<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Thanks for your clarification, Chris. I still have doubts about
that matter, but that’s ok. Now at least I understand your distinction. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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color:#333333">And thanks for mentioning the situation in Portugal, Suzanne. Soma
data, to make you an update of the situation in the South of Europe:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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color:#333333">From 2011 to 2013, in Portugal, liquids wages (after taxes) for
civil servants and pensioners pensions were cut, in many cases, by <span style="font-weight: bold;">25%</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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color:#333333">Unemployment is nearly <span style="font-weight: bold;">17%</span>. Again, huge amounts of Portuguese people
(but this time the most highly skilled) are emigrating. Because of all this,
the working conditions for the others are now worse than before the democratic revolution of 1974....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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color:#333333">As many young people (20-40 years) are unemployed, are often
pensioners who have to feed their children and grandchildren with their increasingly
lesser pensions….<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#333333"><br></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">And the State debt to our "kind" suppliers of money (IMF, EU, etc.) is <span style="font-weight: bold;">increasing </span>every year - and not the contrary. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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color:#333333">Worse conditions occur in Greece, and are slightly less severe
in Spain (but unemployment is greater than 20% in Spain…). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#333333">[Please see also a cartoon that I have displayed today in my
Facebook page - with English translation…]</span></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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color:#333333"><br></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
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color:#333333">Regards</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#333333"><br></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Artur</span></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Suzanne Daigle <sdaigle4@gmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> World wide Open Space Technology email list <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, August 11, 2013 1:47 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b>
Re: [OSList] Fwd: Certification?<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br><div id="yiv9368682355"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Dear Chris, <br></div><br>Thank you so much for sharing this initiative with us. Thank you Artur for asking the question which led to Chris' response. As far as I'm concerned, what is happening in North Carolina is a microcosm of what is happening in America and in the World. <br>
<br></div><div>I read the<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/opinion/the-decline-of-north-carolina.html?_r=0"> NYTimes article</a> and listened to <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjL7X6gt16s">Dr. Reverend Barber's video</a> and I was inspired and moved to the core by the words, the message and seeing the 10,000 people (families, all races of all ages together) gathered in Pack Square. <br>
</div><div><br></div></div><div><font style="background-color:transparent;">Chris, you said: "I might have slept through this too". </font>This too speaks to my core. Another wake up call for me about what is at the heart of Open Space that gives me purpose and hope plus a simple process to guide me that I can return to when I feel confused and alone. Not a panacea but a way to remind myself that if I can somehow help break the isolation and solitude in small and big spaces, it is something. <br>
<br><div><div>I have been so disheartened by what has been happening in the world,
what happened to the now bankrupt 100+ year forest products company (lumber and paper) where I
worked and the small town (all white, mostly French Canadian) where I lived for so many years. Where honest middle class people worked hard, raised their family and could look forward to a modest pension in their last years. No more! It was troubling to see people in their 70s and 80s lose 35% or more of their small retirement income, for them to see that their children and grand-children, many well educated whether a blue collar or white collar job had no jobs or had no choice but to seek employment elsewhere and even then...! <br>
<br></div><div>The same is true in North Carolina...furniture, textile, railroads and so many other places including Artur's Portugal. <br> <br></div><div>Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Civil Rights movement deeply affected Harrison too. Perhaps it was not just the two martinis and him noticing the energy and spirit of the coffee breaks at those big national conferences that he spent weeks and months organizing that led to Open Space.<br>
<br></div><div>(...)</div></div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>