Gearing yourself for a multicultural audience

Today, micro- and small-enterprises are in a much better position to serve a diverse, global customer base thanks to a robust cultural exchange aided by social media. Yet, a successful business must remain culturally competent to build rapport.

Read more on Biznik.com

Start thinking ahead: Holiday season window painting pre-reservation begins

Window painting is a popular service that I offer year-round, but especially between October and December it becomes in high demand. To help me manage scheduling better I am trying something new for 2009.

This year I will be offering up to a $100 discount* for any client that reserves a project before September 30, 2009 and pays a deposit equal to 25 percent of the quoted price. The project itself would be any time between October 1 and December 31, so it would be ideal for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or New Year's.

Call Sarah at 503-427-8269 for details. Certain restrictions apply. Discount is for one project only, for both new and existing clients. Offers valid only within the Portland city limits between SE/NE 82nd Avenue and NW 30th Ave or SW Vista Avenue, or in all North Portland including St. Johns; discount will decrease to $60 per project if client is located in Portland outside the said area, or in the cities of Maywood Park, Troutdale, Wood Village, Fairview, Gresham, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Lake Grove, West Linn, Tigard, Milwaukie, Gladstone or Oregon City; or unincorporated Washington County east of Walker Road, or unincorporated Clackamas County west of I-205 and north of the Clackamas River. Offer not valid in any other location. Service not available outside the tri-county metropolitan area of Oregon.



http://iridiacreative.summerhost.info/windowpaintings-and-signage.html

Revolution that quite wasn't: What could have been "radical" vindicates the traditional

Continuing on how communism became an unwitting preserver of tradition through the time period in which the Western nations underwent a massive cultural change, it is also interesting to note how the adoration of the leadership in many communist countries underlines our basic human need for a monarchy.

Today, as most of the world's nation-states are republican, we tend to laugh at communist nations for engaging in a "personality cult." But on a deeper level, it is a healthy inclination for any country to look up to its king -- and in absence of a stated "king" the leader of the communist party gains the popular expectation to act that role. Indeed, what people in DPRK give to its Great Leader, is very much like how pre-WWII Japanese "loved" their Emperor Hirohito, and how most monarchical nations looked up to their respective queen or king. Additionally, in absence of an actively practiced religion, the Great Leader also has gained the role of a religious messiah. The official biography of Kim Jong Il almost copies itself from the Gospel of St. Luke in its birth and childhood story.

In the United States, the only reason why such a personality cult did not become a central part of its culture was that the personality cult of Jesus Christ -- not just a holy man or a saviour, but Jesus the King of Kings. With associated (decidedly American) doctrines such as dispensationalism and dominion theology, conservative Christians in America successfully fused American nationalism with Christianity and turned it into a distinctively American personal cult that provides both a substitute king and messiah that our human consciousness needs.

In the end, neither democracy nor communism did not entirely extinguish the human drive toward the primordial traditional worldview. Humans need that sense of relating to their monarchs, and no nebulous political theory can be a substitute to satisfy that human needs. As such the development of communist society during the 20th century vindicates the tradition.