Thought 4 the Week & a 4th of July Wish

It has been an interesting week--and it is only Tuesday.     I ran across this which I earlier shared on my Facebook Wall which moved me quite a bit--what I hope and pray I can live up:

“One tree can start a forest, 
One bird can herald spring, 
One smile can begin a friendship, 
One hand can lift a soul,
One star can guide a ship at sea, 
One word can frame the goal, 
One vote can change a nation, 
One sunbeam can light a room, 
One candle can wipe out darkness, 
One laugh can conquer gloom, 
One hope can raise our spirits, 
One touch can show you care, 
One voice can wake up everybody, 
One life can make the difference. 
Be that one.”
~ Author Unknown

 

I wanted to wish all a Happy & Joyous 4th of July and as the 3rd Quarter of 2016 is at hand--Onward with the Journey!!!

View of the Week: On #Brexit, #Change & Other Thoughts

Now that #Brexit is,  reality,  We are faced with a new World Order.      Can it be the end of the UK?  Can it be the end of Europe as we know it?     Some interesting questions to think about as I got this from the ever-eloquent Geoff Colvin.

Wishing all a great weekend.....

Daily insights on leaders and leadership By Geoff Colvin

June 24, 2016

Imagine what’s going through the mind of every developed country’s leader. Virtually all of them had endorsed the losing Remain side in the Brexit referendum, and now they’re wondering, What if that referendum’s equivalent had been held in my country? Nationalistic, anti-immigrant, isolationist movements are rising in France, Austria, Poland, Denmark, and elsewhere in the developed world. While those movements are usually described as right-wing, the Leave supporters also included a left-wing faction of older trade unionists and younger socialists, and every developed country has plenty of those too. Collectively they’re people who believe they got the bad end of the deal in the opening of the world to freer trade, migration, and acceptance of unfamiliar cultural values. The big news from Britain is that those people are a majority there, and now leaders around the world are wondering if they’re a majority in his or her country. IfHillary Clinton wins in November, she’ll face a similar issue: Trump and Sanders supporters, though opposed to one another, are united in their fury over how today’s economic and cultural order has treated them, and together they may constitute a majority of the electorate. The Leavers in Britain have had the satisfaction of giving established authority a poke in the eye, but now they’ll have to face the consequences of doing what was worst for them. Britain and the Leavers will likely be less prosperous than they would have been in the EU. Despite the drama of the vote, very little has been resolved. The No. 1 agenda item at the next G20 meeting, in September, seems clear. # The scorching pace of change is such a common theme in business that as a concept it puts me to sleep. But an example can make it interesting, and a bit of news yesterday suggested a good one. BlackBerry reported earnings and said handset sales were down again; its global market share in smartphones is less than 1%. In this political season the news recalls memories of when Barack Obama became president in 2009 and demanded that federal techies figure out how to get him a secure BlackBerry phone, which he felt he couldn’t live without. Think back a bit further. In the mid-1990s Motorola ruled the world of cellphones; now a Chinese company, Lenovo, owns the brand, and Lenovo and Motorola phones combined have about 6% of the market. After Motorola, Nokia was king; it has since left the business. Then BlackBerry phones became so addictive they were called Crackberry; now Wall Street analysts say they wouldn’t be surprised if the company shut down its phone business and focused on software. Today Samsung and Apple dominate the industry; analysts estimate that last year the two of them made 105% of total smartphone industry profits and that Apple alone made 91%. That’s five leaders in this $400-billion industry in less than 20 years. We sometimes forget that Apple entered the business only nine years ago; next Wednesday is the anniversary. Business didn’t used to work like this. Everybody now repeats platitudes about the pace of change, but extremely few are able to internalize this reality and keep winning in the new environment.

Working Away w/Notations On @LagunaNiguelCty; #EURef; #Peace & Believing in Rainbows......

It has been quite a week--what else is new?

For me, the week started on a very high note as I had the pleasure to be at blessing of St. Timothy's Catholic Parish Food Pantry as our Parish Priest, Monsignor Urell, blessed the opening and offered a prayer as we began a new era at the Pantry.    For me, it continued as I worked away on on-going daily projects,  was on the parish campus this past Wednesday and thereafter chaired the June 2016  Laguna Niguel Traffic Commission Meeting.     It is frankly fun to be witness to Democracy in Action as residents were before our Commission deliberating as it did--proud of my fellow Commissioners, the City Team and the Community who were reflective, informative and engaging as they were.     One of the highlights of the past month was this publication in Route50 (a +Government Executive  project) that the Route50 Editor, +Michael Grass , did such a fantastic job supporting--and I for one am grateful to him in my capacity as Chair of the Commission and as a resident of the City for taking on this project as he did: 

Working away...very glad to see how @LagunaNiguelCty was featured in such a positive light..... https://t.co/hiHe4mQCWV

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) June 23, 2016

It was also another fabulous week in the City of Laguna Niguel as the second phase of Crown Valley Park was opened up.   I was a bit bummed that I missed it--but being at the Food Pantry was imperative as the team served some 34 clients today.     I also remain hopeful because of the next generation as The Aliso Niguel Second Harvest Food Bank Club plans on their Monthly Food Drive at the Ralphs in Aliso Viejo this coming Sunday--and as they will be having their mobile food pantry on August 6.   

Beyond the boundaries of our City,  +City of Laguna Niguel , it is quite a challenging World as the World awaits the result of #Brexit as I  just got a tweet that YouGov Poll is giving the "Remain" (#EURef) Campaign the edge as the counting has begun.    The Guardian just noted how the UK is fractured--how it heals will be part of the focus at #Outsiders especially in light of the profound fissures within the Conservative Party.     

 One very bright spot is the peace between Colombia and the FARC rebels.  I was so glad to see this from the Guardian earlier today:

I  commend President Santos as he noted, "....Now that we have agreed peace, as head of state and as a Colombian, I will argue, with equal determination their right to express and to continue their political struggle by legal means, even if we never agree. That is the essence of democracy to which we welcome them.”       Across the border in Venezuela, though,  people are going hungry and as Brazil continues to deal with profound political turmoil as the Olympics loom.      This is as I have been working away in support of Daily Outsiders with the latest out of India on the continued dominance of Narendra Modi.    I was quite disturbed by another development about how a Trump Advisor will not oppose Israeli Annexation of the West Bank claiming that no one knows how many Palestininans live there--going against decades of US Policy.    

As I look to a weekend of service supporting Second Harvest, I popped into twitter to check on the latest that the folks at +BrainyQuote have shared--and this one I decided to share on the eve of the weekend:



Remaining ever so hopeful as I wish all the best of weekends as I hope all enjoy the periodic #quote feeds over my personal Twitter Feed and the latest that the team +Paper.li  publishes for me daily.

Onward!!!