(Reriani Communications)--- Although America is a fledgling young nation among older countries and civilizations she probably could use the adage “I’ve forgotten more about freedom and opportunity than you will ever know” to the rest of the world without looking the slightest bit pompous.

When we misplace our keys or our glasses the first question we ask is ‘where did I have them last.’ The comedy of such a question is that if we knew where we had them last they wouldn’t be lost. There is little comedy attached to the misplacement of lost love, lost youth or lost fortunes. Herein is proof that what is forgotten has far more weight than the common proclivity to forget.

Although I was born a Yankee I was drawn to the culture of the Deep South at an early age. Amidst the beauty of moss covered oaks and antebellum homes there exists something not so attractive about the southland’s historic involvement with slavery. In time anyone’s worst behavior becomes almost subjective in nature and perhaps that is how we learn from our mistakes. We can hold our behavior at a distance and examine it in the clear light of reason.

(Reriani Communications)--- LOS ANGELES, California - Today CBS is launching an unprecedented campaign to announce its prime-time shows ahead of the year’s most important advertising sales season. The campaign includes commercials throughout CBS television, a USA Today front section ad and a front-page ad in The New York Times. Upfront negotiations in the $80 billion TV advertising market are closing up, and the network will reveal its fall schedule in two weeks.

George Schweitzer, president of CBS Marketing, wants to set a positive tone to the negotiations and stresses that: “We had a good year and we’re well positioned for next year.” However, a newly released study by the Los Angeles based DVR Research Institute shows that advertising executives are not as optimistic. Half of the advertisers foresee a decline in total advertising spending because of the economy. More than half, 55 percent, see the share of TV advertising decreasing in their marketing budgets because of the impact of DVRs. The study suggests that both the economy and ad-skipping caused by DVRs may cause advertisers to reduce their share in TV advertising.

(Reriani Communications)--- Brooklyn, NY -- On Thursday, January 8, the U.S. Senate passed a bi-partisan resolution expressing support for Israel, a measure promoted by lobbyist organizations such as AIPAC. The resolution sponsors and supporters undoubtedly believe that in issuing this resolution they are representing and protecting their Jewish constituents. One of the resolution sponsors, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, was quoted as telling the Senate floor that the legislative body would "strengthen our historic bond with the State of Israel by reaffirming Israel's inalienable right to defend against attacks from Gaza, as well as our support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."

"While no one would argue against the call for peace or for Israel's right to self-defense," stated Leo Greenbaum, representative of JewishResponse.com, an organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism, "but by voicing strong support of Israel and proactively siding with Israel in this conflict the U.S. Senate has unwittingly escalated anti-Semitism against U.S. Jews and is endangering Jews worldwide."

(Reriani Communications)--- There's a new rabbi in town. Rabbi Celso Cukierkorn, who moved to Miami-Dade County in May and has started Adat Achim Synagogue in Sunny Isles, knows a great deal about those who convert to Judaism. Since his rabbinic career started more than a decade ago, Cukierkorn, 37, has converted many of those people himself - in Europe, South America and China. Welcoming new people as Jews is important to him.

"Today, we have as many Jews in the world as there were the day the Americans liberated the concentration camps," he said. "Next generation, we will have negative growth, and we're going to have less Jews in the world. Somebody has got to do something about it. I believe that as a leader of Jewish people, we should put them on the red carpet; we should welcome those people who are legitimately interested in becoming Jewish. It must be offered
to them."

(Reriani Communications)--- JUDAISM is more than 5,000 years old. The Internet has been around for a tiny fraction of that time. But a rabbi with a specialized Web site has brought ancient tradition and modern technology together, providing conversions to Judaism in a process that is largely accomplished online.

The rabbi, Celso Cukierkorn, offers an online conversion course to anyone who wants to become Jewish. A PC and a Web connection bring the rabbi and converts from as far away as Australia and New Zealand together for online study and even the final exam.

Rabbi Cukierkorn (he pronounces it COOK-your-corn) is a convert himself, of sorts, to computer technology. He grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, and recalled that students learned to use computers at his high school. But the equipment was boxy mainframe technology, probably from the 1960's, he guessed, and he did not pursue computer training beyond high school.

Acclaimed Hindu and Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, in a release in Nevada (USA) today, asked how Finland, which prides itself for its human rights record, was tolerating such widespread prejudice against a segment of its own society. Maltreatment of Roma, who mostly migrated from India many centuries back, was a dark stain on the face of Finland.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that Roma had been living in Finland since 1500s, took part alongside other Finns in all of the wars the country participated in, and their mother tongue was Finnish. What more Roma needed to do and how many more centuries they had to reside in Finland to prove that they were "real and equal" Finns like any other, Zed asked.

(Reriani Communications)--- Philadelphia, PA -- July 16, 2008, 11:30-4:00pm, Kimmel Center, 300 South Broad Street.

The Western Shugden Society (WSS) along with hundreds of Tibetan and Western monks, nuns and others will be protesting the Dalai Lama outside the Kimmel Center this Wednesday. The protestors who have traveled from over 18 different countries hope to shed light on a wealth of evidence and first hand testimony available showing the Dalai Lama's current and aggressive acts of religious persecution through ban on a 400-year old mainstream prayer to the Buddhist Deity Dorje Shugden, including a campaign of forced segregation and denial of basic human rights such as food and medical treatment. The protesters will be greeting the Dalai Lama and the 2000 others attending his public talk with colorful banners and loud persistent chants.

(Reriani Communications)--- It was only a few days ago that I watched Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations deliver a rousing speech about the tragic history of the Indian residential schools. In the presence of more than 200 young professionals from across the country, he laid bare horrific stories of abuse and dispossession that saw thousands of Aboriginal children, including him, torn away from their families, and stripped of their cultures and languages.

Shock and horror were visible on everyone's face, as they absorbed, many for the first time, the enormity of these injustices. Profoundly troubled, the audience gave Chief Fontaine a standing ovation and made an emotional plea for forgiveness.

(Reriani Communications)-- “The number of Muslims has overtaken that of Roman Catholics for the first time, the Vatican said yesterday.

Muslims account for 19.2% of the world’s population, while Catholics make up 17.4%, according to the Vatican’s new statistics yearbook, which is based on figures for 2006.”

(Reriani Communications)-- LOS ANGELES, CA-- A major industry building event, the Carbon Finance and Investment Summit, produced by Infocast, will be held in New York City May 28 to 30, 2008. This is the second year of the event.

The 2007 Summit established itself as a major gathering place for investment banks, private equity funds, hedge funds, carbon funds, project developers and lenders, clean tech companies, energy companies, and major corporations.

I sat comfortably in the ICE, reading Louis Lomax’s ‘To kill a black man’, as the luxury train made its way through the European continent. My mind strayed once in a while from the book to my seemingly endless list of ‘to dos’, the myriads of political brigandage and abracadabra going on in Nigeria (indeed most of the known black world) and then full circle, back to the beautiful, ordered European countryside flying past outside the window. “German Police, your passport please” I looked up from the book to see two men towering over me, one with an outstretched hand.

Just then I realized that we’ve crossed the border from the Netherlands into Germany. I reached into my case and handed out my passport. He perused it and lingered longer than I thought necessary.

“Can I have my passport back?” I intoned. He looked at me and then returned my passport. The twosome moved on to a white couple beside me. The husband, with a thick Southern twang, handed out his American passport which one of the policemen checked for barely a second. When it came to the turn of the wife, the men just waved and said she should not bother. I took an interest in the (mis)conduct of the policemen. I soon discovered why they were not keen on spending time with the white couple; right on the next row was a black woman.

She was not subjected to the wave of the hand treatment accorded the white woman but rather to something similar to my experience, with extra time added. A quick look around confirmed that we were the only two black people in that part of the train and predictably the policemen wasted little time as they sauntered out of my cabin into the next. In my mind’s eye, I pictured them as they moved about rendering color-based service for their fatherland.

In the past, women were not allowed equal rights of property ownership (patents are a form of intellectual property) and many women patented their inventions under their husband's or father's names. In the past, women were also prevented from receiving the higher education necessary for inventing.

Today, however, hundreds of thousands of women apply for and receive a patent every year. About 20% of all inventors are currently female and that number should quickly rise to 50% over the next generation.

In the past, women were not allowed equal rights of property ownership (patents are a form of intellectual property) and many women patented their inventions under their husband's or father's names. In the past, women were also prevented from receiving the higher education necessary for inventing.

Today, however, hundreds of thousands of women apply for and receive a patent every year. About 20% of all inventors are currently female and that number should quickly rise to 50% over the next generation.

I sat comfortably in the ICE, reading Louis Lomax’s ‘To kill a black man’, as the luxury train made its way through the European continent. My mind strayed once in a while from the book to my seemingly endless list of ‘to dos’, the myriads of political brigandage and abracadabra going on in Nigeria (indeed most of the known black world) and then full circle, back to the beautiful, ordered European countryside flying past outside the window. “German Police, your passport please” I looked up from the book to see two men towering over me, one with an outstretched hand.

In the past, women were not allowed equal rights of property ownership (patents are a form of intellectual property) and many women patented their inventions under their husband's or father's names. In the past, women were also prevented from receiving the higher education necessary for inventing.

Today, however, hundreds of thousands of women apply for and receive a patent every year. About 20% of all inventors are currently female and that number should quickly rise to 50% over the next generation.