Category Archives: Society

Greeting Cards Send a Message

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The greeting card industry has spent decades teaching consumers that they need to find the perfect card to express their sentiments. Entire generations have been trained to believe that they are incapable of speaking — or at least writing — for themselves and that anything they have to say to a loved one can best be summed up by a brief message or poem in an appropriately designed and illustrated card.

This is not to knock the cards themselves. As social convenience, greeting cards play an important role in modern culture. For those who are being raised on status updates and wall messages, the arrival of a physical card via mail is an event. It sends a message that someone cares enough to physically go and find a card that expresses a message and then takes even more time to sign, address, affix postage, and actually mail it It’s all to easy to dash off a note while doing twenty other things on a social media site. A physical greeting card shows effort was made.

Luckily, there are still plenty of occasions when people make the effort to choose and present a physical card. Valentine’s Day, Mothers Day, and birthdays are common times and many people still send out holiday cards. At the same time business birthday cards are passed around the office before everyone gathers for cake in the break room. Get Well Soon cards also tend to be group affairs. This doesn’t diminish the fact that instead of sending a group email, people took the time to choose and hand around a card, while keeping it secret from the recipient. Again sending a message that they are willing to put in some effort to brighten someone’s day.

Titan’s Fans More Worried About Upcoming Season, Than Flooding

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The Titans are having to extend their deadline to buy season tickets because the fans have made it clear that they are more worried about missing the deadline to buy season tickets than they are about dying in the floods in Tennessee. While many people have made it clear over the years that their favorite sport is life and death to them, this may be taking it a little over the top.

Psychological Reasons Why You May Be Unsatisfied

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We have things pointed in our direction all the time, and yet we are never satisfied with them. In fact we almost seem to take satisfaction in being unsatisfied with our new toys. There is often that feeling of “that was great, but what do I do now that I have it? Why do I care about it now that it is mine?” There is a psychological reason for this, in fact there are a few.

Connect to People On and Off Line.

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It is impressive what you can do with a bunch of people you’ve only ever met online. I have friends who we only really get along when we are online, and that is ok. With a lot of my other friends and business associates, it has generally been better to connect at a deeper level whether that means we need some time apart to talk to each other over the long distances of the internet, or if that means that one of us needs to fly or drive in and meet face to face. Here is a great article on how to do the second part, taking an online community and connecting in person for the first time.

Obama Signs Student Loan Reform Bill into Law

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Obama signed into action a Student Loan Reformation bill that will help students get student loans, keep these loans out of traditional banks, and will help students pay off loans as they can. This was only a day after signing into law a health reform law. Here is the video explaining a some of these two bills.

Combating Terrorist Financing

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It’s important for all board of directors of any Global company to understand and handle the risk of financial fraud, money laundering, fraud, and market abuse due to the terrorists attacks on the US on 9/11. Terrorists groups and their operations receive funds through a variety of fronts, for example: by using economic or financial and commercial system as an agent to disguise the funding origins and purpose.

The 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism is the primary mechanism for combating terrorist financing. The UN requires signatory member states to pass laws that allow the confiscation and seizure of any terrorist assets and laws that will criminalize any act that provides and collects funds with the intentions of being used to implement and carry out a terrorist attack.

After the 9/11 attacks, sanctions were expanded on the UNSCR 1373 to include individuals, organizations and the countries they reside. Institutions in the regulated financial sector are now required to screen all their clients and customers against UN blacklists of said individuals and organizations suspected with connections to terrorists. Imprisonment of officers and directors are the penalties if these individuals and organizations commit a criminal offense by providing any kind of financial assistance to the blacklisted parties.

In 2000, the UK implemented their own Terrorism Act and in 2006 announced a wider comprehensive counter-terrorism strategies: By engaging in the battle ideas of tackling disadvantage,deterring promoters of terrorism, by better intelligence to disrupt their activities, which includes the countering of terrorist finance, strengthen the security of the borders and defend key utilities, and continually test their countries preparedness by building up incident response capabilities. The challenge to combat terrorist financing is multi-faceted, requiring an array of responses across personal life and business responsibility.

The Importance of the Suspicious Activity Report

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The concept of know your customer, refers to business practices wherein thorough investigations are complete on prospective customers, clients and business associates.  This not only entails becoming educated on the practices, policies and history of future partners, but also knowing just what they are intending to use the goods and services for which one provides.  In the financial realm, institutions are required by law to know with home they are conducting transactions.

Should a customer from either a foreign country, or living within the country, wish to deposit large amounts of cash, they employees of the bank must investigate, and if they do perhaps suspect and sort of criminal activity, be it drug trafficking or corruption they are required to fill out a suspicious activity report.  Not doing so means that they will be prosecuted along with the customer, should the customer be found guilty of said criminal activity.  They will be fined and perhaps charged even if the customer is not found guilty of anything suspicious or criminal, simply because this report is required by law.

Likewise, when this is concerned with a company that provides goods instead of services, they are required should they suspect that the one purchasing those goods are using them in ways to commit acts of terrorism.  There are various ways a company can go about discovering criminal behavior.  () Should a product require installment, but the customer declines, that is suspicious activity.  If a customer makes a business purchase for items not related to the type of business they are usually involved in, that is suspicious behavior.

On a local level this is similar to companies such as Home Depot and paint stores deciding to put aerosol spray paint under lock and key, sometimes refusing to sell the paint to minors.  After it was noted many times that some youth were using the paint for purposes of drug induced highs, and not for paint the walls, the companies locked up the paint in order to avoid prosecution for contributing to the damage that the kids were doing to themselves, as well as being concerned ethically about selling to kids that were exhibiting suspicious behavior.  In a world wherein some individuals are capable of committing incredible acts of destruction, this is very important on the local level, as well as necessary on the global level.

The Power Granted to U.S. Officials by the United States Patriot Act

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The US Patriot Act serves to facilitate the ability of the United States government in the seizure of the funds of financial institutions as well as those of individuals that are located in other countries.  The Act gives the United States Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General the authority issue foreign institutions either subpoenas or summons if they are conducting business or maintain investments in American banking institutions.  These subpoenas and summons are meant to ensure that accounts held by foreign countries in the U.S. institutions are kept in the records of the accounts held.  These records keep track of the deposits and the withdrawals of funds, and the United States banks are held accountable for the maintenance of these records and the identification and reporting of any transactions that appear to be made for the purpose of illegal activities.

Power is granted to the Secretary of the Treasury in the issuance of regulations regarding such maintenance, as well as on the governing of the number of accounts that are held by foreign institutions.  When a client or customer has a number of various accounts, steps must be taken to ensure that this is not a way to cover up illegal activity and the customer is who they say they are, they are the beneficial or director owner of the accounts and all of the funds being transferred back and forth.  All of the standards and regulations regarding an account holders identity are expected to be carried out at the moment that individual opens and account.  This is just one of the ways in which the U.S. Patriot act serves to protect the institutions against fraud and money laundering, as well as the protection of the citizens of various countries from the consequences of terrorist organizations that have access to funding.