That is/was on May 1, 2006.

Snippet: Organizers say millions of immigrants and their supporters will participate in the demonstrations, scheduled to protest legislation that would declare illegal immigrants felons and erect a fence along much of the U.S.-Mexico border. Such job actions could close down several major cities, they say.

"The great wall of the Americas"; how does that sound? Stay tuned for the results

U.S.A. The Land of Milk and Honey"

Please extend our congratulations for your committment in making a difference in Panama. As a people, we are positioned to pave a way into the political front burner as it relates to internal and external affairs.

No longer must we allow benign neglect policies to permeate our communities. Whether they are the ocean to ocean squalid conditions of Col

It's been a long time, but we didn't leave you! Instead we have yet another CAP interview for you. One very important, and many times overlooked, step in the relocating/moving process is finding a roaddog that can fill in the shoes of the roaddog you just left behind. This is not that important for women, because for the most part they don

First thing's first, we define digital divide: An expression used by government adviser Dr. Simon Moores in a 1996 BBC television interview on digital inclusion, the digital divide is the socio-economic difference between communities in their access to computers and the Internet.

Plain, simple, and straight forward. However, I don't quite agree with this definition. It gives the aura that this difference can vanish simply by granting the disadvantaged communities the access to computers and Internet. NEGATIVO!! I remember when I first saw the computer lab in my JHS filled with Commodore 64s. Now that I think about, I had no clue as to what those things were going to be used for, but it just felt good to see them. NYC public JHS filled with Commodores back in those days was an honor. But what were the systems used for? California Games and any other game the local ghetto geeks could fit on a 5.25" floppy.

I will now do like the experts and define a term for what was mentioned above, "Unstructured Exposure". Personally, I like the term. It has scalability and literal meaning. It will not be limited to Information Technology topics. It will cross various fields such as science, sociology, politics, and others.

A perfect example of Unstructured Exposure is what we see in many of Panama City's Internet Cafes. Most non-locals are usually impressed by the amount of these scattered throughout the town, but for the most part the non-locals tend to be superficial viewers (don't get mad at them, you do the same when you travel). Infested with chat junkies, porn addicts, and gamer lamers, these cyber rest havens are the results of what happens if you expose a proposed "solution" without a well structured mechanism to control, present, and manage. In this case for economic purposes, but most of the time this is done by government "leaders". "We need computers in our schools!!!" Excellent, now what are you going to do once the computers get there? "We don't know, we just know we need computers in our schools." The results: Access to the information highway being wasted on MSN Messenger and solitaire. Que pena!

The task of narrowing the digital divide should be one with a stronger focus on quality of access as opposed to quantity. Sure it would be nice if everyone had a computer with access to Internet at home, but this doesn't solve the "access to quality information" problem. In fact, it might even create a greater gap as people might drift away as they now have access to a time consuming resource with no guidance. How many people remember exactly what they did when they first had access to Internet on their personal computer? How many knew exactly what they wanted to do? How many wasted hours simply doing "nothing"?

In conclusion, a well structured plan prior to massive deployment in an attempt to narrow the digital divide is much needed. Who is responsible for this plan? That can easily be answered once we establish the powers that will benefit from the access to quality information. Governments should be at the top of the list since their focus should be to provide a better quality of life for their citizens. The citizens will in turn recycle this betterment in quality of life by evolving into civil members of their communities. Private businesses at the end of the day are all about the profit margin, but this "green" orientated focus can be of great help. They too will benefit by having this newly evolved employee/worker. This can represent an increase in "production" for them, which can then turn into an increase in profit margin. My model is overly simplified, but the idea remains the same. The private institutions donate money and expertise to the Governments, the Government trickles this down to its citizens with a well structured plan, the citizens evolve into models that can better serve/help their Government, and help the private institutions keep their production going. It's a win win win.

A couple of "expert" Economists from a well known, and well respected, higher learning assembly line , set out on an Odyssey to place a monetary "value" on job satisfaction. The concept is very interesting as they set out to have us believe that an increase in salary may not be worth as much as an increase in job satisfaction in the overall life satisfaction scenario. Yes, money is not everything, but it is a very important thing. Here is a scaled down version of the 10-point scale system that they devised:

Trust in Management ~ 36% pay raise
No trust in Management ~ 36% pay cut
Variety of job ~ 21% pay raise
Very challenging job ~19% pay raise
Ample time to get things done ~ 11% pay raise

When was the last time anyone got a 36% pay raise? One thing the experts fail to mention is the difference in levels of satisfaction that exists between the sexes. I personally believe that men are easier to satisfy than women. A male engineer could probably play the role of a janitor with a very minute difference in life satisfaction if the pay was "right". He probably wouldn

Good day Ladies & Gentlemen (Well, not so good, but

Usually when the term "digital divide" is used we think "developing country" with little access to the technology. But this article takes a closer look at the "digital divide" for Blacks in the United States.

Snippet: Civil rights leaders, educators and national policy makers warned for years that the Internet was bypassing blacks and some Hispanics as whites and Asian-Americans were rapidly increasing their use of it.

While reading this "Windows Is So Slow, but Why?" piece, I had a light bulb moment that could mean a solution to many of Microsoft's hang ups and set backs during new OS releases. Not to be confused with one of those light bulb paper chase moment like the one on Slow Singing and Flower Bringing", but in general a good idea that while it might not make ME any money, it is definitely something that should be considered by the Redmond giant.

This time around Vic and Mr. E-Double draw some scary conclusions based on the "The Black Man's Plight Continues" article. The results? See for yourself.

Vic chats it up with the Buay from CoLON about kids and learning. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, yet they program us to just sit around and do just that.

Or like Mr. M Boogie put it years ago

Everyone once in a while, I read, see, and sometimes hear from my friends in the U.S. about the on-going Black Man's plight.