About the author- litigation lawyer in telecoms, taxation, criminal, labor, appellate, family law and corporate; a radio broadcaster, speaker, author a husband, a father, advocate for consumers, for justice www.angkapatiran.org and a sinner who wants to
be a saint. hilman1108@yahoo.com
What Women Want
By John Tierney
The New York Times
Tuesday 24 May 2005
Suppose you could eliminate the factors often blamed for the shortage of women in high-paying jobs. Suppose that promotions and raises did not depend on pleasing sexist male bosses or putting in long nights and weekends away from home. Would women make as much as men?
Economists recently tried to find out in an experiment in Pittsburgh by paying men and women to add up five numbers in their heads. At first they worked individually, doing as many sums as they could in five minutes and receiving 50 cents for each correct answer. Then they competed in four-person tournaments, with the winner getting $2 per correct answer and the losers getting nothing.
On average, the women made as much as the men under either system. But when they were offered a choice for the next round - take the piece rate or compete in a tournament - most women declined to compete, even the ones who had done the best in the earlier rounds. Most men chose the tournament, even the ones who had done the worst.
The men’s eagerness partly stemmed from overconfidence, because on average men rated their ability more highly than the women rated theirs. But interviews and further experiments convinced the researchers, Muriel Niederle of Stanford and Lise Vesterlund of the University of Pittsburgh, that the gender gap wasn’t due mainly to women’s insecurities about their abilities. It was due to different appetites for competition.
“Even in tasks where they do well, women seem to shy away from competition, whereas men seem to enjoy it too much,” Professor Niederle said. “The men who weren’t good at this task lost a little money by choosing to compete, and the really good women passed up a lot of money by not entering tournaments they would have won.”
You can argue that this difference is due to social influences, although I suspect it’s largely innate, a byproduct of evolution and testosterone. Whatever the cause, it helps explain why men set up the traditional corporate ladder as one continual winner-take-all competition - and why that structure no longer makes sense.
Now that so many employees (and more than half of young college graduates) are women, running a business like a tournament alienates some of the most talented workers and potential executives. It also induces competition in situations where cooperation makes more sense.
The result is not good for the bottom line, as demonstrated by a study from the Catalyst research organization showing that large companies yield better returns to stockholders if they have more women in senior management. A friend of mine, a businessman who buys companies, told me one of the first things he looks at is the gender of the boss.
“The companies run by women are much more likely to survive,” he said. “The typical guy who starts a company is a competitive, charismatic leader - he’s always the firm’s top salesman - but if he leaves he takes his loyal followers with him and the company goes downhill. Women C.E.O.’s know how to hire good salespeople and create a healthy culture within the company. Plus they don’t spend 20 percent of their time in strip clubs.”
Still, for all the executive talents that women have, for all the changes that are happening in the corporate world, there will always be some jobs that women, on average, will not want as badly as men do. Some of the best-paying jobs require crazed competition and the willingness to risk big losses - going broke, never seeing your family and friends, dying young.
The women in the experiment who didn’t want to bother with a five-minute tournament are not likely to relish spending 16 hours a day on a Wall Street trading floor. It’s not fair to deny women a chance at those jobs, but it’s not realistic to expect that they’ll seek them in the same numbers that men will.
For two decades, academics crusading for equality in the workplace have been puzzled by surveys showing that women are at least as satisfied with their jobs and their pay as men are. This is known as “the paradox of the contented female worker.”
But maybe it’s not such a paradox after all. Maybe women, like the ones who shunned the experimental tournament, know they could make more money in some jobs but also know they wouldn’t enjoy competing for it as much as their male rivals. They realize, better than men, that in life there’s a lot more at stake than money.
——-
The TedKennedy.com Journal
An Up or Down Vote on Stem Cell Legislation
Wed May 25th, 1:44pm
The debate over embryonic stem cells switched gears yesterday, as the House voted 238-194 to approve legislation that would repeal President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding for research on the cells. Embryonic stem cells are especially versatile, and may hold the key to treatments and cures for many health problems, from cancer to Parkinson’s to HIV. In 2001, President Bush decided to restrict federal funds from being spent on the collection and research of these cells, citing a need to protect human life. President Bush claimed them that there would be 60 lines of stem cells available for research, but thus far there are only 22. The lines that are available are primarily being grown in petri dishes over layers of mouse cells, making their use for human exploration extremely limited. For more information, included below are articles on the House’s passage of the bill (an identical version is set to go before the senate), background information on stem cells, and more information on the legislation Senator Kennedy is working with Senators Specter (PA), Hatch (UT), Feinstein (CA), and Harkin (IA).
Read More » TEDKENNEDY.COM
Friendship is not about becoming somebody elses’ perfect person.
It is about someone who helps you become the best person you can be.
( I do not know who wrote this statement. Someone text this to me.)
What is a friend? Someone who is there for you. someone who listens; someone
who is forgiving, someone who is happy for you, who makes you smile, who understands even if you do not agree with each other, someone who keeps a secret,
someone I trust, some one I love to see, someone who communicates his or her inner thoughts or feelings, someone who cares for your health, for your well-being, someone who allows you to grow, someone who prays for you.
We all need having at least one friend, and someone to talk to.
Life is a challenge. Thank you for being a friend.
hilman1108@yahoo.com
By Antonio C. Abaya
>
>Written May 17, 2005
>
>For the Manila Standard Today,
>
>May 19 issue
>
>
>
>
>
>In a television interview by Ricky Carandang on ANC Channel 21 last
>Monday, May 16, in which Rep. Constantino Jaraula (Lakas, Misamis
>Oriental) and I were asked our opinions on the parliamentary system of
>government, I essentially dwelt on only two points:
>
>
>
>a) President Arroyo is laying the groundwork to run for prime
>minister, to stay in power beyond 2010; and b) although I have been
>pushing for a shift to the parliamentary system of government since
>the 1980s, I realize that simply making the shift will not result in
>meaningful changes in our political life unless our electoral system
>is first drastically changed, and only a revolutionary government can
>make those changes.
>
>
>
>Let me explain the first point. Although as president of the republic,
>Mrs. Arroyo is titular head of a ruling coalition in which the lead
>party is Lakas (”the party of thieves,” according to Teddyboy Locsin),
>she actually has her own miniscule party, the KAMPI, which stands for
>something-or-other Mamamayang Pilipino.
>
>
>
>Months before the May 2004 elections, KAMPI had been trying to
>establish its own identity as a party, independent of Lakas and in
>anticipation of the day when the child outgrows the father.
>
>
>
>Mrs. Arroyo’s electoral victory in the May 2004 elections (under
>dubious circumstances, to say the least) has emboldened KAMPI to reach
>out for the stars, so to speak. It has forged an alliance with another
>miniscule, but once formidable, party, the Liberal Party. The naming
>of Rep. Butch Abad to the education department is a fruit of that
>alliance.
>
>
>
>KAMPI is now aiming to raid the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC)
>of business tycoon Danding Cojuangco, who in recent months has let it
>be known that he was no longer interested in running for president,
>after a disastrous attempt in 1992 and the realization of the futility
>of doing so in 1998..
>
>
>
>More importantly, Danding has told his NPC members that they would now
>be free to affiliate themselves with whatever party they see fit. In
>practical terms, he is giving them a choice between Lakas and the
>emerging KAMPI. Sen. Angara’s LDP, coalesced with Estrada’s Partido ng
>Masang Pilipino, is too riddled with internal dissensions to be an
>attractive alternative. In addition, it is still reeling from the
>defeat, then death of, its lead icon FPJ.
>
>
>
>But although Lakas still has the numbers, it is KAMPI that has the
>power of the purse, the ability to dispense patronage, since it is
>KAMPI’s Gloria, not Lakas’ De Venecia, who sits in Malacanang and is
>in the position to offer plum government positions, fat government
>contracts, and/or 2007 campaign funds to the soon-to-be orphaned NPC
>piglets looking for swollen and sympathetic teats to suckle on.
>
>
>
>My sense is that after a few more pre-arranged court victories to
>protect his business empire and to absolve him of any wrongdoing,
>Danding will give the go-signal and most, if not all, of the NPC
>piglets will run squealing with delight all the way to the bursting
>KAMPI teats of the mother of all mothers.
>
>
>
>In anticipation of this glorious day, KAMPI held what amounted to a
>party congress sometime last February, in which party president Rep.
>Ronnie Puno (KAMPI, Antipolo) rallied the trapo-troops to prepare them
>for the coming political battles.
>
>
>
>Puno was not modest about his goals “on how we can make KAMPI a truly
>dominant party after the 2007 (congressional) elections…the
>objective should be to be the biggest political party in the political
>scenery. And to do this, if we quantify it, we have to have at least
>120 congressmen..” Puno claims that KAMPI already has 1,580 municipal
>mayors, or half the total number, as members. Having half the
>congressmen as well will truly make KAMPI “the dominant party after
>2007.”
>
>
>
>The question is why would President Arroyo, halfway through her
>putative nine-year stay in Malacanang, plan at all to make her
>miniscule KAMPI party into “the dominant party after 2007,” only three
>years before her constitutional non-extendable term as president
>expires in 2010?
>
>
>
>There seems to be only one logical explanation: she plans to remain in
>power even after 2010, and she can do this legally only if the
>constitution is amended to allow a shift to the parliamentary system
>of government. Just as Ferdinand Marcos did in, I believe, 1976.
>
>
>
>Sure enough, a few days after the party congress in February, the
>party bigwigs met in executive session and are said to have decided a)
>to push for a shift to the parliamentary system in or after 2007; and
>b) to contest the coming parliamentary elections, with Mrs. Arroyo as
>party standard bearer.
>
>
>
>There would be nothing criminal or illegal about this, unless the
>constitutional amendments specifically prohibit current holders of
>elective public offices from taking part in the subsequent
>parliamentary elections.
>
>
>
>Which prohibition is highly unlikely since the amendments will be
>written in by the incumbent trapos and dynasts (if they are convened
>as a constituent assembly) or by their relatives and
>assignees-in-interest (if a constitutional convention is elected or
>appointed).
>
>
>
>In both scenarios, the intent will be to ensure that as many as
>possible of their incumbent trapos and dynasts in Congress (and
>Malacanang) will segue seamlessly into the succeeding parliament. Some
>old-fashioned cheating by Comelec, especially in Western Mindanao,
>concealed with the aid of Namfrel, will also come in handy, as it did
>in 2004.
>
>
>
>Plus ca change, plus la meme chose. The more things change, the more
>they stay the same. Goodbye, President Gloria. Hello, Prime Minister
>Gloria.
>
>
>
>In the Westminster model of the parliamentary system (which seems to
>be the preferred choice), one does not really “run for prime
>minister.” One runs for a seat in parliament in one’s electoral
>district. The party that wins a majority of the seats gets to form the
>government, with the party chair chosen by his/her party peers to be
>prime minister.
>
>
>
>There’s absolutely no doubt that Mrs. Arroyo would easily win in her
>electoral district in Pampanga in 2007. But it is not absolutely
>certain that KAMPI will win a majority of the seats in parliament, as
>Ronnie Puno wants, given the plummeting popularity and approval
>ratings of President Arroyo.
>
>
>
>Unless her public image improves dramatically, her endorsement of the
>other KAMPI candidates may turn out to be a kiss of death. Or it could
>even lead to a premature political demise if public disenchantment
>swells to insurrectionary levels (fueled by the ongoing escalation in
>the cost of living) and she is swept away by another People Power
>exercise before 2007.
>
>
>
>To pre-empt both possibilities, Malacanang is working overtime to
>burnish President Arroyo’s image. Right after “accepting the offer of
>the Public Relations Society of the Philippines” to improve her image,
>President Arroyo met with the country’s top print and electronic media
>moguls who promised to “let the public know that the President had
>nothing to do with the high oil prices.” (Inquirer, May 17.)
>
>
>
>Malacanang political technicians have also identified Evangelist Eddie
>Villanueva as the strongest likely challenger to President Arroyo in a
>pre-2007 confrontation and they have moved to isolate and neutralize
>him. Villanueva now faces a P70 million estafa case, filed by a cousin
>of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, and a warrant for his arrest has been
>issued. When this “man of God” is photographed in handcuffs, that may
>well spell the end of his political career.
>
>
>
>Unknown to many in the middle class - it was unknown to me until
>someone sent me a recent clipping from the Straits Times of Singapore
>- is the emergence of a new tabloid called Pasa’Yo (”For You”),
>which, like the Inquirer’s Libre, is distributed free of charge to
>riders of the LRT and MRT. I understand Pasa’Yo will also be given
>away free in squatter colonies, bus stations, airports and seaports.
>
>
>
>A brainchild of my namesake Anthony Abaya (no relation), one of the
>media manipulators of President Arroyo (as he also was of President
>Ramos), Pasa’Yo is specifically designed to give a positive spin to
>the day’s news so that President Arroyo comes out looking good all the
>time. Our very own version of Pravda.
>
>
>
>Under the parliamentary system, a prime minister can remain in office
>for as long as his/her party retains a majority of the seats in
>parliament, as determined in general elections every five years or so.
>Under this set-up, Lee Kwan Yew was PM of Singapore for 30 years;
>Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia for 22 years.
>
>
>
>Prime Minister Gloria will be around for a very long time. Better get
>used to the idea. ***** Reactions to acabaya@zpdee.net or
>fax 824-7642. Other articles in www.tapatt.org.
>
>
>To Post a message, send it to: makatisenate@eGroups.com
>To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: makatisenate-unsubscribe@eGroups.com
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
Abortion Encouraged in Ukraine as Unborn Babies Used for Russian Beauty Treatments
KIEV, May 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A UK Observer exclusive has revealed that the trafficking of unborn baby body tissues for use as “beauty” treatments in Russia is a booming trade. The unborn children are purchased from Ukrainian women – some of whom are also ‘duped’ by racketeering doctors who convince the women that the unborn baby is defective and needs to be aborted – thereafter selling the aborted child. The babies are cryogenically frozen and advertised as providing “youth injections” claimed to reverse aging and cure many diseases.
An older baby is worth even more, as beauty spa workers are convinced that the so-called age-reducing effect is more plentiful in the older child. “When a doctor wants a foetus [to sell], he tells a girl there is a medical reason for an abortion later than 12 weeks,” said Sergei Shorobogatko, a Kiev policeman investigating the illegal trade. “A special procedure extracts it with the placenta.”
Women there fetch, on average, $180 USD per unborn child, but can make even more if they wait beyond the legal 12-weeks before aborting the child. A middleman cuts the child into separate organs before selling the child, whose sale can exceed $9,000 USD. The “beauty” treatments cost over $18,000. The fetuses are not tested for possible infection like HIV, Shorobogatko warned.
Last week, a Russian border patrol confiscated 25 unborn babies frozen and hidden in two vacuum flasks carried by a man, who said he purchased them from a medical research facility.
Ukraine law allows the use of aborted foetal tissue for use in medical research, with the mother’s permission. Many of these so-called donations in fact turn out to be a way for the government clinics to make a profit by selling the baby for illegal treatments. “It is extremely difficult to detect this because there are corrupt agreements between respected doctors and academics,” said a senior Kiev police officer.
Read the Observer report: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story…
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