ECB: Keeping Prices Cool isn’t Trade-off against Growth or Jobs Creation

European Central Bank (ECB) Prsesident Jean-Claude Trichet on Friday defended the bank's focus on keeping inflation cool, saying price stability was not a trade-off against economic growth or job creation.

Soaring global prices of energy and food drove euro-zone inflation to record levels this spring. At the same time the euro economy is cycling down this year as a credit crisis hurts borrowing and a US. Slowdown dampens exports and investment.

The ECB has kept its key interest rate on hold at 4 percent since last June, contrary to the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England which have slashed borrowing costs to ease conditions for bank finding it hard to loan money in the wake of financial market crisis.

The bank has instead relied on injecting large amounts of money into credit market to help financial institution keeps lending. Trichet said there was an emerging consensus that stable prices would help reduce volatility in economic output – which is affected by rising labor and energy costs.

He claimed the bank's effort to limit price volatility had already been successful in calming any large swings in output. "I don't think there is a trade-off between price stability and job creation and growth in the medium to longterm, "he said after giving a speech at the Brussels Economic Forum. "I think that was the credo before the major wave of inflation but I don't think that's the case now".

Trichet said the ECB was closely watching wage negotiations in the euro area, warning that avoiding large pay hikes was "essential to preserve price stability in the medium term and, in turn, the purchasing power of all euro area citizens.

Such words have angered workers who say they deserve more pay as a reward from the recent economic boom and to help them cope with higher heating, transport and grocery bills.

He said other central banks were also behind the focus on calming inflation. "Now we have a worldwide consensus, almost a total consensus in seeing that it's important to stabilize medium-term prices" he said.

Trichet repeated the ECB's mantra that price stability was its primary goal saying "there is no place for complacency". The credit crisis has changed the usual landscape for central bankers, in particular the ECB.

SEO Marketing techniques

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Yahoo Seeks to Conceal Shareholder Lawsuit

Associated Press

San Francisco

Yahoo Inc. is seeking to conceal large portions of a shareholder lawsuit alleging the Internet Company's board improperly thwarted Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover offer, raising shareholder questions over the motives for the secrecy.

In a letter sent Friday to the judge overseeing the case in Delaware, a lawyer for the shareholders argued Yahoo is trying "to whitewash embarrassing documents" because the company thins the information will damage the board's efforts to repel a challenge by activist investor Carl Icahn.

Angered by the board's handling of Microsoft bid, Icahn has nominated an alternate slate of candidates to oppose Yahoo's 10 current directors – including Chief Executive Jerry Yang – at the Sunnyvale-based company's July 3 annual meeting.

Yahoo is trying "to sanitize the public record and maintain a cloak of secrecy regarding unflattering evidence of breach of fiduciary duty," shareholder attorney Joel Friedlander wrote in a letter to Chancellor William B. Chandler III.

The redacted documents include information about an employee severance plan that Yahoo adopted shortly after Microsoft made its initial bid Jan.31 and notes about a conversation between Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Friedlander wrote.

Yahoo had no immediate comment Friday. Generally, companies often seek to keep parts of publicly available lawsuits under seal for competitive reasons.

A hearing on the request to unseal the disputed material has been scheduled Tuesday in Chandler's court, said Mark Lebovitch, another lawyer representing the shareholders. He declined further comment.

The concealed information was gathered during the discovery phase of the nearly three-month-old suit. If they're made public, the documents could become fodder in Icahn's campaign to remove Yahoo's board.

The information would be particularly damaging to the board if it suggest the directors deliberately took steps to make Yahoo more expensive for Microsoft.

Friedlander's letter says the redacted documents include estimates about how much Yahoo's employee severance plans would cost Microsoft in a takeover – information that could be of particular interest to shareholders trying to figure out if the current board acted in their best interests.

Yahoo had previously disclosed the plans would give its 13,800 employees anywhere from four month to two years pay. Every $1.4 billion in severance cost theoretically would translate into about $1 per share less that Microsoft would have available to offer Yahoo shareholders.

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Get Your Cell Phones More Than You Expect

Increasing number of mobile phone subscription in the world reached almost half of human population. This makes mobile phone become the most widely spread technology in the world, and the most common gadget as well. Mobile phones itself currently become more and more sophisticated. There is not only standard voice function of phones but also support many additional functions such as text messaging, MMS, email, packet switching for internet access, java gaming and also many accessories like Bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder or radio.

Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites) using Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) technology leading to GSM Phones nickname, CDMA or TDMA which are all digital and as second generation of mobile phone technology. GPRS system is actually a standard technology between 2 and 3 generation technology of wireless communication, here so we called GPRS as a 2.5G technology.

Third Generation networks are also called 3G technology was deployed from Japan at 2001 which offer high-speed data transfer in addition of voice services. Communication standard being used in this third generation are W-CDMA/UMTS, CDMA200 EV-DO and TD-SCDMA (which will launch in China).

 With this amazing rapid technology achievement gives people huge opportunity in dealing with information. But you should remember that there are two other big parts to establish this communication technology, namely content developer and communication hardware producers. Luckily there also a lot of business man dealing with this two big parts. And now it is your challenge to find out which one is fit with your lifestyle or your business style.

You can visit many stores near you. But browsing physically among many stores will pain in the ass for you. That's one reason why nowadays we can see online stores spread-up widely in the virtual market, including this mobile phone handset.

Just take a sample of PureMobile which provides you with various Unlocked Cell Phones, PDAs, Smart Phones, Unlocked iPhone, and of course with their various accessories such as Bluetooth headsets, cell phone chargers, memory cards, car kits, and many other accessories.

If you such a brand minded person, just search your stuffs by brand, and you can find many brands of cell phones and related products as you wish. Choose from the biggest brand-names like Nokia, Sony Ericson, Motorola, Apple, LG, Samsung, Blackberry and more.

Use PureMobile as your cell phones catalog. Digest each product offered one-by-one. Compare each other till you find the one that fit on you. It's totally free.

When you decided to buy the one, PureMobile provides safe and secure online transactions you can trust and make convenient on you. So no worry whether you pay by Master Card, Visa Card, American Express, Discover or PayPal.

With PureMobile, you not just buy your cell phone with fast shipping and live stock guarantee, but you also know your cell phone. You can find many articles all about cell phone through Puremobile Learning Center. It's no doubt if I say "Get your cell phones more than you expected."

China-led East Asia Integration Spurs Economic Boom

Ellen L. Frost

Yale Center for Study of Globalization/Washington, D.C.

Although the balance of power in Asia is stable, the balance of influence is shifting in favor of China. Will china's rising influence translate into political domination, forcing Asians to choose between Beijing and Washington and undermining their national autonomy? Can the United States accommodate China's legitimate interests and compete peacefully for influence? What can other Asian's do to recapture lagging U.S. attention and ensure a stable, peaceful and prosperous environment?

The major cause of China's growing influence is the giant chugging sound of China's economy. China has become the number-one or number-two trading partner of virtually every country in the region.

Despite the significant of these changes in Asia's strategic landscape, for many years now U.S. attention has fixated on the Middle East. High ranking U.S. officials are preoccupied with Islamist terrorists, the war in Iraq and recent developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since Asia is stable and peaceful, the president and his top aides pay little or no attention to regional diplomacy in Asia. The consequence of this high-level neglect is a widespread perception that the U.S. has lost interest in Asia, especially Chinese influence is growing.

Conscious of residual wariness, Chinese leaders go out of their way to reassure their Asian neighbors that Chinese intentions are entirely peaceful. Unlike Washington, China has projected a sympathetic and listening attitude, offering aid and trade deals without immediately demanding anything in return.

Beijing has settled virtually all of its land-based disputes and put its maritime territorial disputes in the East and south China seas on the back burner.

The subtle risk posed by the shifting balance of influence is that in the absence of constructive engagement on the part of the U.S., Washington's voice will gradually lose resonance compared to Beijing's. Other Asians already conform to China's wishes when it comes to the Dalai Lama and proposed Japanese membership on the UN Security Council.

None of these issues are vital to them, but all stir up core Chinese feelings and threaten – at least symbolically – China's perceived vital interests. On less volatile issues, China's leverage is implicit. If the U.S. Were to largely relinquish its role in Asia, China's new influence would likely tilt the outcome of negotiations on trade, investment, the treatment of Chinese firms, energy, climate change, maritime territorial disputes, security relationships, votes in the UN and other international bodies and other issues more heavily in China's favor.

The competition for influence is by no means zero-sum and has many positive aspects. But Beijing's long-term behavior, intentions and identity are unknown. If China's political system softens into more open, predictable and participatory governance based on the rule of law – something like Singapore's "authoritarian capitalism" – Chinese goals, values and interests are likely to be largely congruent with those of the U.S. and its friends and allies in Asia. If not, some degree of tension will remain.

Realistically, the U.S. president and his top appointees will not have much time for sustained regional diplomacy anywhere outside the middle east until the next administration scales down U.S. forces significantly in Iraq. Small steps are possible, however.

They include scheduling more high-level visits, signing the ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), revitalizing U.S. participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), actively supporting the Asian integration movement instead of merely tolerating it, and devoting significantly more resources to regional health and education.

Meanwhile, what can Asians do to strengthen their position as a region – and to recapture constructive, high-level U.S. attention? While waiting for the next U.S. administration, Asian governments could launch or intensify several initiatives. Freeing up trade and investment is an obvious choice – and specifically focusing on Asia's impressive maritime assets.

In my book, Asia's New Regionalism, I argue that we are witnessing the resurgence of a pre-colonial "Maritime Asia" – the sweep of coastal communities, port cities and towns, and waterways connecting Northeast and Southeast Asia, India and now Australia. Maritime Asia is the locus of Asian wealth and power.

It is where 60 to 70 percent of Asians live, the biggest cities are and globalization driven investment is concentrated. The world's six largest ports are all Asian.

To take better advantage of this asset, Asian governments should explicitly build Maritime Asia into their vision of integration and work with local officials, business representatives and civil-society, groups to remove barriers impeding its natural flow. These include border taxes, tariffs, quotas, corruption, crime, antiquated transport links, duplicative security checks and restrictions on labor mobility.

For example, Asian governments should extend and develop a legal framework for ASEAN's "Single Window" program, which aims at limiting the cargo clearance of container ships at any major port to one 30-minute stop and validating it for the entire region.

To protect this asset, Asian governments need to become far more active in global efforts to stem climate change.

Implementation of market oriented policies on the production and consumption of carbon-based fuels, enforcement of existing cross-border agreements on air pollution, the adoption of appropriate domestic regulatory mechanisms, and a cooperative approach to energy supplies would ease the threat.

As long as China's economic development remains vigorous, Chinese influence will continue to rise. This is a fact of life that other Asians have accepted; the U.S. must accept it as well. Closer cooperation within the wider Asian community, combined with renewed U.S. engagement, can help ensure that China's new influence is exercised in a way that conforms to regional norms, enables other Asian governments to retain their sovereignty and permits Asian companies to compete effectively in the global economies.

The writer is visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and adjunct research fellow at the National Defense University. She is the author of Asia's New Regionalism.

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IT SECURITY FROM DATA CENTER TO DESKTOP

Protecting information systems from physical threats can easily fall into a no-man's land. Information security professionals can be distracted by worms and viruses, while facilities personnel are spread thin trying to keep entire sites up and running. When it comes to protecting the physical infrastructure of the computing environment, each of these constituencies may have overlapping responsibilities that are unclear and result in some physical threat monitoring being left undone.

In addition to unintentionally neglecting physical security, many MIS managers continue to struggle with creating more complex rules for network access and the proliferation in both the number and complexity of passwords. The most common tool to remember these very complex and numerous user names and passwords often is a sticky note stuck to the wall or to the bottom of the keyboard, increasing security risks to the network. This all leads to an increased number of calls to the help desk, where password related inquiries represent up to 35% of daily activity.

As a result, it's never been more important to implement strong security solutions to maintain data centers and ensure continuous, secure computing the desktop level.

The Emergence of Physical Threats.
Sometimes so much time is spent worrying about cyber-attacks that the basic problem of physical threats is ignored. The truth is, physical threats have the same potential to interrupt business processes as a hacker or virus.

There are many types of physical threats that must be factored into a security program, including theft, sabotage, human error and environmental disruption. Theft is the most obvious example, but anyone with a grudge against an organization may provide some risk of sabotage against sensitive systems. It's also important to consider the extreme heat at the rack level caused by new data center computing strategies such as high density environments and deployment of blade serves.

However, the hazards from ordinary activity of personnel working in the data center present an even greater day-to-day risk in most facilities. People are essentials to the operation of a data center, yet studies consistently show that people are directly responsible for 60% of data center downtime through accidents and mistakes.

With this in mind, it is important to integrate data center environmental and video monitoring solution. This combination gives customers an end-to-end solution that will ensure the availability of critical network resources.

The need for higher levels of security is also manifesting itself at the desktop level where finger scan or biometrics technology is increasingly seen as the mist authentic form of strong authentication security and the most convenient form of two factor security.

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Advantages of Personal Cash Advance

It was several times I wrote about cash advance or payday loan or pay day cash. This is such a prospective business nowadays being growth significantly. It is undoubted that many people may face a situation in need, in urgent, of cash in advance that unexpected and they have no ready cash on their pocket. What is your solution? Applying a loan facilities will spent much times. Borrowing from your relatives or friends may rise up social problems sometimes. Of course this Personal Cash Advance might be your only easiest solution.

Before I summaries the advantages of personal cash advance, you should be aware that this solution may create another problem unless you treated wisely. You should utilized that this solution only for overcome your mismatch cash flow, avoiding costly bounced-check fees or late payment penalties. It means that you have to have a source of payment but in different time. It is not to covering your lack of money situation! A payday cash advance provides you with unsecured, short-term cash advance until your payday.

Advantages of Personal Cash Advance:

• Easier Qualification
  Qualifying personal cash advance is easier than traditional credit. Here, your job and your paycheck act as your collateral. Also you are adult person.
  
• Quick Process
  You can get your personal cash advance approval within hours. And you can have access to your fund in the very next day due to the money transfer process.
  
• Bad Credit Score are still Available
  No worry about your bad credit score. This is not what the cash advance providers worried about.
  
• No Collateral
  Your job and your paycheck is your collateral.
  
• No Application Fees
  Personal Cash advance never charge applicants for signing up for a payday cash advance.
  
• Secure Data
  Your privacy is guaranteed. All sensitive information transmitted between your browser and their server uses 128 bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology.
  

Some another terms you should aware:

Not a Repeated Use
Whenever you need an urgent or immediate cash, this personal cash advance will help you. But you have to remember that personal cash advance is a short-term solution for urgent cash needed. It is not intended to repeated use in supporting on-going budget. Repeated use of payday loan can create serious financial difficulties.

Limited Amount
Your current income combine with the information you provided truthfully will determined the amount of cash advance you can get.

Limited Payback Period
Generally you should repay back your cash advance loan within seven (7) days and not more than eighteen (18) days. Your lender should disclose this when you agree to the personal cash advance.

Again, be wise to utilized this facilities!

Like Paper Like Oil in Environmental Preservation

Rivanda Royono

Jakarta

People tend to see a problem from only one point of view their own. This is especially true when a particular problem hurts them badly. When the price of paper increased a few weeks ago, Indonesians lamented left and right how it would harm their lives.

Working and studying would be impended, books would be unaffordable and basically generations of undereducated people would be denied their right to read and write.

Now we have something new to bemoan: the oil price. If an increased price of paper would lead to a tragedy of an illiterate nation, surely an increased price of oil – the source of all our energy – would lead to utter catastrophe. Oil-triggered inflation would choke us to death. Household expenses would double, children would go hungry, industries would close down and the entire economy would crumble.

Everyone should take a deep breath and calm down. Let us try to see these issues from another point of view.

On everage, using a very conservative estimate, a person in Indonesia would use approximately 100 kilograms of paper in a year. While it is difficult to get a precise number, one tree can produce around 1 ton of paper. So from use of paper alone, an average person would have to chop down a tenth of a tree every year.

There perhaps 150 million people in Indonesia that use paper regularly. So at the present paper consumption rate, we're cutting down 15 million trees annually. Only for paper!

Now here's the rub: We can in fact significantly decrease the number of trees we chop down for paper by reusing and recycling paper. The problem with Indonesians is we have never had the incentive to do that. We never bother to print or copy on both sides of paper, we never bother to collect our papers and recycle them.

Professors in respectable universities reprimand students who submit their essays that are printed on used paper.

Paper is more than simply sheets of cellulose; it is a product that incurs significant environmental costs. The more paper we use, the more trees we chop down, the less water retention our soil has, the more carbon we release into the air, the warmer our planet gets. And that last one translates to floods, failed crops and tropical disease outbreaks, just to name a few.

These costs are not reflected in the price we pay for paper. Economists have a term for this phenomenon: negative externalities. To us, paper is cheap. And when a product is cheap, we tend to use it beyond our absolute needs. But someone will be we and our children in the next 20 years or so.

The negative externalities of fossil fuels are even more extreme. Every time we use oil-fueled transportation or electricity, we inject loads of carbon along with other hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere. We warm up the planet and infuse toxins into its atmosphere. Those costs are never taken into account. We pay much less for oil than we're supposed to.

But there is something even direr in our oil consumption at the present: We tend to forget that we need to save some for our children.

Indonesia's – and the world's – oil reserves are seriously depleting. At our current consumption rate, an optimistic estimate places Indonesia's oil reserve at a mere 20 years. Global oil production will peak in a mere four years, followed by a steep decline lasting around 30-40 years.

That means that a child born this year as an Indonesian will have to be a billionaire by the time she turns 20 years old if she wants to use electricity or a motor vehicle because by that time nothing will be more expensive than oil – if there is any left for Indonesians.

Indonesians' indulgence in oil is off the chart because not only have we never taken into account the environmental cost of oil, the government has been making oil even cheaper by throwing in subsidies. Hence for decades, there has been no more incentive for Indonesian cities to design good public transit systems; no incentive for individuals to use available public transportation; no incentive for the electricity utility to search for alternative energy; no incentive for industries to make energy use more efficient. Instead, individuals opt to have personal cars because petrol is cheap, while households crank up their AC because electricity is cheap.

So while things are looking pretty gloomy today – and nobody is denying the huge cost of increasing the domestic oil price – we need to understand that most of us have been chanting the wrong demands for the last few months.

Bringing back down the price of paper and maintaining subsidies for oil is not the right thing to do. We may think we're protecting the Indonesian people's interest, but we're actually doing the exact opposite.

Those demands, if met, may works to our benefit bust most definitely to our children's disadvantage. Cheap paper and oil will eliminate any incentive for us to do the right thing. That is simply not acceptable. We need to change our demands and, while we're at it, our behavior.

We should not demand cheaper paper. We should demand the government provide incentives – tax breaks, for instance – for paper producers to recycle paper. We should demand school teachers and university professors to encourage – not deter – their students to print their assignment on used paper. And we should think twice before printing and copying any document we have.

We should not demand the government maintain fuel subsidies. We should demand the government provide better public transportation and pedestrian facilities. We should demand the national electric utility continue and expedite its research on viable alternative energy for Indonesia. And we should stop circumventing the law and stocking up subsidized fuels in our garages.

It is time to stop being selfish. We need to stop seeing problems from only one point of view. We need to stop focusing on our generation's interest alone. And we most certainly need to stop paying only a fraction of the bill and letting our children bear the bulk of the cost.

Rivanda Royono is the executive director of the Association for Critical Thinking and a student of the University of Indonesia's planning and public policy graduate program.

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World Must Choose Energy or Food Prices

Agence France-Presse
Singapore

The world must choose between higher energy prices or rising food costs, experts said Thursday, arguing that the use of farmland to make biofuels was likely to continue amid strong energy demand. Biofuels are among the factors blamed for escalating global prices of food stuffs including corn, rice and wheat. The rising cost of such staples has sparked protests in many countries, including in Asia.

Biofuels account for a substantial portion of the fuel produced in non-OPEC countries, so governments, businesses and individuals must decide if they want higher energy prices or more expensive food, the experts said at a Singapore conference.

Oil prices would be 15% higher if biofuel production was taken out, said Fransisco Blanch, global commodity strategist at Merril Lycnh, Pierce, Fenner and Smith Ltd.

Biofuels such as ethanol can be derived from foodstuffs including corn, soybeans and sugarcane.

Last year, on-third of oil production by countries outside of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel came from biofuels and this is projected to increase to two-thirds this year, he sid at the conference.

"So if you think that in the next five years we can live without biofuels because governments decide that they are pushing up agricultural commodity prices, it's going to boil down to a decision between eating or moving around," he said.

Diverting farm products to produce biofuels, which power cars, has come under heavy criticism by environmental activists and some government officials, who it is one of the major reasons for rising global food prices.

Biouels were initially viewed as an environmentally-friendly alternative compared with dirty fossil fuels, but they are now under attack as some unintended consequences emerge.

Speakers at the conference said making a choice is not easy, especially in a market where crude oil supply is struggling to meet demand, and with oil and gas production costs soaring.

Michael Coleman, founder of the hedge fund Aisling Analytics, said that the issue of the choice between high food prices and higher fuel costs "has a moral dimension that everybody needs to wrestle with."

Paul Willows of LD Commodities Asia Pte Ltd added that "biofuels is here to stay if we think oil prices are going to remain over US$100 a barrel." Oil prices broke through the $100 per barrel level at the start of the year and are now trading above $120.

Tips for Trade Shows

The secrets that make participating in a foreign trade show worth the hassle.

Trade fairs abroad are an ideal way to lay the foundation for penetrating foreign markets. However, planning and organizing participation in a foreign exhibition can be a challenge, especially for smaller companies who are making their first attempt to penetrate foreign markets. Before committing to a show, it is wise to learn about best practices in trade show preparation in order to obtain maximum benefit from trade show appearances.

BEFORE THE SHOW

A major trade show requires considerable advance preparation and, if you aren't ready, can present a logistical nightmare. You must develop a solid plan and monitor your progress vigilantly.

Begin by evaluating your trade show exhibits opportunities carefully before deciding to join in. Participating in a show can require a major investment of time, money, and resources. Be tough in your evaluation of a show's worthiness. Are the attendees likely customers for your organization? Exposure to a few hundred very qualified targets is better than exposure to thousands of generalists who are very unlikely to be interested in your business.

As a first step, contact show organizers to obtain the show manual, and read it with care. Everything you need to know about the show should be there, including a proposed or final schedule, registration information and forms, floor plans, exhibit specifications, invitations for potential speakers, and other important details.

Next, you must identify your goals. Bespecific about the things you want to accomplish as a result of your participation in the show. Do you want to increase visibility, gain exposure to a large number of customers who might be interested in your products, or check out the competition?

Concrete goals will help you define how to measure success. Make sure your goals are as specific and measurable as possible.

You could plan to hand out 1000 brochures, obtain contact information for at least 200 prospects, and take a key trade show publication editor out to lunch. These benchmarks will help you decide whether the show was worth the expense.

Put your show plan in writing, detailing a workable schedule, a comprehensive list of preparation activities, and an individual assigned for each task. If you leave things to chance, Murphy's Law – whatever can go wrong, will go wrong – will surely prevail.

As you begin the process of designing your exhibit, remember that like good advertising, a good exhibit clearly communicates one major message. This draws in more prospects to your booth than an unfocused cacophony of messages.

An open, inviting booth design, with no tables obstructing access, will help to get that message across. You should put the table (you still need table/s) or table top display in a place not obstructing access, event an eye catching table covers can influence visitors to stop by. Your logo should be big enough to be seen from a distance. Maximize "walking around" space by mounting brochure displays on walls. Use interesting graphics to draw people's attention. For demos, laptops and flat-screen monitors are space-efficient. If space permits, provide comfortable chairs to encourage prospects to linger.

A portable booth should be reasonably easy to set up and take down. Create a unique identity for your booth staff that fits with the booth design. Matching blazers, T-shirts, or even boutonnieres will make your representatives easily identifiable.

You also need to advertise your show participation. Use tag lines such as: "see us at Booth 1525 at the Footwear World Conference" in news releases and other communications leading up to the show (even if those releases are about something unrelated). Write a news release announcing show-related news.

Invite editors to stop by the booth, or set up appointments between them and your spokespeople. If your marketing collateral needs to be updated or edesigned, take care of this early.

You don't want to run the risk of having no brochures to hand out. Design forms for filling out prospect information – clear forms eliminate guesswork.

Consider giveaways to generate attention and a sense of fun. These don't have to be expensive. Pens with your web address and a catchy slogan can be very effective.

PowerPoint presentations and demos for your booth can be valuable tools that draw attendees to your booth and help them learn more about your business. Presentations will allow you to communicate information to many prospects at once.

Train your exhibit staff before the show. Your staff needs to know what is expected of them. They need to be prepared to answer questions and share important information. They must know how to run the demos and presentations, and they should know some basic troubleshooting in case the demos don't work. You should also stress the importance of warmth and friendliness toward booth visitors.

DURING THE SHOW

Set up a rotating booth schedule for your staff. They need breaks for lunch and relaxing in order to be cheerful and alert while manning your exhibit. A friendly greeting to passersby may encourage them to stop rather than simply walk past.

Remind staff to record all prospect information. Stress the importance of getting phone numbers and email addresses.

AFTER THE SHOW

Follow up with contacts immediately, with a clear subject line in your e-mail or on the envelope that mentions your company name and the exhibition where you met. Make it easy for contacts to respond by including your web address and information on the opportunities available to them.

Keep track of your prospects. Nothing signals the success of your trade-show effort better than having prospects purchase your products or having the media spotlight your efforts. Keep a record of the customers who found out about your products through the trade show. Use these results to analyze the show's return on investment.

Finally, after each show, evaluate what went well and what didn't and figure out what lessons you learned. Critique each aspect of the show and ask others for comments. Then apply those lessons to your next trade show for an even better experience.

Aris Darujo
SENADA Senior Industry Advisor

Note:
Camelback Displays offers affordable trade show exhibits and many accessories such as custom printed table covers. We can add a logo, custom artwork in full color or just a message onto tablecloths. Great for special events and trade shows. Our trade show exhibits are portable and come in tons of sizes, colors and designs.

Building Power Through COMPETITIVENES

In today’s era of free competition, there are no other more important words than competitiveness. Competitiveness means having strength, whether coming from within or from the surroundings. Competitiveness will create advantages, achievements and prosperity. On the other hand, a lack of competitiveness will result in losses and poverty. But before we go into the How To phase, we should first understand the following principles:

1. Competitiveness is reflected in prosperityand prosperity cannot come from low salaries, or simply from inheritance (whether in the form of natural resources or something acquired from the previous generation). So it must born in mind that prosperity is created, not inherited.
2. Prosperity is conceived by the state, but cannot be realized or distributed by the state or government alone (be it central or regional government). The government’s task is to create conditions in such forms as infrastructure, capital, incentives and productive manpower, and to establish work ethics (social capital) that will allow businesses to have a competitive edge.
3. In other words, the government creates prosperity through the business sector (companies). It is important to develop principles of governance that are in favor of the business sector. What is a pro-business government? A pro-business government is a government that is efficient, decisive and accurate in allocating resources, a government that is making efforts to make businesses operate efficiently, easily, safely and with high standards.
4. Competitiveness can be achieved through two things: internal and external strengths. The state or government will not be able to do much to strengthen a company internally, but it can influence a company’s competitiveness by creating a supportive environment.
   

From the above four principles, it is clear that both the regional and central governments play a crucial role, one that is prone to misinterpretations that could be counter-productive. If the government wishes to get involved directly through its arms, it may not achieve the intended results.
The government’s task is to regulate and its DNA is bureaucratic in nature. The role of businesses is to seek profit through competition and they have the DNA of business and entrepreneurship.

Business Strategy
How do businesses develop competitiveness? There are two things that need to be done. First, businesses must choose the right location and second, face competition with good strategies.

Choosing the Right Location
Businesses don’t just choose locations. Smart businessmen know where to find locations for their businesses. A location is a point from where a businessman moves, get things he needs and move them for shipping.
What does a business need? Businesses need raw materials, a trained work force with good work ethics, land, supporting equipment and so on. So complementarity is absolutely crucial. It is impossible for a company to produce everything on its own.
It needs supporting industries, be they small/medium enterprises or big companies. If the distance is too far for materials to be shipped, the cost will be too high.
Proximity is essential. The cluster concept emphasizes proximity and complementarity. Where a business and its supporting industries are in close proximity, businessmen get information, acquire new knowledge and access to technology and public goods.
But businesses also need support from a friendly government and public and to be free from illegal levies or other pressures. Businesses also need access to the global scene through modern information technology and access to ports that allow ships to come and go regularly at low cost. By adopting the right location strategy, businesses will be able to compete better.

Business Strategies
Finally, businesses need strategies to nurture competitiveness. These strategies involve management, methods of acquiring raw materials, investment strategy, marketing methods and so on. Through sustainable programs, a business nurtures its competitive edge better than its competitors. To be competitive, a business needs to ensure that it operates efficiently with a flexible cost structure, offers distinctive products and is capable of producing new things. In this
case, again businesses need support from research agencies provided by the state.
As a conclusion, it is clear that the business sector and the government (national as well as regional) need to support each other and work together to formulate the direction of the nation’s industry.

Rhenald Kasali
Director of the Masters of Management Program, Faculty
of Economics, University of Indonesia

At Any Price

Even with the snob value, would you splurge on a US$ 900 white blouse? With prices of luxury fashions increasing every season, affluent consumers are willing to pay whatever is needed for their designer duds.
By Ruth La Ferla

Readers leafing through the September issue of Vogue encountered a Prada mohair twin set tagged at $2,925; a chunky Giles sweater at $3,675; and a supersize Marc Jacobs bracelet at $2,180. And as fall looks begin trickling into stores, shoppers will find basic designer sheath dresses selling for $1,200, coats for just under $4,000 and designer sunglasses for $500 or more.

Yet merchants and manufacturers have seen surprisingly little resistance in recent seasons to the cost of luxury goods. So strong is the demand for cashmere car coats and crinkled patent leather bags at Barneys New York that two firms – one from Dubai and the other from Japan – engaged in a bidding war to acquire the store. The luxury conglomerate LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton, had net profits for the first half of 2007 of $1.11 billion, up 2 percent from a year ago. Profits at the parent of Gucci and at Prada are also up.

Those brands owe part of their success to shoppers with caviar taste who have come to view extravagant prices as an enduring, if unwelcome, fact of life. At the same time, another consumer group is driving the trend, shoppers for whom a high price can in itself be an inducement to buy. Just as makers of premium ice cream have persuaded consumers to pay $4 for a cone instead of 90 cents, and California vintners convince them that a $100 cabernet is better than a $0 bottle, the makers of designer clothing know that high prices can cast a spell.

An exorbitant price can confer exclusively. "People are willing to pay a significant amount of money to make sure they don't see their purchase on other people," retail consultant Robert Burke said. Or to ensure that their friends will recognize its provenance.

"Price is part of the status o certain luxury items," said Marvin Traub, a retail consultant in New York. Traub, who visited Moscow in Mach, noticed that people there were fascinated not by how little but now much was paid.

Among merchants and manufacturers, consumer psychology can be as significant as economics in setting prices.

"Luxury makers are not necessarily forced to raise prices above the exchange rate factor, but sometimes they do," said Milton Pedraza of the Luxury Institute, a research group in New York. "Why? They know that consumers are resilient. For manufacturers, it's really about asking for a price increase because you can."

The appetite for high-end wares has been a boon to retailers, who need to sell fewer of a given item to turn a good profit. The higher the price, the higher the margin, Burke pointed out: "It's much easier to sell five of something really expensive than 20 of something less expensive."

A recent stroll through several high-end stores in Manhattan turned up prices that might be the equivalent of a down payment on a minivan. A raglan-sleeve black jersey Lanvin dress was $2,455, a Shown Collins thermal knit sweater $995; a Balenciaga leather bag with fancy grommets, $1,725; Lanvin leather ballet flats, $530; and Marc Jacobs cuffed leather ankle boots, $995.

That is not to say that consumers are indifferent to price. Many are making emotional adjustment, finding ways to balance a love of fashion with the reality of its increasingly exorbitant cost.

Eunice Ward, a lawyer in Cicago with a taste for quirky labels like Dolce & Gabbana and Stella McCartney, pays full price only for items that resonate with her sense of style. During a recent shopping trip, she spied a Yohji Yamamoto sweater.

"I knew it would fit with my wardrobe and update everything," she said, "that it was going to be my workhorse for fall."
"I didn't even check the price at first.. I knew I would love it, and I didn't care."

===

Legal Service Provider Utilized Online Marketing

Complexity of life might be the most root cause derives many humankind problems. It will be very difficult to simplify, realizing the life itself has been changing times to times in our livelihoods. The solution is, of course, to organize and regulate the complexity itself among people. That's why now we have many regulations in many aspects of life.

Unfortunately there many people cannot understand the regulations to obey. And there also many people disagree with the regulations itself, and trying to cheating on its. Here so the regulations system had completed with authorize bodies to uphold the law, where people may ask for law protection.

Unfortunately, again, many people didn't know if there is a regulation that protects his/her right, or at least they didn't know which regulation is protecting his/her right.

For these problems there are actually legal service providers that can help. Another challenge is people activities and lack of information limits them to get the legal service provider. In another side, there are actually many legal service providers that competing on this business. And they (the legal service providers) applied marketing concepts to catch as many customers as possible.

One of the marketing strategies is online marketing. Yes, we can find thousands or even millions sites on the internet of any topics. So the important thing is how to let people know that you have your website about your business. Many people search for what they want in the internet by mean of what we called "search engine" (SEO). Than the challenge for online marketers is how to let their side indexed in the very top of search engine list. From here we found a phrase of "search engine optimization". Furthermore online marketers work in more specific terms such as Real Estate SEO, Lawyer Search Engine Optimization, Sand Diego Search Engine Marketing, etc.

For your reference of Legal Service Provider on the internet you can visit San Diego Legal Services that provides Paralegal Services, Family Services including divorce, adoption, etc., Wills and Trusts, Corporations, and some other services. They serve all legal papers throughout San Diego, California. They prepare all legal documents for both attorney and those individuals representing themselves.

When Education Fails to Cultivate Curiosity

"It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."
Albert Einstein

Karina Soemarwoto
Leiden, The Netherlands

With articles, opinions and other writings that have appeared in The Jakarta Post since National Education Day (May 2) and The Jakarta Post Weekender titled "Education Interrupted", one might reflect back on our education systems and schooling methods.

For a nation with plenty of intelligent citizen, some having acquired awards in international Olympiads, why is there still a widening gap between its development and that of other nations ahead of us? Let's look for a flaw and identity its contribution in forming this gap.

It is not an unfamiliar case when students are required to memorize exact definitions of difficult vocabulary is noted in a specific dictionary when learning a language. Of course it becomes laborious when one comes across yet other unfamiliar terms in a definition, let alone to even consider learning the correct way of using these words in proper sentences of distinguishing connotation from denotation.

Such characteristics of passive learning can still be found today in our education systems. Most obvious in this schooling method is that monotonously, information is provided to be absorbed by students. But does this deliver knowledge? Will it motivate us to think out of the box, will it make us crave more learning and will it get us far in the future? What's the problem?

In passive learning, it becomes the purpose of the teacher to provide the students with information, and the student's responsibility to know it. In contrast, ideally the teacher's aim should be to ensure that students understand the materials taught.

Passive learning is outmoded in many countries, including those that are more developed. Students educated in a passive manner may succeed through harsh competition domestically. But can we ensure that they are fit to compete with those of the more advanced nations as globalization occurs?

The teacher becomes the student's main and almost only source of information as assignments that require research are less commonly given. Thus, students are not trained well enough to find different types of information from various sources, often due to language constrains.

Most of the information that can be found in books, on the Internet and in theses are in English. Did we see it coming? That the instructive teaching methods applied in previous schools (such as the higher dedication to memorizing definitions instead of gaining communication skills) might over the years hinder a nation's development?

The student's process of learning becomes strictly directed at acquiring theory. There is great emphasis put on acquiring facts while the experience of students is not considered as strongly. There is little encouragement in implementing practical assignments from which students acquire operative skills.

For instance, the observing, investigating, analyzing and evaluating of case studies maybe rarely given. Students become less trained in identifying connections between theory that is provided and aspects of real life.

To sum up, there is limited attention paid on teaching students to work independently in collecting information or expressing their own thinking capabilities, as they are consistently guided by the teacher and instructions given. Knowledge is forced upon instead of developed within the minds of the youth. Extremely concerning results would be when creativity and passionate curiosity for learning that could have commenced have subconsciously worn away, and the student's perspective becomes that of the teacher's.

Can evidence be found to see whether these worrying results have struck us? Possibly. Let's take a look back at the global oil crisis of 1973. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had drastically raised oil prices.

Some countries had implemented research projects to find possible oil replacements, including Indonesia. When the crisis was over, oil prices fell and Indonesia ended its projects. Others however, such as Brazil, maintained these projects and developed gasohol, after which it became a major producer of it.

Mow it seems that Indonesia is entering a similar cycle with the current rising oil prince and global warming issues. Research projects implemented by Indonesia have varied from different global issues, including alternative energy sources. Has it been short-term vision and lack of interest, curiosity or creativity resulted from our schooling methods that once hindered a success?

A master in contemplating, Albert Einstein, once said: "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."

Possible improvements? The innovated performance of teachers during class interactions would be a great contribution to changes that can lead to improvements in our schooling methods. We need more devotion to ensuring that students understand the material being taught in class.

Ideally, the focus on theoretical and factual knowledge should be balanced with the focus on developing the students' thinking capabilities by means of for instance, analytical reading, discussions and debates on update global issues, case studies or other creative assignments that require independent research, analysis and evaluation.

Benjamin Disraeli said, "Upon the education of the people of this country, the fate of this country, the fate of this country depends". Thus, education must be prioritized, for the future of a nation depends on the youth depends on what is taken home from school to contemplate other than memorized information.

We should attempt to gain 20/20 hindsight on how our education systems have been running. Students' curiosity and interest must be sparked, creativity enhanced, their horizons broadened, and we will have a greater chance of consistently working our way up the gap that exists between us and those nations up front.

The writer is a student of the International Baccalaureate School Rijnlands Lyceum, The Netherlands. She can be contacted at ka.ps.xx@gmail.com

Distribution Challenges Across The Archipelago

Amol Titus

The residents of Puri Sakti, a narrow winding residential corridor in south Jakarta, have a range of retail options to consider if they want to purchase an average household item such as detergent, cooking oil or even ice cream. Within a radius of a few kilometer they can encounter a range of traditional stores (typical "mom & pop" variety, some still stuck in the 1970s, others quite smartly appointed) as well as modern trade outlets ( hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores, personal care specialists, department stores, etc.). Large wholesale stores and specialist stores focusing on electronics are also within reach.

A similar profusion of channel choices is being increasingly accessed by customers across the archipelago as traditional and modern outlets battle with growing intensity. Based on an AC Nielson census in 2006, there are over 1.8 million traditional grocery stores, 105 hypermarkets, around 7,300 mini markets and 1,300 super markets. Hypermarkets and mini markets are recording rapid growth rates in excess of 20 percent per annum in terms of new stores opened. This pattern is consistent with the country's consistent GDP growth and new economic drivers centered in resource-rich provinces. Sumatra, which accounts for around 22 percent of national GDP, is seeing significant traction in retail channels with Riau, Kalimantan and Sulawesi showing strong promise.

It is well known that Indonesian's are among the world's biggest "shopaholics" with shopping extending from a must-do chore to an elaborate outing with a recreational dimension. Yongky Surya Susilo, director retailer service at PT AC Nielson Indonesia, high lights three interesting trends. First, is what he calls an increasing preference for "cross format shopping". Just like the residents of Puri Sakti, average consumers are hopping from traditional markets to wet markets to mini markets to super markets and so on. Different appeals – pricing, convenience, discounts, product range, freshness, privacy and ambience – draw them to different outlets. To assume and associate certain segments with certain channels only is a fallacy marketers would do well to avoid.

Linked to this trend is what Yongky calls "channel blurring" with gasoline stations adding on convenience outlets, pharmacies offering a wide variety of personal care products and super markets having entire sections devoted to fashion items and electronics. The third trend is the growth in private label products as retailers themselves compete with manufacturers to sell products like cooking oil, frozen food or tissues to price sensitive consumers that are not averse to rapid brand switching. As inflation bites and disposable incomes are impacted by soaring cost of basic necessities, medical treatment and education, expect private label products to increase in range, quality and packaging appeal.

When the multiplicities of delivery channels and peculiarities of consumer buying habits are juxtaposed against the geographical complexities of the Indonesian archipelago, the important of the distribution activity within companies become clear.

Farquhar Stirling, managing director of PT AC Nielsen, believes CEOs in Indonesia need to give distribution "one of the top most strategic and implementation priorities". This requires a thorough understanding of consumer buying patterns, emergence of new pockets of demand and the development of distribution models that are both long term in orientation yet flexible enough to adapt to dynamic market realities.

Traditionally, in Indonesia there have been three commonly adopted approaches; an in-house distribution company, outsourcing of distribution to specialist third parties and the conventional regional distributor-sub distributor chain.

Over the years, rigidities have developed in these models that have been slow to change and innovative. Some distributors have tended to remain too regionally focused while others have accumulated "principals" to the point that they cannot do justice to any particular brand or company. The inevitable margin squeeze has forced some to consider other business alternatives with distribution activities neglected.

Business MIS, consumer behavior tracking, trend analysis and market intelligence have suffered as a consequence.

On the other hand, companies have tended to get too obsessed with their own brands, believing, erroneously, that advertising or promotions induced brand pull is sufficient to gain market share. As a consequence, they have tended to underestimate three threats that confront them – first, the growing clout of the domineering practitioners of modern trade like supermarkets, hypermarkets and in certain locations even mini markets. They now command sizable bargaining power and the ability to "profitably auction" shelf space. Second, the growth opportunities outside Jabodetabek – note how even in Bali modern trade outlets lag behind Jakarta in terms of network, choice and sophistication. Third, the significant challenges posed by infrastructure, especially transportation bottlenecks that are driving costs upward, delaying deliveries and at times creating shortages.

Support is on hand from logistic companies that have a crucial role to play given the country's export and domestic consumption oriented economy. David Ng, country manager of DHL, believes that successful distribution and logistics in Indonesia requires "innovation and an ability to customize solutions for the challenging local environment where an astonishing range of products are being distributed or exported – from bird's nest exported to Hong Kong to mineral samples (packed in dry ice) sent to labs for testing to spare part imports for excavators operating in remote locations.

From furniture to milk, vitamins to garments, cement to magazines – each sector and products category is severely tested as it tries to reach out to prospective customers.

DHL itself has introduced various innovations emanating from its "six major gateways" – Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Batam, Balikpapan and Denpasar. These innovations relate to solutions for specific product categories (e.g. commodities), security of goods in transit, MIS and monitoring (under a system called "track and trace"), dedicated quality control centers that try to proactively anticipate bottlenecks and a variety of electronic commerce tolls. Logistic companies are enhancing their advisory capabilities as they become increasingly important partners for companies seeking to convert demographic attractiveness into hard fought market share.

Electronic commerce and Internet-based shopping are forecasted to be game changing trends over the next decade. Thought Internet purchases in Indonesia are lower than in other ASEAN countries like Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand there is an unmistakable preference among consumers to obtain information over the Net and use it to narrow choices. While Internet-based purchases are increasing for toys, software, books and music the big area of projected growth is in the services sector. Already, in major cities consumers are surfing sites in search of discounted or special promotional offers related to hotels, airlines, banking, services, telecom packages and educational programs.

Usage is especially forecasted to increase among the net savvy generasi baru for many of whom brand information comes not from neon signs, billboards, poster, promotional literature or packaging but rather from eye catching informative and easy to navigate website pitching their products or services. AirAsia has already shown how Internet-based channels can work successfully to drive its budgets offers by enabling customers to bypass traditional agents. This follows the trend of companies like Avon (direct to home selling of personal care and beauty products) and Dell (customization and direct sales of PCs) that turned conventional models on their heads and made distribution their competitive advantage.

A good way to keep the distributions challenge center stage in companies is for managements to keep raising the question "what constitutes our current and future shelf space for customers?" The answer is not easy and is likely to keep changing. Just like the selves themselves that are multiplying, enlarging, converging, crowding and becoming more expensive and virtual.

The columnist is a management professional and writer based in Jakarta. Insight appears on the second (Wednesday of each month.

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A Ford now as Good as a Toyota

Label: Zero Mind

'A Ford now as good as Toyota', heard across United States

Roy Morgan Update
Debnath Guharoy

Sitting in a hotel room in Detroit last week, watching a new television commercial for an old client, I couldn't believe my ears as I heard the voiceover. The mighty Ford Co. was now claiming that it was as good as a Toyota.

Two decades ago, they were "Japanese tin pots"; today they are the gold standard of family cars in the United States.

The content of the message was no surprise, but the candid admission by the inventor of the Model T to everyone over the airwaves was almost unbelievable. Hearing it in Car City added to the irony. An American icon was appealing to fellow Americans to be American and buy "Made in USA". We don't hear that in Indonesia as often as we perhaps should.

In moderation, there's nothing wrong with being tribal. Many deep down, some very vocally and a few even violently. The United Nations has more than double the number of member countries today than it had when the world body was first instituted, simply because there are more people who fight hard for their rights and their cultures.

As members o any community, we do what we can to help promote local jobs, enrich the local population, not only in our nations. That sense of national and cultural identity is expressed in different ways, even when it comes to the wallet.

Asked which countries they re "most likely to buy products made in", eight out of the Indonesians named their own country. That is a high number by any standard, a celebration of national pride and community spirit.

This finding from Roy Morgan Single Source does not mean that Indonesians will buy "Made in Indonesia" at any price or of any quality. In that sense, they are as American or Japanese or Australian or anyone else.

Value for money will always be the first priority, but "made in Indonesia" will remain a preference if every other criteria in the process of decision making is more or less equal.

The hierarchy of preferences measured does offer a few surprise. Of all other countries of manufacture, Japan leads with 56 percent of Indonesian giving them the thumbs-up. China follows with 49 percent, Germany, Korea and Australia all at 34 percent. USA is at 33 percent, Italy at 31, France at 30.

Then there's a sharp drop to Thailand at 23, Canada and India completing the Top 12 with 21 percent. The United Kingdom is no. 16 lower than Spain, Sweden and New Zealand, but ahead of Chile and South Africa.

In fairness, the question is a broad indicator of products in general. Had the questions focused on fashion or cosmetics, cars or electronics, food or beverages, the results would have been different. But the world is changing, slowly but surely. Those who are glued to the old order will find those changes discomforting.

Last month, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover brands to India's Tata Group. The automotive industry and car expect a turnaround. We are likely to see the big jaguars to be "handmade in England" at a loss, and millions of new small ones to be robot-made for aspiring car buyers across Asia.

This side of the world, Indianans got rid of their colonial hangover many years ago and hopefully Filipinos will lose the last vestiges somebody soon. That Australia's for tunes are inextricably linked with Asia's march forward is old news now.

Across the world, that adjustment is a continuing struggle for many. For the 2 billion people who live in comfort on this planet today, it should be obvious that the maintenance of their lifestyles in the future is dependent on the conversion of 2 billion on the fringe who could become consumers of more products and services, tomorrow.

Then, there's yet another 2 billion living in abject poverty who could indeed fuel further growth, the day after tomorrow.

To do this responsibility, "thinking global and acting local" will need to be more than a slogan for world-stage aspirants. Petty of not, parochial old habits die hard.

As always, a handful of courageous managers will show the way to the millions of followers doing their jobs by the book everyday without imagination. This will happen at a global level, at a regional level, at a local level and not necessarily in that order.

Today, initiatives taken at any level becomes apparent and transferable rather quickly, with technology making transfer so much easier.

Understanding and monitoring those issues seamlessly at boundaries, is the need of the hour. A fe have realized this and are working hard to put robust tools in place, shared by industries at large.

Good common tools cost a lot to build; proprietary "tunnel vision" has no value at all. Conversely, we should remember that NASA spent millions trying to invent a ballpoint pen that would write upside down in space, while the Russians settled for the good old pencil at no cost at all.

These observations are based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the largest syndicated consumer survey in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Pilot studies have also been conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The write can be contacted t Debnath.Guharoy@roymorgan.com

Build Your Credit with a Card that Fits Your Lifestyle

At the first stage of credit cards many people applied just for their prestige. But then people starting to realize that credit card is a good way to pay, avoiding bringing a lot of cash in hand which is unsecured. Otherwise you still can enjoy the gain of your money till the last second before you used it, because your money will keep staying at your bank account until you pay the credit card bill at due date. One thing should be aware that credit card can also be dangerous and brings you to bankruptcy.

When you get a credit card, it can be very tempting to spending spree buying that you weren't able to before. And that will create big amounts of loan that probably you could not afford. It's difficult, but you must use your credit card wisely by a little planning. Even you have to be wise since before you applied your credit card. That's mean you have to chose the best value of credit cards to your lifestyle.

Most people just consider the facility and prestige on choosing a credit card. Are you?

And what else things to be consider on choosing a credit card? A credit card is a form of borrowing that involves charges include on credit terms and conditions that will affect to your overall cost. So it's wise to compare terms and fees before you agree to open a credit card account.

The important terms to consider that must be disclosed in credit card applications or in solicitations such as;

• Annual Percentage Rate
  The APR is a measure of the cost of credit, expressed as a yearly rate. There is also Periodic Rate that applied to your outstanding balance to figure the finance charge for each billing period. And the rate may change without prior noticed.
  
• Free Period
  Is a period that lets you avoid finance charges by paying your balance in full before the due date. Without a free period, the card issuer may impose a finance charge from the date you use your card or from the date each transaction is posted to your account. If your card includes a free period, the issuer must mail your bill at least 14 days before the due date so you'll have enough time to pay.
  
• Annual Fees
  Most issuers charge annual membership or participation fees and the amount of this fee can be various depend on the bank policy and type of credit card such as regular, gold, platinum etc. Issuers can offer no annual fee credit cards for the first year of membership.
  
• Transaction Fees and Other Charges
  A card may include other costs. Some issuers charge a fee if you use the card to get a cash advance, make a late payment, or exceed your credit limit. Some charge a monthly fee whether or not you use the card.
  
• Balance Computation Method for the Finance Charge
  It's important to know what method the issuer uses to calculate your finance charge. This can make a big difference in how much of a finance charge you'll pay - even if the APR and your buying patterns remain relatively constant.
  

In addition, don't just pick the lowest rate or minimum charges, but again, choose the best valuable credit card that fits to your lifestyle. Either you want a rewards, low interest or balance transfer credit cards is your choice. Benefits you can get that ever offer by credit card issuers such as;

• Low intro APR
  
• Cash-back Bonus
  
• Rewards
  
• Low Interest
  
• No Annual Fee Credit Cards
  
• Balance Transfer Credit Cards
  
• Business Credit Cards
  
• Airline Reward Credit Cards
  
• Gas Reward Credit Cards
  
• Student Credit Cards
  
• Prepaid Credit Cards
  

Credit cards are very essential part of one's life today. All banks today offer credit cards with various services. The Question is which is the good credit card? Which credit card to choose is totally depends on the card receiver. And it is wise to choose the right credit card for you. But how shall one choose the right credit card for him/his self?
Follow three simple step;

• research – find the credit card that fits your finance lifestyle
  
• compare – compare your credit card to thousands of others
  
• apply – apply the credit cards that works best for you.
  

Just refer to the most trusted credit cards resources directory such as Credit Cards Club.

USAID Team Up for Conservation Project

The Forestry Ministry together with US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced more model conservation villages to be built around protected forests and nature preserves. There are currently 182 conservation villages in West Java, East Java, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra, Forestry Minister M.S. Ka'ban said here Wednesday. "Those villages are located in upstream areas close to nature preserves," he said.

"Through the conservation villages' project, we hope local people will help us to preserve forests." The conservation village project is a community empowerment initiative involving local people. It aims to protect forests and wildlife habitats by reducing deforestation and watershed pollution.

There are around 22 million hectares of conservation area in Indonesia. However, according to the ministry, the areas are endangered by deforestation, forest fire, illegal logging and illegal trading of rare plants and animals. Deforestation has damaged some 59 million hectares out of the country's 120.35 million hectares of forest. According to the ministry, 2,040 villages with 660,845 inhabitants, who live adjacent to protected areas, are dependent on the forests for their livelihood.

Darori, the ministry's director general of forest preservation and nature conservation, said the conservation village model aims to educate local people about forest rehabilitation and ecosystem restoration. "As a start, we must give people who live nearby the protected areas the correct information about forest preservation so as to maximize the benefits through conservation," he said. "People must understand they will gain greater access to clean water through environment preservation," he said.

According to the director of Basic Human Services of USAID, Alfred Nakatsuma, the five-year project, which started in 2005, is having a positive effect. "So far we're very happy with the result and we're planning future activities. Hopefully, the conservation village models can soon be implemented nationwide," he said.

Aep Saefudin, a conservation village resident living in Sukatani, Cianjur, West Java, said he was excited about the project. "The field school, one of the programs within the project, has given greater knowledge of how to benefit from land properly." He said. "However, not all of the villagers have benefited from the project yet. I suggest the government and USAID continue the project some time into the future." He said. (nkn)

(Source: The Jakarta Post, Friday, May 9, 2008)

Regular and Creative Problem

L. Michael Hall
2008 Meta Reflection #20
May 5, 2008

All problems are not created equal.

Some are really great because they enable you to grow as they unleash new potentials within you. Others are stupid and stupifying because they distort your mental maps and diminish you as a person. So you like all of us need great problems! In the last Meta Reflection I ended by drawing a difference between formula and creative problems. Several have asked about that distinction and asked that I write a little more about it. So here goes.

Regular Formula Problems

We call problems that have already been solved "knowledge." Such solved problems in mathematics, geometry, bridge construction, etc. is the racial wealth that comes to us through time-binding and is a gift of the past. Such time-binding wealth means that we do not have to re-invent the light bulb, horseless carriage, heavier-than- air flying machines, etc. There's no need to be creative and develop creative-thinking for how a light bulb works.

Solutions to these problems requires the ability to read, to ask questions, to hire skilled people, to work with a coach, trainer, professor, therapist, or consultant. The solutions are already available. In fact, creativity in this context is not only irrelevant, it is a waste of time, energy, and effort. The problem has already been solved!

New Creative Problems

Creativity and creative problem-solving is what's needed for the problems that have not been solved. And these are the problems that, for the most part, are still emerging. They are driven by three forces—change, by complexity, and by new solutions.

1) Obviously, change drives these new problems.
Just when you solve one problem, things change and presto! You have a new problem. Today as the price of a barrow of oil changes every month, sometimes every week, and always changing upward so that fuel costs keep rising, this creates problems in many areas. There is the change that arises when companies file bankruptcy. Suddenly, they are gone. New ones arise. The companies on the top 500 or top 100 keep changing. Products and services are variable. There's planned obsolescence, there's new programs each month for fixing things and solving the problems of management. There's the changes that politics brings, that new inventions bring, that previous solutions create ... there's changes everywhere. Heraclitus has never been more right, "Change is the only thing that's permanent."

2) Complexity also drives and creates new problems.
As the systems we live within become more and more complex, new problems arise. We see this in the globalization of each country's economy within the global economy. We no longer live in isolated economies that operate by their own logics, but with things becoming more and more inter-related, what happens in one part of the globe affects every other part. This reduces local solutions and often makes them completely ineffective.

3) Even solutions drives new problems.
In fact, here's a principle of problem creation: Every solution creates new problems. And this is all the more true within complex systems. And if we don't think systemically, quick fixes which may offer a short-term wonder solution may at the same time set in motion the factors for a much bigger and more difficult problem.

Solving the New Problem Creation Problem

What are we to do about all of this? Maslow argued that fundamentally we need a new kind of human being—a person who is comfortable with change and able to effectively cope, even master, the challenges of change. He argued that we need a new kind of human who is open to the creative challenges before us, who easily lives with ambiguity, embraces uncertain, knows how to reduce risk factors, and so on. He said that above and beyond specific creative products and solutions, we need to focus on developing creative people.

This is especially true for businesses. Businesses are in business for the sole purpose of solving problems. They find and focus on problems in order to find and invent creative solutions. The design is to solve problems that confront the business ... and due to the changing world, changing technology, changing markets, etc. --- problems once solved is no longer enough.

And that's why creative problem-solving is now needed for people at all levels in an organization.

• The people at the top—need to create new management practices, new branding, new packaging, new framing.
  
• People in the middle need to create new ways of relating, new enlightened management, and new ways to balance life/work, new measurement procedures, new coaching methodology, new hiring practices, new retention practices.
  
• People on the front lines need to be creative in customer service, seeing gaps in the market, seeing trends, creative in meeting customer's needs.
  

Approaching it from the problem perspective enables the leaders and managers to tap into the untapped creative potential of their people — use their knowledge workers more fully, give people more fulfillment at work, more committed, more buy-in, more passion ... and that lessens all of the problems with keeping good people, creating responsible work force, theft, etc.

Things Affected Your Insurance Rates

It is important to protect the things you value. You might already aware of your values such as your life, your family, your home, your money, your other asset, etc. And I bed you already protect as the way you can. Yes, the things are the most important, and you don't want to loose it. You don't want to die, you don't want to get harm, and you don't want your family die or get harm. Here so you take care of your life and your family. You lock your door and turn on the house alarm.

What about natural disasters? Can you push aside floods, fires or mudslides? Can avoid hurricanes or earthquake? No, you can not!

But you can take the replacement at least, to reduce your lost in material term from insurance company. You can see here, that house insurance is not luxury. It is necessity.

Your home can be the most value thing after your life and healthy. A home will protect you and your properties. But did you already protect your home? If you don't, you better hurry. In fact, most mortgage firm won't make a loan or finance a residential real estate transaction unless the buyer provides proof of coverage of the property.

Everyone is searching for a way of cutting costs. Saving on home insurance is a reasonable act. Home owners insurance cost are determined by many factors. Some factors are controllable, but the others are not. When you find a house, its better to gather as much information as you can to anticipate the potential insurance costs.

Some factors that may affect to the insurance costs are;

1. Geography
   

   Areas prone to severe weather and natural disaster will affect more for insurance costs, as well as safer neighborhood (i.e. close to fire department) may costs less to insure.
   

2. Building Cost
   

   Since building materials price has risen in recent years, it may cost more than market value to rebuild. And if so, it's better to update your insurance coverage, of course it will affect to the insurance cost.
   

3. Complete Coverage
   

   Standard homeowner insurance policy may cover the structure of your home and some personal belongings, but may not provide full coverage for high-value possessions such as jewelry. You have to check for your insurance policy and add a "personal articles floater" should you wish.
   

4. Financial Asset Protection
   

   A visitor to your home may fall down the stairs and is seriously injured. Hence, the visitor's insurance company could hold you to responsible for thousands dollars of medical bills. In this type of situation, your homeowner's policy would likely cover the costs up to a specified limit, and in certain cases it may even cover legal fees that arise. Increased liability coverage is especially important for homeowners with potential safety hazards, such as a swimming pool.
   

5. Comfort Level
   

   You can choose higher deductible level to get lower monthly premiums. The choice is yours to make. Your insurance company can provide a variety of premium/deductible scenarios that will best suit your needs.
   

6. Safety features
   

   You may be able to save on insurance premiums by looking into safety and prevention features that often merit a discount.
   

7. Preventive Maintenance
   

   Conducting preventive maintenance on your home and repairing small problems quickly can help avert more substantial losses down the road.
   

Wrapping It All Up
if you've made any significant renovations to the home itself after moving in, be sure to inform your insurance company, since it may affect the replacement cost of the home.

To avoid any discrepancies and any delays in receiving your insurance money for your home, make sure you document everything. Photograph and videotape the entire contents of your home and the home itself. Then store these photos and videotapes in a fireproof box. In addition, consider storing a copy of the photos at a relative's house, and/or in a safety deposit box. Doing this, will help homeowners compile an inventory of their possessions (which is what the insurance company will demand) after a disaster. It will also, by extension, dramatically shorten the length of the claims process if a disaster does occur.

Good Partner

Homeowners' insurance is a necessity. There are ways to save money, but there are also some features that homeowners shouldn't skimp on. Make sure you know the difference.

Before purchasing insurance, review the company's complaints record and rankings on customer satisfaction and financial security. This is important to guarantee your comfort on your purchased house insurance.