Insights on global events that impact America. We are the OPPOSITE of Donald Trump "The Global American® values are based on these principles: We are Promoting AMERICAN values globally !) RESPECT for ALL 2) EQUALITY for ALL 3) JUSTICE for ALL These are AMERICAN values to apply in our lives and actions globally. Michael's story is in: "Better Times Ahead: April Fool" www.BetterTimesAheadAprilFool.com It ends with Agenda for American Greatness--how we get back to No. 1 again.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Can America Win Global Tech Race?
Friday, June 24, 2011
3 million unfilled U.S. jobs - America's SKILLS shortage
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Is America Ready for Another Texas Governor as President?
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Creating Jobs - Infrastructure Bank
Friday, June 10, 2011
Hardening Your Space in a More Dangerous World
Global American Series
10 June 2011
WHAT causes a house to explode in a hurricane or tornado? What technologies are available to protect occupants of buildings facing the ultimate threats from Mother Nature’s relentless attacks to burglars and intensifying solar heat 365 days/year?
The latest Hurricane reports are for an “above average” season for hurricanes threating the nearly 54% of our population who live near the coasts. By 2025 two thirds of the world’s population will live within 100 miles of a coast. This comes as we have an abnormal DOUBLING of deadly tornadoes in the U.S. The AP reports that the conditions this season are similar to 2005 – which produced Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, storms that Gulf Coast resident still remember and fear.
The week’s Global American radio program explores these questions and provides some answers. HOW do we armor our spaces (houses and work) from these increasingly dangerous threats? What does each technology achieve versus its cost? What technology has been overlooked that could save property and lives?
We have been witnessing some of the most dangerous, weird weather not just in the U.S. but worldwide -- breaking decade’s old, and historic, records globally. From freak Tornado monsters a mile wide with multiple vortexes staying on the ground for hundreds of miles, turning cities like Tuscaloosa and Joplin into matchwood while sucking debris 18,000 feet into the air and dropping it over 60 miles away.
We have seen unprecedented freak tornadoes appearing in Massachusetts – fierce hurricanes and droughts worldwide, sweeping from Australia in the southern hemisphere to Russia in the north. The first four days of June Houston had record 104 and 105 degree temperatures. This week Minneapolis hit 103 (how close to Canada can you get?) and New York 99 degrees – August weather -- and it is not even summer yet!
Are people prepared for the bigger storms generated by the greater heat of an Atlantic ocean that is 2 degrees hotter, which produces larger storms? Is your personal space secure from the increasingly freak storms of greater intensity? Or from human intrusion?
Get the facts, and solutions, on this timely, unique program. Even FEMA has benefited from --and funds -- hazard mitigation technology that it fails to mention it in its preparedness reports!
Will global warming, regardless of the debate of whether it is “normal or manmade,” make today’s freakishly hot and violent weather the “norm” we have to prepare for?
For details and answers, tune into the Global American radio program on Saturday at 9 am central US time on Business 1110 AM, streamed on www.Business1110KTEK.com and Podcast 24/7 on www.GlobalAmerican.org (click on ‘favorite program’ and click the title above).
Michael Fjetland
Global American Series
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Comments welcome at our mirror site/blog:
http://globalamericanvalues.blogspot.com/
Sponsored by Armor Glass International, Inc.
“Saving Energy and Protecting Your Weakest Link from Breach by Burglars, Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Solar Heat”…
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Path to Prosperity
The only thing it doesn't mention is "Green Jobs" - which is another growth sector we need to develop. My company Armor Glass is one of the companies that is producing green jobs - our product saves energy and protects the weakest link of every building from intrusion by burglars, hurricane and tornado windborne debris. It is just one example of another billion dollar industry waiting for us to develop and grow.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
A Tale of Two Oil Economies – Texas and Norway
A Tale of Two Oil Economies – Texas and Norway
3 June 2011
Global American Series
Norway is the Texas of Europe – it is Europe’s biggest producer of oil and gas (mostly in the North Sea). I just spent a week in Norway and wanted to know: “How does Norway compare to Texas in handling its oil wealth?” Read on and ask which path your state is on?
That is the subject of this week’s “Global American” radio program. The program starts with the little-known story I discovered on my trip about how a few Norwegians in WWII kept Hitler from getting the Atomic bomb, which would have won him the war and made London the first Hiroshima. It was made into a movie starring Kirk Douglas called “The Heroes of Telemark.”
Norway has been investing its oil wealth in the country’s medical and education sectors. Texas originally dedicated large portions of land to its Permanent University Fund, primarily for the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems. But things have changed over the years.
Norway ranks as one of the best countries in the world to live with the highest standard of living. Unemployment is just 3%. Life expectancy is nearly 81 years. Voter turnout is 77%. When asked “Who became rich from oil in Norway?” a Norwegian diplomat said: “Nobody and everybody.” Oil raised all boats equally. Norway’s public education system is one of the best in Europe and the general level of education is higher than the European average. Tuition is free all the way through University, even for international students.
Texas has a different story. In 1999, when Governor Bush was still in office, Texas ranked 25th in per pupil expenditures. After 11 years of Governor Perry being in office, Texas now ranks 43rd -- out of 50 states. In 2005 (during the ‘boom times’), Texas was the only state to cut average per pupil spending.
From 2002 to 2007, the Texas state budget was cut in terms of real dollar per-student funding for universities by almost 20% (35% for community colleges). Tuition costs
While Norway has one of the most transparent systems for tracking its investments, Texas has turned over its $23 billion Permanent School Fund (PSF) to an elected State Board of Education (SBOE) which has no financial expertise. The majority of the SBOE members are ideologues who insist on rewriting history books to put the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in a more favorable light and dismissing the issue of slavery in the Civil War. Those books are then used by schools across America. Recently it changed advisors to NEPC, which had invested other pension funds in Bernie Madoff’s pyramid schemes.
The move cost Texas hundreds of thousands of dollars. When the PSF comes up short on funds needed for education, the taxpayers have to pick up the difference. Texas is the only state that allows an education board to control investments instead of just setting policy.
Yet Texas has legislators, like Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, who said “schools will have to live with what they get, not what they need.” This is hardly a vision for success in a global, high tech economy. This is a recipe for disaster at a time when hundreds of thousands of high tech jobs remain unfilled because Americans lack the skills needed to fill them. Where have the Texas visionaries gone, men like Hugh Roy Cullen, Walter Fondren and Sid Richardson?
Is Texas going down the path of Nigeria, which squandered its oil wealth? It certainly isn’t following Norway’s example.
Tune in at 9 am Central on Business 1110 AM, streamed on www.Business1110KTEK.com and podcast 24/7 on www.GlobalAmerican.org
Which path in the global high tech 21st century is your state taking – Norway’s or Texas’?
Michael Fjetland
Global American Series
Opt in/out (your call)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GlobalAmerican/
Comments welcome at our mirror site/blog:
http://globalamericanvalues.blogspot.com/
Sponsored by Armor Glass International, Inc.
A 21st Century technology that saves energy and protects people from Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Burglars and Solar Heat