Born Under a Wanderin Star

Peppermint Lounge Adventure Two

Marvin David Webster — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:29:00 GMT

Editors note: I apologize for my lack of published new material. I still need to finish my Philippines reports, but I have been having so much fun in the Philippines over the last months I just haven't taken time to write. I will try and change that in the near future.

In the meantime another story abut the Peppermint Lounge in Pampa, Texas came in from a classmate of mine from the Pampa High School Class of 1969. I hope you enjoy this tale of days gone by by Tommy Davis as much as I did.

The Peppermint Lounge

by Tommy Davis

I don't think I am saying anything new to you when I say, "Oh, the trouble youth can find...".

It was the summer just before Rick Heckman's and my senior senior year at good 'ol PHS. He worked at one of the petroleum related industries located on Price Road.

Our Peppermint Lounge Connection

Rick worked with a man named Jesse Fuller, who was from "the flats."

Jesse was the singer of a band that regularly performed at the Peppermint Lounge. (As I understand it, he went on to Detroit under a contract with MoTown records.) Jesse was one huge man!

Not many days prior to the crux of my story, I met him at Rick's work place. He was loading a couple of 30 gallon drums of hydraulic fluid on to the back of a truck - by hand and by himself!

He squatted, wrapped his arms around the barrel, stood up straight, and with a low grunt thrust his body upward and forward enough to place them on the truck bed. No handles. No straps. No hoists. Just his bare arms.

Jesse had offered to Rick that if we stopped by to see him on this particular Friday evening, he would supply us with a case of beer. He had told Rick that we would either find him at his home or the Peppermint Lounge

Cruising the Peppermint Lounge

We had a hard time finding his home, so we just drove around - periodically passing the Lounge, looking for signs of his presence. At each pass, the eyes of some male local residents grew more stern and un-welcoming.

It was about the fifth pass around this particular corner that these four men - all good sized - stepped in front of my '56 chevy and waved us down. One stayed in front of the car. Two went to Rick's side. And the remaining one - the biggest - came to my door. It was hot. The windows were down.

One of the men on Rick's side asked, "Now just what are you boys doing here?" Rick started his answer, but before he could get it out, the man on my side - it seemed his whole head filled the window - spoke to me. All conversation on the other side of the car ceased.

I remember to this day those eyes. They had no whites. What should have been white was mahogany - a deep dark mahogany. And they were only six inches from mine. His breath - well his breath almost made me drunk. He said in a deep and serious voice, "Zzz rubv blu blu?" I put the question mark here, because I could at least tell by the inflection that he was asking a question.

Failure to Communicate at the Peppermint Lounge

I looked at him - nervously out the front window - then back at him and said, "I'm sorry - what did you say?"

After a rumbling, grunting, impatient exhale, "Zzz --- rubv --- blu blu?"

I looked over to Rick just long enough to see if he was going to offer any help. I certainly did not want the back of my head exposed for too long. Assistance would not be forthcoming.

Still confused, and having no clue of the "safe" response - but being confident that to ask for one more repeat would mean my certain death, I said, in my frantic analysis that he must be asking me if we wanted trouble, "Uh - no. We aren't looking for trouble."

The Color of Blood at the Peppermint Lounge

That wasn't the question.

He growled like an angry bear and with both hands firmly gripping my door, began shaking and rocking my car like it was one of those kiddy-ride cars. Then one of the men on the other side, lunged through the window with one hand pushing Rick against the seat and the other turning my car off.

With his face now also within inches said, "He asked you if your blood was red."

"Yes - yes - its red - its red", I exclaimed.

Then Rick blurted out, "We're just lookin' for Jesse Fuller."

Dropping Names at the Peppermint Lounge

All bodies that were not white were suddenly outside the car. The one that had kindly done the translating for me, now standing about two feet from the car, cocked his head and said, "You mean Jesse Ray Fuller?"

Rick said, "Yeah... yeah... Jesse Ray. He's my friend. I work with him."

"Hey man - I didn't realize you were friends of Jesse's. We don't know where he is - but when you see him, please don't tell him anything about this. Please don't."

And when we found Jesse a little while later, we said nothing about what had previously happened at the Peppermint Lounge

The Peppermint Lounge

Marvin David Webster — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Editor's Note: I have been up to my eyeballs in things that have kept me from writing for several weeks and David Schaub sent me this story to fill in some space while I was not able to post anything. We will finish our series on the Philippines shortly.

In the meantime David's story is a very revealing experience about a nightclub in Pampa, Texas called the Peppermint Lounge, named after the original Peppermint Lounge that opened in 1958 in Manhattan, New York.

As the Twist craze hit in 1960-1961, celebrities swarmed into the Peppermint Lounge: Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Liberace, Noel Coward, Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, Annette Funicello, even the elusive Greta Garbo, to dance to the house band Joey Dee and the Starliters. Jackie Kennedy was such an enthusiast that she arranged for a temporary 'Peppermint Lounge' to be mounted in the White House.

David's real life experience at the Peppermint Lounge in Pampa will take those who lived in Pampa during that era on a trip down memory lane. The rest of you will find it a fun article that accurately reveals a place in small town America in 1968 even Jackie Kennedy would not have believed existed.

The Peppermint Lounge

A Pampa Texas story by David Schaub

Pampa, Texas 1968

In the late 1960’s when I was living there, Pampa had a population which consisted of primarily whites with barely a thousand or so blacks. As it had always been up to that time, virtually all of the blacks lived in an area called the Flats. As was then typical in most of the South and Texas, it was located “across the tracks”. Segregated schools had only been abolished a couple of years before and the Flats had lost its binding feature—the schools. But one of the most famous places to many people who knew Pampa was the Peppermint Lounge, a black nightclub located in the Flats.

It had a bad reputation. There were always notes of fights with the police being called in the Police Beat in the newspaper. There had been a couple of shootings and stabbings there. I had heard stories about this place for several years from the black guys I played baseball and football with but to myself and most of my friends, it was a place which I would never set foot. It was way too dangerous to even think about. Well, one of the problems of being young is that you are bullet-proof or at least you think you are. I was just bored enough to want to find out what the Peppermint Lounge was all about.

An Idle Mind and Curiosity

I had always had a very good rapport with the black guys with whom I played little league/babe ruth league baseball and high school football. We kidded around a lot with our black buddies and some of us got a real education about how some of the guys lived in the Flats. Things like sex, prostitution, liquor laws, gambling, and the general view of how life is lived was a lot different for most of them. We also found out that some, if not all, of our buddies went to the Peppermint on a regular basis. It seemed the rules were a little different there, and I can surely say that I was very curious.

The second semester of my senior year in high school, I was effectively worthless. I had enough credits to graduate, I had been accepted to Tech already, I was just going through the motions. Thus, I didn’t study, did little homework, sports were over for me, and I was only going to 3 classes. The rest of the day, I worked at the Chevy car dealership parts department. One of the guys I kidded around with at work was a black fellow I will call Swede (not his real name). He was single, probably about 30 years old and drove a cool car.

Swede was always good for a laugh and my working partner, Bennie, and I knew where he would hide when he wanted to “rest”. We would find him and hide with him sometimes and talk about all kinds of stuff. Well, I found out that he went to the Peppermint Lounge on a regular basis. The stories he told us were amazing! Well, one day I was chatting with him about the Peppermint and he asked me if I would like to go with him. He said no one would bother me and I would probably know a bunch of folks there. Well, I told him I would go if my running buddy, Lanny, would go and I would get back to him. No chance I am going there by myself.

The Flats

Wow, was I excited. That night I tracked Lanny down on the drag. Now you have to understand that he had not grown up in Pampa and was already out of high school and is a really cool dude. He was only about a year or so older than me. Actually, he was living with his cousins to let a situation cool off in Arkansas. He had the coolest car—a brand new ‘68 Mustang fastback with a 351 Cleveland engine. Man it looked good and ran like a bat out of hell! We had been running around together for almost a year and gotten into only minor trouble. So when I explained to him what Swede had offered to do, he said sure let’s go! The weekend was only a couple of days away so I told Swede that we would be at his house at 9pm on Saturday. Swede told me how to find his house. I wanted to go later in the evening so that it was dark to help “hide” us from prying eyes.

On Saturday, Lanny and I met up and I jumped in his car. I directed him over to the Flats and to Swede’s house. We pulled up in front of his house and it was dark but his car was in the driveway. We went up to the door and it was open, with only a screen door to keep the mosquitoes out. I knocked on the screen door and nothing! He has got to be here, his car is here. I banged louder and this time I heard a muffled noise that sounded like, “Come on in.”

Swede Cops Out

We entered the mostly dark house and in the bedroom off the kitchen was Swede sprawled across the bed. Man, he was just about dead drunk. I helped him sit up on the edge of the bed and he said he had been drinking since that morning and was not feeling too good. I asked him if he remembered he was going to take us down to the Peppermint Lounge and he said yeah, but he could not go because he was too sick. But he had set it up with the bartender and it would be OK. Just go on down there and we would see our buddies there.

Well, this was quite a twist. Lanny and I went back to the car to figure out what to do. When we got outside, we found a young kid standing next to the car admiring it. When he turned around, I recognized the brother of one of my black friends. He said he loved the car and wondered if he could have a ride in it. I looked at Lanny and then I turned to him and told him that Swede was going to take us to the Peppermint but was not in any shape to do that. He said, no problem, I will show you where it is. He said his brother was there and it would be ok if we went in. I turned to Lanny and asked him what he thought. “Let’s do it!” So off we went. Our new guide directed us to a street with a lot of houses.

Making an Impression

He was asking how fast the car was and telling us how neat it was. Then he said,

Will this car peal out?”

“You better believe it will”, Lanny responded.

“Well, would you mind going down to the that white house and peal out in front of it?”, our young friend asked.

“What for?”, Lanny asked.

“Well, there is a little chick that lives there I want to impress,” he says.

Lanny about fell out of the car laughing.

“Are you kidding me? Man, to impress a girl, I would be happy to do that.” Lanny says.

So we drive down to the white house and stopped. Our little friend leans over to the window next to me and yells at the girl standing on the porch,

“Hey, watch this! OK, hit it, man.”

Lanny lays into it and there are two black stripes and a cloud of smoke when we finally looked back.

“Holy Cow, this thing is really something!” our little buddy yells, “This thing will really run!”.

“OK, dude, your all set with your new squeeze, so lets go to the Peppermint,” I told him.

Here We Go

So he guides us down and around until we come to a long street with very little on it except this building set back off of the street to our right. There are cars parked every where. We drive by and see 5 or 6 dudes standing around outside. I don’t see anyone I know at all. We go past the club and turn around in the street. Lanny sees that there is a vacant lot across the street and the curb is pretty well beat off. He pulls in and parallels a pickup sitting near the street. We look at each other and I say, “Well, here we go.”

Our little buddy jumps out and is gone into the night. As we walk by the pickup, I look in the bed and there is a dude laying there either passed out or dead. Either way, he did not move. Lanny and I cross the street and head for the door. None of the guys outside say anything to us but look us over really good. Man I do not know what to expect when we go through that door. This could be the largest mistake of my life or not, but I bet we find out real soon.

I lead going into the place and the music is loud and it is really dark and smoke is everywhere. I cant see anything. Then I hear someone yelling to get over the music,

“Hey, man. Come over here!”

Meeting Up

I finally see that it is my buddy Wayne. His brother was our guide. We go over to this table full of guys and I suddenly discover that it is most of my friends and a few more. Besides Wayne, there is Frank, Stanley, and Bobby. He introduces two slightly older guys and we pull up a couple of chairs. There are empties all over the table so they are obviously not just sitting there. Our butts barely hit the bottom of the chair when the largest man I have ever seen in my life comes over and says he wants to see our licenses! Holy cow, we are about to bet bounced out of here. Wayne yells to me—“Give him your license, man”. Lanny and I pull out our licenses and hand them up what seems like 20 feet to his hands. He stands there a second and looks at them, looks at us, and then says, “What will you guys have?” I must have had my mouth hanging wide open because all I can say is, “ Ah, Ah, Ah!”

Lanny says, “Bring us two Buds and one for each of our buddies!”

No problem, he disappears. We start talking to the guys and tell them about Swede and the kid. The guys know about Swede being out of commission. Wayne says they had a bet that we would not show up. My eyes are beginning to adjust to the dark room. The walls are covered with neon beer signs. There is maybe 30 tables in the room and a fair size dance floor filled with people. Along the walls are some chairs with young ladies in them. They all seem to be looking at us.

It is loud. Wayne tells us that the bartender only wanted to see our license so he would know how old we are in case of trouble. He needs to know who to throw out the side door in case the cops come! Well, that makes me feel better!! Geez. About that time, the beer shows up and we all get served. I suck down about half and I noticed Lanny did too. I introduce him around to everyone. He doesn’t know any of the guys but when I tell them he owns the red and black Mustang, they all know him!

The Dance

At this point, we were doing good. I was beginning to get used to this place. Then Wayne said, “Hey man, you want to dance?” Before I could say anything, this girl appeared and sits down in the empty chair next to me. Now she had to be about my age or maybe a little younger but I have no idea who she is. I don’t ever remember seeing her at school but here she is and I don’t know who I am going to offend if I say no, or what kind of stuff I am going to get into if I say yes. But yes looked like the easiest thing to do, so off we went to the dance floor.

I have no clue what song is being played but it was fast and hot and we danced like crazy. We made it thru the first song and stayed on the dance floor. The next song fires up and we begin dancing again.

The Fight

But before this song gets too far, I noticed what looked like a whirling mass of legs, arms and bodies in the middle of the dance floor! At first, I can not quite figure out what is going on. Holy cow, those two dudes are fighting.

People start giving them room. It was also getting serious because I thought I saw a knife in one of their hands. This is not good and I headed back to the table and everyone, including my buddies, are beginning to charge toward the door. Someone said the cops are on their way and we got to get out of here. I knew there was one black cop that patrolled the Flats so there had to be one very close by.

Hiding Out

Lanny and I hit the door at about the same time. We got about five steps past the door and I looked up the street and sure enough, there was a car coming with red lights a-blazing! We would probably run right in front of it if we continued. I grabbed Lanny’s arm and we made a sharp right turn into the vacant lot next door with weeds at least as tall as our shoulders. We got in the weeds and crouched down and made it to a large tree in the middle of the lot. Between the weeds and the tree, we could not be seen out there (plus it was dark)!

The car stopped and one black cop ran into the Peppermint. We are watching intently as a second car pulls up, this time with two white cops. In what seemed like 30 minutes but probably was closer to 5, out come all three cops with two handcuffed guys in tow and put them in the cars. They milled around for a few minutes and then drive away. We decide to wait a few minutes to be sure they are good and gone.

About the time we are about to leave, a couple comes out of the club and they are obviously not happy with each other. He has a hold of her right arm above the elbow and is half dragging her towards the car. She is a long, tall person in a very shapely dress and high heals. He is a handsome man in a very nice tan stripe suit. Lanny and I hold our position to see what is going to happen. They are heading for a car right in front of us and only about 30 yards away. We see and hear everything as it unfolds.

One Tough Woman

“Don’t you ever do that shit again around me!”, she exclaims in a very self righteous voice that only black women can do as he shoves her toward the passenger door.

He shoots back, “Don’t you talk to me that way, woman. I will talk to anybody I want to, any time I want to, without asking your permission!”

She rips open the car door and wheels around, standing in the opened door, with one arm over the top of the door, and screams at him just three feet away:

“I will say any damn thing I want to, any time I want to!”

With that he draws back and hits her right between the breasts, really hard. So hard in fact it sounded like the thump of a bat hitting a softball. She is knocked backwards and the open door catches her or else she would probably have been on her back on the ground. With her left arm still over the top of the door to hold herself up, her knees buckled and I thought she was going down. But she kind of bent over with her knees still bent and came up like a coiled spring unwinding with an upper cut that hit him as square on the chin as you could hit someone! I mean he was tagged. We saw the bottom of his shoes as he flew backwards and hit the ground flat on his back. Lanny and I simultaneously said, “Shiiittt!” We were standing there with our mouths agape.

He slowly gathers himself up, rolls over onto his knees and manages to get upright. She is still hanging there with her arm across the door.

“Git in the damn car, woman, and let’s go! I am tired of messing with you.”

She slowly turns around and gets in the car. He grabs the door and slams it shut. He walks around the car mumbling something we could not hear, gets in and tears out of the lot and onto the street. We are standing there with our mouths open. I turned to Lanny and said,

“Buddy, that is the toughest woman I have ever seen in my life! The shot he gave her would have killed me!”

“Yeah, and then she had the strength to hit him with a punch that literally knocked him off his feet! Wow, what a pair! Hey, lets get out of here while we still can,” Lanny said.

Time to Scatter

So we ran out of the lot and across the street but as we came to that same pickup that was parked there when we went in, the man in the back raised up and said,

“Hey, them cops came out here and asked me which way them white boys went, and I told them I don’t know cause I’ve been passed out here since before they came. I think it might be a good idea for you guys to scatter!”

With that Lanny had the doors unlocked and we jumped in. He backed up onto the street and let her rip. There were two black stripes and a cloud of smoke in our path.

Too bad there was no little teen age girl standing on the porch who would be impressed!

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - A New Philippines President

Marvin David Webster — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:26:00 GMT

The Inauguration of Noynoy Aquino

Yesterday was an amazing day in the Philippines as Noynoy Aquino was sworn in as the 15th president since the United States granted the Philippines it's independence in 1946.

Aquino ran on a slate of ridding government of corruption and only announced for office 90 days after his mother, former president Corizon Aquino, passed away late last year.

Reunited just for President Benigno Aquino III's inauguration, APO Hiking Society performed at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.

The Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society, later popularly known as Apo Hiking Society had its fledgling beginnings in 1969 at the the Ateneo de Manila high school with thirteen members. After graduation the majority of its members left to pursue individual careers.

With only three members remaining in the span of their professional career Apo emerged as a principal adherent of the musical movement termed Original Pilipino Music (a.k.a. OPM), a milieu in which their original musical contributions and cultural influence became essential.

The Apo became involved in record production, talent management and organizing artists under the Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit (O.P.M., acronym translation: "Organization of Philippine Singers/musicians").

The group expanded its activities into establishing and furthering the careers of new OPM artists in the Philippines. Apo Hiking Society released 22 albums in three decades of its career and would be considered the Philippines equillivant of Mowtown.

Hugh Agenda

Some of Aquino's biggest challenges will be:

1. Rooting out corruption in government including pressure to prosecute the former Philippines president, Gloria Arroyo, who for the past nine year's has allegedly neared Ferdinand Marcos in government corruption.

2. Dealing with Islamic militants

3. Controlling debt and unemployment

4. Curbing the influence of the military

Any one of these would be a big challenge by itself, but in combination there are many who think the new president's biggest challenge could well be "staying alive" to implement these challenges.

He has experience in that as well. He has been shot five times over his lifetime and still carries one of the bullets received in one of the coupe attempts against his mother's leadership.

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Overseas Filipino Workers

Marvin David Webster — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:22:00 GMT

Filipinos Working Overseas

In addition to the more than 92 million Philippines homeland population there is an additional 10% estimated Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).

Life as an OFW is very hard. Filipinos never know how their jobs are going to end with wars, conflicts and economic changes in their country of work.

The economic recession in US is a blackeye to millions of overseas Filipino workers, not just working in US, but in all parts of the world. Some employers have no respect for their pride and dignities. While a Chinese journalist might describe the Philippines as a country of slaves he would obviously be doing it without knowing what's in their minds and hearts. Filipinos often become OFWs as a preparatory to their plans to have FINANCIAL FREEDOM in the future. It may be not for them, but for their children and family members who are receiving the fruits of their hard work.

One of the most popular Filipino OFW occupations is nursing. The followiing video depicts both the rewards and the hardships of one family member sometimes living as many as 8,000 miles away from their family and rarely getting home to see their loved ones. This video reflects a Filipino family where the wife spends most of her time overseas as a nurse. The accompaning music is by Barry Manilow.

Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine

Marvin David Webster — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:29:00 GMT

I had intended to wrap up my series on outsourcing in the Philippines this week, but those of you who have been with me for awhile know that my editor, Bufford, is a lovable old basset hound and is a very important part of my life. He has been very ill this week and the vet says he probably isn't going to make it. I am prepared for the worst.

He is getting old and we have had a lot of good times together. Right now he is resting comfortably beside me and I wanted to explain another disruption in man's best laid plans.

In some ways it seems only appropriate this series include Bufford. It may be the last thing he gets to edit. I hope to be back on track by Friday but a song a has been going through my head all day today as I have thought about the street kids of the Philippines and those who have been sold into slavery, followed up by Bufford's illness.

It just seems to fit here and says what is on my heart today.

This is for all the Philippine children. This is for Bufford. And this is for you, my readers.

,
.

Copyright 2009 - 2011 Marvin David Webster

An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Communism, NPA and a New President

Marvin David Webster — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 07:00:00 GMT

Politics in the Philippines Since 2001

Since President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001, hundreds of people have disappeared. There are claims the military targeted those viewed as a threat to the government. Some have called the Arroyo government similar to the Marcos regime with it's martial law.

More journalist have been killed in the Philippines during this time than any other country in the world. I investigating this I discovered the Al Jazeera new network has done more perhaps than most western news agencies to expose these killings

Most of the disappearances have been linked to members of two groups. Either the New Peoples Army, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the United States or the Communist Party. Communism has all but disappeared throughout most of the world, but in the Philippines it is alive and well thanks for the most part to the severe poverty which provides a fertile place for it to grow.

The following is an excerpt from an Al Jzeera news program

A New Aquino Elected May 10, 2010

Like in 1986 when the Marcos regime fell, the Arroyo government is yielding power to an Aquino, son of Corazon Aquino who became president when Marcos was toppled. Ninno Aquino was elected by the people on May 10 and is currently undergoing confirmation by the Philippine Congress. Most Filipinos reportedly believe a government without corruption is not achievable regardless of who holds office, but Aquino won with 43% of the vote and promises many changes to the Filipino people including not moving into the presidential palace, but instead continuing to live in his family ranch estate where he had been living with his mother Corazon Aquino, the former president, until her death last year.

He is 50 years old and has never been married which bothers some. Others see it as a sign of intelligence in a country where over population is a big concern.

One change he has promised to seek concerning the United States is to change the current policy of US Servicemen who commit crimes on Philippine soil. Currently they are handed over to the US Embassy. He believes they should be tried and punished in the Philippines.

We will return tomorrow with more as we work toward our Friday conclusion of this series on

An Eye for an Eye Only Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Philippines

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Child Slavery and Labor

Marvin David Webster — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:13:00 GMT

A Shocking Report on Child Labor in the Philippines

We saw the street kids of Davao which is only one side of poverty. Often families unwittingly sell their Filipino children into slavery when they can not feed them thinking they are sending them into a better life. This shocking report looks at three families whose children end up in prostitution, working in a gold mine and working in a bleach factory.

The story we had here was taken down by Google who recently bought YouTube in order to force you to go to YouTube to watch the story and be forced to watch a commercial before you can see the story. We do not agree with this method of forcing commercials on viewers for content that was provided free, but the content of this story is good so we are making the link available.

The story was filmed several years ago, but is still very relevant. Perhaps the content is so popular Google saw an opportunity to make a dollar so if you want to view it you will have to click this link. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Link to YouTube for Child Slavery Story

We have concluded our stories on the children. Next week we will be looking at other issues I feel certain you will find interesting as we continue our investigative series on

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Philippines

We Are Back Up After Security Breach - Next Story will Be Posted By 1:00 PM Friday

Marvin David Webster — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Security Violation Temporarily Destroyed Every Video on This Site

It took less than 24 hours to restore everything that was taken down by someone who was able to violate our security and remove every video we had embedded in the site. However, we had a backup procedure in place that made restoration possible within a matter of hours. We actually spent more time working on plugging security holes than restoring content.

I would like to think whoever made this attack on our site did so for political reasons. This would make me think we were doing something right and perhaps making a difference in this world, but it is far more likely it was only a prankster wanting to demonstrate their skills. I encourage him/her to find a more productive way of demonstrating their skills than destroying my website in the future.

Marvin David Webster

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Public Transportation

Marvin David Webster — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:08:00 GMT

Building a Jeepney

Few people in the Philippines have private automobiles. The main means of pubulic transportation is the Jeepney.

Jeepneys are all custom fabricated from used parts on Jeep frames. Each one is unique and there are thousands of them in the Philippines. This process of custom fabrication has been going on since World War !! and began with the process of using salvage jeeps partially destroyed in battles to build multi-passenger vehicles for public transportation.

No two Jeepneys are alike. Here is a look inside a shop where a Jeepney is being fabricated. A Jeepney often takes one to two months to complete.

Riding in a Jeepney

Now that you have seen a Jeepney being built let's take a ride.

First, you have to learn the right way to ride a Jeepney.

We will be back tomorrow with more on

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America

Memorial Day - Honoring Those Who Gave All

Marvin David Webster — Mon, 31 May 2010 21:49:00 GMT

Memorial Day 2010

I had originally said I would be posting about Jeepneys today but I had forgotten today was Memorial day. In some ways there is a tie in there, but I won't try to make that connection. I want to visit the Wall and pay honor to two friends. One I knew and one I didn't.

Rickey Marson from Pampa, TX

Rickey Morrison from Silver Springs MD

Things have change at the electronic version of the Wall. You can no longer make post on individual names because it bacame impossible for the volunteers to control the spam on all the many different names. Now all you are allowed to do is make an entry in a central guest book. I did and left.

To all of those who gave their lives, their time away from their families, or whatever sacrifice it might have
been so that I might have my freedom and enjoy the civil liberties I enjoy today . . . thank you.

Copyright 2009 - 2011 Marvin David Webster

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Birth Control vs The Church

Marvin David Webster — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:02:00 GMT

The Philippines, Birth Control and the Roman Catholic Church

In the next 30 years the population of the Philippines is set to double to 170 million. Contraceptives are frowned on and abortion is illegal but as Sharmeen Obaid-Chinay reveals, every year more than half a million Filipinas are so desperate they undergo harrowing illegal abortions, despite the fact that at least 80,000 end up seriously ill in hospitals.

Normally I wouldn't carry a video over 10 minutes in length, but this story is especially dramatic and divided into three parts. Each is about seven minutes. It is an incredible piece of behind the scenes reporting and is only a few days old. What you are about to witness is something few westerners will ever have knowledge of, but in my opinion . . . they should.

I hope you will watch all three parts, but if you are short on time and can only watch one part watch part 2 and watch it all the way through.

The Philippines, Birth Control and the Roman Catholic Church (1 of 3)

The Philippines, Birth Control and the Roman Catholic Church (2 of 3)

The Philippines, Birth Control and the Roman Catholic Church (3 of 3)

A New Government Offers Possible Hope for Population Control

On May 10 the people of the Philippines elected a new president. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, son of democracy heroine Corazon Aquino, must now be elected by the Congress of the Philippines which is a process comparable to the electoral college in the US.

Aquino is opposed to abortions, but does support family planning and use of contraceptives and plans to push for legislation to make it easier for women to legally control childbirth.

On a Lighter Note

Ever since World War II the main form of public transportation in the Philippines has been the Jeepney. They are colorful vehicles made of scrap metal built on the frames of jeeps originally left as salvage from the war. Even today the Jeepneys are made from scrap, and the industry provides a few jobs (certainly not in the category of GM or Ford), but what will really interest you is the folklore they give to the country.

We thought we would take a day off from the intensive stories that are often intended to encourage you as my readers to ask more questions and look further into issues many people know little about, but on Monday I hope to only make you smile. On Monday we look at Jeepneys.

An Eye for An Eye Only Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America.

An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Death Squads

Marvin David Webster — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:16:00 GMT

Finding Out the Truth

I was only in Devao on business. My passport was issued as a tourist. While that made getting my passport easy it would not be possible to get access to do any kind of investigative reporting. Actually, at the time I was focused on my employees and it was only after I returned when I went into my investigative mode. Regardless I would have had no access to anyone with authority in Devao.

The taxi driver I talked to seemed totally convinced the mayor's office was behind the killing of the street kids and whether it was true or not I could tell he believed it. I waited until I was back in the US before I started asking questions. Something told me a westerner asking questions about the death squads might draw attention I didn't want. I figured it was better to be safe.

When I did began my investigation it didn't take long. I soon found this report filed by an AlJeezera reporter.

So What Does This Have to Do With Outsourcing?

It is really simple. Even with 40% of the country living in poverty there are more college graduates in the Philippines than there are skilled jobs requiring their services. Many college graduates, especially men, can not find the work they are trained for and end up taking lower paying jobs that could be filled by the unskilled and untrained who are in poverty. Every job created in the Philippines, regardless of the skill level, helps bring those children who are dying at the hands of death squads a little closer to a better life.

As westerners we look at the $60,000 a year jobs we have lost and the benefit packages that have been cut. Those are important issues, but in the Philppines where college graduates often make less than$2 an hour there is an even bigger problem . . . a devine one at that.

Tomorrow we will look at the role the Catholic Church has played in the Philippines overpopulation problem.

An Eye for An Eye Only Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Boom Boom

Marvin David Webster — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:47:00 GMT

Street Children - Who are They?

My hotel in Davao was just across the street from a park and there were many street children who called the park home. I actually didn't understand the street child while I was there. It was only after I returned home and started researching them I discovered the shocking facts that has forever made their plight a cause my heart is dedicated to. You may at this point wonder what this has to do with outsourcing, but it is very much related to outsourcing and I will bring this all together in the stories ahead.

Dr. Chuck Frost is someone I discovered who has spent the last decade and a half getting to know these kids and fighting for their cause. I have not yet met him, but I plan to and when I do I hope to learn much. In the meantime I hope you learn as much as I did from this video which is in my opinion the most definitive work in short form I have found that details who these children are.

Boom Boom

I left my room at the APO View Hotel one morning around 6:00 AM to walk down the street one block to an ATM.

(Unrelated side note: Even upscale hotels in the Philippines often don't have ATM machines for security reasons and banks generally have security on guard during business hours packing heat and holding loaded double barrel shotguns. It is a much different feeling than walking into a bank in the US.)

As I was standing at the outside ATM a young girl approached me. She was perhaps 13 or 14 and wearing short shorts and a skimpy top, but still obviously a child. She smiled at me with these beautiful brown eyes and tilted her head downward and looked up at me in a questioning way and said "Boom Boom?"

I shook my head without saying anything wanting her to leave me alone and let me get my money. She put her hand on her hip and pouted.

"Only 500 pesos and I good boom boom."

My heart nearly stopped. What this child had just told me was she wanted to have sex with me for ten dollars. I looked down at her and I said."Honey, I am an old man. I am nearly 60 years old. I don't boom boom and even if I did it wouldn't be with a little girl your age."

"But I like 60 year old men."

"Well I like little girls too, for granddaughters and great granddaughters, but not for boom boom."

I decided I didn't like this situation at all and left the ATM without finishing my transaction because my concentration had been completely shaken. I began walking back to the hotel and little Boom Boom kept walking along beside me.

"You no like me?" she asks, trying to make me feel guilty. She may be a child, but she is pulling out all the stops to try to salvage the sale.

I reach hotel property and she starts to walk off, still looking at me and smiling with a pout. I actually have to question myself about how I feel. In some ways I laugh because there was a bit of humor in a few of her actions, but underneath it all was terrible sadness. Why would a child be out selling herself at six in the morning and doing it with such enthusiasm and obvious experience?

As westerners we have a lot to learn about the people of the Philippines. Not only do they live in a country that is plagued with poverty, but it is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

I was going to have the Davao mayor on this segment, but I want to give what you saw today time to settle in before you see what you are going to see tomorrow. There are many who see these children as rodents and want them eliminated the same way rats are eliminated and are actively working to do so. Many think the mayor is behind it all. So instead of Friday I will be back tomorrow with the Mayor of Davao and more on the "death squads" of Davao who are murdering these street children at the rate of about 300 a year in the name of ridding the streets of crime.

An Eye for an Eye Only Makes the World Go Blind - Outsourcing America continues Thursday.

JFK "We Choose to Go to The Moon"

Marvin David Webster — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:28:00 GMT

We Choose To Go To The Moon

I don't want to get off topic as we reach an intense point in our investigative series "An Eye for An Eye Only Makes the World Go Blind - Outsourcing America."

However, today is a very important day to those of us who love the Internet and I could not let it go by without giving tribute to what happened 49 years ago on May 25, 1961.

President John Kennedy gave a speech to a joint session of congress requesting funds to finance America's race to space and put a man on the moon before the turn of the decade in 1970.

We achieved that goal, but probably far more important was the technological information we gained from the space program that led to everything from cell phones to the Internet. So I wanted to pause for a moment and remember the day when I was only 10 years old and how it felt to be a kid and hear the Big Kahuna, whoever he was, say, "We are going to walk on the moon." Wow!

An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Poverty / Endangered Children

Marvin David Webster — Mon, 24 May 2010 06:00:01 GMT

40% of the Population of the Philippines Live in Poverty

The Philippines requires all of its children to go to school, however, it is a requirement that is impossible to enforce. With a geographic makeup of 7,007 islands the remoteness of many of those islands makes it impossible for many of the children to get an education.

Others do not go to school because of extreme poverty. The Philippine government in 2005 provided the US equivalent of $118 for grade K-12 education compared to $9,000 provided in the United States.In spite of the poverty 75% of the Filipino youth get college degrees.

Endangered Children

Those that do not, however, face very bleak futures.When I arrived in Davao one of the first things I noticed was the very young street children selling things openly on the street. Children who appeared to be no more than five or six years old. There are no laws against child labor and even if there were the wide spread corruption would make them hard to enforce.

Something else I saw that saddened me greatly was the large number of very young prostitutes. I estimated some were as young as eleven or twelve years old and were openly doing business in front of law enforcement officials.I was told by a taxi driver the police shake down everyone.

Refuse to make a payoff and according to the driver you ended up a victim of the Davao death squads. Thursday we will be hearing first hand from the popular Mayor of the city of Davao about how he supports the Davao death squads. Over 300 kids a year spill their blood in the gutters of the streets of Davao. The mayor calls them criminals and says justice is served. He will neither confirm nor deny he is responsible, but nobody is ever arrested for their murders even though they often occur openly in broad daylight which leads to much speculation that he is directly responsible for the orders to kill the children.

An Eye for Eye Only Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America continues tomorrow.

The Philippines is certainly a puzzle as Eye for an Eye Only Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America continues.

Copyright 2009 - 2011 Marvin David Webster

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - A Tragedy

Marvin David Webster — Sun, 23 May 2010 09:03:00 GMT

Tragic Circumstances

An absence of words has been noticeable in this blog for a little over two weeks. You may have formed your own conclusion that perhaps I had lost interest or been too busy to write. Neither of those things are true. A tragedy is at the heart of the absence.

It was a painful tragedy that only those involved can fully understand yet as readers you are involved. Because of that I will do my best to describe the details so you can understand for yourself why for two weeks I have not been able to write.

My Commitment

Before I do I want to make a comment about the rest of this series. There are going to be at least six more parts and that could change because I haven't written them yet, but I do have them outlined. They are very intense and can not be drug out so I am going to commit to posting three parts a week until this series is complete.

You are going to be made aware of the murders by the hundreds of the children of Davao by "death squads". You will see how those children who are not fortunate enough to receive an education are often sold off by their families unknowingly into lives of teenage prostitution.

We will look at the Philippines transportation system where only the wealthy have the luxury of owning their own automobile, and we will look at how the Philippine government has built one of the most sophisticated electronic infrastructures in the world in its effort to attract world business.

The Upcoming Final Chapter

In my final part you will hear first hand from the girl whom this series is named after. Her name is Jeng, she is one of my employees and she only has one eye. Her story will touch your heart.

Over the last two weeks what was five employees when I stepped off the plane in Davao City had became three.

How We Lost Two More Team Members

From the very beginning I never felt like Dan, the youngest male employee, was as committed to our team as the other four employees. We had a banquet the last night I was there and he didn't show up. I had tried to practice being mellow as John Jonas had suggested and not read a lot into that, but I had sensed an indifference in Dan that never went away so it didn't surprise me when he left the company and we were down to four employees, but Michael was a completely different case.

Michael was incredibly talented and overly qualified for anything I could possibly need him to do. He was able to program in three different computer languages and after two months I had not been able to come up with work that utilized his skills. I had the best of intentions when I hired Michael, but I had the cart before the horse and I was forced to do one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life and lay Michael off.

It caused a lot of stress in our organization because we had come together as a team. We had grown to love each other and nobody wanted to see a "family" member go. Still, I could not continue to keep someone on the payroll (even if it was a bargain) if there was no need for his skills. Michael was also the highest paid member on the team.

So I hope as readers you understand the importance I placed on dealing with my staff and how it took my thoughts away from my keyboard. This past week I had daily meetings with Analine, Millie and Jeng via skype and it was a week of healing. We all feel wonderful about the future and we are looking forward to making a very special announcement at the end of this series that will be an exciting one you won't want to miss.

Watch for a new segment of this blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until this series is concluded and watch for our special announcement. It is something the girls and I are really looking forward to telling you about, but we have to keep it under wraps until this series on outsourcing is complete as it would only distract from the current project.

Thanks for being a loyal reader.

See you tomorrow with the next segment of:
An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - John Jonas

Marvin David Webster — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:08:00 GMT

The Summit Begins

It's hard to put an age on John Jonas. He always has a smile on his face and his top priority in life, outside of his deep spiritual faith, is obviously his family. They are always together. They always appear to be having a good time and from what I can see as an outsider he is a man of tremendous patience. The patience has nothing to do with his family, but with the bombardment of questions and demands for his time coming from the group of aspiring outsourcers who had traveled from all parts of the world to be at this meeting in Boracay.

The meeting starts off with everyone introducing themselves and telling where they are from and what they hope to learn. We are all sitting outside perhaps 50 yards from sea where the waves are rolling up on the beautiful white sand, but the waves offer no competition for Jonas when it comes to capturing the audiences attention.

I'm Ahead of the Curve

Jonas encourages the pace as everyone pretty much tells the same redundant story about why they are there. I am surprised to learn in comparison to most of those in attendance I am a veteran. I have had outsource employees, 6 of them, for almost a month. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I had not been hesitant to hire six Filipinos to work for me sight unseen living halfway around the world and not even know for sure what I was going to have the do. I had hired my first only two days after I first heard Jonas speak.

After everyone was finished with their introductions Jonas asked the group, "What are you waiting for? Why haven't you hired your first employee?"

Suddenly I didn't feel quite as bad.

Loyalty

"The best way to learn is do it," Jonas instructs, and for the next six hours Jonas parts with as much wisdom about mankind as I think I have ever heard in my life. Much of what he taught should have been elementary. Things like remembering that we had hired human beings and not slaves. We learned about their culture and the value of honor. We learned about loyalty and how as a general rule Filipinos were the most loyal people in the world.

We spent three days in Boracay. Some of the younger attendees went diving and sailing. There was no shortage, however, of teaching. In addition to Jonas we heard from other well informed speakers who planted a lot of well intended thoughts in our heads. Hopefully they would remain there for when we really needed the knowledge.

Coming Face to Face With Reality

When I boarded my flight for Davao City from Caticlan, Malay I felt confident I was ready for what was ahead. What had been six employees was now only five. I had brought with me a typical Westerner attitude set a rule that any employee that could not be there for the training sessions while I was going to be there would not have a job. One of my employees was in her last semester of college and had a test to take. I felt like she could reschedule the test if I was traveling half way around the world. After it was too late to do anything about it Jonas told me I was wrong.

"Education is taken very serious here and they don't reschedule tests like they do in the United States," he informed me. "You must be more understanding of the culture if you want your employees to understand you."

I spent two hours thinking about that on the two legs of my flight to the southern most part of the Philippine Islands. I thought about how there were 7,007 islands making up the Philippines and how that in itself must present a host of logistical challenges. I felt like I had been a real jerk and I promised myself I would not make a mistake like that again.

I did not know what to expect. I would soon meet my employees face to face.

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the World Go Blind - Outsourcing America - Davao City

An Eye for an Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - Boracay

Marvin David Webster — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:43:00 GMT

The Adventure Begins

I left my home in Irene, Texas at 6:00am March 16 for a journey half way round the globe. It would be 30 hours before I would step foot on Philippine soil. I am not sure which was more difficult, the 14 hour non-stop flight from Dallas to Tokyo or the seven hour layover in the Tokyo airport.

I was exhausted when I arrived in Manila, but there was still an hours worth of hassle ahead claiming baggage, going through customs, immigration and getting ground transportation to the Heritage Hotel.

The Heritage was where I learned my first lesson about Philippine economics. It is an old hotel but very nice and rated five stars. It would not have been noticeably different than checking into a five star hotel in America but for one thing, there was no power to spare.

In order to turn your lights on in the room you had to slide your room key into a slot and leave it there. If you left the room you took your key and it was a given the lights would be turned off.

Electricity is a valued commodity in the Philippines and it is not wasted. I some cities, particularly in the southern cities like Davao where I was eventually headed, they schedule daily "rolling brown outs" where power is turned off for preplanned intervals because there simply is not enough to supply the demand and it must be rationed.

I turned off the lights and went immediately to sleep.

Boracay

When I awoke I had to spend a few minutes getting my bearings. My watch was off by 14 hours and since I had crossed the international date line it was now March ??, well I wasn't really sure. I guess it didn't matter as long as I didn't miss my next flight.

This flight was a short commuter flight to a small village Caticlan, Malay where I departed the plane and took about a five minute ride in a van and then boarded a boat to a remote island of Boracay.

On Boracay 64 people were gathering to learn how to outsource in the Philippines at the Boracay white sand beach, one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world according to the guide I had been sent by John Jonnas who was hosting the meeting.

I had met Jonnas several months earlier and contracted with his company to teach me the ropes of the outsourcing business. Little did I know at the time it was going to lead me on an adventure half way around the world.

The boat ride lasted about 20 minutes and it was another 20 minutes to the resort. I checked in and decided to kill the rest of the evening at 'de Mall which seemed to be the center of all shopping in Boracay. The conferences started the following morning.

I caught a tricycle (a motorcycle with a sidecar) from the resort to 'de Mall and walked around looking for an interesting place to eat. Suddenly on my right was a dwarf decked out in green (I just realized it was St Patrick's Day) waving me into an eatery called the Hobbit House. There was some nice live music coming from inside and I looked at the menu and it looked good. I went inside.

What is Exploitation

Once inside it occurred to me there was nobody working inside over about 3.5 feet tall. Everyone in the place was a dwarf. I looked up on the wall above the entrance on the inside (not visible from the outside) and it said "The Hobbit House" - Home of the smallest waiters in the world.

For a moment I thought to myself, "Is that exploitation or is that opportunity?" Then it occurred to me - I had to ask myself the same thing about outsourcing. "Was it exploiting or providing opportunity?"

My waitress brought my steak and I ask her name. "Irene," she said with the biggest grin.

"I can remember that," I said. "I live in a town named Irene."

The Hobbit

As I sat there enjoying my dinner my mind went back to the mid sixties when I first read the book by J.R.R.Tolkien.

I remembered the ending of "The Hobbit" when Bilbo Baggins was conversing with Gandolf the wizard and Gandolf says "You'll return to your home, place your souvenir ring on your mantel, publish your story, which you believe has come to it's end."

To which Bilbo responds "What do you mean believe has come to it's end? It has . . . hasn't it?"

Next Jonnas teaches Outsourcing 101 as we continue with "An Eye for An Eye Only Makes the World Go Blind - Outsourcing America".

An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - That Giant Sucking Sound

Marvin David Webster — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:25:00 GMT

Election 1992 - Presidential Debate Number 2

In retrospect the 1992 presidential elections may arguably have been one of the most important presidential elections in modern times. In February 1992 on the Larry King show a Texas millionaire named Ross Perot hinted he would run for President if he could get enough support to get him registered in all 50 states. He wanted to stop American jobs from going to foreign countries and a lot of Americans were out of work.

Nine months later the eyes of the world were focused on the University of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia only two weeks before the election for the second of three debates and this one had been purposefully and carefully staged to create an atmosphere where anything could happen.

Throughout the debate President Bush held fast to his free trade policies and at times he appeared to be struggling and out of touch with the the 200 selected audience members. Viewers in foreign countries like the Philippines and Japan were witnessing an emotional and spirited discussion sparked from the beginning by Perot's "giant sucking sound" remark.

Many political experts believe Bill Clinton probably sealed the 1992 Presidential election with the following response to one of Bush's poorest moment's.

Did Ross Perot create so much anti free trade controversy that he personally changed the outcome of the 1992 election? Many believe he did.

Election 1996 - Perot Runs Again

When the 1996 elections rolled around four years later Perot was back, but this time the big political machines were better prepared. They wanted no more debates like the one in Richmond where Perot had possibly influenced the outcome. Both of the major political parties wanted Perot out of the picture.

Election 2000 - Gore Wins Popular Vote; Bush Wins Office 5 - 4 in Supreme Court

Free trade received a boost in 2000 when George W Bush was elected by virtue of a 5 to 4 ruling of the Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, over one month after public votes had been cast. Al Gore had won the popular vote by 543,895 votes, but the electoral college gave George W Bush a 5 electoral vote victory after the Supreme Court narrowly ruled a manual recount made necessary in Florida should be halted when it could not be completed in the required time after a complicated voter machine "hanging chad" issue . . . thus giving Bush Florida's 25 electoral votes.

President George W. Bush spent the next eight years in the pursuit of free trade. As late as November 22, 2008 Bush, knowing the United States was going to be seeing the Democrats take over in January, made a passionate speech to world leaders at an economic summit in Peru not to abandon free trade in the face of a worsening global economic crisis.

In the first two parts of this series I have pointed out what I believe were key events leading up to where we are today when it comes to outsourcing in the Philippines. Now it is time to board a plane and head to that nation half way around the globe.

When I first wrote about outsourcing to the Philippines on January 29 I was getting ready to hire a Philippine assistant. You will soon meet Ann who I hired Feb 1. By the time I left for Manila on March 16 I had employed five more Filipino workers. Several were friends or family of Ann's.

Had Webster lost his marbles? There were some who thought so . . . and still do. I am known by my close friends as a social liberal that hates corporations and supports labor.

Coming next: An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - A Summit in Boracay

An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - The Beginning

Marvin David Webster — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:01:00 GMT

September 21, 1972

In order to understand the Philippines today you have to go back almost 38 years to September 21, 1972 when Ferdinand Marcos declared marshal law to control rising resistance to his government. He had originally been elected in1965, and reportedly governed well for the first years of his reign, but by the 1970s the people were facing extreme economic hardship and Marcos, who was supposed to be making 300,000 Philippine Pesos per year as president (about $6,000 in today's US dollars) was later discovered to have been looting the government coffers while his people were starving to death.

Marcos was tightly aligned with the United States. The United State has a history of alliances with corrupt leadership when it serves our strategic advantage. (example: Shaw of Iran). In 1978 President Carter pushed away from Marcos recognizing the human rights abuses and corruption taking place.

Marcos finally lifted marshal law in 1981 while Carter was still in the White House. The Reagan administration in 1982 again reached out to Marcos and his strategic alliance with the US was partially restored until something happened in 1983 that began the end of the Marcos regime.

Aquino's Return From Exile

In 1983 a former Philippine Senator named Ninoy Aquino was returning from self exile to a country anxiously awaiting his return. In the video that follows you are going to see footage from inside the aircraft of Aquino predicting he had less than a 10% chance of making it back to the Philippines alive and then walking into martyrdom for the people he loved.

Aquino's funeral procession on August 31 lasted from 9 a.m.-- with a funeral mass officiated by the Catholic archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin, and held at Santo Domingo Church -- to 9 p.m., when his body was interred at the Manila Memorial Park.

Two million people lined the streets during the procession which was aired by the Church-sponsored Radio Veritas. The procession reached Rizal Park, where the Philippine flag was brought to half-staff.

4 Days in February

Aquino's death provided the drumbeat to set the Philippine People Power Revolution into motion and his widow, Corazon Aquino, was their champion. In February 1986 the people overthrew Marcos and exiled him from the country to Hawaii where he lived until his death.

The following song and music video is only one of many that have been written and recorded about this monumental event in the history of the Philippines. "4 Days in February" tells the story of the Philippine People Power Revolution of 1986 by using some old photographs the musician took during the Revolution and from other on-line sources. Four Days in February is as important to the Philippine people as July 4th is to Americans.

The Philippines had been left in shambles by the Marcos government and the United States strong backing of Marcos can not be ignored as one of the key reasons the Philippines was in the economic condition it was in.

George H Bush was elected to the presidency of the United States a short time later in 1988. Aquino and her government were trying to replenish the empty national treasury and feed her starving people.

Bush promoted a free trade policy and American companies employed Philippine workers. At the same time US jobs lots to the Philippines were more than offset by jobs created in other sectors like agricultural where our exports increased as we sent more and more products to the Philippines to feed the people . . . especially US rice.

Philippine people had freedom and they had hope . . . two things they had not experienced in a long time. The Bush policies of the United States were helping them get back on their feet, but the 1992 elections in the United States could stall the Philippine recovery. One candidate wanted US free trade stopped.

p>Bill Clinton wanted it controlled. Bush wanted free trade expanded. A Texas millionaire named H.Ross Perot was warning voters about a "giant sucking sound" they would hear if they didn't put a stop to the free trade policy and a lot of people were listening.

Coming up: An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America - That Giant Sucking Sound

An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Outsourcing America (Preface)

Marvin David Webster — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:39:00 GMT

In mid March I began a journey into the economic cardiovascular system of the outsourcing world. I left the United States with an agenda to find the truth. As often happens the truth found me.

I gathered up the truth and safely stored it away until I got home. For days I would sit down at my computer to write and the words that appeared on my screen were never acceptable to my heart. Truth would demand a do over and I would stop . . . and begin again the next day.

Finally it occurred to me why it was so difficult to tell the story when I knew it was there. Truth was made up of tiny pieces of a large mosaic puzzle. I reasoned that if I simply put the pieces together truth would be revealed.

I began to study each piece thinking I could now quickly assemble the puzzle. I knew I had brought all of the pieces home with me. I was certain all of the pieces would fit, but they didn't.

Then I discovered there was an image on both sides of the puzzle.

Truth was on both sides of each piece of the puzzle and the pieces were all mixed together making it difficult to determine where each piece would fit.

The World As A Puzzle

The Philippine Islands are roughly 6,000 miles from the United States. They are on the opposite side of the world, Many western companies and even small businesspeople are hiring skilled employees in the Philippines for a fraction of what they would pay the same skilled workers in western countries.

What is happening in the Philippines today is the result of a well thought out plan that began around 1990 when the countries leaders realized drastic action had to be taken or their densely populated and impoverished country was doomed. They took major action and started teaching English as the required language in their school systems beginning in first grade and a college education in the Philippines became expected, just as a high school education is in the USA.

Today the decisions made 20 years ago are graduating highly skilled young people who are still living in an economy where $350 a month is a very good middle class wage. Additionally the Philippine government incents foreign employers to hire their citizens by virtually giving them a free ride on taxation because they know that money coming into the country from outside it's shores stimulates its economy.

Over the next few weeks I will be doing a series of stories revealing both sides of this very complex puzzle. I hope you will join me with an open mind. It is easy to only see one side of this mosaic . . . especially if you do not look at the other side. We all hate to see American jobs being lost, but having been there and walked in the streets amidst the Jeepneys and the tricycles I know with all my heart we can not blame the Philippine people. .

My life was changed by my trip to the Philippines. I hope my story will at least in some small way change yours.

I will be back in a few days with:

An Eye for An Eye Will Only Make the Whole World Blind - Part 1 "4 Days in February"

Pampa High School 1968 Prom NOT! (a guest blog by David Schaub)

Marvin David Webster — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:41:00 GMT

Editors Note: The last four weeks have been an incredible experience for me. I am sure some of you have noticed my unusual absence. I apologize for my unexplained disappearance. The explanation will soon be forth coming. I have been on a journey of over 17,000 miles physically. Spiritually I traveled to heaven and back. A part of me refused to return. I have many things to write about so the pages left empty during my absence will not remain empty.

Shortly before I left I received this story from David Schaub, a fellow classmate from Pampa High School . I also consider David a good friend. He emailed it to me wanting to know what I thought.

My stories from the other side of the world may seem mundane after this. Get out your H&H dressing and slick back the hair. Slide a pack of Winston's up the left sleeve of the tee shirt. This is the Pampa, Texas version of "Grease" and Hollywood could not have scripted this.

By David Schaub Pampa High School Class of 1968

The Junior Senior Prom

The Junior-Senior Prom had been a time honored event at dear old Pampa High School for years and years. Of course, everyone knew that this was for the girls to show off their dresses and lord knows there was only a few times a girl growing up in Pampa, Texas would be able to wear an evening gown. Except for those who belonged to the high school sororities which had a “formal” every year, most girls would be limited to the Prom and getting married to wear that special dress. So it was kind of a big deal to most of the girls.

Personally, I didn't see much use in the thing. I was not going with anyone at the time who would force me to go. Being a senior and never going to it before, I thought it would not be anything that I would really miss. So, I figured that a bunch of us guys would just hang out at Caldwell’s Drive Inn and maybe get some beer or something. Well, I was wrong.

What I did not count on was that girls can be crafty and sly too. I was known to be buddies with several jjunior class gals that frequented Caldwell’s. They included Jeanie Hunter, Donna Cameron, Marilyn Gregory and Chris Reed. About a week before the Prom, we were in one of their cars at Caldwell’s and just talking when one of the girls asked me if I was going to the Prom.

I said "Hell no.That's not something I would do."

I mentioned that I might just go to Liberal, Kansas instead. Liberal was just 105 miles away, across two state lines, but it was just as its name implied—very liberal. And that included the fact that you get served alcohol at 18 years old! I had been 18 since November and I had ventured there with a couple of buddies twice before.

The Plot

The ladies had gotten the story out of me as to the clubs we went to and what it was like on at least one or two occasions. They all wanted to go! The big drawback however was the fact that it took about an hour and a half to get there and it also took an hour and a half to get back. Three hours really cut down on the club time when their parents wanted them home by 11 pm or at the absolute latest, midnight!

If you left at 8 pm, you might have a couple of hours before you had to be home at 12 pm. I had really lenient parents who would let me get in at 1 am and sometimes (I think because they slept so soundly) I could get away with say 2 am.

Now all of this conversation occurred on Friday night just a week before the Prom. I drove up to Caldwell’s on Saturday night, looking for the guys and seeing who was “out”, when I spotted Jeanie’s car with Marilyn and Donna in it.

They all began yelling at me park and come on over "Right Now!"

I obeyed and crawled into the back seat of the car. Immediately, I was informed by all three that, “We’re going to Liberal!”

I said "Wait just a minute, it’s too late to go tonight!"

That’s when I was told it would be next weekend and I would have 2 dates for the Prom! I thought—Oh my, what have I got into? But what the heck, I had little to lose or at least I didn't think I did!

Then they explained to me how this would work and why it would work. First, Chris could not go because she was supposed to be engaged to this college dude and her parents would not let her out of the house. Marilyn’s parents were going to be out of town that weekend! Aha, the old parents out of town trick. She had arranged to spend the night at Donna’s or at least that is what her parents thought, so she did not have to go with them! Donna and Jeanie had already arranged to stay at Marilyn’s house.

As deep cover for the whole operation, I would have a Prom date with Donna and Jeanie so their parents would really not suspect anything. It gave me an opportunity to pick everyone up because none of them had cars. I would pick up Donna at 7:15pm and then take her to Marilyn’s and then pick up Jeanie at 7:45pm and go over to Marilyn’s where everyone would change clothes. We then would be able to head to Liberal.

I actually had to set the time of return to keep MY parents off MY butt! Wow, it sounded like it would work!

Well, the next week at school went very fast and everything was beginning to fall into place for the Prom. I told my parents I had a Prom date and that it would be late when I got in because there was always a “breakfast” afterward. I said it might be 2:00am or after. They didn't even blink an eye and I thought, holy cow, this could work!! They asked me who I had a date with and I told them Jeanie since they knew her Mother! This was getting good!

On Friday I heard from my cousin, Shirley Williams, who had been living and going to school in Amarillo. We were both seniors and she was out for spring break and was home to visit her mother and sister. She was bored and called to see if we could go out Friday night. I said sure and went over and picked her up. After we got away from her house and her neat Mom, I told her what was going to happen on Saturday night. She wanted to go. She said her mother gave her lots of freedom and it would be no problem to be out that late.

I said we will see how the other the other ladies feel. We all got together in my car at Caldwell’s. Everyone knew Shirley from many years of going to school in Pampa. They agreed she could go and we went over the plan. Everything was in great shape. Marilyn’s parents were already gone so the clock was already in motion. We all headed home and I dropped Shirley off and said I would pick her up last, sometime before 8 pm on Saturday night.

The Pick Ups

Saturday rolled around and I went to work that morning. I worked in the parts department of Culberson-Stowers Chevrolet, where my dad worked! I decided to tell my cohort, Benny Lash, but threatened to make it a painful death if he spilled the beans. Thankfully, he did not. We only worked until noon but it was a really long day. I did not hear from any of the girls that afternoon so I assumed everything was OK. They said they would call if anything went wrong.

I got dressed in my Pampa Texas evening clothes—White coat, tuxedo shirt with black studs, red cumber bun, red bow tie, and black pants. Earlier that afternoon, I had put my clubbing clothes in the trunk of the car. I said goodbye to the folks and drove over to Donna’s house. On the way other there, it finally hit me…”What the hell are you doing? Donna’s dad is the Pastor of The First Baptist Church! He was a college football player! If this goes wrong, you are dead meat!”

I pulled into the circular drive and got out and went to the door. I almost did not ring the doorbell. Donna met me at the door and I said let’s go and she said, “Oh, we can’t go yet, Mother wants to take some pictures!!!” Are you kidding me! I'm cooked!

Fortunately, dad was not home nor her brother Bob who was my age! She even bought a corsage for me to pin on her! This was getting out of hand. About 6 pictures later and we finally are out the door! It was like we had gotten married . . . open the door and get her in the car . . . wave to Mom and sister as we leave . . . AAAHHHHHH!! I started breathing after we got about a quarter of a mile down Duncan Street! I chewed on Donna for the pictures and the corsage—Nobody said there would be PICTURES AND A CORSAGE!! But she calmed me down and my heart stopped trying to come out of my chest!

We made it to Marilyn’s in a flash. I dumped out Donna . . .and her coursage . . . and headed for Jeanie’s. I was slightly behind schedule, but close. I got out of the car at Jeanie’s and the front door opened! I got up to the door and Jeanie said let’s go. Wow, no pictures! I knew her Mom and she came to the door and gave me a hug. Off we go. In the car, I told her what happened at Donna’s. She thought it was funny! My blood pressure was still high but I was past the bad stuff. Shirley’s mother lived just around the corner from Jeanie and we were there in no time. I pulled in the driveway and Shirley ran out and jumped in the car. A wave to her mother and we are gone.

It took only about 5 minutes to get to Marilyn’s house. Jeanie had on a nice formal and like Donna had brought a little bag because I was dropping her off at Marilyn’s after the Prom. Actually, I guess, that part was exactly right. We arrived, jumped out and I got my clothes and ran in. We were changed in no more than 2 minutes. Back in the car and off we go. Hit the Perryton highway and it’s almost a straight shot directly to Liberal. The roads up there are very straight since there is very little reason to add curves.

To get to Liberal, you really only go thru one town, Perryton, Texas. It is about 2-3 miles from the Perryton city limits to the Oklahoma border. You then enter the Oklahoma panhandle and pass through Beaver County, Oklahoma. The Oklahoma panhandle is only 35 miles across so it does not take long to cross. Liberal is a couple of miles across the Oklahoma-Kansas border. This will all become important on the way home!

The Partying

There were a couple of clubs the young adults frequented. They were both named the Tiki Club, Tiki East and Tiki West. I liked the Tiki East and so did most of my friends. We headed for it. I had never seen anyone carded in the clubs but I decided I better ask. In the parking lot, I asked the girls "Who is not already 18?"

Shirley and I plus Jeanie were already 18, Marilyn was 17 and holy cow, Donna was 16!! "Are you kidding me!" I told her. "Stay close to us and don’t go get a drink or beer. Have one of us do it."

We walk into the club and wow, the music is loud and good, the club is about 2/3 full and I can’t believe it! There are 3 or 4 of my older buddies from the Class of 67! They come over and want to know what I’m doing with 4 girls!! The buddies consist of Billy Scribner, Teddy Bird, and several others I can’t remember. There were a a couple guys I did not know. They are home from college on spring break and decided to come to Liberal to party! What a deal. They snatch up the girls and away we go. We set up a large table and that is base of operations for the evening.

We had a time! I danced with darn near every girl in the place and I had way too much to drink! The fun never stopped all the time we were there. The music was a Rock-Ola and it played non stop with all of our favorites. We had a blast. I noticed that Donna was clinging to me and I got her almost every drink she had. The girls didn't drink that much but they had fun.

About midnight, I was pretty lit and really hungry. I asked the gals if they wanted to get something to eat! Shirley and some dude I had never seen before said yeah. Donna grabbed me and said she did too. I told the other two girls to be at the Flying A Service Station at 12:30am! No later. They all had hooked up with guys who said they would deliver them.

The Close Call

Off we go to find an all night cafe. I am still a little woozy as we are driving down the road and come to a railroad track that cuts across the main highway. I don’t even look.

Someone shouts "Something's coming!"

I look right and said “It’s only a motorcycle!” as I continue driving across the track.

A couple of seconds later a freight trains flies by and misses us by about twenty feet! We almost bought the farm right there, but we were too drunk to realize the gravity at the time!!

Fortunately, the food really helped and we all sobered upl. So we headed out to the Flying A Service Station. I decide I needed a six pack for the road and ran into a 7-11. We arrive at the service station at about 12:20am. Jeanie and one of the Pampa dudes soon show up. We are waiting for Marilyn and her guy. We wait and we wait. Finally at about 12:45am they show! Everyone jumps in the car and away we go for the border.

The Police Chase

Within 15 minutes everyone but me is either asleep or about to be. Donna is next to me in the front. Marilyn is shotgun. In the backseat is Jeanie and a lump in the corner is Shirley. I cruise toward Texas doing about 75 mph on the Oklahoma blacktop. I need to make up a little time lost waiting for Marilyn. I am approaching a curve within 3 or 4 miles of the Texas state line when I look in my rear view mirror and see flashing red lights in the distance.

Yikes. I start thinking and realize it is after 1:00am, I am drunk, I have beer in the car, a 17 year old girl in the car and a 16 year old girl in the car and I have crossed two state lines with them. Somehow I rationalize that I am already in so much trouble that a little more troubl isn't that much more trouble than I am already in. I elbow Donna and ask her to look back and see if she sees what I do. Yep, looks like red lights in the far distance to her. I floor it.

We have to beat this Oklahoma Highway Patrolman to the Texas border. Now my old ’60 Chevy would run pretty good but I knew it could not outrun a patrol car. However, I had at least a mile distance on him, he had started off I think on a dirt road which overlooked the highway, and I was not sure he could catch me before I hit the border or not. I also knew I had to get into Perryton to lose him because of the hot pursuit laws so it was going to be close. I had to cover 4 to six miles before he could cover six to eight.

For whatever reason I don’t understand, I did outrun him. We finally come to the Perryton city limits and I jammed the brakes and made an extremely fast right hand turn into a neighborhood. I kept taking a right then a left until I was pretty sure he could not follow me. In any event, he had lost his line of sight and I felt pretty sure I had won. Needless to say, I was stone cold sober by now and everyone in the car was as well.

We still had 65 miles to go and I was low on fuel. I went back to the highway and pulled into the only all night station. I needed to add about 3 or 4 dollars worth of fuel to get home. After all, gasoline was only 29.9 cents per gallon then!

I walked into the service station and put $3 on the counter and this dude says, “Hey, did you just come from Oklahoma?” I said yeah and the attendant said, “Man, there was one really mad Oklahoma Highway Patrolman in here a minute ago looking for a car like yours!” I asked him which way he went and he said back toward Oklahoma. I ran out and pumped $3 of gas as fast as I could and jumped in and got the heck out of there. We never saw another cop on the way home. I was as nervous as a June bug in a hen house!

The Stranger

I was just outside of Perryton about 20 minutes when a head appears at the back of the front seat. I see this guy in the rear view mirror.

I said, “Who are you?”

“Oh, my name is Jim Ridley”, he said drowsily.

“Where did you come from?”

“The floor board.”

“Where do you live?”

“Chicago, Illinois”

“We are not going to Chicago tonight!”

“No, no. I go to school at Tech in Lubbock.”

“Well, we are definitely not going to Lubbock tonight either!”

“Oh, that’s OK, I’m staying with Teddy Bird in Pampa,” he says.

“All right. I can drop you off there”, I replied as he slides back onto the floor.

Now I am worried. I got all these girls to get home, I have this dude to drop off at Teddy’s house and I don’t even know where that is! And I have to get home and sneak in because it is already 2:00am and I am late!

About 2:30am I dropped off three of the girls at Marilyn’s house. I ran Shirley to her house and it becomes very evident from the good night kiss that she is the one that found Ripley in Liberal. This guy knows exactly where Teddy’s house is and guides me right to it. The house is dark. I said good luck and never looked back after he got out.

The Last Obstacle

I have to use my best stealth approach to get into my house and to my room without waking anyone. I turn off the key before I hit the driveway and coast. I don’t even shut the door on the car. I just push it until the light goes out. I go to the front door and YES, it is unlocked. I turn the knob and ease open the door and go in. I go past my parent’s bedroom and I hear my father snoring. I have just about made it when my mother says, “David, is that you? What time is it?”

“It’s me. It must be about 2.” I whispered, lying and hoping she does not look at the alarm clock.

“OK”, she says.

My dad is still snoring!! I have made it. I go to my room and suddenly realize I left all the Prom clothes in the trunk. Oh, well, I thought. I will get them tomorrow and sneak them in.

I wake up about noon on Sunday. Just in time for dinner. My Mom wants to know if I had a good time. I reply that I did. No mention of the time I got in or anything. But, I am still not out of the woods. If the girls did not get caught or anything, then we are all home free.

That afternoon, I decided to go out for a while. There is no one down at Caldwell’s. I run the drag and no one is out. I come by the Pizza Hut and see Teddy Bird’s T-bird. I go in and there are the remnants of the gang we ran into in Liberal the night before. Even Ripley's with them. But they had a tail of woe on getting home also. I told them of our adventure with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and then they told me what happened to them.

The Others

One of the two cars they were in took off and headed for Pampa and got turned around in Perryton and got on the wrong highway and ended up in Oklahoma and finally found a familiar road and made it to Pampa about 5am. They went to Teddy’s house and found Ripley asleep on the porch and almost frozen to death. Teddy’s parents were not home this weekend and they all came in to party over spring break but Teddy and Billy had not shown up yet with the key.

Apparently, Teddy and Billy had gotten lost coming out of Liberal and headed west instead of south. They ended up in Colorado with almost no gas, no cash and one credit card between them. They finally found a service station that was open but it would not take their credit card. They had to wait for a station to open that would take the card. It was 3:30am and the station opened at 5:30am. They finally got gas and headed for Texas.

At about 8am, they were stopped by a Texas Highway Patrolman between Dalhart and Amarillo and given a ticket for doing 85 mph. Fortunately, the booze had all worn off by then and he did not check the trunk. About 10:30am, they arrived in Pampa to find the rest of their party asleep in their car in the driveway at Teddy’s house. They were at the Pizza Hut having pizza for breakfast because no one could cook!

The girls had fooled their parents, I had gotten by with doing something really stupid without going to jail, and we had one Hell of a Prom night! I bet it would not have been that exciting if we had actually gone to the Prom! I wonder if Donna still has those pictures. There are a lot of memories in that corsage.

The Prologue

The next year, I went to Texas Tech in Lubbock and Jeanie was going to school there. She had managed to find Jim Ripley. We laughed about the Liberal trip and everything that happened. He turned out to be the dude with cousin Shirley in my car when we were almost hit by the train. We partied together for a couple of years. Later, my future wife introduced him to his future wife. He actually was going to Tech while he was an air traffic controller for the Air Force at Reese AFB. We used to go to the NCO club on the base,….but that’s another story. I have since lost track of him completely but I think I will try to find him someday.

What Happened In Vegas Was Amazing

Marvin David Webster — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:53:00 GMT

I've always had a knack for asking smart people how to do things that I don't know how to do and getting good responses. I think that all began about 30 years ago driving a taxi cab when I learned if you ask people will often tell you things for free they would charge a lot of money for professionally.

So it was a few moths ago when I wrote a letter to one of the top internet marketers in the world named Mark Joyner. I had just hired an employee in the Philippines and was trying to figure out the way to avoid the hype and seriously get involved in internet marketing without getting involved in the pitfalls of the MLM scams and the things that cause 98% of the people who try to make money on the internet fail. I figured the worst thing that would happen is I would not get a response back to my letter.

Well, I did get a response back to my letter. I was totally overwhelmed by the response I got back to my letter. I was invited to join a select group of internet marketers meeting in Las Vegas, NV to talk about Internet Marketing for 2010.

"Are you kidding me?"

I booked my flight and began counting the days. I left Dallas Thursday and arrived. I would meet people who would call out their names which I would recognize like John Delavera from Greece and I would basically respond with "Hi, I'm nobody. I'm from Texas" which would often get a laugh. I discovered John Delavera was a lawyer who became an internet marketer because it was more lucrative than law.

Other notable personalities I met whose names I recognized included Jeremy Gislason, EA Marcos, Morgan Westerman, Warren Whitlock, Lee Collins, Simon Leung, Mike Wesely and Donna Walsh. I felt like some of that knowledge had to rub off.

The one thing I also discovered was that of all the people at that conference not a one was involved in a vitamin program or a MLM program and they all considered MLM programs as something other than internet marketing. By definition internet marketing was the process of system development, implementation, testing, improvement and retesting to automatically do proven things over and over again to provide people with products they want or need. The products that sell best tend to be the ones that relieve pain and the business models are based on scientific and quantifiable data. Constant and never ending improvement is always being looked for in both the products and the sales processes.

To me that sounded pretty intelligent.

Yesterday Joyner had spoken about interactive marketing and how his goal was to top 1 billion in sales this year and be the first internet marketer to reach that goal. Then he closed with this amazing video from a 1999 movie starring Al Pachino.

It happened in Vegas on Saturday, February, 27, 2010 . . . but it can't stay in Vegas. I have to share it. (by the way Al Pachino uses some pretty rough language in this video) Imagine arguably the most successful internet marketer in the world revealing to his peers in a touching video the key to his success. It was a very emotional moment.

This nobody felt like somebody . . . somebody who had asked someone for some advice and realized they revealed to me the secret. This was a man who is 41 years old and will soon have sold over a billion dollars in products over the internet and attributes his success to inches. He was a special operative in the US Army and has the discipline I believe to accomplish anything he puts his mind to. Oddly enough his latest product is a mindset product called "Invincible".

I hope you find as much wisdom in this video as I did. Perhaps I went to Vegas looking for a magic formula. Perhaps I found one. I found it truly amazing.

Happy Valentines Day with Chocolate

Marvin David Webster — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:19:00 GMT

Today is Valentines Day, a day synonamous with love. St. Valentine, who was a Roman Catholic priest the day is named after, literally lost his head on this day in 269 AD.

Roman Emperor Claudius II Gothicus reportedly had banned all marriages because he believed single men made better soldiers than married men. Saint Valentine was caught secretly still marrying couples and ordered beaten and then beheaded by Claudius. On the day he was beheaded it is told he left behind a message of love to a jailor's daughter he had befriended and that is what began the tradition of exchanging Valentines on February 14.

On Feb 14, 1998 I was in Las Vegas, NV on Valentine's Day and couldn't believe how many men still lose their heads on this day. I was staying at the Palace Station (O.J. Simpson fame) and I never saw so many couples getting married in my life. The women were nearly all wearing red dresses and red hats and it was a real spectacle to behold.I guess it is that way every year in Las Vegas, but I was there by happenstance and was quite taken in by all the red. I wondered if the red was symbolic of the vilolent death Valentine met. Somehow I didn't think anyone wearing red that day in Vegas had a single thought about the Catholic martor.

Speaking of love, I love about writing this blog and wow did I mess up on Tuesday.. Check out this chart and I will explain what it means below.

When a few of you like something it is usually passed on to a few others and so forth and by the next day the social buzz creates a big blip like on 02/07 after the W.C. Fields story. The buzz on 02/11 was almost non existent. So no more boring tech stories. I got the message. I love it. Don't get me wrong. I love doing this and to be able to quickly see when I am doing something that is losing the connection we share is really valuable to me. I just had to share that with you because I want you to know how much I value your time and appreciate you reading my articles and I don't want to end up like Saint Valentine. LOL

So on that note I want to give all you a box of chocolates on this special day.. Nothing makes someone feel loved more than chocolate.

Remember 16 years ago . . . The world will never seem the same once you have seen it through the eyes of Forrest Gump.

Happy Valentines Day.

Academy Awards of Open Source Sortware Highlights Best of Best Free Programs

Marvin David Webster — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:44:00 GMT

Last week I gave you a sneak preview of some high quality free open source software. Today I am going to tell you where you can find over 230,000 different programs in one location. Some of them will rival programs that cost thousands of dollars if you purchase them.

SourceForge.net is the world's largest open source software development web site. They provide free services that help developers build cool stuff and share it with a global audience. As of February, 2009, more than 230,000 projects had been registered to use the services of SourceForge.net by more than 2 million registered users. Tens of thousands of projects have reached completion and moved away from the site or become obsolete over the years. There are currently 161,751 project being developed as I write this article.

As with all software some is excellent and some is poor. Finding the gems can be a challenge with that much digital code to sort through. One way find some top notch programs is let the industry do it for you.

Every year in San Jose California SourceForge.net has it's Community Choice Awards. 2009 was the fouth year members of the SorceForge community honored the best of the best. 47,886 nominations were voted on by 185,218 community members. They selected the best in each of 11 categories and then one program was named Best Project for 2009. In 2008 that honor went to OpenOffice.org, a program I introduced you to last week. Who would be the best of the best for 2009?

PHPAdmin - Best Tool or Utility for Sytem Administration

First award of the evening took the honors in this category for the fourth year in a row. Unless you are a system administrator it probably is of little value to you.

XMind - Best Project for Academia

This mind mapping program is one of my personal favorites. It won the Eclipse Community award in 2008 which is when I first became aware of it. It is awesomelly addictive and once you start using it you can't live without it. Here is a short demo.

PortableApps.com - Most Likely to Change the Way You Do Everything

This program allows you to carry your favorite computer programs and all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you on a portable device (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, CD, etc) and use them on any Windows computer.

Audacity - Best Project for Multimedia

I have never used this program so I can't say much about it. Here is a demo I found on YouTube.

Notepad++ - Best Tool or Utility for Developers

PortableApps.com - Best Visual Design

See above

ScummVM - Best Tool for Gamers

Firebird - Best Project for the Enterprise

This is a robust database program for both individual and commercial use

OpenOffice.org - Best Project for Government

Last years winner of Best Project of 2008 will do everything Microsoft Office will do plus it will make pdf files.

PortableApps.com - Best Commercial Open Source Project

See above

eeebuntu - Best New Project

A feature rich Linux operating system optimized for Netbook

Best Project of 2009

This is the big award of the night. 47,886 applications were nominated by the SorceForge community. 185,218 members voted and this application was named the single Best Project of 2009. Click on this video and see the award presented at the Agenda Lounge in San Jose, California.

I hope you discovered at least one or two applications here you can use. I encourage you to go to SourceForge.net and explore the tens of thousands of free applications they have available. From your favorite hobby to highly sophisticated ERP accounting systems for business there is something for everyone.

I have one more article in this series on technology. I want to leave you with this thought.

We live in a digital world. In a digital world everything can be broken down into either a zero or a one.

Which one do you choose to be?