₦airaland Forum

A leader with a strong liver and backbone.

Cabinet shake-up latest: Ministers embark on fasting to escape sack

https://www.nationaldailyngr.com/images/resized/images/stories/320shakeup_200_200.jpg

Alison-Madueke, Usman, others jittery

SOME serving ministers on President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Executive Council (FEC) are now sitting on the edge of their seats in their respective high brow offices very much afraid of the Presidential ombudsman which is diligently scrutinizing their performance in the past five years in office.

National Daily competent sources disclosed that President Goodluck Jonathan in an effort to reinvigorate performance level of his administration has concluded plans to carry out a cabinet reshuffle and accordingly has mandated a team consisting of the National Security Adviser, Owoeye Azazi and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim to recommend the ministers whose performance has been adjudged as satisfactory using Jonathans transformation agenda as an index.

The affected ministers are those like Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke and her counterpart in the Ministry of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman who was appointed in 2007 by late President Umaru Yar'Adua and had survived cabinet shake-ups in the past and some of those appointed under the Jonathan administration.

Sources indicated that some of these ministers who were appointed in 2007 by the Yar'Adua administration will be fired for poor performance and alleged corrupt practices. While some others appointed in 2010 will also be axed for offences ranging from inability to implement Jonathan's transformation agenda.

Alison-Madueke has come under media criticism for alleged corruption in the Petroleum Ministry and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The findings by the House Committee on Oil Subsidy alleged indicted Alison-Madueke. The negative image she unwittingly created for herself throughout her assignment so far is said to be one of the factors that might contribute in showing her the exit door.

Usman is another minister who is likely to be shoved aside on grounds of being one of the ministers appointed by the Yar'Adua administration and on what an Aso Rock source described as the need to re-invigorate the Ministry of Planning towards greater efficiency.

Other ministers who are likely to be affected by the impending cabinet reshuffle includes Police Affairs Minister, Caleb Olubode, Trade and Investment Minister, Segun Aganga, Education Minister, Ruqayyat Rufai, Minister of Labour, Emeka Nwogu and Minister for Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed. These ministers were appointed in 2010 and may now have to give way to a new set of ministers with brand new ideas.

Public criticisms

“You know President Jonathan is very sensitive to criticism. He listens to public opinion a lot. It is good for a leader not to assume to be all-knowing; he must listen to his people for more ideas on how to move the country forward. For instance, Ministers like Alison and Usman have experienced tremendous pressures as a result of events in their ministries which have led to public criticism. These other ministers who have been in office since Yar'Adua administration and has not sufficiently adjusted to the reform agenda of the Yar'Adua administration,” a source said.

National Daily was reliably informed that President Jonathan is under intense pressure to sack two other ministers, Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Information Minister, Labaran Maku. However, it appears the two will survive the shake-up based on the Aso Rock perception of their “robust efficiency” and unquestional loyalty to the administration. Okonjo-Iweala does not currently enjoy a visible public approval as she is considered by the public as an agent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Nigerians are also seemed unsatisfied with her explanation of the recent hike in prices of petroleum motor spirit across the country. Maku on the other hand is perceived by the public to be a “brilliant defender of Jonathan's obnoxious polices.”

EFCC investigation

The alleged decision of the presidency to inject new faces and ideas in the Federal Cabinet is said to have created fears among the ministers forcing them to scamper to Aso Rock where they have been pleading with the president to give them more time to perform. Some of the minister listed for dismissal has allegedly become jittery when they also got wind of the fact that they are being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for alleged corrupt practices.

“Some of these ministers are said to have approached some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some of the president's close associates to plead on their behalf. They are afraid of being disgraced out of office and paraded in the court by the EFCC for alleged corruption.”

Competent sources disclosed that two of the ministers wanted to voluntarily resign when they got wind of the planned reshuffle but were said to have been persuaded to remain in the cabinet for their own interest.

“One of them Alison-Madueke was said to have decided to leave the cabinet few weeks ago, she was to tender her resignation letter as a reaction to the media report which exposed the alleged flamboyant lifestyle of her son in the United States. However, she was persuaded by her confidants to shelve the idea. She was told that she is more secured in government than outside government.”

Apart from besieging the seat of power and urging President Jonathan to shelve the impending cabinet shake-up, at least for now, some of the ministers according to sources are seeking spiritual help in order to avoid being sacked by the president.

“The Christian and Moslem ministers are involved in this desperation to remain in office. Recently, two of the ministers who attend the same Pentecostal church with me in Abuja had a private session with the pastor in his office, we learned our pastor later went to conduct prayer session, in his official residence,” a source said, adding: “some others who are members of two popular Pentecostal churches headed by Lagos based popular pastor and General Overseer have also become frequent in the Abuja branch. It was further gathered that even those who attend the old generation churches such as Catholic and Anglican are also involved in the search for spiritual solution to the planned cabinet re-jigging.

“Some of these ministers have not been regular church goers but they have suddenly become regular in church since they got wind of the coming cabinet shake-up. Three of them were sighted in Catholic and Anglican churches in Wuse Districts in Abuja just recently.”

National Daily learned that some of the Moslem ministers have allegedly hired the services of some Islamic Clerics to offer supplication to Allah so that their planned dismissal shall be defrayed.

“Apart from attending regular jumat services in the Mosque, some of the Muslims among the ministers have employed the services of Alfas to offer prayers to God to enable them escape Jonathan's hammer if it eventually comes.

Religious refuge

Sources at the federal secretariat disclosed that most of the ministers have begun fasting and praying fervently to God to do a miracle, probably touch the president's heart and make him delay taking any final decision on the issue of his cabinet members.

“Some staff working in the ministries has observed that their bosses seem to be fasting for something because they do private prayers in the office and no longer go out for launch as they did previously or bring something from home to eat at interval.”

National Daily competent sources said that a presidential team has listed some criteria on whose the performance of the ministers will be based. The criteria includes, public opinion because “the president is sensitive to criticism,” the satisfactory implementation of the transformation agenda and the ministry's implementation of the 2012 budget.

“The performance of the 2012 budget will be monitored and the ministers will be given enough chance to implement it efficient minister have nothing to fear while those who perform poorly will be shown the way out,” a source said, adding: “the shake-up will come in two phases, between now and July.”

Those who have not performed so well may be lucky to escape sack now but will be surely in the next phase while some of the minister will be given another chance and transferred to another ministry.”

It will be recalled that Jonathan had at the Federal Executive Council meeting two weeks ago criticized the poor service delivery of ministries, departments and agencies and advised ministers to sit up.

The council at the meeting also discussed the submission of service compact with Nigeria which is used in measuring the performance of the MDAS. Information Minister, Labaran Maku noted that, “The report (SERVICOM) says we need to improve on our services to the satisfaction of citizens.”

It was learned that the cabinet reshuffle will be used to pacify zones which complained of marginalization, “The south-west which lost the House of Representative Speaker may get more ministerial and board appointment. Some members of PDP National Working Committee may be among the new ministers.

World’s First 24/7 Solar Power Plant Runs Even At Night

A solar power station in Spain stores excess solar energy during the day and which allows it produce electricity even during the night.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/03/20/worlds-247-solar-power-plant-runs-night-101151/


https://cdn1.alexanderhiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Spain-Solar-Plant-Runs-Even-At-Night.jpg

RAP NEWS 12: Yes We KONY?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8

Co-founder of 'Kony' video group detained in Calif





[img]http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20120316/470_kony_jason_russel_120316_430241.jpg?2[/img]

https://www.ucanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Kony.png


The Associated Press
A co-founder of the Invisible Children charity behind a viral video about a brutal central Africa warlord was detained by San Diego police and hospitalized after running through streets in his underwear and acting irrationally, a TV station reported Friday.

Police Lt. Andra Brown told NBC San Diego that Jason Russell was behaving strangely Thursday, screaming, yelling and interfering with traffic while in various states of UnCloth.

Brown said police decided he needed medical attention.

Russell narrates the "Kony 2012" video about wanted African warlord Joseph Kony which became an Internet sensation this month with tens of millions of views on YouTube.

The video, however, has brought heavy scrutiny of Invisible Children's strategy and financial practices.

Ben Keesey, CEO of Invisible Children, said in a prepared statement that Russell was hospitalized after an unspecified incident.

"Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalized yesterday suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition," Keesey said. "He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better. The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday."

Keesey said Russell's work had helped many "and we are devastated to see him dealing with this personal health issue."

"We will always love and support Jason, and we ask that you give his entire family privacy during this difficult time," Keesey said.

Russell, a San Diego native and a graduate of the film school at the University of Southern California, also was director of the video.

In the video, Russell talks to his young son, Gavin, about Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army.

Gavin's birth is shown at the beginning of the film. At one point, the boy sums up what his dad does for a living.

"You stop the bad guys from being mean," the boy says.

At the video's conclusion Russell says, "At the end of my life I want to say that the world we left behind is one Gavin can be proud of, one that doesn't allow Joseph Konys and child soldiers."

Gavin replies: "I'm going to be like you dad. I'm going to come with you to Africa."

The sudden success of the video brought heightened scrutiny to the San Diego-based nonprofit.

The group has been criticized for not spending enough directly on the people it intends to help and for oversimplifying the 26-year-old conflict involving the LRA and its leader, Kony, a bush fighter wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

The group acknowledges the video overlooks many nuances but said it functions as a "first entry point" that puts the conflict "in an easily understandable format."

Keesey, the CEO, has said money that directly benefits the cause accounted for more than 80 percent of its spending from 2007 to 2011, and that spending on its own expenses surged last year because of a grant specifically given for operations.

OneNaija: This is the reason why

[img]http://gifsoup.com/imager.php?id=1693892&t=o[/img]

Afro-Brazilian Woman With Afrocentric Hair Barred From University

http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/03/15/afro-brazilian-woman-with-afrocentric-hair-barred-from-university/#.T2Lkm3nlqVo


Brazilian Student Barred Entry to University for Wearing “Black Power” Natural Hairstyle

http://blackgirllonghair.com/2012/03/brazilian-student-barred-entry-to-university-for-wearing-black-power-natural-hairstyle/


Student is barred because of her hair and clothes; accuses school of racism

http://www.blackwomenofbrazil.com/2012/03/student-is-barred-because-of-her-hair.html

https://blackgirllonghair.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Ana-Carolina-Aluna-%C3%A9-barrada-por-roupa-e-cabelo-e-acusa-escola-de-racismo.jpg



[img]http://2.bp..com/-JKwXdO_Y2P8/T2ANe5T65-I/AAAAAAAADUA/Adl_RjZahjU/s320/Ana+Carolina+-+Aluna+%C3%A9+barrada+por+roupa+e+cabelo+e+acusa+escola+de+racismo.jpg[/img]
Ana Carolina (in black top) with her sister




The young Ana Carolina is part of a group that plays African-oriented (Yoruba) music in São Luís. Her dream is to be a sociologist so that she can fight for minorities in the capital city of Maranhão. "When I was barred, my sister cried and I was horrified. A lot of people were looking at me. It was a massacre. I wasn’t start anything. I go to school to be someone in life”, said the student. "I have a black identity and I will not change it,” she added.

[img]http://4.bp..com/-LFI1CC-TZMc/T2ExRw1MYjI/AAAAAAAADUo/cjiwRn9hySE/s320/Ana+Carolina+-+manifesto+3.jpg[/img]
Racism is a crime

[img]http://4.bp..com/-bzPibZOvnUk/T2ExSnB7ikI/AAAAAAAADUw/MtmSxgGUmNg/s320/Ana+Carolina+-+manifesto.jpg[/img]

I haven't forgotten about your ideas cousin Ibgo.

Seems like an attempt at progress on the political front.


Senate Starts Const. Amendment; Moves To Create State Court Of Appeal

http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/nvnews/85183/1/senate-starts-const-amendment-moves-to-create-sta.html

One is a bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 by Creation of State Court of Appeal, Introduction of State Legislative List and Adjustments/Modifications of Legislative Powers of Government between the Federal and State Governments and for other matters connected therewith 2012. It was sponsored by Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia).

The second is a bill to amend the 1999 Constitution to provide for financial autonomy for local government councils in Nigeria, sponsored by Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman (PDP, Kogi)

COUNTRIES WITH GOOD AND BAD KARMA


http://aangirfan..com/2012/03/countries-with-good-and-bad-karma.html

RAP NEWS 12: Yes We KONY?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8&feature=youtu.be

[img]http://warriorpublications.files./2012/01/colonial-submission.jpg?w=300&h=243[/img]

Africa: Time for Action - Africa and the Diaspora
By Chinua Akukwe, Melvin Foote and Franklyn Lisk, 12 March 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201203121276.html


https://allafrica.com/download/pic/main/main/csiid/00191193:b4e3881854a5d9f10e9de6d32df55938:arc495x324:w495:us1.jpg

exhibit # 1


BALLLL-LIIINNNG!!! Rapper Lil Wayne Spent $2 MILLION . . . On Two Pairs Of Headphones!!! (That Ish KRAY)


https://i.mediatakeout.com/photo/1331553608ad82ec88af238.jpg

https://i.mediatakeout.com/photo/1331553608ad82ec88af.jpg

March 12, 2012: During ALL STAR WEEKEND, rapper Lil Wayne had people talking when he whipped out his DIAMOND BEATS BY DRE headphones - which cost a reported $1 MILLION. Well he went EXTRA HARD this weekend, when he showed up with a pair tricked out with BLACK DIAMONDS - also costing $1 MILLION!!

[quote author=Mrs..Chima]Suckle what sons? [/quote]my 9ja dawgs gotta get dem visas first, and it will be poppin

https://kbmt.images.worldnow.com/images/17132212_BG1.jpg


https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/12/article-2113715-1220909D000005DC-548_468x351.jpg

This photograph shows Kalu with his wife, Nicole, at the White House for an energy briefing in September

A Colorado CEO is accused of luring foreigners to the United States to work for a nonexistent university and then stealing portions of their salaries after setting them up with other jobs in what the government has called an “elaborate scheme.”

Kizzy Kalu, 47, of Highlands Ranch, Colo., allegedly enticed foreign nurses to work as teachers at an Adam University in Denver, an institution that Kalu’s alleged accomplice, Philip Langerman, 77, of McDonough, Ga., made up, according to a federal indictment.

Langerman was also indicted, but remains at large. Kalu is being held by U.S. Marshals, and phone calls to his companies were not returned.

Kalu promised a salary of between $68,000 and $72,000 annually for the fictional teaching positions through the Foreign Healthcare Professional Group (FHPG), a company he operated, according to the indictment. The fictional positions were considered to be “specialty occupations” under U.S. immigration regulations.

Langerman obtained state authorization in 2005 for Adam University to deliver degree programs in Colorado, based on false claims, according to the indictment. This status permits a university to submit an unlimited number of H-1B specialty occupation visas, which allow a foreign national to be employed while in the United States. The foreign nationals had to pay fees to FHPG and Kalu in exchange for assistance in obtaining the visas, according to the indictment.

Once they were in the United States, Kalu informed them that the aforementioned positions were no longer available, and put them to work at various long-term care facilities, the indictment states. The facilities paid the foreign nationals’ salaries to Kalu’s company, but Kalu allegedly passed on only 65 percent of the wages to his employees, which was 50 percent of the salary originally promised to them by FHPG and less than 50 percent of what Adam University told the United States they would be paid, according to the indictment.

Kalu was arrested without incident last Sunday and arraigned Thursday when a federal magistrate judge ordered that he be released on bond. The U.S. Attorney’s Office immediately appealed to the District Court, which then ordered that Kalu not be released until the appeal is heard Thursday. Kalu is in federal custody, being held by the U.S. Marshals, despite other news reports that he is out on bond, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Kalu faces 132 charges, including visa fraud, forced labor, money laundering, human trafficking, criminal forfeiture and mail fraud. If convicted, he could spend up to 20 years in prison.

Kalu is the chairman and CEO of Global Energy Initiatives (GEI), which manufactures and deploys hydro-kinetic power generators to Brazil and other developing countries, according to its website. Photographs on Kalu’s Facebook page Saturday showed Kalu with his wife, Nicole, at the White House for an energy briefing in September. The photos were taken down today and are no longer publically available. Kalu also operates the Global Village Hope Foundation, an international volunteerism program whose motto is “You are the hope for the hopeless.”



Colorado Man Indicted for Human Trafficking, Money Laundering

http://abcnews.go.com/US/colorado-man-indicted-human-trafficking-money-laundering/story?id=15897558#.T14OCXnlqVo

A Colorado CEO is accused of luring foreigners to the United States to work for a nonexistent university and then stealing portions of their salaries after setting them up with other jobs in what the government has called an "elaborate scheme."

Kizzy Kalu, 47, of Highlands Ranch, Colo., allegedly enticed foreign nurses to work as teachers at an Adam University in Denver, an institution that Kalu's alleged accomplice, Philip Langerman, 77, of McDonough, Ga., made up, according to a federal indictment.

Langerman was also indicted, but remains at large. Kalu is being held by U.S. Marshals, and phone calls to his companies were not returned.

Kalu promised a salary of between $68,000 and $72,000 annually for the fictional teaching positions through the Foreign Healthcare Professional Group (FHPG), a company he operated, according to the indictment. The fictional positions were considered to be "specialty occupations" under U.S. immigration regulations.

Langerman obtained state authorization in 2005 for Adam University to deliver degree programs in Colorado, based on false claims, according to the indictment. This status permits a university to submit an unlimited number of H-1B specialty occupation visas, which allow a foreign national to be employed while in the United States.

The foreign nationals had to pay fees to FHPG and Kalu in exchange for assistance in obtaining the visas, according to the indictment.

Once they were in the United States, Kalu informed them that the aforementioned positions were no longer available, and put them to work at various long-term care facilities, the indictment states.

The facilities paid the foreign nationals' salaries to Kalu's company, but Kalu allegedly passed on only 65 percent of the wages to his employees, which was 50 percent of the salary originally promised to them by FHPG and less than 50 percent of what Adam University told the United States they would be paid, according to the indictment.

Kalu was arrested without incident last Sunday and arraigned Thursday when a federal magistrate judge ordered that he be released on bond. The U.S. Attorney's Office immediately appealed to the District Court, which then ordered that Kalu not be released until the appeal is heard Thursday. Kalu is in federal custody, being held by the U.S. Marshals, despite other news reports that he is out on bond, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"He was not let off on bond. Those stories are completely inaccurate," Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, told ABC News today.

Dorschner said the U.S. Attorney's Office believes Kalu is a flight risk. "The reason we don't want him released is we think he will flee the country and not return for future court appearances," said Dorschner.

Kalu faces 132 charges, including visa fraud, forced labor, money laundering, human trafficking, criminal forfeiture and mail fraud. If convicted, he could spend up to 20 years in prison.

Langerman is listed as a Ph.D and one of Adam University's directors, according to the indictment. Kalu is a graduate of the University of Jos in Nigeria, according to his online LinkedIn profile.

Kalu is the chairman and CEO of Global Energy Initiatives (GEI), which manufactures and deploys hydro-kinetic power generators to Brazil and other developing countries, according to its website. Photographs on Kalu's Facebook page Saturday showed Kalu with his wife, Nicole, at the White House for an energy briefing in September. The photos were taken down today and are no longer publically available.

Kalu also operates the Global Village Hope Foundation, an international voluntourism program whose motto is "You are the hope for the hopeless."

On the foundation's website, supporters are asked to send donations to 5630 Wickerdale Lane in Highlands Ranch, Colo., Kalu's residence.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ6TdMVmgZ8

TECHNOLOGY


Updated March 11, 2012, 9:01 p.m. ET

Hollywood Studios Warm to Apple's iCloud Effort

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203961204577272273439064412.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection


https://scm-l3.technorati.com/11/06/07/44565/icloud.png?t=20110607062350

Nnenna1: ^^^What sort of game plan do these people have for Nigeria though?

There is a lot of chaos and little direction at the moment. Do they want to establish a permanent base or cause outright civil war? Or both?

What do they stand to gain by political discord that they haven't from relative stability?

Not just Nigeria, the entire planet. They have had an global power hunger and appetite for several centuries. Destabilization sells more weapons and conflict/s weaken developing nations.



[img]http://p.twimg.com/Anr5hHwCEAIq-B2.jpg:large[/img]


Featured here is Cecil Rhodes who helped the British Empire literally conquer a massive swath of Africa from the north all the way to the south, the portion over which Rhodes is spanning in the illustration. In memory of his megalomania, the British would name what is now modern day Zimbabwe after him, calling it “Rhodesia.”

Today, US Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, is spreading across Africa in the footsteps of Cecil Rhodes. As reported by allAfrica.com, Vice Admiral Moeller at an AFRICOM meeting held at Fort McNair on February 18, 2008 would declare that protecting “the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market” was one of AFRICOM’s guiding principles. Of course by “global market,” the admiral means the Fortune 500 corporations of Wall Street and London.

In our politically sensitive modern age, pillaging Africa in the footsteps of shameless and quite racist imperialists is very difficult to do. Therefore, Joseph Kony, Al Qaeda, Qaddafi, starving children, pirates, and every other geopolitical ploy and contrivance imaginable, and some left yet unimagined have been used to justify AFRICOM’s expanding presence on a continent they have no business setting foot on.

Ironically, ploys like KONY 2012 have liberal youth clamoring for what is perhaps the next dark chapter in large scale racist imperial enslavement, plundering, and exploitation.

For excellent analysis on the KONY 2012 scam, please read Nile Bowie’s “Youth Movement Promotes US Military Presence in Central Africa,” and BlackStarNews.com’s “KONY 2012, Invisible Children’s Pro-AFRICOM and Museveni Propaganda.”

Readers are Leaders



Beware Africa: You’re Being Set Up

http://www.zengardner.com/beware-africa-youre-being-set-up/




Libya: the West and al-Qaeda on the same side

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8391632/Libya-the-West-and-al-Qaeda-on-the-same-side.html


U.S. Fighting Alongside Al-Qaeda in Libya

http://securityandintelligence./2011/04/23/u-s-fighting-alongside-al-qaeda-in-libya/



Ten Years After 9/11, US Supports Al-Qaeda in Libya

Libya: Libyan Rebels Are CIA Funded, al Qaeda Connected Murderers


Read more: http://stationsixunderground..com/2011/08/ten-years-after-911-us-supports-al.html#ixzz1or8ZhrPz




US Recognizes Al-Qaeda War Criminals As Libya’s Official Government

http://www.prisonplanet.com/us-recognizes-al-qaeda-war-criminals-as-libyas-official-government.html


Syria: Clinton Admits US On Same Side As Al Qaeda To Destabilize Assad Government

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29524


Top Ranking CIA Operatives Admit Al-qaeda Is a Complete Fabrication

by Mr. Charrington on January 7, 2008

BBC’s killer documentary called “The Power of Nightmares“. Top CIA officials openly admit, Al-qaeda is a total and complete fabrication, never having existed at any time.

http://polidics.com/cia/top-ranking-cia-operatives-admit-al-qaeda-is-a-complete-fabrication.html

[img]http://p.twimg.com/Anr5hHwCEAIq-B2.jpg:large[/img]

[b]Featured here is Cecil Rhodes who helped the British Empire literally conquer a massive swath of Africa from the north all the way to the south, the portion over which Rhodes is spanning in the illustration. In memory of his megalomania, the British would name what is now modern day Zimbabwe after him, calling it “Rhodesia.”

Today, US Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, is spreading across Africa in the footsteps of Cecil Rhodes. As reported by allAfrica.com, Vice Admiral Moeller at an AFRICOM meeting held at Fort McNair on February 18, 2008 would declare that protecting “the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market” was one of AFRICOM’s guiding principles. Of course by “global market,” the admiral means the Fortune 500 corporations of Wall Street and London.

In our politically sensitive modern age, pillaging Africa in the footsteps of shameless and quite racist imperialists is very difficult to do. Therefore, Joseph Kony, Al Qaeda, Qaddafi, starving children, pirates, and every other geopolitical ploy and contrivance imaginable, and some left yet unimagined have been used to justify AFRICOM’s expanding presence on a continent they have no business setting foot on.

Ironically, ploys like KONY 2012 have liberal youth clamoring for what is perhaps the next dark chapter in large scale racist imperial enslavement, plundering, and exploitation.

For excellent analysis on the KONY 2012 scam, please read Nile Bowie’s “Youth Movement Promotes US Military Presence in Central Africa,” and BlackStarNews.com’s “KONY 2012, Invisible Children’s Pro-AFRICOM and Museveni Propaganda.”[/b]

11 cartons of explosives intercepted at Lagos airport



Has anyone figured out which mining project that South African importer /or mercenary was going to send that shipment?

[b]How to Change Status from Girlfriend to Wife

https://www.mercyjohnson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/African-girl-300x204.jpg


“Will You Marry Me?” We often dream about the day that special someone proposes to us. Preferably on one knee in front of friends and family to witness the long-awaited occasion.

You’ve been dating for a while, probably years. Everything seems to be going great, but you have reached the highest level in your relationship a “the girlfriend”, and you are ready to step the game up. You throw subtle hints here and there, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

You start to think of every possible reason why it’s time to move forward: Your biological clock is ticking; your sisters and two of your best friends are already married; you aren’t getting any younger and a whole lot more.

Here are some serious do’s and don’ts for getting your man to tie the knot with you:

Don’t be aggressive

Don’t constantly nag

Don’t call him several times to “check up on him” because you haven’t heard from him all day.

Don’t buy gifts, write letters, or offer to help expecting this will make him want you more.

Don’t do EVERYTHING in the relationship. It is supposed to be 50/50.

Don’t have sex too soon. You haven’t established enough time in the relationship yet.

Learn how to play it cool in the relationship to get exactly what you want.

Find out what to do to keep him interested in you.

Leave a lasting impression on his mind that will he will think about what kind of wife you would be.

Understand the one critical thing you can do to enhance his connection with you.

Test your man’s emotional intelligence.
[/b]

[b]Starting - The First Step Toward Success
By John C. Maxwell

Salespersons are coached in the power of a first impression. Orators devote hours to opening statements. Journalists are admonished never to bury the lead. Sprinters practice racing out of the starting blocks. Interviewees are taught the importance of their initial handshake with a potential employer.

In leadership, as in many other areas of life, the beginning often determines the end. False starts and weak foundations can be ruinous. Here are five insights to help you start successfully.

HOW TO START SUCCESSFULLY

1. Start With Yourself

As Gandhi famously said, "Be the change you want to be in the world." By starting with yourself, you build the self-confidence needed to attract and inspire others. Leading yourself well is a precursor to accomplishment, and accomplishment earns respect. In order to make deposits in the lives of followers, you have to have a beginning balance in your leadership account. Start leading by proving your mettle - to yourself and to prospective followers.


2. Start early

Sadly, many leaders squander their early years and spend the rest of their careers trying to make up for lost time. In leadership, as with finances, decisions made early in life accrue the most interest. When we choose poorly or establish bad habits, we put ourselves in debt. Then, we must not only repay our loans, but the interest on them as well. On the flip side, when we invest our time and talent wisely from a young age, we reap the benefits of compounding interest on our leadership.

Specifically, where should leaders start? What areas should take precedence at the beginning? From my experience there are 10 things you should do as a leader prior to reaching age 40:

1. Know yourself
2. Settle your family life
3. Determine your priorities
4. Develop your philosophy of life
5. Get physically fit
6. Learn your trade
7. Pay the price
8. Develop solid relationships
9. Prepare for the future
10. Find purpose for your life

If you're over 40, it's never to late to make improvements. Unfortunately, an old dog doesn't easily learn new tricks. Undoing years of misplaced priorities and poor self-management will take extra effort.

3. Start Small

Don't expect to understand what it takes to get to the top, just take the next step. Think big, but start small. Doing so encourages you to get started, and keeps you from being frozen by the magnitude of the vision in front of you. When you accomplish a small step, you gain confidence that you can accomplish the next step.

The success found in starting small comes when you diligently apply the lessons you learn. As my friend, Dick Biggs, has said, "The greatest gap is between knowing and doing." Commit to mastering the details under your control, and follow through when experience has given you instruction.

4. Start with the end in view

"Most people spend more time planning their grocery shopping than designing their future."
~ Tom James, Personal Development Coach

To start with the end in view, you need energy and direction. Let your passion pull you forward, and let your planning give you guidance. In order for passion to be a driving force in your life, you must identify a purpose for you life. To locate your purpose, consider your strengths, interests, and past successes. What roles do you find most enjoyable? What brings you the greatest sense of satisfaction? Examine the areas that make you feel strong and angle your career toward them. Also, find people who have been successful in the area of your interest. Listen to them and watch their lives.

For planning to give you direction, you need to write down goals. Goals lend structure to your purpose, and they keep you leading "within the lines." They focus your action and move you toward your overall vision.

5. Start Now

We exaggerate yesterday, overestimate tomorrow, and underestimate today. Embrace action daily. Don't wait until it's too late before you begin to pursue the visions implanted in your heart. Make each day your masterpiece; you'll be surprised where you end up after stringing together a few months of superb days.

I'll leave you with one final thought:

"How wonderful it is that we need not wait a single minute before starting to improve ourselves and our world." ~ Anne Frank

Review - Five Steps to Starting Successfully

1. Start Early
2. Start with Yourself
3. Start Small
4. Start with the End in View
5. Start Now[/b]

WICKED WOMEN HATE THE TRUTH



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G7QerYCLy8&feature=plcp&context=C4ef1225VDvjVQa1PpcFPWOLhPRzstKAnwvdDipCMkX_gSnoDa7Rs%3D

Supplements

PT2 THE WHITE MAN KNEW THE SLAVES WERE ISRAELITES


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yK8xk24Ljs&feature=plcp&context=C437f418VDvjVQa1PpcFPWOLhPRzstKBBG9VjUOZL08zVORDbHMK4=



Louis Theroux Meets The Israelites


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a0M_MyTdpE

Day 1: Toju Foyeh rocks the runway at Arise Magazine Fashion Week


http://www.channelstv.com/home/2012/03/09/day-1-toju-foyeh-rocks-the-runway-at-arise-magazine-fashion-week/

https://www.channelstv.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/AMFWS1DSR3_10.jpg



The 2012 AMFW Backstage Blog on BN – Part 1

http://www.bellanaija.com/2012/03/10/the-2012-amfw-backstage-blog-on-bn-part-1/

https://cdn.bellanaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/BN-at-AMFW-2012-Backstage-Blog-March-2012-BellaNaija-003-600x450.jpg

JOSEPH KONY WORKS FOR THE CIA'

http://aangirfan..com/2012/03/joseph-kony-works-for-cia.html

The CIA and its friends are supporting both sides.

Youth Movement Promotes US Military Presence in Central Africa
March 8, 2012

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Youth_Movement_Promotes_US_Military_Presence_in_Central_Africa_/18344/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Slick propaganda effort to support Africom and the military industrial complex efforts to recolonize the continent


Youth Movement Promotes US Military Presence in Central Africa
March 8, 2012

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Youth_Movement_Promotes_US_Military_Presence_in_Central_Africa_/18344/0/0/0/Y/M.html

The Smartest Books We Know

FORTUNE offers the ultimate reading list: 75 books that teach you everything you really need to know about business.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/03/21/8254826/index.htm

TITAN: THE LIFE OF JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER SR. by Ron Chernow (1998). If 75 books were burning and you could save just one, this might be it: a biography as powerful and detail-minded as its subject.

I read several of these classics. Nothing beats trying to learn the economic strategies of the top global players.


The Smartest Books We Know
FORTUNE offers the ultimate reading list: 75 books that teach you everything you really need to know about business.

By JERRY USEEM
March 21, 2005

(FORTUNE Magazine) – In a perfect world, we'd each have our own consigliere. You know, a Robert Duvall, an oracle of Delphi--someone to follow us around 24/7 and whisper wise words. Paper, not plastic. Google, not Infoseek. No, your boss will not enjoy your Mr. Burns impression.

But wait. You do have a wise counselor at your disposal--one that will sit patiently until called upon and even fit in your bag. It's called a book. During the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, John F. Kennedy took counsel from Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and its account of Europe's stumble into World War I. "I am not going to follow a course," the President told his brother, "which will allow anyone to write a comparable book about this time, The Missiles of October."

You can't always have the perfect book at the ready. But you can have the perfect reading list on hand. Which is why FORTUNE called upon its staffers to select 75 books that will stir your brain--and maybe even stir you to action.

This isn't some dusty business-book Hall of Fame. For one, some of these "business books" aren't really about business. Barnes & Noble might shelve Michael Lewis's Moneyball in the sports section, but it has more to say about investing (and hiring) than any consultant's text. Also, it's not boring. My Years at General Motors is boring--even if it is a classic.

Some classics we love. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator was penned in 1923, but it still holds its own next to Barbarians at the Gate. Neither of those is a how-to book--and in general, we've avoided titles that self-consciously dispense wisdom in favor of those that embed it in a great read. And there's nothing better than the source. Because why read about Warren Buffett when you can read Warren Buffett himself?

It would, of course, take about 75 years to read everything here. But here's our own piece of advice: Don't resist starting a book just because you don't have time to finish it. Open the cover. Read the intro. Skip to Chapter 9. Or simply save this list and put it in a drawer. Because there's gold in them thar books. And they're just waiting for you to mine it.

Booms and Busts

THE GREAT CRASH 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith (1955). This concise, insightful history has never been out of print since it was first published. Why? "Every time it has been about to pass from print," Galbraith himself wrote in 1997, "another speculative bubble ,  has stirred interest in the history of this, the great modern case of boom and collapse."
[b]
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS [/b]by Charles Mackay (1841). This chronicle of Holland's tulip mania of 1634 and the South Sea Bubble of 1720, among other irrational crazes, is an engaging, perceptive account of humanity's urge to plunge itself into speculative frenzies.

FUNNY MONEY by Mark Singer (1985). For sheer entertainment value, Singer's tale of the fall of the Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma--one of the first of the inside-a-scandal books--has never been topped.

THE GO-GO YEARS: THE DRAMA AND CRASHING FINALE OF WALL STREET'S BULLISH '60S by John Brooks (1973). Brooks, the late New Yorker writer, dissects the 1960s mutual fund boom with a panache that business writing hasn't seen before or since.

The Corporation

BARBARIANS AT THE GATE: THE FALL OF RJR NABISCO by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar (1990). This story of an iconic deal, the $25 billion leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco (co-written by a FORTUNE senior writer), has all the stuff of great business journalism--skullduggery, cigars, trophy wives, and enough greed to sink Wall Street. Wretched excess has never read so well.

BUILT TO LAST: SUCCESSFUL HABITS OF VISIONARY COMPANIES by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras (1994). Begin with the simplest of questions: What makes great companies great? Then research the heck out of it. It's a big, hairy, audacious goal--but then, this book coined the phrase.

CHAINSAW: THE NOTORIOUS CAREER OF AL DUNLAP IN THE ERA OF PROFIT-AT-ANY-PRICE by John Byrne (1999). When Dunlap took his enthusiasm for mass firings from Scott Paper to Sunbeam, he left broken pieces and a stock price in free fall. Byrne takes the reader through the debacle in detail, an account that is spiced with the vinegar of a writer who truly loathes his subject.

WHO SAYS ELEPHANTS CAN'T DANCE? by Louis V. Gerstner (2002). Gerstner's account of how he turned around IBM after taking over as CEO in 1993 contains valuable lessons for those who think "corporate culture" is consultant gobbledygook.

Decision-Making

ANNAPURNA: A WOMAN'S PLACE by Arlene Blum (1980). Triumph mixes with disaster in this nail- biting account of the first all-woman attempt on an 8,000-meter peak--an expedition the author led.

THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST by David Halberstam (1972). Halberstam's masterful explanation of how the application of raw candlepower--in this case Robert McNamara's whiz kids trying to apply what they learned at Ford Motor Co. to the Vietnam war--isn't always enough.

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: THE TRAGEDY OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000). Back when the "oil industry" involved harpoons, a Nantucket whaling ship sinks in the Pacific--rammed by a whale that would inspire Melville's Moby Dick. The harrowing odyssey that follows is a study in bad decision-making.

THE KILLER ANGELS by Michael Shaara (1974). A Pulitzer-winning historical novel that places you at the Battle of Gettysburg in the shoes of the soldiers themselves--including Robert E. Lee as he contemplates one last, desperate charge.

THIRTEEN DAYS: A MEMOIR OF THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS by Robert F. Kennedy (1969). R.F.K.'s spellbinding first-person account reads like a Tom Clancy novel and delivers powerful lessons about delegation and plain old good judgment.

Economics

CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM, AND DEMOCRACY by Joseph A. Schumpeter (1942). Ignore the title and skip straight to Chapter 7, "The Process of Creative Destruction." Look around, and you'll see it happening everywhere.

EVERYTHING FOR SALE: THE VIRTUES AND LIMITS OF MARKETS by Robert Kuttner (1996). Free markets unleash entrepreneurial drive. They also produce the Asian financial crisis. Kuttner gets you thinking about why the invisible hand works and why it sometimes doesn't.

THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY, CHAPTER 12 by John Maynard Keynes (1936). For all his fame as a wordsmith, too much of Keynes's work is dense and dated. The amazing Chapter 12 is something else: a timeless, witty, crystalline account of why financial markets confound and bewitch us.

POP INTERNATIONALISM by Paul Krugman (1996). Most of what's said about international trade is bunk, the economist argues in a series of contentious and entertaining essays. Targeting the lazy thinking of politicians, journalists, and even fellow economists, Krugman instructs even as he attacks.

THE WEALTH OF NATIONS by Adam Smith (1776). Smith is often caricatured as a laissez-faire zealot. He wasn't. The Wealth of Nations is an eloquent argument in favor of liberty, enlightened government, and the intrinsic worth of the individual. No one has ever made a better case for the morality of capitalism.

Ethics

DEN OF THIEVES by James Stewart (1991). In this morality tale, good (a crew of dogged government lawyers and detectives) triumphs over evil (Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine). But evil gives it a rollicking run for its money.

THE INFORMANT by Kurt Eichenwald (2000). With its deadpan prose, startling plot, and you-are-there dialogue, Eichenwald's book about a twisted informant at Archer Daniels Midland ranks with anything by le Carré for sheer suspense.

LEADING QUIETLY: AN UNORTHODOX GUIDE TO DOING THE RIGHT THING by Joseph L. Badaracco (2002). Finally, an ethics book for people who live in the real world. Recommended for people who want to keep their job and "do the right thing."

THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind (2003). This riveting account of the Enron debacle (by two FORTUNE senior writers) is unsparing in laying the blame at the feet of all the guilty parties. It explains not just how Enron lost its way, but how all of Wall Street did as well.

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW by Anthony Trollope (1875). Trollope's classic satire about Victorian London, where speculators and trust-fund fops "had but a confused idea of any difference between commerce and fraud," feels eerily familiar to observers of modern corporate miscreants.

Globalization

BEIJING JEEP: THE SHORT, UNHAPPY ROMANCE OF AMERICAN BUSINESS IN CHINA by Jim Mann (1989). The story of how AMC's 1979 joint venture to produce Jeeps in Beijing ended in tears is perhaps the closest thing to a classic work on doing business in post-Mao China. It's required reading for anyone venturing to the world's most populous nation.

DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM by Amartya Sen (1999). Dictators around the world argue that a strong hand is needed for economic development; freedom can come later. Sen, a 1998 Nobel Prize winner, says they are dead wrong. Freedom is a foundation stone for development--democracies, he points out, don't have famines.

THE MYSTERY OF CAPITAL: WHY CAPITALISM TRIUMPHS IN THE WEST AND FAILS EVERYWHERE ELSE by Hernando de Soto (2000). For liberal types who are vaguely uncomfortable with property rights (unless the property is in, say, Aspen), Peruvian economist de Soto explains why they matter.

NONZERO: THE LOGIC OF HUMAN DESTINY by Robert Wright (2000). A dazzling mix of history, theology, economics, game theory, and evolutionary biology that paints the world's increasing entwinement as a positive and possibly inevitable development.

THE PRIZE: THE EPIC QUEST FOR OIL, MONEY, AND POWER by Daniel Yergin (1991). Oil is the most important commodity on earth, the fuel of modern civilization. Yergin's great achievement is to give readers a thorough grounding in why the world--and especially the Middle East--works the way it does, while all along appearing to simply spin an engrossing yarn.

WORKERS: AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE INDUSTRIAL AGE by Sebastio Salgado (1993). A Bangladeshi shipbreaker's raised sledge. A Sicilian fisherman's anxious gaze. A technician glistening in Kuwaiti oil. This stunning set of images--the work of an economist-turned-photographer--brings us deep into the world economy's engine room.

Investing

THE ESSAYS OF WARREN BUFFETT: LESSONS FOR CORPORATE AMERICA compiled by Lawrence Cunningham (1997). Buffett never wrote a book. Instead he poured his thinking about investments, managing, and corporate excesses into his annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Cunningham sifted through the 1979--96 bunch to create this best-of-Buffett anthology.

FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS: THE HIDDEN ROLE OF CHANCE IN THE MARKETS AND IN LIFE by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2001). Taleb, a hedge fund manager, is equally disdainful of Wall Streeters and academics who claim to understand markets: They see patterns that don't really exist. Almost everything, he argues, comes down to Lady Fortuna.

THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR: A BOOK OF PRACTICAL COUNSEL by Benjamin Graham (1949). Warren Buffett has called this classic guide to value investing--recently updated by Money magazine senior writer Jason Zweig--"by far the best book about investing ever written." What more do you need to know?

MONEYBALL: THE ART OF WINNING AN UNFAIR GAME by Michael Lewis (2003). Billy Beane, the Oakland A's general manager profiled here, isn't just a smart baseball guy with new ideas. He's an exemplar of how to succeed by zigging when everyone else is zagging--which of course is also how great investors make money.

Leadership

NEVER GIVE IN: THE BEST OF WINSTON CHURCHILL'S SPEECHES edited by grandson Winston S. Churchill (2003). "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty,  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

ON LEADERSHIP by John Gardner (1990). Gardner sees leadership as an ever-evolving learned skill separate from status or power, and he carefully dissects its many elements--without resorting to cute language or strained metaphors.

PARTING THE WATERS: AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS 1954--63 by Taylor Branch (1988). This spellbinding tale of how Martin Luther King Jr. and others built the civil rights movement shows creative, disruptive leadership in action. King and his comrades possessed none of the conventional tools of power but found ways to wield it nonetheless.

PERSONAL HISTORY by Katharine Graham (1997). The late Graham grew up shy and insecure and stayed that way till her glamorous husband shot himself. Then she found the strength to take over Washington Post Co., which hit new financial and journalistic highs during her tenure. Her defense of the First Amendment made her a hero; her dinner parties made her a legend.

TITAN: THE LIFE OF JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER SR. by Ron Chernow (1998). If 75 books were burning and you could save just one, this might be it: a biography as powerful and detail-minded as its subject.  <---the truth!

The Rockefellers (Full)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz0ODZiKavs


Negotiating and Managing

A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr (1995). Harr's story --an attorney fights polluters over carcinogenic toxic waste they left in a town's groundwater--reads like a thriller. It shows how one dogged individual can take on the formidable resources of two corporate giants.

THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE by Peter Drucker (1966). Before you can manage anyone else, you've got to learn to manage yourself. In this slim volume, Drucker tells you how.

REMEMBER EVERY NAME EVERY TIME by Benjamin Levy (2002). Here's a book that delivers on its promise. Read it, and you'll never stare blankly at an employee or a client again.

TAKEN FOR A RIDE: HOW DAIMLER-BENZ DROVE OFF WITH CHRYSLER by Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz (2000). A tale of how the merger unfolded--and how Daimler's Jürgen Schrempp always managed to stay two moves ahead of Chrysler's Bob Eaton.

WOMEN DON'T ASK: NEGOTIATION AND THE GENDER DIVIDE by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever (2003). The first book to adequately explain the dramatic differences in how men and women negotiate and why women so often fail to ask for what they want at work (starting with equal pay). Every male manager in America should read it.

Office Politics

LIVE FROM NEW YORK: AN UNCENSORED HISTORY OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller (2003). Given the behind-the-scenes sex, drugs, and screaming matches, the most amazing thing about Saturday Night Live is that it ever managed to get on the air, let alone stay there for 30 seasons. Consider this oral history a handbook for managing the highly creative and the borderline deranged.

THE PRICE OF LOYALTY: GEORGE W. BUSH, THE WHITE HOUSE, AND THE EDUCATION OF PAUL O'NEILL by Ron Suskind (2004). No, George W. Bush ("a blind man in a roomful of deaf people" does not come off well. But whatever your politics, you'll be fascinated by the dishy descriptions of how Bush, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney operate around the office.

THE PRINCE by Niccolò Machiavelli (1513). Machiavelli wasn't as Machiavellian as he is made out to be. Today we'd probably call him "pragmatic." But his treatise--penned after losing his political job in Florence--was shockingly frank. Power and idealism, he said, don't really mix.

SOMETHING HAPPENED by Joseph Heller (1974). This novel--Heller's follow-up to Catch-22--portrays one man struggling with the American dream and a Kafkaesque office where perseverance is the key to promotion.

Power

FATHER SON & CO: MY LIFE AT IBM AND BEYOND by Thomas Watson Jr. and Peter Petre (1990). A son's-eye view (co-written by a FORTUNE senior editor at large) of how Watson Senior started and ran IBM and how Junior took it over. Told in an intensely personal voice, by turns shrewd, grudging, exasperated, and kind, it is the operatic story of power passing between generations.

THE 48 LAWS OF POWER by Robert Keister (1998). The overarching thesis--deceive others lest they deceive you--is appallingly cynical. The wealth of observations ("The longer I keep quiet, the sooner others move their lips" is eminently useful.

INDECENT EXPOSURE: A TRUE STORY OF HOLLYWOOD AND WALL STREET by David McClintick (1982). McClintick turns the federal case against Columbia Pictures and David Begelman into a drama of power--East Coast moneymen like Herb Allen vs. West Coast production honchos--and lets you watch, in intimate boardroom detail, as they tear at one another's throats.

INFLUENCE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION by Robert Cialdini (1993). How do you get people to say yes? To answer that question, psychologist Cialdini mines nuggets as diverse as mother turkeys, pickup situations, Hare Krishnas, and the unlikely power of the word "because"--and identifies six principles that entice people to buy your stuff.

THE POWER BROKER: ROBERT MOSES AND THE FALL OF NEW YORK by Robert Caro (1974). Moses, the legendary city builder, defied mayors, governors, and even a President, constructing a political machine that lasted for decades. Caro's classic biography is one of the most exhaustive--and exhausting--studies of American power ever written.

Project Management

AMERICAN STEEL: HOT METAL MEN AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE RUST BELT by Richard Preston (1991). If Nucor employees can get molten metal flowing in one unbroken strip, they'll revolutionize the steel industry. If something goes wrong, their new plant can blow up. The author of The Hot Zone makes the tale truly riveting.

THE BILLION-DOLLAR MOLECULE: ONE COMPANY'S QUEST FOR THE PERFECT DRUG by Barry Werth (1994). No writer has ever gotten as deeply inside a company as Werth got inside biotech Vertex. He offers deep insight into the difficulties of drug discovery, the trials and tribulations of startups, and the conflict between great science and good business.

CADILLAC DESERT: THE AMERICAN WEST AND ITS DISAPPEARING WATER by Marc Reisner (1990). The West was not won by gunslingers and whores with hearts of gold. It was won by people who gave it water. This is the best book ever on how politics, business, ambition, and most of the seven deadly sins can work to literally shape the landscape of America.

THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB by Richard Rhodes (1986). Reaching far beyond Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, this hefty tome meticulously pieces together one of the most important and terrifying scientific projects in history.

Strategy

[b]THE ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu (circa 500 B.C.). [/b]What may be the greatest book on war ever written contains such aphorisms as "All warfare is based on deception" and "When the army engages in protracted campaigns, the resources of the state will not suffice." It's time-tested poetry for the strategic mind.

BLACK HAWK DOWN: A STORY OF MODERN WAR by Mark Bowden (1999). No one--not the Pentagon, not the spooks, and certainly not the soldiers rappelling from helicopters into the middle of Mogadishu--had any idea of the hell they were getting into. Bowden's history of the humiliating U.S. incursion into Somalia is an eloquent treatise on how not to plan an operation.

INFORMATION RULES: A STRATEGIC GUIDE TO THE NETWORK ECONOMY by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian (1997). If most writing from the dot-com era reads like 17th-century medicine (give the patient mercury?), here's a book that that holds up. No, the laws of economics haven't changed. Shapiro and Varian show how they apply to the world of information.

ONLY THE PARANOID SURVIVE by Andrew S. Grove (1996). Think of this as a Special Forces handbook for corporate managers. Grove, a co-founder of Intel and its current chairman, shows you squarely how to thrive in the most feared of business environments: one where competition, technology, or the very rules of engagement have suddenly changed.

THE TIPPING POINT: HOW LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE by Malcolm Gladwell (2000). What do bestselling novels, crime waves, and yawning have in common? They're all examples of how ideas and group behaviors can "tip" from fad into epidemic. Gladwell's book is filled with examples of eclectic freethinkers using the phenomenon to their advantage.

Technology and Innovation

THE LAST LONE INVENTOR: A TALE OF GENIUS, DECEIT, AND THE BIRTH OF TELEVISION by Evan I. Schwartz (2002). This is a cautionary tale of the brilliant visionary (Philo T. Farnsworth) up against Big, Determined Business. You can guess who wins.

NEW AND IMPROVED: THE STORY OF MASS MARKETING IN AMERICA by Richard Tedlow (1990). Who invented the shopping cart? What become of Coke-Ola, Co Kola, and Koke? When did consumers first appear on the American continent? An eminent business historian answers questions you wish you'd thought to ask.

THEY MADE AMERICA: TWO CENTURIES OF INNOVATION FROM THE STEAM ENGINE TO THE SEARCH ENGINE by Harold Evans (2004). Evans takes us from the steam engine to the search engine, profiling 53 of the top innovators in U.S. history. The trait they share isn't greed or the lust for fame, but the drive to democratize--the often shocking desire to bring to the many products previously enjoyed only by the few.

SAM WALTON: MADE IN AMERICA by Sam Walton with John Huey (1992). Most great ideas really aren't that complicated, and Wal-Mart is a perfect example. To wit: Put discount stores in towns that the other retailers thought were too small to support them. Walton's words (written with the editorial director of Time Inc., FORTUNE's parent) still resonate with simple wisdom.

THE VICTORIAN INTERNET: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH AND THE 19TH CENTURY'S ON-LINE PIONEERS by Tom Standage (1998). A new technology will connect everyone! It's making investors rich! It's the Internet boom--except Samuel Morse is there!

Wall Street

AGAINST THE GODS: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF RISK by Peter L. Bernstein (1996). Life has always been chancy, but putting that truism into a mathematical model is a relatively recent achievement. The effects of that insight have been stunning: Probability theory has played a role in everything from bridge building to derivatives and hedge funds.

MORGAN: AMERICAN FINANCIER by Jean Strouse (1999). The man with the bulbous nose was not so much a robber baron himself as the man who gave the robbers their financial tools. J.P. Morgan's biographer sees his flaws but credits him with doing much to create the modern U.S. economy. It was on his watch that Wall Street became a powerhouse.

REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR by Edwin Lefevre (1923). The fictionalized biography of Jesse Livermore, who might be considered the original day trader, gives a hugely entertaining insider's view of the market in its wild, unregulated days of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

WHEN GENIUS FAILED: THE RISE AND FALL OF LONG-TERM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT by Roger Lowenstein (2000). Lowenstein's book offers a rare look inside the secretive world of hedge funds. It is also a story of greed and power gone awry, and that makes it a modern classic.

WHERE ARE THE CUSTOMERS' YACHTS? by Fred Schwed Jr. (1940). In this mordantly funny critique, a former stock trader reveals that most stock market pros are greedy fonts of self-serving nonsense and most customers are greedy fools. (No, not much has changed since 1940.)

Work and Life

NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA by Barbara Ehrenreich (2001). This journalist spent months toiling as a waitress, hotel maid, Wal-Mart clerk--and trying to live on what she earned. Her funny and wrenching account shows why it's so hard for the nation's working poor to get ahead.

RECLAIMING THE FIRE: HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE OVERCOME BURNOUT by Steven Berglass (2001). If you haven't hit that wall, you will someday. At that point, you can head for Hawaii--or you can try to understand what burnout is. Written by a shrink who counsels entrepreneurs and executives, this book is a fine place to start.

THE TIME BIND: WHEN WORK BECOMES HOME AND HOME BECOMES WORK by Arlie Russell Hochschild (1997). We're starved for time. We want balance. So a sociologist interviews everyone at a FORTUNE 500 company--executive suite to factory floor--and guess what? We're not using "flextime," paternity leave, or even all the vacation time offered. Are we the problem?

WORKING: PEOPLE TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY DO ALL DAY AND HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT WHAT THEY DO by Studs Terkel (1974). It would take a callous reader to flip through these interviews of dozens of working Americans, from dentists to gravediggers to housewives, and not come away with the impression of how difficult many lives are--and how gracefully so many people cope. Terkel, a questioner of brilliance and empathy, got it down on paper.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/03/21/8254826/index.htm