Tuesday, February 20, 2018



Beyond the bottom line: the B-Corp boom

This is just virtue signalling.  They give no evidence that it does anybody any good

Like most entrepreneurs, Dean and Audrey Jones have a strong focus on financials.

Their dress rental business, GlamCorner, was one of the first movers in the sector in Australia and last year turnover was over $10 million with a target this financial year of over $20 million.

But the Jones' say it's not just about the money and their goal is profit with purpose.

To that end GlamCorner has just achieved its B-Corp certification, one of a growing cohort of businesses in Australia looking beyond the bottom line.

"We are building a company we want to be very proud of 10 years from now," says Mr Jones. "To be a great business you have to have a healthy bottom line but you could do more for the community, your employees and the environment around you."

Growing popularity

There are now 227 Australian & New Zealand B-Corps, employing more than 4000 people and turning over $1 billion in revenue.

Charlie Syme, marketing and community manager for B Lab Australia & New Zealand, the not-for-profit organisation which authorises B-Corp certification, says the popularity of B-Corp certification is increasing in Australia.

There were 12 businesses certified as B-Corps in the first cohort of Australian businesses to undertake the certification in 2013 and the number has continued to climb with around 100 certified last year.

"B-Corp is a certification for profit businesses and these are businesses which have voluntarily met the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability," Mr Syme says. "The philosophy is to pursue stakeholder value not just shareholder value. It looks at impact on employees, the physical environment and the community. It's a really holistic assessment of a business."

B-Corp businesses pay an annual certification fee based on revenue, starting at $500 for businesses with under $200,000 in turnover to $50,000 for businesses with more than $1 billion in turnover.

Rigorous application process

Mr Jones says GlamCorner paid an annual fee of around $1000 for the certification but the main cost to the business was the rigorous application certification process which took several months.

"It's actually a really big milestone for us," he says. "Companies are in a really unique position about educating employees and customers about how we can reduce our footprint.

As companies get bigger and the world gets smaller, companies of the future need to get better and more efficient about how they utilise resources of any kind because economic resources of any kind are scarce. It's a liability and it's a debt and it's a debt that has to be repaid at some stage."

Mr Jones says the reaction from GlamCorner customers has been positive.

"I think you are going to see more of the B-Corp certification coming up," he says. "Our vision is to become every Australian woman's online wardrobe and impact will continue to be an increasingly important part of our messaging and our thesis. We appeal to Australian women who are tired of the old way of consuming fashion."

Providing recognition

Indigenous-owned furniture business Winya has also recently achieved its B-Corp certification.

Winya was started just over two years ago supplying major corporates and government around Australia with office furniture.

The business turned over $5 million last year and its clients include Lend Lease, the Australian Tax Office and the Department of Immigration.

Winya has eight staff, the majority of which are Indigenous and through its work has placed six Indigenous trainees in the factories in Australia which manufacture its products.

Winya director, Greg Welsh, says B-Corp certification is helping spread the word about the work Winya is doing.

"We are a for-profit business but we are majority Indigenous owned and we are doing a lot of work in remote communities and in the prison system," he says. "It's not visible unless we go and boast about it. Being a B-corp will help our marketing and is a way to get us recognised for the work we are doing."

 SOURCE






Jorge Ramos: Why Does the GOP Want to 'Make America White Again'?

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, known for his advocacy of illegal aliens, is accusing Republicans of wanting to "change the essence of America" and seriously wondered whether the GOP wants to "make America white again."

In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, Ramos also said that chain migration leads to a "tolerant, diverse, multiracial and multicultural country." He said that the Republicans are not proposing immigration reform, but rather "immigration revenge."

RAMOS: “The fact is, Republicans with these negotiations, they want to change the essence, I think, of the United States. I mean, do they really want to make America white again? Is that the deal? What I have seen from the Democratic side, and from talking with the DREAMers, is that they’re willing to negotiate DACA for a few miles of wall, maybe 300, 350 miles of wall. That’s as much as they can go. But to tell them that from now on, everything is going to change, that change migration has to be stopped, that in other words that family unification is no longer going to be the immigration principle that’s going to guide us into this tolerant, diverse, multiracial and multicultural country. I don’t see it. The way I see it, DACA for just a few miles of wall. But nothing else.”

What good would 350 miles of wall do? Nothing -- which is exactly what Ramos wants. The more Spanish-only speakers in the U.S., the better it is for Ramos and Univision. It's not complicated at all.

Ramos also totally misrepresents the GOP position on chain migration:

COOPER: Jorge, you hear the President. How much does a DACA deal fall on the shoulders of the Democrats right now?”

RAMOS: “Well, it’s not going to be easy for Democrats to accept everything that President Trump and the Republicans want. They’re not proposing immigration reform. They’re proposing immigration revenge. Because they not only want to help the DACA students, but also they want a wall, they want more border security, they want to end the so-called chain migration, which is really family reunification, and then, the visa lottery. I don’t see a deal possible that way. For the DREAMers, what they’re asking them is the impossible because Republicans are saying, ‘You know, we want to legalize you. However, we want to deport your father, your mother, your siblings.’ That’s simply an impossible choice for them.”

Under a couple of GOP plans that are being proposed this week, the parents and siblings of DACA recipients would be allowed to stay, although they'd be ineligible for citizenship. Ramos is either an ignoramus or he knows full well what is being proposed and chose to make the GOP plans sound worse than they are.

This marks Ramos as little more than a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and not much of a "journalist" -- which, these days, isn't saying much at all.

SOURCE






Men, Misandry, and Suicide Rates

Feminism kills young men

While having a drink with a friend in a neighborhood bar a couple years ago, a distraught-looking woman approached us and started chatting. We engaged in typical barroom banter until she introduced herself as the mother of a guy I had met in the same bar almost two years before: Mitch, who introduced himself to me then because he recognized me from my column in a local newspaper.

Our conversation lasted only a few minutes, but I remembered the encounter because Mitch seemed to be troubled.

While talking about her son, Mitch’s mother told me that he described having meeting me then with the words, “I talked with the guy from the newspaper.” She also described Mitch’s suicide note to her, and at this she shed some tears. Mitch’s problem, as I learned sometime later, was an addiction to heroin that he could not shake.

By the end of the night I had promised her that I would check out a Suicide Prevention event she was organizing. After that I thought about the suicides that had affected my life in some way:

A school chum of my brother’s shot himself while a student at a Washington, D.C. college in the 1970s. This A student, who used to decorate his bicycle with Barry Goldwater for President bumper stickers, had been on the Dean’s List.

A “full of life” female friend of mine who died of a prescription drug and alcohol overdose in the bathtub of her home.

My uncle who hung himself in a motel after years of drifting from job to job along with fighting bouts of depression and alcoholism. I was 14 when my mother announced his death. He was a tall good looking man who resembled the actor Tyrone Power.

Sometime later I happened upon an article in Psychology Today by Dr. Miles Groth, who posited that suicide among young males is four times more common than among young females. Not only that, but suicide is now occurring at younger ages, in the early teens. With males, Dr. Groth said that one problem may be the relationship between fathers and sons, such as young males not having had a father in boyhood. He cites other issues as well, such as body image and relationships with women. “Young males are very impulsive, more than females, and they act without thinking,” he said.

Dr. Groth elaborated on this theme in a 2014 interview, in which he said that men and boys have come to hate themselves:

This is a result of the image portrayed of them and of the roles they are compelled to play, but also given what they hear about themselves and, especially as young boys, come to believe about themselves. As a result of self-hate, the suicide rate of boys and men has increased at an alarming rate over the last twenty years. It is 4-6 times higher in teenage males than in female peers.

The life expectancy of males is about seven years less than for females, compared to a two-year difference a century ago. College courses that are pro-male are now necessary to offset the misandric curriculum.

“Misandry” means contempt for men, but you don’t hear that word very much these days because it has been trumped by the word “misogyny,” thanks to the antics of third-wave feminism.

The month of September may be National Suicide Month, but every month needs to be a suicide month of sorts. The transitory nature of many of life’s problems which lead some to take their own lives -- a broken love affair, a job loss, drug addiction (“There’s no hope for me”), the loss of financial security, or a startling medical diagnosis -- can, over time, turn into quite manageable situations.

Robert Gebbia writes that studies show men are less likely than women to say they would tell anyone they were considering suicide. Here we have a reworking of that old stereotype: men hold things inside, and are less likely to reveal their feelings. Isolation makes young men feel inadequate and angry. This can sometimes lead to thoughts of self-directed violence.

An essential side note to this topic is the current role of men and boys in American society. According to Dr. Groth, the rise of certain strands of feminism have devalued the essential role of men -- even though a certain devaluation of men and boys has always been present in our culture. He cites that Father’s Day did not appear until 1966, while Mother’s Day was instituted in 1905. Why did it take so long for America to recognize fathers?

Today on college campuses, it’s hardly permissible even to talk about men’s issues. Men are seen as the primary advocates of sexism, as perpetrators of rape, so-called “male privilege,” and the “patriarchy.” Dr. Groth cites a university lecture about boys and men in contemporary society that was held at the University of Ottawa which drew a number of hecklers. The hecklers seemed to believe that “men’s issues” were not something to take seriously.

SOURCE






25 Disturbing Facts About Refugee Resettlements from Somalia

How terror arrives on American shores

Of the 11 countries included in President Trump's refugee ban, one stands out -- Somalia.

That ban expired two weeks ago and the U.S. has begun accepting refugees again from Somalia and 10 other high-risk nations.

Although Trump promises "extreme vetting," many Muslim refugees come as children and become radicalized years later.

Somali crime rivals Somali terrorism as a major problem, and the two clearly blur into one another. The problem is leaking from Minnesota into South Dakota -- as Lutheran Social Services has resettled more than 4,500 Somalis in Sioux Falls. Many of the Somalis have migrated from Sioux Falls to the city of Aberdeen in search of work at Demkota Ranch Co.'s beef-packing plant.

South Dakota State Senator and GOP congressional candidate Neal Tapio is leading perhaps the nation's most aggressive effort to expose the danger and fraud of refugee resettlements. Tapio has introduced several bills that seek to rein in high-risk resettlements in his state.

"While many people see compassion to serve the less fortunate, the truth is the Somali community has not been able to assimilate and has proven to be a major terror threat in the United States," Tapio said.

Consider the following 25 incidents that should raise red flags about refugee resettlement from this perpetually war-torn country:

[1] The Somali man who knifed two men in November at the Mall of America was not involved in an attempt to steal clothing – a false narrative put out by Bloomington police – but was actually carrying out jihad. He admitted it in a detailed statement to the court. Mahad Abdiraham said he went to the mall that day to "answer the call for jihad.”

[2] A Somali refugee who had just arrived in Aberdeen for a meatpacking job was convicted last year of trying to sexually assault a wheelchair-bound woman at a group home. Liban Mohamed, 39, found the vulnerable woman sitting outside the home and he was caught reaching up between her legs.

[3] Also in Aberdeen, Abdirhman Noor, 24, shot at two men outside the Foxridge Apartments, wounding one critically. Noor, who came to the U.S. as a child refugee, was charged with attempted murder and released on $50,000 bail. He never showed up for his March 2017 court hearing and remains at large.

[4] A 73-year-old Meals on Wheels volunteer was dropping off meals at a homeless shelter in Shelburne, Vermont, when she was attacked by 32-year-old Somali migrant Abukar Ibrahim with a machete in early January 2018. She sustained multiple injuries including a severe leg wound.

[5] Tnuza Jamal Hassan, a 19-year-old woman from either Somalia or Ethiopia (Minneapolis police wouldn't release her status), was arraigned last month on charges of first-degree arson after she allegedly set fires on the campus of St. Catherine University. Hassan told police she "wanted the school to burn to the ground" and that her intent was to "hurt people,” according to charges filed in Ramsey County District Court. Hassan told police she had written a letter to her roommates containing “radical ideas about supporting Muslims and bringing back the caliphate.” The prosecution further alleges "[s]he told the police and fire investigators ‘You guys are lucky I don’t know how to build a bomb because I would have done that,’” the Star-Tribune reported.

[6] Morgan Evenson, 24, was attacked just before Christmas while walking home from work in Minneapolis. She was stabbed 14 times by a man described as Somali. That man remains at large and the Minneapolis police falsely described the attack as a failed robbery. Evenson said he never reached for her purse.

[7] On July 15, 2017, a Somali refugee serving as a Minneapolis police officer, Mohamed Noor, shot and killed an unarmed woman, Justine Damond, who had called 9-1-1 to report a rape taking place outside her apartment. No charges have been filed against Noor, who had three previous complaints about his treatment of women while on patrol.

[8] Dahir Ahmed Adan stabbed 10 shoppers at the Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Sept. 17, 2016. The refugee asked shoppers if they were Muslim. If they said “no,” he attacked them with his knife, until he was shot dead by an off-duty cop.

[9] In December 2016, Somali refugee Mohamed Ayanle, 22, was charged with first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct after he allegedly raped a woman while riding a bus through Polk County, Minnesota. Ayanle reportedly forced her to have sex with him at knifepoint in the back of the bus. Ayanle had just arrived in Minnesota from Somalia three months prior to his arrest.

[10] Davee Devose, a promising 21-year-old black student at St. Cloud Technical and Community College, was stabbed to death at a house party in June 2015 by then-16-year-old Muhiyadin Mohamed Hassan, a Somali refugee who violated his juvenile probation and has since been moved to the adult system.

[11] In 2008, the government revealed thousands of Somali families had fraudulently entered the U.S. as "refugees" by lying on their applications that they were to Somalis already living in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal originally reported on how this fraud was uncovered by DNA tests, which led to a four-year closure of the so-called P-3 family reunification program for refugees coming from East Africa. The program was eventually restarted and none of the thousands of Somalis proven to have entered the U.S. by these fraudulent means were ever deported.

[12] On the day after Memorial Day, May 31, 2016, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, a Somali refugee woman, Aisha Ibrahim, 31, appeared out of the woods wearing a burqa and beat an American woman with her own American flagpole.

[13] A federal appeals court in December 2016 upheld the conviction of Mohamed Mohamud, the Somali refugee sentenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to bomb downtown Portland, Oregon, during the annual Christmas-tree lighting.

[14] In 2013, Somali refugee Omar Mohamed Kalmio in North Dakota was sentenced to life in prison for the 2011 murder of a Native American family he had become involved with.

[15] In November 2016, Abdul R. Ali Artan, an 18-year-old Somali refugee and student at Ohio State University, wounded 11 people at OSU in a car and knife attack. Minutes before his attack, Artan posted on Facebook his hatred for the United States.

[16] In April 2011, Somali refugee Said Biyad was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his four children in Louisville, Kentucky. He avoided the death penalty by taking a plea agreement.

[17] In July of last year, Somalia native Abdinzak Ahmed Farah, 29, was arrested and charged with threatening his fellow Minnesotans with a knife. According to an eyewitness, Farah was eating raw beef with the knife and holding it out to patrons, asking them to play games. In a July 25 article, the Faribault Daily News reports a complaint filed in Rice County Court alleges Farah was pointing a knife and threatening to kill anyone who called police. Witnesses said Farah was twice told to leave, but began chasing several people and threw the knife at them.

[18] At least 40 Somali refugees have left the country to join overseas terrorist organizations such as al-Shabaab in Somalia and ISIS in Syria, the FBI has confirmed. Dozens of others have been charged and/or convicted of providing material support to terrorists.

[19] One of the top terror recruiters for ISIS in the U.S. was Mohamed Hassan, a Somali refugee with roots in Minnesota. He turned himself in to authorities in Somalia in late 2015, after leading dozens of Somali-Americans to join ISIS. He also played a role in the terror attack on Garland, Texas, in which two Muslims planned to kill participants in a "Draw Muhammad" contest and behead activist Pamela Geller.

[20] Dozens of large-scale khat busts have taken place in recent years, such as this seizure of 69 pounds of khat at the Philadelphia airport bound for Minneapolis, and this one sending nearly 20 pounds to Minneapolis. Khat is a stimulant chewed by Somali men.

[21] In June 2016, residents of the Linden Hills community in Minneapolis were terrorized by a Somali mob for three straight days. They raided the waterfront community and pretending to shoot women on the beach, ran their cars over lawns while screaming "jihad," threatened to rape one woman and beat one resident's dog. Police were called repeatedly but never could make it to the scene before the Somalis disappeared.

[22] Minneapolis Police Department has for years tolerated an active Sharia cop, who married a Somali woman and patrols the Cedar Riverside area making sure Somalis are complying with Islamic dress codes and other Sharia rules.

[23] Liban Haji Mohamed, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Somalia who came to the U.S. as a child refugee, was named to the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists in January 2015. Mohamed, who worked as a cab driver in northern Virginia, was charged with providing material support and resources to al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab.

[24] In May 2015, a UK media outlet broke the story that one of the Islamic State's major recruiters turned out to be a female journalism student in Seattle who liked football, cheeseburgers, and convincing women in Syria and the EU to wage jihad. The student, a Somali named Rawdah Abdisalaam, was discovered to be working as a senior recruiter while living the good life in Seattle.

[25] In January 2014, Somali refugee Ahmed Nasir Taalil, living in San Diego, was sentenced to six years for his part in a conspiracy to funnel money to al-Shabaab. Among Nasir-Nasir's co-conspirators were cab driver Basaaly Saeed Moalin, who was sentenced to 18 years, Mohamed Mohamud – a Somali imam at a local mosque – sentenced to 13 years, and Issa Doreh, who was sentenced to 10 years for working at a money-transmitting business that helped move the illegal funds.

Refugee proponents, many of them working for resettlement agencies that receive government tax dollars for every refugee they bring into the U.S., continue to allege that Somalis are an asset to the communities in which they live. But those communities deserve security too. Now that the refugee ban has expired, it is time that the clear issues of lack of assimilation and terror risks posed by many Somali refugees are taken seriously.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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