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Over the past few years, education has undergone a major shift in teaching as well as learning mode. Staring from conventional knowledge-based courses to modern job-oriented courses, education has transformed its facade and now getting popularly known as distance education. In fact today, distance education has achieved new heights and emerging as one of the great way to advance one’s qualifications.

Facilitating a student to study from home and set his or her own schedule and pace for learning has made this mode of learning a convenient option. Students from all over the world have started taking up this style of learning so much that it has become an essential part of modern education. Making the best use of modern methods of delivery like video conference, teleconference, and online communications such as, e-mail, chats and pod casts, it is also easily accessible.

These days almost every modern course is available for students through distance learning mode. In fact many working personnel are also opting for distance learning or online education programs. No doubt, if we carefully look at the present scenario the possibilities of obtaining useful knowledge and distance learning degrees are endless but it has become more important to filter those fake institutes and universities that are spread all over. Students must perform initial research to check the authenticity of the diplomas offered from various distance learning universities or else it can hamper student’s career, time and effort. However, here are some of the best inline distance learning universities that offer some of best online education programs and learning classes meeting the standards of current education industry:

University of Phoenix- This is one of the best online universities that offer online, on-campus, and hybrid degree programs at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral level. Each degree is a balanced combination of academic theory and practical application. Every online education program is fully accredited and designed in collaboration with academic and industry professionals to ensure quality. Today, University of Phoenix is one of the largest private universities in North America, with nearly 200 convenient locations, as well as internet delivery in most countries around the world. The university is well known for providing best distance learning service and constantly aim to help students balance education and life in a fast changing world.

ArgosyUniversity- It is a private university and well known for providing flexible online programs in business, education and psychology. Argosy University has established campuses and supports one of the largest graduate student communities in the United States. Besides this, the university is regionally accredited by The Higher Learning Commission. All online lectures are designed to improve student’s practical knowledge. The best highlight of various online education programs provided by Argosy University is it facilitates students take the accelerated online classes at their convenience, during the day or night. Moreover, experienced instructors are always available to provide students individualized attention through online class session.

CapellaUniversity- Capella University is yet another famous distance learning university that offers online degrees in information technology, business, psychology, public health and human services. As an online university, the greater part of learning takes place via the Internet. Besides this, its online environment is organized into course-rooms, with each course utilizing its own individual component. These course-rooms are built on the Blackboard Learning System software. Every online course offered by Capella University is taught by industry professionals possessing years of teaching experience. United with the flexibility of having all courses and resources available online, selecting Capella University for attaining a online degree can be a very attractive option.

KaplanUniversity- Kaplan University also offers various online degrees and distance learning programs in finance, international business or sales and marketing. Accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), every online degree and certificate programs are taught by experienced instructors. These instructors use hands-on approach to teach and give their students practical exposure with the tools and knowledge of their specific trades. The university also provide interactive learning program that in turn allows students prepare their course schedule as per their convenience.

A degree from a reputed online distance learning university can be regarded as advantage and ambitious students from all the across the globe always crave for it. It not only adds an impressive touch to academic background but also helps student identify his or her core competencies, build new skills, create a portfolio to mark a positive career growth.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/top-online-universities-for-distance-learning-programs-1125956.html

Author: Tis Amit
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/top-online-universities-for-distance-learning-programs-1125956.html

The Bush Doctrine works – when it is applied properly. It follows in the same path laid out by past US hegemonic aspirations at new world orders. Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy [all Democrats]; and Reagan had their own doctrines. Past calls to reform the world or combat evil in various forms always involved moral clarity; military power; financial resources; and ultimately patience and intelligence. The Bush Doctrine, aimed at fascistic Islam, and ‘draining the swamps’ of the Middle East is no different.

The Bush Doctrine is of course much maligned. Criticism of the doctrine comes from all over the ideological map and most of the criticism is invalid. The media and educational establishments of course rejoice and report every dissenting view – but offer nothing in the place of the Bush Doctrine. The Bush Doctrine is the right way forward – but only if military might is used properly, which for 3.5 years in Iraq [as many of us knuckle dragging 'neo-cons' screamed], it was not.

What is the Bush Doctrine and why doesn’t the media report what the doctrine is, in its entirety?

The Bush Doctrine is based on a realistic assessment of the challenge posed by radical Islam. It can best be summarised by a speech Bush gave on September 20th 2001: ‘We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the twentieth century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value execpt the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends – in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.’

This is brilliant. In one paragraph Bush summarizes what is at hand with the radical elements of Islam. First, Islam is an ideology of ‘will to power’ [male Muslims must rule, Islam must dominate etc]; and is inherently fascist [no free will]. Second, Islam follows Nazism and Communism in its commitment to eradicate civilisation, justice, morality and the juridical personality. Third, Islam for all its murderous pagan energy, is doomed to failure – as long as we can recognise the ideology for what it is.

This one paragraph is the best short summation of what is at stake.

Now flowing from this rationale comes the Bush Doctrine. The doctrine itself rejects all previously inept and failed attempts to address, appease, rationalise or reason with Islam. For over 50 years, various US policies have tried and failed, to either modernise Islam, contain it, or seek an accomodation with it.

Various ‘isms’ – realism, liberalism, and internationalism primary among them – were tried and they failed. The Bush Doctrine broke with all past frameworks and adopted a new, and singularly logical plan to deal with Islam – use exogenous force to change radical, terror sponsoring Muslim regimes, their society, and ultimately their culture.

By definition the Bush Doctrine is ineluctably a military-based option. Military power, combined with economics, new pluralist democratic structures, and at some level, a new culture, must or at least has the potential to, refashion the states of the Middle East. It does not require a military occupation of every state, but only the key states which will form the basis for regional-wide change.

The Bush Doctrine is bold and risky – but ultimately right. As Bush said numerous times between 2001 and 2004 – usually on deaf media ears – you cannot wait until threats are imminent. By this he meant that terrorists and fascists usually don’t write love letters to their victims identifying the time and place of the next tragic, murderous rampage. They usually just kill and talk later. In a compressed world of lethal weapons of all sizes and shapes, and with inter-continental logistics capability available to even the poorest of states, waiting around until murder strikes is simply an abdication of responsibility and ensures carnage.

The Bush Doctrine then is premised on pre-emptive strikes, an assertion of national privilege and security, and the belief that forcing democratic change onto the fascist regimes in the Islamic world, is the best hope for long term international peace. He is right. Every other policy tried by conservatives and liberals alike in the past 50 years, regarding Islam, has failed.

Realism and balance of power politics [play Iraq off against Iran for example], failed. There are many who whine that the US created Hussein or the Taliban for instance, in the American zeal to counter Russian Communism. Liberal internationalism in the guise of the UN, or endless diplomatic talking shops, have been useless endeavours, never once stopping Islamic terror and violence [see Israel as an example]. Appeasement and isolationism, as witnessed by Reagan’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 1983 after hundreds of US marines were killed by Hizbollah over a 6 month period involving multiple attacks; or Clinton’s cowardly conduct in Somalia and East Africa, only emboldened the enemy.

So what else is left? Not much. You can’t pull up the drawbridge and hide behind porous national borders. Neither can you outsource your foreign policy [as the US State department does] to the Europeans or the UN. Neither is trustworthy. With only a few countries possessing any military with power projection capability[France, Israel and the UK are the others]; the US is forced into unilateral action.

Invading and draining the swamp of Iraq is the right policy. If the US had used proper military force and fought the Iraq war to win, Iraq today would be stable. At least after 3 years they finally got the right ideas and the right generals to do what should have been done from day one. WMD has been found [along with sales of Hussein's stock identified, going to the Russians, various Arab states and Syria]. Iraqi terror financing has been halted. Iraq now has a government that is our ally. And radical Islam has most likely lost 60.000 men killed and scores more wounded. Iraq is a colossal defeat for the Islamists.

Along with the occupation of Afghanistan some notable things have happened. Iran is now encircled making an invasion certainly easier and quicker. The ‘winds of change’ are slowing blowing throughout the Middle East. The Arabs and Muslims now comprehend that the US is in the region to stay – and to reform. This significant fact means that further societal, cultural and economic changes will surely follow. The fight against Islam has been taken to the heartland of the Arab cult. The pschological effects on Islamic populations, of winning in Iraq and Afghanistan and challenging Iran directly, will be enormous.

Liberal internationalism, and the cult of politically correct Marxism, is a scam. There is nothing intelligent in ignoring reality and pretending that the world is a multi-cult paradise and that Islam means peace. Preposterous. It is also morally hypocritical.

US ‘allies’, excluding Britain, but including the weak militaries of most of the EU, and Canada did not join the US invasion of Iraq with any degree of force or military power, for the following reasons: 1. They possess no military. 2. The EU, Russia and China had business interests, including oil rights, worth billions per annum that could not be disturbed. 3. Iraq was the UNO’s largest ever revenue program and the UNO stole about $21 billion in monies from this program over 10 years; and 4. Domestic politics in the socialist and relativist nations [each with sizeable Arab and Muslim lobby groups], means anti-Americanism pays off at the polls and in election campaigns. The opposition to the Iraq invasion was not based on moral grounds.

Islamic terror necessitates a multi-level, and complicated response – but it is still, as in times past, primarily a military and financial response which will ensure victory. Diplomacy without strength is useless. Since 9-11, 60.000 people have been killed in acts of Muslim violence and 90.000 wounded. This excludes Darfur and Iraq. The Bush Doctrine of 2001-2002 was right. Islam is the natural heir to the fascist-totalitarian ideologies of Nazism and Communism.

In the Middle East and elsewhere Islam has proven itself a failure and if not reformed, Islamic doctrine will only produce more fascist tyranny, hopeless economies and hate sated youth dying for martyrdom. Smashing directly or indirectly Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia which spend each, $500 million; $ 1-2 billion; and $3-4 billion respectively per annum in sponsoring terror and fascist Islam around the world, should be the number one foreign policy mandate of the West, after stabilising Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is nothing wrong with a crusading, imperialist policy. Especially if our national security is at risk. After all the Arabs under the banner of Islam, have been waging war against ‘the others’ for 1400 years. Acting like children will not make the nightmare go away. The Bush Doctrine is the mature and responsible heir to policies espoused by Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Reagan. There is no other option.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/the-bush-doctrine-works-289011.html

Author: C. Read
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/the-bush-doctrine-works-289011.html

Author: Rasmussencollege
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjD4SXBlm0c

Author: noopur011
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sDheZ3HxOM

Background

The Potuguese-speaking countries

The Lusophone countries ( Portugal, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guine – Bissau, Angola Mozambique and East Timor) are a unique group of states and regions, spread all over the world, with common language and cultural heritage and at the same time – with diverse levels of economic development and institutional capacity.

Among these States and Regions the Special Administrative Region of Macau plays an unique and important role – it offers the PRC a unique platform for global outreach, investment opportunities and developmental activities. Because of its position in the history of economic and cultural relations between China and Portugal, it can serve as a genuine bridge between cultures that are otherwise quite different.

The People’s Republic of China

People’s Republic of China is rapidly developing as a country of global ambitions. China is becoming an interesting – and increasingly important economic and cultural partner for many countries. Increasingly, China’s relations with the non-Chinese countries is being viewed as an integral part of the globalization process and as important element of the global commercial and cultural exchange. The amazing economic growth, the millenary traditions, the growing capacity of the China businesses and institutions makes the Chinese economic expansion inevitable. However the effectiveness of the economic relations is directly related to the degree of knowledge and understanding of the economic, political and cultural context of the given country. With this respect Macau may play a crucial role as a launch pad for Chinese economic and developmental initiatives targeting the Lusophone world. To facilitate this cultural and economic exchange, the Investment Centre for Economic and Cultural Relations between China and the Lusophone Countries was founded with the mission:

To stimulate and facilitate the cultural and economic cooperation between China and the Lusophone Countries by creating a permanent platform of intercultural dialogue and by supporting initiatives between China and the Portuguese speaking countries  through research, education, debate and exchange between specialists from the areas involved.

Objectives:

Facilitation of economic and cultural cooperation is a process and not a goal by itself; therefore the activities of the Centre have to be viewed as a series of interrelated steps that are adapting to the reality and are at the same time striving to change it – to bring about a vision of the future where China and the Lusophone world work together to achieve economic prosperity, institutional effectiveness, mutual respect and understanding.

The initial objectives of the Centre for the year 2008-2009 are the following:

Objective 1

To build an institutional framework, where it will be possible to carry out meaningful Analysis of the economic, political, governance etc. situation in a given Lusophone country, including an analysis of the current status and the perspectives before the Country/China relations.. This would require a series of Country Studies to be carried out through a unified methodology, reviewing the most important aspects f the potential China/Country relations. It would be important to have the output of these studies translated into three languages – Chinese, Portuguese and English; the country studies will be regularly updated in order to reflect the changing reality.

Objective 2

To stimulate the Exchange of practices between China and the Lusophone countries through the following vehicles:

• Bilateral and multilateral conferences, seminars and workshops, designed to bring together groups of important decision makers and business people from PRC and
• Study visits of academics and professionals, experts, government officials, statesmen, businesspeople from PRC and the Lusophone countries on bilateral and multilateral basis

Objective 3

To implement a series of standardised yet reflecting the local specificity interventions in selected Lusophone countries both as a trust-building exercise and to initiate the cultural dialogue in order to “pave the way” for further deepening of the PRC-Country relations. The projects must have attainable and realistic goals and should be able to effectively make a difference in the given country.

Organizational Structure – The Precondition

In order to achieve our mission an organizational structure must be put in place to provide backstopping, expertise and support. The existence of such structure also guarantees the long-term sustainability and consistency of the project approaches. The following organizational Structure is proposed:

Programs Coordinator – Macau

Program Officer, Training

Program Officer, Analyses and Governance

Program Officer, Investments

Office support staff

National structures / coordinators maintain contact with the Academia, the Government and the Business

Stakeholders:

TIRI / PIEN, IIUM, Governments, Academia, Business

Programs Coordinator – Lusophone

The Centre will have a provisional office at the Inter University Institute of Macau – IIUM; thus being supported initially by IIUM staff and donors. This will minimize the initial start-up costs and will allow for more funds to be allocated for actual programmatic activities. To guarantee professional quality of the services of the Centre, though the number of the paid staff initially will be minimal, at least the position of the Programs Coordinator has to be filled. The Program Officer positions may be initially filled on voluntary basis; with Program officers based either in or outside Macau. With the expansion of the project activities, local (national) structures will have to be established. The transitional period may envisage also the position of a National Coordinator (voluntary or paid, depending on the availability of resources).

An important element of the Centre activities will be the distribution of a Magazine and building and maintenance of a web-site.

Proposed Interventions

Project Fiche 1

Needs analysis and diagnostic surveys of selected Lusophone countries. This will be carried out by a team of experts – both international and local – that will initially develop a methodology and next will apply the methodology to selected Lusophone countries. The survey must address several specific issues :

1. The current economic/governance situation in the given country
2. The potential for improvement of the Chinese/Country relations
3. The potential obstacles to the improvement of the Chinese/Country relations;
4. The economic and governance problems that may impact adversely the Chinese/Country relations
5. Propose specific project interventions in order to remove these obstacles/problems or to mitigate their adverse effects. .

Project Fiche 2

Masters Program in Lusophone – China relations studies

The Inter-University Institute of Macau offers a Masters program in Lusophone studies which can be replicated in all target countries, paying due attention to customizations needed to reflect the local context. The program will include among other areas the issues of development, institutional capacity building, good governance; courses in Portuguese and Chinese; music and arts of China and Portuguese origin. This will stimulate the academic exchange between China (SAR Macau) and the Lusophone countries and will provide us with beachhead for further interventions as well as with access to a large pool of local experts.

Project Fiche 3

Strengthening the public administration capacity of the Relevant Lusophone Country public administration through upgrading the existing means of communication within and outside the Government.

One of the most serious problems related to the expansion of the economic and cultural contacts is the lack of reliable information regarding the different Government procedures, laws and regulations. The Goal of this project would be to improve the access to Government information of the participating country to the rest of the world by building a series of Government web-sites, connected to a Government web-portal, where all the information will be available regarding the national legislation, procedures and practices, functions of the state bodies etc. In fact such a project may also be regarded as an initial step to building an effective e-government in the specific country. At least at the initial stage of the project the maintenance of the e-infrastructure (portals, sites etc as well as their content) must be outsourced when is no local capacity; simultaneously a process of building local capacity and local ownership must be put in place. Through this project we are not simply building web sites – we are creating an information web and we generate content that allows to access Government information; we build contacts in the respective country; we enhance the transparency of the country, support the efforts of the civil society in the country and facilitate the work of the potential investors, trade and professional associations.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/international-studies-articles/establishment-and-operations-of-investment-centre-for-economic-and-cultural-relations-between-pr-china-and-the-lusophone-countries-774411.html

Author: Artur Victoria
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/international-studies-articles/establishment-and-operations-of-investment-centre-for-economic-and-cultural-relations-between-pr-china-and-the-lusophone-countries-774411.html

Author: OUlife
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKq2YVsdvkA

Author: NASMorg
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdpIz_PJTrQ

Author: 8010az
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfIyibTS1Y8

Author: sportdisc
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NRd5SuT4ow

Author: okstatetulsa
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-qTnCwdqo