Friday Reads

Good Morning!

Movie critic Roger Ebert passed away yesterday at the age of 70.  His cancer had recurred and spread. I actually met Ebert on a plane to London 30 years ago. He was working on the movie “Syd and Nancy” and I was celebrating finishing my first masters.  I used to love to watch his show with Siskel.

Ebert, 70, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic, died Thursday in Chicago.

“We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away,” said his wife, Chaz Ebert. “No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition.”

He had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.

He lost part of his lower jaw in 2006, and with it the ability to speak or eat, a calamity that would have driven other men from the public eye. But Ebert refused to hide, instead forging what became a new chapter in his career, an extraordinary chronicle of his devastating illness that won him a new generation of admirers. “No point in denying it,” he wrote, analyzing his medical struggles with characteristic courage, candor and wit, a view that was never tinged with bitterness or self-pity.

On Tuesday, Ebert blogged that he had suffered a recurrence of cancer following a hip fracture suffered in December, and would be taking “a leave of presence.” In the blog essay, marking his 46th anniversary of becoming the Sun-Times film critic, Ebert wrote “I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers hand-picked and greatly admired by me.”

Some times a story shocks me, then I stop to wonder why I should really be shocked.  A high school in Georgia is still holding segregated prom.

WSAV in Georgia reports that Wilcox County High School holds two proms for its students: a whites-only prom, and an integrated prom. WSAV notes that the school has never had a fully inclusive prom in its history.

Best friends Stephanie Sinnot, Mareshia Rucker, Quanesha Wallace and Keela Bloodworth are trying to change that. “We are all friends,” said Sinnot. “That’s just kind of not right that we can’t go to prom together.”

If any non-white person tried to attend the whites-only prom, “They would probably have the police come out there and escort them off the premises,” said Bloodworth. According to WSAV, this was the case in 2012 when a biracial student who tried to attend the dance was “turned away by police.”

I’m not one to go round quoting the Harvard Business Review but this particular study is a good one.  “Companies that Practice “Conscious Capitalism” Perform 10x Better”.

Blake Mycoskie, who founded Tom’s Shoes at age 26, talked about the profitable business he’s built on a model of giving a pair of shoes to a child in need for each pair of shoes the company sells. Shubhro Sen, who leads people development for Tata, the huge, privately-owned Indian conglomerate, described the founding tenet of the company that endures to this day: “We earn our profits from society and they should go back into society.” Most of the company today is owned by philanthropic trusts.

I took away from these three days a very clear and inspiring message. It’s not necessary to choose up sides between consciousness and capitalism, self-interest and the broader interest, or personal development and service to others. Rather, they’re each inextricably connected, and they all serve one another.

Raj Sisodia looked at 28 companies he identified as the most conscious — “firms of endearment” as he terms them — based on characteristics such as their stated purpose, generosity of compensation, quality of customer service, investment in their communities, and impact on the environment.

The 18 publicly traded companies out of the 28 outperformed the S&P 500 index by a factor of 10.5 over the years 1996-2011. And why, in the end, should that be a surprise? Conscious companies treat their stakeholders better. As a consequence, their suppliers are happier to do business with them. Employees are more engaged, productive, and likely to stay. These companies are more welcome in their communities and their customers are more satisfied and loyal. The most conscious companies give more, and they get more in return. The inescapable conclusion: it pays to care, widely and deeply.

Chelsea Clinton told MSNBC viewers that ‘We can’t leave a gender behind’ on Alex Wagner yesterday.

While affluent American women debate the merits of “leaning in” or “having it all,” U.S. women still earn 77-cents for every dollar earned by men, and the U.S. ranks 77^th in the world for participation of women in government. And the economic stress is far greater for women worldwide. Today, 70% of the world’s poor and two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women.

On Thursday, Chelsea Clinton, Jada Pinkett Smith and Zainab Salbi joined the NOW with Alex Wagner panel to discuss both the plight and the progress of women in America and across the globe.

One of most glaring gender disparities in the U.S. is the lack of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Women currently hold fewer than 25% of STEM jobs.

The U.S. Department of Commerce predicts  the number of STEM jobs will grow 17% between 2008 and 2018–three times the growth rate for non-STEM jobs. “If we’re really going to own our own future,” Clinton said, “we can’t leave a gender behind. We all need to be a part of that.”

When it comes to investing in women, Zainab Salbi says, “it’s the one investment that will help everyone.”

I’ve got a few quick links on antiquities smugglers that you might find intriguing.  First, a Utah couple has been indicted for smuggling Peruvian antiquities to the US.

A federal grand jury indicted two West Valley City residents Wednesday on allegations they helped smuggled Peruvian artifacts, including pre-Columbian vessels, to the United States.

Cesar Guarderas, 70, and his wife, Rosa Isabel Guarderas, 45, were arrested March 25 following an investigation that began in October. They will make their first court appearance Friday.

Two other men also are named in the indictment: Javier Abanto-Sarmiento, 39, and Alfredo Abanto-Sarmiento, 36, of Trujillo, Peru. Javier Abanto-Sarmiento and Rosa Isabel Guarderas are siblings.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents arrested Javier Abanto-Sarmiento on March 4 when he arrived in Miami from Peru. He is currently being brought to Salt Lake City by U.S. Marshals. Alfredo Abanto-Sarmiento has not yet been arrested.

HSI used an undercover agent to buy two Peruvian artifacts from Cesar Guarderas in November for $3,000. The agent then paid $20,000 that same month for 10 additional artifacts.

Professors at Utah Valley University and Tulane University who are Peruvian experts authenticated the artifacts; the items also were tested at a laboratory in Washington. Since 1997, the U.S. and Peru have had an agreement barring specific artifacts and ethnological religious objects from being brought to the U.S.

The artifact trafficking scheme also was corroborated by undercover telephone, email and in-person discussions with Javier Abanto-Sarmiento and Cesar Guarderas. At some point, Cesar Guarderas said Javier Abanto-Sarmiento had access to more than 100 pieces of pottery in Peru, some he had found buried in the ground, and was willing to ship them to the U.S.

Then, there’s a gang in India that’s been arrested for taking ancient idols from Temples.

 The police on Wednesday arrested a four-member gang involved in idol thefts at various places in and around Kumba­konam and recovered 26 ancient and exquisite stone and copper idols besides four thiruvasis (arch around an idol), all dating back to the Chola and Pallava era.

Following frequent incidents of idol theft from ancient temples in Kum­ba­konam, Swami­malai and Pasupathikoil recently, the police formed a special team under the direct supervision of DSP Silambarasan to investigate the issue.

This reminds me of a ring of thieves in New Orleans that were stealing some of the angels, vases, and grave ornaments from our historic cemeteries.  Here’s a link to a really terrific description of that crime in the NYT.  I think it would make a great movie, frankly.

On a moody February day, with rain dripping off the muscadine vines and a concerto by Respighi wafting through the living room, Peter Patout, an antiques dealer, was cosseted in the splendor of his Bourbon Street home. There amid Paris porcelain and ancestral oils in gilt frames, he gave his version of the insidious crime that has made him one of the most talked-about men in the city: conspiring to steal cemetery ornaments from hallowed tombs.

”The thieves are in jail,” said Mr. Patout, a descendant of sugar planters, who is out on bail. ”I’ve been arrested four times. Would you like some Patout sugar in your coffee?”

Around New Orleans, there is the smell of a rat amid the scent of sweet olive. It was in Mr. Patout’s secluded courtyard, lush with banana trees of deep Louisiana lineage, that detectives seized two funerary statues, including a $50,000 marble Madonna. The New Orleans police say these were part of a cache of more than 200 romantically patinated urns, angels and Blessed Mothers plundered by thieves last year from the above-ground marble tombs and granite sarcophagi that populate New Orleans’s legendary ”cities of the dead.”

If we had google “nose”, I would try to waft some night blooming jasmine your way.

You just knew I’d fit something in here about grave goods didn’t you?  I love antiques as much as the next person.  I want folks stealing from graves, temples, and poor countries to support my passion.  However, I’m sure these items are way out of my league but evidently some people don’t care how they come by a collectible.

So, I tried to concentrate on some newsy things today and give us a break from the politics.  It’s up to you to fill in the blanks.  What’s on your reading and blogging list this morning?