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The graduation packages form one of the most important things in a person’s life. The whole period of study and the hard work that goes with it are truly rewarded only when he gets the satisfaction in the achievement that he has made by becoming a graduate. More important is the happiness that should be there when a person graduates out. A person to have completed graduation is symbolized by the memoirs of it and the memory of the typical graduate attire that he wore at the day of the graduation ceremony, which will be etched in the mind forever.

Customary Graduation Packages

The customary gown graduation and the cap graduation are the ones that are seen as real graduation because they are almost followed by all of them. The package that you choose for the graduation ceremony should have the right mix of things that will make the day a memorable one. The apt gown that suits you and the best fitting add-ons in cap and the other things that come with it should make the perfect set for anyone. Also important is the way you get yourself pictured on that day. Have a nice pleasant photograph of you on that particular day, so that that may be an everlasting memoir of what you had achieved and felt happy about.

Graduation Ceremony - an Occasion to cherish

The graduation packages offer variety of different aspects to celebrate with, but the gown graduation and the cap graduations are the ones that will bring you happiness as all of us have grown seeing other graduates in gowns, so the cap and gowns have literally become symbols of graduation. The other aspect to view the graduation packages are that they form one of the best gifts that you can get your friend or a close relative. This is a way of expressing your happiness towards their achievement. The scenes of the graduation ceremony will be there forever in their mind and so will be your gift!

There are several other entities offered in the graduation packages that can make your day more memorable. There are honor stoles, medallion, awards. If you are one who has worked hard for the graduation then you deserve such packages as they offer the best of feelings. Being a graduate with medallion in the chest is a great feeling many of us like to have. Thus, we see that the graduation packages are truly those things, which bring the best of the graduation ceremony.

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Ephesus had a shrine to the Anatolian mother-goddess and the Cretan Lady of Wild Things that was later incorporated into the Greek worship of Artemis. (33) This magnificent statue has many ‘cosmic eggs’ on it that are extremely relevant to the Berber painting of ostrich eggs that are found in the Saharan finds mentioned in Carthage as well as connected to the Druid’s eggs. A Cambridge scholar I saw on a TV show recently was still calling these eggs ‘breasts’. It is ludicrous and almost funny if you look at a picture of the statue with over a hundred ‘breasts’. What level of academic ineptitude is this? We have seen many who know the worldwide importance of the cosmic egg including Gimbutas, but then perhaps this scholar knows were his bread is buttered. Smyrna is mentioned by Grant going back long before our present focus and shows Amazons (Kelts as we have shown) were once a part of the picture, but this is probably before the fall of Ariadne on Crete and goes back to times such as Malta shows had 2800 years before the Great Pyramid - with no weapons. Smyrna is the site of a great Merovingian family with a name you’ll quickly recognize. Onassis, who married into another Merovingian family through Jackie Kennedy. Thus we ask you to remember what the old saws do say about history repeating itself.

Smyrna was situated at the head of the gulf named after it, into which the River Hermus debouched. The original town, Old Smyrna, stood on a rocky peninsula (Haci Mutso) beside the north-eastern shore of the gulf. This settlement existed since Neolithic times, but its founders according to contradictory Greek legends, included non Greek Leleges {Phoenician pirates}, Amazons, and King Tantalus of Phrygia. (34)

‘Non-Greeks’ is no surprise in neolithic times because there were no Greeks. There was probably occasional settlements and conflicts over the area we now think of as Greece but remember Homer’s ‘DNN’ and what many Greeks know to this day as they call themselves Danaus. We have shown lots of different proof and authority to connect them through Thrace to the Danube in periods before what we call Greece or Mycenaean culture.

The Phocaeans present us with acts that mirror the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon as well, in terms of establishing emporiae or colonial trading posts. They also show us how mobile it was necessary to be after the Goddess (egalitarian ‘Brotherhood’) was brought to her knees. Just as important in our eventual connection with Britain is ‘the ships of Tarshis’ and Tartessus on the Iberian Peninsula where Spain and Portugal claim national privileges today despite all the horror they have wrought. It is recorded in many places that Milesians came from Iberia between 1500 BC and 500 BC just as the Spanish Armada later dumped a lot of Celtiberians into the genetic mix of Scotland and Ireland in more recent times.

Through all of this period from the end of the Hyksos invasions of Egypt there is growing aristocratic and macho oriented structure apparent within the Phoenicians of the Mediterranean despite the fact Egypt still allowed women to rule as we know from the numerous Cleopatras. The kings and supranational corporate entities were adding more power in every century and they were putting in place the control of armies as well as the priesthoods they always found willing to favour their desires. Yet the people and the merchant class were wary and we see Carthage through the eyes of Aristotle around 345 BC. He was surprised to find they still had an Assembly of the People which was actually strong and democracy was thriving there. (35) This political tug of war is still endemic in our society today. Around that time Pseudo-Aristotle writes that Carthage passed a law forbidding anyone (presumably without their approval) from going to America. When the Gracchi failed and the Republic of Rome failed (the Bruttii who killed Caesar and other good men of the Phoenician or Pythagorean and aristocratic genre became adapted to a new structure) a very big nail was driven deep into the ethic or even semblance of equality. The establishment of Caesar (later Kaiser and Czar are words from the same root) ended even the superficial appearance of a majority of citizens having equal say.

They {Phocaeans} took part in the activities of Naucratis in Egypt, where Phocaea was one of the twelve Greek cities which shared the temple of Apollo {Frazer’s ‘Golden Bough’ documented Plutarch and others knew Apollo and others were representations of Osiris and the rituals at his representational graves included burning people with ‘Red Hair’) known as the Hellenium, dating from the time of the Pharaoh Amasis (c.569- 525) {Right at the key point of the Battle of Alalia}. By this time, too the Phocaeans, in their own native city, had built a temple of Athena, made of fine white porous stone. They also initiated what was to be an abundant and widely circulating electrum coinage (accompanied by issues of silver that were initially smaller), depicting the city emblem of a seal, and launching a long and varied series of miniature artistic designs. They were also famous for their dyeing industry.

{The Phocaean coin had the BEE emblem that has been found on Cretan digs going back to the Royal House of Mallia or Mile and Milesians to the third millennium BCE. We showed’ ‘purple’ dye in Mexico and Peru where they had an industry of making this all important spiritual or royal colour. There was a time that modern academics like Nuttall thought this was the best evidence of transatlantic cultural exchanges with the Phoenicians. Could the Phocaeans have been there?}

But their most extraordinary accomplishment lay in the distant west. {N. B.} The first of the Greeks, according to Herodotus, ‘to make long voyages’, it was the Phocaeans who pioneered the remotest and most perilous routes. It was they, for example, who followed up the first Samian contacts with the kingdom of Tartessus around the mouth of the River Baetis (Guadalquivir) on south-western Spain (c.640), sailing not in merchant ships but in fifty-oared warships(so that cargo-carrying was sacrificed to speed and fighting capacity). The friendly relations that they thus established with the long-lived king of Tartessus, Arganthonius, secured the Phocaean adventurers a large share of the bronze, tin and silver in which the Spanish hinterland abounded.

Pliny the elder also adds a record of a certain Midacritus who is likely to have been a Phocaean. ‘Midacritus’, he observed, ‘was the first to import ‘white lead’ (that is to say tin) from the ‘Tin Island’ (Cassiteris),’ {He notes ‘Midacritus’ means approved of Midas which indicates a Phrygian connection. I suggest that Midas was the King of Lydia and part of the Phoenician from Pont to Tyre and Hittite connection going back to the Danube Kelts of Finias. Any Ionian states that were his neighbors could earn his approval. I emphasize EARN and suggest this is the person for whom the likes of today’s IMF organizers and the Fed backers are really like.} by which he meant, however, not the Scilly Islands but Cornwall (’the Stannaries’). Tin was immensely important to the ancient world, since it was an essential constituent of bronze. It existed in various near-eastern countries as well as in Greece itself, but not in sufficient quantities to make supplies from the west unnecessary. Pliny’s words might merely mean that Midacritus sailed to Tartessus, in order to pick up a cargo of tin which the Tartessians had acquired from Cornwall. But more probably he himself {Like Joseph of Arimathaea}, by way of Tartessus adventurously fetched the tin from Britain. On the assumption that Midacritus’ expedition was in the mid-sixth century or a little earlier, he and his compatriots were choosing a good time for such enterprises, since their potential rivals the Phoenicians were preoccupied with the encroachment of Persia.

{Where did the Medes come from? Fred Eberg of the Univ. of Pennsylvania may have a clue in the Russian lost civilization of Turkmenistan. It is before Sumer and they say there was a language. There are dozens of large fortress like cities seen from remote sensing satellite equipment. On radio interviews I’ve heard he talks about re-writing history books in respect of it having a language, but before, it was the Danube Old European. Because it is unlike nearby Mesopotamian cultures in structures and script we can draw another connection to the Danube but we must wait for more details. They definitely irrigated the desert and that shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it seems to surprise these ‘experts’. The nearly delph-like china and other artifacts along the Silk Road doesn’t move them to say for sure that China was part of the trading network, yet the Kelts were there in 3,000 BC according to National Geographic; 1000 years before they find the china materials.}

The Phocaeans also created the historic city of Massalia (Marseille) on the Mediterranean coast of Gaul, at the eastern fringe of the Rhone delta (C.600).” (37)

The Phocaeans had established joint colonies on the Black Sea with the Milesians at Samsun (Amisus) and the fact they could go to Spain and Britain makes it clear they could have taken the short route across the Atlantic from the west African Carthaginian outposts that lots of artifacts in South America seem to have come from (Amphorae, etc.). He doesn’t address these probabilities but some of his numismatic friends have dealt with the coins found in America. He was President of the Royal Numismatic Society and a medalist in the Americas. The quotes from Mr. Grant speak to the necessary perspicacity and courage and his word usages seem open to this possibility but it would be academic suicide (or would have been when he wrote the book) for him to address these issues of such great impact. They knew the earth was a sphere and the ‘Flat Earth’ dogma didn’t even exist until a millennium or more after the Battle of Alalia. Massalia also gave them access to the Rhone River routes to Britain, Brittany and Hallstatt Kelts. The actual time he is talking about probably saw the elite not using this valuable tin. Iron was everywhere but tin could be monopolized. The interesting point about all the wealth in these times that also might tie in with South America relates to the abundance of gold. There were times when Egypt valued silver more than gold. We are convinced there were at least two millennia before this; that corporate Phoenician enterprises were the dominant issue and trade with the Americas was a key factor.

Marseilles is still important to the drug trade but nearby Sardinia and its medieval castles going back to the Hyksos or Shardana once housed their bank and drug manufacturing. There were more emeralds than the Mediterranean produced and the gold from Peru along with those emeralds (which were used to view the stars by the Queen of Sheba) made some people very rich and yet still they made potions to hook whole cultures.

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine
Guest ‘expert’ at World-Mysteries.com

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We are located in Doylestown Pa. and are surrounded with heavy
clay soils. The soils in our area will not support plants that
can’t tolerate wet feet. Thus our nursery does not offer plants
such as Firs . We do have some spots that will grow firs where
the topsoil is deepest and well drained. Over the years we have
tried to modify soils using compost and drain tiles. Yet long
term nature wins out. The home owner will want to plant species
that are not found naturally in their area so the home owner
will want to modify their soils. On a small scale this is
possible. The use of mounds , the addition of sand, compost and
drain tiles is effective in modifing clay to make growing clay
intolerant plants possible. Usually large amounts of sand and
compost is needed. But be aware that building up the soil in one
area can make more problems in adjacent areas. We also suggest
that if you don’t see a plant growing in your area, only
purchase seedlings or inexpensive container plants to try in
your landscape before spending large amounts of money on large
plants only to find out they are not hardy in your soils.

The following list is suggested plants that do better in clay
soils. Norway maple (Acer platanoides) Silver maple (Acer
saccharinum) European alder (Alnus glutinosa) River birch
(Betula nigra) we have Heritage and Common River birches Honey
locust (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis) Apple, crabapple
(Malus) Norway spruce (Picea abies) Austrian pine (Pinus nigra)
Eastern White Pine (pinus strobus) Pear (Pyrus) Bur oak (Quercus
macrocarpa) Willow (Salix) only on large properties, away from
everything especially in septic fields Linden (Tilia) Shrubs
Black chokecherry (Aronia melanocarpa) Red osier dogwood (Cornus
sericea) Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) Burning bush
(Euonymus alatus) Forsythia (Forsythia) Honeysuckle (Lonicera)
Potentilla (Potentilla fruticosa) Willow (Salix) weeping and
corkscrew Elderberry (Sambucus) Lilac (Syringa) French, Korean ,
Common, Micheal Dodge White cedar (Thuja occidentalis) We only
have afew large ones but thousands of seedlings We raise over 10
types ofViburnums on our farms from seedlings to 5′ shrubs. If
you have poor soils due to compacting from construction, try
viburnums. Being rugged and hardy, they perform where other
plants fail.American Cranberry Bush ,Korean Spice,Blackhaw
,ArrowwoodViburnum ,Chicago Luster,Dawn,Summer Snowflake,
Shasta,Erie,Tea,Judd,Korean Spice, Praque,and Siebold.

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Why California?

Legal assistants or paralegals in California, rank in the top 100 professions. The trend of this employment is most fascinating, as it is projected to grow faster than average in comparison to paralegals in the other US states and to all other occupations within California.

Licensing Requirement in California

Currently, California does not have licensing or certification requirements. Nonetheless, in order to differentiate yourself from other job applicants, you might think about obtaining one of the two voluntary certifications:

1. Certified Legal Assistant (CLA)
2. Registered Paralegal (RP)

let’s see them in details:

1. How to Become a Certified Legal Assistant (CLA)

   Most people in California usually use the CLA exam. Before using the CLA title, you must: take and pass a two-day exam given by the Certifying Board of Legal Assistance, and meet the established standards of the National Association of Legal Assistants. Certification must be renewed after 5 years. Within a five-year period, you need to satisfactorily finish 50 hours of approved continuing legal education credits in order to renew your certification. You can become certified as a California Advance Specialist (CAS)

   In California if you have a Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) certification. By sitting for and passing a four-hour test in a chosen specialty field, you may acquire the CAS certification.

   The 5 specialty areas to make your selections from are as follows:

   • Business and Organizations
   • Estates and Trusts
   • Family Law
   • Civil Litigation
   • Real Estate

   To reiterate, every five years the certification must be renewed. Within a five-year period, you need to demonstrate that you successfully completed 70 hours of valid continuing education credits in the legal field, or your certification will not be renewed.

2. Becoming a Registered Paralegal (RP)

   In order to be known as a Registered Paralegal (RP), individuals must write and pass a test developed by the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) known as the Paralegal Advanced Competency Exam (PACE).

   To renew the certification (every 2 years) you need to show proof of completing 12 hours of approved continuing legal education credits (within the last 2 years).

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Introduction and Literature Review

South African education policies place priority on addressing historical education imbalances, but should also be sensitive to the demands of an ever-increasing global knowledge-driven environment. The educational system cannot be dominated by the needs of the domestic educational system of South Africa ignoring the trends exerted by the global world (OEDC Annual Report, 2004:44). Higher education in South Africa should realize that they operate and function in a knowledge-driven global environment in which both domestic and foreign students demand access to the best quality education at the best reputable institutions of higher education in the world.

In this regard, most definitions of internationalization of higher education include the following: “Internationalisation is a process that prepares the community for successful participation in an increasingly interdependent world … The process infuse all facets of the post-secondary education system, fostering global understanding and developing skills for effective living and working in a diverse world” (Francis, 1993 cited by Patrick, 1997).

The position of higher education in South Africa should be evaluated considering the re-integration of South Africa into the global community. South Africa was rapidly re-integrated into the world community by obtaining almost immediate membership of influential international organisations after 1994. Kishun (1998:59) indicated that South Africa became a member of among others the following international institutions: United Nations; Organisation of African Unity; Commonwealth; International Olympic Committee; Federation of International Football Associations; and Lome Convention. Integration of influential international institutions is a necessary but not sufficient pre-condition for internationalization of higher education. Sustainable internationalization should be closely aligned to the emerging global trends and events in the education sector.

An analysis of the basis on which internationalization of higher education occurs is needed as well as the benefits of the internationalization process. This research is conducted against this background.

Problem Statement

Whilst South Africa is in a process of transition regarding higher education to address the imbalances of the past, the question arises whether the South African educational sector is able to compete in the global economy which regard knowledge as a commercialised commodity.

Methodology

A sample size of 781 respondents from six institutions of higher education in South Africa was selected. Senior students were randomly selected using the convenience sampling technique. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed to measure the perceived competitive profile of institutions of higher education in South Africa. The questionnaire constitutes five measuring foci, namely:

Section A: Institutional information regarding the location where the respondent is enrolled.

Section B: Biographical information in terms of gender, type of student and country of origin.

Section C: Decision criteria used to select an institution of higher education.

Section D: Four competitive dimensions of higher education institutions, including strategic competitiveness, institutional competitiveness, product competitiveness, and tactical competitiveness.

Section E: Open-ended questions, aimed to identify the reasons why respondents choose a specific institution of higher education, their opinion on the institution’s competitive reputation, and the factors that may influence the international competitiveness of the particular institution.

The data was transformed into two opposite categories, namely those who agreed with the statements and those who disagreed, enabling the researchers to derive a hypothesized agreement-disagreement distribution. Those who neither agreed nor disagreed were allocated to the disagreement group set giving and expected disagreement response set of 57% (p=0.57) and an agreement response set of 43% (q=0.43). The Binomial test was employed to determine whether the observed distribution correspond with the hypothesized distribution using a significance test level of 0.05. Furthermore, the level of agreement or disagreement with the selected competitive statements and the extend of agreements between the respondents from the different institutions on the various statements were determined by executing four statistical procedures, namely: ANOVA to compare the means of respondents from the different institutions; determining how much of the perception variation could be accounted for by the influence of the different institutions of higher education; determining the averages for each strategic dimension to obtain an indication of the level of agreement with the competitive statements; and determining the standard deviations to obtain an indication of the extend to which consensus exists within the sample.

Findings

With regard to the strategic competitiveness of South African institutions of higher education to engage in a seamless network the respondents were of the opinion that South African institutions of higher education give low priority to attract foreign students, are not well known for attracting foreign students, are not actively involved in exchange programmes of students and lecturers, and do not have active engagements or agreements with other tertiary institutions, businesses and communities.

On the issue of institutional competitiveness, the majority of respondents were of the opinion that institutions of higher education in South Africa have the ability to attract quality students, does not have an international student culture, offers qualifications that are internationally accepted, can claim international reputability on post-graduate level, offers competitive tuition fees, deliver research outputs that are internationally recognized, and are not easily accessible.

In terms of product competitiveness the majority of respondents indicated that institutions of higher education in South Africa have active orientation programmes to familiarise foreign and domestic students with the institutions, provide safe and secure learning environments, provide leading information technology for academic growth and excellence, do not easily adapt to the needs and wants of students, and provide convenient service packages to students.

With regard to tactical competitiveness institutions of higher education in South Africa have the ability to compile a diploma or degree offering that meets or exceeds international standards in terms of offering subject content of international standard, having internationally acclaimed staff, aggressively marketing its qualifications internationally, claiming international acceptable through-put, and having acceptable grant and loan schemes accessible to students.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The majority of respondents are in agreement that institutions of higher education in South Africa are able to compete internationally on the four competitive dimensions (strategic, institutional, tactical and product). Internationalisation requires that institutions of higher education in South Africa should emphasise a somewhat loosening of the relationship with Government, despite the paradoxical need to create new transformational bodies to address the imbalances of the past. Internationalisation of higher education implies that internationalised institutions operate on new super ordinate levels which has its own legal, administrative and revenue-raising powers.

In terms of strategic direction institutions of higher education might consider at least one of the following internationalization approaches:

“Would-be internationalization”: Applies to academics and institutions wanting to be involved in internationalization but facing problems in being considered on equal terms.

“Life or death internationalization”: Countries, their academics and institutions, which view internationalization cooperation as indispensable for their status and role in the global world.

“Two areas”: Academics and institutions have the option of striving for either more national or more international status and orientation. The academic field in which one is operating often determines this.

“Internationalisation by import”: Countries and institutions that treat internationalization only as coming from outside, by hosting foreign students and publishing research. It should not represent a separate strategy towards internationalisation.

References

Kishun, R. 1998. Internationalization in South Africa. In The globalization of Higher Education. Scott, P. ed. Buckingham: Open University Press.

OECD Annual Report. 2004. Education. p.41-45.

Patrick, K. 1997. CSDF project full report: Internationalising the University. Melbourne: RMIT.

Lizl Steynberg is part of the Centre of Entrepreneurship at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. She has published in various accredited journals and has presented various papers at national and international conferences.

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