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Anita Venezia

Faberge: A Billion Dollar Name

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Theo Woodall, an unassuming mild-mannered man, was born in London in 1922. As a youth he enjoyed creating objects and working with his hands, later becoming maker of mechanical components and a master exotic wood turner. He joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and was commissioned to make small airplane components in Egypt.

Years later, in order to hone his skills, Theo restored an 1861 Holtzapffel lathe for precision engineering, manufacture of machine parts and components. After Theo’s life took an unexpected turn, he worked towards more ornamental creations for which he received the turner’s guild recognition as an artist, and later as a credentialed silversmith with his own hallmarks.photo6

In 1969, while driving from a funeral, a family member dropped subtle clues about his ancestry, suggesting he apply for a copy of his birth certificate at the Somerset House Archives. So, at age 47, Theo read his birth registration and was struck by a thunderbolt of twin emotions; a shock that the people who raised him were not his birth parents, and that his real father was Nicholas Faberge, the youngest of five sons of Peter Carl Faberge—Jeweler to the Czar’s Russian Imperial Court.

Few names could strike awe into the heart of an artist as that of the legendary Peter Carl Faberge, master jeweler extraordinaire. Theo Woodall was stunned realizing he was not son of the Woodalls who had raised him, but son of Nicholas Faberge, and grandson of the master craftsman himself—of the fabled House of Faberge.

It became evident by the birth certificate that Theo Woodall, born out of wedlock, was the son of Nicholas Faberge, and grandson of the legendary Peter Carl. And his then eleven year-old daughter Sarah was the great-granddaughter of the fabled jeweler to the Russian Czar.

The Registrar’s Certificate #7888 showed Theo’s birthdate as 26 September 1922, father was Nicholas Faberge, artist-painter, living at 122 Fulham Road, and mother was Dorise Cladish, scholar, 6 Wellington Square. Nicholas’ occupation as artist-painter showed he worked at 76 Fulham Road.

At the time of Theo’s birth in 1922, Nicholas was about 37 and Dorise a tender 17. Rumor has it that the lovers were “desperately in love” according to a relative of Nicholas’ late wife. Research shows that Nicholas Faberge occupied studio #11 at The Avenue on the mews, an avant-garde artist, sculptor and foundry collective, where John Singer Sargent had occupied studios #8, 12 and 14 for over 20 years. In 1893 Charles Edward Halle created the Shaftsbury ‘Eros’ statue at The Avenue and in 1896 James Abbott Whistler had painted in a rented studio.photo1

Nicholas ran the family’s Faberge jewelry shop, establishing himself as an artist and one of London’s first fashion photographers during the Belle Époque period of conspicuous luxury and lavish consumption. He sailed to Bangkok to personally deliver jewelry and objects of fantasy to the Czar’s friend and ally, the King of Siam.

As the story goes, in 1906 Nicholas was dispatched to London from St Petersburg to run the House of Faberge at 48 Dover Street to cater to the carriage trade. The shop later moved to tony 173 Bond Street in 1910 and closed in 1915 during the Great War. A far worse disaster followed the Faberge family during the Russian Revolution.

The House of Faberge was already internationally renowned as Peter Carl was commissioned by Russia’s Czar Alexander III in 1885 to create the first bejeweled Easter egg for his beloved Empress Maria Fedorovna. Peter Carl exceeded all expectations by creating the unique golden gift with a ‘surprise’ inside of a perfect ruby egg. It was customary in Orthodox Russia to celebrate Eastertide with eggs, a symbol of life, and a golden gem-studded one for the Empress was a most spectacular token of love. The gifting of Faberge eggs to royal wives and mothers became a Royal Family tradition.Carousel Open 19.3.12

Of the 56 Imperial Easter eggs created for the Royal Family, 45 of the rare pieces survive, and bring millions of dollars at auction. The Rothschild Faberge Timepiece Egg was auctioned at Christie’s London in 2007 for nearly 9 million pounds, over $14 million, and the jewel-encrusted Winter Egg was bought for $9.6 million in 2002 by the State of Qatar. Malcolm Forbes amassed the largest collection of 9 Faberge Eggs, later sold to Russian energy magnate, Viktor Vekselberg for over $100 million.

The House of Faberge at one time employed 500 to 700 goldsmith craftsmen who made over 100,000 jeweled and precious metal objets d’art. Czar Nicholas II, last ruler of the Romanov Dynasty, commissioned the House of Faberge to create original eggs each year for his mother, the Empress Dowager and his wife, Empress Alexandra.

When Imperial Russia was brought to its knees by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the House of Faberge was seized and nationalized. Nicholas Faberge decided to remain in London. In 1918 the Bolsheviks stormed palaces, mansions and businesses, and the House of Faberge. Guards confiscated the priceless inventory and equipment, hauling it to the Kremlin. The Faberge family escaped Russia tophoto3 Germany, eventually settling in Switzerland.

The royal Romanov family was not as fortunate; Czar Nicholas, Empress Alexandra and their children were brutally murdered in a cellar in 1918. It is purported the execution order to shoot the entire family came from Lenin himself. Russia lost its Imperial glory yielding to socialist mayhem, massacre and destruction.

FABERGE LEGACY

Peter Carl Faberge was born in Russia in 1846 of Huguenot heritage. The original surname Favri changed in 1825 to Faberge after the family fled religious prosecution in the 17th century. The family lived in Bouteille, France and made their way east, settling in St Petersburg. Peter Carl trained as a goldsmith in St Petersburg, Dresden and Paris where he also gained business acumen. The Romanovs admired the House of Faberge creations of unparalleled excellence, and commissioned the atelier as jewelers to the Imperial Court.photo2

After the Russian Revolution, the House of Faberge in St Petersburg was no more, later established in Paris. The fabled Faberge name had become a commodity unto itself. In 1939 the Faberge brand name was sold, and resold in 1964 to Rayette Inc. a cosmetics firm who marketed hairspray and men’s Faberge BRUT. The rights to the Faberge name changed many times during the 20th century, and in 1951 the family lost all rights to market anything under their own name. The post-Gilded Age period is referred as the “Wilderness Years”.

Among the Faberge name-owners were Unilever (cleaning agents, Lipton, VO5) who bought the rights in 1989 for $1.55 billion, and then it sold to “ELIDA Faberge”. In 2007, Faberge came under new ownership and the family name was restored to Peter Carl’s two great-granddaughters, Tatiana Faberge and Sarah (Woodall) Faberge. In 2009 the Faberge brand was re-launched with the legal use of their legacy; the fabled Faberge name.

The Faberge line of luxurious jewelry, objects of fantasy, accoutrements, and timepieces of timeless perfection are featured at Harrods London, and many Faberge-owned stores including Dubai, Qatar, Geneva, Paris and New York.

THE ST PETERSBURG COLLECTION

When Theo Faberge discovered his auspicious heritage, initially he chose not to emulate his famous grandfather, but instead, along with his daughter Sarah, created unique objets d’art, jewelry and objects of fantasy. In 1986 they created a line of egg-shaped objets d’art with precious metals, jewels and crystal, launching a limited edition of signature designs as The St Petersburg Collection by Theo Faberge. The Faberge father-daughter team created fifty egg designs, each limited to issues of only 750.photo4

The exquisite music box eggs today are collected worldwide, and when they come available, can bring prices as high as $10,000 for the enchanting creations. Sarah Faberge designs exquisite eggs in the family tradition of excellence in limited editions, many for charity fundraising causes.

The world of mild-mannered Theo Faberge took on newfound fame when his own masterful exotic wood creations drew international acclaim and awards for excellence. Later the White House commissioned him to create an egg to celebrate its 200th Anniversary. All his life he had followed unwittingly in the artistic footsteps of his fabled grandfather, before even aware of his legendary heritage.

Theo Faberge died in 2007. His heritage endures as craftsman of superlative talent for his beautifully designed masterpieces. The legacy of the objets d’ art creators, bearer of inherent Faberge heritage, continues with Sarah Faberge at the design helm guiding the rebranding of the storied firm—the House of Faberge—jewelers to Imperial Russia.

The House of Faberge today is a high-profile giant in luxury goods retailing with a superb global marketing strategy for rebranding the storied name. Sarah Faberge forges ahead with her own innovative designs, modern and classy, and speaks of a fresh approach to the tastes of contemporary consumers. “We must move on,” she says.

Birth of a new World

The late 15th and early 16th centuries marked a period of revolutionary exploration as Man daringly took to the Seas in quest of knowledge and trade.  The astounding discoveries of these journeys led to the publication of a new map of the world in 1507 which, for the first time in history, incorporated those four magic syllables that have become synonymous with the promise of Liberty and Justice:  America.  Not only was the newly named America defined as a continent to the West of Europe, the map also marked an all water route to the Far East.  Thus was born a New World, driven by opportunity as well as commerce from these newly charted lands.    Theo Fabergé celebrates the 500th anniversary of this momentous occasion with his Birth of a New World Egg.BNW open copy

The historic map, drafted by Martin Waldseemüller and published in Cosmographiae Introductio, is hand-engraved in lavish detail on the Egg’s 18-karat gold hand-spun shell.  Laid out after the system of Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer of the first century A.D., each continent and island is reproduced by Theo Fabergé in painstaking loyalty to the 500-year old original, a copy of which was purchased by the United States Library of Congress for $12 million in 1999 after an almost 90-year quest to obtain the scroll.

Upon the Egg’s shell above and below the engraved map is a pattern of rope-work detail in white gold, framing two panels of symbolic clouds. The finial adorning the top of the shell is modeled after two heraldic cartographers’ dolphins, their faces styled in the manner of the major winds shown on the Waldseemüller Map.

The base of the Birth of a New World continues the Egg’s epic themes as, cast in bronze, two of the greatest explorers of all time whose fearless voyages contributed to the Waldseemüller Map are depicted in miniature: Amerigo Vespucci and Vasco da Gama. Dressed in the robes and Christian jewelry of their epoch, they stand heroically astride a symbolic log-book, its page indicated by a golden marker embellished with the signature Fabergé swags and set with a brilliant diamond. With one hand, the explorers hold the instruments and scrolls of their vocation while with the other they support aloft the golden Egg upon which is represented the Map.

Open the Egg to reveal the surprise:  a model of da Gama’s majestic flagship the San Gabriel in sterling silver and 24-carat gold sailing upon a base engine-turned in mimicry of the ocean waves. Lift up the ship and see a final detail in the Fabergé family tradition:  Theo has placed a perfect miniature of a 16th century mariner’s quadrant in silver and gold to guide the explorers of yesteryear, as well as today’s collectors, on their voyages.

Theo Fabergé’s Birth of a New World Egg is a wondrous tribute to America and its origins, and the apogee of craftsmanship and valuable design in the 21st century.

Limited to six for the World Market

Height: 13¼ inches

 

 

 

 

 

HOW TO HOOK YOUR READERS WITH RIVETING SHORT STORIES

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Short stories have been popular since the 19th century hooking readers with the likes of such pioneering Modernists as Edgar Allen Poe, Anton Chekov, James Joyce and O. Henry. In the 1990s, short-short story genres seized new dimensions with edgy, hooky titles to capture new readers, such as Flash, Sudden, and Micro Fiction. Basically, these genres are compelling postcard-style flash stories, to be read in one sitting; riveting with impact, and lingering in the reader’s heart.the end

This is no easy task. The short story must tell a tale of observation, with strong characters that may face death, sacrifice, danger, solitude, isolation, tough decisions or family upheavals. Storylines must make readers care; the ending must send readers over an emotional cliff with a defining revelation.

I read one such story as a teenager, and it has stayed with me; Guy de Maupassant’s classic “The Necklace”. The finale leaves one dizzy with remorse that a young girl slaved for a decade, in near poverty, to repay the loss of a borrowed necklace, perceived to be diamonds, only to discover the jewels were faux. A revelation, voilà!

Short story writing may be difficult to navigate, as restrictions dictate not just good prose, but the compressed narrative of tight prose, knitted with contextually compelling characters and plots, often concluding with twists, revelations or epiphanies. Short story genres present solid reasons to read, prompted by minimal word counts.

Many short stories have 2500 to 5000 words, but Washington Irving’s enduring 1820s classic, about a headless horseman, “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” is nearly 12,000 words.

Flash fiction, postcard fiction, and short-short stories require extreme brevity of about 300 words or less. Magazines often feature shorts that fit on two pages.

To make an extreme point: Hemingway is said to have written the most fleeting flash of a six-word story, on a bet at the fabled Algonquin Hotel. “Baby Shoes for Sale, Never Worn.” He won the bet.

Let’s explore what else short stories entail; bullets pinpoint some important aspects.

  • A short story starts as close as possible to the conclusion
  • Catch readers in paragraph one by developing powerful characters
  • Set the point of view with good, precise dialogue
  • Create setting. Where does plot take place? Time, location, context, atmosphere and background information
  • Set the story in context with strong, page-turner, “5-Ws” plots: What happens and where? When does it happen? Why does it happen? Who causes the action and what are consequences?
  • Define plot in one sentence;  man is injured in explosion, gets hooked on pain killers, neglects children, wife divorces him, he leaves town, gets clean, becomes new person, returns home, falls into debt, fails, kills self to appear accidental, family starts new life with million dollar insurance policy
  • Create explosive narrative. Hook reader to story. Engage immediate attention
  • Mystery, empowerment, progression, causality, surprise, empathy, insight, high status. Character could lose everything, turning point, recognition, decision, resolution—the worm turns—outcome matters
  • Word count is important when submitting to competitions. Follow guidelines
  • Timing is crucial; crisis cannot start too early. Readers expect another turning point—cannot happen too late in storyline—they become impatient and vexed without a what’s next trajectory
  • Crisis must always be presented as a scene—it must happen when the slipper      fits, when the crux of the story resolution is revealed
  • Create conflict and tension. Complications hook readers. What will happen next? Basic conflicts; birth, love, sex, work, change, God and death—the social balance of opposing forces with use of symbolism or metaphors
  • A story can be riveting by setting the spirit, mood and social mores of another time; zeitgeist if you will
  • Create a compelling crisis and climax—the rising action that reaches a peak
  • Falling action releases after the climax, deliver the resolution, conflict resolved
  • What does protagonist desire, want, need, yearn for? Realism holds a mirror to narrator’s anecdotes. Protagonist must choose moral actions before climax
  • Create unexpected consequences and emotional energy. Transition the story without jumping around. Readers will get lost
  • Cut scenes by omitting conversations we already know, do not repeat message. Readers will skip redundancies
  • Readers should not see what twist is coming, it should have elements of surprise
  • Show, don’t tell. Write images for reader to see, feel, and understand. Create dialogue that knits story to protagonist. Protagonist must not do things out of character. Surprises don’t work
  • Show, don’t tell example; ‘my father was funny’, better idea; ‘my father did hilarious things like streaking at football games, wearing nothing but a clown nose or crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue…’
  • Use the power of flashbacks. What happened in the past affects the present. Was the character in the war, police force, or a dangerous job? Does he react to loud noises, was he in an accident, does he have nightmares?
  • Keep an idea notebook; record overheard conversations, phrases, and images.

Ideas are all around you, write on a regular basis

  • Collect stories from casual conversation, mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, strange people, and news. Ideas are everywhere
  • Don’t waste dialogue, make every word count. Purge redundancy
  • Make reader see character, feel anguish, see what characters are like
  • Convey the pain. The reader must enter the story, become part of action
  • Build a character in your mind, stick to it. Make reader want to meet/love/hate her. Do not bamboozle readers
  • Create characters with name, job, age, ethnicity, appearance, residence, favourite colour, friends, drinking patterns, phobias, faults, pets, religion, hobbies, single, married, children, temperament, love/hate, secrets, strong memories, illness, nervous gestures, actions, speech, thoughts, sleep patterns. Does protagonist fidget, pick at nails, cross and uncross legs, scratch face, whistle, hum, or clear her throat? Is she anguished?
  • Who tells story? Is it told through eyes of a first person, second or third person; me, you or him? Plan plot at onset. Write story-line backwards as an exercise
  • First person unites reader to writer; “I awoke when the earth shook the first time. By the second wave of shaking, the roof was falling on me. Panicked, I grabbed my infant boy and made for the door. Josie didn’t make it. They found her crushed body near the crib under fallen rafters. I will never get over it. It was then I hit the bottle. I will never forgive Mother Nature for her hatred.”
  • Build a strong denouement—the winding down phase before the ending
  • Create the resolution, story must be resolved or readers will feel cheated
  • Never write an action-filled story and then finish with “and then he woke up…” Never cheat readers with cheap twists. Dreams kill a story unless relevant to character; “she dreamed he was beside her, but when she awoke, he was still dead…”
  • An ending can be either literal or symbolic; “her eyes looked towards the hills, that decisive day ended her dilemma to leave him,” or, “she drove into the fog never to understand why it all happened.”
  • Endings can be a monologue; “I wish I had known what was to happen, but then again I wouldn’t have a story to tell, would I?”
  • A short story is compact, tight, no subplots, and no loose ends at ending. If the story ends with a climax, it must show how the finale affects the protagonist and have elements of powerful surprise, or readers will be let down
  • Write, write, write and write. Read, read, read and read Chekov, Hemingway, James Joyce, Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolf, Joyce Carol Oates and every short story you can access
  • You will grasp the rhythm, the routine and learn how to craft a short story from the masters of fiction. Short stories are great exercises to confine writers to tell a good story with minimal word count, and improve the use of only the most important words
  • Form skeleton of storyline, set the stage and then flesh out with dialogue and description that will take readers to higher dimensions
  • Confine story word count 250 to 300 as exercise, and then write same story with 400 to 500 words. Read both and compare.
  • Write every day and soon the best stories will float like cream on your body of literary work.

MAYFLOWER MIGRANT MYSTERIES

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A thousand tales have been spun about the Mayflower immigrants who ventured to our shores in 1620, but there is more to the colonization story. My curiosity was ignited when colleague, Joe Silva, and I were volunteer appraisers at the Danville Railroad Museum. As appraisers and avid history buffs, we chatted about Pilgrim stories, as my recent DNA results hinted that a distant relative may be a Mayflower descendent, and I boasted the possibility of having a feather in my heretofore, unknown colonial cap.

Joe Silva added that over 20 million Americans can lay claim as Mayflower descendants, thus deflating the importance of my belonging to this historic gene pool. He revealed that he is English-Scottish-Mexican, and direct descendent of John Billington, the first man to be hanged in New England for murder. Well I knew there were more salacious stories than just turkey dinners and Pilgrims, so I researched the subject. I discovered many kernels of scandal about Virginia plantation speculators, and the God-fearing Pilgrims, that went far beyond the history books.mayflower slider

The biggest shock was the indentured child labor practices in the Colonies, and how little boys and girls were rounded up for transportation. It was common knowledge that pressers “shanghaied” sailors for service on the high seas, but corralling very young street children to work in the Colonies surprised me.

One such incident darkens the Mayflower’s auspicious history. In 1620, four small children, under the age of eight, were brought to New England shores as indentured servants to work as planters in Virginia. Ellen More was only eight; Jasper was seven, Richard, six, and Mary was four years old. The siblings were listed as servants. Three of the More children died during the bitter cold, one winter onboard the Mayflower anchored in the harbor, and six-year old Richard More was the only survivor of the four siblings.

Richard More lived to tell the story. He was thrice married, had children, and became a sea captain. He died at 84 in Salem, as marked on the original gravestone. He is regarded as the only Mayflower passenger to have had royal blood; related to William the Conqueror, Henry I, and Edward I, II and III.

The story of how these four children came to be on the Mayflower is heartbreaking. Their father purposely disposed of the children by banishing them to work the fields of Virginia. London was a microcosm of Britain’s social ills, decrepit laws, and those left in the wake of the pursuit of 17th century expansionism. The gentrified landowners paid laborers a pittance, and the death and neglect of unwanted children was rampant. Beggar waifs blighted the streets, and to rid cities of crime, authorities rounded up little children and condemned them to labor in the colonies.

But the four More children aboard the Mayflower were not poor street waifs, as their families were wealthy landowners. Samuel More inherited title to the Larden estate by marrying his first cousin, Katherine More, seven years his senior. It was not until 1959 that documents discovered in an attic, revealed what really happened three centuries earlier, in 1620.

Samuel More, of Shropshire, was lord of the vast estate through the arranged marriage, as women could not inherit property. The Mores leased a portion of the property to the Blaskeway clan.

When Samuel More discovered that wife, Katherine, had committed adultery with tenant Jacob Blaskeway, he denied the four children were his kin, disowning them by claiming a strong likeness to the putative father, Jacob. Katherine admitted her illegal liaison, and confirmed they were Jacob’s children.

Enraged, Samuel approached Lord Zouche, head of Privy Council, and an investor in the Virginia Company in America. They devised a plan for the disposal of the four ‘bastard’ children in retaliation against his wife’s betrayal. Samuel More also cut the children from all inheritance, and denied their very existence. He removed them from Larden Manor in April 1616, just after baby Mary’s baptism, and sequestered them for four years in a tenant dwelling on his land.

After years of litigation, Katherine found her children; “In a hail of murderous oaths, she did teare the cloathes from their backes…” Samuel refused to return the children to their mother and delivered them to John Carver in London in July 1620. Carver was ordered to transport the ‘servant children’ along River Thames to Southampton, and then to open seas to work on the Virginia plantations.

The chartered Mayflower carried 65 passengers from London, including plantation speculators, and 37 self-governing Puritans from Leiden, Holland. There were 102 passengers, plus a crew of 35. By the time the 180-ton ship was under full sail on September 6, 1620, passengers had already been onboard the fluyt for nearly a month. Beloved England was behind them forever.

The More children were put in the care of four families as indentured servants aboard the vessel. Captain Christopher Jones and Surgeon John Parker sailed rough seas on the 66-day voyage. The ship’s manifest showed that Peter Brown brought a mastiff, John Goodman a spaniel, and others brought cats, dogs and birds. Supplies were casks of rum, beer and wine, sheep, goats and chickens along with cannons, weapons, gunpowder, and a 21-foot dinghy.

During mid-journey a fierce storm broke rafter boards flooding the belowdecks sleeping berths. Passengers were wet and cold, many becoming ill. Two died on the voyage, including a newborn. Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a boy named Oceanus, and Susanna White (later Windsor) had a son named Peregrine, born ashore and not considered a Mayflower passenger.

Passengers’ Christian names tell of their faith, adding to their religious mindset; Love, Fear, Wrestling, Remember, Humility, Desire, Story, Truelove and Resolved.

Historical dates may confuse; Julian AND Gregorian calendars are depicted in history books, as common usage of both were used in mid-17th century. The first Mayflower land sighting shows 9/19 November, a ten-day span, and November 11/21 as Mayflower Compact signing (document to establish legal agreement between signatories spearheaded by William Bradford.) This writer refers only to Gregorian dates; thus the first sighting of Cape Cod Hook headlands was 19th November 1620, now Provincetown.

NEW WORLD PILGRIMS

The Newcomers reconnoitered the snowy shoreline to build a safe settlement. They found serendipitous mounds of corn and beans buried for winter by the local Nausets. While the hardy men sought safe locations, women and children remained aboard in the airless dark bowels of the ship floating in the windy bay. Contagious sickness was rampant. Many were ill with scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis. Half of the passengers were dead before the year’s end. Of the 102 passengers, only 53 survived.mayflower1L

Mary Allerton, three years old when she disembarked the Mayflower, was to be the last survivor of all the passengers who sailed on the fateful voyage to America.

They finally disembarked the Mayflower in spring 1621.Those with enough strength dragged six weighty cannons uphill, some as long as eight feet and powerful enough to propel three-inch cannonballs, 1700 yards. The colonists drank beer and rum, played cards by candlelight, and cooked in sand-filled fireboxes. A one, William Morris, sold haberdashery; shoes, boots, oiled leather and canvas, breeches, jerkins, doublets, neck-cloths, caps, hose and belts. Others named Carver, Winslow, Brewster, Fuller, Mullins, Tilley, Turner, Soule, Cooke, and Gardiner went about fishing, hunting and planting.

The Puritans built a church, befriended Indians, and enjoyed a winter feast of roasted vulture birds and corn under the oaks. And Captain Myles Standish, who maintained order with his broadsword, was challenged by the Billington clan of troublemakers. Incorrigible John Billington was hanged in September 1630 for the murder of John Newcomen in Plymouth, and whose wife, Elinor, was whipped in the stocks for slander. She promptly married Gregory Armstrong, after her husband’s hanging. Their obstreperous sons, John and Francis Billington, revolted against all authority, and may have been the nation’s first teenage delinquents. Francis married Christian Eaton in 1634 and they had nine children.

The once-mighty Mayflower, one of the most storied sailing ships of the New World, limped back to England. On May 4, 1624 an appraisal was done of her worth for the three surviving owners to settle Captain Christopher Jones’s estate. Then dismantlers removed guns and cannons and the dowager sailing ship was broken up in a wrecker’s yard. Lumber from her oak hull was cut up and used to build a horse barn in Jordon’s Village, Buckinghamshire.

One can only imagine the twisted history stories that were locked in the heart-of-oak hull, the dank berth sidings, the creaking acrid galley, the worn gunwales, the stern and stem, hundreds of yards of canvas sailcloth, and the high forecastle, where Captain Jones sighted Cape Cod and Plymouth, before dropping the iron anchor. It is not hard to envision the carcass of the ship’s 100-foot hulk that forever holds the history and mystery of those who perished belowdecks, and the little More children who were never to see their mother again, and never to set foot on the New World shores except wrapped in cloth for burial. We can imagine what great things those who perished may have achieved for our great land, and who too, may have lived to be our ancestors.

DESCENDENTS

In order to join one of the prestigious Mayflower Societies, such as Society of Mayflower Descendants in California, a purported descendent must provide impeccable documentation to lay claim to historical First Comers. Documents must be proof of relationship, birth, marriage and death records, letters and other watertight evidence, such as DNA. Each Mayflower passenger is accounted for; as are marriages, and five generations of confirmed descendants.

If historians calculate there are over 20 million Mayflower descendants, there’s a lot of generational evidence to sift through and gather. My rough estimation is there may be 13 to 14 generations in the 393 years since arrival at Plymouth Rock. So, one may have to hopscotch on conceptual chains of many generations, to establish a Mayflower pedigree. Those who afforded the best genealogists on earth have proven their linkage. Example; the Bennets came through Degory Priest; Dunbars through Richard Warren; and the Nickersons followed from Stephen Hopkins et al.

Presidents and other luminaries who descended from esteemed Mayflower clans are; J. Quincy Adams, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin Roosevelt and George H. Bush and George W. Bush. Others who surprised me for no valid reason: Alan Shepard, Orson Wells, Humphrey Bogart, George Eastman, Bing Crosby, Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood (through Governor William Bradford), Alec Baldwin, Hugh Hefner, and Dick Van Dyke through Myles Standish, and three other families. Richard Gere comes down the generational pike with three branches of Mayflower ancestors.

So my message to those who may think history is boring: It is not. History lives inside all of us. It is just a matter of how our ancestors lived and died, and what they achieved, great or small, to make this country, and our world, what it is today. Most ancestors left no stories in their wake and left us no milestones to follow, but we can envision what those men and women endured. We must honor those valiant pioneers, our ancestors from all over the globe, who bequeathed to us the fortitude and fibre to be who we are today.

The Mind, Math and Music

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Many terms come to mind about young children who exhibit advanced skills beyond their years; gifted, wunderkinder, whiz-kids, geniuses, and child prodigies. There are swirling controversies about the age that defines a prodigy, but all agree it is someone who, at a very early age, develops memory capacity for one or more skills at a level far beyond the norm for their age. Those who are gifted in many subjects, but especially in mathematics, is suggested that they think in terms of long-term working memory (LTWM) capable of holding  relevant information  for extended periods of time.

Among those gifted beyond their years were Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart who composed his first classical piece at five, and Beethoven who understood the intricate fundamentals of music about the same age. Today pint-sized five-year old Tsung Tsung from Hong Kong plays classical music like a seasoned concert pianist, performing Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ so nimbly, and with such tiny fingers, that even the late Van Cliburn would have wept. This diminutive violinist, who cannot tie her own shoelaces, brings audiences to tears.

Adolescent mathematicians stunned teachers in the 18th century with advanced knowledge of math, long before the age of technology. Today students compete in international competitions displaying their incredulous skills; understanding advanced physics and mathematical capabilities beyond the norm.

One such 14-year old, Dorris Eaton Preparatory School graduate, Varun Jain of Danville, recently achieved the perfect SAT score of 2400. His father, Doctor Vivek Jain, told me that he had scored a high 2300 in the 7th grade, and Johns Hopkins University awarded him a scholarship as the highest middle school scorer in the Centre for Talented Youth Program’s 33-year history. The CTY is a non-profit organization for identifying and developing talents of the most promising K-12 students, helping them fulfill the University’s mission of preparing future contributions to the world.

Varun never practiced to sit for the SAT; he casually decided to take it in the 8th grade and scored the perfect 2400. For a 14-year, not yet in high school, this is very rare, and at this writing is thought to be the first to do so. A tiny fraction of the 1.6 million college-bound high-school students nationwide achieve the perfect score of 2400, and only after tutoring,  grueling study and practice.mind2 converted

Varun also attained a perfect National Science League Examination score, and scored in the top 1% in the American Mathematics Contest at 8th and 10th grade levels, and the American Invitational Mathematical Examination.

I have known of Varun since kindergarten; my grandson Nicholas Venezia was in the same class at Dorris Eaton. When I saw his mother, Doctor Vinita Jain again at graduation, I heard that Varun and his brother Vishal, both sitarists, were performing on a CD to be released this summer, with the Bay Area’s prominent Indian musician, Pandit Habib Khan. I knew I had to learn more about the mind, math and music and how they are linked.

Vivek Jain believes that math and music go hand in hand. “Varun showed interest in math and music since kindergarten. At that time he was doing 4th grade math, finished algebra by the 3rd grade, and was playing two instruments well; the sitar and violin. He played violin in the Contra Costa Symphony Orchestra and was also performing on the sitar—his favorite sitarist in Nikhil Banerjee,” said Vivek Jain, “and Varun also excels in sports; he played competitively in basketball, was the highest point scorer for their team, and played tennis until the end of the school year…and loves Ping-Pong,” he added.

The Voice of India

Music is a testing ground for mathematical principles in that it follows sounds made by instruments, the notes complimenting scale progression. So I wonder how the harmony of music and math can be related, but as a non-musicologist, I may never understand. Sitar music with its haunting quality, where the strings themselves almost sing, is played on the lap, secured by leg and foot as if an extension of the seated musician.

The sitar is an 18-string teakwood instrument that evolved from the lute circa the 8th century, and when plucked resonates with distinctive timbres from the gourd-like sound chamber. The instrument was thrust into the Western music scene by three-time Grammy winner, Ravi Shankar; said to have had a musical soul and who left a legacy as the voice of India.mind1 converted

I asked more about Varun’s interest besides math and music. He was selected for Jeopardy Kids at eleven; placed third at Contra Costa County Spelling Bee in 6th and 7th grades, and California State Junior Spelling Bee. He beat out Monte Vista High School sophomores and juniors in the Lincoln Douglas Debate; captained the Dorris Eaton Science Bowl Team leading 7th grade to third place, and 8th grade finishing second at Lawrence Livermore, Sandia Labs. Out of 300 Math Kids, he won 1st place two years in a row in the written Regional Math counts, and this year at Stanford campus helped his school team qualify for State for the first time.

Varun Jain’s academic resume is impressive, but he always retains a modest demeanor. His father states, “He believes in doing and performing without the accolades that anyone grants…he is the humblest person.”

Varun is using his spare time wisely; involved in a scholarship college-level course in Computer Science at the Bachelors level at California State University, East Bay, offered by Johns Hopkins University last year for being the highest scorer in CTY history. At the age of 14, Varun has been invited to teach online SAT classes to high school seniors and will be competing at Duke University.

I asked Varun some questions, and was not surprised at his answers; “Varun, who do you most admire and, if you were able, what single thing would you do to change the world, and how do you envision your future?”

“I admire Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein, and if I had the ability, I would make the world a more peaceful place for everyone to live and thrive…and I see myself in the future dealing with technology and the human brain…”

This summer the Jain family will vacation on the Yucatan Peninsula, and are looking forward to parasailing, snorkeling, and of course exploring the two millennia-old pyramids of the Mayan ruins.

 

 

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL PROPERTY WORTH?

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Do you have any idea what your personal property is worth? That is all the cool stuff INSIDE your home or office. Is the obscure painting that hung for years in grandfather’s dining room worth a small fortune? Is that old porcelain centerpiece with winged cherubs actually a piece of pricey Sevres Porcelain from 18th century France? Could the carpet bought at an estate sale for fifty bucks be a semi-antique pre-1950s Persian rug? Could the American Indian basket Aunt Mabel bought at a charity shop be a museum-quality piece from New Mexico?0812-Why-does..Cost-So-Much

We’ve all read the sensational stories about finding priceless treasures at garage sales and Goodwill. We have all heard yarns that just after someone gives something away it sells for hundreds of thousands at auction and makes banner headlines in USA Today.

A few years ago I wrote about an old painting that hung over a fireplace in a Dublin rectory and when centuries of grimy soot was removed the priceless Caravaggio masterpiece came to light. And then in New England a garage sale regular bought an old frame for $4; and when he took it apart he found one of only 200 known originals of the Declaration of Independence behind the stained floral print. It sold at auction for $2.4 million.

Some of these unrecognized treasures could be languishing in local attics or garages—one never knows how a hunt goes. Evelyn, who took my class, “How to Shop Antiques Like a Pro,” paid five dollars at an estate sale for “a blackened coffee set; tray, coffee pot, tea pot, sugar and creamer,” in a dirty box in the corner. She polished the pieces, checked the back-stamp with a magnifier and discovered the great find. She sold the early 20th century Georg Jensen sterling silver Coffee-Tea Service for $6,000.00.

Another surprise came when an East Coast eagle-eyed appraiser spied a white bowl on a mantel. “Oh! That old bowl, my mother paid $3 at a tag sale…”  The five-inch bowl was from the Song Dynasty; it sold for $2 million at auction.

Many people do not have a definitive dollar amount of the total contents of their home. I see heartaches. I hear stories about great losses through fire, natural hazards or theft. The total replacement cost of what we own is far beyond what we may expect it to be.

How do we remedy this dilemma? Make a list with the approximate purchase price, date of acquisition and where the object was bought. Next, call your insurance agent and find out what is covered and what is not.

WHAT IS AN APPRAISAL?

An appraisal is a formal document report. It is not a guess; it is not a verbal approximation of value. An appraisal is prepared accordingly with stringent guidelines by a professionally-trained expert who researches the values in the marketplace with methodology formulae.

When clients call me in to appraise their belongings; antiques, art, furniture, books, kitchenalia, ornaments, electronics, collections, clothing and jewelry and the other accumulated artifacts—they are astounded at the values of what they own—their possessions, their Stuff with a capital “S”.

So what is one to do? Make a list, that’s what. Start with one room. I usually identify the room as living room, dining room, bedroom #1, 2, 3 etc. I start at the left and go clockwise around the room taking photographs, and identifying each article with a number. It’s not as hard as one may think when the object is numbered, described and valued. When the first room is done, move to the next and the next, as time permits. There is no timeline, just start. Once you have a list, describe the pieces to the best of your ability. Object type; wood, metal, glass, fabric, Plexiglas, approximate size, shape, condition, where and when bought, and the approximate price. At this point I suggest adding any family legend; history, provenance and previous owners, like grandfathers, grandmothers, relatives or famous people and such.

In most cases, an insurance company will not accept an unqualified appraisal done by the owner, however, it is a good way to start before you decide if you need a professional to come in and complete the job. If insurance claims are to be made on expensive items, there must proof of ownership and proof of value by a neutral party. The more documentation, bills of sale, receipts and information provided to the appraiser, the easier it is to complete the job.

Remember that objects of great value will need an insurance floater for extra protection from loss, theft, fire or vandalism. I suggest you call your insurance agent to find out what is actually covered under your existing policy. Objects that may require extra floaters on the homeowner’s policy include antiques, jewelry, fine art, silverware, furs, Oriental carpets and rugs, musical instruments, guns and electronics.

When the list is made of each room, type the document, add up the total and—voila! You’ll be surprised. If you cannot arrive at an educated guess or close value for your own satisfaction, complete the chore, or if you need further help, call me. I have been a professional appraiser for over twenty six years. Value conclusions are based on prescribed methods of valuation and research, and the document is written in an opinion report.

Professional Appraisers are trained to do the best job for their clients, and they must adhere to the standards of ethics set forth by Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, USPAP. Professional appraisers usually charge by the hour. Training to be the very best takes years of study supported by hands-on experience. Personal Property Appraisers must study Appraisal Ethics, Report Writing Standards and should be familiar with Market and Value Research and Analysis, and Legal Issues. Professional appraisers are not licensed; however, their professional profile resumes state their education, qualifications, and certain areas of expertise.

There are many reasons for qualified appraisals by a professional; to insure in case of loss with adequate coverage, to make a donation documented for the IRS, to pass on to loved ones, property division for divorce, equitable distribution, inheritance, or to liquidate—to sell in the secondary market or at auction. It is important to know the value whether it is retail replacement value for insurance purposes, or fair market value for IRS donation of $5,000 or more, property division, equitable distribution or liquidation. They are different appraisal values.

NET WORTH

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘millionaire’? It’s not only luxury cars, high-end diamonds and Picassos—it’s the everyday stuff that adds up fast—the things we have accumulated over a lifetime.  The total amount of one’s net worth can come as a surprise—a very big surprise. Take your assets, subtract your liabilities, and that, my friend, is your net worth.

So many people do not know their actual net worth, or at least they do not include their personal property assets in the equation. You need a compass to guide you when you are building a business, buying a home or need to provide your net worth for a bank loan. It is the wise man/woman who calculates their net worth annually, it is wise to make it all happen as soon as possible.

After you have stated your savings, cash, investments, IRAs, Retirement Accounts, Stocks and Bonds, Life Insurance Cash Value, Real Estate, Automobiles, other assets and personal property; and have deducted what you owe on mortgages, bank loans, credit cards, property tax and other taxes due—you will have an idea of your net worth. At this point you can decide to save more and spend less.

A word to the wise; many families own things that may have greater value than perceived. Art purchased 20 or 30 or more years ago could have tripled and quadrupled in value. Antiques too have enjoyed an increase in value, and we know what happened to the silver and gold markets. There are many surprises on the horizon and when objects are valued greater than expected, they take on an extra mantle of appreciation.

Why does art increase in value? After artists die, their paintings or other artworks become rarer and may increase in value because the demand exceeds the supply. So that obscure artwork that has hung on the living room wall for years should be looked at by one who knows the market. Not all objects appreciate in value—some fall out of favor and cannot be sold at any price. Collectible plates, collectible knick-knacks and shelf objects made specifically for that market do not hold their value. Collectibles are a flash in the pan—once the craze evaporates, prices bottom out.

Rare objects, in good condition should be looked at as values vary from time to time and region to region. Markets range from being very soft to being robust by what’s happening in the economy. The good stuff and one-of-a kind-pieces always hold value.

If you become overwhelmed by ‘appraising’ your own personal property, call in an expert. I have done over a thousand appraisals and have valued tens of thousands of objects over twenty six years. I have owned several antiques stores, exhibited in high-end antiques shows, have chaired many antiques roadshow type events, have written columns on antiques for newspapers and magazines, have access to colleagues for consultation, realized auction results, a library of books and I know how to value personal property, antiques and art for insurance, IRS donation, liquidation, equitable distribution or property division. Up your assets, call an appraiser.

Agenda 21: Coming Your Way Soon?

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0413Agenda21-Venezia1DANVILLE: TOWN FACING OPPOSITION OVER PROPOSED HIGH DENSITY HOUSING

The Town of Danville is facing fierce opposition to a proposal for more high-density, low-cost, multi-family housing projects to build 583 homes — ‘stacked and packed’ — with densities as high as 35 dwelling units per acre. The project does not include any Section 8 housing to be added to the seven such units already located in Danville.

The Town Council and Planning Commission Public Meetings over the past few months have been packed with more than 200 concerned, and often passionate, but civil residents. Many Danville citizens are against changing the General Plan’s existing zoning to add more cluster housing projects in twelve targeted Downtown parcels, with two adjacent to I-680.

Though many people in Danville are still unaware of the proposed clustered housing developments, hundreds of citizens have packed the public meetings. Voters express concerns that their elected councilmembers may appear to be relinquishing local control to outside advisory bureaucrat organizations such as ABAG—Association of Bay Area Governments. ABAG projects population growth, housing needs, and the areas’ jobs potential, and makes recommendations accordingly.

Some concerned citizens feel that council members may not be considering what is in the best interest of Danville by abdicating their once-promised platforms of adhering to the Town’s best interest, and conserving the community’s quality of life.

Some important facts: All communities in California are required by State law to provide for their “fair share” of regional housing needs allocations (RHNA). The “fair share” for Danville for 2007-2014 was defined by ABAG as 583 housing units, including 326 units of affordable to low income households. The Town’s preliminary fair share for 2014-2022 (not yet adopted by ABAG) will add another 555 units, including 306 affordable to low income, and very low income households. In addition, every eight years ABAG will make another demand for more high density low income units to be planned for Danville.

Current allocations are based on ABAG’s projections of 10% per decade growth in Danville. This is twice as high as the State Department of Finance projections of 5%. Danville’s actual growth in the 12 years from 2000 to 2012 was only 1.2%! These projections translate directly into higher pack and stack housing allocations. Many citizens are concerned that the Town has not challenged ABAG’s obviously erroneous projections. Town officials may fear that if they challenge the allocations, ABAG may retaliate.

ABAG has told the Town of Danville that they still have a 9.6 acre shortfall of affordable to low income, and very low income housing of 20 to 35 dwelling units per acre. To get a sense of what density looks like, visualize if three homeowners each lived on a 1/3rd acre, an acre total, then imagine that there would be 35 homes on that same acre. 35 housing units to one acre equals density.

The other issue that has Danville citizens fuming is the proposed designation of Danville as a Priority Development Area (PDA). This is a brand new designation and it is voluntary—not mandated by ABAG or others. A PDA is defined as an area that plans for a significant increase in housing, including “Affordable” housing units which reduce dependency on automobiles. It is required to be near transit, which means within ½ mile of an existing rail station, ferry terminal, or served by bus or rapid transit corridor with minimum headways of 20 minutes during peak commute periods.

Opponents state that Danville clearly does not qualify as a PDA. They note that Downtown Danville is not an “area having the capacity for infill development at densities that can help sustain public transit, or that the residents would want to identify to the State bureaucrats as an area where future growth will be focused in the coming decades”. The only apparent reason that opponents see Danville’s reason to designate itself as a PDA is that it may possibly get transportation money from the state in the future.

Opponents state that this may be a slippery slope, fraught with risk and fear that the Town may eventually give up local control over its destiny to an unelected regional body. They note that the Town will likely risk mandated waivers to zoning densities and height restrictions, increased housing quotas, and unwanted outsider micro-management.

Friends of Danville is a group of concerned citizens who believe that additional dense construction may lead to further encroachment, impact crime rates, traffic, roads, police and fire services, already-crowded schools, and more vehicles will add  pollution. (www.FriendsofDanville.org/ www.CitizensTownHall.org.)

At recent Town Hall Meetings sponsored by several local organizations and individuals opposed to the Draft Plan, Friends of Danville and SOS-Danville (www.sos-danville.com) made presentations about serious questions about the Plan. Former Congressman Bill Baker coordinated questions and comments from the audience about their concerns regarding the potential impacts in the Plan if passed in its current form. Audience members Joe Calabrigo, Danville Town Manager, and Councilmember Robert Storer weighed in with their own comments.

Maryann Cella, of SOS-Danville, had a spirited discussion with Joe Calabrigo about Measure S, an open space protection measure overwhelmingly passed by voters in the 2000 election. SOS-Danville is asking the Town Council to follow the recommendations of the Planning Commission in the Council’s upcoming vote on the Plan.

Opponents of the proposed projects are concerned that the sanction of such dense construction may be the first foot in the door to future clustered housing growth, and they maintain that more multi-family units are unsuitable for the community’s needs. Concerned citizens strive to conserve Danville’s elusive small town character, and preserve the atmosphere as a safe place to live, work and raise families.

Friends of Danville request that the Town of Danville consider the following: Remove Priority Development Area (PDA) Designation from Plan; Challenge Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) housing allocation, and reduce allocation to Danville; Revise Plan to meet only minimum legal requirement mandated by RHNA; Remove Optional Sustainability and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Section from Resources and Hazards, and do not adopt the Sustainability Action Plan (SAP); Remove all Bay Area One SB375 Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) Language from General Plan; Adopt Changes recommended by Maryann Cella; and withdraw from ABAG, Association of Bay Area Governments.

Update: At the March 5th Danville Town Council Public Hearing, attended by 300+ residents, the Priority Development Area (PDA) Designation was not adopted due to insufficient Council support.

DOES AGENDA 21 RELATE?

On occasion, the subject of Agenda 21 arises when discussing ‘sustainable development’ and the tenets of extreme environmentalism that seems to challenge many communities.

It all started in Rio. Over twenty years ago in 1992, in Rio de Janeiro at the Multi-National Earth Summit, the United Nations’ members sponsored a comprehensible blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally, and locally by governments, agencies and organizations of 178 nations concerning the direct affect of humans on the earth’s environment.

The Agenda 21 Plan, named for the 21st century, spells out ‘sustainable development’ guidelines to all-encompassing global sustainable development. The powerful United Nations General Assembly has laid out plans to implement Agenda 21 that influences local government agencies and environmental organizations.

The widening of globalization of ‘sustainability’ and the shift in local decision-making powers addresses the inequalities in education and income, and mandates a halt to the Earth’s continued deterioration of the global environment.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 in Johannesburg affirmed the Agenda 21 framers’ full commitment for complete implementation with four targeted Sections:

I. Social and Economic Dimensions, Combat Poverty, Change Consumption Patterns, Change Populations to Sustainable Settlements and Promote Health;

II. Atmospheric, Combat Deforestation, Protect Fragile Environments, Control Pollution, Biodiversity, Manage Biotechnology;

III. Strengthen Roles in Major Groups, Roles of Children and Women, NGOs, Local Authorities, Indigenous Peoples, Communities and Farmers;

IV. Means of Implementation, Science, Technology, Transfer, International Institutions and Financial Mechanisms.

Repeating patterns in Agenda 21 target certain sections; ‘to spread wealth, and level playing fields’—designed by United Nations’ members to ultimately change our modes of doing business, and the running of our own cities.

Global government agencies can wield powerful jurisdiction in the most crucial areas. One example; organizations and their sub-groups are reaching across international borders to promote ‘sustainability’ recommendations by such acts as the manipulation of water supplies to targeted communities, and attempting control over what we grow and eat, and even how and where we live.

And on more personal levels, ominous controls spill over to our individual habits of food and drink consumption; even travel and fuel usage can be manipulated by the swelling of gasoline prices.

An example of the manipulation of water resources by California government agencies was when allocations to Central Valley Ag-lands were restricted, and diverted into the ocean to protect the ‘endangered’ 2.5-inch delta smelt. Thousands of acres of fields dried up, food production halted; fruit trees withered and died and thousands of jobs were lost.

STRUCTURE OF AGENDA 21 BLUEPRINT

The United Nation’s Agenda 21 poses as a plan for Sustainable Development, cloaked to impose tenets of Social Injustice and Socialism on the world. It is said to be a veiled agenda for the future founding of a One World Government per growth-limiting programs that focus on futurist survivalism.

Members of the Club of Rome, founded in 1968, advise the UN on global well-being over global wealth, and warn of the risk of eventual break-down of world economics and banking systems.

The collective concerns of the CofR are for the future of humanity and the planet, and promote the halt of population growth by demographic change to stop the bankrupting of nature. Through globalization measures; oil, ecosystems and water, they mainly concentrate on food production, health and employment.

Among the illustrious world citizens in the Club of Rome think-tank are; Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger, Desmond Tutu, Maurice Strong, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ted Turner and George Soros—members of diplomacy, industry, and academia that include many Nobel Peace Prize recipients.

The European Union countries, the EU, who are already diluted with less national identity, and porous borders, embrace the tenets of Agenda 21 and the possibility of funding opportunities.

A driving force behind the Agenda 21 Sustainability Developmental framework is the George Soros-sponsored ICLEI organization— International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives—which got its start with a Soros grant of $2,147,415. The ICLEI deeply entrenched the movement in the United States through Local Governments for Sustainability that allows for zoning changes, oversees energy efficiency such as smart meters, and promotes all things green.

Agenda 21 is not a Free Market friend; certain ‘Green and Sustainable’ companies that meet the mandated guidelines may get government funding. Some may stay in business, but many go under like the Solyndra fiasco, and ‘sustainability’ proponents are apt to target the ‘capitalist corporations’ for either valid or trumped-up environmental infractions.

And many critics maintain that through world-wide United Nations-sponsored Green Communitarianism, personal freedoms that we know today may eventually dissolve by regulations set forth by satellite agencies of slow-churning government machines.

Many detractors reject the all-encompassing tenets of Agenda 21, and its insidious indoctrination of extreme environmentalism propaganda, the implementation of radical change, and by surreptitiously inventing an ‘artificial paradise’.

Change is imminent. Government agencies on State levels can implement power, through long-range ‘planning’, by red-lining some targeted privately-owned flatlands, hillsides and ranchlands properties, and earmark for Wetlands, Open Space or Rangeland Conservation.

So what is Agenda 21 and why should we care? Agenda 21 is a United Nations 40-page document with language clearly defining Sustainable Developmental Guidelines scheduled to be implemented in the unknown future; “Land cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principle instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, and therefore contributes to social injustices; if unchecked it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes. The provision of decent dwellings and healthy conditions for the people can only be achieved if land is used in the interest of society as a whole…”

Agenda 21 is viewed by its many international critics as social engineering, extreme environmentalism, and global political control. The UN-sponsored programs promote other nebulous points of interest too, referring to “precautionary principles, biological diversity, ecological integrity, and principles of inter-generational equity”.

Their national strategies for sustainability are through partnership efforts, often NGO-sponsored, with the use of language very much like stealthily concocted Orwellian double-speak written to mean something other than what it actually seems. Could Big-Brotherism be coming to fruition?

A Ten Year Framework on Sustainable Production and Consumption is partnering with an organization called Economic Co-Operation and Development; the OECD. This author’s research could not locate if any of these organizations are government-sponsored, and was unable to confirm who is paying for these programs.

I did discover, however, that the U.S Department of Agriculture has a mission of advancing the principles and goals of sustainable development theory, through partnership collaboration and outreach.

Other mandates in the Agenda 21 documents are; limiting family size; virtual limitation of personal property; government control of fishing and hunting; cap and trade taxation and tariffs; rural depopulation; agrarian reform; exclusion of humans in the wetlands and wildlands; abolition of single family dwellings; control of aquifers to demolish livestock and produce farming. And, an ominous part of the plan is the Monsanto-style super companies’ clandestine development of chemical-resistant super-seeds, hoarded in vaults, for futuristic biosphere-bubble farming.

But, in addition to the abundance of internet information that purports all of this as factual; there are also the conspiracy-driven reports that FEMA-built communities await new occupiers, and that hundreds of planes are secretly spraying crops in the United States, Australia and other regions, unable to camouflage their tale-telling chem-trails of aluminum-chloride and barium that canopy our vast skies.

Could this all be Science Fiction theories of popular culture or harbingers of a New World Order? Think about it. Do your own research and look into the world-wide plans of global consciousness for the United Nations-inspired Agenda 21, and what the Movement may promise in our future, like a foundling, waiting on our own doorsteps.

COMING SOON TO A TOWN NEAR YOU

Readers may take this opinion piece with a grain of salt, or shrug it off as conspiracy theories, or Mon Dieu!—even as science fiction. Nevertheless, the global movement, with eco-spirituality and near-religious fervor, is a creeping ideology; and once the furtive foot is in the door, who knows what yet may come?

Things are already happening; some large parcels of private lands are in jeopardy. A salient example; the State of California, already controlling 51% of California as Public Land, hints of their interest in millions of acres of private ranchlands. Targeted land parcels may soon be forbidden to participate in ranching, farming, vineyards, mining, oil and gas exploration, as well as green energy; wind, solar or geothermal energy production. Agenda 21 guidelines on condemning private property as public domain could destroy property-owner rights as we know them today.

And Agenda 21 Brazil started in November 2012; Federal Brazilian Police, using extreme measures, forced thousands of long-time farmers from their Mato Grosso village at gunpoint, under the guise of returning huge tracts of land to ‘Indians whose ancestors may have lived there at some time’.

Gun-toting police evicted the villagers, stripped the community of property, burned houses, and dehumanized them with persecution, accusing them of being invaders of lands where once lived indigenous peoples. With government-issued orders, supported by the Agenda 21 Movement paradigms, they enforced the mandatory evacuation.

 

Interview with Daniel Simpson

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I interviewed Daniel Simpson at Danville’s READ Booksellers, promoting his memoir, A Rough Guide to the Dark Side.  Had I not sat down with the author and heard his story first-hand, I may have imagined his memoir was fantasy. It was not.

As an ex-New York Times foreign correspondent, he is shrewdly well-seasoned and knows how to hit a nerve. The memoir is a journey to the dark side of reporting—and tweaking stories to fit NYT paradigms of Iraq war-time sensationalism, and smorgasbords of drugs.

The book’s theme is an acutely biting and critical indictment of modern media practices, and how Simpson got mixed up with Serbian underworld thugs. His adroit use of language, peppered with politics, moves through a mazelike exposé of journalistic practices that he deems to be, not only untrue at times, but often having objectives to purposely mislead. He states, in keeping with media convention, some facts are more factual than others, contending that the NYT is a blatant propaganda megaphone.

Daniel Simpson, 37, is an English Cambridge-educated historian. He cut his journalistic teeth at Reuters as financial correspondent in Frankfurt, and then war-torn Macedonia. In 2001 he covered Romania after regime change when Stalinist dictator Nicolai Ceausescu and his wife were assassinated in 1989. He interviewed the assassins whose act had put Ion Iliescu in power, but the executioners got no glory.

NYT noticed Simpson’s Reuters reporting and hired him for the Belgrade bureau to cover political turmoil after Yugoslavia disintegrated. Most Balkan war correspondents had been dispatched to Afghanistan after 9/11.

Simpson was twenty seven; admits to being enormously naïve about NYT expectations, and the post-war Serbian mood. Former Yugoslavia was an ethnic mosaic; many murdered for their beliefs and some Serbian war criminals already at the Hague tribunals.

News about WMDs and terrorism was leaking from many sources after 9/11; the U.S was preparing to invade Iraq. NYT asked Simpson to hype some “news” about Yugoslavia defense companies developing cruise missiles for Iraq. He writes “news came from the Belgrade U.S. embassy; robo-diplomats claimed to have some documenting evidence.” Foreign deskers “wanted stories ‘faked’ to align with the president’s plans.” Editors tweaked his filed reports. The Washington Post had already run with the story. Simpson states he wasn’t big on faked sensation; so he went AWOL on ecstasy.

At the onset of his journalism career, Simpson had had fantasies of adrenalin-inducing excitement, being a front-line correspondent, dodging bullets, scooping stories. The Balkans beat did not offer near-death experiences, albeit Serbia was in post-war turmoil. NYT, publisher of all the news fit to print, wasn’t challenging enough for Simpson; the idealist longed to change things, wanted to revolutionize Serbian youth with music.

“I really thought I could change the world,” he said wryly.

So, with a solid dose of cannabis-fuelled idealism, Simpson partnered with G, a gregarious Serbian concert promoter. The duo burst onto culture-starved post-Milosevic Belgrade to spearhead the 2003 ECHO music festival on the heels of the EXIT extravaganza held each summer in a northern provincial town.

His vision of promoting such an event did not include the doom factor, due diligence, or that he was navigating into the dangerous Serbian mafia underworld.

Distracted by festival planning, and disgusted with the NYT demands to sensationalize stories—Simpson quit. He had bigger fish to fry. So, in true gonzo journalistic style, he put himself in the middle of the action, the neophyte rock-star wannabe starred in his own story. But the protagonist was about to get ripped off.

DARK SIDE GETS DARKER

Although Daniel Simpson quit the New York Times a decade ago, he unabashedly references his former gig to promote his memoir, A Rough Guide to the Dark Side. “It opens doors for me. When someone hears I am an ex-New York Times reporter it adds clout. They all want an interview,” Simpson smiled.

Ten years ago, the then-27-year old journalist had reached a crossroad; the festival was a “transition mechanism” of magnanimous proportions. Sans street-cred or connections, except for G, he chucked journalism to produce the music festival. The man who earned a living asking questions, asked himself the sublime question—why? The answer to the esoteric question revealed he wanted to change things—he yearned to make a difference, bring the Balkans’ fractured factions together with music. He confesses he was heavily into drugs, and dealing.

Daniel Simpson’s avant-garde memoir, A Rough Guide to the Dark Side, reveals his journey; Kerouac’s On the Road comes to mind. Chapter titles reveal the mood; ZERO, LUST, HERESY and REVELATION, as does author’s note; “I hope this isn’t fiction, or one-sided…”

Simpson, with journalistic page-turner brilliance, starts with the killer first line, “I never really meant to join the underworld. I fell in.” He expected to connect with the youth, alter conflict-scarred Serbia by staging ECHO, a summer-of-love Rock Music Festival on Belgrade’s Big War Island in the Danube. He envisioned eclipsing the EXIT festival, a musical marathon-cum-political-protest that boasted 300,000.

Simpson’s memoir reads like fiction, but it’s not. Hooking with politically-connected street-savvy Serbian partners, the ECHO event emerged as Burning Man meets Woodstock.

Politicians and money-men met with Simpson on the strength of his NYT connection; it gave him clout. He knew the U.S. funneled funds to the Otpor youth group to mount resistance to oust Milosevic; some from three-letter U.S. agencies. EXIT had secured 200K. So Simpson, imbued with anti-establishment idealism, and armed by a drug-fuelled ignition switch, secured funding for the project. Drunk with resolve to make a fortune, and unbounded naïveté about the Serbian culture, he and partners succeeded in pulling off the ECHO Music Festival; albeit at great personal cost.

He conceptualized that ECHO would be the magnet to rally dissidents against political corruption, police brutality and decades of discontent, not permitted during Slobodan Milosevic’s regime. Simpson orchestrated ECHO unaware he was treading on dangerous territory; gangsters waited in the wings.

Simpson, still a NYT correspondent during festival planning, filed regularly. When Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was shot in broad daylight near Simpson’s flat, the Times wanted a sensational front page story. Bullets had shredded him; some thought the hit came from the Zemun underworld. Simpson had to work fast to file for the front page. He had a lot of distractions.

“I was lost in listening to hip-hop music, visions of how everything could be explained…I trusted G, not knowing if he would hoodwink me, he was a gambler man, fearless, charismatic…maybe he knew ECHO would be doomed. I didn’t want to just do a couple of DJ nights—I wanted a full blown Woodstock.”

He had to file the Prime Minister’s assassination quickly. Instead of doing “man on the street” interviews, Simpson asked his translator and her friends what they thought. He settled for ‘rent-a-quote’ opinions, and extrapolated from news wire cheat-sheets. He faked interviews with fake diplomats. “I can’t defend that ethically.” His memoir answers many questions, and tells why he made up stories for the New York Times.

The production of ECHO festival on Big War Island in the middle of the Danube was a logistical nightmare in post-war Serbia. Paramilitary security contractors with guard dogs were hired to protect money-takers and ticket-holders. Scuba divers searched the river for bombs. Simpson was peddling class-A drugs at the festival, an offense that could entail jail time. But precautionary measures did not prevent what was yet to go down with the Serbian mafia.

Over 150,000 attendees showed up for the 4-day raver; 100 acts and 300 artists on four stages. The Serbian army had erected a 600-meter pontoon bridge from Zemun to Big War Island in the middle of the Danube. Four circus elephants ridden by Russian acrobats lumbered across the bridge on opening day. Visitors from several nations flocked to the love-in at 25 Euros apiece. Cash rolled in. All went well until torrential rains knocked Sonic Youth out of the line-up on the last day. It was an island of mud. The storm was a harbinger of what was to come.

Simpson’s grandiose dreams were dashed—all the money was stolen. The catastrophic finale of the big cash rip off proved that maybe politicians and partners were in cahoots with the Serbian mafia. Simpson is not sure what role G played in the scenario, and what went down with the gangsters.

Simpson admits to naiveté about encroaching on mafia domain. Manic idealism, high achievement tendencies and continual stonedness convinced him that techno, funk, salsa and soul music of Sonic Youth and Burning Spear could bring unity to disintegrated former Yugoslavia. He confesses to having cynical jadedness as first, describing the Belgrade war zone as “a miserable pariah”. But when he met G, nothing seemed impossible—charisma overtook judgment. Maybe things got lost in translation; G called American money the ‘one-eyed pyramid’. “Music had revolutionary potential…” In retrospect; perfect for ‘washing cash’.

He saw more than revolutionary potential; a blockbuster would generate cash while bringing splintered factions of the Balkans together. So Daniel Simpson, sporting a new Serbian soubriquet, Raoul Djukanovic, interviewed himself, generated a buzz, clinched funding and pitched the ECHO deal dreaming magnanimous dreams. Drugs were big in Belgrade, and being “mentally jellified”; the nightmare was yet to follow.

DESTINATION: OBLIVION

The festival had ample sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, but with the lack of due diligence of Serbian culture—ECHO failed. The promoters filed bankruptcy; police and printers threatened, performers’ expenses went unpaid. Some accused Simpson of being a British spy. His change-making dreams crumbled. Serbian underworld gangsters had struck a coup de grace with a vengeance.

Simpson said booking the bands was tough; “names bring faces…” Disappointing everyone was a fiasco, no one got paid.  Maybe scalpers printed tickets; maybe security and partners were in on a scam. There was a lot of cash—who knows how it disappeared?

So ECHO did not end well for the ex-New York Times foreign correspondent, now seeking answers, trying to find himself. “I wrote A Rough Guide to the Dark Side as a catharsis; to be kind to myself…I wanted to be a better journalist. I needed to look inside myself, in reality I was lonely, I had anxiety and depression, I quit my job, lost a fancy title, took risks, had to look inside me, had to learn how to love others and myself. I searched for the meaning of life on a rollercoaster adventure.”

Simpson admits he may not have had the clout to produce ECHO had he not been with the New York Times, confessing to mild deceit. “I wanted to say something, do something; be someone.”

I was more interested in Daniel Simpson the journalist, than Daniel Simpson the concert-promoting drug-dealing addict. I told him that drugs did not define him, his brilliance as a writer is what defines him. At first I said I would not mention much about the drugs, or that he was a stoner, but I would be dishonest not to. The crux of his memoir hinges on drugs; it is the tour de force of his past.

I read A Rough Guide to the Dark Side and numerous NYT articles. Daniel is bright, has swift wit and a quick smile. The high-achiever is hard on himself, demands perfection, cuts himself no slack. He is very likable and laughs a lot. “I have not used drugs for four years,” he says, “I practice yoga; it has been a way of life since long before organized religion. I write about yoga.”

My final question was a surprise. My quest was to penetrate the masquerade; I needed more backstory on my interviewee. “Daniel, if you were to interview yourself, what would be your first question?”

Daniel Simpson’s answer was long; I would have to paraphrase and condense. His forthrightness surprised me. He frankly flaunts his failings, maybe to shock, maybe to be honest. A Rough Guide to the Dark Side tells his life in gripping staccato style. His dark side chronicles hallucinatory time passages through a hip-hop culture—evoked to sanction the retreat from himself and his outrageous actions.

I asked Daniel Simpson about his grueling book tour at Blackhawk’s READ, and wished him Godspeed. “I launched A Rough Guide to the Dark Side in London. I’m traveling by Greyhound across the United States, with stops in New York, Texas, North Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, back to London, and then to India to be with my girlfriend.”

www.roughguidedarkside.com,at READ Booksellers, Danville and Amazon.

Washington Welcomed Tri-Valley Winners to Bath Ruth World Series

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The Tri-Valley Babe Ruth 13-year olds are still reeling from the All-star Baseball team’s incredible winning streak through the Northern California Pacific Southwest Regionals, and the World Series Championship. Under the guidance of Manager Sean Venezia and Coaches Rick Fryer and Todd Moore, the team competed in the Babe Ruth World Series in Washington.

Adhering to the Babe Ruth League prerequisite since 1961, 120 boys from nine regional teams spent the week with local host families. As guests in local homes, it added a new dimension for the boys; banqueting at the Suquamish Indian Reservation, a Naval Museum visit and a Mariners game. Some went fishing in saltwater Puget Sound, rich with giant crab and salmon.

The first night kick-off of the Babe Ruth World Series started with a parade in host city Poulsbo. The grand marshal was Jim Lefebvre, former Dodgers 1965 National League Rookie of the Year, and Seattle Mariner and Chicago Cubs manager.

The champion baseball teams were presented at the World Series opening ceremonies, attended by dignitaries and U.S. Navy personnel. Planes flew overhead, and skydivers with red-white-and-blue parachutes delivered the game balls to the Gene Lobe Field. It was an exciting start to a week of the best of the best youth baseball.

The Babe Ruth League founded in 1951 in Trenton, New Jersey, was sanctioned by Claire Ruth herself. “Babe Ruth loved children and baseball; my late husband could receive no greater tribute than lend his name to a youth baseball program…”

Nationally, the league has about a million players on over 56,000 teams. Among the Babe Ruth League’s star alumni are; Nolan Ryan, Mike Trout and Alamo’s Joe Morgan. Tri-Valley Babe Ruth alumni include SF Giant’s shortstop Brandon Crawford, and two 2012 First Round Major League draft picks; Mark Appel and Stephen Piscotty.

The Tri-Valley Babe Ruth League was formed in 1990 with Dublin’s Camp Parks as home field, and has earned national recognition with ten World Series appearances and five World Series Championships.

This year the TVBR 13YO lineup boasts some of the league’s best players from Pleasanton National and Foothill, San Ramon, Tassajara, and includes several Danville Little League All-Stars who clinched the Nor-Cal Championships two years in a row. The 2012 World Series players are Dante Albanese, Ryan Bowman, James Cowick, Jared Dawson, Clark Eder, Jack Fryer, Darroch Koel, Jack Maloon, Max Moore, Jack Morgan, Matt Neswick, Josh Ott, Saiki Roy, Nicholas Venezia and Nathan White.

The team’s streak took them all the way to the Washington World Series Semi-Finals, before being knocked out by Greenville, North Carolina, who in turn yielded the championship to the Bryant, Arkansas team. The Tri-Valley All-stars are champs; they are our Boys of Summer.

Be A Light

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The poignant words; “be a light, be a light, be a light,” handwritten on the first page of Joshua Corral’s bible tells volumes about the 19 year-old U.S Marine, known to everyone as Chachi, who lived steadfastly by his humble mantra, as reported by his commanding officer, Captain David Russell, at the young soldier’s recent memorial in Danville.

It was while Chachi Corral was being a light to his fellow Marines that he volunteered to be the “sweeper”—the one who walks ahead of his unit, the one who sweeps the area for landmines and IEDs with a metal detector to protect his comrades following behind. Chachi had volunteered for the most dangerous of all jobs while walking across the arid terrain; to be the “point of the spear.”

His brother, Zack Corral, 22, told me how it all went down; how Chachi volunteered to lead the way, following his own personal quest by being the light; a beacon forging a safe and clear path for his soldiering friends when the buried bomb exploded on November 18, 2011. The 3rd Battalion, 7TH Marines from Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Centre were in the deadly region of Sangin, northwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan, when the killer IED went off.

By coincidence, one of his closest friends in the Marines was Zachary Rieff, also known as Zach, his brother’s name. Zach was supposed to fall back but he followed close to Chachi; he had Chachi’s back, and had said that if he were to die he would want to die with his buddy. The two friends were ahead of their unit, forging a safe path, when the IED went off. Chachi died of mortal wounds; Zach died shortly after.

Zack Corral shared at the memorial that his brother felt God gnawing at his heart, and when he joined the Marines he already knew that he would be deployed to Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Joshua Chachi Corral could not know that so soon after his unit’s arrival, a fatal hidden bomb would go off beneath his feet.

After graduating San Ramon Valley High School in the class of 2010, Joshua Chachi Corral volunteered for the Marine Corps and did basic training in San Diego with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment. Several members of the same graduating class joined the Marine Corps; two were present at his recent memorial dedication—and some who served in Chachi’s battalion in Afghanistan, and who witnessed the explosion, were in the honor guard at the sculptural memorial’s unveiling.

VETERANS MEMORIAL BUILDING
The Town of Danville had recently celebrated the Grand Opening of the $8 million renovated historic Veterans Memorial Building of San Ramon Valley on Hartz at Prospect. Rear Admiral Mary P. O’Donnell, USCG Retired, in her inaugural remarks, drove home the heartfelt points that our nation’s warriors do not fear death, do not fear going MIA, do not fear being wounded; but the casualty of being forgotten is what they fear the most.

So, in the spirit of revering the memory of our military men and women for their selfless service, the trustees worked with the Semper Fi Foundation funding partners who sealed their commitment with a bronze iconic sculpture known as the “Battlefield Cross.” The sculpture dedicated to honor Lance Corporal Joshua Chachi Corral and all Fallen Heroes, now stands permanently outside the Veterans Building depicting the helmet on rifle and boots forming an ad hoc cross that warriors traditionally set on battlefields to honor their fallen comrades.

The Danville Fallen Hero Memorial was unveiled on a new summer’s day, 23rd June, when many veterans groups and hundreds of citizens honored the memory of those who gave their lives in service to their country, and Chachi Corral, our town’s own fallen hero; still in his teens when he gave his young life for our freedom—all gave some—some gave all.

SEMPER FI
Soon after Chachi was killed in action, his parents Denise and Arnie Corral, knew the importance of recognizing those who had sacrificed their lives in service to their country, and to honor their son’s wishes and memory were instrumental in supporting the needs of his fellow Marines. One month after his death in 2011, the Semper Fi Foundation was formed by a citizen’s group, spearheaded by Len Hack, with a defined mission to rally support for all United States Marines, fallen heroes and their families. The camaraderie between the Marine Corps and the Semper Fi Foundation was poignantly evidenced at the recent memorial celebration.

Captain David Russell, USMC 3/7, Chachi’s Commanding Officer, spoke at the memorial, about how today’s military is the most educated and highly trained, and go to battle with the most advanced weaponry in military history. He made the point that even with the most rigorous training and the best defense capabilities, there is no protection against the enemy’s seemingly innocuous improvised explosive devices buried in the sand, or on the roads, that have killed or maimed so many of our military.

Those who attended the Celebration of Life Memorial for Danville’s young fallen hero were imbued with a renewed sense of pride and respect for those who have fallen, and those patriotic citizens who honor their memories— especially the Corral family. The Town of Danville, known for its unique style of patriotism and commitment to honor our military, went beyond the anticipated by sponsoring a glorious day on the Community Centre green.

At the finale of the bitter-sweet memorial service, a mariachi band played and the celebrants followed the music to have lunch at an array of food kiosks in the park. At the conclusion of L.Cpl. Joshua Chachi Corral’s celebration of life there were embraces, smiles and tears, but above all, a sense of remembrance for those who gave their all for their beloved United States of America.

The sentiment was best said by Spike “Go Navy Baby” Schau, coordinator of the patriotic motorbike Warriors’ Watch Riders, who has racked up over 700 military escorts on his Harley Electra Classic. “That’s what we do.” Spike smiled with resolve; his vest heavy with medals, buttons and pins. The local Warrior Watch Riders is a group of about 30 bikers who welcome home unsuspecting soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. “We never forget our fallen warriors; about 60 bikers joined our military escort to Travis AFB last November to welcome Chachi home and with American flags waving, we rode along in the funeral parade to his family in Danville on his last ride home.”
Semper Fi, Chachi. Be a light, be a light, be a light…

Police Dogs of Danville – The Wow of the Bowwows!

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The Danville Police Department, besides having an impressive complement of Contra Costa County’s finest, spearheaded by Chief Steve Simpkins, also has the devoted protection of two Patrol-Certified K-9 Unit super dogs that faithfully assist their partner/handlers in tracking and catching the bad guys.

I met the two Belgian Malinois shepherd dogs and their intrepid K-9 Cop partners, Officers Mike Ireland and Tom Rossberg while attending the 2012 Town of Danville Citizen Police Academy course.

The interactive instructional program, coordinated by Sergeant Jason Haynes not only builds bridges, but also familiarizes local residents with Police Department methods and the behind-the-scenes routines that support and protect our community, and the myriad of law enforcement challenges that face the officers in the field. Sergeant Haynes will conduct another popular and instructive Citizens Police Academy series in the fall.

It was coincidental that one of our instructors for the evening class, Officer Ireland and his 10-year old partner police dog Donna had just returned from a neighboring city emergency call. The hardworking canine cop had just sniffed out the place of an armed robbery, got an odor hit on the would-be robbers, and followed the scent trail to where the getaway car was parked. Top Cop Dog Donna is a super canine sleuth, who graduated from the KNPV Canine Academy in Holland, and is certified with honors.

Officer Ireland explained that K-9 Units are among the first to be called to the potentially dangerous situations; known as the “point of the spear.” The most danger in any emergency situation is usually at the onset until the problem is evaluated and the perimeter contained.

I wasn’t quite prepared for my excited admiration at meeting the two highly-intelligent furry Danville Police Department dogs, Donna and Chef, and after learning about their 500+ hours of Schultzhund protection-dog training in obedience, specific-object detection, handler respect and patrol work, I decided to learn more about the relatively unknown Belgian Malinois breed.

What I learned about the brave Super Dogs was eye-opening; their multiple abilities include the tracking of missing persons, tracking and taking down felonious suspects on Bark and Hold commands, or finding drug stashes within minutes. I researched the Belgian-bred working dogs, now popular in Europe and the United States, and doggedly discovered dog piles of surprises.

The social animals have a long working history with humans, first introduced in Belgium in the early 20th century as deterrents for police on the beat, and were later trained in nose work. The friendly dogs constantly show their need for human company, work-for-reward activities and playful socialization. In most cases they are loyal to their masters, and do not bite handlers or their families. They are hard-wired with unbounded energy, curiosity, the desire to please, and work for nothing more than verbal praise or the simple reward of a tennis ball throw-and-fetch game or rubber kong toy.

The Malinois breed is a cousin of the German shepherd, in that they are both sheep herders bred mainly for function over form. Their snouts and ears are black and their square-proportioned bodies have mahogany and tan short coats. The dams are 55-65 lbs., the sires 65-75 lbs., and their height should be 24 to 26 inches, about the same dimensions from breastbone to rump.

DOGS OF WAR AND K-9 UNITS
A 500-hour work-specific trained Malinois costs about ten thousand dollars, are usually in service for six to seven years, and have an expected 14-year lifespan. The dogs are not cross-trained in specific disciplines; such as bomb-explosive detection, drugs or dangerous substances detection, or human search and rescue. Each dog is trained for a specific job to prevent confusion, example; a search and rescue animal’s tracking mission is more time-sensitive than that of a cadaver dog.

Military War Dogs, called MWDs, are trained in CTD, Combat Trackers; EDD, Explosive Detectors; or SDD, Specialized Small Dogs, such as the feisty nose-worthy Fox Terriers that work on submarines. SAR, Search and Rescue soldier dogs are specifically trained to find humans lost in battle zones or under bombed buildings.

The Malinois dogs have a high prey drive, protective traits and are very obedient, making them perfect for object-specific detection, police work and search and rescue. A detection dog is nose-trained to find objects by a sample smell and a search and rescue dog is able to track a person with the scent of a piece of clothing. Dogs can find dope, bombs, explosives, and people in dangerous situations, but the high-value working animals are never sent on suicide missions.

The K-9 Unit dogs have so proven their worth in the field, that in recent years, the New York City Police Department has cut their manpower and doubled the ranks of the canine units. The super dogs also play a significant part in airport security.

The Malinois’ claim to fame is that they are obedient, alert, active and happiest when working; they do their job well to please and have a high drive to receive a reward. They may show some neurotic behaviors if they do not get enough exercise and stimulation, and they need constant obedience training for new, challenging tasks. They have supersonic hearing, and as detection dogs, their glory noses have a super sense of smell with olfactory factors 250 times stronger than humans.

When police dogs, certified in narco-detection, are set to sniff out drug stashes, they can differentiate multiple odors such as marijuana, methamphetamines, heroin and cocaine, even though the drug dealers may have attempted to confuse the super sniffers by camouflaging drugs with coffee beans, air-fresheners or fabric softeners.

The dogs’ noses can so powerfully detect specific odors that they can even isolate and identify single compounds within a scent—like defining the individual spices that season a pot of minestrone soup, or categorizing the multiple ingredients on a single pizza—one at a time. The sniffer dog squads can smell out a single odorous needle in a giant haystack, and their super noses never make mistakes, even when identifying explosives, firearms, fire accelerants, narcotics or finding a drowning person in moving water.

The K-9 Unit dogs are considered such important assets to the Police Force that many canines are sworn officers and have their own ID numbers and badges. An attack upon a police dog can have the same serious consequences as the attack on the person of a police officer. According to California Penal Code 600, the statute states that anyone who willfully tries to kill or inflict bodily harm to a service animal—horse or K-9 Unit Police dog—is committing a felony punishable by fines and prison.

In potentially dangerous situations the dogs are fitted with ballistic protection vests. In many cases, if a beloved police dog is killed in the line of duty, it is given a full honors funeral as a loyal and dedicated member of the Police Force.

SUPER WORKING DOGS
So where else do these super dogs work? What other daunting tasks are they given? Where do their strengths lay when it comes to working for a living?

In short, the extraordinary Belgian Malinois are Bionic Super Dogs. It was one of these fabled furry four-legged fabulous members of the MWD Elite Canine Team, who, working with Special Ops on Operation Neptune Spear, was the first paws-on-the-ground rappelling out of the high-tech Stealth Black Hawk helicopter, and first into the Abbottabad compound to take down the world’s highest-value-target, Osama Bin Laden.

The elite canine units are an integral part of the legendary Navy Seals most impressive arsenals. Soldier dog Cairo, canine sniffer extraordinaire, stealthily led the raid with the Navy Seals into the bull’s-eyed building, checking for explosives, and then like a night jackal, giving a silent all-clear to proceed to the specified target.

We know how that 40-minute glorious take-down raid ended, and the incredible bravery and heroism of the 24 elite Navy Seals. I wonder how the Super War Dog Cairo was rewarded for his courageous work with the Navy Seal heroes in bringing down the most hunted man on earth. My best guess for the canine’s work-for-reward job would be a lifetime supply of tennis balls and a giant rubber kong toy!

The Malinois shepherd dogs are so obedient, intelligent, trainable, and said to be able to do ten men’s work, that the four-legged warriors are employed in the U.S. Military Forces, Navy Seals, Border Patrol, Police Force Drug Investigations and Bomb Squads, Secret Service, CIA, FBI and SWAT Teams.

The Armed Forces call upon the services of the intrepid canines in multiple disciplines, and it is estimated there are about 4,000 such soldier dogs in their ranks. They are trained for many jobs, including the Airborne dogs that jump from planes alone or with handlers in parachute deployments from as high as 30,000 feet.

The MWD units deploy bionic dogs of war that parachute into dangerous situations wearing canine protective night goggles and tactical assault K-9 Storm Vests with infrared night-sight cameras and intruder communication systems with earbuds to hear their partner’s commands. The dogs parachute from high-tech helicopters; their legs running before they hit the ground, land acrobatically on rough terrain, and immediately rappel into action. Canine tactical assault vests protect the dogs against shrapnel, gunfire and knives, making them truly super-natural soldiers.

DARING DOGS OF DANVILLE
The Belgian Malinois protective dogs are daring, loyal, and likeable, unless they are commanded to attack and subdue identified targets. Their 600-pound jaw pressure can do just that. According to Officer Ireland, most men are more afraid of dogs than bullets; under command, dogs can disable most bad-guys in seconds. In short, with a handler’s hand-voice bite-hold commands, a dog can single-footedly stop a perpetrator in his tracks.

The Danville Police K-9 Units are valued assets to the department, while adding their playful canine expertise and furry fun to the job of keeping the peace in the town of 44,000 residents. Officers Ireland and Rossberg are dog handlers extraordinaire who love their loyal best friend canine partners, Donna and Chef, who go home to their families after working their shifts.

The Malinois shepherd dogs are pinnacles of personal protection with a loyal willingness to work and please, adept with endurance and remarkable courage. They stand bravely foursquare and elegant; ears pricked for the happy shrieks of children or the hand-voice commands from their human colleagues, with tails wagging and mouths open in unmistakable canine smiles.

Officer Ireland’s Top Cop Dog Donna was honored at her retirement ceremony for valiant service to the Department by Chief of Police Steve Simpkins at the July 3rd Danville Town Council Meeting.

Contact www.danville.ca.gov, ssimpkins@danville.ca.gov, Phone: 925.314.3701

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