There are three conditions that attract termites to an area:

Water is the first condition that attracts termites to an area. Termites generally cannot survive without a source of water present. Termites will always seek some source of moisture to survive whether it is in the form of a leaky faucet, sprinkler or rain.

Wood is the next thing that will attract termites. Termites will consume any material that contains cellulose. Since wood contains a great deal of cellulose, termites eat wood like no other. If a single piece of wood touches the ground, a colony of termites somewhere will know about it. Some subterranean termites will consume other materials such as vegetation, dung, and humus, but their primary source of food is wood.

The last thing that termites are attracted to is soil. Termites are subterranean, so they build their colonies in the ground. They love soil and will build elaborate tunnel systems, called galleries up to three feet below the surface. Termites will use soil to create mud tubes leading from their underground colonies to above ground food sources such as the wood in your home.

Being aware of the three conditions for termite survival can help you to keep destructive termites away from your home. Termites cost over $1 billion in damages to homes each year. They are one of the biggest contributors to home destruction. With the importation of the Formosan termite from East Asia, the amount of termite caused home damage continues to rise. A termite colony consists of anywhere from 250,000 to a million termites. A single termite queen can live between 30 and 50 years and can lay thousands of eggs per day. That means that a queen can repopulate her colony even after tremendous devastation. The best way to fight termites is to prevent them from ever touching your home.

So if you want to find more about pest control or even about New Jersey pest control or pest control Monmouth new jersey, please click these links.

“We are very proud to be the only car manufacturer on the list of finalists,” says Steven Armstrong who is the Chief Operating Officer at the Volvo Car Corporation. “To us it is very important that we find a balance between innovation and efficiency to ensure the future sustainability of our company within the car industry. For this reason it is particularly exciting to be part of this short list and to gain recognition for our long-term work within the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. I would also like to use this opportunity to congratulate the winner HP Corporation EMEA and hope to be able to exchange knowledge with them and with other companies in Europe within this field”.

Volvo Cars’ heritage shows profound commitment to corporate social responsibility. It is evidenced by the corporation’s three core values – safety, quality and environment concerns. The corporation is also publishing an annual Sustainability Report highlighting the company’s responsibility as a car manufacturer, as a global company and as a local player.

“Explore the beauty of safety.” That’s what the Volvo website says. And the phraseology is not found wanting. The track record of Volvo includes 75 ground-braking safety innovations since the year 1927. Innovations include the safety cage and the laminated windscreen which were both introduced to the automotive industry through its being used in the Volvo PV 444 in the 1940s.

In addition, the most-recent safety innovations include the ISOFIX anchorages with the rearward-facing child safety seat, dual stage airbag, Volvo Safety Concept Car (SCC), Roll Stability Control (RSC), Roll-Over Protection System (ROPS), safe 3rd row seats for the Volvo XC90, new front structures for the Volvo XC90, S40 and V50, Intelligent Driver Information System, Blind Spot Information System, and the water repellent glass. The Volvo brake hose, engines, and other car features are also improved to advance safety.

When style and quality are to be considered, the car manufacturer is entertaining a new design direction to boost quality and appeal. “If you can recognize a Volvo from 50 meters today, I want to get to the point where people will be able to spot one from twice the distance in the future,” added Mattin. “We need to be recognizable as Volvo. We’re still about Scandinavian simplicity; we can’t be playful or do styling for the sake of styling. Volvos last a long time, so our design must have legs. But we can’t be too simple or we’d edge toward blandness. And we can’t just change; we must be fresh. I want to broaden our design and have more variation between car lines.”

Volvo is also famed for its dedication in producing environment-friendly vehicles. Recently, it has expanded its range to include FlexiFuel cars. These cars are powered by renewable bioethanol fuel. “Interest in ethanol as a vehicle fuel is growing in Europe,” said Gerry Keaney, Senior Vice President Market, Sales and Customer Service at Volvo Cars.

“We are therefore expanding our range with additional models on a total of 9 markets. First to get Volvo’s FlexiFuel cars outside Sweden will be Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Norway,” says Keaney and he does continue, “It’s very encouraging that the market is expanding and that political initiatives are being taken.”

“Our commitment to safe mobility needs to be enlarged from the protection of occupants and other road users in collisions to include personal health for all road users and to offer them sustainable mobility solutions”, said Hans-Olov Olsson.

HP Corporation EMEA emerged as the winner of the AXA Award for Corporate Responsibility. Aside from HP Corporation EMEA and Volvo Car Corporation, other finalists of the award include ABN AMRO, Akzo Nobel NV, Conergy AG, Diageo Ireland, Henkel KGaA, Kingfisher Plc, Shepherd Neame and SODEXHO ALLIANCE.

Aboriginals and Environment

The environmental concerns have become growing in the modern world of industrial development. In fact, the environmental issue is a very broad one, as it touches not only the health implications of pollution, but the world security as well. The destruction of ecosystem and the extraction of limited resources might lead to the world epidemics and hunger. The majority of natural resources are not reproductive. Thus, people have to be very careful exploiting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen. The most part of human-beings are used to neglect environmental issues trying to take advantage to the fullest extent from everything that nature gives.
There exists a common view that aboriginals are the best representatives of the latter group of people, as they tie their whole existence with the nature itself. Thus, aboriginals use natural resources, including fishing, hunting, and harvesting in the biggest extent. In fact, the Canadian society nowadays are faced with the major challenge: whether the aboriginals living in Canada should or should not be allowed to hunt, fish or trap on a self-regulated basis. This topic is very complicated as it includes moral, political and economical issues. However, Canadian society as well as Government has to resolve the problem in order both to prevent tensions and ensure efficient ecological policies.
This article will attempt to argue that Aboriginals of Canada should be allowed to hunt, fish and trap on a self-regulated basis, because Aboriginals feel a spiritual bond with their natural environment, and as a result are morally and socially obliged to extract only what they need from their resource base. There are three main assumption used to prove the hypothesis stated above:
It is the growing economic development and capitalistic system of nature exploitation that lead to substantial environmental concerns.
Natural resources are highly utilized by both Aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities, therefore, it is not only the concern and the guilt of the former.
Self-regulation doesn’t merely involve the issue of harvesting resources. The establishment of self-regulated practices should be the ground-base for broader self-government issue.
Those are the major points discussed in the research paper with regard to the major topic. The main goal of the paper is to show that civilized society of either ethnicity should gain more freedom including self-government, as the latter is the best way to enhance full personal responsibility concerning different issues including this of environment.

Capitalistic system and nature exploitation.
Today, virtually everyone agrees that there has been a serious degradation of the natural environment in which we live, by comparison with 30 years ago. I don’t take even longer period, because the difference would be amazingly enormous. And this is the case, despite the fact that there have been continuous significant technological inventions and an expansion of scientific knowledge that one might have expected would have led to the opposite consequence. As a result, today, unlike 30 or 100 or 500 years ago, ecology has become a serious political issue in many parts of the world. There are even reasonably significant political movements organized centrally around the theme of defending the environment against further degradation and reversing the situation to the extent possible.
Our life is a constant change. Ancient people were different from those who lived in the Middle Ages. The latter differed much from those of 19th century. Contemporary informational society is surely quite different from the one of the 19th century. All those changes took place to gradual development of civilization economic, political, technological. In fact, all the latter factors are strongly interconnected: even subtle change in one leads to the more substantial change in the other.
The reason I have pointed this out is to understand that changes in the environment we are so much concerned about didn’t just happen themselves. There was the chain of events preceding the phenomenon. The most important one is the economic development. Thus, in order to discuss the issue of increased ecological danger, we actually need to identify the most relevant source of this danger.
The story begins with two elementary features of historical capitalism. One is well-known: capitalism is a system that has an imperative need to expand in terms of total production, expand geographically in order to sustain its prime objective, the endless accumulation of capital. The second feature is less often discussed. An essential element in the accumulation of capital is for capitalists, especially large capitalists, not to pay their bills. The expansion of capitalistic system is obvious, especially if we think of the realities of modern time globalization. The main vice of capitalism and the pursue of financial benefits is the ecology neglect. In fact, it is due to the goal of money pursuit that people started to accept the concept of “nature conquer”. Now, to be sure, neither expansion nor the conquest of nature was unknown before the onset of the capitalist world-economy in the sixteenth century. What historical capitalism did was to push these two themes the actual expansion and its ideological justification to the forefront, and thus to override social objections to such terrible actions.
All the values of capitalist civilization are millennial, but so are other contradictory values. What we mean by historical capitalism is a system in which the institutions that were constructed made it possible for capitalist values to take priority, such that the world-economy was set upon the path of the commodification of everything in order that there be ceaseless accumulation of capital for its own sake. (Wallerstein, 1997)
Certainly, the effects of capitalism didn’t appear suddenly. It takes time to destroy nature, to cut trees and pollute rivers, to exhaust mineral resources. However, these sad effects still take place in the modern society. A lot of people declare they have broad rights. Yet, these rights mean the right to cut and destroy. Interestingly that this does not stop many of these same people from also wanting to slow down the degradation of the world environment. But that simply proves that we are involved in one more contradiction of this historical system. That is, many people want to enjoy both more trees and more material goods for themselves, and a lot of them simply segregate the two demands in their minds.
Moreover, another problem rooted from the capitalistic system is increasing production. From the point of view of capitalists, as we know, the point of increasing production is to make profits. It involves production for exchange and not production for use. Profits on a single operation are the margin between the sales price and the total cost of production, that is, the cost of everything it takes to bring that product to the point of sale. Of course, the actual profits on the totality of a capitalist’s operations are calculated by multiplying this margin by the amount of total sales. That is to say, the “market” constrains the sales price. At a certain point, the price becomes so high that the total sales profits are less than if the sales price were lower.
It is interesting to figure out what constrains this costs. The price of labor plays a very large role in this. Under the capitalistic system the labor was exploited as to decrease the overall costs. Such mere neglecting of people’s dignity can be vividly seen nowadays as well. Employers pursue cheap labor, thus cheap production. Environmental concerns and care are not included in their plans. Employees, in turn, seeking to survive concern about their children and families in the first place, rather than about nature and environment as a whole.
Besides the issue of increasing production and labor exploitation produced by capitalistic system, there exist some political factors that also contribute to the overall environmental issues how to arrange people and make them pay to restore nature. According to Wallerstein (1997), the arrangement for states to pay costs can be done in one of two ways. The governments can accept the role formally, which means subsidies of some kind. However, subsidies are increasingly visible and increasingly unpopular. They are met with loud protests by competitor enterprises and by similar protests by taxpayers. Subsidies pose political problems. There is another, more important, way, which has been politically less difficult for governments, because all it requires is non-action. Throughout the history of historical capitalism, governments have permitted enterprises not to internalize many of their costs, by failing to require them to do so. They do this in part by underwriting infrastructure and in part by not insisting that a production operation include the cost of restoring the environment in such a way that it is “preserved.”
Here again, we’ve come to the important point connected with economic development the increasing activities of enterprises. The historical capitalism led to the fact that people accumulated money. The latter was needed to be invested in something. Surely, the best investments are factories and plants that produce different products to be sold to gain more profits. It is a well-known fact that production can never be safe enough. Dangerous and pollutive technologies are transferred all over the world. Huge transnational corporations do not care about the environmental effects. Unfortunately, even when they are forced to undertake some serious actions, they do this reluctantly, just to avoid international organizations interference. They sign deals with national governments and pay bribes just to avoid responsibility. Thus, environmental issue became not solely the issues of health and security concern. They are involved in serious political manipulations. Nowadays environment is not merely the problem of survival. It is a problem of profits and wealth. Big capital do not care about nature. Yet, big capital needs to ensure that nature would not prevent it from gaining substantial profits. The best way to ensure this is to make friends with big politics.
Thus, finally, we’ve come to the important point the issue of people who do not have either political influence, or any interesting in nature’s destruction and exploitation for solely enrichment purposes versus the rest of society. The former are the representatives of the group of Native Americans who live in Canadian area. Canadian Aboriginals are not the players of capitalistic system. The laws of capitalism discussed above do not apply to them. Moreover, they are victims of such a system that is trying to damage the only thing that Aboriginals live from nature. Thus, the reasonable question arises why people who do not take part in capitalistic system of destruction and exploitation should suffer to the fullest extent from it? Though Aboriginals of Canada actively uses natural resources their purposes are far more humanistic than the ones of those who are the key players of modern market economy.
In such a way, we can see that environment is not solely the issue of health care. It involves much broader topics such as economics and politics. In fact, it is the latter that gave birth to so-called capitalistic system, which led to severe social and nature’s exploitation. It is the capitalistic system that contributed to substantial production increase and put in danger the whole ecosystem. Moreover, it put in danger the survival of those who solely depend on nature aboriginals. Now, the Aboriginals of Canada have to face the problem of limit of resource usage due to possible governmental regulations.

The interest of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in nature’s usage.
It has been already told that economic development led to production increase. In order to produce, it is necessary to have raw materials at disposal. Therefore, the issue of natural resources extraction becomes crucial. There exist many people that are highly convinced though that this kind of extraction in its major part belongs to those who live from this nature, i.e. Aboriginals. However, it can be arguable that aboriginals utilize nature thus harming it more seriously rather than modern non-Aboriginal communities.
Aboriginal peoples in Canada are the descendants of the original inhabitants of North America. According to the 1996 national census, Canada’s Aboriginal population stood at just over 790,000, or about 2.8 percent of the Canadian population of 28.5 million. The Canadian Constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal people: Indians (also sometimes called “First Nations”) who comprise 69 percent of all Aboriginal, Métis people (people of both Aboriginal and European ancestry) who represent 26 percent, and Inuit (Arctic people) with 5 percent. These are three separate peoples with unique heritages, languages, cultural practices, and spiritual beliefs. This very diversified Aboriginal community has given rise to many leaders and groups, which focus on their concerns and represent them in interactions with all levels of government and with non-Aboriginal Canadians. The most vital concerns are, certainly, the ones connected with the possibility of fishing, hunting and trapping on a self-regulated basis.
This issue is so important for them, because the majority of Aboriginals depend on nature. Natural resources are the only possible way for them to survive. In fact, people of the First Nations lived in all areas of Canada. Those who lived on Canada’s coasts depended on fishing and hunting while those who lived on the prairies moved with buffalo herds, which they hunted for food, clothing, and tools. First Nations people who lived in central and eastern Canada hunted and grew vegetable crops. Today, more than hald of the First Nations people live on reserves. Others live and work in cities across Canada.
The Inuit lived and settled throughout the northern regions of Canada. They adjusted to the cold northern climate and lived by hunting seals, whales, caribou, and polar bears. The majority of Inuit people live in the new territory called Nunavut and some still hunt for food and clothing.
Many of the early French fur traders and some English traders married First Nations women. Their children and descendants are the Metis people. The Metis were an important part of the fur trade and they developed their own distinct culture on the prairies. When Europeans arrived in what is now Canada, they began to make agreements, or treaties, with Aboriginal peoples. The treaty making process meant that Aboriginal people gave up their title to lands in exchange for certain rights and benefits, including continued rights to fish and harvest. It is worth noting, according to Usher (2003), that the treaty boundaries had little to do with the traditionally occupied territories of the Indian signatories, but a lot to do with the needs of settlement and the emerging spatial configuration of political control. The Indian understandings of treaty were somewhat different. While they had certainly undertaken not to interfere with prospectors and government officials, they also considered that they had secured the necessary guarantees of their traditional livelihood, and to continue to benefit from and manage their own resources and activities. In the territorial North, where well past the middle of the twentieth century no reserves had been selected, many Indians understood the reserve concept to mean areas almost as large as the traditional territories themselves, in which they would have exclusive harvesting rights.
The history of Aboriginals in Canada is the history of survival and close interconnectedness with nature. In fact what happened in the years following the treaties was a process of progressive encroachment and restriction that led to the disruption of livelihood and community. Peter Usher (2003) gives the following example of ollution and contamination of river systems. Perhaps the best-publicized example is the contamination of the English and Winnipeg Rivers by mercury discharged by local pulp and paper mills, and the catastrophic effects on the Grassy Narrows and Whitedog Indian Reserves. The commercial fishery was ordered closed in the spring of 1970, several fishing lodges soon closed due to adverse publicity, and by the mid-1970s, Health Canada was advising residents not to eat fish. The rivers– the source of food and livelihood for Aboriginals–were declared to be poisoned. Prior to contamination the fishery had accounted for about half of all personal income on the two reserves, and had come to provide the material focus of social and cultural continuity of Aboriginal Population. Adverse effects of the loss were not simply economic, but medical, social and psychological.
This tragical story shows how important it is for Aboriginals to keep up with nature, to live with nature, cause the latter is the only source of survival. Moreover, Aboriginal culture for centuries enhanced closed ties with natural environment. It means that close interconnectedness with all living for Aboriginals is not merely a means of satisfaction of their basic needs. It is a spiritual thing, it is a magic that they’ve experienced for many years. To deprive Aboriginals of their rights to fish and harvest whenever they want means to deprive them their spiritual roots. The latter, in turn, are the origin, the inspiration of their life.
Yet, there is one more important implication of the example described above. It has to do with the real interest that Aboriginals have in nature’s extraction. It was already mentioned that nature feeds Aboriginals. Thus, if something happens, like in the case above, they are left with nothing. The key difference between Aboriginal peoples and most others in these situations, however, is that Aboriginals have no defense against them.
Non-Aboriginal communities use natural resources in much bigger extent and get great profits, while aboriginals simply try to back up their existence. Even if they get profit, it is far less substantial that the one of transnational corporations. Moreover, probably the most influential justification of the Aboriginals’ usage of natural resources is the fact that they are trying to preserve their community, their cultural and ethnic communities.
In such a way, it is important to point that Aboriginal population of Canada has the only reason of active usage of nature attempt to survive and preserve ethnic and cultural community. They greatly depend on nature both physically (to satisfy their basic needs) and spiritually. They are closely tied with soil and all living organism. To deprive them of these ties mean to deprive them of their life. Non-Aboriginal communities, in turn, have much more mercantilist purposes in nature exploitation. Very often those purposes might even harm Aboriginal population. Thus, the task of the Government is to protect Aboriginal rights to fish and harvest, but not deprive of them.
The importance of self-regulation with regard to Aboriginal population of Canada.
Self-regulation is more a political issue than any other’s, as it gives broader rights on the one hand, and encourages individual responsibility, on the other hand. Self-regulation is probably the most vital and relevant issue if we are to talk about Aboriginals and their right to hunt, fish and trap whenever they want.
It is important to point out that while Canada has moved beyond its colonial relationship with Great Britain, many argue that Aboriginal peoples in Canada continue to be entrenched in colonialism. In recent years, self-government negotiations have been initiated to redress this paradox. Problematic, however, is the fact that these negotiations are taking place in a socioeconomic environment that is being transformed by globalization. In this era of globalization, in which corporations assume a more dominant role in all spheres of life, the Canadian government is involved in a process of significant restructuring driven by a neoliberal agenda. (Slowey, 2001) In accordance with this vision of a minimum intervention of t state, self-government is being promoted as a means for political autonomy as well as for economic development in Aboriginal communities–all considered critical elements of “decolonization.”
As Canada’s Aboriginal people are already largely dependent on the state, native policy, and more specifically self-government policy, must be viewed within the globalization context. According to Slowey (2001), in Canada, government is trying to get out of the Indian business To this end, current native policy, set out in Canada’s Aboriginal Action Plan, focuses on reassigning powers and devolving administrative responsibilities to Aboriginal communities, all under the guise of increased political autonomy or self-government. This plan promotes aboriginal governance, encourages new partnerships, and promotes new fiscal relationships, all in an effort to increase Aboriginal self-sufficiency.
Some people might argue, however, that self-government is a political tool of Canadian authorities designed on purpose to make Aboriginal population cooperate with transnational corporations, which desire to take over the former’s land and exploit its natural resources in their own interests. Indeed, they are right to some extent. The problems of Aboriginal communities are so vast and financially consuming that government alone does not have enough money to solve them. More and more often, government turns to corporations to assist in the financing of social services previously delivered by government. In this spirit, government now points to Aboriginals as the “readymade labor force, investment partner and corporate neighbor for the private sector” (Slowey, 2001).
Many Aboriginals, in turn, embrace self-government as a step to political autonomy and embrace corporate development as a step to self-sufficiency. Through the federal strategy, First Nations are awarded degrees of decision making power or land for their economic development. At the same time, MNCs generally approach Aboriginal communities to assist in the development of resources by promising job-training programs, labor contracts, and scholarships, to build congenial relationships with communities that have a voice in the development process.
However, the main issue of self-government with regard to Aboriginals still remains the issue of free fishing, harvesting, and trapping. Though the politicians of Canada had promised vast rights to Aboriginal population, they are still not so much ensured. Despite the number of initiatives the government has launched to try to achieve degrees of self-government and settle claims throughout Canada, most grievances remain unresolved. However, when an agreement is reached, the government is portrayed as generous and the Aboriginal peoples as land and cash rich. But neither is true. Yet, it is critical for First Nation to gain rights to self-govern in fishing and harvesting in order to be able to build sustainable economic development of their small community. And they are trying hard to get that right.
In fact, Aboriginal peoples in Canada are working to keep their unique cultures and languages alive. They are trying to regain control over decisions that affect their lives – in other words, to become self-governed. Aboriginal peoples continue to play an active role in building the future of Canada.
It is fair to mention one more problem that pertains to the issue of Aboriginal self-governance. Though most Aboriginal peoples support self-government, they are often divided on the topic of the resource-driven development of land. Despite the eagerness of some Aboriginals, many others (in particular traditionalists and elders) fear development is simply “taking them for a ride.” As Slowey (2001) assures, they recognize that development does not accord with their traditional pursuits and only further entrenches them in an alien, imposed system. This pressure has resulted in the strong division of some communities. Though some promote the land-for-cash option, many remain determined to preserve and further develop and transmit to future generations ancient land and culture. However, globalization works forcefully against the traditionalist element of Aboriginal communities. As the sense of global interconnectedness intensifies, it becomes increasingly difficult to espouse traditionalism, particularly in an era when many Aboriginal peoples are victims of non-Aboriginal assimilation, primarily through the education system and the media. Thus, resource development not only further divides Aboriginal peoples, but it threatens to conquer them.
However, even despite those existing problems, the benefits of self-governance are undoubtful. Aboriginal people live in their tight traditional communities. The interference of government in the form of any kind of regulation can easily undermine this calmness and destroy the community itself. Environmental issues are especially important for Aboriginal population in Canada as they are the matter of survival. Therefore, granting Aboriginals right to fish, hunt and trap on the self-government bsis will become a great contribution to the overall rights of those people and preservation of their unique culture and nation.

Conclusion
The environmental issues gain more serious importance in the modern world of globalization and fast growth. However, the environmental concerns root far deep in the history of different civilizations and systems. The historical capitalism is the main system, which can be blamed for environmental concerns. The former gave birth to rigorous exploitation of social and natural resources. Capitalism by its nature is concerned with maximum profit at any cost, whether that cost is human misery or environmental degradation. It seeks quick returns and is opposed to long-range social planning. People became mere tools for enrichment of others. Being hardly able to survive, they didn’t think about nature preservation. Their primary concern was how to survive. Moreover, the capitalistic system also gave impulse to increased production. The latter, in turn, stimulated the rise of huge transnational corporations. Their global business endangered the normal functioning of ecosystems worldwide. In order to escape responsibility TNCs have been always signing deals with influential politicians. Thus we see that environment has always been not so much an issue of healthcare as an issue of wealth and politics. Yet, such flaws could be forgiven if they didn’t affect one of the most vulnerable group of people Aboriginals.
In fact, Canadian Aboriginals have been suffered much from TNCs trying to take over their land. But what is even more discouraging for them is the fact that they still do not have absolute rights to take advantage of their natural resources whenever and wherever they want. This situation puts at risk their mere existence, as the dependence of Aboriginals upon nature is obvious. Moreover, ties with the natural environment is somewhat more than simple attempt to satisfy basic needs. It is a spiritual context that deeply roots in Aboriginals ties with nature itself.
Thus, to help Aboriginals to preserve their ethnicity, their culture and traditions, moreover, simply to help them to survive, it is absolutely important to grant this group of people self-governance. The government of Canada has to ensure those rights as quickly as possible. Moreover, it can be an important political tool to keep the country out of ethnical tensions and First Nation’s anger. Besides, self-governance is an effective remedy to promote individual responsibility. Because only conscious society can form a firm ground for stable economic development and effective politics.

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[East Jerusalem, Nov. 8, 2006]
Dr. Ilan Pappe, is Israeli born and a graduate of Hebrew University and Oxford who is currently teaching at Haifa University. He is a well known revisionist or “post-Zionist” Israeli historian who has been both acclaimed and demonized. His most recent work is “A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples” which documents the expulsion of Palestinians as an orchestrated crime of ethnic cleansing.

He spoke at the Notre Dame Conference center in East Jerusalem to over 330 International ecumenical Christians during Sabeel’s 6th International Conference: The Forgotten Faithful: AKA Palestinian Christians.

His topic was the “Dynamics of Forgetting” and because of the “fierce urgency of now” [-Rev. MLK, Jr.] the world is beginning to remember that once there was a Red House, which birthed a most diabolical plan.

Dr. Pappe stated that, “The Red House in Tel Aviv is gone now. It was a typical building in Tel Aviv that had all the characteristics of Mediterranean homes but with the local Palestinian architecture of the ’20′s. Today a USA Sheraton Hotel stands in its place. The Red House was the home of the Hagganah; a Jewish underground organization but before 1948 it was the home of a socialist movement, from which it received its name.

Haganah is Hebrew for “The Defense” and was a Jewish paramilitary organization formed in what was then the British Mandate for Palestine from 1920 to 1948. It began as a small group of “Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did the group have more than 100 members until after the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921. The Jewish leadership in Palestine believed that the British, whom the League of Nations had given the Mandate of Palestine in 1920, had no desire to confront the Arabs about attacks on the Palestinian Jews, and thus created the Haganah to protect their farmers and settlements. The initial role of the Haganah was to guard the Jewish Kibbutzim and farms, and to warn the residents of and repel attacks by Palestinian Arabs.

“In the period between 1920 to 1929, the Haganah lacked a strong central authority or coordination. Haganah “units” were very localized and poorly armed: they consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their kibbutzim. Following the Arab 1929 Hebron massacre that led to the ethnic cleansing by the British authorities of all Jews from the city of Hebron, the Haganah’s role changed dramatically. It became a much larger organization encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the Jewish settlements, as well as thousands of members from the cities. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop workshops to create hand grenades and simple military equipment. It went from being an untrained militia to a capable army.” -wikipedia

The British did not officially recognize the Haganah,but the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Auxiliary Forces and Special Night Squads. By 1931, the most right-wing elements of Haganah branched off and formed Irgun Tsva’i-Leumi (the National Military Organization), better known as “Irgun” (or by its Hebrew acronym, pronounced “HaEtsel”). They were discontented with the policy of restraint when faced with British and Arab pressure and “terrorists” in their own right. Irgun later split in 1940, and their off-shoot became known as the “Lehi” (Hebrew acronym of Lochamei Herut Israel, standing for Freedom Fighters of Israel, and also known by the British as the “Stern Gang” after its leader, Abraham Stern).

Because the British severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine, in 1939 the Haganah created the Palmach – the Haganah’s strike force, which also organized illegal Jewish immigration of over 100,000 Jews to Palestine.

In 1944, in response to the assassination of Lord Moyne (the British Minister of State for the Middle East) by members of the Jewish Lehi underground, the Haganah worked with the British to round up, interrogate, and, in some cases, deport Irgun members. This action was called the Saison (or hunting season), and seriously demoralized the Irgun and reduced its activities.

The Saison could not stop the Irgun, Haganah and the Stern Group from working together. The three groups had different functions, which served to move the British out of Palestine, and to make Palestine a Jewish state rather than created a Jewish home in Palestine.

Menachem Begin, an Irgun commander, stated in a 1944 meeting: “In fact, there is a division of roles; One organisation advocates individual terrorism (the Lehi), the other conducts sporadic military operations (the Irgun) and there is a third organisation which prepares itself to throw its final weight in the decisive war.”-wikipedia.

According to Dr. Pappe, “On March 10, 1948, eleven men had a meeting in the Red House headed by Ben Gurion. The eleven decided to expel one million Palestinians from historical Palestine. No minutes were taken, but many memoirs were written about that fateful meeting. A systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine began and within seven months the Zionists managed to expel one half of all the Palestinian people from their villages and towns.

“The New York Times followed Israeli troops and reported the truth of the expulsion and separation of men and women, and of the many massacres. The world was well informed in 1948, but a year later not a trace was reported in the USA press or books. It was as if nothing ever happened.

“From March to October 1948 the USA State Department stated what was happening was a CRIME against humanity and ethnic cleansing. When ever one ethnic group expels another group they should be treated as War Criminals and the victims should be allowed to return. This is never mentioned in the USA about Palestine.

“Israel is so successful in their ethnic cleansing because the world doesn’t care! The ethnic cleansing continues via the apartheid policies of the Israeli government and because of the denial of the truth by the the USA media.

“To claim Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East is bullshit! The Six Day War of 1967 escalated the ethnic cleansing and today in Jerusalem every Palestinian who fails to pay taxes, or has a minor infraction will loose their citizenship.

“In 1948 the mechanism of denial and ethnic cleansing as an IDEOLOGY, not a policy but a formula began. When Zionism began in the 19th century it was meant to be a safe haven for Jews and to help redefine Judaism as a national movement, not just a religion. Nothing wrong with either of those goals!

“But by the late 19th Century it was decided the only way these goals could be achieved was by ridding the indigenous population and it became an evil ideology.

“Israeli Jewish life will never be simple, good, or worth living while this ideology of domination, exclusiveness and superiority is allowed to continue. The mind set today is that unless Israel is an exclusive Jewish State, Palestinians will continue to be obstacles. However, there has always been a small vocal minority challenging this.

“The only thing that can save Palestinians is for the world to say “ENOUGH is ENOUGH!” The way to challenge and change the ethnic cleansing is to pursue true democracy and the use of sanctions and divestment, for money talks.”[end Dr. Pappe]

“America’s $84.8 billion in aid to Israel from fiscal years 1949 through 1998, and the interest the U.S. paid to borrow this money, has cost U.S. taxpayers $134.8 billion, not adjusted for inflation. Or, put another way, the nearly $14,630 every one of 5.8 million Israelis received from the U.S. government by Oct. 31, 1997 has cost American taxpayers $23,240 per Israeli.”[IfAmericansknew]

“The Israeli government and military receive $15,139,178.00 from the USA every day while NGO’s working to feed and care for the poor in Palestine receive $232,290.00 from the USA per day.” [Ibid]

In June 2005, I visited Rev. Naim Ateek at his Jerusalem Sabeel office. I had been reading the Sabeel Documents about the divestment issue especially in regards to Sabeel’s position on morally responsible investment as a nonviolent response to the occupation. I commented then that is exactly the issue American Christians should be discussing and not the continuing debate over the mystery of love and marriage in regards to gays and lesbians and the ordination of the first HONEST gay Bishop Gene Robinson.

“The fierce urgency of now”[Rev. MLK, Jr.] should compel all USA citizens to seriously consider, debate and take action on where we lay down our money, what we invest in and how our government spends our hard earned tax dollars. To continue to support corporations that support occupation and fuel the fire of terrorism should be morally repugnant to any one of good will as those actions are not democratic. Rev. Ateek has been demonized as an anti-Semite because of his outspoken and firm stand for justice and only justice as the way to peace and security for all the people in the Holy Land.

Money talks and the USA should only support democracies that are true to that name, for a democracy quarantees, delivers and protects all people with equal human rights.

“In the long run, there is no justice without FREEDOM. There can be no human rights without LIBERTY. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for liberty, we stand with you.”-President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address

“The fierce urgency of now” should compel all USA citizens to demand President Bush honor that vow.

SRI is an acronym for Socially Responsible Investing. According to one source over $2 trillion of money managed professionally is currently being invested according to some type of “social criteria”. There are now hundreds of different mutual funds utilizing social screens to select investments. By definition SRI funds try to integrate social and environmental objectives, community investing, and shareholder action into their investment strategies. Of course, Socially Responsible Funds can still means different things to different people and to different funds and index managers as well.

Try to make sure that you are involved in SRIs that are right for you but figuring out what SRIs include can vary. Some funds will exclude any stock whose company might be involved in animal testing. Some funds put more emphasis on how a company treats its employees. This process of inclusion or exclusion is called screening, and each fund has its own screening criteria. Knowing the screening criteria can be a big help in deciding which fund is right for your style of investment.

Well known SRI indexes

The completion of the series extended the availability of information on Socially Responsible Investments to cover 90 percent of the worlds financial markets. According to FTSE The FTSE4Good index series was created to provide SRI Investors with an independent and accurate tool to measure the performance of companies meeting international CSR standards. FTSE for good and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index are the most commonly known SRI indexes.

Dow Jones Sustainability Group Indexes

Companies have been screened by the Dow Jones Sustainability Group Indexes based on certain things since 1999. The foundation for them is a cooperation.

Does SRI lower your investing returns?

There is plenty of debate among expert whether investing using SRI funds provides you with lower returns and unfortunately there is no clear answer to that question. In general SRI equity mutual funds have held their own in recent years. According to one SRI Fund company out of 16 of their funds 14 received top marks from well known mutual fund rating company. A recent article on the site of this same well know mutual fund rating company noted that of 38 SRI funds that it tracked, 9 had beaten the S&P 500 index over the previous five years (as of May 2000). So can we draw any sweeping conclusions based on these results… no we cannot, but, the results do look promising and it will be interesting to see how SRI funds do in the future.

DaimlerChrysler AG’s Mercedes Car Group has proven their contribution with the environment by manufacturing vehicles with low fuel consumption and low exhaust emissions.

Oko Trend, one of the most internationally acclaimed environmental institutions based in Germany has awarded two Mercedes-Benz models: the Mercedes-Benz A 160 CDI compact car and the Mercedes-Benz B 200 CDI van with the prestigious “Car Environment Certificate”. Now on its tenth year, the Car Environment Certificate is awarded to the vehicle/s that meet the institute’s strict environmental standards for automobiles. Only 15 vehicles from international automakers have been awarded by Oko Trend since 1997, and that includes the Mercedes-Benz A 160 CDI and the Mercedes-Benz B 200 CDI.

The Oko Trend Institute for Environmental Research evaluated the two Mercedes vehicles along with other brands and selected the vehicles that achieved top ratings in various criteria. These include fuel consumption, exhaust/noise emissions, environmental friendly performance, and other environmental factors relating to the vehicle’s production, materials, logistics, and the environmental management systems done by the car manufacturer. The Mercedes-Benz A 160 CDI and Mercedes-Benz B 200 CDI obtained above average results in all of these criteria allowing the two vehicles to get Oko Trend’s Car Environment Certificate.

Colliding

Oko Trend was impressed by the two Mercedes-Benz vehicles’ performance. Experts at Oko Trend commented: “The Mercedes-Benz A 160 CDI may be seen as one of the most eco-friendly vehicles with a conventional drive system. The development phase for this compact car was already based on a comprehensive environmental concept which takes the entire lifecycle of the vehicle into consideration. Numerous specific measures have reduced emissions during the production and operation of the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class by approximately 17 percent compared to the preceding model. All in all, Mercedes has set new ecological standards for conventionally powered vehicles with the new A-Class.”

The institute gave a distinctive special praise to the Mercedes-Benz B 200 CDI based on their evaluation. Oko Trend said: “The Mercedes-Benz B-Class is distinguished by a high degree of variability and spaciousness, as well as convincing environmental credentials”. The 140-hp diesel engine is equipped with a particulate filter as standard. Thanks to a high torque of 300 Nm, which is already available from 1600 rpm, this engine allows a relaxed style of driving and early upshifts. A fuel consumption of six litres per 100 km is feasible in practice. All in all, therefore, the Mercedes B 200 CDI achieves a very good environmental rating.”

Both Mercedes-Benz A 160 CDI compact car and the Mercedes-Benz B 200 CDI van are equipped with diesel engines that offer improved fuel efficiently and reduced harmful exhaust emissions, without affecting the handling and performance. Both models are also equipped with quality Mercedes parts inside and out like those Mercedes cargo liner and Mercedes cargo mat found on the luxurious GL-Class.

(For additional articles written by me please visit my blog on http://www.readitlive.com )

I have met many people in my life, but I’ve met no one like Sitara.

That spring of 2001, I was one of the last passengers to get off flight PK 724. The rush had mostly cleared off the airport. Dragging the luggage behind me, I pushed my glasses up my nose and strained my eyes. I’d never actually been to my parents’ homeland before but I’d seen enough pictures of my Pakistani family to recognize her, standing by the railing, looking directly at me and smiling.

Fariha and Altaf Hamid had decided to migrate to the US back in the 1970’s, when everyone was leaving Pakistan in search of better opportunities. Starting as modest clinical psychiatrists in a community hospital in Saint Louis, Missouri, they now owned the best psychiatric hospital in town. And I was their son, their only child.

Once in the US, my parents had gotten stuck in the mechanical life, like bearings in a machine. They worked hard at their careers, built a home, had a child and opened a hospital. They just never had time, a reason or even family to come back to. My father was the only child and my mother had one sister, whose daughter was now waiting for me beyond the glass doors of the arrival hall. Even though I was born and raised in America, ‘The Promised Land’ where people have it all, I had always felt like there was something missing in my life. I’d never been able to put my finger on it, and that was exactly why I had flown 16 hours that day.
“I’m a star. You?” were Sitara’s first words as she greeted me, smiling mischievously, showing a perfect set of white teeth.

“I’m a fan,” I said, half amazed, half confused, not really sure how to answer that. That was not the kind of greeting I had expected from a Pakistani girl.

Once on the streets of Lahore, I could not believe what I saw; wide four-laned roads with a river of cars flowing from one side to the other, huge billboards displaying all kinds of consumer accessories and buildings that weren’t exactly skyscrapers, but certainly had more than two or three floors.

“I thought America had billboards, too,” Sitara said, probably noticing me gawking out of the window with a slightly opened mouth, which I closed immediately, realizing I must have been looking like a fool.

“Yeah, of course, America has billboards. I just didn’t know Pakistan did, too,” I said, momentarily taking my eyes off the road and looking at her. “Where are the donkeys?”

“The Donkeys?” she inquired, as if wanting the name of a specific one, so that she could provide me with an address and phone number.

“Yeah, mom told me there are donkeys and horses with carts strapped to their backs out on the streets. I was really looking forward to meeting them!” I explained.

Sitara chuckled childishly and said, “At this time of the night, they’re probably sleeping. Poor souls don’t have the cable or internet to keep ‘em up.”

“I have a feeling you were expecting a twenty years younger version of Pakistan,” she added after a slight pause.

“Yeah, that’s what mom told me,” I said sheepishly, slightly ashamed of my lack of knowledge of the world outside the US.

“Well boy, you’re in for some surprises!” she said and stepped on the accelerator, hitting 100 km/h on the wide, street-lit road.

The twenty minute drive from the airport to Khala Jee’s place was all the time Sitara needed to find her comfort zone with me. Shy at first, not knowing what to say to a Pakistani girl who was so different from my expectations, I soon relaxed as she told me how different I was from what she had pictured. Apparently, I had to have multi-colored hair, a tattoo on my shoulder and pants torn at the knees to qualify as an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi.)

“Hello, meet Kitty,” she said, introducing me to my first family and home in Pakistan, “She’s my cat. She’ll be in charge of cleaning your bones. No no, not your bones, the bones of the chicks and goats you eat, once you’re done with them that is, or maybe before that, too. Sometimes she tends to jump on the table and insists on eating with us. Here, meet Sara, she’s fourteen and without a doubt the proudest nerd of the world. She feels honoured to tell everyone her glasses are a centimeter thick! And here’s Saad, he’s ten and very shy. Saad, say Salam to Waqas Bhai, he has chocolates in his bag and for God’s sakes stop hiding behind me!”

In the next room, I greeted Khaloo and Khala Jee, who were extremely delighted to hear me calling them Khaloo and Khala instead of Aunty and Uncle. My mother had always taught me to call my relations by their Urdu names. Khala Jee was an exceptionally beautiful woman, sharing my mother’s sharp features, only more chiseled and refined. In comparison, I thought Khaloo Jee was like any other Pakistani man, average built, wheatish complexion and graying hair. Their kids had inherited their father’s complexion with their mother’s features, making the most harmonious balance between genes that I’d ever seen.

The one month I spent in that ‘Land of the Pure’ seems one short day now, it passed so quickly. Yet I can remember each day because it was so different from the previous one. My host family left no stone unturned to make me feel at home and an important part of their family. I, in turn, did my best to help them by trying not to have diarrhea.

Sitara and I were the same age; she was actually two months older. After having graduated from college in the summer, she was taking a year off before starting university. When Khaloo and Khala Jee went to work every day and the kids to school, Sitara and I were left at home to make plans for ourselves. And every day was an adventure with her.

Sometimes we would spend the whole day cooking, mixing Sitara’s Pakistani culinary skills with the simple American cuisines I’d learnt at college, to come up with food like Pizza-handi or Macaroni and cheese biryani. Neither of us was good at it, but we had a hell of a lot of fun passing our inventions around the table at night, sometimes stifling our laughter when Khala Jee said things like, “You two should open a restaurant!” Little did she know that the masterpiece she was appreciating had been burnt three times and started from scratch again!

After a day of all the girly work, as a joke, Sitara and I would play PlayStation in the evening. I would beat her at Tekken3 and feel like a boy again.

When we went shopping, we would park the car in the parking lot and walk around the whole area. I was very fond of walking; it gave me more time to observe the things around me. Sitara on the other hand, hated it and got tired quickly, which gave us an excuse to sit at random places with a snack and have people stare at us. I guess sitting on the sidewalk, on the stairs outside a shop or the bonnet of the car wasn’t much appreciated. Sitara once dared me to talk to a shopkeeper in Urdu and ask him if I could use the washroom. What I said roughly translated to “You should go to the washroom.” I was furious at his reaction, until Sitara dragged me out of the shop, barely audible through her fit of laughter and explained to me my horrendous misuse of ‘aap’ (you) in place of ‘mein’ (me).

On weekends, we’d visit the historic places in Lahore. We’d pack a picnic basket and dine in the huge gardens of The Lahore Fort or The Shahi Qila. Sometimes Khaloo and Khala would tell us stories, how they used to come to these places very often as kids because there was no other form of entertainment. There were stories about Khala Jee losing her way once in The Badshahi Masjid and crying for hours before my mom found her, and about Khaloo being offered a candy at The Shalimar Gardens, which he had learnt as a baby not to accept from strangers. And then there were stories that Sitara told me, that I’m pretty sure had nothing to do with reality. “See those vents there?” she said, pointing at the small, barred, window-like openings at the base of the walls of Emperor Jahangir’s Tomb. “Those are dungeons that were used for prisoners. I once came here on a school trip and they opened this small trapdoor for us students to visit underground. They say Jahangir’s wife, Noor Jehan, is buried there and the place is haunted by her spirit. It smelt so strongly of roses down there it wasn’t even funny!”

Living amongst Khala Jee’s family, I soon found out that they, like any other family, were not without problems. What I admired about them was their optimism, their effort to enjoy every single day and not let their worries show. A middle class family struggling to meet its expenses in an inflation stricken economy, Khaloo Jee had taken loans to finance Sitara’s education, which he had no means to pay back. Khala Jee had been a heart patient ever since she’d lost her two year old, Adil, six years ago. I gradually noticed that Sitara was the one who kept them all up. She’d bake a cake to cheer up Sara for getting an A minus on her Math test instead of an A plus. She’d play video games with Saad and teach him how to spell words like ‘multitudinous’ or ’synthesized.’ She’d resolve differences between her parents whenever needed. Suffice it to say, she was the lifeline of that family.

Khaloo and Khala Jee were mostly busy with their jobs but whenever we got time Khaloo Jee would explain to me the economics of Pakistan. The huge influx of money, rapid development, lower interest rates, increasing job opportunities, and right when I’d conclude that all these things were good, he’d delve into the details of how all of it was hyper-inflating the economy. It was small wonder he was a banker. Khala Jee had more to ask than tell. Not having seen her sister in over twenty years, I know she missed her a lot. All she talked about was mom, stories of herself and mom as kids and our lives in the US. Sara, really was the most ardent nerd I’d ever come across. I seldom saw her around the house as she would confine herself to her room behind a fort of books. I’m not even sure if she slept at night because I never found the light in her room switched off. Maybe she kept it on in case of a sudden wake-up-and-study nerd revelation in the middle of the night. The few times I got a chance to talk to her, we discussed Math, education systems in Pakistan and America, and places she could apply to for a PhD. No matter how much I tried, we never tread out of the realm of studies. Saad, who eventually shed his robe of shyness, turned out to be a very friendly kid. I sometimes made small talk with him but I had a feeling he was more interested in my ipod, my cell phone, my digital camera and wristwatch, than he was in me as a person.

But no matter how interesting the days were, what I would never forget about Pakistan were the nights. My second night in the country, Sitara took me to the rooftop where she had two easy chairs, a table in between with a stereo and journal on it. It looked like a place she regularly visited.

“Do you see those stars over there?” she said, pointing towards a cluster in the sky.

“Yeah,” I replied, looking in that direction.

“Can you see how they look like an arrow?” she asked.

“Errr…” I took my time trying to make out the arrow she was talking about, but I could see the stars making no shape whatsoever. “No, they just look like regular stars to me,” I replied, feeling stupid and sorry that I couldn’t see what she was trying to show me.

“Of course they are regular stars, silly!” she said and traced her hand across the sky, showing me how that regular cluster of stars looked like an arrow.

Thus began our long nights.

“I think I’m one of them,” Sitara began to explain, but seeing the confused expression on my face she added, “Sitara means ’star’ in Urdu.”

“Oh, so that’s what you meant at the airport! I thought you were this arrogant little wanna be movie star or something, trying impress her Umreeka-returned cousin,” I said, doing that Desi accent that I simply loved.

She smiled. “Yes, that’s what I meant. I’ve always believed I’m one of the stars. You know, when good people die they become stars and shed their light on the world forever. See those two bright stars over there? That one is my friend, Mohsin. He died in a car accident when we were ten. And that one beside him, that’s Hina. We were best friends for as long as I can remember. She died last year of cancer.”

Before I could interrupt her with a word of comfort, she continued. “I come up here and talk to them whenever I need to get away from everything. The stars, they’re so high up there, they can probably see every single person down here. You know, Waqas, when you’re feeling low and your problems seem to be the biggest in the world, think of yourself as a star and how very small you and your problems look to them, compared to the world as a whole. It’s like you’re this very small part of this very big world. It makes you think of other people with bigger problems than yours.”

“It’s best up in the mountains!” she said suddenly, totally changing the topic. That’s what I loved about her; she never lingered on the sad parts for too long. “I love our summer vacation up north ‘coz, 9000 feet above sea level, the sky is much clearer and closer. I don’t know why or how, but even the stars seem happier. They’re so close to each other, it’s like a tightly knit web of glitter above your head. It’s very beautiful. I sometimes sit by the window all night just looking at the sky. Ma doesn’t let me sit outside there, she says either the cold would get me or a wolf would…” She rambled on in a high squeaky voice, excited like a child when he’s showing off his new toy.

“Why didn’t you take up astrology as a major in college?” I asked. It would’ve been the best career option for her, considering the passion she had for the subject.

“I thought about it, I even took a few classes but then I realized I didn’t wanna know about the scientific figures and explanations. ‘Coz whenever science comes into something, emotion goes out of it,” she explained, “And I don’t want to think of stars as cold heavenly bodies, made out of dense particles of molecular clouds and blah.”

Trying to set her facts right, I said, “Just because you see them silver from down here, it doesn’t mean they’re cold. Temperatures of stars actually vary from 2000K—”

“See!” she said, cutting me in mid-sentence, probably irritated by this manly urge to be scientifically accurate. “Whatever Science comes in to, emotion goes out of!”

We would come up to the rooftop every night, after getting done with the day’s work, and sit there for hours, looking at the stars and talking. I was very fond of talking. Talking about everything and anything at all. More than intellectual discussions about Science and Technology, I savoured conversations about petty things, apparently meaningless, but representative of details that are often overlooked otherwise. Talking, I was told, was girlish and I was aware of my girlish tendencies so I often kept them to myself. But with Sitara, I never had to.

In that one short month, I learnt so much more about Pakistan than I could have imagined, not as much through experience than through these talks. In the little things Sitara told me about her life, from childhood to maturity, I could see intricate details of their culture, customs and lifestyle, most of which were very different from my own. Usually, we’d have contrasting points of view about things, which only gave us more food for talk.

It has been seven years since that spring of 2001. Today, Sitara is happily married and the mother of a beautiful baby girl. When I came back to the States after my first visit to Pakistan, I realized that my perception of my own life started to change, which encouraged me to think that maybe I was closer to finding answers to some of my questions, the very reason I had made the expedition to the Subcontinent anyway.

Those long nights under the starlit sky made me realize how important it was to make time for myself, to rest ever so often and actually think about where life was taking me. I looked around and found people drenched in the sweat of the day’s work, weighed down with bills that were ever increasing, children who became troublesome with each passing day, careers that needed more hard work, families and homes that screamed out for attention. Once caught in the raging storm of life, people struggled without respite, never stopping, even for a moment, to ponder where the wind was taking them. Sitara taught me how to take a break, to surround myself with just myself and nature, with myself and God, when I needed to take a break.

Through these seven years, Sitara and I have been in touch via email every now and then, but at night, when I sit on the balcony outside my bedroom window and stare at the stars, I need no email to know how she is. Now I understand. Sitara did not talk to the stars in the sky, she talked to herself, a star on earth. In the face of all the dilemmas she had ever faced, she did not, like a million other people I knew, complain about the fact that there were no answers, she actually made the sincere effort of finding them. When I made the honest effort of traveling 15,000 miles in search of what my life lacked, I found the key to the answers to my questions, lying with her. Sitara, by teaching me how to talk to stars, had not just given me the power to talk to myself but a way of talking to her, too. When I look at those shiny specks of light at night, I learn so much more about her life than she ever says in emails. Every so often, I look at the sky, asking questions, knowing that after ten hours, when the same stars shine outside Sitara’s window, I’ll have my answers.

Sitara was right; she is the star of my life.

And I’m a fan.

Sustainability starts with you, from the smallest change you can make in your own home or office can have a huge effect further up the chain. Simply by buying the right products you can help you and your family save heaps of money, and also help the environment through these purchases.

Natural and alternative health and lifestyle products can really benefit you and your family.

Did you know that the industry in health foods and natural products in their retail and business opportunity form have increased by 75% in the last 5 years alone?

This article has a few simple answers to why the natural more healthy alternatives can deliver much greater health benefits than just going and getting some vitamins from your local drug store.

Many elements and chemicals that help our body function and boost our immune system can only be found in a “stable” form in the foods and drinks that occur naturally. By taking these natural chemicals from their natural states and trying to “bottle” it is virtually impossible without the use of further adding dangerous additives and manmade chemicals.

Furthermore, the organic industry, which seems so new, is coming back after about 50 years of “conventional” farming to boost the sustainability and production needed in agriculture.

For some reason people think that organics has never existed before and it was only about 50 years ago that we didn’t have pesticides, fertilisers and herbicides and relied purely on the co-dependant relationships of ecosystems.

People again are realising the benefits of organics only after 50 years of cancer causing chemicals being passed along in our food. It is strange as many people who have had the initial stages of cancer have converted to organics for added support to their immune systems.

From organics to sustainable lifestyles which includes our complete environment from building to water to energy production to health… everything is a dynamic system and will become increasingly important as global warming becomes more of a problem.

This leads me onto the next step, sustainable building. Did you know that your home can become a toxic and uncomfortable environment for you and your family if you don’t think consciously about the types of products you use within and around your house?

Many insulation and cabinet maker products use materials that contain a vast amount of formaldehyde which is a very toxic and carcinogenic chemical. Paints and finishes can contain high levels of VOC (volatile organic compounds) which have been proven to cause serious health issues and lead to “sick house syndrome”. Building material used for the structure of your home can be cheap and cause the temperature in your home to be very uncomfortable and the air conditioner you use to make up for this costs you hundreds of dollars every year.

Might as well give up hey? No way…

There are so many resources and products available at your request that can dramatically change the negative aspects and will improve your overall wellbeing aswell as your families, whilst at the same time improve the quality of products that are good for the environment also. For instance, there are many paint companies with low to zero VOC products, insulation has been developed using cellulose (recycled paper basically) with no formaldehyde, energy efficient air conditioners exist and many products that are affordable but have the qualities to increase the comfort of your home.

The main point is… If you buy for the health and comfort of you and your family, the results will be beneficial to both you and the environment. This is what I mean by a dynamic system. Sustainability isn’t about knowing everything about what does what and where it goes, it is simply about working with your local environment to produce the best possible outcome that WILL save you money, your health and the environment.

I suggest you start to educate yourself in the simple parts of sustainability and even if you save a litre of water a year or have an organic meal at least once every 2 months, you will be on your way to sustainability.

Whether you are aware of this or given it any thought or not, but your sleep environment can have a profound effect on the quality of your sleep.

Let’s take a look at some helpful tips that will help you get the most out of your sleeping time.

The Room Temperature -

Not only can the temperature of your room affect your ability to get a good night’s sleep but so can the humidity of the room as well. Ideally, your room should feel slightly cool when you first enter it. This will ultimately match more closely to that of your body when you are in the deep midst of your sleep.

This is not too difficult of a task if you are the only sleeper in the room. Needless to say adjusting the temperature is a different matter when another opinion in the ideal temperature is involved. If this is case, some testing and compromising will usually bring an equitable solution to all parties. In fact, sometimes just using a small fan on the side of the bed that likes a cooler temperature can work very well.

Noise Level -

Needless to say that a quiet environment is much more conducive to restful sleep than that of one that is not. It doesn’t matter what the source of the noise, any inconsistent or irregular noise can lead to inconsistency in your sleeping patterns.

There are adjustments that you can make to reduce the amount of noise in your sleeping environment. Many times a fan in the room makes for a great noise reducer. A fan (or anything that will produce a constant monotone noise) will many times offer enough insulation from erratic noise such as a dog barking or traffic that you’ll be able to get a good night’s rest.

Other techniques you can use would be to put heavier curtains on your windows, replace your windows with double or triple paned glass, or invest in some ear plugs.

Your Bedside Clock -

Don’t be a clock watcher and keep worrying about the fact that if you don’t fall asleep soon you’re going to be soooo tired. Set your alarm and then turn the clock away from you so you can’t crack an eye open and see the time… trust your body and your alarm to wake you at the proper time.

Sleep In A Good Bed -

The size of your bed and the type of mattress you are trying to sleep on does make a difference. Take the time to pick out a bed and a mattress that fits you and feels comfortable. A high quality mattress will certainly require a larger investment on your behalf, but in the long run, your sleep and your health is by far worth the up front investment… and don’t stop with your mattress either make sure you pick some new soft and comfortable pillows that you like as well… trust me… the sleep difference can be dramatic.

Train Your Body -

Sleep and sleep only in your bed. Don’t use your bed for paying the bills, or even constantly watching the television. Teach and train your body the bed is for sleeping not conducting other life’s tasks.

Lighting -

The darker the better for the body to sleep peacefully. If you work nights and have to get your sleep during the day take measures to darken your bedroom as much as you possibly can by using heavier window coverings.

Your sleep and subsequently you health is a very important matter. If you are having trouble sleeping at night; don’t just keep doing the same thing your doing with your sleep habits and your sleep environment. Make some of the aforementioned adjustments and tweaks and perfect your sleeping environment… you’ll be glad you did.

As a homeowner, you may be using renewable energy sources. Let’s look at a few of these important, powerful sources.

If you use solar powered lights to brighten your walkway, a solar cover on your swimming pool or hang your clothes out to dry, you are already making use of the sun’s renewable energy. There are many other renewable energy home options you can take advantage of, and by doing so, help preserve our environment.

The most practical of renewable energy options for the home consist of space heating and domestic hot water. This is over 50% of a household’s energy usage. In using renewable energy we can experience cost saving benefits.

Perhaps the best way to take advantage of renewable energy home options is when designing a new house. A southern wall taking advantage of an appropriate amount of windows can take full use of the low sun in the winter. Adding a roof overhang over these windows allow the higher summer sun to be blocked. Also, on a cool day you can open your windows to let a breeze cool off the house and make use of wind energy. You have achieved adding heat in the winter and coolness in the summer, thereby lowering your heating and cooling costs naturally. This is called passive solar heating since it is integrated with no extra costs. You can also do day lighting by taking full advantage of the sunlight during the day to take care of your daytime lighting needs.

Wood stoves can also be advantageous, if using only dead wood, diseased wood or small pellets made from wood chips, crop waste and other organic material for burning. This is a renewable source of heat through the use of space heating. Modern wood burning stoves are highly efficient, making it a more practical option.

A homeowner can also utilize active solar heating. A solar water heater can use renewable solar energy to heat water for a house. This would use solar collector panels placed on a roof. Water runs through pipes under these panels and is heated by the sun. The water travels to a water tank in your home for your use. Electricity can also be produced for a home using the photovoltaic technology. This runs on the same idea as a solar calculator. Solar electricity is ideal for rural homes where it would be difficult to run an electric line to.

Geothermal heat pumps use the heat from the Earth to move heat from one area to another. This system uses a series of underground pipes to move a heat exchange fluid. The heat pump moves this fluid, heated from the earth and transfers it to buildings for use. Initial installation costs are much the same as traditional heating systems, but operational costs are lower.

If you live in a windy part of the country and have quite a bit of land, wind can power a wind turbine to produce electricity for your household. But your location must be ideal to catch wind and you must be able to capture a certain amount for this to work.

These are some home options for renewable energy sources. By trying to utilize some of them we are preparing for our future by using clean energy that does not affect air quality or harm the environment.