Politics

National Olympic Elections and Creativity by Dr Gil Eriksen

Thu, 1 May 2008 20:08:07 -0400

Talk about competition and all the contenders. The upcoming national Olympics, or is it Elections, brings up a lot of fighting and new and old resentments fro sake of pursuing fame, power and positions of favor. Interestingly enough race and gender are camps that are being bought to the debates and the call for alliances and supporters. Nationality seems to be not such a large component, but maybe not. For isn’t Latino, Jewish, Arabian, Communist, Chicagoans, and Floridians descriptions of a race of sorts, or nationality? It gets hard to tell for everyone has election fervor and wants they or their guy on the ballot and are creating old divisions to benefit current agendas.

Senator Obama speaks of his ideas of hope or the hopefulness that the American people will be less divisive and more open to closing the divides for the benefit of all citizens. However, when you listen to him talk about his ideas of a new brand of patriotic cohesiveness and his historical efforts to that end, you here him speak more of innovation and innovative ideas of clear thoughts and practical undertakings extending beyond old time divisions. In so thinking and so doing, he is really saying to not take the opportunity or the opportunites, but rather to Create the opportunity for change and a historical jump forward rather than an Olympic episode of crash and burn. It is almost like he has new political ideas that even to himself are not know or fully known. It is maybe that he is in advance of himself, but clearly to be the one to frontier and expand upon old democratic and cooperative ideas that he favors, but maybe he his is still using old language in his descriptions.

Whether he is clearly expressing his vision of new opportunities or he is representing the massive restlessness of the general population that is ready for real change and not wanting old time politics with just a new face and old promises, and it may be a mix of the two, what we can do, each of us, is to ask ourselves we are reacting out of fears and desperation or looking for a better silver lining. Or is it a matter of learning that when and if politics are to work and work optimally, that everyone becomes involved and redesigns and new opportunity and are part of the creativity of function without knowing a promise of ultimate success. Senator Obama speaks often of judgment and to be intelligent and not to create another ideology about our own judgments, and to take into account the implications and ramifications of what we suggest, vote for, and are willing to support and labor over in settling our contemporary local and global circumstances.

Every age is the modern age of the time of the age, and every age has before them the choices to create and live out whatever opportunity they set for themselves. Politicians normally beat the war drums to the votes and make up the followers, and Obama warns us against falling for “The Parade of the Horribles.” Maybe our time and times are going to be about more of a joint leadership of many thinking and unusual people creating anew for themselves.

Dr. Gil Eriksen is Editor-in-Chief of Beyond Elite Magazine, Founder and Director of Research at the Institute for Reality Studies, President and CEO of Gil Eriksen Communications, and author of the How to Think book series. A Thinker, Sexologist, Speaker, Author and Trainer, Dr. Gil Eriksen is a Realist and has spent a lifetime teaching mental fitness. For more information on Dr. Gil Eriksen, visit www.gileriksen.com or email him at drgil@gileriksen.com.

Politics and Polarizing by Dr Gil Eriksen

Thu, 1 May 2008 17:25:50 -0400

If you want to get your blood pumping full speed and pull your old warrior costume out from underneath your bed, well the primaries are unfolding and the knockout rounds will be coming this November. We are constantly made aware of the contests and the contestants for political office and how they are here to save us from the other side, the evil doers of the world, the people that are cheating us out of life and limb, and we are beckoned to join forces and take up the fight. And whose side are you on?

Most people, whether they vote or not, are thinking that this hullabaloo is just the usual racket of the political office contenders and don’t get too serious about the rumble. However, there seems to be a renewed interest in how the elections turn out and who will get to protect and provide for our wish and our everything. Fear abounds, and let’s not forget all the fear, for in a great contest the more the threat and the more the jangled nerves and sleepless nights with anxiety, the greater the contest and the greater the wishes for the outcomes and the victors. Obama even references the “Parade of the Horribles” as being used endlessly to heighten the intensity of the saga.

Our creative minds need to sit seriously with all of the facts and deliberate our political positions and not panic and vote for the candidate, party or amendment that shouts the loudest and scares us into reacting. We have had a whole decade of panic management and even though we have all tried to sort out the truth of the facts, what we need to keep in mind is that just joining a street gang is just old high school stuff that is about getting excited, but may end up giving us a lifetime of detention from unclear judgments and creating our own concentration camps of surrendered freedoms and surrendered civil rights.

Thinking is not a happening. Life is not a happening. And politics are not happening to us. Voting needs to be more than just a mishap. Your vote needs to be a serious judgment based not only on your lifestyle and preferred conditions, but with vital consideration as to the costs and the resulting costs of how you participate in all of our civil business, and with an educated point of view of the world that you contribute to for your own personal benefit and for the consideration of others and their needs, wants, and desires. Which is to think of creating fro yourself now and fro many of your tomorrows.

Think about it, making decisions is not about the uniform you are wearing as a combatant, but about how you, yes you, are as a statesman or a stateswoman. Creativity needs to be not about showing off nor blending in, but about participating in a democracy and a republic to establish your voice and speak your mind, and not just falling to subscription, conscription, or the warfare of the minds and polarizing battles to gain power and dominate.

And remember when it was said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself? Well, the fear is of your own doing and your own making ninety percent of the time, and most often carries no truth or reference to the facts. It is your creating monsters and foreboding differences that are nothing more than made up enemies.

We have homeland security concerns at hand, we have economic challenges in our finances, we have educational and employment dilemmas going on, and we have the situations of the modern and more globalized nation building to face and to live with for real. These are our predicaments and have been the same for centuries. These are not some Star Trek monsters, nor are you and I a demon either. So use your judgment and not your impulse to create solutions, to create wider participation, to create open dialogue, to create an interest that is not staged at some Coliseum, but in your mind and in your votes fro you and by you for your own good and your own safety and happiness. So the contest and the contestant is you, for your own well-being and your own profitability through your own provisions for you, and not teaming up to cast stones and wipe out the minds of others.

Dr. Gil Eriksen is Editor-in-Chief of Beyond Elite Magazine, Founder and Director of Research at the Institute for Reality Studies, President and CEO of Gil Eriksen Communications, and author of the How to Think book series. A Thinker, Sexologist, Speaker, Author and Trainer, Dr. Gil Eriksen is a Realist and has spent a lifetime teaching mental fitness. For more information on Dr. Gil Eriksen, visit www.gileriksen.com or email him at drgil@gileriksen.com.

Global Economy and World Migrations by Dr Alejandro Montiel

Thu, 1 May 2008 14:24:01 -0400

The global economy has been the a worldwide wave of influence encouraging people to abandon their own roots and take the challenge to adopt new ways of living with the goal to improve their financial status.

Historically, America was the new horizon and represented the land of opportunity where most people got benefit in one way or another. But this picture has been changed so much recently that it is hard for Americans and immigrants to afford a decent living. In America, getting a Bachelor’s degree, or even a Doctorate, does not warrant financial stability anymore and has forced many educated people to get other degrees in different fields and settle for less in life.

This picture of struggling has changed dramatically even more for immigrants who do not have an education, do not speak the language, and are not skilled, so that the payoff to migrate to America is less beneficial to them and their relatives than before. The profit of making business has decreased dramatically for both owners and workers and has forced them to look for new choices.

American companies have opened their businesses in India, Pakistan, and China where labor is cheaper, and requires less investment, with contracts being done with the governments of these companies. But the qualities of these products and customer services have gone down according to American standards. This setting has developed and internal crisis in these nations because national products can not compete with American products, and American consumers are forced to spend more for products that with low quality and service.

Meanwhile the power of a strong European economy is attracting hundreds of people from third world countries and treating all these immigrants the same way America treats Mexicans, blacks, Chinese and other minorities. They do not have any protection from the European government and are living and working in inhumane conditions. Most Latin people have chosen to migrate to Spain where the language will not be an obstacle and they can reach their goals faster. But they forgot that often the Spanish are very nationalistic and are also experiencing a financial crisis right now, and, along with Portugal, are behind as a country in reference to other European nations. Europeans are moving into the American model and going from small cities to large metropolises and the immigrants are the one cultivating the land and becoming the manual labor force.

Middle Eastern and Arab countries, for example Dubai, are moving into a modern era where money is available through oil, but where they are also very behind in laws and regulation. The amount of wealth is so huge that they can build a Disneyland to attract people to build their homes and businesses in the desert, which then attracts and influx of cheap laborers from Pakistan and India, and the recently war affected Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. These immigrants experience the same work exploitation and inhumane living conditions that there are in Europe and to some degree, in America, but people are desperate in their running from war, political changes, and lack of opportunities in their own countries.

In all of these instances there are many similarities of how people are doing business and how people migrate to developing financial regions as well as to the unbalanced working conditions. It is a fact that we are living in a world that is changing so fast that people’s perceptions about their efficiency does not match their needs with the working environment being more competitive, and with people willing to invest less, and with most people being largely unskilled, and perhaps most importantly, with the idea of independence so strong across all cultures that people are much less interested to work together for mutual benefit.

Dr. Alejandro Montiel is a Feature Writer for Beyond Elite Magazine, Health and Awareness Specialist at the Institute for Reality Studies, and President and CEO of Functional Body, advocating realistic overall fitness in areas of Thinking, Diet, Exercise and Body Awareness. For more information about Dr. Alejandro Montiel, visit www.amfunctionalbody.com or email him at drmontiel@realitystudies.com