13.06.2011
FIFA vs. Iran: The 'ridiculous' headscarf ban
FIFA officials disqualified the Iranian women's soccer team in their Olympic-qualifying match against Jordan — dashing their hopes of competing in the 2012 games — because the players' headscarves violated the organization's dress code. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded by labeling FIFA "dictators." FIFA insists its decision was largely about "." Besides, FIFA's rules forbid players from displaying "political, religious, commercial, or personal messages" on their uniforms. Should some allowance have been made for Iran's players?
Yes, this decision is hypocritical: FIFA may want to separate "church and field," , but it enforces its rules inconsistently. Other international players "openly flaunt their faith with cross necklaces and public prayer," and plenty of players bless themselves before games. As long as the wearing of headscarves didn't give Iran's team an unfair advantage, "who cares?"
No, Iran broke the rules: The soccer team knew that hijabs violated safety rules enacted last year, . Caps that cover the head "to the hairline" are allowed. But anything that extends "below the ears to cover the neck" is not. The Iranian delegation "understood this," and the headscarves the players wore anyway instead of the smaller FIFA-approved head coverings were an "infringement of the laws of the game." Officials were right to cancel the game.In any case, this decision compromises the Olympics: Thanks a lot, FIFA, . You've cast a pall over the upcoming London summer games, by "pushing women out of an arena" where they can actually command respect. Banning the Iranian team is "counterproductive," and forces them to choose between respecting their faith and playing a sport that allows them to demonstrate "physical prowess and strategic intelligence."
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Wrike's Collaboration Software Included in Leading Analyst Firm's PPM Market Research
San Jose, CA (PRWEB) June 09, 2011
This year, Gartner recognized project collaboration as an integral part of effective project portfolio management and included a special report on collaboration tools in PPM Market Universe. The research is focused on reviewing techniques and tools for organizing the work of vitrutal teams. The world’s leading IT research and advisory company .
It is impossible to underestimate the importance and scope of remote collaboration. According to Gartner, “By 2015, 75 percent of knowledge-based project work in the Global 2000 will be completed by distributed virtual teams.” This trend isn’t new; however, not everyone has adjusted to it, and in many companies with virtual teams, “the collaboration infrastructure is something that happened by accident, rather than design,” as the research note states. These companies are still looking for an efficient solution to handle the challenges of virtual collaboration. Wrike’s powerful social featureseven if they can’t have regular face-to-face meetings and direct communication.
A recent case study shows how inlevel, a successful IT company awarded with a European Union innovation grant, has found in Wrike anvirtually with 20+ external partners. Wrike has become an easily accessible central hub for the team that accumulates project data and takes off the managers’ shoulders a big share of administrative work. “The way the data automatically flows into Wrike’s workspace keeps us all organized because we always know where to find the info that we need, and I don’t need to spend time and effort on communicating the plan updates to the team members,” comments Maciej Janiec, CEO at inlevel.
Offering its project management and collaboration service for more than five years, Wrike has become an irreplaceable tool not only for inlevel, but for thousands customers all over the globe, including such internationally renowned brands as Ecco, eBay, Kraft Foods and Salesforce. “A lot of Wrike customers deal with a distributed workforce, and their experience of achieving fantastic results through remote collaboration, even when miles and time zones separate colleagues, is the best proof that Wrike is a perfect match for virtual teams. Every day, more and more teams get the maximum efficiency in remote collaboration with Wrike,” says Andrew Filev, CEO at Wrike.
To read the full version of the June 6, 2011 Gartner research note “PPM Market UNIVERSE: Techniques and Tools for Project Collaboration”, please go to .
For more information on Wrike, please visit .
About WrikeWrike is the leading social project management software. It helps thousands of companies, including eBay, Kraft Foods and Ecco, efficiently get things done together in real time. Wrike, Inc. has patents pending. Wrike, Inc. is a privately held corporation located in California.
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Valerie SinitskayaWrike.com1-877-77-97453Email Information
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Oregon friends mark imprisoned hiker's birthday
He is one of two young American hikers the Iranian government has been holding since July 2009 on espionage charges.
Before he went hiking near the Iraq-Iran border, Josh Fattal worked three years on sustainable farming practices at the Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, south of Eugene.
"We had a very moving celebration and ceremony," his brother Alex Fattal told The Associated Press.
He said about 40 friends and colleagues gathered in Cottage Grove, at one point exchanging gifts that had relevance to his brother.
The other hiker is Shane Bauer. On May 11, they were due in court, an appearance that was canceled without explanation. Last year, Bauer's fiancee, Sarah Shourd, was released.
The group also sent tiny "prayer boats" with candles floating on the Row River, where Josh Fattal used to swim. Alex Fattal said the boats symbolized the group's desire for their freedom.
"He made a lot of friends and became a very important member of the community in a pretty short time," Tegra Fisk, organizer of the celebration, told the Eugene Register-Guard earlier. "This is really meant to be a celebration of his life, which was and is a really extraordinary life."
Alex Fattal has been rallying support for the hikers, including a fast among family members and friends.
"What Josh was doing at Aprovecho was really on the forefront of sustainable living, and he needs to get back to doing that work," Alex Fattal said. "Shane has been doing outstanding independent reporting, which we really need."
Alex Fattal said he's put his doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Harvard on hold to work on freeing the hikers, and he's given up asking himself about the motives of Iran's leaders, knowing he may never get an answer.
"On a certain level, we have to maintain our optimism," he said. "It's the fuel that keeps us going. On another, it's devastating to have your hopes built up only to have them dashed, time and again."
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Information from: The Register-Guard,
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