Back when I began blogging in 2006, memes were everywhere-you were either tagging or being tagged every couple of weeks and listing, numbering and ranking meme-style was oh, too cool. Then, it changed. Nobody was tagging nuthin’ anymore and memes, it seemed, were out of fashion.

Nordstrom Rack opens in D.C. area. (Washington D.C.)

Footwear News October 1, 1990 | D’Innocenzio, Anne Nordstrom Rack opens in D.C. area WASHINGTON (FNS) — With the opening of Nordstrom Inc.’s first off-price store on the East Coast, the Seattle-based retailer is redefining its service image to further tap the overstored, competitive D.C. market. website nordstrom coupon code

Nordstrom Rack has joined other, self-service, off-price stores operated by retailers like Sears, Woodward & Lothrop and Raleigh’s at Potomac Mills, an outlet center in Woodbridge, Va.

In contrast to the plush interior of two Nordstrom stores in the area, the 42,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack, just a half-hour from downtown, offers a no-frills approach to merchandising in a warehouse setting.

Merchandise, which includes men’s, women’s and children’s shoes, apparel and accessories hangs on racks, sits on metel shelves and is displayed in piles on tables or bins. Shoes make up about 25 percent of Nordstrom Rack’s mix.

“We are giving them another place to shop,” said Paul Hunter, corporate manager of Nordstrom’s 12 Rack stores. Nordstrom officials estimated about 40-60 percent of Nordstrom Rack customers also shop at the chain’s regular-price stores.

Racks up sales Although Hunter would not disclose sales projections for the Potomac Mills store, Nordstrom officials said the Rack has generated strong sales since its opening.

In addition to footwear at Potomac Mills’ Rack store, 20-25 percent of the merchandise is men’s apparel, while women’s and children’s apparel account for about 40 percent. Accessories fill out the remainder of the mix.

Nordstrom Rack carries essentially the same shoe brands featured at regular Nordstrom stores. On any given day, bargain hunters might find Bruno Magli, 9 West, Amalfi, Van Eli and Selby shoes discounted from 50-70 percent.

Buyers for the Potomac Mills Rack store — a footwear buyer, a women’s and children’s apparel buyer and a men’s apparel buyer — buy merchandise from Nordstrom stores in the surrounding region.

This includes purchasing goods from Nordstrom stores at the Fashion Centre in Pentagon City and Tysons Corner Center, as well as the new Paramus Mall store in Paramus, N.J.

The buyers also make supplementary buys from wholesalers, for instance, to ensure the proper seasonal mix of merchandise, Nordstrom officials said. These additional buys, one spokesman said, account for about 10 percent of the store’s sales volume.

Nordstrom’s Hunter said the Rack stores are not part of an aggressive strategy to expand on its sister Nordstrom stores, but rather a means of “playing catch-up.” “We’ve been understored to handle all of our buildup of merchandise,” Hunter explained. “We needed to have more clearance centers. We have to get up to speed with the expansion of our new stores.” While no other regular-price Nordstrom store openings are planned for the remainder of the year, Nordstrom plans to open four more units in 1991. go to site nordstrom coupon code

“Racks and other department store-outlet units are enormous profit centers,” said Kurt Barnard, publisher of Barnard Retail Marketing Report, New York. “Instead of giving merchandise away to discount stores, they are making money by selling them at their outlets.” Industry sources also agreed Nordstrom and many other specialty chains have begun to see store-outlets as a competitive tool against the growing number of discount chains, such as Filene’s Basement or Loehmann’s. These same sources also pointed out the store outlets are an inexpensive way to test lines.

While Nordstrom Racks carry less than 25 percent private-label merchandise, many other retailers see store-outlets as a solution to the buildup of private label –merchandise often deemed unattractive to most discount chains.

“Specialty chains are being plagued with the problems of what to do with their increasing volume of private-label merchandise,” said Allen Millstein, publisher and editor of Fashion Network Report, New York.

“They are tired of giving it away. Discount outlets don’t really want it because it doesn’t have enough sex appeal,” Millstein continued. “They are more interested in branded items.” Since opening its first Nordstrom Rack in Bellevue, Wash., in 1982, Nordstrom has been aggressively opening these off-price outlets. The specialty retailer currently operates two Racks in Oregon, six in California and two others in Washington state.

Nordstrom also plans to open a 35,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack store in Silver Spring, Md., in 1992 and another is reportedly scheduled for California.

PHOTO : Merchandise at Nordstrom Rack stores, which includes men’s, women’s and children’s shoes, PHOTO : apparel and accessories hangs on racks, sits on metel shelves or is piled on tables or in PHOTO : bins.

D’Innocenzio, Anne

For many people world travel is a dream but for the group of bloggers who are part of Lonely Planet’s blogspherpa program, that dream is a reality.

With more than 80 bloggers from countries all over the world-including yours truly and a few of my virtual blogging friends-you can learn anything you wanted to know about any place you’d want to go.

Some of you might remember a few months ago when the Blogosphere was abuzz with the Three Best Kept Travel Secrets meme. Yours truly contributed to the meme, writing about three lesser-known places in Calabria, particularly Paola, Pietragrande, Caminia and Amantea.

Mobily to launch iPhone 4S in Saudi on Friday.

TradeArabia (Manama, Bahrain) December 14, 2011 (Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 ) Mobily, a leading telecom company in Saudi Arabia, has announced it will offer iPhone 4S to customers in the kingdom beginning this Friday (December 16).

iPhone 4S features Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for fast performance; an all new camera with advanced optics and full 1080p HD resolution video recording. It comes with iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features; and iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services. site iphone 4s features

“We are very proud to offer iPhone 4S to our customers in Saudi Arabia. iPhone 4S enables Mobily to further develop the telecommunication sector within the Kingdom by providing the most advanced technology to our customers,” said Mobily’s CEO Khalid Al Kaf. go to website iphone 4s features

“We believe the new features of iPhone 4S will enrich our customers’ lives.” Mobily customers can pre-order and register interest for iPhone 4S at mobily.com.sa, a statement said. — TradeArabia News Service Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company

Susan Van Allen, author of 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go, writes that taking a cooking class in Italy is like getting a backstage pass to the country’s soul. Here’s an excerpt from the book, where she tells the story of her cooking vacation in Calabria, with Tropea-based In Italy Tours:

You know how sometimes you find yourself smack dab in the middle of a group of people … everything seems to have come together for a reason and things just generally click?

Man, I love that.

Maveron Taps Andrew Trader as a Venture Partner

Manufacturing Close-Up September 3, 2011 Maveron, a consumer-focused venture capital firm with offices in Seattle and San Francisco, announced that it has named Andrew Trader (A.T.) a Venture Partner.

Based in Maveron’s San Francisco office, A.T. joined the firm in 2010 as an Entrepreneur in Residence to explore new web-enabled consumer service opportunities.

“A.T. has already made great contributions as an Entrepreneur in Residence by identifying investment opportunities and working with our portfolio companies,” said Maveron Partner Amy Errett. “With his energy, vision and expertise in scaling consumer brands quickly, we know he’ll add significant value to our firm as a Venture Partner.” According to a release, A.T. is a serial Internet and software entrepreneur. In 2007, he was an integral member of Zynga’s founding team, helping the company create the social gaming industry. At Zynga, he built and managed all business operations including revenue management, marketing, user acquisition, business development, and strategic partners, including Facebook. His contributions were instrumental in driving Zynga’s meteoric success, achieving profitability within a few months of its launch and growing to 60 million daily users. site zulily coupon code this web site zulily coupon code

Before Zynga, A.T. was the CEO of Utah Street Networks, the operator of Tribe.net, one of the first social networking sites. He led the sale of Utah Street’s platform to Cisco in 2007. He was also the co-founder of Coremetrics, a leader in website marketing, where he served as the company’s VP of Business Development, growing the company to over 100 employees and raising $65 million in invested capital before IBM acquired the company in 2010.

Maveron’s focus is on backing the best entrepreneurs in three sectors: web-enabled consumer services, education and wellness, including such current portfolio companies as Altius Education, Groupon and zulily.

More Information:

www.maveron.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))

Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Children’s Hospital gets help from abroad

The Ukrainian Weekly January 5, 2003

Ukrainian Weekly, The 01-05-2003 SHORT HILLS, N.J. – The picturesque and historic region of Ivano-Frankivsk in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains has long been a favorite of tourists, hikers and collectors of folk art. Unfortunately, for many years, the pastoral scenery of the region has concealed a silent public health tragedy. For a variety of reasons, Ivano-Frankivsk continues to suffer from the highest rate of infant mortality in all of Ukraine. The abject poverty of the region may be the most likely cause, but many environmental factors are also suspected.

An unlikely shift of wind currents in 1986 deposited a significant amount of radiation from the Chornobyl disaster in the towns of Sniatyn and Bohorodchany. Soviet troops withdrawing from Ukraine in 1991 also left behind large stores of toxic wastes that have contaminated groundwater in several communities. A lack of access to medical services in many rural villages and the absence of appropriate technology have also hindered local doctors’ ability to save the lives of many newborns.

This fall, thanks to a generous grant from the Ukrainian National Home of New Haven, Conn., the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF) has launched a new partnership with the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Children’s Hospital to radically improve the chances of survival for newborns in the region.

In September, CCRF delivered the first installment of state-of-the-art neonatal equipment to help doctors at the IFRCH to provide effective treatment for life-threatening complications and to prevent brain damage resulting from respiratory distress. The fund delivered a neonatal care station complete with respirator, infant warmer, pulse oxymeter and other essential components. The fund also provided photo-therapy lamps to help treat the many cases of jaundice in newborns. see here jaundice in newborns

At a press conference on September 26, Dr. Radyslav Koturbash, the chief doctor at the IFRCH, thanked CCRF co-founders Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky and Nadia Matkiwsky for their support. Dr. Koturbash also prepared a personal certificate of thanks to Paul Paluha, the president of the Ukrainian National Home of New Haven, and Paul Czerepacha, the association’s treasurer. Dr. Koturbash offered his gratitude on behalf of his staff and patients to all the members of the New Haven community who have supported CCRF. The UNH grant was made possible by the sale of two buildings that once housed the Ukrainian community center on Day Street. The New Haven Chapter remains one of the most active in the CCRF network. In recent years, the chapter has hosted a variety of successful fund-raising events, concerts and banquets to benefit CCRF, including an awards dinner featuring U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

Speaking at the press conference, Dr. Matkiwsky stressed that this was just the first phase in a series of aid projects that CCRF plans to implement at the Ivano-Frankivsk hospital. As quoted in the “Western Courier,” Dr.

Matkiwsky expressed the fund’s deep concern about the steep drop in population in Ukraine. According to the U.N. Office of Population, Ukraine has already experienced a net drop of 2.5 million people, and could lose up to 40 percent of its population by the year 2040 unless current trends are reversed.

“Ivano-Frankivsk is a crucial front in the battle against infant mortality in Ukraine,” said Dr. Matkiwsky. This will be the eighth neonatal center that the fund has equipped in Ukraine. Previously, the fund has enabled local doctors to improve infant survival rates by as much as 85 percent in Poltava, by 50 percent in Lutsk and by 46 percent in Dnipropetrovsk. CCRF’s chapter in Rochester, N.Y. has also contributed $15,000 to support a second hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. website jaundice in newborns

On October 23, CCRF Executive Director Alexander Kuzma and Kyiv Office Director Olena Maslyukivska visited Ivano-Frankivsk to meet with hospital staff and to obtain their feedback on the quality and effectiveness of the equipment. According to Dr. Taras Melnyk and other doctors working with the neonatal unit, the new technology installed by CCRF has already had an impact in helping to save several newborn infants within the first month of operation.

Archbishop Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. also visited the neonatal unit at the Ivano-Frankivsk RCH, during a brief departure from his pilgrimage with 40 American Orthodox faithful across Ukraine. The Archbishop blessed the neonatal unit and each of the infants undergoing intensive care, and offered consolation to several parents concerned with the plight of their newborns. CCRF technical adviser Volodymyr Mitin of the Austrian-based firm NZ Techno provided training to hospital staff to ensure that they were well versed in all features of the new equipment.

“This equipment has already had a very positive effect on our efforts to save these babies’ lives,” said Dr. Melnyk. “It has also raised the spirits of our doctors, who finally have the tools they need to apply their skills to their greater potential.”

The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund is currently seeking additional funds to buy infusion pumps and respirators for the Ivano-Frankivsk RCH to expand its life-saving capabilities. Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to:

CCRF, 272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078.

V.LXX

Back pain prevention

Honolulu Star – Advertiser February 1, 2011 | Porter, William When people reach a certain age — we shall refrain from going into the depressing particulars — they need to start paying more attention to keeping the lower back in shape.

You ignore your back at your peril. Then one day you make an innocent but awkward move: picking up a box, moving a chair, toweling yourself dry, reaching down to scratch the dog’s ears. lowerbackexercisesnow.net lower back exercises

Bingo, you throw out your back. And after a couple of weeks where a strained whatchamacallit becomes the center of your universe, you heal enough to tell yourself: “Well, I never want to go through that again.” That’s where the preventive medicine of a proper exercise routine comes in, one that targets the muscles of the lower back and the core muscles of the abdomen, which provide a crucial supporting role.

We asked longtime Denver fitness trainer Donna Miller to put together a few basic lower-back exercises that can be used by beginners and advanced athletes alike. this web site lower back exercises

“There are lots of different ways to skin a cat in keeping your back healthy, but these are good basic exercises,” Miller says. “You don’t need a gym to do these exercises. You can do them at home.” Some of the exercises require a fitness ball or 8-pound kettlebell weight, available at most sporting-goods stores and gyms.

Miller advises doing the exercises in slow, controlled movements, with strict attention to form — mainly keeping the back straight. The goal is to make the overall session last about 30 minutes.

Try to do each exercise for three sets of 10 repetitions each, although beginners might be able to do only five or so reps at the outset.

“People who are really looking to improve their back strength should do these routines four times a week,” Miller says.

Credit: William Porter Denver Post Porter, William

Mobilizing social capital for food security and poverty reduction to overcome religious and ethnic hostility: a preliminary community based approach.

Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table March 22, 2007 | Babatunde, Emmanuel; Setiloane, Kelebogile Need: The Existential Problem Two existential changes noticeable in contemporary Nigerian societal behavior provided the impetus for this intervention in poverty reduction and food security through grant writing. The first noticeable change is the move from ethical considerations of good character built on the twin values of “honor” and “shame” to a cool calculation from the on-set of economic interaction that the “end justifies the means.” Good character was preferred to wealth accumulated through fraudulence in the old Nigeria before the civil war that ranged from 1967 to 1970. The second noticeable change was that communities that used to be tolerant and accepting of people of other ethnicities and religions have become outwardly intolerant and prone to violence as the economic hardship and endemic poverty bites harder in this otherwise wealthy country. Preliminary ethnographic studies confirm that doing business, even within family circles for the benefit of family members, hitherto the most sacred forum of ethical support and accountability (Ekeh: 1975) has now become problematic. A genre of internet-based schemes christened “Nigerian Fraudulent schemes” has become so widespread in America that the name “Nigeria” is slowly becoming synonymous with fraudulent practices in the United States.

A group of African Faculty members who originated from or have done research in the 1975 to 1985 decade in Nigeria, mainly from Lincoln University, Pa. and the University of Delaware, at informal meetings, thought the new changes in behavior were most atypical of the Nigeria that they were familiar with. Some of them decided to conduct an intervention study to confirm empirically or disprove the claims. In addition, bringing together the strength of their various disciplines, they wrote a grant that would teach rural poor people, mainly women, strategies to generate money for self employment and food security in their rural environments. Since the Federal, State and Local Governments of Nigeria have not invested in infrastructures such as clean pipe borne water–the foundation of public health–or roads, schools, or hospitals or clinics, the only way the rural people without skills try to have a share of some resources was to move to the overcrowded cities with very little functioning sanitation infrastructure. They often came back from the cities sick. The micro-credit segment of the intervention grant would concentrate on keeping rural people self-employed in the villages. This effort specifically picked participants in the ratio of three women to one man because ethnography has revealed that women had better spending habits that positively affected their children for the better than men. Women would often spend their money on the welfare of their children first before dealing with their own needs…

Rostow’s Stages and the Nigerian Trajectory of ‘Development” Without deifying W. W. Rostow’s theory of the five stages of economic development, the conditions were most suitable for Nigeria to modernize at its Independence in 1960. In the Nineteenth Century, beginning with the annexation of Lagos in 1861, Pax Britannica put an end to wasted years of internecine warfare. It encouraged the transformation of the traditional Nigerian society from being statically dependent on peasant farming to embrace the cultivation of cash crops. It also provided the incentive for the extractive industries to mine various mineral resources as new sources of wealth creation. Manufacturing interests and markets in Europe and America helped to set the conditions for the second stage, Pre-conditions for Take-Off. The commercial exploitation of agriculture and extractive industry necessitated investment in infrastructures. The institutions of higher learning produced skilled man power who slowly transformed into a political elite conscious of their rights and responsibilities. This led to the foundations of the manufacturing sector, the third stage of Rostow’s development trajectory. As the economy of Nigeria moved from reliance on the exploitation of agricultural cash crops such as cocoa, palm oil, groundnuts and the cultivation of food crops to a total dependence upon hard currency fetching petroleum resources, the drive to maturity–the fourth stage of development seemed assured as manufacturing climbed inexorably to 10% of the Gross National Income. This stage would have been characterized by the consolidation of the elements of an open society characterized as the primacy of the rule of law to enforce contract, equality of all citizens, improved infrastructures and the freedom of speech, of assembly, of religion and the right to vote. As M. Gillis, M. Roemer, and D.R. Snodgrass who made a distinction between economic growth and economic development noted: go to website lincoln university pa

“Participation in the process of development implies participation in the enjoyment of the benefits of development as well as the production of these benefits. If growth only benefits a tiny, wealthy minority, whether domestic or foreign, it is not development” (1987:8) So, at the point that Nigerian economy was, according to the stages of Rostow’s development process, ready to mature into a high mass consumption society, sufficiently developed to take advantage of the comparative advantages in global trade, the military overthrow the democratically elected leaders thus turning Nigeria into a closed society. Decrees replaced the meticulous and tedious but necessary discourse of the democratic process. Corruption and the failure of the rule of law to enforce contract replaced the hitherto effective checks and balances needed for accountability. As Rose-Ackerman succinctly noted “Even when corruption and economic growth coexist, payoffs introduce costs and distortions. Corrupt high-level officials support too much unproductive public investment and under-maintain past investments. Corruption reduces total investment and limits FDI … A country is poorer over-all if corruption levels are high. It may be caught in a corruption cycle where corruption breeds more corruption and discourages legitimate business investment. (1999:3).

Both in internal planning and external relations, resources that were supposed to lay foundation for efficient development were put into projects that in the long run were not in the best interest of Nigeria. As J. Owoeye a noted Nigerian International Relations expert reiterated succinctly “Indeed the value of international trade is that it provides access to those domestic requirements (goods and services) which the nation cannot fulfill independently. The surplus accruing from favorable trade balance can be re-invested to replenish the internal economy. The resulting Gross National Product (GNP) may not only produce a high standard of living but also support a high profile political clout internationally. The point to be stressed here is that it is more prudent for a nation to assume a high profile in international politics only as a reward for its economic achievements. However, some nations–Nigeria included–would appear to put politics before economics, thereby assuming the expensive political roles in their regions or globally, even-though the domestic economic structures are not strong enough to support such political missions abroad.” (1991: 138) The refusal of Nigeria to invest money accountably in infrastructures, improved health delivery, effective means of mass transit, efficient transportation systems and the information super highway has lead to limited and diminishing chances of employment. This renewed poverty in the face of plenty has led to noticeable changes in the behavior of most contemporary Nigerians.

As economic conditions worsen in Nigeria, normally tolerant ethnically and religiously diverse communities exhibit atypical traits of violence and intolerance. It was also noticed that the rural areas which used to be more tolerant and welcoming of people of diverse beliefs and ethnicities were showing traits of violent bigotry. Secondly, contrary to the traditional insistence on the twin importance of attitudes such as deferred gratification and moral behavior as the measuring parameter of good character, anchored on the rigid sense of “honor” and “shame”, behavior in contemporary Nigeria is, in the main, predicated on the nascent twin attitudes of (a) immediate gratification and (b) so long as one is not caught, the end justifies the means. In the old traditional culture honor and shame were factored into the approval or disgrace that one’s actions brought to one’s family and ancestors before one engages in any behavior.

In the contemporary American society, much of the news, in audio-visual and print media, about Nigeria is seldom positive. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa (one in every six Africans is a Nigerian) is synonymous with all sorts of fraudulent schemes aimed at making people part with their hard earned money. Although the high rate of success of these schemes say something about the victims, the fact that they are performed at all, has worsened the affection for most people linked to Nigeria in America. To do something positive, no matter how little, for those mainly Nigerians who go about their daily business with integrity in their poverty mainly in the neglected rural Nigerian environment, a group of faculty from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, and the University of Delaware at Newark, got together to write a grant from a multi-disciplinary perspective incorporating relevant principles in anthropology, nutrition, animal science and micro-economics.

The pre-proposal study of the situation in Nigeria necessitated that a few givens or rules of avoidance had to be adhered. They are;

1. If and when possible, avoid dealings that will involve the transfer of money through the government agencies.

2. When possible, dealings with institutions at the center, that is, in the case of Nigeria, Lagos, the former capital or Abuja, the current capital should be avoided.

3. Make Nigerian counterparts to the grant accountable by working through those few institutions still regarded as credible for purposes of accountability such as the institutions of the Catholic Church and secondly, the first and second generations of Nigeria Universities (Ibadan 1948; Lagos, 1962, Ahmadu Bello, 1962, Nsukka 1962 and Jos, 1962) where the transfer of money was to be involved.

4. The fourth rule was to utilize a strength learnt from the pragmatism of American higher education to commit university education to solving the existential problems of daily Social Capital Contrary to the initial assumption that asserted that aspects of traditional culture impede transformation to modernization, recent Social Science research has encouraged the mobilization of strengths inherent in traditional cultures in the development effort. The rise of the Asian Authoritarian Paternalistic Democratic model to employ Confucian values in the dogged pursuit of technological innovation, while retaining its cultural identity has given credence to the primacy of traditional aspects of culture in modernization. With particular reference to strengths inherent in cultures, Francis Fukuyama(1995a, 1995b) Lee Teng-hui (1995) and Robert Putnam(1993b, 1995a, 1996, 1998a) in America have drawn attention to the usefulness of employing the concept of social capital to strengthen societies for development. The Scholarly edited work of Stephen Baron, John Field and Tom Schuller, Social Capital: Critical Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000 has drawn attention to the utility of the concept in rejuvenating community life in the United Kingdom. It has also provided the pedigree of scholars such as Jane Jacobs (1961) Pierre Bourdieu (1983), James Coleman(1988) and Robert Putnam(1993, 2000) who have over the years and in their different ways sensitized Social Scientists to the importance of social capital in strengthening communities for development (2000:2-23).

Social Capital is the network of trust and reciprocal relations existing in the community for its self development. Although it is not the only type of capital that exists in the society for its use, it is the most unique. The other types of capital include physical capital, human capital and fiscal capital. Physical capital is made of the tools, objects and property that exist in the society. Human capital constitutes the personal attributes, talents and training in the society. Fiscal capital consists of the financial resources in a society for its use. What differentiates the three other capitals from social capital is that usage depletes each of the first three. Social capital, on the other hand, improves with usage as it mobilizes community trust to improve its productivity. go to website lincoln university pa

The tremendous efforts of the works of these scholars and the contribution of Francis Fukuyama has led the World Bank to see the usefulness of embracing the strategy of mobilizing social capital for development. To improve the effectiveness of this intervention strategy, the World Bank has transformed this essentially qualitative data into a quantitative empirically measurable instrument. Survey instrument, built around six vectors of social capital include, (1) Groups and Networks, (2) Trust and Solidarity, (3) Collective Action and Cooperation, (4) Information and Communication, (5). Social Cohesion and Inclusion and (6) Empowerment and Political Action.

Multi-Disciplinary Methodology for Social Engineering Anthropology, Nutrition and Animal Science provided the multi-disciplinary foundations for the funded intervention project. With particular reference to Anthropology, the two major influences were two seminal articles. The first was Jack Goody’s work, “The Classification of Double Descent Systems in Current Anthropology”, vol. 2, no.1. (1961, 3-25). The major contribution of that work was to show that when Unilineal Descent Groups (UDGs) have rights in material objects such as inherited properties, they are transformed from small units that fission and fusion into corporate groups who not only identify themselves by their inherited rights but also protect those rights, and utilize them for the benefit of the group(1961. 4-7). The major implication of this as a powerful tool of social engineering is that units distinguishable in the group by ethnicity, religion or even gender and who employ these distinctions in subtle ways to discriminate by creating artificial inclusive and exclusive groups in the larger group, can and will transcend these subtle distinctions if they have common rights in properties, skills and new resource-generating knowledge elements.

The second work was by Shirley Ardener, “Money-Go Rounds; the Importance of Rotating, Savings and Credit Associations for Women” in MAN, 94, 2, (1964, 202-228).This article brought the attention of the academic world to traditional patterns of vibrant economic interaction in the micro-credit rotating enterprise to create wealth for self employment in Africa. More particularly, since most societies were male-oriented, it showed the foundations of gender empowerment and how females negotiate the world of men on their own terms through financial freedom.

The nutritionist whose Doctoral program was on “How Traditional Beliefs and Practices Affected Meat distribution in the Yoruba Household” found that in West Africa, meat and eggs needed for adequate animal source nutrition for infant balanced growth were both scarce and therefore surrounded with taboos. These taboos were based on a consideration of what Yoruba culture considered prior and essential to a successful life. The Yoruba regarded the measurement of a successful life to be accomplishments which required personal discipline embodied in a frugal life. Both values required that one’s appetites be controlled in order to safe money to buy many cocoa farms, build houses, and marry many wives whose children went on to high achievements in modern educational system. The Yoruba thought that for one to be able to achieve these feats in adulthood, one ought to bring one’s children not on expensive diets such as eggs and big portions of meat, which once one got used to, would drain one’s resources. So the consumption of eggs and meat were so restricted to children, that the portions that they got did not meet the adequate nutrition standards of this vulnerable group at the most crucial periods in their life, from birth to the age of twelve.

To reverse this axiological trend, working on the strength of Yoruba culture which measured a mother’s worth to the community in terms of the number of surviving children a woman has, the nutritionist mobilized the concept of positive deviance to educate rural women that if they wanted to achieve the societal objective of having children who do not die in infancy, they ought to feed them with eggs and meat since the children and not the adult men who really need the large portions of meat for survival and thriving. Since theory alone would not help the children to survive, small holder family poultry which produce eggs and chicks for meat constituted one of the import elements of this social engineering effort. Learning from the experience of similar types of food security and poverty reduction intervention projects in Nicaragua and Bangladesh, a micro-credit segment was included to create alternative source of wealth for the participants in the study. In the Nicaragua and Bangladesh, similar projects failed because when participants were faced with harsh economic choices such as paying for the treatment of their sick children in clinics or buying books for their school age children, they tended to sell their eggs and chicks and thus cripple their chance of generating wealth.

Project Goals, and Activities The first goal of the project was to provide for very poor rural village women, mainly, an opportunity for a diversified income earning, wealth creation and employment opportunities through micro-credit. The second goal was to use nutritional education informed by the notion of success and other sensitivities of the recipient Yoruba culture to mobilize the mothers in positive deviance to ensure that their children thrive. Women are in charge of food distribution in the household. They are the ones who give more portions of protein-dense foods to adult men who do not need it to thrive while depriving infants who need it. A process of re-education of women to move beyond moral gender considerations that work against them. Since the male-oriented Yoruba culture measured the worth of women by the number of their surviving children, convincing them to give more meat and eggs to their children, in the privacy of their homes, was not difficult. The third goal was to train these mainly rural women in basic poultry technology that included vaccination, care and protection of chicks and eggs from predators such as snakes and hawks. The final goal was to lay a corporate ownership foundation for all units of the villages irrespective of ethnicity, gender or religion in Araromi, Matale villages of the Imeko-Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State of Nigeria. This foundation of corporateness in wealth generation, poultry care, micro-credit processing and basic health care delivery know-how would assist all in the group to take collective ownership of the new factors of production in their community, thus overcoming hostilities built on religion, gender or ethnic sensitivities.

The pre-study interactions revealed that women in the Araromi and Matale villages reared local chicks, wide range, as hobbies for ritual taboo purposes. For instance, the ownership of wide range local poultry was a necessary prophylactic. A traditional Yoruba belief is that owners of free range poultry stand the chance of deflecting tragedies such as sudden death or terrible afflictions from themselves to their poultry. The understanding is that, instead of sudden death striking members of the family, it would strike poultry of the owner dead. So it was wise, ritually, that most mothers kept chicken on a wide range basis since they did not have to care for them on a daily basis.

The activities included the training of villagers on family and nutritional health and on semi-intensive poultry production. This also involved chicken egg distribution and family managed semi-intensive cockerel production. The immediate practical application was school egg consumption project for the local school pupils in the quantity of three boiled eggs per pupil per week.

Implications for Policy Formulation 1. The study confirmed that women are very central to development since they are mainly in charge of nutrition, the foundation for health and wellness, the distribution of food in the community.

2. The study as found out that in Emerging Economies where development is lopsided in favor of over-crowed, disease-ridden cities, channeling wealth creation and self-employment projects through experts (both foreign and local) to rural women in their environment prevents the spread of diseases from the cities to the villages by keeping he villagers self-employed in their villages.

3. Since the pattern of women’s spending habits, is first, to think about the welfare and thriving of their children and their aged parents, teaching women skills in wealth creation and self employment have more positive distributive effect upon the entire community.

4. Mobilizing rural women by using the strengths and negative sensitivities inherent in their culture allows women to identify with the intervention strategies as natural to them. An example is the use of positive deviance to provide adequate nutrition through the giving of eggs and larger quantities of meat to children who need it for development. Although local taboos prohibit this exercise, such knowledge transfer works well for children and their mothers. It prevents women from participating in their own oppression. Since male-oriented Yoruba culture measured women’s worth by the number of surviving children that mothers have, when women provide adequate nutrition for their children by given them eggs and meat forbidden by taboos, more of their children will survive and women’s worth will be more readily realized.

5. Empowering women to become aware of what is inimical to their best interest in the traditional culture through creative use of paradigms that break down false consciousness can produce enthusiastic support necessary for the success of the program of empowerment.

6. The study also found empirically validated data to support a theory that underpines this effort that units of a community who fission internally among themselves over limited resources, often fuse and work together among themselves when extraneous wealth injected into their community turns them into corporate owners with rights in common property.

Conclusion:

This effort to apply multi-disciplinary intervention strategy, albeit in a preliminary stage, to deal with food security and poverty reduction has provided a few interesting results. It has confirmed that in situations of scarcity, competing units of a community construct notions of group alignments as one of the cooping mechanisms for dealing with the issue. This reconstructed group re-alignments serve the purpose of excluding some in the group from access to resources. Bickering over religious and ethnic differences as well as the contention that “women are taking over our roles” can be overcome. Community ownership in properties provides the corporate foundation for uniting to police common interest in the community. Thus, as globalization creates cores and peripheries, the most abject peripheries reconfigure their world to have greater access to the diminishing resources that trickle down to the communities in terms of “insider” groups that belong and “outsider” groups that do not belong. Since these peripheries lack those factors of globalization such as information super-highway, improved infrastructures that allow not only for wealth creation but rapid transfer of capital and the means with which to internationalize their labor, their responses can have either local or extra-local international dimensions.

At the local level, a trenchant tendency to inclusion surfaces by excluding those “outsider” groups that they used to welcome. This allows for confinement of scarce resources to members of their own “in-group”. At the extra-local level, the hopelessness of their situation is brought home to their peripheries by the new gadgets of globalization, cell phone, portable televisions and other accoutrements of modernization that they have no resources to own. The first response in such situations is for these rural unskilled poor to move to the over-congested and disease ridden cities to earn some money doing menial jobs to own some of the gadgets. In so doing, these unskilled rural migrants to the cities, often end up by bringing the problems of the city to the village.

At the extra-local level, since most citizens of nation states subscribe to one religion or another, they are by the fact of their faith, global citizens who are transnational in the messages they receive and process for their religious and physical well-being. Those contemporary religions which do not embrace the taming of technology, leave their adherents far behind. As these groups are confronted with their own powerlessness in the scheme of things, they rush to fill the gaping space left by lack of technological development by new messianic messages of self-immolation. Ideas of eternal salvation are then woven around dramatic efforts to get even with the rest of the World through confrontation.

The policy implications of this phenomenon is that the willing poor who are only too prone to be recruited to turn their bodies into lethal weapons at the peripheries of the periphery are assisted directly in their rural locations to generate wealth that allow for self-employment for the improvement of their quality of life as they participate in the basic activities of the global age in their own environment. The first policy implication is that women are crucial to community health and wellness as they often are responsible for the care of food which is the foundation of development. Their spending habit reveals a pattern to take care of the children and the elderly as well as the men in their lives. Channeling resources to them at the periphery creates a distributive network that reaches every point in the community grassroots. To ensure that these efforts are not sabotaged by men who see their control over women slipping away since they are no-longer the main source of resources for their families, a ratio of one man to many women in an interactive context based on voting to confirm decisions ought to be encouraged as the method of doing business. Nutrition education that emphasizes particularly to women that they must overcome traditional taboos about serving protein rich foods to their children if they want them to survive will lead to a cognitive development. Since the measure of women’s success and worth is in the number of children that survive, a resort to positive deviance as a coping strategy will enlist women in the modernization process. It is important that this nutrition education be supported by information to the women that for their children to develop to enjoy a quality of life, resources sufficient to raise two children are not adequate for raising three. When birth rate reduces to meet with adequate resources, and investment which generates gainful employment improves the quality of life for all, division of the society into violently competing units will diminish.

References Ardener, S. “Money-Go Rounds; the Importance of Rotating, Savings and Credit Associations for Women” in MAN, 94, 2, (1964, 202-.

Babatunde, E. D. & Setiloane, K. V. (eds.) “Cultural Models for Behavioral Modification: The Amish, the Latter Day Saints, and the Yoruba Compared”, Journal of Social and Political Thought”, vol. II, 2003 Babatunde, E. D. & Setiloane, K. V. (eds.) “Religion and Food Practices: A Comparative Study of Sotho-Tswana and the Yoruba”, Unilag Sociological Review, 2002.

Babatunde, E. D. & Setiloane, K. V. (eds.)”Yoruba Families”, International Encyclopedia of Families, Edited by C. Ponzetti, New York: MacMillan Press, 2002.

Babatunde, E. D. ‘Ketu Myths and the Status of Women: A Structural Interpretation of some Yoruba Myths of Origin.’ Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford. XIV, 3, 1983.

Babatunde, E. D. ‘The Status of Women in Ketu Myths and its Sociological Ramifications. Women’s Research Program Publication Review, February 1991.

Baron, S.; J. Field.; and Tom Schuller (eds.) Social Capital: Critical Perspectives. Oxford: University Press, 2000 Ekeh, P. P. “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17(1): 91-112, 1975.

Fukuyama, F. Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: The Free Pres, 1995, Fukuyama, F. The Primacy of Culture, Journal of Democracy, vol. 1, April, 1995 Goody, J “The Classification of Double Descent Systems in Current Anthropology”, vol. 2, no.1. (1961, 3-25).

Gillis, M., Roemer, M., and Snodgrass, D. R. (eds.). Economics of Development. (2nd. Edition). 1987 Rose-Ackerman, S. Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences and Reform. Cambridge: CUP, 1999 Owoeye, J. Nigeria’s Economy and International Roles: Lessons from Japan. Nigerian Journal of International Affairs, vol. 17, n. 2. pp 137-155, 1991 Putnam, R. “The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life”, The American Prospect, vol. 4 n. 13. pp. 11-18, 1993b.

Putnam, R. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon Schuster, 2000.

Putnam, R. “Who Killed Civil America?”, Prospect, 1996, 66-72 Teng-hui T. “Chinese Culture and Political Renewal”, Journal of Democracy, vol. 6, n. 4, 1995 Emmanuel Babatunde, Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology, Lincoln University, Pa.

Kelebogile Setiloane, Health Nutrition and Exercise Science, University of Delaware Babatunde, Emmanuel; Setiloane, Kelebogile

CORNYN HIGHLIGHTS HIS IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL AT SENATE HEARING

Capitol Hill Press Releases February 12, 2004

Capitol Hill Press Releases 02-12-2004 For Immediate Release February 12, 2004 CORNYN HIGHLIGHTS HIS IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL AT SENATE HEARING Senate panel examines President’s immigration reform principles WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) joined his colleagues on the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee Thursday for a hearing to examine President Bush’s immigration principles and much-needed immigration reform. During the hearing, chaired by Sen. web site immigration reform news

Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Cornyn discussed legislation he introduced in July, The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act (S.1387), which largely mirrors the President’s immigration reform proposals. Key members of the administration testified at the hearing-titled Evaluating a Temporary Guest Worker Proposal-including Eduardo Aguirre, Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services (U.S. Department of Homeland Security); Asa Hutchinson, Undersecretary of Border and Transportation Security (U.S. Department of Homeland Security); and Steven Law, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Labor.

Also, the president of the Texas Roofing Company, Richard R. Birkman, testified at the hearing and met with Sen. Cornyn in the Senator’s office earlier in the afternoon. Cornyn’s bill was the first comprehensive legislation proposed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and played a key role in restarting the dialogue on implementing much needed immigration reform.

For more information about Sen. Cornyn’s bill, please go to: www.cornyn.senate.gov/reform.

– Below is the complete text of Cornyn’s statement at the hearing as prepared — I would like to thank Senator Chambliss for holding today’s important hearing on immigration reform and for giving me this opportunity to briefly discuss the comprehensive immigration reform bill that I introduced in July. I was eager to become a member of the immigration subcommittee because I’ve seen firsthand how broken our immigration system is through my experiences in Texas. My immigration reform bill, The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2003, acknowledges that millions of undocumented men and women go to work every day in America in violation of our immigration law, outside the protection of our labor law, and without any way of our government knowing who, or where they are. The program I propose would allow us to account for undocumented individuals, distinguishing those who pose a threat to America from those who do not. The fact that we are having this hearing shows that we have common ground in this belief: that the status quo simply cannot continue. I thought the President spoke courageously and forthrightly when he outlined his five immigration reform principles last month, and I believe the President’s basic principles are embodied in my bill. In particular, the President’s fourth principle of immigration reform, as outlined in his speech, is to provide incentives for temporary workers to return to their home country. I believe this is a crucial component of comprehensive immigration reform and one that is embodied in my bill. here immigration reform news

We must provide incentives for risk takers to return to their home country with the capital and skills they have acquired as temporary workers in the U.S. if we are going to address the root cause of illegal immigration.

In my recent visit with government leaders in Mexico City, I was repeatedly told that they want their workers to come back, to return home with capital and skills. They need those small business owners, those entrepreneurs to strengthen a weakened middle class. But our current immigration policy fails to give undocumented immigrants any incentive to make such a return.

My bill includes a provision that would create individual investment accounts from the payroll taxes of temporary workers that they can only collect when they return to their home country. The fact is that there will be no end to illegal immigration across our southern border without economic recovery in Mexico- and that won’t happen unless Mexico’s workers return and build the economy there. Those of us here in America cannot afford for our southern border to remain a one-way street. The guest-worker plan I propose is neither amnesty, nor a guaranteed path to citizenship. Instead, it acknowledges the vital role hard-working immigrants play in our economy and creates a comprehensive program as an important step toward re- establishing respect for our laws and restoring safe working conditions for immigrants who work here. It will enhance America’s homeland security, facilitate enforcement of our immigration and labor laws, and protect millions who labor today outside the protection of the law. My proposal will encourage undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows, to work within the law, and then to return to their homes and families with the pay and skills they acquire as guest workers in the United States. We must act now. We must strengthen the security of our borders and reform the immigration policy for those who seek to work within the framework of our laws. I urge Congress to act without delay – to follow our President’s lead and pass meaningful immigration reform. Our economy and our homeland security depend on it.

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CEO of Michaels Stores Inc. Basks in Fruits of Labor, Continues to Forge Ahead.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News August 29, 2002 By Maria Halkias, The Dallas Morning News Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 29–Michael Rouleau didn’t have a hand in starting up Michaels Stores Inc., but six years ago he decided that he could give the arts and crafts retail chain a future.

When he got the offer in 1996 to become chief executive of the struggling Irving-based company, Mr. Rouleau phoned friends and family from coast to coast with the same question. “I asked them if they’d ever heard of Michaels,” he said. “Over and over they said, `Oh yeah, I love that store.’” Then he visited “a Michaels store [in Winston Salem, N.C.] for a whole week. I saw lots of customers, the lines backed up and service was awful,” Mr. Rouleau said. “OK, so the customers love us and we’re awful. I could do this.” Analysts say he has, and the company is now the nation’s dominant craft chain. go to website michaels printable coupon

“They’re beyond the turnaround stage,” said Dennis Telzrow, a retail analyst at Stephens Inc. “Their numbers are pretty positive in this environment especially.” Michaels reported Wednesday that it more than tripled second quarter net income and posted earnings that beat Wall Street estimates by 11 cents a share. Second quarter net income was $21.5 million for the period that ended Aug. 3 compared with net income of $4.7 million in the same period last year.

The company also now estimates that same-store sales for August will be better than anticipated, Mr. Rouleau told investors during a conference call Wednesday. Michaels had said same-store sales would be flat for the month, but it now expects them to be up 5 percent to 6 percent over last year, he said.

Still, Michaels stock price fell $2.15 a share Wednesday to close at $39.75. The company’s stock price has lost ground in recent days along with the entire retail sector, but it’s up 20 percent this year.

“Michaels Stores is knocking the cover off the ball,” Merrill Lynch retail analyst Douglas Neviera said Tuesday, the same day that his firm downgraded 16 other retail stocks over concerns about consumer spending.

Michaels is riding renewed consumer interest in arts and crafts. It’s a bright spot in a retail industry that is suffering from a glut in stores and weary consumers.

No category is recession proof, but “we’re not going to stop someone from buying a car or paying the mortgage,” Mr. Rouleau said. Michaels rings up $19 per average sale.

Regional chains such as MJDesigns, also based in Irving; A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts Inc. in New Jersey; and as Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby, all say business is good.

At the same time, Jo-Ann Stores Inc., a fabric chain, is adding crafts to its sewing-based inventory.

“Results have been very good for us,” said Brian Carney, chief financial officer of Ohio-based Jo-Ann. The growth in craft supplies has been a big factor in the chain’s 16 months of same-store sales gains, he said. web site michaels printable coupon

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. also is stocking more craft products, such as silk flowers and dried flowers, and captured a huge slice of the business. Discount chains accounted for 24 percent of craft industry sales last year.

The whole category is getting a boost from the growing number of craft magazines and books, decorating periodicals and cable television channels such as HGTV and DIY. BBC America’s big hit, Trading Places, which focuses on room remodeling projects, is giving viewers courage and ideas, craft industry executives said.

Television programming “has done a lot toward taking away any apprehensions that people might have about do-it-yourself projects,” said Lea Cavender, chief executive officer of E-Z Bowz. LLC. The Tennessee-based company, which Ms. Cavender founded in 1993 with her E-Z BowMaker invention, reported $4 million in sales last year. The company is a Michaels supplier.

Ms. Cavender said the craft business is also booming because “people want their homes to be a reflection of their families.” “You don’t just put your children’s drawings on the refrigerator with a magnet. Now you have them professionally frame them at Michaels and hang them around the house,” Ms. Cavender said.

Mr. Rouleau said that when he took the reins, Michaels wasn’t good at keeping products in stock, and inventory wasn’t consistent from store to store. “We’re a lot more interesting store now,” he said.

“When Michael came to Dallas to interview, he basically told us then what needed to be done to make Michaels a top U.S. retailer. And he told us he was sure that he was the person for the job,” said Michaels chairman Charles J. Wyly Jr.

Michaels dominates the craft marketplace with 734 Michaels stores in 48 states and 148 Aaron Brothers framing stores. The company also is enthusiastic about its new Star Decorators Warehouse, a wholesale operation for wedding and event planners, decorators, retail florists and gift shops, hotels and restaurants.

The first Star store, which isn’t open to the public, is at Stemmons Freeway and Mockingbird Lane in Dallas. Duane Hiemenz, Michaels’ senior vice president for new ventures, says plans are in the works for a second one in a yet to be disclosed major market.

Michaels also is developing a small-store concept called Village Craft. These stores would be about half the size of the typical Michaels and are being designed to serve cities with populations under 100,000.

“We’re having fun and everyone else is scrambling for their lives,” Mr. Rouleau said. “They’re on the defensive and we’re on the offensive.” Mr. Rouleau, now 64, had a storied retail career before coming to Michaels. He was one of the first 23 hires at the original Target, where he stayed for 20 years. Mr. Rouleau then co-founded Office Warehouse, which later merged with Office Max. He was running Lowe’s Companies contractor division when he got the call from Michaels in 1996.

Mr. Rouleau said it was a risky offer. In retail, he said, turnaround attempts are ubiquitous but are rarely successful.

In Mr. Rouleau’s first year, Michaels’ average sales per store were $2.9 million, which is low for the industry. Last year, they were $3.7 million per store.

“What’s really going to make me excited is when we our average Michaels stores sales reach $5 million,” Mr. Rouleau said. His on-the-record prediction is that the company will reach that goal by 2006.

In fact, he’s staking his career on it: “At my age,” he said, “I don’t want my last job to be my worst.” MIK, ACMR, JASA, WMT,

THE HOLDING SET : TRIED & TESTED

The Independent (London, England) January 29, 1995 | STELLA YARROW GLAMOUR, according to that expert source, Hair magazine, is the key-note for this year’s hairstyles for women. Big hair is back, while the flat, lanky locks of grunge have been discarded into fashion’s waste bin like so much crumpled tissue paper.

If you’re planning to follow this trend towards more elaborate styles, re-viewing your collection of hair styling products could be a wise move. Mousses add volume to your hair and help control it; gels give body and hold it in place, while hairspray ho lds the hair together. Some products, such as gels and creams, can also give your hair gloss and shine.

We’ve taken a look at some examples of the innumerable products you will find in the shops. They range from a traditional hairspray to new all-in-one products which, following the trend set by the two-in-one shampoo and conditioner (now out of favour with the experts), combine the qualities of individual styling pro-ducts such as gels and sprays. Hair-dressing students at the College of North-East London tried the products out for us.

THE PANEL Maria Gambin, Sharon Bailey, Tau Nguyen and Yolanda Clarke, all students on a one-year course in hairdressing at the College of North-East London, Tottenham. here hairstyles for women

THE TEST The panel tried out the products on models. They gave them marks for how easy they were to use, how effective they were in styling the hair, how well the products dried on the hair and whether they washed out easily, their perfume, packaging andvalue for money.

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**L’OREAL STUDIO LINE STYLING CREAM pounds 2.89 for 150ml The panel thought that this product, which only achieved average ratings, was best used to create a textured rather than a smooth and silky look. “Not suitable for blow-drying, better for a stiffer look. Use only a minimum for the best effect – too much leaves the hair looking lank,” said Tau Nguyen. “OK to use on short to medium hair, suitable for scrunch-drying, but a little sticky for blow-drying. Gives maximum volume to fine hair,” said Maria Gambin. “Sweet-smelling,” commented Sharon Bailey .**BODY SHOP SLICK STYLING CREAM pounds l.85 for 100ml This is ideal for the slicked-back, wet look style that never seems completely to have had its day. The panel voted it fairly easy to use and very good value for money. “It’s similar to Brylcreem. You need only a small amount to create a sharp fashionable style, so it’s a cost-effective product,” said Yolanda Clarke. “Not good for a firm hold, but has a good light or medium holding-power,” said Sharon Bailey. “A pump-action dispenser would be good for this product,” commented Tau Nguyen. From its packaging, the product is probably aimed at men, too. If there are any guys out there who aspire to look like the luscious lead from Strictly Ballroom, this one’s for you.

***ALBERTO V05 FLEXIHOLD 3 IN 1 MOUSSE, GEL AND STYLING SPRAY (NATURAL HOLD) pounds 2.69 for 200ml This is the Swiss Army knife of hair- styling products – handy, the manufacturers say, for slipping into your handbag so that you don’t have to carry three separate products around with you all the time. Flexihold is supposed to work equally well as a mousse to lift hair and give it body, as a gel to define it, and as a fixing spray. The panel rated its convenience highly: “It saves time and space”, commented Sharon Bailey. However, the panellists gave mixed reports on its performance, warning that it tends to become sticky and difficult to brush out if applied with too heavy a hand. “When I used it as a mousse it made the hair too sticky, but when it was used as a gel on fine hair it stayed in wonderfully,” said Yolanda Clarke.

***VIDAL SASSOON VOLUMISING MOUSSE FOR FIRM CONTROL pounds l.95 for 150ml This was one of the most popular products, the panel finding it very easy to use and effective at styling hair. The panel particularly liked its perfume. “This mousse adds volume, bounce and lift to all hair types,” said Yolanda Clarke. Maria Gambin found it a little soft, so she had to use extra for the hair to hold its style: “It’s not suitable if you want a really firm hold, but it doesn’t flake and it brushed out well,” she said.

**WELLA SHOCK WAVES SOFT WAX pounds 1.85 for 50ml The students thought that this block of pink, pleasantly scented, wax would be most useful as a finishing product. “Good on curly or permed hair, or on texturised cuts,” said Tau Nguyen. “Nice smell and good value for money. You must not use too much, orit will make the hair greasy,” said Maria Gambin – a warning echoed by the others. website hairstyles for women

***BOOTS HAIRSPRAY 89p for 100ml A basic, “no-frills” product that looks as if it has changed little since hairspray was invented in the Fifties. Nonetheless, the panel liked it: “It gives a strong hold and is very good value for money. It also brushes out easily, although it’s a littlesticky,” said Maria Gambin. According to Tau Nguyen: “The cap doesn’t re-lease very easily, but the spray itself is good, lifting the roots of the hair well.” (This gives body).

**DANIEL FIELD CACTUS STYLING GEL pounds 2.85 for 240g The panel thought this pale-green gel, which follows the well-worn trend for “natural” ingredients by including cactus syrup and myrrh in its formula, would be good for styles that need a firm hold, or for moulding and sculpting hair. “It’s good for European hair that is flyaway and needs to be managed, and on coarse hair to reduce frizz,” said Yolanda Clarke. But the panel did have a couple of criticisms: “It’s too watery”, said Tai Nguyen, while Sharon Bailey thought it became sticky very quickly ****SORBIE LIFT-IT BODIFIER MEDIUM HOLD SPRAY GEL pounds 4.29 for 300ml The panel’s top-rated product, the pump sprays out a slightly viscous fluid, more liquid than an ordinary gel. “It gives a good `lift’ to the hair,” said Tau Nguyen. “A very nice product, expensive but looks as if it will last for many applications,” said Maria Gambin. “It was very good for giving fine hair body, although you can use it on any hair type. The spray had a pleasant smell and wasn’t sticky,” commented Yolanda Clarke.

STOCKISTS: Daniel Field cactus styling gel is available from Daniel Field salons (phone 071-439 8223 for local salons) or from Boots. Body Shop and Boots products are available from branches of the respective chains. The other products are available fromBoots and other chemists, and from some supermarkets.

STELLA YARROW