of such litigation would introduce in land ownership.” Taylor, 475 Mass. at 688.
This reasoning is exceedingly hard to square with the fact, previously noted by the Taylor court itself, that the commission’s proposed rule is the legal standard, in Massachusetts, for all other types of overburdening claims. Though there are many reported Massachusetts decisions applying the doctrine of overloading, there are many more garden-variety overburdening decisions. Real estate attorneys, both litigators and in the title/transactional field, must construe express easements on a daily basis and advise their clients about whether a particular use might fit into such an express grant. This “uncertainty” thus appears highly exaggerated.
Nevertheless, the Taylor court opined that the commission’s proposed rule “would require a longer process of litigation than would the bright line rule, would lead to a less predictable outcome, and might not be affordable to owners of small servient parcels who are litigating against defendants with the financial means to acquire and develop multiple parcels of land.” Id. at 689. The court, ironically, cited to the litigation before it as evidence of these facts. See id. at 689 n. 15.
Tellingly, however, Taylor did not appeal the trial judge’s findings on his overburdening claims, applying the purportedly unpredictable standard; and the trial-level litigation was made significantly longer by dispositive motion practice on overloading, rather than going straight to trial. Moreover, the parties in Taylor were a small business owner and a public conservation entity, not a poor grandparent and an avaricious, plutocratic developer with bulldozers at the door. The notion that servient and dominant estate owners naturally fit into different socio-economic strata is completely groundless. Socio-economic considerations come more into play depending on the nature of the given neighborhoods of both dominant and servient estates than the formal, legal nature of the same.
In addition, in my experience as a real estate litigator, the premise that bright-line rules like the doctrine of overloading avoid litigation is highly questionable. If anything, exceedingly bright-line rules embolden parties to go to court because they believe success is a fait accompli. In practice, overloading claims are indeed just as frequently used as a cudgel in emotional, interpersonal disputes, a means to exact monetary payment from dominant estate owners, and to further purely NIMBY considerations, as they are used to vindicate objectively intolerable circumstances for servient estate owners. It may seem counterintuitive, but in my experience fact-bound legal standards have the opposite effect, as they avoid asymmetric bargaining positions, forcing the parties to come together, in light of unpredictable outcomes.
The Intent Animating Overloading
Another interesting aspect of the Taylor decision is the suggestion that the doctrine of overloading “was formulated to avoid precisely th[e] type of ‘difficult’ litigation” that occurs in garden-variety overburdening cases. Id. at 688, quoting the Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes, § 4.10 comment c (2000). Though potentially sound as a matter of legal policy, this proposition does not to my knowledge appear anywhere in the history of the doctrine in Massachusetts or elsewhere. In fact, as far as I know, the case law lacks an explicit explanation for why the subset doctrine of overloading is treated differently than other overburdening claims.
Indeed, the overloading case law in Massachusetts starts from the same premise, roughly the same across the country, at which all decisions concerning the scope of express easements begin: “We construe the scope of an easement from the parties’ intent, which we ascertain from the relevant instruments and the objective circumstances to which they refer.” McLaughlin v. Board of Selectmen of Amherst, 422 Mass. 359, 364 (1996). Because instruments of conveyancing are, on a basic level, contractual, the familiar overarching principle of contract interpretation determines the scope of easements and whether a party has committed an overburdening. The courts look to the presumed, objectively evaluated intent of the parties to the conveyance, using the words chosen and the facts to which those words relate, as their guides.
From a practical perspective, in determining the presumed intent of the parties, overloading generally makes sense. It can typically be assumed that the parties did not agree that the easement holder could use the easement for the benefit of more land than the dominant estate. This is so because, by and large, use of more land equates factually with the imposition of more burdens upon the servient estate. See, e.g., Rhett v. Gray, 401 S.C. 478, 496 (2012), quoting Adams v. Winnett, 25 Tenn. App. 276, 156 S.W.2d 353, 357 (1941) (“reason for the rule preventing an easement for the benefit of a particular piece of land from being extended to other tracts of land ‘is to prevent an increase of the burden upon the servient estate’”); Carbone v. Vigliotti, 222 Conn. 216, 225 (1992), quoting 2 G. Thompson, Real Property (1961 Repl.) § 322, p. 77 (“doctrine that ‘[a]n easement cannot be made to attach to other land which the owner of a dominant estate may subsequently acquire’ was intended to protect the servient estate from the use of an easement in a manner or to an extent not within the reasonable expectations of the parties at the time of its creation”) (citations omitted). Thus, the point of overloading, like overburdening law generally, is to avoid “[t]he servient estate . . . be[ing] burdened to a greater extent than was contemplated or intended at the time of the [original] grant.” Doody v. Spurr, 315 Mass. 129, 133 (1943).
However, all things are not always equal: “when the reason does not exist, the rule does not apply. Thus, when the burden on the easement has materially decreased or not increased, the easement holder may use the easement to access an adjoining property.” Rhett, 401 S.C. at 496 (citations omitted). See Il Giardino, LLC v. Belle Haven Land Co., 254 Conn. 502, 516 (2000) (“[i]n Carbone … 222 Conn. 225, and Abington Ltd. Partnership v. Heublein, [246 Conn. 815, 829 (1998)], we were willing to allow the extended use of the easement appurtenant to the dominant estate under circumstances where there had been a so-called expansion of the dominant estate, by virtue of the subsequent acquisition of a nondominant estate by the owner of the dominant estate, and where the extended use of the easement to the benefit of the nondominant estate would not result in a material increase in the use of the servient estate, in other words, an additional burden to the servient estate”).
The more likely explanation for why overloading claims have historically been treated differently than other overburdening claims is not the utilitarian principle articulated by the SJC in Taylor but rather from the very legal definition of appurtenance—an appurtenant easement is appurtenant to a particular, definite piece of land. However, arguments based on purely legal and not practical definitions, such as what constitutes a “family” or a “marriage,” seem tautological and particularly not compelling in this day and age.
Moreover, any change to the identity of the dominant estate can be handled, just as controversies over the identity of any piece of land, such as in boundary disputes and adverse possession cases. In rem judgments rendered in these real property disputes are routinely recorded, see Mass. Gen. Laws c. 184, § 16; and successors-in-title are bound by and benefit from such judgments. See Lyon v. Bloomfield, 355 Mass. 738, 743 (1969); Restatement (First) of Judgments § 89, comment a (1942). Accordingly, title concerns about how bona fide purchasers for value and successors-in-interest will be affected by an exception to overloading ring hollow. There is simply no principled reason not to make a modest exception to overloading, where a technical overloading will inaugurate no more use of the servient estate, except out of pure principle. In Taylor pure principle nonetheless carried the day.
Rightly or wrongly decided, Taylor poses one primary benefit: clarity. Indeed, despite our personal views on the matter, my office routinely uses the doctrine as a powerful litigation tool on behalf of our clients’ interests and will continue to do so—until the courts decide to value substance over form.
Copyright © 2017, American Bar Association. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or downloaded or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the American Bar Association, the Section of Litigation, this committee, or the employer(s) of the author(s).

domain: law


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text:
Himalayan pink salt comes from the highlands region of Punjab in Pakistan. The salt is highly coveted as the purest, natural form of salt available today.
Himalayan salt is naturally pink because of impurities in the rock that have been dissolved in the water. It's also a highly sought-after food additive because of its rich minerals, as well as the use of cooking salt, table salt, and decorative stones. Pink Himalayan salt is not as hard as other forms of rock salt, hence it does not need to be softened.
You can find pink salt in a variety of shades. These shades may vary from the lighter pink to a deep purple, depending on where the rock was mined. When the stone comes from the highlands region, the color ranges from pale pink to light purple, sometimes even more than one color. It's important to know how much pink it contains before you buy it. Most of the time, it will say how much pink it contains.
Because pink salt doesn't have a lot of impurities, it tends to be softer than regular salt. When using this type of salt in cooking, you may want to use it over regular salt or baking soda to avoid splashing, since the pink will keep the food from absorbing into your food.
Himalayan pink salt is naturally known to be health food. It has a number of benefits that help keep the body hydrated and maintain a healthy heart rate. This is why so many people swear by it as a cure for many ailments, including high blood pressure and heart disease. It's also good for those who are diabetic because it lowers blood sugar levels.
Another benefit of pink salt is its ability to retain the vitamins and minerals found in certain foods. The salt also increases the amount of potassium that is in your body. You may find that it helps reduce stress and reduce pain.
Pink salt is especially beneficial for those who are prone to arthritis. This is because it helps to ease joint pain by reducing inflammation. When you eat a large amount of the salt each day, your body will absorb it and excrete the salt through the urine. As a result, your skin stays healthier, which prevents inflammation from occurring.
Pink Himalayan is an excellent choice of salt for a natural detoxifier. When you eat this type of salt, you won't just benefit from its health benefits, but will also feel great from the added nutrients it provides.
It's also a natural health food because it helps you lose weight. It contains essential trace minerals that are very important for healthy weight loss. One example is magnesium, which plays an important role in the absorption of iron in the body.
You can also use the salt to lower your risk of high blood pressure. If you consume this type of salt on a regular basis, then your risk of having high blood pressure will decrease. Even if you're not at risk for this disease, there are other benefits to consuming this type of salt.
It has been shown to have an important role in protecting against skin cancer, as well as in the fight against heart disease. It has been shown to be an antioxidant, which means it has the ability to remove harmful free radicals from the body.
Because it has high levels of magnesium, it can help you lose weight more effectively. The reason for this is because magnesium can help prevent you from becoming overweight.
Pink Himalayan salt can be used as a great supplement for a host of other health issues, including cancer and heart disease. In some cases, it can improve memory and learning ability. While it has been proven to help with these things, it is best taken as directed by a health professional. Since it has a variety of benefits, it's important to talk to your doctor before taking it.


text:
Mike Caro's Poker Tells an advanced strategy video for Winning Texas hold' em poker. In this video Mike describes the top 10 poker tells to help you improve your game.
Mike Caro is a professional poker player, founder of Mike Caro Poker University, author of more than a dozen poker books and the worlds foremost authority on poker psychology, statistics and strategy. His most popular book - Mike Caro's Book of Poker Tells is a must read for ambitious poker players. In the book Mike not only describes the tells but also tells you how to use them and how profitable they are. Mike Caro also contributed over 50 statistical tables to Doyle Brunson's Super System.
|Small Ball - Daniel Negreanu|
|Advanced Strategies - Gus Hansen|
|Poker Tells - Mike Caro|
|Short Stacked Strategy - Hellmuth|
|The Gap Concept - Phil Gordon|


Sally Greenaway | Australian composer and pianist.
ABC Classic FM CD of the Week for Australian Music Month:
Aubade & Nocturne
Winner Canberra Critics Circle Award 2015
Long-listed for Australian Music Prize 2015 CD releases
"One of the most striking qualities of Greenaway’s works for larger ensembles is that feeling for landscape, the spacious scoring and meandering melodiousness contributing to a sense of sublime restfulness."
- Gramophone Magazine
"This is a rewarding experience. A journey you'll enjoy taking. It is so easy to get swept away by Greenaway's impressive, evocative compositions. At times grand and sweeping, and very cinematic, at others more delicate and nuanced, this release is a showcase of her substantial skills."
★ ★ ★ ★ - Sydney Morning Herald
"The exceptional thoughtfulness and quality of presentation of Aubade & Nocturne is, in every detail, indicative of the exceptional music recorded on it. This is an essential addition to the record library of the most discerning music lover, even crossing a range of music genres."
- Canberra Critics Circle
The composer & her music...
'expressive, introspective and emotionally satisfying original compositions...' (Canberrajazz.net)
Explore the diverse range of Sally's music - from film scores to the concert hall...
>> Listen to Sally's music
Discover the range of scores and sheet music available for download and purchase...
>> Sheet music and charts
Award-winning composer-pianist Sally Greenaway has written jazz, classical, film...
>> Sally's biography
Information about recent projects and gigs...
>> Latest news / gigs
Sally is represented by the Australian Music Centre...
>> AMC published works
Request an arrangement or new work for your ensemble...


text:
This equipment is designed for concentrating and drying biological specimens. The created vacuum as well as the regulated temperature of the chamber (three levels of heating) make liquids boil in the ambient temperature. The rotation makes a specimen concentrate on the bottom of a test-tube. The device provides a quick and complete vaporisation of a dissolvent. The Vacuum - Concentrator is used for isolation of DNA and RNA as well as to drying proteins.
Accessories - ordered separately
|230 V, 50 Hz
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domain: biology


text:
With the one year anniversary of the Freedom Convoy quickly approaching, True North journalists look back on their reporting from the period.
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) had put out multiple Twitter announcements, including some that contained threats, during the unprecedented crackdown against peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invocation of the Emergencies Act.
OPS’s tweets not only received scrutiny from Canadians, but also some unflattering international attention, including from prominent figures. True North’s Elie Cantin-Nantel monitored the social media backlash the OPS received.
“While I was not surprised to see Canadians react to the Ottawa Police’s concerning and threatening tweets, having prominent, high-profile figures of the American conservative movement whom I have followed and admired for years, such as Dave Rubin, Kayleigh McEnany and Ted Cruz, call out Ottawa’s local force for its conduct was a stark reminder that the world was watching.”
Cantin-Nantel says he found the situation to be “very sad,” noting that “the aggressive takedown of the Freedom Convoy by the Trudeau government will unfortunately leave a stain on Ottawa and Canada’s reputation for years to come.”
How police tactics backfired on social media
Twitter announcements put out by the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) during last weekend’s crackdown on Freedom Convoy protesters have received some unflattering international attention.
As law enforcement moved in on the Ottawa demonstrators, the OPS continually put out statements – some containing threats – in order to deter protesters and to keep residents of the city updated on the situation…


text:
The Middle East
Prudent investment of vastly increased oil revenues and a determination to build stable
financial foundations are helping transform the Middle East into one of the world’s most vibrant economic areas.
The DIFC in Dubai: One of the key driving forces in the region’s economic expansion.
“We have only seen the tip of the iceberg for growth in the region,” says Omar Bin Sulaiman, governor of the Dubai International Financial Center. “There will be a bigger boom in the next five to 10 years, as people keep coming to Dubai from around the world. We have to keep moving forward to the future,” he says.
The DIFC, a 110-acre site in central Dubai, was not created to repatriate the $1 trillion of Arab funds invested overseas but to integrate the Middle East region into the global economy, Sulaiman says. “We want to encourage money to flow in from abroad for the development of infrastructure,” he says. “We want the global community to be involved and to encourage diversification. What we are doing is so important that our people know they are involved in making history,” he explains.
Home to 550 companies, the DIFC is a hive of activity these days. During the current cycle of rising oil prices, a larger portion of the oil wealth is being invested in the region, and it is being supplemented by growing foreign direct investment, Sulaiman says. “The DIFC is a platform to penetrate the emerging markets of the region and vice versa. Dubai is not only for Dubai. It benefits the people and provides an environment to aim for success and achieve success,” he says.
“There is a spillover effect from the success of Dubai. Our aim is to make the regional pie bigger,” Sulaiman says. “Saudis come here and meet people from around the world and make deals over a cup of coffee,” he says.
Borse Dubai, the holding company for the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) and the Dubai Financial Market, which trades local shares, made a deal with Nasdaq in February that will see the exchanges working together to create a regional and global exchange. Borse Dubai sold to Nasdaq its recently acquired Nordic and Baltic stock exchange operator, OMX, for $1.8 billion. Nasdaq took a one-third stake in DIFX, which will be rebranded Nasdaq DIFX.
“Today, no investment bank operating in the Middle East can ignore the DIFC and the credibility and visibility it offers,” says Abdel Hamid Shoman, chairman and CEO of Amman, Jordan-based Arab Bank. AB Capital, the investment banking arm of Arab Bank, received a license last November to operate at the DIFC. “Naturally, our new license does show our confidence in and our commitment to the DIFC, but the truth is, if we wanted to become a serious player in the investment banking space, we really had no choice!” Shoman says. “We think we can bring a lot to the table, but first and foremost is our address book of medium to large corporate names and family businesses,” he says. “These are essentially tomorrow’s investment banking clients, as their businesses transform and expand—and as a new generation of entrepreneurs and professionals takes over.”
A Region in Transition
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is undergoing a transformation triggered by increased oil prices leading to excess liquidity, increased foreign investments, deregulation, liberalization and a more vibrant private sector, Shoman says. “Dubai has succeeded in taking advantage of this transformation to accomplish outstanding economic growth,” he says. “Other countries in the region are keeping a close watch on the Dubai experience to learn from its successes.”
Arab Bank is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, with 400 branches in 28 countries. It won a tender in February to purchase 19% of Libya’s Al-Wadha Bank and opened two new branches in Algeria this year. Turkey and Syria are two other relatively new markets for the bank. “We do not view ourselves as a global bank, nor are we a regional bank with international aspirations,” says Shoman. “We are the premier bank of the Arab world, and our purpose is to promote our region and our clients, wherever they wish to do business.”
This oil boom has been different from the prior ones, because this time more wealth has been recycled regionally and productively, instead of just hitting offshore accounts, according to Shoman. “As the foreign assets of the Middle East oil-producing countries and their sovereign funds are now measured in trillions of dollars, you can rest assured that there is sufficient cushion to prevent a meltdown in the event of weaker oil prices,” he says.
The Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi are all expected to record significant fiscal surpluses in 2008, Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Farouk Soussa, based in London, says. “By and large, these countries continue to budget prudently, using oil-price assumptions below consensus forecasts, resulting in considerable excess revenues,” he notes.
“This has been the case over the past five years, and, encouragingly, these unforeseen oil revenues are not being matched by excessive spending but have been mainly set aside in stabilization funds or sovereign wealth funds,” Soussa says. As a result, these countries’ borrowing in 2008 is mainly to finance amortizations, provide benchmark issues and maintain a level of government debt necessary for monetary policy purposes, he says.
“Times are good for everybody in this part of the world,” says Omar Bouhadiba, executive vice president and head of the corporate and investment banking group at Dubai-based Mashreq, the largest private sector bank in the UAE. “Our bread-and-butter business is very strong,” he says. Mashreq’s profit for 2007 rose 21% to $517 million. “We look at the quality of earnings, plus the quantity,” he explains. “The equation we work with is how much risk you have to take and how much money you make from the risk.”
Mashreq’s lending increased 27% in 2007, and its revenue rose by 40% from a year earlier. “We could grow the loan book faster, but we balance our strong customer focus with risk management,” Bouhadiba says.
With so much new wealth being created in the region in the past few years, Mashreq plans to expand its wealth management activities, Bouhadiba says. The bank also is growing its Islamic finance unit, Badr Al Islami, which was set up in November 2006.
Sulaiman: A bigger boom is coming.
Bouhadiba: Quality people are key.
Meanwhile, project financings in the region are becoming so large that it forces banks to engage in syndications, Bouhadiba says. “What makes a syndicator successful is the quality of the deals that you bring to the market. The other banks know that Mashreq brings good deals,” he says.
“We also have a strategy for lending to small and medium-size companies,” Bouhadiba says. “Dubai is our town, our backyard, and it has an incredible ability to create new companies.” The single most important component to a strong corporate banking franchise is quality people, he says. “If you keep hiring quality people, you create a good environment, and it feeds on itself. Our existing staff is our best recruiter,” he says.
The competition for banking talent in the region is intense. “We go on hunting trips to Egypt and India, based on leads from our own people,” says Bouhadiba. Inflation and the high cost of living in Dubai make it difficult to attract and hold onto good staff, he adds. “It means that the last person hired is getting the highest salary, and people talk to each other and they find out,” he says.
Inflation rates will likely hover above the 5% mark across most of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) this year, driven mainly by hikes in housing rents and food prices, according to a report by Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House chief economist Ala’a Al Yousuf. Real estate prices will stay firm, as delays in project completions, higher construction costs, a rapid inflow of expatriates and growth in mortgage finance accentuate supply-demand imbalances, the report says.
Hatcher: Region will be next ETF base.
Shoman: No bank can ignore the DIFC.
Saudi Arabia’s inflation rate reached 7% in January, its highest level in 27 years. The Saudi government approved a 17-point plan to fight inflation. The plan includes increasing the salaries of public sector workers by 5% every year for the next three years, raising social insurance benefits by 10%, lowering charges for government services and establishing a National Housing Agency.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to see how the variety of financial centers in the region are marketing themselves and their unique selling points, comments Imogen Dillon Hatcher, managing director of FTSE Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Dubai is certainly a vibrant place that is growing exponentially and is already the base for many international institutions and support services,” she says. “Bahrain is obviously marketing its new marina financial center hard and has some interesting benefits as a center of excellence in the field of Shariah-based investment.”
Qatar, whose economy grew a remarkable 14.2% in 2007, is promoting the high regulatory standards and business and legal infrastructure of the Qatar Financial Center. At the end of January the QFC issued a full branch license to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the first to be issued to a Chinese bank in the Middle East.
“Some of the investment vehicles that are becoming commonplace in the rest of the world are starting to become interesting to the large asset pools in the region,” Hatcher says. “Just as Europe was behind the US in the issuing of exchange-traded funds and now enjoys growth of ETFs at a faster rate than the rest of the world, so the Middle East could well be the next big issuing base,” she says.
FTSE and Dubai-based Yasaar Research in January launched the FTSE Shariah Global Equity Index Series at the DIFC, with 96 new Shariah-compliant indexes. “Apart from the Shariah indexes, we are also looking at GCC-specific indexes for structured products,” Hatcher says.
Last year FTSE signed a memorandum of understanding with the Abu Dhabi Securities Market to develop indexes to facilitate the creation and listing of ETFs. The FTSE and the DIFC are also creating indexes that would attract ETF listings, Hatcher says. “We are currently updating the design of the FTSE DIFX UAE 15 index to incorporate new listings on the DIFX and to bring it to the point where we will see a variety of structured products including ETFs,” she says.
“There is a hunger for innovation in the region and a real thirst for success,” Hatcher says.

domain: geography


text:
Perkins Oil Cooler For 1106C Diesel engines 4134W013
Perkins Oil Cooler for 1106C-70TA Diesel Engines
This is an Oil Cooler for Perkins Diesel engines
Fits PW & PT builds
Be sure to call to ensure you get the correct part number and if you do not know it, it helps to know your engine model and/or build list.
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domain: hobby


text:
by David Roach
NASHVILLE (BP) – With an ad hoc committee of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee set to begin its study of churches’ escrowing Cooperative Program money, EC chairman Stephen Rummage says the study was occasioned in part by the notable volume of contacts the EC has received regarding the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
ERLC President Russell Moore told Baptist Press the entity is “a servant of our churches” and “happy to work with the Executive Committee.”
Meanwhile, Jack Graham, pastor of Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church, told BP the congregation will conclude its internal study of giving to SBC causes before the convention’s June annual meeting in Phoenix. Prestonwood announced last month it would escrow CP funds over “various significant positions taken by the leadership of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.” Prestonwood plans to continue cooperating with the SBC in some form, Graham, a former convention president, said via text message.
Other churches have taken or are considering similar action over concerns related to multiple SBC entities, according to reports received by the EC.
Rolland Slade, chairman of the EC’s CP Committee told BP today (March 6) the ad hoc study group will include 11 members : Slade, pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif.; Rummage, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla.; EC vice chairman Shane Hall, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Oklahoma City; Dave Bryan, pastor of Chisholm Heights Baptist Church in Mustang, Okla.; Daniel Carr, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in St. Louis; B. Scott Davis, pastor of Pitts Baptist Church in Concord, N.C.; Dale Jenkins, pastor of Airway Heights (Wash.) Baptist Church; Mike Lawson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sherman, Texas; Glynn Rhinehart, a member of First Baptist Church in Youngsville, La.; Hoyt Savage, pastor of Foothills Baptist Church in Las Vegas; and Jared Wellman, pastor of Mission Dorado Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas.
The group’s initial meeting, Slade said, likely will occur via conference call. A date for the meeting will be calendared by March 18.
According to a motion unanimously adopted by the CP Committee last month, the study committee will “study and recommend redemptive solutions to the current reality in Southern Baptist life of churches’ either escrowing or discontinuing Cooperative Program funds, with the report being brought back to the September 2017 Executive Committee meeting.”
Slade said in an email the study committee “will discuss ways to discover whether escrowing CP funds is widespread and, if so, the reasons why; then we can begin to develop redemptive solutions to resolve the issues … We’ll likely look at this issue, share our findings with the [EC] officers and the CP Committee and then with the full EC.”
Slade said he will “stress with the group” that “this is first and foremost a Kingdom effort, not an effort to single out an individual, entity or point of view. What affects CP affects the work of Southern Baptists. We must be about sharing the Gospel to the world.”
Rummage told the SBC This Week podcast March 3 the ad hoc committee, and a separate study of SBC entities to be undertaken by the EC officers, is necessary because “a lot of … churches” have “concerns about some of the things that are happening in certain SBC entities. Specifically, some of the actions of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission have caused a lot of churches to respond and register concerns.”
Rummage added, “In fact, our Executive Committee staff tells me that they have received more letters, more calls, more emails [from] people who are considering defunding or holding back CP monies” over “this issue” than “from any other issue in memory.”
The ad hoc committee’s study will examine “the way our churches are responding” to all SBC entities, Rummage said, even though discussion of the ERLC “has surfaced most strongly” in recent months.
Roger S. Oldham, EC vice president for convention communications and relations, told BP the EC office has processed dozens of requests over the past year from churches seeking to withdraw from the SBC.
“Pastors seldom call or write the EC offices to express concerns about an entity, so when they do it is notable,” Oldham said in written comments. “Our practice is to refer them to the entity’s leaders or its trustees. In addition to numerous conversations with pastors expressing frustration or even threatening to withhold CP funds this past year, our office processed requests from 49 churches to withdraw from the convention, up from the half dozen or so we usually process in a given year. We grieve each time we send a notice to our entities that a church has voted to leave the convention.”
Moore told BP in written comments, “The ERLC could not do what it does without the sacrificial giving of churches, and there is hardly anything more foundational in our denomination than our Cooperative Program partnership, working together for the sake of Gospel advance.
“As a servant of our churches, we are happy to work with the Executive Committee, and more broadly, grateful to be able to serve our churches daily, whether by answering their questions, providing resources and assistance or standing alongside them in the public square contending for the fundamental issues of life, family and religious liberty,” Moore said.
Rummage expressed hope that churches’ concerns can be resolved.
A decision by Prestonwood to resume CP giving could indicate resolution of “most of the concerns that have been raised by the [Executive] Committee” because Prestonwood appears representative of other concerned congregations, Rummage said.
Graham told BP Prestonwood executive pastor Mike Buster “is chairing a study committee to evaluate our SBC giving” and the committee has “nothing to report” at present.
According to data from the SBC’s Annual Church Profile, Prestonwood has given $500,000 through CP each of the last three fiscal years for which data is available. The congregation has given approximately $500,000 each of those years through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $100,000 through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, according to ACP data.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) — Twenty-nine Southern Baptists were appointed as missionaries to the nations during the International Mission Board’s trustee meeting Feb. 28-March 1 near Richmond, Va. Trustees also heard numerous reports and recognized 63 missionaries who retired or died within the past year.
During IMB’s Sending Celebration service, new missionaries represented churches that cooperate with 11 state Baptist conventions. The missionaries will take the Gospel to peoples in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Americas.
Newly appointed missionary Carter Finley* of North Carolina said God is providing unprecedented opportunities for her to serve Him among the nations, and “with a degree in fibers, fabrics and handcrafted textiles, along with a desire to take the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth, the Lord is allowing her to literally and figuratively weave the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the hearts of Central Asians.”
Aaron and Melissa Stormer of Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tenn., are being sent to the American peoples. Aaron said they are going “because we know that God’s heart is for all people to know His name.”
Melissa noted she realized God’s heart for the nations while sharing the Gospel in a small mountain village in Haiti.
“I felt Jesus whispering, ‘I died for them as well as you,'” she said during the March 1 celebration. Her husband felt God calling him to the mission field while walking the stone-lined streets and surrounded by blue tiles and the lost people of Porto, Portugal.
“God has called us to go and carry out His mission in order that the lost may be found and His truth proclaimed,” she said.
Jim* and Pam Smith* expressed thanks that Southern Baptist churches work together through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to send and support missionaries. Jim said it was as a young Royal Ambassador (a Southern Baptist missions discipleship program) at a church in Virginia that he became aware of God’s heart for the nations. From Panama to China, short-term mission trips were formative in turning his heart toward the nations.
Growing up as a pastor’s kid in Colorado and Virginia, Pam felt God used short-term mission trips from the bush of Kenya to the busy streets of Turkey to awaken her desire to go from short-term to full-time missions. The Virginia couple will share the Gospel in South Asia.
‘A day of wide open doors’
During the trustees’ plenary session, IMB President David Platt implored trustees to lead Southern Baptists away from the deception, diversion, distraction and division that have dominated news not just in American culture, but also in the church, and specifically the Southern Baptist Convention. Rather, Southern Baptists should be looking at what the apostle Paul refers to as a “wide door for effective work” (1 Corinthians 16:8-9).
“We are living in a day of wide open doors here and around the world, and it is high time for Southern Baptists not to divide, but to join together — not to be distracted, but to be resolutely focused on the purpose for which we came together in the first place: the spread of the Gospel in a world of urgent need … a world of urgent need and unprecedented opportunity,” Platt said.
Sharing a video story about Abuk, a young refugee from Africa who obediently answered God’s call to return to Africa to make disciples, Platt praised God for a Southern Baptist church in Amarillo, Texas, that reached out to the immigrant family.
“We hear those words “refugee, immigrant” today, and they’re so politically charged, and if we’re not careful, we can start to picture immigrants as problems to be solved, not people to be loved,” Platt said. “Brothers and sisters, there are wide open doors to love people right around us in a way that leads to love for people all around the world.
“This is a story of a refugee turned IMB missionary! And that’s possible — why? Did you see the news headline in that video? ‘Baptists come together despite barriers.’ Oh, may that be the commentary on our cooperation in this day of wide open doors.”
This story was compiled by Baptist Press staff with reporting from the International Mission Board and is reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
* Names changed.
NASHVILLE (BP) — Amid continuing discussion of churches’ escrowing or withholding Cooperative Program funds, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee launched two efforts to study the issue at its Feb. 20-21 meeting in Nashville.
The EC’s actions related to CP came less than a week after it was reported that Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church would escrow CP funds over “various significant positions taken by the leadership of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.” See related story. Other churches have taken or are considering similar action over concerns related to multiple SBC entities, according to reports received by the EC.
In light of such reports, the EC’s CP Committee unanimously adopted a motion “that the chairman of the Cooperative Program Committee form a subcommittee … to study and recommend redemptive solutions to the current reality in Southern Baptist life of churches’ either escrowing or discontinuing Cooperative Program funds, with the report being brought back to the September 2017 Executive Committee meeting.”
Adoption of the motion followed extended discussion, in which EC members and other attendees urged the committee to take action.
CP Committee chairman Rolland Slade told Baptist Press the “concern of the committee is anything that’s negatively impacting the Cooperative Program,” Southern Baptists’ unified channel for funding missions and ministries in North America and across the globe.
“We need to know about” such challenges, said Slade, pastor of Meridian Southern Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif., “and be on top of creating redemptive solutions.”
The ad hoc subcommittee likely will be appointed by Feb. 25, Slade said.
During a Feb. 21 plenary session, EC member Tony Crisp requested that EC officers “monitor the activities of our various Southern Baptist entities since our last convention … in relation to how those activities might adversely affect” CP and “our churches and other stewardship structures of Southern Baptists.” He requested a report to the full EC at its June 12 meeting in Phoenix.
EC chairman Stephen Rummage responded that the request was “certainly within the purview and responsibilities of our officers … so we are glad to comply with that request.”
Rummage, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla., told BP the two efforts to study CP challenges — by the CP Committee and the EC officers — are “complementary” and will “help inform” one another.
“The issues behind churches escrowing funds have risen to a level of prominence that justifies us taking a special look” at what is occurring, Rummage said.
In other action, the EC recommended a 2017-18 SBC Operating Budget of $7,450,000.
The proposed budget maintains current allocations to the convention’s ministries, including 50.41 percent of receipts to the International Mission Board and 22.79 percent to the North American Mission Board, for a total of 73.20 percent allocated for world missions ministries.
The convention’s six seminaries will receive 22.16 percent. The seminary enrollment formula for funding will yield: Gateway Seminary, 2.11 percent; Midwestern Seminary, 2.93 percent; New Orleans Seminary, 3.72 percent; Southeastern Seminary, 4.03 percent; Southern Seminary, 5.17 percent; Southwestern Seminary, 3.96 percent; and .24 percent to the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, a ministry overseen by the seminary presidents. (Cumulative numbers may not match the sum of individual seminary percentages due to rounding.)
The budget proposal designates 1.65 percent to the ERLC.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
PLANO, Texas (BP) — A Dallas-area megachurch has decided to escrow Cooperative Program funds temporarily in order to evaluate future support of Southern Baptist Convention causes.
At issue are what the congregation calls “various significant positions taken by the leadership of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission that do not reflect the beliefs and values of many in the Southern Baptist Convention,” according to a statement the church released to Louisiana’s Baptist Message newsjournal.
Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, will escrow what would amount to $1 million annually, the Message reported Feb. 16.
In a text to Baptist Press, Message Editor Will Hall noted he had queried Prestonwood about its giving to SBC causes after pastor Jack Graham was interviewed in December by The Wall Street Journal. Graham told The Journal the church was “considering making major changes in our support of the Southern Baptist Convention.”
At issue, Graham said in the interview, was alleged “disrespectfulness” by ERLC President Russell Moore toward evangelical supporters of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Moore, who publicly opposed Trump during the primary and general election cycles, said in a December blog post he never intended to criticize all evangelicals who supported Trump.
Graham is a member of Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board.
Some Southern Baptists also have criticized the ERLC for joining a friend of the court brief last May in support of a New Jersey Islamic society’s right to build a mosque. The International Mission Board joined the brief as well, and IMB President David Platt apologized Feb. 15 for the divisive nature of the action. See related story.
Graham, a former SBC president, told BP via text message Prestonwood is engaging in “an internal evaluation” of its giving, “and our desire is not to seek publicity so we can make the right decision for our church and Southern Baptists.”
Asked whether Prestonwood also will escrow funds for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention — the state convention with which it cooperates — Graham responded, “We’re evaluating everything.”
Graham told the Message he is “not angry at the SBC, and neither are our people, and I’m not working to start a movement to fire anyone.” He wants Prestonwood to remain “a cooperating partner with the SBC as we have been for many years” but cited “uneasiness” among church leaders about the “disconnect between some of our denominational leaders and our churches.”
SBTC executive director Jim Richards told BP in a statement, “In our fellowship of churches, Prestonwood Baptist Church has been a faithful ministry partner for many years. We love Jack Graham and his people. It is our hope that these concerns can be resolved in a way that strengthens the kingdom work of Southern Baptists and honors the autonomy of the local church. We stand ready to assist as we have opportunity.”
ERLC President Russell Moore told Baptist Press in a statement, “I love and respect Jack Graham and Prestonwood Baptist Church. This is a faithful church with gifted leaders and a long history of vibrant ministry working and witnessing for Christ.”
Bart Barber, a Texas pastor who serves on the ERLC’s Leadership Council tweeted following Prestonwood’s announcement, “I love and appreciate” Jack Graham “but am an ardent advocate for #ReligiousLiberty and for” CP. “I’m just heartbroken & conflicted.”
In related news, First Baptist Church in Morristown, Tenn., announced last month it would escrow funds traditionally given through CP over concerns related to ERLC and IMB participation in the New Jersey mosque brief. First Baptist pastor Dean Haun resigned as an IMB trustee in November over the brief.
Louisiana Baptist Convention executive director David Hankins and former SBC Executive Committee chairman Bill Harrell both told The Wall Street Journal they know of churches considering a diversion of funds away from the ERLC.
Threats to escrow CP funds have occurred periodically in SBC history. In the mid-1980s, some Southern Baptist conservatives threatened to escrow CP funds if moderates regained control of the convention presidency, BP reported.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. David Roach is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.
by Julie McGowan
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) — Bob and Melanee Gallina invested 18 years in leading The Church at Green Hills in La Habra, Calif. They lived in a comfortable house that was a home base for their children, who are missionaries overseas. After retirement, the couple noted, they planned to serve overseas themselves.
But then they felt God prompting them to consider, “Why wait until you retire? Why not now?” Now the church they once led is sending them through the International Mission Board to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to American peoples.
The Gallinas were among 50 new Southern Baptist missionaries appointed through the International Mission Board Nov. 10 near Richmond, Va.
The celebration highlighted ways God transforms personal experience into a willingness to make disciples and multiply churches among unreached peoples and places for the glory of God. Lily Llambes’ appointment is a long way from her history involved in voodoo, to the point of almost being personally sacrificed in a ritual. She heard the Gospel on TV and surrendered her life to Christ.
Lily and her husband Carlos joined Iglesia Bautista Estrella de Belen in Hialeah, Fla., where they were discipled. Lily was involved in Woman’s Missionary Union and prayed for four years that God would call Carlos to missions, as God had called her. He did, and the couple will share the Gospel in Mexico City, “grateful to God, IMB and the Lottie Moon Offering.”
When she was 19, Jamie Schilt said, she was “jaded toward the Gospel and indifferent to the resurrection.” But “God brought my dead heart to life. Now, I celebrate the resurrection of my Lord every Sunday and long to see the nations do the same!”
Schilt and her husband Chris are being sent by Relevant Worship Church in Claremore, Okla., to partner with a team in Malawi, Africa, to plant churches, train pastors and gather worshippers among the nations.
“Why are you going? Why are you uprooting your lives, giving away your possessions, altering your future to move to difficult, even dangerous, places in the world?” IMB President David Platt asked the new missionaries.
He extended the question: “Why are we sending them? Why are we sending single sisters and brothers, married couples, parents, grandparents with our support to difficult, even dangerous, places in the world?”
“Why?” is a really important question, Platt said. The answer can be found in 1 Corinthians 15. In the passage, Paul is willingly walking into difficulty and danger for the spread of the Gospel in the world. The first reason, Platt said, is because death is coming (1 Cor. 15:20-22).
“Death is our destiny. And death is our enemy,” Platt said. “It could be today. It could be tomorrow. … We don’t invest our lives here in temporary trinkets. We invest our lives here in eternal treasure. We don’t spend our lives here on fleeting pleasures and foolish pursuits. We spend our lives here on what’s going to matter forever.”
Followers of Christ go to share the Gospel because others’ death is coming, too. “Here’s why it makes sense to go and live your life and lead your family into great risk in another part of the world: because those 2.8 billion people who haven’t heard the Gospel, they’re not guaranteed tomorrow either,” Platt said.
“The second reason we go is because the resurrection is real,” Platt noted, reading 1 Cor. 15:3-8. Christ’s resurrection, he said, is “crazy good. It’s the greatest news in all the world: death has been defeated! … Because Jesus was raised from the dead, risk-taking, death-defying missions in difficult, dangerous-to-reach places is to be envied in this world.”
The Bible gives an outline of history in the passage, and Christian believers go to share the Gospel because of where all history is headed, Platt said.
“All of history is headed toward the day when Christ will put all His enemies under His feet, and we will join with men and women from every nation, tribe, tongue and people to enjoy and exalt Him forever in a new heaven and new earth where there is no more sin, sorrow, or suffering,” he said. “Let’s lead the church for that day. Let’s live and die for that day.”
Pathways to go
The 50 new missionaries represent fully funded, full-time personnel. While IMB is developing ways to send “limitless” missionaries, the organization is committed to continue sending these fully funded, full-time missionaries to the field. This includes funding in the 2017 budget for Journeyman and International Service Corps personnel — those previously called “short-term personnel,” but what IMB soon will call “mid-term personnel.”
“Let me be crystal clear,” Platt told Southern Baptists during IMB’s report to the Southern Baptist Convention in June, “the IMB is still going to send full-time, fully funded career missionaries just like we’ve always sent. They are the priceless, precious, critical core of our mission force.”
Those career missionaries, he noted, will be surrounded with professionals, students, retirees and others who collectively show that global mission “is not just for a select few people in the church, but for multitudes of Spirit-filled men and women across the church.”
Support through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering make it possible for these new missionaries to be appointed. Cooperative Program and LMCO gifts also sustain the thousands of Southern Baptist personnel already on the field.
The 50 new missionaries are able to go through the sending of all kinds of churches — such as Three Wooden Crosses Cowboy Church in Augusta, Kan., or Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C., among dozens of others. Churches interested in learning how they can partner with IMB to send their members on mission can visit IMB.org/send. To learn more about personal pathways of service, including students, retirees and professionals, visit IMB.org/sendme.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.


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If you’re only listening to people who think like you, you’re missing out on a lot. Politically, theologically and relationally.
You’re missing out on conversations that might educate you.
You’re missing out on ideas that might challenge you.
You’re missing out on knowing the ‘why’ not just the ‘what’.
You’re missing out on knowing how to respond in ways that might actually win another person over to your side.
And you’re shutting down honest conversation from good people who have been bullied into silence by all the yelling.

domain: sociology


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2018 Budget Speech Expectations
Each year, in February, the Minister of Finance has to deliver a speech setting out the plan how the government will be spending money for the year. He also reviews the country’s debt situation and how the government plans to raise funds to cover all their costs (and hopefully reduce debt).
This year Minister Gigaba will deliver the speech (should a cabinet shuffle not hit before then – which would be unlikely) just as the ruling party leadership has officially changed camps.
Bad Economic Growth Lead to Less Tax Income
The economy was hit hard last year meaning the many tax paying individuals in the country all earned less and thus less tax was recovered (somewhere between R50 Billion and R90 Billion short). This meant that the government ended up with a lot less money than they had thought they would.
Free Education For A Year?
Last year, in a bid to win favour with supporters and in what some say is an effort to leave a positive legacy, former President Jacob Zuma made promises of free higher education for some. This followed after several years of disruptive and destructive #feesmustfall campaigning and protests at universities around the country. Recently the new President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed that this endeavour will go ahead and may be aimed at first-year students who come from households that earn less than R30 000 a month.
Plans of how this might be accomplished were touted and the bills could run into the billions of Rands each year (remember Universities are businesses who want money for their services and certificates). This is a very ambitious plan in a country with notoriously very poor basic education and sadly even worse financial literacy levels. It may, however, see a mostly unemployable range of young people (unemployment levels for those leaving school are around 50%) try out university for at least a year and encourage some families to take on loans to then further their studies. This may then benefit credit providers in years to come (though university graduates are even less employed than all other categories of workers so recovering funds down the line may be challenging).
This means that, in addition to trying to cover the already huge income shortfall of last year, the Minister has to announce where the additional billions will come from. No easy task and one that can only leave most people upset since it will have to come from their pockets.
‘the Minister has to announce where the additional billions will come from’
Where Does More Income Come From?
If you are running short on funds in your personal life then you have a few choices. Spend less (which government will have to do in some sectors) or earn more. Some of the options that Government have to increase their earnings are to:
- Hike the Fuel Levy (even though SA is already one of the most expensive countries in the world for fuel prices)
- Increase Capital Gains Tax (aimed at upper end earners who already pay tax)
- Push up Personal Tax rates for big earners such as those who earn more than R700 000/ year (eg up from 41% to 43% or even higher for those earning more money).
- Push up VAT for the first time since 1993.
Obviously, whenever people have to pay more tax and things cost more it becomes harder to garner votes and government will have to look to gain voter confidence by making changes elsewhere. At present, topics like the mining charter, nationalization, land and asset appropriation and the very popular anti-corruption (post-Zuma cleanse) are all being hotly debated due to the change of leadership within the ruling party.
The world and rating agencies watch and wait to see how the budget speech will go and what changes will be made to try, not only fill the huge income gap but also make even more money appear out of thin air for the planned free higher education scheme.


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If not, he shall get irritated and dump you for even worse. But believe me, this is certainly a things that are common Asia. Its fine if ladies deliver text or make calls three hours just before their arranged meeting.
11. Propensity to have Hitched Early
The pressure that is high of partner in Chinese tradition led to other thing: propensity for Chinese ladies getting hitched early. Because of its culture-oriented, the lady’s parents and grand-parents would be the people whom place the force on wedding, perhaps the woman by herself is prepared or perhaps not. Elder people want to set the daugther up with older guys, since they are more dependable, secure enough cash, and often have actually bright future. Chinese individuals respected stability that is marital the rest.
12. The Wedding Market
Some individuals in Asia get hitched away from life convenience rather than love.
For this reason parents also want to set kids up in a gathering. There’s a common tradition in Asia called the married market. And it is literally market, as crowded and as large as it really is. From a tiny scales as personal conference between moms and dads to large-scale event with hundred individuals.
Uniquely, the people whom get involved with this occasion are parents! Continue reading “10. It really is Fine to Exchange Multiple Texts on a daily basis. In Western tradition, you can’t bomb your spouse with a huge selection of telephone calls and texts any other hour.”


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About Marjorie Leggitt
Marjorie Leggitt is a published author and an illustrator of children's books. Published credits of Marjorie Leggitt include Yosemite: Harrowing Ascent of Half Dome (Adventures With the Parkers), Bryce & Zion: Danger in the Narrows (Adventures With the Parkers).To edit or update the above biography on Marjorie Leggitt, please Log In or Register.
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