The Management Consulting Group

Former Lt. Gov. of Texas Ben Barnes recounts the high drama and backroom deals of national and state politics in his memoir, Barn Burning Barn Building: Tales of a Political Life, From LBJ to George W. Bush and Beyond. Barnes was the youngest House Speaker of Texas and was well-known for his near-ascension to national politics. His book accounts the exciting, colorful, and some heartbreaking experiences and accounts of a life that revolves around politics. Barnes is inviting his readers to see what really happened during the most turbulent times in America.

Former Lt. Gov. of Texas Ben Barnes memoir begins with his life story in a small and humble farm near DeLeon, Texas. His book’s opening states how important Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was to his family. Instead of basing his discourse on statistics, Former Lt. Gov. of Texas Ben Barnes discusses how the New Deal made a great an impact on the lives of Texans when it brought electricity, Social Security and land management to the state. Barnes was inspired with the New deal; so much so that he vowed to become a Democrat. He began his uncertain political journey when he was still a student at the University of Texas.

The would-be Lieutenant Governor then rapidly rose among the ranks, earning him the respect of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce, which considered him one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Men in America.”

The Swiss Army knife originally manufactured for the Swiss Army, it is now the greatest-selling pocket knife globally. Victorinox and Wenger, the manufacturers and proprietors of the trademarked term ‘Swiss Army knife’, still issue the Swiss Army with 50,000 of these knives each year. With a large assortment of tools, the Swiss Army knife is favoured amongst travellers, the military, hikers, or those just looking for the perfect present for someone. They are so well-known globally that they are immediately recognised as the premier brand of pocket knives.

Karl Elsener was the first person to make the Swiss Army knife in its current form. When he found out that the Swiss Army were supplied with knives made in Germany, Elsener took it upon himself to make locally manufactured knives. He was not satisfied with his initial knife so took over 5 years to perfect the design. As an added touch, he added the cross and shield that is still utilised by Victorinox today. In 1909, Elsener renamed his company Victoria, after his mother who had recently passed away. In 1921, when the company started using stainless steel, or inox, to manufacture its knives, it was renamed Victorinox. Victorinox is still run by the Elsener family, with Carl Elsener leading the company today. The term ‘Swiss Army knife’ was not initially conceptualised by Victorinox. Its recognised name at the time, ‘Schweizer Offizer Messer’, was too hard to pronounce, and thus the term ‘Swiss Army knife’ was coined.

The Swiss Army knife is manufactured in a number of models, sizes and colours. Standard attachments found on most of the knives include 2 blades, tooth-pick, tweezers, cork-screw, bottle open, pair of scissors and nail file. Some premium models also feature a Phillips-head and flat-head screwdriver, ballpoint pen, can opener, saw, magnifying glass, wrench, fish scaler and pair of pliers. The most modern models, termed ‘Victorinox Cybertools’ feature a digital clock, MP3 player, optical laser pointer, altimeter, hex screwdriver and even a USB thumb drive. The knives come in several sizes, with the popular model being about 9 centimetres long and the smaller models approximately 6cm long. ‘The Giant’, made by Wenger, was the largest ever produced. It was over 22cm long and featured 85 unique instruments.

Today in the state of Florida in the USA there are thought to be a great many franchise opportunities available. Even in today’s turbulent financial climate, Entrepreneurs and new business people that are forward thinking and have a vision, along with the necessary drive to make a success of yourself. Which Franchise can help you to this end and with a number of business opportunities on offer, they will strive to help you venture out into your own business world. If you’re looking for Franchises Florida then visit Which Franchise.

You could choose one of the most exciting propositions that Which Franchise can supply you with, is a possibly profitable Cartridge World outlet. This will afford you an opportunity to be a part of a Global company and is widely regarded to be the leading, most successful cartridge refilling firms in the market today. With over a thousand outlets at present, more and more new stores are being added to the list each and every day. A recent report by Entrepreneur Magazine shows this to be one of the fastest growing franchises in America today. Why not share in the success of this company and obtain your brilliant new business venture from Which Franchise today.

If you would like the finest quality coating work done on your roof, then you can depend on Aquashield. We have vast knowledge and experience in coating the roof of any structure, be it a home, office building or work place. Whatever the size of job, Aquashield Rooofing Services will work to a customers compete satisfaction. It is our guarantee. This is the company dedicated to supplying its customers with a dedicated roof renovation service. It will reinvigorate the look of your building in a cost effective manner.
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For starters, our expert contractors will wash your roof down using our state of the art hi-pressure turbo system. This is before applying the unique anti-fungicidal wash. Aquashield will then re-point and replace any cracked or broken roof tiles. Your roof will then be treated with two coats of our cost effective AQUATHERM roof coating process. All in all, Aquashield bring you an excellent value alternative when considering re-roofing your home or workplace. If you would like more information, visit the web site.

If you are like me, you are living some distance from the devastation wrought by Katrina. If you are like me you not physically impacted and can watch the plight of others on television in the comfort of your home. And if you are like me, you are wondering what you can do.

I believe the answer to that question is an important one. It can help define who you are and what you have and choose to give to the world. The list that follows is not meant to stimulate your thinking. It is meant to stimulate action. All of us can do all of these things. And in doing them we will not only be helping others, we will be helping ourselves deal with and grow from these events as well.

Give Resources. You have heard it and will hear it often. The resources required by these events will be unprecedented. Open your wallet and give. It doesn’t matter which charity you choose, just give. Pick a number, then add to it. Do a search on Katrina relief to find places to contribute. You can give more than money though. Perhaps you have other resources that you could offer. Spare blankets or other supplies will inevitably be leaving from your community in the coming days. Watch for these announcements and donate. If you know someone affected, or know someone who knows someone, perhaps you can provide a spare bedroom. You can even support relief efforts each time you search the internet. Go to http://allgive.com to search and learn more.

Give Yourself. If your situation allows, perhaps you feel drawn to go and help. If you are thinking about that and you can, go. Many of us won’t be able to go and lend a hand directly. You can still give of time and talents locally and have a direct impact on efforts there. Organizations like The Salvation Army and The Red Cross will be spread thin for months. If you volunteer in your town, more physical resources can remain on the Gulf Coast longer.

Encourage Others to Give. This is a way for you to give of your talents. Use the leadership and influence skills that you have to encourage others to give. If you own a business, match employee contributions to relief efforts. If you are involved in any sort of organization, start a fund raising effort. A colleague of mine sent an email saying he would match any gifts given by those on his list up to a total of $500. Every person could do this. Ask yourself who you could influence and how you could personally help increase giving. Get creative! And get started.

Say a Prayer. Regardless of your religious beliefs, or how you would state this, say a prayer. Say one for those who have lost family. For those who have lost their homes. For those who are sick or thirsty or hungry. And say a special prayer those involved in rescue and recovery efforts - those giving of themselves to make things better for others.

Keep Your Perspective. It is sometimes hard to keep a healthy perspective as you watch the events on television. It is easy to let the worry and concern become overwhelming. Do yourself a favor and don’t let these events overpower your life. Be grateful for your situation. Rethink how upset or frustrated you become at little inconveniences or challenges, because these situations mean little in the bigger scheme of things, and the events of recent days should make this very clear to us.

Conserve. Our country is going to be dealing with the aftermath of Katrina for a long time. There are other little things that we can do that will make a difference. Conserve fuel. Carpool to work. Combine your errands, or just stay home. Turn off your air conditioning and turn off the lights. Fossil fuels will be in short supply and every little bit helps. Plus every dollar you don’t spend on fuel, is another dollar you could choose to donate to relief efforts.

Give Again, Later. Many will give now, but agencies like The Red Cross will tell you that after the situation leaves most people’s conscious thoughts, the needs will still be great. Make a commitment now to make another contribution later in the year. One way to do this is to reduce your holiday spending and earmarking the difference for Katrina relief.

I’m sure there are many more things that you can do to help both yourself and others in the coming weeks. It matters less what you do than that you do something. That is my urging to you. You can make a difference, but only if you take action.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. One of the ways I am taking my own advice to “Encourage Others to Give” is by offering you (and anyone you know) a choice of a 6 month membership to our Powerquotes Plus service, a $30 value, or a seat in our tele-seminar, The Leader as a Coach, a $49 value, if you simply let us know you made any donation at all. Visit www.kevineikenberry.com/katrina.asp to learn more and contact us with your choice.

Peak Oil? Economic Collapse? Maybe the universe is trying to tell you something. Maybe it’s Relocation, Relocation, Relocation.

With many people predicting a serious economic depression, and others equally–or also–concerned about the approaching depletion of oil production (”Peak Oil” - For full information, see Dry Dipstick at www.drydipstick.com), you might consider moving to a quieter, more sustainable, less oil-dependent location.

Of course you might be fine living exactly where you are now. It’s certainly easier to stay where you are than to move. No one can predict, certainly not with certainty, where the best places might be to deal with the future. Many observers think that large cities are definitely not the best location. Others suggest that any town dependent on water and food that comes from a large distance may not be ideal. They suggest a small town with adequate water and nearby farms. When it comes down to it, no one really has the foggiest idea, so you’re on your own.

If you wish, you can run off into the hills, create a mountain fortress, and be a dyed-in-the-wool, nobody-come-near-me loner. Others believe that if a true survivalist is someone who wants to survive, the best way to do that in the 21st century is in a community. (If you’re really into survivalism, we suggest you check out www.survivalist.com.)

The choice is yours. If you still have the time, we can suggest resources for finding a place to live both in the United States and in countries around the world.

Inside the United States

If you currently live in the United States, you might want to consider simply moving to another state rather than going abroad. Things generally get much cheaper when you move away from the coasts, and the quality of life can be very good. Plus, they speak English there (more or less) and you can usually get all the stuff you’re probably used to. (Assuming stuff is still available.)

There are a number of excellent web sites to help you in your search for a place to move to. Moving.com’s (www.moving.com) city profiles provide information on hundreds of cities. The profiles include cost of living, taxes, home costs, insurance costs and quality of life factors such as population, crime, weather and education.

Moving.com can also help you find real estate and arrange for moving logistics. You can even compare the profiles of two cities of your choice.

BestPlaces (www.bestplaces.net) lets you compare two cities from a list of over 3,000 places in the U.S. You’ll see a comparison of nearly 100 categories. BestPlaces offers neighborhood profiles for every zip code in the U.S., in-depth profiles on over 85,000 schools, a cost of living calculator that compares cities and determines what salary you’d need at a new location to maintain the same standard of living as you have now. Plus you’ll find crime rates for over 2,500 U.S. cities, most and least stressful cities, and climate profiles for 2,000 cities worldwide.

You can even take a “Find Your Best Place” quiz to determine your own recommended best places to live. BestPlaces also publishes the book “Cities Ranked and Rated”, with detailed information on over 400 metropolitan areas in the U.S. and Canada. You might also find the Most Livable Communities website helpful (www.mostlivable.org/).

Our favorite resource is FindYourSpot (www.findyourspot.com). It offers a fun quiz (it’ll take you less than 10 minutes) with great questions, and it produces a list of two dozen cities that fit your quiz answers. Results for each city include an attractive downloadable four-page report with an insightful overview of the character of the area and information on climate, arts and culture, recreation, education, housing and cost of living, crime and safety, health care, and earning a living. You’ll also find links to currently available jobs and housing, roommate services, recommended city-specific books, and travel deals if you’d like to personally visit the city.

Outside the U.S.

Wondering where the best country is to move to? We suggest that there is actually more than one “best country” for you. You find them by:

1) visiting every possible country and seeing which ones you like best, or

2) researching every possible country, zeroing in on those you feel most attracted to, and then visiting those countries. We suggest that the best way to begin is to use the Web, particularly the sites we list below.

Bottom line? Visit a country and spend some time there before making the actual move. Most experienced expatriates suggest living at least six months in your host country before permanently moving there. And remember, you’re not going to live in an entire country, just in one specific place in a country. You don’t have to love the entire country to be able to find that one special place just for you. You’re looking for a region, a city, a town, even a neighborhood where you can find the qualities you want in a new home.

Here are some websites that should help in your quest for a new country.

Boomers Abroad (www.boomersabroad.com)

A website devoted to giving you the best and most comprehensive information available on the Web about beautiful (and affordable) warm coastal countries, how to get there and how to live there. Whether you’re looking to be a retiree, a working expatriate, or simply a visitor, Boomers Abroad is your place on the Web for Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Uruguay.

Expat Communities (www.expatcommunities.com)

A directory of more than 110 countries with sizeable English-speaking (and usually international as well) expatriate communities. English-language websites, organizations, online forums, meetups, local newspapers, and books of interest to current and potential expatriates. These websites will give you, or link you to, all the information you’ll need to decide if a particular country might suit your needs and deserves future exploration.

Expat Stuff (www.expatstuff.com)

Wherever you end up living as an expat, you’ll need stuff. And information. And services. This website is an excellent directory with a focus on the endless variety of information, services and tools you’ll need to enjoy life and create your own income while living abroad. You’ll also find information on such things as communication, health insurance, obtaining a passport, links to country information, and general expatriate blogs and websites.

Mick Winter is the founder of Beyond Peak (www.beyondpeak.com) - A guide to self-sufficiency and living sustainably with Peak Oil and economic collapse.

Whether Katrina is seen as a disaster, a scourge or a purge it is hard to believe that it can dislodge the deep culture and uniqueness that makes up this city known as New Orleans. From its long history in the hands of the Spanish the French and then the Americans it has formed a character that cannot be compared to any city in the entire nation.

Every thing is different in New Orleans. This is the City of Lagniappe (something extra), romantic paddle boats, the French Quarter, muffelattas and Mardi Gras. Even the street names speak of New Orleans unusual character. Names like Tchoupitoulas, Melpomene, Chef Menteur, and Terpsichore.

The dialects and colloquialisms spring from Creole, French, African, Irish and many other tongues too numerous to mention. Perhaps most noticeable of all is the common Brooklynese spoken by most New Orleanians as a result of Brooklyn middle school teachers being imported to New Orleans over a hundred years ago to help educate New Orleans children.

Nothing in New Orleans is like any other city in our nation but that also includes its susceptibility to the ravages of Gulf storms and hurricanes. Parts of the city are only three feet below sea level and others are up to twenty feet below sea level. Ducks may love water but this city was a sitting duck for more water than it could ever handle. I knew that like everyone else living there but I thought preparations and contingencies had been properly made.

As the water begins to recede and people are evacuated and the dead are counted another storm has begun. The storm of criticism now rages throughout the nation. FEMA, the President, the National Guard are all coming under intense scrutiny for their performance or the lack of it.

For those of us down here we didn’t mind seeing Jesse Jackson cut short by our news commentators as he flew into tirade about President Bush’s slow or inadequate responses. We stand behind Mayor Nagin even though it is reported that he vented a great deal of anger towards both Governor Blanco and President Bush.

We don’t blame Sheriff Jack Stephens of St. Bernard Parish for wailing at the FEMA rep who showed up days after his deputies had worked alone and under the worst of conditions and exclaimed he was there to make an assessment. We felt like crying when we saw Governor Blanco holding back her tears as she described the situation in the first hours after Katrina danced its dance of death.

We are listening to our local leaders and our President not to the nay Sayers and critics who comment from afar and above sea level, seeking to further the interests of their party or their own profile. Contrary to what is being said we both hear and see that the help is flowing in and the effort is quite real. Even as I write this article I have stepped outside at the beckoning of my wife to see convoys of military vehicles, electric utilities, tree utilities, passenger busses and police all streaming toward the city of New Orleans down Highway 190 in Baton Rouge. If I had a flag I might have chosen to go out and wave it as I cheered them on.

Critics at this point are like salt on the wound. Hey, its America so they have the right to say whatever they want, but discretion might be calling for a little better timing. Hold off until the dust has settled, or in this case at least until the water recedes.

Between this paragraph and the last my wife and me went to a little church in a small town near Baton Rouge called Erwinville. The Sharon church, a tiny little congregation nestled between fields of sugar cane and soy beans were praying for victims of Katrina when we walked in. With only a small number of people they had already raised over twelve hundred dollars to help feed people staying in a local civic center housing Katrina refugees. They had bought uniforms for children of the victims and helped to enroll them in school classes. Additionally they were bringing supplies and funds to the red cross in New Orleans. These are Louisianans helping Louisianans and that alone made going to church an inspiration.

I have made my own situation known in more detail on my website. But just in case you think this is the opinion of just another outsider looking in, then I should tell you this. Our church, our house and the houses of almost all our friends and relatives are under ten feet of water as I write this article. We escaped the wrath of Katrina by a hair and were able to bring out an older gentleman who surely would have perished if we had not.

I will not criticize anyone who has made an effort to help us down here from the President to the kind soul who put a dollar in an offering plate set for the relief for Katrina’s victims. Some of the people and agencies who responded to this crisis may have been a bit slow, confused by poor communications and caught off guard by the shear enormity of the disaster but from their first intentions to their long journey to the deepest part of the deep south they have shown themselves to be good neighbors. On behalf of thousands of us beleaguered at this hour in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama I offer not criticism but thanks.

Rev Bresciani is the author of two books published by Xulon Press and Publish America. He is also author of many articles both in print and online. His website is americanprophet.org

As the nation sputters forward into a new problem of illegal immigrants, neo-conservatism and budget crisis we must wonder what to make of it all. The signals are confusing.

On the one hand we have illegal immigrants who have had to hide from the law, work in poverty like conditions and do not have the same access to education that we have. We believe they are hardworking people truly trying to make the best life they can. They have the American work ethnic that has been lost on so many native born Americans.

However, there is a negative side to illegal immigrants that isn’t always mentioned. Illegal immigrants have made a choice to come and live under the conditions they now find themselves. No one forced them to move from their native lands and hide away in the U.S.

Recently, immigrants took to the streets and protested potential laws that would make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant in the U.S. They sang the national anthem in Spanish and waved Mexican flags. Is this appropriate to insult the country you want to join?

A total of 11 million illegal immigrants hit the street having major protests in excess of 400,000 in Los Angeles and Chicago. Similar gatherings were found in Houston and San Jose. They chanted, “We are not criminals” and “We want to stay!”

As Muslims we have two responsibilities when it comes to immigration policy. We must support our host nation in policies that are deemed to protect our collective whole and we must thwart those efforts that are destructive to people. What does this mean?

Illegal immigrants are simply illegal. They have broken the law; have traveled hundreds of miles to sneak into the country and work for cash under the table. They use our schools, our medical benefits and take away jobs from our countrymen. Hypothetically, if we opened up our borders and let everyone immigrate to the U.S. without hindrance than our country would cease to be one of the wealthiest in the world. That means your wages would decline because there will always be someone else to do the work for cheap. In essence, employers would use their workers until they were worn out and then get another truck load full. Workers would loose their bargaining power. Would it be such a great place to live then?

We must understand that the laws are enacted to protect our American standard of living, maintain fair employment and keep the nation competitive. Once this batch of illegal immigrants becomes citizens there will be another group forming behind them. Where will the cycle end?

Does that mean we should abuse them? No! It does mean that they should be removed and sent back to the countries in which they came. It does mean that we have consistently and routinely treated illegal immigrants much better than any other nation. In what other great nation can illegal immigrants gather in such a public display of protest and not be put under mass arrest?

This may not be the answer that we are looking for nor may it be what many of the Islamic and Muslim papers are reporting yet they may be more concerned with U.S. bashing than protecting. No matter which way you slice the onion we need borders no matter how much it makes us cry.

Murad Ali is a two time published author on business, economics and reform. He also edits the Muslim Times at www.muradenterprises.org

In October 2005, Parliamentary Assembly of Europe members tabled a draft resolution castigating the human rights situation in the province of Vojvodina. As EU accession looms larger for Serbia and Montenegro, such resolutions are bound to proliferate. Vojvodina is widely regarded as a test case and the touchstone of Serbia’s post-Milosevic reforms.

Milosevic is still a hate figure in Vojvodina. Until he abolished it in 1989, the northern region, bordering on Hungary, enjoyed an autonomy granted by Tito’s successive constitutions. Vojislav Kostunica, the current prime minister of erstwhile rump Yugoslavia and a one time winner of the first round of elections for the presidency of Serbia has replaced the deposed autocrat as chief villain. His opponent, the reform-minded Miroljub Labus, won convincingly only in Vojvodina and southwestern Serbia in the self-same elections.

Exactly four years ago, the provincial assembly of Vojvodina sacked the region’s deputy prime minister, a Kostunica crony, and upgraded the status of Novi Sad to “capital city”. The assembly’s speaker stormed into the building of Novi Sad’s TV and radio to protest a Belgrade appointment.

Serb radicals demanded full self-government, the large Hungarian minority - one eighth of Vojvodina’s two million strong populace - petitioned for self-rule in locales with a Magyar majority, moderates urged Belgrade to start negotiating soon. Hungary, under the previous prime minister, Viktor Orban, agitated aggressively on behalf of its ethnic kin. It looked as though Vojvodina is about to join the ranks of independence-prone Kosovo and Montenegro. Many Vojvodina Serbs still regard it as central European, having been part of the Habsburg empire until 1918.

Vojvodina’s denizens - pro-Western, highly educated, intellectuals, members of the free professions, and globe-trotting businessmen - were horrified by the barbarity of Yugoslavia’s tortured demise. They now act as the self-appointed conscience of Serbia and Montenegro.

In June 2002, Nenad Canak, the head of the provincial parliament, demanded the prosecution of journalists who contributed to “warmongering” during Milosevic’s reign. As reported by Radio B92, the organizers in Novi Sad in August 2002 of “Blood and Honey”, an exhibition of photo-journalist’s Ron Haviv’s work in the Balkan in the 1990’s, wrote in a letter addressed to Kostunica, among others:

“Why do you keep silent regarding nationalistic and chauvinistic behavior? Why is this problem being ignored? This is obviously not an isolated incident, but an organized, planned and financed action. Does this mean that you are turning a blind eye to the truth? The [truth] is simple - wars happened and crimes were committed in them, crimes that we will have to face, sooner or later.”

Even their dismay at NATO’s surgical demolition during the 1999 Kosovo campaign of their three economically-critical bridges over the Danube and their only oil refinery did not turn them into anti-Western xenophobes.

Finally, in January-February 2001 and again in January-February 2002, the Serbian parliament restored some of the territory’s previous powers and privileges - over its finances, agriculture, health care, justice, education, tourism, sports, the media, and social services. Mile Icakov, a triumphant parliamentarian, from the late Djindjic’s DOS umbrella grouping of reformist parties, quoted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, uttered this veiled admonition:

“That’s something we had and that’s something that belonged to us and nobody has to grant it to us, but to return back what was taken away against the law and against the constitution… Everyone in Serbia has already agreed on the largest-possible autonomy for Kosovo. Nothing will change if they do the same for Vojvodina. It would be fair to give Vojvodina the [same rights]. It’s not fair that the bad kid gets everything he asks for and the good kid gets nothing.”

Yet, the omission to tackle Vojvodina’s grievances - or even to consult it - in the March 14, 2002 EU-sponsored Agreement on Restructuring Relations between Serbia and Montenegro irritated the disgruntled province. Vojvodina is not only Yugoslavia’s bread basket, it also harbors its nascent oil industry, and many of its blue-chips.

As a result, it is a net contributor to the federal budget and subsidizes the other parts of the rump Yugoslavia. It produces two firth of Serbia and Montenegro’s dwindling GDP and attracts two thirds of its foreign direct investment - with only one fifth of its population.

In January 2002, the French multinational Lafarge bought a majority stake in the Beocin cement factory near Novi Sad. It paid $51 million of which Vojvodina is likely to see very little. Five loss making sugar factories were next in line. Serbia’s privatization minister pledged to plough back one quarter of all future privatization receipts into the local economy.

Then Serbian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Dragan Veselinov, offered to subsidize sugar beet, soybean, and sunflower crops and to buy 280,000 tons of wheat in 2003. But these belated pre-election bribes did not soothe jangled nerves.

During the 1990’s Vojvodina was reluctantly flooded with Serb refugees from Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. The “invasion” altered its character. The erstwhile bastion of tolerant Austro-Hungarian culture has been Balkanized and rendered discernibly more nationalistic, corruption-ridden, and fractious. Neo-fascist, anti-Semitic, revisionist, racist, pro-Greater Serbia, and skinhead organizations proliferate.

The two pillars of the movement for self-governance are, therefore, nostalgia and money. It is a belated reaction to the convulsive and blood-spattered disintegration of the federation. But it is also a rejection of Vojvodina’s exploitation by the other provinces.

Like Scotland and Flanders, northern Italy and Quebec, and the Shiite and Kurd regions of Iraq, Vojvodina would like to retain a larger share of its resources for local consumption and investment. In a “Europe of regions” and a world of disintegrating nation-states, this was to be expected. In August 2002, the Committee for International Cooperation and Relations with Euroregions of the Vojvodina parliament voted to join the Assembly of European Regions (AER).

Vojvodina still faces the outcomes of a decade of Western economic sanctions and NATO military action. Sanctions-busting smuggling operations during Milosevic’s rule criminalized some parts of the economy. Novi Sad’s water, natural gas, the railway to Budapest, river cargo transport, and telecommunications infrastructure were rendered idle by the decimation of its bridges.

The reconstruction of the first, largest bridge, “Sloboda” (or Liberty) was completed in 2004 and cost 34 million euro in EU funds, according to “Balkan Times”. Two temporary crossovers cater to the needs of Novi Sad’s population - but they are poor substitutes. Rail links to the rest of Europe, for instance, have yet to be restored. The expensive and intricate clearing of the Danube of unexploded ordnance has been completed only recently.

Vojvodina strives to become a regional commercial hub. HINA, the Croat news agency, reports that the Serb province and the neighboring Vukovar-Srijem county in Croatia have agreed to rebuild bridges, in both the literal and the figurative senses. Vojvodina vowed to help Vukovar secure the return of art expropriated by the Serbs during the internecine war, demine its environs, and find the whereabouts of missing Croat soldiers and civilians.

Vojvodina’s parties are members of the ruling, Western-orientated, formerly Djindjic-led, coalition in Belgrade. The Vojvodina Reformists, who backed Kostunica in the recent bout of elections, once have teamed with a DOS breakaway faction to form a new, left of center, political force. Vojvodina plays a crucial role in Serb politics.

Even the leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Jozsef Kasza, admitted to the Yugoslav daily “Dnevnik”, that the status of the Hungarian minority is improving “step by step”, though “Hungarians are still not adequately represented in the judiciary, prosecutions, in leading positions in the economy.”

He elaborated: “During the Milosevic era they wouldn’t let us have our schools, media, they banned the official use of the language. The situation has now improved, the Law on national communities has been passed which needs to continue its implementation more and more.”

In an inversion of the traditional roles, the Beta news agency reported that Vojvodina’s then secretary for culture and education, Zoltan Bunjik, announced a series of assistance programs targeted at the Serb minority in Hungary, including a Serb history and culture curriculum.

Sam Vaknin ( samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

Visit Sam’s Web site at samvak.tripod.com