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Food manufacturing in the US has always been about convenience, product availability, taste and price. The more society ventured away from the family garden and kitchen, the more food manufacturers developed a market or niche for their products at home in the cupboards. Processed foods no longer are limited to flour and sugar on the country store shelf, but have evolved to include the variety of foods eaten daily and taken from restaurants, grocery stores, super markets and convenience stores.

As the commonality of quick processed foods increases throughout the world, health problems such as obesity, diabetes and cancer have also become common and inevitable to the point that *”1 in 3 American adults have Insulin Resistance, a pre-diabetic condition”, and this will only be the beginning.

The philosophy behind Functional Food is to create food additives and ingredients that will enhance the bodies health by making manufactured foods more beneficial to the consumer with out losing quality or taste.

It is the intention to not only create additives and ingredients that will benefit todays market but will benefits today’s generation as they age.

By using products such as “SugarBlendtm”,and “FlourBlendtm,, in drinks, cakes, cookies, candies, breads, pastries, and snacks, today’s children will have increased mineral uptake, aiding in the prevention of Osteoporosis as they age, increasing bowel function, reducing the chance of colon cancer and by aiding in the control of blood sugar swings that may cause diabetes later in life. These “Functional” properties are accomplished without side effects that may cause consumers to reject manufactured products. These side effects include sweeteners that cause a laxative effect, gas, bloating, aftertaste and degrading sweetness in high heat. Styrofoam-like textures, no taste, distasteful smell and color in cooking flour substitutes.

We see that parents today are becoming more aware and educated in the direction of nutrition, especially with regards to growing children. If foods are eaten that increase calcium in the bones today, twenty years from now, it is possible that this generation won’t suffer from Osteoporosis or Colon Cancer. If foods are eaten today that keep the blood sugar steady and absorb slowly in the gut, not only will the child have protection from disease, but they will have a lessor chance of developing diabetes twenty years from now also.

The main objective of Home Blend Gourmet and others that manufacture functional food is “The Health of Humanity”. Manufactures using these products today can influence the health of future generation and secure their markets for tomorrow. We create first rate ingredients and additives by being on the cutting edge of research. The demands of fast paced lives and lifestyles shouldn’t cost the health of the human race. We can help food manufactures become more health conscious and competitive with marketing strategies that will put them above the rest of the pack.

Today, the education of the general public on nutrition is vastly brought about through mass media, by informational commercials, through news media, T.V. talk shows, magazine articles and newspaper articles.

High protein, low-carb, low-fat diets have gained popularity through media blitzes on celebrity books, university studies, restaurant menus and nutritional labels. These diet plans have also gained popularity by the prove results, some of the newest diets include Glycemic Indexing, or the blood glucose response to the manufactured products. We check our food formula’s for impact to blood sugar response by doing in vivo oral tolerance tests. Each formula is created to not only aid in control of nutritional conditions, but that the side-effects of that formula is beneficial to the human body. We offer In Vivo testing for any of our manufacturing clients that would like to use Glycemic Indexing guidelines for marketing their products. We are South Pacific Health Enterprises, and we license our food formulas only to Home Blend Gourmet.

*AACE, AC of Endo. Conference, 08-25-26, 2003

About The Author

D.S. Epperson is the top formulator for Home Blend Gourmet / South Pacific Health, a leader in the functional food industry in the U.S.. With 20 years of experience in Nutritional Biochemistry, she has written reference books on botanicals and manufacturing of medicines from botanicals, and published articles on health, fitness and foods. She has formulated over 240 formulas and inventions for health, the environment and agricultural uses, and continues to research and study microbial advantages in nutraceuticals and functional foods. For more information or to view the articles that she has written: http://www.sugarblend.com.

online@sugarblend.com

Hampton Court Palace lies to the south west of the Capital, on the banks of the River Thames, boarded by woodland and beautiful private gardens. Hampton Court Palace, Henry VIII?s lovely water shore estate is sited in more than 600 acres of park and gardens. Whilst on holiday in England why not Visit Hampton Court Palace the riverside home of King Henry 8th.

Inducing the atmosphere of over four-hundred and fifty years of heritage, uniformed actors can be found all through Henry 8th’s & King William 3s astounding private palaces. The scenes, noise & aromas of the magnificent Tudor kitchens where royal feasts were organised for Henry?s courtyard of over five hundred guests can also be viewed.

Hampton Court Palace has been separated into six separate routes or trips. The Maze at Hampton Court Palace which is sited on the River Thames to the west of London City is in all probability the most prized hedge maze on this earth.

Hampton Court palace has a dreadful custom & is reputedly occupied by a number of phantoms, including 2 of Henry 8th’s wives & a nurse to his children. Hampton Court Palace wardens & staff will be on hand to help people to their chosen state room for a cava and canap?s function. Costumed staff will declare supper and guests will be encouraged to go to their places for a superb 2 course dinner with top quality fine red wines.

Hampton Court Palace has sixty acres of official gardens on top of the 400 acres of royal plants. The royal private gardens go back to the sixteenth Century, when the first Privy Garden was fitted between fifteen thirty & fifteen-thirty eight for King Henry VIII.

Music is played on many occasions like during funerals, church worship, a contest, on television and radio. Www.audiobiblio.com is a place where people and music connect. Now you can listen to music as you boot up your computer, hook up to the internet and viola, you can listen to scores of music from the said web site. You can also upload your favorite music with a file size of at most 20GB. This is more than enough for long hours of streaming music.

Furthermore, you can also make friends with members from around the world. Though you may be oceans apart, you can still make friends easily via this web site. Just browse through their profiles, gender, location, etc and see if there is any match. Music has long been known to unite people from all walks of life in different generations.

Music is refreshing to the depressed heart and soul. When you dine in restaurants, you get to listen to soft music playing in the background. Music is also played in supermarkets and broadcast on air. Just by selecting a certain channel, you can hear different types of music ranging from sentimentals to pop, jazz, waltz, ballad, swing, and much more. In churches, songs are being sung while the band plays with different instruments like the piano, guitar, drums, keyboards, and the list goes on. People are willing to pay a lot of money just to attend an opera, concert and musical epiphany.

Simply browse through www.audiobiblio.com for inspiration by listening to uploaded music that is meant to be shared around. You don’t have to pay through your nose for CDs and music cassettes from the stores. All you need is an internet connection and there you have it. By going through the web site, you can also read for more information on music that is shared around.

Free applications are usually light-weight, with little fancy graphics and animation. Only most vital settings are included. Free software requires less attention and needs a minute to configure. Low CPU and RAM usage - something you will begin to value once in a lifetime. Most of them cost around $30 though there are more sophisticated species that may cost a little bit more.

Your anti-spyware options are far too numerous to list here and we should stick to the ones where it is run and monitored by one person and that person alone. It prevents anyone from uninstalling the anti-spyware accidentally or disabling the software on purpose. I have known friends complain that their software keeps notifying them when it eliminates spyware and malware (close cousins), so they disabled it. Not an especially good idea these days. Data loggers, key loggers are just a few programs which harvest info from your computer. Winclear is the only program created specially to auto remove such spywares. The person logged into your email account and retrieved the pin accessed your e-gold account and made an unauthorized spend from the account. That is why every computer owner needs winclear.

Protect With Winclear :History Of Internet Cheating
A number of cheating husbands and wives are now using the Internet to communicate with their mistresses and lovers. Many extramarital affairs actually blossomed out of online dating services and chatting. Thus, if you are already suspecting that your wife, husband, boyfriend or girlfriend is cheating on you, you need to find a way to check your partner’s computer and Internet activities at home. Winclear is the only software which is capable of removing keylogger programs. With a third party privacy tool or by setting the browser to delete them every day you can remove them from your hard drive before anyone can access and use your information. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers for the last 8 years.

Winclear:
The Spyware Doctor allows you to perform fast scanning and detection at Windows start-up so that you will be alerted with a list of the potential threats identified and provides spyware blocking features to give you continuous protection. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer. Some keyloggers or computer spy software can be used as an Internet police or firewall. Protect your computer security by using Winclear! More about Winclear here: Winclear.

Make no mistake that emotions are the driving force behind sales, and customers making buying decisions can be influenced through visual elements towards a particular behaviour or emotion that will encourage more sales.

Not convinced? Have you noticed that a lot of restaurants are decorated in/heavily feature reds and/or oranges? Still not convinced?

Pizza Hut
Frankie & Bennys
Burger King
Little Chef
TGI Friday
Bella Pasta (one of the few to focus on Orange rather than red)

These major players understand the psychology behind colour and its relationship to marketing which dictates that red and orange specifically encourage restaurant patrons to eat faster; thus yes you guessed it - increasing sales within the same period of time.

Red is known as an emotionally intense colour, stimulating a faster heartbeat and breathing. Orange is also an emotional stimulant.

It’s entirely possible you are suddenly frantically realising that you haven’t considered this at all when choosing your brand design and associated marketing materials and are now wondering whether you are maximising your sales through the use of colour psychology.

Luckily there’s no need to panic and start planning a complete (and potentially expensive) re-branding exercise.

Even if you didn’t initially consider this, it’s not too late to do something about it, there’s no reason why you can’t work with your existing brand colours and perhaps work new colours into your scheme that will work harder to encourage those sales - infiltrating the correct colours through your brochures, web site, stationery and so on.

This way you use colour psychology to strengthen your message yet whilst keeping the same brand that customers may have already become accustomed to seeing and have already ‘bought into’.

Now that you are aware that you can do something about your glaring error ;-)) - here are some tips:

1. Culture: If you trade globally, remember that colours can have a different interpretation in different cultures - for example in Chinese culture, white is the colour of death.

2. Shopper Habits - Apparently impulse buyers lean towards red-orange, black and royal blue, and those who plan ahead prefer pink, teal, light blue and navy.

3. Status - Colour preference is influenced by our standard of living; brighter bolder colours appear to attract those on a lower income, whilst those targeting higher income brackets should use more subtle colours.

4. Geography - The geographical location of your target market should be considered when making colour choices; those in Latin America for example will prefer stronger colours, whilst those in colder regions are attracted to neutrals.

Finally, in many cultures the following colours have the following marketing potential:

Red - The colour the eye perceives the quickest (although apparently research has indicated that middle aged and older people can find it hard to see this colour). Red can represent energy, speed, anger, danger (blood), excitement, strength, sex.

Blue - A cool colour preferred by most Europeans, especially men, it can hint at trust, and reliability.

Yellow - Warm and stimulating like the sun, and encourages feelings of happiness, especially preferred by young people if not used in excess. Can also be associated with betrayal however.

Orange - A warm vibrant shade without being reminiscent of danger or aggression as in red, good for encouraging impulse purchases.

Green - Fresh and cool; associated with nature, growth, and hope, but also with illness and superstition.

Purple - Has links with religion (Cardinals), and can also be seen as a royal colour and therefore is often linked with spirituality and dignity.

Pink - Soft, nurturing, and security and is used a symbol of love and sweetness. Too much pink can be seen as childish.

White - Purity, cleanliness, and is associated with nature and light. Take care; in Asia this colour is connected with mourning.

Black - Can see seen as sophisticated, and elegant, or mysterious but does symbolise death and the occult also, however if used in the right way (as it is often used with prestige/luxury products), such as when combined with gold, it can create a chic exclusive feel.

Gold - Prestigious and royal colour; expensive.

Silver - Can also be prestigious if used correctly, or to impart a ’scientific’ association.

http://www.trulyace.com
Copyright Truly Ace
Creative Unique Design Services
Logo Design - Graphic Design - Digital Illustration

The 100 year old investment-banking firm of Warburg, Dillon Read (on Park Ave. N.Y.) (now UBS Warburg) has offices in 39 foreign countries - including the Bahamas, the tiny Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and the Channel Islands. Makes you wonder why, doesn’t it?

Non-resident foreign companies, trusts, banks and individuals can trade stocks, bonds, commodity contracts and options 100% free from U.S. capital gains taxes.

Under the U.S. Tax Code, only when a foreign company, foreign trust or nonresident alien individual takes up permanent residence within the United States will he be subject to U.S. capital gains taxes in the same way as domestic taxpayers. For a corporation permanent residence would be a U.S. office or warehouse. Capital gains realized by foreign corporations and other nonresidents “not engaged in a trade or business within the United States” are exempted from tax under IRC Section 871 and IRC Section 881 & IRC Section 897(c)(3). Moreover, U.S. Treasury Regulations Section 864-2(C)(1) & (2) provides an exception for what embodies being “engaged in a trade or business within the United States”. Under U.S. regulations, a nonresident’s Stock Market transactions carried-out through a U.S. stock broker, independent agent, or an employee are not considered to cause the nonresident to be “engaging in a trade or business within the United States”.

Publicly traded stock market gains (from NYSE, NASDAQ or AMEX listed stocks and bonds) accruing to an offshore company are free of US capital gains taxes by the Internal Revenue Tax Code’s statutes, but “US Shareholders” can have a tax liability (indirectly) if the offshore company is a “Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) (i.e., “more than 50% of voting and non-voting stock is owned by US SHAREHOLDERS). See sections 951 thru 958 of the IRC. See especially Code-Section 951(b) for the definition of US SHAREHOLDERS.

American taxpayers that use tax havens are taking more risks (generally) than a foreign non-resident alien (not a US citizen). Whether an American citizen taxpayer will have a tax liability on the offshore company profits depends on a lot of things - including what kind of income is produced by the company (i.e., Subpart F or non-Subpart F) and how many shares in the company you own, and whether the offshore company is a CFC - as defined in the Internal Revenue Code in Sections 957 and section 958.

More on the No-tax haven of Anguilla. Click onto the link below for the details
http://www.geocities.com/taxhavens123/caribbeantaxhavens.html

A Tribute in Honor of: Bank Confidential Ordinances in the Caribbean

http://www.geocities.com/taxhavens123/bank_confidentiality.html

The Old Monied Dupont Nemours and Roosevelt Families Buy a Tax Haven

Want to know why and how the old monied Dupont Nemours and Roosevelt families were able to buy 4,000 acres of waterfront property on the island of Provindentcials in the tax free, crown colony (or “Overseas Territory”) of the Turk and Caicos Islands for 1 cent an acre?

This 4,000 acre sale (now a marina and resort town - with an airport for jumbo jets (the $50,000,000 airport was donated by the UK government) went down in the 1970’s - not the 1870’s!?!?

Source: A Turks & Caicos Government 3 full page advertisement in Investor’s Daily (1985).

Was this the most profitable real estate investment of the 20th century? A quarter acre lot in the gated community of Sandyport here in Nassau, Bahamas sells for approximately $260,000 today. Half acre canal lots in Lyford Cay sell for about one million dollars.

Do the math. On an initial investment of just $40, the 4,000 acre property might be worth almost 4 BILLION dollars today.

YOU BE THE JUDGE…. Are the use of the world’s tax havens a blessing or a detriment? Before you answer, see some of the IRS’s loopholes from our “Tax Code” - discovered for your viewing below, and buried inside the tax law for the taxpayers! There’s a very important loophole for the non-resident alien you should not overlook!

Two important pre-reading notes: Before you chose to read or not read this article, let make two things clear. Everyone has Customers. Even if you work in an internal staff department in a large firm, you have Customers. They are the people you provide work to. And second, don’t be put off by the term Customer. Maybe you call them Clients, Students, Patients, or (heaven forbid!) Users. If one of those words works better for you, read that word every time you read Customer. Now that I have eliminated your reasons for not reading, please continue . . .

We can read lots of books and articles about Customer Service strategies and how to build processes that will serve Customers more successfully. All of these things are valuable, but if we put all of our focus on processes, systems, strategies and procedures we may lose track of something very important.

Customers are people first.

This means that each of your Customers, like everyone else, wants to feel important. It a universal truth - we all want that feeling, and will gravitate towards those that make us feel that way.

Hint: Having Customers gravitate towards you is a very good thing.

Here are seven ways that you as an individual, regardless of any corporate policies or systems, can make Customers feel more important, written from the Customer’s perspective:

Please use my name. I know I may have a Customer or registration number and that I might need to give that to you. But I also know that once you put that number in the system, you know my name. Use it. If I hand you my credit card, now you know my name too. Please use it.

I want to be a part of the “in” crowd. That’s why I like being invited into Frequent Flyer clubs, frequent buyer clubs or anything that provides me with discounts, special services, education or surprises. If you have this kind of club, invite me to join. If you don’t have one yet, please think about starting one.

Ask me for my advice. I have an opinion, and if asked in the right way, at the right time, when I know you really care about the answer, I’ll give you that advice. Opinion cards may be OK, but I would love to be asked personally. Give me the chance to tell you what I think, and I’ll reward you with more of my business. I don’t often get asked for my opinion and it feels good. And who knows, you might even get a great idea for a new product or service.

Acknowledge me. I know you are busy sometimes. I can see the line. I even understand that your system might be down, or that you have five people in the phone queue. I’ve been there, I work too. But when I call or come by, acknowledge that I am there and let me know you are glad I’m in the line. A smile and a hello, or a “We’ll be with you shortly” will go a long way. Acknowledge me and I’ll understand. Ignore me, and well, how do you feel when you’ve been ignored?

Surprise me. A little extra something with my order or a hand written note would be nice. A special discount “just because” or a free sample of dessert. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, and it doesn’t have to be every time. If you get a good surprise, do you want to share it with others? Me too.

Apologize. I hate it when people try to prove they were right, or don’t mention that fact that the order is three days late, or the surcharge can’t be removed, or the item is out of stock. But again, I know things do happen. When things do go wrong though, please give me a simple apology. Here’s the funniest thing. When you make a mistake, and then apologize (perhaps even including a surprise of some sort) I’ll love you more than ever. Apologies and good service recoveries are so rare that you can take my dissatisfaction and turn it into loyalty, if you will do this right.

Listen. Most all of the other things I’ve told you require you to listen. I can tell when you are really listening to me and that makes me feel very good - because true listening is rare, sometimes even at home. Listen to my concerns. Listen to my ideas. Listen to my order, so we don’t have any misunderstandings. When you really listen, you can’t believe how good that makes me feel.

All of us can do most of these things each day. When we do we will make our work more enjoyable, easier, and quite likely will begin creating legions of loyal Customers immediately.

And before you go, read these seven things again, with the voice of one of your Customers in your head, as a reminder of how you can make each of your Customers feel more important.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advice go to www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

Are you looking for that “something” to give you the winning edge in your business? Is success still elusive even after burning both ends of the candle? Well, you may be looking for success in al the wrong places or you may not have an accurate picture of what true success is.

In a fast-paced society that’s driven by a mentality of “more is better,” extreme stress and lack of fulfillment are inevitable in every facet of our lives, including work.

In the quest for profit in the current win-lose business climate, the prevailing mind-set is that you can’t really win without someone else losing. Businesses such as Enron, which are driven by the love of power and money instead of power of love, are proof that no matter how big a business it will eventually collapse in the absence of a solid foundation characterized by integrity, a strong work ethic and a values system that puts people first.

The widespread misconception that external riches automatically lead to a richer inner life (i.e. happiness and even self-worth) becomes the driving force behind everything we do. As a result, our pursuit of success becomes narrowly defined as in “He with the most toys lives,” rather than “He with the most joy lives.” Sure, we have more “toys,” but they only produce artificial joy. Since “you can’t take it with you,” there has to be a point to what you do. After all are you living to work or working to live? Sooner or later it becomes evident that no amount of money or trophies can fill the void created by a malnourished spirit. Then how is it possible to achieve success in business that’s both lasting and fulfilling? How do you get the winning edge both in business and in your personal life? It’s the best-kept secret by the world’s most successful people who experience lasting success and a sense of fulfillment as well.

While it’s common knowledge that in retailing the determining factor for success is location, location, location, there’s another little known element that has to do more with our approach to life. It’s far more effective than mere “positive thinking,” affirmations or stale traditional business strategies and practices. It’s never subject to change (unlike everything else in life). It’s something that has the power to produce total prosperity (from health to wealth) with a sense of fulfillment, purpose and real joy. It can also provide you with a short-cut for helping your business expand by stimulating creativity, thereby providing opportunities to positively impact your bottom line. But best of all it’s free and it works. So what is this magic formula for success and total prosperity?

Whether we realize it or not, we are spiritual beings experiencing the human experience and not the other way around. As such, we were meant to live a life of meaning, purpose and abundance, by connecting with our spiritual roots. This means that everything we do must be spirit-filled and spirit-directed.

It’s been my experience (as a young immigrant who came to this country with absolutely nothing, but eventually was able to overcome adversity and achieve success) that greater degrees of success can be achieved by anyone regardless of their circumstances, simply by implementing a system which I call The Principles For Successful Living. These are spiritually-based principles that have worked for me and for many of the world’s most successful business people. They help create real winners and true success.

These powerful principles, which are characterized by integrity, a strong code of ethics, giving and the honoring of all living things, provide practical solutions to many of the most perplexing problems that plague entrepreneurs and business owners today. Living by these principles is the difference between surviving and thriving, where you are not merely making a living but also making a difference.

However, to achieve greater levels of success, you must be willing to explore new ways of thinking and abandon the conventional wisdom of “business as usual.” Following are some of the key elements for anyone desirous of achieving “real success” (i.e. total prosperity - everything from health to wealth to a sense of higher purpose, meaning, fulfillment and real joy):

1. Recognize that everything in life, including making money, is a function of spirit which shapes and influences every facet of your life, including your business.

2. Aim for doing business with purpose, where profit making equals profit sharing as well. Everything you do must be spirit-filled and spirit-directed with a strong work ethic, integrity, and putting people first.

3. Become a magnet of total prosperity by adopting the motto “when I help you win, I win,” even with your competitors.

4. Make sure that your business goals, practices and policies create a work environment that nurtures and rewards your employees beyond the monetary value.

5. The seed of money is service. Always go the extra mile by offering something of value that can benefit the people you are dealing with.

6. Create passionate work by viewing money as a tool to make a difference and be the change you wish to see in the world.

Obviously, there is much more to it than that (I go into this topic in-depth in my new book “The American Dream”). However, it’s a good start for anyone searching for the path to real success and total prosperity. As my father used to say, “there are three types of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who let things happen and those who wonder what the heck ever happened.” Understanding this concept can mean the difference between success and failure in business. So don’t just wait for good things to happen to you or for your ship to come in. Instead, take action and swim to the ship trusting in the power of the principles for successful living to guide you to safe shores and glory. Now that makes good sense, and good business as well.

About The Author

Copyright © 2004, Geela

Author of “The American Dream”

http://www.Geela.com

Geela is an award winning singer/songwriter/composer, columnist, and author of the best-selling book “THE AMERICAN DREAM,” her true- life story of how she came to America as a young immigrant with nothing and overcame incredible obstacles to achieve mega-success. She founded ONE SPIRIT, ONE WORLD to help children and promote a culture of peace and harmony. Get a free sample of her music and her book at http://www.Geela.com.

Resolutions like “I will not smoke” are expressed in negative language - they’re describing what you don’t want. But this only gives you a mental image of what you’re trying to get away from - in this case, smoking.

Your brain unconsciously filters your perceptions of the world around you. Given the huge amount of sensory data available to you every single second, you have to ignore most of it - there just wouldn’t be time to take it all in. So, without even thinking about it, you choose to notice what you are interested in and ignore the rest.

Some of the filters are instinctive, designed to help us survive by noticing events that are likely to affect us - if somebody yells in your ear or starts taking off their clothes in front of you, they will probably attract your attention!

Some filters are learned - for a fashion-conscious person, someone with the latest handbag or top will stand out from a crowd of thousands.

The rest of the filters are the ones you install yourself, through your goals. Once your goal is set, your unconscious mind will be scanning the information coming in from your surroundings for anything relevant to achieving the goal.

You will notice opportunities, resources and people that can help you to get closer to your goal. It will seem like you are ‘attracting’ these helpful opportunities and people. If you had not set the goal, on the other hand, you probably would not even have noticed them, because they would not be relevant to you. It

So since we tend to attract what we are thinking about, telling yourself “I will not smoke” will just keep your attention on your cravings.

Other examples: “I wish I wasn’t in this job/relationship/flat” - if you think this way, without clarifying for yourself what you do want, your next job/relationship/flat may not be any better.

“Away-from” motivation can be great for giving you the kick you need to get going - but it’s undirected (”away” can be any direction) and it runs out quickly, as soon as you get far enough away from what you’re escaping. It’s also stressful, because you are carrying around your mental image of what you want to get away from.

So: think about what you want, rather than what you don’t want.

Bonus tip: if it’s not easy at first to focus on what you want, start with what you don’t want and ask yourself: ‘What do you want instead of this?’

Andy Smith is an Emotional Intelligence consultant and NLP Trainer based in the UK. You can email him at andy@practicaleq.com. His website, at http://www.createthelifeyouwant.co.uk, contains many free articles and downloads. Sign up for Andy’s “Create The Life You Want” newsletter and get a useful free report on goal-setting by sending a blank email to:
andy18-159754@autocontactor.com

We wouldn’t be able to do any of the stuff we do with kids if it wasn’t for the support we get from local business people in our community. This is not a shameless plug for our sponsors, just recognition of the fact that whatever we’ve been able to achieve in Dulwich Hill has been a team effort between church and community.

People often ask me, “I suppose the church pays for all this, do they”. I tell them straight, that our little church in Dulwich Hill has never been able to properly afford even the minimum wage for their priest, and that the Church with a capital ‘C’ (ie. the Anglican Diocese of Sydney) has contributed next to nothing. No. Almost all our support comes from the three local pubs - the Gladstone, the Royal Exchange, and the Henson Park Hotel - and from the local RSL club (Petersham). The rest of it we pick up through the Christians vs. Lions fight nights we put on, and through other community events (eg. the Mayor’s golf day, the annual community Street Fair, etc.).

It wasn’t always this easy. In the early years we really struggled to keep the Youth Centre open. Then we caught the attention of one corporate benefactor, who was able to keep us going long enough for us to put the other support in place. That benefactor was Ray Williams, former chief executive of HIH insurance - one of the most gentle, caring, and humble men I have ever met, and currently one of the least popular men in the country.

It amazes me when I think about it. Some of the best people I have ever met are people with terrible reputations. In each case of course their reputations have been largely media-generated.

When my mate Jim got shot, one of the major Sydney newspapers ran story entitled “Evil Villain Gunned Down”. It featured a picture of Jim carrying an automatic weapon. The picture had been taken many years earlier during Jim’s time with the Australian Army. I thought ‘You bastards! That’s not the man I know.’

When Morde was on trail in Israel I read a variety of articles that spoke about him as being a sophisticated spy - working for the Arabs and out to destroy his country. I thought ‘You bastards! You have no idea who you are talking about.’

Now I read stories about Ray - about how he manipulated the market to line his own pockets and how he deliberately defrauded millions of people, and I think again ‘You bastards’.

Ray was sent by God to help us. I have no doubt about that. I first met him through a fight I took, though Ray himself was no fan of boxing.

The story of that fight was in itself quite bizarre.

I had been sitting with the Archdeacon in my office one afternoon. He was wagging his finger at me and telling me that I’d have to close down the Youth Centre. “You just don’t have enough money to keep it going” he said. And he was right. We were exactly $1000 short of being able to pay our youth worker’s wage for the next month. I was feeling rather nonchalant about it all and was telling him to have more faith. At exactly that moment Kon, my trainer, came to the door.

“Dave, do you want to take a pro fight?” he asked. “No” was my knee-jerk reaction. I’d just completed my fight career (I’d thought) with a shot at the NSW super-welterweight title in kickboxing. The law in this state at the time was that you had to hang up your gloves when you turned 35. I was 34 and nine months at that stage. “How much are they offering?” I asked Kon. “$1000″ he said. I told him I’d take it. We raised close to $50,000 for the Youth Centre through that fight. More than half of that money came through Ray.

A guy by the name of Jeff Wells wrote an article about my fight that was published in the Sydney Morning Herald one Saturday. After that, cheques for as much as $1000 started arriving in the mail! Then one morning a courier turned up with two cheques - one for $10,000 in the name of HIH insurance, and another for $15,000 in the name of a Mr R. Williams. I remember trembling when I received these cheques. I’d never seen that much money before in my life.

I had never heard of Ray Williams, but his business card was attached, so I rang the number and got one of those classic receptionist voices, saying “Mr Williams is busy at the moment. Can I take a message?” Then I mentioned my name and all of a sudden I was speaking to Ray.

“Ah … hi … do I know you?” I started. “No. I don’t think so,” he said. “You’ve just sent me cheques for $25,000″ I said. “Yes” he said. “Um … are you a local from around here? Have you been watching our work?” I asked. “No” he said. “Well … are you connected with the church or with youth work around here?” “No” he said. “Well … are you a fight fan?” I asked, scratching for some point of connection. “Not at all” he said. “I read an article about you in the Herald and it looked like you needed some help.” “Yeah, I do” I said. “Well, will that help?” he asked. “Oh yeah” I said, “that’ll help.”

That’s how our relationship began. Over the years that followed Ray took a keen interest in our work. As things at HIH became tighter, we didn’t receive any further support from the company, but Ray himself would generally turn up to our fundraiser fight nights, and he wouldn’t leave before slipping us a cheque from out of his own funds. It’s what kept us going while we searched for more stable sponsorship from the local community. We owe a lot to Ray.

And it wasn’t just the money. It was the man too. He was inspiring in his humility.

At the time of the first donation we had a guy in our church who worked as one of the chief accountants in the public hospital system. “Oh yeah” he said to me one Sunday. “If it wasn’t for Ray Williams, half the hospitals in Sydney might be closed.” And then he added “but he never likes to have his name mentioned. He hates the limelight”

We found this to be entirely true. We managed to get him on stage once to present a trophy to one of our fighters, but it was a tough job. He really hated being at the centre of attention. It’s one of the things that makes this Royal Commission so odious to him.

I still can’t believe the way the media have gone after him - vigorously attacking him for his generosity to hospitals and charities. It’s not as if he was giving away money that should have gone to insurance claimants. If he hadn’t given it away, I guess it would have slightly increased the dividend paid to the shareholders, and he himself must have been one of the largest shareholders. I still find it preposterous to think that the media should have acted so self-righteously indignant about the fact that the poor shareholders were losing potential income because it had gone to the children’s hospital. It’s just ridiculous.

But it wasn’t only the media that crucified Ray. Once the news about HIH’s collapse became public knowledge, former colleagues deserted him, old friends and associates turned their backs on him, and charities that he’d been supporting for years all of a sudden didn’t want to know him. Ray had been on the board of the Children’s Hospital for as long as anybody could remember. They sent him a letter saying ‘thank you but your services are no longer required’. Nobody waited for the results of the Royal Commission. Nobody waited to see if perhaps he wasn’t the real villain in the piece. Everyone distanced themselves, not wanting their own reputations to be tarnished.

I seriously can’t understand that attitude. I know I’m capable of doing some stupid and selfish things, but deserting a mate in his time of need is not one of them. When I think about all the people that Ray must have helped over the years, I just can’t believe that none of them thought to ring him up and say ‘How are you going, Ray. Perhaps it’s my turn to give you some support?’

Anyway, my point here is not to spit my dummy. And I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a clue about big business, insurance laws, or anything of the sort. But I know a good man when I meet one, and Ray Williams is a good man and someone whom I’m proud to call my friend. And I’ll be buggered if I’m going stand by and listen to people pouring crap out on a mate of mine without saying anything.

To be truthful, I don’t expect that Ray will ever fully regain his former reputation or standing. I know too much about how the media works and about how our court system works to ever expect real justice. As with my friends Jim and Morde, I’m not holding my breath waiting for the truth to come out. No. I’ll look to the day when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. When that day comes, all the crap will be sorted out.

You have just read an excerpt from ‘Sex, the Ring & the Eucharist’, a book by ‘Fighting’ Father Dave Smith - Parish Priest, community worker, professional fighter, father of three.

Dave is the only Australian in Holy Orders to turn pro boxer to help fund his work. He is Parish Priest in Dulwich Hill, has a sixth-degree martial arts black belt, and has received numerous awards for his work with young people.

Get a free copy of his book, ‘Sex, the Ring & the Eucharist‘ when you sign up for Dave’s newsletter at www.fatherdave.org