Some events will be as follows:
School field trip
Dances
Any thing else that you think would be beneficial to the storyline.
Disorder | Rating
Paranoid: Moderate
Schizoid: Moderate
Schizotypal: Very High
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Very High
Histrionic: Low
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June 22, 2013 at 2:17 PM ET
UESLEI MARCELINO / REUTERS
A demonstrator holds a sign next to street structures set on fire during a protest against the Confederations Cup and President Dilma Rousseff's government, in front of the National Congress in Brasilia June 20, 2013.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest protests in decades are a confusing, conflicting mix of people and messages. Blame Facebook.
Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter enabled mass protests of the sort that have not happened in Latin America's biggest country in more than two decades.
As a result of the speed, efficiency and anonymity of online activism, though, an amorphous, unwieldy movement has emerged that is beyond the control of any of those who first began pushing for change.
"Social media has helped us organize without having leaders," said Victor Damaso, 22, demonstrating on Sao Paulo's main Paulista Avenue on Thursday night. "Our ideas, our demands are discussed on Facebook. There are no meetings, no rules."
The demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, but as more than a million Brazilians took to the streets on Thursday, vandals and looters cast a violent pall over some of the protests. Police and security forces have responded with teargas, rubber bullets and pepper spray.
Facebook pages set up for logistical coordination and Twitter hash tags have cropped up for protests in hundreds of cities across Brazil. Rival groups appear to be vying for control of one of the most-viewed organizing pages on Facebook and an associated Twitter feed.
"Any movement risks attracting unaffiliated groups and individuals," said Angela Alonso, a sociologist at the University of Sao Paulo. "It's a price of growth. In this case there is no centralized leadership, administration is more difficult and it is even becoming uncontrollable."
The Free Fare movement, a group of 40 activists who marched for - and got - lower transportation rates, said on Friday it was suspending any further marches for now because of mounting tension and violence.
Sparked by Free Fare's protests, the nationwide call for reform quickly evolved into what is now known online as Anonymous Brazil.
The group appears to use encrypted Web browsers that make it difficult to identify page administrators and has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol for the global cyber group of hackers known as Anonymous, as its mascot, although it is not clear if the two have a formal link.
While that opens the door to all sorts of fringe groups, the people at the core of the protests generally share a commitment to better public services. Their rallying cries, found on Twitter and Facebook and on traditional signs at the protests, range from ending political corruption to lambasting more than $12 billion being poured into soccer stadiums and other preparations for the 2014 World Cup.
The demonstrators, mostly educated, middle class and under age 30, want nothing to do with established groups that were behind the causes of their parents' generation.
Online organizing
Unlike Brazil's movement for redemocratization in the 1970s and 1980s and protests for the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in the early 1990s, today's demonstrations have no clear leadership or political affinity.
"The recent protests are not partisan, and they do not have centralized leadership," said Alonso, the sociologist. "This has to do with new technologies that allow for organization without centralization, and also with the fact that the activists are from a new generation that is no longer guided by ideals like socialism, and doesn't want state power."
Indeed, Brazil's protests do not target any specific leader or political party. That makes them different from the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings against autocratic leaders in the past few years, or even this year's demonstrations in Turkey against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
While some of the Arab governments blocked access to the Internet to disrupt the planning of protests, Brazil's intelligence agency, Abin, has beefed up efforts to monitor calls for demonstrations online and on popular smart phone chat tool WhatsApp.
President Dilma Rousseff, a leftist guerrilla in the 1970s, has praised the protests as democratic.
Anonymous Brazil's Facebook page, which has nearly 1 million followers, briefly disappeared from the Web on Friday. The group later said via Facebook that its Twitter account had been "robbed" by one of its own members, generating conflicts on its linked Facebook platform.
The group says competing Twitter accounts like @AnonymousBr4sil and #AnonymousFuel are run by "usurpers."
Of the 53.5 million Brazilians online, almost a third of the population, 86 percent use some kind of micro blog or social media tool, according to polling firm Ibope.
(Additional reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Paulo Prada and Mohammad Zargham)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
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AIDS killed a baby a week during the height of the epidemic at the Cotlands child-care facility in South Africa. But because treatment has improved so much, infected babies aren't being abandoned as much, nor are they dying. The Cotlands has closed its hospice for lack of ill infants.
Babies who are up for adoption are taken care of at Cotlands, a nonprofit organization, on May 29, in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is part of the cover story project in the June 24 issue of The Christian Science MonitorWeekly.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor
EnlargeTurffontein, South Africa
It was common, at Cotlands child-care facility, for one baby to die every week, in the small AIDS hospice opened there in 1996. In 2002, 89 babies died, almost two a week. Then, in 2008, babies at Cotlands stopped dying. There were no deaths in 2009 or 2010, either. The center realized this wasn't a fluke: Its HIV-positive children appeared to benefit from antiretroviral drugs, known as ARVs. Children were still being abandoned, or given up for adoption, but not ? for the most part ? because they were born with HIV. Last December, Cotlands closed its AIDS hospice.
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Monitor staff photographer Melanie Stetson Freeman reports on one South African woman's struggle to help keep her family, which has been affected by AIDS, together.The Cotlands nursery is symbolic of a much bigger story. Today in South Africa, virtually all pregnant women who come to clinics for prenatal care are tested for HIV. By 2010, 95 percent of pregnant women with HIV were receiving ARVs as part of their prenatal care, according to UNICEF. (Combined with counseling about nutrition and hygienic deliveries, ARVs are seen to be reducing the risk of the virus being transmitted from mother to baby to less than 5 percent.) By 2011, the rate of maternal transmission had dropped below 3 percent, according to a national survey by the African Medical Research Council.
These successes, according to various reports from UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS), echo globally. In Thailand, the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child has dropped to below 5 percent. In the Caribbean, 80 percent of HIV-positive mothers receive ARVs, up almost 20 percent in a year. Globally, health experts believe, half a million children were spared HIV infection.
The World Health Organization is considering recommending that all pregnant and HIV-positive women be given free ARVs for life. Along with clear benefits, the program brings concern ? among some AIDS advocacy groups and HIV-positive women themselves ? about mandatory HIV testing of pregnant women and the inequality inherent in gender-based access. HIV-positive women in Malawi and Uganda said in focus groups convened by the Global Network of People Living with HIV that a privileged treatment status may result in tensions in their relationship or in domestic violence.
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Yield searching investors face some very tough risk versus reward scenarios in today's rising interest rate environment. The recent carnage in a multitude of yield plays, such as long-term investment grade corporate debt, preferred stock, junk bonds and REITs reveals that there are few safe harbors when expectations turn to rising interest rates. One of the biggest mistakes an investor can make in a low yield environment is to chase yield by purchasing a security with an extended maturity or in some cases, no maturity at all. Any rise in interest rates, especially from historically low levels, will magnify losses the longer the maturity of the investment. On the other hand, if you limit your investment horizon to about a 5 year maturity and look to the investment grade corporate bond market, you will only earn about 2.00% even after the recent spike in rates.
(click to enlarge)
So what traits should one look for in the current environment where interest rates will likely rise? Here is my Goldilocks hit list:
I can see Goldilocks looking over the universe of yield type investments available and saying, in her hard to satisfy way, ... "This rate is too low!", "This maturity is too loooong!", "This loan is not secured!", etc., etc. However, if she took a look at Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc. (ARI), she might just find that comfy bed to rest in for the next year or so.
Here are how these relevant traits apply to ARI after a sharp decline to a recent price of about $15.90, following the Dow's 200 point drop on Ben Bernanke's press conference.
In comparison to all the other available choices, this sounds like a pretty good alternative, in my opinion. I have looked at this company pretty closely and have recently picked up some shares as it has been hit hard along with all of the other high yielding investments. The fact that the average duration of the portfolio is only 3 years and that loans are secured by hard assets makes this an attractive asset to consider. A short duration means that the underlying portfolio can't get hit too hard by a rise in long-term interest rates as the portfolio is rolling over in a relatively short time frame and reinvested at the higher rates. Interestingly, given its recent secondary in March where it raised $148.5 million, the rise in interest rates is somewhat fortuitous as ARI reinvests this new money at higher rates.
However, before considering ARI, there are a few caveats that should be understood:
Even after considering all the caveats, the risk reward profile of ARI is as close to Goldilocks as you can get in today's environment. One extra bonus; purchasers of ARI before June 26 earn a $0.40 dividend as the stock goes ex-dividend that day. Investors can find more information about the portfolio at the company's website.
Disclosure: I am long ARI. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Additional disclosure: These are the personal views of Wall Street Titan and should not be relied upon for your investment decisions. All Investors should always do their own due diligence.
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Supporters of Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi attend Friday noon prayer before a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi attend a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
CAIRO (AP) ? More than 100,000 supporters of Egypt's Islamist president staged a show of force Friday ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution!" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil.
Adding to the combustible mix, comments by the U.S. ambassador that were interpreted as critical of the opposition's planned protests sparked outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."
Friday's mass gathering was ostensibly called by Islamists to denounce violence, but it took on the appearance of a war rally instead. Participants, many of them bearded and wearing robes or green bandanas, vowed in chants to protect President Mohammed Morsi against his opponents. Some who addressed the crowd spoke of smashing opposition protesters on June 30, the anniversary of Morsi's assumption of power.
"We want to stress that we will protect the legitimacy with our blood and souls," declared Mohammed el-Beltagy, a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic group from which Morsi hails.
Most participants were bused in from elsewhere in the Egyptian capital or from far-flung provinces. They waved Egypt's red, white and black flag as well as the green banner of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and posters of the president. Many raised their fists in the air.
Brotherhood members in red helmets and carrying white plastic sticks manned makeshift checkpoints, searching bags and checking IDs as demonstrators streamed into the venue.
Friday's rally was the latest evidence of the schism that has torn Egypt apart in the more than two years since autocrat Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising. That division has plunged the country into deadly street battles and taken on a clear religious character after Morsi took office a year ago as the nation's first freely elected leader. In the year since, Egypt has been divided into two camps, with the president and his Islamist backers in one, and secular, liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, women and minority Christians in the other.
The past year has also been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy. Morsi's opponents charge that he and his Brotherhood have been systematically amassing power, excluding liberals, secular groups and even ultraconservative Salafi Muslims. A persistent security vacuum and political turmoil have scared away foreign investors and tourists. Egypt's already battered economy has continued to slide, draining foreign currency reserves and resulting in worsening fuel shortages and electricity cuts, along with increasing unemployment.
The president's supporters charge that the opposition, having lost elections, is trying to impose its will through street protests.
"They threaten us with June 30. We promise them they will be smashed that day," warned hard-line Islamist Tareq el-Zommor, who spent more than two decades in jail for his part in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
"June 30 is Islamic," he said as the crowd chanted behind him.
"Our battle is an identity battle, against communism and secularism," read one banner carried by protesters. "The people want to implement Islamic Shariah law," declared another.
"I am here to support the legitimacy of an elected president who was chosen by the people through the ballot box," said Saad Ismail, a 43-year-old teacher from the Nile Delta province of Beheira.
Assem Abdel-Maged, a hard-line Islamist leader addressing the crowd, threatened that any attempt to oust Morsi would be met with an Islamic revolution. On Thursday, he told a gathering in the southern city of Minya that those conspiring against Morsi include Coptic Christian extremists, communists and remnants of Mubarak's regime.
"Our dead will be in heaven, and their dead will be in hell," he said.
The main boulevard where the rally was held, along with several side streets were packed as protesters streamed in for hours and the crowd grew to more than 100,000.
Opposition leaders were not impressed by the turnout.
"Those 100,000 are not going to scare the people. We have collected petitions of 15 million people," said Mahmoud Badr, one of the main organizers of the June 30 protests. "They brought people from the provinces that stretch from Cairo to (the southern city of) Aswan. This is their top capacity."
After a months-long petition drive, opposition organizers announced on Thursday that they had collected up to 15 million signatures supporting Morsi's ouster and an early presidential election.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, who has repeatedly been accused by the opposition of bias in favor of Morsi, caused outrage this week when she said she was "deeply skeptical" the protests will be fruitful and defended U.S. relations with Morsi and his Brotherhood as necessary because the group is part of the democratically elected Egyptian government.
"Some say that street action will produce better results than elections. To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical," she said at a seminar Tuesday organized by a Cairo research center. "Egypt needs stability to get its economic house in order, and more violence on the streets will do little more than add new names to the lists of martyrs."
Her unusually frank comments were widely interpreted as referring to the June 30 demonstrations.
Leading opposition activist Shady el-Ghazali Harb said Patterson showed "blatant bias" in favor of Morsi and the Brotherhood and her remarks had earned the U.S. administration "the enmity of the Egyptian people."
"The Muslim Brotherhood is ready to offer Egypt on a golden platter to the United States in exchange for Washington's support. It is no surprise that she would say that," he said.
Another prominent opposition activist, George Ishaq, counseled Patterson in a television interview to "shut up and mind your own business." Christian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris posted a message on his Twitter account addressed to the ambassador saying, "Bless us with your silence."
The United States has had its own frustrations with the mainly liberal and secular opposition, which has been beset by divisions. During a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Egypt in March, he pressed the main opposition grouping, the National Salvation Front, to reverse its decision to boycott parliamentary elections expected later this year or early in 2014.
Washington, Egypt's longtime economic and military backer, has maintained relatively warm ties with Morsi. The Obama administration has praised him for mediating a truce late last year between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant rulers of the Gaza Strip, and for maintaining Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.
"This is the government that you and your fellow citizens elected. Even if you voted for others, I don't think the elected nature of this government is seriously in doubt," Patterson said. "Throughout Egypt's post-revolution series of elections, the United States took the position that we would work with whoever won elections that met international standards, and this is what we have done."
Meanwhile, privately owned TV network ONTV aired footage of what it said was Patterson's convoy of black SUVs in a visit to Khairat el-Shater, a powerful figure in the Muslim Brotherhood who is widely suspected to exercise vast influence over Morsi.
The visit drew criticism from the opposition. The U.S. Embassy declined comment.
"Is this democracy that she visits a man who holds no post in the Egyptian state," Harb said.
Morad Ali, spokesman for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, confirmed the meeting but said he was not authorized to disclose details.
"It was not a secret meeting. The ambassador meets with all political parties and this is the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Why is this considered interference in Egypt's domestic affairs?" he said.
___
Associated Press reporter Tony G. Gabriel contributed to this report.
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