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Antony Grey and the Sexual Law Reform Society 1Posted: August 26, 2014 Filed under: Abuse, PIE | Tags: albany trust, antony grey, AT Work, bernard braine, mary whitehouse, mind, paedophile action for liberation, paedophile information exchange, rodney bennett-england, sexual law reform society, tom o'carroll 8 Comments
This is a first post giving more information about Antony Grey (1927-2010) and his relationship to the paedophile movement. Time does not permit a detailed exegesis of Grey's life and work (this will have to wait for a later date), I am simply posting here a relevant section from his book Quest for Justice, and some articles about the Sexual Law Reform Society (SLRS) with which he was involved. In another source which I have, Grey makes clear his and some other members of the SLRS's dislike for the whole concept of an age of consent; I will print this in a later post, whilst such a view is quite clear in the last articles published here. The SLRS was linked to the Albany Trust, who funded the Paedophile Information Exchange ; articles about this can be found here and here. Obituaries of Grey can be read here and here. The Antony Grey papers are indexed here and can be accessed at the LSE library; links here and here give pointers to where more information relating to PIE might be found. The speaker at the MIND conference referenced would have been Keith Hose, then chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange (my thanks to Matt Lilleker for pointing out the omission of this information in an earlier draft).
My immense thanks to Daniel de Simone for locating the articles on the Sexual Law Reform Society.
Antony Grey, Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992)
In September 1975 I attended, together with the Albany Trust's incoming Chairman, Harold Haywood, a seminar on sexual minorities and their problems which had been organised by MIND. One of the speakers was a young man in his early twenties who described in a very courageous and moving way his experiences, thoughts and feelings as a paedophile [4]. Afterwards, Mr Haywood said to me that, of all sexual minorities paedophiles were the most misunderstood, execrated and doom-laden; and that the Albany Trust had a moral duty to see whether anything could be done to help those who carried this heavy burden to live more at peace with themselves within the law.
I agreed with him; and, although I was already worried at the increasing diversification of the Trust's interests, and the growing workload bearing upon the few of us working full time for it, I arranged for a few private discussions to be held at the Trust's office between psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers whom I knew to be concerned with paedophiles in their professional work, to explore with them the nature and availability of support needed. I also invited some paedophiles to join in these talks, including the young man who had spoken at the MIND conference and other members of the newly-formed (and ill-fated) Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) and another group, PAL (Paedophile Action for Liberation). [5]
These meetings were in accord with the philosophy and policy of the Trust as an educating and helping agency. One of the possibilities discussed was the provision by the professionals of a support group for lonely, isolated and frightened paedophiles; another was the joint production by the group (including its professional members) of a 'Questions and Answers' booklet on paedophilia, to be published by the Albany Trust. A drafting committee [6] produced a text, but the Trustees could not agree on it, so the project was dropped. The Trustees decided that, apart from public educational work, any Albany Trust supportive help for paedophiles, including counselling, should be linked to the NACRO sex offenders' project. I never thought, and did not intend, that paedophilia should become a major focus of the Trust's work; but it seemed to me – and still does – a legitimate area of potential counselling support and social concern to explore.
I did not foresee what a minefield we were walking into. Years previously, Tony Dyson had said to me that paedophilia was an issue which would not be sensibly confronted by society in the foreseeable future: how right he was.
PIE and PAL were radical in style, fashioned in the mould of the Gay Liberation Front. As one of PIE's leading lights, Tom O'Carroll (who was subsequently imprisoned for 'conspiracy to corrupt public morals') later said, the Albany Trust's respectable, sober-suited persuasive lobbying tactics of 'doing good by stealth' did not appeal to PIE:
There was no way in which we in PIE were going to go through all that palaver. . . . We were just not prepared to wait for decades of centuries before declaring ourselves. It just wasn't in our nature. Instead, we naïvely supposed we could be both open and play the lobbying, PR game to some extent; we thought we could manipulate the Establishment and find allies within it, simultaneously with being the ogres of the popular press and the Church-based reactionaries like the Festival of Light. [7]
PIE's mistake, O'Carroll admitted, was to believe that having identified their visible enemies they would still find elsewhere 'if not friends, then at least rational, liberally-minded people'. They did not expect The Guardian to react to the notion of paedophilia in the same way as The News of the World.
The Albany Trust's mistake was to be willing to behave as rational, liberally-minded people towards PIE and PAL, and so to expose ourselves to violent attacks from the 'moral majority' upon the Trust's hard-won credibility.
In the first (autumn 1976) issue of its broadsheet, AT Work the Trust mentioned the meetings we had convened 'to discuss possible ways of providing supportive help for paedophiles who feel themselves to be in need of it'. In the context of the Trust's counselling activities, fully detailed elsewhere in AT Work, the meaning of this phrase was perfectly clear. In the same issue I reviewed a new book on paedophilia, The Forbidden Love. [8] Although the authors (one of them, a Jungian psychiatrist, was a friend of mine) took no exception to what I wrote, it greatly incensed the Responsible Society, who described it as 'aggressive' – presumably because I had said that the Victorian assumption that childhood and sexuality were mutually exclusive could no longer be sustained without question: commonplace enough notion in the 1970s, I should have thought.
In the summer of 1976 I had spoken (in my capacity as Honorary Secretary of the Sexual Law Reform Society) about the age of consent at a National Council of Social Service Women's Forum; and in October I addressed a meeting arranged by the National Council of Voluntary Youth Organisations on the same topic Present at the latter meeting was Mrs Riches of the Responsible Society, who voiced her strong disapproval of the SLRS' proposals. [9] Over lunch I vainly tried to convince her that we were as anxious as she was to protect and guide young people during their formative years of growing up, but without making them or their consenting partners into criminals.
A few weeks later, on 24 November 1976, a violent storm burst around the Albany Trust. Mrs Mary Whitehouse, honorary General Secretary of The National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, got shockwaves of national publicity for her claim (in a speech to a 'Christian Lunch and Dinner Clubs' meeting at Central Hall, Westminster) that the Albany Trust – which she described as 'the homosexual lobby front runner' – was using its public funds to
'support paedophile groups' so that 'we are all subsidising and supporting, at least indirectly, a cause which seeks to normalise sexual attraction and activity between adult males and little girls'.
And she began her reference to the Albany Trust's public funding by pointedly remarking, 'One constantly has to ask oneself – does the right hand of the Government know what the left hand is doing? And I MEAN the left hand!'
Her allegations were groundless. All that the Trust had actually done was to invite half a dozen paedophiles to contribute their points of view at some private meetings held under our auspices with medical and social work professionals. The 'public funding' which they had received from the Albany Trust amounted to a few cups of tea. However, PIE had bought from the SLRS a single copy of the Speijer Report, which they proceeded – without our knowledge or permission – to photocopy and sell for £1.
My immediate reaction to Mrs Whitehouse's speech was that it must have been made on the basis of misinformation; and I believed that she should naturally wish to make a public correction when she realised that what she had said was false. The Trustees were legally advised that her words were defamatory, but did not wish to resort to a court action. A carefully drafted letter [See Appendix 3] was therefore sent to Mrs Whitehouse, listing the numerous errors of fact in her speech and requesting her to make a public withdrawal of what she had said. Despite several requests for an answer, the Trust never received one. And though we did not publish the contents of our letter until the summer of 1977, extracts from it had by then been printed in Mrs Whitehouse's book, Whatever Happened to Sex.
In the House of Commons a number of parliamentary questions concerning the Albany Trust were tabled. Sir Bernard Braine MP alleged that the Trust was using public funds to 'support' PIE. His 'reasons' were that PIE had sold photocopies of the Albany Trust-annotated translation of the Speijer Report for £1 each; and that under my Directorship the Trust had 'openly campaigned' for reduction of the age of consent.
I wrote to Sir Bernard Braine telling him that what he had said under the cover of Parliamentary privilege was totally without foundation, and asking him to withdraw it. He sent me a forceful letter repeating his assertions and full of underlined questions such as 'May I ask if you are the Mr Grey who spoke at these meetings?' I replied pointing out the errors in his attach, and stated:
I do not approve of paedophile practices. I do not favour the social acceptance of paedophilia. I do not belong to or support PIE. I disagree with PIE's aims, pronouncements and activities. I would not advocate or support any changes in the law other than those proposed in the enclosed Sexual Law Reform Society's report. [I added] Just as I suppose you have done, I have participated in many hundreds of meetings during my working life where numerous bodies with whom I quite violently disagreed were represented – but nobody has ever before accused me of holding views which I in fact reprobate because I have sat round a table and engaged in dialogue.
I heard nothing more from Sir Bernard Braine.
In its autumn 1977 Broadsheet the Festival of Light castigated PIE, and referred to the Albany Trust as 'a sympathetic and related body' – a description which they later withdrew following a strong protest from the Trust's new Chairman, Rodney Bennett-England (practically all of whose time was by now occupied in dealing with anxious enquires from ministers and Government funding bodies about the Trust's allegedly nefarious activities).
Others, however, were unwilling to retract their twisted versions of the Trust's views and conduct, so Bennett-England eventually wrote a letter to The Times in January 1978 complaining that for some time the Albany Trust had been the victim of 'a particularly vicious campaign' and was 'completely powerless' to defend itself against a barrage of MPs' questions. He was promptly answered by the Responsible Society's chairman, who reiterated that the Trust had given PIE 'encouragement and assistance', and that it was 'clearly linked' with the English translation of the Speijer Report ('a document which seeks to justify adult sexual gratification with minors'). Bennett-England sent a reply which did not get published, pointing out that the Speijer Report's proposal was to reduce the Dutch age of consent for homosexual behaviour to sixteen; not to legalise paedophile relationships. [12] Further private correspondence between the two chairmen failed to shake the Responsible Society's conviction that the Albany Trust condoned child-molesting.
Mrs Whitehouse took up the cudgels again the correspondence columns of The Guardian, declaring that 'for Rodney Bennett-England to deny an association between the Albany Trust and PIE is to move the debate into such a realm of unreality as to make rational argument impossible', to which he retorted 'it is she who makes rational argument impossible by refusing to accept the truth if it doesn't suit her purpose.'
Echoes of the conflict continued to reverberate around the country for several months, surfacing in a variety of parish magazines and local newspapers and causing the Albany Trust an enormous amount of extra work and worry. One such article, called Gay is Sad – and Bad which appeared in a West Country parish magazine early in 1978, claimed that:
'the Government has made available large sums of public money to organisations which exist to promote homosexuality and are sympathetic to paedophilia (sexual interference with children)', and accused the Albany Trust of being 'aggressively sympathetic to paedophilia,' of 'spreading the message that homosexual activity is normal and natural and the equivalent of sexual intercourse', and of labelling adolescents as 'teenage gay people', 'long before they have the opportunity to develop fully, thereby possibly inhibiting the maturing process to heterosexuality.'
This sensational piece was prominently featured in the local press. Fortunately the Bishop of Malmesbury, who (as he wrote to Bennett-England) had always had a considerable regard for the Albany Trust's work, and was puzzled and concerned at the sudden spate of adverse publicity which it was attracting, sent a copy of the newspaper to the Trust. Bennett-England had a letter published setting the record straight, and received a handsome apology from the clergyman who wrote the parish item. In a letter also published in the local press, he said:
These allegations [against the Albany Trust] were not manufactured here at my desk. I took them word for word, from a source which one would naturally have supposed to be entirely reliable and trustworthy. Nevertheless, I now contrast the fact that Rodney Bennett-England has set out the Albany Trust's position clearly and openly with the insistence of my own source that on no account must it be revealed. I must, therefore, prefer the former; and I do so readily and completely.
One can see his point. After all, God made no bones about telling Moses who had inscribed the Tablets of Stone on the mountain.
Looking back upon this sorry episode more than a decade later I am still distastefully perturbed by the way in which such fierce attacks were launched upon the Albany Trust upon such flimsy grounds, and were persisted in even when the Trust repeatedly exposed the falseness of the allegations against it. The chorus of misrepresentations inside and outside Parliament undoubtedly influenced the newly elected Thatcher government to cut off the Albany Trust's public funding at the end of 1979. Repeated requests for face-to-face meetings at which our real views and actions could be explained to our accusers in a friendly manner were stonily ignored. An appeal by me to Lord Longford to see fair play met only with the plaintive reply that he liked both me and Mary Whitehouse very much, and that she was 'a Good Christian Woman'.
The protection of children concerns everyone of good will in our society. Children most certainly do need protecting – not only from physical abuse and emotional cruelty, but also from simplistic beliefs which ignore the complexities of living and loving and which see human sexuality through a glass, darkly. The young are not benefited by assiduous efforts to discredit those of us who work for a society with a compassionately balanced and mature approach to sex, a facet of life so crucial to human happiness.
(pp. 208-215)
4. Paedophilia is a much misused word. Its accurate meaning is emotional and physical attraction towards, and feelings of lover for, pre-pubertal children. Emotional paedophilia does not always result in sexual activity between a paedophile and a child-object of his or her affections. However, popular usage of 'paedophile' as meaning a sexual molester or abuser of children has made realistic discussion of paedophilia extremely difficult.
5. Pilloried by the Sunday People as 'the Vilest Men in Britain'.
6. Of which I was not a member.
7. Tom O'Carroll, Paedophilia: The Radical Case (Peter Owen Publisher, London, 1980, pp. 219-20.
8. W. Kraemer, R. Gordon, M. Williams, K. Lambert, The Forbidden Love. The Normal and Abnormal Love of Children (Sheldon Press, 1976).
9. See chapter XX, below.
10. See Appendix 3.
11. Wayland, 1977.
12. The Responsible Society's dim view of the Speijer Report was not shared by the Criminal Law Revision Committee and its Policy Advisory Committee, who referred to the Report several times, in appreciative terms, in their review of the law on sexual offences (see chapter XX). Presumably they too used the SLRS translation.
The Times, January 22nd, 1970
Clifford Longley, 'Reforming the law on sexual misconduct'
The Times, July 6th, 1972
Basil Gingell, 'Dr Robinson puts case for age of consent to be 14'
The Guardian, July 6th, 1972
'Sex and the law'
The Guardian, September 5th, 1974
Michael De-La-Noy, 'Rights and Wrongs'
The Guardian, September 6th, 1974
Timothy Beaumont, 'Sex and a single mind'
The Times, September 6th, 1974
'Report calls for age of consent to be 14 and repeal of laws on pornography'
The Times, January 22nd, 1976
Ronald Butt, 'Who really wants a change in the age of consent?'
The Times, January 26th, 1976
Tim Beaumont, 'Age of Consent'
The Independent, January 24th, 1994
Antony Grey, 'Old enough to choose; The age of consent does not help young people who need protection, not punishment'
I WELCOME the prospect that Parliament will soon equalise the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual behaviour. The law bears especially harshly upon young men who engage in homosexual lovemaking, since those under 21 are still frequently prosecuted for such activities, even though under-age girls commit no offence by consenting to sex with a man. Successful prosecutions for consenting homosexual behaviour that breached the 21 age limit averaged 280 over the six years to 1991, and resulting prison sentences averaged 28 a year, so there is significant hardship – and, I would maintain, injustice.
Equalising the ages of consent must be the most immediate consideration. Ultimately, though, it would be desirable to rethink the whole legal concept of an age of consent to sexual activity and consider a completely new framework. This would give effective protection to those below the age of majority (18), without punishing them for behaviour to which – however unwisely – they have consented.
In 1974 the Sexual Law Reform Society's Working Party, of which I was secretary, submitted a memorandum to the Criminal Law Revision Committee in which we endorsed the view of our then chairman, the late Bishop John Robinson, that the law's proper function in relation to personal behaviour is "not to prohibit but to protect, not to enforce morals but to safeguard persons, their privacies and freedoms". We argued that it would be in the public interest to abolish "sexual offences" as a separate category – because all sexual behaviour that merited punishment could be classified as an assault, a breach of protective provisions for children or others in a state of dependence, or an offensive nuisance to third parties.
The working party – which included church people, doctors, lawyers and politicians – concluded after extensive discussion that the traditional framework of an "age of consent" was a hindrance, not a help, to the effective protection of young people. We reasoned that it is a legal fiction: either someone is a willing partner to a sexual act, whatever their age, or they are not. If they have consented to what they were doing and understood the consequences of their consent, this could be proved in court if necessary; and for the law to treat them as being incapable of giving such consent introduces an element of unreality into the proceedings which is confusing, harmful and in no one's best interests.
We recognised, however, that as well as punishing those who interfere with or abuse young people sexually, the law may need to protect young people whose sexual behaviour is potentially damaging to themselves or to others. We recommended an "age of protection" up to the legal age of majority (18), with appropriate civil and social, not criminal, sanctions. If the age of consent was not abolished, we urged that it should be fixed at 14 for both heterosexual and homosexual behaviour.
The CLRC responded by saying that it, too, saw the proper function of the law in sexual matters as protective rather than punitive, but opted to keep an age of consent on the grounds that it was necessary for legal certainty. It was also preoccupied by the "psychological harm" it believes "premature" sexual intercourse, heterosexual and homosexual, inflicts on youngsters.
I do not believe these arguments were convincing or conclusive; and I still think we must replace the whole concept of an age of consent with something more realistic, humane and useful for the 21st century.
Certainly there must first be a period of discussion to encourage public recognition of some obvious facts. First, "ages of consent" do not provide effective protection to those who are sexually active below them; they frequently bring great misery and disruption into the lives of such young people. Second, older men and women who sexually pressurise, interfere with or abuse youngsters can be adequately deterred and punished through other, mostly existing, legal provisions.
Britain in the Nineties is still a very sex-negative society. The ceaseless media chatter (much of it prurient and intrusive) about peoples' sex lives may seem to contradict this. But many who work in the health education and counselling fields agree that there is an enormous amount of sexual unease and unwarranted guilt around sexuality, much of it resulting from social pressures that demand conformity to outdated "norms".
No society can do away with all standards and controls, and a total sexual free-for-all would probably produce even more unhappiness (a prime argument of those who oppose any relaxation of laws concerning sex). But good personal and ethical standards and considerate behaviour towards others are not as closely bound up with legal controls as traditional moralists would argue. As the Wolfenden Committee said in its 1957 report, such views exaggerate the effect of the law on human behaviour; the law itself, it said, probably makes little difference to the amount of (homo) sexual behaviour that actually occurs.
Personal standards of morality and behaviour are the outcome of a socialising process that begins at birth; they are the product of a lifetime's education in wise choice-making, rather than of legal finger-wagging. In a newspaper interview before she became prime minister, Margaret Thatcher wisely observed: "Free choice is ultimately what life is about, what ethics is about . . . Do away with choice and you do away with human dignity."
That, in a nutshell, is the case for replacing the "age of consent" with protective provisions that pay more respect to the personal choices (including those which others think are mistaken) of adolescents in their growing-up years. By regarding and treating adolescents too much as if they were overgrown children, rather than as young adults, society makes a rod for its back which manifests itself in juvenile delinquency and teenage tearaways.
If we don't take teenagers seriously, why should they take us seriously? In a recent survey of 146 sixth-formers carried out by JL Randall, Childhood and Sexuality, the young people gave a massive thumbs-down to the notion of confiding their sexual problems to "helping" adults: only 1.4 per cent of the sample said they would approach a social worker, 2 per cent a teacher, 3.4 per cent a doctor and O.7 per cent a clergyman, although almost half felt able to talk to their parents.
There are lessons here for adults. An important one is that it is high time for us to start treating teenagers' sexual needs and experiences less dismissively and more sympathetically, and to replace the outdated and punitive legal fiction of an "age of consent" with a benign and carefully thought-out framework of effective protection.
We British pride ourselves on our devotion to individual freedom, yet in practice we still operate our social system on a basis of "benevolent paternalism". This is especially true where personal choices around sex, free expression, entertainment choices, drug use and other aspects of personal life are concerned. Is it not time to enter the 21st century as a personal, as well as a political and social, democracy, and "trust the people"?
– The author was secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in the Sixties, and of the Sexual Law Reform Society in the Seventies. His latest book, 'Speaking of Sex', is published by Cassell at pounds 10.99.
The Guardian, January 24th, 1998
Antony Grey, Letter: '… and sex in parts of Bolton. Reform is urgently called for'
IT IS 25 years since the late Bishop John Robinson stated, as chairman of the Sexual Law Reform Society, that the law's function in this sphere "should not be to prohibit but to protect, not to enforce morals but to safeguard persons, their privacies and freedoms".
The following year, the Society's Working Party recommended a wide range of reforms to limit the law's interference in sexual behaviour to situations where the parties have not consented, are not fully responsible, or have breached others' privacy in an offensive manner.
Most of the specific reforms which we proposed a quarter-century ago have still not been implemented.
Antony Grey.


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Module ASB-2507:
Management Accounting
Module Facts
Run by Bangor Business School
20.000 Credits or 10.000 ECTS Credits
Semester 1 & 2
Organiser: Ms Wendy Ashurst
Overall aims and purpose
NOTE: If you are registered for BA/BSc Accounting and Finance, you must achieve a grade of at least 40% in this module in order to proceed to Year 3.
To develop knowledge, understanding and computational skills in the application of a range of management accounting techniques and their role within an organisation.
Course content
The module is taught over 2 semesters and covers budgets and pricing for planning. Decision making including through put accounting. Standard costing and budgetary systems to help control the organisation and various aspects of performance measurement. These provide the student with the knowledge to apply advanced management accounting techniques in organisations.
Assessment Criteria
D- to D+ (40-49%): No major omissions or inaccuracies in the deployment of information/skills. Some grasp of theoretical/conceptual/practical elements. Integration of theory/practice/information present intermittently in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives.
B- to B+ (60-69%): Very good performance Most of the relevant information accurately deployed. Good grasp of theoretical/conceptual/practical elements. Good integration of theory/practice/information in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives. Evidence of the use of creative and reflective skills.
A- to A+ (70%+): Outstanding performance. The relevant information accurately deployed. Excellent grasp of theoretical/conceptual/practice elements. Good integration of theory/practice/information in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives. Strong evidence of the use of creative and reflective skills.
C- to C+
C- to C+ (50-59%): Much of the relevant information and skills mostly accurately deployed. Adequate grasp of theoretical/conceptual/practical elements. Fair integration of theory/practice/information in the pursuit of the assessed work's objectives. Some evidence of the use of creative and reflective skills.
Learning outcomes
Understand and apply management accounting techniques used in planning, control and decision-making within organisations.
Identify how management accounting can provide support for corporate strategic aims.
Understand and apply a range of specialist cost and management accounting techniques
Describe the application of a variety of budgetary systems in various organisational.
Calculate and explain basic and advanced variances in a standard costing system, including mix and yield and planning and operational variances.
Discuss the measurement of organisational and divisional performance in the private and public sectors, including an explanation of the effect of transfer pricing methods upon organisational and divisional decision making.
Assessment Methods
|Examination S2
|Examinaton S1
Teaching and Learning Strategy
One 2-hour lecture per week.
3 one hour workshops per semester for practicing questions
|Private study
Private Study to review module material from lectures, further reading from textbooks and the internet, plus practice numerical questions
Transferable skills
- Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
- Numeracy - Proficiency in using numbers at appropriate levels of accuracy
- Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
- Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
- Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
- Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
- Management - Able to utilise, coordinate and control resources (human, physical and/or financial)
- Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
Subject specific skills
- knowledge of some of the contexts in which accounting can be seen as operating (examples of contexts include the legal, ethical, social and natural environment; the accountancy profession; the business entity; the capital markets; the public sector)
- knowledge of the main current technical language and practices of accounting (for example, recognition, measurement and disclosure in financial statements; managerial accounting; auditing; taxation) in a specified socio-economic domain
- knowledge of some of the alternative technical languages and practices of accounting (for example, alternative recognition rules and valuation bases, accounting rules followed in other socio-economic domains, alternative managerial accounting approaches to control and decision-making)
- skills in recording and summarising transactions and other economic events; preparation of financial statements; analysis of the operations of business (for example, decision analysis, performance measurement and management control); financial analysis and projections (for example, analysis of financial ratios, discounted cash flow analysis, budgeting, financial risks)
- knowledge of contemporary theories and empirical evidence concerning accounting in at least one of its contexts (for example, accounting and capital markets; accounting and the firm; accounting and the public sector; accounting and society; accounting and sustainability) and the ability to critically evaluate such theories and evidence age
- Analysis, deduction and induction. Economic reasoning is highly deductive, and logical analysis is applied to assumption-based models. However, inductive reasoning is also important. The development of such analytical skills enhances students' problem-solving and decision-making ability.
- People management: to include communications, team building, leadership and motivating others.
- Problem solving and critical analysis: analysing facts and circumstances to determine the cause of a problem and identifying and selecting appropriate solutions.
- Numeracy: the use of quantitative skills to manipulate data, evaluate, estimate and model business problems, functions and phenomena.
- Articulating and effectively explaining information.
- Communication and listening including the ability to produce clear, structured business communications in a variety of media.
- Conceptual and critical thinking, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
- Self-management: a readiness to accept responsibility and flexibility, to be resilient, self-starting and appropriately assertive, to plan, organise and manage time.
Talis Reading listhttp://readinglists.bangor.ac.uk/modules/asb-2507.html
Reading list
Main Management and Cost Accounting 10th edition Colin Drury
Supplementary ACCA F5 Performance Management Complete text Kaplan Publishing
Pre- and Co-requisite Modules
Courses including this module
Compulsory in courses:
- NR43: BA Accounting/Italian year 2 (BA/AIT)
- NR44: BA Accounting/Spanish year 2 (BA/ASP)
- NR41: BA French/Accounting year 2 (BA/FRA)
- NR42: BA German/Accounting year 2 (BA/GA)
- NN44: BSc Accounting and Banking with International Experience year 2 (BSC/ABIE)
- NN43: BSc Accounting and Banking year 2 (BSC/ACCB)
- NN46: BSc Accounting and Banking (4 year with Incorp Found) year 2 (BSC/ACCB1)
- NN3F: BSc Accounting and Banking year 2 (BSC/ACCBF)
- NN3P: BSc Acc & Banking with Place Yr year 2 (BSC/ACCBP)
- NL41: BSc Accounting and Economics year 2 (BSC/ACCEC)
- NL4B: BSc Accounting and Economics (4 year with Incorp Foundation) year 2 (BSC/ACCEC1)
- NL4F: BSc Accounting and Economics year 2 (BSC/ACCECF)
- NL4P: BSc Accounting and Economics with Placement Year year 2 (BSC/ACCECP)
- NN4J: BSc Accounting and Finance (4 year with Incorp Found) year 2 (BSC/ACCF1)
- NN4H: BSc Accounting and Finance year 2 (BSC/ACCFIN)
- NN4F: BSc Accounting and Finance year 2 (BSC/ACCFINF)
- N402: BSc Accounting & Finance (with International Experience) year 2 (BSC/ACCFINIE)
- NN4P: BSc Accounting and Finance with Placement Year year 2 (BSC/ACCFINP)
- NL42: BSc Accounting and Economics with International Experience year 2 (BSC/AEIE)
- N406: BSc Accounting and Finance (Bangor International College) year 2 (BSC/BICAF)
- N203: BSc Business Man with Acc (Bangor Uni International College) year 2 (BSC/BICBMA)
- NN24: BSc Management with Account (Bangor International College) year 2 (BSC/BICMNA)
- N2ND: BSc Business Management with Accounting year 2 (BSC/BMA)
- N2NF: BSc Business Man with Account (4 yr with Incorp Foundation) year 2 (BSC/BMA1)
- N3NF: BSc Business Management with Accounting year 2 (BSC/BMAF)
- N2NP: BSc Business Management with Accounting with Placement Year year 2 (BSC/BMAP)
- M1N4: LLB Law with Acc and Finance year 2 (LLB/LAF)
- M1NB: LLB Law with Accounting & Finance (4yr with Incorp Found) year 2 (LLB/LAF1)
- M103: LLB Law with Accounting & Finance (Intl Exp) year 2 (LLB/LIA)
Optional in courses:
- NQ26: BA Astudiaethau Busnes a Chymraeg year 2 (BA/ABCH)
- N107: BA Business year 2 (BA/BUS)
- L190: BSc Business Economics year 2 (BSC/BEC)
- L19B: BSc Business Economics (4 year with Incorporated Foundation) year 2 (BSC/BEC1)
- L19F: BSc Business and Economics year 2 (BSC/BECF)
- L191: BSc Business Economics with International Experience year 2 (BSC/BECIE)
- L19P: BSc Business Economics with Placement Year year 2 (BSC/BECP)
- L192: BSc Business Economics (Bangor International College) year 2 (BSC/BICBE)
- N2N5: BSc Business Management and Marketing year 2 (BSC/BMM)
- N2NC: BSc Business Man & Marketing (4 yr with Incorp Foundation) year 2 (BSC/BMM1)
- N5NF: BSc Business Management and Marketing year 2 (BSC/BMMF)
- N5NP: BSc Business Management and Marketing with Placement Year year 2 (BSC/BMMP)
- NNM1: BSc Business Studies & Marketing with Intl Experience year 2 (BSC/BSMIE)
- NN1M: BSc Business Studies and Marketing year 2 (BSC/BSMKT)
- NN1K: BSc Business Studies & Marketing (4 year with Incorp Found) year 2 (BSC/BSMKT1)
- IN00: BSc Computer Information Systems for Business year 2 (BSC/CISB)
- IN0B: BSc Computer Information Sys for Bus (4 year w Incorp Found) year 2 (BSC/CISB1)
- IN02: BSc Computer Information Systems for Business (Franchised) year 2 (BSC/CISBF)

subset: commoncrawl


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Beaucoup of Blues
The 22nd Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival (July 2–5) began with a bang–a scintillating set by Robert Johnson acolyte 'Keb 'Mo. The rest of the performers were as hot as the 90 degree weather; the sultry testifying of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Johnny Winter's Hendrix-like rendition of "Red House," and the irresistible rhythmic pull of Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie were among the fest's more memorable moments.
The four-day soiree saw nearly 30 performances a day on 5 stages and raised $544,638 and 76,363 pounds of food for the Oregon Food Bank.
Here are some choice shots of fans and musicians alike, all soaking up the best of the blues in our web-exclusive slideshow shot by photographer Heather Zinger and reported by Megan Udow.


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USC's quarterback rotation against Washington State on Saturday will look similar to last week, with Cody Kessler starting and Max Wittek coming on in relief, although Trojans coach Lane Kiffin still will not actually divulge his plans.
Kiffin said Sunday he told his plans to Kessler and Wittek and sources said he told the quarterbacks he would follow the same plan as in the opener against Hawaii. USC players were not allowed to speak to the media on Monday, but Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday was and did not endorse the two-quarterback system.
"That's a tough situation,'' Halliday said. "I feel for them down there. If you're doing it the way that would make everything easier, go into camp and have your competition and figure out who the guy's going to be going into week one, and throw all your chips in with him so that quarterback feels like he has trust from the coaching staff and trust from the 105 guys around him."
Halliday said making a choice not only helps the quarterback but also aids the rest of the team.
"That's the biggest thing, knowing the rest of the guys have your back," Halliday said. "It's always easy to be confident in yourself, but when you feel confidence from the rest of the guys around you, that helps out a lot."
Cougars improved?
This is the first time USC has played Washington State since Kiffin's first year in 2010. Halliday Halliday was asked the difference between this year's Cougars and the 2010 edition.
"Half those kids wouldn't have started for a good high school football team," Halliday said. "We actually have some guys who can play at this level now."
Washington State nearly upset Auburn on the road last weekend, losing 31-24 as Halliday completed 35 of 65 passes for 344 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions.
Halliday was also asked how important a victory over USC would be for the Cougars.
"It'd be huge," he said. "We don't really have a choice. Going 0-2 is a tough way to start the year with the goals that we have for this team, so it's kind of a must win."
Lee insured for $10M
USC wide receiver Marqise Lee took out a total-disability insurance policy worth $10 million for this season, according to ESPN. The policy allows Lee to collect the money tax free if he suffers a career-ending injury or slips significantly in the NFL draft.
Lee did not go through the NCAA to obtain the policy. An NCAA program caps the insurance amount at $5 million and does not pay players for loss-of-draft-value insurance.
A policy typically costs $8,000-10,000 for every $1 million in insurance.


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Religion News: NFL player seeks to grow Christian apparel company
While most sports fans recognize Mark Clayton as a wide receiver for the St. Louis Rams, another community recognizes Clayton as founder and CEO of MyChristianT.com, a hip apparel brand with Christian messages.
During this NFL lockout, Clayton is busy furthering the brand he founded in 2010, with the goal of finding a place where faith meets fashion, both in trendy apparel and online social networking.
"Spreading the word of Christ has been my mission in any season," said Clayton, "but being able to expand the brand during this lockout is gratifying. We have a lot going on."
Clayton founded the company in 2010 when he recognized that apparel for men and women with fashion-forward designs could feature well-loved Christian sayings and Scripture that would inform and inspire.
Recently, the company launched MCT, an online network where users can share their stories, investigate their faith, and participate in interactive online contests and spiritual discussions.
Clayton's perseverance and faith played a large role in his career and in his life. His focus has always been on a higher purpose: his relationship with God. A majority of the proceeds from MyChristianT.com will fund the MCT network and other spiritual, creative and educational opportunities for today's youth and young adults. Additionally, funds will help support programs that help under-privileged families, foster children, the homeless and abused women and children.
-- ReligionNews.com
Week in Religion
- May 24, 1738, English founder of Methodism John Wesley underwent his famous religious conversion at Aldersgate Chapel in London.
- May 25, 1824, the American Sunday School Union was established in Philadelphia.
- May 26, 1957, the religious program "The Fourth R" aired for the last time on NBC. Produced by several different religious organizations, this short-lived series aired on Sunday mornings.
-- William D. Blake, Almanac of the Christian Church
Survey Says
In Pakistan, 47 percent of Muslims "sympathize" with Islamic fundamentalists, 15 percent sympathize with those who disagree with Islamic fundamentalists and 25 percent "don't know."
-- Pew Research Center
Good Book?
"Getting to Heaven: Departing Instructions for Your Life Now" by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey
Don Piper, author of "Heaven is Real" (2004), draws on his own firsthand experiences with the joys of heaven, as well as the lessons found in the Gospel, to offer a set of "departing instructions," helping readers face the inevitable battles ahead, prepare for eternal life and live a happy, fulfilling, purposeful life on Earth while preparing for the glories of heaven.
-- Penguin Group (USA)
Quote of the week
"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion." – President Abraham Lincoln
The Word
Mantra: A syllable, word or phrase with spiritual power. It is chanted or held in the mind in connection with meditation or ritual. Mantras are commonly used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains and are traditionally drawn from Sanskrit scriptures, such as the Vedas.
-- ReligionStylebook.com
Religion Around the World
Religious makeup of Mali
Muslim: 90 percent
Christian: 1 percent
Indigenous beliefs: 9 percent
- CIA Factbook
GateHouse News Service


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Vidal writes: "The poor countries have done everything asked of them. Now the rich nations must face their responsibilities."
'At the UN climate talks Doha negotiators from 194 countries are meeting in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust.' (photo: Osama Faisal/AP)
The Doha Climate Talks Must Put an End to Excuses
26 November 12
The evidence of climate change is clearer than ever. The poor countries have done everything asked of them. Now the rich nations must face their responsibilities
ast month was the 333rd consecutive month that global temperatures were above the 20th century average, and 2012 will almost certainly be the hottest ever recorded in the US. Hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires and droughts blistered farmlands and ruined crops from Kansas to Assam, and Britain has had its wettest summer and driest spring to date. Nigeria, China and much of India and Australia have all had their worst floods in decades. In September the Arctic sea ice cover shrank 50% below the 1979-2000 average.
In a world where climate extremes come faster than ever, the World Bank has found common ground with Greenpeace. Last week, even as the World Meteorological Organisation reported that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had reached a record 394ppm, the bank warned that the world is on course for a 4C temperature rise which will consign most people to a very different and much less liveable world, and which will inevitably wreck economies and hopes of development.
The UN, too, estimated greenhouse gas emissions to be 14% above where they need to be to hold temperatures to a manageable 2C rise. The biggest corporations, including oil companies like Shell, want governments to introduce a carbon price and to seriously address climate change. Even Saudi Arabia and the oil exporters of Opec are considering levying a carbon tax to give to the UN fund that helps poor countries adapt to climate change.
Evidence of global warming mounts both on the ground and in science, but in the bubble world of international climate diplomacy, little happens. Countries have become less and less able to collectively address the crisis unfolding around them. When UN talks fell apart in Copenhagen in 2009, world leaders claimed they could cobble together a new binding agreement to cut emissions within six months. That became a year, then two years, and now the rich countries tell a bemused public that it will be 2015 at the earliest before a final agreement will be reached. Trillions of dollars can be found to bail out banks in a few months, but the world's most experienced negotiators cannot find a way to get Americans, the British or anyone to just turn down the air conditioning or lag their roofs to reduce the amount of energy they use.
So what is the point of the massive UN climate talks which start on Mondaytoday in Doha, one of the most energy-profligate cities on Earth? Negotiators from 194 countries are meeting in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust. They are divided and frustrated, and know their political masters mostly seek only painfully slow progress. We already know rich countries will refuse to commit to any further cuts in emissions or to provide more money, just as we know the poor will try to cling to the few global climate agreements reached between nations years ago. There will be fights, tantrums, and righteous anger from the non-government observers and world media.
The blame for this miserable state of diplomatic affairs must be laid squarely on the US in particular and the rich countries in general. For three years now, they have bullied the poor into accepting a new agreement. They have delayed making commitments, withheld money and played a cynical game of power politics to avoid their legal obligations. The resulting distrust has fatally plagued the talks.
In 2009 the rich countries agreed to give $100bn by 2020 to help poor countries adapt to climate change. So far, they have not even provided the $30bn they promised as a down payment. Instead, they have offered less than the annual bonuses given in the City of London - and most of that in the form of loans, not grants. Led by the US, the rich have now wrecked the Kyoto treaty, the one international agreement that legally binds the rich to making cuts, and now it appears they want to ditch the Bali action plan, which commits the US and other countries to reduce emissions. Meanwhile Europe, after three years, still will not say what cuts it is willing to commit to even though the first phase of Kyoto expires in a few months and there is nothing in its place .
The time for such cynicism and parsimonious diplomacy must be over. Obama, trailing victory, missed the chance to lead the world at Copenhagen but can nowcommit the rich world to a generous agreement. Britain, who will send two ministers to Doha, can lead Europe. A new Chinese administration can be flexible.
The science and evidence of climate change is clearer than ever, the poor countries on the frontline of the immense changes taking place have done everything that was asked of them by the rich to cut their emissions. In short, there is little time left and no more excuses.
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Continuing from
- 87. Tantrum-me : Explaining the memory of childhood that created the pattern and condition of 'the victim'
- 88. The Victim: Walking the Self-Forgiveness process on the childhood memory along with other points that emerged when walking the Self Forgiveness
Self Corrective Statements.
This is the Self-Corrective process to stop the pattern from playing out from here on when and as I see myself in particular events/ situations that present the same trigger points that I would react to based on the particular character identified as 'The Victim.'
When and as I see myself suiting a memory in order to place myself as the victim within a particular event/situation, I stop and I breathe – I realize that the ability to stop playing as a character based on the past as memory is here the moment that I do not participate and instead, continue walking, breathing and directing myself in common sense according to what is here as reality.
I realize that the advantage used before within 'being the offended' in the story was to place myself as superior to the other characters in the story, without realizing that I cannot base my existence of 'who I am' as the offender/ offended in a particular event – it is about me taking responsibility for what I do, say and think in the moment wherein if I in any way think or react in an emotional way, I direct myself to investigate the point to see where it is that I haven't yet walked the self forgiveness in relation to the particular memory it is stemming from, in order to realize the cycle that must be stopped as a particular thinking pattern within me, such as victimizing myself toward beings in my reality based on the memories I held of them within my own mind.
When and as I see myself expecting someone to feel 'bad' about something that they have done, I stop and I breathe – I realize that I am following the pattern of expecting someone to react in a way that makes me feel in 'power and control' over them. Thus I direct myself to instead support myself to stop any thoughts, reactions and then support them to instead of falling into guilt, blame and remorse, realize the point of responsibility through self-forgiveness and walk the necessary corrections in self-honesty.
When and as I see myself acting out of righteousness as in thinking that 'I want to/ I can do this all by myself,' I stop and I breathe- I realize this is the ego of the mind speaking as the ingrained pattern in and during childhood. Thus I realize that I can instead learn how to work and direct points in working with others, as that is an effective way to expand ourselves into a more effective way of living as equals.
I realize that this is in essence an ingrained pattern that I played out as a child wherein I would deliberately want to do it 'on my own' based on how my parents wanted to do things for me, the same with teachers when placing an example and giving 'too many examples for my taste,' wherein I would go into a haste of wanting them to just stop and allow me to do it on my own.
I realize then that this pattern of wanting to do it on my own and in essence devoid of 'authority supervision' was my way to prove that I do not require to be directed by others- just another form of incipient ego that I developed as a child because it was not from an actual realization of me being able to do it by myself, but mostly getting pissed off when 'being shown' how to do things, placing myself in the ego stance as if I was already 'all knowing' and didn't require to be directed.
When and as I see myself reacting in exasperation and irritation when things/ points are being shown to me, I stop and I breathe – I realize that the only reason why I am reacting is because I am coming from the 'who I am' as the ego that doesn't require explanations, directions and 'knows how to do it,' which is till this day an ingrained pattern wherein I react whenever someone gives me direction and common sense is shoved away and first emerges this reaction of 'being told what to do,' wherein I then believe that I was not being 'effective enough' and as such, diminish myself in that moment of taking the directions/ suggestions, instead of walking in common sense to not consider who is giving the instructions and within what context – but simply hear and apply based on common sense as what's best for all.
When and as I see myself reacting to authority in/as any personality/ character, I stop and I breathe. I realize that I simply have to consider at all times what is best for all, and as such direct myself to establish my common –sense as a living direction wherein I stop acting and reacting based on the 'who I am' as the ego of the past, and instead unconditionally live here in every moment character-less.
When and as I see myself using any means such as 'threats' in order for others to act / move / direct a particular point, I stop and I breathe – I realize that this authoritarian character and imposition is a point that I accepted and allowed myself to play out from childhood wherein I learned how I would only move if I was threatened with something.
I realize that this mechanism acts in the form of instilling fear of experiencing something that I loathed – for example, being tickled until I would almost pee myself – if I didn't remove my school uniform when getting home from school – which became a 'game' with my mother though at the same time I was actually petrified of being tickled until I would almost or sometimes pee myself because of the laughter mixed with fear.
I see that what may seem as a 'meaningless game' has actually instilled a traumatic-exposure as a way to move/ direct myself instead of having a common sensical explanation of why I should do it, instead of just imposing and order along with a threat if I didn't do it.
When and as I see myself wanting to be 'special' because of not reacting/ acting in an apparent 'predictable pattern' in relation to 'the masses' – I stop and I breathe- I realize that any reaction and any assessment of 'which character am I at the moment' is also another form of ego as I am basing my existence here in the moment in relation to comparing myself to others in the moment.
Thus I remain breathing wherein there can exist no character at all.
When and as I see myself experiencing a sense of freedom, self-direction and independence when pushing a trolley – which is and has been a quiet experience within me every time and only now am I noticing it – I stop and I breathe – I realize that this is linked to that point of 'taking the wheel' in my life as a self-righteousness pattern, along with the characters of efficiency and effectiveness that I have exposed to myself in relation to my father. Thus I direct myself to simply walk with a trolley here, in the moment, one and equal, doing whatever it is that I have to do in the supermarket.
It's fascinating how such a seemingly 'unimportant' point as pushing a trolley can be loaded with an entire character based on ingrained memories from the past as childhood.
When and as I see myself wanting to do the opposite of what the perceived point of authority in my reality is pointing out myself to be/ do and direct, I stop and I breathe. I realize that acting out of reaction is not best for all, but only suiting my ego as to 'be right' / have the best direction and/ or just deliberately causing friction within another as an ingrained way to maintain myself as 'superior' and 'right' toward others.
When and as I see myself saying the words 'why didn't you tell me? How come no one let me know?' I stop and I breathe – I ensure that I am not charging these words with energy as in feeling 'left out' and 'rejected' or deliberately ignored based on the memories of myself as a child – thus I realize that I can direct such words to relate to a practical point wherein I do not take things personally, but instead first see and check what was the context in the moment and if I was required to 'be there' or not.
A memory comes up when I was at the farm and I was washing, which means that I would not be hearing much based on the noises in the laundry room. And then I saw that there was not much movement around, so after a while I realized that everyone was in a meeting and I had not been called – I got into such anger immediately toward my partner in that time because 'it was his duty to let me know,' and in that moment I became possessed with anger that I eventually exerted it out after all onto him, which was one of the times that I was being shown and revealed how I was blowing things out of proportion and deliberately wanting him to react in a similar way. But because I would see 'indifference' and 'no reaction,' I would get even more pissed off about it. I was instead shown how I was simply acting out of a mind possession, which was a cool point to see and realize once I allowed myself to Hear and stopping the raging backchat in the moment. I saw how I would immediately take it personal instead of investigating first the point and remain here as breath throughout it, and direct the necessary points to correct from here on. Instead I reacted heavily in anger which I see can be associated with this childhood memory and other memories of believing and perceiving that I am deliberately being ignored/ not called/ not taken into consideration – plus not getting the necessary 'shame' and remorse from another to make myself feel like the righteous victim in that moment – which is only a mind-trap for me to remain as a victim that can later on use this as a means to retaliate toward the person/ people that apparently had 'done this unto me.'
When and as I see myself reacting to people in a certain event wherein I believe that I am being deliberately uninformed/ left out/ rejected – I stop and I breathe. I direct myself to remain here as breath and instead simply get the necessary points that I require to be aware of and continue with my daily tasks/ doings.
When and as I see myself deliberately raging against someone within the expectation of having them react to my words in a similar negative way, I stop and I breathe – I realize that this point of 'raging against someone' must not even exist if I am able t to direct myself in breath throughout situations instead of taking it personally and blowing things out of proportion.
I realize that I am reacting in an automated manner based on the memories of 'who I am' that I had not even been able to spot before as they were patterns ingrained in childhood.
When and as I see myself going into the pattern of being the 'odd one' in the family context, I stop and I breathe – I realize that this is just based on certain events wherein I built up the belief of me not being 'a desired child' which I would use as a means to have something to 'oppose to' in my world just for the sake of creating friction and conflict toward others.
I instead direct myself to remain here as breath, communicating and being here without assessing 'who I am' in that moment as a character based on the past in relation to the memory of myself as part of a particular family construct.
When and as I see myself wanting to deliberately blow things out of proportion in order to instigate further inner conflict in another so that I can feel like 'the winner' in my own mind, I stop and I breathe. I realize that this is me wanting to enhance myself as the self-righteousness character. Instead, I direct myself to remain here as breath wherein I can hear/ read the point unconditionally and as such, place myself in the shoes of another to see what is the best direction to give and do based on what's best for all parts involved.
When and as I see myself believing that I am being deliberately 'excluded' for some point/ activity/ event, I stop and I breathe – I realize I am taking it personal wherein I think that I am being singled out for the sake of some personal ego reasons. I realize that this is only existent within my mind based on how I programmed myself from childhood to believe that I was the 'unwanted child' and as such, have a 'reason' to rebel against family/ authority in my mind.
When and as I see myself deliberately getting angry, shouting and making an entire 'big deal' out of an event in order to instill fear and a general shock in another so that they can react in guilt, shame, remorse, I stop and I breathe. I realize that I am simply wanting to place myself as above them and getting an energetic kick out of their reaction. Thus I breathe through the words, I stop any reaction and instead direct the point within the consideration of what is best for all in the moment, ensuring I do not take it personal but instead support myself and the other person to establish a proper communication to sort out/ direct the point effectively.
When and as I see myself speaking words toward another from the starting point of deliberately 'putting more wood on the fire,' I stop and I breathe. I realize that I am acting out of the victim personality that seeks to feel 'more' and 'better' than the other by instigating a particular 'negative experience' within them, so that I can feel good/ positive experience within me.
I realize that I am able to share perspectives and points in another however, all have to be based from the clear starting point of ensuring that I am not deliberately pointing fingers as to make others feel 'like shit' but to support another as myself to establish ourselves as self-directive beings that in all cases consider what is best for all people involved in equality.
When and as I see myself taking the 'benevolent being' character that is 'willing to forgive another for what they've done,' I realize that this is just plain ego as no one can forgive another, it is plain separation. I instead support another to walk through the point in Self-Forgiveness wherein I ensure I also walk the necessary self-forgiveness to unconditionally let go of any reactions emerging in the moment within me – I take responsibility for my mind, my thoughts, my words and reactions – thus I make sure I am breathing before speaking.
When and as I see myself playing out the character of 'the one that is able to point out shit in another,' I stop and I breathe – I realize that this 'observer' pattern as 'the judge' has been prominent within me instead of placing myself equal and one to another in the moment to then direct myself 'as them' to see the points that require direction. I see and realize that taking the character of 'the judge' is me believing myself to always be right and a such already place myself as inequality toward another – I direct myself to ensure I am breathing when interacting with another and I place myself in the moment within the consideration of what is best for all as equality and oneness.
When and as I see myself playing out the 'polite one' in order to get what I want, I stop and I breathe – I realize this is a manipulative pattern within me wherein I can simply direct myself to ask for the point without using surreptitious cloaked means to do so by instilling positivity in another to get my reward/ prize/ winning situation.
When and as I see myself expecting some 'reward' from another based on a previous event wherein I have experienced myself as 'the victim,' I stop and I breathe – I realize that reward is and has been a mechanism to make myself feel better after having felt being wronged and as such, all forms of 'instilling happiness' within me is based on me allowing myself to exist as a character based on the past and memories of childhood. Thus, I direct myself to not expect and not create any future projections and expectation toward anything or anyone.
When and as I see myself deliberately placing a gesture of sadness, depression or any other anguished face – I stop and I breathe – I realize that this is only possible when I am around people and I want to deliberately make them react to the face and ask 'what is wrong?' 'what is going on?' – hence this is deliberate manipulation that can only exist if I allow myself to remain as a character that instills a negative experience In another, to obtain commiseration as a positive experience in reward, which is just me supporting characters as myself and others in this world. I ensure that I first take on the thought pattern to see where and how I am victimizing myself in the moment, walk it through self forgiveness to ensure I stop the character in its root – myself – instead of going out and deliberately exposing it to get the reactions I want/ need and require to maintain the victimization character.
I commit myself to continue writing out the characters ingrained within childhood that I accepted and allowed myself to be and become as it is clear how such points have remained as a righteousness within me without questioning it further, instead of realizing that I have been the creator of them all = hence it is absolutely possible for me to stop them.
I commit myself to remain here as breath in every single moment of my day to day living, wherein I realize that the smallest reaction is myself existing as a character that must be investigated, self forgiven and self-corrected to stop the cycles of the past existing within and as me.
For further support, visit the Desteni Forum
For specialized self-support, check out the Desteni I Process
Darla (2006)
Self Support on Childhood memories and considerations to walk in our process:


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As Governor Rick Perry positions for his big run, it's worth examining the accomplishments he can and can't take credit for. The importance of this exercise stretches beyond his campaign. You can expect that other states might try to duplicate Texas' relative success in weathering the economic crisis. It's important that they replicate what works rather than merely believing the propaganda.
First, how well has Texas done? Meh.
Perry has touted Texas's fabulous success in job creation, but it's not entirely clear what he's talking about. The state has created a lot of new jobs and the unemployment rate is better than average – it ranks 24th – with unemployment at a stubborn 8%. It is true that Texas' population is growing rapidly, but the majority of that growth is coming from Mexico.
The state has, in fact, avoided the worst of the downturn. The most important factor in Texas' success during the recession is that it never experienced the real estate bubble of the 'aughts, with its subsequent destruction of capital and jobs.
The home I bought in Houston in 2001 is worth about the same now as it was then. Real estate in Texas has always been practically free, when compared with that in other states. Endless sprawl, no meaningful quality regulation, staggering property taxes, and a lack of public capital have kept values, not just prices, low and flat. Avoiding the worst of that boom and bust gave the state a relative lift while much of the rest of the country cratered.
You know who else was untouched by the global real estate meltdown?
North Korea.
Missing the bust may have been linked to Texas' "great" policy decisions, or it may have been a result of Texas being disconnected from what's happening in the global economy.
Texas is growing, but it is also getting poorer. Its high poverty rate, fifth highest in the country, is even more dramatic when you consider its inequality. To quote a report from the University of Texas, "Texas is only one of three states to rank in the top five in each category of poverty – that is, to be in the top five in both poverty rate and income inequality (the other two are Mississippi and Louisiana)." With a gini coefficient of .49, the gap between rich and poor in Texas is slightly greater than in Mexico (.48). It should come as no surprise that it also among the worst states in terms of money spent on education (37th), graduation rates (43rd), teenage pregnancy (46th), literacy (47th), and percentage of uninsured (50th). And its government ranks 50th in the U.S. in terms of money spent per capita.
The state gets a lot of kudos for low taxes, but again the picture is more complex than it might appear. Since Jesus hates an income tax, Texas is stuck with a bizarre corporate tax structure that creates tremendous confusion and inequity. The conservative Tax Foundation described the state's gross receipts tax as "the most economically harmful tax structure available to lawmakers." Corporate taxes in Texas are great for some kinds of companies and horrible for others.
And I can tell you from my own very surprising personal experience that the move from supposedly low-tax Texas to crazy-taxtational Yankee-land somehow slashed my own tax bill dramatically. Others describe a similar experience. The lack of an income tax puts a heavy tax burden on middle-earning homeowners.
But Texas has a natural economic advantage that it should capitalize on. A story might help illustrate.
A town here in the Chicago area recently passed an ordinance to regulate the size, color, and locations of RedBox machines – those DVD vending machines you find at the grocery store.
Why did they do this?
The machines were causing no documented problems. No one in the community had complained about them. They don't spew waste or make noise. They're not even ugly. Someone on the town planning commission just decided that there should be some rules.
So now the company, which operates nationally, has one more irritating and meaningless set of limits it has to track and comply with. Multiply that absurd example by tens of thousands of municipal and county authorities and you begin to see the scale of the problem. Nothing gained whatsoever by anyone for the significant costs incurred. And no realistic recourse for the job-creating company.
A Governor is in no position to stop a bored city council in some self-important little suburb from creating obstacles to prosperity for the whole state.
It can't be done.
It is a bottom-up problem that infects the whole public sphere and is extremely difficult to curb.
The kind of freedom to create and build that Texans enjoy doesn't come from the Legislature. In fact, the Legislature and the Governor are doing everything they can to undermine the potential of this advantage via an unfair system of taxation and a refusal to support schools and other public capital.
Texas' best economic advantage comes from the culture. You can't give that to someone.
An aspiring Texas entrepreneur will face relatively little pressure to support a union racket, bribe a city councilman, or spend thousands of dollars a month deciphering layers of bizarre and pointless local regulations imposed at every level of an endless state and local bureaucracy.
Why? Because Texans don't tolerate those obstacles.
Perry's greatest accomplishment has been to accumulate a lot of personal power and wealth by cynically indulging the culture's most self-destructive instincts. Texas has held its ground economically in spite of him. He took over a small government that contributed almost nothing to the people's welfare and worked to cripple it further. His reckless tax cuts generated the nation's largest budget hole (in percentage terms), which he is trying to fill primarily by slashing Medicaid and education.
With this culture of open business development, imagine what Texas could accomplish if it had the finest schools, top research institutions, and a first-class communications and transportation infrastructure. Ranking 50th in spending, Texas has plenty of room to get this done if Texans only wanted it.
But nevermind. Forcing pregnant girls, one of Texas' most abundant natural resources, to get a sonogram prior to an abortion is probably more important.
There are parts of the Texas Advantage that the rest of the country should emulate.
And then there are other parts.


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Ontario County Board of Supervisors passes resolutions on viticulture center, nursing home
At its meeting tonight, the Ontario County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to approve the award of a bid for $203,269 to Montemorano Brothers Inc. for preparatory earthwork services for the Finger Lakes Community College Viticulture Center project. The resolution also authorized County Administrator John Garvey to execute a contract with the company based out of Clyde, Wayne County.
The center — which will be the new home for the college's viticulture and wine technology program — will be on the campus of the Cornell Agricultural and Food Technology Park in Geneva, where the two-year program is currently housed.
Also at the meeting, the board approved a resolution to declare its intent to serve as the lead agency for an environmental review of the sale of the Ontario County Health Facility, the county's 98-bed skilled nursing facility in Hopewell. In August, the board accepted a bid of $2 million for the facility from the Centers for Specialty Care Group LLC.
The resolution also scheduled a public hearing for the following meeting on Oct. 24. The hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Ontario County Courthouse, Board of Supervisors Sessions Room, 27 N. Main St., Canandaigua.
Thomas Harvey, director of the county planning department, said the environmental review is required under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.


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9 Feb 2011
Community Asset Development 2: an interview with Dave Chapman of BASSAC
Dave Chapman works for BASSAC (the British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres) and lives in Totnes, where he is active within the ATMOS Project. For the Ingredient of Transition being prepared for the forthcoming new Transition book on the Community Ownership of Assets I talked to Dave about community asset development and also about the ATMOS Project.
Why is the community ownership of assets important? Why does it matter that the community is able to own its own assets?
Self-determination, more than anything else. It's about defining where you're going to. Land ownership enables you to define where you take a community in the end, so it can come down to supporting energy use, food use, employment, housing – it's the basis for the right mix within a community.
What's the advantage? If there's lots of projects that could happen without things being owned by the community, when is it most appropriate?
The private sector model, the business-as-usual model in terms of economic development, economic growth at all costs, tends to suck resource out of areas. The value of keeping it within the community and having it owned within the community is that you tend to want to re-circulate things within that community. So effectively, your share holders are your local community members.
It means that you start to return profit – which is either job creation, local wealth in terms of social capital that might be gained through training, education, supported employment schemes, opportunities to access services that don't currently exist because public sector providers can't provide them – you get the opportunity to create that mix at a local level basically.
What kind of support do communities need in order to do that? If a few people meet in a pub and say, "we should own that piece of land", there are clearly some stages that go between that, and them being in a position to be something that could confidently and legally take that on. What needs to go between?
There's a whole range of things. There is everything from supporting that group to become a legal entity of some form that is recognised. There's a whole range of things about understanding the bureaucratic context that you're got to work through – understanding the laws of the game – through to being able to access finance. And finance is one of the most significant things because land has a value attached to it. Very rarely do you get given stuff for nothing, although hopefully the new context will mean that asset transfer that favours community engagement is something that is likely to happen, there are more opportunities, but you still need money because actually if you want to build something on it, or you want to refurbish something on it, you want to do something with it, then you've got to make money somewhere.
To support that, you need business planning skills as well. I think really what's needed is a mix of people, plan and passion basically, and actually understanding where you support people in putting the plan together – so that's an issue about capacity, about business planning skills, about all the legal stuff that you might need to be in; you can support with a variety of agencies around them. Actually if you've got the right plan and the right mix of passion, that has a tendency to kick funders over and finances over basically.
But it's the right level of finance and the right sort of finance, because bog standard, main stream finance, which has been premised on the business-as-usual model, has tended to use debt and interest as things that can be manipulated in their own ways – hence the financial collapse that we've got at the moment, whereas good use of debt, and good use of interest rates actually means that you can end up with sustainable community businesses. The bridge through to finance being around social investment, and actually understanding the real risks that communities are taking and the real risks that are involved, is something that needs to happen as well. But it's that mix of things.
In the current climate, with the government talking about big society and so on, but at the same time grants are drying up – do you think this is a better time for communities? Is it looking more likely at the moment or less likely?
I think there are more opportunities there without a doubt. If you look at the current stuff that's being talked about and the Localism Bill, which is around right to build, right to buy, right to challenge, right effectively to run services and move around mutuals – again all of that mix, if it's done in the right way, would tend to suggest that actually there are opportunities there. That's the opportunity to say, "we can run services from a building locally that's owned locally, and actually we don't need to sweat vast amounts of profits out of it for share-holders that live somewhere else, but actually take a decent living wage, return the rest back in to the organisation and do some of the things we wouldn't be able to do in this community if there weren't the resources." So all of that mix does exist.
In terms of finance, all of the stuff that's going on around community share issues, around the social impact ones and the potential they have – just looking at finance in a slightly different way and recognising the social value of it, again there are opportunities there. The down side of course is actually that right now we've got to make those opportunities real, and I think that's the challenge to be honest with you because actually, do we have the capacity within communities to do it? Do we have the capacity within support agencies to enable communities and support communities to do it? If we don't then we will find that what we call astro-turf organisations spring up all over the place – those that are not quite what they appear from the outside, effectively private sector that suck up assets relatively cheaply, run services relatively cheaply and still drag the profit and surpluses elsewhere.
With the Atmos project –the Community Builders funding we got to move that project forward, and other funds like that which are available to give a foot up…..without something like that, there's no hope of a level playing field at all is there?
No. One of the things that's clear….the Community Builders Fund is quite an interesting one. It took a long while to come to fruition and that mix of organisation development support to start with, business development support, real cash grant funding to do feasibility stuff, and then the possibility of a mix of loan and grant finance in terms of investments…….and that front end stuff is absolutely critical because by and large, 90% of the time you can't get it for love nor money. If we do asset based development right in communities, then actually one of the things we'll end up doing is generating enough surplus to do the risk stuff in terms of the feasibility work ourselves. Because that's where it needs to come from – we need to generate that head space to be able to do it.
In terms of the Atmos project….we've talked before about the potential of a community like this owning an asset like that, all the different possible spin offs and implications it can have.
To start with, owning a chunk of real estate land – that in itself is quite significant. It's a context change, because all of a sudden you're taken as credible in certain circles. So it has the tendency to open up doors for discussion that you weren't previously engaged in, which starts to enable you to position a community and the stuff that goes on within a community in a completely different way. You can then think about things you can do within those building that you weren't doing before, so all the stuff around education and training that is right for this community – it doesn't compete with what's going on already but it generates added value in so many areas.
The move to do things differently….the opportunity to be creating radically low carbon solutions to things where actually nobody else was doing it. Nobody else has the mindset to do it because you don't gain as much profit out of it. The opportunities to think about different kinds of housing models and to try things that are different – that goes back to discussions that you might have had with people like KEVICC (the local secondary school) and the health authority to say, "actually no, you can't get housing for key workers here because property prices are too high – is there something we can do? Can we work with the other co-housing groups? Can we do stuff around tide housing?" All those kinds of opportunities.
Those forms and models that may not have been quite right in the way that they were before but actually if they're tweaked now and they're right in the context for Totnes, they will fly. That's what the other stuff is about – how you use the land itself. If you've got the public realm that's actually in the public ownership – fruit trees planted in the right place for example, very simple things that actually make quite a significant difference. So actually you change the way a whole community works as a consequence. And the real value of that is actually you create a space that everybody has an attachment to, so you start to break, down barriers within communities – you build cohesive communities that way. That means that you worry about what your next-door neighour is doing where perhaps you didn't and the reason you're doing that is because you've got a common connection somewhere. Now all that can start from one seed of a very small project that starts to build out and have contacts and connections elsewhere across a community.