3 de octubre de 2007
Livni urges UN to see danger, take action against Iran
NEW YORK - "There are still those who, in the name of consensus and engagement, continue to obstruct the urgent steps ... to bring Iran's sinister ambitions to a halt," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the United Nations General Assembly in New York yesterday, days after the UN Security Council decided to postpone a vote on imposing tougher sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Livni's message was apparently directed at Russia and China, who pressed to restart negotiations with Tehran based on the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency before voting on sanctions.
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"Iran speaks openly of its desire to wipe Israel off the map, and the world does nothing. Too many see the danger but walk idly by, hoping that someone else will take care of it," Livni said. She added that Iran was the world's primary sponsor of terrorist activity.
"It is a major source of instability and conflict in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and across the entire Middle East and it is the enemy of Arab-Israeli co-existence," Livni told her listeners at the organization's 62nd annual assembly.
She went on to address Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements denying the holocaust.
"No one disagrees that Iran denies the Holocaust and speaks openly of its desire to wipe a member state - mine - off the map. And none disagrees that, in violation of Security Council resolutions, it is actively pursuing the means to achieve this end."
Reiterating her change of heart on the convergence plan the government had put on hold last year, Livni said: "We know, especially after withdrawing from Lebanon and Gaza, that territorial withdrawal by itself will not bring peace." In her speech, Livni added that Israel must first "address the core clash of values that lies beneath the conflict."
On the recent developments in efforts to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians and the perceived opportunities to achieve that goal, Livni said: "There is no substitute for the bilateral process."
"Failure is not an option - but it is for the parties themselves to define success," she said. "It is time to reclaim democracy, and this begins by rejecting those who abuse it ... No true democracy on earth allows armed militias, or groups with racist or violent agendas, to participate in elections."
Livni began her speech according to procedure, addressing the assembly and dignitaries. But then she broke with protocol and mentioned the families of the abducted Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
U.S. Jewish groups to lobby Interpol for action on AMIA bombing
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent
NEW YORK - Leading American Jewish organizations are planning a public relations campaign to urge Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for the perpetrators of a 1994 bombing attack against the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires.
A total of 85 Jews were killed when the terrorists detonated a car bomb near the AMIA building.
The identities of the attackers - five Iranians and a Lebanese - are known to the Argentine authorities, and in November 2006, the Argentine Justice Ministry officially asked Interpol to assist in apprehending the suspects and bringing them to justice.
Representatives of the Jewish organizations involved met in New York recently to discuss the initiative. The matter is considered urgent because Interpol's annual meeting is scheduled to take place on November 5 in Morocco. Representatives of 180 national police forces are expected to attend the meeting.
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner also raised the issue during his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week. In his speech, Kirchner criticized Iran, saying that Tehran had failed to cooperate with Argentina's law enforcement agencies.
Hanging with the money crowd
Hanging with the money crowd
Tuesday October 2, 12:33 pm ET
By Jean Chatzky, Money Magazine editor at large
One of the summer's biggest stories carried the headline "Weight Gain Is Contagious!" Sensational? Sure, but based on some pretty good science.
The report, originally published in the New England Journal of Medicine, emerged from a landmark study that has followed a social network of more than 12,000 people since 1971. The researchers have enough data to know which subjects are friends, neighbors, relatives or co-workers.
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That's how they were able to see that when one person packs on or takes off the pounds, his or her close associates - whether they live around the corner or on the opposite coast - are likely to do the same.
The link makes a lot of sense, says Karen Miller-Kovach, the chief scientist at Weight Watchers.
"Social networks determine social norms and social behavior," she says. "What's acceptable, what's not acceptable. I expect we'll see a lot of parallels in other fields."
Money among them. Academics and other researchers who have dipped a toe into the networking pool are finding that if you're surrounded by people who save and invest, you're likely to do the same. And if your pals spend like crazy, well, you're in trouble.
"It's really a question of how other people's values affect your values," says Duke University sociologist Lisa Keister, author of Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way.
"The people around you affect how you approach education, family, consumption, when you get married and where you go to school. Those things affect wealth," she theorizes.
So how do you make the network effect work for you?
Hang with the smart kids
Pamela York Klainer, a senior adviser and wealth manager at Forte Capital in Rochester, N.Y., works with people who have a variety of money problems. Some have money but aren't comfortable handling it. Others burn through too much too quickly.
Before "social networking" became a buzz phrase, she told her clients to "find people who have the money behaviors you want to learn and start hanging out with them." She suggests, for example, joining an investment club.
The corollary is to be careful around folks who'll reinforce your bad tendencies. No one's suggesting that you start dumping friends and family members who spend too much. But it makes sense to avoid going clothes shopping with them.
"It's like going with alcoholics to a bar," says money therapist Olivia Mellan, author of Money Harmony. "You'll be sucked into the group's norm."
Look online
The MySpace/Facebook model has spawned sites that promote online networking as a financial tool: Users talk one another through challenges like getting out of debt, spending less than they make and building a nest egg.
Wesabe, launched in November 2006, has tens of thousands of users, and Geezeo, which went live in May, has a couple of thousand. Both sites, free to users, not only aggregate your personal-finance information and allow you to easily track your spending but offer a virtual shoulder to support you.
David Knight of Greer, S.C. started using Wesabe because "we were trying to make it through my wife's maternity leave without breaking the bank."
He adds, "Everyone out there trying to do the same thing as we were shared tips, and Wesabe automatically delivered the relevant ones to me."
Knight credits the site with pushing him to open a 529 college savings plan once his wife returned to work.
Start your own network
Katie Dunsworth-Reiach and her four girlfriends, all in their twenties and early thirties, worked hard, played harder (dinners out for birthdays plus a $50 gift were the norm) and at the end of the year had nothing to show for it.
Spurred by the Debt Diet (for which I was a coach) on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the five Vancouver residents started getting together on a weekly basis, revealing how much debt they had, how much they earned, how much they wanted to save and what they wanted to do with that money (one wanted to pay for her own wedding, another to rebuild financially after a divorce).
They made big changes. Two got rid of their cars. Two moved in together. They all started shopping for clothes in one another's closets and stretching out time between haircuts. A year later, they've cut $35,000 in debt and added $30,000 in savings.
"Working as a group has given us the support and accountability to stick with it," says Dunsworth-Reiach. "It's like a diet - you may get motivated for a short period, but within a month you're back to your old ways. Our meetings have changed the way we think about money."
Teach your children
Skidmore College economist Ngina Chiteji found that the social network known as the family has a big impact on stock-ownership rates.
"We looked at all the factors that you would think might influence stock ownership - income, education, marital status, wealth," she explains.
When she and a colleague controlled for them, they found that kids of stockholding parents were nearly twice as likely to own stocks as those whose parents didn't own them.
Chiteji thinks that it's not the transfer of shares or dollars that turns a child into an investor; it's the transfer of knowledge about how the market works and how to navigate it.
Stock-owning parents form a network with their kids -and help them graduate to a portfolio of their own.
