PICTURE THIS GEOGRAPHY

During the period covering 1997-2005, there were 83 countries out of 193 that showed an improved GDP when compared with themselves and also in relation to the rest of the world. During this same period there were 101 countries out of 193 that had a GDP that got worse in relationship to the rest of the world. There were 2 new countries and 7 others that showed no change in relative position when compared to the rest of the countries:

…Countries.. Continents……Avg. GDPs……Total GDPs……...%

……20……..N. America………9985…………199,700…………11.008%

……15……..S. America……....6646…………...99,690…………..5.495%

……53……..Africa…………....2673…………141,669…………..7.809%

……45……..Europe…………20,031…………901,395………...49.688%

……46……..Asia……...............8210…………377,660……….. 20.817%

……14……..S. Pacific………...6714…………..93,996………….5.183% …_____ ………………… __________ … __________............................. …..193……………………………………….1,814,110……….100.000%

As is seen, Europe contains nearly half of the existing production of goods and services. Although currently, Asia only accounts for about 20% of the world's goods and services, the future looks very bright, because Asia contains more than 60% of the world's people--for production as well as consumption, as the following 2005 populations show:

Continents…….Populations……………Population Percentage………% of earth's land

Asia……..……3,913,842,171………………… 60.669%...............................21.4% Africa…………..891,437,541………………….13.818%...............................20.6% Europe………….729,341,014………………….11.305%...............................15.8%

America………...512,422,558…………………...7.943% ………………….14.8% S.America............371,271,037…………………...5.755% ………………….12.1% S.Pacific…………32,744,469……………………..510%.................................5.8%

……………….____________.............................________.......................................

……………….6,451,058,790…………………100.000%.........................................

I hope this helps in your analysis! We clearly have the manpower and resources to get the job done. Now all it will take is the willingness to cooperate with each other. I was encouraged by the 2008 Summer Olympics in China--how about you? Best wishes for a blessed fall and winter, and keep looking up!

Mark Overt Skilbred

LEADERSHIP IN THE CLASSROOM OF THE WORLD

LEADERSHIP IN THE CLASSROOM OF THE WORLD

The classroom sets the standard for student performance which leads us outward and motivates our inner resolve to pursue our dreams to fulfillment. Teaching therefore presents the opportunity to influence a generation positively and impact society generally. Successful leadership reaches beyond the classroom experience and into the world-at-large. Those who understand their roles achieve results that benefit others and provide examples which inspire leadership to rise to the next stage. Those who participate in education and government at the higher levels understand the importance of proper administration, which is able to reign-in harmful elements and achieve fiscally and socially-responsible frameworks. These are not tasks that special-interest groups are capable of developing, but must instead be entrusted to those who have demonstrated administrative expertise and achieved a high level of success. When all levels of education and government are administered properly, the resulting accomplishments inspire those who participate to greater levels of service and achievement. Everyone benefits from wise administration. Great things are accomplished when we subordinate our individual wishes to those developed through hard work and perseverance. Unselfish and patient effort results in justice and prosperity for all.

Mark Overt Skilbred

LET'S GO LAKERS!

LETS GO LAKERS!

LA Times/Lakers Blog—6-2-08: For me the long road to the finals began for Phil “let’s do it” Jackson with the ND state B.B. championship in 1963, when Phil singlehandedly put his Williston team on his shoulders and in a come-from-behind victory over Jamestown , led his team into overtime victory with six down-the-middle and up-to-the-elbow dunks! Sure, basketball is a team sport, but as Phil knows, the game is STILL WON by individuals who WILL themselves to victory by main force against all odds. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are good examples of this same “will-in-action” that will once-again win a national championship for the Lakers. Best of everything to Phil and the Lakers in 2008! Regards from Mark O. Skilbred, Arnegard ND Spuds, ’61 state champs (1958-1965), Boston (1971), Los Angeles (1977-2008)

Mark Overt Skilbred

IGNORANCE VS INNOCENCE

Ignorance vs. Innocence

There are actually large numbers of “Christians” who have not even read or studied the Bible. How does a person recognize the truth, when they haven’t even read the Book of Truth? You could tell such a person anything you wanted, and eventually they would accept your fiction as fact, because they have no truth to compare with it. I’ve heard some criticize those who know their Bibles with statements like “they are so legalistic.” Some will memorize a manual to pass a driver’s test, but criticize a Christian for knowing what their Bible says. These individuals, who are so very practical when it comes to temporary events like driver’s tests, can be very impractical in understanding God’s Will for our lives. Are they truly that naïve, or is it something worse—DELIBERATELY CHOOSING TO IGNORE GOD’S WILL FOR OUR LIVES! Maybe they think by remaining ignorant, that God will overlook their sins? Perhaps they believe God will judge their naivety less-severely than someone who knows their Bible? Does this work for them in school? Will their teacher give them a good grade for not knowing anything about their subject? Instead of trying to get as far as possible on ignorance and ignoring God’s Rulebook and Book of Facts, why not become familiar with what the Good Teacher has to say about us and our relationship to Him?

Mark Overt Skilbred

HIGH EXPECTATIONS, TECHNOLOGY AND WORLD HUNGER: AVOID VICTIMIZATION BY BEING PROACTIVE

HIGH EXPECTATIONS, TECHNOLOGY AND WORLD HUNGER: AVOID VICTIMIZATION BY BEING PROACTIVE

Market-driven agriculture is wrong-headed. Waiting to grow crops based on speculation about market-return overlooks the needs of the global community. Much is known about the nutritional needs of humanity, yet we base our assessments of agricultural output on market-economics. If we are considering non-essentials, the law of supply and demand SHOULD be considered when regulating quantities of goods and services, but what is there about human nature that wants to take chances when it comes to food and shelter? Do squirrels really have more sense than we do, when it comes to these issues? Why do we wait for calamity to occur before considering our options? It is often said that we don’t produce enough food to feed the world. Close behind that statement is this one: overproduction causes prices to fall. Here we have the classic law of supply and demand. BUT THIS LAW CANNOT BE USED WHEN CONSIDERING FOOD AND SHELTER! If there isn’t enough arable land to grow enough food for the planet, then we need to add to our arable acreage by refusing to build on top of cropland, by turning more grazing land into cropland, through improving irrigation, desalinization plants, crop-rotation, terracing and trellising, green housing, and improving our distribution networks. Methods of storage must also be improved with grain dryers, proper packaging and warehousing. Distribution must be uniformly-based upon nutritional needs, and this must be done globally. The inevitable droughts, floods, hailstorms, and other weather-related issues must be counterbalanced through careful storage and stockpiling techniques. Irrigation solves many drought issues; greenhousing and proper warehousing solves many flood-related issues; and research is being done globally to resolve weather, pest, rust, mildew and many other issues. World seed banks perform a valuable preservation-service. Storage in particular can be improved exponentially just by employing current technologies of dehydration, air-tight containers, waterproofing, canning and packaging, proper labeling and warehousing and reliable transportation. Mainly, we need to reverse the trend of waiting for a crisis to occur before seeking a remedy. During World War II, gardening got a boost through implementation of personal “victory gardens.” Although nice-to-look-at, much landscaping is done for aesthetics and erosion-control. A large percentage of these parkways could be devoted to cropland. If everyone would plant a garden, or help others who did plant one, the quality of fresh produce would improve and everyone’s independence would also improve. The stress experienced through not knowing where your next meal is coming from causes unnecessary anxiety, when solutions are usually close-at-hand. There are endless possibilities available globally, through the use of greenhouses, canopies, roof-gardens, terrariums, personal gardens, raised-beds, grain-sprouting, etc. So how would this new attitude toward our food supply affect business-as-usual? If handled properly, it would create the following desirables: stockpiling of essential foods—up to a 10-year supply, vastly-improved sources of fresh fruits and vegetables from home-grown sources, economical improvement in the living-wage for individual workers, farmers, and large-scale farming ventures. This can be achieved through global price-stabilization, which seeks to establish realistic pricing for the consumer AND the producer, based on need-rather-than-greed. No one needs to get hurt if a fair assessment is made of needs, and an ever-increasing supply is achieved. When the value of agriculture is determined by supply, prices fluctuate, so every effort must be made to ensure fair profit-margins for producers as they increase their supply output. Those who gauge prosperity based on market-analysis, goods and services, the commodities exchange, stock-market volatility, various competitions involved with currencies, the global economy, GDP, and other economic indicators, overlook the essential truth that the only physical essentials are food and clean water, shelter, and a healthy environment. All the rest are non-essentials competing with essentials for a larger share of the planet and a larger share of our time and commitment. Let’s get our priorities straight and help to fix our planet while there is still time! I enjoy leisure as much as the next person, but there is a point that has been reached already, beyond which we dare not venture—that of our pursuit of non-essential distractions at the expense of life’s essentials. Stop the madness, folks! Return to sanity and the main ingredients of civilization.

Mark Overt Skilbred

GREED AND POVERTY

GREED AND POVERTY

Imagine a world where stability is the norm and instability is the exception. In this world we are imagining, there are no shortages of life’s basics: food, clean water, shelter, and a healthy environment. Although competition may still exist on many levels, it is no longer concerned with life’s necessities, but only with the non-essentials—those extra things that make life more fun and exciting. But this time, these non-essentials are no longer allowed to have priority over life’s essentials. Instead, life’s essentials are a part of a globally-protected agriculture zone. How can this imaginary existence become a reality? Let’s look at our situation and see: If every square mile of land were occupied, there would be around 5 acres per man, woman and child. That seems like plenty of land until you factor in climate, terrain, deserts, swamps, pastures, infertility, forests, barren rock and general misplacement of buildings on top of agricultural lands. That reduces the available arable land to only about ½ an-acre per-person on the planet. Again, ½ an acre of usable gardening space/farmland per person still seems like plenty of room until we consider various environmental abuses, incompetent soil management, government interference, inequitable land distribution, laziness and greed. Hopeless, you say? Perhaps, but maybe not insurmountable. When nations unite, great things are accomplished. This world has been given so many bright minds and abundant natural resources. I really believe that we have the ability to change this world into the kind of place that God originally intended. There have been times of relative peace and prosperity when nothing seemed impossible. Consider the years of post-World War II, when the world seemed to awaken from a nightmare to discover life anew. Then our dreams were golden, when no dreams were too large, and life was fresh and hopeful for millions of people all over the planet. Surprisingly, those countries which had suffered the greatest losses were among the first ones to rebuild. Their tragic memories were changed from sorrow to renewed vigor, a zest for living, and ultimately the rebirth of civilizations that had been destroyed by war. This rebirth sought a new world full of opportunity and fulfilled dreams, where everyone had a chance to build a life of hope for their family. These were not idle dreams, but were instead realities that were achieved by millions of families throughout the world. We are once again poised at such a crossroads. Will we, as citizens of the world, make a decision to seize this opportunity to fulfill our destiny and our dreams, or will we be satisfied to live in the shadow of former greatness, under of a cloud of disillusionment and shattered hopes? How can we begin to realize these dreams and make them our realities? We need to unite globally with others who share our vision of an achievable, prosperous and fulfilling life for all of our citizens. One good place to begin is by supporting efforts to reclaim arable land for agriculture. These are lands that have long remained unused through misappropriation and neglect. Let’s insist that cropland no longer be used for building construction sites. Let’s further insist that every vacant lot be made available for shared green spaces in every city and town on the planet. Let’s remove all unnecessary buildings which are mislocated on arable land, and finally let’s insist that cities, towns, industrial sites and other infrastructures be placed on sites which are unusable as arable acreage. When this has been accomplished, we will notice a startling thing—we have now increased our arable acreage to between 1-2 acres per person globally. When these crops have been planted, harvested, and properly stored, transported, sold at a reasonable profit and consumed by a thankful public, we will have achieved an economic substrata that is immune to inflation. Think about it—all the efforts to increase our available arable acreage, plant, harvest, store, transport and sell these agricultural commodities globally, will now be standardized into an ever-increasing quest for a sustainable and globally-affordable food supply that is no longer dependent on the former conditions of supply and demand. Our food supply will no longer be held hostage by the highest bidder and warehoused for the purpose of price-gouging and price-fixing. Alarmists will squeal that this will remove any incentive to sell agricultural products. They base this argument logically on other failed attempts at agricultural utopias. But they have forgotten that we now have the available ingredients for success at our disposal. In addition to all the bright minds, we have unprecedented infrastructures in place for communication, transportation, storage, preservation, security, fertility, nutrition and mechanization, in addition to a protected global agricultural zone that is immune from fluctuations that affect non-essential items that are a part of the supply and demand superstructure. We know, and have known for a long time, which agricultural items have proven to be successful in the past, which are high-demand items versus low-demand, nutritionally-superior, practical and sustainable. We also know quantities and calories of consumption based on current levels, and which supply levels fit the ever-improved global diet which includes a much-wider spectrum of all basic food groups. What then remains for us to accomplish these goals in our lifetime? First, we need the shared vision of ending hunger and reducing poverty. We may never succeed in eliminating poverty, but we are on the verge of at least ending starvation and malnutrition. These are achievable goals which need only proper planning by the greatest minds on the planet, the investment of time and energy necessary to accomplish them, and the agreement to global cooperation and mutual aid that befits a committed and humanitarian society. Let us begin now to move in this direction, trusting that God will empower us to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over all” that God has placed under our supervision.

Mark Overt Skilbred

FAITH AND SCIENCE

FAITH AND SCIENCE

Why is it always us vs. them, when it comes to faith and science? During the last generation and earlier, there was a war between creationists and evolutionists that bordered on hysteria. One got the feeling that God needed some help defending His creation from attacks by science and evolutionists bent on destroying the whole faith community. I know that God is well-able to defend His creation from attack single-handedly, and the worst that pseudo-science throws at Him will not so much as raise a Divine eyebrow in response. Still, for the sake of argument, I suppose it doesn't hurt to postulate a scenario where God is a nail-biter who has now been backed into a corner, and is defending His territory like a wolverine-at-bay. Imagine, if you will, those pagan scientists gleefully bludgeoning our Creator with "scientific" questions and paraphernalia designed to bring Him to His philosophic knees and cause Him to recant His entire legacy. What, after all, are we left with then, after the Creator has been put-to- the-sword and His death knell has been delivered? Will scientists proudly deliberate the death of yet another theory? What then is there left for them to make sense of and legitimize, when the only response they receive from the Creator of the universe is a most-profound and Divine silence? The answer will come slowly and by degrees--that God's existence is verified by His perfection. Only the Divine Mind could ever envision and carry out creation. As I travel, I take notice of my surroundings, and here is what I have discovered, quite independently from all those theories and theologies that I grew up listening to and attempting to assimilate: This planet we know as earth is extremely old—scientists tell us around 4 1/2 billion years or more. The last generation told us that the earth was no more than 6000 years old. They based this theory (oh yes, Christians also have theories) on the basis of biblically-recorded history. There is no doubt that the Bible is 100% true and verifiable as a historic and scientific document. Archeology is one of the Bible's most ardent supporters--one might say it is scientists' blueprint of the historical timeline. What scientists and theologians agree-on however, becomes a point of departure, when it comes to extra- Biblical theorizing. Christians admit that God has not told us everything about our history on the planet, and perhaps has no intention of clarifying the finer points of creation for us. That intriguing comment at the beginning of scripture is a puzzler for thoughtful theorists--that part that says "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Gap-theorists will ask this question: When is the beginning?-- 6000 years ago?--only to be answered with another question-- how old is God?--to be further answered: that God has no ending and no beginning! So then, how old is the world, if it was created "In the beginning?" My answer harmonizes Christians, scientists and thoughtful people of many persuasions: The world is extremely old, and so is the universe. Just as God has no beginning and will have no ending, God's creation is as timeless as God Himself. Creation is as old as the moment when God spoke it into existence, and creation will last until God says so! How long of a time-period is that? How long is eternity? Why do science and small-minded Christians insist that "god" is finite, predictable, definable, inept, error-prone and incapable of carrying out His plans? I have a message for you: Your "god" is too small! The God Whose I AM is too large for the universe to contain Him. He is timeless and fulfills all His purposes! After all the banter of what, where, why and when, God is still on His throne, high and lifted up. Theories abound, but God's reality never changes. Soli Deo Gloria!

Mark Overt Skilbred