Birdmania – Bernd Brunner

 It’s been a brutal winter across much of the United States, but with the arrival of February and lengthening days, surely we can begin to seek harbingers of Spring.


The Public Trust:  How It Trumps Capitalism and Property Rights

In an argument that goes back to the philosopher John Locke, many conservative and libertarian theorists claim that freedom (as in free market capitalism) and property rights have moral priority as inherent human rights (and there is a huge body of laws and legal precedents that support this claim), while the concept of the “common good” has no legal standing, or has a weaker claim.  This argument is flatly wrong.  In fact, the idea of a collective (societal) responsibility for the common good has a sturdy foundation in the ancient legal principle of the public trust.


The Siv Sensation

From South Africa Bernadette Erasmus writes about  Sivuyile “Siv” Ngesi whose diverse talents have seen him making waves in the South African entertainment industry.


“Survival of the Fittest”: Herbert Spencer (and Friends) Got It Wrong

 
The term “survival of the fittest” was coined by the famed 19th century British social theorist Herbert Spencer as a way of characterizing Darwin’s natural selection theory.  Darwin himself soon started using the expression, but it was also embraced by what came to be known as the “Social Darwinists” – various apologists for the free-wheeling, laissez-faire capitalism of that era that featured ruthless economic competition, the brutal exploitation of workers, and extreme inequalities of wealth and poverty.   

Digital Strategy Comes of Age

This month’s column is about use of digital tools in emergency situations and then digital strategy as a leadership tool. In this case as a response, taking advantage of the immediacy and ease of rapid deployment of digital devices, instinctively, by a generation described by some as, “born with a phone in their hands.” How these tools, digital devices and online resources enabled communications, coverage, and the creation of a nationwide movement -in a matter of days-- is a testament to the coming of age of Digital Reality.


Can Our Institutions Meet the Challenge of the Environmental Crisis?

At the very time when our rapidly-growing environmental crisis is becoming an urgent, multi-dimensional threat, many of the world’s governments are corrupt, dysfunctional and/or the captives of retrograde vested interests.  Does this pose an insurmountable obstacle, or are there workarounds and solutions that can be used to deal with this existential challenge?


Digital Strategy and the Maturity of Online Love and Passion

The digital path of how love, passion, dating, even just getting to know each other, follow on a parallel historic line with the advancement, growth and social metamorphosis into a connected, online society.


Dreaming of Fashion?

Dreaming of Fashion?  On Location in Kenmore, Washington: It’s been well over a year now since Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur Monir Zandghoreishi joined her son-in-law Maurice Leary to expand Step-It-Up Camp.