Why the Georgia/Russia Conflict is all our problem

To the Global Community:

We’re at a crossroads. The last half-century has fostered great progress, prosperity and increasing globalization. Due to globalization, events in one region can have a direct impact both politically and financially on the stability of seemingly unrelated regions throughout the rest of the world. This is relevant to the recent hostilities between Authoritarian Russia, Putin and his followers (not the people of Russia), and the Republic of Georgia.
Please excuse the history lesson about the conflicted region. For centuries, the inhabitants of South Ossetia lived harmoniously as Georgians, but tensions began to escalate amid the rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians in 1989 – Russia fomented desire in South Ossetia to secede from Georgia. Before this, these groups lived in peace except for the 1918-1920 events – both ethnicities had heavy interaction and intermarriage. Georgia retained control over parts of the region's eastern and southern districts where it created, in April 2007, a Provisional Administrative Entity of South Ossetia headed by ethnic Ossetians (former members of the separatist government) which would negotiate with central Georgian authorities regarding its final status and conflict resolution. While there have been setbacks to peace in this region, there has always been an effort to use diplomacy.
Russia has no interest in protecting the ethnic minority in South Ossetia, but is using this conflict as a chance to deploy troops and grab land, not unlike the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland in 1936, a key contributor to World War II. The Kremlin claims to protect Russian ethnic minorities in the disputed regions from suffering at Georgian hands, but there is little to support these claims. If the Kremlin is allowed to strong arm the international community by threat of conflict and is allowed to intimidate the global powers to inaction, what will happen when this revitalized superpower decides it wants more? Will the world stand by as the hard fought gains that were realized through four decades of vigilance become lost by fear of conflict and the inability to act as we all know is just?
The Kremlin is using tensions between South Ossetia and Georgia to penetrate deep into Georgia proper with an eye on claiming an important pipeline. Russia covets this vital piece of infrastructure because it would greatly increase their petroleum profits. This would be catastrophic because the world economy would be hostage to Putin and the Kremlin’s greed. If the denial of a Visa for the Chief of the joint venture between BP and TNK, a Russian state-run oil company, is any indication of the Kremlin’s spirit of collaboration, foreign interests should beware
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/chief-of-bp-venture-forced-to-leave-russia/
At this moment, BP is diverting all oil flow away from this region for fear of Russian Nationalization of this infrastructure.
This is not just a fight for Georgia, but a fight to preserve the balance in the financial markets. The rest of the world will see an increase in the price of oil, natural gas and many other petroleum based products. This turmoil will increase costs beyond the very high prices being paid today to heat homes, offices and to fuel both consumer/commercial traffic. Not only is it ethically right to challenge the Kremlin, but it is also in our financial interest to do so. I urged you to participate in any way you see fit.

Very truly yours,

Friends of Georgia

Ivan Gevirtz' Blog

This blog deals with many things, among them are C++ development, Startups and Unit Testing.

How you know it is time to leave your job

This is a great link that will provide food for thought when considering a job change.

How to Write a Thank You Post Interview

This is a great link that outlines the correct etiquette of writing a thank you email.

Damon Carr's Agile Blog

This is a great resource for anyone interested in .NET 3.5 and Agile Development. Damon is a leader in the Agile world.

Bank of America's Acquisition of Countrywide Mortgage

I was not surprised to read this morning that Bank of America (Bofa) agreed to purchase the distressed lender Countrywide. This will make Bofa the largest lending institution in the country. I think that Kenneth Lewis, CEO of Bofa has made yet another brilliant move in engineering the growth of an empire that started as a regional bank. When the market rebounds, (and it will) this will prove to be instrumental in helping to grow Bofa beyond the megalithic retail banking institution into a more full service organization.

I am sure there are men smarter than me working on their expansion plans, but let the Citigroup debacle serve as warning. Bank of America must be careful not to over-extend themselves, as in their promotion of their private banking business. Citigroup managed to tarnish the Salomon Smith Barney brand due to their disconnect with the core constituencies using their services. I liken these conglomerates to the Spanish Armada under Ferndinand and Isabella and the more agile companies who have market share in these various sectors to Sir Francis Drake’s Sea Dogs of Britain’s Navy.
I would love to know what everyone’s thoughts are on this.

Cheers,
Ben

The Market for PHP Developers

Below are a couple of links which will show how much things have changed for PHP Developers over the past one and a half years. The demand for PHP/MySQL Developers with LAMP experience has skyrocketed while the supply has stayed the same or it seems even to have diminished with some developers moving onto other languages (i.e. C#, .Net) or more senior, less-technical roles. The first link is very interesting and points out how incredibly difficult it is to find good PHP Developers and when you do find them, how expensive they are. The second link is for the UK, however NY and London are very similar markets in terms of the supply and demand for finance and IT applicants.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2004/08/24/php-job-trends/
http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/php%20developer.do
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/career/article.php/3697896

It is hard to exactly quantify salaries, but I can at least give you a general idea about what PHP Developers are demanding at different levels in NYC. PHP/MySQL Developers:(1-2 yrs) - $60,000-$70,000(2-4 yrs) - $70,000-$90,000(4+ yrs) - $95,000+ ….and these figures are for good, solid developers with strong communication skills, decent education, etc. Basically these are figures for candidates who are placeable.

Please let me know if you have any other questions about these numbers or if you’d like to discuss specifics. Take a look at these #’s below. The job ads for PHP has “practically doubled” since this time last year……In our world that is amazing!!!

For job ads requesting open source skills, Dice has seen the following growth since Jan ’07, Melde says: • PHP: Practically “doubled since January,” he says. • Python: 72% • MySQL: 50% • Ruby on Rails: 121%. But this category is “still small in absolute terms,” he says. • Perl: 22%. Perl, Melde notes, “is not so sexy, but it makes the Web go ‘round.”

Babajobs/Babalife

Babajobs, a very cool socially conscious job site based in Bangalore. While we are all Capitalists, Sean Blagsvedt (Founder of Babajobs) has shown that there is room in business for humanity. You can see his site to the left.