Dear GMAT

As I hop on the 4 train pull the review book out of my bag pack, and begun to read the how to write an essay for the GMAT section, I was really impressed and I learned allot. But as I gradually increase pages after pages and got the mathematics review, I was really taken back. I really have not seen these since I graduated primary and high school. This really broke my heart, yes I know I should have remembered but for some reason I can’t remember these simple mathematic equations.

So tell me please why you have to do this to me, I really want to get in Grad School by this September, and in order to do so I really need to pass this GMAT with a score of at least 690. I have not cheated on you; I stay committed to reading you all the way to work and from work, even when people knock you out of my hand in the crowded train. I feel excruciating pain in my neck from having my head in one position, but yet I stay committed. I have turn down opportunities to go shoot pool which I really love in order to spend the night with you and yet you still give me problem.

With only three month remaining you really make me want to leave your silly ass, you don’t care how I feel so why should I care how you feel? Yeah you’re a real pain in the ass if you ask me. Do I even need your silly ass? There are other schools private and public that I could go without your silly ass.


I am totally heart broken by you GMAT, but I still love you even though you have put me through all these sleepless nights and restless train rides, taking me away from my social life, I see you’re a real jealous bitch. Its girls like you who make man want to be single, too much protocol, you want to control my life and I really don’t like that, I really hate any form of control.

After all I am not going to let you get to me like this, I am going to kick your ass, left right left right, like solders march. All I need to do is make sure I stay committed to you I know I can prevail, yeah I know I really know, do I? You may fight back but I am very persistent so we will be fighting for a very long time.


Fallow me to twitter @www.twitter.com/Jackostain

G20 SUCCESS?

For quite sometime now the world has have a very bad view of the Unites States, with the advent of President Barack Obama I see a rise in the amount of people who are now willing to sit down and talk with us. It was not easy for this point to be accomplished but is has now been sometime overdue. For many years people wonder why other country dislikes the United States and they failed to recognize that we created a monster. With our world class economy and being the most industrious country we have had major edge at the table so to speak. With this edge we have forced our agenda on other countries, which created this bad image.

Dictatorship way of doing things is no longer an option, its very old, as Obama right fully said this morning at the town all meeting in France this morning, we came here to listen and negotiate, which was well received by the Europeans’ my only hope is that all these countries with G20 status will carry out the agreement they agreed to at the meetings.

EUROPE
The London-basenancial Times said the "world is better for having held this summit".
The newspaper welcomed the pledge to increase resources for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and to boost world trade.
But it described the detail on future fiscal stimulus and cleaning up the banks as "disappointingly thin".
"Leaders must remember that the crisis, which started in the banking system, will not be resolved until the banking system itself is fixed," its editorial said.

AFRICA

Kenya's Business Daily warned of the need to overhaul post-World War II multilateral institutions.
"At the moment [the G20 countries] are pushing for protective measures with little regard to what happens to the developing nations. Such protectionism will surely lead to failure," it said.
Botswana's Mmegi also said it was time to "revise the global financial architecture".
"Africa played no role in triggering the current crisis. Yet a prolonged global slowdown will have a serious impact on economic development on the continent, with the attendant risk of aggravating poverty and other social problems."

ASIA

China's Beijing News said the common understanding reached by the G20 leaders had gone beyond people's expectations.
The world, it said, needed co-operation from every country because the global economic crisis could only be solved at a global level.
China's People's Daily agreed, saying such co-operation was vital for a speedy recovery of the world economy.
"As a responsible big developing nation, China is beefing up co-operation with other nations to cope with the crisis to the best of its ability."

Middle East

The pan-Arab al-Quds al-Arabi said that while the summit achieved some positive results, "it focused on rescuing the rich and approving some regulations to prevent a repeat of the recent collapse. But it ignored the poor, who are the majority in the world."
The pan-Arab al-Arab al-Alamiyah said: "The key issue is not how big or how small the IMF's budget should be, but its policies and their link to the United States.
"The US has constantly played a role in facilitating IMF loans to countries that have special relations with her. This explains the lack of enthusiasm among EU states to beef up the fund's budget."
Ridwan Assayed in the pan-Arab al-Sharq al-Awsat said: "Sometimes disasters are necessary to bring about a change… the change I mean is not only economic but also political and strategic… there are now new economic powers... These new powers do not share the opinions of traditional western capitalist states."

This leads me to my question; do you think we will ever be able to achieved world peace? No matter how much you try people will always have a bad perception so how do we clear the air for peaceful negations’?

In my perspective the U.S is at a better standing in the world that I was before this G20 summit, that speech that The President gave in Frances was a good gesture in reconciling our differences with the French. Nicolas Sarkozy was ready for a changes and Obama was the man to make the appeal to the world.

Share your Views.


Fallow me at twitter @http://twitter.com/home

I often sit and wonder what constitute happiness.

Is it money?

Is it personal triumph?

What about morality?



Maybe society depicts the meaning of happiness?

For some people happiness comes in the form of finding a meal a day weather it comes from the garbage, or from an aid who decided that they want to look good n television giving back. However for people like this happiness to me has the most genuine meaning.

So I turn to my co-worker Dawind George and asked him, what makes you happy? This is what he said.

“Anything that I can do to make my mom enjoy life to the fullest and to make her feel proud about, will make me happy and the same goes for the rest of my family”
How ever he failed to mention one simple thing about himself and it makes me think. Why do we as human seem to focus on others and try to make others happy.( is it just in our nature or is it just the way we were raised as caregivers) while not paying much attentions on what really makes us happy as an individuals!

In order to get a females perspective on it I turned to a female Co worker and asked, what makes you happy? .she replied saying!

She replied at first saying she don’t know, seconds later she shouted freedom. I am like what aren’t you free, don’t you live in a democratic nation.

So she though about for a few minutes and said.

“Travelling Getting out of New York, going to Jamaica and the rest of the world”
So I said ok, and asked “are you Jamaican” she replied “no I just love the country, I am a southerner.

As for me growing up as a kid all I wanted was cars bikes and a big house to live and allot of girls to me at the time that was going to make me happy. However I have come to realize that the true meaning of happiness has bin so societal driven that happiness now, has a different meaning to everyone.

When I look at the children of Africa and see when the get a place of food the smile on their faces it restores to me the true meaning of happiness. which to me is that once you have life, food and shelter and a family that’s loves and cares for that should be enough.

Ages 3-12

Them I took it on myself to ask, when do we start knowing if we are happy or not as for me it’s when I was in high school, seeing all the other kids with gadgets that I did not have and wearing the latest shoes bags and coats.

But it came to my mind that it might be rancor, but them I say no! It could not be.

So I came to this conclusion that happiness is learned and society has allot to do with what people perceived as being happiness.
This is evident in so many places; just by watching the movies, I hear my two little cousins saying I want to be like Miley or Nick from a Disney picture.

I would really like to hear what you think and, need to hear the disagreement and also the agreements.

I finally got twitter fallow me at(twitter.com/jackostain)

My Life dating/

Why is it that telling the truth can sometime bee so hard and painful? As of late I have had a resurgence of old and new people expressing interest in my life. Which to me comes at a very convenient time, due to the fact that I am single and willing to date?

A few weeks ago, one of my x called and ask If I was going to be free on the week end, it so happen that I had nothing planned so I agreed to see her. The time was finally here! Friday so I got out work about 7 o clock, head to 42nd for happy hour with a few friends. Planet Hollywood had a 2 for 1 drink special so we head over there. While I was there drinking my phone kept going off every five minutes and I did not care to look on it, I was not trying to hear nothing from no one that will cut my happy hour short.

So getting tired of the stupid phone vibrating in my pocket, I finally took it out, 7 miss calls and 4 text from my x which I will call L, one of the text read” are we still seeing each other”
The second one read “am I fucking seeing you tonight”

When I saw this I was utterly pissed, I looked at it for about 5 minutes, took another shot of bloody Mary, and proceeded to respond. Which went something like this” did I not say yes about one million times today alone” trying to keep as calm as possible.

She replied” I know how things are always popping up on your schedule and I am always getting put off, so I want to make sure I don’t get dress for nothing” by this time she totally turned me off. I mean what do females think? Why can’t they understand that family and an opportunity to create income will always higher on the list than they will be if they are merely your x in this case or a friend?

The most fun date in sometime:

Do you guys remember the Real Estate agent I wrote about sometime now? She is my online friend of 2years that I was suppose to meet she lied that she was close and took too long to get there and I left.

We finally met last week Friday, finally she was on time, she also looked stunning; I guess that’s sort of a way to make it up for being late that first time. I took her to this really nice restaurant for dinner. She was the most fun person I have ever met in my life, like we were laughing all night, until one time the people next to us starts laughing also, they must have though we were crazy. Our meeting was very short being that I had to get my mom from work yeah I have to pick my mom up. She really hates driving in the city.

So this Friday I will be meeting another one of my x she moved from New York back home with her parents a few months ago, but now she is back in New York City, I am happy she is a great person to hang out with. I hope I have as much fun as last week, or even more being that we know each other, we will be going to the Sea in Williams Burge, it’s a great place to hung out, super awesome crowd of people, even though you have to wait like 2 hours to get a seat at times, its worth it.

I FINALLY GOT A TWITTER YOU CAN FALLOW ME @JACKOSTAIN

MEMO TO MY READERS:

I have recently changed my blog name from life is a journey to the Views of Jermaine Jackson for personal branding reasons.

In life your personal brand is the most important asset. So I take it that since a have a blog that people actually read that it’s only rig that I put my personal stamp on it which is my name. In this case, I also want to publish my post from my personal website but that has not bin activated as yet, so I will continue to write on BlogSpot. When this however is done I will notify you as fallows.

Thanks for reading
Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

The Formula

lol lol thats all i have to say!!!

Ending Torture, Cruel and Inhuman Treatment, and Impunity

On July 20, President Bush issued an executive order governing CIA interrogation techniques that keeps the door open to torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees in American custody. The order does not clearly and specifically end illegal practices: so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques," which have included water boarding, stress positions, hypothermia, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation and isolation, and holding prisoners in secret CIA "black sites" in order to keep them outside the reach of the law. The U.S. military is now following a transparent Army Field Manual that prohibits many of the abusive interrogation techniques previously authorized by the administration but, to put an end to abuse, a single standard of conduct for all U.S. interrogations – including interrogations by the CIA and private contractors – regardless of location or who is being interrogated is necessary.


Interrogation Practices and Policies
Relying on information provided by current and former CIA officials and supervisors, in November 2005 ABC News reporters Brian Ross and Richard Esposito provided descriptions of several techniques used in CIA interrogations:
• Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, cellophane is wrapped over his face and water is poured over him. causing the prisoner to experience a terrifying fear of drowning.

• The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees and is repeatedly doused with cold water.

• Long Time Standing: The prisoner is forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours, causing both extreme pain and sleep deprivation.

• Attention Slap: An open-handed strike aimed at causing pain and triggering fear.

• The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed strike to the stomach. The aim is to cause

pain, but not internal injury. Doctors consulted advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.
Secret Detentions: Over the last several years, the United States has operated a program in which it has held detainees in secret CIA facilities around the world, without acknowledging, even to the detainees’ families, that it has these individuals in custody. The United States has also held prisoners “off the books” in known detention facilities. These practices violate U.S. and international law.

The U.S. Secret Detention Program in Brief:
• According to a number of reports, including an in-depth report by Human Rights

First, the CIA has operated secret detention facilities in a number of places including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Diego Garcia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Kosovo, and Macedonia.

• On September 6, 2006, the President publicly acknowledged the existence of the CIA secret detention program, although he has not released the locations of particular facilities to the public or to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It appears the program is currently operational, with at least one detainee having been held in the program before being transported to Guantanamo in April 2007.

• There are dozens of individuals who are believed to have been detained in CIA
secret facilities whose current whereabouts are unknown.

• The United States has also held detainees in known detention facilities (such as Abu Ghraib) while keeping their names off the official prison rolls and failing to report their presence in those facilities to the ICRC. These prisoners have been called “ghost detainees.”

• At least one “ghost detainee,” Manadel al Jamadi, was killed in November 2003 while in U.S. custody in Iraq.


Private Contractors

It is now widely recognized that an accountability crisis has arisen with respect to private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. While contractors are supposedly working under the laws of armed conflict, there are no consistent training requirements for contractors on the laws of war, there is no oversight checking their conduct against these standards, and essentially no realistic criminal justice accountability when criminal violations occur. A number of bills have been introduced in Congress aimed at addressing these problems. Some initial hearings have been held; more are anticipated. Here are some of the facts on private military contractors:

• DOD currently acknowledges roughly 30,000 U.S. security contractors operating in Iraq, including substantial numbers of ex-patriots from the U.K., South Africa, the Philippines, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Chile, and Honduras.

• In concept, these forces are deployed solely for personnel and facility protection, but in one of his final acts as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld issued a determination including U.S. security contractors as an integral part of the "total combat force" deployed in Iraq.

Private contractors were involved in some of the most serious abuses at Abu Ghraib, as reported in the Fay-Jones Report. Similarly, they have been tied to a large number of cases involving assaults on detainees, and homicides and assaults on the ground in Iraq. Only one single case has been prosecuted – involving a CIA contractor in Afghanistan. Over a dozen cases coming out of Abu Ghraib were investigated by the US Army Crime Records Center (CID) and referred to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for prosecution. No action has been taken on these cases even though investigations were completed roughly two years ago.

Over the past five years the U.S. has transferred detainees to other countries that are known to torture and otherwise abuse prisoners. This process, where transfers are carried out without any judicial or administrative process, has been referred to as “extraordinary rendition.”

The U.S. Rendition Program in Brief
• A number of reports, including an in-depth report by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, have concluded that the U.S. rendition program has sent individuals to countries — such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, and Russia — which United States acknowledges engage in torture. There are well documented reports that some individuals rendered to these countries by the United States have been tortured.

• Some of these renditions appear to be for the express purpose of subjecting the detainee to interrogation by officials from the destination country.

• Renditions have also been used to transfer people into U.S. custody, sometimes in secret detention facilities run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

• U.S. renditions have often been based on questionable “diplomatic assurances” from the destination country that the individual being rendered will not be tortured. Such assurances have proven to be unreliable, and rendered detainees have been tortured even after such assurances were given.

• One well-publicized case involved a Canadian citizen named Maher Arar. U.S. officials apprehended Arar at J.F.K. airport in New York. He was sent to Syria, after Syria reportedly assured the United States that Arar would not be tortured. In Syrian custody, Arar was tortured for ten months, including being beaten and subjected to electric shocks. He was subsequently released and is now living in Canada.


I has to share this report with you guys, I was taken from http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/elect08/issue.aspx.

Just though i would share this bit of information with you guys.I know we all dont read the government websites.And we all need to be aware of things we do here in the Unites States