Dance Class Blog

Nonprofit Organization Survival Tips:

Surviving and Thriving in Tough Economic Times

Seth Bloom, Bloom Consulting, Inc.

Recession, inflation, deflation, correction, etc., whatever you want to call what we’re going through the simple fact is that many of us have already made adjustments at home and in our businesses, and most of us may need to consider further belt-tightening in the near future. As community leaders, many of us are also wrestling with the impact this economy is having on our nonprofit organizations. As consultants specializing in nonprofit fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and leadership development, Bloom Consulting has had extensive experience with the financial challenges that all nonprofits face from time to time, and we recognize the difficulties that the current situation poses. Fortunately, we believe there are ways to reduce its impact and insure that your nonprofit not only survives, but thrives, in the days ahead.

This list is for anyone with a common sense approach to surviving and thriving in tough economic times. While nonprofit organizations should consider many of these initiatives, they may not all apply to every nonprofit. Yours may have already adopted some, while others may seem too simple or too difficult. Chances are you’ll find a few here to consider, and undoubtedly others will stimulate your own creative ideas.

The Big Picture

Don’t panic! The good news is that nonprofits have weathered economic storms before. That being said, we all realize this will be a challenging period.

Many of the recommendations translate into cutting back, or asking more of others. Fortunately, not everyone is being as adversely affected by the economy as others, and some may even be doing quite well. Keep in mind that some people can and will respond by doing more.

Communicate! Keep your supporters and staff informed about actions you’re taking and how they can be part of the solution, whether through their increased financial support, or simple things such as turning off lights when they walk out of a room or wearing a sweater inside the building since the heat is turned down a few degrees.

Ask your staff and volunteers to offer suggestions of ways to save money or raise funds. Instill a sense that the organization is theirs… and that its challenges are theirs to meet. .

Don’t be penny wise but dollar foolish. If the roof needs fixing and neglecting it will only cost you more in the long run. Bite the bullet. Compelling needs will be supported.

Mindset/Behavior Changes:

Ask a volunteer (or a few) to host or underwrite a social reception for distinct groups such as long-standing contributors, seniors, young families, etc. Doing so can shift some of the financial burden off of the organization budget, and you’re offering these groups something for nothing – a great way to demonstrate appreciation, increase involvement, strengthen retention, etc.

Everyone should have a will and everyone can include something for their favorite nonprofit organization, even if it’s contingent upon any money being left after other bequests have been made. Leadership should set the example by signing Letters of Intent. Just imagine how much easier this tough economic period would be if generations before had established a sufficient endowment fund generating supplemental income. This is our obligation for generations to come.

Maximize all recognition opportunities, whether for financial contributions, in-kind services or volunteer time. While public recognition – honor roll lists, plaques, etc., – is very effective, it’s not the only option and other ways are also greatly appreciated. Sometimes a handwritten note or phone call to say “thank you” will go a long way. Inspire others and positively reinforce desired behaviors through lists, stories, announcements, etc.

You may need to use your line of credit from the bank to get through some rough periods. If you don’t have a line of credit, don’t assume it’s impossible to obtain one now. While credit has been extremely tight and lines of credit may generally be less available than they were prior to the downturn, if your nonprofit has a good relationship with its bank, you should be able to obtain one. If your credit worthiness is shaky, consider asking individual financial supporters to co-sign on your behalf.

Consider “borrowing from yourself.” Your organization’s rainy day may be here, so it’s OK to access endowment/reserve funds, ideally with a plan to repay the borrowed amount for a future rainy day.

Remember, not everyone is being adversely affected by the economy. Form a Task Force to identify real needs and identify potential sources of funding. Develop a menu of programs to address the identified needs and make them available to select prospects for funding. For example, the need for program expansion or facility enhancement may resonate particularly well with potential donors.

Don’t apologize for asking for support or for considering cost savings. To the contrary, supporters will want to know you’re being good stewards of their support.

Keep in mind, if you don’t ask, the answer is always “no.”

Cost savings:

Where possible, renegotiate terms on longstanding contracts as they come up for renewal. Shop around.

Minimize postage. Consolidate mailings and ask supporters and members to receive information such as your newsletter, membership directory and program announcements through e-mail.

If your organization doesn’t do so already, require reservations in advance for events where food will be served so excess food won’t be ordered. Consider rescheduling/canceling programs with limited interest. Charge people who register but don’t show up.

Install a thermostat timer and zoned heat/air conditioning. Install light switches with motion sensors, programmed to turn lights on when someone enters a room and turn them off after not sensing any motion in the room after a few minutes. These are particularly cost-effective in bathrooms!

Educate your staff about your monthly utility bills and, where practical, challenge them to help reduce the bottom line. For example, encourage everyone to wear a sweater in cooler months and turn off their computers at the end of the day. Communicate monthly results.

If a vacant position can be left unfilled for the time being without adverse consequences, consider delaying the hiring. In extreme cases, you may need to consider a temporary salary/hiring freeze and/or layoffs. Consider using an intern and/or volunteers rather than hiring a new staff member. Inform your staff about volunteer opportunities that may otherwise require hiring someone … office personnel, lawn maintenance, etc. There may be recently unemployed individuals associated with your organization who would welcome the opportunity for meaningful volunteer work.

Consolidation and collaboration can produce significant cost savings. For example, a small class could become one class. Co-sponsoring events will enable your organization to share expenses while increasing your exposure to a new constituency.

Consider bulk purchasing of staples such as cleaning and office supplies. Band together with other nonprofit organizations in order to negotiate lower fees.

Establish a co-op program offering all affiliates opportunities to serve the organization through service or to pay a nominal fee. Service can include committee work or actual hands-on cost savings services, but ultimately, your supporters will be more engaged – and committed.

Evaluate every program … question everything. If only a handful of people are coming to a particular program, perhaps it’s time to eliminate, modify, or at least to readjust the number of times the program is offered.

Take advantage of every store program offered to nonprofits … supermarket scrip, free credit card programs, etc. Establish a committee of your thriftiest shoppers to manage this effort.

Increase income:

Identify and prioritize, distinguishing real needs from things that would be nice to have or do. Secure funding for these needs, whether it be through a “quiet campaign” among supporters or through an organization wide campaign.

Your board should be the best informed group regarding the impact of the downturn, and board members may be among the most inclined to make additional elective contributions. Consider asking board members to make a contribution toward a defined goal, as if there were a mini-campaign. The goal could correspond to a budget shortfall or the amount needed to preserve an important program, as long as the things to be paid for are among your identified needs. Depending on magnitude of the needs, consider approaching select major donors. If the goal is substantial enough to require universal support, publicize after 50% or 60% of the goal is reached, and state the challenge to make contributions toward reaching the total goal.

Have leadership – officers, board, staff – identify 1 – 3 people perceived to have significant wealth and/or access in order to nurture/establish a relationship, identify areas of interest, and ultimately ask for their support.

Identify potential new donors by considering people formerly affiliated with your organization, relatives of current supporters, donors to similar organizations, etc.

Consider a single, annual ask for your potential major donors to help support operations of the organization rather than solicitations for every event/initiative. Price it high enough to cover the cumulative of top categories of every event. Don’t solicit these people again, but invite them to attend and recognize their support.

Rater higher-end prospects and pre-solicit them in advance of fundraising events in order for you prospective donors to have a sense of a specific gift to consider.

Offer sponsorship opportunities of events, your website, etc., to local businesses. Such sponsorships create win-win partnerships with businesses by providing visibility to the community. For businesses, donations are often considered a marketing expense.

If your nonprofit is considering dues or other fee increases, make modest annual adjustments rather than hitting people with a significant increase all at once.

Offer free estate planning seminars highlighting tax savings options, including planned giving.

Maximize use of your building by renting available space to outside groups (bingo, dance clubs, etc.).

Charge outside vendors a fee to be eligible for use in your facility … caterers, florists, etc. All vendors should be asked for their financial contributions.

Offer babysitting on site for a nominal fee during events, business hours, and programs. Not only will this be an appreciated service, it’s conceivable you can secure volunteers to provide the service and/or receive enough income to make a modest profit for the organization.

Constantly urge supporters to consider matching gifts programs available through their employer. Often schools or programs open to the community are eligible for corporate matches.

Conclusion:

Chances are at some point the current economy will challenge your nonprofit organization to consider creative strategies for minimizing the impact on your delivery of service. This cannot be a period of “business as usual.” While there are many external factors beyond your control, there are many initiatives to consider to enable nonprofits continue to fulfill their mission. The organizations that embrace this challenge will be the organizations that will survive the current situation and thrive in the long-run.

Seth Bloom is President of Bloom Consulting, Inc. Bloom Consulting specializes in nonprofit fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and leadership development. www.bloomconsultinginc.com

Seth Bloom
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-profit-organizations-articles/surviving-and-thriving-in-tough-economic-times-677097.html

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I usually have places to go after dance class. We don’t really have a shower room and I don’t really have time to head home and take a shower so how do you freshen up after an intense dance class?

Typically, I bring a change of clothes,deodorant, and body spray. If you have time go in the bathroom and get a paper towle then blot of the sweat. I also change in my car hope that helps

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A lot of great ideas happen when two or more other ideas collide to form something completely new.

Think of this like those old chemistry movies we used to watch in school. You had all of those atoms floating around and when two collided — bam! A chemical reaction. Maybe something new was created. Maybe something exploded. Or maybe it all fizzled out and nothing happened.

Well, a similar reaction is going on inside your brain or muse. Except instead of atoms floating around they’re pieces of information or other ideas. As they drift about, they occasionally bump into each other. When that happens, you may get a new, third idea. Or a big explosion. Or absolutely nothing at all.

Now, if you have lots of atoms, or information and ideas, you’re going to get lots of reactions. Some will fail. Some will be so-so. And some will be hot — so hot, so full of energy, they’ll have the power to change the trajectory of a business. Or even a life.

The problem occurs when you don’t have lots of random information and ideas. Fewer atoms mean fewer reactions. On top of that, you still have to weed through the invariable duds. So the odds of landing that one amazing idea drop considerably.

But not to worry — there’s good news. You can increase your odds of getting those great ideas. Better yet, it’s fairly easy and painless. Below are three ways to get started.

1. Read, read and read some more.

Of all of these, this one is probably the scariest. But, it also has the potential to be the most powerful. Traveling has so many fabulous benefits for your creative soul I could write an article just about that, but for now I’ll limit my comments to brain food. I know, I know, I can hear the groans already. “But I already have too much to read. How can I fit more reading in?” Never fear, there are ways to do this. (Remember I did say this was painless.)

Michele PW
http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/need-a-great-idea-feed-your-brain-670980.html

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Recognised as one of the most sacred performance halls in the country, Pasadena Civic Auditorium is a historically acclaimed work of genius. It comes with 3,029 seats and has hosted many distinguished events such as world class ballet performances, Broadway musicals, celebrity speakers, symphony orchestras in addition to the Prime Time Emmy Awards and the People’s Choice Awards.

Built in 1931, Pasadena Civic Auditorium opened its gates in 1932. The main floor comes with 1,922 permanent seats with 98 installable orchestra pit seats. The loge accommodates 560 while the upper balcony seats 449 making the overall capacity a staggering 3,029.

One of the main features at Pasadena Civic Auditorium is the classic Gold Room which is positioned on the second floor. It provides an impressive setting for small scale receptions, meetings and even dinner parties that can hold a total number of 300 guests.

A part of the Pasadena Centre, The Pasadena Civic is a perfect combination of the long established traditions and the contemporary. It is a living symbol that reflects the excellence and exquisiteness of this fine city.

In February, 1932 the new Pasadena Civic Auditorium was devoted to the people of Pasadena whose hard work made the creation of this attractive and valuable building possible. Over the years, The Civic has hosted a large number of community events like Graduations, Rose Queen Ceremonies, benefit concerts, speeches by eminent persons and numerous programs for children.

Following the creation of the Pasadena Centre during the 1970s, Pasadena Civic Auditorium transformed itself to a comprehensive convention centre which included an exhibition building, conference building, a hotel and convenient parking facilities.

Today this distinctive masterpiece is home for world renowned ballet performances, musical comedy, symphony and even television programs. The Civic has also hosted numerous world class orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Known to be the best venue for ballet, the Civic hosted the dance program for the Olympic Arts Festival in 1984, the San Francisco Ballet, repeating engagements of the American Ballet theatre and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

There are many hotels in Pasadena that are positioned with easy reach to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Both performers and Travellers who wish to explore and view some great performances at the Auditorium can easily plan their stay at any of the nearby Pasadena hotels. For instance, Langham Hotel Pasadena is an ideal place to stay for those seeking comfort, style and convenience amidst a superb location.

Naveen Marasinghe
http://www.articlesbase.com/destinations-articles/a-fusion-of-the-old-and-new-729830.html

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In modern times it is useful to learn the travails of the past. Churchill at war, is a perfect example of someone defending the Anglo-Saxon heritage of freedom, division of powers, open markets, and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Only Bush, Blair, Brown it is alleged, and some other leaders understand Islam’s threat to Western Civilisation. It is very similar to the universal designs that predatory Nazism and corrupt Communism had upon unsupspecting states.
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In his own recorded history of the First World War Churchill charges that, like the Second World War, the first was completely unnecessary and could have been prevented if wiser counsels and less weak and pathetically Byzantine alliances were in existence. Britain through covert arrangements finalised before 1914, had committed itself to the French-Russian side of the European chess board though it was never spelled out why or how Britain could or should support either France or Russia in a general engagement against Germany – the predetermined enemy. It was generally agreed in the 3 or 4 years preceding 1914 that Germany would strike for pan-European mastery when her fighting strength was able to contain two fronts – one on the east with Russia and the second in the west with France. The German army was by most accounts superior to the French and her fleet though not nearly as large as the British could still cause deep anxiety at the British admiralty. In fact there never was a decisive engagement between the British and German navies during the First World War, the only notable tangle being the battle of Jutland which gave neither navy an increase in fighting reputation.

It was obvious that pre-1914 Britain could bring little influence to bear on the Continent and its small volunteer force was tiny compared to the great conscript armies of Europe. Whether the Liberal government in power in 1914 would have entered the war at all without Germany invading Belgium is open to question. However with typical arrogance Germany ignored the usual British concern over the strategic importance of the Low Countries smashing the Belgian defences and forcing the British to intervene. Unlike their Teutonic cousins the British are not a warrior race and the unpreparedness of British war capacity both in 1914 and 1939 well illustrate this point. British success in the world was premised on free trade and peace and not upon martial prowess and in both world wars the British nation was psychologically unprepared for the conflict.

Besides the pending Armageddon in Europe the maintenance of the empire in 1914 was a full task in itself. In 1914 there were 200.000 men under arms in Ireland where a revolt over Home Rule seemed inevitable; in England the miners, the railwaymen and the transport workers were each claiming union recognition for the railwaymen who had thus far been excluded from the TU; and all workers were appealing for a 48 hour work week. As well British forces had to face nationalist troubles in Egypt and India and not to mention in August 1914 the armed and deranged power of a grasping degenerate Germany.

The British in short were being racked by the evolutionary and even Darwinian strains of liberalism which its democratic institutions could barely contain and affront. Thankfully for the British war effort many of the domestic squabbles were delayed while the death dance with Germany played on. Domestic problems were sidelined due to the early misfortunes in the war for the British and French forces. The Allies suffered many military reverses and only a stubborn French resistance at the Marne in late 1914 prevented a quick German victory. In fact in 1911 Churchill had predicted this very occurrence in the advent of a Continental war. Churchill had predicted that on the 40th day of the German attack the German line would be thrown back due to Allied resistance and logistical difficulties. On day 41 the French won the battle of the Marne preserving Paris and French freedom. After the battle of the Marne the British nation settled in for a long war.

At the outbreak of the hostilities the Navy was more than ready. It transported the British army to France without loss of life and under Churchill’s constant prodding attacked the island of Sylt off the north coast of Germany, sinking a destroyer, a cruiser and crippling five more ships. Churchill at the request of the Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchen, undertook the air defence of the British Isles and dubbed this airfleet the Royal Naval Air Service. He also sponsored the development of the tank, and thanks to his efforts the British were able to use the land carrier with devastating success in the final two years of the war. Without Churchill’s innovative demands and constant championing of the tank concept it may never have seen the battlefield, and may never have played such a decisive part in the fall of Germany in 1918.

Churchill began the war as Asquith’s golden boy. But his triumphs were short lived. The first cause for concern was something called the ‘Dunkirk’ Circus. This project was conceived from the trepidation’s that the Huns might capture the channel ports. The French requested assistance in the defence of the Dunkirk perimeter. Kitchen asked Churchill’s help and Winston sent across the channel his naval marines replete with 50 motor omnibuses from London to give them the requisite mobility. The Dunkirk Circus appeared in various towns in the area, giving the Germans the impression that a large force of British regulars was co-operating with the French in the area. It was successful and Churchill spent a good deal of time in France with his marines, much to the chagrin and anger of his colleagues, the Conservatives and the press, who wondered in scathing public rebukes why the First Lord was not at his desk in London doing his job ? The Prime Minister Asquith was not amused with his Alcibiades.

Then in late September 1914 Churchill delivered a flamboyant and damning speech in which he made a very unwise observation that soiled his name for years to come, “So far as the Navy is concerned we cannot fight while the enemy remains in port….If they do not come out and fight they will be dug out like rats from a hole.” Well, the very next day three British ships were torpedoed off the Dutch coast and sunk. This was a ‘bait’ squadron which had been ordered 3 days previously to return to England. If this order had been immediately obeyed the loss would have been avoided. His speech posed him in a ridiculous light and coupled with the Dunkirk Circus gave his enemies plenty to hurl his way. The next step of mishappenstance, though again not the direct fault or cause of Churchill, was the fall of Antwerp.

In 1914 war tidings were grim. The early German successes in the war in 1914 led Churchill to cross the channel to Antwerp to stiffen the Belgian and Allied defence of the city so crucial for the control of the Channel ports and the north western European coast and indeed in some respects for the safety of Britain, which would lie imperilled if the seaboard was controlled by a violent foe. The Antwerp escapade though it ultimately did not prevent the Germans from taking the city was crucial for defence of the coast since it delayed the German advance down the coast by 3 or 4 vital days allowing the British and French to re-deploy and organise their defences to hold the key channel ports. But this very sound decision of Churchill to lead the defence of Antwerp was vitiated by his clumsy offer to Asquith and the Cabinet to resign and take field duty if he were given the command of sufficient forces to satiate his military ambition. It was a very rash and improbable communication much hailed by his critics as an example of his unreliability.

Churchill was forced then to keep himself close to the rudder and he forced himself to remain in London. In so doing came to rely on the productivity and innovation casted off by his relationship with the brilliant old sea dog Jackie Fisher. The Fisher – Churchill combination continued to work at a frenetic rate, Churchill’s political diminishment notwithstanding. After a sharp defeat of a British naval squadron off the coast of Chile, spirit and prestige was revived when the German admiral Von Spee was killed off the Falkland Islands with the loss of his whole squadron. It was a smashing victory and redemption for the Churchill-Fisher combination. Then suddenly Turkey entered the war on the side of Germany, and Russia demanded that the Allies take action in the Middle East to draw off some Turkish pressure on Russian forces. Churchill at once seized upon the idea – offered on many occasions – of forcing the fortresses that flanked the narrow straits of the Dardanelles by a naval operation alone that would allow the Allies to capture Constantinople and push Turkey out of the war.

The attack was given Cabinet approval and went ahead at first as a naval operation. On February 19 the fleet opened up the bombardment of the straits. Kitchen a short while later promised troops. For the first 10 days the attack went well with the outer fortresses falling. Then suddenly the progress stopped. Turkish resistance was much stiffer than anticipated and sea mines were causing damage and anxiety to the British and French navies. On March 18th 1915 the Allied navy massed for a decisive attack and blasted the shores with such a cannonade that most of the defences were swept away. The navy steamed on to what seemed to be victory when the vessels struck a row of mines sinking 3 older ships and crippling four more. The attack was called off and the naval officers after some deliberation refused to continue the attack unless the army intervened and commenced a land campaign.

Churchill was apoplectic. He felt that victory was in sight but he could not force his naval commanders to reengage. Local commanders had ultimate authority and direction at the scene and the military command in London which was not organised properly to enact final decisions or reach a connected vision of strategy, could do little to impress its views on men thousand of miles away. Five long precious weeks were wasted until the French, Anzac and British troops stormed the Gallipoli shores. Surprise as a variable was cast away, the Turks and their German allies had mounted an intricate and obdurate system of defences and German submarines began to appear in the domain complicating the operation. Gradually the Navy pulled out and left the whole task to Kitchener’s army which straggled and floundered on the rocky shores locked in strife with a desperate enemy in control of the high points of the landscape. In December 1915 Gallipoli was evacuated with well over a quarter of a million French, British and Anzac casualties.

Churchill supported by later historians and enemy documents makes a very convincing argument for himself and the Gallipoli attack in his fascinating book on World War One, The World Crisis. It is known that the Turkish gunners during the last naval assault of March 18 had only enough ammunition to fight one more such action. The Turkish and German defenders were astonished that the British had not pushed forward. In fact the German naval gunners had already determined that the Navy would win and that holding out much longer was hopeless. Most experts agree that a combined land-sea operation would have succeeded. Churchill should be faulted for not being patient enough to wait until the army was ready for such a combined assault. He was too enamoured of a naval-only success. However, in his defence it is certain that the amateurish, haphazard decision making around the operation, with no clear cut authority and overall plan was not his fault. Remarkably no machinery of consultation existed between the naval and army departments and consequently Churchill’s power to persuade and help control complex co-ordinated operations was severely limited. This was not helped by the absolute dominance of the war lord, Kitchener. He was not just a hero, but a god, a famous general with great successes recorded in Egypt, the Sudan and South Africa. If the government had been better organised and more cohesive the war could have conceivably ended in 1915, with Turkey knocked out of the war, the Russian armies fighting the Turks in the Caucasus liberated to direct their fury against the Germans, the Balkans enlisted on the side of the Allies and Allied armies pouring into the soft, unprotected ‘underbelly’ of Germany. If successful Gallipoli could have saved millions of lives.

However Fisher resigned over the Dardanelles fiasco and this coupled with Antwerp, the Dunkirk circus, the apparent loss of paramount naval supremity and Gallipoli all forced Churchill to resign. Ten months earlier he was one of the most powerful men in England. Gallant, brave, an accomplished writer and orator, blessed with boundless energy and close relationships with key politico’s, his star’s lustre was dazzling and its light appeared to shine far into the future. Yet by 1915 though he was only 40 it appeared to many that his career was finished. He still had a quality of immaturity possessed of great ideas but with no real or stable sense of proportion. The relinquishment of power was bitter as Churchill wrote “I knew everything but could do nothing.” Little else can describe the painful forfeiture of power better. What brought about this rapid de-elevation ?

The answer lies in his personality. Much of the blame was unfair. He was the most important and vital minister in Britain during this period and had rendered valuable service in the cause of freedom. His small but gallant Naval Air Force was scouting German Zeppelins with increasing success, the Dunkirk Circus had fooled the Germans into believing that forty thousand British regulars threatened their flank and forced them into retreat, and the prolongation of the Antwerp defence had saved the channel ports from Hunnish occupation. It was more the flamboyance and self-assuredness of the First Lord that aroused suspicions and opposition. Churchill forgot that he was a politician and therefore had to tie either the Conservatives or Liberals to his tail to create a following. Not doing so appointed the day for his expulsion from the government when the vicissitudes of fate came calling.

The Conservatives still hated him and some of his Liberal colleagues were overwhelmed by the man’s ambition and capacity. From most accounts it is safe to say that Churchill was not a well liked fellow in either a political or personal sense. His parliamentary colleagues recognised his genius but he offended their amour-propre. People did not interest Churchill but ideas. His absorption in his own affairs illuminated a vanity that was hard for some to accept. Churchill’s incisive, compelling monologues tended to disregard the feelings and opinions of his audience and created the aura of gross insensibility which is a determined flaw in a democratic statesman who must not only expand ideas but impel others to accept them.

To assuage his sorrow Churchill headed to the front lines in 1915 in command of a brigade and experienced life and very nearly death in the trenches. Though it was a political difficulty, his scope of power was increased to that of a battalion commander in Belgium, though Churchill knew that a substantial military career was not to be his. His battalion – the Royal Scots Fusiliers – were nonplussed that a politician had been thrusted into their midst. On his second day with the group Churchill won over his men by gathering the officers together and announcing solemnly; “War is declared, gentlemen, on the lice.” This was followed by an erudite and expanded lecture on the origin, growth, and nature of the louse, with particular emphasis on its decisive role in the history of warfare. The officers were not only amused and shocked, but fascinated.

With the spectacle of a great and creative mind bursting with hard work and focused on the comparatively small needs of a battalion, excitement and activity was assured. Churchill especially impressed his men by his coolness under fire and the complete lack of nervousness with bullets spluttering about as he would almost recklessly expose himself to enemy fire. By all accounts he was a trusted and quite effective Leader – interested in all details of the men, their methods and wants, the operations and the enforcement of military discipline and fairness. Though only at the front for over four months it gave Churchill a comprehensive experience of the horrors and follies of war and the undeniable bestial conditions that the men at the front fought, lived and died in.

Churchill was however a Leader and a statesman and not a warrior at the core of his being. When the combination of battalions ended his military career he took the opportunity to race back to London to participate in political opposition and await the detailed investigation of the Dardanelles event by a special commission. Churchill was anxious that his character and public career should receive a fair hearing. The Dardanelles report was published in 1917 and gave Churchill a rather favourable press, severely criticising the Prime Minister Asquith, for his handling of the War Cabinet and for Kitchen who as Secretary of War did not send troops sooner. Churchill was not exonerated but importantly for him not crucified by the commission. A resuscitation of his political career was now possible.

In 1916 Lloyd George claiming a liberal-democratic war, based on crusading moral principles and responsibilities, became Prime Minister and was masterful in his management of the British war effort. Indeed many historians have suggested that without his leadership of Britain during the war, victory may have come later if at all. Domestic disputes were still quiescent though less so after the 1917 Russian revolution, where Russia was ripped open by the wolfish, bloodthirsty Bolsheviks which knocked it out of the war and gave Europe the misguided but enthusiastically received messianic appeal of bolshevism in its war weary nations. This dulled the appetite of Britain and France to fight on.

Men of mettle. intelligence and dedicated to ultimate victory were therefore needed and George wanted Churchill’s energies and imagination and great leadership capacity working for the government and not skulking on the opposition benches tearing holes in government policy. Though the opposition to Churchill was extremely intense especially in Conservative circles, Churchill was appointed as Minister of Munitions in 1917. The noise against his appointment was deafening especially astonishing Churchill who was deeply unaware at the amount of hostility that he had created in political circles. Since Churchill was officially an independent candidate and not a member of either the Liberal or Conservative Party he was not included in the War Cabinet which curtailed his activities probably to his own benefit. As George recorded in his memoirs, “Unfortunately genius always provides its critics with material for censure — it always has and always will. Churchill is certainly no exception to this rule.”

At the Ministry of Munitions Churchill took over the control of a huge organisation composed of 12000 civil servants in 50 departments. Churchill combined the 50 groups into less than a dozen new ones and he set up a Council of business men somewhat like the Board of Admiralty and over the business men he put a clamping committee, small and powerful to direct affairs. The organisation was a triumph. This Ministry covered an enormous field – it was not only responsible for guns and shells but for all sorts of rolling stock and the design and production of aircraft as well. Churchill had to appreciably increase the munitions for the tank and machine gun corps which he did extraordinarily quickly and also to supply the American military with supplies until the USA could bring their factories onto a war footing. He in effect made a gentlemen’s agreement by which the UK promised not to make a profit and the USA promised to make good a loss. The deal worked spectacularly. Winston established extremely cordial relations with his counterpart in Washington – Bernard Baruch – who was to become indispensable for Britain in its World War Two efforts to receive American armaments during the dark days of 1940 and 1941.

The appalling and senseless First World War sank deep into consciousness of the British nation and explains why bolshevism was granted receptive audiences throughout Europe and why the nations of Europe were eager to appease Hitler 20 years later. At the Battle of the Somme a British offensive in 1916 claimed 420.000 British casualties in one month. From August to September 1917 at Paaschendaele Belgium, 300.000 Empire soldiers were wounded or killed in a campaign to claim a few square miles of territory with many of the victims drowned in torrential rains. Even after the successful conclusion of the war with the dramatic and sudden German disintegration in the early summer of 1918 the British and French populace could never erase the carnage and mindless mutilation of 4 years of war and became profoundly anti-war and pro-pacifist.

This pacifist feeling and urge to rebuild a better world was manifest in the 1918 election where Lloyd George and his coalition government retained power. At this juncture the Liberal party, once the prime mover in all that was progressive and enlightened, was all but finished, weak, divided and without firm mass support. The Conservatives took the urban vote, and the Labour party the worker vote. The Trade Unions on which Labour depended became enormously strengthened by the war experience and their membership doubled to roughly over 8 million by 1919. Given the voting reforms in 1918 this power became effectively used as the electorate was extended from about 8 million in 1914, to over 21 million in 1918.

After the successful close of the First World War the Imperial mystique was powerful and even enhanced. British possessions in the Middle East and Africa grew, with concomitant increases in raw material resource including oil. It appeared that British economic strength given the severity of the peace reprisals hoisted upon Germany and the minimisation of her once severe economic threat, could enjoy something of a comeback. In the 1920’s under Lloyd George all major industries were returned to private hands. The Government also began trumpeting a consistent financial policy to ensure an eventual return to the Gold Standard, meaning that the City of London, the British class system, and private capitalism all appeared to continue unchallenged.

However fiscal reality overshadowed the blissful feeling of Empire grandeur. Financial and military constraints to manage the Empire were severe and India with its growing nationalism was becoming ever more of a moral and financial burden. There was a huge increase from the war effort in national debt and the subsequent loss of foreign markets especially in Germany and France. Lloyd George had also committed his government to the necessary but costly endeavour of building 200.000 houses for immediate public purchase in 1919. Massive post-war unemployment was fast becoming a crippling political problem for the British government, as was the realisation that perhaps the greatest threat to international stability was the narrow minded, nescient Versailles Peace Treaty effected in 1919. Covert, secret treaties concluded during the war between Britain and its allies, with unjust terms for financial reparations from Germany as described by J.M. Keynes’ ‘Economic Consequences of the Peace’ written in 1919, showed conclusively that the reparations imposed on Germany would lead to its financial ruin and thereby to the permanent weakening of the European economy. Keynes also devoted eloquent, penetrating prose, in describing the corrupt atmosphere of the Versailles arrangement and in particular Lloyd George’s debasing and unstatesmanlike conduct.

Churchill though he was the most visible advocate of better social conditions was assigned by George as the Secretary of State for War and Air. This was a key position in post war Europe, a Continent which was far from stable and where, the insipidity of Bolshevism was threatening to take over Germany. Churchill and others promulgated that given these internal disruptions a certain magnanimity towards Germany would be prudent since she was and is the central player in the concert of Europe. In fact the Bolshevist menace occupied a great deal of Churchill’s energies in 1919 and 1920. He firmly believed that if enough Western material and support were offered to the non-Bolshie forces in Russia, Lenin’s precarious revolution which during these years was in great danger of being eclipsed by military forces loyal to the Russian monarchy and to a lesser degree supportive of democracy could be eradicated.

That Bolshevism was foul baboonery was obvious to any but the most ardent and simple socialist utopian. Lloyd George however considered that the Russian anti-Bolshevist generals were not liberal democrats and that foreign intervention counter-productive and expensive. And though Churchill was right about Bolshevism being imposed by force, Britain was too exhausted by the Great War to intervene militarily or even spiritually. The prospect of another conflict was too horrifying to consider and most of the volunteers in the army were clamouring to be disbanded. Thus in part through Western weakness the irrationality of Bolshevism laid its clawed hand on the heart of Russia. A tragedy still apparent in the mindset, lost integrity and general disarray of the Russian people and nation today.

After dispensing with his duties as Secretary of War, Churchill was directed by George to sort out painful and essential problems in the Colonial Office. In the brief 18 months of 1921-22 when Winston was Secretary for the Colonies he justly claimed the mantle of peace maker. He enacted two very important settlements. The first was in the Middle East. Churchill still carried the great hope that Britain would conduct itself in a pure manner regarding native or colonial populations and government. His experience taught him that democracy was not applicable at all times in all locations to all peoples, yet fair government rested not on military power but on moral law. Churchill in effect cut military deployment and largess in the colonies especially in the newly acquired territories in the Middle East where Air power was substituted in some measure for troops to garrison the Empire. It was in this quarter as well that Churchill strove gamely within the British protectorate of Palestine to broker peace between the Jews and Arabs, and to push the idea of a Jewish state in the region in accordance with the Balfour declaration of 1917 which stated that the Jews were to be accorded a national home in the Middle East. Churchill was convinced that Zionism would bring with it prosperity if only peace could be arranged between the implacable parties.

He called upon the aid of the amazing Englishman Lawrence of Arabia, and settled in Cairo during a conference, the grievances of all concerned parties. The proposals were sent to Cabinet. First, the British must appease Arab emotion by placing the Emir Feisal on the throne of Iraq and transfer to his brother the Emir Abdulla the government of the Transjordan. Secondly, British troops must be withdrawn from Iraq and order maintained via the Air Force. Thirdly, adjustments must be made between the Arabs and Jews that would serve as a sure foundation for peace. In sum it was a proper and practicable arrangement and with it the acceptance of the proposals, tension in the Middle East declined dramatically.

At this time Ireland also raised itself after the war eager for Home Rule and a resolution to its problems. It was a violent land with Sinn Fein outside of Northern Ireland dominant and using force to implement its rule. Churchill as Colonial Secretary in 1921 was entrusted to keep military control and internal peace until proper democratic procedures could be enacted to appease the demands of the Catholic South. To restore the military balance on the island Churchill recruited Ulster men to patrol Ireland and to meet violence with violence. Though clashes ensued both sides and the British government could find enough common ground to effect the transfer of power to Southern Ireland as a dominion, effective December 6 1922. Churchill’s part as a conciliatory statesman, ignoring the clamour of extremists from both sides and unbowed by military threats was crucial and leading. The world seldom thinks of Churchill as a conciliator but in this case he worked tirelessly and sagaciously to defuse an intricate and maddeningly emotional dispute. He handled innumerable situations with tact, writing repeatedly to the leaders involved, smoothing away misunderstandings, emphasising goodwill, minimalising petty conduct, praising, extolling and suggesting. In the end the tragedy of Ireland final settled down to peace.

In the fall of 1922 a national election transpired which effectively destroyed the Liberal party and forced Churchill to make his way towards the Conservatives. Public disapproval and weariness with the coalition or ‘national’ government of Lloyd George had reached new heights of fervent expression. Since 1916 George had sat upon the pinnacle of British public duty. However George’s persistent womanising and remote, Olympian and not entirely trust worthy character had defaced to some degree the validity of his rule. Public disgruntlement at its Leadership became irreversibly hardened in 1922 when Britain was on the verge of war with Turkey over the defence of the Greek position in Asia minor and the protection of the Dardanelle straits. War did not erupt, but Lloyd George and his government including Churchill were tossed from office and Ramsay MacDonald, the utopian Leader of the leftist Labour party became Prime Minister. Macdonald was challenged by the stable and peaceful Stanley Baldwin the Conservative Leader, Prime Minister in 1923-24, 1924-1929, and 1935-7. Both Macdonald and Baldwin were appropriate shepherds for a country that desperately wanted peace and safety and to escape the horrors of war.

Churchill also lost his working class seat in Dundee Scotland and was banished into exile for 2 years. It is peculiar that an aristocrat would have as his political base a blue collar, sweated town such as Dundee which had absolutely nothing in common with an Oxfordshire squire. Barred from public duty by the election result Churchill spent most if his time with the family, writing, painting and patiently biding time until the political scene cleared and opportunity would be revealed. In this period Churchill began his massive history of the First World War. The five volumes of the “World Crisis” as it was called, were published between 1923 and 1931. It is a truly significant work about national, international and personal power. It is not so much a history as a colourful drama, with Churchill never far from the centre stage. It was a eulogy to the decaying grasp of British domination of the world scene, with 1922 revealing the spread of socialism engulfing Europe, with Ireland and Egypt lost as independents from the Empire and the first ever Labour Party in power. Much had changed and much was still in train to be altered since Churchill had first entered Parliament 21 years earlier. Across the globe peaceful hopes were supreme. Martial glory was dreaded.

The new doctrinaire of peace and rebuilding was reflected in British arts represented by the literary Bloomsbury group — a creative association that included Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster, both intimating through their novels a decline of Western liberal self confidence in the face of rising competition and corruption. In the mid 1920’s Britain was a society rapidly changing and transmuting. Large proportions of the population had emerged from the war with middle class aspirations; home ownership, a quiet contented family, leisure, domestic comforts and employment security. There was a gradual erosion of church and puritan values with ‘smart young things’ wearing less restrictive and dour costumes and fewer young people openly religious. The rural population declined steadily as unemployment in the non-urban areas grew and families migrated to the city to locate work.

In 1923 an event occurred which proved extremely advantageous for the career of Churchill. Bonar Law the Conservative Prime Minister and Winston’s intractable political opponent resigned and soon afterwards died, leaving Stanley Baldwin, the Chancellor of the Exchequer as Prime Minister. Baldwin was a stolid, pipe smoking, shrewd English politician dedicated to eradicating unemployment which at that time hovered around the one million mark. He was a protectionist, an advocate of high tariffs to stimulate economic growth and employment. But since Bonar Law had pledged in the 1922 election to do exactly the opposite, Baldwin needed a mandate from the public to initiate such reform.

Baldwin thus picked the only issue capable of uniting all Liberals into one unit. Churchill fought as a Liberal Free Trader at West Leicester, noisy and excited. His violent denunciations of the Labour party and of socialism, drew packed houses and infuriated his opponents, who pitched any and all recriminations they could lay their hands on. Churchill was so bitterly hated by a large section of the working class that when he spoke on 3 December 1923 in London, the city was obliged the send both mounted and foot police as protection. Churchill described the crowd as “..more like Russian wolves than British workmen – if they are British workmen – howling, foaming, and spitting, and generally behaving in a way absolutely foreign to the British working classes.” Churchill lost by four thousand votes. Overall no party could command enough seats to form a government. The Labour and Liberal parties formed a coalition with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister. Another election was soon inevitable since a Labour government held in power by Liberal support could never hope to enact change. The Labour party had an equal share of Liberal minded men such as MacDonald and radicals intent on real socialism.

Shortly thereafter a Conservative seat fell vacant in Westminster London. Churchill at once set about getting himself adopted as the Conservative candidate. His powerful Tory friends intervened on his behalf but to no avail. The Conservative party adopted the nephew of the retiring Conservative member. Churchill continued undaunted calling himself an anti-socialist independent. Many Tories supported Churchill. There was a fear that since Westminster was a Conservative stronghold Churchill’s candidacy might split the Conservative vote and allow Labour to win. Churchill fought the campaign entirely against the Socialists. Blood, thunder, doom and ruin were interwoven with tales of tragic incompetence if Labour would lay its hands on power. Notable peers, Conservative members and newspapers canvassed for him. Despite the glittering support Churchill lost by 43 votes to the Conservative candidate Nicholson.

Churchill was far from downcast. The road at least to the Conservatives was clear. His Liberal bridge lay burned and the support of so many notable Conservatives gave him great heart. He was positioned as the most powerful Conservative weapon against a socialistic revolution. After nine months of governing the Liberals finally withdrew their support from MacDonald’s and another election was called in the fall of 1924. Churchill fought in this election as a Conservative at Epping and was victorious. His remarkable journey back to a party that reflected his ideals of economic orthodoxy, social reform and colonial morality was complete. It staggered his enemies who could not believe that he had once again switched party flags.

Soon after this victory and remarriage Churchill somewhat incredibly became Chancellor. It was an amazing transformation. Since 1918 Churchill had made a steady if not swift progression to his natural political home of conservatism. The Liberal party had by 1922 outlived its usefulness. Churchill had no choice if he prized his political future but to join the Conservatives. That Stanley Baldwin gave Churchill the second most important post in the government dazed even the staunchest of Churchill’s supporters. Given the complex spectacle and challenges of post war finances, reparation schedules, the gold standard issue and the grappling of the debt problem, the Chancellorship in the mid-20’s would prove to be an extremely laborious effort.

Why did Baldwin give Churchill the second most powerful position in the nation ? He simply feared Churchill and especially the political and oratorical combination of Churchill and Lloyd George. If Churchill was left out of power, a Centre Party with Churchill and Lloyd George and the Conservative orator and Churchillian supporter F.E. Smith could conceivably be formed dissipating greatly any governmental power base. Baldwin had no desire to be blasted by 3 such heavyweights. An astute party manager, Baldwin forced Churchill to accede to the Chancellorship where party pressure would keep him in line. Or so he hoped. And indeed in donning the robes once worn by his father Churchill showed himself a loyal and capable supporter of Baldwin and his government.

Though not trained in the world of commerce or finance Churchill mastered his post with precipitate speed and enjoyment challenging the experts and doctrinaires on all policy issues. However the mid-late 1920’s decline in exports and decreased employment opportunities in the export trades can be in large part traced to his decision to return Britain to the Gold Standard. This decision can be regarded as a rather disastrous move. In fact Churchill’s tenure at the Exchequer was marred by strife and labour bitterness, depression and industrial disquiet. Most of this calamity can be traced to business and financial pressure exerted upon British governments beginning in 1918 to return the British pound to the pre-World War 1 Gold Standard rate. A standing committee of experts appointed by the Lloyd George Government in 1918 to investigate the position urged that the decision be accepted and only the emphatic and brilliant economist John Maynard Keynes raised a howl of objection. In 1925 Britain sat between two stools of economic philosophy of society.

On one sat the school of market determination insisting that wages and prices are calculated by the strict, inviolable laws of supply and demand. Upon the other resided the Keynesians, preaching a managed economy and limited but effective government interference and resource allocation. Though Keynes intellectually gnarled the return to Gold he very importantly did not offer an alternative. The political and business pressure on Churchill to keep the parliamentary promise and return the country to gold was immense. It was viewed as a way to defuse inflation since the government would be constrained in its printing of money. All of Britain’s major economic partners had adopted or soon would pass under the heel of the Gold Standard. And though Churchill repeatedly hesitated imploring his civil officials to defy Keynes’ predictions he could find no plausible alternative to what many had expected to be a fait accompli.

The result meant a serious overvaluing of British Coal and Steel exports and generally exacerbated the inequality of comforts among the classes that divided the nation. Unfortunately for Churchill and his government economic woes dovetailed with sagging spirits. In much of the West there arose in the mid-late 1920’s a certain disappointment with Western values and the terrible cycle of industrial decline, unemployment, and social bitterness led to the worst explosion of class conflict that Britain had yet known in 1926. In April of that year Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin refused to renew a subsidy to the coal industry. This subsidy was considered essential to maintain the coal industry’s productive capability, and its repeal ignited a class-based nation wide general strike in early May 1926.

For nine days the country literally stopped functioning. As the struggle between the government and the unions deepened Churchill was again the most active member of the government to quell the disturbance basically commanding the creation and publication of a special government newspaper to keep the public informed about the strike, the position of the government and the developments at garnering reconciliation. Thankfully it was bloodless and the strike ended abruptly. However, the class divisiveness engendered by the strike plagued the nation for at least the next 20 years or more with 1926 injustice being revived as late as the 1984-5 coal disputes.

This was the signal event of his Chancellorship. After the excitement of the strike, balancing budgets, limiting unemployment and reducing income taxes became Churchill’s standard fare. He did not enact any other change as effacing or important as the return to Gold. The most notable feature of Churchill’s remaining tenure from 1926-1929 as Chancellor was his stubborn defence of free trade and economic orthodoxy. As the months passed on Churchill’s bellicose defence of free trade began to rattle and decrease his own status within the Conservative party, where many, including Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, favoured protection to give British industry relief from the high rates of unemployment. Churchill demurred and would not countenance such unorthodox blasphemy. For his colleagues this became a point of frustration. This was elevated in degree by Winston’s dominating, energetic manner. His colleagues were beginning to tire of Churchill’s overpowering presence, clever memoranda, forays into departments other than his own, and the vast literature of ideas and action points. Baldwin confided to a friend that Churchill’s lack of team skills was a disadvantage that outweighed his contributions and that he would not want Churchill in another government. He and his successors kept this promise, and Churchill was ostracised from office and power from 1929 to 1939.

In 1929 Baldwin’s government went to the polls. Labour emerged as the largest party and formed a government with Liberal support and Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister for the second time. In 1931 MacDonald deserted the Labour party and joined forces with the Conservatives in forming a National Government to deal with the financial crisis produced by the crash of Wall Street in 1929. This National Government was primarily Conservative in nature and though MacDonald was Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin was the real power broker and King maker.

This was the dawning age of the common man, where the spoils of power, prestige and money were to be distributed to a greater swath of society than ever before. The 1930’s marked the rise of the common man’s perception that society’s ills were not being repaired. He began to doubt the wisdom of being ruled by his so-called ‘betters’, those of the oligarchic aristocratic powerful elite, who by birth, money or talent and energy had hoisted themselves up to the summit of the noble ruling range. Was this system to continue indefinitely, the common man began to ask ? And as he surveyed the scene of poverty, unemployment, lost opportunity and vast resources wasted on war and death, he rightly began to question why it was that security, proper wages, better education and health were eluding his grasp ? Industrial and political control became mandatory and very quickly the common man became the richest political prize and a requirement for all politicians to woo and master.

Churchill was concerned that the Labour party, in the early stages of its development lacked the resolve and skill to govern. Largely this was correct. He did and could not blame the working man for erupting against the grave state of unemployment and desiring the fulfilment of hopes and promises. However, he was sceptical of magical remedies to cure the issue of 1-2 million men out of work. The great Keynes forwarded a mammoth plan of large borrowings for public works to relieve unemployment which Churchill readily denounced with veracity as ‘camouflaged inflation’. Thankfully neither the Labour Government nor the Conservative opposition were tempted by such schismatic views. Balanced budgets, and acceptable wage and price levels were deemed the wisest course.

Though it can never be forwarded that Churchill was a brilliant economist, he did have a solid grasp of the underlying principles of sound finance. What was distasteful to Winston was the blight that party politics radiated upon important economic questions. In June 1930 he delivered a lecture at Oxford University sponsoring the suggestion that economics must be separated from politics, “I see no reason why the political Parliament should not choose in proportion to its Party groupings a subordinate Economic Parliament of say one-fifth of its numbers, and composed of persons of high technical and business qualifications. This idea has received much countenance in Germany. I see no reason why such an assembly should not debate in the open light of day and without caring a half-penny who won the General Election, or who had the best slogans for curing unemployment, all the grave economic issues by which we are now confronted afflicted. I see no reason why the Economic Parliament should not for the time being command a greater interest than the political Parliament; nor why the political Parliament should not assist it with its training and experience in methods of debate and procedure. What is required is a new personnel adapted to the task which has to be done, and pursuing that task day after day without the distractions of other affairs and without fear, favour or affection.”

This was met with a cold indifference and Churchill found himself almost alone in its avocation. To compensate the pen provided distraction and he wrote his autobiography My Early Life, quite an amusing tale that finishes with his entrance into Parliament and his marriage ending with the words, “I married and lived happily ever afterwards.” The public was amazed by the tolerant and gentle humour of the work, much of it directed against himself. It was not the evocations of a combustible politician, but more the reflections of a man detached from life’s strife and living on high, above the corrupt daily battle of the House of Commons. This was soon followed by series of newspaper articles and essays ranging in subject from one on ‘Moses’ to ‘Shall We All Commit Suicide?’, bounded and reprinted in a book called Thoughts and Adventures. The last literary piece to appear in the early 30’s was the thick fifth volume of the First World War, The World Crisis, The War on the Eastern Front.

Also revealing but seldom known was that Churchill seldom spent a week-end away from his country house, Chartwell, which was close enough to London that a long troupe of friends would motor down for dinner engagements. Winston’s preferred element of relaxation was ardent political debate, late into the evening, with an early waking, working in bed, smoking of a large cigar and the afternoons engaged in children, farming and building. Churchill loved construction. He built a tree-top house, a goldfish pond, a bathing pool, a cottage, a brick wall, dammed a lake, and made miniature waterfalls. This love of design sprang from his interest in applying a methodical and systemic technique. The appeal of writing stemmed from matching sentences together to form paragraphs which then had to be arranged into a coherent pattern. Such it was with the creation of physical objects. The fabrication of the cottage and long wall induced Churchill, the arch-Conservative, to join the bricklayer’s association as a professional that could lay one brick per minute. Needless to say the Labour party was unamused. The public had no opportunity to see this side of the man; devoted to animals, family and estate projects. To the general mass Winston was pugnacious and formidable with a robotic appetite for work, a brilliant mind, unstable character and a flaming ambition.

Churchill’s immersion and occupation in the scholarly world was disturbed by one of the great debates in British history. In the early to mid 1930’s it was India – and the granting of nationhood to India – which dominated Churchill’s activities as he sat out of power. The Liberal, Conservative and Labour parties all supported the extension of dominion or independence to India and the details of the bill were in the hands of a multiparty commission. The Viceroy’s of India (Lord Halifax followed by Lord Irwin) were in favour of granting India the freedom that she demanded; first in drawing up a Federal Constitution; and second in extending self-government in Dominion status. Undoubtedly public opinion had been sharpened by the protracted struggle and lessons of Ireland. India was simply requesting what had already been granted to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. There was much to be lost by ruling with repressive force and much to gain by granting concessions and acting in accordance with the inclinations of a great subcontinent.

Churchill was adamantly opposed to any relinquishment of British control or influence. He was almost alone in his extreme criticism. And though his opponents used some chicanery to push the India Bill through Parliament Churchill’s hard and prickly position alienated and diminished his stature. His Demosthenic railings against Indian self determination were viewed with suspicion and then scorn by his contemporaries. Winston passionately and correctly believed that India was indispensable for the maintenance of the British Empire – it was certainly the jewel in the crown. Without it the rest of Britain’s imperialistic holdings would surely slip away. He also correctly surmised that without the resources and captive markets of the great subcontinent Britain could have difficulty surviving as a prosperous country and that once granted independence India would be riven with sectarian violence and bloodshed. However his obstinate badgering and negative criticasting did not prevent the bill from being given Parliamentary approval in 1935 as it rightly deserved. You cannot keep a subcontinent like India in permanent subjugation.

The Conservative party was outraged with Churchill’s obduracy over a 5 year period in trying to kill the India bill. Churchill was always consistent in his advocacy that India was inseparable from fortune in the affairs of Britain. However his pronounced, rash and incongruous campaign severed his ties with the Conservatives. He was a Tory in name, but the wilderness was his home. He became a political untouchable for much of the 1930’s. Legendary, brash, and self serving, or so the great mass believed when Churchill’s name was invoked. Though Churchill had a mystical belief in his own greatness and ultimate destiny most of his friends conceded during the early 1930’s that his career was finished. He had now quarrelled heavily with all three parties. The boats were burnt, there was no retreat. The Conservatives had quite reluctantly forgiven him once, and now that their suspicions had in their own minds been justified by Churchill’s extremity over India they were unlikely to grant absolution a second time. The Liberal Party was dead and the Labour party viewed Churchill as the Beelzebub of the House of Commons. In what direction lay the future ?

Strangely enough, when opportunity appeared at low ebb, Churchill began in 1931 the work on his famous ancestor the Duke of Marlborough which prepared him for the challenges of leadership during World War Two. It was the sweat, thought and inspiration poured into this literary masterpiece with its own story of weakness, subterfuge, tyranny and salvation that so peculiarly mirrored the events of the Second World War. This indoctrination prepared Churchill beautifully for the leadership of Britain at the darkest hour in its history. Ever since he was a young lad, Winston had consumed all the information he could imbibe on his great forbear John Churchill. Here was a tale that contained every element of drama; the story of the poor youth who came from unknown origins to become one of the greatest generals of all time and who saved England and half of Europe from the despotic maniacal control of France’s King Louis the XIV; of the pretty youth who fascinated the King of England’s mistress; the ambitious man who became the richest man in Europe; the sought after hero who loved his wife with unbounded passion for over 50 years; the conquering god who never lost a battle; the political diplomatist who ruled England by effective power during his tenure as war-lord. Nothing was missing. It was the perfect tale of dash, flash, glory and power. Love, war, espionage, revolution, King’s, Queen’s, romance and success all weaved and threaded themselves into one astonishing life.

It is small wonder that Winston became attracted to writing this thrilling record. The skill of Churchill’s account resides in his ability to bring all of the characters into life. The complicated relations are dealt with at a confident brilliant pace, and reveals a century (late 17th to early 18th) of resounding change. As a literary piece it compares with Tolstoy’s War and Peace and as an artistic expression it has few historical equals. Thankfully this story of power and struggle was not written by a historian but by a politician hobbying as a historian. Only a man who understood the current of political life could have written such a detailed and satisfying explanation of the jostling that takes place in political circles. Even more vital it was a theme of freedom and the restoration of England’s and of Europe’s independence. Such a thesis fuelled all of the innermost fires of Churchill’s fibre, “Since the duel between Rome and Carthage there had been no such world war. It involved all the civilised peoples; it extended to every part of the accessible globe; it settled for some time or permanently the real relative wealth and power, and the frontiers of every important European state.”

These words were written during 1933, the year Hitler came to power. Away from artistic endeavours Churchill began to discharge time and energy into comprehending and communicating the threat of Hitler’s Germany, collecting testaments and information on the gravity of Hitler’s menace from all parties and sources. Winston in his speeches consistently exhorted a full support of the League of Nations and tried to draw Russia into a Grand Alliance to ring and contain German ambition. However, his appeals rang hollow in the halls of the pacifist democracy and in the circles of power. Almost by default it appeared that the dove Ramsay Macdonald, and his Labour party would be a reliable guide to lead affairs for the 1930’s. Militarism was scorned and war in the 1930’s dismissed and pressing economic questions had to be resolved. The second Labour government under Macdonald was a disaster, not only due to ministerial incompetence but also to the stock crash, and the financial derangement which drove unemployment to over 3 million men, hastening the decline of important first and secondary industries, and showing to the world the inefficient work practices, and dearth of British business and entrepreneurial skills. British society was in tumult during the 1930’s.

In 1936 fascist Italy was busy conquering Ethiopia, and Franco was waging civil war in Spain supported by Germany and Italy against the government. In both cases the British government adhered to non-intervention though public psychology was greatly stirred by the Spanish war and Jewish refugees brought home the nightmare of Hitler’s Germany. Still the election of the Conservative party and Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister confirmed the people’s desire not to get involved with Europe or at least not another Continental war – no matter how bitter and distasteful they might find the events.

MacDonald was replaced in the mid thirties by the decaying Conservative Leader Stanley Baldwin who with his faltering powers was no more effective than his predecessor in curing the employment and economic problems ruining British society. But remarkably and in a very British-like manner, the UK compared to the Continent, displayed a great stability and affinity for liberal democratic governance and law. Whilst the baboonery of fascism skipped and capered in Germany, Italy. Japan and Spain, and whilst Russia was raped by the Bolshevik monsters, Britain, saddled with a distressing economic and social condition showed no real inclination (outside of a small fringe that supported Oswald Mosley’s fascist party) to gravitate towards revolution or anarchy. It was superhumanly stable.

This lasted until 1937. This mood of pacifist peace began to harden itself and grow bitter. The change of attitude was not due to domestic disunity but forced by foreign affairs. The rise of the demented Hitler finally drew a response in 1937 in the form of a British commitment to increase military preparedness. In 1936 Hitler marched into the allied occupied Rhinelands in direct infringement of the Versailles treaty. Only Churchill called for a military response. It was a gigantic bluff on the part of Hitler. France was immobile with fear and refused to move without British support. Baldwin would not commit himself and urged the French to take the matter to the League of Nations. As we know today, if the French army had advanced into the Rhine area scarcely a shot would have to have been fired to disperse the German force. Hitler had occupied the Rhineland in direct violation of his Chief of Staff advice with only a handful of troops. The democracies were inert and Hitler rightly guessed at the lack of resolve and courage of France and Britain.

While France stood gaping and Britain remained pawing the ground, Churchill attempted to galvanise the world through collective action; “If the League of Nations were able to enforce its decree upon one of the most powerful countries in the world found to be an aggressor, then the authority of the League would be set upon so majestic a pedestal that it must henceforth be the accepted sovereign authority by which all the quarrels of the people can be determined and controlled. Thus we might upon this occasion reach by one single bound the realisation of our most cherished dreams.” No action was forthcoming and the political leaders and newspapers of the day played down the crisis. However Baldwin’s stock was falling and Churchill’s was climbing.

The British had long been harangued by Churchill for their blindness to Hitler’s menace. The 1930’s make tragic reading. If but a tithe of Churchill’s advice and will had been effected the desolation of the Second World War would never have transpired. Efforts were made but they were too small to meet the challenge. Beginning in 1935 a new fighter based Air Force was being patiently constructed, and well known scientists dedicated to remilitarizing Britain like Henry Tizard and his rival, Churchill’s mentor Frederick Lindemann, were given ample access in corridors of power. Though the armed forces were being renewed, it was a case of far too little too late. The great German advantage in air and land power could not be overcome in a few short years by a determined but still rather small British remilitarization campaign.

The vacillation and blind insipidity of Britain, France and America during the 1930’s even now defies comprehension. At that time nearly every foreign correspondent was aware of the derision in which the dictators held the democracies and their determination to wage war while the waging was good. Masses of paper appeal to this theme. In 1937 Herr von Ribbentrop, the German ambassador to London had a long talk with Churchill telling him openly that Germany must have a free hand in Eastern Europe. When Churchill stated that Britain would not allow this the German replied, “In that case war is inevitable. There is no way out. The Fuhrer is resolved. Nothing will stop him and nothing will stop us.” It is difficult to find another period in history when war was so unconcealed and obvious.

C. Read
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/churchill-from-19141939-and-the-unnecessary-war-697578.html

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It was just a total accident that Beto Perez discovered this Latin style dance workout, as the story goes one day as he rushed out of this house to teach his aerobics class he forgot his regular music tapes. As soon as he realized this, he grabbed some Latin music tapes that were in his car and began teaching the class to this music. The class exploded and became the most popular class in Colombia. He named this class “Rumbacize.”

By 1999 Beto Perez had arrived in the United States, more specifically Miami, Florida. There he met two young Colombian entrepreneurs who convinced him to change the name and to begin marketing his fitness philosophy throughout the world. By 2008 the small aerobic fitness company had well over 20,000 certified instructors and DVD sales in excess of 3 million.

(Recently Beto has added different music to the fitness workout, introducing a little bit of country music, funk rock ‘n roll and many other exciting beats.) However, he has also been adding additional products to the companies fitness line. Recently he launched a dance workout for individuals who are complete beginners, never having exercised much before; active older adults and individuals who are physically limited. He called this product Zumba Gold. In addition, another recent release is a product design for kids. With most young children not getting enough physical exercise this new product has received an overwhelming response. The new Zumba kids program is providing children with the ability to exercise and at the same time have fun.

The international market has not been neglected the company just recently opened up China and has representatives in over 40 different countries throughout the world. This Latin dance workout is taking over the world.

The company has aligned itself with Mark Burnett productions (of “Survivor” fame) and Emilio Estefan (husband of Gloria Estefan) to begin marketing the fitness dance products in the Hispanic market through television. But Mr. Burnett is not the only one in Hollywood to have noticed the incredible popularity of this Latin inspireddance workout. Many famous A-list Hollywood celebrities such as Ricky Martin, Eva LaRue (“C.S.I. Miami”), Vivica A. Fox (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Stacy Kiebler (“Dancing with the Stars”), Hunter Tylo (“The Bold & the Beautiful”), and former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres have “ditched the workout and joined the party” with ZUMBA. from a small boy in South America to an American success story once again Alberto Beto Perez has proven that the American dream is real. He is a true “rags to riches” success story!

Melissa Marcketta
http://www.articlesbase.com/aerobics-articles/zumba-beto-perez-970385.html

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So many dancers have views regarding on-line videos that are available on the internet. With so many discussing this new form of class, I feel it is essential to discuss this topic head on since my husband and I are pioneering video broadcast solutions.

For most dancers who are teachers there are two views that take precedent over this issue. One is excitement over the fact that there is another way to teach. The other is how abhorrent they are to the very idea. As a teacher myself I can understand both viewpoints but what I want to do with this article is to give those who don’t understand the benefits of on-line videos a different perspective.

First of all remember that with any new idea there will always be pro and con opinions. Knowing this the first thing that we did was to send out a survey that asked dancers a lot of questions regarding what they were getting out of class and what some of the problems were that they were experiencing in class. We than asked what they wanted more of in the classroom. Both of us were amazed at the information that came in from dancers here and abroad. The one thing that all the women who wrote in had in common was their passion about belly dance and how excited they were to voice their opinions in the survey.

We than sent out another survey asking what they would like to see in an on-line video. Because of the information that we received I was able to look at my curriculum and format it to fit the camera better.

Addressing a specific problem on video as we all know is different so you have to work out the solution to the problem in a way dancers and students can understand.

Information is a key element in creating any dance video for students/ dancers, so the idea that videos are created without knowledge is fiction.

I know what many of you are thinking, that nothing can beat a live class with a dance teacher there to help you. I totally agree with you but let’s focus on the emails I received from dancers who had no teacher in their area or lived too far away from anyone who taught or they worked late and were busy raising their families. It was so apparent in the emails I received that these women wanted to learn belly dance but because of the reasons I mentioned they found they couldn’t. The on-line classes than became the solution to their various problems with their schedules, locations and families.

I also received emails from dancers who wanted to learn from other teachers but they wanted to do it in the privacy of their own home.

Others wanted to have classes created for them outside of their studios adding to what they were already learning. This all brings to mind the conversations regarding a very specific question, “How do you know the student is dancing correctly and how can you teach them without seeing their posture?” It is called feedback and it is the one thing that keeps the communication going between student and teacher. They get phone calls from me and emails. Any problem the student may have is addressed in the beginning and I have questions that I ask so that I can get a better idea of what they want. The video I make for them is created in my mind as if they were right there in the same room with me.

The idea that there is no feedback between the student and teacher is fiction.

Many people have commented that the economy is in such a state that maybe on-line classes are more in the range of dancers pocket books.

This is definitely one reason why on-line videos may be the new way to teach but there is also many other reasons. First of all dancers can get their curriculum out to the masses before they travel and teach their workshops. If people don’t know you, how will they find you? There are so many good teachers in our community and abroad who are not as well known as they should be. This is also a good way for dancers to see teachers they might have never known about otherwise.

Another advantage to on-line videos is that they are a less expensive way to get your curriculum, choreography out to dancers without having to fork out a lot of money to produce a dance video. Marketing your videos after you have spent a small fortune can hike up your investment to the point you may not make back your money. Believe me, I learned this the hard way myself. Once I put up my instructional video on-line I started to see a return on my money…..thank God!

The idea that on-line videos save money and are economical for the viewer/student is fact.

The format is very important in presenting your product so that the viewer can see the class from every angle along with the lighting, sound and curriculum. Most people who think about putting classes up on the internet might think that all they have to do is get a video camera and shoot a class. It really does take a lot more thought than that and you have to understand your own ability to teach first before you can than go and resolve problems or teach a class requested by a student. Once you start teaching on-line, you than need to have a type of tech support that doesn’t get in the way of your teaching. There are problems that can come up with the videos and you have to act fast to take care of whatever comes up. You have to guarantee your product and back it up, period. Adding to this is learning how to market your on-line classes. This means getting your newsletter/ blog out to your students and keeping up a rapport with them. Before you decide to teach on-line classes I would suggest you figure out first what exactly it is you want to achieve than go in that direction.

The idea that you can get a video camera and start shooting and creating classes is fiction. If you want to help women dance you must first know how to dance.

The bottom line is that creating on-line classes isn’t always easy because you have to understand the technical side to what you are doing which includes editing your work and than making sure that you have a quality video all the way around. I work very hard at each class that I do for dancers and students. What I offer is what I wish I would have had in the early days when I was working cattle in old Mexico. I was in the middle of nowhere practicing in pastures, ranches or around my horses. If I would have had an on-line class believe me I would of went for it. With that being said I will say again that on-line classes do not take the place of a live teacher but when you have no other options, on-line classes can be a life saver. I had a dancer write me and tell me that she would get home from work, cook dinner and get the kids to bed. Than she would take time for herself at around 11:00pm at night and take my on-line classes.

She said it was her “alone” time and she couldn’t wait to start dancing. There are many ways for us to learn what ever it is we are passionate about and it is for women like this dancer that I do on- line classes.

The idea that on-line classes will never take the place of a live teacher in a studio is a fact.

For women like the one I mentioned the on-line classes helped her enjoy her solitude and for her and many other women on-line classes have their place adding to the widespread education of belly dance and its history.

On

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line classes were never meant to take the place of live classes, they are a needed option in todays world and with emails like the one I mentioned it’s obvious to me women need this ancient art form now more than ever.

Leyla Najma
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/online-video-fact-and-fiction-669457.html

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A lot of great ideas happen when two or more other ideas collide to form something completely new.

Think of this like those old chemistry movies we used to watch in school. You had all of those atoms floating around and when two collided — bam! A chemical reaction. Maybe something new was created. Maybe something exploded. Or maybe it all fizzled out and nothing happened.

Well, a similar reaction is going on inside your brain or muse. Except instead of atoms floating around they’re pieces of information or other ideas. As they drift about, they occasionally bump into each other. When that happens, you may get a new, third idea. Or a big explosion. Or absolutely nothing at all.

Now, if you have lots of atoms, or information and ideas, you’re going to get lots of reactions. Some will fail. Some will be so-so. And some will be hot — so hot, so full of energy, they’ll have the power to change the trajectory of a business. Or even a life.

The problem occurs when you don’t have lots of random information and ideas. Fewer atoms mean fewer reactions. On top of that, you still have to weed through the invariable duds. So the odds of landing that one amazing idea drop considerably.

But not to worry — there’s good news. You can increase your odds of getting those great ideas. Better yet, it’s fairly easy and painless. Below are three ways to get started.

1. Read, read and read some more.

Of all of these, this one is probably the scariest. But, it also has the potential to be the most powerful. Traveling has so many fabulous benefits for your creative soul I could write an article just about that, but for now I’ll limit my comments to brain food. I know, I know, I can hear the groans already. “But I already have too much to read. How can I fit more reading in?” Never fear, there are ways to do this. (Remember I did say this was painless.)

Michele PW
http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/need-a-great-idea-feed-your-brain-670980.html

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Dieting for Health

There is no greater reason to diet than for your personal health and well being. Those of us who are overweight know better than most the risks and possible consequences that may result because of our weight. Much like smokers however, the risks do not always seem quite so cut and dry until we reach our very own turning point. Whether your eating habits are born of an addiction to certain foods, an emotional need, or years of learned behavior and conditioning things will not change until you completely adjust your eating habits and your lifestyle choices.

Dieting for many has become a lifestyle in and of itself with people rapidly flip-flopping or yo-yoing from one diet to another with little success and growing despair over a sheer lack of results. The truth is that until you decide to forgive yourself for your failures and get right back on the wagon, so to speak, after falling off no diet is going to be successful. A simple diet isn’t going to magically make the pounds disappear and constantly depriving yourself of those things you enjoy most may have a more detrimental effect than a positive effect.

The number one thing most people need to learn is that dieting isn’t always a good thing. What most people who are overweight need more than anything else is to incorporate positive lifestyle changes into their daily routines. People scoff at the notion of taking the stairs or parking farther away and yet those are perfectly plausible methods of working a little more physical activity into your day. If those do not work for you how about learning to dance? Seriously, there are beginner dance classes in most communities that will welcome and invite dances of all ages, sizes, and fitness levels if you are willing to make the effort. What a great way to get fit, learn something new, and have fun without filling deprived.

Another great thing about an activity such as a dance class (consider ballroom dancing with your significant other) is that you are not eating or tempted to eat during the time that you are dancing in most cases. Another great thing is that you are burning those calories you didn’t eat. If dancing isn’t you thing, try joining a walking club or finding another hobby. Anything that gets you on your feet and away from the temptation of your refrigerator is a good thing when it comes to dieting and weight loss. You cannot lose a significant amount of weight by dieting alone. You must incorporate physical fitness into your daily routine in order to achieve those immediate and visually stunning results that many dieters are hoping to achieve.

Another pitfall when it comes to dieting is that people give up far too quickly. Just as the results are beginning and progressing people get tired of the process or frustrated that they aren’t accomplishing enough dramatic weight loss as quickly as they had hoped and give up all together marking off yet another failure when they could have achieved greater success than ever before if they had stuck with their original diet plan a little longer.

One more thing you should remember when it comes to dieting is that the scale can be your best friend or your worst enemy when dieting. If you are weighing yourself every day in hopes of watching the scale tick off yet another pound you are dooming yourself to failure. You will never achieve the results you are hoping for you if you are going into depressive bouts of Rocky Road or Chunky Monkey every night because you didn’t lose 10 pounds overnight.

When it comes to dieting there are very few diets that work, one of the best at moment on the market is the Strip Fat Diet 

Simon Fusco
http://www.articlesbase.com/weight-loss-articles/dieting-for-health-717447.html

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The Sun waits patiently in the Time exchange zone to commence the morning shift, a duty he had assiduously discharged from time immemorial. He looks at the Time judge, clothed with the garment of precision and wealth of experience. An unbiased umpire, (in the competitive regulation reign between the Sun and his colleague the ‘Darkness’) saddled with the responsibility of raising the green flag to approve of the Sun’s ascension.

“Not yet”, his gentle eyes convey the message, unwilling to face the risk of a query from the Creator for his ill- timed decision. The Sun warms up one last time, to get on to Life’s field of play, enthusiasm getting the better part of him. He senses his time has come, and moves closer to the touch line, eyes on the umpire waiting for the signal to lift off. After a couple of seemingly stretchy seconds, he recognizes the ritualistic smile dangling at the corners of the umpire’s mouth, who calculatively raises the green flag on the dot of the approved hour.

The Sun nods in appreciation and begins the gradual ascension process. The Darkness in compliance with the regulated natural laws, starts the retraction process, slowly folding up his blanket stretched self from the sky. The chord of envy strikes within the heart of the Darkness as it glares menacingly at the rising Sun. Despite this apparent resentment towards his colleague he’d taken over working shifts from since creation days, the darkness takes an exit bow before the one he considered a formidable and undefeated opponent.

Lagos yawns and stretches his 3,5777 Square kilometres body in response to the rising call, as the tendentious figure of 9 Million multi- ethnic based inhabitants, awake to face the challenges of a new day. Lagos state, once capital of Nigeria, was created on May 27, 1967, but zoomed off administratively on April 11, 1968. The state has indubitably metamorphosed into Canaan land, unapologetically retaining the title as the “Economic and Commercial nerve Centre of the Nation” for the umpteenth time. Taking into cognizance the mega opportunities that abound in the Green land with regards to Tourism, a high influx of Tourists and Investors to the “Centre of Excellence” (formerly tagged as the State of Aquatic splendour) has been recorded.

The State with certitude is the Land of Aquatic splendour, courtesy of its location along the littoral lines of the Country.  Tourists tootle down to the various sandy beaches (Victoria/Bar, Lekki, Eleko, Alpha, Coconut, kuramo, Akodo, Whispering Palm) where Nature’s tranquility medicine offers a guaranteed rejuvenating experience for the flurried, forlon, sombre incarcerated and enthusiastic fun seekers. The Ocean sends out an informal invitation to the tourists, for a momentary embrace, to which some eagerly respond to. Splashing contest courtesy of the breaker erupts chortles from different angles. Tourists can enjoy the horse rides, or simply take a walk on the sandy beaches. Those who opt for a beautiful tan can recline comfortably on the locally made beach chairs, or simply stretch out on the sand. Tourists can also relax in the cool shady comfort of the ingenuity made local beach huts, and tap into the mirthy feeling pervading the beach, while they gladly undergo the life- enhancing therapy, soothingly administered by Nature. Picnics, beach parties and games (volley ball, soccer) uplifts the downcast and gives fun seekers the passport to Funtopia.

The Exquisite Sea side Holiday and Leisure resorts (whispering Palm Beach and resort, Eko Tourist beach resort, Galilee Holiday resort, Halem Sea side resort, La Campagne Tropicana, Funtopia Leisure resort) provides the idyllic environment for those who cherish quietude, with jovial attendants at their service. A “home away from home” feeling is guaranteed to flood your very being. There’s never a hum-drum moment in Lagos state as more investors are ploughing their resources in to the city’s fertile soil. 

History prone tourists can also avail themselves of the opportunity to travel back in time via the creative time portal, provided by the “Mobee Museum”, Badagry, to the slave trade era, and for a fleeting moment share in the psychological trauma, anguish and pain our ancestors passed through when they were stripped of their inalienable rights, and forcefully subjected into wearing the chains of slavery spearheaded by the colonial masters, as they cried out, longing to be set free from their bonds.

‘Relics of the Slave trade era’ such as the ‘mouth lock’ (used to prevent them from speaking), ‘hand lock’ (used on children), ‘hand chains’ (used in fastening them to trees), ‘neck chains’ (used to link the neck of a slave to another while moving in a single file). The “Slave market”, served as the contractual base where slaves were traded by the kings in return for bottles of gin given to them by the slave merchants. The slaves were then transported to the “slave port”, a.k.a “The point of no return”. The name was based on the established, undisputed fact, that once the slaves were on board the sailing ships, they could “never return” to the land of their birth. The bowl where the slaves drank from while their hands were tied to the back, and “The Canon gun” used in fighting the slave traders pursuant to the proclamation of slave trade abolition in England, invokes the reality of a past inhumane era. 

The “Early missionary cemetery”, the “first well” built by the missionaries can also be found in the land’s historic tourism data base. The “National Museum” Onikan proudly displays vital relics of the past, including but not limited to the replica of the ‘Festac 77’ symbol, traditional Benin bronzes, weapons used by sango (a.k.a god of thunder) revered among the Yoruba tribe in ancient times, outfits of masquerades, original crowns and full regalia worn by kings from different ethnic groups, warrior’s outfit laden with local charms, a chain mail version worn by another tribe, weapons of warfare such as spears, swords, Dane guns (of Portuguese origin before the locals began making theirs), the gun used during the second world war, “bullet- ridden car in which the Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed was assassinated in” while on his way to the mosque on Friday 13th February 1976, amongst others.

“The National Arts Gallery” showcases the finest of artistic ingenuity works to those who have an interest in the Arts. The “Verekete shrine” where Richard Lander was charged with espionage and proven not guilty after drinking and surviving the concoction prepared by the juju priest, the fallen “Agia tree”, under which Christianity was first preached in 1842, are found in the town of  Badagry, replete with mind blowing, yet emotionally draining sites and relics from its historical archives.

The ‘First storey building’ in Nigeria, with its antique architectural design is also located in Badagry, and welcomes visitors who are eager to get a glimpse of its  interior parts. “The wooden stairs, Missionary trust fund, Copy of the Bible translated from the English language to Yoruba” can still be found in it. “Glover Memorial Hall” prides itself amongst other things as the venue where the “first film exhibition” took place in August 1903, which triggered off the movie era that  successfully paved the way for  various Cine film productions from the Nigerian movie pioneers (Ola Balogun, Eddie Ugbomah, late Herbert Ogunde, Adeyemi Afolayan a.k.a Ade Love (father of Kunle Afolayan of the “Irapada”, “The Figurine fame”), Ladi Ladebo, Moses Adejumo, Adebayo Salami and Afolabi Adesanya) and later the emergence of the Home video revolution which birthed Nollywood. The throne of the Nigerian Movie Industry (Nollywood) is located in Lagos, which has become the second largest movie producing Industry in the world as at 2009 and a good number of the stars(actors, actresses, directors, film makers, producers and others) live and work in Lagos.

“The National Theatre” Iganmu , a magnificent architectural masterpiece, plays host to remarkable theatrical performances and other entertainment inclined events. The “Heart beat of the Music industry” is also located in Lagos which has also produced world class high flying artistes such as Tu face Idibia, P-Square, D’banj, amongst others. A plethora of music promenade shows, concerts powered by various entertainment and Blue chip companies takes place at different times in the year. Some foreign artistes have performed in Nigeria such as 50 cents, Beyonce, Akon, Nas, Neli, Y- cleff , Shaggy, Sean Paul, Kirk Franklin, Donnie Mcclurkin, amongst other top rated ones. 

The International exposure and great opportunities abound on a mega scale in Lagos and Nigerian artistes are relocating from different parts of the world and the country to partake of the ceaseless flow of milk and honey. Artistes enthusiastically look forward to major Awards ceremony held at various times during the year. A few of the Nigerian artistes who have won MAMA, Kora Awards are based in Lagos. The state is incontrovertibly the seat of Entertainment, also hosting stand-up comedy shows (Basket Mouth uncensored, AY live, Live N Naked, Crack your ribs, Nite of a thousand laughs, Stand up Nigeria) and dance (with venues where you can dance to hip hop music , and of course salsa, yeah salsa! ) 

The “Silver Bird Galleria, Nu Metro, Genesis Deluxe, City mall cinemas”, offers movie goers/lovers the opportunity of watching latest flicks from Hollywood and even Bollywood. The feeling of watching flicks from a wide genre, and eating popcorn makes edgy tourists feel more relaxed and at home. The “Lekki conservation centre”, “The Remembrance Arcade”, “Tafawa Balewa Square” are remarkable sites/monuments spread across the state.

Tourists can also participate in various festivals held at different times in the year such as the popular “Eyo Masquerade and Olokun festivals” which comes out tops on the list besides the “Fanti carnival, Lagos beach carnival”, off the hook “Lagos international jazz festival and Black heritage festival” poised to hit the Nation big time. The “Badagry Christmas carol”, “Ovation red carol” powered by the publisher of Ovation magazine Dele Momodu, gives tourists a wonderful, memorable time. 

A variety of mouth watering luscious local cuisine such as “Pounded yam and Egusi soup”, “Amala and Efo soup” with assorted meats (beef, pomo, shaki, offals a.k.a round about), “Garri/Fufu and Edikang ikong, Afang, Nsala soups”, “Isi Ewu”,  are amongst hundreds of delicacies available for consumption from the multi ethnic based groups represented in the state. Tourists can also decide to order for “spicy fresh fish, beef, and chicken pepper soup” or opt for “fish, beef or chicken suya” available at various spots and compliment same with various brands of drinks and good mellifluous music, especially at night. They can also decide to get a wide variety of snacks from various fast food joints ( Eateries) located in different axis of the state such as Mr Bigg’s, Tantalizers, Sweet Sensation, Tasty Fried Chicken, Chicken Republic, Mama Cass amongst others. Fun enthusiasts ritualistically storm night clubs and other events places dominantly on Fridays/ Saturdays to have fun. 

Luxury Hotels with an untainted record of International hospitality services with state of the art security are located in major parts of the city such as “Eko Hotel and Suites”, “Sheraton Hotel and Towers”, “Protea Hotel” and of course if you’re tired of spending time on land, the massive exquisite “boat hotel” floating on water serves as the tempting alternative tourists would love to fall for. “Ikoyi” and “Federal Palace Hotels” are also eagerly flocked to by Tourists. Continental dishes drawn from occidental, oriental and other areas are prepared by experienced chefs and a range of world class exotic wines are available, much to the delight of tourists. Tourists can also opt to dine at the various exquisite restaurants such as “Tanjia”, “Marcopolo”, “Bonzai”, and “Golden Gate”.

The bee hived Murtala Mohammed International Airport plays host to numerous tourists, as most flights into Nigeria are recorded therein. Besides, various Travel agencies, Tour companies have their offices in Lagos, with tour guides ready to give them an insight to the local communities and various sites. Souvenirs can be gotten at the shops and local fabrics, jewellery, shoes, bags, wares and various items of interest to Tourists made by different tribes resident in the state can be bought at the local markets situated on the Island and the Mainland. They can also shop at the “City mall” Onikan or at “De palms” Lekki where a large number of people flock to buy various products especially at (“Shop rite”, “The Game”). Other notable shops include “Park and Shop”, “Mega Plaza”). Tourists can also have access to the aerial view of the landscape via helicopter services, or take jolly rides in ferries, cruises, and car hire services on offer by private companies.

The Sun takes its mandatory bow before the natural elements, and earthly creatures inhabiting the terrestrial and aquatic domain with its ruler “man”. They in turn in one accord give an acknowledging nod embedded in an appreciative silence for yet another job well done as the darkness gradually comes on the scene watching once more with envy as the sun retracts its visually blinding rays with grandeur. To the human eye, the convergence point, portraying the beauty of the setting Sun can only termed as Nature’s magnum opus. The beautiful sights and sounds ably projected by the zillion dazzling lights from the residential and non-residential buildings, street lights, invokes a mesmerizing effect on passers by who constantly reel out words of admiration at the breath taking sight.

The Executive Governor of Lagos state, Babatunde Fashola SAN, is driven by the passion to transform Lagos into a “Mega city”, no doubt a herculean task, but one he’s set his heart to accomplish and certainly will. The state is indeed the “Centre of Excellence” and proudly runs with the Tourism flag ahead of its counterparts. Tourists who have visited the beautiful city have debunked the unpleasant rumours propagated in their countries, having under gone the memorable experience of a life time. Lagos state indeed ranks as one of the Top tourism states in Nigeria and as our charismatic, vision driven Governor constantly declares “Eko oni baje o!”

So long… auggiepo@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

Augusta okon

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